December 12, 2008 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S10973 

recesses for Columbus Day.’’ I held 

that hearing within 30 days. We should 

not change the standards now that a 

Democrat is making the selection. 

During my time in the Senate, serving during 8 presidential terms, there 

has been an average of 29 days between 

announcement of an Attorney General 

designation and the start of hearings, 

and 37 days on average from the announcement of the nominee to the 

Committee vote. The Holder hearing 

was set for 39 days after announcement, with the hope that he can be 

considered by the Committee within 50 

days. That does not seem unreasonable. 

I do appreciate that we and our staffs 

will be working over the holidays, but 

we have been called upon many times 

to do so during the last several tumultuous years. 

This is not the occasion to convert 

our consideration of an executive 

branch nomination into the kind of 

searching scrutiny we rightly provide 

for lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court, which is apparently what 

the Republican side is intent upon 

doing. 

This is no ordinary time. Over the 

last 8 years, political manipulation and 

influence from partisan political 

operatives in the White FIouse have 

undercut the Department of Justice in 

its mission, severely undermined the 

morale of its career professionals, and 

shaken public confidence in our Federal justice system. During those 8 

years, we experienced the attacks of 

September 11 and have retooled the 

Justice Department and the FBI to 

work closely with the intelligence 

community in our efforts to prevent 

terrorism. Never has it been more important to have an experienced hand as 

Attorney General. 

I hope our Republican Members will 

resist the temptation toward partisanship and join with us to consider this 

appointment fairly and promptly.

f 

∑ 

ALAN NEWMAN: CONDUCTOR OF 

COSMIC SYMPHONIES 

∑ Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, the Burlington Free Press recently published a 

profile of Alan Newman, a habitual entrepreneur who has be the genius and 

force behind a number of companies established in and around Burlington, 

VT. Anyone who has met Alan is immediately embraced by his creative 

exuberance. That creativity combined 

with his unique vision and style create 

a special brew that has resulted in an 

incredible run of establishing successful companies. 

I wish to recognize Alan for his accomplishments and I ask that a copy of 

the entire Burlington Free Press article be printed in the RECORD. 

[Burlington Free Press, Dec. 8, 2008] 

ALAN NEWMAN OPENS UP

(By Dan McLean) 

SOUTH BURLINGTON.—Alan Newman, cofounder and president of Magic Hat Brewing 

Co., has helped create about a half-dozen 

Vermont-based companies. During his decades of building businesses, he has learned 

where he excels—and when he has reached 

his limit. 

‘‘My skill appears to be starting and growing businesses,’’ including building a brand 

and a culture for the company, Newman said. 

When businesses hit about $7.5 million in annual revenue and reach about 50 employees, 

Newman says he has arrived at his ‘‘level of 

incompetence.’’ 

Newman said he reached that modified 

Peter Principle with Magic Hat about six 

years ago. Newman said if he remains at the 

helm after a company has hit that threshold, 

‘‘the organization starts to fall apart.’’ 

‘‘We started having trouble shipping things 

that people had ordered. Communication 

within staff starts to falter. Planning doesn’t 

happen properly,’’ he said. ‘‘As you hit a certain size, you need a little more discipline. 

You need a little more management. That’s 

where I start not performing well.’’ 

‘‘I’m really an opportunity junkie,’’ Newman said. ‘‘I’m very good at seeing opportunities and going for them . . . but at some 

point you need to stop chasing every possibility and focus on a plan.’’ 

That’s where Martin Kelly comes in. Kelly 

served as CEO of Magic Hat and is now CEO 

of Magic Hat’s parent company, Independent 

Brewers United Inc., which was formed when 

Magic Hat bought Seattle-based Pyramid 

Breweries Inc. last spring for $35 million. 

Newman said Kelly has been a crucial part 

of the operation during the past few years. ‘‘I 

create chaos and he tries to control it,’’ he 

said. 

Newman is president of Magic Hat, but prefers his informal title, ‘‘conductor of cosmic 

symphonies.’’ ‘‘ 

That’s really my title,’’ he said. 

Newman, who had a hand in the creation of 

Gardeners Supply Co., Seventh Generation 

and Magic Hat, says he has no secret to 

starting successful ventures. 

‘‘I really don’t. It really started by accident,’’ Newman said in an interview in his 

office located in a modestly appointed trailer, named Sweet Lillian, next to the South 

Burlington brewery. 

‘‘I was sick and tired of getting fired,’’ he 

said, recalling his time in Vermont in the 

mid-1970s. ‘‘I just figured I better figure out 

how to support myself if I wanted to stay in 

Vermont. I just kind of followed my nose. 

‘‘I irritate people. I’m really not a good 

employee. I’m highly insubordinate,’’ he 

said, explaining that starting a business was 

a better option than working for someone 

else. ‘‘It’s been a constant theme in my life 

and career.’’ Newman insists he is in an unlikely executive. 

‘‘Honestly,’’ he said, wearing bright-yellow 

glasses and a tie-dye shirt. ‘‘There is nothing 

in my background. I never had any interest 

in business. I never had any interest in starting businesses. 

‘‘I’ve never taken a business course in my 

life,’’ he said, downplaying the importance of 

an MBA. ‘‘I’m not an education-driven guy. I 

believe in experience.’’ 

Newman, 62, was born in Brooklyn and 

grew up on Long Island. He attended Long Island University with a major in psychology 

and minors in sociology and English. ‘‘I have 

always been interested in culture. I grew up 

in the ’60s.’’ 

Newman said his strengths are creating 

culture, branding and a vision for the companies. 

‘‘The business, to me, is secondary. I’m 

more interested in painting pictures,’’ he 

said. A crucial part of forming a company’s 

‘‘painting’’ is culture and philosophy. ‘‘It’s 

never been about making money.’’ 

