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The Gumbelization of Katie C.

Monday, June 10, 2002

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From Newtown, CT
Connecticut-5 Committee Annual Brunch
• Perky, frisky, sprightly, energetic Katie Couric, it appears, is not much of a fan of the proposed Department of Homeland Security, or Tom Ridge.

• Here are two absolutely unbiased questions she asked Ridge the morning after the President's address on the establishment of the new Department.

  1. "Can you see, Governor Ridge, how some people might view this as a PR move - damage control - because of all the reports of intelligence lapses that occurred prior to September 11, particularly after FBI Agent Colleen Rowley testified on the Hill about how the FBI mishandled this?"

  2. "With all due respect, Governor, you served in the Army, you're a lawyer and you served in the House. You were governor of Pennsylvania. Are you equipped to run not only a $37 billion agency, but to really analyze and track and act on sensitive intelligence information?"

• Here's a tip for all of you who may be dusting off your r�sum�s for a senior position in the Second Bush Administration: Any time anyone starts a question with the words, "With all due respect..." it means the person asking the question does not believe, for one second, you have any respect due you.

• On Question Number 1: According to the White House, here is the basic time-line:

  May 8, 2001: Four months before the September 11th attacks - the President directed Vice President Cheney to begin planning a coordinated response to a catastrophic attack on the US.

  September 20, 2001: Nine days after the attacks - the President appoints Governor Ridge as the Director of Homeland Security.

  October 24 &25: The President meets with Congressional leaders and tells them the country cannot wait for legislation and so was moving forward establishing Ridge as a Presidential advisor.

  March 2002: Ridge and OMB Director Mitch Daniels publicly discuss the possibility that "the structure for organizing and overseeing homeland security may evolve over time."

  Wait. Mitch Daniels TOLD the Congress in testimony three months ago there was the possibility of establishing a Cabinet-level Department and not a single Member of the House or the Senate CONNECTED THE DOTS? Hmm. Imagine that.

  April, 23, 2002: White House Chief of Staff, Andy Card, and Ridge convene a small - a VERY small - working group to draft this reorganization.

  June 2002: Their work done, they report to the President who announced the reorganization on June 6.

• On Question Number two: Mullings wonders why Ms. C. thinks someone with Ridge's creds might not be qualified to run a cabinet-level Department but that Bill Clinton - who was the Governor of ARKANSAS, a failed candidate for Congress, a draft dodger, and the possessor of those other attributes we learned way too much about - was nonetheless extreeeeemly well qualified to be the PRESIDENT OF THE WHOLE UNITED STATES?

• For the record, the 2001-2002 budget Ridge's administration proposed for Pennsylvania was $42.6 billion making it 15 percent LARGER than the proposed DHS budget.

• For those who think the Cabinet-level Department should have been the first idea out of the box, this from Jim Vande Hei's Washington Post piece on Congressional turf battles -

  [Sidebar: This is a small victory, but it appears that the phrase "turf battles" has, thankfully, replaced "connect the dots" as Official Washington's Favorite Phrase. End Sidebar]

• - in which he discusses how members of Congress - Republicans and Democrats - are dealing with the big picture:

  [One Congressman] expressed ... fears about the new department's jurisdiction over disease research now conducted by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Bush's plan ... appears to transfer many operations of NIAID to the new department as part of the effort to combat bioterrorism.

• I, for one, am extremely concerned about where the NIAID ends up. Very extremely.

• Finally. Prior to her current job, Ms. Couric was the Beltway reporter for Channel Four here in Washington getting telephone calls from local Morning Zoo radio personalities, Don and Mike, about the color of her underwear. Was she "equipped" (her word) to be the anchor of the Today show? With, you know, all due respect?

• For a transcript of that Today Show interview, an explanation of the title, and the usual stuff go to the Secret Decoder Ring page.
  --END --
  Copyright © 2002 Richard A. Galen

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