Karen Shepherd, now 66, was swept out after just one term in a national Republican landslide that gave the GOP control of the House for the first time in 40 years. But she says life after that "has actually been quite wonderful."
First, she was a fellow at the institute of politics at Harvard. "The best minds in the country were there," she says. "I was like a kid in a candy store."
Soon thereafter, President Bill Clinton appointed her as the U.S. representative to the European Bank for Reconstruction. "So I lived in London for five years, three under President Clinton and two under President Bush," she says.
That bank helped provide loans to nations (and companies within them) that had once been communist and were converting to market economies. "It was very challenging but rewarding," she says.
She is now on several corporate boards and some volunteer boards such as the national Planned Parenthood Action Fund. The former magazine editor also says, "I am writing. I am enjoying a new granddaughter. And I have practically a perfect life."
She says she does miss some aspects of Congress. "I miss being in the eye of the decision-making process on public policy. Sometimes I have to go have a run because it is so frustrating to watch the process from afar."
But she says she does not miss "the almost total lack of personal life that it allowed. Every minute is scheduled so that nothing spontaneous ever happens. My mother had to call my scheduler to get me to come to Sunday dinner."
She adds, like others, that Congress has changed. "The collegiality appears to be totally gone, and the ability to get things done seems to be greatly diminished because of the incredible level of partisanship. That was starting when I was there. But I have friends there, and they tell me I just saw 5 percent of what they are experiencing now."