The best married couple i've ever known were politicians, in fact the only couple i can think of besides the Clintons to be candidates for national election. I met Sen Fred Harris (D - OK) when i covered the '76 Democratic Primaries and we had lunch several times during the course of that. Once you have lunch with Fred Harris - imagine the world's smartest Coen Bros character - you don't wanna have lunch w nobody else. He had already retired from the Senate to run and didn't do too badly - 3rd in Iowa, 4th in NH 10%+ in a half-dozen states - and, though still only in his 40s then, never ran for public office again. Coincidence threw us together a few years later when we both moved to Albuquerque at about the same time (he to teach history @ Univ of NM, me for no good reason). I saw him when Teddy Kennedy came to campaign for Carter's re-election and he gave me his number.
Called him up & invited him out to lunch, turns out we had equal passions for green chile, progressive politics & hearty laughter and we had lunch every few months til i moved away in '84. He was still emeritus @ UNM when i returned to Burque after my Mary died, so i rang his office and we resumed our routine for about the next decade. He also invited me to the odd political shindig, even though i had barely a dime to donate and that's when i met his lovely wife, La Donna. Rarely can a man of the Senator's stature refer to his wife as his "better half" and be right, but i dont know the soul who would disagree. A full-blooded Comanche with about the biggest medicine a person can have, Mrs. Harris was a vice-presidential candidate with the Citizens Party, a great mentor to political women all over the country (one of the leading characters in my on-again-off-again Dracula-goes-to-Washington novel is a direct rip of her) and, at 85yo, led the Women's March on Washington the day after President Trump's inauguration. She always kept a tiny office in Martineztown for community organizing purposes, to which i drop down when i had nothing better to do and wanted to be put to work for a good cause.
Remarkable people. Haven't seen em in almost a decade now, but theyre still kickin @ 89 & 88 God bless em. If you knew em, you'd love em, too, no matte your political persuaion. Finestkind.
