Letters With The Stamp Of Disapproval
Wednesday, February 8, 2006; Page C01
Before phones and e-mail, people wrote letters to each other. It has since become something of a lost art, except on Capitol Hill, where the ink still flies fast and furious -- really furious in the case of the epistolary donnybrook that flared Monday between Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama over lobbying reform.
In his letter, McCain accused his Democratic pen pal from Illinois of "self-interested partisan posturing," adding that "I'm embarrassed to admit that after all these years in politics I failed to interpret your previous assurances as typical gloss."
  Ballpoints at 20 paces: Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain had a testy exchange of written words. (By Brendan Smialowski -- Getty Images) |
McCain was affronted by a Dear John letter from Obama dated Feb. 2 in which Obama thanked him for inviting him to a bipartisan meeting on ethics reform but urged McCain to support a bill co-sponsored by Democrats. McCain was also annoyed that Obama shared his letter with the media without first telling the Arizona Republican.
"I am puzzled by your response to my recent letter," Obama wrote to McCain Monday night, adding later that "I have no idea what prompted" it.
Letter-writing is a formal and proper means of communicating befitting important people doing important work.
The McCain-Obama contretemps consisted of three formal letters exchanged over four days between two parties who work in nearby buildings. A brief conversation might have sufficed. But then it's hard to share the contents of a phone call with the media, which goes to the crux of why letter-writing remains such a popular hobby in Washington.
"A lot of these letters are intended to be semi-public," said Republican strategist Mike Murphy.
Nooooo, really?
"Sometimes the press even gets ahold of them," said Murphy, who has close ties to McCain but had nothing to do with the Obama exchange. "That's mostly what the letters are for."
Oh, stop it before we get cynical!
After an exchange of phone calls, Obama finally reached McCain yesterday afternoon. They talked for a couple minutes. "No one backed down, but they agreed to move forward," said Eileen McMenamin, a spokeswoman for McCain. Neither senator cared to comment further about the dust-up, but if they change their minds, we can be reached at The Washington Post, 1150 15th Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20071.
Sometimes lawmakers really go nuts with their franking privileges and send letters all the way down Pennsylvania Avenue. They were not shy, for instance, about offering suggestions to President Bush as he prepared his State of the Union speech last week.
