BARRY GOLDWATER, liberal hero?

An interview in this Sunday’s New York Times Magazine with C.C. Goldwater reveals that her HBO film to be aired Sept. 18 paints her late grandfather, Sen. Barry Goldwater, “as a kind of liberal,” with testimonials from Al Franken, Sen. Ted Kennedy, James Carville and Sen. Hillary Clinton.

In fact, Hillary campaigned for Goldwater in 1964 in his race for president against Lyndon Johnson. “Hillary was a Goldwater girl,” says the filmmaker, interviewed by Deborah Solomon. “She passed out cookies and lemonade at his campaign functions.” Solomon calls Goldwater “a half-Jewish cowboy from Phoenix.”

The film — made on a budget of $800,000 — will note that the straight-talking Sen. Goldwater, author of the classic “The Conscience of a Conservative” (soon to be reissued by Princeton University Press) favored abortion rights and allowing gays in the military, and refused to attend President Nixon’s funeral because he “cheated” the country. In the film, former Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee [sic] calls Sen. Goldwater “an unsung hero of Watergate” for helping convince Nixon to resign.

Via the Corner. Over to you, Rick Perlstein.