RIP: Mark Plotkin

 

WTOP PHOTO

 

 Sam Smith - DC radio commentator and columnist Mark Plotkin has died. He was a longtime,  close journalistic friend who sometimes judged me just like another news story. For example, I was described on-air a number of times by Plotkin as "the bad Smith," in contrast with my historian wife, who was "the good Smith."

 

It may have had something to do with a tale he recalled years ago:

"When I first ran for office in 1982, the start of a dismal political career, everybody said the first thing you gotta do is see Sam. I thought, "Who the hell is Sam?' People were talking of him in such lofty terms, like he was some sort of philosopher-king. So I went to his Cleveland Park porch and got the papal blessing. And I lost."

One day Plotkin started an interview with me on WTOP this way: "How do you respond to those who say you're just outrageous, off the wall, beyond normal?" Here's part of what I told him: If you go back and read what I wrote ten, twenty or thirty years ago  it's hard to see what the problem was.  In this town timing is everything. Senator Phil Hart once described the Senate as place that does things 20 years after it should have.

And then there was the time I appeared on the local NPR station and when I left the studio, the conservative black host Derek McGinty turned to the station's political editor, Mark Plotkin, and said, "He's banned" and I was. Several times when McGinty went on vacation Plotkin had me on, but the station manager noticed and told him to stop. I asked Mark why I had been banned and he said he thought it was for "excessive irony."

For a quarter century or so, Mark Plotkin and I would have occasional lunches with retired Senator Eugene McCarthy. Plotkin, then a political commentator for Washington radio station WTOP, had been McCarthy's campaign manager when he ran as an independent for president in 1976. The lunches were at such places as Duke Zeibert's - a haven for the untight powerful -  and later at the Progressive Review conference room at La Tomate Restaurant - aka the table just southwest of the bar. Between lunches, Gene McCarthy would write poetry, books of essays, and columns (which I happily published in this journal), drink coffee at the H&J Grocery in Sperryville, Virginia, and, when the mood struck him, run for president. During or after lunch I would invariably find myself scribbling a few words on a napkin.

During the 1976 campaign, while McCarthy and Plotkin were in Florida, Bill Veeck of the Chicago White Sox announced that he was reactivating Minnie Minoso for eight at-bats so he could claim to have played over four decades. Veeck was always coming up with ideas. Some weren't so great, like putting his players in short pants, but some became traditions like having the announcer sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the seventh-inning stretch. When Chicagoan Plotkin read the Minoso story he quickly came up with another idea for Veeck: have him reactivate former Soo Leaguer Eugene McCarthy. Gene was excited and Plotkin made the call. Veeck had just one question: "Can he hit?" Plotkin assured him that McCarthy was a strong hitter. There was a long pause and then the reply, "Nah. . . Daley would kill me."

The Washington Post, with its usual arrogance would occasionally refer to Mark Plotkin as a "gadfly." When I was similarly described, I would point out that a gadfly is a small insect that buzzes around cattle to no good purpose and sits contentedly on piles of shit, something I never do. Plotkin deserved a better description than 'gadfly' especially from that malodorous journalistic stock yard, known as the Post.

In 2007, Mark Seagraves of WTOP described a not atypical Plotkin moment.

It was your typical White House event. The Ballou Senior High School Marching Band was being honored by First Lady Laura Bush. . . The First Lady gave a brief speech. That's when Plotkin literally sprung into action. He called across the East Room. . . In typical Plotkin style, he blurted out the following question [based on DC's lack of statehood]: "Mrs. Bush, do you agree with those who say and believe that members of the Ballou High School band should not grow up to become members of the House of Representatives?" About half way through the question, Mrs. Bush realized this was not a friendly softball being lobbed from the peanut gallery, but a real question with an agenda from the press gallery. Mrs. Bush looked down and walked to her seat without a word. The smile was gone. At that moment, White House staff formed a human wall between the press and the First Lady and pointed to the door. . . . . As we left the East Room, Plotkin ran into White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten. Bolten wasted no time telling Plotkin he had been disrespectful. As we stood in the horseshoe driveway of the White House, Sally McDonough from Mrs. Bush's press office hurried over to us. "Next time you have a question for the First Lady you can call me and request an interview.". . . McDonough asked Plotkin for his name and employer, which she wrote in her notebook. "Thanks, I'll walk you out." She escorted Plotkin to the gate.

According to WTOP, :"The longtime political analyst and local radio personality was dismissed after berating a fellow station employee, one in a series of blow-ups with colleagues that Plotkin had engaged in over the years, according to co-workers.

"The station's vice president of news and programming, Jim Farley, said he couldn't discuss a personnel matter but confirmed that Plotkin's commentary and analysis will no longer be heard on WTOP. 'He's still a friend and will always be a friend,' Farley said."

After Mark's death, WTOP reported:

NBC Washington's Mark Segraves said he learned "so much" from Plotkin from the 10 years he shared an office with him.

"He taught me not only how to hold public officials accountable, but [also] how to listen to a person's answers and follow up," Segraves said. "While Plotkin wasn't born and raised here., he considered Washington his adopted hometown and loved it with all of his might."

And his former boss, Jim Farley: described Plotkin as "one of the feistiest guys I had ever met."

"He was a bulldog when he got on a story or on an issue … He was rough on everybody because he wanted to get things done," Farley told WTOP. "He was a character. He had some rough edges, but was so memorable."

That wonderful combination of feisty friendliness was what typified  Mark, And as for me, I've never known anyone who was so much fun to disagree with.