Tilting at Windmills: - Bureaucratic Buddies Pentagon Payoffs White's Flights Mrs. Iron Triangle Judicial Mating Love vs. Manolo Blahniks

Washington Monthly, May, 2002 by Charles Peters

DID ROBERT RAY SEE REPUBLICAN politics in his future while he was serving as the Whitewater independent counsel? Here's what Christie Whitman, the former Republican governor of New Jersey and the current head of the EPA told Raymond Hernandez of The New York Times about what Ray said to her in a break in his testimony before a Senate appropriations committee--while he was still in that post: "He didn't talk to me about running, his personal running. He talked about whether or not the Senate race, no actually, I take it back. What he did was say he might have an interest in it."

SPEAKING OF W, THE LATEST Bushism to come to my attention is "there's no cave deep enough for American justice."

LAST MONTH WE REPORTED THAT the government was no longer attaining its goal of an air marshal on every flight into and out of Reagan National Airport. Next came the news that the 24-hour fighter protection of Washington and other obvious terrorist targets has been ended. It was no longer needed, explained the Secretary of the Air Force on March 19. On April 1, a Frontier Airlines plane flew within a block of the West Wing.

YOU'VE PROBABLY READ ABOUT Army Secretary Thomas E. White's use of a military jet for a trip to close the sale of a house in Aspen. But you may have missed another military flight he took to Naples, Fla., where he checked out a waterfront property. It seems that White views public service as a better way to oversee his investments--not only in real estate, but in the stock market as well. According to The Washington Post, he has reported 84 phone calls, attempted calls, and meetings with his former colleagues at Enron since taking office last May. These intensified last October, just before White unloaded his 200,000 shares of Enron stock.

SPEAKING OF AIR SAFETY, THE aviation security law enacted by Congress after September 11 required that checked luggage be examined by "explosive detection systems," but the Transportation Safety Administration has announced that smaller airports will not be required to install X-ray machines. The "system" these airports use will not exactly be the highest of high tech. They're going to rub the outside of the bags with a cloth. Seriously. This is somehow supposed to yield a telltale explosive residue. Maybe they should hire faith healers to do the rubbing. One thing is certain: Terrorists are going to be moving to Des Moines.

THE DRUG COMPANIES ARE, AS WE have pointed out, doing a lot of advertising. But this does not mean that they have abandoned their traditional sales techniques. Earlier this year, according to The Washington Post's Bill Brubaker, Forest Laboratories invited two dozen physicians to cocktails, dinner, and an overnight stay at New York's luxurious Plaza Hotel to get their "advice" on the treatment of depression. The next morning, the doctors participated in a seminar on depression, which--surprise, surprise--can be treated by a Forest drug called Celexa. After lunch, for which Forest picked up the tab, of course, each of the doctors was presented with a check for $500. Needless to say, this is the kind of experience that inspires warm and fuzzy feelings for Forest and Celexa on the part of the medical community.