Capitol Hill 20510
Boo, Christopher Georges and Katherine
Capitol Hill 20510 Giving good quote, stealing credit, and other tricks for turning any congressman into a media darling by Christopher Georges and Katherine Boo ood Senator Metzenbaum,...
...Actually, it’s more complicated than that...
...to get some air time...
...But that’s me reason why they’re lowly delegates in oofy hats and Pennsylvania Senator Arlen pecter is one of the most powerful men in the enate...
...But if you’re looking for the very best quote in Congress, you’ll have to turn to Youngstown, Ohio’s Rep...
...Trade bills...
...Gramm makes that role work because he has the ability to translate arcane issues into English...
...On granting $12 billion in foreign aid to the Soviet Republics: “I think it’s time fix Congress to tell the president to shove that $12 billion up his deficit...
...And the role model for that trick is Arlen Specter, the Pink Panther of the Senate...
...Consider the recent legislation pushed through the Senate by Pennsylvania Senator (and Environment and Public Works committee member) Harris Wofford aimed at reducing the massive amount of out-of-state trash being dumped in Pennsylvania...
...Defense wonk of the moment: Barbara Boxer...
...Whether it’s Gaza or the Gulf, reporters can count on Solarz to deliver exactly what they’re looking for: the stand-tough, hawkish line Which is one reason why he’s made national headlines in the last year alone on the Persian Gulf, Zaire, Cambodia, the Philippines, Pakistan, China, South Africa, New Zealand, and Hong Kong...
...Charles Schumer, another sure bet for a soundbite, was once quoted so many times in a single issue of the The New York Times (he appeared in five different stories) that an editor handed down a memo chiding the reporters...
...You can always count on Jim Leach...
...Ruth is beginning to advise the president on the budget because this must be a massive sex experiment the way the taxpayers are being treated...
...Or maybe you need a do-good consumer advocate outraged over the latest shenanigans at the FDA...
...But the personal payoff is his repeated good press in The New York Times and The Washington Post, not to mention an appearance on “Geraldo...
...Need good press for a crime prevention hearing...
...When his Benedict Arnold turn was discovered, his Democratic colleagues bounced him off the budget committee...
...Nevertheless, the thievery redounds to his credit...
...He’s the son of Peter Wyden, a journalist and writer of bestsellers like The Overweight Society and Inside the Sex Clinic...
...By illowing their example closely, you can scale le congressional ladder in a fraction of the sua1 time, and with a fraction of the legislave effort...
...Again in 1989, he was the first to announce in Beaumont, Texas, that Lamar University had won a $1.5 million hazardous waste research grant, despite being one of only eight senators to vote against that funding...
...G r a m sometimes takes it for projects he’s actually opposed...
...Less interesting to the press were the later-learned facts that his Whip’s office had a payroll of more than $750,000 and that he was paying a chauffeur $60,000 out of the public coffers...
...Too degrading for an upstanding citizen of [astings...
...PICK YOUR NICHE Of course, by the time you get to Congress you’ve probably already learned the ins and outs of shameless self-aggrandizement...
...Say you have some expertise on America’s toxic waste problem...
...Old hands don’t make that mistake...
...Forget it...
...But you have to pick the right evils to exorcise, and Gingrich leaves little to chance...
...BITE THE BIG DOGS A word of caution here: If your goal is simply to get your mug on the tube, Traficant is your man...
...But don’t be fooled by the small-town line...
...A comparison to Democratic Whip David Bonior is almost laughable: Bonior has earned himself less than 20 percent of Newt’s print haul...
...being bad...
...Gingrich’s legislative record is paltry, his efforts on behalf of his constituents virtually nonexistent...
...He’s also reeled in profiles in each of the big three: The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times...
...Well, fine...
...Get on “MacNeil-Lehrer” and hog airtime explaining that you’re actually reconsidering your stand on protectionism in the light of a new Congressional Budget Office report, and bookers will toss your card from their Rolodexes...
...This despite the fact that the senator had consistently voted against the legislation to provide the funds...
...You have to have your eye on your back with Specter,” says a staffer in one Pennsylvania congressional office, “or he’ll show up at the last minute and walk off with the glory for things you’ve spent years working on...
...it lets you wriggle out of the occasional embarrassing squeeze...
...But Gramm has managed to parlay his dull specialty into arching credibility-in the last few months he’s appeared on national news programs to discuss literally dozens of topics, from the space station to unemployment to defense spending to the Balkansin part because of his ability to launch a good, homey quote for the jaded Washington press corps...
