By Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, on Tue May 24, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET  Among her many civic and philanthropic roles, contributing RP Kathleen Kennedy Townsend sevres as Chair of the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Institute of Human Virology, founded by well-known AIDS researcher Dr. Robert C. Gallo. In recent weeks, the Institute received $23 million in new funding for an HIV/AIDS vaccine from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the U.S. Army, and other organizations.
Still, Townsend argues, the need for research dollars is far, far greater. As she wrote for Atlantic magazine online:
While researchers are still struggling to develop a preventive vaccine, the treatment of HIV/AIDS has drastically changed. For most of the developed world, HIV/AIDS has been transformed from a death sentence to a chronic disease.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the case in the developing world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where millions don’t have access to life-saving drugs. For them the death sentence has not been commuted.
Read the rest of Townsend’s essay here.
By Stephanie Doctrow, RP Staff, on Wed May 18, 2011 at 1:30 PM ET After last year’s season of flops, network TV channels plan to strive for fresh, original programming. If they’re realize serious about shows with dinosaurs, fairy tale creatures and large-scale Broadway musical numbers, maybe they’re not kidding. [NY Times]
One of the world’s most controversial industries, coal mining, is trying to become popular with a new demographic: children. [Time]
The touching story of a gripping photo that came to represent the Freedom Riders and the civil rights movement: [CNN]
A Long Beach College professor reports that drinking beer and philosophy may go hand in hand. [Huffington Post]
Slate looks at the declining state of one of America’s fattiest fast food chains, Sbarro. Will baked ziti and pizza the size of your head still have a future in American shopping malls? [Slate]
By Paul Hodes, on Fri May 13, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET  I first ran for office as an ordinary citizen from New Hampshire in 2004. My hope when I ran was to help change the course of the nation and to effectively represent the people of my state with independence, integrity and imagination. I was fortunate to meet those goals before joining the ranks of The Recovering Politician.
I was part of a historic new majority in the House of Representatives and was chosen by my peers as President of the Freshman Class of 2006. I served on the Oversight and Government reform committee and the Financial Services committee during a period of unprecedented activity.
 As a freshman congressman from the first in the nation primary state, I was courted by Presidential candidates. I believed that the wave of change that swept me into office was not finished and that business as usual in Washington needed some shaking up. Against all odds, I decided to support a long-shot candidate for whom change was a theme, Barack Obama. I had the honor of serving as a national co-chair for the President’s first campaign.
The wave elections of 2006 and 2008 were countered by the tsunami of 2010 when I decided not to run for my congressional seat; instead I ran, unsuccessfully, for the United States Senate. Politics has a lot to do with timing and luck. You can’t surf a tsunami. As a musician I should know a bit about timing. Suffice it to say, I had quite a while to confront the idea of political afterlife while I ran for the Senate, a tremendous experience nonetheless.
Read the rest of…
Paul Hodes: On the Way to Recovery & Renewal
By RP Staff, on Thu May 12, 2011 at 11:00 AM ET The RP swore that he wasn’t going to run for office again any time soon. But it looks like he’s falling off the wagon after only a month of political sobriety.
Of course, he has a helluvan excuse: The Ultimate Authority has pushed him into a race for the U.S. Congress. As Alison Knezevich of the Charleston Gazette reports (h/t Aaron Ament):
Jonathan Miller, a Berkeley County Republican, announced online today that he plans to run for Congress in 2012.
Miller told me he would run in the 2nd District, for the seat now held by Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito.”I firmly believe that God has called me to run for this office now,” he said when asked why he made the announcement today. “The reason I’m running is because I’m tired of seeing Washington politicians put themselves before you.”
He wants to cut federal lawmakers’ pay in half, eliminate their benefits, and enact term limits.
Miller, first elected in 2006, said he rededicated his life to Christ in 2009, and prayed about whether to stay in politics. He said he received his answer in May 2010 and is responding now by announcing his future candidacy.
Read the whole article here.
—-
UPDATE: An alert reader noticed that Congressowman Capito represents a district in West Virginia, and the RP hails from Kentucky. The RP Staff understands, obviously the reporter made a small mistake. The two states are contiguous.
