Cohen, Richard E.

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COHEN, Richard E.

PERSONAL:

Male. Education: Brown University, graduated 1969; Georgetown University Law Center, graduated 1972.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—c/o Author Mail, Ivan R. Dee, 1332 North Halsted St., Chicago, IL 60622-2694.

CAREER:

Journalist. National Journal, Washington, DC, congressional reporter, 1977—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Everett McKinley Dirksen Award, 1989, for distinguished reporting of Congress.

WRITINGS:

(With Ralph E. Cohen and Ralph D. Nurnberger) Congressional Leadership: Seeking a New Role ("Washington Papers" series), Sage Publications (Beverly Hills, CA), 1980.

Washington at Work: Back Rooms and Clean Air, Maxwell Macmillan International (New York, NY), 1992, revised edition, Allyn & Bacon (Boston, MA), 1995.

Changing Course in Washington: Clinton and the New Congress, Maxwell Macmillan International (New York, NY), 1994.

Rostenkowski: The Pursuit of Power and the End of the Old Politics, Ivan R. Dee (Chicago, IL), 1999.

Contributor to The Almanac of American Politics 2002, 2001, and The Almanac of American Politics, 2004: The Senators, the Representatives, and the Governors: Their Records and Election Results, Their States and Districts, 2003, both National Journal Group; contributor to periodicals, including the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and Baltimore Sun.

SIDELIGHTS:

Since 1977, Richard E. Cohen has covered both legislative and electoral politics for the National Journal. Cohen's long-time presence in Washington has enabled him to offer his unique perspective in a number of books, including Washington at Work: Back Rooms and Clean Air. In this volume, he documents the actions and delays leading up to the second Clean Air Act in 1990 and offers an analysis of the roles played by the president, staffers, various congressional committees and leaders, and special interest groups. William P. Browne wrote in the Policy Studies Journal that the book "is a simple, elegant, and straightforward accounting. Its core analysis is on the last few years leading to the act and negotiations that took place. The story weaves congressional leadership, committees, and rank-and-file members into a complex yet easily comprehended tapestry."

Cohen's study emphasizes two things. The first is that in the post-reform Congress, major decisions are made on a partisan basis by legislators and their staffs, while congressional committees and the public are kept in the dark. Legislators avoid risk by forging their deals through back-room politics. He also notes that this may have been the only way to address environmental legislation, because there were no concrete statistics and facts on environmental conditions or the costs of controls and remediation. "Development of a shared analytical perspective, in no small part, brought about the bill's final passage," said Browne. "Knowledge helped make Washington work, when it finally could be mustered."

Rostenkowski: The Pursuit of Power and the End of the Old Politics is Cohen's study of Dan Rostenkowski, the Illinois Democrat who ran the House Ways and Means Committee for thirteen years and who was either the chairman or a member of the most powerful committee in the House for more than three decades. During this period, Medicare was created and the tax code rewritten. Cohen, who interviewed the congressman for the book, notes that Rostenkowski granted "technical provisions or local favors" in order to move along important legislation. Robin Toner wrote in the New York Times Book Review that "for those who love the game of legislation—the brokering, the bluffing, the ability to read your colleagues and find the compromise that gives just enough and gets just a little bit more—he was as good as it gets."

Rostenkowski was first elected to Congress in 1958 at the age of thirty-one and was forced to retire in 1995. In the summer of 1994, he was indicted on corruption charges, just six months after the Democrats lost their House majority. Cohen's story of the congressman's rise and fall parallels the decline of the Democratic Party. Rostenkowski admitted to misusing government funds, for example buying gifts through his account in the House stationery store, and padding his staff. In April, 1996, he reached a plea-bargain deal with prosecutors and was sentenced to fifteen months in jail. Cohen also writes of other incidents involving Rostenskowski for which no charges were brought, including his alleged ownership and trading of racetrack stocks.

"Despite stories like these," wrote Charles Lewis in a Washington Monthly review, "Cohen is very sympathetic to his subject. The author's final words about this convicted felon are, 'His longevity, accomplishments, and symbolism in the nation's shifting landscape were unparalleled.… His work entitled him to the public's appreciation for his service. We won't see many more like him.'" Library Journal's Karl Helicher noted that Cohen "writes movingly of Rostenkowski's failings."

Toner felt that the book is "most vivid" when Rostenkowski's voice "comes through.… It is hard to read this book without feeling some nostalgia for the old bulls, as Democratic power brokers were called, particularly when nobody seems capable of muscling through big legislation anymore." Lewis called Cohen's book "an important, revealing, anecdote-laden biography about one of the most compelling Washington political figures of our time, written by an enormously gifted journalist."