...What exactly does this sassiness buy him...
...Michigan Rep...
...But so what...
...three each in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, the Boston Globe, New York Newsday, USA Today, and The Washington Times...
...Many of his congressional colleagues, and even some reporters, dismiss him as an “eccentric,” a “lunatic,” and a “nitwit...
...I think the rest of us have taken a real hit,” he continued charmingly, referring to criticism he’d suffered in the wake of the Clarence Thomas hearings, “and we’re going to be just fine, too...
...Or you can hop along with s down the Newt Route...
...He’s a caricature of what a legislator should be...
...While dozens of politicians Gvoked family values at the Republican Convention this summer, the one line that drew the most media attention was his: “Woody Allen‘is not having incest with his daughter...
...Gramm is respected, awe-inspiring, the very personification of power...
...But when he says, “These guys could screw up a two-car funeral procession,” a reporter’s gotta get it in...
...I didn’t come to Congress expecting to be loved,” he’s fond of saying, “and I’ve not been disappointed...
...How good is Gingrich at Position papers...
...They want politicians who can be counted on to say exactly what they’re expected to say.“All reporters have a staple list,” says Susan Rasky, former congressional correspondent for The New York Times...
...ask Capitol Hill insiders and they’ll point to his shameless swiping of credit...
...In the last two years, Specter has appeared in, or been mentioned as part of, stories more than 70 times on CNN, ABC News, and “MacNeil-Lehrer...
...Now don’t tell us it’s still nagging at you-the tedious social cost of this political self-promotion...
...We want to give them a chance to hear the qualifications of a guy who was a straight-A student...
...and review your constituents’ rambling letters about health care and education...
...And the media may cotton to a story on the mislabeling of over-the-counter drugs when your hearing hands them their story’s lede: a sweet 72-year-old woman who almost died of a hemorrhage after taking regular aspirin...
...And in 10 you could graduate to the top: the empyrean heights occupied by Texas Senator Phil Gram...
...There are few things as comforting to a reporter as being 45 minutes from deadline and running down to the speakers lobby and, thank Jesu,s, there’s Stephen Solar~,” sa ys Peter Osterlund, fornier congressional correspondent for The Baltimore Sun...
...Thanks to his followthrough, fertility clinics must now make public their success rates...
...And he’s ended up loved as much by the “Today” show as by the Tyler Daily Telegraph...
...Fortunately, Solarz knows how to treat the press that feeds him...
...The media folk want to sketch the issues in black and white with as little effort as possible...
...Who else but Pat Schroeder...
...He’ll have a GAO report, a sexy topic, a quotable witness, plenty of background material, and of course, he’ll be available himself to talk about it...
...On the budget: “I believe that Dr...
...Sure, there’s no logical reason the public should care what A1 D’Amato thinks about federal banking regulators...
...four times each in the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times...
...In a couple of years he’ll be running the country...
...When the Appropriations Committee held its mark-up on the bill, Specter was absent...
...John Dingell came to fame by tracking down $640 military toilet seats and scientific fraud, among other things, at his hearings...
...Three on the right, three on the left, three in the middle...
...Look at Ron Wyden, one of the more creative employers of the subcommittee’s special power...
...One congressional correspondent calls him a “non-stop press conference,” and that’s not far from true...
...Don’t forget the TV listings...
...He is by far the most quoted, visible member of Congress...
...One of the most dangerous places to be, with the possible exception of between a dog and his dinner,” boyfriend had forced her into her career at gunpoint...
...But if the technique has won the senator the resentment of a few colleagues, it’s also earned him a library of positive press clips...
...Yet in the last decade a new wave of congressmen has discovered that Hollywood stars get almost as much attention as sinister, self-aggrandizing autocrats-and they take a lot less work to get...
...In recent months he’s called the Democratic leadership “sick” and its past three speakers “a trio of muggers...
...He’s mastered a niche, given good quote, attacked the Democratic Goliaths, blustered his way out of scandal, held high-profile budget hearings, and swiped credit from his colleagues...
...In five years you could be the next Newt Gingrich...
...You’d think by now the media would have caught on...
...Of course it is...
...Well, there’s hardly a soul out there who thinks all those Gramm ’96 lapel pins at the Republican National Convention were referring to his next Senate race...
