The Short List
Senior executive editor Paul Burka and writer-at-large Patricia Kilday Hart on politics and the Ten Best and Ten Worst Legislators.
texasmonthly.com: What got you interested in politics?
Paul Burka: My first love in journalism was sportswriting. Politics is the closest thing to sports that isn’t played with a ball. Now, it isn’t as important as UT versus A&M, but it is even more fascinating, because the teams change, depending upon the issue, and you have to be able to tell the players without a scorecard.
Patricia Kilday Hart: I became interested in politics at an early age, probably because so many dramatic events occurred in my junior high and high school years: the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, Vietnam, Watergate. I was riveted by news accounts of all of those events and fascinated by the personalities involved.
texasmonthly.com: Since you have a great interest in politics, why did you never run for office?
PB: I had a history professor who said that there are three kinds of people in the world: historians, journalists, and everybody else. I took that to mean that historians are students of the past, journalists are students of the present, and everybody else acts instead of studies. I prefer to be a student rather than an actor. But I have enormous respect for politicians. They have to be comfortable with the realization that 40 percent of the people can hate their guts and yet they still win by a landslide. That math won’t work for a journalist.
PKH: I believe strongly that the media play an important role in a democracy in informing the voting public, and my talents best fit that role.
texasmonthly.com: What is your definition of good politics and how does that affect this list?
PB: As a general principle, politics can work in one of two ways. One is that it can be driven by ideology; another is that it can be driven by pragmatism. In the ideological model, left and right battle it out and the center disappears. The key issues are “wedge” issues that force people to take sides. This has been a very successful strategy for conservatives. America is a conservative country, and if people are forced to choose between left and right, a solid majority of people will choose the right. In the pragmatic model, politicians try to address an agenda of problems in a practical way. Think Bob Bullock. The best politics, as I see it, combines both elements, ideology and pragmatism, with the balance struck in favor of the latter. Regardless of how I define good politics, I have always thought that in evaluating a session, we have to follow the pragmatic approach of honoring people who advanced their ideas in ways that won the respect of the Capitol community and taking a dim view of people who behaved in ways that lost respect.
PKH: As Paul and I wrote in the introduction to the story, legislators who practice good politics are problem-solvers and good listeners and they know how to work well with others and reach compromise.
texasmonthly.com: Would you say that Texas Monthly has a viewpoint on particular political issues?
PB: We don’t sit around in editorial meetings and say, What is our position on (for example) telecommunications? The Best and Worst story is primarily about the use and abuse of the process rather than about a particular result. The one exception, which we set forth in our introduction to this year’s story, is education. We believe that the success of the public schools is essential to the future of this state, and we think that our readers share this belief. Unfortunately, some members of the Legislature do not, as you can see from this year’s story.
texasmonthly.com: Before the session even started, did you have anyone in mind for the lists?
PB: Sure. The Capitol works on reputation. There is wide agreement about which legislators have established themselves as good or bad, and it’s pretty obvious who will have an influence on the issues of the session. But as events unfold, there are always surprises, and in the hectic final days of a session, the list can become quite volatile. That’s why we spend so many hours at the Capitol. You have to be there. Both lists experienced additions and subtractions on the last weekend.
texasmonthly.com: Did anyone surprise you in his performance this session?
PB: What surprised me was that some good legislators did some bad things. I like to think that people at the top of the legislative pyramid understand that they are supposed to be role models, the way former senators Bill Ratliff and David Sibley were in the Senate, and, in the House, former legislators Paul Sadler and Steve Wolens. That sense of responsibility for the process, the code of conduct that endures from session to session, seems to be lacking. One example is Al Edwards’s bill trying to stop sexually suggestive cheerleading routines. In the old days, that bill would never have been allowed to reach the floor for debate, because such a law could not be enforced. It’s silliness. Now they debate it for two hours. I hope I don’t sound like some old codger saying that things were better in the old days, but things were better in the old days.
texasmonthly.com: Are most of the legislators, lobbyists, and staff members you talk to cooperative? Why or why not?
PB: The Capitol works on relationships, and that is as true for journalists as for legislators and lobbyists. Most of the people we talk to are those with whom we have built up relationships over the years, who know that we will treat their comments confidentially. All of our interviews are “on background,” and if we want to quote someone, even anonymously (and we seldom do it anymore), we ask his permission. The first installments of the Best and Worst stories, back in the seventies, relied primarily on interviews, but today we rely mostly on events that take place in public view. Consequently, the story is less dependent on interviews than it used to be, although interviews are still very important for filling in gaps in our knowledge and finding out what is really going on. Staff members who watch the session on TV are invaluable to fill in the gaps when I have to work in the office and can’t come to the Capitol. The people we interview are usually cooperative. I hope it is because the Capitol community feels that it has a stake in the story and the members want it to be right as much as we do. I confess that I may be under a delusion here.
texasmonthly.com: What’s the hardest part of coming up with the Ten Best and Ten Worst Legislators?
PB: It all seems pretty hard to me. First, the values are changing. When [George] Bush, Bullock, and [Pete] Laney were the legislative leaders, this place had a pretty high-minded tone. It was more practical than ideological, and there wasn’t a lot of partisanship. It’s more like Washington today—not as bad as last session, but still pretty bad, still a lot of petty partisanship. So as the Legislature gets more like Congress in its conduct, it’s harder to know what is the acceptable level of bad behavior. Second, it’s an old joke—you should do five best and fifteen worst, people tell us—but there’s some truth to it. It’s always harder to find Bests than Worsts. The Worsts volunteer. The Bests, due to the changing values, seem to be more flawed than they used to be. Third, it’s always hard figuring out what is really going on. Did that bill get killed because the sponsor mishandled it or because the lobby had the votes against it all the time? There are some very sophisticated moves up here, with layers and layers of possibilities. It’s fairly easy to spot them but it’s another thing to figure them out. No matter what your role is here, it’s the most important skill there is up here other than making friends.
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