David Brooks
Columnist, The New York Times
Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina). Senator Graham is the model of what a modern senator should be. He is a strong conservative, with firm principles, but he knows that to get anything done, it is necessary to work and play with others.
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Joan Walsh
Editor, Salon
Joe Biden. He began his Senate career tragically, as a sudden widower with two little boys, and he took the train back and forth from Washington, D.C., to Delaware to stay their dad. He made his mother a celebrity at the 2008 Democratic convention; he can’t tell a story without referencing one of his parents. He can be a lovable gaffe-machine sometimes, but he’s not afraid to cry, either. Oh, and he authored the Violence Against Women Act—and regularly gave credit to the women staffers who worked it for him.
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Andrew Sullivan
Blogger
Ron Paul (R-Texas). Agree or disagree with him, he believes what he says, is fearless in saying so, bravely opposed his fellow Republicans on the Iraq War, has spoken more candidly about the follies of Republican spending and was a brave fore-runner—and a far more decent fellow—than most of the Tea Party brigade.
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Chris Wallace
Anchor, Fox News Sunday
Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) and Senator Joe Lieberman (D-Connecticut). Agree with him or not, you have to admire Ryan’s zeal about trying to fix our fiscal mess. He has mastered the Federal budget—and come up with daring and surprisingly non-political solutions. He has more intellectual honesty than just about anyone in Washington.
Some call Lieberman sanctimonious, but he has always marched to his own moral code and sense of what’s best for the country. Over the years, he’s ticked off almost everyone in the nation’s capital—which means he must be doing something right.
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Thomas Frank
Author, What’s the Matter with Kansas?
Raj Goyle (D-Kansas), a state rep. from Wichita. He’s a Democrat who ran in a district held by one of the most conservative Republicans in the state a few years ago, and he won. He’s a very, very good guy, presently running for the congressional seat just vacated by Todd Tiahrt. Smart, articulate, young, does good by his district. He’s also taken on Fred Phelps, among many other things. He is remarkable because he basically embodies the red-state stereotype of the scary liberal (went to Harvard, worked in D.C., etc.) and still wins, in a very Republican city.
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John Podesta
President, Center for American Progress
Jared Polis (D-Colorado). He’s a congressman from Boulder, a software entrepreneur, former chair of Colorado state Board of Ed., openly gay, fierce, fierce advocate for poor kids and education reform. Really good guy.
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Reihan Salam
Writer, National Review Online
Mitch Daniels (R-Indiana). He’s demonstrated a level of intelligence and integrity that’s rare in a politician, and he’s also been willing to change course when necessary.
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Jonathan Capehart
Editorial writer, The Washington Post
Patrick Murphy (D-Pennsylvania). That the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell passed the House of Representatives is due to the tireless and strategic efforts of Rep. Patrick Murphy. The Iraq War veteran and West Point instructor worked the halls of the House for more than a year to line up the votes needed to get it done. And he did this while representing a district that is more conservative on the issue than he is. Murphy knows this could cost him his seat. But if you ask him, he’ll tell you that he’d rather lose his seat because he did the right thing than to win reelection by doing nothing.
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Cokie Roberts
Senior news analyst, NPR; political commentator, ABC News
What, no women? I would nominate the women of the Senate as a group. In the increasingly hostile atmosphere between parties, the women of the Senate hold up the last bastion of bipartisanship. Barbara Mikulski, the senior woman, has served as the organizer, making sure that the women get together regularly and work across the aisle on all kinds of issues, particularly those that promote the economic wellbeing of women, children, and families.
If I’m forced to choose a man, it would be Richard Lugar (R-Indiana). Not only has he served his state well over many decades, he has also done important work with former senator Sam Nunn to make the world a safer place by promoting arms control, particularly in trying to end the threat of nuclear weapons. Lugar’s voice speaking “on the right side of history” has often been the most sane in the Senate on key foreign-policy issues.
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Thomas Mann
Senior Fellow, the Brookings Institute
Tom Perriello (D-Virginia). He is a first-term congressman representing a large, diverse, and Republican district. Most handicappers expect him to lose in November. He is a person of extraordinary intelligence, energy, ideals, and capacity to relate to ordinary folks. He has been hard at work developing new economic opportunities in areas of decline. I wish we had dozens like him in public office.
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Chris Beam
Political reporter, Slate
Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin). The Senate is a tough place to be good. And it’s impossible to know for sure whether a politician’s vote is based on conviction or opportunism. But Feingold seems the furthest thing from a weather vane the Senate has. His voting record is unpredictable—relatively, of course; he still votes with his party 80 percent of the time. But there is method to the maverick. On finance issues, he doesn’t think Democratic regulatory proposals go far enough, voting against TARP and Wall Street reform, as well as the confirmations of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.
