Ted Van Dyk

Former democratic political advisor Ted Van Dyk must feel like he's living in a time warp. The political climate is, after all, rather similar to that of the 1960s, when he worked in the White House as Vice President Hubert Humphrey's senior advisor during the Johnson administration. Just as then, a war is draining our national coffers and threatening to split the Democratic Party and the nation as a whole. So who better to regale us with tales of working to create social change as well as compromise within the party? Van Dyk rode the highs of Johnson's successes, as well as shared in the failures, and now has plenty of lessons to teach the current generation of powerful Democrats. He racked up years of stories through his work advising just about every major Democrat for more than 30 years, including Walter Mondale, George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, and Ted Kennedy. In Heroes, Hacks, and Fools, Van Dyk tells the stories of the party's geniuses, morons, and eccentrics, many of whom are no doubt paralleled in today's Democratic characters.
Wed., Feb. 13, 7:30 p.m., 2008