The passing ofpolitical luminary Frank Mankiewicz last week at age 90 spawnedtributes from all quarters of the Washington scene. The legendaryoperative had a long and storied career, as press secretary toRobert Kennedy (he had the unfortunate duty of announcing theSenator's death to the world following his shooting on the night ofthe 1968 California primary), as campaign manager for GeorgeMcGovern during the 1972 campaign, as head of NPR during the Carteradministration, and as a well-respected PR and media consultant formore than 30 years.

It was in that capacity that he played a relatively obscure, butcritically important role on behalf of credit unions during thehistoric Campaign for Consumer Choice, better known as H.R. 1151.For his contributions to that effort, for the essential things thathe taught me during that time, and for the words of wisdom that heimparted, I will always remember Frank.

To refresh the memory, in a show of industry unity CUNA andNAFCU joined together in 1997 to form the Campaign for ConsumerChoice, the effort to overturn federal court restrictions on creditunion field of membership rules. A major part of that effort washiring Hill and Knowlton, the well-known PR and lobbying firm,to give the effort form as well as substance.

Mankiewicz and I were, in some ways, unlikely allies. Hisbackground was as a strong Democratic partisan and an unapologeticliberal. I came from the Republican side, a child of the ReaganRevolution in the early 1980s and as conservative as Frank wasliberal.

Yet we found much common ground in our love for the process, ourzest for ideas and spirited debate, and our belief that politics,done right, was an ennobling business. He was fond of saying thathe most enjoyed the public side of'public affairs, and itshowed.

Frank Mankiewicz was a contributor to our communicationstrategy, early and often. I recall a meeting in the beginningstages of the campaign that featured much anguish about percentagesof ad money for print vesus TV versus radio. Mankiewicz settled thediscussion by simply stating that “credit unions connect withpeople, plain and simple. You're likable. Don't get hung up on thehow's as much as the why's.”

Useful and absolutely on point.

That kind of pedestrian yet profound ability to observe anddiagnose was Mankiewicz's gift, which he gave freely at several keyjunctures. Once Frank was in the middle of relating oneof his many campaign war-stories to me and Larry Blanchard (thecampaign's director and a credit union PR legend in his own right)when a call came in from a House staffer alerting us to apotentially serious problem with H.R. 1151. In the midst of thehastily-convened discussion of various doomsday scenarios thatfollowed, Mankiewicz counseled that, above all else, we should keepmoving forward.

“During the '68 Kennedy campaign,” he noted, “we always operatedunder the belief good plan executed now is better than a perfectplan executed next week.”

The advice and counsel he dispensed was borne from an experienceof the type to which constant attention should be paid. Therewasn't much that he hadn't seen, weren't many significant playerswith whom he hadn't interacted, weren't many problems that hehadn't fixed. His obituary noted that “every conversation withFrank Mankiewicz was like a history lesson,” and that's true, asfar as it goes. But his was the kind of history that was alive andwell, the kind that lived every day in the constantly churningworld of Washington in which everything old is new again.

And that's how I'll remember Frank Mankiewicz, as someone whoreminded me that good ideas, and good people, are timeless, and arealways going to win out. Something that the credit union movementbenefited from more than 15 years ago, during one of our finestpolitical hours, and will do so again in the future.

John J. McKechnie, III

Partner

Total Spectrum

Washington, D.C.