Why We Write

This blog has been created to gather stories about the late Philip A. Hart, a U.S. senator from Michigan from 1958 until 1976.

Called "The Conscience of the Senate," Hart was the only living senator to have a Senate Office Building named for him while he was still alive. He died the day after Christmas in 1976 while still in office. Hart had decided not to run for a fourth term. Not long after that decision, he learned that he had cancer, which proved to be terminal.

Many of his legislative accomplishments were reported in publications that followed his death. Some of the records may have seemed overly sanctimonious, not to mention tedious. The truth, as some of us see it: He would have been uncomfortable with at least some of what was written.

We don’t promise never to mention anything important, but more to include the light stuff, too. We think politics could use a dash of Sen. Hart’s Irish wit and charm, and we have decided to tell some of the not so important stories here along with the important ones that may suggest wisdom. This blog is dedicated to the charm, wit, and character of Philip A. Hart that was so admired in the late sixties and early 1970s and was the basis for his wisdom.

The idea came from Howard E. O’Leary, former chief of staff for the Antitrust and Monopoly Subcommittee and a former campaign driver back in the days when political entourages were often just one person. He enlisted the support of John M. Cornman, a former director of communications, speech writer, and legislative assistant; and Barbara K. Kincaid, a former press assistant and speech writer who also traveled and worked with Janey Briggs Hart, the senator’s wife.

To add a personal observation as a former staff member, please contact O'Leary, Cornman or Kincaid. O’Leary is with the law firm Dykema Gossett and Cornman and Kincaid can be reached through the web site of Consultants on Purpose.