No Kennedy baths for Clooney and Wood in “Ides of March”

The tagline for the “Ides of March” movie is “Ambition Seduces. Power corrupts."
It may be a fitting description for both the movie and the Kennedy presidency.

The tagline for the “Ides of March” movie is “Ambition Seduces. Power corrupts."
It may be a fitting description for both the movie and the Kennedy presidency.
Except that it does not really describe the recklessness with which Kennedy operated.
Yet, there is an eery similarity between Kennedy, the plot of “Ides of March,” and the February revelation of former intern Mimi Alford.
Not many would have cared about an autobiography from Alford, except the grandmother, now 69, gives details about her 18-month sexual relationship with Kennedy. In the book, "Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and its Aftermath,"
she claims, among other things, that she took baths in the White House with the president.

The “Ides of March” movie takes place during the last days before a high-stakes Ohio presidential primary in March, when a campaign press secretary (Ryan Gosling) finds himself involved in a political scandal that threatens to end his candidate's bid for the White House. That’s George Clooney, who plays the a Democratic Pennsylvania governor.
Clooney also directs the movie and co-wrote the script with Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon. Clooney reportedly began preproduction on the movie more than three years ago, but put it on hold after Obama’s election. Other actors in the movie include Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood as the intern, Molly Stearns.
Hoffman plays a senior consultant for the Ohio governor; Giamatti plays an adviser for Clooney’s opponent. Tomei is a tough reporter, presumably for the New York Times.

After an opening debate, Gosling tells Tomei that he believes that the governor can make a difference if elected president. But Gosling is tempted with a job offer by Giamatti, a consultant for the opponent. And he starts a convenient sexual relationship with Stearns.
While Molly is aggressive in attempting to seduce Gosling’s character, the innocent romance exits the hotel room when Wood gets a call from Morris in the middle of the night. She claims she is pregnant with the governor’s child, and that Morris forced himself on her.
Gosling goes into damage control mode, and Molly becomes a problem that he must eliminate

There is a striking resemblance between this plot and Alford’s recent revelation.
As a 19-year-old intern, Alford claims President Kennedy pulled her into “Mrs. Kennedy’s room” and seduced her on his wife’s bed. When she momentarily resisted his advances, Kennedy asked: ‘Haven’t you done this before?’, to which she replied: ‘No.’
He continued anyway she says, adding. ‘On the ride home, it kept echoing in my head. I’m not a virgin any more.’ Their affair began in the summer of 1962, lasting until Kennedy was assassinated the following November. Her autobiography came out in February of 2012; “Ides of March” came out five months earlier, in October of 2011. Alford’s secret relationship with the Kennedy was first made public in 2003 when historian Robert Dallek wrote 37 words (An Unfinished Life) about an unnamed intern who had an affair with Kennedy.
The New York Daily News identified her and Alford confirmed the relationship.
Like Kennedy, Clooney’s character forces himself on the intern. Unlike Clooney, no one finds out about Kennedy’s secret until decades later.

Alford said she saw President Kennedy for the final time at The Carlyle hotel in Manhattan on November 15, 1963, just a week before his assassination in Dallas. At this point she was due to be married to her college sweetheart, Tony Fahnestock. ‘(Kennedy) took me in his arms for a long embrace and said, "I wish you were coming with me to Texas." And then he added, "I'll call you when I get back." I was overcome with sudden sadness. "Remember, Mr President, I’m getting married." '"I know that," he said, and shrugged. 'But I’ll call you anyway.'"

During Alford's 18-month sex romp with Kennedy, she says she though she might be pregnant. That would have caused Kennedy's close aide, Dave Powers, to arrange a trip to an abortion doctor, which was illegal at the time. The “Ides of March” shows the seedy and ruthless side of politics. But it’s fiction. The reality of what Kennedy did is far worse. He used his sexual relationship with Alford to essentially "pimp" her out to Powers and his brother, Teddy. Alford declined to perform oral sex on Teddy after the president's suggestion. She claims she did, however, on Powers, while Kennedy watched.
The revelation by Kennedy further tarnishes the image of the ideal “Camelot” administration. Further, Alford claims Kennedy told her, “I’d rather my children be red than dead,” for which he could have been impeached for treason.

At the time, Kennedy was celebrated for his connection to Harvard and Yale, where he could harvest the best and brightest minds. But none of it could improve his immoral behavior. It’s well-known that Joe Kennedy, his father, had extra-marital affairs, while his wife, Rose looked on. But Governor Morris also has moral dilemmas. During an opening debate, Clooney claims to know nothing about the Catholic church, or what happens to people when they die. In fact, he mocks God, saying, if someone - my opponent for example - knows what happens when people die, then you should vote for him. Later, after the death of one of his staff members dies, he appeals to some kind of higher power, saying, “Our prayers are with her family.” So Clooney has it both ways: denying God during his campaign, then bowing to any kind of God when somebody dies. Perhaps people who are liberal don’t notice this hypocrisy. But people who claim a relationship with God notice when a politician uses God as the but of jokes, then acts somber and “Christian” to satisfy the public.

