AccessMyLibrary provides FREE access to over 30 million articles from top publications available through your library.

CLEAN GENE.(The Talk of the Town)(Eugene J. McCarthy)

The New Yorker

| January 19, 2004 | Tomkins, Calvin | COPYRIGHT 2004 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)Copyright

Former Senator Eugene J. McCarthy, the paladin of the antiwar movement in the nineteen-sixties, is not encouraged by the current crop of Democratic candidates for President. Asked about them recently, in an informal conversation at his apartment at the Georgetown Retirement Residence, in Washington, D.C., he recalled that he once published an article listing the categories of people who should not be considered for the Presidency. Governors were at the top of the list. "We used to say in the Senate that if you elect a governor to the Senate it takes them six months to get over it, and if you elect them President they don't have enough time," he said. "Governors are the worst, because they're an entirely different kind of executive. Clinton tried to be the Governor of the United States. The second-worst category is Vice-Presidents, especially if they've been beaten running for the Presidency. They're compromised so badly they don't have any integrity left. My third category is ministers, or sons of ministers--Walter Mondale was the son of a Methodist minister. Generals are fourth. Alexander Haig actually complimented me on that article, but maybe he stopped reading after the first three categories. In fifth place, I put C.E.O.s, who come out of a corporate morality that is uncivil and artificial."

The Senator, who will be eighty-eight in March, looks and sounds very much the way he did in 1968, when his surprise campaign for the Presidency swept four early primaries and precipitated Lyndon Johnson's decision to withdraw from the race. He is tall and erect, with a high forehead, neatly combed white hair, and a winning smile. He had a serious operation three years ago, but he gets around on his own (with a cane), reads voraciously (Garry Wills's new book on Jefferson, "Negro President," was on the side table, along with several current magazines), and still writes articles on politics and foreign policy. "I can't stand rejection from the Times and the Washington Post anymore," he said, "so I send all my stuff to a little magazine in Minnesota called Law & Politics, which takes everything I write." These days, he writes mainly about two subjects: the evils of the two-party system and the corrupting influence of television. "The two parties both supported the Vietnam ...

Related articles from newspapers, magazines, journals, and more
Clean Gene. (Eugene McCarthy launches fourth bid for Presidency as Consumer...
Magazine article from: U.S. News & World Report June 13, 1988 700+ words
...72, former Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy cannot resist the lure of the hustings...he launched his fourth bid for the Presidency. The first came in 1968, when "Clean...Lyndon Johnson's decision not to run. McCarthy tried again as a Democrat in 1972, then...
Gene McCarthy starts 4th bid for presidency
Newspaper article from: Chicago Sun-Times June 2, 1988 700+ words
Eugene McCarthy, the former Minnesota senator who ran...Philadelphia near a sign that read, "Gene McCarthy for President," he said he would wage...tiny Consumer Party of Philadelphia. McCarthy, 72, told a small crowd that the front...
Exit Gene McCarthy.(on the right)(Eugene McCarthy)(Obituary)
Magazine article from: National Review Buckley, William F., Jr. January 30, 2006 700+ words
...THE death of Eugene McCarthy marks the end of a cycle...hallmarks. The day McCarthy died, Virginia's...his candidacy for the presidency in 2008, a claim for...nomination, let alone the presidency. McCarthy's career was dotted...
BUSH HAS HIS OWN MCCARTHY
Newspaper article from: The Boston Globe Robert Healy June 15, 1989 700+ words
...Dwight Eisenhower disliked McCarthy, but he tolerated him in his early presidency. After all, McCarthy had roughed up the Democrats...keep his show alive, McCarthy attacked the biggest game in town, the presidency. A president did not...
Top Teamster Rips Presser As `Schemer'; McCarthy Denies Dealings With Mob
Newspaper article from: The Washington Post Frank Swoboda April 5, 1989 700+ words
...president at the time. Presser turned down McCarthy for the job, appointing Weldon Mathis instead. McCarthy defeated Mathis for the union presidency by a single vote after Presser died last year. As McCarthy recounted the story of his unsuccessful...
Pennichuck's Interim CEO to Return to Collegiate World; CEO Hannah M. McCarthy...
Press release article from: Business Wire August 11, 2006 700+ words
...Pennichuck at the end of August. McCarthy will continue to serve as...it is not finalized before McCarthy's departure, a new interim...by the board. The college presidency is a role for which McCarthy is well suited, having served...
The changing landscape of violence in Cormac McCarthy's Early Novels and the...
Magazine article from: The Southern Literary Journal Brewton, Vince September 22, 2004 700+ words
...correlations between the work of McCarthy's two major periods on the...exists between the novels of McCarthy's first period and the era...best evoked by the Reagan presidency and the Gulf War with Iraq...The correspondences between McCarthy's work and his times are...
Eugene McCarthy.(Eugene McCarthy, a maverick presidential candidate)(Obituary)
Magazine article from: The Economist (US) December 17, 2005 700+ words
Eugene Joseph McCarthy, a maverick presidential...10th, aged 89 WHEN Eugene McCarthy was making his first and most famous attempt on the presidency, in 1968, he was often...that it was not true. Mr McCarthy's peculiar political...
For more facts and information, see all results
©2009 Gale, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
About us | FAQs | Contact us | Privacy policy | Terms and conditions
Other Gale sites: Encyclopedia.com | HighBeam Research | Acquire Content | Books & Authors | Goliath | MovieRetriever | Smart QandA