Gary Hart

I was in Kramerbooks this afternoon, in Dupont Circle in Washington D.C. (along with Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon, and City Lights in San Francisco, my three favorite bookstores), and as can only happen in Washington D.C. I ran into, or rather passed by, Gary Hart (born Gary Warren Hartpence), the frontrunner in the 1988 Democratic presidential race until he fucked up by challenging the media to follow him around to see that he wasn’t an adulterer, only to have them do so and find him in fact to be an adulterer, one of the first in a long string now of politicians (all male) to be taken down by their sexual dalliances. I always liked Gary Hart, as a Senator from Colorado and as a presidential candidate. He was (and I assume still is) bright, experienced, and right-headed (well, left-headed, but that’s being right-headed). When I passed him this afternoon, I turned back around, pretending to be browsing the same bookshelf I was browsing before I passed him, just to be sure it was him. It was him, wearing what looked like a very expensive, well-tailored black suit with blue-striped shirt, the coat draped casually over his shoulder. Then I had to decide whether to approach him, to say something stupid about my admiration of him. But because I couldn’t think of something even stupid to say, I just walked into the other room and continued my browsing. I have no idea what Gary Hart is doing now, though no doubt he’s doing well at what any politician who makes it to D.C. does once they leave – teaching, lobbying, think-tanking. And I wish him well. Maybe that’s what I should have told him. Next time.