...We’re aware we use him a lot,” admits CNN Capitol Hill producer John Roselli, “but sometimes his quotes are so good you can’t resist.’’ So good that in the Capitol, says one Hill reporter, the occasional rush to get a quote from Traficant has recently been dubbed a “Trafic-jam...
...Yet as soon as the bill was passed, Specter broke the story to the Pennsylvania press...
...Gramm can attack like a street thug...
...When the bill went to the floor, he was tied up in the Thomas hearings...
...Capitalize on anything...
...Sit down at seven and outline your position on Mexican water rights...
...Get up at five a.m...
...The nobody who arrived from Georgia 14 years ago has built his media monarchy by sinking his teeth into his betters...
...Possibly you...
...He calls those conferences about as often as the entire State Department does...
...A few hours later Solarz, who, unbeknownst to the reporter was in Syria, phoned back in the middle of the night to conduct the interview...
...Have it your way...
...There’s hi1 Gramm, claiming credit for a project he :tually voted against...
...Specter used the logic that a probe of Mengele was crucial to the issue as Mengeb: had been accused of conducting experiments on children...
...Similarly, his perk-busting campaign drew minutes of air time on CNN and the networks, as well as headlines like The Houston Chronicle’s “Foley Promises Reforms in House...
...Although the media sketches him as a true believer-“As a Guerrilla or a General, Gingrich Has a Mission” says The New York Times-when Gingrich chooses an issue, he’s a lot more likely to chat with a pollster than with the Lord...
...Of course, Gramm’s paid a price for his stunning solicitation of the press...
...Need the line on enterprise zones from a progressive Republican...
...Some of this is obviously related to Anita Hill, but it’s still remarkable compared to most other senators who share his approximate rank-such as South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle (3 mentions) or Nebraska Senator James Exon (5 mentions...
...He was referred to or quoted in six different stories (plus a photo) in The Washington Post...
...And his role was cast in stone: Congress’s straight-talking wizard of the budget...
...If mediamongering were an Olympic event, Gramm would be a decathlete...
...Having a role counts for a lot when you’re trying know exactly where he stands, just in case they want to quote him...
...Within the last few months Specter has offered nationally televised opinions on topics ranging from congressional ineptitude and the transfer of weapons technology to foreign nations to the Gulf war and the nomination of Robert Gates...
...Chances are that if you put this magazine down right now and checked your local paper, you’d find Gramm’s name there somewhere...
...Ask Republican Whip and Georgia Rep...
...Stephen Solarz used hearings to expose the shocking truth about Imelda Marcos’s 3,000 pairs of shoes...
...For instance, “Nightline” will need to ring up a hawkish, pro-Israel politician every couple of weeks...
...He’s one I don’t take seriously,” says one veteran Hill print reporter of Traficant...
...During the Robert Bork nomination hearings of 1987, he put Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden into place with this zinger: “The American people know what the people who cheated in college think...
...Three days later, Specter reaped huge press coverage when, with cameras rolling, he outlined in great detail a plan of action that he personally would demand that EPA undertake...
...There’s Jim Traficant, ding his colleagues a bunch of prostitutes...
...By 10, when you’re ready to take a break, you can still catch Newt on Oprah...
...It’s tough to admit that no one cares a whit about your insights into the trade deficit...
...And don’t worry: Solarz is accessible, and then some...
...It was Senator Fritz Hollings who was the prime player on the recent $279 million increase for cancer research (Senate insiders say Specter served mostly as spectator...
...Specter’s “plan,” of course, was lifted from EPA’s original memo...
...Newt Gingrichpick the fattest, most powerful targets, and then attack your way to the top...
...a front and center Washington Post Style section article headlined “Wild Man on the Hill: Ohio’s ‘Teflon Congressman’ Making His Presence Felt...
...For instance, Gingrich came out swinging against pernicious congressional check bouncers, perk-mongers, and abusers of the franking privilege (which allows congressmen to send free mail to their districts) despite the fact that he’s guilty of each himself...
...Joe Biden brings in scarred model Marla Hanson...
...Defense wonk emeritus: Les Aspin...
...Above all, the pros don’t let tedious committee appointments discourage them...
...For many veteran members, the sensationalized subcommittee hearing has done the trick quite nicely...
...You’ve got to convey your predictable positionsorry, Pete Domenici-without putting the reporter or producer to sleep...
...and there is a national data bank to track physicians with a history of misconduct or malpractice...
