Tulane hosts bipartisan summit

The Bipartisan Policy Center will hold its inaugural political summit at Tulane University Nov. 9 - 10, convening some of the nation’s most prominent political consultants to discuss a variety of contemporary issues under the theme “Taking the Poison Out of Partisanship.”

Political consultant James Carville helped bring together many of the participants.

Members of both the Democratic and Republican parties will take part in four panels over the course of the summit, including What’s Fair in Politics?, Assessing the Obama Presidency, Looking Ahead to 2010 and 2012, and The Role of the Media in Elections.

Eileen McMenamin, vice president of communications at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said the summit serves as an opportunity to encourage thoughtful discourse and promote principled compromise.

“There is a lot of discussion going on in Washington and around the country right now about the politics of polarization,” McMenamin said. “We see this as an opportunity to have a discussion with the political consultants who are on the front lines of the public debate in American politics. Our message is you can disagree without being disagreeable.”

Participants from the Republican party will include Charlie Black, a campaign adviser to John McCain, Washington Times columnist Tony Blankley and Alex Castellanos, a top media adviser for the 2004 Bush campaign.

Participants from the Democratic party will include Stanley Greenberg, a campaign adviser for Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry and Tony Blair; and Larry Grisolano, a senior communication strategist for the Obama presidential campaign.

Additionally, political science professors Nancy Maveety, Celeste Lay and Brian Brox will participate in the summit. Political power couple Democrat James Carville and Republican Mary Matalin will serve as honorary co-chairs and Big Easy hosts.

Political science department chair Anthony Pereira said the summit will spark discourse between politicians and professors.

“These events positively affect Tulane University because they bridge the divide between academia and politics, allowing people on each side to better understand the other,” Pereira said.

Tulane Director of Public Relations Michael Strecker said the summit is a unique event that students and the New Orleans community should take advantage of.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for the Tulane community,” he said. “This is the only summit held in the country of this type, and if you look at the names and positions of the people it’s really impressive. It’s a great chance to learn about how politics works and how it could work better.”

McMenamin said Tulane serves as a perfect location for the summit, and the presence of James Carville and Mary Matalin greatly influenced the Bipartisan Policy Center.

“Our thinking in planning this summit was that we wanted to get the participants out of Washington, in the hopes that they would feel less constrained and could talk more openly about what they see as the problems and potential solutions to these issues,” McMenamin said. “James Carville, who teaches at Tulane, and Mary Matalin offered to serve as our Big Easy hosts, so it was the perfect opportunity to come to Tulane University. They are the living example of being able to rise above partisanship.”

The first panel will take place at 2:45 p.m. Monday in the Lavin-Bernick Center. Following the summit, participants will attend a Wii competition charity event with local children to benefit the Devlin S-AFE Center at 12:15 p.m. Tuesday.