Bipartisanship Lives On At Constitution Ctr.

FORMER GOV. Ed Rendell and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm served on a panel with former Idaho Republican Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, discussing ways in which we can encourage current elected officials to compromise and make progress. Rendell’s book, “A Nation of Wusses”, reflects his cynicism about negativity and extreme partisanship of today’s elected officials. They also looked for ways to encourage young people to volunteer for service. Photo by Bonnie Squires

BY BONNIE SQUIRES/ Jeffrey Rosen, CEO of the National Constitution Center, welcomed members of The Commission on Political Reform to the NCC last week to hold their National Conversation on American Unity, bringing together an amazing array of Democrats and Republicans who are all committed to the Commission’s Bipartisan Policy Center agenda.

Can you imagine Victoria Kennedy, widow of Sen. Ted Kennedy, sitting on a panel between Karen Hughes and Trent Lott? Can you imagine finding yourself agreeing with former Republican US Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, when she talks about The Franklin Project, whose goal is to get one million young people to volunteer for AmeriCorps, City Year, Teach for America, and other volunteer groups which serve society?

At first I wondered if the water bottles of former Sen. Olympia Snowe and former Congressman Dan Glickman had been laced with something to get all of these disparate politicos to agree on some key issues. But Glickman, who also served as Secretary of Agriculture under President Bill Clinton, is one of the co-chairs of the Commission, along with Snowe, and he fervently believes in working together to erase what Snowe calls “a poisonous political environment” in Washington.

FORMER SEN. Harris Wofford, founder of Peace Corps and AmeriCorps, and Todd Bernstein, president of Global Citizen, volunteer agency which puts Phila. in national spotlight on Martin Luther King Day of Service. Many panelists, spotting Wofford in audience, singled him out for praise in creating nation’s volunteer agencies. Photo by Bonnie Squires

Susan Page, the Washington bureau chief of USA Today, moderated the opening panel. Her newspaper co-sponsored the event with the NCC.

Jim Rohr, executive chairman of the PNC Financial Services Group, gave the keynote address. He focused on the national debt and the fund which PNC created to remedy the needs of early childhood education. PNC created “Grow Up Great”, a $350-million fund over 10 years to give grants for early education. Rohr said studies have shown that for every dollar invested in early education, society gets back $16. PNC, headquartered in Pittsburgh, partners with many other organizations, including Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Two million children are currently being served by the program.

All the speakers agreed leadership is needed in Congress, and some were able to give examples of successful models of cooperation between parties. The Commission is taking its show on the road, with future conversations planned for Ohio State University in October and the Edward Kennedy Institute in March. Next spring recommendations will be made to Congress, President Obama and the American people in Washington.

OLYMPIA SNOWE, former Republican Senator from Maine, serves as co-chair of Commission on Political Reform. She spoke about deplorable “explosive rise of hyper-partisanship” in Congress. Photo by Bonnie Squires

VICTORIA (VICKI) KENNEDY, widow of Sen. Ted Kennedy, excitedly tells Bonnie Squires, our contributing editor, about her project at JFK Library in Boston: Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the US Senate. Kennedy served on a panel which included Republicans Karen Hughes and Trent Lott. Photo by Bonnie Squires

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