Powerless, says GQ.One thing about high-gloss men’s magazines, they’ve got really high-gloss ideas about politics. Go ahead, check over your last six or seven copies of Esquire. You know that somewhere out there, guys like Chris Jones and Charlie Pierce are weeping over the exit of Jon Huntsman from the Republican presidential primary race.
(In order, see Jones’ “Fuck yeah!” out-of-the-gate profile of the former U.S. ambassador to China and Utah governor last June; his gradual realization last November that GOP voters weren’t gelling around the moderate candidate; and finally, Jones’ refusal to admit Huntsman’s campaign was screeching to a halt last week before it could take wing. Hell, even the magazine’s stylists got in on the cheerleading, giving Huntsman’s bomber jacket a strong endorsement.)
So, it probably goes without saying, that when GQ announced its list of “The 50 Most Powerful People in Washington” yesterday, it betrayed more of that high-minded dudeitor groupthink about politics and how business gets done here.
OK, we kind of get it. If you’re perched up in the Condé Nast building high above Times Square, chances are you can’t tell Jim Graham from Jim Vance. Still, it would have been nice to see someone in the local power structure make it into GQ’s list of D.C.’s biggest power brokers.
Among the occupants of the John A. Wilson Building, none—not Mayor Vince Gray, not D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown—made it on the list. Same goes for Metropolitan Police Department Chief Cathy Lanier. How about U.S. Attorney Ron Machen, over whose possible political future the City Paper is already salivating? Nope. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton? Forget it. (Besides, we usually point out her lack of power.)
Topping GQ’s list is the usual bunch of Capitol Hill and Obama Administration hotshots—House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is tops, followed closely by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, White House consigliere David Plouffe, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, CIA Director David Petraeus, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, White House adviser Pete Rouse and U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue.
The rest of the list is mostly federal, too. Perhaps the closest our hometown clout gets is the No. 14 ranking of Tommy Boggs, namesake of the lobbying firm Patton Boggs, where Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) holds down a job.
Powerful!Who else made the list? More federal types—a senator here, a random White House staffer there. Among journalists, Chuck Todd, Ezra Klein and Mike Allen made the cut; so did the Capital Weather Gang, because I guess GQ thinks they control the skies. Also, Stephen Strasburg made the list. Is the cult around him still a thing?
Perhaps the one person on the list who wields real power over the locals on a day-to-day basis was No. 42, Svetlana Legetic, the brains behind Brightest Young Things. (Granted she had to share with the BrandLinkDC team.)
For what it’s worth, among the people Legetic finished ahead of was Chris Dodd, the chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America. BYT was one of many sites to join a protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act by blacking out its home page yesterday. Dodd, who is one of SOPA’s chief backers, was just kind of bitchy about the whole thing.
That’s cool, though. Legetic throws better parties anyway.
