Thomas Kean
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the former governor of New Jersey. For his son, see Thomas Kean Jr.
| Thomas Kean | |
 |
|
|
|
|
| In office 1982 – 1990 |
|
| Preceded by | Brendan T. Byrne |
|---|---|
| Succeeded by | James J. Florio |
|
|
|
| Born | April 21, 1935 (age 71) New York City |
| Political party | Republican |
Thomas Howard Kean (born April 21, 1935) is an American Republican Party politician, who served as the 48th Governor of New Jersey, from 1982 to 1990.
He is perhaps best known globally, however, for his appointment, in 2002, as Chairman of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, widely known as the 9/11 Commission, which was responsible for investigating the causes of the September 11, 2001 attacks and providing recommendations to prevent future terrorist attacks. He was appointed to this post by U.S. President George W. Bush.
Contents |
[edit] Early life
Kean (sounds like cane) was born in New York City to a long line of New Jersey politicians. His father, Robert Kean, was a U.S. Congressman. His grandfather Hamilton Fish Kean and grand-uncle John Kean both served as U.S. Senators. His other grand-uncle was Hamilton Fish, a U.S. Senator, Governor of New York, and U.S. Secretary of State. Also, Kean's great-great grandfather was a delegate to the Continental Congress
[edit] Education
Kean was educated at St. Mark's School in Southborough, Massachusetts, and then at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey and Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City.
[edit] New Jersey political career
Originally a teacher of history and government, Kean was elected, in 1967, as a Republican to the New Jersey General Assembly.
With a split among the Assembly's Democrats, Kean obtained the support of one of the Democratic factions and thereby was elected New Jersey Assembly Speaker in 1972. In the next Assembly, in 1974, the Democrats united behind one candidate for Speaker and Kean was relegated to minority leader of the Assembly. In 1973, he briefly served as acting New Jersey Governor.
[edit] 1977 Gubernatorial loss
In 1977, Kean ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for New Jersey Governor. Although he has spent most of his career as a political moderate, in this 1977 race Kean ran to the right of New Jersey Senate Minority Leader Raymond Bateman. Bateman defeated Kean and won the nomination, though Bateman went on to lose the general election to Brendan Byrne.
[edit] 1981 Gubernatorial victory and 1985 re-election
Kean fared better four years later, in 1981, when he again ran for Governor, and this time defeated U.S. Representative James Florio in the closest election in New Jersey Gubernatorial election history; Kean won by fewer than 1,800 votes.
Kean proved hugely popular in office. In striking contrast to his slim 1981 victory, he won re-election in 1985 with the largest margin of victory in the history of New Jersey Gubernatorial races, defeating Peter Shapiro, then the Essex County County Executive.
[edit] 1988 Republican Convention speech
In 1988, reflecting his stature as an up-and-coming leader of the Republican Party's moderate wing, Kean delivered the keynote speech at the 1988 Republican National Convention in New Orleans. The same year, he also authored a book, The Politics of Inclusion, published by Free Press, which urged political cooperation among historically divided interest groups and politicians.
[edit] Gubernatorial Legacy
Limited to two Gubernatorial terms by the New Jersey State Constitution, Kean left office in January, 1990 as one of the most popular political figures in New Jersey political history. He was succeeded by Florio, who won a landslide victory in November 1989. Former New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Doug Forrester, New Jersey Congressman Bob Franks, and other leading New Jersey and national Republican figures began their political and public policy careers in his state administration.
[edit] Drew University
Following the end of his second Gubernatorial term, Kean was named President of Drew University, a small liberal arts university in Madison, New Jersey. Kean's considerable standing as a popular former governor of the state was helpful as he undertook an upgrading of the university's campus and academic programs. Popular among the student body, Kean served as Drew's President until 2005.
[edit] National policy leadership
[edit] Involvement beginning in 1990
While leading Drew University, Kean also continued to expand his role as a national political leader, forging close working relationships with the administrations of George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton (with whom he had worked closely in the National Governors Association) and George W. Bush, who saw Kean as an important national political ally.
Former Heritage Foundation foreign policy analyst Michael Johns and other national policy and political leaders were recruited by Kean to support and help administer his growing involvement in a broad range of national policy initiatives in the fields of education, environmental, low-income housing, foreign policy and other issues.
Helping bolster Kean's foreign policy credentials to ultimately head the 9/11 Commission, Kean quickly was appointed to the boards of several important foreign policy bodies, including the U.S. government-funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which was heavily engaged in supporting democracy-building programs in former Eastern bloc and other nations, and a Presidential advisory commission on a post-Castro Cuba, chaired by former U.S. Presidential Republican candidate Steve Forbes. In 1997, Kean was appointed as an Advisory Board member of President Clinton's One America Initiative, designed to help heal racial divides in the nation.
