LizzieMaine
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Statesman: George Mitchell and the Art Of The Possible, by Douglas Brooks. Not my usual type of fare, but an Uncorrected Page Proof of this upcoming biography of the former Senator was given to me for Christmas, so I've been paging thru it.
I knew Mitchell and interviewed him many times when he was a senator and I was a radio reporter, and I always found him a very pleasant, cordial, thoughful man, and that's the portrait that emerges from this bio -- he's revealed as a man who never made a move without carefully mulling over the issue on the table and who refused to put ideology ahead of what was best for his constituents. He's also revealed as something of a cheapskate and tightwad, who did not pay his staff well, until he was embarassed by the fact that one of his key DC staffers had to take a second job working in a video-rental shop to pay her rent. Costs more to live in Washington than it does in Maine, you know.
I always regret that George Mitchell never became Commissioner of Baseball, because he'd have been a hell of a lot better in that job than that meathead Selig.
I also note from the cover photo that he's still wearing the same set of dentures he had when I used to interview him. Thrifty Mainer to the core.
I knew Mitchell and interviewed him many times when he was a senator and I was a radio reporter, and I always found him a very pleasant, cordial, thoughful man, and that's the portrait that emerges from this bio -- he's revealed as a man who never made a move without carefully mulling over the issue on the table and who refused to put ideology ahead of what was best for his constituents. He's also revealed as something of a cheapskate and tightwad, who did not pay his staff well, until he was embarassed by the fact that one of his key DC staffers had to take a second job working in a video-rental shop to pay her rent. Costs more to live in Washington than it does in Maine, you know.
I always regret that George Mitchell never became Commissioner of Baseball, because he'd have been a hell of a lot better in that job than that meathead Selig.
I also note from the cover photo that he's still wearing the same set of dentures he had when I used to interview him. Thrifty Mainer to the core.