The Boston Phoenix
March 19 - 26, 1998

[Don't Quote Me]

Forgotten man

The media's obsession with scandal helped derail Joe Kennedy's political ambitions. But by the time he pulled out, he was yesterday's news.

Don't Quote Me by Dan Kennedy

Joe Kennedy was on CNN Late Edition to talk about why he'd decided to leave Congress, and Wolf Blitzer indulged him briefly. But Jesus Christ. Kathleen Willey's 60 Minutes interview was just seven hours away, and it was all anyone in Washington could think about. Blitzer let Kennedy prattle on for a few minutes, then put it to him: So, what about this Willey stuff? Huh? Huh?

Kennedy filibustered a bit before replying: "I think that Mrs. Clinton has sent the whole country a signal that somehow she and her husband have found a way to work this out between them."

Good grief. Lucky for Joe that he'd already said he didn't have "any idea of what the nature of the latest allegations are." Blitzer was visibly relieved to get him out of there. Right after the break it was back to business as usual, with Patricia Ireland talking about fondled breasts and presidential erections, and James Carville going off on a gonzo riff. "There's been more money spent investigating the sex life of the president than investigating TWA 800 -- killed 232 people," Carville squealed before bursting into laughter at his own bullshit. Blitzer laughed too. Much better.

Who would have guessed?


Joe Q. Public


In 1997, the Kennedys were the media's prime target, and not just locally. The national press, from the prestigious (the New York Times, Newsweek, and 60 Minutes) to the ridiculous (Extra, Hard Copy, and the supermarket tabs), couldn't get enough of them. And no one took it on the chin more than Joe. His ex-wife accused him of verbally abusing her. Reporters demanded to be told how much he knew about Michael and the babysitter, and what he tried to do about it. He was dissed when he tried to apologize at the Democratic state convention. He was criticized when one of his sons was hurt playing with fireworks. He was mocked when John-John, in a particularly addle-brained essay in his magazine, George, called him and Michael "poster boys for bad behavior."

It got so bad that Kennedy pulled out of the governor's race. But the media heat wasn't really lowered until December 31, when Michael was killed in a skiing accident, bringing a year of scandal to a tragic conclusion. Three weeks later, the world was introduced to a young woman named Monica Lewinsky, and the Kennedys officially became last year's scandal.

So when Joe made his surprise announcement last Friday, it hardly created a ripple outside of Massachusetts. Sure, he got a mention on that evening's network newscasts. (On MSNBC, which has more time to fill than the broadcast programs do, anchor Brian Williams bantered with the Boston Globe's Chris Black, to little effect.) Kennedy also made the front page (barely) of the New York Times. But the Washington Post relegated his decision to page A2, the news magazines ran briefs, and the New York Post buried him inside, blowing out its Saturday cover with PREZ MADE ME TOUCH HIM and NUDE DICAPRIO PIX FUROR.

The media had the Willeys, and Kennedy was treated like just another congressman -- albeit better known than most -- who'd grown sick of politics, sick of the scrutiny, sick of the constant demands. "A member of the House is one-435th of one-half of one of the three branches of government," lectured George Will on This Week with Sam and Cokie. "It is not miraculous or a character flaw [that Kennedy has decided to leave]. He wants to do something else with his life."

Thus the Boston media were able to enjoy this particular Kennedy orgy all by themselves.

The local newscasts chewed up plenty of minutes on Friday evening, but it was clearly a struggle for any of them to go much beyond Kennedy's simple announcement. On New England Cable News's NewsNight, Globe columnist and business consultant John Ellis, a roommate of Kennedy's at Milton Academy, opined, "I think it's good for Joe." Right. On WCVB-TV (Channel 5), treacly music played over sepia-toned footage of Robert Kennedy's funeral, while Clark Booth said of RFK's eldest son, "There was always reason to wonder whether he always had his heart in it." On WLVI-TV (Channel 56), there was the year-old video of Joe saying "I'm so very sorry" once again, while Jon Keller intoned, "And, he might have added, so very burned out on public life."

Even though none of this was particularly startling, the TV newscasts all did a competent job of running through the basics: Kennedy's withdrawal from politics, and the year of scandal that led up to it; his future political prospects, especially his continued interest in running for governor someday; and the unexpected race for his soon-to-be-vacated congressional seat.

Which meant that the Globe and the Herald had to emulate the sports pages, offering commentary and analysis on events with which even the most casual news consumer was already familiar.

For my money, the Herald beat the Globe on Saturday and again on Sunday, with crisper execution (the Saturday chart of congressional hopefuls was especially good -- but couldn't anyone find a photo of city councilor Tom Keane?), more forward-looking think pieces, and more creative opinion-mongering. The Herald even beat the Globe by a full day in offering an examination of Citizens Energy Corporation, the fuel-assistance company that Kennedy founded and will return to running full-time after he leaves Congress, at the end of the year.

