Charley Vanik Passed Away, Aged 94

Club Member Tom Steich reported the following:

The August 31 Plain Dealer and News Herald reported that former Cleveland Congressman Charles A. Vanik passed away at age 94 from natural causes at his home in Jupiter, Fla. Charley Vanik served 26 years in Congress representing the 21st Congressional District (Cleveland's East Side) from 1955 to 1969, and then the 22nd District from 1969 to his retirement in 1981. When his 21st District became majority Afro-American population, he gave up his seat so that Louis Stokes could run for his seat in Congress. Charley then ran against Congresswoman Frances Bolton in 1968 and won her seat in Congress representing the 22nd District (Eastern suburbs of Cleveland).

Congressman Vanik is known for, among many accomplishments, co-sponsoring the 1974 Jackson-Vanik Amendment to the U.S. Foriegn Trade Law addressing discrimination behind the Iron Curtain, his efforts to help the less fortunate in our society, publishing an annual list of U.S. corporations that failed to pay their fair share of taxes, and his trademark black/navy blue tuxedo and bowtie he wore everyday. Those of us who were fortunate to work for him will never forget him, because he was one of a kind. Owing to his lifetime of public and constituent service to the people of Greater Cleveland, he had a deserved reputation of having been in every constituent's kitchen. Thus, he never had to solicit campaign contributions to run for office, and when he concluded in 1980 that he would have to begin soliciting campaign contributions, he retired from Congress.

The family is having a private funeral in Florida but plans to have public memorial services in Cleveland and Washington, DC at a later date, according to news reports.

Tom Steic

Club Tours the U.S. Capitol

Fifteen Club members toured the U. S. Capitol on July 11 with Steve Livengood, the chief guide of the U. S. Capitol Historical Society. The tour was arranged by member Mike Eck; three special guests were staff members from the Embassy of Slovenia.

Livengood began the 2 1/2 hour tour in the Hart Senate Office Building where several models of the early Capitol are on display. He reminded his listeners that the Capitol was designed in the early republic by amateurs, that its architecture was meant to embody some of the principles of the government only recently established (equal balance to each chamber of the legislature, for example), and that the building was purposefully placed at a higher elevation than the home for the chief executive.

After a ride on the underground subway from the Russell Senate Office Building to the Senate wing, Livengood took members to the Brumidi Corridors, famous for the frescoes painted by the immigrant Italian who worked 25 years on the Capitol interior. One of the accompanying photos shows work underway to restore Brumidi's artwork to their original brilliance.

The tour passed through the Old Supreme Court Room, famous also for the first electronic message (Samuel Morse on a telegraph to Baltimore "What hath God wrought?") and then into the Rotunda -- where Livengood explained many of the paintings in detail -- and the Old House of Representatives chamber, now Statuary Hall.

Returning toward the Russell Building, tour participants heard bells, noticed flashing lights and then saw "about a third of the Senate" hasten to the subway for a vote on the Senate floor.

Several photographs accompany this story. Thanks especially to Mike Eck and to all who came and assisted.

Indians' Assistant GM Speaks with Club

Chris Antonetti, the assistant general manager of the Cleveland Indians, met with approximately 50 Cleveland Club Indians fans before the Indians game at RFK Stadium in Washington, D. C.

Antonetti talked above the stadium batting practice music for 30 minutes answering questions about the Indians and major league baseball in general. He told Club members that he thought the Indians' hitting was on track and that the farm teams were doing well. He noted that the Indians are looking for a left-handed relief pitcher.

Antonetti took about 20 questions. Some concerned the draft and how the ballclub advanced players from the Indians' farm teams. One question concerned first baseman Travis Hafner, whom Antonetti said the Indians are trying to re-sign.

Several questions concerned the major market vs. the minor market teams and the difficulty minor market teams have in offering large salaries. And he talked about breaking pitchers in, limiting them to 60 pitches in the first year and gradually letting them throw more in succeeding years. He discussed expanding Major League Baseball television packages both nationally and internationally and said he thinks that next season or the year following, the season's opener will take place in Beijing.

Anontetti said that attendance this year had been lower than in the past but that some of this probably owed to the excitement of the Cavaliers playoff and championship games. Now that these were over, the Indians expected attendance to resume its old levels.

Antonetti was filling in for General Manager Mark Shapiro, who was scheduled to meet with the Club but had to change his travel plans the day before the Indians flew to Washington.