——
UPDATE 2: Another reader commented: “The article says that Jonathan Miller ‘rededicated his life to Christ.’ I’m pretty sure the RP is Jewish. Otherwise, this post about Jew-ish Gentiles is pretty offensive.” The RP Staff agrees: the RP is pretty offensive.
——-
UPDATE 3: Um…It turns out that there are actually two Jonathan Millers. The new candidate for Congress and the RP. The RP obviously is too busy to run for Congress: He blogs at The Recovering Politician; serves as Senior Advisor to Wellford Energy; practices law at Frost Brown Todd; has been a British theater and opera director; has served 20 years as Senior Rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham; has been President and CEO of Miller Samuel Inc., a leading real estate appraisal and consulting firm; is a photographer; has gone to prison due to misdeeds during Iran-Contra, and runs a ministry where he “miraculously” has healed “countless” people.
Take that, Jeff Smith!
By Stephanie Doctrow, RP Staff, on Wed May 11, 2011 at 10:00 AM ET New York Times writer David Colman discusses being a recovering alcoholic in the age of Facebook. Is anonymity in Alcoholics Anonymous even possible anymore? [NY Times]
On Monday, the United States’ first full face transplant patient went home from the hospital (note to the squeamish: this article contains pictures). [CNN]
For the first time this year, World Press Photo is awarding multimedia in its annual competition. One of the finalists is Blanco, an Italian project that explores blindness around the world. [Time]
After their capture of Bin Laden, the Navy SEALs are officially the United States’ coolest soldiers. [Newsweek]
Someone that’s probably recovering from a great week: the kid in this video. He’s got game! [Youtube]
By John Johnson, on Thu May 5, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET  I would be the first to admit it – I am not a patient person. For example, I’ve owned 5 different cell phones in the last 3 years. Why? Because I get impatient whenever a new feature comes out that my phone doesn’t have! If you want to torture me, ask me to wait in the grocery check-out line. On my birthday, we open gifts at 7 AM. Waiting a few minutes at the coffee shop for a friend running late tests my patience. Yet, in my professional career, it has been my lack of patience that actually changed the entire course I have taken.
I am an economist who specializes in crunching giant datasets to figure out what patterns exist in the data and how to rigorously test hypotheses. After a very short stint as an academic after graduate school (again, impatient!), I began a career at one of the top economic litigation consulting firms in 2001. My job the past decade has been to provide expert witness testimony in antitrust and labor and employment litigation matters.
About three years ago, during a performance evaluation, one of my bosses tried to pay me a compliment when he told me I had been a “superstar” at the firm, but sometimes being so successful so quickly meant people didn’t exactly know what to do with me. Then he gave me some advice which I will never forget– I just needed to be patient because I was a big part of the future of the firm.
You can probably guess that I didn’t take that advice so well. Something about the discussion crystallized for me that to be truly satisfied in my professional career, I was going to have to shake things up and venture out on my own. So, after nine years, I decided to leave the security of a large firm to venture out on my own (in the worst recession of the last few years).
Thus, in September 2009, Edgeworth Economics was born.
 Francis Edgeworth I quickly realized that I had a certain vision for the firm that would have my name on it. But, as you probably noticed, my name is Johnson, not Edgeworth! That was actually the point. Francis Edgeworth was a 19th century economist who developed, amongst other things, a model of trade called pareto optimality. The theory of Edgeworth’s model is that gains from trade can be made to the point at which everyone has been made better off, and no one is made worse off. We have used this concept to guide decisions at our firm from the beginning: a belief in a culture that serving clients can be done and a work environment can be created in which we all can flourish by putting the needs of the firm above those of ourselves.
Our firm started with six of us in what quickly became a very cramped temporary office space in Washington, DC. At times it has felt like Art Linkletter might be hiding in the office waiting to jump out and say “this is your life…”. Our recruiting efforts have brought a group together from all different parts of my life: my two co-founders were both colleagues from my former firm who I have known for almost a decade. Our HR Director was my best undergraduate student from Illinois. Our COO is my former research assistant who was finishing an MBA as we started the firm. One of our senior PhD economists was my daughter’s first babysitter. And even my wife jumped in to the mix—handling all sorts of crazy tasks for us whenever we needed her help.
