Clyburn hits milestone with no plans to slowdown

story by the State Newspaper
written by LeRoy Chapman Jr..

He turns 70 this week. And U.S. House Majority Whip James Clyburn fully grasps the biblical significance of July 21, 2010.

Clyburn will get his three score and 10 years Wednesday, man’s life expectancy, according to Psalms 90:10.

He is looking forward to a fourth or fifth score, thanks to good health and modern medicine.

“The fire is still there,” said Clyburn, last week reflecting on his tenure and fielding questions about his future. “Physically I’m well. (Cholesterol drug) Lipitor is my only daily medicine. Of course, I take my baby aspirin every day. Or every day I remember (it).”

Clyburn, fresh off of celebrating the passage of Democratic-authored financial industry reform last week, has no plans to retire. He’s been a member of Congress for 18 years now. He made history in 1992 as the first African-American congressman elected from South Carolina in more than 100 years. For the past four years, he’s been the third-most powerful U.S. House member.

Clyburn holds what has been the safest seat among the S.C. delegation. In June, he dispatched primary opponent Gregory Brown with 91 percent of the vote. He is expected to cruise to victory this fall against Republican Jim Pratt, who has $2,000 on hand, according to his latest campaign filing. Clyburn has $1.5 million.

“(Clyburn) can be in Congress for as long as he wants to be in Congress,” said former Columbia Mayor Bob Coble, a longtime Clyburn friend. “When he leaves is between him, God and Mrs. Clyburn.”

But what about a Republican sweep this fall? Democrats hold a 39-seat advantage in the U.S. House. As many as 70 congressional seats will be competitive this fall, according to some political analysts. If Republicans take control of the House, Clyburn’s clout diminishes.

No matter, said Clyburn.

“My service to the people of South Carolina has nothing to do with me being majority whip,” Clyburn said.

Still work to do

The average age of a U.S. Congressman is 57 – old enough to join AARP but still 13 years younger than Clyburn.

Approaching 70, Clyburn’s days routinely stretch 12 hours or more, typically over six days. They are consumed mostly by the legislative battle of the day and by the fight between the two parties over power.

Clyburn is a chess player, at home with the ways of Washington. The one move that paid off handsomely for him, he recalls, was giving up his seat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee in 1998.

“My wife called me and asked me ‘are you crazy,’ ”Clyburn said. “I told her ‘yeah, just like a fox.’ ”

The move left many scratching their heads, but also left key lawmakers indebted to him. That helped get Clyburn elected vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus in 2002. By the time Democrats took by control of the U.S. House, it put Clyburn in line to be the second African-American majority whip.

So, Clyburn is where he expected to be. Many of the issues he ran on in 1992 – most related to job creation in his impoverished district that takes in the Interstate 95 corridor – remain issues today. It’s why he’s not contemplating retirement, as the nation grapples with fixing the economy, health care and a Social Security system that most think will not be able to meet future obligations.

He wants to stick around for those debates, and he appreciates the long service of S.C.politicians in Washington.

Clyburn, though, said he will walk away from politics some day, hopefully he says to a teaching position at a university in South Carolina.

“I plan to go back into the classroom. That’s where I started,” Clyburn said.

And how will he know it’s time to go?

“If I ever felt that my children were embarrassed by my public service, or my wife, or if I ever look in the mirror and feel some bit of shame of regret, I would hang it up right away.”

Reflecting lately

Clyburn is writing his memoirs, an exercise in self-analysis that has the congressman in a storytelling mood.

“I think a lot about my parents. I really do,” Clyburn said. “My mother had great dreams, most of which she never got to fulfill.”

Almeta Clyburn, a beautician, died of cancer at 55, the same week Clyburn became the first African-American adviser to a S.C. governor in 1970. His father, Enos Clyburn, was a minister. He died in 1978 at age 80.

“My daddy used to love to take me around with him because I was his first child,” Clyburn said.

Enos Clyburn’s first wife died during childbirth. Enos and Almeta’s first child was stillborn.

“That’s why my father was so proud of me. He used to take me everywhere.”

Clyburn recalls an incident when he was about 14, when his father introduced him to a fellow minister from Jacksonville, Fla. Clyburn shook the minister’s hand, but dropped his eyes to the floor during the handshake.

“My father was so furious he snapped my head up and slapped the hell out me,” Clyburn said. “ … He told me ‘Now son, any time you shake a man’s hand you look him in the eye, don’t you ever cast your eyes away from anybody.”

Clyburn said even though the nation has elected an African-American president, there are still too many African-American children who lack confidence in their own abilities. Those children are casting their eyes down, he said, not reaching their potential.

“I want to demonstrate every day I walk out of my apartment and come to work that all of the myths that exist about black people are just myths,” Clyburn said.