R& R Getaway Is on the Q.T.

VODKA SHOT DOWN

So what would you do? Kick back vodka shots with a top Kremlin diplomat or go to a kegger at the 50th reunion Thursday of grads at the Tufts Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy? Well, if you're dean of the Fletcher school, as is our special representative for North Korea, Stephen W. Bosworth, the kegger wins.

Two State Department flacks parried queries last week from reporters about why part-timer Bosworth, who kept his day job while working as a special envoy, met during a swing through Asia with the Chinese, the South Koreans and the Japanese but did not meet with the Russian envoy. They danced around questions about why he didn't stay in Seoul, sending his deputy instead. Bosworth, who was in Japan on Tuesday, said his Russian counterpart was not available.

Another spokesman, asked why Bosworth was coming back, said: "Ambassador Bosworth has personal commitments that will bring him back to the United States. That said, we have a deep bench when it comes to North Korea. And this is not a policy that depends on any one individual."

Well, the Yankees have a deep bench, too, but the starters still play pretty much every day.

WE'VE BEEN HERE BEFORE

Deja vu? A report in the New York Times said: "Tomorrow night, getting right into the thick of the battle," the president would "carry his message to the people in a nationwide television and radio speech" fighting for enactment of his health reform bill, which opponents tagged as "socialized medicine" and "an entering wedge for the takeover of private medicine by the federal government."

The president was John F. Kennedy, the program was Medicare, the Times story was published on May 20, 1962. Despite the speech, the effort failed until passage in 1964.

Staff researcher Eddy Palanzo contributed to this column.