The death of former Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-Utica, last week at age 84 is an occasion to celebrate the spirit of centrism, compromise and service to others he embodied over 24 years representing Central New York in Congress.
That spirit was already flagging when Boehlert, one of the last of New York’s Rockefeller Republicans, decided not to seek a 13th term in 2006.
In an exit interview, he told Washington reporter Mark Weiner: “I came to Capitol Hill 42 years ago, and I have never seen a higher level of partisanship and a lower level of tolerance for the other guy’s point of view.”
If that’s how he felt then, what would Boehlert have said about the poisonous atmosphere in Washington now? What would he make of the 147 fellow Republicans who voted against the constitutionally prescribed certification of the election of Joe Biden as president, even after a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol to stop it? Or the collision course Democrats and Republicans have charted over the budget, the debt limit and the infrastructure bill that could shut down the federal government by Friday?
He’d be horrified, we think.
Boehlert’s Washington was different. Where today’s lawmakers legislate by partisan brute force, outside of regular order, Boehlert achieved consequential laws through preparation, persuasion and finesse.
In 1990, Boehlert’s party was in the minority in Congress. He teamed up with Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, to amend the Clean Air Act regulating coal plant emissions from Midwestern states that were causing acid rain to fall on the Adirondack Mountains. Thirty years later, Adirondack lakes and rivers are coming back, and so are the fish and birds, to the delight of paddlers and outdoor enthusiasts.
Boehlert stood up to his own party’s efforts to weaken environmental rules. He sounded the alarm about climate change way back in the 1990s, leading two congressional delegations to Antarctica to highlight the threat of a warming planet.
As chair of the House Science Committee, Boehlert championed the American Competitiveness Initiative of 2006. It committed $136 billion over 10 years to increase federal investments in research and development, strengthen education and encourage entrepreneurship. It was his proudest accomplishment in Congress, he told Weiner upon retiring.
Those were legislative home runs. But the congressman, a well-known baseball fanatic, also knew how to play “small ball” for his district, where he returned every weekend to stay in touch with his constituents.
When Boehlert could not prevent the Pentagon from closing Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, he directed federal funding to help create the Griffiss Business and Technology Park and the Air Force Research Laboratory. He persuaded the Clinton administration to move part of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service to Rome. More than 1,000 people work there today.
After leaving Congress, Boehlert kept up his work on the environment and continued to preach bipartisanship in Washington. He was a cockeyed optimist about the future.
“I have argued that, with this highly partisan Congress, it has been the moderates’ moment,” Boehlert said in that 2006 interview. “I think for the moderates, our best days are ahead. I’m not saying moderate Republicans. I’m saying moderates.”
That prediction proved to be too optimistic. The current moment favors the fringes, on both left and right. Compromise is for the weak. Comity is out. Vitriol is in. Boehlert’s career is a rebuke to that way of thinking.
In mourning Boehlert, we also mourn a Congress led by a people like him: a legislator with big ideas and an even bigger heart.
About Syracuse.com editorials
Editorials represent the collective opinion of the Advance Media New York editorial board. Our opinions are independent of news coverage. Read our mission statement. Members of the editorial board are Tim Kennedy, Trish LaMonte, Katrina Tulloch and Marie Morelli.
To respond to this editorial: Submit a letter or commentary to letters@syracuse.com. Read our submission guidelines.
If you have questions about the Opinions & Editorials section, contact Marie Morelli, editorial/opinion leader, at mmorelli@syracuse.com