Success!
After lodging a protest last week, DC Water was informed this week that attendees at next year’s presidential inaugural luncheon will be able to forego fancy, imported bottle water and instead refresh themselves with local tap water.
DC Water was a bit miffed last week after learning that Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who chairs the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, had picked his home state’s Saratoga Spring Water Co. as the official supplier of presidential H2O. On Schumer’s orders, the congressional leaders who lunch next January 20 with the president and vice president, were to be served Saratoga sparkling water.
Feeling snubbed, DC Water General Manger George Hawkins sent Schumer a sternly worded letter last week reminding the senator that not only is local tap water perfectly clean and safe to drink, it also costs far less than trucking in pallets of Saratoga’s trademark cobalt blue bottles.
It seems the letter was noticed, because in a response to Hawkins yesterday, Schumer assured the utility that its product would be served when Barack Obama and Joe Biden or Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan break bread with Congress.
But Schumer did not grant DC Water top billing. The menu will still include the Saratoga bottles, consistent with what a spokesman for the New York Democrat told DCist last week. And as members of Congress and their staffs drink tap water every day at the U.S. Capitol, it is only logical that they will be able to enjoy it during the luncheon, a staffer with knowledge of the inaugural ceremonies said.
Look, there’s nothing wrong with Saratoga brand water. I grew up with those cobalt blue bottles. I never figured they could be invoked in such a strong-armed manner. But even though DC Water’s plea was backed by Corporate Accountability International, a public-advocacy and environmental campaign, there was no stopping Schumer from imbuing next year’s presidential inauguration with a bit of Upstate New York fizz. (Schumer, who is about 350 percent Brooklynite, has something of an odd relationship with Upstate New York, often referring to himself as the “Brooklyn Farmer.” Seriously, Google it.”)
And The Times-Union of Albany—my hometown paper—even tried to vaporize DC Water’s push to be included. The headline for their coverage of Schumer’s Saratoga selection was “D.C. tries to douse Saratoga’s big day.” See why we used to call it the Times-Useless?
