On the Record

What got kicked in the keyster November 6? Answer: Radical chic ‘90. Hollywood/TV libs gave their all to two major crusades: to beat Jesse Helms, and to pass Big Green, California’s Proposition 128. They struck out on both. Supporting Helms’s opponent Harvey Gantt in person and with cash were: Bill Cosby, Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward, Gregory Peck, Norman Lear, Christopher Reeve, among many others. And Robin Williams, whose tasteful contribution included calling Senator Helms a “brain-dead bastard.” Every major paper in North Carolina endorsed Gantt, who wound up trailing Helms by six percentage points. Helms made a belated appearance at campaign headquarters election night, explaining: “I’m late because I’ve been watching the grieving face of Dan Rather.” Norman Lear was also a major financial supporter ($16,000) of Tom Hayden’s Big Green, as were Olivia Newton-John, Neil Simon, Herb Alpert, Jeff Bridges, Danny DeVito. Meryl Streep’s Mothers and Others for a Livable Planet helped raise $150,000 to promote Proposition 128. But it was not to be, as the Wall Street Journal commented, “[in California] Haydenites, Hollywood, and the hacks woke up in the political intensive-care ward on Wednesday.”

In Massachusetts, the man John Silber tagged as the “orange-headed WASP,” William Weld, became the first Republican governor since the early Seventies, largely because Silber scared off Democrats at the end and because Weld’s espousal of a tax rollback, which Silber opposed, hit a chord in Taxachusetts. Some 33 per cent of Massachusetts liberal Democrats voted for Weld, who also earned the endorsement of the liberal Boston Globe…. Silber, who won nomination by knocking Democratic regulars off the ticket in the primary, did as well as he did, says former Democratic National Chairman Robert Strauss, because “there’s not a single soul in the Democratic Party that excites anyone these days.”. Sen. Charles Robb (D., Va.), a leader of the moderate Democratic Leadership Council, looks at Silber’s electrifying campaign as “a wake-up call for the party… [in that it showed] an important understanding of voter alienation.”. Also in Massachusetts, GOP congressional contender John MacGovem, victim of the most negative campaign ads of the year, came within four points (48 to 52 per cent) of upsetting Democratic state chairman Rep. Chet Atkins…. In Connecticut, when the smoke cleared, it was Lowell Weicker in a squeaker. After starting out 35 per cent ahead of the opposition, Weicker beat Republican John Rowland by only two points, 40 to 38 per cent, in the three-way gubernatorial contest…. And the Democrats in Connecticut and liberals in Congress took a hit with the election of black conservative businessman Gary Franks over liberal Democratic former Congressman Toby Moffett in Rowlands’s 5th CD. Franks, who opposed Teddy Kennedy’s civil-rights bill in the campaign, should shake up the congressional Black Caucus. He will be the first black Republican to serve in Congress since 1935…. Connecticut’s Democratic Party has been bumped to Row C for the next four years, behind Weicker’s “A Connecticut Party,” and the GOP…. In New York, it was a close thing for the GOP. Conservative Party candidate Herb London came within 37,000 votes of beating Pierre Rinfret and wresting Row B from the Republicans.

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What got kicked in the keyster November 6? Answer: Radical chic ‘90. Hollywood/TV libs gave their all to two major crusades: to beat Jesse Helms, and to pass Big Green, California’s Proposition 128. They struck out on both. Supporting Helms’s opponent Harvey Gantt in person and with cash were: Bill Cosby, Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward, Gregory Peck, Norman Lear, Christopher Reeve, among many others. And Robin Williams, whose tasteful contribution included calling Senator Helms a “brain-dead bastard.” Every major paper in North Carolina endorsed Gantt, who wound up trailing Helms by six percentage points. Helms made a belated appearance at campaign headquarters election night, explaining: “I’m late because I’ve been watching the grieving face of Dan Rather.” Norman Lear was also a major financial supporter ($16,000) of Tom Hayden’s Big Green, as were Olivia Newton-John, Neil Simon, Herb Alpert, Jeff Bridges, Danny DeVito. Meryl Streep’s Mothers and Others for a Livable Planet helped raise $150,000 to promote Proposition 128. But it was not to be, as the Wall Street Journal commented, “[in California] Haydenites, Hollywood, and the hacks woke up in the political intensive-care ward on Wednesday.”

In Massachusetts, the man John Silber tagged as the “orange-headed WASP,” William Weld, became the first Republican governor since the early Seventies, largely because Silber scared off Democrats at the end and because Weld’s espousal of a tax rollback, which Silber opposed, hit a chord in Taxachusetts. Some 33 per cent of Massachusetts liberal Democrats voted for Weld, who also earned the endorsement of the liberal Boston Globe…. Silber, who won nomination by knocking Democratic regulars off the ticket in the primary, did as well as he did, says former Democratic National Chairman Robert Strauss, because “there’s not a single soul in the Democratic Party that excites anyone these days.”. Sen. Charles Robb (D., Va.), a leader of the moderate Democratic Leadership Council, looks at Silber’s electrifying campaign as “a wake-up call for the party… [in that it showed] an important understanding of voter alienation.”. Also in Massachusetts, GOP congressional contender John MacGovem, victim of the most negative campaign ads of the year, came within four points (48 to 52 per cent) of upsetting Democratic state chairman Rep. Chet Atkins…. In Connecticut, when the smoke cleared, it was Lowell Weicker in a squeaker. After starting out 35 per cent ahead of the opposition, Weicker beat Republican John Rowland by only two points, 40 to 38 per cent, in the three-way gubernatorial contest…. And the Democrats in Connecticut and liberals in Congress took a hit with the election of black conservative businessman Gary Franks over liberal Democratic former Congressman Toby Moffett in Rowlands’s 5th CD. Franks, who opposed Teddy Kennedy’s civil-rights bill in the campaign, should shake up the congressional Black Caucus. He will be the first black Republican to serve in Congress since 1935…. Connecticut’s Democratic Party has been bumped to Row C for the next four years, behind Weicker’s “A Connecticut Party,” and the GOP…. In New York, it was a close thing for the GOP. Conservative Party candidate Herb London came within 37,000 votes of beating Pierre Rinfret and wresting Row B from the Republicans.