Speakes Goal: ‘Credibility’--and You Can Quote Him

--Former White House spokesman Larry Speakes, who resigned from his post as senior vice president for communications at Merrill Lynch & Co. in the wake of his disclosure that he had made up quotes for President Reagan, has a new purpose in life--to restore his credibility. Speakes tells the story about devising the quotes in his new book “Speaking Out.” “To write a respected book, you’ve got to tell the truth. Sometimes that’s warts and all,” he told the Washington Post. “That’s why I felt compelled to say in retrospect it was wrong.” Resigning from Merrill Lynch was “the proper thing” to do, he said, because of “the continuing reaction” to the book. “There’s no doubt that my number-one goal in life is to restore my credibility,” Speakes said. “That’s what I will seek to do in the coming months, and I put great store in my talking frankly about it.”

--Jimmy Swaggart still has loyal followers after his tearful confession of immorality on Feb. 21. One of those followers gave the evangelist a $20,000 check during church services in Baton Rouge, La. The woman, introduced by Pastor Jim Rentz only as Anna, was singing in the choir when she walked to the pulpit and said Swaggart helped her find Jesus. The woman then gave Swaggart the check, which he handed to another minister on the stage of the Family Worship Center. “For the benefit of all the news media, I didn’t bilk her out of it,” Swaggart said. He told the woman to give him a kiss, and pointed to his cheek. “My wife won’t care,” he said. The woman kissed Swaggart, hugged his wife, Frances, and returned to the choir. Aside from when he took the microphone to sing, Swaggart did not speak again at the service.

--Four years after it was acquired and published in secrecy, singer Michael Jackson’s first book, “Moonwalk,” will go on sale around the country this week. In the book, the 29-year-old Jackson writes about his show business friends, his girlfriends, his plastic surgery and his fame. Jacqueline Onassis, a Doubleday editor, helped acquire the rights to the book and has written a three-paragraph introduction to it. Doubleday was so determined to keep the book’s contents under wraps that it hired employees’ family members to deliver portions of the manuscript to the printing plant, sources said.