This episode is about the power of compromise and why that can be crucial to making progress.

It's a style of leadership and decision-making that runs counter to much of what we see in Washington today.

We discuss the remarkable career of James Baker, a man who was never elected to any major post,

but was right at the center of American power for three decades.

This is Let's Find Common Ground from Common Ground Committee. I'm Richard Davies.

And I'm Ashley Melntite.

James Baker had a remarkable career.

Secretary of State, Secretary of Treasury and White House Chief of Staff, twice.

He helped end the Cold War and reunify Germany.

Baker assembled the international coalition to fight the Gulf War, negotiated a rewrite of the US tax code and ran five presidential campaigns.

In the words of a new book, he was the man who ran Washington.

That book's co-authors, Peter Baker, no relation to the man he writes about, and his wife, Susan Glasser.

Susan is staff correspondent for The New Yorker and she writes a weekly letter from Washington for the magazine.

Peter is Chief White House correspondent for The New York Times.

Our first question goes to Susan.

Why is it worth learning about Jim Baker now as a new administration is about to begin?

Because his story is the story of Washington at a very different moment.

At a moment, not only when Washington ran the world, but also when it was forced to function in a different way.

And the incentives in American politics have just changed so radically.

For Peter and I, it was really an exercise in almost time travel.

To be able to immerse ourselves into sort of conjure up a moment, certainly not a coup by all moment, a very divisive moment in American domestic politics.

But at the same time, one in which the two parties were forced and really even compelled to work together to get things done.

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