Let's Warm Up With Some Softball, Er, Baseball Questions . . .

By Al Kamen
Monday, April 2, 2007

In an earlier era, reporters like the legendary Sam Donaldson of ABC television would start off belligerently demanding administration officials answer important questions.

But these days, interviewers of the talk-show world prefer a softer approach to lull officials into a situation where they'll reveal things.

For example, Thursday on Fox News, conservative talk-show host Sean Hannity sought to put Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at ease so he could find out what she was up to.

"Today Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is with us. How are you?" he asked.

Rice, having just returned from a disastrous, waste-of-time trip to the Middle East, responded: "Hi, Sean, I'm fine. How are you?"

"I'm good. We always appreciate you being here. Now, what do you do in the off-season when football's not going on? Do you like baseball?"

"Well, so far, I'm just watching March Madness and waiting to see who's going to win this championship, and then I'll go into hibernation a little bit, Sean, until after the All-Star break." (We hear she's done exceptionally well, hitting every one of the Final Four.)

"So it's really -- it's pretty much football and basketball. You're not a big baseball fan?"

"I like baseball, but I'm one of those people who think the season's a little long. I'll wait until after the All-Star break, and then I'll get real interested."

"Well, if you're ever really interested, I have a pretty good connection with a good buddy of mine who has the greatest seats at Yankee Stadium, and I'd love to take you there."

"Well, I'd love that. You know, I'm a Yankee fan, so that sounds great."

"Well, you sound like Hillary now -- I'm a Yankee -- she's a Yankee fan, a Cubs fan. You know, but I'll tell you these are dangerous seats. I took my son there last year and he got hit with a foul ball."

"Oh."

"I mean, a line drive right in the face."

"Oh, my goodness."

"And we had a tough year. He broke his leg and he got hit with a baseball so -- but I'll bring a glove and protect you."

"Yeah, you have to protect me, Sean. I hope you can catch." (Laughter.)

"No, I can. I'm actually -- I'm a pretty good ballplayer. But anyway, welcome back to the program."

"Thank you."

"We've got Day Seven now of this hostage situation, our allies, our friends the Brits, these sailors and marines that have been taken hostage; your initial thoughts on this?"

"Well, they need to be released."

Then they chatted about Iran and Iraq and such.

But a Yankees fan? Who knew? See? The new approach clearly works.

And Now the Hardballs . . .

Speaking of Rice, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has been trying to get her to answer questions about the administration's bogus claims that Iraq wanted to buy uranium from Niger, how it handled classified information and hired a guy under federal criminal investigation, and other matters.

But she didn't respond to his numerous written requests for information, so on Friday he sent her an invitation to come up to the Hill for a hearing on April 18 to talk things over.

We're hearing the State Department is preparing detailed written responses to his questions and should get back to him in the next couple of days.

Unclear whether that's going to obviate the need for a hearing.

'Questions Unanswered'

Meanwhile, Waxman has called in Susan B. Ralston for a little deposition on Thursday. The former top aide to Karl Rove resigned in October after an oversight committee report showed she took gifts from disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

In a letter Friday, Waxman said he wanted to chat with her about "questions unanswered" in that report, including what actions White House officials may have taken to benefit Abramoff and his pals and why officials used "Republican National Committee and other non-governmental e-mail accounts to communicate with Mr. Abramoff about official government business."

Oldies but Absentees

Someone, most likely an aging baby boomer with sticky fingers, has been lifting CDs from the music library at the Voice of America, which uses them for its radio shows. Looks like an inside job. The library is open only to employees. The M.O. is that the person goes into the stacks and takes the CD but leaves the plastic case.

The thefts were noticed recently when someone tried to check out a Judy Collins disc but found only an empty case. In fact, the entire Collins collection is gone. A check of other collections showed that Peter, Paul & Mary and Bob Dylan recordings were also missing. Ditto Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke, the Beatles and the Stones.

"In the near future," the International Broadcasting Bureau said in an e-mail, "security cameras will be installed in the Music Library. If the theft problem continues, library procedures will be changed" so only library staff are permitted access to the collections.

The VOA and the music library budgets are getting hammered, so there's not much money to replace the CDs. So "please return them at your first opportunity. No questions will be asked."

Social Security Firing Sets Off Rumors

The Social Security Administration rarely dumps a political appointee, but Martin H. Gerry, deputy commissioner for disability and income security programs, one of the more powerful policy jobs at Social Security, has been booted out.

The agency has a new commissioner, Michael J. Astrue, who is under pressure from Congress to deal with backlogged disability claims, a process that Gerry had tried to streamline.

Employees said Gerry was escorted from the building, his computer seized and the locks in his office changed. His firing on March 16 was rather abrupt but "not totally uncommon" for a political appointee, Gerry told our colleague Stephen Barr.

"I've heard of it happening before. It was harsh," Gerry said.

His departure set off a wave of rumors that Gerry was snarled in allegations of travel abuses or improper contract activities, but Gerry said that "as far as I know, there isn't any investigation going on. Wouldn't even know what it would be about."

He added: "Obviously, they wanted me to leave quickly and not talk to people there about what was happening."

Social Security isn't talking about what happened either, except to confirm that Gerry is no longer employed by the agency.