Mary McGrory
Page 39
“The excitement in that hall”: “Recent Democratic National Conventions.”
But she also had: Mary McGrory, column, June 28, 1984.
Mary was elated by: Mary McGrory, column, July 18, 1984.
Never particularly interested: Mary McGrory, column, July 29, 1984.
In private correspondence: Mary McGrory Papers, container 8.
Mary was torn from: Mary McGrory Papers, container 165; Mary McGrory, column, December 2, 1984.
“The good news for”: Mary McGrory, column, October 4, 1984.
Reagan brought down the house: Mary McGrory, column, October 23, 1984.
In 1985, Mary became: Mary McGrory, column, March 14, 1985.
She took her fellow journalists: Christopher Reed, “Obituary: Mary McGrory: Astute Reporter of American Power and Politics,” The Guardian, April 24, 2004.
Mary became part: Gary Lee, “Gorbachev Building a Forceful Image,” Washington Post, September 3, 1985.
Mary joined a congressional delegation: Mary McGrory Papers, container 121; Mary McGrory, column, October 1, 1985.
While Gorbachev was driving: Mary McGrory, column, November 17, 1985.
Mary had no idea: Mary McGrory Papers, container 124.
Not long after returning: Mary McGrory Papers, container 124; Mary McGrory, column, April 15, 1986.
“She has an angel’s eyes”: Mary McGrory Papers, container 163.
“Where has all the passion gone?”: Mary McGrory Papers, container 163.
Congressman Tip O’Neill’s last year: Mary McGrory, columns, October 19, 1986, December 14, 1986, October 12, 1989, January 8, 1994, and November 2, 1989; McGrory, interview by Currie.
President Reagan’s grip: Mary McGrory, columns, August 13, 1985, October 14, 1986, November 11 and 27, 1986, December 4, 1986, March 15, 1987, May 5 and 12, 1987, June 7, 9, 11, 14, and 18, 1987, July 9, 14, 16, and 23, 1987, and November 18, 1987; Mary McGrory Papers, container 7; Borger, “An Inspiration Named Mary.”
“She had trouble walking”: David Corn, “The Death of Mary McGrory,” The Nation, April 23, 2004, http://www.thenation.com/blog/156084/death-mary-mcgrory.
As Mary complained: Mary McGrory, column, October 4, 1987.
On the Republican side: Mary McGrory, column, November 1, 1987.
However, Mary was incensed: Gerald Boyd, “Bush Recalls No Strong Dissent on Arms to Iran,” New York Times, January 14, 1988; Mary McGrory, columns, January 12 and 28, 1988, February 4, 1988, and April 14, 1988; “There Never Was a Formal NSC Meeting on Iran Initiative,” Washington Post, January 14, 1988; David Hoffman, “Bush Asserts Wider Doubts on Iran; Vice President Says He Voiced Concern on Sales in Others’ Presence,” Washington Post, January 14, 1988; Gailey, “Words That Emblazoned”; “Bush Getting in a Deeper Iran-Contra Hole,” St. Petersburg Times, January 15, 1988; George Lardner Jr. and Walter Pincus, “Phone Note Puts Bush Claim on Iran-Contra into Dispute,” Washington Post, August 26, 1992; “Editorial; Come Clean on Iran-contra,” Atlanta Journal and Constitution, October 24, 1992; Lionel Barber, “TV Anchorman Who Lost His Grip Lets Bush Off the Hook,” Financial Times, January 30, 1988.
Although Mary found Bush’s: Mary McGrory, column, February 18, 1988.
Dukakis’s earnestness and rectitude: Mary McGrory, column, April 21, 1988.
In April 1988: Mary McGrory, column, April 24, 1988.
He wanted to charm Mary: Mary McGrory Papers, container 76.
With Bush and Dukakis: Mary McGrory, column, July 7, 1988.
His choice of the relatively: Mary McGrory, column, July 17, 1988.
Mary tartly observed: Mary McGrory, column, August 16, 1988.
Republicans appreciated Quayle’s: Mary McGrory, columns, August 18 and 19, 1988.
“The campaign is unfolding”: Mary McGrory, column, September 11, 1988.
A flushed Quayle tried: Mary McGrory, column, October 9, 1988.
“I lost,” Dukakis admitted: Mary McGrory, columns, December 27, 1988, and December 30, 2001.
Chapter Ten: Gentleman George
Early in President George H. W. Bush’s: David Nyhan, “The Grid-Irony of a Membership Invitation,” Boston Globe, January 11, 1989; Marianne Means, “Why We Invited Richard Nixon to Dinner,” Washington Post, January 14, 1989; Mary McGrory, column, January 8, 1989; Jack Germond interview.
