Morton Kondracke ’60

What I've learned since graduation

"I THINK 1 MISLEARNED LESSONS AT DARTMOUTH. I spent too much time working on The Daily D, and not enough time studying, and emphatically not enough time skiing, or going to cultural events. But I was the beneficiary of some wonderful mentoring. My freshman English professor, John Hurd '2l, and his wife tutored me in German. They were like surrogate parents. I might have flunked out without them. It makes me wish I had been more of a mentor in my adult life. Maybe I'll start today."

"I WENT THROUGH TWO YEARS OF PREMED AT DARTMOUTH AND REALIZED IWASNT CUT OUT TO BE A DOCTOR. The Valley News had a summer reporting job, and I got it. I took it as an omen."

"A LESSON 1 SHOULD HAVE LEARNED AT DARTMOUTH IS THAT I AM NOT A MANAGER. I was the president of The Daily D, but I ended up doing too much work myself. The next time I had a chance to manage, when I became Washington bureau chief of Newsweek in 1985,1 should have said 'no, thank you.' Writing is my forte. Opinionizing. Punditry. At Roll Call, where I am executive editor, I neither execute nor edit."

"ONE OF THE DIRTY SECRETS OF JOURNALISM IS THAT YOU GET TOWITNESS EVERYTHING, BUT YOU'RE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR IT. You don't send anybody into combat. You don't have to raise peoples taxes. If something goes wrong, you can say, 'I was wrong,' without having history condemn you."

"THE TRIO OF JOHN KENNEDY, BOBBY KENNEDY AND MARTIN LUTHERKING JR. WAS MY POLITICAL INSPIRATION UNTIL I STARTED MOVINGTO THE RIGHT. I haven't gone very far, maybe to the center. But I learned that there's more to the story than just good will and fighting for equality. I really began to appreciate what a menace Communism was and how brutal it was. I also learned that Democrats were too lenient toward criminals, even if they were doing it for the highest motives."

"IT WAS A BADGE OF HONOR TO BE ON THE NIXON ENEMIES LIST. I earned my spot as a reporter for the Chicago Sun Times, when wrote a lot about how Army intelligence was investigating domestic anti-war critics. That was clearly illegal. Everyone says Nixon was terrible, and he was. I had a few meals with Nixon later on and got to know him. He was so stiff socially. He was a disaster as a politician. But in the end I came to admire him for coming back after total defeat."

"I WOULD NOT WANT TO EARN MY LIVING EXCLUSIVELY BY TALKING ON TELEVISION. But John McLaughlin invented a television art form that had not existed. Some people think it's the beginning of the end of Western civilization. They condemn McLaughlin for demanding that you spit out what you really think. But the panelists, arguing amongst themselves, gave people an unvarnished sense of the range of opinions in Washington."

"THE ONLY WAY TO LIVE IS TO REALIZE THAT GOO IS IN CHARGE. You are not in charge. My wife began to show the symptoms of Parkinsons in 1987. Now she is in a wheelchair and can barely speak. We communicate with computers or sign language. She used to be the master of all she surveyed. She was a powerful, opinionated, natural-born social worker. I decided when she was diagosed that taking care of Milly was the one thing in life I was really going to do right, if I possibly could. I pray for help every single day, many times a day." —Interviewed by Jacques Steinberg '88

JOB TITLE: Executive editor and columnist of Roll Call, the newspaper covering Capitol Hill; co-host of The BeltwayBoys and commentator on Fox News; author of SavingMilly: Love, Politics andParkinson's, which was released by Public Affairs (New York) in June. BEST KNOWN AS: Panelist (and foil) on TheMcLaughlin Group, 1982-98, a role that got him parodied on Saturday Night Live. AGE: 62 FAMILY: Married to Milly; daughters Alexandra '91 and Andrea.