If South Side Congressman Charlie Hayes wants a scapegoat for his primary loss last week, there`s always Jim Glassman, a Harvard man who lives 700 miles east of the district.
Glassman, 45, is editor of Roll Call, an obscure twice-weekly newspaper that broke word of what became the House bank mess. But Glassman is now somewhat bemused by the tale`s Godzilla impact.
Hayes` defeat is partly attributable to the late disclosure of his 716 overdrafts. The campaign between him and Ald. Bobby Rush (2nd), the former Black Panther, then accelerated down its issues-filled path. Voters could choose between a check bouncer (Hayes) and a rival who went for about a decade skipping child-support payments (Rush).
Started in 1955, Roll Call is a 14,000-circulation insider`s paper on Congress that`s free to 10,000 folks on Capitol Hill but paid for by others, including journalists, lawyers, lobbyists and assorted political junkies.
A 30-employee operation, it was rather snoozy editorially until its purchase in 1986 by New York`s Arthur Levitt, a savvy fellow who`s former head of major brokerage firms and the American Stock Exchange. He chose Glassman, who had ample big-time journalism experience, and Glassman`s wife, Mary, as editor and publisher, respectively. They`ve done well.
It`s a place for aggressive youngsters to immerse themselves in the minutiae that more-senior Washington reporters tend to find grubby. (Hey, how about term limits for Washington reporters, especially talk-show guests?)
A typical media subscriber might be Sara Fritz, who covered Capitol Hill and now covers money and politics for the Los Angeles Times` Washington bureau. She finds Roll Call a must and says she has it delivered at home just to get an early line on good stories.
Roll Call`s first mention of the House bank came in 1988, when, get this, it reported that 11 Democratic freshmen senators, all former House members, wanted the Senate to have a bank just like the House`s! The headline:
”Senators want bank that`s all their own-like in the House, with no cash reports to IRS, no charges for bounced checks.”
On Feb. 12, 1990, Roll Call`s Tim Burger, 26, who covers administrative matters, got an annual General Accounting Office audit of the bank that noted the existence of overdrafts. This wasn`t a good thing, the audit found, but there was no ”material deficiency,” or loss to the government.
The Washington Post picked up Burger`s Page 3 report in a Feb. 21 account. The Post`s Page 19 story focused on small changes in the bank`s overdraft policy. The whole subject then dissipated into the media ionosphere. Burger knew that the next audit would be more specific. When it was done, he got a copy and wrote a story, published Sept. 19, 1991, that disclosed more than 8,000 overdrafts.
It obviously was a Page 1 story for Roll Call. But the Sept. 20 Washington Post ran it on Page 25, with the headline ”Guess Who Bounced 8,331 Checks in One Year?”
”I thought the Post played the story about right,” says Glassman, managing editor of the Harvard Crimson before heading to a career that has included editing a Cape Cod paper, starting an alternative weekly in New Orleans called Figaro, and holding top executive, editing and writing jobs at New Republic, Atlantic Monthly and U.S. News & World Report.
He says he figured the bank saga would have significant political consequences and doesn`t deny that the mere existence of the bank was an excess. But he believes that the public has missed a lot of context.
That includes the bank saga as part of the failure of what he tags the
”Gingrich Gang” (Georgia Republican Congressman Newt Gingrich and chums)
to use institutional issues to bring down House Democrats so as to get more Republicans elected.
Then there`s the failure of the public and press to pay attention to what Congress really does (he finds the weekly news magazines especially deficient): ”To me, the most important thing about Congress is what it does legislatively. To get exercised over this (the bank), as opposed to the substance of what Congress does, borders on the criminal.”
If you crave to know the latest about the Hill without having to live nearby, Roll Call can be had for a pricey $185 for 96 issues via 900 2nd St. N.E., Suite 107, Washington, D.C. 20002.
”He (Clinton) faces a long campaign with former Massachusetts Sen. Paul Tsongas.”-Thursday`s Tribune in a story headlined ”Clinton`s march/faces obstacles.”
”Tsongas exit clears Clinton`s path”-Friday`s Tribune.
A few musings on Chicago election coverage:
– WLS-Ch. 7 and WGN-Ch. 9 were ever-competent. But the former was beset by both Hugh Hill`s sappy paeans to congressional incumbents Marty Russo and William Lipinski, expounding as if we had witnessed a Greek tragedy because one of these statesmen (Russo) had to lose a head-to-head tussle, and by Vernon Jarrett`s knee-jerk Gus Savage puffery.
– WBBM-Ch. 2, when finally liberated late in the evening from its network`s ”People`s Choice Awards,” did well, even with political reporter Mike Flannery relegated to late-inning, mopup duty. One could have done with less of the studio repartee between Channel 2 commentator Jim Edgar and Illinois Gov. Walter Jacobson, which is how it looked.
– WMAQ-Ch. 5`s Dick Kay was a rarity: a TV person with a hold on intricacies of ward and county voter turnouts. So what if his hair color changes some election nights?
– WBBM-AM 720 did well, but regrets to competitor WMAQ-AM 670`s political reporter Bill Cameron. He had to cool his heels while the station aired a Bulls-New Jersey Nets game.
– Once again, there was no shortage of TV (and newspapers) covering whites with whites, blacks with blacks, Hispanics with Hispanics on election night. Some reporters at the headquarters of Carol Braun, the upset winner in the Democratic Senate race, appeared to be joining the cheers.
– A fact missed in reporting on the race in the 4th Congressional District, the so-called Hispanic district: Even allowing for a grotesquely gerrymandered district, Hispanic turnout was miserable, as usual. The choice between Luis Gutierrez and Juan Soliz drew 57,889 voters (and probably many of those were white ethnics). By comparison, 93,960 voted in the 2nd District
(Mel Reynolds-Gus Savage), 121,120 in the 1st District (Bobby Rush-Charles Hayes) and 103,095 in the 3rd District (Lipinski-Russo). If Gutierrez makes it to Congress, one hopes he votes more often than his constituents back home.
– The world knows about losing Senate candidate Al Hofeld`s $4 million in TV ads. But on radio, during the last three days of the campaign, the biggest political advertisers on Chicago powerhouse WGN-AM 720 were judicial candidates-and they all lost, including Supreme Court wannabe John Tully. At WMAQ-AM 670, the final days` big spenders had better luck, namely Reynolds and Democratic State`s Atty. candidate Pat O`Connor.
Intramural gossip wars at the Sun-Times can be fierce:
”Sneed hears rumbles that Library Commissioner John Duff is being mentioned for the job of Columbia College president”-Michael Sneed, Dec. 4.
”COLUMBIA COLLEGE SCOOP-John Duff . . . reportedly is the choice of the Columbia College board to succeed retiring Mirron Alexandroff as president”- Irv Kupcinet, Feb. 23.
”Library Commissoner John Duff is leaving to head Columbia College . . . as per Sneed`s item Dec. 4”-Sneed, Feb. 26.
”Our report on Feb. 23 that Library Commissioner John Duff would be the next president of Columbia College was confirmed Tuesday.”-Kup, March 18.
”On Dec. 4, this column tipped the fact that Library Commissioner John Duff will head Columbia College!”-Sneed, March 20.
Enough! Let them share a Pulitzer Prize.
April Cosmopolitan has this self-promotional ad for its May issue:
”Since she signed on with `Today,` ratings have soared! The lady can do it all-chat up pols and celebs, feed a lion cub, even deal with a life-size plastic penis! Meet KATIE COURIC.”
I`ve seen Bryant Gumbel chat up pols and celebs, maybe even feed an animal.
But I guess he has his limits.
