The Gortons and Slades - Washington Secretary of State

178 sLAde goRton: A hALf centuRy in poLitics
the $40 billion in savings. Otherwise the solvency of the system was in
jeopardy. “I consider it to be truth in budgeting, nothing more.” Gorton
chimed in, “This is a good budget, because it is a fair budget” that faces
up to the long-range problems of Social Security. 14
Fall found Jesse Helms licking his wounds over a succession of defeats
at the hands of Gorton and the other centrists. They’d scuttled his plans
to ban abortion and legalize school prayer. “Conservative it ain’t,” he said,
“Republican it is.” 15
given his Roots and rapidly growing reputation as a comer, The Boston
Globe took a keen interest in the Yankee who’d wandered West. It published
a front-page profile that shows how the quotable new Republican
senator was perceived back East early on:
U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton was eating grapefruit—or was he on his puffed
rice?—and talking about the family fish business, which he never did
want to go into. . . . He retains the looks of a New England Yankee, though:
a preacher, perhaps, with his long face and tall forehead and pale eyes. . . .
Gorton thinks of himself politically as a “moderate to liberal in the context
of the Republican Party,” but confesses to not being sure what those
labels mean. . . .
Gorton is described by those who know him as a sophisticated and
calculating politician with the somewhat inscrutable ways of a man from
a faraway state where partisan politics is not the rule. He projects a “Gee,
whiz” Midwestern kind of enthusiasm. . . .
By the time his single scrambled egg arrived, the senator was well into
explaining his political philosophy. He felt trapped by labels, and inclined
toward lengthy explanations. To oversimplify: Economically, Gorton adheres
to a traditional conservative philosophy—balance the federal budget
and limit government. However, he wants to emphasize that he is not
in favor of dismantling it. At the same time, he is inclined to be protective
of the environment, supportive of the Equal Rights Amendment, and a
believer that the government should remain neutral about abortion.
Gorton does not wish to be identified with many of his New-Right
classmates, or their leader, the President. . . . As a member of the budget
committee, he was an early supporter of the Administration’s spendingcuts
proposals, but now finds himself put off by, among other things, its
“unwillingness to deal with (reductions in spending for) defense and an
unwillingness to deal with the fact we’ll need more revenues.” . . .
Gorton says he enjoys the entree that being a U.S. senator provides,
but misses the climate of Washington State and its informality. He also
feels safer there. He runs every morning. . . .