He came awfully close, but Mark McKinnon won’t be writing for Esquire magazine any time soon.
McKinnon, who was President-elect George W. Bush‘s media consultant during the campaign, wrote a feature story for Esquire right after the election that was slated for the February issue. One published report said the piece was a “personalized, War Room-style look” at Bush’s campaign. Practically every journalist (McKinnon is the former editor of The Daily Texan) or journalist wannabe would love to have an article published in Esquire, one of the most prestigious and best-paying magazines in the country. But the January 2001 issue of Esquire gives McKinnon several million reasons to burn whatever article he planned to publish there.
Esquire‘s Dubious Achievement awards have always been brutally tasteless. But page 68 sets a new low standard. In the center of the page is a photo of Bush, wrapped with the question “Who will he be ‘not having sexual relations with?'” Around him are pictures of his mother, Barbara Bush, his wife, Laura Bush, Sen. John McCain‘s wife, Cindy McCain, his communications director (now White House counselor) Karen Hughes, Vice-President-elect Dick Cheney‘s wife, Lynne Cheney, former Ronald Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan, a Washington, D.C., streetwalker named “Osaka,” McKinnon, Monica Lewinsky, former millionaire bride Darva Conger, Cheney’s daughter Mary Cheney, and Condoleeza Rice, whom Bush recently named as national security adviser. Each photo is accompanied by a list of sexual pluses and minuses and the “odds” that Bush will have sex with them. It’s an incredibly vicious attack, better suited to Hustler than Esquire. There are racist comments about Rice and the speculation that McKinnon is “probably good for a blow job.”
Last week, McKinnon told the Chronicle that he understood and appreciated parody, but that the piece was so mean-spirited and savage that there was “no way” he would agree to let Esquire publish his story.
So what does McKinnon plan to do now? He said he has “no interest in going to Washington” with Bush. With two daughters in school, he said, he wants to stay in Austin and has been looking at several opportunities. One possibility: a return to Public Strategies, the powerhouse consulting firm headed by Jack Martin, where McKinnon worked prior to signing on with Bush. McKinnon said that he’s talked to Martin, and that a return to the firm would make some sense. But McKinnon is not in a hurry to decide. Whatever he decides to do, it’s clear that he has plenty of job opportunities. And none of them involve Esquire.
This article appears in December 22 • 2000.