Tuesday, June 29, 1999

"Levey Live" appears each Tuesday from noon to 1 p.m. Eastern time. It's your chance to talk directly to key Washington Post reporters and editors, local officials and people in the news.

Bob Levey Craig Cola/washingtonpost.com

Bob's guest today is The Washington Post's political columnist Mary McGrory. She joined The Post in September 1981, after working at the Boston Herald and the Washington Star, where she started as a book reviewer in 1947 and became a national commentator in 1954, when she was assigned to the Army-McCarthy hearings. McGrory received the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1975 "for trenchant commentary spread over more than 20 years as a reporter and a columnist in the nation's capital."

Mary McGrory

"I get tired sometimes, but never bored," wrote McGrory of her career. "I have never wanted to do anything but work for a newspaper."

McGrory has won awards from the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild Front Page Awards competition and the George Polk Memorial Award for national reporting in 1963. In 1973, she became a Sigma Delta Chi fellow, and in 1985, she was named the 33rd Elijah Parish Lovejoy Fellow.

Here is a transcript of today's session:

Bob Levey: To say the least, words in Washington don't mean what they mean elsewhere. Still, I continue to hoot at Clinton's concern about his "legacy." Doesn't he know that his legacy has already been determined--and it has to do with thong underwear and Altoid mints?

Mary McGrory: Bob, you may think that Clinton's legacy has been written. He obviously doesn't. This afternoon in the Rose Garden, he is going to address the country on domestic issues, on which he is determined to leave his mark. He is acting as if it were the early morning in his administration, not the late afternoon. He wants still to rewrite the lead of his obituary, which now, it seems inevitable will mention the fact that he is only the second President in our history to be impeached. The Senate and the country did not think that his distastefull affair with Monica Lewinsky and its attendant thong underwear constituted impeachable offenses. It seems to me only remotely likely that a Republican Congress would cooperate in fashioning a legacy based on much needed domestic reforms of basic programs.

Morris Plains, NJ: Isn't the gun control issue going to actually hurt, not help, democrats in congress? It seems to me that pro-gun voters are much more likely to rally their votes than anti-gun voters.

Mary McGrory: You have asked a question that many people in Washington are also asking. As you know, the country was divided after the slaughter at Columbine High School. Many in Congress, notably Senator Larry Craig of Idaho, a board member of the National Rifle Association, who led the fight against stricter gun control laws and his opposite number in the House Representative Democrat John Bingle regarded it as just another lamentable school shooting. The close vote in the Senate -- the Vice President had to be called in to break a tie -- illustrates the sharpness of the division. Polls show, however, that for a large majority of Americans, the breaking point had come. The proliferation of guns has to be faced as a major issue in our lives and the lives of our children. Posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms, as voted by the House, is not enough. I think the Democrats have the winning side of this question.

Bob Levey: You wrote recently that Al Gore is in trouble chiefly because of "a national demand for fumigation" after the Clinton scandals. How can Gore overcome this?

Mary McGrory: Bob, you've asked the question of the day. I have no idea how he separates himself from the President's private transgressions while claiming credit for the good times that are still rolling. A New York Times story recounted over the weekend how miffed the President was that his faithful partner had told Diane Sawyer, on the day of his announcement, that the President's conduct was "inexcusable." It's an excruciating problem for Gore.

Bob Levey: Is Orrin Hatch REALLY running for president? Did he stand in the sun for too long?

Mary McGrory: Bob, the weather in Washington can explain almost anything, but not Orrin Hatch's bizarre announcement. Last week, when George W. Bush came to town, a pack of reporters standing outside the meeting room asked Hatch if he is supporting the Texas Governor. His reply: "I certainly am." So check the temperature and go figure.

Fairfax,VA: I continue to hoot at newspeople who think that the the average person is more concerned about Monica than about the thriving economy. Give us some credit, please.

Mary McGrory: Dear Fairfax, my answer to you is "Who knows?" James Carville's immortal posting in the Clinton campaign war room in Little Rock, may still hold: "It's the economy, stupid." Current polls show a yearning for more decorum in the White House, an ethical cleansing, if you will, for the new century. I think it could go either way.

