Still Swinging, Townsend Takes on the Politics of the Playground

By Paul Schwartzman

Sunday, June 22, 2003; Page C04

You remember Kathleen Kennedy Townsend? The former lieutenant governor? The one with that familiar toothsome grin who got her clock cleaned last fall by a certain Republican
gubernatorial candidate, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.?

She's back.

And not exactly in a way that the public would recognize.

For eight years, Townsend was Parris N. Glendening's loyal No. 2, forever touted by Democrats and political pundits for her gilded Kennedy lineage, and her potential as a statewide, if
not national, candidate.

So what's Townsend up to these days, eight months after losing last fall's governor's race and being booted most unceremoniously from Maryland's political stage?

She recently signed on as president of Operation Respect: "Don't Laugh at Me," which promotes an anti-bullying curriculum in public schools across the country.

Bullies, it would seem, are not an altogether alien form of life to Townsend.

Her father, Robert F. Kennedy, she acknowledges, was well-known for his strong-arm tactics as attorney general (just ask the Teamsters).

And there are those high-octane personas she has dealt with in Annapolis, men such as Comptroller William Donald Schaefer and Senate President Thomas V. "Mike" Miller Jr.

No, those men are not the inspiration for her new job, Townsend says.

Nor was there a raging bully who dogged her in childhood.

Instead, she says, she got hooked up by a mutual friend of Operation Respect's founder, Peter Yarrow, otherwise known as Peter of the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary. Her new mission
echoes her work in state government, in which she pushed for character education to be part of the schools' curriculum.

"I'm very excited about doing Operation Respect because it gets me back into the schools, and let's me reach out to kids, and create environments where teachers want to teach,"
Townsend said in a telephone interview from her Baltimore County home. "I wanted to do something that was consistent with what my passions have been."

The nonprofit organization "uses music and video with character-building curricula designed to help create a ridicule-free environment," according to a news release put out by the
group.

"It helps give tools to the schools to create a more nurturing and supportive environment," Townsend said, "which is important for the students and the teachers because they want to
be cared for."

Although the organization is based in New York City, Townsend said she'll work out of her house, and she plans to spend much of her time focusing on implementing the program in
Illinois, Connecticut, Ohio, Colorado and California.

In the course of describing her duties, Townsend sounded enthusiastic, and sidestepped a number of invitations to change the subject to politics.

As in, what do you think of the new governor's performance?

"We're not going to talk politically for this article," she said, chuckling.

What about her former boss, Glendening, who disparaged her losing campaign as one of the "worst-run" in the country.

Has she spoken to him?

"No," she said.

And what about running for office again? Any inclination?

Another chuckle.

"We'll see what the future brings," she said.

                                                 © 2003 The Washington Post Company