NOT PLEASED WITH POLITICS

By: Todd Shields Jack Germond Talks To the NSNC



If this is Washington, the topic must be politics.



And so it was, as the National Society of Newspaper Columnists (NSNC)
kicked off its annual convention with a day full of political insights
and quips from pundits and pollsters.



Columnists gathered at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Arlington, Va., across
the Potomac River from the nation's capital. They heard from longtime
Baltimore Sun/Tribune Media Services (TMS) political writer Jack
Germond, pollsters Jennifer Laszlo-Mizrahi and Frank Luntz, and Creators
Syndicate columnist/TV host Tony Snow.



Germond, 72, told the group that he had tired of the political scene and
would quit his five-times-a-week column. But he will not be idle.
Beginning in July, Germond will write a biweekly column for Voter.com, a
Web site that aims to present comprehensive political information to a
general audience.



Germond said the column he has co-authored with Jules Witcover since
1977 would continue until around the end of the year, and in the
meantime he would also produce the Voter.com pieces. Witcover,
interviewed later, said he would continue writing the column.



In his appearance at the 24th annual NSNC gathering, Germond served up a
full helping of his trademark self-deprecating wit. 'I think of myself
as the ultimate con artist,' Germond said. 'I am now in the 49th year of
getting paid to do something I'd pay them to do.'



He talked briefly about the circumstances surrounding his recent book,
'Fat Man in the Middle Seat: Forty Years of Covering Politics,' a work
abounding in anecdotes from the campaign trail.



'My agent wants me to say I wrote it because I want to contribute to
public debate,' Germond said. 'I really wanted to do it for the money.'



But he just as quickly deflated the notion that he is in it just for the
royalties. 'What I wanted to do is show the deterioration in American
politics,' Germond said. 'We've gone from people like Lyndon Johnson to
people like George W. Bush and Al Gore. This is a long way down, believe
me.



'We need to encourage Americans to look at their politicians more
realistically. These are ordinary people, most of them. Some of them are
less than ordinary. ... These are not extraordinary people, except in
their tenacity.'



Germond said that despite the reputed liberal bias of political
reporters and columnists, 'They don't judge politicians by those
standards.' Political journalists instead talk about whether a
politician seems to be a good and genuine person. 'Is he someone you'd
want to have a couple of jars with or not?' Germond said of these kind
of gut judgments.



He also shared a few such judgments of his own. 'I am sick of the
politicians so much,' Germond said. 'I find myself embarrassed to be
covering the campaign with two people like George Bush and Al Gore. ...
I don't think there's a genuine bone in their bodies. I'm sick of it.'



Pollsters Laszlo-Mizrahi, a Democrat, and Luntz, a Republican, told the
columnists to be cautious consumers of polls. Small sample sizes and
dubious methodology can produce biased results that are then repeated in
newspapers, they said.



The two added that they are identified as Democrat or Republican because
they prefer to work for a particular party, not because they slant
results. They said carefully designed and conducted polls are accurate.



'There's no financial upside to doing fraudulent polling,' Laszlo-

Mizrahi said. 'When you lie in public, you get caught, and you don't
work anymore.'



Snow, the columnist who also appears on Fox TV, said Bush has an edge in
the presidential race because he is not as well known to voters as Gore.
The election, Snow said, is 'Bush's to lose. Because he's Brand X.
Because he's got more room to roam, to define himself.'