McGovern's First Crisis: The Eagleton Affair

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Eagleton's name, says McGovern Executive Assistant Gordon Weil, had first come up speculatively about a month before. When his assets and liabilities were discussed at the last-minute staff meeting, several staff men mentioned rumors of a drinking problem; none, insists Frank Mankiewicz, concerned hospitalization. Weil and one or two other staffers made quick calls to Missouri political figures and to journalists. Says Hart: "There was no tangible evidence whatsoever. Nobody could verify." Despite firm, repeated words of discouragement from Edward Kennedy, however, McGovern stuck to the belief that Ted would run as No. 2. Myer Feldman, a McGovern adviser and Kennedy intimate, flew to Hyannisport to take a last-minute sounding. He returned to Miami Beach to tell McGovern: "Ted's not going to do it." McGovern was unconvinced. He told Feldman: "When I get the nomination, he'll be willing." After Ted Kennedy turned him down for the last time, McGovern had scant time left for another selection.

Grousing. Plainly, McGovern was badly served by his staff—a staff of his choosing. He has had other problems with it, partly because he has confused the areas of authority. Gordon Weil, 35, is an abrasive Ph.D. Who joined two years ago as press secretary. He undertook to investigate the Eagleton rumors and he was the staff man principally responsible for the poorly worked-out welfare scheme that McGovern was forced to abandon during the primary campaign. After McGovern persuaded Larry O'Brien to sign on as national campaign director, Rival Gary Hart started putting out reports that O'Brien's role was really rather inconsequential. McGovern was outraged —as was O'Brien. After a recent press conference, O'Brien snidely told Hart: "Your candidate looks tired, Mr. Campaign Manager. You'd better see that he gets some rest." Even the protean and brilliant Frank Mankiewicz is the subject of intramural grousing; staffers complain that he is a poor administrator and that he sometimes seems to think that he is the candidate.

The financial side of McGovern's operations is in no better shape. The big Democratic moneybags are hostile; even Los Angeles Millionaire Max Palevsky, who contributed some $350,000 to McGovern's primary campaigns, is disenchanted. Of the Eagleton affair, Palevsky says bitterly: "This is a perfect example of that staff. If there is a way to f— up something, they will find it." Henry Kimelman, another major McGovern moneyman (see BUSINESS), is also uneasy. Before the Eagleton matter blew up, he was unhappy at the speed with which the tacticians were spending money. Now he has had to hold up a huge direct-mail solicitation because he fears that no one will contribute until the Eagleton matter is resolved.