Mary liked President Bush: Mary McGrory, column, January 24, 1989.
In February 1989: Mary McGrory Papers, container 156.
“I feel fine, thank you”: Mary McGrory Papers, container 8.
Mary closely chronicled: Mary McGrory, columns, March 16 and 23, 1989, June 8 and 25, 1989.
Bush received a rapturous: Mary McGrory, column, July 13, 1989.
The Berlin Wall fell: Alterman, Sound and Fury, 223.
“Why did the leader”: Mary McGrory, column, November 14, 1989.
When President Bush and Ben Bradlee: Mary McGrory Papers, container 8; Alterman, source materials for Sound and Fury.
The late 1980s: Mary McGrory, columns, July 19, 1990, and April 4, 1993.
Mary continued to volunteer: Mary McGrory, columns, December 25, 1983, and March 19, 1981; Francis X. Clines, “Faith and Fatalism Mix in Security-Wary Capital,” New York Times, December 20, 1983; Donnie Radcliffe, “Fostering a Favorite; First Lady Tots It Up,” Washington Post, March 19, 1981; Josephine Murphy, interview by author, January 19, 2010; Mary McGrory, columns, December 22, 1991, September 22, 1994, February 9, 1997, January 8, 1998, February 21, 1999, and December 16, 1999; Mary McGrory Papers, containers 2, 9, 10.
“It is increasingly plain”: Mary McGrory, column, August 16, 1990.
“So far, President Bush”: Mary McGrory, column, January 22, 1991.
As Bush delivered his: Mary McGrory, column, January 31, 1991.
Some 86 percent: Mary McGrory, column, February 21, 1991.
“My patriotism is often”: Mary McGrory, “Patriotism,” The Nation, July 15, 1991, http://www.thenation.com/article/what-patriotism.
General Colin Powell was: Jacqueline Trescott, “The Postwar Media-Military Mingle,” Washington Post, March 20, 1991; President George Bush, “Remarks at the Radio-TV Correspondents Association Dinner,” March 23, 1991, http://bush41library.tamu.edu/archives/public-papers/2823; John Aloysius Farrell, “Glitz Is Masculine at Reporters’ Dinner,” Boston Globe, May 1, 1991.
“I didn’t have any great trouble”: Don Graham interview.
Mary liked Hamilton: McGrory, interview by Currie; Dowd, “A Star Columnist”; Dowd, Are Men Necessary? 130–34.
“She became more imperious”: Haynes Johnson interview.
“We became sort of partisans”: Don Graham interview.
“Everybody deferred to Mary”: Tina Toll, interview by author, July 26, 2010.
Yet when the editor: Dowd, “A Star Columnist”; Dowd, Are Men Necessary? 130–34.
“Hill defended herself”: Mary McGrory, columns, October 8 and 20, 1991.
“Nobody knows what Cuomo”: Mary McGrory, column, November 5, 1991.
“I’m not discussing anything”: Mary McGrory Papers, container 2.
“Doesn’t she know that”: Maralee Schwartz and Christopher B. Daly, “Politics, ‘Tormented Musings,’” Washington Post, November 12, 1991.
“I am convinced that”: Mary McGrory Papers, container 8.
Just before Christmas: Mary McGrory, column, December 26, 1991.
“a tall, square-shouldered”: Mary McGrory, column, February 18, 1992.
Carter told New Hampshire: Mary McGrory, column, January 26, 1992.
In mid-January: Mary McGrory, column, January 21, 1992.
“I was extremely critical”: Mary McGrory Papers, container 8.
Yet Mary was quick: Mary McGr
ory, column, March 17, 1992.
But Mary kept her: Mary McGrory, column, March 31, 1992.
“One of my boss’s constituents”: This Week with George Stephanopoulos, ABC News Transcripts, April 25, 2004.
When Stephanopoulos’s career: Al Kamen, interview by author, January 22, 2010.
“Dear George,” she wrote him: Mary McGrory Papers, container 6.
It was significant praise: Mary McGrory, column, June 7, 1992.
But Mary also spotted: Mary McGrory, column, May 7, 1992.
Gore was more conservative: Mary McGrory, column, July 12, 1992.
Mary had been unsparing: Mary McGrory, column, June 28, 1992.
Perot’s announcement meant: Mary McGrory, column, July 17, 1992.
“Closed to the public?”: Dowd, “A Star Columnist”; Dowd, Are Men Necessary? 130–34.