Bob Levey: Here's my lame attempt to write a Mary McGrory line: "In 2000, the country wants huggability in a President, not necessarily ability." All right, I'll leave McGrory-ing to McGrory. Seriously, do you agree that we live in a world of Oprah values, and that Al Gore suffers terribly as a result?

Mary McGrory: Dear Bob, please write my column anytime you want. I'm getting tired. Like everyone else except the Gore campaign staff, I think the Vice President suffers from an inability to reach people. We have had eight years of a President who periodically climbs into our laps and bids us to pity him for his sad childhood. Gore is a total change. He talks about things, not people. The best advice I think he got recently was from a rather playful Mississippi member of the House of Representatives, Gene Taylor. He told the Vice President that when he discusses the environment, he should talk about "people not eagles." Gore is associated with abstractions like global warming and aerial traffic jams, and above all, computers. So far, he hasn't connected on any emotional level. We should, perhaps, keep remembering he has time.

Mt. Rainier MD : When are we going to start hearing more about George Bush and his history in Texas? Don't know why the news media is allowing him to be so mushmouthed when there's a lot of his political background to be dug up there. [edited for space]

Mary McGrory: Dear Mt. Rainier, you are right to get after us. The press has so far failed to dig deep into George W. Bush's political and legislative background in Texas. We have been overwhelmed, it seems, by his phenomenal popularity in all sectors of his party. Expect more from us later.

Bob Levey: Can Elizabeth Dole turn it around? Can John McCain?

Mary McGrory: Bob, Elizabeth and John trail George W. Bush by enormous margins in all measurements to date. They are locked in New Hampshire polls at 11 percent, while he basks in the upper forties. As you know, McCain is the Democrats' favorite Republican candidate, but his party's establishment has no use for him. He is a boat rocker. Elizabeth Dole has a problem too, beside a husband who tells reporters he might contribute to McCain. Like McCain, she is shipwrecked in the great ocean of Bush endorsements and contributions.

Herndon, VA: Hello Ms. McGrory,

Whether you are writing about gardening, visits to Rome, or the local political scene, you are a great pleasure to read. Of all the presidents you have covered and commented on, who, in terms of leadership and actual accomplishments, is the most outstanding. Where would you rank Clinton among the group?

Mary McGrory: Dear Herndon, Thank you for your most welcome and generous comments about my work. Why did you go and spoil it with such thorny questions about presidents I have known? I admire Truman for walking so much and for talking straight so often, but I didn't like the creation of the Loyalty Program or the CIA. I admired Eisenhower for resisting intervention in Vietnam, but he wasn't much on civil rights. Kennedy did wonders through the Peace Core and for making government service attractive. But he did begin the disasterous intervention in Vietnam and he didn't live long enough to terminate it. Lyndon Johnson was a giant on civil rights, but destroyed his presidency in the Vietnam War. I found little to admire in Nixon -- I thought he was grotesquely unsuited for politics. Ronald Reagan charmed the nation, but not me. I thought Iran Contra was impeachable. What can I say about Clinton? I think he misused much of his time and his political capitol.

St. Petersburg, FL: Do you think the conflict in Kosovo and the cost that will be associated with the rebuilding will help or hurt the Democrat's

Mary McGrory: Dear St. Petersburg, Kosovo is a mess, no question about it. It's a terrible case of peace inflicting more casualties than war. I don't know if it helps the Democrats or hurts them that we went in there in the first place. I still think it was the right thing to do.

Bob Levey: That's it for today. Bushels of thanks to the one-and-only Mary McGrory. Be sure to join us next Tuesday, July 6, when we'll talk about the auto industry with Frank McCarthy, president of the National Automobile Dealers Association. And please check out the anything-goes version of our show. It's called "Levey Live: Speaking Freely." It appears on washingtonpost.com each Friday, from 1 to 2 p.m. Eastern time.

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