In the late 1960s, Rumsfeld and Al Lowenstein were close friends in the House.

Those who know something about the Lowenstein’s role in a variety of liberal causes (civil rights, dump-Johnson, and the failed attempt to preserve a sane alternative to which the young could rally in opposition to the Vietnam war) will find this factoid interesting. (I have been reading William Chafe’s book, Never Stop Running: Allard Lowenstein and the Struggle to Save American Liberalism.)

One wonders how many such friendships are left in Congress. Despite its psychobabble, Chafe’s book is an interesting account of a liberalism that is little more than a memory, except perhaps for some moderates in both parties.

When Rep. Tom Price spoke at Oglethorpe last month, he contrasted his experience in Washington with his experience in the Georgia State Legislature. The partisanship in the former was much worse than what he’d experienced in the latter. One of the problems he identified was that there were very few opportunities--given the busy Tuesday-Thursday workweek--for Representatives to interact socially and informally. With everyone so busy and so often back at home, tending to constituents, there’s little time to cultivate friendships of any sort, intraparty or interparty.