Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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Read It Twice, It's Twice as Nice

Wednesday, May 23, 2001

From The Delta Crown Room in Concourse "A"
Atlanta, Georgia

All right. ALL RIGHT! I accidentally transmitted Friday's column again on Monday. There were several highly technical reasons you wouldn't understand, including hexadecimals and, ummm, slaking. In any event, you're getting them both today. David Yost e-mailed my excuse: "The Mullings Director of Distribution (MDofD) screwed up." I'm just hoping it is not a known symptom of the onset of malaria.

If you haven't gotten a response to an e-mail you have sent me, have pity. I had (true number) 2,373 messages waiting for me when I dialed in from here Tuesday afternoon, of which 368 were very kind notes from people responding to my shameless request for very kind notes.

Thank you.

As usual, the Democrats in the Congress are using a single incident to make their case for a new, sweeping federal law. At issue is a bill introduced by Gary Ackerman (D-NY) in the House and Jon Corzine (D-NJ) in the Senate which would force states to implement a law making it illegal to use a hand-held cell phone while driving.

First of all, there is no scientific evidence that the use of cell phones leads to a significant number of accidents. There WAS, however, a recent report which indicated that many more accidents are caused by people fiddling with the radio buttons.

Second, Jon Corzine is a jillionaire who probably hasn't driven himself in the past decade, so it won't even apply to him. Oh! A Member of Congress demanding a law which affects everyone else. Hello? Newark Star Ledger? Stop the presses!

While Jon Corzine was worrying about your cell phone, he and a large majority of his Democratic colleagues in the Senate were offering amendment after amendment to the tax cut bill to try and stop it from getting to the President by this weekend.

Both Donna Smith's Reuters piece and Curt Anderson's AP story make the case that the Democrats can't stop the bill, but they want to delay it so the President won't have it on his desk by Memorial Day. The Democrats, if they succeed in delaying it until next week, will claim this as another victory.

The tax bill will pass, sooner or later. But the next time someone tells that President Bush isn't doing all that well because "the tax cut package was the easy part" remind him - or her - about this.

We see that Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian and the Dalai Lama are in the US simultaneously which is irritating our great and noble allies, the Chinese. According to Sonya Hepinstall's report in Reuters, the Chinese call this "rude interference" in its domestic affairs.

While we're on the subject of rude interference, can we chat for a minute about the nature of the Chinese government's activities with respect to our surveillance plane which, as it happens, is still sitting on a runway there? Or am I being rude?

The President spoke at the annual Republican National Committee Gala last night to the giggling of a press corps which couldn't help pointing out the number of times Republicans complained about Bill Clinton's fund raising activities when he was President.

Ok, class. Let's go though this again. Slowly: An appearance at a large dinner does not equal a night in the Lincoln Bedroom. Speaking for 15 minutes to a crowd of 3,500 or so does not equal a private coffee in the White House.

At any rate, the Mullings Director of Standards & Practices is our representative at the event. The Lad did the advance for the President. I'm in the Crown room. Life is not fair.

I suspect Jim Jeffords wasn't there, either.

Senator Jeffords (R(temp)-VT) is generally expected to switch parties this morning changing the balance of power in the Senate from 50-50 to 51-49 Democratic. With any luck this will force Zell Miller (D(wavering)-GA) to switch from the Democrats to the Republicans putting everything back on an even keel.

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