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The Lion and the Lamb

Rich Galen

Monday May 16, 2005


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  • Last week, Newt Leroy Gingrich and Hillary Rodham Clinton held a joint press conference. As it happens they agree that in the era of the touch screen, WiFi, Blackberry, and cell phones which do everything but cook dinner; the mount of time, effort, and money wasted on paperwork in the US healthcare system must be reduced - which would have the additional benefit of reducing life-threatening errors.

  • As Newt has pointed out for years: When you go to a doctor's office for the first time, count the number of times you have to write your name, your Social Security number, your spouse's name, your home address and work addresses, your home and work phone numbers; your spouse's work address and phone number and a mountain of other repetitive information.

  • Years ago Woody Allen wrote: "The lion and the lamb may lie down together; but the lamb won't get much sleep."

  • That popped back into my head as I read reports of the Hillary-Newt newser. I'm not certain which is the lion, and which the lamb, but I'm thinking seriously about selling tickets to the event to find out.

  • It is not news to point out that official Washington is as irritable and short-tempered as any time since the Monica scandal.

  • Between attacks on Tom DeLay in by the Democrats in the House, coupled with threats to change the filibuster rules in the Senate by the Republicans, the center aisle of each chamber - between where the Blue lines are drawn and the Red lines are drawn - should be declared the Neutral Zone.

  • Which would have been marginally more clever if there was, in fact, a functioning National Hockey League.

  • Newt, never one to miss an opportunity to make some news, said that a Hillary Clinton Presidential run would be a major challenge to the GOP. In his NY Times piece on the politics of the press conference, reporter Raymond Hernandez quoted Newt as saying, "Any Republican who thinks she's going to be easy to beat has a total amnesia about the history of the Clintons."

  • Taping a local Sunday show on Friday afternoon I raised the possibility that if Hillary were to run and win, it would not be beyond the realm of possibility for Hillary to nominate Newt to be Secretary of Health and Human Services.

  • A Republican could never get Newt confirmed. A Democrat could.

  • Washington Post reporter, Jim VandeHei, who was on the program with me, said that he had covered the Clinton-Lewinski scandal and didn't see any way for that to happen.

  • I wonder whom Hillary trusts less now: Newt? Or Bill?

  • New Topic: Ambassador Paul Bremer hosted a reunion for a good number of the folks who worked for him during the Coalition Provisional Authority era in Baghdad. The reunion wasn't in Baghdad. It was here.

  • Many of the people were Washington types who see each other at least occasionally, but some folks came in from as far away as Connecticut, Michigan and Oklahoma.

  • Interestingly, a significant number of them are still involved in Middle Eastern activities, including Iraq. They work at NGOs (Non-governmental agencies) as well as for the US government in civilian and military positions.

  • During his brief remarks, Amb. Bremer said that the astonishing number of Iraqis who turned out to vote in the election last January was only a surprise to the media covering it. "Those of us who worked with Iraqis day in and day out knew - never doubted - that the election would be a success."

  • He also made the point that while there are good days and bad days in Iraq "the trend line is up there."

  • If Newt and Hillary can hold a joint press conference in the midst of the current Congressional environment, maybe the trend line is up here as well.

  • On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: A link to the NY Times piece about the Hill-Newt press conference (along with a photo of the event suitable for framing) a Mullfoto from California, and a Catchy Caption of the Day.

    --END --
    Copyright © 2005 Richard A. Galen

                                                                       

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