He’s non-interventionist on military issues (he voted against the authorization of force in Iraq) and protectionist when it comes to trade (he opposes most free-trade bills). His name is synonymous with campaign finance reform, a 2003 legislative victory that has since been largely rolled back. And when it comes to party loyalty, his vote is often a coin toss: he didn’t join fellow Democrats in dismissing the articles of impeachment against President Clinton after the Lewinsky affair, and he voted to confirm John Ashcroft as attorney general.
Of course, it’s easy to vote your conscience when doing so doesn’t hurt you. Feingold can usually take unorthodox stances knowing that liberal Wisconsinites won’t punish him for it. That may be about to change, as Republican challenger Ron Johnson ekes ahead in the polls. But Feingold hasn’t wavered on the progressive stances that got him elected in the first place—which, whether you agree with them or not, seems as “good” as a politician can get.
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David Mixner
Civil-rights activist
John Lewis (D-Georgia). He has lived his entire life based on values and principles of equality, freedom, and justice for all people. In his younger years, he was beaten and jailed in the epic civil-rights struggle against segregation. The congressman, as a young man, was a speaker at the 1963 March on Washington. As an elected official he has consistently and powerfully given voice to the powerless. No one in public life has lived a more good life in the service of others.
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Andrea Mitchell
Anchor, Andrea Mitchell Reports, MSNBC
Richard Lugar (R-Indiana) is a politician who strives to work across the aisle, whether he is in the majority or the minority—and who lives by old-fashioned virtues of integrity, intellectual honesty, commitment to public service, and hard work for his constituents, in the tradition of the late, great Senators John Chafee and Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
In the same spirit, his partner on the other side of the aisle, Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry (D-Massachusetts)—who overcame his understandable disappointment at not becoming President or, more recently, Secretary of State—has worked tirelessly for bipartisan solutions to the intractable challenges we face around the work.
If there were an honor for a woman politician, it ought to go to the indomitable Intelligence Committee Chair, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California).
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Mary Beth Cahill
Democratic strategist
Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts), because he persevered through complicated financial reform without deviating from his commitment first and foremost to the working [people] and the fairness they deserve. [Frank is] the single most effective voice for progressive values on the Hill.
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Eric Shawn
Co-host, Fox News Live
Democratic Newark Mayor Cory Booker. He has guided his troubled city with integrity, vision, and leadership that transcends a municipal office holder. His activism and personal engagement have led to achievements that were once considered unattainable, such as reducing crime, cutting the budget deficit, and addressing drug violence. He does this with a dynamic, caring magnetism that makes residents of the troubled city feel that they indeed have a friend and ally in City Hall. As a role model for Newark’s young people, there is no one better.
Congressman Thaddeus McCotter (R-Michigan). He serves as the intellectual and principled philosopher of the Republican party on Capitol Hill, who has sought to return the GOP to its founding tenets, without being constrained by rigid ideology. He addresses national policies with an unorthodox, independent approach, and is not afraid to challenge the status quo with bold ideas, historic references, and self-deprecating humor. As the Chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, he wrote a pamphlet titled “We the People: Wide Awake for Our Newest Birth of Freedom,” which enumerates Republican principles. He even proposed eliminating the Congressional policy post he holds, to save taxpayer money. He also founded a bipartisan rock band!
The Good Men Project’s Picks for the Top-10 Good Politicians
10) Mitch Daniels
8 ) Mark Strama
6) Jeff Flake
5) Al Franken
3) Cory Booker
2) Paul Ryan
1) Carl Levin
Maggie Thatcher is the only good politician I know of. The reason is that she is dead. Alive, she was a feminine version of Hitler only worse. Now she is were all politicians should be, in hell.
They promise us a better world yet when they are elected they turn their backs on us and sell out to the ruling people with power. It will never change unless we start to fight for what is rite instead of just letting it happen and hope it will be better tomorrow.
You left off the two Oregon Senators and the congressman from Seattle Jim McDermott.
Look up quotes of Boris Johnson. He is better than all of these.
Why the HELL is Ron Paul not on this list? You ppl r crazy!! He should be at the TOP!!
Paul Ryan’s “Roadmap” is a trumped-up plan to facilitate further corporate take-over. When all is said and done, we can vote who gets put in power in the government. We can’t vote on CEOs. I would rather pay my taxes to the government with all its flaws (and even corporate influences) than give more power to big money. And what is with Flake? I am so glad to see someone speaking up about the earmarks, but I think his politicizing of the funding of scientific research mars that. Now we need someone more vocal in defense of honest science than… Read more »
I actually got excited about his website, until I saw Paul Ryan on this list. This is a joke, isn’t it? Paul Ryan? this guy doesn’t have one ounce of integrity in his whole body. Paul Ryan is, excuse my language, the biggest corporate prostitute that has ever existed. He is a complete sold out. He gets his marching orders from the Koch brothers, and those orders are all about destroying the fabric of this great nation: the middle class. Guess what, no middle class = No Democracy. How can you put someone on this list who champions tyranny? You… Read more »
This list is baffling in its inconsistency.
