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 Treaties and Entreaties
* Another few words on the Senate’s defeat of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) which, if many news organizations are correct will, by this Thursday at the latest, lead to a nuclear exchange between the Falkland Islands and Grenada.
* Close your eyes. Think about the amount of effort the White House put into getting the test ban treaty through the Senate last week. OK. Now, go back exactly one year and think about the amount of effort the White House put into defending you-know-who against you-know-what. Open your eyes. Can you see through the White House hand-wringing?
* I am thinking about registering a new web site: DuckAndCoverDrill-Dot-Com. I’m going to sell virtual fallout shelters which will protect against virtual threats. EYE-PEA-OH! EYE-PEA-OH!
* At the National Italian-American Foundation dinner on Saturday night in Washington the following actually happened: Pat Harrison (nee DeStacy) who is the Co-Chair of the Republican National Committee was doing some table hopping during one of the breaks. A couple asked if they could get a picture taken with her. After she posed graciously and was walking away the man said to his wife, “How exciting. We got our picture made with Geraldine Ferraro!”
* Also at that dinner there were about 175 people on the three-tiered head table. When President Clinton and Hillary were introduced he took a lot of time shaking hands with as many as possible. It turns out he was really trying to arrange for an extra chair to be placed next to Joan Collins.
* Fabio was there. I’m not sure what he’s famous for except being the hair consultant for The Nelsons.
* Hillary, according to some, sort of invited herself to attend the dinner. The most commonly heard wisecrack had to do with her announcing she had just discovered yet another grand-parent of ethnicity. What’s the Italian word for “pander.”
* Al “I-Can-Lose-This-Without-Any-Help-From-Bill” Gore made the White House staff happy twice last week. First, when he wrote, produced and starred in that ridiculous (notwithstanding your position on the issue) ad on the test ban treaty. Then he told the Washington Post editorial board that he, Gore, hadn’t decided whether he wanted Bill Clinton’s help on the campaign any more. This, not more than 48 hours after Clinton pulled out every stop in his arsenal to get Gore the AFL-CIO endorsement.
* As to the questions raised over whether the rhetoric in the U.S. Senate was beginning to sound like the rhetoric in the U.S. House, it occurred to me that Senator Torricelli (D-NJ) engaged Senator Feingold (D-MN) while Senator McConnell (R-KY) engaged Senator McCain (R-AZ). Dem on Dem. Republican on Republican. That would not have happened in the House. That has probably NEVER happened in the House.
* In this week’s “Talk of the Town” column in the New Yorker magazine there is a discussion of Oprah Winfrey as a potential candidate for President or Vice President. Oprah, the column claims is “uninominally famous like Picasso, Fidel and Garbo.” In The Washingtonian magazine that would have been written “… like Hillary, Newt, and Cal.”
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