Bob Beckel: Around for a reason

Former political operative Bob Beckel—he managed Walter Mondale’s campaign against Ronald Reagan in 1984—this year moved from FOX to CNN. He turns 67 on Nov. 15. Here’s an edited transcript of his remarks in front of students at Patrick Henry College.

Nov. 3 is the publication date for your book titled I Should Be Dead. Could we review some of the times you should have died? Well, let me see.

There’s the time in a Mexican bar you asked a woman if she wanted to have sex with you, and her brother … He and a friend pushed me out the back into a fenced-in area. The guy reached behind a stack of wood and pulled out a machete. I reached in my pocket and pulled out 60 bucks and the guy stops, looks, says “OK.” These guys could have killed me and taken the money if they wanted to.

What about the time in 1986 you fell asleep at the wheel on the New Jersey Turnpike? I had been at a party in New York and Brooklyn from Friday night until Sunday afternoon. Hadn’t slept a wink because we were drinking and using cocaine. So I’m driving down the Jersey Turnpike, and the next thing I know I hear this pounding on my window. I had passed out—and my car had stayed straight, God knows how. It stopped and backed up traffic.

And just before George W. Bush’s inauguration? Jan. 19, 2001, I was at a biker bar in southern Maryland and introducing myself to the lady at the bar. I was quite drunk. I turned around, and there was a .45 caliber right in my face, like this. The guy pulled the trigger, and it didn’t go off because he hadn’t chambered the first bullet. Somebody grabbed him from behind, and the second bullet blew a 3-foot hole in the ceiling. I remember saying—I was not a believer then—“God, if You exist, that’s the last drink I’ll ever have,” and it was. That was almost 15 years ago.

‘Baby boomers like me are starting to see the big black wall at the end, and they wonder what happens after that.’

You had tried to quit before. 1986 was the first time at Alcoholics Anonymous. I stayed sober for two years. Then I went out, then I came back in for a couple years, then out. It’s not easy to quit drinking. I was drinking a quart and a half of booze a day and probably doing 5 or 6 grams of cocaine a day.

Fighting childhood demons? My father at night would be very drunk and abusive. If he got particularly mad, he’d throw me down the stairs. I’d bounce down. The next day when he sobered up he’d say, “That was a great wrestling match we had last night, wasn’t it, Bob?” I said, “Yeah, it was great, Pop.” I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

You got out of there and were successful as a political operative. Your description in I Should Be Dead of how you got the Panama Canal Treaty passed back in the Carter administration, when that treaty should have been dead, is fascinating. I was the youngest deputy assistant secretary of state in history at that point, and got transferred to the White House to get the treaty passed. We needed 67 votes and were about four or five short. One senator had a guy he also listened to before he cast his vote. This guy liked to drink a lot and he liked women: He was married with two kids, had never strayed, but always liked to look.

Next step? I called him up and said, “Why don’t you come down to the White House and have a drink?” He came down to the White House, and he took four fingers of scotch, two or three of those fast. Of course, that was no problem for me. So, we went over to a bar at the old hotel, and I never raised the treaty with him. Not once. Women would come to the bar, and we’d rate them one to 10. We did that for three weeks.

And then? Finally he said, “Bob, do you know where I could maybe meet a woman? I hate to do it because of my wife, but …” I called the madame of a place I knew, took him over there. He went up and came out with a grin on his face. Then he got in my car and started to cry because he felt so guilty. … I took him out the next week for a drink and said, “Now about the Panama Canal treaties.” He was paying attention at that point. His boss ended up voting for it. It’s awfully sleazy to think about. I’m not proud of it.

Why in 2001 were you finally able to stop drinking and keep from starting again? I had been sober a little bit. One day I showed up to do TV with Cal Thomas at FOX. I walked in and Cal asked, “How are you doing?” I said, “Not very well.” Everyone in Washington says, “Fine, fine, fine.” So, he said, “Let’s talk after the show.” We did and he said, “Do you believe in God?” I said, “No.”

OK. Cal and I talked for a long time. To his credit, he didn’t try to push faith on me, but he asked, “Do you mind if I send you some literature?” He sent me Evidence That Demands a Verdict. I read it and thought, “It’s amazing how the Bible holds up.” Cal finally convinced me to go to church. This church’s congregation is probably 99 percent Republican. I walked in and they thought a prostitute had walked in. … I slowly came to faith.”

Do some atheistic associates make fun of you? I have a much easier time defending what I need to defend than they do. Because they are assuming that all of this happened by some kind of scientific experiment. … Baby boomers like me are starting to see the big black wall at the end, and they wonder what happens after that. In many ways they want to believe, but they just can’t bring themselves to believe because society doesn’t make it easy.

I understand you’re now pro-life. I used to be on pro-choice boards. I’ve quietly gotten off. I mean, you can’t come to faith and be pro-choice.

Do you still have the urge to drink? After I came to faith, it’s not been that difficult. I don’t have an urge to drink. I go on a lot of calls to people who are impossible to deal with. I do interventions, which are very painful.

You go four times a week to AA meetings? Yeah, I have to because if I start again, I’m never going to come back. I figured that God wanted me around for some reason, so I work with alcoholics, some of whom I can’t stand, but I do it. I’m sure I was like that when I was drinking. It was through the grace of God that I was able to change, through Christ. On my own, I couldn’t do it.