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February 22, 2006
Work in progress
Sen. John E. Sununu came to the Monitor for an editorial board meeting today. You can read about the substance of the interview in the paper, but I walked away from the meeting thinking about what kind of senator Sununu has become - or is becoming.
The question that prompted this musing came from Ari Richter, our opinion editor. He asked Sununu to assess his Senate colleague, John McCain.
McCain, Sununu said, is passionate about his work and more intense than most senators. He can turn his passion into action. “He understands how to use his skills to be an effective senator,” Sununu said.
I regret that we did not follow up by asking Sununu to assess his own performance. But here are my impressions on the basis of both the interview and a decade of watching him in public office.
Sununu has just finished his third year in the Senate. He is a party regular most of the time, but when he runs with an issue, he does so from conviction. Most recently he bucked the White House on the Patriot Act. Before that he became an outspoken leader on Social Security reform, an issue the White House was pushing.
I disliked Sununu’s plan for Social Security privatization, but he is right about runaway entitlements. Based on his reading of coming election cycles, it could be six years before a president or Congress moves Social Security to the top of the national agenda again.
Not that anyone should go tilting at windmills, but I’ll be disappointed if Sununu doesn’t find ways to keep both Social Security and Medicare in the public eye. He could make entitlements reform a signature issue, as Sen. Warren Rudman did with deficit reduction.
Sununu’s biggest positive is that he is brainy and serious. I had a puckish fondness for Bob Smith, whom Sununu bumped out of office in a hot GOP primary in 2002, but Sununu brings much more to the table than Smith did. Although Sununu can be as excruciatingly deliberate in speech as he is cool in demeanor, he has a strong grasp on the facts behind the issues. This is true whether you’re talking about Hamas’s prospects in the Middle East or alternative energy sources.
The Monitor endorsed Jeanne Shaheen against Sununu in the 2002 election. I strongly believe the country would be better off with divided government, that is, with the out party in charge of at least one chamber of Congress. I disagree with Sununu on fundamental issues, from his support for the Iraq war to his pro-life views on abortion rights. I wish he were more independent of ideology.
All that said, there are worse things than having a really smart U.S. senator who keeps his ego in check and sometimes takes principled stands and follows through on them.
Posted by Mike Pride at February 22, 2006 03:32 PM
Comments
I've always resented that elected representatives meet with newspaper editorial boards at the exclusion of ordinary citizen groups. Why should the Concord Monitor get exclusive access to an hour of the Senator's time when he (esp. Gregg) won't meet with his "ordinary" constituents. It's unfair and it's out of balance and editorial boards tolerate it because they like being sucked up to.
Posted by: Rufus at February 22, 2006 05:29 PM