The Indians game against the Washington Nationals marked the first time in 37 years that the Indians had played in the nation's capital. The Indians lost 4-1, but won the following night against the Nationals with a 9th inning rally.

Sitting with the Cleveland Club contingent was an American soldier wounded in the hand in Iraq. Club Vice President Bud and Obee Littin, whose family members could not come to the game owing to a schedule conflict, donated two tickets to the Walter Reed Family Assistance Center. The soldier and his father gratefully accepted the tickets and talked with Club members before and during the game. The young man was wounded when his Humvee was hit with explosives.

Secrecy is Hurting American Life: Ted Gup

Celebrated journalist and CWRU professor Ted Gup told the Club June 6 that secrecy was becoming more endemic in American life and harming it in the process. Gup spoke to 25 members at the National Press Club about the research and findings that went into his new book Nation of Secrets: The Threat to Democracy and the American Way of Life, recently published by Doubleday.

Gup said that he became interested in the abuse of secrecy when researching an earlier work Book of Honor: The Secret Lives and Deaths of CIA Operatives (2001). “I saw abuses of secrecy, and I wanted to investigate. Then came 9/11 and the culture of secrecy increased.”

Gup vigorously defends some kinds of secrets for national security but believes the culture of secrecy has gone too far. For example, privacy issues (a form of secrecy) may have unwittingly contributed to the Virginia Tech slayings. And the justice system, which is meant to shed light and render justice, allows far too many cases to avoid trial, terminate by settlement instead and seal the records as secret.

In the national security field, government agencies have too jealously guarded their own secrets, said Gup, spurning intercommunication and missing both the plot of 9/11 and facts about pre-war Iraq.

“Democracy depends on information, and when complete information is wanting, we cannot have good public debate,” Gup said. Gup even pointed out that the State Department has trouble writing its own history of diplomacy because the CIA is still censuring material 25 years and more old. “We are not reading true history,” he says.

Gup suggested that government agencies too often believe that secrecy engenders power and that officials too often invoke secrecy not to protect the citizenry but rather themselves and their careers. He pointed out that, in addition, bureaucrats were generally not reprimanded for classifying information, but rather could be for releasing information.

Gup criticized both Republicans and Democrats. He also suggested that the press – owing to editorial budget cuts – is less adept at bringing shadowed facts to light. And he said the public in general has become more tolerant of secrecy since the attacks of 9/11

“There is no quick fix,” he lamented. “We require a shift in the culture and bureaucracy of this country. Of the intelligence community he said, “If advancement for these people depends on the compartmentalization of intelligence, we are in for more trouble.”

Club members challenged Gup on many of his points and some lively give-and-take ensued. Gup has been interviewed extensively about the book and made an appearance June 8 in Cleveland before the City Club. He published an article on Page One of the Outlook Section of the Sunday, June 10, Washington Post. You can learn more about his book at www.nationofsecrets.com

Club Presents its 2007 Harold Hitz Burton Award to Bruce W. Sanford, Esq.

Club Presents its 2007 Harold Hitz Burton Award to Bruce W. Sanford, Esq.

The Club met January 23 at the law offices of Baker & Hostetler on Connecticut Ave., N. W., in Washington to present its 50th Anniversary Year Harold Hitz Burton Award to Bruce W. Sanford. Bruce is one of the nation's preeminent attorneys on the First Amendment, libel and media law.

Club members filled the elegant Sugarman Room of the law firm where Managing Partner Bill Schweitzer welcomed them and made remarks on how the firm was started by Newton D. Baker in Cleveland shortly before he was called to Washington to serve as President Wilson's Secretary of War. Stuart Taylor, a long-time friend of Bruce and a writer for the National Journal, then humorously but poignantly outlined Bruce's career defending journalists, newspapers and politicians, as well as his civic and community work. Trying to summarize Bruce Sanford in three minutes is like trying to summarize the Roman Empire in three minutes, Taylor said at one point. He also recounted a time when a federal judge, after hearing an appellant argument from Bruce, admitted that he had been wrong and reversed his previous decision.

Brooke Stoddard presented the Award to Bruce, who then discussed his work, beginning in the early 1970s in Cleveland and his successful efforts to expand the Cuyahoga County Library System. He pointed out the challenges that new technologies are imposing on existing law, which tends to change slowly, and described a sampling of the more than one thousand cases he has handled.

Colleagues of Bruce arranged for two cakes in Bruce's honor to celebrate his receiving the 2007 Burton Award. One had a picture of Bruce as a young attorney in Cleveland and was the source of a good deal of amusement.