I just read one of the best autobiographies ever written.

No, it wasn't Bill Clinton's "My Life."

It was written by a man who tried to convict Bill Clinton in his impeachment trial – my friend James E. Rogan. It's called "Rough Edges: My Unlikely Road From Welfare to Washington."

I first met Rogan in 1988, when he came into my newspaper office in Southern California as a tough, young Democratic prosecutor – when we were both a couple of 30-somethings.

He briefly told me his compelling story. He grew up in a household headed by a single mother on welfare – actually convicted of welfare fraud. He was kicked out of high school. He worked in biker bars and porn theaters. More than once in his life he had to pull a concealed gun from his holster to defend himself and others.

Not only was he a lifelong Democrat, he once headed one of the biggest Democratic clubs in California, in the ultra-liberal San Francisco Bay Area.

But during Ronald Reagan's presidency, Jim Rogan began to see the world differently – just as I did.

He came to tell me he was ready to change parties and announce his support for the Republican presidential nominee, George H. W. Bush. He handed me a well-crafted opinion piece and asked me to publish it. I did – at the top of page 1 of the Glendale News-Press.

Soon, the 30-year-old Rogan was being courted by Republican groups all over the area as a inspirational public speaker – and likely future candidate for political office. The article caught the eye of his hero, Ronald Reagan, who met Rogan and wrote him a thoughtful and encouraging letter.

It wasn't long before Rogan was the new Republican assemblyman, representing Glendale in the California Legislature. Soon he was the assembly minority leader, and then on his way to the U.S. House of Representatives.

What I didn't know until I read his book was that long before I had met him, Rogan had been persuaded to go to law school and pursue a political career by someone then serving as governor of Arkansas – Bill Clinton.

In 1999, Rogan served as one of 13 House managers who prosecuted President Bill Clinton in his impeachment trial before the U.S. Senate.

Rogan had been warned not even to vote for impeachment in the House because of the way his congressional district tilted Democratic. It included areas populated by Hollywood stars and entertainment industry moguls who loved Clinton. Overall the district opposed impeachment by 75 percent.

But Rogan not only voted his conscience, he volunteered to take on the high-profile impeachment manager job – all but ensuring his own political demise as a congressman, a job he had coveted from the time he was about 7.

Rogan is a rarity in my experience – a gutsy, principled man of conviction in the world of politics.

I read many books. I publish a fair number. I wish this was one I had published. It is not. But this is a book I thoroughly enjoyed reading. I would have enjoyed it just as much if I did not know Rogan personally. It's inspiring. It's well-written. It's ironic. It's funny. It's entertaining. It's thoroughly uplifting.

I thoroughly encourage you to read this book. Pass it on to your friends. It's a book that will be appreciated by all political junkies and by those who are not.

Trust me on this: We haven't heard the last of Jim Rogan. He's in private law practice now, after serving as head of the Patent Office in the early part of the Bush administration.

This is the kind of man we need in leadership in America. If you're looking for heroes, if you're looking for leaders, if you're looking for hope, check out Jim Rogan's "Rough Edges."

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