[edit] Heading the September 11 Commission
Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States by al-Qaeda, political pressure grew for an independent commission to independently investigate why the attacks were not prevented by U.S. national security organizations, including the Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense, National Security Agency and others, and to provide recommendations for preventing future terrorist attacks.
[edit] Bush appoints Kean
Bush initially selected former Nixon Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to head the Commission, known as the "National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States", or the 9/11 Commission. But on December 13, 2002, Kissinger resigned as the Commission's Chairman under pressure related to his global business conflicts.
Noting Kean's post-Gubernational foreign policy involvement and his reputation as a consensus-oriented political leader, Bush nominated Kean to succeed Kissinger in leading the important and politically-sensitive Commission. The Commission is widely considered the most important independent U.S. government commission since the Warren Commission, which was charged with investigating the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and perhaps the most important in American history given its mammoth responsibility for investigating the causes of the first foreign attack on the U.S. mainland since the War of 1812, and recommending steps to defend the U.S. from future attacks.
[edit] Criticisms of Kean's 9/11 Chairmanship
Just as some had criticized Kissinger's nomination, Kean's leadership of the Commission also drew some criticism. Some alleged that Kean did not have the depth of foreign policy and national security expertise needed to manage an investigation so integral to the future of American national security[1].
Kean also had several business relations that were viewed as potentially conflicting. He is a board member of Hess Corporation, a petroleum company with business in the Middle East. He had purported business relations with Khalid bin Mahfouz, a multi-billionaire accused of supporting al-Qaeda[2]. Other Commission members were similarly criticized for potential business and political conflicts.
Once the Commission began its work, some critics argued that Kean, the Commission members, and the Commission staff almost all had various business and political conflicts that made it difficult to lay blame on their political allies. One prominent example was the Commission's Staff Director, Philip D. Zelikow, who had served on George W. Bush's Presidential transition team and had worked closely with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a key Commission witness, in the George H. W. Bush administration.
Kean has also been criticized for using his role as the chairman of the 9/11 Commission in order to make profit, such as his book, Without Precedent. Some also argue that his endorsement of TV movie, The Path to 9/11, was misguided. The film features some scenes which are known to be unfactual, according to those involved and the official 9/11 Commission Report. Kean was also a paid consultant to the film and was credited as an executive producer.
[edit] Kean: 9/11 was "preventable"
On April 4, 2004, Kean stated that the September 11 attacks could have been prevented had the United States government acted sooner to dismantle al-Qaeda and responded more quickly to other terrorist threats, which was seen as a political criticism of the Clinton administration's perceived failure to act with sufficient aggression against al-Qaeda.
On July 22, 2004, the Commission issued its final report, the 9/11 Commission Report, which concluded that the CIA and the FBI had ill-served President Bush and the American people in failing to predict or prevent the September 11 attacks, which the report concluded was preventable.
[edit] Without Precedent
On August 15, 2006, a book by Kean and 9/11 Commission Vice Chairman Lee H. Hamilton, titled Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission, was released regarding the September 11 attacks and the September 11 Commission.
In the book, Kean and Hamilton write that the 9/11 Commission was so frustrated with repeated misstatements by officials from The Pentagon and Federal Aviation Administration during their investigation that they considered a separate investigation into possible obstruction of justice by Pentagon and FAA officials[3].
The book is published by Alfred A. Knopf.
[edit] ABC's The Path to 9/11
Kean served as a paid consultant and spokesman for the ABC miniseries The Path to 9/11, which aired nationally and without commercial interruption on September 10, 2006. On September 11, the second part of the miniseries aired, also without commercial interruption, with the exception of a 20-minute break at 9pm ET, when President Bush addressed the nation on the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
While not technically considered a documentary by ABC, prior to its airing, the series drew criticism for misrepresenting facts leading up the September 11 attacks. Many former high-ranking Clinton administration officials, including Clinton himself, and other scholars, have publicly questioned the accuracy of the miniseries and asked for it not be aired. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has called the miniseries portrayal of her as "false and defamatory"[1]. Former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen Barbara Bodine also criticized her character's portrayal, complaining in the Los Angeles Times about the "mythmakers" who created the film, calling the project "false."[2]
Kean defended the docudrama in July 2006 and until the eve of the broadcast, declining to disclose the amount of his payment from ABC for supporting the project.
