THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 29, 1996 TAG: 9608290601
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: 105 lines
Was the congressman a young miscreant? His sitter's not saying
She's a distinguished Virginian, a member of the president's Cabinet, and for that Hazel O'Leary had the attentive ear of the entire Virginia contingent during a breakfast meeting Wednesday.
But long before she became Clinton's energy secretary, O'Leary was one accomplished baby sitter.
After all, how many teen-agers are good enough to baby-sit congressmen?
Granted, U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott was just a 6-year-old when O'Leary, a Newport News native and old friend of the congressman's family, used to watch after him. But she apparently didn't stunt his political growth.
So how was the kid congressman? O'Leary just smiled when asked the question. ``She was very well-behaved,'' Scott finally offered.
Virginia proudly casts - uh, er - oh, never mind
In case there's anyone left alive who thinks the Democratic National Convention's roll call of delegates maintains even a shred of actual political consequence, consider that Virginia isn't even sure how many votes it can cast to nominate the presidential candidate.
And consider that no one cares, because it doesn't make any difference anyway.
The Democratic National Committee formally assigned Virginia 96 delegate votes for Wednesday night's roll call. ``We count sometimes and come up with 97, but I guess whatever they say we have, we have,'' said state party chair Sue Wrenn.
Still not convinced the convention's ``vote'' for a presidential nominee is as fixed, rigged and pre-planned as any political stunt that even a city like Chicago has ever seen?
Consider Wrenn's instructions to delegates for Virginia's individual vote tally: ``When your name is called,'' she said, ``stand and cast your vote to nominate Bill Clinton.''
Virginians are not-ready-for-prime-time players
It seems the convention planners and their most important constituents - the television networks - have lost a little confidence in the roll call process as well. Democrats scheduled the ceremonial vote tally for 10 p.m. Chicago time, just as prime time - and nationwide television coverage - was coming to an end.
Virginia organizers put out the word to delegates Wednesday morning to call home and tell friends and relatives they better find a television with C-SPAN or some other convention-junkies network. Considering all the pomp and flourish usually accompanying the roll call, and considering the curse of the alphabet, Virginians looked to be in for a long night.
``We are Virginia, the end of the alphabet,'' Wrenn said. ``They're not going to do it backward.''
``But I'm a senator!'' ``Yeah, sure, and I'm Michael Jordan''
When a town's as full of political celebrities as Chicago is this week, the who's-who threshold apparently gets raised a notch or two.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Virginia's own Sen. Chuck Robb got carded by the security outside an event sponsored by Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun to honor Illinois Sen. Paul Simon.
Clinton's '92 whiz kids are all used up
The old gang is all here. But it's not what it used to be.
The brash, hip campaign team that helped put Bill Clinton in the White House is together again at convention time. But this year, many are on the outside looking in.
Paul Begala, who nearly blew a gasket frantically writing 21 drafts of Clinton's acceptance speech in 1992, is here as a television commentator.
You can tell the old campaign team from the new one, Begala says.
``We're happy. We're in better shape. We're thinner. We don't have the dark circles under each eye,'' Begala says. ``They look like extras from `Night of the Living Dead.' ''
Another 1992 campaign mastermind, James Carville, is making the rounds as a big-money author, still the ``Ragin' Cajun'' cracking jokes and partisan jabs.
The whole job of a political operative is thankless, he mused Wednesday. Working for politicians is like having a child, said Carville, the proud papa of a 13-month-old daughter.
``They both poop all over themselves. You're the one that has to clean it up and neither one says thank you or pays you.''
Etc.
Bravest man in Chicago: The guy walking the streets covered in Dole-Kemp buttons, wearing a T-shirt reading ``Two Terms for Clinton'' with a picture of the president behind bars. . . . The Democrats' show is proving to be as much of a TV ratings dud as the GOP version. Viewership for opening night Monday was down 19 percent from 1992's first night, 27 percent from 1988 and 38 percent from 1984. . . . The cost of President Clinton's pre-convention train trip probably will exceed $750,000, White House spokesman Mike McCurry said Wednesday. Of that amount, the Clinton-Gore campaign is paying $113,000, McCurry said, and the accompanying corps of reporters paid an estimated $250,000 to cover its costs. Taxpayers get to pick up the rest of the tab. MEMO: Compiled from reports by staff writers Robert Little and Warren
Fiske, and by the wire services. ILLUSTRATION: Photos
VICKI CRONIS/The Virginian-Pilot
Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary, a native of Newport News,
addresses the Virginia delegation at its meeting Wednesday morning
at the United Center in Chicago.
Grindly Johnson, former chair of the Chesapeake Democratic
Committee, watches from her spot in the Virginia delegation at the
United Center in Chicago on Tuesday night.
KEYWORDS: DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION 1996 CHICAGO by CNB