George Mitchell. Majority Leader of the United States Senate. Federal judge. Chairman of Disney. Chairman of one of the largest law firms in America. Statesman. Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Knighted by the Queen of England. Insurance claims adjuster. Yeah. I was shocked by that one too.
I’m on the phone with Senator George Mitchell and I state the obvious at the outset: You probably haven’t been interviewed by too many insurance newsletters. Not so fast he says. He knows a thing or two about claims. Mitchell tells me that he attended Georgetown Law Center’s night program and worked full-time during the day. As, get ready, an adjuster for The Travelers Insurance Company. My reaction to hearing this resembled the guy in the Scream.
I learned a lot about Senator Mitchell in preparing for the interview. So I knew the part about him attending Georgetown at night while working during the day. But man I never saw that coming. Nor that his older brother was the owner of an independent insurance agency in Maine – and it is operated today by one of his sons.
The 81-year old former Senate Majority Leader from Maine has lived a life like few others. When a guy turns down a seat on the United States Supreme Court you know he has a lot going on.
George Mitchell has achieved unparalleled accomplishments. Of course that’s a measure of success. But there is another one -- the tremendous respect that he earned along the way. Sometimes parties who seemingly can’t agree on anything can at least agree that George Mitchell is the person to try to work out their differences. When an investigation needs a person at the helm whom everyone trusts, for there to be legitimacy in and respect for the findings, George Mitchell is no doubt always on the short list. If not being the short list. This is the other measure of George Mitchell’s success.
I had the privilege of spending some time on the phone with this legendary politician and peacemaker. Senator Mitchell was affable, funny and forthcoming. I asked him about his time on the federal bench, the state of the union, how to fix the divisiveness that pervades Washington and turning down the Supreme Court. And I told him a joke – one that was perfectly suited for him.
Lawyer and Judge George Mitchell
After graduating from Georgetown in 1961 Mitchell spent a couple of years as a trial attorney with the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice.
[He did not pursue a career in insurance. But it’s never too late Senator. Some of your old claim files may still be open.]
Mitchell’s time at Justice was followed by a few year stint as an assistant to Maine Senator Edmund Muskie and then a dozen or so years in private practice in Portland, Maine. From 1977 to 1979 he served as United States Attorney from Maine. In October 1979 he took a seat on the United States District Court in Maine. That’s a lifetime appointment. But for Mitchell it was nothing of the sort. His time in a robe lasted just seven months. The line at Red’s Eats in Wiscasset can be longer than that.
Judge Mitchell’s career ended as quickly as it did on account of a 1980 appointment by the Governor of Maine to serve the remaining term of Senator Muskie, who had resigned to become Secretary of State. I asked Senator Mitchell if he’d learned enough about the job of being a federal judge to decide if he would have enjoyed spending a lifetime at it. Yes, he told me. He is certain that he would have enjoyed serving his full career as a District Court Judge had other events not unexpectedly intervened.
I am not as convinced that George Mitchell would have enjoyed being Judge Mitchell for his entire career. The types of roles that he had afterwards involved glad handing and deal-making at the highest levels of government and business and on geopolitical stages. That doesn’t seem like someone wired for a lifetime doing the relatively solitary work of a judge. I get a sense that the job may have eventually become confining for him.
My Westlaw search turned up three Judge Mitchell opinions. I hit him with a trivia question – could he remember them? He got one.
Putting aside whether Senator Mitchell would have enjoyed a lifetime sitting on the federal bench, there is one aspect of it that he knows for certain. He took pleasure in telling me that he was never reversed.
It seems that it would be difficult to say no to an appointment to the United States Senate – even if that means giving up a lifetime seat on the federal bench. But Mitchell told me that his decision to do so was “very high risk.” He had never won an election, had lost an election for Governor several years earlier and was given little chance of being elected to a full term.
Nonetheless, he made the decision. And had good reason for doing so. While a federal judge has great power, he explains, it can only be exercised in connection with disputes that others choose to bring to the court. On the other hand, he continues, an elected official, particularly a United States Senator, has the “independence and authority to initiate action on what he or she perceives as problems that need addressing.”
Senator (And Back Seat Driver) George Mitchell
Judge Mitchell’s risk accepting the Senate nomination paid off. He completed the remainder of Muskie’s term and won elections in 1982 and 1988. Mitchell served as Senate Majority Leader from 1989 to 1995. To try to describe in such a short space George Mitchell’s two-plus terms in the Senate, including six years as Majority Leader, is an impossible task. Some of his accomplishments as Majority Leader included leading the movement to reauthorize the Clean Air Act in 1990, passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement and formation of the World Trade Organization.
