Katrina, John Roberts, and Appropriations Bills The DC Guy September 12, 2005

When Scott first approached me to see if I'd be willing to write a column on politics for his website, I have to say that I was a bit hesitant. Having been working Inside the Beltway(TM) for as long as I have, I've found that this kind of writing tends to get people into trouble. Then Scott reminded me I could always write under a pseudonym. So I figured, hey - it worked for Joe Klein. So I got another cup of coffee and decided I'd give it a shot.

About the columnist
Before I launch in, I'll give you a bit of background. I've been working in DC for ten years now, not all of it in politics. I've been doing what I'm currently doing for about two years now, and my job gives me access to many of the elected officials and power brokers in town. I'm not going to say that I'm one myself, at least not yet, but give me another ten years. What I can give you is an insider's look at DC from a twenty-something political professional's perspective.

Hopefully, that's enough to get you to come back. That and Scott's complaining about Verizon.

Fall in DC brings more than a change of colors
Fall in DC is an interesting time of year. Congress traditionally leaves town in August for a month long summer recess. This may seem a bit out of the ordinary, but anyone who has lived through a DC August can tell you that it's the closest thing to living inside a sauna that you can get without actually having to do it. I can't even imagine what it would have been like in DC before the days of Snapple and central air. The heat isn't the only thing that keeps DC quiet this time of year.

Typically, Congress doesn't like to spend too much time in the Fall in DC, because the leaves changing means only one thing: election season. Even though this is an off-year, one thing you'll learn is that folks are always looking at the next election. So unless you've got a Mayor's race or a weird gubernatorial election cycle, you don't have anything really pressing back home.

Hurricane Katrina
What you do have pressing in the District though are three big, big issues. The biggest, by far, is the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the traditional post-catastrophe finger pointing. Despite the fact that this is easily the most destructive natural disaster to hit the United States since Galveston a hundred years ago, you'd be hard pressed to find anything but business as usual in DC. Other than the posturing coming from Capitol Hill and the White House, it seems as if the events in the Gulf are more an afterthought here - one man's suffering is another man's political opportunity. However distasteful that may seem, it's a fact of life that's as accepted here as working lunches and tourist traffic.

I have received no less than two dozen phone calls from Congressmen and Senators trying to fundraise in the last two weeks. Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these candidates from the swift completion of their appointed fundraising calls. The post office may shut down service, but the FEC waits for no man. When most people are opening their wallets to give to the Red Cross or the Salvation Army, some folks in Washington apparently think that their fundraising goals aren't affected by events outside of their districts. Heck, I've even gotten one flyer for an event by a Congressman who was affected. I'm known among my circle of friends for defending politics and politicians as misunderstood yet generally well meaning, but there are times when even my faith can be shaken.

John Roberts and the Supreme Court hearings
Next up, which is vying with Katrina for the attention of the media, is the confirmation of John Roberts as the 17th Chief Justice of the United States. The media is already salivating over the hearings, and based on the number of press tables in the Caucus Room of the Russell Senate Office Building, we're going to get an earful the next few days. The real question that I have is exactly how much attention can the media draw to a hearing where the outcome is almost predetermined?

The media thrives on conflict and drama to get viewers, but I really think they're going to come up with a dud here. Roberts was a very shrewd pick by the White House. Were I a producer at a major media outlet, I would keep my powder dry during the Roberts hearing and instead wait for the replacement for Justice O'Conner. That one will turn very ugly. Replacing a conservative with a conservative doesn't change the status quo. Replacing a moderate with a conservative does, and that's what will cause friction.

On a side note, one of DC's favorite games is playing "Guess the Nominee". However, I think that most of the handicappers focus too much on the ethnicity or gender of potential nominees. And when they do that, they are missing a major aspect of Bush's calculus in determining a nominee for any office - he or she has to be a "Bush guy."

If you look at any of Bush's previous appointments, they've all been people with whom he has had a past relationship. So if pressed to make a prediction on whom will be the next nominee, I will only say that you've got to look back over judges that have had a past relationship with the President, especially those that he has picked for previous governmental positions, to fill out your candidate pool. Those people may be women, Hispanic, or African-American, but that's an afterthought. Whoever is chosen will be a "Bush guy" (or gal) first, and whatever else they may be is second.

Appropriations Bills
The final thing looming in Washington are the annual appropriations bills. These are the bread and butter of most of the folks in DC in my line of work, and they are some of the few chances that we get every year to get our major projects funded. In the future, I'll write a column about how Washington works, because this process isn't easy to understand for the layman, and while we all remember how a bill becomes a law its not always that easy or simple. And with Katrina busting budgets left and right, expect the funding fights in DC over the next few months to be even bloodier than usual. It'll be interesting to see what gets cut and what stays.

And here ends the inaugural column from Scott's Guy in DC. Hopefully we'll make this a once a week column, but that'll be based on my schedule and Scott's. For now, the Roberts fun is starting, so I'm going to go watch C-SPAN.

See you next week.