My Flight with Pete Domenici

Four years ago, on a flight from DC to Chicago, I found myself seated next to a genteel man who told me his age after I helped him with his seat belt and table.
“Thank you, I’m 81.”
“Ah, my mother is 82.”
“Oh, is she well?”
“You’re better.”

He liked this, and introduced himself. “I’m Pete. Pete Domenici.”
“THE Pete Domenici?”
“Yes, there’s only one. Well, my son, but yeah. I’m that one.”

A boarding passenger stopped to shake his hand. “I was a page on your staff back during your first term, Senator. Great to see you.” Former Mayor (and former White House Chief of Staff) Bill Daly waited for us to deplane just to shake his hand when we arrived in Chicago. In between, we shared a fascinating conversation during the short trip to Chicago. I wrote down my notes as I waited for my connecting flight.

• He once intervened to win a VA settlement for his older ‘brother,’ a Pete Medici, who was sent to America to flee the Mussolini regime. Medici went on to serve in the Army, “delivering trucks to Russians atop frozen hillsides.” Years later, Medici developed gangrene in his legs, which he attributed to his service. The Senator found a doctor who was versed in the connection between frostbite and gangrene, and submitted this opinion to the VA — successfully resolving the case in favor of his ‘brother.’ He is quite proud of this achievement; and then shares this coda: Medici later researched his ancestry (as one would do with such a name) and found the Medicis back in Italy have a common affliction that results often in gangrene. He laughed. ‘Who can know?’
• He was a strong supporter of Romney in 2012, and was frustrated that Obama did not agree that Russia is our core foe on the global stage. (I’m glad he lived long enough to see how that played out.)
• He spoke lovingly of his 18 grandchildren, and one great-grandson — Michael, just a month old at the time. “My kids are brilliant,” he tells me, due “entirely” to his wife’s genes. He spoke highly of the women in his life, going on at length about his wife’s sister’s daughter’s career at Intel. There was no discussion of what will be listed, no doubt, in the second paragraph of most obituaries.
• At one point in his career, he developed “lung issues,” but decided to keep quiet about it. His staff advised him that he needed to appear vigorous — he must go on the road and look engaged. Due to his illness, he deferred to Henry Kissinger to speak for the group on foreign trips. During one visit to El Salvador, the group meets with a “commie leader” who regales them with promises about what he will do for his people. Many in the group, however, remember this character when he was a priest and appeared before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations years back begging for money. Pete asks for permission to speak, and blasts the priest-cum-politician for some time. Kissinger leans in to Pete: “A Senator you are, a diplomat you will never be.”
• His central passion: North Korea. “This scum regime needs to be toppled. If I could, I would take to the floor of the Senate every day and detail the ongoing atrocities.” We briefly discuss the policy implications (refugees, international law, etc.). He has no silver bullet answer; but nothing animates him more during our brief trip. He visited as part of a Congressional delegation, and the inhumanity he saw affected him deeply thereafter.

At 81 years old, former New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici was flying to a two-day conference featuring an expert on China from whom he hoped to learn. Engaged, passionate, and eager to continue learning — he listened as much as he talked. I can’t claim to know the man, and would never dare to add to his eulogy. These are simply notes from my brief chat with a fascinating man of history, who today passed on — leaving family, friends, admirers, and a legacy.