HELL NO, DON'T GO, SAYS GQ EDITOR
By KEITH J. KELLY THE NEW YORK POST

Art Cooper, the GQ editor in chief just inducted into the Hall of Fame of the American Society of Magazine Editors, stirred controversy at the awards dinner with some stinging anti-war remarks directed at President Bush.

At the dais during a black-tie dinner Wednesday night at the Waldorf Astoria, he chided the commander in chief for being "all too eager" to have a war with Iraq.

"I am troubled by the prospect of launching a war against Iraq," said Cooper. "We have sent such intrepid war correspondents as Michael Kelly, Bob Drury, Guy Lawson and Chris Whitcomb into hot zones, and I do not wish to send them back," said Cooper.

"If there is to be a war - and I am deathly afraid our president is all too eager to have one - I surely hope this most secretive of administrations does not try to restrain the media from covering every aspect of it.

"We must not be docile in our demands that daily press briefings at the Al Rashid Hotel are not enough. It is our responsibility to report this adventurism fully and frankly to the American people."

The remarks stirred controversy and debate in what was otherwise seen as a jovial night out for the industry.

"We could have done without those remarks on the war," said one top editor as he waited on a seemingly interminable coat line after the dinner. "I thought it was a little off the beam," said another.

Applause was light while Cooper delivered his remarks on war - but it's open to debate whether the light applause was because members of the audience were listening in rapt attention - or deliberately turning down the volume because they disapproved of the rebuke to the president.

Afterward, Cooper partied in the same Waldorf Astoria presidential suite where Pope Paul VI once met President Johnson. Essence Chairman Edward Lewis was given the Henry Johnson Fisher Award, named for a long-ago chief of Popular Science. It is bestowed by the Magazine Publishers of America and is considered the highest honor given to an industry executive.

While Cooper was in a spacious presidential suite, Lewis and his entourage partied in the Waldorf penthouse, were guests were admitted by special pass keys. Lewis stopped downstairs to mingle with Cooper and his guests for awhile.