Conversations With Slate

Can a Senator Run Into a Burning Building?

Cory Booker on how his headline-grabbing heroics can survive in Washington.

If Cory Booker is elected to the Senate, what happens to the dog-rescuing, proposal-saving, burning-house-charging mayor who has romanced the nation’s headlines? In Part 3 of his interview, Slate’s Jacob Weisberg predicts that the Senate will put strain on Booker’s famous relationship with his constituents—a sentiment Booker doesn’t share.

Watch Part 1 of Weisberg’s interview about the gay-baiting headlines in Booker’s Senate race, and Part 2, in which Booker points to at least one issue he thinks he can get Democrats and Republicans can work together to fix. On Monday, look for the final installment on Booker’s triumphs and failures as mayor of Newark, N.J.