We’re Not In Minnesota Anymore, Requiem
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When I first approached then-Governor Perpich, he had little idea of my real intentions. He had endorsed me during the primaries, but he had little reason to suspect that he was under consideration to be the Democratic nominee for the Vice President. It isn’t that Rudy thought he didn’t have the skills, or that he shied away from his achievements, it was a sense of working-class decency to not count his chickens before they hatched, to not take anything for granted.
The role of a Vice President is not a well-defined one in our Constitution. It is blank canvas that each individual which holds the office makes his own. When picking a running mate, sometimes there are voices that may lead you down the wrong path – to pick the flashy choice, the expedient choice, the safe choice. But what I wanted was a partner, an advisor who I could trust to share their honest thoughts, to not be a yes man. That’s what Rudy was to me, somebody I trusted to share my legacy and continue, that I knew could take up the mantle if the unthinkable were to happen to me. Instead, the unthinkable fell to him.
President Biden fought back the tears. He was no stranger to loss, but this hit close to home. He looked out at the crowd of mourners in the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, looking for Jill. She was sitting next to the now former Second Lady Lola, fighting back her own tears. She was looking straight back at him, and she nodded in recognition as if to say, “It’s okay. You can do this.” She was his rock, and he loved her for it.
But the Vice President wasn’t all work and no play. He had a vibrant zeal for life. Even in his work, he did it with a unique charm that endeared his supporters, and baffled his political rivals. He wore the label ‘Governor Goofy’ with a badge of honor in Minnesota. And as Vice President, Rudy was willing to listen to any idea to solve a problem, never unwilling to step outside of the box when approaching the issues of our day.
But it will be our finals day together which I will remember the most. The few weeks before his fateful trip were some of our closest. We were in constant collaboration on matters of state. He was filled with such hope and determination that the United States could still be seen as a beacon of hope. With this final détente bringing an apparent close to the Cold War, Rudy imagined a ‘new world’, where the darkness of fifty years of nuclear confrontation could be rolled back, and our great country could be a beacon for those who were lost in the shadows, to show them the way forward. I shared that dream. And although Rudy may have passed from this mortal existence, his dream still lives on.
Good bye, my friend.
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Ted Kaufman sometimes forgot how moving Joe could be in front of a crowd. When he was at his finest, he could make the crowd around you wash away, so you felt like his words were for you and you alone. Today he was certainly at his finest. This ability made the eulogy very comforting. But now it was back to work.
As Chief-of-Staff, this was perhaps the busiest he had been since the transition. They had just lost two cabinet members – Eleanor Holmes Norton and Martha Layne Collins had both stepped down because of their husband’s financial inconsistencies. The House Republicans had been having a field day about it, at least before Belgrade. Still they had resigned from Labor and Environmental Protection, and needed replacement. For Labor, he tapped Solicitor General Robert Reich to step up. It was more of a natural fit for him, being a policy man; Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Deval Patrick was promoted to Solicitor General.
For Environmental Protection, they felt a woman was needed since the Cabinet just lost two. Energy Secretary Chiles suggested a former aide of his and current aide of Senator Al Gore Carol Browner.
The Senate approved both shortly before Belgrade with relative easy.
To make things even more frustrating, Associate Justice Blackmun announced his intention to retire. The administration was under fire from the left for the lack of support of women in the Administration. The clear candidate was Justice Ginsburg of the D.C. Appeals court. The petite woman had impressed the President, no stranger to judicial appointment hearings, with how tough she was in his personal vetting. Her time frame was certainly misleading. Her appointment would bring the number of women on the Supreme Court to a record three. It was doubtful that he’d receive another appointment in the next two, but hopefully, six, years, but his judicial legacy was already set with a record four appointments in his first term. The right was howling at this point, out for blood against whomever he appointed. But, again the President was confident that Ginsburg would pass with little problem.
Again, all of this was before Belgrade.
Now, the Chief-of-Staff was currently searching through a veritable mountain of candidates for the hardest staff decision they’d made since the campaign trail – Vice President of the United States. In fact, this was harder. The number of variables and the stakes were higher. First, they needed to be approved by the Senate. Second, they might not have realized it yet, but the country was likely to be at war soon. The intelligence briefings received in the pass couple days made it increasingly clear that there was government complicity in the bombing. When the President heard that, he didn’t rage like Kaufman expected. Instead, a furious stillness raged behind his eyes. I wonder if that was better or worse. Joe hadn’t been getting much sleep, not that the President did much on a normal night, and it was starting to show. The two years looked more like a five year toll recently. Ted figured he’d have headaches too if it all rested on his shoulders. Hell, Ted did have headaches.
Kaufman refocused on the dossiers before him. Files had been compiled on all the possible candidates, and his staff was treating this as a major priority. They had narrowed down the list for him, somewhat. Still, to Kaufman, the list looked more like those who were likely to run for President, than a list of people who wanted to be a Vice President. Ted Kaufman swore he heard John Nance Garner laughing from beyond as he surveyed the list of names again…
