Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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Pressing Business

Monday, June 4, 2001

Reporter Mark Z. Barabak, in the lead of his Saturday L.A. Times piece, turned out the lights on the idea that a Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate would help Governor Gray Davis in his demand that President Bush institute price controls:

"Dashing California's hopes for relief from a reconstituted U.S. Senate, incoming Majority Leader Tom Daschle on Friday all but ruled out passage of federal price controls on soaring electricity costs."

Daschle, Barabak writes, said "We may have a multi-tiered, multi-committee analysis of the circumstances through hearings that I think will be very instructive and helpful."

Memo to Gray Davis: A "multi-tiered, multi-committee analysis" is basic Washington code for � "Drop Dead."

In spite of his personal denial on Friday, Democratic - and some Republican - staffers spent the weekend fanning the flames of a "Will John McCain Leave the GOP" story. For context, Mullings went to the source for all things Liberal, the Americans for Democratic Action.

On its web page, the ADA lists how Senator McCain voted on issues giving him (and every other Senator) a score. Since 1983 McCain has averaged a score of NINE percent. In the years 1999 and 2000, McCain scored just FIVE percent.

Jeffords, for his part scored 55% last year. The Special "K" twins of Massachusetts, Kennedy and Kerry, as a comparison, each scored 90 percent.

Five percent on the ADA rating chart is enough, however, for the LA Times' Greg Miller to refer to McCain not once, not twice, but three times in his Sunday piece as a "centrist" comparing him with another "centrist" Lincoln Chafee (ADA rating 70 percent) which, as it happens, is the exact same rating as that other famous Senate "centrist," Diane Feinstein of California.

(Irony Alert) As big as the Senate change-of-ownership story is, it ain't nothin' compared to the biggest story of the week, the year, the decade, the century; dare we say it? YES! The Millennium! There will be no bigger story for the next 998.5 years!

Jenna and Barbara.

The Dallas Morning News got the story on its front page on Saturday with the headline: "Bush twins' troubles: How big is the story?"

The DMN resorted to a form of journalistic trickery - reporting on the reporting - to get the story in. It would be interesting to read a report of the conversations between editors and reporters this past Friday as they worked their way to a decision that this was a front page story.

Speaking of Pressing Business, the national media is holding group self-flagellation sessions to atone for its reporting on the condition of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building after the staff of Al Gore moved out on Inaugural Weekend.

On Friday, White House press secretary, Ari Fleischer detailed the damage which had been done which, as it happens, was approximately what was reported in Mullings on January 23:

"Every cord and wire, in many offices - telephone, power, computer and lamp - was slashed. Furniture was tossed, and trash was, literally, everywhere."

Two days later, the national reporting had taken on a somewhat breathless tone regarding reports that some silverware and dishes had been taken from Air Force I when it flew President Clinton and his supporters to New York. Mullings reported it, thus:

"By the time that story made the rounds in Your Nation's Capital, they had made off with all the dishes, all the silverware, all the cups and saucers, the co-pilot's steering wheel, the aft loading door, and the port outboard engine."

Mullings stands by both.

This is absolutely true: On an airplane going to Dallas, Friday evening, I was sitting in front of comedian, civil rights activist, and evangelical vegetarian, Dick Gregory. In the late '50s and early '60s,Gregory made his comedic mark lampooning Whites' treatment of Blacks way before there was such a thing as being politically correct.

On the plane, Gregory told this story:
"I was in a hotel room a couple of months ago and fell asleep with the television on. In my haze I heard that a civil rights icon was being accused of having fathered a daughter out of wedlock.
"In a panic, I called my wife and said 'I can explain everything. Just don't talk to the press.'
"She said, 'It's not you. Go back to sleep.'"

-- END --
Copyright © 2001 Richard A. Galen

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