A Storm in a (Mimi) Teacup 02/07/2012
Let me say
right now, I have a few problems with the latest Kennedy scandal.
Problem One:
the accusation that a bunch of clueless young things without any secretarial
skills were hired as interns to be the play things of JFK and pals.
It
simply isn't true. Or at least, it certainly was not what Barbara Gamarekian
told Dallek. The mild Ms Gamarekian was incensed enough by what Dallek wrote
that she sent a letter of complaint to the editor of the New York Times dated
May 25, 2003 and which I will quote here in its entirety:
To the
Editor:
In my oral history for the Kennedy Library
that Robert Dallek drew upon for his book ''An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy,
1917-1963,'' I never used the term ''intern'' (which resonates so today) in
speaking of Mimi Fahnestock, who worked for two summers in the White House press
office.
During a recent conversation with a former
co-worker in that office, I observed, ''We didn't even have an intern program
back then, did we?''
My former
colleague replied: ''But don't you remember? Nora Ephron worked for us one
summer as an intern.''
Nora Ephron! Surely I would have remembered
Nora Ephron!
So
thank you, Ms. Ephron, for your delightful ''All the President's Girls''
(Op-Ed, May 18).
It brought back vivid memories of that
happy, congested workspace where we all operated within arm's length of each
other.
It is true. There was no extra desk.
Okay.
There it is. There was NO INTERN PROGRAM. One intern hired by Pierre Sallinger...
future script-writer, Nora Ephron.
And
what did Ms Ephron have to say in
"All the President's Girls"? She didn't remember ever meeting Mimi and
laments being the only girl JFK had contact with that he didn't make a pass at.
Problem Two:
the timing.
2003:the story breaks the year of the 40th anniversary of the assassination.
2012:
the story breaks out again in the lead up to the 50th anniversary with the
release of a tell-all book by Ms Whatevernamesheusesthesedays.
Problem Three:
relates to
problem two. You see, here is what Ms Mimi said in 2003:
(excerpt from the Age, May 17, 2003)
Ms Lewinsky
levered her fame into a tell-all book, a handbag business, and, most recently, a
television job as host of a
dating show, Mr Personality.
Mrs Fahnestock, now 60, revealed no such
ambitions yesterday and issued a curt statement. "From
June 1962 to November 1963, I was involved in a sexual relationship with
President Kennedy. For the last 41 years, it is a subject that I have not
discussed,"
she said.
"In
view of the recent media coverage, I have now discussed the relationship with my
children and my family, and they are completely supportive.
"I will have no further comment on this subject, period. I would request that
the media respect my privacy and the privacy of my family in this matter."
Book
launch anyone...?
Problem Four:
The so-called
"Bahamas Incident"
Here is
how it was reported in 2003 - from the same Age story as above:
In the
Bahamas, Mimi was spotted by aides after the Macmillan summit hiding in one of
the cars waiting to take the president to the airport. According to the
transcript, "they walked over and looked in the
car and here seated on the floor was Mimi."
The aides said nothing and neither did the
press, who knew all about JFK's girls. Mrs Gamarekian said at the time: "This is
the sort of thing that legitimate newspaper people don't write about or don't
even make any implications about. It was kind of a big joke."
Okay.
You got? "They" ALL knew about it because "they" ALL saw it. Or did they? I
mean, you don't really forget things like that, do you?
Yet
here is what TIME reported on May 26. 2003:
Mimi
surfaced in a roundabout way. At the Kennedy Library, author Robert Dallek, when
writing his new J.F.K. biography, An Unfinished Life, came across an oral
history done in 1964 by one of the gentlest, most ardent Kennedy supporters in
existence, Barbara Gamarekian. In it Gamarekian, who had worked in the White
House press office and later became a reporter for the New York Times, talks
about Mimi; but she had embargoed that section of her reminiscences. Dallek
persuaded her to release it.
At first, the old White House reporters had a hard time recalling Mimi.
But
at a monthly luncheon last week, we pieced together sightings of her
slipping out of Air Force One and confirmed Gamarekian's account of the top of a
female head being seen in one of the limousines in Kennedy's motorcade at the
1962 Bermuda summit with British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. When staff and
reporters looked in, Mimi was sitting on the floor of the car like a child
playing hide-and-seek.
So...
at a Press piss up... they "pieced" it together after initially NOT RECALLING
HER AT ALL? Well, that's certainly solid evidence for it! I can just imagine how
that conversation went...
Problem five:
The church
Her
former employer was The Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church which has a long
association with Republican Big Wigs including Bush II advisors such as Glenn
Hubbard back to Charles D Hiller, Sr. chairman of the GOP National Committee
from 1912 to 1916, and national committeeman from New York from 1920-1937.
Problem Six:
Mimi's alleged
lack of qualifications to work with WH press gang...
She had
been editor of her college newspaper. In any case, apparently there was nothing
to type on in her work area.
Did
Kennedy have a fling with Mimi? Who knows? Probably? Maybe? What is certain is
that the story has been beaten up to within an inch of it's life. There was no
intern program (real or pretend) and ergo, no gaggle of gigglers at JFK's
disposal. The only intern there at the time laments that she was
not
seduced by Kennedy. The two times the story has hit the headlines have been just
prior to major anniversaries regarding the assassination - with such stories
cutting away at the public's ability to care about the fact that Kennedy was
taken out by a coup d'etat. Despite reports that "everyone" remembered her and
her liaisons with Kennedy - the Times exposed that as a lie in 2003 when it
revealed no one recalled her that really should have - until they all got
together for a "luncheon" and "pieced" it together.
A tour
of the web tells me that there is little or no skepticism about this story at
all. It is being accepted by just about everyone as the Gospel Truth.
A
two-fingered salute to the Power of the Big Lie.