GOP Commits a Grand Old Gaffe

The letter that arrived last month was an invitation from Vice President Dan Quayle to join the 1,500-member Republican Senatorial Inner Circle.

The addressee was Leonard Bernstein, the noted conductor and composer.

The problem, of course, was that Bernstein died in October, 1990. And even if he were alive today, his political leanings would be decidedly Democratic, as his disdain for the Republican Administration was well known.

“It’s my honor to inform you that at the last meeting of the Executive Committee of the Republican Senatorial Inner Circle, your name was placed in nomination by Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato and you were accepted for membership,” the vice president wrote in a Jan. 31 letter mailed to the late composer’s Manhattan apartment and disclosed this week by a Bernstein aide.

Such are the vagaries of mass mailings that a weary spokesman for D’Amato, the Republican senator from New York, interrupted a questioner by saying, “Who was it this time? Mickey Mouse?”

It isn’t the first time that the 12-year-old Inner Circle’s fund-raising efforts have elicited embarrassing and unplanned reactions through the use of rented mailing lists. Two years ago, a similar letter bearing Dan Quayle’s signature went to Harvard economist and longtime Democratic Party adviser John Kenneth Galbraith, as well as to Florida poet and self-proclaimed Democratic Senate hopeful Ray Rollinson, whose anti-Jesse Jackson campaign slogan read: “Keep White Hope Alive!”.

Last year, Eric (Eazy-E) Wright, the rap singer who was criticized by an FBI official for his anti-law enforcement lyrics, was nominated to the Inner Circle.

“Wright apparently gave a lot of money to charity,” said Wendy Burnley, director of communications for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which oversees the Inner Circle’s fund-raising campaign. Added Burnley: “Occasionally, a Democrat will get on the list.”

But a dead Democrat of the stature of Leonard Bernstein?

“This is not at all that uncommon,” said one Republican fund-raising observer who asked not to be identified. “Leonard Bernstein is not exactly an uncommon name in New York. The deceased composer’s name could have been on a magazine mailing list or he could have given to some cause. There are literally a hundred explanations of how a person’s name can end up on these massive computer-generated lists.”

According to Burnley, the committee buys or leases mailing lists for all 50 states, based on ZIP codes or consumer spending patterns or charitable giving that might indicate a Republican preference. The mailings go out to tens of thousands of Americans. Those who accept the invitation are asked to contribute $1,000 a year to the Inner Circle. In return, they are invited twice a year to Washington, for two-day briefings on issues ranging from health care to the environment to the economy.

The upcoming briefing on March 11 and 12, for example, could feature Quayle or President Bush himself addressing a luncheon session. Last year, the Inner Circle had a private audience with Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney at the close of the Persian Gulf War.

“George Shultz, (Wal-Mart founder) Sam Walton, Arnold Schwarzenegger and other distinguished Americans have already (been) counted in the ranks of the Inner Circle,” wrote Quayle. “Like you, each has demonstrated a solid, loyal commitment to our nation’s principles and ideals.”

The Inner Circle is invited to meet senatorial hopefuls as well as Republican senators, said Burnley. Rep. Tom Campbell (R-Stanford), former KABC-TV Channel 7 commentator Bruce Herschensohn and Palm Springs Mayor Sonny Bono have all been extended invitations to participate in the briefing this year too, she said.