CAPITAL BULLETINS

Gotta Have Hart

Bewitched, bothered, and bewildered—that’s Moscow’s reaction to Gary Hart’s sudden fall from electoral grace, for what Moscow papers delicately referred to (always in quotes) as his “marital infidelity.” From the tone of Soviet media coverage, Hart might well be the pride of Kazakhstan rather than Denver. In the first official Soviet dispatch on the subject (Pravda, May 9) TASS called the charges against Hart a political vendetta: “The press, radio, and television shamelessly smacked their lips over discredited rumors and conjecture about his personal life, striving at any cost to compromise Hart.” As a result of the harassment campaign, according to another TASS dispatch, “Hart’s popularity started to decline and all donations to his election fund were stopped.” Cui bono? asked the Soviet press agency. Easy: “Those who want to divert public attention from the real scandal —the U.S. secret arms sales to Iran and the unlawful aid to the Contras.”

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Gotta Have Hart

Bewitched, bothered, and bewildered—that’s Moscow’s reaction to Gary Hart’s sudden fall from electoral grace, for what Moscow papers delicately referred to (always in quotes) as his “marital infidelity.” From the tone of Soviet media coverage, Hart might well be the pride of Kazakhstan rather than Denver. In the first official Soviet dispatch on the subject (Pravda, May 9) TASS called the charges against Hart a political vendetta: “The press, radio, and television shamelessly smacked their lips over discredited rumors and conjecture about his personal life, striving at any cost to compromise Hart.” As a result of the harassment campaign, according to another TASS dispatch, “Hart’s popularity started to decline and all donations to his election fund were stopped.” Cui bono? asked the Soviet press agency. Easy: “Those who want to divert public attention from the real scandal —the U.S. secret arms sales to Iran and the unlawful aid to the Contras.”