Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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The A-B-C's of Appointments

Monday, December 18, 2000

(Go to the Mullings Update page for the
latest political news)

The appointment of Colin Powell to be Secretary of State was not a surprise, but it still made you feel good. The four appointments announced by President-elect Bush this week are two women - one of whom is Black, and two men one of whom is Black and one Hispanic.

Here is an abbreviated list of some of the people who have been Secretaries of State: Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and Daniel Webster. And that just gets you to 1843.

General Powell will fit in with that group just fine.

On the matter of President-elect Bush surrounding himself with people like Cheney, Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Karen Hughes, here is the firm rule I have developed as I have watched people hire subordinates:
"A" people hire other "A" people.
"B" people hire "C" people.

There is a level of cynicism implicit in Senator-elect Hillary Rodham Clinton Rodham's book deal for something on the order of an eight million dollar advance.

The deal is with, according to Maureen Dowd's NY Times column yesterday, "Simon & Schuster [which] is owned by Viacom, which owns CBS, which has a big stake in federal regulation."

Here are some questions reporters should be asking:

- Did the name "Newt Gingrich" ever come up
in the course of the conversation? Gingrich signed
a deal with HarperCollins (owned by Rupert
Murdoch who owns Fox which has a big stake in
federal regulation) for about half as much and caught
holy hell for it. Gingrich ended up giving up the
advance and settling for straight royalties.

- Did the date "January 2, 2001" ever come up in the
course of the conversation? January 2 is the date the
new Congress will be sworn in. Until Mrs. HRCR is
actually sworn in as a Senator the Senate Ethics
Committee jurisdiction is unclear. One wonders how
much of a sense of urgency there was to get this deal
done to avoid having the Senate ask unpleasant
questions.

- Did the notion that Republicans in the Congress
wouldn't dare make an issue of this ever come up in the
course of the conversations. Leery of starting a new
Congress and a new Administration with yet another
rancorous scandal, the GOP on Capitol Hill is just a little
gun shy at this point.

- Did the question "what effect will this have on Hillary's
relationship with other Senators" ever come up in the course
of the conversation? Hillary is the only sitting Senator with
Secret Service protection and will now have this $8 million
deal in her pocket. Does she even care how this will affect
her standing with her colleagues?

If the "Conscience of the Senate," Joe Lieberman, has gotten his out of the self-storage place where he had it shipped for the duration of the campaign, we fully expect him to take to the floor with these and other ethical concerns. Don't we?

Watching Jesse Jackson on Meet the Press yesterday complaining about Blacks' voting opportunities in Florida last month made me think about the Federal Voting Rights Act which gives the Justice Department vast authority to control elections in most Southern states. A Justice Department which has not been shy about being activist in these matters. A Justice Department which has been and continues to be under the direction of Attorney General Janet Reno of ... Florida.

If these problems are so pervasive, and have been going on for so long, why didn't anyone mention them to Ms. Reno prior to November 7?

An article by Howard Kurtz in yesterday's Washington Post (Gore's Masters of Disaster) is a brilliant recounting of the work of Gore senior communications people Mark Fabiani and Chris Lehane over the course of the campaign and the recount.

It is an graduate-level study of how to use speed and execution to manhandle the press strategically and tactically. It should be required reading for every Republican communications person in the nation.

You can link to Kurtz' article as well as see the winning entry of the "Write Your Own Speech" contest (Gore Concession Division) written by David Kralik here.

Other winners were Linda Gregory for the funniest (if not historically accurate) line: "Forgive me father for I have sinned. My last concession was in 1968." And Jeff Janus for the shortest speech, "Nuts!"
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Copyright © 2000 Richard A. Galen

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