Henry's Songbook

So he went into the politics game
Oh he went into the politics game
Warren Beatty told him, Lookee
You can get a lot of nookie
If you get into the politics game

Who's that running down the alley in the dead of Friday night
As he zippers up his trousers in the inky, slinky light
Why, of course, it's good old Gary, leaping over someone's fence
Yes, it's Gary - Gary Hart - I wouldn't leave you in suspense
He likes going out to parties, he likes being in 'Rolling Stone'
And he ran things for McGovern, so I guess we should have known
He likes warm and willing women, he likes being where they are
He couldn't sing, he couldn't dance, but he just had to be a star

When he landed in the Senate Gary started making hay
Gary started making nearly everything that came his way
He liked taking a position, but when all was said and done
Gary's favorite position was the missionary one
Kennedy was Gary's hero and he studied him with care
How he stood and how he walked and even how he wore his hair
But the thing that thrilled him most and made him swear he wouldn't fail
If he made it to the White House, think of all the chicks he'd nail

Well he met her at a party and her name was Donna Rice
She was Gary's kind of women, she was pure Miami vice
She thought he was Gary Collins and could get her on T.V.
She suggested 'Monkey Business', and the rest is history
They caught him making whoopee and the campaign had to cease
He came back and tried again but now he's gone to find some peace
He's gone back to Colorado for a little while, and then
Just as soon as he gets horny he'll be coming back again

Last chorus:
He'll be running in the politics game
He'll be running in the politics game
Warren Beatty told him, Lookee
You can get a lot of nookie
If you get into the politics game

 [1988:] Someone who, I feel, has brought new meaning to the expression "the politics of love". (Tom Paxton, intro 'Politics')

[1996] The reason reporters broke with tradition and began reporting on the sex lives of the candidates was Democratic hopeful Gary Hart. A handsome young senator from Colorado, Hart liked to think of himself as another Kennedy. He had the same effect on women voters, leading one Republican to quip 'my heart is for [Republican candidate George] Bush, but my bush is for Hart'.

Hart had a reputation as a womanizer which the press kept quiet about until he made an astonishing challenge. In 1987, he told 'The New York Times' that he had nothing to hide and invited journalists to follow him. Reporters from the 'Miami Herald' took him at his word. They staked out his Washington town house and discovered that, while his wife was away, Hart was entertaining twenty-nine-year-old model Donna Rice overnight. When the story hit the front pages, Hart's wife Lee rallied to his defence. [...] It would not wash. The 'Washington Post' came up with another unnamed young woman who claimed to have had an affair with Hart. The 'National Enquirer' followed up with pictures of Hart, Rice, Hart fundraiser William Broadhurst and Rice's friend Lynn Armadt at a cosy drinks party on board a yacht called, aptly, Monkey Business in Bimini. [...] From then on, for the American press, like its British counterpart, nothing was off limits. (Cawthorne, Sex Lives of the U.S. Presidents 255f)

 [1998:] [Warren Beatty was] intrigued by presidential politics, working on the short-lived campaign of Robert Kennedy in 1968 and then, in 1972, for George McGovern. [...] It was through his connections to people who had worked for Kennedy that Beatty became involved with the McGovern campaign. He travelled with McGovern, giving speeches on his behalf in small towns in New Hampshire and Florida. [...] Gary Hart was McGovern's campaign manager, and he and Beatty, who were born less than six months apart, formed a close bond. [...] When Hart sought the Democratic nomination in 1984, Beatty was one of his closest advisers. Many have said that Hart wanted to be Beatty - that he envied and emulated Beatty, who was then single, and his movie-star life full of women, money and luxury. (Lynn Hirschberg, Observer, 17 May)

 [1996:] In seiner neuen Clinton-Biographie schildert Autor Roger Morris den Präzedenzfall des Senators Gary Hart aus Colorado, der sich 1987 um den Posten des Präsidentschafts- Kandidaten der Demokraten bewarb [...]. Morris zeigt, daß Hart sich in der Vergangenheit mächtige Feinde bei den Geheimdiensten, vor allem bei der CIA, geschaffen hatte. Die rächten sich nun und gaben den Fotografen des 'Miami Herald' den entscheidenden Tip, wann der Herr Senator nächstens wieder Damenbesuch empfangen würde. Agenten seien es überdies gewesen, so Morris, die Kameras auf dem Ausflugsboot namens Monkey Business installierten, auf dem Hart dann in flagranti erwischt wurde. (Spiegel, 24. Juni)