[edit] Corporate boards
As of 2004, Kean was a member of a number of corporate board of directors, including ARAMARK, Hess Corporation, Pepsi Bottling Group, and major financial firms CIT Group Incorporated and Franklin Templeton Investments.[4]
Since 1993, Kean has also been on the board of UnitedHealth Group, a large health insurance firm. In 2006, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission began investigating the conduct of the company's management and directors. Additionally, the Internal Revenue Service and prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York subpoenaed documents from the company. The investigations came to light after a series of probing articles in The Wall Street Journal in May 2006, which reported on the apparent backdating of hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of stock options by UnitedHealth Group's management. The backdating allegedly occurred with the knowledge and approval of the directors, including Kean, who sat on the company's compensation committee during three crucial years, according to the Journal. Major shareholders have filed lawsuits accusing Kean and the other directors of failing in their fiduciary duty.[5][6]
In 2004, Kean's compensation from UnitedHealth Group was more than $650,000; in that year, he missed more than a quarter of the company's board-related meetings.[4]
[edit] Personal
Kean and his wife Deborah have three children, a daughter, Alexandra, and identical-twin sons, Tom and Reed. They live in Bedminster Township, New Jersey. Kean's son, Tom, Jr., is a New Jersey State Senator, representing New Jersey's 21st district, and was the Republican Senatorial nominee who lost to Democrat Bob Menendez in the November 2006 general election.
Kean is also a weekly columnist for the Star-Ledger, a Newark, New Jersey newspaper, where he and former New Jersey Governor Brendan Byrne (his immediate predecessor as New Jersey Governor) address issues of the day in a column titled "Kean-Byrne Dialogue". Although both men sometimes disagree (as Kean is a Republican, while Byrne is a Democrat), they occasionally see eye to eye on topics, and both men have expressed great mutual respect for each other.
Kean is an advisor to, and has been inducted into, Alpha Phi Omega, a national service fraternity.
[edit] Trivia
Kean University in Union Township, New Jersey, formerly located in Newark and named Newark State College and Kean College, is named in memory of Kean's father, Robert, who served New Jersey in the United States House of Representatives from 1939 to 1959. The land the university currently sits on was once owned by the Kean Family
[edit] References
- ^ Tom Kean Is Not A Household Name, Scoop Independent News, December 19, 2002
- ^ The Official Commission Avoids the Core Issues 9-11 Research, accessed August 15, 2006
- ^ Book: Sept. 11 Panel Doubted Officials, San Francisco Chronicle, August 4, 2006
- ^ a b Michael Brush, "Pay soars in the boardroom", moneycentral. MSN.com, December 16, 2005
- ^ "A Board With Its Back To The Wall: UnitedHealth directors aren't ready to oust embattled CEO McGuire. Here's why", Business Week, July 10, 2006
- ^ Joe Conason, Jersey hustler: Why did former Gov. Kean, once a respected statesman, mislead the public and the press about the accuracy of ABC's 'Path to 9/11'?", Salon magazine, September 15, 2006
[edit] External links
- Thomas H. Kean biography at 9/11 Commission Official Web Site.
- "A View from Outside the Beltway: Winning Policy Themes for the 1990s", by Thomas Kean, Heritage Lecture #357, December 15, 1991.
- Statement by President George W. Bush on the appointment of Thomas Kean to Head 9/11 Commission, The White House, December 16, 2002.
- "9/11 Chair: Attack Was Preventable", CBS News, December 18, 2003.
- "Rudy Left Off Easy?", Newsday, May 19, 2004.
- "Whitewash as Public Service: How the 9/11 Commission Report Defrauds the Nation, Harper's Magazine, October, 2004.
- "9/11 Panel Suspected Deception by Pentagon", The Washington Post, August 2, 2006.
- Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission, by Thomas Kean and Lee H. Hamilton, Alfred A. Knopf, published 2006, available at Amazon.com.
- Governor Tom Kean, a biography by Alvin S. Felzenberg, Rutgers University Press.
- "Scandal: 9/11 Commissioners Bowed to Pressure to Suppress Main Motive for the 9/11 Attacks", Representative Press, September 2, 2006.
- Thomas Kean interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer on ABC's The Path to 9/11 miniseries, September 9, 2006.
- Opening of The Path to 9/11, ABC, September 10, 2006, including disclaimer.
| Preceded by Brendan T. Byrne |
Governor of New Jersey 1982–1990 |
Succeeded by James J. Florio |
| Governors of New Jersey |  |
|---|---|
| Livingston • Paterson • Howell • Bloomfield • Ogden • W.S. Pennington • M. Dickerson • Williamson • Vroom • Southard • Seeley • P. Dickerson • W. Pennington • Haines • Stratton • Fort • Price • Newell • Olden • Parker • Ward • Randolph • Bedle • McClellan • Ludlow • Abbett • Green • Werts • Griggs • Voorhees • Murphy • Stokes • Fort • Wilson • Fielder • Edge • Edwards • Silzer • Moore • Larson • Hoffman • Edison • Driscoll • Meyner • Hughes • Cahill • Byrne • Kean • Florio • Whitman • DiFrancesco • McGreevey • Codey • Corzine |
| Members of the 9/11 Commission |  |
|---|---|
| Kean (Chair) • Hamilton (Vice chair) Ben-Veniste • Fielding • Gorelick • Gorton • Kerrey • Lehman • Roemer • Thompson |
