Rising to the limelight of a prestigious post
New chairman of House panel rejects trappings of power
Erica Werner, Associated Press
Sunday, May 25, 2008
(05-25) 04:00 PDT Washington —
Rep. Howard Berman keeps a big Thermos behind his desk. That way, he never
has to ask anyone to fetch coffee for him.
The new House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman also picks up his own dry
cleaning and drives his own car.
It is a self-sufficiency that Berman, D-North Hollywood, has carefully
nurtured over his 13 terms in Congress. Now that he has ascended to one of the
most influential posts on Capitol Hill, succeeding the late chairman, Tom
Lantos, he still rejects the trappings of power and prefers to keep operating
as a behind-the-scenes player.
He even barred an Associated Press photographer from taking his picture for
this story.
"Sometimes the best things are done when the media doesn’t know about it,
because then a lot of other people don’t know about it," Berman said. "The
media is a conduit of information to the people who wouldn’t like what I was
doing."
It’s not that Berman has anything to hide, friends say.
"He’s much more interested in accomplishing things than being out front and
visible," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, who’s known Berman since
their college days at UCLA. They presided over a famously effective Democratic
machine in Southern California in the 1970s and 1980s that helped elect
like-minded politicians to local and state offices.
Berman’s committee has oversight over policies in Iraq, Afghanistan and the
rest of the globe’s hotspots. He’s been in Israel and Iraq over the weekend
with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on his first overseas trip as chairman.
Outside of Washington he has had his fair share of political scrapes. In
1980, he made a grab for the speakership of the California Assembly but was
outfoxed by Willie Brown, who went on to become California’s longest-serving
Assembly speaker and mayor of San Francisco. In 2001, he drew ire when his
congressional district was redrawn in a way seen by some Latinos as diluting
Hispanic voting power. Berman was able to emerge from the episode with strong
Latino support due to his long record as a champion of farmworker and immigrant
rights.
In Washington, he’s thrived on an understated, collaborative approach. His
leadership style is far different from that of Lantos, who died of cancer in
February. Lantos, also a Democrat, was the only survivor of the Holocaust to
serve in Congress and his dignified bearing and eloquent oratory made him one
of the institution’s most recognizable figures.
Berman, by comparison, is unprepossessing, although like Lantos he represents
a California district. Berman’s graying, curly hair is rumpled. His speaking
style is halting and thoughtful. He doesn’t have a press secretary.
A photo in Berman’s office attests to the fact that he visited a grand
cathedral in St. Petersburg, Russia – wearing a Hawaiian print shirt.
"He combined a real passion with a tremendous eloquence," Berman said of
Lantos. "That’s just not my strong suit. I’m more of an inside animal."
Berman makes up for his lack of style with substance. He’s praised for a
piercing intellect, keen memory and grasp of arcane topics. His recent
legislative efforts included reforms to the country’s byzantine patent system.
He also proposed removing apartheid-era visa restrictions against Nelson
Mandela and expanding President Bush’s foreign aid program for HIV/AIDS victims.
"He is able to provide creative solutions or additional solutions if the
first don’t work," said Sen. Dick Lugar of Indiana, top Republican on the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "They talk about show horses and work
horses, and Howard is clearly in the work horse category par excellence."
When Lantos was Foreign Affairs chairman, he presided over dramatic hearings
and votes. He denounced Yahoo Inc. executives as moral pygmies for
cooperating with Beijing and he passed a controversial resolution condemning
the World War I-era killings of Armenians as Genocide.
Berman’s goals seem dull by comparison: Regularly completing routine but
necessary legislation authorizing State Department programs, rebuilding support
for foreign assistance and public diplomacy, addressing nuclear proliferation,
examining dependence on Middle East oil.
Berman’s most high-profile outing to date was an April hearing on Iraq. An
early Iraq war supporter who stuck behind it far longer than most Democrats,
Berman tried to draw out his witnesses, Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador
Ryan Crocker, on how to effectively withdraw troops if U.S. voters choose
that approach in November.
When Petraeus and Crocker demurred, Berman remarked, "Well, then I’m not
going to beat that horse anymore," and changed topics.
Berman doesn’t support the firm withdrawal deadlines backed by many of his
Democratic colleagues. He says he would never have supported the war knowing
what he knows now, but blames himself, not the Bush administration, for making
an error in judgment.
"The lesson learned for me was challenge yourself and your own
predispositions more on some of these things, and challenge the evidence more.
I wasn’t sufficiently skeptical," Berman said.
Democrats and Republicans say Berman takes a collaborative approach. He
negotiated $20 billion more in foreign HIV/AIDS assistance than the White House
requested, according to Rep. Donald Payne, D-N.J. The proposal passed the House
and is pending in the Senate.
Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said that when Berman approached him about the
Mandela visa restrictions, his initial reaction was that the United States
should be adding people to the terror list, not taking them off. Berman talked
him around.
"He knows how to negotiate," said Smith. "He’s willing to take half a loaf
rather than a full loaf, and then come back for more later on."
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This article appeared on page A – 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle