Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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What's the Deal on the HOV Lane?

Wednesday, May 17, 2000

After 10 months of working largely out of my den, I found myself looking covetously at Kleenex boxes to walk around in. Before I look down and realize I have let my fingernails grow out to several inches, I have decided to go back to an office and act like a grownup.

No more heavy decisions: The old movie on American Movie Classics, or the old movie on Turner Classic Movies. No more trying to decide whether to ride the Mullcycle to the bank, or walk. No more smugly ignoring "traffic and weather together on the eights" on the local all-news station because I never had to go across the 14th Street Bridge in rush hour.

Effective this past Monday, I joined the staff of SpeakOut.com as the vice president for national affairs. Curious title, I know, for someone who spent a year poking fun at the President whose affairs rocked the nation.

SpeakOut.com has in mind to build a place where people can come to learn about and express an opinion about, a wide variety of topics; some political, some not.

There were other opportunities, including staying in my den. Some of the other dot-coms who spoke to me have equally compelling visions, and equally talented staffs. I chose to join SpeakOut.com and I think it will be an excellent relationship.

Mullings will - like it or not - continue unabated.

Other matters: The Atlanta City Council is considering a measure to close all drive-through windows during the summer months in an attempt to reduce air pollution. The idea is, people will turn off their cars and go inside a fast food restaurant, rather than idling while in line to order a Big Mac, large fries, a coke, and maybe one of those fried apple pie thingies.

In this era of looking for working moms' votes, how exited do you think they will be about this new law when they have to heft three little ones out of the car, herd them across a working parking lot, keep them away from all sharp angles inside the restaurant while they wait in long lines for the Happy Meal with the free toy, then juggle the bags, the drinks, and the kids getting back into the car?

I haven't had to deal with a kid and a fast food place since The Lad was a tyke, and I'm exhausted just typing this.

Al "The-Faster-I-Run-The-Behinder-I-Get" Gore has yet another bad poll to ignore. The New York Times/CBS poll released yesterday had George W. Bush beating Gore by 8 points 47-39 including a 16 point lead among men and a two point lead for Bush among women.

According to the analysis by Rick Berke and Janet Elder, Bush leads with "three critical groups that voted Democratic in 1996: Catholics, independents and Northeasterners."

Obviously, no one in the New York Times Editorial suite was included in the poll sample.

Here's the line which has got to be a Maalox moment for Gore and his staff: "Voters polled, in fact, are so lukewarm toward Mr. Gore that he is widely perceived as a loser in November: by a ratio of nearly 2 to 1, they expect Mr. Bush to capture the White House."

More poll stuff: New York Democrats officially nominated Hillary Rodham Clinton Rodham for U.S. Senate last night. But a Quinnipiac College poll released yesterday showed Mrs. Clinton leading New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani by only one percentage point - 44-43. That after a very, very tough week for Giuliani.

On the Bob Knight front: Indiana University has decided to give Knight one more chance to show he can act more like Mahatma Gandhi than George Patton. Or, perhaps it was one more chance to prove he can move his basketball team past the first round of the NCAA tournament.

There is a certain symmetry in that fire which is still burning out of control in New Mexico. The fire destroyed some of the historic buildings in which the first atomic bombs were developed: Monuments to the newest form of mass destruction were destroyed by the oldest form of mass destruction.

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Copyright © 2000 Richard A. Galen

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