“We’re a neat team,” says Clyburn. “(Pelosi’s) much more progressive than Steny or me.” Pelosi and Hoyer can help interpret what a lawmaker’s “leaning” for or against a particular bill may really mean, Clyburn says, since they have had to interpret the signals themselves when they held the post.
When talking of his future, Clyburn is reflective and very much the pragmatist in an arena where political power is fleeting.
On the personal side, he notes that this is a special year for him and the rest of the House leadership team. He turned 70 years old this month. Pelosi and Hoyer recently turned 70. On the professional side, political climates do change, he explains candidly.
“You’ve got to be real about these things,” says Clyburn, who is working on finishing up his memoirs and readying for his ninth bid for re-election to Congress. “I think you’ve got to go with the law of averages. You’ve gotta know there’s going to be fresh leadership in the Democratic caucus in the not-too-distant future.”
Clyburn adds that many younger Democrats in Congress have been working their way through the ranks hoping, as he once was doing, to eventually take on a party leadership role. “It’s just the law of averages,” he says, adding that, if he were to ever leave the House leadership, he would probably leave Congress.
For now, he says, looking toward his birthday and annual scholarship golf classic, “I’m just trying to help Barack Obama become the best president the country has ever had.”
