Early yesterday morning, MSNBC's Greg Jarrett teased an upcoming interview with a U.S. Senator discussing: "...whether the FBI and the CDC might be responsible for the deaths of two postal workers ..."
If Jarrett ad libbed that, shame on him. If he was reading from his TelePrompter, shame on the producers and writers.
Here's a news flash for MSNBC: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (the official name of the CDC) is not sending Anthrax-laden letters.
To somehow turn this into an Us versus Us situation is short-sighted as well as wrong-headed.
I did not hang around to watch the interview.
This business of forcing discussion as to "which American(s) should be blamed for what" is yet another result of all-news-all-the-time programming.
Sometimes things DON'T get solved by the beginning of the 11:00 O'clock (10 Central and Mountain) news.
There is a reason General Douglas MacArthur uttered, in 1942, the famous words, "I shall return." It was because he was getting booted out of the Philippines by the Japanese, a situation which was not remedied until early 1945.
As noted in the Mullings of October 12 ("Modern D-Day Coverage") if World War II had been covered like this war, TV anchors would be all but rending their own flesh in their torment over why it took from December 1941 until June 1944 to mount an invasion of Northern Europe.
On the House side of Capitol Hill there is a structure known as the Botanical Gardens Conservatory building. This building is part of a complex which has been a particular favorite of mine as it was one of my standard hiding places as young Congressional press secretary.
The Botanical Gardens complex has been undergoing a complete re-modeling for at least the past three years. According to Hill sources, that work has now been completed enough such that it is being used as the command post for a hastily set up organization known as the "Incident Management Team."
Desks, phones, computers, copying machines, and all the trappings of a federal office were moved in over last weekend to support the team which is composed, according to these sources, of both Congressional and Executive Branch investigators and administrators.
There are three House Office Buildings: Cannon, Longworth, and Rayburn. Cannon is the oldest of the three and, arguably, the most charming. Rayburn is new newest and, arguably, the most convenient. The Longworth building is neither and, so, is the home of the most junior Representatives.
The Longworth Building is the only one of the three still closed because evidence of Anthrax spores were found on the machine which bundles mail going to that building at the House mail facility about three blocks away.
The examination of the Longworth Building is, therefore, taking much longer - possibly through next Monday - while the Incident Management Team makes its determinations.
The Congress passed another Continuing Resolution yesterday which will keep the government operating until November 16. The government's Fiscal Year ran out at the end of September, so they have been operating by adopting these resolutions - called "CRs" in the jargon of the Hill - while they work out the details of next year's spending package.
If all Appropriations bills are not passed by the House and Senate and signed by the President then the Departments and Agencies left unfunded must SHUT DOWN. Remember those good old days?
As you watch the sad shaking of heads on television over the end of bipartisanship in the Congress, remember that these CRs used to be the launching pad for threats and counter-threats bouncing up and down Pennsylvania Avenue between the Congress and the White House like the pellet inside a linear particle accelerator gaining speed and strength until crashing into a target thus setting off a small - but intense - nuclear explosion.
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