THE RISE OF ROGAN
REES, MATTHEW
THE RISE OF ROGAN by Matthew Rees SHORTLY AFTER JAMES ROGAN of California was elected to Congress two years ago, he set out on a mission: to have a conversation with each of the 434 other members...
...There’s little precedent for a House member’s finishing his first term with so many achievements...
...He took particular offense at Clinton’s characterization of the early stages of the relationship with Monica Lewinsky as a “friendship”—she, by contrast, testified that Clinton didn’t know her name until after she had serviced him...
...There’s more honor in taking a principled stand and losing,” says Rogan, “than in compromising oneself and staying in office...
...He went on to UCLA law school, where he made law review...
...And shortly after the November elections, Bob Livingston asked him for a memo on how to maintain party unity with a narrow majority...
...In the 1980s, he spent five years as a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles County...
...His success as a DA won him an appointment to the municipal bench when he was just 33, making him the youngest judge in California...
...His view is that some principles, such as prosecuting presidential perjury and obstruction of justice, should supersede political concerns...
...His parents, a cocktail waitress and a bartender, never married, and he didn’t meet his father until he was in law school...
...then, after they both died, his great aunt...
...Today, Rogan’s blend of social and economic conservatism makes him a poster boy for Reagan Republicanism...
...His presentation about President Clinton’s grand jury perjuries didn’t disappoint...
...A passion for politics helped keep Rogan afloat...
...THE RISE OF ROGAN by Matthew Rees SHORTLY AFTER JAMES ROGAN of California was elected to Congress two years ago, he set out on a mission: to have a conversation with each of the 434 other members of the House of Representatives...
...Rogan reached the next rung on the greasy pole in 1996 when he won election to the House, filling the seat held by a retiring Republican...
...Predictable because Rogan has been a success at everything he’s tried in his professional life...
...Having conquered so many obstacles to get where he is, Rogan says one of his guiding principles in politics is, “I’m way ahead of the game already...
...The amazing thing about Rogan is he seems to believe it...
...Yet he’s maintained good relations with Democrats—he singles out fellow Californians Henry Waxman and Howard Berman, in particular...
...He says, “I wanted to at least have a chance to meet every one of my colleagues...
...Six months later, he was tapped to fill a vacancy on the Judiciary Committee, once again leapfrogging many more senior members...
...His willingness to throw himself into the minutiae of the case against the president, coupled with his hawkish views and extensive legal background, commended him to his committee colleagues...
...Rogan’s moment in the spotlight— he’s also scheduled to join Henry Hyde in delivering the all-important closing statement—is the culmination of a meteoric two-year rise through the House GOP ranks...
...And so losing an election is hardly a big threat...
...In an argument lasting nearly two hours, he methodically recited the facts of the case against the president, highlighting matters large and small...
...But during the Reagan years, he was firmly ensconced in the Democratic party, and in the 1980 presidential primaries he even campaigned for Ted Kennedy over Jimmy Carter...
...As a boy, he collected politicians’ autographs, and his desire to study the political system spurred his return to school two years after he dropped out...
...And Rogan shredded Clinton’s claim that he wasn’t paying attention when his lawyer, Robert Bennett, asserted that Lewinsky’s “no sex” affidavit was true: The president, noted Rogan, had paid close enough attention to register that Bennett had referred to the absence of sex in the present tense...
...He was reared by relatives: first his grandparents, in San Francisco’s gritty Mission district...
...He started by winning a slot on the Commerce Committee, a plum usually reserved for much more senior members...
...Then, in the aftermath of the July 1997 attempt to depose Newt Gingrich, the speaker brought Rogan into his inner circle...
...In one memorable closing argument in a drunk-driving case, he said nothing, opting instead to pour 10 cups full of beer to illustrate how much the defendant had consumed, and then snapped his fingers four times to symbolize the number of deaths the driver had caused with one accident (the driver was convicted...
...Rogan’s comity will serve him well, now that House Republicans are indicating they want more cooperation and less confrontation with Democrats...
...some even of the White House...
...His performance in the impeachment proceedings has only heightened expectations that his speedy rise through the House ranks will continue...
...To those who know Rogan and his personal history, this rapid ascent has been at the same time predictable and surprising...
...Others talk about the Senate...
...He earned a high-school equivalency degree, then entered a Bay Area community college, from which he transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, earning a degree in political science...
...Similarly, Rogan has stood out for advocating that everyone from Kathleen Willey to the president should testify before the Senate...
...Gradually, he found the liberalism of the Democratic party more and more unbearable, and finally he switched...
...Matthew Rees is a staff writer at THE WEEKLY STANDARD...
...A few years ago, the Los Angeles Times called Rogan “that rare breed of right-wing Republican: a born-again, conservative Christian who is not an immediate turn-off to liberal Democrats...
...David Dreier, a fellow California conservative and chairman of the powerful Rules Committee, says, “I would love to see Jim become speaker...
...But that’s not holding him back...
...His meticulous, earnest approach to politics is one reason Rogan—one of the 13 managers in the Senate trial of President Clinton—has emerged as a quietly influential member of the Judiciary Committee...
...When he was in the 10th grade, he dropped out of school and supported his siblings by working in a pizza parlor and selling vacuum cleaners...
...Rogan’s zeal was rewarded with a slot on the opening day of the trial...
...then, after she died, his alcoholic stepfather and his mother, who was in and out of jail for welfare and credit-card fraud...
...But Rogan’s achievements don’t seem foreordained in light of his personal background...
...Countless other Republicans have expressed the same sentiment recently...
...Four years later, in 1994, he resigned to run for an open seat in the state Assembly, and just a few months after his election, his colleagues elevated him to majority leader...
...The expectations could all be for naught if Rogan’s pro-Clinton district is angry enough about his impeachment work to oust him in 2000 (his margin of victory slipped to less than 4 points last November, down from 7 points in 1996...
...When President Clinton’s legal troubles began to mount, Gingrich asked Rogan to prepare a comprehensive report on past congressional investigations and impeachment proceedings...
...It took him two years, but eventually Rogan collected a signature for every person in his congressional facebook...
...It didn’t hurt that he was fiercely opposed to Trent Lott’s plan for a truncated trial, or that he was passionately eager to tell the senators why he and his fellow House managers need to call witnesses...
Vol. 4 • January 1999 • No. 18
