Wednesday, March 14, 2007 Got a question? Get an answer. Send an e-mail to Dear Mr. Mullings Dear Mr. Mullings: Why don't you tell us when you are going to be on TV? Also, do you get paid for doing that? Ken Chappaqua, NY This comes up in e-mails with some regularity. I don't do a "RICH IS GOING TO BE ON ..." e-mail for a couple of reasons. First, the MULLINGS database stands at 36,084 names. Even with the rock-bottom prices which the folks at Focus Data Solutions provide to their clients, it still costs a pretty penny to send an all-hands e-mail. Second, I don't always know very far in advance that I am going to be on. Since the weekend I have been been on Fox (Saturday), CNN (Sunday), ABC (Good Morning America Monday AM), CNN again (Anderson Cooper Monday Night) For Fox, I didn't know until late Friday afternoon what time I was going to be on. For the first CNN interview, reporter Gary Nurenberg called at about 11 am on Sunday morning and we did the interview at about 11:50. ABC called mid-afternoon and asked if I could do an interview for GMA at four. CNN called Monday afternoon to pre-tape an interview with Cooper which, as it turned out, was shown at shortly after 10 PM. Finally, I never know if I'm actually going to be on. Even for live hits like Fox on Saturday, there is a 20-30 percent chance the segment will be "bumped" for breaking news. Doing interviews like for GMA, I never know if my 13 second sound bite is going to make the reporter's package or not and, if so, at what point in the program it will be used. That's why I don't send out e-mail alerts. On the getting paid front. I do not have a contract with any cable network which means I am free to be on all of them. I have never been offered a contract on any cable network so the issue of whether being tied to just one would appeal to me has never come up. Generally speaking if someone is introduced at a "contributor" or an "analyst" they are under contract and being paid. If they are introduced as a "Republican (or Democratic) Strategist" or something like that, we are doing it for the love of the game. Dear Mr. Mullings: Why, when liquides are confiscated at the airport security checkpoint, are they tossed into a garbage pail which does not appear to be a bomb container, just a plain nold barrel. Aren't they still potentially dangerous? Dave One of the many mysteries of the Transportation Safety Agency. Based upon what the Brits discovered in the attempted terror attack against US airliners in London, the presumption is not that you may be carrying on a bottle of gasoline. The suspicion is that you may be carrying one ingredient of a potentially explosive mixture and a confederate will be carrying the other ingredient. Once mixed together they would go ka-blooey, but not if they are kept separate. A bigger problem, in my mind, is the fact that the TSA is not the agency which checks to make certain the ID and the name on the ticket are the same; and that the picture on the ID actually looks like the person presenting it; and the the ID was not manufactured on a laptop and laminated at Joe's Lamination and Penny Arcade. That job is farmed out to, I assume, the same companies who used to provide all the security people before the TSA was formed. If I present a driver's license from Virginia, Maryland or the District of Columbia, I assume the person doing the checking (for whom English is often a second language) recognizes it as legit. But, it is impossible for me to believe that if someone presented a driver's license from, say, North Dakota, the checker would have any clue whether it was real or not. Dear Mr. Mullings: On the Scooter Libby pardon: I just read the details on pardons from the Department of Justice "pardon" page. It states: "The Department's regulations require a petitioner to wait a period of at least five years after conviction or release from confinement (whichever is later) before filing a pardon application." Bummer, huh? Patty I have two words for you: Richard Nixon. He did not have to wait five years or five minutes. President Ford issued a pardon to Mr. Nixon on September 8, 1974 before he was even charged, much less conviced of anything. In his address to the nation, Mr. Ford said: Now, therefore, I, Gerald R. Ford, President of the United States, pursuant to the pardon power conferred upon me by Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, have granted and by these presents do grant a full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from July (January) 20, 1969 through August 9, 1974. Similarly, Jimmy Carter issued a pardon on January 21, 1977 (one day after taking office) to every male who had evaded the draft during the period of the Vietnam war. Very few of them had been prosecuted or, again, even charged. The President can simply waive Departmental rules like the DoJ's five-year rule on pardons. Dear Mr. Mullings: What is Mitt Romney's first name? Howard New Jersey Willard Last one Dear Mr. Mullings: If the Vice President has to step down, can't the President pick his own replacement? A friend says the Speaker of the House automatically fills this office. I cannot believe this. John Get a new friend. Or, at least, a friend who didn't think "The West Wing" was a reality show. The 25th Amendment was ratified in 1967 and provides that: Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress. For a full discussion, go to the MULLINGS from last December "A Ford not a Lincoln" which I wrote upon the death of Gerald Ford. See you next week. Rich Got a question? Get an answer. Send an e-mail to Dear Mr. Mullings                                     Click here to return to the Secret Decoder Ring page Copyright © 2007 Barrington Worldwide, LLC