It's not that there was anything wrong with the way the Globe covered Kennedy's announcement. Overall, though, the paper lacked the Herald's energy while not really adding much in the way of depth or authority. Consider the commentary. On Saturday, Washington bureau chief David Shribman and Boston-based political columnist Brian Mooney adopted an elegiac, end-of-an-era tone, which continued the next day when the paper's Knights of Camelot, Mike Barnicle (a former RFK aide), David Nyhan, and Tom Oliphant all weighed in. Indeed, Shribman's theme -- that "the tragedies that have followed the Kennedys . . . have removed the shimmer of glamour from the family, stripping away its romance and, most important, its sense of destiny" -- set the tone for all of the Globe's coverage.

By contrast, Herald political columnist Wayne Woodlief on Saturday offered a sharp, future-directed piece of analysis. Though Woodlief was hardly alone in observing that Kennedy would still like to run for governor, he took that thought a logical step forward, writing that his leaving Congress "may represent a silent bet" that Acting Governor Paul Cellucci will win the election this November. Kennedy's role, should such a scenario play out: "shadow governor for the next four years." (Too bad Woodlief repeated his Saturday column, only at much greater length, on Sunday.)

Also on target Saturday was Jack Meyers, who recalled Kennedy's onetime designation as "one of the 10 dumbest members of Congress," but who also dredged up a 1988 incident that helps explain Kennedy's enduring appeal: a shouting match he had with a British soldier in Northern Ireland after Kennedy thought he heard the soldier swear at a priest. And Andrew Miga recalled Kennedy's impatiently toying with a football in his office two months ago, fuming, "I just don't know what the hell we're doing here" -- an anecdote that said much about the mindset behind Friday's announcement.

The Herald's only turkey was Howie Carr's sneering farewell to Kennedy, whom he'd dubbed the "Wizard of Uhs" years ago for his tongue-tangled verbal style. Carr's take -- that Kennedy was lusting after the $600,000 salary Michael had paid himself to run Citizens Energy -- was a tone-deaf interpretation of what struck just about everyone else, regardless of ideology, as a reasonably high-minded act. The Herald's Margery Eagan got it right on Sunday in a column in which she contrasted Joe Kennedy's willingness to take the heat with Bill and Hillary Clinton's willingness to blame anyone but themselves.

The Globe's best article was a Michael Kranish report that led the paper on Sunday. Headlined CONGRESS IN THE MIDST OF EXODUS, the story described the migration from Capitol Hill that Kennedy has now joined. Kennedy, Kranish wrote, "will leave behind an increasingly fractured Congress where turnover has become the norm and term limits are self-imposed." Add to that the New York Times' Sunday piece, by Richard Berke, on rising young politicians who won't even run in the first place, and a rather disturbing picture emerges of a future Congress that will make Newt, Armey, et al. look like statesmen.

In a hilarious essay in Slate, written after Representative Bill Paxon (R-New York) announced his retirement but before Kennedy pulled out, Jack Shafer mocked politicians -- and others -- who say they're getting out of the rat race in order to spend more time with their families. "Many tender the family alibi because they're ashamed of having been fired, or embarrassed to admit that they've conceded defeat to the god of success (Paxon's case, I'm sure), or because they're going nuts on the job," Shafer wrote.

No doubt that's true of many, and it may especially be applicable to Paxon, who probably counted heads and concluded that his dream of becoming House Speaker would forever remain unfulfilled. And Kennedy has made it clear that Shafer's "nuts on the job" category applies to him. But on Friday and since, he has also spoken with what appears to be genuine emotion about wanting to spend more time with his twin sons, who, at 16, are a year older than he was when his own father was killed.

Back on the set of CNN Late Edition, Kennedy was trying to explain that to Wolf Blitzer -- with uncertain syntax, but unquestioned feeling.

"I mean, I have been away from my sons for most of their life," he said. "I've either been in Washington -- you go out raising money, or you go out campaigning for others or campaigning for yourself. And it just means that from time to time, I think it's good and healthy for everyone to kind of take a deep breath and get some perspective on where they're headed."

It was an important message, even a moving one. But at that moment, you just knew Blitzer wished someone else were sitting across from him. Hell, at that point he'd probably have settled for William Ginsburg. This was no time for uplift. The beast was hungry, and it needed to be fed.


Dan Kennedy's work can be accessed from his Web site: http://www.shore.net/~dkennedy


Dan Kennedy can be reached at dkennedy[a]phx.com


Articles from July 24, 1997 & before can be accessed here


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