Quiet Passion: A Biography of Senator Bob Graham

by S.V. Date

A biography of the one electable Democratic presidential candidate with the guts to provide a real alternative to George Bush. Senator Bob Graham of Florida is the one electable Democrat running for... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1585423041
• ISBN13: 9781585423040
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: Tarcher
• Length: 286 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Bob Graham - One of America's best Governors and U.S. Senators

1979 was my first introduction in person to Bob Graham. The circumstances were odd, but ever since then, I have come to appreciate his service to Florida and to the nation. On May 25, 1979, John Spenkelink became the first inmate to be executed in Florida following the resumption of capital punishment. The night before was an all night vigil in front of the Governor's Mansion. I was there. Bob - against the advise of his advisers - walked out the front door of the mansion to speak with us. Subsequent to that I had many opportunities to speak with and to observe him up close. Reading this book though has - with the hindsight of history - helped me to better realize what a gem both Florida and the nation has in Bob Graham. Bob, thank you. And by the way, last night at the Florida Wine Festival - a fund-raiser for the Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science in Tallahassee - I won the dinner with you and three of my friends at the Governor's Club in Tallahassee. Looking forward! And thank you S. V. Date for a most informative and well written book. Next book for me to read is your newest book about the real (and scary) Jeb Bush. __________________________________ Regarding Scharlette Holdman, who is cited in this book: First a brief introduction: From 1986 - 1992 I was employed as an investigator at the Office of Capital Collateral Representative (CCR) in Tallahassee, Florida, where Scharlette Holdman worked as the supervisor of the investigators from October 1985 - March 1988. I have known Scharlette since the mid-1970s. Her office, the Clearinghouse on Criminal Justice, was in the same wing of the Petroleum Building as my office at Common Cause in Florida, where I volunteered. David von Drehle's excellent book "Among the Lowest of the Dead" provides the best history and analysis of the Florida death penalty, with Michael Mello's books a close second. Part of each of these books is about Scharlette Holdman. A bit of the negative aspects: When Scharlette had essentially declared war upon CCR in 1987 and thereafter, some of us decided to investigate her background given some things that we had heard. Low and behold, Scharlette's claim of a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Hawaii and a Master's Degree from Memphis State (now University of Memphis) don't exist. A claimed undergraduate degree from Memphis State: I no longer recall if this was confirmed by the university. We used Scharlette's Social Security number, her maiden name and her married name -- with all this information, both universities had no record of Scharlette having received any degrees from these institutions. As I understand Scharlette, she needed the "degrees" to confer upon her "credentials" that she really never needed as she is indeed then and now a national expert on capital mitigation, litigation, etc. However Scharlette can be deceptive, as her lack of a PhD and Masters so demonstrates. Even today she claims to have the degrees as

Intriguing, Detailed, Fair, and Poignant--an Excellent Read.

S.V. Date's book is an easy read - you can read it over a weekend - but it is surprisingly deep and well-researched. The book, written in the straightforward prose one expects from a seasoned newspaper reporter, is especially strong on Graham's bumpy yet successful ride as a politician in Florida. The author's observations of Graham are positive, yet balanced, looking at Graham's strengths and weaknesses, his moments of true leadership and his worst mistakes. On the whole, the book left me with a favorable impression of Graham -- he comes across as a bright, patriotic and hard-working leader who tried to make peoples lives better.