Mullings by Rich Galen | Issue for December 13,1999

Click here for the Secret Decoder Ring to this issue!

But, I Thought They Were Our Friends

Friday, December 13, 1999

From Des Moines, Iowa:

Remember a couple of weeks ago when George W said, in a major foreign policy address - why is there no such thing as a MAJOR foreign policy SPEECH or a MINOR foreign policy ADDRESS - that we had to change our relationship with the Russians and the Chinese?

Remember how the White House howled in protest that our newest and bestest friends - the Russians and the Chinese - might be offended by calling them "rivals" instead of "strategic partners"?

Now, it turns out, one of our "strategic partners" - Russia -had a bug planted in a conference room on the seventh floor of the State Department. The seventh floor is the floor on which Secretary Madeline Albright has her offices. If you were a "strategic partner" of the US and you wanted to plant a bug in the State Department building, the seventh floor would be the optimal place.

Democratic Senator John Jerry of Massachusetts and GOP Senator John Kyl both said, under questioning by CNN's Wolf Blitzer that they believe whoever installed that device is still there. A mole is working in the State Department in a high enough position to have access to that seventh floor. Test. Test. Check-One-Two.

The McCain campaign continues to grow in sophistication. Witness the fact it has begun laying out a more mature set of expectations. Following Senator McCain's successful appearance on the Tony Snow program yesterday, a campaign insider told me that if they won "three out of four" (New Hampshire, Delaware and South Carolina) primaries going into Arizona, this will be an entirely different campaign. Until this week, the campaign had indicated it had to "run the table" leading up to Arizona.

Now they are suggesting - even though they are opening an office there this week - a loss in Michigan will not be fatal.

Iowa, My Iowa. I am staying at the downtown Marriott Hotel in Des Moines. The rates? $159 on Saturday night, $59 on Sunday night. $99 on Monday night. Why the difference? "Sunday," I was told, "is the 'holiday rate'." What holiday? "Christmas" (Complete with sigh and eye-roll). Does the Christmas season officially start on Sunday, December 12 in Iowa? "No, but on Saturday we are sold out, so the rate is higher." Well, happy, uh, holiday. Here's my Amex card.

The Fox/Opinion Dynamic poll from last week asked people if they had "watched a Presidential debate." 90 percent of the 902 registered voters said they had. If that were true wouldn't the two GOP debates have been the most watched television programs in history?

Here's another one of those Bill Clinton "�contact with the lips of another person�" answers: In an AP story about the Clintons being apart when Hillary moves to New York for her US Senate race, Clinton was asked about the house in Chappaqua, New York, said "I love the house and I'm looking forward to living there when I leave here."

Five years later at the divorce hearing: "Your honor, when I said I was 'looking forward' to living there, I did not mean to imply - and I think it is self-evident that I did not, in fact, state - that I was CERTAIN I would live there. I do not live there and it is one of the great [pause for lip biting] disappointments of my life I did not, and could not, move into that house with that woman � Hillary."

-- END --

Home | Secret Decoder Ring | Past Issues | Email Rich | Rich Who?