Wright Aide Who Castigated Press Reportedly Will Resign Next Week

George Mair, the recently hired chief press officer for House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.), whose letters to news organizations complaining about their treatment of Wright created a furor, will resign by early next week, congressional sources said Friday night.

Capitol Hill sources said Mair would resign because his usefulness as the Speaker’s spokesman was severely damaged by the letters he wrote to newspaper and magazine executives after he was hired in mid-December.

‘Leaving on His Own’

“George understands it’s not the best thing for the Speaker, and he’s going to leave,” said one source, who spoke on the condition that he not be identified. “He knows he didn’t serve Speaker Wright well. He’s leaving on his own.”

Mair could not be reached for comment Friday night.

Wright, interviewed as he and 130 other House Democrats traveled to the Greenbrier resort here for their annual issues conference, denied reports that Mair will resign shortly. But other sources said Mair’s tenure on Wright’s staff will end by next week.

Mair, the former editor and publisher of the now-defunct Alexandria Gazette, was hired by Wright in an effort to correct what the Speaker said were factual inaccuracies in a number of news accounts detailing Wright’s efforts to intervene with federal regulators on behalf of troubled Texas savings and loan institutions.

Shortly after he was hired, however, Mair wrote a series of harsh letters to news organizations whose reporters had written articles about Wright. Among other unfounded accusations, the letters charged that two Los Angeles Times reporters had plagiarized their material and had never interviewed the Speaker for their article.

Wright this week apologized to some of the reporters whose work had come under fire from Mair, took responsibility for the incidents and said Mair had exceeded his mandate.