Two Colgate alumni are poised to play key roles in hotly contested issues swirling around Washington: health-care reform and the treatment of terror suspects by the Central Intelligence Agency.
On Monday, veteran federal prosecutor John Durham ’72 (right) was appointed by the U.S. attorney general to examine suspected abuse of prisoners held by the CIA.
Durham, 59, is no stranger to top-level governmental investigations. In 1999 he was selected by Attorney General Janet Reno to probe law-enforcement corruption in Boston. The investigation and subsequent conviction helped inspire the Martin Scorsese film The Departed.
Last year he was named by then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey to head the ongoing investigation into the destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes.
Durham, a deputy U.S. attorney based in Connecticut, is known for seeking maximum sentences, shunning plea bargains, and avoiding the spotlight.
He graduated from Colgate with a degree in political science and earned a law degree from the University of Connecticut in 1975. He is married with four sons.
Alan Frumin ’68 also has been in the news, though his ultimate role in the debate over health-care reform is not yet clear.
Frumin is the Senate parliamentarian, named to that position in 2001 after having been in the parliamentarian’s office since 1977.
Anyone who watches Senate sessions on C-Span has probably seen Frumin, who often is asked by the presiding officer about procedural regulations.
If President Obama and Democratic leaders can’t strike a bipartisan deal on health care, they have hinted that they will turn to the so-called reconciliation procedure to get a bill passed.
That move would enable Senate Democrats to pass a bill with 51 votes, rather than the 60 typically needed for contentious legislation.
Under Senate rules, it also would give Frumin, 62, broad authority to decide which portions of the Democrats’ bill are relevant to the budget and empower him to delete provisions he considers unrelated.
Frumin repeatedly declines to comment to the media. His job is officially non-partisan and his reputation for probity and independence is considered impeccable.
If bipartisanship fails and the health-care bill stalls, Americans might soon learn much more about this Colgate alumnus.
Information for this article was collected from Newsweek, Bloomberg News, Time, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.