Review by Ed Quillen
Political Biography – December 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
Pat Schroeder: A woman of the House
by Joan A. Lowy
Published in 2003 by University of New Mexico Press
ISBN 0-8263-3098-3
COLORADO TENDS TO BE a rather conservative state, but for nearly a quarter of a century, its first congressional district was represented by one of the most outspoken liberals in the U.S. Congress: Patricia Schroeder, a Denver Democrat. First elected in 1972, the year of a national Republican landslide to re-elect Richard Nixon, the Harvard-trained lawyer held office until choosing to run for re-election in 1976.
Her willingness to champion women’s causes and issues gave her a national reputation, and she was an outspoken master of the one-liner. Her most famous quip may be her dubbing of Ronald Reagan as “the Teflon president,” since scandals like Iran-Contra never seemed to stick to him.
This biography is lively and informative, focusing on the ups and downs of her congressional career in Washington: her early days on the House Armed Services Committee; her leadership in exposing the Tailhook Scandal; the march to the Senate Judiciary Committee during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas; and her work for family-leave legislation.
What I wanted to read here, and didn’t find, was some exploration of Schroeder’s political career from a Colorado perspective. For instance, how well did she work with other Colorado Democrats elected in the early 1970s, like Gov. Dick Lamm and Rep. (later Sen.) Tim Wirth? She had a reputation for a strong constituent-service operation (i.e., where you call when the Social Security check didn’t arrive), but did she deserve it, and if so, how did she accomplish it?
She represented Denver in the days when it was an industry center for petroleum and cable-TV. How did she handle the congressional responsibility to look out for the home-industry when it conflicted with environmental and pro-consumer concerns?
You won’t learn those things in this book, and maybe they’re only of concern to the political junkies among us. The book does provide a fairly complete account of Schroeder’s activities in the national arena, as well as her early life and her post-congressional career as president of the Association of American Publishers.
Author Joan Lowy also provides a fairly balanced perspective, and does not gloss over mistakes and missteps, like her wearing a bunny suit atop the Great Wall of China. Her strength was her independence, but in a legislator, that’s not always a virtue, as Lowy explains:
Schroeder “was too controversial. She was too mouthy. You never knew what she was going to say. She had that wacky, offbeat humor that sometimes made her look flaky…. [she] wasn’t a team player. She marched to her own drummer, and Democratic leaders could never be absolutely sure they could count on her if things got tough.”
That independence may have kept her from accomplishing more as a legislator in the “to get along you have to go along” environment of Capitol Hill, but it did endear her to a large constituency all over the country. And it’s good reading, too.
— Ed Quillen
