Governor Tom Kean: From the New Jersey Statehouse to the 911 Commission

by Alvin S. Felzenberg

Long before Bill Clinton spoke of "triangulation," a term that referred to a centrist governing style, prior to Tony Blair repositioning the British Labor Party midway between Thatcher conservatism... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813537991
• ISBN13: 9780813537993
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Length: 578 Pages
• Weight: 2.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Tom Kean--A Great American

Al Felzenberg does New Jerseyans, and all Americans interested in high-minded civic engagement, a great service with his outstanding new biography of Governor Tom Kean. This well-written and exhaustively researched book presents a complete picture of perhaps New Jersey's best leader of the past 50 years. Felzenberg does so in a manner characteristic of his subject's personality: warm, personable, engaging, thorough, effective. Born to a patrician Jersey family, Kean was well prepared at St. Marks, Princeton, and Columbia Teachers' College. But, growing up in Washington, DC as the 5th of seven children to a rarely present Congressman, his childhood was surprisingly solitary and, it seems, a little lonely. On long walks by himself around the Nation's Capitol, the budding Governor memorized specific details of most of the city's myriad statuary. In his early career in the New Jersey Assembly, of which he became Speaker at age 34, and later as one of New Jersey's youngest governors, Kean develops and exhibits his characteristically inclusive personality. He successfully built legislative coalitions to advance a reasonably progressive agenda for education, environment, and the arts. A Republican of moderate stripe, acquiescing to several tax increases which today still burden the Garden State, he evinced an abiding humanity, wishing for and in most part achieving new heights for our oft-maligned state. After Trenton, while serving as President of Drew University in Madison, NJ, Governor Kean received the President's call to head the 9/11 Commission, after Henry Kissinger declined for self-serving reasons. This was a great stroke of good luck for America. Angst, fear, anger, and tension in the aftermath of 3000 deaths on 9/11 had brought the nation to a fever pitch about the causes of this great calamity. Kean was the right man at the right time. Invoking again his distinctively inclusive and accommodating personality, Kean amidst choppy political waters steered the potentially divisive process along a steady, sober, and ultimately correct course, earning the trust of the Administration, the public, and, most important, the victims' families. Felzenberg, a respected public policy thinker and long a student of New Jersey politics, served Kean as Assistant Secretary of State in New Jersey and later as Chief Spokesman for the 9/11 Commission. Accordingly, he shows much respect and fondness for the Governor. But the book is not a complete huzzah. This unauthorized biography also challenges Kean for giving in too easily on certain issues while governor, notably a lack of support for a particular African-American candidate, and for eschewing the opportunity to run for U.S. Senator from New Jersey, as for which many of his state's citizens yearned after yet another too-typical Jersey scandal took down Senator Robert Torricelli. Menawhile, this reader sensed that Felzenberg, in his fascinating account of the 9/11 Commission's inside work, is itching to t

Informative and engaging about one of our most important public servants

Thomas Kean is probably the most underrated public servant of this political generation. With this book, Felzenberg engagingly discusses Kean's rise from privileged roots--a sense of noblesse oblige, no doubt--to Governor of New Jersey to Chairman of the 9/11 Commission. One consistent strand thrives throughout this boo: Kean's personality that was able to draw admirers from across the aisle, the most essential part of his character that made him the fitting choice for Chairman of the commission. Can you imagine today another public servant, with his record, who does not care about running for President? Felzenberg, having served under Kean multiple times (first in NJ and then on the commission), obviously paints a flattering portrait, but he is up front about it--but he does acknowledge flaws, albeit not many. Yet it's hard to see many at all. This is the first major biography of Kean--long due in coming, and astonishing that it took this long at all.