Dear Susan,
I just want to start off with one thing from yesterday, about the girl who took off her clothes while delivering her high school commencement address. I noticed the principal told reporters that her behavior “did not reflect the student body.” Isn’t that exactly what it did?
Anyway, on to Friday. I start Fridays by reading the new leisure section of the Wall Street Journal. I worked at the WSJ for 9 years and have enormous affection for it, but I do feel it’s gotten a little staid in the past few years. (Except for the story a few weeks ago about people having sex on airplanes. Apparently they don’t go to the little bathrooms anymore; they just do it right out in the open–by the way, did you have a nice flight from L.A.?). But the new Weekend Journal is a complete triumph–interesting and sassy every week. For example, today, I learn that we humble residents of sin city, as you call it, live in out-of-touch suburbs like Bethesda, where the average home price is a mere $304,000, while you salt-of-the-earth Californians get to live in places like Menlo Park (where the average price is $831,228) or Santa Monica ($673,596). Someday when a magazine editor ponies up some real money (are you reading this, Mike Kinsley?) I’m going to write an essay on which city is worse for your soul: New York, where the prevailing sin is greed, Washington, where the prevailing sin is pride, or Los Angeles, where the prevailing sin is vanity?
Before I get too chauvinistic, we Washingtonians have a new villain this morning. The Post has a profile on its front page today of Carter Eskew, who was a Democratic consultant and an old friend of Al Gore’s. He’s a life-long Washington high-born Dem, who went to Sidwell Friends and all that sort of genteel stuff. He’s worked for many Democratic campaigns, including those of Joseph Lieberman and James Sasser. Now he has emerged as the mastermind of the tobacco company’s ad campaign against the McCain bill. I think the bill was a monstrosity, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think the tobacco companies aren’t despicable, and I certainly wouldn’t go work for one. But two things strike me about the Askew story.
First, he hasn’t even prepared an effective rationalization for his sell-out. He just claims that he has to earn a living. And second, which is more of a question, I can’t figure out whether he helped his business prospects or hurt them. On the one hand, he betrayed his friend Al Gore, which isn’t a good recommendation. But on the other hand he devised a brilliant campaign. He realized that he had to shift the frame of the debate from the evils of Big Tobacco to the evils of Washington. He didn’t even bother to buy ad time in the media towns, New York, LA and Washington. It worked. So does his success make him successful or does his sell-out make him radioactive? A friend just walked into my office and answered “Get real, man.” So I guess it’s on to fame and fortune for Carter.
Two other notes. I bet you didn’t see the Washington Times story that has the head of the Environmental Protection Agency taking a top Democratic donor to the World Cup in Paris on government expense. The White House’s incredibly lame defense of EPA head Carol Browner was, “She was asked to do this. It’s not like she volunteered for it.” Government service really is onerous.
Finally, I can’t go an entire hour without mentioning Steve Brill. For days there have been rumors of impending stories about how Brill handled an interview he had with the Wall Street Journal’s Glenn Simpson. He claimed it was on the record, Simpson said it was off and Simpson had tapes to prove it. But the Journal never ran a story that would have crushed Brill. Now in the Post I read of Brill’s pre-emptive apology. He says it was a simple misunderstanding. But here’s the odd part of the apology, quoting the Post: “Brill said yesterday that while his first conversation with Simpson was off the record, a second interview was on the record. But Simpson asserts that no second interview took place….”
Oh what a tangled web we weave…
All the best,
David
