Bono's Calling

U2 frontman Bono has made himself at home in the hallways -- and stairways -- of Congress in his quest to combat Third World poverty. (By Nikki Kahn -- The Washington Post)

'You Have to Engage With Power'

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Now, if you are going to be taken seriously among the duly elected representatives of The People, and the people they appoint, you need to have a lobbying organization. Bono essentially has two: DATA (an acronym for Debt AIDS Trade Africa), which prods the big policy folks, and the One Campaign, which seeks to seed a grass-roots movement for poverty relief. Set to merge soon under the One name, they are housed in a pedestrian office building on I Street NW. The vibe could be described as a mix of National Geographic and Us Weekly. It's a place where pictures of Brad Pitt in conference with DATA's Drummond, of Matt Damon in Africa, of Bono arm-wrestling Houston Rockets center Dikembe Mutombo, blend in nicely with photos of African schoolchildren.

Bono learned how to buttonhole congressmen in the late 1990s, when he recruited Bobby Shriver, son of Sarge and Eunice, to push debt relief on the Hill.

Studying every lobbying organization from the NRA to AARP, Bono and his advisers -- including Shriver and Drummond -- along with Tom Hart (who worked for the Episcopal Church), Republican lobbyist Scott Hatch and Democratic lobbyist Tom Sheridan, came up with DATA and persuaded financiers George Soros and Ed Scott to help fund it. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation ponied up $1 million.

"What's made them effective is not only to be bipartisan but to be apolitical," says Sununu. "They're willing to sidestep politics and appeal to people of all stripes -- conservatives, liberals, moderates of both parties. It's served them well."

What's also served them well is their relationship with the White House. Condoleezza Rice, now secretary of state, and Josh Bolten, now White House chief of staff, warmed to Bono's ideas as early as 2001. So did then-Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, who traveled with Bono to Africa for 12 days in 2002; TV crews filmed their every move as they visited schools and clinics and clean-water projects.

"We created dozens of hours for CNN -- a lot of which they showed to the world," O'Neill says. "I think they did it because of Bono's notoriety and fame and my title, which for me is exactly how these things can be used."

The rocker was instrumental in "creating a public awareness in which politicians feel they have to be active," says Michael Gerson, a former speechwriter for President Bush. In 2003, Bush announced a $15 billion initiative to combat AIDS, primarily in Africa.

Certainly Bush and Bono have at times seemed inseparable. Last year, the president introduced the rocker/activist before he addressed the National Prayer Breakfast. Earlier this year, as Bono took the reins of the glossy phonebook otherwise known as Vanity Fair for its special Africa issue, he made sure that both Bush and Rice were among the special guests asked to appear on the 20 different covers photographed by Annie Leibovitz. (Late in the party at Sonoma, Bono could be seen standing alone in a corner, autographing a photo of himself and Bush for a White House official.)

"If you want change, you have to engage with power," Bono says. "That's what we do."

But engaging with power has its costs. To get what he wants on the African continent, to exert influence over those still in power, he must forsake his own feelings about the singular issue driving the most active of artistic activists: Iraq.

"They know my feelings about the war," Bono says. "Both Prime Minister Blair and President Bush knew we were not in support of the war. I've always gone out of my way at U2 shows to show my support for the troops, but it's not something I sound off on. I gave up that right. I have become a single-issue protagonist. And as hard as that is for a mouthy Irishman who's more used to putting his foot in his mouth than his fist, I think people really respect that."

Since 2003 he's made roughly a dozen trips to Washington, avoiding the little brush fires, making sure to arrive at that moment when he's most needed.