About 19 months later, and having run out of people I know, we are about to hire our 22nd employee and once again find ourselves expanding our office space to fit all of our staff. One of the best parts of this experience for me has come from the ability to create a unique culture of professionalism, shared sacrifice, and working together for the benefit of the entire firm. Our client base is varied—but the hallmark of our firm has been great attention to our clients and providing rigorous, objective analysis. In many respects, we are academic in our approach. My firm specializes in teaching our clients, attorneys, judges, and juries. And in some respect, that is how my career has gone full circle from my short stint at a professor.
Every day, I try to teach my employees – leading by example, building our culture, pushing our potential, and sharing this experience.
Every day, I attempt to teach my clients – what does all this economics analysis mean, how it is relevant to their case, and what the implications are.
And not a day goes by that I don’t learn something from my colleagues and my clients – either about myself, about running a business, or about life in general.
 Being The Boss can be very rewarding. My experience at Edgeworth Economics has been one of the most exciting and rewarding of my professional life. I never knew what it was like to love going to work every day. In addition to the great rewards that have come from professional successes, the true meaning of Edgeworth for me has been creating a little corner of the world that reflects the values of myself and my colleagues. I doubt I’ll ever be able to work for someone else again, but in some respects, that was the whole point in starting Edgeworth Economics.
Being my own boss fits me well. In this job, I get to be impatient everyday, which fits my entrepreneurial side well, and it has been most rewarding. It is something I hope I never recover from.
By Stephanie Doctrow, RP Staff, on Wed May 4, 2011 at 1:30 PM ET A teacher shaves the beard he has been growing since September 11, 2001 in celebration of Bin Laden’s capture. [CNN]
One thing that’s not recovering: gas prices. [Time]
Former secretary of state Condoleeza Rice is back, sharing her thoughts about her time in office and her plans for the future. [NY Times Magazine]
Delivery people make themselves feel better by calling out bad tippers in a blog. [Huffington Post]
Part of the healing process for many Americans is sharing their feelings about Osama Bin Laden’s death. Plot your thoughts on the New York Times’ interactive graph and read others’ stories. [NY Times]
By Jeff Smith, on Wed May 4, 2011 at 12:00 PM ET  Before and during my time in the state Senate, I taught political science for a decade, and no issue fascinated my students more than redistricting. Once I opened class during the week on redistricting by bringing several chairs to the front of the lecture hall, turning on Snoop Dogg’s anthem “Who Am I?”, and leading students in a game of Musical Chairs. (I picked Snoop because the mentality of politicians facing redistricting is pure gangsta: you do whatever you need to do to survive. Also, I wanted students to think that in a past life, I was pretty cool.)
 Bow Wow Wow. It was thru the prism of Musical Chairs that I explained how redistricting works in states that lose a congressional seat, as Missouri has this year. The seat that disappears under the Republican-drawn map is the seat I contested back in 2004. (In the interest of full disclosure, it is occupied by Congressman Russ Carnahan (D-MO), the man who narrowly beat me and pursued an FEC complaint about an anonymous postcard mailed at the end of the campaign, the knowledge of which I hid from the feds, ultimately leading to my prison term.)
In any case, the current situation has inspired quite a bit of internecine tension. For instance, according to Politico, after their districts were combined in a way perceived as unfavorable to him, Rep. Carnahan recently told fellow Missouri Democratic Rep. Lacy Clay to f- off. In his public response, Rep. Clay channeled former warrior-entertainers “Nature Boy” Ric Flair and Muhammad Ali. The F-bombs weren’t limited to the Democratic side: Republican leaders of the House and Senate were also at odds in their attempt to draw a map that appeased the varied interests at the table.
