Sincerely, Stanley

STANLEY SHEINBAUM IS A prolific letter writer, sending out about 30 missives a week. As a prominent fund-raiser for the Democratic Party and a player in international liberal circles, he’s in a position to have his letters read. A selection from his correspondence:

MAY, 1986, TO former Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown, declining an invitation to a fund-raiser for Rep. Tony Coelho (D-Calif.): “I simply cannot accept. I consider Tony Coelho, for all his success as a fund-raiser, to be symbolic of the worst kind of activities that have the Democratic Party in a terrible place these days. There is no doubt that all Democrats--especially office holders--think that the name of the game is campaign dollars. Tony Coelho, however, in so doing, is clearly making Democratic office holders increasingly dependent on money that comes from conservative sources. . . . As between votes and money, Democrats have opted for money. We are not getting the votes and the result is that the country is in trouble.”

JANUARY, 1986, TO LIBERAL New York financier Felix Rohatyn, criticizing the glitziness of most charity fund-raising events in Los Angeles: “Another way of looking at this is that the priorities are being determined by, on the one hand, the stars who for whatever reason are attracted to this or that, and on the other hand, by the social arbiters who understandably enjoy the hosting or hostessing of these kinds of events. Sadly, I make the guess that neither group devotes much thought to the social priorities. As in New York, night after night, literally, there are up to half a dozen such events. I was recently at one such black-tie dinner--a movie premiere followed by a tented dinner in the parking lot of the theater. A 10-foot-wide red carpeted pathway with about 3-foot walls on either side had been constructed so that the guests could proceed from the film to the festivities. The problem was that hundreds, possibly a thousand, stood on the outside of this pathway, and I literally was reminded of the French Revolution as I remember it from bad 1930s Paramount movies.”

OCTOBER, 1984, TO NEW YORK Gov. Mario Cuomo, complaining that Cuomo came out only for fund-raisers, and not to meet voters: “As recently as 8 and certainly 12 years ago, nobody like yourself could have come to town for any purpose without an event to beef up the presidential campaign. What excitement those rallys (sic) stirred. Now the Democratic party has become such a system of warlords that all the movers and shakers in the apparatus focus on their own needs without attending to the overall concerns. In a way I fault even you for not having made it a condition of the trip . . . and I certainly fault the Mondale / Ferraro people. Who’s minding the store?”