Obama's top Texan is quiet and has a quiet job

Obama's top Texan is quiet and has a quiet job
Posted Friday, Apr. 23, 2010
BY TOM MCILROY
Hearst Newspapers

WASHINGTON -- The top Texan in the Obama administration is anything but the stereotype of the flamboyant, backslapping Lone Star State pol. With a self-deprecating sense of humor, a diplomat's precision with words and an aversion to the bright lights of the nation's capital, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk is a quiet man in a quiet role.

Though Kirk's job as the nation's top global trade negotiator carries Cabinet-level status, the low-key lawyer sometimes wonders about his place in a room full of high-profile officials such as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

"I'll be honest," he said in a recent interview. "Most days I walk into the Cabinet Room, I feel like Adm. Stockdale [the vice presidential running mate of Ross Perot in 1992], saying, 'Who am I and why am I here?'"

That kind of modesty may be why President Barack Obama picked Kirk, 55, to be the administration's point man to negotiate international trade pacts without creating diplomatic incidents or ruffling the political feathers of American business or labor.

Kirk, an early and avid supporter of the North American Free Trade Agreement, is facing a tough challenge in trying to avoid an all-out trade war with Mexico triggered by the issue of whether Mexican long-haul trucks can be permitted to drive throughout the United States.

Prodded by American labor unions arguing that trucks from Mexico do not meet U.S. safety and environmental standards, Congress has blocked truck traffic from Mexico. The Mexican government has retaliated by imposing more than $1.5 billion in new duties on American manufacturing and nearly $1 billion in duties on agricultural products.

Domestic U.S. politics have created "a very difficult environment for trade," said Robert Lawrence, a professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. "And in the broad scheme of things it will take great political capital to reach an agreement on trucking."

The trucking impasse is expected to be a key topic when Mexican President Felipe Calderon visits Obama in Washington next month.

Despite a résumé with modest business and diplomatic experience, Kirk, a former Dallas mayor and the first African-American trade representative, has had some experience in delicate negotiations.

In his senior year at Austin's Reagan High School in 1972, Kirk found himself at the flashpoint of conflict in the newly integrated school system. He was head of the student council, and school administrators asked him to help mediate after a fight broke out between white and black students.

"On my part, at least it was a practical response," Kirk said with a laugh. "My verbal skills have always been superior to my pugilistic skills."

Kirk became Texas secretary of state when his friend and mentor Ann Richards was elected governor in 1991. He was later elected Dallas' first African-American mayor and served from 1995 to 2002. Known for coalition-building in a city that had been racially polarized for decades, Kirk worked to reorganize city government, lower taxes and reduce crime.

His success in winning votes from minorities while cultivating strong support from the predominantly white business community ensured his landslide re-election with 74 percent of the vote in 1999.

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[Posted by Aaron Mendez]