In memoriam, John D. Dingell, Jr. - Statement of the Federation of Polish Americans (FPA).
From:
Polish Events <Polish-Events-DC@PoloniaCenter.org>
Subject:
In memoriam, John D. Dingell, Jr. - Statement of the Federation of Polish Americans (FPA).
In-Reply-To:
(no subject)
Date:
February 12th 2019
A
great Polish American, John Dingell, who was the longest
serving U. S. Congressman in history (1955-2015) passed
away on February 7, 2019.
John Dingell
(Americanized from Dzieglewicz) was an American Congressman of Polish
decent representing a then-politically important
district on the Westside of Detroit in the state of
Michigan for more then 59
years.
As a Congressman deeply rooted in the
Polish American community for almost six decades,
his service reflected Polish American presence
and influence on U.S. political
scene. His long term service in the United States
House of Representatives symbolized the strength of
the Polish Community and its political potential.
Statement of
the Federation of Polish Americans (FPA) –
February 12, 2019
The Honorable John D. Dingell, Jr. d -
February 7, 2019
It is not enough
just to offer that 'an era has passed' with the
demise of John Dingell, who was also a great friend
of Polish Americans. Indeed, he was Polish
American (The Dingell
surname had been Dzieglewicz before it was
'Americanized'). The long-serving Congressman, who
was a one-man powerhouse and influence broker in the
House of Representatives (and beyond), joined the
pantheon of the all-time political greats of the
traditional Democratic breed on the American scene
relatively early in his career, serving 59 years
during 11 Presidential administrations. His
biography constitutes, in its fullest context, an
encyclopedia of the modern American political era.
So complex was his role in Congress that few realize
in which events, and to what degree, he influenced
the truly momentous episodes of the post-Cold War
era. One such example is the grueling political
fight in the mid-1990's to trigger expansion of the
NATO alliance to include Poland. When Poland was allowed across the divide of post-war
Europe in
Spring 1999, history changed course.
But the story
had started much earlier. The first task of
enlargement proponents was to get the President's
attention. Later, the fight would be focused in the
halls of Congress accomplishing the task. Dingell
would play a role in both in Washington. While the Polish American grassroots
effort surprised the Washington political scene by early 1994 with calls
to reshape European security architecture, it was
necessary to follow through from the
inside. Congressman
Dingell stepped in with a personal appeal to Bill
Clinton on Poland's behalf.
The story is
that of a man in his Congressional District, who was politically well acquainted with
Dingell, making a direct appeal to him on the Poland-to-NATO
question. The gentleman, an attorney from the old ‘all-Polish’ 16th District
in Dearborn, Michigan, wrote a lengthy letter to Dingell, the
influential House Energy and Commerce Chair.
Dingell subsequently raised the issue privately with
the President during a duck hunting outing in 1994
as a result. The Federation of Polish Americans (FPA)
instigated that episode through the Dearborn attorney.
As it unfolded, the initial three-year (1994-1996) fight
in Congress would not see real progress until June
1996, when critical co-sponsors were signed-on to an
early version of a NATO legislative bill. Chairman
Ben Gilman would credit the Polish American
grassroots mobilization (and FPA, as a
principal organizer of it) as being critical in breaking that 30-month
political logjam in Congress upon passage of the
NATO Enlargement Facilitation Act. The in tandem
1996 House-Senate votes established a decisive 80% margin of support in
Congress that remained intact through final Senate
Treaty amendment ratification in 1998.
For Dingell’s
part, he never ceased to be a behind the scenes
advocate of Polish American causes, including Poland’s NATO membership. He was the consummate
politician who delivered results, but without the
sometimes seamy implications of ‘machine’ politics.
Dingell took the high road on issues, understanding
intimately not only his immediate constituency but
also American society as a whole. That
understanding extended to knowing what would be in
the best interests of the United
States -- NATO enlargement
being a case in point. He appreciated, like all too
few in Congress did in the early 1990s, Poland’s
historical pain of Soviet subjugation; but more
importantly, as an American he grasped the
geo-strategic implications of integrating
Central/Eastern Europe (with Poland ever as its
center of gravity) into modern Europe. Without a
concomitant security guarantee all the talk of
‘Partnership’ would have been so many words,
substituting instead a U.S.–Russia dialogue for
Poland’s future need of a military shield under
NATO. And leaving the middle of Europe unguarded as
it had been after 1918.
Members of
Congress, big and small, knew where Congressman
Dingell stood on Polish American issues. They
didn’t need to ask, at least ultimately, about his
position on the well-being of the powerful
chairman's patrimony, Poland.
Thus, in the 1996 election year, the years-long
opposition to NATO enlargement rather suddenly
evaporated, setting the stage for President Clinton
to do his part by getting the Treaty protocol into
the U.S. Senate by mid-1997. While others took the
lead in sponsoring early legislation, Dingell never
took his eye off the ‘Poland-to-NATO ball’ and made sure other Members of
Congress knew his view. He
confirmed as much in our meetings with him.
The recent words
of a current prominent Member of Congress suggest an
epitaph of sorts for Dingell. She rightly observes
that in Dingell’s era Committee Chairmen could
periodically exercise greater power than the Speaker
of the House! What was more, the way things were
accomplished was to eschew ideological positions and
work through the rules of the House toward
bi-partisan compromise. Dingell understood this
process well, as did the leadership of both
parties. Her words also read like the FPA/Polish
American playbook preamble used to win the fight in
Congress almost TWO YEARS before the final Senate
decision on the nuclear security guarantee to
Poland. Some 14 weeks before the 1996 General
Election both the House and Senate delivered in
bi-partisan fashion their message to the President:
Poland should be offered U.S.-
lead security guarantees.
So yes, there is
a passing of an era underway – but, it is due in
general to the nature of the overheated political
scene itself– and not just about the passing of a
brilliant practitioner of the political art like
Dingell. It was the NATO enlargement episode, and
interactions with Congressman John Dingell among
others, that represented the best example of Polish
American political clout in Washington in a generation. April 2019 will be the
20th anniversary of the culmination of these
events.
John D. Dingell, Jr.
End of Statement of the Federation of
Polish Americans (FPA) – February 12, 2019
Contact - Richard Kosinski,
Federation of Polish Americans, Inc.
info@federationofpolishamericans.org
*****
The Federation of Polish Americans, Inc. (FPA) is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting the interests of Polish Americans in civic affairs. The FPA expresses its views on local, state, national and international issues of particular concern to the Polish American community. The FPA have been active politically since 1995.
*****
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