...Is it worth it, elbowing your way onto “Nightline,” wallowing in the hype, stealing credit...
...Ask the average American to describe the secondterm senator and you’ll hear something about his shameless questioning of Anita Hill...
...You’ve got to learn the high art of the Outrageous Quote...
...The first rule of congressional media mongering is a lot like the first rule of the Boy Scouts: Be prepared...
...Is it worth it...
...The one and only Robert Dornan...
...While Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, for example, was quoted or cited in just over 2,000 stones in 150 of the nation’s largest papers and magazines, Gingrich has appeared in more than 6,000 pieces during the past three years...
...Make you long for the days when ongressmen worried more about Big Quesons than Good Hair...
...EIZET HE MOMENT To most of the delegates sitting nearby on ie first day of this summer’s Republican Na.onal Convention, it simply looked like an acident: A camera light stand tipped over, rashed onto the head of a woman seated nearly, and knocked her unconscious...
...So let’s move on to Rule Number 2: Pick your niche and stick with it...
...Yet the rep understands that while the breaking story gets the page-one headlines, detailed follow-ups naming names and citing numbers get buried...
...He only has been a non-father because they have been a non-family...
...Since then, he’s made it his life-and his media niche-learning anything and everything he could about it...
...A Democratic congressman at the time, Gramm was granted a budget committee seat by Speaker Jim Wright...
...But some roles will get you GIVE GOODQ UOTE more play than others...
...To sustain the good press, most newcomers, unhappily, will have to do something...
...No, not self-respect-just the everlasting resentment of most of the Texas delegation...
...His biggest legislative success as been a bill commemorating the invasion f Grenada...
...A liberal to plead for federal child care...
...Staffers say they’ve taken to writing press releases days in advance of expected announcements of new federal funds just to be able to react as quickly as Specter...
...Let no opportunity slip away...
...Yes, claiming as your own some tiny speck on the issues map involves something you may not have a lot of-humility...
...While Specter takes credit for keeping trash out, he’s even more brilliant at grabbing credit for pork coming in...
...Still, Wyden’s hearings helped...
...Well, grow up, son...
...He recently attached one to a family planning bill...
...From a Washington insider...
...After Rep...
...When it went to the conference committee, he made an appearance but didn’t utter a word in support of the breast cancer provisions...
...Medigap fraud has been brought under control...
...Instead, he repackaged the story as that of a young idealist taking on sleek liberal bosses intent on wasteful government spending...
...The defense wonk of the future...
...Turning to the camera, he reported that the woman “had taken a real hit . . . but is going to be fine...
...Department of Education grants to public libraries in Texas in 1989...
...A conservative geared up to gaybash...
...Reporters’ Rolodexes encompass countless ideological/attitudinal subcategories, ready to be mined for a quote...
...And this without holding press conferences, without a leadership position, without using headlinegrabbing hearings, in fact, without using anything except his mouth...
...Specter’s campaign ads say, and the press repeats, that he’s a force behind increased federal funding for breast cancer research-an important facet of his effort to woo women voters after the Hill-Thomas fiasco...
...But Wydeii knows how to pick his targets...
...Sure, Gingrich was called onto the carpet by Republican colleagues for that whopper, but the next day his oneliner was the lead political story in the Atlanta papers, even though Bush had been in the state the previous day...
...The New York Times will need that position every other day...
...Newcomers may think the: sexy angle has to be relevant to the substantive issue being explored...
...But Gramm didn’t crawl away...
...Gramm carved his niche back in 1983, when he turned what could have been political suicide into the publicity coup of his career...
...His hearings are one-stop shopping,” explains a Hill reporter who covlxs health-related issues...
...But when he drew a seat on Foreign Affairs, he immediately took off for a 20-day tour of the Middle East...
...For instance, when Gingrich took on the frankers, the press lapped it up: “Gingrich Seeks to Seize Reform Label” was the headline over one New York Times story that pointed to his anti-franking effort...
...That must be marijuana because President Bush seems stoned...
...And who noticed the later story reporting that he was guilty of sending out twice as much franked mail as any congressman from his state...
...Finally in 1989, when a House-Senate budget conference approved the $12 million pork, Specter was the first to call a press conference to herald the news...
...You have to make your own...
...And for you, there’s really no hoice...
...To promote child abuse prevention, he hauls out Oprah...
...A1 D’Amato...
...More national media publicity in the last four years than Kentucky’s Rep...
