Quiet Passion: A Biography of Bob Graham Horror Book Review

He is a three-term U.S. Senator and a former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee known for his quiet manner—until he raged at his fellow senators that they would have “blood on their hands” if they voted to approve the U.S. military intervention in Iraq. 

  In 2003, he briefly sought the presidency and after his withdrawal was considered a leading contender for the vice presidency or a cabinet post in a Democratic administration. 

  He was a two-term governor of Florida, where he revolutionized public education, slashed property taxes, launched major “Save Our Rivers” and “Save Our Coasts” efforts, and oversaw sixteen executions—establishing himself as an independent thinker not hamstrung by the party line. 

  He is brother-in-law to the late Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham and is a Harvard-educated millionaire who has worked as mechanic, bellboy, chicken plucker, nursing home aide, and policeman, and held hundreds of other ordinary jobs in order to immerse himself in the lives of his constituents. 

  He is Bob Graham, the subject of Quiet Passion, a biography by S.V. Date.  A veteran journalist who has covered Florida politics for a decade and has skewered the subject in several highly acclaimed novels, Date demonstrates his signature blend of intelligence, candor, and irreverent humor as he explores the life and understated power of Florida’s most popular politician.