For Tigers, a post-election eviction

After Jim Leach '64 graduated from Princeton, he headed south for a Washington job in the office of a fellow Tiger: a young Illinois congressman named Donald Rumsfeld '54.

More than four decades later, the fates of employer and employee remain intertwined.

Leach, a powerful Iowa congressman who has held the same seat for nearly 30 years, and Rumsfeld, President Bush's departing defense secretary, are part of a handful of prominent Princetonians who find themselves evicted from the political scene after last Tuesday's Democratic electoral triumph.

Rumsfeld, one the chief architects of Bush's controversial foreign policy, was forced to resign Nov. 8 as a concession to antiwar sentiment, just one day after Republican losses were widely attributed to widespread dissatisfaction with the administration's Iraq policy.

Leach, one of Congress's most liberal Republicans, who has been a vocal critic of the war in Iraq and supports abortion rights, lost a closely fought race against Democratic challenger David Loebsack, ironically becoming a victim of nationwide ire directed toward a policy Leach himself had opposed.

Other departing Princeton heavyweights include former Republican Congressman Robert Ehrlich '79 — who lost his bid for a second term as Maryland governor — and Sens. Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.) and Bill Frist '74 (R-Tenn.), both of whom did not seek reelection this year. Frist, who held the post of Senate majority leader, is widely expected to make a run for the White House in 2008.

Leach, whose district supported Democratic Sen. John Kerry over Bush by a significant margin in 2004, attributed his defeat to voters' yen for a Congressional shift away from the right.

"The most important change [voters wanted] in Congress was to build up a center of gravity in the institution that respected both sides," he said in an interview with The Daily Princetonian. "My opponent ... argued that we needed a greater change in partisan control to accomplish that and that got the publicly more compelling reaction."

Despite the exit of several prominent Princetonians, the Orange and Black inside the beltway has hardly vanished: Sen. Kit Bond '60 (D-Mo.) is an alumnus, as are Rep. James Marshall '72 (D-Ga.) and newly elected Rep. John Sarbanes '84 (D-Md.), the son of Paul Sarbanes. Farther down Pennsylvania Avenue, Josh Bolten '76 remains Bush's chief of staff, while Robert Mueller '66 heads up the FBI.

Nevertheless, the end-of-year decline in Princetonian political clout marks a disappointing finish for what began as a banner year for Tiger politicos. In January, the Senate approved the nomination of Samuel Alito '72 as an associate justice on the Supreme Court, after a contentious confirmation battle. On the same day, it confirmed former University economics department chair Ben Bernanke as head of the Federal Reserve, replacing legendary departing chairman Alan Greenspan. Bolten's nomination followed two months later.

Now, as Rumsfeld, Leach and others pack their bags, it is Yale alumni whose Washington presence is on the upswing. Last week, two Eli senatorial challengers — Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) — beat out their incumbent opponents in closely watched races, while Yalie Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), running as an Independent, vanquished Democratic challenger Ned Lamont.

That brings to eight the total number of Elis in the Senate, with 10 in the House and no governors. The most famous Yalie inside the beltway, of course, is Bush himself. The president also holds a degree from Harvard Business School.

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Though a current count of Harvard congressmen and senators was unavailable, Crimson numbers appear to outstrip both Princeton and Yale, with a 2005 issue of Harvard magazine reporting 41 Capitol Hill Cantabrigians: 17 senators and 24 congressmen.

Still, Wilson School professor Larry Bartels said at least one Princetonian may play a greater role in the White House following Rumsfeld's resignation.

"Most of the speculation that I've seen has been about the extent to which James Baker ['52] may be influencing policy in a way that he hasn't before, now that Rumsfeld is gone," Bartels said, referring to the former president Bush's secretary of state, rumored to be advising the current President Bush on Iraq policy. "So that would be a Princeton for Princeton trade, if that happened."

Meanwhile, Leach chief of staff and spokesman Gregory Wierzynski praised his boss, whom he said he has known for 30 years, for his integrity and intellectual gravitas.

"He's certainly the most ethical person I've ever encountered," Wierzynski said in an interview, adding that Leach was "the smartest guy in the House," and that Iowa voters made a "great mistake" by voting him out.

"He's genteel in the best sense of that term, an absolutely honorable man. You knew when you picked up your paper in the morning in Washington and read about some sort of scandal, you could be absolutely sure that your congressman had not engaged in [it]. That's probably not something many other staffers can say."

Wierzynski said he believed Leach — who was a member of Ivy Club and, like Rumsfeld, wrestled at Princeton — was a victim of last week's nationwide Democratic tide.

"One of the great ironies of the election was that he represented precisely the sentiments that the voters wanted to express with their vote," Wierzynski said, citing Leach's antiwar stance and support for minimum wage increases. "Leach's positions were precisely the ones voters intended to support."

Bartels said such paradoxes are unsurprising.

"Ironically, the people most likely to lose were the ones least supportive of Bush policy, who were not from hardcore conservative areas," he said. "Leach was an example, and an even more striking one was [Lincoln] Chafee," a reference to the Rhode Island Republican defeated by Whitehouse, who often voted with his Democratic colleagues and was considered among the most liberal Republicans in the Senate.

University spokeswoman Cass Cliatt '96 said she is not worried about a possible decline in Princeton's prominence following the recent Washington departures.

"In any political cycle, the election season brings changes — we continue to see prominent Princetonians elected to office and retiring," she said. She added that she believes teenagers with political aspirations will not be dissuaded from applying.

"Practically speaking, most students choose based on their more immediate needs," she said. "High school students in general don't tend to think that long term. Their primary focus is, will they get the quality of education they want, and is Princeton the right match?"

If those politically inclined high schoolers do matriculate at Old Nassau, at least one of this year's departing Princeton politicians may be on hand to impart the lessons of Washington.

"I'd be happy to," Leach said of a possible teaching stint at his alma mater. "I've not been so invited, but I'd welcome any invitation that might come my way."