How to make good in Washington.

• Position: FROM THE FOUNDER - Fred Bergsten C.

Here's an interesting question: What Democratic Washington policy insider actually has nice things to say about former conservative Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay?

Stumped? Here's a hint. He also speaks favorably about two senior officials of the Reagan Administration.

No, I'm not talking about former Georgia Democratic Senator Zell Miller who blasted Democratic nominee John Kerry as downright unpatriotic in the last presidential election. I'm talking about Fred Bergsten, the director of the Institute for International Economics, which this fall celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary. (Bergsten praised DeLay because of the congressman's success in brutally forcing House Republicans to support free trade legislation. The two Reagan officials: James A. Baker, III, and Richard Darman who adopted a version of currency target zones, though not in name, while serving at the U.S. Treasury. See TIE's interview with Bergsten on page 14.)

Most people who come to Washington serve briefly in government and then hang around for the next several decades feeding off the system. Not Fred Bergsten. Against all odds, he cobbled together the resources to create a lasting institution that has become a major force in the policy debate on international economics. Sensing a policy vacuum at the IMF, World Bank, and other similar institutions, Bergsten and his core group of impressive policy entrepreneurs moved quickly to fill the void and established an important legacy.

Other individuals have attempted the same, but have failed. Bergsten's success stems in large part from his recognition that the cleavages in this field relate far less to partisan differences than to where one stands on the issue of globalization. Bergsten and his colleagues were also among the first to recognize by the mid-1980s the futility of operating as if the U.S. economy was a closed system.

I met Bergsten twenty years ago this fall. I conceived and helped organize an event called "The U.S. Congressional Summit on the Dollar and Trade." Sponsored by the bipartisan leadership of both houses of Congress, spearheaded by Senator Bill Bradley (D-NJ) and Congressman Jack Kemp (R-NY), and moderated by Alan Greenspan, the two-day gathering proved to be the final nail in the pure floating exchange rate regime coffin. Bergsten participated in this gathering along with the major players at the time within the G7 finance ministries, central banks, and major private financial institutions. As...