Uncle Rob's Documentary!!!

SO, I just got back from a "party" that was partly for my uncle Rob. He's been working on a documentary about a politician and environmentalist named Pete McCloskey. McCloskey ran for president in the primaries against Nixon. And he and his wife were at the party too, so I got to meet and talk to both of them.
And either way, Rob directed tis documentary and it aired tonight.
So, to help publicize, I'm gonna post about it on this blog! Even though I seem to be the only one reading the blog.... But oh well! I'm not really in to politics or anything, but hooray for environmentalists! So, go buy the documentary to support my uncle!
And it got really good reviews, so I'm gonna post them here for everyone to see!!

Article 1:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/07/04/DDNU18FMIR.DTL

TV review: 'McCloskey: Leading From the Front'
David Wiegand, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, July 4, 2009

Even those who agree with former Rep. Pete McCloskey on every issue may find the new film "McCloskey: Leading From the Art" a bit of a valentine.

Then again, producer-director Robert Caughlan makes his case that if there's anyone in American politics who deserves a whole box of valentines, it's the former Peninsula congressman who was able to balance his Republican beliefs about government's role in our lives with outspoken opposition to the Vietnam War, support for abortion rights and the need for vigilant environmental conversation.

Narrated by McCloskey's friend the late Paul Newman, Caughlan's film airs Sunday as part of KQED's "Truly CA" documentary series, created in association with the Bay Area Video Coalition and the San Francisco Film Society.

McCloskey came out of the Korean War as a war hero, but says that if he'd had to bayonet one more enemy soldier, he might have bolted. As a platoon leader, he explains in his disarming matter-of-fact style, his job was to be at the front of advancing troops.

After the war, McCloskey set up an environmental law partnership in Alameda. Think about that for a minute: environmental law advocacy at a time when "environment" wasn't even part of usual political discourse. But McCloskey did not want Northern California to go the way of the southern half of the state, where acres and acres of land had been pillaged for tract housing and other development.

McCloskey was always a maverick. As some of the nation's cities were blazing with racial unrest in the '60s, he reached out to African Americans in East Palo Alto to create a dialogue as a way of finding solutions to problems before violence erupted.

Only a couple of weeks after being elected to Congress from California's 11th District, McCloskey went to Vietnam, where, he says bluntly, he and other American politicians were lied to by the military about the chances of winning the war as a way of getting more troops and equipment out of Congress. In the long run, it didn't matter what the military told him in 'Nam: The Republican McCloskey announced his opposition to the war and later co-sponsored the repeal of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution that had authorized the war. Richard Nixon's response was to invade Cambodia.

Some other highlights of McCloskey's career, both during his 1967-83 tenure in Congress and after, included: breaking with his party to call for Nixon's impeachment for abusing his powers, co-chairing the first Earth Day and co-authoring the Endangered Species Act and, in 2006 at the age of 78, running a pro-environment GOP primary battle against incumbent Rep. Richard Pombo - whom McCloskey labeled a "land developer" instead of an environmentalist. Pombo was later defeated in the general election by Jerry McNerney, thanks in part to the effectiveness of McCloskey's primary attacks.

It was probably inevitable that McCloskey's outspokenness would lead to his defeat in politics, but as he once said to an interviewer, "What this country needs is politicians willing to lose." McCloskey did lose a bid for the U.S. Senate, in part because he supported a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - an unpopular stance at the time.

Caughlan, his editor Steven Baigel and cinematographer Jaime Kibben have crammed a whole lot of history in a short period of time. They could be faulted for lingering a snickering minute too long on a movie sequence showing McCloskey's GOP primary opponent Shirley Temple Black as a tap-dancing moppet, but more substantively, the one thing you'll want after viewing "McCloskey" is more. Revealing commentary is provided by Daniel Ellsberg, McCloskey biographer Lou Cannon and others, but it's just not enough: Pete McCloskey's too interesting, too refreshingly candid and seemingly singularly principled to be confined to an hourlong documentary.