By the time the delegates: Mary McGrory, column, July 19, 1992.
“The Republican assembly was not”: Mary McGrory, “A Grip on the Party: Republicans Lean to the Christian Right,” Sojourners, November 14, 1992, 13–14.
“The man who served”: Mary McGrory, column, December 22, 1992.
“An ugly editorial”: Bob Woodward, “Hammered,” Washington Post, June 20, 1999.
There were leftovers available: Mary McGrory Papers, container 6.
Chapter Eleven: The Grande Dame
Arriving along with the Clinton administration: Al Kamen, “Now the Job Quest Begins in Earnest,” Washington Post, January 21, 1993; Conor O’Clery, “Neo-conservatives on the Defensive over Iraq,” Irish Times, April 24, 2004; Mary McGrory Papers, container 8.
In January 1993: Mary McGrory Papers, container 6.
Gearan recalled President Clinton: Mark Gearan, interview by author, November 17, 2009.
Clinton and the press corps: President Bill Clinton, press conference, CBS News Special Report, CBS News Transcripts, April 23, 1993.
Dubbing him “William”: Mary McGrory, column, May 20, 1993.
She compared Clinton: Mary McGrory, columns, June 1 and 17, 1993.
“I think he is”: Mary McGrory Papers, container 8.
She described his first year: Mary McGrory, column, January 20, 1997.
“It was a stupendous evening”: Mary McGrory Papers, container 165.
“The first First Lady”: Mary McGrory, column, October 2, 1993.
“He ostentatiously waved”: Mary McGrory, column, December 9, 1993.
After a warm hug: Mary McGrory, column, January 8, 1994.
Mary said of O’Neill’s: Mary McGrory Papers, container 9.
O’Neill’s son Thomas: Mary McGrory, column, January 11, 1994.
After a moment he replied: “Columnist with a Laser Eye and a Rapier Pen,” Irish Times, May 1, 2004.
“Adams came for 48 hours”: Mary McGrory, column, February 24, 1994.
Mary repeated her question: Conor O’Clery, “Breaking Down the Barriers,” Irish Times, May 18, 1996.
“But he paid no”: Mary McGrory, column, December 5, 1995.
Mary called her old friend: “National Press Club Fourth Estate Award.”
“There was no chance”: Dowd, “A Star Columnist”; Dowd, Are Men Necessary? 130–34.
Mary insisted that: “National Press Club Fourth Estate Award.”
Mary blurted out: “Names & Faces,” Washington Post, June 6, 1998.
In Mary’s theatrical terms: Mary McGrory, column, April 17, 1994.
Mary reasoned that: “Whitewater and the Media,” C-SPAN, Washington, DC, April 19, 1994.
Reporters laughed in disbelief: President Bill Clinton, news conference (part 2), News, CNN, August 3, 1994.
“If the Whitewater hearings”: Mary McGrory, column, August 4, 1994.
Mary—and most of America: Mary McGrory, column, August 2, 1994.
“He was pretty much”: Mary McGrory, column, November 10, 1994.
“The newly designated House speaker”: Mary McGrory, column, December 10, 1994.
“Nobody is saying that”: Mary McGrory, column, December 13, 1994.
Clinton, on the other hand: Mary McGrory Papers, container 9.
It was not the company: Mary McGrory Papers, container 110.
In April 1995: Mary McGrory Papers, containers 6 and 115; “Post’s McGrory, Dash Win RFK Journalism Awards,” Washington Post, April 13, 1995; Susan Bickelhaupt and Ellen O’Brien, “Friday Celebrity,” Boston Herald, April 14, 1995; John Harris, “Among New Deal Believers, Clinton Has His Skeptics; Comparisons Intrude upon FDR Ceremony,” Washington Post, April 13, 1995; David Dahl, “Luminaries Celebrate FDR and His Accomplishments,” St. Petersburg Times, April 13, 1995; Celestine Sibley, “FDR in Warm Springs: 50 Years Later,” Atlanta Journal and Constitution, April 13, 1995.
“His offense is tastelessness”: Mary McGrory, column, April 27, 1995.
“Now, as for the first lady”: Rush Limbaugh, May 1, 1995, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 11:15 A.M. broadcast.
On another show, Limbaugh: Rush Limbaugh, July 6, 1995, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 11:15 A.M. broadcast.
“Bill Clinton has made”: Mary McGrory, column, August 15, 1995.
Mary wrote, “The Republican attitude”: Mary McGrory, column, July 27, 1995.
“I am kicking subjects away”: Mary McGrory Papers, container 9.
