Vol. 13 No. 12 (December 2003)

WHERE THE EVIDENCE LEADS: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Dick Thornburgh.  Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003.  424 pp. Cloth $35.00. ISBN: 0-8229-4220-8.

Reviewed by J. Mark Alcorn, Avon, MN. Email: malcorn@cloudnet.com

WHERE THE EVIDENCE LEADS, Dick Thornburgh's autobiography, chronicles his life starting with his childhood in western Pennsylvania and continues through his appointment by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York as examiner in the WorldCom bankruptcy - the largest in American history.  Thornburgh was Attorney General in both the Reagan and Bush administrations and the only Republican ever to serve two full four-year terms as Governor of Pennsylvania. Not only is he quite open and honest in assessing mistakes he made in his early life (such as "hooking" or shoplifting from local stores as a child), but also his professional mistakes-such as his handling of leaks involving an F.B.I. interview with Representative William Gray (D-PA), which he describes as his biggest blunder as Attorney General.

While recounting for the reader the many jobs he has had in the public sector, he gives many insights into politics both at the state and national level.  In Chapters One and Two, he describes his upbringing in western Pennsylvania, his college years at Yale and law school at Pittsburg, and his employment as an attorney.  During this period he also experienced the tragic loss of his first wife, Ginny Hooton, in an auto accident, which left him as a single father with three young boys.  Three years later he married Ginny Judson, who continues as his wife after forty years.  Chapter 3 describes his unsuccessful run in 1966 for Congress in Pennsylvania's 14th Congressional District.  He lost by a two-to-one margin but found consolation in the fact that Democrats had a three-to-one registration edge in the district. 

Thornburgh was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania by President Nixon in 1969, where he served until 1975, the period he describes as the happiest of his professional life.  It was here that he battled against organized crime and corruption in government, giving birth to his reputation as "Mr. Clean."  In 1975 he was appointed to the post of Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, where corruption continued to be his top priority.  Indeed, he considers establishment of the Public Integrity Section as his most important contribution.

Thornburgh devotes six of the twenty chapters to his years as governor.  According to his account, the basis for his campaign was to create "a better economic climate, a stronger educational system, concern for crime and its victims and compassionate administration of health and welfare programs, with particular attention to those with mental or physical disabilities" (p. 80).  Perhaps he was motivated by the plight of his son, Peter, who suffered severe brain damage in the 1960 accident that claimed the life of his first wife.  Thornburgh and his second wife have spent significant time over the years working for programs to help the physically and mentally disabled.  He handily won his first primary election defeating six other candidates, including runner-up Arlen Specter - the future Republican U.S. Senator.  His opponent in the general election was former Deputy Attorney General in the Carter Administration, Pete Flaherty.  Although an internal poll done in July 1978 showed Flaherty with a 32% lead, Thornburgh eventually won the race by a 53-47% percent margin.

Two months into his first term, the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant on the Susquehanna River suffered an accident.  Thornburgh devotes an entire chapter to the crisis, and he writes that the reviews of "our" handling of the crisis were generally favorable, noting the press wrote things such as "the Thornburgh style - the calm, deliberate method he brought to Three Miles Island now applies to virtually every problem" (p.123).  In the interest of some balance, he mentions the criticism of how he handled the crisis and allows that some thought he should have ordered a precautionary evacuation. 

In the final pages of his last chapter on his years as governor Thornburgh cites a NEWSWEEK poll appearing in March, 1986, in which his fellow governors "placed me among the most effective big-state governors in the nation" (p.193).  I was curious to know exactly where he ranked and so found the article.  The question the governors were asked was "Excluding yourself, what three current governors would you say were the most effective in their positions?"  Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts was rated first with 35 percent, while Thornburgh was seventh at 16 percent.  True, he was among the top-ranked "large-state" governors listed, but to be in seventh place and have only 16 percent is not the impression he leaves with readers.

Thornburgh briefly describes his Harvard experience, where he served as the Director of the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government. He was at Harvard when he was tapped to replace Ed Meese as President Reagan's Attorney General, the post he held for the remaining five months of Reagan's term through the first Bush one-term administration.

