Daniel Biss On Abu Ghraib How To Resist The Urge To Check Out At The Words Pension Crisis And What He S Learned From Michael Madigan

 In a recurring feature, the Reader conducts 15-minute interviews with     candidates running for city, county, state, and federal offices that     represent Illinois. This week: Democratic gubernatorial candidate Daniel     Biss.



 Did you not pay attention much to politics before that? 



                  It was just a disagreement that emerged quickly after we had previously had     an understanding. And it changed our dynamic in a way that made it so that     we couldn’t go on. And I think it was the right way to move forward the way     we did, but you know, I take your point. There’s incredible grassroots     energy around styles of politics—whether they’re radical styles of     politics, or left politics, nonmainstream politics—that are changing our     country in a really, really good way. 


                  Understanding political power is incredibly important, and discipline is     incredibly important, and working hard is incredibly important, and     understanding others’ perspectives and motivations and using that     understanding to inform your own negotiating posture is incredibly     important. I’ve learned all those things by watching him. But I will also     say this: There’s a fundamental question about what the role of a     government leader is. I believe a government leader needs to lay out a     long-term vision and to change the landscape so as to enable the     achievement of that vision. Whereas I think he sees the role of a     government leader as simply to operate in the context of what’s currently     possible and maintain power in that terrain. I think that that distinction     is incredibly important: Are you an adjudicator or are you a visionary? Do     you believe in a politics based on transactions or a politics based on a     philosophy of how we ought to live? Those two approaches result in really     different kinds of behaviors of leaders.



 I saw the              Sun-Times article          about some of the errors that were in some of the math papers you     published. That period in your life, when you were facing those     difficulties with your academic work seems like that would have been     difficult, you were devoting so much of your time and career to that. How     did you handle that time period in your life?