The Realist
Husband and wife journalists Peter Baker and Susan
Glasser have written tour de force biography Jim Baker who was perhaps the most
consequential appointed politician of the past five decades. Baker was
consequential because he understood the role of politics is to govern and Baker
sure knew how to use the instruments of power to successfully govern in support
of Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
Baker and Glasser spent eight years on the project and
they had the full cooperation of Baker. They not only discuss Baker’s public
life, but we get a real sense of his private life as well. The authors had
access to Baker’s lover letters to his first wife who bore him four children
and died way too young of cancer. We then see Baker marrying one of his wife’s
friends who brings three children to the marriage. It truly was a Brady bunch
with an eighth child thrown in later. Baker was a devoted husband, but his
children suffered from a myriad of problems involving drugs which were not
helped by Baker’s absence caused by his very public life.
Jim Baker is scion of the Houston establishment. Until
his late 30’s he had no interest in politics while he was building a very
successful law practice. He enters politics through his tennis buddy, George
H.W. Bush who was elected as a congressman from Houston. They essentially
become brothers along with the sibling rivalry that entails. As Bush rises in
Washington, so too does Baker. So much so that Baker runs Ford’s 1976 campaign
for president and he then runs Bush’s primary campaign in 1980. After Reagan’s
nomination Baker becomes a key figure in Reagan’s campaign that leads him to
becoming his chief of staff.
It is generally recognized that Baker set the gold
standard for White House chiefs of staff. While working for Reagan he controls
the various factions within the White House and puts together a congressional
coalition to pass Reagan’s economic package through Congress in 1981. He also
keeps a lid on an effort to militarily intervene in Nicaragua during the first
term. His absence in Reagan’s second term opened the way to the Iran-Contra
scandal that almost brought down the Reagan presidency. His one black mark as
chief of staff was his attempted bullying of Fed Chairman Paul Volcker.
In 1984 Baker runs Reagan’s successful “Morning in
America” reelection campaign and he then moves on to become Secretary of the
Treasury. As treasury secretary he pushes through Reagan’s monumental 1986 tax
reform act. The authors ignore the key role that Houston’s Rice University economist
on leave to the treasury Charles McLure had in fashioning the underlying
framework for the new tax law.
Baker also was the architect of the 1985 Plaza Accord
that orchestrated a global policy to devalue the dollar. That was done without
Volcker, a mistake in my opinion. The authors ignore two key side effects of
the accord. First it created a sea of global liquidity that created the Japan
stock bubble and led to a flood of money into the global real estate market.
Both Japanese stocks and global real estate would crash in 1990. Second the
weaker dollar led to a temporary renaissance in Midwest manufacturing which
would become of great help to H.W. Bush’s election in 1988. Baker then resigned
as Treasury Secretary and ran Bush’s presidential campaign.
In 1989 Baker becomes Secretary of State where he
orchestrates a successful end of the Cold War and German reunification. We also
see Baker hiring Democrats on his staff including Dennis Ross. Along the way
makes friends with Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze. While dealing
with German reunification issues Iraq invaded Kuwait triggering the first Gulf
War. Baker organizes an international coalition and gets Russia to go along and
China to abstain at a critical U.N. meeting. With the Gulf War over Baker tried
to broker a peace between Israel and the Palestinians. This led to the Madrid Conference
of 1992 which ultimately paved the way to the 1993 Rabin-Arafat meeting in
1993. To me his strong arming of Israel was a bit much, but it did get results.
With the 1992 Bush campaign in disarray Baker returns
to the White House. His efforts were to no avail as Bush lost to Clinton. He
then goes back to private life where he spends much time working for private
equity giant Carlyle Group relaxing at his primitive Wyoming ranch.
With the Florida recount jeopardizing the 2000
election of George W. Bush, Baker is called back into action to aid the Bush
family. He organizes the Bush efforts and puts together an all-star legal pick
up team consisting of now Senator Ted Cruz, now Chief Justice John Roberts and
now Justice Brett Kavanaugh. They win in the Supreme Court with Republican
super-lawyer Ted Olson arguing the case.
After that Baker returns to private life, but he still
finds the time to co-head an Iraq study commission in 2007. He his now 90 and
Baker and Glasser shine a light on his personality and his service to our
country.
For the full Amazon URL see: https://www.amazon.com/review/R3NOZ2CCBLTG9M/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv
No comments:
Post a Comment