Charlie’s Angel
Associate editor John Spong on his twelve-step program for former congressman and wild man Charlie Wilson.
texasmonthly.com: How did you come up with the idea for a story about Charlie Wilson? Why were you initially interested in writing about this former congressman?
John Spong: There’s a point at the beginning of the story when I talk about an old Ms. Magazine article Molly Ivins wrote in 1988. I actually read it when it came out. I was an undergrad at the University of Texas and working at the state capitol at the time, and some state representative asked me to photocopy it for her. I read it while I was waiting in line to use the copier, and needless to say, I was floored. All that drunken tomcat business made him a hero to a beer-drinking college idiot like me. But I also remember thinking it was cool that this guy, who was clearly a womanizer and a chauvinist, was adored by the feminist movement. He had sponsored the Equal Rights Amendment in Texas and had always voted with the reproductive rights champions. Jump forward fifteen years or so to last summer. I’m working at Texas Monthly, doing a story for our special politics issue on a bar where all the state legislators hang out. I knew Charlie had left Austin for Washington, D.C., a couple of years before the bar had opened for business, but the story seemed like a good excuse to call and interview my old hero anyway. He immediately started to tell me that a book about him—Charlie Wilson’s War, by George Crile—had debuted on the best-seller list and that there were movie offers coming in. At that point I realized there was a chance to do a story on him myself. I was thrilled.
texasmonthly.com: Why did you decide to use the twelve-step format rather than a traditional storytelling technique?
JS: There were a couple of problems with doing a story on Charlie. One was that the book was already out. What could be added to that? The other big problem was that plenty of magazine articles had already been written. There were a couple by Molly Ivins and also one by Larry L. King, who is another of my heroes. “Daunting” is a good word to describe the prospect of following those folks. So I did a lot of thinking out loud with Texas Monthly’s articles editor, Chris Keyes, about ways to make our story seem new. Evan Smith, Texas Monthly’s editor, said the story needed to be about how Charlie had gone from lecher to hero. He said it was to be about the Rehabilitation of Charlie Wilson. At some point it occurred to me that there was a good joke in the fact that Charlie’s reputation for being a scoundrel was so great that the only way he’d really been able to clear his name was by doing something on the scale he did—ending the cold war. That sounds ridiculous, right? So Chris and I decided that the thing to do was present this as if anybody could do it, and we modeled the story loosely after the twelve-step programs by which people rehabilitate themselves.
texasmonthly.com: How much did you know about Charlie Wilson before you started working on the article?
JS: Every time I have seen Charlie’s name appear in print, I have dropped everything to read the story. He is so good at being Charlie Wilson. That didn’t exactly make me an expert, but it helped me know where to start.
texasmonthly.com: As you mention in your article, Charlie has been described as a hopeless alcoholic, a skirt-chasing lawmaker, and a pork barrel liberal. How would you characterize him in five or so words?
JS: He’s all Charlie, all the time.
texasmonthly.com: Tom Hanks’s production company bought the rights to Charlie Wilson’s War. If Charlie’s life were made into a movie, who would you place in the leading role? Who would play his wife, Barbara?
JS: That’s tough. In truth, it’s hard to picture somebody as clean-cut as Tom Hanks pulling it off. It makes about as much sense as getting Peter Scolari to play Barbara. It’s the kind of thing Jack Nicholson could do if he were younger and better-looking.
texasmonthly.com: What was your reaction when you saw Barbara in her commando outfit?
JS: That was a shock. I’d met her a few times and knew her as an elegant, nicely put-together lady—the only person I’ve ever met who actually carries herself like a dancer. So when I was interviewing Charlie and overheard him tell her on the phone that he was bringing me to the house and to please put on her fatigues, I figured he was joking. Nope.
texasmonthly.com: Did you ever hear tales about Charlie that seemed too far-fetched to be true?
JS: There is not a believable story in all the history of Charlie, but amazingly, they are all true. The incident with LBJ’s car—Charlie hides the president’s Secret Service Buick in an alley—is hard to believe, but it did happen. A story that is not in the article but is prominent in the book has Charlie taking his personal belly dancer, a comely Dallas housewife who may or may not have been separated from her husband, to the Middle East. She actually danced for the Egyptian minister of defense and apparently did so in a fashion that was more risque than belly dancing tends to be in that part of the world. Sounds ridiculous, right? Turn to the photo section of Charlie’s book to see a picture.
texasmonthly.com: What was the strangest thing that happened to you while working on this story?
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