The Gortons and Slades - Washington Secretary of State

the eXtRAoRdinARy octogenARiAn 379
state representative. Vander Stoep was a campaign adviser. Herrera, 32,
was the only Republican on the West Coast to capture a seat that had been
held by a Democrat. 7
in 2009, goRton Joined the BoARd of the Markle Foundation, a national
group that brainstorms solutions to health and national security
issues, particularly through information technology. He also joined the
Partnership for a Secure America. The brain child of Lee Hamilton and
Warren Rudman, it focuses on foreign policy and national security. Together
with Hamilton, Rudman, Howard Baker, Tom Kean, Robert Mc-
Namara, Sam Nunn, Ted Sorensen, Gary Hart and two dozen other
prominent Republicans and Democrats, Gorton endorsed a statement
that urged the Obama Administration to work diligently to improve
America’s ties with Russia. The former Cold War adversaries now have
many urgent shared interests, the leaders said, notably nuclear non-proliferation
and the war on terror. Addressing critical issues in concert rather
than competition is vital to both countries, Gorton says. “It also aids the
cause of democratic reforms in Russia.” 8
Unrepentant mugwumps 50 years after they mobilized the progressive
wing of the Washington State Republican Party, Gorton and Evans
declared their opposition in 2009 to Tim Eyman’s latest creation, Initiative
1033. Although the party had endorsed the plan to limit city, county
and state tax-revenue increases to the rate of inflation and population
growth, the two old campaigners denounced the initiative as “ill conceived
and unreasonable.” It would make “already tough times worse in
our state and our communities” by crimping education, law enforcement
and job-creation projects. Their cross-generational message also emphasized
the potential impact on home care for senior citizens. Initiative 1033
was soundly rejected. 9
hARd on the heeLs of the massacre at Fort Hood, the narrowly thwarted
bombing of a jetliner on final approach to a Detroit airport on Christmas
Day 2009 was fresh evidence to Gorton that there was still too much
“sand in the gears of the bureaucracy.” The 9/11 Commission Report emphasized
that information-sharing in the intelligence community was
critical to keeping the homeland safe. Congress moved earnestly to adopt
its recommendations, Gorton said, yet deadly inertia clearly remained,
together with potentially lethal political correctness. 10
The father of the 23-year-old Nigerian jihadist who nearly brought
down the plane was so concerned about his growing radicalization that he