FAMOUS FOR DC II

I know I said no more posts for a few days. Well, a free moment availed itself. Call me a liar if you wish, but read this anyway:

On the way down to the White House on Saturday morning, myself and half of my immediate family passed by the St. Regis Hotel on 16th between H and I. (Also spelled "Eye" sometimes. No J street, you know -- I should explain that at some point).

On the sidewalk near the main entrance stood a gaggle of people next to a waiting bus. As it was, trying to make your way down a city street with a nine-year-old and a five-year-old both trying to hold your hand with both having erratic and exceptionally un-useful ideas about which way to go at any given moment, was hard enough. But now to negotiate this crowd.

We threaded our way through well enough for a moment until, confirming my worst fears, we were stopped in our tracks by a blank-faced Joe Klein, who had his arms spread wide as if imitating the famous Michael Jordan "Wings" poster, but with palms turned away from us.

I stared back at him. Almost challenging him to move. We made eye contact: nothing there at all. I moved left -- no room. Right -- no room. Remaining devoid of any detectable human emotion, he finally shifted, raising his left arm and lowering his right in unison, just enough for us to keep going. And as we passed I finally understood Klein's expressionlessness: he was in the process of being meticulously wanded by a security professional for firearms or explosives.

Now really, this is Joe freaking Klein, apotheosis of "famous for DC." A liberal one, too -- fat chance he'd be packing. Once a reporter for Newsweek, now a columnist for Time, a regular talking head on CNN as well as Chris Matthews' Sunday morning panel, just who is he going to kill when he gets on this bus or goes into this hotel? I would say his non-terrorist credentials are well-established. Oh sure, he might Anonymous-ly pen a satirical roman a clef about your campaign -- just ask Bill Clinton -- but he won't use that same writing instrument to gut you from stem to stern.

So we ducked under Mr. Klein's sartorially exquisite left arm and continued the next block up to Lafayette Park and to "where the President lives!" (as one sister exclaimed) and off to other points around the District and Potomac River Basin, about which more later.

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posted by WWB at 1:30 AM |