Patrick Leahy on the role of the Senate and the dangers of partisanship

He’s one of the longest-serving senators in U.S. history, and after 48 years in office, Vermont’s Patrick Leahy, 82, is retiring.

CBS News’ chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa asked Leahy, “There’s an inscription on the side of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, it reads, ‘The Senate is the living symbol of our union of states.’ Is it?”

Leahy replied, “The Senate should be the conscience of the nation.”

“Is the Senate failing now?”

“The Senate has become so bitterly divided on things that they shouldn’t be divided on. This is not the swamp; this is where democracy can be – and should be.”

Political divisions are the bookends to the long career of Leahy. In 1974, the idealistic 34-year-old prosecutor was sent to Washington in the wake of Watergate. Now, said Acosta, “You’re about to leave the Senate after an attack on the U.S. Capitol. What does that say to you?”

“Part of it says to me, ‘Have we learned something? Does anybody read a book on history?'” said Leahy. “January 6th shook me to the core, because I thought back to the really wonderful men and women I’ve served with over all these years, in both parties, who would not have stood for this.”

For his new memoir, “The Road Taken” (published Tuesday by Simon & Schuster, part of CBS’ parent company Paramount Global), Leahy plays off the title from the Robert Frost poem, “The Road Not Taken.”

United States Senator was an unlikely career path for the young attorney, and when Leahy arrived in Congress, he intended to keep his head down – not easy when you stand 6’2″.

“You really wanted to blend into the background most of the time?” asked Costa.

“Oh, I did. I sat in the first caucus, I came and I sat way in the back row against the wall. Next thing I knew Hubert Humphrey, Scoop Jackson, and couple other very senior ones come and sit beside me. They said, ‘Boy, you learn fast.’  I said, ‘What do you mean?’ ‘Well, you sit here so if it gets boring you can sneak out without anybody seeing you!'”

Leahy’s no-nonsense approach endeared him to the old lions of the Senate.  But his quiet composure has long concealed a crusader’s zeal for justice. Last year, when Chief Justice John Roberts declined to preside over Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial, Leahy took on the task.

Costa asked, “What would it have meant for the country if more Republicans had voted to convict Trump in that trial?”

Leahy said, “I think it would’ve helped the country. I don’t say this as a partisan thing. It would have sent word to the country in the same way that Barry Goldwater and Hugh Scott told Richard Nixon, ‘You’ve broken the law, it’s time to go.’ I wish more had been willing to stand up and say, ‘This was wrong.’ They’d say it privately. Well, say it publicly!”

There’s no place where the public and private sides of politics come together than in rooms like Leahy’s so-called “hideaway.” Amid photos of his wife of 60 years, Marcelle, and their family, it’s where senators brokered an end to the 2019 government shutdown – and where Leahy can just be himself.

An avid photographer, Leahy has lined the walls with photos of his home state. “I was born basically blind in one eye,” he said. “And things that required depth perception, like baseball or whatnot, are more difficult. You only need one eye for photography.”

Leahy has one other, far more unusual sideline: he’s been a bit player in several Batman movies. A lifelong fan of the Caped Crusader, Leahy has spent his career working for Americans with little power of their own: the poor, the hungry, children, and victims of land mines.

Though he is the fourth-longest serving senator in U.S. history, with the trappings of seniority to show for it, Leahy is the first of his family to have attended college.

And he’s not afraid to take the gloves off.  He opposed all of Trump’s Supreme Court nominees, taking particular umbrage during the Brett Kavanaugh hearings.

Costa asked, “What do you make of Senator Collins and Senator Manchin saying Justice Kavanaugh misled them during the confirmation hearings?”

“I was in that hearing. I wasn’t ‘misled.’ I believe the charges against him,” Leahy said. “And I believe that the White House stymied a full investigation. The FBI did not do a complete investigation. It was rushed through so you could not have a complete investigation. And it was a farce. But that’s my view.”

The Biden years have proven happier for Leahy. And though he is only three years older than the president, he’s not advising Mr. Biden to follow suit and retire.

Costa asked, “Should he run in 2024?”

“That’s gonna have to be his decision. If he does, I’ll support him,” Leahy replied.

” ‘Cause there is something about getting to a certain age where you start to maybe reflect about the crossroads of life.”

“Really? And when does that happen, Bob?” Leahy laughed.

“Well, you tell me, sir.”

“I gotta read the book, ‘The Road Taken.’ I gotta find out when that time is!”

Web extra video – Patrick Leahy, Senator and Deadhead: 

As Patrick Leahy prepares to descend from his position of power in Washington, his thoughts turn to the next generation of leaders – and to the young man he once was.

Costa asked, “If you could go back to 1974 and tap the 34-year-old you on the shoulder and give him a little advice, what would you tell him?”

“I’d tell him things that look impossible aren’t if you work hard enough at it” Leahy replied. “It’s not gonna be done with press releases and ‘Look how great I am!’ It’s gonna be done with just steady, careful work. But it can be done.”

READ AN EXCERPT: “The Road Taken” by Senator Patrick Leahy

     
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Story produced by Ed Forgotson. Editor: Karen Brenner.