Look Away! Look Away!
Roll Call Staff
Either way you slice it, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) argued last week that the South could have won the war between the states if the Confederates had just had better intelligence.
During Thursday’s closed-door Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on trials, interrogation and detention of foreign terrorism suspects, Chambliss made an analogy between the current war on terror and the Civil War. He made the point that history would have been altered dramatically if only the South had had better intel.
Democratic sources expressed outrage that he compared the Civil War to the Bush administration’s war on terror. “It’s a little disgusting” to be equating the two, one Democratic source said, adding, “You can’t figure out whether he didn’t understand the Civil War, or the war on terror, or both.”
When sources first contacted HOH, they thought they remembered Chambliss say, “We need better intelligence. If we had better intelligence in the Civil War we’d be quoting Jefferson Davis, not Lincoln.”
Not quite, according to Chambliss spokeswoman Lindsay Mabry. She says what he really said was, “If Gen. JEB Stuart had had better intelligence, we’d all be meeting in Richmond right now.”
No biggie, Mabry said. Her boss simply “made a historical analogy” that “intelligence is important to ultimate victory in wartime. And the side that knows better wins.”
Sen. Macaca? A party’s never a party until the host insults one of the guests. Such was the case Thursday at the anniversary party for “The Chris Matthews Show” on the tented rooftop of The Hay-Adams hotel.
The hyperactive TV gabber got up to thank everyone for coming out to celebrate his Sunday morning show’s success. Suddenly he got that boyishly devilish grin — you know the one — and stopped mid-sentence to send a shout-out to Sen. George Allen (R-Va.).
Allen had that deer-in-the-headlights look as the entire party stood at attention. Matthews continued, “I’m not going to call you Sen. Ma... .” He paused a beat, then continued his joke with, “Caucasian.”
The term he didn’t call Allen would have been “macaca,” the one word Allen wishes he had never uttered. The Senator has been dogged by critical media coverage, including on Matthews’ MSNBC show “Hardball,” for weeks now, ever since he referred to a young Indian-American staffer on the campaign of his Democratic opponent, Jim Webb, as “macaca,” a word that can mean monkey.
Allen’s spokesman wouldn’t directly address what the Senator thought of Matthews’ joke, saying only, “Sen. Allen was happy to go by and congratulate Chris on a successful five years.”
Senator Slams Tom Cruise. Actress Brooke Shields has a friend in Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.).
Smith, chairman of the Special Senate Committee on Aging, slammed actor Tom Cruise for criticizing Shields’ use of the antidepressant Paxil when she suffered from postpartum depression. The comments by Cruise — an adherent of the Church of Scientology, which frowns on the use of antidepressants — were widely criticized as unscientific and potentially harmful to women who have the condition.
During Thursday’s hearing on senior suicide, Gordon posed a non sequitur question to guest David Steffens, head of geriatric psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center.
“Would you agree with me: Tom Cruise is a great actor?” Gordon, tongue-in-cheek, asked his witness.
“He is a fantastic actor,” Steffens replied, kind of chuckling.
“What kind of a mental health physician do you think he is?”
“I think that ... um,” Steffens wasn’t really sure how to answer, though before Smith posed the question a different way, Steffens said, “I think he needs to be better informed.”
“Is postpartum depression real? Is it a legitimate medical condition?”
“Yes, sir,” Steffens replied.
“Bipolar condition — is that a real condition?”
“Yes, sir.”
“How about schizophrenia?”
“Yes, sir,” the doctor responded.
“And they’re identifiable medical conditions with treatments?” the Senator asked.
“Yes, sir, very effective treatments.”
“I wanted that on the record,” Smith said.
OK, there you have it, Brooke. Smith is on your side, too.
Please send your hot tips, juicy gossip or comments to hoh@rollcall.com.
Taylor: Preventing Another Underwear Bomber
March 19, 4:09 p.m.
The intelligence community faces challenges daily. No example is more emblematic of the problems faced than the so-called underwear bomber of 2009. As threats emerge, the hunt for “persons of interest” must occur in a more reliable and efficient manner because the consequences of inaction can be catastrophic. Read Full Article
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