For six consecutive years Mitchell was voted “the most respected member” of the Senate by a bipartisan group of senior Congressional aides. This for the Senator who in 1994 the American Conservative Union gave a score of 0, on a scale of 0 to 100, with 100 being most conservative. That same year the Americans for Democratic Action gave him a score of 90 on its scale of 0 to 100, with 100 being most liberal.
As Majority Leader Mitchell also served as a back seat driver. The Senator shared with me that, from his days working as a claims adjuster, he knew every street, alley and building in the N.W. quadrant of Washington, which had been his territory. Mitchell was so familiar with the area that when he became Majority Leader, and was provided a car and driver, he developed a bad practice of telling his driver, Willie, when to turn left and right. But Willie got the last word. One day he dropped the Senator off at the usual spot outside the Capitol Building and told him which Senate Bill Mitchell should take up that day. At first the Senator was perplexed. Why was Willie telling him to take up Senate Bill 932 that day? But then he figured it out. Mitchell didn’t give Willie any more driving instructions from that day forward.
Statesman George Mitchell
It has been said that “there is not a man, woman or child in the Capitol who does not trust George Mitchell.” That no doubt explains how Mitchell had the career he did after leaving the Senate. He has been involved in numerous high-profile investigations and the attempted resolution of nearly impossible-to-solve conflicts. These are assignments that, as tough as they were, never had any hope of success unless the man or woman in the middle was trusted and respected by all sides.
In 1995 Mitchell served as a Special Advisor to President Clinton on Ireland. Then from 1996 to 2000 he served as the Independent Chairman of the Northern Ireland Peace Talks. Under his leadership, the Good Friday Agreement was reached -- ending decades of conflict between the governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom and the political parties of Northern Ireland. In 2000 and 2001, at the request of President Clinton, Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and Chairman Yasser Arafat, Mitchell served as Chairman of an International Fact-Finding Committee on Violence in the Middle East. The Committee’s recommendation, widely known as The Mitchell Report, was endorsed by the Bush Administration, the European Union and by many other governments.
In 2006 and 2007, at the request of Commissioner Bud Selig, Mitchell led an investigation into the use of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball. He issued a 407-page report, also widely known as The Mitchell Report, on the subject. Mitchell served as Chairman of the Special Commission Investigating Allegations of Impropriety in the Bidding Process for the Olympic Games. He was the Independent Overseer of the American Red Cross Liberty Fund, which provided relief for September 11 attack victims and their families. In 2009, President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton appointed Mitchell as the administration’s Special Envoy for Middle East Peace. Mitchell currently serves as Penn State University’s Independent Athletics Integrity Monitor, appointed pursuant to the consent decree between the NCAA and the University in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal.
Senator Mitchell was a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize and is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and Liberty Medal. In 1999, for his services to the Northern Ireland peace process, he was invested as an Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire.
Senator Mitchell is a 2007 co-founder, along with former Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker, Tom Daschle and Bob Dole, of the Bipartisan Policy Center, a non-profit organization that hosts events, political summits and policy discussions about how to overcome political divides.
Senator Mitchell also rose to the highest levels of corporate America since leaving the Senate. He served as Chairman of law firm DLA Piper (where he works today, describing himself to me as a full-time employee); Chairman of The Walt Disney Company; a member of the board of the Boston Red Sox; and a director of several companies, including Federal Express, Xerox, Staples, Unilever and Starwood Hotels and Resorts.
Saying No To The U.S. Supreme Court
In 1994 Senator Mitchell turned down an appointment by President Clinton to fill retiring Justice Blackmun’s seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. The seat ultimately went to Justice Breyer. The reason given by Mitchell for his demur was a desire to continue working in the Senate to pass significant health care legislation. That effort did not succeed.
I asked Senator Mitchell about turning down the Supreme Court. It is the Supreme Court that usually says no to people and not the other way around. Surely someone who has turned down an opportunity to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court must think about what could have been. Does he ever look back with regret on his decision to deny cert. to the Supreme Court?