Read the rest of…
Jeff Smith: The Recovering Redistrict-aholic
By RP Staff, on Wed May 4, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET  When Jonathan Miller called me and asked whether I would be interested in contributing a piece to a new website he was starting called “The Recovering Politician,” I was admittedly a little reluctant. First, I’m wary of the characterization of “politician” – not because of any negative connotation, but rather because I’m not sure I qualify since I never had sought elective office And irrespective of that first concern, I’m fully aware that it would be quite a stretch to claim that I’ve “recovered” from the extraordinary experience of serving in the United States Senate.
Last July, 2010, Governor Joe Manchin of West Virginia appointed me to fill the vacancy caused by the passing of Senator Robert C. Byrd – one of the true lions of the Senate and West Virginia’s most beloved public servant. Senator Byrd cast quite a long shadow, and it was daunting to contemplate being appointed to fill the seat previously occupied by the longest serving legislative member in the history of the United States. I could not begin to replace Senator Byrd or ever hope to fill his enormous shoes, but what I could do was emulate his work ethic and commitment to West Virginia – which is precisely what I strove to do during my four months in Washington, a town ruled by Congress, blackberries and Members-only elevators, and a place where fame (and infamy) can come and go in a matter of hours.
 Stacey King, Michael Jordan and teammates celebrate the 20th anniversary of their first NBA title (Side note: Years ago, former Oklahoma standout and Chicago Bull forward Stacey King saw limited action in an NBA game, hitting a single free throw. That same night, his teammate Michael Jordan poured in sixty-nine points. Afterwards, King joked that he would always remember that game as the night that he and Jordan “combined for 70 points.” Similarly, rather that describing my term as “four months,” I usually characterize it by saying that Senator Byrd and I combined to serve over 52 years in the United States Senate. )
Within days of my arrival, men and women I had studied in law school were introducing themselves to me, welcoming me as one of their own, then asking for my vote in the same sentence. And I wasn’t alone; I was immediately put at the helm of a full Senate staff – many of whom had served for decades under Senator Byrd. I was given a personal secretary and press secretary – no longer would I be the one answering the phone in my own office. However, I declined the offer of a personal driver and did the unthinkable – walked myself to work.
In no particular order, here are some random recollections and highlights from that heady time:
Press coverage & John Daly’s Pants?
 John Daly's pants I had to adjust quickly to the media attention. I’d considered myself prepared for the press, after having spent four years as a senior staffer in the Governor’s office, doing the occasional TV or radio interview. Yet, the appointment shot the level of attention into the stratosphere, with newspapers, television, blogs and everything in between weighing in with their thoughts on the relative merits of my appointment. Nothing was off-limits. To the delight of my buddies, one website offered an online poll debating where my looks stacked up against my fellow Senators, while a local West Virginia paper registered their enthusiasm for the appointment by describing it succinctly as “a letdown.”
Indeed, the temporary burst of attention became so intense that on the day that my appointment was announced, I briefly topped Google’s Hot Searches, besting former NBA star Penny Hardaway, the iphone 4, and golfer “John Daly’s pants.” I haven’t had the inclination to go back and find out why Daly’s pants made the top 10 that day.
Read the rest of…
Carte Goodwin: My Brief but Fascinating Experience as a U.S. Senator
By Jonathan Miller, on Tue May 3, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET Yesterday was an historic day for the country, and an exciting anniversary for The Recovering Politician.
We marked the one month birthday of this web site with a series of posts that proved why a post-partisan forum for civil dialogue is so essential. Without ratings-generating hype, partisanship, rancor, chest-thumping, or name-calling, our contributors provided a diverse set of thought-provoking posts about the meaning of Sunday night’s history-making events.
If you haven’t had a chance to read yesterday’s pieces, here you can browse through the links to posts by former Congressman Artur Davis, history professor Ronald J. Granieri, New York transplant Mark Nickolas, State Senator/international businessman Jason Atkinson, and myself (here and here).
———–
Yesterday, of course, I also celebrated a month of sobriety, from the toxicity of the political system.
Read the rest of…
The RP Celebrates A Month Clean & Sober (From Politics) w/a Diverse Array of Osama Commentary
|
The Recovering Politician Bookstore
|
