The Lion in Winter

The war in Vietnam was escalating dramatically. A U.S. Marine Corps veteran, who was awarded the Silver Star and the Navy Cross (second only to the Medal of Honor) for his combat leadership in Korea, Pete became the first Republican congressional candidate to publicly oppose the war. He won the primary, and then won the seat. In 1968, the Republican establishment, which despised him, ran a well-funded effort to take him out in the primary. Students at Stanford University mobilized in his support, registered as Republicans and carried him to victory. The party bigwigs tried again two years later, and he fended them off again.

Nonetheless, the party continued to do what it could to marginalize Pete, including banishing him to the Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee in Congress.

He did not back down. It probably never occurred to him. He became an increasingly prominent opponent to the war, even running for president against Richard Nixon in 1972. He also became the first member of Congress to call for Nixon’s resignation in 1973.

All the while, he built a legislative record of achievement that included co-authoring the Endangered Species Act and co-founding Earth Day.

He ran for the U.S. Senate in 1982, losing in the primary to San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson. During that campaign, Israel had surrounded the Palestine Liberation Organization in Lebanon and appeared on the brink of wiping it out. Pete became a leading critic of Israel, its aggression and its hold on American policies and politics — criticism that has continued and would have put him at the forefront of today’s anti-Israel protests.

My career as a political reporter overlapped with McCloskey’s time in Congress. It was always interesting, and often challenging. He offered to punch me in the nose one time. Another time, he tried to get me fired. He saw it all as part of the rough-and-tumble of the political arena that he so thoroughly enjoyed. If he could, he would call me after this appeared to tell me I am going soft.

There are so many stories to tell — about his own amusement at tweaking the status quo, fighting on principle, never going along to get along, eloquently going his own way. It is just not possible to catalog them all. There were acts of kindness for convicted Watergate felons, pro bono work on behalf of environmentalists, blowing the whistle on Pat Robertson’s phony military career and knocking him out of the 1988 presidential campaign, taking on a sitting member of Congress in San Joaquin in 2006 in what he called “The Revolt of the Elders,” and, as recently as this year, filing amicus briefs in the court cases involving Donald Trump.

He loved a good fight and would amuse himself by confounding conventional politics.

One story to illustrate. In his 1982 Senate campaign, he appeared at a supporter’s home in Orange County when it was the reddest of red places and at a time when California was entirely dominated by the Republican Party. He spent the campaign trying to convince Reagan Republicans that, despite his reputation, he actually was a true conservative. Skeptical invitees had agreed to give him a listen.

Pete began his remarks: “Let me tell you right-wing nuts why you should be for me, even though I’m pro-gun control, pro-choice and pro-Equal Rights Amendment.” Two people immediately walked out.

Now, at 96, friends come to his home in rural western Sacramento Valley to see him one last time and talk over old adventures. Pete is slipping away.

Going quietly is something new for Pete. He has made enough noise for three lifetimes. He has been the quintessential political maverick. And he set a standard for independence, integrity and bravery it is likely we will never see again in the public arena.

EARNED INCOME: There has been some minor, local upset that Melissa Moreno, the new San Mateo County Community College District chancellor is making more money than President Biden — $404,250 to $400,000.

It brings to mind the response by Babe Ruth in 1930, when he was told his $80,000 salary was more money than President Herbert Hoover was making.

“Why not?” Ruth is supposed to have said. “I had a better year than he did.”

Mark Simon is a veteran journalist, whose career included 15 years as an executive at SamTrans and Caltrain. He can be reached at marksimon@smdailyjournal.com.