Remembering Craig Thomas

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

By Richard Anderson

In an era of American politics when you define yourself by describing all the things you abhor most about your opponent, Sen. Craig Thomas was different.

At least, out here, far from Washington, D.C., he appeared to be different. We can’t know what kind of politician he was when he sequestered himself in the hallowed (or, these days, hollowed) halls of the Capitol. But, as has been observed many times in the 12 hours since he died Monday night from complications related to his leukemia chemotherapy treatment, Sen. Thomas shied away from the public spotlight. One never heard fiery rhetoric from him.

I can’t recall an instance when he tried shooting down a political rival as a lame substitute for arguing the merits of his own position. The few times I had the chance to be in the same room with him, he appeared to make listening his top priority, rather than politicking and campaigning.

Slow and steady seemed to be his way. When it came to representing his constituents or advocating for a cause in his home state, he did not make grand promises or resort to hyperbole. He fought for increased funding for our national parks, yes, but he also recognized there were a lot of things vying for a finite number of dollars, and something in his cool manner allowed you to understand this, maybe even to accept it, and wait patiently for the right time to renew the fight.

Even when Thomas spoke in favor of something with which you didn’t agree, you got the feeling that he at least was being honest and straight-forward, that he had no hidden agenda, that no puppet master was pulling his strings and making him say things he didn’t really believe or things he only thought people wanted to hear.

Or maybe I’m wrong about all of that. Maybe I’m not remembering correctly or I’ve come down with that form of amnesia you get when you’re supposed to come up with something nice to say about the recently dead. Maybe he was more similar than dissimilar to all those other politicians we talk about when we complain about politics and Washington.

Maybe, when he sat down in his big leather chair in his big paneled office in the Capitol building, he went power crazy, forgot about us back here, played the game like a tipsy poker player with someone else’s money. I don’t think so, but maybe.

If my memory and information are not serving me correctly, the above at least sounds like the kind of politician you’d like to have representing you in D.C., doesn’t it? And if my memory and information are serving me correctly, where on Earth are we going to find another man like Craig Thomas?
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Remembering Craig Thomas | Planet JH News Article: Editorial

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