Gary Hart

In an era of career politicians, Gary Hart has chosen a road less travelled, devoting himself first and foremost to public service and the good of his country. A prolific author, lecturer, teacher, scholar, and attorney, America's newest "elder" statesman is a man on a mission who shows no signs of slowing down. Prior to his election as a United States senator from Colorado in 1974, he had never before sought public office. In 1984, he was the runner-up candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination for president. During 1970-1972, Hart managed Senator George McGovern's insurgent campaign for the presidency. He has also served as an appellate attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice, a special assistant at the U.S. Department of the Interior, and senior counsel to one of America's oldest international law firms, Coudert Brothers, where he helped pioneer the development of joint business ventures in Russia and in Central Europe. Most recently, Hart co-chaired both the U.S. Commission on National Security/ 21st Century, which issued three public reports forecasting the age of terrorism and outlined a new, post-Cold War national security policy, as well as the Council on Foreign Relations task force on homeland security, which recently released its report "America—Still Unprepared, Still in Danger". As a senator, Hart established a reputation as a political reformer. He founded the Military Reform Caucus in the Congress, a bipartisan effort that contributed substantially to contemporary defense policy. While serving on the Senate Select Committee to Investigate the Intelligence Agencies of the U.S. Government (the Church Committee), he successfully advocated sweeping measures to make our intelligence agencies more accountable. He also introduced a collection of environmental measures to make America energy independent. As a presidential candidate, Hart proposed a "strategic investment initiative" that included new measures to create a more expansive—and more just—national economy. On the foreign policy front, he called for "enlightened engagement" and introduced a series of proposals designed to reform and modernize America's defenses. Many of these defense plans are today being adopted by the Bush administration. Never shy about committing his thoughts and ideas to paper, Hart is the author of more than a dozen books, including three novels (one co-authored with former Secretary of Defense William Cohen). In 2001, he earned a doctor of philosophy degree from Oxford University. His thesis, "Thomas Jefferson's Ideal of the Republic in 21st Century America", culminated a decade-long exploration of the idea of restoring the republican ideals of civic virtue and citizen duty. When published in book form in 2002, Restoration of the Republic completed a trilogy of works that began with The Patriot in 1996 and continued with The Minuteman in 1998. Throughout the trilogy, Hart stresses the theme of republican restoration concurrent with a new definition of security that includes not only traditional national and homeland security, but also security of livelihood, security of community, and security of the natural environment. Many of the issues Hart presciently raised and discussed in the 1970s and 1980s—including military reform, intelligence reform, energy independence, and a number of others—have now begun to re-enter the arena of national debate. In the late 1990s, Hart's mastery of security issues and grasp of foreign policy led him to make multiple and tragically unheeded predictions—one as late as September 5, 2001—that America would be attacked by terrorists using weapons of mass destruction. No longer a "prophet without honor" in the wake of 9-11, Gary Hart believes the United States is still woefully unprepared to intercept and respond to attacks on American territory. Like a latter-day Paul Revere, he is continuing to provide direction to both his party and his country in an age marred by terrorism. In early 2003, he will deliver a series of policy speeches in which he will argue forcefully that Democrats can only emerge from their status as an opposition party if they offer more attractive ideals and visions than laissez-faire economics and preemptive attacks on other nations. These speeches will be made available on his website. A native of Kansas, Hart has spent his adult life in Colorado with his wife of forty-four years, Lee. They have two children; Andrea Hart, a policy analyst, and John Hart, a lawyer and financial analyst; and one granddaughter, Tatum. Hart holds law and divinity degrees from Yale University and completed his undergraduate studies, with emphasis in theology and philosophy, at Southern Nazarene University.