Prologue (excerpt)Page 4Kerrey carried his secret through three decades of what was, by all appearances, a storybook existence: war hero, self-made millionaire businessman, governor and a United States senator. Dashing and quick-witted, the national press dubbed him "the JFK of the plains." During his term as governor of Nebraska (1982-86) journalists took to calling his executive mansion "Cornhusker Camelot." As a Senator (1988-2000), he carried in his laptop computer a video clip of President Kennedy challenging the nation to put a man on the moon before the end of the sixties, displaying it during presentations to prod his listeners to dream big. He was glamorous enough to date a movie star (Debra Winger) and close enough to his mid-western roots Like Jefferson Smith, Kerrey thought of himself as an outsider.to sit for hours with a suicidal farmer and talk him out of pulling the trigger. He quietly visited amputees in hospitals and cut insurance red tape so that maimed children could receive the prostheses they had been denied. He was a romantic who could cite Emily Dickinson poems and short stories by Flannery O'Connor and Albert Camus, or move an election night crowd to tears by singing "And the Band Played Waltzing Mathilda," the Australian ballad about the World War I slaughter at Gallipoli. He was also a wiseacre with a taste for off-color jokes and a flair for searing put-downs. "Santorum," he once quipped about an especially unpleasant Republican Senate colleague from Pennsylvania, "isn't that Latin for asshole?" Kerrey was, in a way, a modern day Jimmy Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." Stewart was the only person he ever wanted to be photographed with and he kept the small framed snapshot on a bookcase behind the desk in his Senate office. Like Jefferson Smith, Kerrey thought of himself as an outsider, the clear-eyed citizen taking on the establishment. "Yeah, there were times when I acted a bit like a renegade," Kerrey said. "There are times I'd almost intentionally take on issues that were unpopular because I feel it's necessary for somebody to do that." Kerrey had come to Washington wanting to accomplish great things. His impassioned speeches on the floor of the Senate soon won him a reputation as an engaging orator and deep thinker. And though he said he really didn't want entrée into the clubby Georgetown set, his celebrated story brought him acceptance in a world always looking for the fresh new face in power. He dined in the homes of grandees where he could be counted on to liven up the discussion with a joke or a provocative opinion. One evening with Colin Powell and Sally Quinn, the doyenne of A-list Washington, Kerrey spoke passionately about how he accepted the Medal of Honor only for others who had sacrificed so much more then he. As a military man, General Powell was moved close to tears by Kerrey's eloquence.
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