Woster: Senior statesman stays sharp - 06-19-06

By Kevin Woster, Journal staff writer | Friday, June 23, 2006

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RAPID CITY -- It's typical for reporters who have finished an interview with former Sen. George McGovern to mumble something like this: "Man, I'd like to be that sharp when I get to be his age."

Not me. I'd like to be that sharp right now.

I wouldn't mind having his energy, either, considering that he's a month shy of 84 years old and still maintains a travel schedule and work week that would sap the strength of most people half his age.

"Retirement meant moving from 14 hours a day down to 12," McGovern said during a telephone interview last week from his home in Mitchell. "I still do a lot of public speaking, and I'm working on another book for publication this fall."

It should surprise no one that his next publishing effort will be about war and how to end it. McGovern has been working on that cause since the early 1970s, when his outspoken opposition to the Vietnam War and proposed exit strategy eventually helped him win the Democratic nomination for president.

These days, it's Iraq that McGovern wants us to leave. And his next book, expected to be released by Simon & Schuster in September, will outline a method of departure that will be both "acceptable and honorable," McGovern said.

"In my terms, that means quickly," he said. "I think we've got to disengage from Iraq and help them get on their feet economically and socially. Having smashed their country, we now have to play a major role in rebuilding it."

McGovern's co-author of the book is William Polk, an author, lecturer and descendent of James Polk, the 11th president of the United States. William Polk is also the brother of CBS correspondent George W. Polk, whose death in 1948 - he was shot and killed while covering the civil war in Greece - led to the prestigious George W. Polk Award for excellence in journalism, which is presented each spring in New York City.

Between the two of them, William Polk and George McGovern should turn out a pretty decent book.

"I was president of the Middle East Policy Council for six years after I left the Senate, but I don't consider myself a Middle East expert," McGovern said. "Bill Polk is the expert. And if we stay on schedule, we should have the manuscript out in mid-July."

McGovern tends to stay on schedule. And he has plenty going on beyond the book. He and his wife, Eleanor, have settled in back in Mitchell across from their alma mater, Dakota Wesleyan University, where they can easily monitor progress on the George and Eleanor McGovern Library and Center for Public Service.

The dedication and grand opening of the library is scheduled for Oct. 5-7. And as you might expect, it will attract some notable guests.

Peter, Paul and Mary will sing. Former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole will speak. So will Jeffrey Sachs, a Columbia University economics professor and author, who is director of the United Nations Millennium Project to fight poverty around the world.

"Then, we're expecting Bill Clinton, too," McGovern said. "But it's hard to nail down a date for him until we get closer to the dedication."

The master of ceremonies will be veteran TV newsman Sander Vanocur, known among his many other news accomplishments for being one of four journalists to question Vice President Richard Nixon and Sen. John Kennedy in their first televised debate in the 1960 presidential campaign.

If McGovern wanted to name drop, he could do plenty of it. His still-hectic world is full of prominent people who have made or will make marks on history. But the most important person in his life is the woman he married more than 62 years ago. Eleanor had heart-bypass surgery about six weeks ago in Sioux Falls, after a search for surgeons that led the McGoverns to Dr. Jim Reynolds.

"He's just great," McGovern said. "You couldn't do any better anywhere in the country. Eleanor is 84, and bypass surgery is pretty tough. But she's doing fine."

Along with their home in Mitchell, the McGoverns keep a condominium in Sioux Falls, not far from the Heart Hospital where Eleanor gets her check-ups. She stays in Sioux Falls, with a daughter nearby, when her globe-trotting husband heads to one speaking engagement or another.

"I always have to leave from the Sioux Falls airport," McGovern said. "I keep busy speaking and writing."

He will be 84 on July 19, and he recently had a pacemaker implanted to help his heart deal with his hectic schedule.

So pretty soon, he might have to cut back his work schedule to something really soft, like 10 hours a day.

Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com