The only stumble in his life appears to have been the dissolution of his first marriage, to Stanford sweetheart "Cubby" Wadsworth. She always wanted a more traditional marriage, but her husband, now happily remarried, was too busy fighting for one cause or another. Wadsworth is among those who readily shed light on the singular life and career of Pete McCloskey in the film and, yes, that light is as close to a halo as you can get.

McCloskey: Leading From the Front: A "Truly CA" documentary. Narrated by Paul Newman, produced and directed by Robert Caughlan. 6 p.m. Sunday on KQED, with encore broadcasts.


Article 2:

http://www.gilroydispatch.com/printer/article.asp?c=257329


Bay Area politician is an American legend
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
By Marty Cheek (editor@garlic.com)

Pete McCloskey is a true red, white and blue American legend. I first met the Bay Area politician in the spring of 2006 when, in the backroom of a downtown Morgan Hill coffee shop, we had a one-hour chat for a newspaper article.

I have no doubt McCloskey's fascinating life story is worthy of a documentary film. And in fact, this Fourth of July weekend, KQED-TV will premiere the film "Pete McCloskey: Leading from the Front."

McCloskey was born in Loma Linda on Sept. 29, 1927. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1946 to 1947, and graduated from Stanford University in 1950. That same year he joined the U.S. Marine Corps. As a "Leatherneck," he found himself involved in brutal combat in the Korean War. He was awarded the Navy Cross, the Silver Star, and two Purple Heart medals. In 1954, he graduated from Stanford's Law School and practiced law and taught legal ethics at Santa Clara University for many years.

In 1967, McCloskey ran in and won a special election to fill the congressional seat of deceased U.S. Rep. J. Arthur Younger. During his 16 years in Washington, the San Mateo-based congressman proved himself in the political process to be a leader of integrity. In 1972, he sought the Republican nomination for U.S. President by running on a pro-peace platform against incumbent Richard Nixon. In 1973, McCloskey co-authored the Endangered Species Act. With Democratic Senator Gaylord Nelson, he also

co-founded the annual Earth Day event.

I interviewed McCloskey at that Morgan Hill coffee shop a few years ago because, at age 78, he had decided to come out of a well-earned retirement and campaign in the Republican Primary against then-Congressman Richard Pombo. McCloskey's squinting blue eyes revealed a passion for politics as he described how his family had proudly been Republicans since his Irish immigrant grandfather joined that political party in 1859. He talked about how his beloved party produced upstanding moral leaders such as Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.

McCloskey's eyes turned sad as he told me how disappointed he felt when he saw how his party had evolved in recent years. Its slide into "moral peril" began when Newt Gingrich became the speaker of the house in 1994 and certain party members had grown arrogant with political power. "'Absolute power corrupts absolutely,'" he said, quoting Lord Acton.

For McCloskey, Pombo symbolized an arrogance of power that leads to inevitable corruption. The District 11 congressman had got too cozy with K Street lobbyists including the notorious Jack Abramoff.

McCloskey lost the primary election to Pombo. But as a political legend, the national attention he brought to the race and his endorsement of Democratic candidate Jerry McNerney led to Pombo losing his congressional seat to McNerney in November 2006.

I believe McNerney might never have won that race if McCloskey had chosen to simply stay on his farm and tend his oranges. But like the Roman general Cincinnatus who left his wheat fields to defend ancient Rome against the Aequians, McCloskey saw the "barbarians" ransacking our nation's capitol and left his orchards to defend Americans against political hubris.

McCloskey and I talked about the state of American politics in the 21st century. During his years serving in Congress, he faced fray and friction between Republicans and Democrats. But the conflict was never malicious, he told me. Politicians back then did their jobs with a dignified respect for the opposition. Today, too many politicians feel more loyalty to their party leaders than to the folks back home who hired them with their votes.