...And as an author of Gramm-Rudman, he has a right to offer nationally televised opinions on the nation’s economy...
...But after Gramm attended the closed-door Democratic caucus sessions, he’d sneak over to the White House to share the details with Reagan budget director David Stockman...
...Rather, Gingrich’s lesson for newcomers is that if you throw enough stones at enough important people, they’ll be so busy dodging, your house will be left alone...
...he seems like he’s been around forever...
...Gingrich Rips Dems...
...When Solarz first showed up in Washington in 1974 as a congressman from Brooklyn, his notion of foreign turmoil was a shooting in the Bronx...
...Natcher, for one, has gotten in the last 40...
...Nor is Specter shy about swiping credit from the executive branch: A few hours after deadly toxins were found in railyards just outside of Philadelphia a few years back, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) dashed off a memo to all members of the Pennsylvania congressional delegation outlining a step-by-step cleanup program, complete with dates and places of action...
...Specter not long ago packed a subcommittee room by holding hearings on Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele, to probe, of all things, the failings of the juvenile justice system...
...And you’ll be back in Hastings...
...You’re ready for the next level: using the media to accumulate real power...
...About the only things he sponsors are “Buy American” amendments, which he slaps on any legislation that comes near him...
...H o L D S EN SAT I o N AL I z E D H EAR I N G s Still, to be a real mover and shaker, most newcomers will have to dip into something substantive...
...Fortunately for the newcomer, though, there are categories within these subcategories...
...The Washington press lapped it up, portraying Gramm as a martyr...
...Who remembers he’s a mere secondterm senator from College Station...
...otherwise you wouldn’t be here...
...Under the guise 01’ ferreting out cormption, Gingrich has gone after House Speaker Thomas Foley (helping propagate the rumor that Foley is a homosexual), Barney Frank, and, in his grandest coup, former Speaker Jim Wright...
...And in Gingrich’s case, soundbite seems the right word...
...His is not leadership by example,” says Georgia Republican operative Jim Lovejoy, “but by soundbite...
...Yet the most critical skill of a media-successful congressman is the ability to be stunningly predictable in a limited area of study, because that’s what the deadline media demand...
...New York Rep...
...four pieces (plus a photo) in The New York Times...
...Well, not just his mouth: Traficant also boasts a catchy visual...
...or years these trailblazers have been lighting our path to positive Washington press...
...Capitol Hill 20510 Giving good quote, stealing credit, and other tricks for turning any congressman into a media darling by Christopher Georges and Katherine Boo ood Senator Metzenbaum, conducting self:wing press conference number 999...
...Porn stars, as it happens, are doubly effective...
...Gramm Announces Texas Library Grant Awards” was the headline over a story in a Comfort, Texas, newspaper announcing $7.2 million in U.S...
...On the trade deficit: “We have a trade crisis ahead that will make the ‘29 crash look like a fender bender, and for all those who keep making light of it, in about 10 years, you try and eat your Toyota...
...On President Bush: “Those are not roses near the White House...
...One July 1992 report went so far as to label the reform “Specter’s proposal...
...You can lose sleep drafting arcane bills iat, if you’re lucky, will be featured in The :rookings Review...
...Of course, like his dad, Ron sometimes overstates it, as when he took on companies that advertise junk observes Bob-McCarson, a press official for the campaign of Lynn Yeakel, Specter’s opponent in this year’s Senate race in Pennsylvania, “is between Specter and a TV camera...
...Take August 20, 1992, two days after Gramm delivered his address at the Republican convention...
...And in 1992, he’s appeared on, or been mentioned as part of, more TV stories (15 1) on ABC, CNN, and “MacNeil-Lehrer” than either Mitchell (95) or Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (1 39...
...There was the glowing profile on “60 Minutes...
...One reporter recalls phoning the rep for a routine quote and leaving a message with his office...
...So why has Traficant garnered mare network air time BE NICET O GUYS WITH NOTEBOOKS than most of Ohio’s House deleg- ation combined...
...Most human beings are aware of the maxim about glass houses,” says Rick Allen, a political analyst with CNN, “but not Newt...
...Think again...
...From his outpost at the Small Business subcommittee, he’s built a specialty in consumer and health-related issues-classic do-good Democrat territory...
...The smart mediamonger will latch on to a big, recurring topic-one he can ride again and again (look, no homework) into fame...
