“A Kansas Ranch Mother and Unique US Senator”
Dear Bank of Prairie Village Shareholders and Clients ~
By now you have heard through the media of the Passing of Former United States Senator, Nancy Landon Kassebaum Baker.
If you have followed my client letters, you will also know what a role model, influence and impact Senator Kassebaum had on my outlook and mindset during the ten years I served on her staff, including as General Counsel and Legislative Director.
If you follow her passing in the media you will see current political leaders from both sides of the aisle commenting, although no one supported her positions and votes 100 percent of the time, they all agreed her positions were usually well reasoned and thought out. She was respected and admired for her caring and humble, consciousness approach to legislation and political positions. In short, even candidates which she opposed or whose opponents she endorsed, stated their respect and admiration for her.
To be frank, this is very unique in today’s world where people are labeled for their opinions and not their reasoning and thought of what went into their opinions.
On Capitol Hill when life was much more Bi-Partisan, there were a great many senators of both parties whom I respected as intellectual deep thinkers and whom I admired ~ and a great many senators from both arties I felt were phony suits, whose primary purpose was self-serving monetary objectives and ego-driven media exposure. Remember that was over 40 years ago, and Capitol Hill today has probably tilted more to the latter than the former ~ for a variety of reasons.
Perhaps, the biggest factor for the tilt has been the pure pre-election success measurement of campaign fundraising and spending.
I am sure it is hard to take an intellectual approach to legislation and long-term consequences if our elected officials must spend inordinate time raising millions of dollars for the next campaign.
By contrast in my legislative role, I was insulated from political fundraising in working for Senator Kassebaum. I could be wrong, but I think she won her second and third reelections by well over 70 percent while spending less than $80,000 on each campaign. Today, I think city commission races spend more than $80,000, with the combined candidates of the last senate race spending a combined $20 million.
I can write on the legislative accomplishments that Senator Kassebaum spear-headed, but I will leave that for the media. Rather, I would just like to share a moment unrelated to politics that in my mind drives home what a unique Senator she was.
The time was early Spring of 1988 and the KU Basketball team had won its first national championship since 1952. The team had arrived earlier that morning by commercial airline and had been invited to the White House later that afternoon for a meeting with the President.
I think this was relatively shortly after the Championship game. To get on in the hoopla, the Kansas Congressional Delegation hosted the team to lunch in one of the Senate Hearing rooms. (They figured the media was gonna love such a photo op!)
Naturally, a Senatorial hearing room boxed lunch is not exactly of “training table” substance. I think it was chicken salad sandwiches, with chips and a cookie. (Perfect for a light airplane snack but not for 20-year-old champion athletes!)
As the obviously tired and overwhelmed boys quickly gobbled down their sandwiches, chips and single cookie, the various Kansas Congressional leaders were fighting for the mic and droning on interminably about the glories of the KU Basketball team and the State of Kansas. I think the speakers were mostly speaking to the Media, while ~ the blank staring young players were clearly still jet-lagged, hungry, tired and trying very hard not to look bored.
Senator Kassebaum noticed their predicament. Ignoring the speakers, she suddenly jumped up, grabbed two milk pitchers from the serving table and went around pouring milk into the young teammates’ empty glasses.
She looked like any proud mother taking care of her thirsty and hungry sons. The boys probably did not know who she was, but they all smiled and gave big appreciative grins and thank-yous to her for sensing their starvation.
It was at that moment I realized what set the Senator so apart from the generally bombastic senatorial crowd! She was a Kansas Ranch Mother First ~ and a US Senator Second. Moreover, she brought all that common sense of her former job to her second!
In walking out with the team, I realized I could not have been prouder to serve Senator Kassebaum.
Although I love hearing tributes about KU Basketball Glory, one can hear it repeated only so much and for so long. (My 90-year-old Father being an exception to that rule)
As I have mentioned before, staff legislative meetings with the Senator, often felt like a family around the kitchen table. She took in everyone’s view, and after vigorous questioning and discussion, made her decision.
Her staff (i.e. legislative family) whether initially agreeing or not with her final position ~ felt after the decision was made as a group family decision and all worked hard to legislatively enact it. I for one found myself working hard to enact legislation I might not have initially supported, but after our meetings felt well-prepared and well-reasoned why it should be enacted into law.
Needless to say, I believe the Senate, the House and the whole country would be better with more leaders who are happy to pour milk, do the hard work, and ignore the television interviews for the sake of seeing their faces on TV!!!!
In fact, I probably would vote for any candidate that promised not to run television attack ads, do worthless mailers or promised not to do cable news interviews more than once a year ~ particularly if they avoid taking the interview opportunity to tell the audience how great they are.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed, that more Farm and Ranch common sense expands and prevails in Congress and Washington in general ~ and that campaigns of the future are measured not by how much is spent ~ but on how little. (Perhaps Artificial Intelligence can somehow make that happen.) Onward Always!
Dan Bolen ~ Chairman
Bank of Prairie Village
“The Bank of Prairie Village ~ Home of Blue Lion Banking” ~ cited March 2020, April 2021, April 2022, April 2023 and April 2024 by the by the Kansas City Business Journal as one of the “Safest Banks in Kansas City for Your Money.”
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