Six chapters are devoted to his stint as Attorney General.  In the opening section he argues that his political philosophy does not fit neatly into anyone's categorical pigeonhole.  On the one hand, he supported civil rights initiatives, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Equal Rights Amendment. For years he provided legal counsel to the indigent and gave strong support to anti-hate crime laws and prosecutions. On the other hand, he also supported more traditionally conservative causes, such as the death penalty, opposition to abortion upon demand, vigorous prosecution of anti-obscenity laws, and resistance to legalization or decriminalization of drug offenses.

In his chapter "Battling White Collar Crime" Thornburgh gives details of involvement with the department's handling of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) scandal, the Savings and Loan "mess," the INSLAW software debacle, and what he called the most serious challenge to the department's integrity in a major white-collar crime investigation during his tenure - the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) investigation.  This investigation brought significant bad press for the Justice Department and several congressional committee hearings.  While battling white-collar crime he continued to stress the fight against public corruption as one of his highest priorities.  In one chapter, he includes some discussion of Operation Just Cause, when the U.S. invaded Panama to apprehend Manual Noriega in order to bring him back to this country to stand trial.  He also discusses in some detail the two cases he argued before the Supreme Court - SKINNER v. RAILWAY LABOR EXECUTIVES ASSOCIATION, and PAYNE v. TENNESSEE - both of which he won. 

Thornburgh describes one of his most touching encounters as Attorney General when, following the passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 (which provided for $1.25 billion in compensation to the survivors of Japanese Americans interned during World War II), he was able to interact during and following the bill-signing ceremony with nine of the recipients.  He found himself at odds with John Sununu on a number of issues, but one battle Thornburgh won with the White House Chief of Staff was over the nomination of David Souter to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court created by Justice William Brennan's retirement.  Sununu and Vice President Dan Quayle wanted Judge Edith Jones of the Fifth Circuit; while White House Counsel C. Boyden Gray and Thornburgh favored Souter.  When Justice Thurgood Marshall retired, Gray and Thornburgh convinced President Bush to nominate Clarence Thomas.  He writes that Bush wanted to fill the vacancy with a minority and that "Thomas was the nation's best-qualified black Republican judge" (p. 291), a characterization that others have certainly challenged.  If you are looking for an insider's view of history, here, there are a number of interesting details, but one can question the objectivity of his analysis of the events.

WHERE THE EVIDENCE LEADS is an interesting book presenting a range of useful insights into Pennsylvania and Washington politics.  Thornburgh, for the most part, seems to be up-front admitting mistakes and agreeing with criticisms by others.  There are times, though, where he understates the degree of the criticism to the point of making the reader wonder if he is purposely being misleading.  Two examples: First, Thornburgh admits in his book that the handling of the Bill Gray affair was his biggest blunder while serving as Attorney General and then taking four pages to explain the episode.  Second, in recounting his first oral argument before the Supreme Court he says that his performance could have been better.  Yet, in two articles, one for LEGAL TIMES and one for THE AMERICAN LAWYER, Stuart Taylor's reportage of those events is quite different, suggesting that Thornburgh has sugar-coated his accounts.  It is fair to use Taylor's observations because Thornburgh himself refers to him in his book and cites the reporter's positive comments about him in the very AMERICAN LAWYER article I have noted.  Indeed, when Taylor reported the Gray affair, he refers to Thornburgh as "less than candid before Congress" and that he "misleadingly implied" in his testimony.  Moreover, in his LEGAL TIMES story, Taylor observes that Thornburgh had "not done his homework" for his oral argument and "fumbled through answers."  These criticisms aside, WHERE THE EVIDENCE LEADS is a worthwhile read for its perspective on an important period of recent history.

REFERENCES:

NEWSWEEK.  1986. "How Governors See It: A Newsweek Poll."  March 24, p.32.

Taylor Jr., Stuart.  1990a. "Smart, Tough, and Political."  THE AMERICAN LAWYER.  January-February, pp.50-64.

Taylor Jr., Stuart.  1990b. "Thornburgh's Palace Intrigues."  LEGAL TIMES.  June 4, p.1.

CASE REFERENCES:

SKINNER v. RAILWAY LABOR EXECUTIVES ASSOCIATION, 489 U.S. 602 (1989).

PAYNE v. TENNESSEE, 501 U.S. 808 (1991).

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Copyright 2003 by the author, J. Mark Alcorn.