Paul Hughes/The Hoya Former Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman (D-Kan.) jokes about food-throwing activists and the importance of keeping a sense of humore in politics during a speech Tuesday in the ICC Auditorium.

Drawing from his personal experiences as a Cabinet secretary and a Congressman, former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Daniel Glickman, J.D. (D-Kan.) said that having a sense of humor is important and useful in politics. His remarks brought about 70 people to ICC Auditorium on Tuesday.

“[Humor is] a strategic tool of the political trade, a means of puncturing pomposity, defusing tense situations, attracting allies and even getting people to focus on serious policy issues,” Glickman said.

He called humor a key element to a healthy democratic political process. “Without humor people burn out from the heat of their own self-importance. They become rigid and recalcitrant,” Glickman said. “It doesn’t just make politicians better to be around. It helps them serve the American people better.”

Glickman served under a former President Clinton (SFS ’68) as Secretary of Agriculture from March 1995 to January 2001. He said it takes a lot of humor to be Secretary of Agriculture, especially when dealing with food-wielding dissidents is a regular part of the job. At the World Food Summit in Rome, anti-biotechnology protestors threw genetically modified soybeans at him. In Montana, animal rights activists threw rotten bison guts at Glickman and the governor.

Glickman also recounted an experience he had at the National Nutrition Summit where an animal rights activist activist, associating him with the meat industry, threw a tofu-cream pie at him. At that point, Glickman said, “I turned to Bob Dole, who was sitting right next to me, and said, `Bob, I don’t think we’re in Kansas any longer.'”

Glickman remarked that finding “humor in life’s little quirks and absurdities” is an important skill. “How else but with a sense of humor – or at least a sense of irony – could you be a Jewish Secretary of Agriculture advocating strongly for the pork industry?”

Unfortunately, politics today are no laughing matter, Glickman said. “At the moment, I believe we’re at somewhat of a drought when it comes to political humor,” he said. Glickman listed former Sen. Bob Dole (R.-Kan.), Representative Barney Frank (D.-Mass.), Sen. Dick Durbin (D.-Ill.) and Sen. Pat Roberts (R.-Kan.) as the most humorous of today’s politicians.

According to Glickman, there is a reason for the lack of humor in politics today. “I believe the media themselves are to blame. Their thirst for the mistake has naturally led politicians to be more reluctant to let down their guard,” he said. “Every gesture, every quirk, every idiosyncrasy is now dissected around the clock by pundits who have to feed the 24-hour media beast . the fear that some joke will strike the wrong chord and start some sort of political firestorm is very real and very justified.”

Politicians are reluctant to make fun of themselves, Glickman said, because late-night talk show hosts like Jay Leno and David Letterman already turn them into caricatures. He said it is a dangerous trend that more Americans are using political comedy as a source of legitimate political news and as a voting guide.

However, Glickman also said humor could be a powerful political tool. “Self-deprecation is the most important form of political humor. It’s disarming. It projects humility,” he said, adding that self-deprecation is a way to deflect an opponent’s criticism of weaknesses. “It’s precisely because it’s so counterintuitive that it’s so effective,” Glickman said.

Glickman said humor has played a part in politics for a long time. “It’s no secret that most of our most successful presidents – Lincoln, both Roosevelts, Kennedy and Reagan come to mind – they could all tell a good joke, often at their own expense.”

Jennifer Sargent (GPI ’03) said she enjoyed the speech and agreed with Glickman. “I think being self-deprecatory and humorous is really a good quality. It’s the key to success. Humor is a really important way to put people at ease – a gift not everyone has,” she said.

Glickman is presently a partner in the public law and policy firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, L.L.P. in Washington. He also chairs the Global Nutrition Institute, the D.C. Central Kitchen, Food Research and Action Center, the RFK Memorial Foundation, the George Washington University Global Advisory Board, the Farm Foundation and the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology.

Glickman was elected as a Kansas congressional representative in 1967. During his 18 years in the House of Representatives, he was a member of the House Agriculture Committee, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, a member of the congressional Human Rights Caucus and chairman of the Subcommittee on Wheat, Soybeans and Feed Grains.

The Lecture Fund and the Public Policy Institute sponsored the event, entitled “Humor in Politics: Why Being Funny is Also Being Effective in Politics.”