Part of being a good man is showing self-awareness, and the fortitude to live according to one’s convictions – regardless of personal difficulty. Paul Ryan fails this test.
Ryan rose to his current position thanks to the welfare state; specifically Social Security, upon which he attended college.
He advocates for the others an Ayn Rand-inspired level of self-sufficiency, the dismantling of this social safety net.
IOTW: “I got mine – f*ck you”.
This list is now painfully dated, with the revelation about Ryan’s taste in wine and drinking buddies.
How you missed Ron Paul, the most consistent, principled and honest politician of his era, or arguably of any era is beyond me.
Think what you will of his politics, but his candor, his respectful dialogue and his refusal to bend to the powers that be in the name of liberty are second to none.
Interesting that the two single politicians who prohibit the initiation of force and fraud in their politics are absent from the list. From the time of Confucius, all societies have followed this “golden rule”, (outside of government), until their governments based on force and fraud have destroyed the society, usually by murdering millions of innocent civilians in conquest or democide. Jeff Flake, one of the better people on your list, supported protectionist legislation that put non-cartel dairy farmers out of business. All the other politicians are even worse than he is. Russ Feingold, for instance, pushed through “McCain-Feingold”, legislation that… Read more »
Ryan is about where he belongs though #1 would be a better ranking. I see a bunch of tantrum tossing towards Ryan for his stance on gay marriage. And most of it is phony outrage because the same people give Carl Levin a pass regarding his wishy washy stance on repealing DADT. more selective outrage from the professional leftists.
Folks, turn that anger to solving the problem. Too many of our politicians should go home.
How can we limit their terms of service to 2, but not more than 3 terms in office? This needs to be done for the good of this country.
We support their behavior by letting them stay in office. They are not entitled to a government seat for life.
3 times this screen has changed and lost my words——I agree w/Willl 100% read The Powell Memo
Carl Paladino is a “Good Man”
senator bernie sanders is without question the best person in our government today. i wouldn’t feel that i’m overestimating at all in saying that 99% of those in congress are corporate controlled stooges, and bernie is most certainly not. i am also surprised to not see senator russ feingold, the only senator to not vote for the patriot act – in doing so being alone in standing up for our civil liberties – in 2002.
I think the list would make much more sense if you explained why you included these people on the list – each individually, not as a whole – then one cold see the reasoning in it. I would like to read your response, Senator Sanders. Thank-you.
Why not Dennis Kucinich? I am suprised, also.
kucinich sold out true progressives by compromising and going back on his word by signing that atrocity of a health care “reform”.
I love what you’re doing, and needless to say, as a Vermonter I like the Bernie choice. For future consideration, take a look at our current governor, Jim Douglas, who despite being a Republican – is a good man. But my main point……….. you are totally out of your tiny liberal mind to not include our president on your list. I won’t even bother to enumerate, you must have a brain somewhere in there.
No Dennis Kucinich? One of the few who is unbiased…and does not need a speechwriter because he speaks from the heart!
With some of your pollsters, I am surprised Bush/Cheney et al are not on te list!
Where is Dennis Kucinich?
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?????!!!!! I can’t imagine what your criteria could be but as a citizen in Jeff Flake’s district I can tell you that he DOES NOT meet my definition of a good man. This man could not care less about his district! In the time I’ve lived in AZ I’ve never heard from him, despite my repeatedly contacting his office. When I complained to his office that he never acknowledges my comments I got a form letter. He has done nothing, and I mean NOTHING for this district. He serves only his corporate overlords. He is in every… Read more »
I was about to leave the same post almost word for word! I live in his district and he only serves one thing… his agenda and his religious beliefs…
I’m shocked – in fact I laughed out loud when I saw his name on this list!!
Dennis Kucinich – Good Guy
Goodmen Project:
put me on local fox about the growing problem of gender bias in the courts, children are being hurt an destroyed because the system wont listen to good men and women are over protected ….
How can Paul Ryan possibly be considered a Good Man when he actively encourages prejudice against gay men and women? He cares not for anyone who is not an extreme right wing evangelical Christian and the right of corporations over the good of his fellowman. By no definition, is this man a Good Man.
nonsense
I’m glad someone thinks as highly of Carl Levin as I do. I am proud of my Michigan senators. They have consistently shown themselves to be team players, not trying to screw over others for their own benefit.
Carl Levin fights for what he believes is right and practicable, and that’s what I want in a representative. He also gives a very well reasoned speech. It’s nice (and a very odd feeling) to have someone Michigan can be proud of.
Including Al Franken on this list pretty much invalidates the rest of the list as Al fails miserably at most of the criteria. Far from being respectful and trying to work with his political opposites, he belittles them every time he is left in charge of the house. Being from Michigan, I concur with putting Carl Levin on top of the list for being a good man. However, he has a completely undistinguished legislative record and basically has taken up space for several decades. Additionally, Michigan has been on of the top 2 tax donor states during Carl’s entire tenure… Read more »