...His favorite material is polyester, his favorite style bell bottoms with skinny ties...
...But knowledge isn’t enough...
...Just ask Newt Gingrich, whose ame has been bandied about as a candidate )r speaker of the House if the Republicans ?in a majority...
...He switched his party, resigned his seat, and then rewon it in a special election...
...See you on local access cable...
...What do you mean you can’t shake the feeling that, instead of holding sensationalist hearings, stealing credit from your colleagues, and performing irrelevant publicity stunts, you could be doing something, anything, to fix America...
...a giant killer...
...STEAL CREDIT Still, it’s the rare creature who can accrue power while accomplishing so little...
...One reason Wyden can get the most out of reporters is that he knows how they think...
...As Lovejoy tells it, Gingrich follows “the 80-20 system”: When poll results show that at least 80 percent of those surveyed line up on one side of an issue, you run with it...
...And watch him carefully, son...
...Vic Fazio...
...Medicaid now covers senior citizens who wish to receive nursing care at home rather than at an institution...
...Wofford’s staff had no contact with him in drafting the legislation...
...He also appeared on CNN, National Public Radio, and ABC News-and even in the Japanese Economic Review...
...Specter hit the media jackpot-newspaper headlines like “Sex Offenders Cite Pornography’s Influence” and “Ex-Porn Actress Wants Movie Suit Law,” plus prime-time TV spots...
...James Traficant...
...Oregon’s Ron Wyden is your man...
...Or rather, they’ll have to look like they’re doing something...
...Specter is so fast at stealing credit that he’s changed the way the rest of the Pennsylvania delegation does its own PR...
...Perhaps Specter meant an invisible force...
...Slim-Fast and the rest of the $33 billionayear quick-fix diet industry may not be a national scourge, but it will get you national press...
...But too many off-the-wall comments can remove you from the political map...
...As a freshman, he lobbied for an assignment on either the Ways and Means or Appropriations Committees...
...When Specter sponsored hearings on child pornography, he dredged up an (adult) porn princess to testify that her food during Saturday morning cartoon hours, arguing that the sweetened cereals are a “potentially deadly mix of sugar and fat...
...He’s got a history of legal and ethical problems...
...When the nets need a white-hatted consumer crusader, who better than the guy who took on Slim-Fast...
...Gingrich’s grenades have been flying ever since...
...An aptitude for the grand slam doesn’t just get you power...
...Which leaves a guy like Stephen Solarz-our man on Israelsitting pretty...
...His ceaseless flow of op-ed’s and press releases lets the entire Washington media Listen...
...After O’Neill reacted to a Gingrich attack on contra aid as “the lowest thing I’ve ever seen in my 32 years in Congre,ss,” the press suddenly noticed little Newt and started to quote him...
...If you’re a reporter or booker in Washington, you’ve probably had 225-2361 committed to memory for years...
...lost modem congressmen feel about the meia the way teenagers feel about sex: Once iey’ve recognized the possibilities, there’s no oing back...
...How does he do it...
...Another favorite: “I do the Lord’s work in the Devil’s city...
...Yet if predictability breeds airtime, it’s not enough...
...Specter was not on the committee...
...By the time the TV cameras focused, #pecter was kneeling beside her, applying an ice-filled table napkin to her wound, andyes!offering the television audience a sound bite...
...It’s shorter, and a eck of a lot more fun...
...He steals like a street urchin, too-and not just credit for laws he’s had nothing to do with...
...Unfortunately, most Washington media opportunities won’t hit you, or anyone else, in the head...
...But it wasn’t always that way...
...RELAX AND ENJOY IT Still, you’re thinking, it all seems just a little too sleazy...
...Joe McDade had lobbied for three years to bring a federally funded railroad museum to Scranton, the House approved funding, only to have it cut out in the Senate...
...In fact, it was in waging a personal battle in 1984 with Tip O’Neill that the lowly threeterm congressman from Jonesboro first made his name a...
...recent appearances on “Crossfire,” “MacNeilLehrer,” and “ABC News with David Brinkley,” two entire “Donahue” segments where he was permitted to rant on any topic he wished, and, of course, a regular diet of soundbites on the networks, especially “Fox Morning News...
...But none of that keeps him off the air...
...His legislative record is anorexic...
...From a man 0’ the people...
...lead to 14 pieces of legislation in 1990 alone...
...You, on the other hand, want to be taken seriously...
Vol. 24 • October 1992 • No. 10
