Washington Whispers
A Cross-Country Schlep, Every Week
In today's world of commuter nightmares, consider this one for the record book. When Sen. Patty Murray goes home every Friday to Whidbey Island, Wash., it takes 10 hours to cover 2,500 miles in a Planes, Trains and Automobiles string of transports. On a good day. And for what? Well, the three-term Democrat just named to the No. 4 leadership post in the new majority isn't one of those who trade their home turf for Georgetown cocktail parties. She likes to hang with her peeps. "I can take the temperature of the country at any time just by going to the grocery store," she says. "If everybody's doing OK, they just say, 'Hi.' If things are going on, it takes me an hour and a half or two just to get through." In fact, it was during her visits to the Freeland Payless that she sensed the strong pro-Democratic mood that would junk the GOP Congress.
So, about her travels: Fridays start at 5:30 a.m. with a trip to Dulles Airport, where she grabs a United nonstop to Seattle with lots of other lawmakers. For 5½ hours, "depending on wind," she works. From the airport, she and her hubby drive two hours to the Mukilteo Ferry and wait in line for the 25-minute sail to Whidbey. She gets no special treatment. "If somebody cuts in front of that ferry line, you're dead." Then it's another 40 minutes home. A hassle? "I do this so much I don't think about it," she says. "It's just a day."
It's Not Maple Syrup Dean's Out Selling
His loudmouthed inside-the-beltway boors are still booing Democratic boss Howard Dean, despite the party's strong election showing, but they're eating him up like sweet Vermont maple syrup in Canada and overseas. Party bigs say the former Vermont guv is headed to Europe to cheer on liberal parties in England, Spain, and Portugal. His keynote address this month to Canada's beleaguered Liberal Party, fans say, was just a warm-up. Dean's message: Show folks like England's Laborites how to remake their top-down outfits into grassroots organizations just as he did at the Democratic National Committee. "A lot of these parties are where the Democrats were a few years ago," says an insider, "when there were people in the party who said, 'We have to be more like Republicans,'and others who said, 'We have to stand up for what we believe in.'"
Dems in? Lobbyists Win-No Problem!
The switch in Congress and promises by Democrats to swamp the administration with investigations and subpoenas are boosting K Street's bottom line. Lobbying and PR firms report up to a 25 percent surge in spending by worried firms, especially those in the defense, drug, and energy worlds expecting to catch the majority of flack from Capitol Hill.
It's 'Rewrite' for the Bible of Politics
Our colleague and columnist Michael Barone is back to rewriting the Bible–er, the bible of politics that is. As the chief author of The Almanac of American Politics, Barone updates after every federal election. But with the Democrats taking control of the House and Senate and with about 30 new faces in Congress, this looks to be a pretty big job. So what are Barone's git'r done secrets? First, he figures what to expand or cut. "Obviously," he says, "I'm not going to use a lot of the material on House Speaker Denny Hastert that was in the previous Almanac." Next, he gets detailed voting info. "I find that close examination of the election returns tells me a lot that most observers miss." To make sure he's balanced, Barone shuns labels. "I have tried to avoid using the word reform in describing any proposal, since it can be taken as showing approval for it." Now he has to redo the introduction, which famously declared America a 49 percent-to-49 percent nation. His new view: The country is still divided. "The political future," quoth the sage, "is very much up for grabs. Both parties have the possibility of getting enough support to go above the 51 percent ceilings." And that could happen, he adds, if a presidential candidate liked by both sides emerges in 2008.
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