Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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Won't You Come Clean, Sue Bailey?

Friday September 29, 2000

Forget about what the head-to-head polls are saying, we should focus on things like the headline in the LA Times this week: "Men's Backing Helps Power Bush Past Gore" which includes a lengthy discussion by Ron Brownstein about Bush's 22 point lead among men.

This means, after more than a year of buffing up and dressing down, Al Gore has finally reached Naomi Wolf's goal: Gore IS America's national alpha-female.

The lead paragraph in a Reuters piece about the Yugoslav elections: "President Clinton accused Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on Wednesday of trying to steal the election." No, wait! Wait! This is true! Bill Clinton accused someone else of campaign irregularities.

We should make Janet Reno decide if there is a need to have an outside counsel investigate whether the Clinton/Gore 1996 team was more or less honest than the Slobodan Miklosevic team.

Joe Lieberman found his way back to the Capitol to appear with Democratic legislators at a prescription drug rally. He had the time to attend a campaign event yesterday, but could not take time out from campaigning to vote on the China trade bill last week. Go figure.

At a speech in Colonial Williamsburg, Va. yesterday morning a very amusing, middle aged, political cyber-columnist was discussing a video lecture with some Wake Forest students earlier in the week at which he was asked why the major candidates didn't talk about issues important to college students.

It was suggested that politicians know 18 to 24 year-olds don't vote in very high numbers, so they don't talk about issues which affect young people. Seniors vote in extremely high percentages so prescription drug prices (to take just a random example) is a big issue.

Young people spend lots of money which is why television programs are aimed at them. "If people my age spent money on consumer products the way we vote," this guy said, "Friends" would be titled "Old Friends."

Notwithstanding your position on the underlying issue what, do you suppose, was the thinking at the Food and Drug Administration which, after four years of investigations, decided it had to hand out its approval of RU-486 just weeks before the election. There is nothing that this Administration will not politicize.

Call your mom alert! Rosh Hashana starts at sundown tonight. For Jews this marks the beginning of the year 5761. According to at least one Internet source, this is the year 4953 in the Chinese calendar. Talk about suffering! This means Jews not only had to roam for 40 years in the desert, they had to go 808 years without Chinese food.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is charged with helping to discover whether Ford or Firestone or both tried to hide information relating to the issue of tires which failed on Ford Explorers.

The person Bill Clinton appointed to the position of Administrator of the NHTSA is Sue Bailey. Dr. Bailey was required to submit certain information to the Senate Committee responsible for overseeing her confirmation - John McCain's Commerce Committee. Dr. Bailey submitted documents which indicated she had donated $53,000 to Democratic candidates and party committees.

Dr. Bailey has now admitted that she actually donated over $122,000 to Democrats - more than twice as much as she swore to in her earlier affidavit. She apologized to the Committee saying she had not "fully reviewed that answer in the final package."

She has already passed the test to serve in this administration. She can say without embarrassment: "Mistakes were made."

Here is a quote from the NHTSA's web page under "Core Values": "Integrity: NHTSA and its employees value and practice intellectual honesty, candor, and trust."

We already know it will be difficult for Dr. Bailey to hold any moral authority over Ford or Firestone for withholding information. Dr. Bailey may also have a difficult time holding any moral authority over her employees.

All the chatter about the NBC coverage of, and the ratings for, the Sydney Olympic games in which events occur 15 hours ahead of Eastern daylight time, reminds us of the formula for computing time zone differences from an episode of M*A*S*H:
Question: "If it's 11 AM in Korea, what time is it in Chicago?"
Answer: "April."

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Copyright © 2000 Richard A. Galen

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