If You Don't Show Up, Everybody Talks About You

By Al Kamen
Wednesday, April 30, 2008

The New York Times has been taking hits of late for its new policy of boycotting the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner. The Times apparently has decided that the media-politician chumminess is unseemly and maybe even borderline unethical.

In the Loop, of course, wholeheartedly agrees, despite attending most of the last 20 dinners. Therefore we must distance ourselves and repudiate remarks at the dinner Saturday by late-night talk show host Craig Ferguson and condemn a follow-up dig yesterday by President Bush.

Ferguson recently passed his citizenship test despite a Scottish brogue that -- abetted by an ancient sound system -- was at times impenetrable Saturday. (Good thing it's a written exam.) But everyone heard him loud and clear when he hit The Gray Lady for not showing up.

"I just want to make sure I get this right: They felt that this event undercuts the credibility of the press," Ferguson said. "It's funny, you see, I thought that Jayson Blair and Judy Miller took care of that." And then: "Shut the hell up, New York Times, you sanctimonious, whining jerks!"

Then yesterday, at a Rose Garden news conference, President Bush took another pop at the Times. After Bush called on Times White House reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg, she said: "I'm still waiting for my exclusive at the ranch," referring to ABC News White House reporter Martha Raddatz's private interview with Bush in Crawford.

"I'm at a loss for words," Bush said. "If only you'd have been at the White House correspondents' dinner, I would have invited you. [Laughter.] Anyway, please, go ahead."

We should note that several publications have debated for years about whether to continue going to the dinner, a fundraiser for the nonprofit White House Correspondents' Association, which gives journalism scholarships and awards to kids and coordinates press-White House issues, such as transportation, seating in the press room and such.

Unholy War

Also at yesterday's news conference, Bush, speaking with precise enunciation, said, "We're in a long struggle, as I've told you many a time, against these jihadists."

Jihadists? No, no. That word is no longer to be used, according to an Associated Press report we cited last week. Various government agencies -- including the departments of State and Homeland Security and the National Counterterrorism Center -- are telling their people not to describe Islamist extremists in those terms because, among other things, it might give those people a veneer of religious credibility.

New Pakistani Ambassador?

Buzz around town is that Hussein Haqqani, a longtime critic of former Pakistani president and Bush buddy Pervez Musharraf, is in line to become Pakistan's ambassador to the United States. Haqqani, a confidant of assassinated former president Benazir Bhutto, is teaching at Boston University and awaiting approval from Washington to take over.

The Dotted Lines Form Here

Petition drives are the rage these days. A group of people believe that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who'll be leaving in less than nine months, should be forced to resign sooner. They recently put up Web site -- http://www.condimustgo.com-- to gather signatures for the proposition that: "America will not stand for a Secretary of State who approved torture and then misled Congress. We call on the Presidential candidates to ask Secretary of State Rice to resign." They say they have 69,750 signatures.

Also, some Georgetown University students have put up a Web petition urging that former undersecretary of defense and best-selling author Douglas Feith be retained after his two-year teaching stint ends next month. They say they have 66 signatures.

But if only graduates and undergraduates are eligible to vote, then, percentage-wise, he's doing much better than she is. Not that these petitions matter to either of them.

A Year of Living Dangerously

Meanwhile, the New York Sun reports that Paul D. Wolfowitz, Feith's former boss at the Pentagon, said Monday at a forum on Feith's new book on the Iraq war that the administration was "pretty much clueless on counterinsurgency" in the first year of the war.

After that, of course . . .

Much Better Than the OMB Choir

Not busy this morning? Not working on oil-drilling applications? Then stop by the Interior Department at 11:15, for what our invite from Bureau of Land Management deputy director Henri R. Bisson says is an "exciting educational multi-media event . . . that will feature live music by the BLM Band," a group that will be flown in from around the country.

The event, called "The BLM -- Come Meet Us Again," is a chance to hang with colleagues and "learn more about our agency's roots, our strengths, and our diversity. I strongly encourage you to join us."

Don't have wheels? Not to worry. Shuttle buses are being provided from offices on L Street NW to headquarters on C Street NW, and vans will be going to and from the regional office in Springfield. "Refreshments will be provided." Retirees are invited, too.

The Huevos Were Worth It

Yet another reason to learn Spanish: The Arizona Daily Star in Tucson reported the other day that Mexican authorities were holding a U.S. soldier who said he accidentally drove across the border with guns, knives and ammunition while looking for a place to park.

The Star reported that Spec. Richard R. Medina Torres said he'd been driving all night and wanted to park in El Paso and walk across the border to Ciudad Juarez for breakfast Monday, but ended up driving over an international bridge and into Mexico.

Torres said he misunderstood an El Paso gas station attendant's directions and then realized where he was. "I started asking people at the front gate, 'Where can I turn around?' " said Torres, who speaks no Spanish.

Torres said that, when asked, he immediately told Mexican officials he was traveling with an AR-15 assault rifle and a .45-caliber handgun, both personal weapons.

But His Dad Was a Good Guy

The long-pending -- since July 11 -- nomination of retired Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, a deputy assistant secretary of defense, to be assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs finally got through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday in what Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) called "a close call."

Biden and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said they had reservations about Kimmitt's management skills. Nelson cited a Pentagon inspector general's report of concerns about his management style, including his temper, which caused "management and morale problems," according to Congressional Quarterly.

Biden noted he was very close to Kimmitt's father, who worked on the Hill years ago, and said he therefore would be willing to give Kimmitt the benefit of the doubt: "I hope Mr. Kimmitt . . . understands with the delay his misconduct has caused . . . that he will be chastened." The nomination goes to the Senate floor for action.

Nonstop Material

"Craig Blames Congress for Airlines' Decline," said the headline on yesterday's news release from Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho).

Craig "blamed the decline of the U.S. airline industry on the country's dependence on foreign oil and on Congress's failure for 20 years to enact a national energy policy that includes new technologies, conservation and increased development and production of existing domestic energy sources."

And overzealous cops in airports?

(Sorry. So cheap. Really gonna miss this guy.)