The movie opens with the debate between Pullman, a senator from Arkansas, and Morris.
“Would you consider yourself a Christian?” Pullman asks.
Morris answers: “How would that matter?”
Pullman reads a quote from Morris: “Maybe it’s like before we were born.”
“You did write this governor,” Pullman says.
“Let me be specific,” Morris counters.
“Please do,” Pullman says.
“I was raised Catholic I am not a practicing Catholic,” Morris said. “And I have no idea what happens after we die. If the senator does, then maybe he should be president. I’ll vote for him.”
This gets a laugh.
“Is that your idea of being specific?” Pullman says.
“Let me be more specific,” Morris counters.
“Thank you,” Pullman says.
“I am not a Christian or an atheist,” Morris says. “I am not Jewish or Muslim. What I believe, my religion is written on a piece of paper called the Constitution, meaning, that I will defend until my dying breath your right to worship in whatever God you believe in, as long as it doesn’t hurt others.”
The scene cuts to a group that includes two young black women, one wearing a Team Morris sweatshirt.
“I believe we should be judged as a country by how we take care of the people who cannot take care of themselves,” Morris expounds. “That’s my religion. If you think I’m not religious enough, don’t vote for me. If you think I’m not experienced enough or tall enough, then don’t vote for me, cause I can’t change that to get elected.”
Pullman says, “I just wanted to say out loud if you believe in the teachings of the Bible,”
“Is this a Democratic primary, or a general election,” Morris says.
“Well governor, whoever wins this contest will be running for president,” Pullman says. “And if you think these questions won’t be central in a general election, you are living in a fantasyland. I am simply pointing to the obvious, we are running for president of the United States, not student council president.”
His comment gets a laugh.

The beginning of the movie includes two cartoons that are swipes at both Rush Limbaugh and Christians. One shows two white men in suits: One has a “Rush Rulz” sign, another has a “G.O.P.” sign, a reference to Rush’s Operation Chaos, where he suggested that Republicans vote for Hillary Clinton, to extend Democratic campaign season. Operations Chaos worked in many states. But it resulted  in massive whining by liberals across the country, as well as complaints by left-wing biased news outlets. Another says: “It’s Jesus. He’s endorsing Pullman.” “How many delegates does he have.” Since Clooney co-wrote the script, and directed the movie, and stars in it, he would be able to include cartoons that lampoon Republicans and Christians. In the crowd scene, there is a woman holding a pro-Morris sign. There is no similar sign for Pullman. Another campaign poster reads: “Stand Together: Rally at Kent State with Mike and Cindy Morris.” Morris’ wife is an attractive, endearing woman, who sounds like the ultimate compliant candidate wife. Hillary Clinton she is not. Pullman is less attractive than is Clooney, with balding hair and what could be an Arkansas accent.

One of the benefits of liberals writing the script is that they get to redo the question put to Dukakis about what he would if his wife were raped and murdered.
In the debate with George W. Bush in 2004, Dukakis gives a canned answer, one that lacks a sense of outrage or at least emotion connection to the question from Bernard Shaw.
Morris appears on the Charlie Rose show, on Public Television, where Rose, a liberal, asks Morris about the death penalty.
He says he is opposed to the death penalty, “because of what it says about us as a society.”
“Suppose governor, it was your wife,” Rose says.
“And she was murdered. What would I do.”
“It get’s more complicated when it’s personal,” Rose says.
“If I could get to him, I would find a way to kill him,” Clooney says.
“So you - you governor - would impose a death penalty,” Rose says.
“No, I would commit a crime for which I would happily go to jail,” Clooney says.
“Then why not let society do it?”
“Because society has to be better than the individual,” Morris says. “If I were to do that, I would be wrong.
The conversation trails off.
The reality is that no liberal would do any such thing, since wife’s can be replaced. One’s political career, however, can’t. Would Clooney do such a thing? Maybe. Governor Morris? Not a chance.

Clooney wrote adapted the script with his friend, Grant Heslov, and Beau Willimon.
Soon after meeting Heslov in 1982, he loaned Clooney $200 to buy his first set of headshots, and they have been friends ever since, and later writing and producing partners. (IMDB).
The script is based on the play “Farragut North” by Beau Willimon. Farragut North is a Metro Station serving downtown Washington, D.C. Willimon would seem to have a good writing relationship with Clooney, since he worked for Sen. Charles E. Schumer and former Vermont governor and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean and Hillary Clinton. The State of Vermont is perhaps the most liberal in the nation, and is called, "The People’s Republic of Vermont," after People's Republic of China, or communist China.
Willimon told a reporter for New York magazine that the play has “no parallels” to real life. The script must have changed a lot from the play, since there are plenty of parallels to real life in the movie script.

© 2012 Larry Ingram