Robert Barnett, Washington literary power broker, dead at 79

NEW YORK (AP) — Robert B. Barnett, a powerhouse Washington attorney who became a fixture in the political and publishing worlds as the literary representative for Barack and Michelle Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton and dozens of other leaders, has died at age 79.

One of Barnett’s partners at Williams & Connolly, Michael F. O’Connor, told The Associated Press that he died Thursday night at Sibley Memorial Hospital of an “undisclosed illness.” Additional details were not immediately available.

“He was a dear friend, a trusted advisor, and a wise, faithful, and steadfast guide to the publishing and entertainment worlds,” the Clintons said in a statement Friday.

A stocky, raspy-voiced man with tortoiseshell glasses, antique cuff links and a knack for being both forthright and discrete, Bob Barnett embodied an era when it was possible to work freely with both Democrats and Republicans, when politics could stop at the edge of a good book deal. He was a longtime Democrat, working on Jimmy Carter’s 1976 campaign and helping Bill Clinton and other candidates in debate preparation. But he would broker contracts for such a wide range of political figures that he liked to joke that should his clients all gather in one room the result would be “World War III.”

He was a partner at the high-end Williams & Connolly, and for more than 20 years no one approached his stature as an intermediary between the Washington elite and New York publishers. From the early 1990s through the end of the Obama administration, in 2017, Barnett represented three consecutive presidents and first ladies — the Clintons, George W. and Laura Bush and the Obamas — and much of the remaining A-list political players, from Ted Kennedy and Mitch McConnell to Dick Cheney and Alan Greenspan, from Paul Ryan and Donald Rumsfeld to Al Franken and Elizabeth Warren.

Barnett was called upon so often by politicians leaving office that he became known as “the doorman to Washington’s revolving door.”

He was not an agent, he liked to point out, but an attorney who billed clients by the hour instead of receiving a percentage of royalties. It was a unique business arrangement that priced out the average writer, but well rewarded Obama, the Clintons and others who landed multimillion-dollar deals.

The general public could have made good money betting on Barnett’s authors to prevail in elections. In six consecutive presidential races, from 1992-2012, a current or future Barnett client was elected, often defeating a non-Barnett client.

“He’s one of the sagest advisers I’ve ever been able to call upon,” Republican strategist Karl Rove, a Barnett client and top aide to George W. Bush, told Politico in 2017. “He has counseled me on every professional decision I’ve made.”

A client list beyond DC

Barnett also handled negotiations for media executives and reporters (Roger Ailes, Bob Woodward, Chris Wallace), musical superstars (Elton John, Barbra Streisand), business leaders (Jack Welch, Phil Knight), international leaders (former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Queen Noor of Jordan) and one of the world’s best-selling novelists, James Patterson. For years, he was not only representing presidents, but Jake Tapper, Brit Hume and other White House reporters who covered them. One of the best-selling political novels in recent years, “The President Is Missing,” was a collaboration conceived by Barnett for Patterson and Bill Clinton.

His political winning streak ended after 2016 when non-client Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton. He was disdainful of Trump and eventually overtaken by the Creative Artists Agency and such younger Washington players as the Javelin literary agency. Even some who fell out with Trump, including former FBI Director James Comey and former national security adviser John Bolton, chose others for book deals.

Asked in 2012 by the British law firm Chamber Associates how he wanted to be remembered, Barnett responded: “‘He was loyal, kept confidences, and tried his best. He was a good husband, father, grandfather, counselor, and friend.” Around the same time, Obama offered a wryer take, as recorded in Mark Leibovich’s bestselling political chronicle “This Town.”

Barnett was part of the team helping Obama prepare for his 2012 debates with Republican challenger Mitt Romney, and was known among the president’s advisers for his quintessentially insider observations. When Barnett prefaced one of his comments with “the conventional wisdom is,” Obama responded, “Bob, you ARE the conventional wisdom.”

In 1972, Barnett married Rita Braver, a fellow graduate of the University of Wisconsin and a future CBS television correspondent. They had a daughter, Meredith.

An unexpected path to publishing

A native of Waukegan, Illinois, Robert Bruce Barnett graduated as senior class president from Waukegan High School, majored in political science at the University of Wisconsin and received a law degree from the University of Chicago. He moved to Washington in the early 1970s, clerking for Supreme Court Justice Byron White and working as aide to then-Sen. Walter Mondale of Minnesota. In 1975, he joined Williams & Connolly, and was made a partner three years later. Beyond his political clients, he also represented numerous corporations and businesses, including Deutsche Bank, McDonald’s and JM Family Enterprises.

Barnett did not plan his rise in book publishing. He had helped vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro prepare for her 1984 debate against George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan’s vice president, and consulted with her when reports came out about her husband’s alleged ties to organized crime. After the election, Ferraro asked him to help find a publisher for her memoir. Barnett, as inexperienced about publishing a book as Ferraro was about writing one, worked with New York agent Esther Newberg on a seven-figure deal with Bantam Books. Soon after, he arranged a lucrative deal for David Stockman, the first budget director in the Reagan administration.

Among political leaders, he was especially close to the Clintons. They turned to him when White House aide and family friend Vince Foster killed himself in 1993 and when news broke that Bill Clinton had an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. His influence was never greater than in 2008, during the Democratic presidential primary. The main contenders were his longtime client, Hillary Clinton, and a new client, Obama, who had dropped his previous agent and turned to Barnett to make a deal for “The Audacity of Hope,” one of history’s bestselling political books and a key factor in his stunning rise.

After a long and emotional primary campaign, Clinton, who had been heavily favored, conceded in June 2008 and began negotiating her role at the Democratic National Convention. The negotiations were handled by Barnett. By the end of the year, Obama had been elected (defeating the non-Barnett client Sen. John McCain) and Barnett was arranging a multimillion-dollar deal for another client, the outgoing president, George W. Bush.