This Is Transparency?

From Dana Milbank at the Washington Post:
It takes a certain amount of nerve to have an event at the National Press Club and then ban the press from covering it.
It takes another level of chutzpah entirely to admit members of the general public to your event at the National Press Club, recruit a news organization as the co-sponsor and then tell the press they can't cover it.
But that's exactly what former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe and Georgetown University did yesterday [Friday].
Plouffe was listed as the keynote speaker at the luncheon yesterday for "Transition 2009," sponsored by Georgetown University and Politico. The public was invited to the event -- students free of charge and everybody else for a fee. But at the last minute, Georgetown announced that Plouffe's speech would be "closed press," even though the speech was being given in the National Press Club ballroom, described on a plaque at the door as "the sanctum sanctorum of American journalists."
National Press Club President Donna Leinwand fired off an e-mail to Plouffe and his agents stating her "strong opposition" to the press banishment from its own club. "If Mr. Plouffe wants to keep secrets," she said, "Mr. Plouffe should stay at home."
Politico editor John Harris called it "a surprise to me and an unhappy one." Harris pulled out as moderator of the speech and said his publication was disassociating itself from the luncheon.
Un-sponsoring part of the two-day event, however, was rather tricky. The Politico emblem was still emblazoned on signs outside the ballroom and on the lanyards and name tags for attendees.
This sort of mess has become a trademark of the former Obama campaign manager. Plouffe still keeps his Obama ties -- over the weekend he sent out an e-mail in his name to millions from barackobama.com titled "Urgent message from President Obama" -- yet he is also profiting from them. He is reported to have received as much as $2 million for his forthcoming book, "The Audacity to Win" . . .

More Words From Wright

Today in remarks at the National Press Club in Washington Rev. Jeremiah Wright called Louis Farrakhan "one of the most important voices of the 20th or 21st centuries" and said of Farrakhan: "He is not my enemy." He noted that Farrakhan had called "Zionism - Zionism, not Judaism - a gutter religion 20 years ago" and Wright refused to disassociate himself from those remarks.
The Associated Press has already describe Wright's appearance as "defiant" and noted that Wright said he's told Obama that if he is elected in November and is inaugurated in January, "I'm coming after you." He said that's because his differences are not with the American people, but U.S. policies.
Wright also refused to take back any of the words of his controversial sermons saying "there is no excuse" for the things that the American government has done and declaring that the government of this country "grinds under people" [grinds people under]. Regarding 9/11, he repeated that "if you engage in terrorism you will have terrorism committed against you."
He said America's leaders must "apologize for racism and slavery" and "until that apology comes" he doesn't feel a need to apologize for anything he's said about America.
Of Obama, he said: "He speaks as a politician and does what a politician does and I speak as a pastor and do what a pastor does. . . He did not denounce me. He distanced himself from some of my remarks, like you, having never heard the complete sermon. He had to distance himself - because he's a politician - from what the media was saying I said . . . He [Obama] said I 'didn't offer any words of hope.' How would he know? he never heard the rest of the sermon."
He revealed that just before Obama made his formal announcement of his presidential candidacy last year at the Illinois Statehouse, he [Wright] prayed with the Obamas and their children "downstairs."
He compared America's "troops stationed all over the world" to the age of Roman "imperialism" and talked about "ages of oppression" adding: "Yes, I can compare that because we have troops stationed all over the world. We run the world."
He said that he did not speak up in the immediate aftermath of the controversy surrounding his remarks because he was trying to follow "my mother's advice, which is 'better to be quiet and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.'" Wright said "they [the media] were trying to make a fool of me." He said he finally decided to speak up "to defend the tradition of the black church."
In one of the last questions Wright answered (about whether or not he thinks it is God's will for Obama to be President) Wright said that "if God intends for Mr. Obama to be President then no white racist, no candidate and no political pundit will get in the way; for God will do what God wants to do."

In The Power Corridor

It had been way too long since we'd been to the world's most powerful city.

So yesterday we decided to join a group of friends and colleagues for a quick trip to the nation's capital. The weather more than cooperated, providing us with a perfect spring day.

Our first stop was the National Press Club just a few blocks from the White House where we attended a luncheon and heard from Charles L. Overby, Chief Executive Officer of the Freedom Forum, The Newseum and The Diversity Institute. Overby, a former newsman who speaks with a wonderful southern drawl told us all about Washington's most popular new attraction, The Newseum. That whet our appetite for the real thing. So, after lunch it was off to The Newseum (pictured) just about a mile up the road on Pennsylvania Avenue and within shouting distance of The Capitol.

The Newseum — a 250,000-square-foot museum of news — offers visitors an experience that blends five centuries of news history with up-to-the-second technology and hands-on exhibits.

The exterior’s unique architectural features include a 74-foot-high marble engraving of the First Amendment and an immense front wall of glass through which passers-by can watch the museum fulfill its mission of providing a forum where the media and the public can gain a better understanding of each other.
The Newseum features seven levels of galleries and theaters where you can see artifacts such as the door that burglars taped during the Watergate break in, the notes that JFK took during his historic 1960 debate with Nixon, the microphones that FDR used to deliver his fireside chats and the charred electronic transmission tower from the top of the World Trade Center. You can easily spend four hours or more at The Museum which makes it worth every cent of its $20 admission price. Don't miss it!

After The Museum we dined next door at The Source, Wolfgang Puck's newest eatery which features a sleek three-level interior, a second-floor outdoor dining terrace and fresh, simple dishes with an Asian flair. This is Puck's first Washington eatery and with white table clothes and soft lighting it's also one of Puck's more upscale outlets. Delicious, but be forewarned: the portions are not exactly huge.

After The Source it was off to The White House.

But more about that in the next post!