An era of emergence
McCarthy, Abigail
put off as he used tobe by rubber chicken banquets, the decor of Holiday Inns, and conversations with labor leaders. Suddenly Gary Hart burst on the scene. Watching a clip on the CBS news, I said...
...I am pretty darn sure that her entire family would go Democratic if she were on the ticket...
...cool...
...I don't want to say anything that would put the kibosh on my wife's nomination, but Walter Mondale would have to under- stand that she isn't going to traipse all over the country eating rubber chickens, staying in Holiday Inns, and speaking to boring labor leaders...
...Not only could Mondale just about count on the backing of several Hungarians in Maine, he might pick up the votes of some Independents...
...Then all this stuffcame out about Hart: that he didn't know his age, that he changed his name, that he imitates Teddy Kennedy at cocktail parties...
...Admittedly it wasn't flattering to say this about New Jersey the week before the primary, but I thought Walter Mondale came down just a little heavily on Gary...
...I don't know, maybe he is a finer, more caring person than Gary, who imitates Teddy Kennedy and jokes about New Jersey...
...They don't even bother with dumping in select locations...
...What he did not say, church in the world...
...All the French-Canadians have voted Democratic since 1932 and will do so again even if Donald Duck is the nominee...
...The term "Commonweal Catholic" was a term of opprobrium or a badge of moral bravery, AN ERA OF EMERGENCE depending on the point of view...
...For me, though, the crucial factor was the New Jersey quote...
...They what he did not tell us, was what it meant ades in which it was not at all certain that were still the days of fortress America Commonweal: 390...
...Gary had a problem: on the same day he had to win primaries in New Jersey and in California...
...Walter Mondaie can be a tiny bit.., pious...
...Watching a clip on the CBS news, I said to my wife, "Isn't this guy kind of...
...What about the practical effect of her becoming the vice-presidential candidate...
...I don't know what you know about New Jersey, but the place is the pits...
...Not particularly," she said...
...It's run by the Mafia, which is why it's a toxic waste dump...
...Of several minds: Abigail McCarthy the laity had that right...
...It so happens that my wife is a half-Hungarian from Maine...
...And I predict that nominating my wife could prove crucial in the swing states on election day...
...All the Yankees have farms or trust funds, and are sure to vote for Reagan...
...So he makes a joke about it...
...I know that many people remember their victory...
...So he sent his wife to California and resigned himself to working in Jersey...
...We always go for a great family clambake on Labor Day, and she'd be happy to squeeze in a couple of campaign appearances, even though it is a holiday weekend...
...Maine is full of old Yankees and French-Canadians...
...When you tote up the Hungarian bloc, and add in the Yuppies who followed that debate tournament, Mondaie would have a virtual lock on Maine...
...Maine is going to loom very large in this campaign, and I've done an in-depth study of its complex politics...
...Gary is bound to feel a little resentful...
...We would certainly be happy to travel to Maine to rally the Hungarians...
...A businessman calls the local truckers and tells them he's got a hot load, so to speak, and could the truckers get rid of it on the Q.T., if you see my meaning...
...So I would say she has certainly shown her loyalty throughout this campaign...
...ROBERT H. BELL (Robert H. Bell teaches English at Williams College...
...Gary sounds like a fun guy...
...That means that the balance of power in Maine is in the hands of the third electoral bloc, the Hungarians...
...Well, I can guarantee that nothing weird is going to pop out, the way it did when McGovern picked that senator some feared had had a frontal lobotomy...
...My wife, who is a finer, more caring person than I, wasn't at all troubled by the prissy tone with which Walter Mondale chastized Gary...
...I think a lot of that campaigning could be done from right here...
...To have chosen a life of service to and leadership ON BEING A 'COMMONWEAL CATHOLIC' of that laity, as Jim and his confreres did, l AMES O'GARA'S farewell in the March 23 issue of this journal marked the end of an era for many of the end of the era of the "Comwas to have chosen a life of dedication, voluntary poverty of a kind, persistence in the face of odds and uncertainties, a to be --as he and the other staff of life dependent on faith --a twentieth- Commonweal were in the twenties, the century vocation...
...He makes a little joke about New Jersey being one big toxic waste dump and how, on the whole, he'd rather be in Califor- nia...
...If you ask me, we could use a little more of the light touch to relieve the tedium of campaign politics...
...So I can assure you that my wife's support for Walter Mondaie remained firm, even though Gary Hart compares to me...
...Doesn't he remind you of me...
...thirties, the forties, the fifties --the It is hard to explain to those who did voice of and the connection for those not know it what life in much of the monweal Catholic" --the term he in- laity who laid claim to the right to be church in America was like in those days voked in his essay...
...Next morning the commuters on the Jersey turnpike are dodging radioactive barrels...
...My wife got a lot of publicity in high school for winning the state debate champ- ionship with her brother...
...Those were the dec- when Commonweal was young...
...I mean, isn't this a pretty cool dude...
...That's the kind of person she is...
Vol. 111 • July 1984 • No. 13
