Dear Editor
Dear Editor Muskie, Shriver, Mandel Apparently Walter R. Gordon ("Correspondents' Correspondence," NL, April 13) has a simple reaction-time test for political leadership. i have no quarrel with...
...Simon One last word on the John Simon-Baxbra Streisand-Pauline Kael mini-hoopla ("Pfennig Dreadful," NL, February 2...
...I did not get the impression she had made such a point at all...
...Nicoll is correct in his recollection that I did not personally phone his office for reaction to the Nixon message...
...The Clerk of the House was advised of these reports long before Gordon's piece appeared, and the facts were carried in the press...
...As speaker, for example, he helped pass some of the nation's strongest water pollution controls...
...Oak Park, III...
...Robert Mollen Walter R. Gordon replies: Mr...
...Nicoll accuses me of having a "simple reaction-time test for political leadership," but as a politician's aide, he should be particularly aware of the importance of press coverage to politicians, and of the press' insatiable demand for immediacy...
...2. Mr...
...The complete acceptance of the Soviet Communist party by both the Czechoslovakia Party leadership and the police implied that neither would wander very far from Soviet norms of behavior...
...Shriver himself conceded the odds were strongly against him by saying that he was considering running for Congress instead...
...I am not at all sure that the terror in early 1948 was organized by the Czechoslovak Secret Police...
...In response to Mr...
...Washington, D.C...
...Lubbock, Tex...
...As a result of the psychological terror which accelerated in February, this percentage decreased, and many who had formerly favored Communist positions withdrew their support...
...In fact, he is a very distinguished-looking person and...
...Miss Kael is one of the country's two truly worthwhile film critics (Simon being the other...
...Third, current polls indicate that in a Mandel-Shriver primary election, Mandel would win by a wide margin...
...The Senator's staff could have been ready to react immediately after its release, when our reporter called, and the Senator himself could have arranged for a prepared statement, or made a personal response...
...Each has a different, but very high, esthetic intelligence, devoted to the general improvement of movie quality...
...My wife and I spent 10 months of that year in Czechoslovakia, interviewing Communists and non-Communists, and found that the Communists felt the overwhelming majority of the people was against them...
...Second, Mandel is not "unphotogenic" at all...
...Evidence that the Russians were mentors for the local Party and for the police seems quite convincing...
...He and his assistant answered a number of press inquiries about the education message that day (and recall none from Gordon, incidentally) and advised reporters that Senator Muskie was unavailable for comment because he was out of town and would not have an opportunity to read the message until he returned to Washington...
...when more than 95 per cent of the people supported the Dub-cek government (according to public opinion polls...
...I also described why such committees have become an integral part of every Presidential and many congressional campaigns...
...Senator Muskie prefers to act on the basis of knowledge, not ignorance, and that preference may mark the difference between him and Mr...
...When the editors combined them into one sentence, the ideas became linked more closely than I intended...
...I do not see how I could possibly be accused of bias in favor of Shriver when I stated in the article that Mandel "has won wide respect as an effective and progressive executive...
...The absence of politicians from Washington has seldom prevented them from commenting on major events...
...The President's statement received a lengthy advance buildup, and its contents leaked all over Washington days before it was released...
...At my direction, another reporter in the Baltimore Sufi's Washington Bureau did call the Senator's office and found his staff unprepared...
...In reading Mrs...
...Mollen, I would merely note that even Governor Mandel's aides admit his two biggest political handicaps are his appearance on television and the reputation he brought to the governorship...
...Although he was indeed a legislative leader and...
...In fact, I disagree with Mastny that there was no real opposition to the Communists in early 1948, although the opposition was naive and poorly organized...
...This, however, does not solve the basic problem, which is a badlv drafted law...
...as such, gathered votes for certain bills, there was nothing "unsavory" about his activities...
...less about Marylanders...
...David Rodnick Professor of Sociology Texas Technological University...
...This should be obvious to anyone who watches one of his press conferences...
...I did wish to suggest that establishing a District of Columbia committee is a sign of the seriousness of the Senator's ambitions...
...Nothing could be farther from the truth...
...First, Gordon suggests that the Muskie Election Committee, which was formed in the District of Columbia in connection with the Senator's announced intention to seek reelection, is a "mechanism for shy, shady or awkward political angels to contribute...
...i have no quarrel with his right fo use that test for his own preferences, but i do quarrel with the inaccuracies he folded into his appraisal of Senator Muskie...
...Sterling's book...
...As long as they have a basic critical respect for each other, let the war rage on...
...A few more nails were driven into Shriver's coffin when organized labor came out for Mandel, and again when former-mayor Goodman of Baltimore announced he would no longer support Shriver in the primary race because he could not beat Mandel...
...and is obviously biased in favor of Sargent Shriver...
...Mandel does not have, nor has he ever had...
...Let me congratulate the Senator for his declared plan to report all contributions...
...Miss Kael is not, however, exempt from criticism of her criticism, and God knows she has dished out enough to expect some in return...
...Without impugning the honesty of Mr...
...Second, Gordon claimed that the Senator's "press aide had not even heard about" President Nixon's March 24 education message when the Muskie office was called for a comment, and complained that Senator Muskie was not available...
...Donald E. Nicoll Administrative Assistant to Senator Edmund S. Muskie Waller R. Gordon's article suffers from ihree deficiencies: He knows little about Marvin Mandel...
...Grfg G\L.\ssini Czech Opposition Vojtech Mastny ends his review of Claire Sterling's The Masaryk Case ("Going Beyond the Masaryk Murder," NL, March 30) by saying: "As Claire Sterling shows us, the suppression of an imaginary opposition tends to be more vicious than that of a real one...
...I like Sargent Shriver, and would support him for most elective offices, but when it comes to the governorship, Mandel wins hands down...
...The terror inaugurated in 1948 was being reintroduced in 1969 to make certain no majority opposition could be organized...
...The accusation against our press secretary is untrue...
...These facts notwithstanding...
...We wrote in our diary then that the Communists seemed to have made their converts before they came to power, not afterward...
...an "unsavory reputation as a legislative wheeler-dealer...
...Originally I had expressed these thoughts in two sentences...
...Nicoll, I still believe there is no way the press can positively verify whether 10 per cent, 90 per cent or 100 per cent of campaign contributions are reported...
...Muskie or Mr...
...A public opinion poll taken in February 1948 indicated that in a free election the Communists would receive no more than 25 per cent of the total vote...
...Baltimore, Md...
...The only time the Czech Communist party was legitimated was 1968...
...more important, is one of the few politicians today who is truly sincere...
...They should he corrected...
...Quite the contrary, I believe him to be considerably more honest than most men in politics...
...Acting in accordance with Senator Muskie's views, the Muskie Election Committee is filing complete reports on its receipts and expenditures with the Clerk of the House of Representatives, even though public disclosure is not required by law...
...First...
...In revisiting Czechoslovakia last year, both my wife and I sensed that the minority identifying with the Party had become even slimmer...
...Concerning his other points: 1. I did not wish to suggest that Senator Muskie is corrupt...
Vol. 53 • May 1970 • No. 10
