In Suite 309 of the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, boxes are being packed up, photos and pictures are coming off the walls and being covered with bubble wrap, and the career of Sen. Paul Sarbanes, Maryland?s longest-serving senator, is coming to a close. On Jan. 4, for the first time in 40 years, Sarbanes will not hold elected office ? but he will get to see his son John sworn in to the congressional seat he once held.
“It was the right decision” to retire, Sarbanes told The Examiner Thursday.
What?s he going to do with himself? “I haven?t figured that out,” Sarbanes said. “I?m going to give myself some time.” He?ll probably do some speaking, some writing and some teaching, and he and his wife, Christine, “want to do some traveling.”
As they were cleaning out desks, a staffer found a copy of the Aug. 9, 1974, issue of the Washington Post with the headline “Nixon Resigns” and put it on Sarbanes? desk. As a member of House Judiciary Committee in 1974, Sarbanes offered the first article of impeachment against President Richard Nixon, bringing the second-term congressman to national attention.
“It was a grave and serious matter,” Sarbanes said, and certainly one of the most important moments of his career.
The 18 months he served as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee helped enshrine his name in legislative history for what is now known as Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which enforced new accounting rules and ethical standards for corporations in the wake of scandals such as Enron. Despite complaints from corporate executives about its costs and complexity, Sarbanes is proud of what the bill has done.
But there are many other accomplishments that do not necessarily bear his name: work for the Chesapeake Bay, legislation for clean air and clean water, initiatives to make housing more affordable and “the fight all along for fairness and opportunity,” he says.
Republicans would sometimes call him the “stealth senator,” but Sarbanes said, “If you don?t take all the credit, you can get a lot of things done. … I never felt I had to fight my way to the nearest microphone.”
One of his worst times in the Senate was after the anthrax attack on Sen. Tom Daschle?s office, directly above his own office. Kept out of their offices for three months, “we were the last ones to come back,” Sarbanes recalled, but fortunately none of his staff got sick.
While so much has changed since the Sept. 11 attacks, he thinks more needs to be done. He regrets that the mass-transit security measures that passed the Senate were never acted on in the House, and “we can do more on port security.”
Sarbanes? face lights up with a broad smile when he talks about his son John. “He?s going to be a good congressman,” the senator said, confidently. The last three senators elected in Maryland ? Paul Sarbanes, Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin ? have all held the 3rd district seat, but Paul Sarbanes brushes off any speculation about John. “He needs to do the job he has.”
Sen. Paul Sarbanes
» Age: 73, born Feb. 3, 1933, Salisbury, Md.
» Education: Wicomico High School; A.B., Princeton University, 1954; First Class B.A, Oxford University, 1957 (Rhodes Scholar); Harvard Law School, 1960
» Career: Clerk for federal judge, private practice of law in Baltimore.
» Public Office: House of Delegates, 1967-1970; U.S. House of Representatives, 1971-1976; U.S. Senate, 1977-2006 (longest-serving Maryland senator).
» Favorite books: History and biography, currently reading autobiography of Gov. Harry Hughes (Sarbanes wrote the foreword.)
» Favorite restaurants: Helmand Afghan restaurant (run by brother of Afghan President Hamad Karzai); The Ambassador; and the restaurants of Greek Town in East Baltimore.
