42 sLAde goRton: A hALf centuRy in poLitics
from James Russell Lowell’s poem, “To Every Man.” From memory, Gorton
recites:
Once to every man and nation,
comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood,
for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, some great decision,
offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever,
’twixt that darkness and that light.In making that choice for the good side as opposed to doing the politi-
cal calculus, “the unintended consequence was that it took me out of be-
ing just another young state representative. I became someone The Seattle
Times and other media would pay attention to.” In his riveting book about
the Goldmark case, Dwyer wrote, “An outstanding young lawyer thought
to have a brilliant political future, Gorton was willing to tell the truth as
he saw it about John regardless of what it might cost him with the right
wing of his party.”^9
“In 1963, I had never set foot in Okanogan County in my life,” Gorton
recalls. “How well I recall the dull, cloudy November day when I drove
over.” He testified to Goldmark’s honesty and straightforwardness. “His
reputation (in the Legislature) was excellent,” Gorton told the court. “It
was not questioned.” The defense cross-examined aggressively, trying to
get him to characterize Goldmark as an extreme leftist. “[H]e was a lead-
ing member of the liberal group of the Democratic Party,” Gorton replied
evenly, and that “included the great bulk of the Democratic Party in the
Legislature.”^10
When President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas by an avowed
Marxist three weeks into the trial, the plaintiffs feared their case was also
mortally wounded. But Dwyer was masterful. The jury, which deliberated
in the courthouse attic for five days, decided that a man’s good name had
been tarnished by innuendo. It awarded Goldmark $40,000 in damages,
the second-largest libel verdict in state history. He never received a cent,
however. The U.S. Supreme Court, in the famous New York Times Co. v.
Sullivan case, ruled a few months later that “actual malice” had to be
proven by a public figure in a libel or defamation case. The Goldmark
verdict was reversed. “At least Goldmark was vindicated by winning in
front of a jury of his peers,” Gorton says.