USNews.com: Inside Washington: Paul Bedard: : When Doing Nothing Is Enough

October 11, 2006

When Doing Nothing Is Enough

Bravo for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi when it comes to the GOP urging Congress to fix the House page issue by scrapping the historic program for good. Her position: Keep it and fix Congress's oversight of the 60 to 100 kids here each semester to work as congressional gofers. Insiders tell me that she's been pushing back hard on panicky Republicans who think the best way to wiggle out of the Mark Foley-page-E-mail scandal is to get rid of the kids.

"The program's not the problem; Congress's oversight is," she tells her aides. In fact, I'm told that her support for the program that attracts high school juniors from around the nation is one reason she told House Speaker Dennis Hastert to pound sand when he suggested that former FBI Director Louis Freeh investigate the program and system. Why, she asked, should the program be put under the spotlight when none of the pages did wrong?

Her response to the GOP hits on the program should buoy the legions of former pages campaigning to protect the program-and might even lead to a few more votes for Democratic House members in four weeks.

Posted at 06:09 PM by PaulBedard

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WHAT IS THIS?

Have you ever wondered what reporters do with all the stuff they collect but never write about? Well wonder no more. The bosses here pay me a good chunk of change and haven't ever choked on my Amex bill so it seems only proper to dump out my notebook every week. It won't be just news we didn't use. The blog will sometimes write about the process of getting stories-like why we choose Charlie Palmer's (quiet, spacious) for source lunches on Capitol Hill over Bistro Bis (crowded and noisy). Or why it's hard to get reporters at U.S. News to answer their phones on Fridays (it's our deadline, silly.) We'll even include pictures of our travels. Don't hesitate to applaud or criticize. We might just run your comments. Go ahead and email me at pbedard@usnews.com.

HISTORICAL STUFF

In Washington Whispers One Year Ago: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy can be one of the Senate's blustering best, but we found him in a candid moment last week when he sized up his speech this week at the AFL-CIO convention in Chicago. "You're gonna miss a great speech there," he said with a chuckle. "Same one I've given for 40 years. It's going to be breathtaking."

Five years ago: Vice President Dick Cheney knows how to keep reporters happy. Flying home on Air Force Two from an energy policy town hall meeting in Pittsburgh, his press corps asked stewards for beer. Breaking with practice, the jet was dry. Scribes whined to Cheney who found two bottles of vino, red and white, to give the pampered pressies.