Post Politics Hour

Don't want to miss out on the latest buzz in politics? Start each day at wonk central: The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.

Washington Post national political reporter/Washington Sketch columnist Dana Milbank was online Friday, Jan. 27, at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest in political news.

Read Washington Sketch: Trying to Maintain Control of the State, in a State of Confusion

Watch the video : Camera Flaw Interrupts Bush News Conference

The transcript follows.

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Dana Milbank: Good morning, and a Happy 19 Brumaire to everybody.

We are living in (French) Revolutionary times. Earlier this month, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave a press briefing in which she invoked the coup of 9 Thermidor - July 27, 1794 - which deposed Robespierre and ended the Reign of Terror. "And while there are a couple of states, among them, Syria and Iran, that seem to want to engage in pushing toward some kind of Thermidor, it's not going to happen," Rice vowed. This, as my colleague Al Kamen has noted, puts President Bush in the undesirable role of Robespierre.

The imagery continued yesterday, when Bush, in a news conference, declared that the NSA surveillance program is legal because, well, he said it is. And he wrapped up his explanation of why he wasn't giving Congress the Katrina documents it seeks by noting: "That's just the way it works." The constitutional lawyer Bruce Fein called me this morning and observed that the news conference had a strong 18 Brumaire feel to it.

Continuing to follow the French revolutionary calendar, that means we are only 11 days from the first of Frimaire.

At any rate, there's much news to talk about in these waning Brumaire days. Hamas is taking over in the Palestinian territory. The president gives his State of the Union address next week. John Kerry is running a one-man filibuster - didn't he do that in 2004? - against Sam Alito. But, true to form, all Washington is talking about why Bush won't release photos of himself with Abramoff.

Seems to me that, in these days of Photoshop, there's no reason to wait for the White House to release photos. We can make our own. To that end, I have asked the web wizards to post alongside this chat the Fedora-adorned head of Abramoff and various possible locations for it: The State of the Union, the aircraft carrier, and the World Trade Center. Please feel free to add your own images, and send your best Bush-Abramoff photos to me at milbankd@washpost.com.

Those sticks-in-the-mud at the Web site say they don't run doctored photos, but I will plead with them to post the contest winners.

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Alexandria, Va.: Honestly, how big a deal is the Abramoff/Bush picture thing? Or is the press just trying to create a scandal?

Dana Milbank:

Moi? Trying to create scandal? This is merely a graphic-design competition.

Actually, the truth about the photos is somewhere in between the grip-and-grin that Bush describes and the scandalous shots the Democrats would like to see. In addition to the usual holiday shots, there's one of Bush and Abramoff at a Hastert fundraiser, and one with the president and several of the Abramoff kids. Children are generally not allowed at the White House holiday parties.

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Biddeford, Maine: Dana,

What's the most outrageous question you've ever heard a President asked at a press conference?

Dana Milbank: Certainly the toughest yesterday was Jim Gerstenzang of the L.A. Times asking how Bush's view of presidential power was different from Nixon's.

Still, we're nothing compared to the British reporters, who once asked Tony Blair: "Do you have blood on your hands, prime minister?"

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New Orleans, La.: Governor Blanco down here blasted President Bush for not supporting the "Baker plan" to buy out homes whose owners did not have flood insurance. Sen. Vitter and Rep. Jindal indicated they would try to change his minds or meet his concerns. What can La. do to get the federal aid it needs?

Dana Milbank: Hire lobbyists and have them put "earmarks" into spending bills in the wee hours of the morning. But hurry: lobbying reform is coming soon.

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Anonymous: FYI: From Peggy Noonan's Jan 20 column: The other day, Dana Milbank, an important reporter for The Washington Post, the most important newspaper in the capital, wrote a piece deriding Judge Alito. Once such a piece would have been important. Men in the White House would have fretted over its implications. But within hours of filing, Mr. Milbank found his thinking analyzed and dismissed on the Internet; National Review Online called him a "policy bimbo."

I didn't know there were any bimbos in policy. Is there like a calendar I can buy? They are accusing you of being a tool for the left. Some on the left would disagree, but hey, freakin Peggy Noonan thinks your important. That's so awesome!

Dana Milbank: I was very pleased to be named a "policy bimbo" in Peggy's column. (Hopefully the savvy washingtonpost.com people can get the link put in here.) But in truth, Noonan was just repeating what the ever-angry John Podhoretz had written on a blog on National Review. He called me a policy bimbo for making a joke, in a Style story, about a 1935 Supreme Court case (don't ask), but I was more grateful for his description of me as "one of the most obnoxious writers who has ever lived." I am hoping to use this as a blurb for my book.

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washingtonpost.com: Not a Bad Time to Take Stock , ( Wall Street Journal, Jan. 20, 2006 )

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Pittsburgh, Pa.: Hello Dana, The vote for Hamas as well as the vote for the Conservatives in Canada are being viewed as votes against corruption. Do you see a trend here? More to the point, does the White House see a trend here?

Dana Milbank:

On the positive side, Hamas polled very poorly in Canada.

The president himself said yesterday, in a line he may regret: "If there is corruption, I'm not surprised that people say, 'Let's get rid of corruption.' "

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Baltimore, Md.: Dana, re: bimbo et al ... Alas, if only others had a sense of humor. There only seems to be room for nasty put downs and insults these days.

