LUNCH WITH DICK

I caught a late lunch with Dick Morris today. It was the first time I’d met him (we were instructed to meet by a memo direct from Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy Headquarters). First off, he reminded me that I had trashed his last book for the New York Times Book Review. Still, he was immensely good-natured about it. I’d completely forgotten, of course. One reason I keep my social life to my non-political friends is that I’ve written so many tough words about fellow hacks that I usually spend cocktail parties hiding behind couches. Anyway, Morris struck me as a real original. When he’s right, he’s amazingly perceptive, even close to genius. When he’s wrong, he’s really wrong. He also struck me as very human, vulnerable, smart, emotional. He had managed to keep his own identity apart from his public identity – no easy thing given the circles in which he runs. It was a private affair so I won’t kiss and tell but I was curious about his take on Clinton’s record on terrorism. He told me that he’d been able to interest Clinton about almost any subject … except terrorism. When the subject came up, Clinton’s eyes would glaze over and his interest would trail off. I also inquired about Buddy. All Dick said was that he had never seen Clinton so much as touch a dog in private. Figures. Generally speaking, I’ve found Morris’s political predictions to be pretty uneven, but he seems to feel the Dems may well take all of Congress this fall. After a while, Charles Krauthammer spotted us and invited us up for coffee. More plots. Dropped by TNR for chat. The Goldhagen piece on the Church and anti-Semitism is indeed out – and the cover-story. (The glacial pace of TNR’s website means it isn’t posted yet, alas.) I hope to read it this weekend and report back.