During our coffee shop interview, I told McCloskey I believed a huge part of the problem was the sense of cynicism many Americans today feel toward politicians. This attitude causes too many of us to fail to fulfill our most sacred obligation as citizens to cast our Election Day votes. And too many potentially well-qualified candidates for Congress decide never to seek that office because they fear being tainted by the D.C. culture. McCloskey serves as one example that politicians who follow a moral compass and lead with integrity can make a big difference in making America a better country for all who live here.

This weekend, I encourage you to check out the premiere of the documentary "Pete McCloskey: Leading from the Front" which KQED public television will broadcast on Sunday night at 6 p.m. Produced by my friend Rob Caughlan, the bio-flick highlights the life and times of one of America's most fascinating political leaders - and someone who has had a major impact on the South Valley's local history.

The Independence Day weekend is a perfect time to view the film. Like Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams, Pete McCloskey is a true red, white and blue American legend.


And article 3:

http://almanacnews.com/story.php?story_id=8242

Documentary salutes Pete McCloskey

by Sean Howell


Filmmaker Rob Caughlan spent eight years trying to pack an account of the life and career of Pete McCloskey into his allotted 54 minutes, the length of the program that will run on KQED-TV (Channel 9) on Sunday, July 5, as part of the station's "Truly CA" series.

It's no easy task to condense any life story into that time frame, and Mr. McCloskey's is certainly no exception. A much-decorated veteran of the Korean War, Mr. McCloskey, now 81, helped draft bedrock environmental legislation in the early 1970s in the House of Representatives. He became a household name in 1972, when he challenged incumbent Richard Nixon for the Republican presidential nomination, opposing Mr. Nixon's stance on the war.

He has also enjoyed a celebrated legal career, notable especially for the environmental causes he took on. He practiced in Menlo Park prior to his political career, and worked out of an office above the Pioneer Hotel in Woodside after he retired from Congress. (A longtime Woodside resident, Mr. McCloskey still maintains a home in Portola Valley, at the Sequoias retirement community.)

His many accomplishments are detailed in Mr. Caughlan's progressive-minded documentary, "Pete McCloskey: Leading from the Front," set to air on KQED at 6 p.m. The film focuses on Mr. McCloskey's political career, following him from childhood in Southern California to semi-retirement on a farm in Rumsey, California, where he still takes on the occasional case (and wages the occasional political battle). The documentary, narrated by Paul Newman, presents Mr. McCloskey as an "original maverick" who repeatedly shook up the political system; a man who by his own admission is "perfectly agreeable to losing, if I can make my point, and make it hard."

The documentary marks the first foray into filmmaking for Mr. Caughlan, who for 30 years ran a "good deeds" advertising and public relations firm out of an office near the Menlo Park Caltrain station. He wanted to tell Mr. McCloskey's story to honor the man, and to propagate what he views as the movie's central message: that the country needs people who are willing to fight for a cause, regardless of whether it's popular at the time.

Predictably, editing the film proved to be a challenge. Many of Mr. Caughlan's favorite stories about Mr. McCloskey ended up on the proverbial cutting-room floor.

In the documentary, we learn of a heated argument in the back of a limousine between Mr. McCloskey and John Ehrlichman, a close adviser to then-President Nixon, over Nixon's invasion of Cambodia. What we don't learn is that the men had been good friends, up until Mr. McCloskey advocated impeaching Nixon on the floor of the House — and that the men resumed their friendship when Mr. McCloskey visited Mr. Ehrlichman in an Arizona prison after the fallout from the Watergate break-in.

Another story that didn't make the cut was Mr. McCloskey's role in a case brought by the nonprofit Surfrider Foundation, against a polluting pulp mill in Humboldt County. As Mr. Caughlan tells it, Mr. McCloskey — whom the Surfriders recruited to help with the case, at Mr. Caughlan's suggestion — waited patiently during the trial while a lawyer defending the pulp mill tried to explain to the judge Congress's intent in drafting the Clean Water Act.

