The headline of the story was: "White House Affirms Deal on Drug Cost" by David Kirkpatrick.

I want you to read the lead paragraph very slowly:

Pressed by industry lobbyists, White House officials on Wednesday assured drug makers that the administration stood by a behind-the-scenes deal to block any Congressional effort to extract cost savings from them...]]> Mon, 18 May 2009 00:00:00 -0500 Let's summarize the situation: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was embarrassed by Dana Bash of CNN; was teased by Dana Milbank of the Washington Post; was taken to task by Gerald Seib of the Wall Street Journal; and, was called a liar by CIA director Leon Panetta.

How's that for about five days in the life of the Speaker?

This whole thing started when Barack Obama, in a fit of childish pique, decided to stick it to Dick Cheney after Cheney said he thought the nation was less safe under Obama than it had been under former President George W. Bush.

Obama released a series of memos detailing the legal authority for the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" to,...]]> Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0500 In on of those really sad cases of unintentional, but awful, timing the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum in, well, Boston, is closed for remodeling and isn't scheduled to reopen until the summer of 2010.

If you were the a member of board of directors of the one and only Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum in, well, Boston, it seems to me that knowing that hundreds, of not thousands of "Tea Parties" were going to be held today to protest ... whatever is being protested ... you might have used that as a huge fundraising opportunity.

Instead, the website says ...

Closed for renovation.

 

Will...]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0500 Next I thought I might write a joke item about how "Health and Human Services nominee Kathleen Sebelius recently corrected three years of tax returns and paid more than $7,000 in back taxes after finding "unintentional errors.'"

The funny part was going to be a when I reported that the Associated Press headlined her appearance before a Senate Subcommittee as part of her confirmation process: "HHS nominee calls for health care fraud crackdown."

But who would believe that on the same day she admitted to missing by $7,000 on her taxes she would have the chutzpah to say she wanted to, "send the signal that there's a new sheriff in town."

No one would believe that, so I...]]> Wed, 11 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0600 A hundred years ago, when Newt Gingrich was Republican Whip in the U.S. House and I was his press secretary we talked about whether there might be a way to make the Whip operation more efficient. Newt, being Newt, suggested a asking one of the airlines for an official checklist which their cockpit crews use prior to every flight.

The idea was: Let's don't reinvent what we need to do every time we need to do it. Let's establish procedures and simply repeat them each time.

On Larry King, pilot Chesley Sullenberger and first officer Jeffrey Skiles calmly recounted what they did from the point that the plane ran into a flock of (probably) Canada Geese which caused both engines to...]]> Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0600 Note, though, that all of those polls were taken before last Tuesday's inauguration.

Republicans in the House and Senate have to find a voice without getting in between a 70+ percent President and the American people.

What ... ever ... shall ... they ... do?

First of all, don't panic. Just below the chart showing Obama at his high levels is a chart showing the approval rating of the U.S. Congress. Average? 21% approval. Nearly the same percentage of Americans disapprove of the way the Congress is operating as approve of the way the new Administration is starting.

So, the secret is to leave Barack Obama alone for the time being. He'll make his own mistakes....]]> Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0600 And in that speech President Bush said, "Whether we bring them to justice or bring justice to them; Justice will be done."

In the seven years which have gone by since the goals of the new Administration of George W. Bush were refocused forever, American has been safe from attack. That may not be the case forever; probably will not be the case forever, but unless we are attacked in the next four days it will not have happened on George W. Bush's watch.

If Barack Obama and his Administration does not unravel the safety net woven of intelligence, technology, military power and the will of Americans to prevent an attack, it will not happen on his watch, either.

So much time...]]> Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0600 After that embarrassment, ABC News' Jack Tapper reports that Obama staffers felt that Richardson had not been as "forthcoming" as perhaps he should have been about the possibility of trading the title of "Governor of New Mexico" for the title of "Governor of Cell Block E."

And Politico's Jonathan Martin reports that a "Democratic source said Obama's questioners came away empty handed. 'Those guys were pressed for information and they gave nothing,' the source said."

It wasn't lying, the Obama folks seem to be saying, it was merely a ... failure to communicate.

Here's a good idea for this or any future transition team. Ask every candidate for every post, no matter how...]]> Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0600 Two weeks ago the CEOs of the car companies flew in to Washington on their private jets and expected the Congress to toss up about $25 billion.

It was the jets. Dopes.

The jets were the metaphor everyone had been searching for which would crystallize the anger in regular Americans' minds about all the bailouts to all the greedy thugs who made bad bets which taxpayers are going to have to cover.

Why. Why is there such a focused antipathy toward the auto companies?

Several reasons. The car companies were not the first ones in.

The big Wall Street firms were. And we didn't like them. We spent hundreds of billions of dollars so the slick-hair, Manhattan, Limo,...]]> Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0600 Then yesterday, other pirates seized a Chinese-flagged ship carrying 36,000 metric tons of wheat. If my math is correct (which is almost never is) that is about $8 million worth of Chinese wheat.

That's the bad news. The good news is, that wheat was bound for Iran.

Let's go back to the oil tanker. This isn't like hoodlums in the Bronx hijacking a truckload of cigarettes on the New Jersey Turnpike coming up from North Carolina. A pack of cigs is easily sold on the black, grey, or any other market.

According to Forbes Magazine the average price of a package of cigarettes in New York City is now $9.72. If that is true than selling cigarettes offa the back of a truck which...]]> Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0600 Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0500