Heard on the Hill: That’s Mr. Obama to You
Roll Call Staff
Everyone knows that Barack Obama is the president-elect. Just look at any newspaper (including Roll Call) or flip on the TV to hear the soon-to-be-prez referred to that way.
Not so fast, Barry.
One self-professed “geeky” HOH reader points out that until the Electoral College makes the selection of a new president official on Dec. 15, Obama has not technically been elected. And therefore, calling him the president-elect is premature.
HOH checked with an expert who confirms our geeky friend’s suspicions. Chris Arterton, dean of George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management, says that for the next two weeks, Obama should be content with the humble title of “Mr.” Until the Electoral College ratifies his new status, “we don’t have a president-elect,” he said, before dropping a Latin phrase that sent HOH running for her dictionary. “We are, in effect, in a period of interregnum,” he added (that means between reigns, for us nonscholars).
And we can’t even call Obama “Senator” anymore, since he gave up that title on Nov. 16, when he formally resigned his Illinois seat.
So what to call the guy?
Arterton suggests “presumptive president- elect,” harkening back to the primary season, when many people referred to Obama as the “presumptive nominee” before the contest ended but after he had collected enough delegates to win the nomination.
Maybe that’s OK in writing, but should you bump into him (an unlikely event given the phalanx of earpiece-wearing guys around him these days), HOH suggests using the old trick that we use on people whose names we can’t remember: “Hey ... you!”
Holding Steady, Kinda. Like many a great social movement, the boycott of the House cafeterias started with fervent enthusiasm and big dreams. But a month after hundreds of staffers vowed to stay away from the House eateries after officials increased prices by about 10 percent, the effect has been more of a whimper than a bang.
And while the ragtag group of 200 or so who organized on Facebook and the Web are still officially boycotting the cafeterias, factors like the cold weather (who wants to trek to Subway in frigid temperatures?) and long hours have put a damper on the effort, which insiders say isn’t having much of an effect, anyway.
“I personally haven’t eaten at the cafeteria in a month and a half,” one diehard protester insisted to HOH, although he allows that others haven’t been as faithful to the cause. “It’s tough to keep up the momentum.”
“It’s been kind of dormant,” this protester says of the fading cause. “If people want to pick up and keep it going, I’m right there with them.”
Another boycott organizer is more optimistic, noting that many protesting staffers have completely changed their workplace habits, including a colleague who “now keeps milk and a box of Frosted Mini-Wheats in the office at all times to circumvent the price increases.”
“Without a doubt, the boycott is still happening, though to what extent I cannot attest,” the organizer admitted. “Since I never go in the House cafeterias anymore, I honestly have no idea how crowded they get throughout the day.”
Viva la boycott — or not.
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