I used to know a writer named Mignon McCarthy, who co-authored
Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s second autobiography, Kareem. On
that assignment, she spent two and a half months with the Los
Angeles Lakers of the 1980s: the Magic Lakers, the Lakers of Pat
Riley and two successive world championships.
Laker forward James Worthy was a regular guy. The year he signed
with the team, I stood in a grocery line with him. When he saw me
recognize him, he gave me a big smile and a friendly wave. I used
to see him around my neighborhood, driving a Plymouth sedan with
the seat pushed way back to accommodate his six foot nine inch
frame.
The year after Mignon and Kareem’s book came out, Worthy got
busted with a prostitute in Houston.
“Worthy?” I asked, in astonishment, of Mignon.
“They all do it,” she said.
BOSTON RADIO HOST JAY SEVERIN INSISTS that all driven, successful
men tomcat around. He includes himself. He points out that fame has
an erotic attraction, that some women throw themselves at famous
men for a special kind of thrill, and that a man, being a man, is
very unlikely to decline such an overture.
Lately, we’ve read a whole series of catch-up news stories about
John Edwards’ dalliance with Rielle Hunter. More of this particular
affair later. For now, I ask whether Mignon’s observation, and Jay
Severin’s opinion, are true. Do all successful men run rut?
We know that some do. This very magazine made quite a splash
with its January 1994 “Troopergate” story, describing how Bill
Clinton, as governor of Arkansas, had used State Troopers to
solicit women for him. I heard one of those troopers interviewed on
TV. Asked to describe Clinton’s attitude toward women, he said,
“Avid.”
Yet another politician has a career that closely parallels
Clinton’s. Both served as State Attorneys General, then moved on to
the governorship (of adjoining states). Both served as chairmen of
the National Association of State Attorneys General and of the
National Governors Association.
But it beggars belief to picture John Ashcroft chasing
women.
NOW TO JOHN EDWARDS. Some talk show hosts have been speculating
that Edwards has cheated on wife Elizabeth from the beginning. I
don’t agree. The Edwards-Hunter affair shows (to me) all the signs
of being a one-off. Experienced womanizers go for tootsies, in
quantity. They go for fun, with no commitment. Rielle Hunter is 43
years old, not particularly attractive, and sprouts all the signs
of trouble: She’s a New Age goof. She has no particular talent. She
worms into the good graces of accomplished men. She would get
pregnant, and she did. She would stick like snot on suede, and
she’d pry money, which she has done.
You’d have to be a total fool to go for a woman like that when
you’re a handsome, high-profile guy who could knock off floozies
right and left, if you just wanted to get your rocks off.
That’s what’s most distressing about Edwards’ revelations. He
made a fortune as a litigator. He got elected to the Senate. He
wangled his way to his party’s vice presidential nomination. And he
almost won that election.
No, actually that’s the second most distressing thing. Most
distressing is the determined refusal of the mainstream press to
cover a story that was, at the very least, convincingly
provocative. Its revelation would have knocked Edwards out of the
Democratic primaries last fall, and would have paved the way for a
Hillary Clinton win.
Reporters are supposed to be oh-so-sophisticated these days.
They tell cynical stories about how the reporters of the 1930s and
1940s covered up for FDR, as though to say they would do no such
thing. But they have, and they will, and in so doing, they have
manipulated the outcome of an election.
Do they all do it? Let’s start asking the reporters how much
tomcatting around they do when they’re on the road on
assignment.