When the pulp mill lawyer had finished, "Pete gets up and humbly says that he helped write the Clean Water Act, and that in fact that was not the intent behind it. … "

Recounting the story, Mr. Caughlan — a longtime surfer and environmental advocate — grins. He had an artist make courtroom drawings depicting the incident, but couldn't find space for it in the finished product. Mr. McCloskey's life has been marked by so many other milestones that "winning the largest clean-water action in American history didn't fit in," Mr. Caughlan says.

Met in 1967

Mr. Caughlan first met Mr. McCloskey when he walked a precinct for him, during Mr. McCloskey's 1967 bid for a local seat in the House against Woodside resident Shirley Temple Black.

"My mom thought I went over to the dark side" in joining a Republican's campaign, he says.

He and Mr. McCloskey kept in touch; he even stayed at McCloskey's Washington, D.C., home for a few weeks. At the time, Mr. Caughlan was house-hunting in D.C., having landed a job with as a special assistant to the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

"I asked Pete, 'Do I need a key?' He said, 'Nah, the door's broken,'" Mr. Caughlan remembers.

"Leading a bayonet charge takes one kind of courage," he says (Mr. McCloskey led six of them during the Korean War). "Living in D.C. without a lock, well — that's a different kind of courage."

When Mr. Caughlan set out to make the documentary, he didn't expect it would take eight years. But he encountered a number of stumbling blocks, not the least of which was Mr. McCloskey himself. The film was nearly finished when a restless McCloskey came out of retirement to challenge Rep. Richard Pombo in 2006 for the House seat in Tracy, forcing Mr. Caughlan to revise the ending.

Mr. McCloskey had been roused to action by Mr. Pombo's plan to sell public land to private bidders. He lost in the primary, but succeeded in his ultimate goal when the Democratic candidate, Jerry McNerney, bounced Mr. Pombo in the general election. Mr. Caughlan put the documentary aside for six months to work as Mr. McCloskey's press secretary, then ended up spending another half-year working for Mr. McNerney.

Mr. Caughlin anticipates taking some heat for not giving enough attention to Mr. McCloskey's faults. But "I've got Nixon, (Spiro) Agnew, and (Pat) Robertson criticizing him," he says. "It's just that, coming from them, it sounds like a compliment."

"I just wanted to tell Pete's story," he says. "I don't care about the reviews."

In producing the film, Mr. Caughlan got help from some big names. Paul Newman, who worked on Mr. McCloskey's campaign for the Republican nomination for president in 1972, agreed to narrate. Woodside resident Joan Baez donated her song "Saigon Bride."

And Robert Redford convinced Warner Brothers to let Mr. Caughlan use a clip from "All the President's Men," in which Mr. Redford's character works in an empty office while on a nearby television set, a news anchor announces Mr. McCloskey's defeat in the 1972 presidential primary.

The film cost $200,000 to produce, according to Mr. Caughlin. It was funded by various foundations, and by Mr. McCloskey's friends, he says. He even reached into his own pockets: He has an outstanding credit card bill of $30,000 associated with production costs.

"If the worst thing I lost is $30,000 and eight years, it'd still be worth it," he says, flashing that big grin.

INFORMATION

An hour-long documentary on former congressman Pete McCloskey, "Pete McCloskey: Leading from the Front," narrated by Paul Newman, will air on KQED-TV (Channel 9) at 6 p.m. Sunday, July 5.

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this story, we misspelled Jerry McNerney's last name.

Comments
Posted by John C. Chendo, a resident of another community, on Jul 3, 2009 at 4:48 am

Rob Caughlan was a founder and president of the Surfriders Association. He understands the connection between "the pursuit of happiness" and environmental politics, sports and justice. This documentary should be watched for the history it shows of America and our world, and for the courage it takes to live.

A random note from me: They spelled it "Caughlin" a few times. DUDE! It's CaughlAn! It's an A not an I! If you're gonna write an article about someone, spell their name right!! Sheesh!
Either way, cool! Good for uncle Rob!