The Weekly Feed: Experimentation Edition
Morning Roundup: Change Edition
Former Blade Staffers Launch 'DC Agenda'
D.C. Insurance Dept. Denies Birth Control Coverage Meddling
Controversy Over Rhee Now to Include Sex, Congress
>> Normally, Adrian Fenty hearts the press, and the feeling goes both ways. So why did he assiduously try to keep the media out of his official swearing-in Tuesday? The City Paper has the skinny on the secrecy surrounding the event, including secret entrances for councilmembers, who were told to "arrive alone." [Loose Lips]
>> Just in case there weren't enough stereotypes of women in power, new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hosted a tea party for 400 of her closest gal pals yesterday. Rep. Rosa DeLauro said, "This is what happens when they ban smoking." Considering Congress doesn't abide by D.C.'s new smoking ban, we're unclear what this means, but we're willing to count institutionalized tea parties as a point against the new law. [Yeas and Nays]
>> Breaking News: Cult leaders and journalists don't play well together. It looks like big changes are on the way for The Washington Times and its owner, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. The paper could be getting a new editor-in-chief and CEO by mid-year. Could new leadership help the struggling paper? [Raw Fisher]
>> Will the Redskins and Rimsky-Korsakov go head-to-head in Washington? Probably not. WTOP reports that Bonneville International, owner of the last classical radio station in D.C., WGMS, probably won't be selling its FM frequencies to Redskins owner Dan Snyder anytime soon. Classical music fans enjoy a quiet sigh of relief.
Photo by Flickr user somesai.
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The smoking comment had nothing to do with the DC law. The word was that Speaker Pelosi was going to get rid of the smoking lounge in the House side of the Capitol. I hadn't heard whether she in fact made good on that yet. But it is not surprising. Democrats, not just Pelosi, saw the ornate lounge as another part of the 'Good Ol' Boys Network' and not a part of the 'Most Ethical Congress Ever' look that they were trying to go for.
Of course, all of it is kind of silly. While there were surely tons of dirty deals made in the lounge, there can surely be the same deals made over a nice cup of Green Tea.
The Fenty story is one of those "gotchas" that the press loves to pull on a new official. If he had invited the press and made an event out of it, the column would be "How dare Fenty disrepect Gerald Ford!" I'm sure we'll also see a few silly stories on Pelosi "gaffes" in the coming days.
Banning smoking in the Speaker's Lobby was simply a common-sense move. It has nothing to do with ethics. See Waxman's rationale here: http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/112106/waxman.html
But from another viewpoint, the Washington Times is not struggling in the least. It has always been a gigantic subsidy for the ambitions of cult leader Reverend Moon.
Certainly aware that the primary motivation for many was not ethics and it was never brought up. But I would argue that the reason it would be happening, similar to the reason for having Pelosi's grandkids in the Capitol with her was for one reason - to show that the Dems are different than Republicans. Everything since the election - from the calendar, to the opening of Congress, to the new rules - has been about showing stark differences in governing. Sure the Dems believe a lot of it and have been raising these issues with Republicans but the reason to deal with something like a smoking lounge right away is to highlight the difference, which may or may not actually lead to substantive differences. I guess that was the point I was trying to get to.
No one should be under the delusion, that Moon
will pass from this world quietly. The last thing
Moon wants to do is to be forgotten. It's simply
not in his character.