“Go Tell It on the Mountain” was the tune that Virginia Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine played on his harmonica as I played the piano in the atrium of the Hart Office building at 5 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, December 19th, 2020. Before concluding its work for the year, the Senate had passed a resolution asking me to play Christmas Carols, which is the only way such a concert could have happened under the rules of the Senate. Tim Kaine and I had performed together three years earlier at a bluegrass festival in Bristol, a city that straddles the Virginia-Tennessee line. Honey and I had gotten to know Tim and his wife, Anne, better during the two weekends they spent visiting our Smoky Mountain home. In THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR is out now from @PostHillPress. You can use the link in my bio to order. simonandschuster.com/books/T…

“We’d like for you to be executive director of our presidential campaign,” President Gerald Ford told me in the Oval Office on Tuesday, October 14, 1975. I had the opportunity last week in Grand Rapids to discuss that meeting when the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation gave me the organization’s annual Gerald R. Ford Medal for Distinguished Public Service, and Roger Porter, the former assistant to President George H.W. Bush, interviewed me about my memoir, THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP. Ford’s pardon of President Nixon in September 1974 made voters so mad that it sunk Republican campaigns everywhere, including my first race for governor of Tennessee. Despite that, I told the Ford family that I considered their father a patriot because, in making the pardon decision, he put the country ahead of his own political interests. As for the invitation to be Ford’s re-election campaign manager, I said “No.” After losing the governor’s race, my job, marriage, and budget would not have survived another campaign. In THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR is out now from @PostHillPress. You can use this link to order: simonandschuster.com/books/T…

It was a delight to sit down with Clay Stauffer (@PreacherClay) of @WoodmontChurch in front of about 400 Nashvillians, at an event in partnership with @ParnassusBooks1, to talk about my new memoir, THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP. Clay may have warned the audience about the length of the book, but we sure covered a lot of it in our conversation. From my walk across the state during my campaign for governor to my early swearing-in, playing piano at the Billy Graham Crusade, and taking my family to Australia for six months—we covered it all, including education policy and my reflections on several of the 10 presidents I came to know. If you swipe through the carousel, you’ll see a special performance by Dylan DeMarcus, the son of Jay DeMarcus of Rascal Flatts! You can watch the full event here: youtube.com/watch?v=5VDwBeX0… In THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR is out now from @PostHillPress. You can use the link in my bio to order. simonandschuster.com/books/T…

Reagan’s experienced “team of rivals” helped to save his presidency. In 1987, when Reagan fell into trouble over the Iran-Contra scandal, he telephoned Howard Baker, who was in Miami on a family vacation. Joy Baker answered the president’s call. “Where’s Howard?” Reagan asked. “At the zoo," Joy Baker answered. “Wait ‘til he hears about the zoo I have for him,” Reagan said. Reagan made Baker chief of staff and asked him to get to the bottom of the scandal. Giving Baker that assignment was not without risk. Fourteen years earlier. Baker had helped to bring down another Republican president: Richard Nixon. “We are here to save the president, 𝘪𝘧 𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘥,” Baker told the new White House counsel, A.B. Culvahouse, Jr. His “team of rivals” cleaned up the scandal, and Reagan left office on a high note. In THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR is out now from @PostHillPress. You can use this link to order: simonandschuster.com/books/T…

This is a great illustration of Japan’s special relationship with Middle Tennessee, the origins of which I recount across several chapters in my new book, THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I had to figure out what would be the best way to approach the Japanese when all they knew about us was Jack Daniel’s, Elvis, Brenda Lee, and the "Tennessee Waltz," and all we knew about them was "Madame Butterfly," Mount Fuji, and hot springs. And yes, as @WPLN's Justin Barney reports, a photograph became my secret weapon. You can read WPLN's coverage of it here: wpln.org/post/what-you-need-… In THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR is out now from @PostHillPress. You can use this link to order: simonandschuster.com/books/T…

I am grateful for the generous book review in @EducationNext, and it is fair to say that throughout my career, I have had a “disinterest in ideology.” I did not see a need to be in public life unless I was trying to accomplish a result, which almost always meant finding a way to compromise with those with whom I did not agree. But that did not mean I did not have strong beliefs. I was a small town, anti-gambling, culturally-conservative, prayer breakfast-sponsoring governor who fought the teachers’ union, twice vetoed photo driver’s licenses for smacking of too much government, and urged President Reagan to get the federal government entirely out of K-12 education. I supported gun rights and opposed abortion. I fought for nuclear power and against giant wind turbines. I ran for president advocating “less from Washington, and more from ourselves.” I said, “Cut their pay and send them home,” arguing for a citizen congress. When I ran for the US Senate, I said, “I have conservative principles and an independent attitude.” For three terms, I voted that way. You can read the full review here: educationnext.org/the-countr… In THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR is out now from @PostHillPress. You can use this link to order: simonandschuster.com/books/T…

It was a special evening on Friday seeing old friends and meeting new readers at @PoliticsProse—and a real honor to be introduced by bookstore co-owner Bradley Graham and to talk with @jmart. We really covered a lot of ground in what Jonathan describes as my "Forrest Gump" career in politics. In THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR is out now from @PostHillPress. You can use this link to order: simonandschuster.com/books/T…

In Chapter 39 of my new memoir, THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP (now available online and in bookstores), there is a photograph of me with Dolly Parton at the opening of Dollywood in 1986, when I was governor, and she was the unquestioned star of the show. Dolly is the most admired Tennessean, and she has earned it. She was born in “Boogertown” about 40 miles from Mayville, where I grew up. In 1978, on my walk across Tennessee to become governor, by chance I met and talked with Dr. Robert F. Thomas, who delivered Dolly and several of her 11 siblings. Dolly wrote a song about Dr. Thomas. Her stunning presence is not the most stunning thing about Dolly. She is a Hall of Fame songwriter and singer, a shrewd businesswoman (Dollywood has become one of America’s top theme parks), and creatively generous with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which mails age-appropriate books to children in several countries until their 5th birthday. In THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR is out now from @PostHillPress. You can use this link to order: simonandschuster.com/books/T…