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Living in Your Nation's Capital these days is very, very interesting - aside, I mean, from being The James' backdoor neighbor.
Here is the pattern which has developed: It is perfectly acceptable for Democrats to criticize the President, but it is absolutely unacceptable for Republicans to return fire.
Since the President, in his State of the Union Address, uttered THE WORDS - Axis of Evil - Democratic luminaries such as Jimmy Carter and Madeline Albright have been throwing themselves in front of every reporter in sight to denounce him.
The Carter and Albright statements have been portrayed as sober, thoughtful, legitimate differences of opinion notwithstanding the Carter foreign policy began and ended over the span of the 444 days of the hostages; and Ms. Albright's foreign policy with regard to, for instance, Bosnia which she maintained was to be a short-term, in-and-out deal has resulted in, according to Senate testimony last week, 3,000 U.S. troops STILL there.
On Thursday - about an hour after having breakfast with the President of the United States at the White House - Majority Leader Tom Daschle went before cameras complaining that the Bush Administration wasn't consulting with the Congress on the conduct of the war.
At 6:15 Friday morning (a part of the day during which I am not, typically, at my sparkling best) I debated the former Democratic staff chief of the House Judiciary Committee, Julian Epstein, on Fox and Friends.
I asked why, if this were weighing so heavily on Daschle's mind, he didn't bring it up to the President when he was actually IN the White House, AT the same table, for the specific purpose, one presumes, of discussing issues of common interest between the Administration and the Congress.
Julian suggested it was perfectly reasonable for Tom Daschle to hold his press conference.
Having a private meal with someone at that someone's home, and then going out minutes later and publicly complaining about not being consulted by that very same someone is considered to be reasonable behavior ONLY in Washington, DC.
The ABC News hand-wringing over the Letterman-for-Koppel-and-Mahr trade is not the first time ABC has blurred the line between news and entertainment.
On March 31, 2000 ABC News' ace environmental reporter, Leonardo DiCaprio, interviewed President Bill Clinton in the White House. When the reportorial staff went through the ceiling, ABC News President David Westin sent them an e-mail which said "No one is that stupid," as to send DiCaprio to conduct a Presidential interview for ABC News.
Maybe.
Then, shortly after the attacks on September 11 Westin, in response to a question at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism said, "The Pentagon as a legitimate target? I actually don't have an opinion on that," a statement for which Westin had to apologize.
Mullings has an idea for a regular feature on the David Letterman show: Stupid David Westin tricks.
Last point: The Washington Post reported there is a "Shadow Government" operating in case something catastrophic happens in Washington. Tom Daschle whined that he didn't know anything about that, either. (On the Sunday shows Daschle used the term "Secret" government until Fox's Tony Snow asked him if he wanted to revise that characterization.)
According to the Post, "the civilian cadre present in the [secure] bunkers usually numbers 70 to 150."
There are approximately 2.8 MILLION federal civilian employees. 150 of them - One Hundred Fifty - are separated from their families to ensure the continuity of government. Maybe we should send to Mr. Daschle a daily report - the civilian equivalent of a military "Morning Report" - indicating the precise disposition of each of those 2,799,850 remaining employees so he can feel, you know, included.
According to a Federal Emergency Management Agency document, this activity gets its authority from laws and Presidential Orders dating back to - are you ready? - 1947. The most recent order, prior to the current activity was issued in 1998 by (I'll say this so Ari Fleischer doesn't have to) President Bill Clinton. This is not something invented by the Bush Administration.
For a link to the Washington Post story, the FEMA document and the usual stuff go to the Secret Decoder Ring page.
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