Lawrence.com

The Dole Institute will host veteran New York Times political reporter Adam Clymer for "Drawing the Line at the Big Ditch," the 2008 Muncy Lecture in Journalism and Politics. The lecture is free and open to the public and a book signing will follow. The program will focus on insights and conclusions from Clymer's latest book "Drawing the Line at the Big Ditch: The Panama Canal Treaties and the Rise of the Right," published by the University Press of Kansas in March 2008. The book reviews the political fracturing in American politics that occurred over the American engineering feat and, later, the highly politicized turn-over of the Panama Canal to Panama. Clymer argues that the return of the Canal foreshadowed the entrenched right-left political divisions that currently exist over hot-button issues such as same-sex marriage, gun control and abortion. "Anyone who follows national politics knows Adam Clymer's byline," said Jonathan Earle, Dole Institute Interim Director. "His biography of Senator Ted Kennedy is first-rate, and he has a compelling argument to make about the Panama Canal treaty as a 'wedge' issue between left and right."The series, dedicated to the ever-changing relationship between politics, policymaking and the media, has been endowed by Martha E. "Betty" Muncy, the retired owner, publisher and editor of the Dodge City Daily Globe. Clymer has spent more than 40 years as a political reporter, with the last 26 of his career covering Capitol Hill and the White House for The New York Times. Clymer retired from his position as Chief Washington correspondent of The Times in 2003 and has since continued to author books and served as a visiting scholar and political director for the National Annenberg Election Survey from 2003 to 2005. He is the author of "Edward M. Kennedy: A Biography" and co-author of "Reagan: The Man, The President." Clymer actually became a news story during the 2000 presidential campaign when he was the subject of an off-color remark by then-Governor George W. Bush at a campaign rally. Although Bush apologized that the private remark was made public, he never officially extended an apology to Clymer himself. Clymer received media requests about the incident, but he only gave an interview with CNN's Reliable Sources. Clymer will discuss the intricacies of political campaigns and his experience as a political reporter for a "Gender, Race and Religion in Politics" study group with Dole Institute Fellow Jennifer Schmidt at 3:00 p.m. in Simons Media Room on Tuesday, Mar. 25.