Word: costanzas
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Even her designated function, head of public liaison, makes her Ms. Outside. Costanza, 44, former vice mayor of Rochester-and not coincidentally one of the first officeholders in New York to support Jimmy Carter for President-has the nation for a client. She and her staff of ten provide White House access for groups of every stripe. The range is unlimited: Texas farm workers who will come this week to seek advice on unionizing, businessmen opposing a consumers' agency, battered wives pleading for protective legislation. Gloria Steinem and other feminists, Poet Allen Ginsberg, Private Slovik's widow, doctors...
Carter backs ERA wholeheartedly, but he and Costanza do not always agree. There was grumbling when, prodded by other women in the Administration, she organized a meeting of women officials who protested the President's decision to cut off federal funds for abortion. Costanza has always differed with Carter on this issue. "It was not a rebellion," she told TIME Washington Correspondent Bonnie Angelo. "It was a chance to discuss how to make him aware of other viewpoints. I'm a living example that you can differ with Jimmy Carter. I disagreed with him on three major issues...
Within the White House, Costanza has been the target of considerable sniping. In her own defense she pulls out a copy of Press Secretary Jody Powell's comments: "She has a very good relationship with the President. Maybe there's some jealousy because of that. It may be a case of people seeing Midge standing up and talking straight to the President-which they don't have the guts to do, but should...
...relationship between the diminutive, breezy Midge, with her penchant for salty language, and the straitlaced President is light and easy. As Carter greeted her with a hug and kiss at one group meeting, Costanza cracked, "Well, now you all know what I do in the White House." Says a veteran Carter hand: "Midge puts a little fun in his day-and he needs it." Some feel that her joshing comes on a bit too strong. But, notes an associate, "a more serious woman would be too threatening to them." "Them" refers to the Georgia Mafia led by Hamilton Jordan...
Daughter of immigrants from Palermo, Costanza began her career as a switchboard operator. Over 24 years, she rose to executive assistant to a Rochester entrepreneur, and carried out a parallel career in city and state politics. For Vice Mayor Midge (she uses her formal name, Margaret, only on voting machines), politics led to an acquaintanceship with Carter-and, ultimately, her present job. Never married, Costanza lives alone in a Foggy Bottom condominium and devotes virtually all of her waking hours to the job. (The man in her life died last year...