A call to the person handling the arrangements brought this information:

”McGovern wanted an opportunity to see old friends and to thank people who worked on the campaign. People who are still active in Democratic politics will be coming to New York anyway, so he thought it would be a good chance to get together.”

Unfortunately, I can`t attend. And I regret it because I would like to see how the years have treated the people who managed to screw up the Democratic Party almost beyond repair.

Twenty years ago. That`s when the McGovernites decided to purge the party convention of those Democrats who had been found guilty of being governors, mayors, sheriffs, and members of Congress and state legislatures. In other words, people who had actually campaigned for and been elected to public office.

Under the new rules, the only deserving Democrats were those who were minorities, young, female and anyone else who claimed to be oppressed and was incapable of delivering a vote on Election Day.

This was the convention that decided that Mayor Richard J. Daley and his delegation didn`t represent Chicago`s Democratic Party. All they had done to become delegates was receive the overwhelming majority of the city`s Democratic votes.

So they tossed Daley and all of those officeholders out of the convention and replaced them with delegates led by Jackson and other alleged reformers.

One of those reform delegates, it turned out, was a registered Republican, heading a committee to elect a Republican governor. A minor technicality.

And Jackson hadn`t even bothered to cast a vote in Chicago`s delegate election. He said he was out of town or busy or forgot or something.

So after strong-arming control of the convention, the McGovernites put on a show unlike any seen before.

We were treated to MacLaine, reincarnated as a political ninny, making a speech to the convention about how a Chicago villain named Andy Toman should be cast into the darkness.

”Who is this terrible Andy Toman?” TV viewers wondered.

They would have laughed if they knew. Andy was the Cook County coroner, an obscure and meek fellow who made sure all the stiffs at the morgue got the right tags on their toes.

And McGovern demonstrated his political shrewdness by letting his followers babble so long that by the time he made his acceptance speech, the sun was almost coming up and the only people watching were some night watchmen.

This was the convention that decided the party needed quotas for everything. Of every 10 delegates, 4 1/2 had to be females, 1/2 had to be young, 3 3/4 had to be minority, and every one of them had to be sensitive, caring, politically correct, swear their loyalty to white wine and cheese, and report anyone seen having a beer and potato chips.

They did such a good job of throwing out the old-time Democrats and putting together a coalition of amateurs, movie stars, grousers, gripers and goofballs that McGovern led the party to one of the worst defeats in history. And he and his people stuck the Democrats with a legacy of rules and quotas that helped shove most of middle America over to the Republicans, where they`ve been since.

Now they are going to get together, for old time`s sake.

If Bill Clinton is wise, there is still time for him to go to McGovern and the `72 crowd and say:

”Here, these are free airline tickets for Paris, London, the Bahamas, anywhere you choose. Have a good time. But please, do me a favor and get out of New York before the TV cameras find you and Shirley starts making a nutsy speech again.

”Better yet, why don`t you all throw your support to George Bush?”