“The Republicans are”: Mary McGrory Papers, container 9, McGrory prepared remarks for speech at Georgetown University’s Woodstock Theological Center, October 1996.
Mary was also able: Mary McGrory, columns, December 24, 1995, and January 10, 2002; Mary McGrory Papers, container 10.
Mary had told Russert: Mary McGrory Papers, container 110.
One day in 1995: Josephine Murphy interview; Mary McGrory Papers, containers 165 and 168.
In her later years: “A Writer’s Life”; Mary McGrory, columns, September 26, 1996, July 4, 1996, and July 14, 1996.
“A disaster with a crowbar”: Mary McGrory, column, February 22, 1996.
As one of her fellow reporters: Mary McGrory Papers, container 139.
But as the primaries: Mary McGrory Papers, container 9.
“I’ve decided, with the help”: Mary McGrory Papers, container 164.
When he finished reading: Brian McGrory, interview by author, April 24, 2010.
He wrote to Mary: Mary McGrory Papers, container 109.
Mary stressed how important: Dan Kennedy, “Globe Nearly Loses McGrory to the Herald,” Boston Phoenix, June 20, 1997.
“I would go up”: Brian McGrory interview.
“I hear about the cynicism”: Tim Russert, CNBC News Transcripts, March 9, 1997.
“They were trying to pretend”: Ibid.
When Clinton rattled off: Mary McGrory, column, September 7, 1996.
“I cannot believe that you have”: Mary McGrory Papers, container 6.
“George tried to be funny”: Mary McGrory, column, October 18, 1997.
In the summer of 1997: Mary McGrory, column, July 24, 1997.
Mary was aghast: Mary McGrory, column, June 28, 1997.
“Morally, he is”: Mary McGrory, column, January 22, 1998.
Mary was outraged: Mary McGrory, columns, May 3, 1997, and August 2, 1998.
“We have fallen into a dim age”: Mary McGrory Papers, container 109.
As author David Foster Wallace: David Foster Wallace, “Host,” The Atlantic, April 2005, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/04/host/303812.
“The press, terrified”: Mary McGrory, column, June 18, 1998.
“It was like seeing Houdini”: Mary McGrory, column, February 5, 1998.
“We can’t go on this way”: Mary McGrory, column, March 5, 1998.
“He says they d
o”: Mary McGrory Papers, container 9.
Mary was vacationing in Italy: Mary McGrory, column, September 19, 1998.
Others picked up on: Joe Carroll, “Irish Media in US Come Out Swinging at Talese,” Irish Times, October 17, 1998; Mollie Dickenson, “Letter from Washington, Aging Hormones,” Salon.com, August 5, 1998.
“Millstone? No, he’s Moses”: Mary McGrory, column, November 5, 1998.
“The Republicans are beyond”: Mary McGrory, column, December 17, 1998.
Dowd closed by saying: “National Press Club Fourth Estate Award.”
“I never wanted to be anything”: “National Press Club Fourth Estate Award”; Mary McGrory, column, July 19, 2001.
Mary greeted the news: Brian McGrory interview.
Chapter Twelve: The Last Hurrah
Mary said that the constant pressure: Dowd, “A Star Columnist”; Dowd, Are Men Necessary? 130–34.
“You would see her cook”: Ted McGrory, interview by author, April 22, 2010.
At the memorial service: McGrory family correspondence. Ted McGrory interview.
Mary was candid about: Von Drehle, “Columnist Illuminated.”
Mary was under no: Tim Russert, CNBC News Transcripts, March 9, 1997.
After observing her being feted: Mark Feeney, Mary McGrory Papers, container 164.
Her friend Phil Gailey: Toner, “Mary McGrory, 85.”
Marjorie Williams of the Post: Williams, “A Woman Who Knew.”
“She would arrive”: Jack Germond interview.
When asked publicly: Belford, Brilliant Bylines, 270–278.
“Did Mary hold on”: Bradlee interview.
“We were watching the Super Bowl”: Gay Jervey, “Every Four Years, a Star Is Reborn,” New York Times, January 23, 2004.
“I hope they like to read”: “A Writer’s Life.”
“Technology is eating up”: “Relationship Between Hillary Clinton and New York Media Goes Sour; How Does Media Factor in on Campaign Trail?” Reliable Sources, CNN, January 22, 2000; “A Writer’s Life.”
Finally, he surrendered: Brian McGrory interview.
When George W. Bush’s parents: Mary McGrory, column, February 3, 2000.
When asked about Mary’s: Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, CNN, February 13, 2000.