Sometimes, he tells me. Such as when the court makes a big decision, with which he disagrees, and he wishes he’d been there to make the opposite arguments. He gives me two names: Bush v. Gore and Citizens United. His view on Citizens United is unambiguous: The case “did not create the problem of money in American politics. That’s always been there. But which essentially said, ‘here’s a fire, let’s pour some gasoline on it.’” Mitchell describes Citizens United as a decision that made a serious problem “much much worse.”
Partisan Divide In Congress
Of course I had to ask Senator Mitchell the most obvious question – especially since, coincidentally, just a couple of hours before the call, the House of Representatives had sued the Obama Administration over certain aspects of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Can the deep partisan divide that exists in Congress be fixed?
While the Senator told me that he sees some opportunities for Congress to pass some major trade treaties, and there is some common ground on energy, his answer to the question was ultimately short and clear: “It’s very difficult.” He added, “I thought it was tough when I was there.” But it is now “much tougher.”
Mitchell recounted that the first person he went to see when he became Majority Leader was then Minority Leader Bob Dole. He told Dole they had difficult jobs and wanted Dole to know how he intended to act toward him and hoped that Dole would do the same. Mitchell laid out certain standards of fairness and courtesy. For six years in competing roles, and to this day Mitchell said, “never once did a harsh word pass between us in public or in private.” While the two negotiated and contested issues vigorously, Senator Mitchell told me that it was done in a setting of mutual respect and trust. While they both had an obligation to their parties, they recognized that they had a higher obligation to the country.
I asked Mitchell if he would call on new Majority Leader McConnell to have a similar meeting with now Minority Leader Reid. He told me that he knows them both well and likes them but seemed reluctant to take up my idea. Instead, Mitchell hopes that they will be able to develop the same relationship that he had with Dole.
Is it time for George Mitchell, the man that everyone trusts, respects and will listen to, to stand-up, be the grown-up that is sorely lacking in the room, and state that Washington is on the wrong path and it needs to change? While the Senator appreciated the sentiment embodied in my question, he declined to take on this role. It needs to be done by elected officials, he explained, and not someone on the outside. “They have the responsibility, the authority and I think the capacity to do it.”
Senator Mitchell offered this advice to at least enable progress to be made on solving the Congressional divide. Every major decision in the Senate, he told me, has a political component and a policy component. If Senators concentrate on getting the policy right – what’s best for the country -- and then worry about the politics, they’ll do much better. The current way, politics first and policy second, is the wrong way around.
The State Of The Union
I asked the Senator if he were giving a State of the Union address, what would he say when he reached that traditional part of the speech: “The state of our union is…”
“Our best days lie ahead,” Mitchell told me. He described himself as being in “strong disagree[ment]” with those who see an America in decline and overtaken by China or anyone else. The challenge, he explains, is to live up to the principles on which the country is based and that have enabled us to reach this point. Looking to the Constitution and Declaration of Independence as the source, he lists primacy of the people, priority of individual liberty, rule of law, an independent judiciary and opportunity for everyone.
Where we are in danger of falling short, he tells me, is opportunity for everyone. It is not surprising that there is much passion in Mitchell’s voice as explains this to me. His mother was an immigrant who couldn’t read or write and worked her entire adult life at night in a textile mill. His father was an orphaned son of immigrants, had no education and worked as a janitor. But despite this, “because of the openness of American society I was able to get an education and become the Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate.”
Mitchell explains that opportunity is not available equally to everyone in our society. We need to do better at making success possible so that we can gain as a society from the talents of everyone. He tells me that we need to nurture innovation, encourage risk and give everyone a fair chance to succeed, but, he is quick to add, “without guaranteeing success to anyone.”
The Secret Of George Mitchell’s Success
When it comes to divisions between parties, sometimes insurance companies and their policyholders fit into this category. So George Mitchell spends four formative years resolving auto insurance claims, slips and falls in the produce aisle and a gamut of others, and then goes on to a career punctuated by bringing together deeply divided politicians and nations. Coincidence? It doesn’t seem like it to me.
Telling George Mitchell A Joke
As a stand-up comic hobbyist I look for every opportunity to tell a joke. And it is especially fun to tell a joke to someone who is not expecting it, which I imagine was the case here. I had the perfect joke for a dedicated environmentalist and former Chairman of Disney: “It seems that people aren’t talking about global warming as much as they used to. That’s because they’re all too busy talking about Frozen.” Talk about a bespoke joke.
The Senator liked it. In fact, he gave me a job: “I speak all the time and I always need fresh material. Send me a few current things that you think are useful that I can use on the road.” |