Mullings: An American Cyber-column By Rich Galen

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Not Simple Wimpery

Friday, October 19, 2001

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The Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, and the House Minority Leader, Dick Gephardt, decided to recess the House effective at the close of business Wednesday and not return until Tuesday.

The Senate Majority Leader, Tom Daschle, and Senate Minority Leader, Trent Lott, decided to continue floor activities and committee meetings in the Capitol building.

Were the Members of the House, as the New York Post put it in bazillion point type, "Wimps?"

No.

Are the Senators acting like Real Men marching to the floor singing "He's a Lumberjack and He's Ok?"

Well, maybe.

There are reports circulating in Washington that the four leaders - Hastert, Gephardt, Daschle, and Lott had made an agreement to close both the House AND the Senate. In caucus meetings, rank-and-file Senators - in between choruses of "He's a Lumberjack and He's OK" - said they wanted to stay in session to demonstrate their defiance.

Hastert and Gephardt were left (as we used to love to say) to twist slowly, slowly in the wind.

Also lost in the coverage is the fact that the Senate ALSO closed ITS three office buildings effective Wednesday night leaving only a small cadre of Senate staff to find stray telephones in the Capitol.

This may be the first time that the all-news-all-the-time-in-every-medium syndrome has actually caused damage. Dozens of reporters were chasing the same "Anthrax in the Capitol" story and, because they were covering the story FROM the Capitol, they were a PART of the story.

Like anyone in that situation, they wanted as much information as they could get as quickly as they could get it. Like no one else in that situation, they have the credentials and the clout to demand that officials speak to them throughout the day.

Members of the House and Senate and their staffs are genetically required to speak to any group of one or more reporters at any time, in any place within the Capitol complex. They can't help themselves.

So, all through the day Wednesday, as the various tests were being run, private briefings were given to Senators and Representatives, who told their chiefs of staff who called each other to compare notes and rumors, phone calls which were overheard by personal assistants, legislative correspondents, and press secretaries, who, on their way to the cafeterias in the basements of the Russell and Longworth buildings to share this with their pals, ran into reporters and told them what they had heard, what they thought they had heard, and/or what they wish they thought they had heard.

Reporters then put it on the wires, on the internet, on the cable networks, on the radio and into the newspapers leading to, not just adding to, the fear and confusion.

One of the reasons the House shut down and the Senate didn't, was a simple matter of numbers. With 100 Senators - many of whom have what are called "hide-a-way offices" in the Capitol building - there is ample room for them to conduct at least some business when they are not actually on the floor, which is most of the time.

The House consists of 435 voting members most of whom do NOT have private Capitol office space and there is, quite literally, no place to put them when they are not on the floor which, is nearly all of the time.

There are 20,000 - TWENTY THOUSAND - staffers who work for the Congress on Capitol Hill.

There is an interesting anecdote about how the Capitol building is managed, plus all the lyrics to the "He's a Lumberjack" song on the Secret Decoder Ring today.

Imagine the impact of hundreds of Members of Congress and many more hundreds of their staffs milling around Statuary Hall and the Rotunda surrounded by - guess who? Reporters - each of them sharing their thoughts and fears and fears and thoughts hour-after-hour with the journalists rushing around trying to confirm the existence of each new rumor with yet another House Member or staffer.

That would have been a recipe for uncertainty leading to confusion leading to fear leading to dread leading to panic.

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