‘‘It’s about trying to create a picture, trying to create a culture and trying to marry 

them. This is kind of what I do know,’’ he 

said. 

For Magic Hat that philosophy is: ‘‘to be a 

good neighbor in our community,’’ he said. 

Magic Hat, he said, assists a series of nonprofits including Vermont Cares, Committee 

on Temporary Shelter and The Women’s 

Rape Crisis Center. ‘‘That’s the part I get addicted to,’’ he said. 

‘‘I make things more complicated’’ by connecting events with charities, he said. The 

Women’s Rape Crisis Center, for example, 

gets about $20,000 from the annual Mardi 

Gras parade, which Magic Hat created in the 

mid-1990s. 

Not all of Newman’s ventures have been a 

success. 

But he said he learns lessons—the best lessons—from the failures. 

He and a friend created a yacht time-sharing company, Highland International in 

Hanksville, in the late 1970s. Highland International never generated any revenue. Newman and his partner burned through $300,000 

of seed money in about 18 months. Reflecting 

on the business misfire, Newman said he 

should have purchased one boat with the 

funds, instead of trying to leverage it into 

millions. Lesson learned: proceed slowly. 

Another one of Newman’s business mistakes was Magic Hat’s Ale of the Living 

Dead, a garlic beer. 

One of the bottles sits on Newman’s desk. 

The beer, he said, was often returned as 

‘‘undrinkable.’’ The lesson with the garlic 

beer: ‘‘Don’t let me drive recipe creation.’’ 

The acquisition of Pyramid gives Magic 

Hat the potential to place its bottles of brew 

on shelves in many more states. Magic Hat is 

sold in 18 states now, mostly on the East 

Coast. Pyramid’s beers are sold in 28 states. 

Newman said they had no choice but to expand Magic Hat because the company ‘‘had 

already passed through the overhead level 

where small could work.’’ 

Newman said the idea for Magic Hat 

emerged in 1993 with co-founder Bob Johnson. The next year the pair were making 

beer on Flynn Avenue in Burlington. After 

three years, Magic Hat moved to a larger operation in South Burlington. When Magic 

Hat left Flynn Avenue, 6,000 barrels were 

being brewed a year. This year, Magic Hat 

will brew about 130,000 barrels at the South 

Burlington location, Newman said. A barrel 

is 31 gallons. 

Not including brew pubs, there are 300 to 

400 microbreweries in the U.S. fighting for a 

5 percent share of the beer market, Newman 

said. 

‘‘In order to be a survivor, we think you 

have to get bigger. You can’t stay small,’’ he 

said. 

Perhaps, recalling the lessons learned from 

his failed yacht time-share company decades 

ago, when he learned to ‘‘start small and 

grow,’’ Newman said Magic Hat’s expansion 

‘‘will be slow and methodical.’’

f 

∑ 

HONORING LAWRENCE MCHUGH 

∑ Mr. DODD. Mr. President, in these 

times of financial uncertainty, today I 

would like to take the time to commend Mr. Lawrence McHugh of my 

State, and to recognize his 25 years of 

leadership at the Middlesex County 

Chamber of Commerce. 

In Larry’s quarter century as the 

president of the organization, membership has grown from 282 to a total of 

2,400 members who employ over 50,000 

individuals in central Connecticut. 

The Chamber itself now employs 22 

people and increased its annual budget 

from $109,000 in 1983 to over $2 million 

in 2007. 


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S10974 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE December 12, 2008 

Mr. McHugh has served as the president of the Connecticut Association of 

Chamber of Commerce Executives and 

vice chair of both the Connecticut Employment and Training Commission 

and the Connecticut Tourism Council, 

as well as on many other boards of organizations that seek to improve businesses and communities across the 

State. 

Impressive as these figures may be, 

the true measure of his contributions 

to his community cannot be measured 

by statistics or figures. 

Larry McHugh has shown remarkable 

leadership in protecting not only the 

local businesses of central Connecticut, 

but also the future of our State 

through his extensive work with our 

youth. 

Following an injury that ended his 

football career with the AFL’s New 

York Titans, Larry took a position as 

the football coach for Xavier High 

School in Middletown, CT where he 

spent 20 years inspiring his athletes to 

great success both on and off the field. 

He would later combine his interest in 

achieving the best for his students and 

athletes with his business savvy in 

spending 8 years as the head of fund 

raising for Mercy and Xavier High 

Schools. 

Fortunately for the youth of Connecticut, Larry has continued to invest 

in their futures in the years since his 

retirement from coaching. Under 

Larry’s leadership, the Middlesex 

County Chamber of Commerce has consistently promoted programs seeking 

to partner businesses with the young 

people of the State, both equipping the 

youth with real life experiences and 

business opportunities and providing 

local businesses with the ability to reinvest in the futures of their companies. Larry has placed a premium on 

establishing a vital connection between businesses and the community’s 

greatest asset—its human capital. 

Despite great worries over our national economy, it is of the utmost 

comfort to me to know that the businesses of central Connecticut are under 

the leadership of a man who has a proven record of doing great things for his 

Chamber and for his community. I 

would like to join my voice with those 

across Connecticut that already speak 

of his success with the greatest respect, and commend Larry McHugh for 

his 25 years of service. His continued 

focus on the promise of the future convinces me that there is none better to 

be leading the local industries at such 

a time as this.

f 

∑ 

RECESS UNTIL TUESDAY, 

DECEMBER 16, 2008, AT 11 A.M. 

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the 

Senate stands in recess until 11 a.m. on 

Tuesday, December 16, 2008. 

Thereupon, the Senate, at 10 and 54 

seconds a.m., recessed until Tuesday, 

December 16, 2008, at 11 a.m. 


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