June, 2008 Books
The Golden Years: The Florida Legislature, ’70s and ’80s Reflections on Campaigns and Public Service
Robert McKnight
Reviewed by Kim MacQueen
At times Robert McKnight’s The Golden Years feels less like reading a book than like sifting through a box of well-kept mementos. The thorough collection of photos, documents, ‘70s political posters, and handwritten notes interspersed with stories and personal observations date back to the author’s high school days, but center mostly on his time in the Florida Legislature.
McKnight, a Miami Democrat, served in the Florida House from 1974 to 1978 and then in the Senate until 1982. The Golden Years chronicles McKnight’s earliest, budding political interest from the time he won his first election for Lake Worth Student City Council in 1962. The storyline soon settles on his political career and the friendships and alliances made, the babies born, and votes cast, until the book wraps up around 1986.
Political and legislative victories and defeats alike are plaintively detailed and disarmingly candid, as McKnight would never shy away from telling the whole, balanced story. One good example is his recounting of a bill defining brain death in the House Health and Mental Health Subcommittee while he was chair, 30 years before Terry Schiavo. McKnight recounts the whole process, including how he prayed, sought scholarly advice, and got some of the more philosophical variety from Senator Jack Gordon, who told him: “Senator, this is not for the faint of heart.”
Probably the best story, though, is McKnight’s tale of meeting Governor Reubin Askew for the first time, on the same afternoon as McKnight’s first-ever cabinet meeting as a freshman legislator. He’d voted for a bill that Askew didn’t support, and Askew was furious. Not only did the governor slam his fist on the desk and yell at the mortified McKnight, he refused to speak with him later when the two came face to face in a reception line.
Years later, Askew’s wife Donna Lou, who McKnight calls the toughest lobbyist he ever faced, called up to take him to task for zero-funding the Children’s Home Society — but not before bringing the whole embarrassing first-freshman-vote debacle up again. McKnight credits Donna Lou Askew with being unfailingly polite and gracious. A few sentences later, he compares being lobbied by her with getting a root canal.
The book is wrapped up with lessons learned and words of wisdom imparted directly to the reader and set off in italics: “It is important to remember that anything said on the floor of the House or Senate Chamber is recorded and therefore public forever … say nothing unless you have to.”
The Golden Years: The Florida Legislature, ’70s and ’80s Reflections on Campaigns and Public Service is available from Sentry Press in Tallahassee for $24.95.
Kim MacQueen is associate editor for The Florida Bar Journal and The Florida Bar News .
The Bramble Bush
by Karl Llewellyn
This 1930s classic is considered by many to be an honest representation of what law school is like. The author, who was a professor at Columbia University School of Law, provides examples and explanations of encounters law students will have in law school and suggests study techniques and methods for participation in the classroom.
The Bramble Bush (191 pages) is published by Oxford University Press for $19.95.