Dana Milbank: Thank you. But I am a policy bimbo. Really.

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Washington, D.C.: Hi Dana,

I know earmarks and pork are big topics these days, but why has there been no mention that legitimate nonprofit groups get funding this way, and the money is actually used to help people? Groups apply for this funding openly, not through backroom deals and payoffs. It's not ALL "bridges to nowhere". Is that story just easier to tell?

Dana Milbank:

Because the 'legitimate' stuff has been swamped by the piggie earmarks. As McCain calculates, there were 4,000 earmarks in 1994, and 15,000 last year. I'm not finding many people on either side of the aisle who can say, with a straight face, that these special-interest goodies are not a big problem.

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One of the most obnoxious ?: What do you think the chances are that Podhoretz's list of the most obnoxious writers of all time are all currently living and employed by The Post or the NY TImes?

Who heads up his list?

Dana Milbank: I was hoping it was more along the lines of Mencken and Wilde. At the Post, there are many entrants in the most-obnoxious category, but I find it difficult to separate the man from the byline. For example, Tom Edsall is inarguably one of the most obnoxious people you will ever meet, but he writes very sweetly.

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Anonymous: Well, Dana, you're not just obnoxious and a policy bimbo, you're also an irredeemably stupid person.

As such, I expect you will continue to excel in your chosen profession.

Dana Milbank: Ah, I didn't realize you were online, Tom. Just kidding about that "obnoxious" thing.

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Iowa: The Washington Post's Richard Morin reports today, the survey found that three in four--76 percent--of all Americans said Bush should disclose contacts between aides and Abramoff while 18 percent disagreed. Two in three Republicans joined with eight in 10 Democrats and political independents in favoring disclosure, according to the poll.

Do you think at some point the White House will be forced by weight of public opinion to share the photos of the President and the lobbyist? Can these be requested by the media under the FOIA?

Dana Milbank:

White House isn't subject to FOIA, for starters. Second, I think once the White House digs in, they generally don't change positions. But that doesn't mean the photos won't get out through other means. A colleague of mine at the Post has seen them. And, in a couple of cases, it seems likely there are photos out there that are not in the possession of the White House or Abramoff. You can bet the magazines, suitcases full of cash, are out looking for these.

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Washington, D.C.: Hey Dana, watched you on Hardball the other night. Always appreciate the chats, the straight shootin'. Anyway, what motivation is behind Kerry's call for a filibuster? This following Sen. Byrd criticism of the Dems on the judiciary panel. I stopped long ago trying to figure out the Democrats. Help me to undo at least some of my confusion, and why not start with their crazy rhetoric towards the Alito nomination.

Dana Milbank: Various questions about the wisdom of the Kerry filibuster this morning. He has been causing a lot of teeth-grinding among fellow Democrats recently. Most would be happy to be done with Alito -- he is going to be confirmed one way or the other -- and return to Abramoff & co . But presidential primary politics is often more about symbolism than sense, and Kerry is winning some friends on the hard left for his stand. I think the general calculus is this move is good for Kerry and bad for his party-- not unlike the reaction to his call for an Iraq withdrawal a couple months back.

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Arlington, Va.: In your sketch yesterday you used the term hunky dory. It appears that President Bush's vocabulary is starting to rub off on you. Is this true and will you start labeling people in Congress as folks?

Dana Milbank: No. The terrorists are folks. The people in Congress are fellas.

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Rockville, Md.: "Children are generally not allowed at the White House holiday parties."

Wow, just what kind of parties are these? Now I feel like I've been missing out on something!

On another note, do you know any place serving Lobster Thermidor? Somehow I've had a hankering for it of late.

Dana Milbank: You're beginning to understand why they don't want photos from those parties released. Things really unravel when they bring out the whipped cream.

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Silver Spring, Md.: Speaking of policy bimbos, I am interested in the fate of Bush's big domestic agenda for health savings accounts (HSA) in the State of the Union. It sounds to me like Social Security Reform with a different name, and many of the same groups are ready to get together to oppose it. Maybe the plan has a chance of gaining some support, but it certainly won't address the real health care crisis. How bad will it be if Bush spends another few months on the road touting a plan that fizzles like the Social Security fiasco? Although, that did take people's minds off Iraq long enough for it to turn into an even bigger mess.

Dana Milbank: I am a policy bimbo, so I forwarded this question to my erudite colleague Amy Goldstein, who gave the following reply:

The administration's interest in health savings accounts is, in a way, parallel to its enthusiasm for changing Social Security in that both fall within the "ownership society" the president has been promoting for the past couple years. But expanding HSAs would change just one piece of the health care system -- hardly what many older people regarded as a frontal assault on a cherished entitlement.

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Bimbo: Is bimbo male or female? Ooh, just like your name Dana.

Dana Milbank: Now, now, Mr. Podhoretz. No need to start with the androgyny jokes.

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Graz, Austria: Dana, your skin is always so smooth and supple when I watch you on television, and your complexion is really quite delicious. I was wondering what kind of skin care regimen you follow, as the stressful world of reporting must certainly be tough on your chiseled, Adonis-like features. What's your secret?

Dana Milbank:

That's more like it, Podhoretz.

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