Michael Smerconish: The Specterquake: Book excerpt: His plea for civility

4.30.09

This is an edited excerpt from Michael Smerconish's new book, "Morning Drive: Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Talking," published on Monday by Globe Pequot Press. It's a political manifesto and an inside look at today's split-screen cable TV and talk-radio world.

On Saturday, Michael will be at the Jenkintown Barnes & Noble (10 a.m.) and the Exton Barnes & Noble (2 p.m.) for book signings. Visit www.smerconish.com for more on the book and upcoming signings.

THE Pennsylvania Society dates from a time when Philadelphia was the center of the universe. It was started back in 1899 when a group of industrialists got together at the invitation of James Barr Ferree, a Pennsylvania-born architect and historian. They called themselves the Pennsylvania Society of New York. Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon were among the participants.

The tradition continues. More than 100 years later, Pennsylvanians, some 2,000 strong, still travel to New York for a wintry weekend of social functions and political king-making. The highlight for most is a Saturday-night black-tie dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria, during which a gold medal is bestowed by the society. In the old days, Republican candidates would get slated in smoke-filled rooms during this weekend.

Today, it is largely bipartisan, but still an opportunity for candidates and officeholders on both sides of the aisle to be showcased. I've been going to New York for that weekend for 20 years, although I've attended the dinner only once.

The gold medal honoree that night was Arlen Specter, who over almost three decades had earned the distinction of being Pennsylvania's longest-serving U.S. senator. Given our friendship and my prior work on his behalf, I'd heard him deliver many speeches. But I'd never seen him talk quite as he did when he addressed 1,000 people on Dec. 8, 2007.

He began as he so often does by taking his watch, placing it on the lectern and telling the crowd he wished to give them "a false sense of security that I am paying attention to the time."

Then he reached into his tuxedo pocket and withdrew a few index cards. I knew immediately he had something important to say - and that he wanted to get it just right - because Specter rarely speaks from notes.

This was Specter as elder statesman, anxious to deliver a message about the need for civility and compromise, not shrillness and contempt. He spoke like a moderate fed up with the left-right extremism too often seen on the split screens of America.

Here's part of what he said: "Sen. Barry Goldwater in his 1964 Republican Convention speech made two very provocative statements when he said, 'Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.' Tonight I am going to discuss the national political war in the congressional partisan battlefield. My theme is that 'Moderation in the pursuit of virtue is no vice.' And I will suggest that the history of Pennsylvania and American politics shows that moderation and cooperation are more successful than extremism and confrontation."

He said that, in the Senate today, as many as 90 votes can be predicted before the roll is called. "The world's so-called greatest deliberative body now looks like two knee-jerk partisan caucuses glaring at each other across the famous Senate political aisle."

Specter was well on his way to arguing the importance of courtesy and civility as critical at all levels - international negotiations as well as national, state and local government. And then he brought the message home to this ballroom full of Pennsylvania movers and shakers.

"If you can lift a glass together with your colleague from across the aisle on a Saturday night here in New York, you can lift your pen with that same colleague across the hall on Monday morning in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg or any place in our state."

Specter then thanked the crowd and was greeted with a standing ovation. His words are perhaps even more appropriate today than when he offered them at the end of 2007. Bipartisanship continues to be in decline, fueled, I suspect, by my own professions. Cable TV and the airwaves of talk radio continue to present all matters of public discourse as a left-right battle.

The congeniality and moderation that Specter evoked that night are interpreted in this crossfire as weakness and lack of commitment. In my life, pumping gas, buying coffee, driving the kids around town, I rarely meet people like the ideologues who are such prominent personalities in my profession.

I don't come in contact with people who see the world entirely through liberal or conservative glasses. But it's easy to forget this reality check when the only individuals showcased in the national media represent those polar opposites. *

Listen to Michael Smerconish weekdays 5-9 a.m. on the Big Talker, 1210/AM. Read him Sundays in the Inquirer. Contact him via the Web at www.mastalk.com