Washington Squares

Each week until July 14, MoJo Wire lets you test your prowess with political trivia and gives you a chance to win a FREE subscription to Mother Jones magazine. Every Tuesday we'll have a new set of questions about a different politician, plus the answers and winners from the week before. Just make sure you play before 5 p.m. Pacific Time each Monday.

—By

| Mon Jun. 23, 1997 12:00 AM PDT

This Week: Phil Gramm

Phil GrammThe Republican Senator (and 1996 presidential candidate) from Texas mixes economic conservatism with homespun rhetoric. Gramm's folksy vernacular endorses budget cuts and decreased government spending by pointing to Dicky Flatt, a print shop owner from Mexia, Tex., as a symbolic everyman. In the same hard-nosed spirit, Gramm urges welfare recipients to "get out of the wagon and help the rest of us pull."

Gramm's plain spoken, conservative politics have made him one of the most visible players in the G.O.P., despite the fact that he served his first three terms in Congress as a Democrat. Test your knowledge of his one-liners below.

  1. Gramm once described himself as:

Advertise on MotherJones.com

"The pit bull of the American Right."
"Strom Thurmond without the orange hair."
"The skunk at the garden party."
"Dickey Flatt's second cousin."
"A foot soldier for the Bush Revolution."

  • Gramm earned a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Georgia, but his early educational experiences were rocky, to say the least. Which of the following grades did Gramm not fail?

    3rd
    4th
    7th
    9th

  • In 1974, Gramm sent investment money to the producer of which two movies?

    "Truck Stop Women" and "Beauty Queens"
    "The Candidate" and "All the President's Men"
    "Debbie Does Dallas" and "Saturday Night Fever"
    "Night of the Living Dead" and "Nightmare on Elm Street"
    "The Story of O" and "The Hatchet Murders"

  • When asked if he would consider a woman as his vice-presidential running mate, how did Gramm respond?

    "Like who -- some witch like Bella Abzug?"
    "I can't imagine a woman saying yes."
    "Elizabeth Dole says she's sticking with Bob."
    "We need brains, not boobs."
    "Sophia Loren is not a citizen."

  • According to Gramm, "I own more _____________ than I need. But not as many as I want."

    porno magazines
    pictures of myself
    web pages
    copies of Newt's novel
    shotguns

    Your name:

    Your e-mail address
    (for prize notification only):

    Plus, you can add your name to our mailing list:

    We're compiling the results from this quiz, please come back later

    Ted Rueter is the author of several books on politics, including The Newt Gingrich Quiz Book and The Rush Limbaugh Quiz Book.

    • Get Mother Jones by Email - Free. Like what you're reading? Get the best of MoJo three times a week.

    Advertisement

     

    Photo Essays + Slideshows

    kids smoking

    Glamorous Photos of Kids Smoking

    Frieke Janssens' images of kids and (fake!) cigarettes capture the ugliness and the not-quite-bygone glamour of smoking.

    Slideshow: "Enjoy an Ice Cream Cone Shortly Before Lunch"

    10 classic ads from the sugar and cereal industries.

    Portraits of Addiction

    A Manhattan banker shoots portraits of drug abuse, sex work, and homelessness in the Bronx.

    Garry Winogrand, John F. Kennedy, Democratic National Convention, Los Angeles, 1

    Never Before Seen Photos From Legendary Street Photographer Garry Winogrand

    Fourteen amazing scenes of life in America—and hundreds more where that came from.

    See All