It's been a great week at TPM. My final post will focus on a few more issues for President Obama and attorney general-designate Eric Holder, as well as some closing words on my 1960s experience in the context of our current moment.

President Obama has enough on his plate that needs urgent attention without adding more. So does attorney general-designate Holder. But there are two areas that cry out for attention even if they do not appear to have the urgency of other issues: political contributions and reform of the criminal justice system. The President need not take substantive positions on these issues right away, but both are ripe for independent bipartisan commissions to examine. Obama can then make his own independent decisions in the light of what an informed bipartisan group concludes.

I think it is obvious that elected officials' dependence on money to run elections makes difficult their independent judgment on policy. Repeated attempts to resolve the problem through legislation have been, at best, watered-down versions of what is necessary. The money that lobbyists earn and contribute is evidence of the importance to business of government laws and regulations, and it is proper that interests be heard. But accompanying argument with money does not improve the chance of rational resolution. Serious conflicts of interest abound, affecting the confidence the general public has in the integrity of both elected and appointed officials.

(Note: Nick Katzenbach is the author of the new book Some of It Was Fun: Working with RFK and LBJ.)

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When Bobby Kennedy became Attorney General he inherited a sound department with an apolitical law enforcement tradition. His relationship with the president gave the department additional prestige and influence when it came to law. His only management problem was with J. Edgar Hoover's FBI, serious in its right wing obsession with communism and its dislike of Dr. King and black demonstrators. Attorney general-designate Eric Holder has quite different problems, the most serious of which are restoring the constitution and law to government and eliminating any remnants of politicization in the department itself. The latter will take time, but he will have the support of the bulk of the attorneys in the civil service and he can make sure that new appointments are on the merits. Bobby was always concerned that the process of appointing U.S. Attorneys, which involved a recommendation from the Democratic political leadership in the relevant state, exposed the President and the department to local politics. Young politically ambitious prosecutors with an obligation to their Senator could easily begin political investigations into alleged Republican corruption. This was, of course, the opposite of recent problems where such activity was encouraged, but it could have easily looked the same to the public. Bobby brought all potential appointees to Washington and told them in no uncertain terms that he had to be informed and approve any such investigations before they were authorized.

(Note: Nick Katzenbach is the author of the new book Some of It Was Fun: Working with RFK and LBJ.)

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There are huge differences between the government Kennedy took over in 1961 and that Obama takes over in 2009. Kennedy took over a relatively stable and prosperous government with respect abroad. Obama takes over a failed economy, a badly divided electorate, and distrust of America in many countries. But there are similarities as well. The New Frontier was full of government officials who wanted to get America moving again--a reaction, not entirely justified, to what they saw as passivity under Eisenhower.

Young veterans, in particular, felt this country could do anything when it pulled together, and those of us in government--and beyond it--wanted new initiatives in many areas not unlike Obama's plea for change. The concept of the New Frontier was an expression of America's ability to overcome and resolve problems and to move ahead into uncharted territory with confidence. Taking up the Soviet challenge in space by promising to put a man on the moon was another expression of confidence in the country, a goal that made Americans feel proud of themselves. Most important, young people were excited by the possibilities of a better world then as they are today.

Hope and confidence that a rational pragmatic approach can find better solutions is hugely important. The risk is always that it will crash against the realities of politics. The key to leadership in our democracy is to keep those hopes alive while avoiding the briar patch of political necessity. For any administration, there will be some issues in which the desire for change at times clashes with and at times is advanced by that rational pragmatic approach. In Kennedy's presidency, one of those areas was civil rights.

(Note: Nick Katzenbach is the author of the new book Some of It Was Fun: Working with RFK and LBJ.)

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It didn't take long to feel comfortable working with Bobby. He listened well and he asked good questions. It couldn't have been easy for him to have surrounded himself with lawyers all slightly his senior and all with professional qualifications far superior to his. He embraced an interesting technique for asserting his leadership: he treated us as a team in which all of us had the same objectives. It was easy to have tension between the criminal division and the tax division, particularly in organized crime matters where the criminal division wanted to see confidential tax returns and the tax division did not see evidence of a criminal tax offense, but Bobby simply assumed that we would work together. Burke Marshall was a superb head of the civil rights division, but that did not mean that the rest of us might not have something useful to contribute. And so forth.

Bobby avoided serious controversy by using his team concept. All of us would be invited to his beautiful estate at Hickory Hill and have candid discussions about our own and others' problems. Differences became mooted and lawyers became teammates, not advocates seeking to protect their own territory. Bobby promoted this further by simply saying "Hey, you guys are all better lawyers than I am but I'm the Attorney General and I have to make the decision. So help me out." We respected each other's views and we genuinely wanted to help Bobby come to the right decision.

(Note: Nick Katzenbach is the author of the new book Some of It Was Fun: Working with RFK and LBJ.)

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