Jim Cooper
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About the Pete McCloskey
Paul Norton “Pete” McCloskey Jr.was an American politician who represented San Mateo County, California, as a Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1967 to 1983.
Born in Loma Linda, California, McCloskey pursued a legal career in Palo Alto, California, after graduating from Stanford Law School. He served in the Korean War as a member of the United States Marine Corps. For his service, he was awarded the Navy Cross and the Silver Star. He won election to the House of Representatives in 1967, defeating Shirley Temple in the Republican primary. He co-authored the 1973 Endangered Species Act. He unsuccessfully challenged President Richard Nixon in the 1972 Republican primaries on an anti-Vietnam War platform and was the first member of Congress to publicly call for President Nixon’s resignation after the Saturday Night Massacre.
McCloskey continually won re-election until 1982, when he unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination to represent California in the United States Senate. The nomination was won by Pete Wilson, who went on to defeat Jerry Brown in the general election. During the 1988 Republican presidential primaries, McCloskey helped end Pat Robertson’s campaign by revealing that Robertson’s claims of serving in combat were false. In 1989, McCloskey co-founded the Council for the National Interest, a non-profit, non-partisan organization that works for “Middle East policies that serve the American national interest.” He strongly opposed the Iraq War and supported Democrat John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election. In 2006, he made an unsuccessful run for Congress against Republican Richard Pombo. He endorsed Democrat Jerry McNerney in the general election and became a Democrat himself shortly thereafter.
Frequently Asked Questions
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- 1.
We were environmentalists of the Teddy Roosevelt theory. We believed in separation of church and state. We believed in the independence of the Supreme Court not being subject to politicians.
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- 2.
Well, perhaps the greatest achievement, and we didn’t know it at the time, was we held an Earth Day in 1970, and out of that Earth Day a lot of students got involved in saving the environment, or trying to.
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- 3.
In my time, we served with noble and ethical leaders: Gerry Ford, Bob Michael, John Rhodes, men of impeccable honesty. We didn’t have anybody locked up for a violation of ethics.
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- 4.
The result was, when Congress convened in January 1971, everyone was now an environmentalist. They had seen a new force, college students, who favored the environment.
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- 5.
The Republican Party is not in the hands of the Jewish lobby in America as the Democratic Party must look quite often to Jewish money to finance candidates.
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- 6.
My wife and I have spent half our lives, half our adult lives, trying to save special parts of California.
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