The Press: Liberal Voice

One publication that never bought Muskie is the New Democrat (circ. 4,000), a lively monthly devoted to the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. Editor Stephen Schlesinger, 29, admits to no clairvoyance in foreseeing Edmund Muskie’s fall and the rise of George McGovern—only partisanship.* Schlesinger, the son of Historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., founded the magazine in 1970 as a podium from which to preach party reform and “call attention to the dead leadership.”

From its inception, it has criticized Muskie and Democratic National Committee Chairman Lawrence O’Brien as standpatters. When McGovern announced his candidacy early last year, the New Democrat hailed the news as “a flash of hope in a darkening landscape.” Schlesinger advised his readers to “eschew the Muskie bandwagon until, regrettably, that is the only one remaining,” but held off formally endorsing McGovern in print until last month, lest the publication be dismissed out of hand as a McGovern mouthpiece. Now that Muskie’s candidacy has collapsed, the monthly has turned its fire on Hubert Humphrey for his past associations with Viet Nam. The young editor predicts McGovern will go to the convention with 1,200 delegate votes, not far from the 1,509 needed to nominate.

Schlesinger struggles on a month-to-month basis to keep the New Democrat going. He relies heavily on unpaid contributors and fund-raising cocktail parties. Though the elder Schlesinger does not bankroll it, his name hardly hurts in the magazine’s constant quest for operating capital. Now that McGovern rides high, the New Democrat may have an easier time making ends meet.

* Last week, however, clairvoyance of a kind embarrassed the magazine. A satiric, fictional obit, prepared last month, reported that FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was dead, but was being kept on in office by the Administration. The issue appeared on newsstands the very day Hoover died.