The Savvy, Salty Political Saint

[question everything]

The Savvy, Salty Political Saint

Eleanor Roosevelt was not just an idealistic First Lady. As a new collection of papers reveals, she was also a smart, disciplined and unabashed strategist.
By Julia Baird
NEWSWEEK
Dec 15, 2007

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The recently published first volume of her papers, "The Human Rights Years, 1945–48," with a foreword by Hillary Clinton, provides important clues. It begins when Franklin Roosevelt died, and ends with the passage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in which Eleanor played a crucial part. In allowing us to study her own words, in letters, speeches, columns and diary entries, a different portrait of the much-lionized woman emerges — one of a pragmatic, savvy politician. While she is remembered as a saintly, long-suffering figure, we can forget she was an indefatigable, disciplined activist — as historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. wrote, a "tough and salty old lady" — who resisted stereotyping when she was alive, and constantly protested she was not interested in power while vigorously pursuing it.

The comparisons to Hillary Clinton are obvious — both had unfaithful husbands, and both were smart, unconventional First Ladies. To consider Eleanor simply prologue to Hillary, however, is to accept one of the too-easy images of ER. Mrs. Roosevelt eludes straightforward categorization; contrary to conventional interpretation, she shared some of her husband's emotional and political complexity. FDR could be charming (to meet him was like "opening a bottle of champagne," as Churchill said) or coolly difficult ("the coldest man I ever met," as Truman said). Like him, Eleanor had her own layers in life, and now there are layers in death. We think we know her, but we do not, and the myths we choose to believe may tell us more about ourselves than they do about her.

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When Franklin Roosevelt was elected president, Eleanor insisted there was not going to be any First Lady — "there is just going to be plain, ordinary Mrs. Roosevelt. And that's all." But she wrote her own nationally syndicated newspaper column, testified before congressional committees and held weekly press conferences with female reporters. She deliberately made controversial statements about such matters as the responsibility to the poor to "get topics talked about and so get people to thinking about them." Her husband often shrugged, and said people knew he couldn't control her. She relentlessly lobbied him on policy matters, particularly those affecting the poor, dispossessed or discriminated against. At one stage, Franklin asked her to write no more than three memos a night. He often followed her advice on subjects as diverse as tax and youth movements, but she argued that she did not have any influence on his administration.

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As the chair of the United Nations commission drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Eleanor played a crucial role in its passage, uniting countries and brokering compromise. When she debated Soviet delegate Andrei Vyshinsky—without notes—on refugee policy, her victory was front-page news around the world. She penned furious letters about her own government's tepid commitment, writing to the assistant secretary of State: "I know full well the lack of importance you give human rights in the State Department." In 1947, she also wrote a strong letter to President Truman about the State Department's loyalty oaths, which she considered a Soviet-style capitulation to fear of communism.

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Eleanor was asked in 1934 if a woman would become president of the United States. She answered carefully: "I hope it will only become a reality when she is elected as an individual because of her capacity and the trust which the majority of the people have in her integrity and ability as a person." Seventy-four years later, another formidable former First Lady is seeking that trust. Hillary Clinton has long professed an admiration for Eleanor Roosevelt, even admitting to having imaginary conversations with her. Clinton tends to highlight Eleanor's toughness—frequently quoting her advice that women in politics need to develop a rhinoceros hide, as well as her belief that a woman is like a teabag: "You never know how strong she is until she's in hot water." This is one quality few seem to doubt in Clinton today — her mettle.

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URL: http://www.newsweek.com/id/78177

[avrdream]

1. Nice Newsweek analysis.

Not one of the ones that msnbc.com chooses to put on their front page, though. They usually put the anti-Hillary articles on the front page.