The Gortons and Slades - Washington Secretary of State

goRton v. zAppA 205
Amendment than for any song I ever wrote.” Zappa even released an
album featuring excerpts of his exchanges with Gorton and Gore. 8
“I went after this guy really hard as just being totally and completely
outrageous,” Gorton says. “As a result, I’ve heard people who were teenagers
back then cuss me out over that 25 years later—all kinds of correspondence
about how I was insulting Frank Zappa. A good part of my outrage
was that Al Gore would not defend his own wife in an open hearing.
I developed such total contempt for that man that it has never left me to
this day. And of course he and Tipper eventually changed their minds
and went all-Hollywood for campaign donations. But Tipper did say
something very nice to me about it afterward.”
goRton wAs BAcK in big-league sports in 1985, introducing a bill to regulate
the transfer of franchises from city to city. Drafted by Marianne Mc-
Gettigan, it also required Major League Baseball to add two expansion
teams. Baseball’s new commissioner, Peter Ueberroth, was unhappy; the
Players Association pleased. “I don’t think the owners understand this is
a serious issue for us,” said Donald Fehr, their acting executive director.
“It means jobs.”
Gorton was rooting for the fans. “We had these no-good absentee
owners and there were always rumors the Mariners were going to leave
Seattle in one of those bidding wars. But I was never going to get the
bill passed. The chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee was Jack
Dan forth from St. Louis. The Budweiser people were never going to let
him undercut the value of their sports franchises. I was still a threat,
however, and we had some very good hearings.”
Fresh from his triumph as president of the organizing committee for
the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games and the cover of Time, Ueberroth
decided it was time for a private chat to get the senator squared away.
McGettigan greeted Ueberroth and his lobbyist at the door, ushered them
to Slade’s office and took a seat next to the senator. “Slade, it’s wonderful
to meet you!” Ueberroth declared. “I’ve been looking forward to this for
so long. I know how interested you are in baseball. We’re going to sit
down here right now and we’re going to settle all these problems. This is
just going to be a great relationship.” Suddenly he shot a finger just inches
from McGettigan’s nose and commanded, “COFFEE! Black.”
Gorton all but fell out of his chair. “I saw Marianne’s life pass in front
of her eyes in about two-tenths of a second. I saw the catatonic expression
on the face of the lobbyist.” McGettigan, a feisty Irish redhead with a
first-class brain and a law degree, took a deep breath and went to fetch