Mike Allen is Bugging Me Today

He's got an A05 story in the pro-war WaPo all about the wisdom of BushCo refusing to meet with Cindy Sheehan.   Apparently not everyone in the Casa Blanca thought it would be a good idea to tell the mother of a dead soldier to fuck off.  Who knew?   To read Allen tell it though, this is just another testament to BushCo's iron will - and fondness for proper channels:

The way that choice was made, and the reasons for it, provide a vivid illustration of several hallmarks of Bush's style, including his insistence on protocol, his concern with precedent, his resistance to intrusions and his aversion to hand-wringing.

But if Sheehan winds up providing the catalyst for a muscular antiwar movement, Bush's handling of the matter will turn out to be not only characteristic but also consequential.

Wow.  Characteristic AND consequential.  Well, I guess it would be newsworthy if BushCo were made to suffer the consequences of any of his characteristic actions.  Allen doesn't let on if he has plans to help out in that regard or if he is hoping that the same forces that are keeping the Sheehan story straight  will continue to do his job for him.

These aides maintain that one of the strengths of this White House is a willingness to resist "what appears to be the easy PR route," as one aide put it, and to have the discipline to stick to long-laid plans.

This White House avoids the easy PR route?  The White House infamous for the Social Security Boy in a Bubble tour?   This White House which has made shielding Dear Leader from any sign of dissent a kind of sick art?  I'm starting to think that Mike doesn't read my blog.

A former White House official said the Sheehan decision reflected a policy that Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. has enforced for five years on everyone from donors to governors to top aides. "If you want a meeting with the president, you will never get it," the official said. "If you need a meeting with the president, you will get it 100 percent of the time. Otherwise, he'd have a thousand meetings a day."

That policy is strikingly similar to my kids' policy toward ice cream:  They don't like ice cream.  They LOVE ice cream. 

But here's the worst part.  See if you can spot why.

With Sheehan, the advisers explained, there were additional considerations, most notably that Bush had met with her -- at Fort Lewis, Wash., last summer, as part of the occasional private sessions he holds with the families of fallen troops.

Aides said they knew that she was a fierce partisan, exemplified by her appearance at a Democratic event on Capitol Hill in June to call attention to the "Downing Street memos" on the allied preparations for the war.

My goodness, he came so close to reporting news there it was actually painful to read.  I'm surprised he even risked mentioning the Downing Street Minutes - and only a paragraph after he reguritated the White House spin about having met with Sheehan before.  Allen's running a a real risk that people will put two and two together and realize that it is the information in the DSM that warrants a second meeting with Sheehan, who was, after all, lied to in the first.  As were we all.   

The aides said they also took into account the fact that a meeting might lead to a spate of similar demands, and they said they thought it was possible that any meeting would fuel the attention to Sheehan rather than head it off. "If five mothers replaced her, what have you accomplished?" a senior administration official asked. "That was a huge part of the decision."
...

Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Bush's focus on the long term rather than the immediate is "part of what, to his supporters, is steadfastness and, to his critics, is stubbornness."

"If you allow those who are the most vocal and most antagonistic to get a meeting with the president for fear that publicity will hurt you if you don't, you're creating incentives for your critics to become even more antagonistic and more vocal," Fleischer said. "Then, you're forever stuck in: Will you or won't you meet? You'll no longer lead. You'll just wrestle with meetings."

Remember that episode from season one of the West Wing, when Toby makes an Arlington burial  happen for a homeless Korean War vet?  Jed says "If we start pulling strings like this, you don't think every homeless veteran will come out of the woodwork?"  and Toby says "I can only hope, sir."  That first paragraph made me think of that scene.  I guess BushCo doesn't watch West Wing though because if he did, he'd remember that Jed was wrong and homeless veterans didn't storm the White House asking to be buried in Arlington.  But if BushCo's worried that answering Cindy's questions could lead to similar demands from 1800 other mothers, then he should probably give one of those primetime speeches he's famous for that explains the Downing Street Memos, the Dulfur Report the 9/11 Commission Report and other recently released documentary evidence of his lies to all of us at once.   Instead, never the one for the easy PR route, he'll be selling his war to the VFW and the Idaho National Guard this week.  Characteristic but, I'm afraid, not consequential.

Comments

[KathyF]

Oh, a West Wing reference. How nice!

Interesting interview just now on BBC radio, with two war mothers, Mimi and Jane, on opposite sides. At the end, though, they each offered to pray for the other's son. Really sweet.

[eRobin]

Hi Kathy :) Did the interview mention the Downing Street Memos?

[Riggsveda]

Damn good post. Allen's piece was one long application of anesthesia to the awakening body politic. I wonder if he has any kids in Iraq?

[David Wyles]

Thought you might be interested in this letter I just sent to Mike Allen and his editors at the WashPost.

"President Bush, ex-'party-on' dude, coke-snorter, skirt-chaser, and draft-dodging, alcoholic flyboy, told another giant, patriotic lie to the country and to the convention of Veterans of Foreign Wars when he said today that the deaths of 1,864 armed services members in Iraq will leave 'a legacy that will allow generations of their fellow Americans to enjoy the blessings of liberty.'"

Dear Mr. Allen,

RE: Your "PETA, Hippies, Naderites" remark on "Face the Nation"

Cute, clever, and cutting.

Also, stupid. And dishonest.

Your describing the anti-war protest in Crawford, Texas, outside President Bush's "ranch" as made up of "PETA, Hippies, Naderites," rather than "Little League dads" and "Pop Warner moms" -- therefore no "big problem" for the White House -- shows as much regard for the truth as if I were to use this description in my lede for President Bush's speech to the VFW --

"President Bush, ex-'party-on' dude, coke-snorter, skirt-chaser, and draft-dodging, alcoholic flyboy, told another giant, patriotic lie to the country and to the convention of Veterans of Foreign Wars when he said today that the deaths of 1,864 armed services members in Iraq will leave 'a legacy that will allow generations of their fellow Americans to enjoy the blessings of liberty.'"

Actually, now that I look at it, my version is closer to the real truth than yours. "Biased" and "subjective", yes. But truer, too.

You can do better, even if Bush can't.

Try writing the real truth in your new job. Thank you.

Sincerely,
David Wyles

[eRobin]

David: Nice. "Draft-dodging alcholic flyboy" has a particularly nice rythm. But he was AWOL, not a draft-dodger. We must show the guy the respect he has earned.