Posted on 07/04/2004 11:46:41 PM PDT by goldstategop
Read 'Rough Edges'
Joseph Farah
I just read one of the best autobiographies ever written.
No, it wasn't Bill Clinton's "My Life."
It was written by a man who tried to convict Bill Clinton in his impeachment trial – my friend James E. Rogan. It's called "Rough Edges: My Unlikely Road From Welfare to Washington."
I first met Rogan in 1988, when he came into my newspaper office in Southern California as a tough, young Democratic prosecutor – when we were both a couple of 30-somethings.
He briefly told me his compelling story. He grew up in a household headed by a single mother on welfare – actually convicted of welfare fraud. He was kicked out of high school. He worked in biker bars and porn theaters. More than once in his life he had to pull a concealed gun from his holster to defend himself and others.
Not only was he a lifelong Democrat, he once headed one of the biggest Democratic clubs in California, in the ultra-liberal San Francisco Bay Area.
But during Ronald Reagan's presidency, Jim Rogan began to see the world differently – just as I did.
He came to tell me he was ready to change parties and announce his support for the Republican presidential nominee, George H. W. Bush. He handed me a well-crafted opinion piece and asked me to publish it. I did – at the top of page 1 of the Glendale News-Press.
Soon, the 30-year-old Rogan was being courted by Republican groups all over the area as a inspirational public speaker – and likely future candidate for political office. The article caught the eye of his hero, Ronald Reagan, who met Rogan and wrote him a thoughtful and encouraging letter.
It wasn't long before Rogan was the new Republican assemblyman, representing Glendale in the California Legislature. Soon he was the assembly minority leader, and then on his way to the U.S. House of Representatives.
What I didn't know until I read his book was that long before I had met him, Rogan had been persuaded to go to law school and pursue a political career by someone then serving as governor of Arkansas – Bill Clinton.
In 1999, Rogan served as one of 13 House managers who prosecuted President Bill Clinton in his impeachment trial before the U.S. Senate.
Rogan had been warned not even to vote for impeachment in the House because of the way his congressional district tilted Democratic. It included areas populated by Hollywood stars and entertainment industry moguls who loved Clinton. Overall the district opposed impeachment by 75 percent.
But Rogan not only voted his conscience, he volunteered to take on the high-profile impeachment manager job – all but ensuring his own political demise as a congressman, a job he had coveted from the time he was about 7.
Rogan is a rarity in my experience – a gutsy, principled man of conviction in the world of politics.
I read many books. I publish a fair number. I wish this was one I had published. It is not. But this is a book I thoroughly enjoyed reading. I would have enjoyed it just as much if I did not know Rogan personally. It's inspiring. It's well-written. It's ironic. It's funny. It's entertaining. It's thoroughly uplifting.
I thoroughly encourage you to read this book. Pass it on to your friends. It's a book that will be appreciated by all political junkies and by those who are not.
Trust me on this: We haven't heard the last of Jim Rogan. He's in private law practice now, after serving as head of the Patent Office in the early part of the Bush administration.
This is the kind of man we need in leadership in America. If you're looking for heroes, if you're looking for leaders, if you're looking for hope, check out Jim Rogan's "Rough Edges."
I loved him.
I recall that his district changed
and he lost a close one. Glendale
and thereabout.
GREAT post.
Thanks.
I'm ordering his book.
Lots of immigrants and yuppie liberals moved into his district. That's why he lost. I'd really like to see this guy become our President one day. Jim really shouldn't be written out of politics yet. Here's to hoping he runs in 2008 or whenever.
read later!!!
That was my district and it was conservative as ever until redistricting finally caught up, more of Burbank and Pasadena included to add liberal votes and now its out of reach.
Weren't they a reliable Democratic voting bloc?
Did they contribute decisively to Schiff's ultimate victory?
Just some questions, from a curious, non-Californian freeper.
In the early 90s Glendale was a fairly conservative, mostly white middle class suburban district. The demographics of the area began to change in the middle of the decade when an influx of immigrants and well heeled liberal yuppies began moving in. By 1998 its Democrat tilt was apparent. In 2000 Rogan lost his job cause the party registration edge that got him elected disappeared forever. There are a lot of areas like that in the older suburbs that are now Democrat. Republicans have had to look for safe seats elsewhere in this state.
The Armenians were a reliable GOP base. As parts of Pasadena got added in to the district, the handwriting was on the wall.
I always admired Rogan for being alone among the House impeachment managers, in accepting that role when he knew that it would earn him flack back home.
The man is a truly admirable individual, which is probably why he is no longer a member of the United States Congress.
He had guts, conviction and principle. Things people say they want in a public servant. The funny thing is had he taken the easy way out, he could still have his job today but he felt he couldn't live with himself if he had ignored Clinton's breaking the law. As they say, the rest was history.
It's a shame that he's no longer a member of the U.S. Congress.
On an unrelated note, didn't he also date Bo Derek for awhile?
Worked in Glendale for a year or so, but I'm back in the No. state. Nice town. Used to be a large Armenian enclave. Too bad it went Dem.
I live in one of the relatively few conservative neighborhoods left in Kings County, New York.
Thanks for the ping.
Sure is a contrast to have a politician who does what is right because it is rights as opposed to an impeached ex-President who did what he did just because he could.
Ayuh. I did because I could. Yee-haw. I'm just a perjuring, justice-obstructing, constitution-shredding, female-abusing bastard, ain't I?
Hey, shut up "Bubba!"
We don't 'ppreciate your kind roun' these parts.
Sorry, what were you saying?
Howard the Duck was awful. But I own Tank Girl on VHS, so I shouldn't talk.
I'm heading to buy this book!! I worked on Jim Rogan's re-election campaign and was broken hearted that he lost. He is my hero, big time!!!
"Tank Girl" comes in a close second though.
howard the duck was a turkey.
You suck dude!
Howard the Duck:
(Gives you the "bird." Though, to be honest, they don't call it that on his home planet.)
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