“Homo Politicus” – MacNeil-Lehrer Interview Re Another Book

[johnkarls]

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Here is another new book, this time by a Washington Post Columnist, describing the cess pool that is Washington DC according to the description in the following MacNeil-Lehrer transcript – particularly the author’s closing comments about how lobbyists are "the kings of the heap" and use money to dictate everything in Washington.


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MacNeil-Lehrer transcript – 10 Jan 2007

Jim Lehrer:

And now we go to Ray Suarez with a different take on Washington politics.

Ray Suarez:

Now a unique look at life “inside the beltway” through a would-be anthropologist’s lens. Author Dana Milbank has covered Washington politics for more than a dozen years, working for The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic and The Washington Post where he’s currently a columnist. In his new book “Homo Politicus: The Strange and Scary Tribes That Run Our Government” he compares the rituals of the animal kingdom and civilizations past with the habits of the Washington elite, the prototype of which he calls “Homo Politicus.” And by giving him that Latin genus and species “political man” making him something other than the rest of us. And I that the whole conceit behind politics is these people are us, for better or worse.

Dana Milbank:

Right, well living in the capital, we have to be careful because we could be considered “Homo Politicus” or “political man” but nobody really wants to be identified with that but when I came here years ago, I quickly realized, I’d been a foreign correspondent before that, and I quickly realized that the job is basically the same – strange, bizarre antics that are occurring that are unfamiliar to the people I know. So I’m writing dispatches home to the ordinary Americans out there who might not be aware of just how barbaric the culture is here.

Ray Suarez:

It comes off as a sort of tour, a dissection, maybe, of folklore, customs, habits, what confers status, coming-of-age rituals – all the things you’d find in an anthropological text. But we know a lot of this stuff and I was wondering why the people out there seem to know so little of it when it hides in plain sight. A lot of this was in their local papers.

Dana Milbank:

True, I think that it has some additional effect putting it all together when you see, yes we’ve heard of Larry Craig and the Minneapolis airport, we’ve heard of Duke Cunningham and the bribes, and Jack Abramoff and the Indian tribes. But when you really put it all together in dozens and hundreds, in fact there is quite a pattern to all the behavior here in terms of the amassing and using of power, that it does seem to be sort of an anthropological quirky civilization here and I base that with my degrees in anthropology from Google and Wikipedia.

Ray Suarez:

Well and a tribe that’s re-hired for the most part every two and six years if they want to be.

Dana Milbank:

True enough. Americans assume that there’s something of a democracy going on here. In fact I compare this to the Melonesian “Big Man” and in fact he, the Melonesian “Big Man” sends out gifts to his followers and is able to stay in power by doing that – very much how things happen here.

The lobbyists give money to the politician in exchange for the favors that the politicians do for the lobbyists. The money allows them to amass substantial “war chests” and this allows them to stay in power even if the voters at home aren’t quite pleased. They’ve just got an awful lot of money to run for re-election.

Ray Suarez:

One regular refrain of all these stories of embarrassing events of out-and-out criminal ones – dishonest dealings with the public – there seems to be a very low “shame quotient.” People don’t go away or disappear from the scene even when they’ve been named in (unintelligible).

Dana Milbank:

And that’s true enough because it’s tribal. There’s the Republican Tribe and the Democratic Tribe and people are willing to tolerate just about anything as long as it’s a member of their party.

My favorite instance in the book, in the fertility-rite section, there’s a Congressman, conservative family-values Republican named Don Sherwood who settled a law suit for beating his mistress and President Bush, he was in some trouble as a result of this back home in Pennsylvania, but President Bush went to campaign for him in the middle of “National Character Council Week” and so I thought that sort of typified the culture here. Unfortunately, Mr. Sherwood was not returned to power by the voters but most of his colleagues are.

Ray Suarez:

That’s like getting a “triple word score” in the middle of the Scrabble board – campaigning during character week for a wife (sic) beater.

One interesting thing you come after not only “Homo Politicus” but the ink-stained wretches who have to cover these people like you and me. Are you going to be invited to all those swell parties anymore.

Dana Milbank:

I have kept PBS journalists off of my radar screen, I want to assure you.

Ray Suarez:

Though I checked – there’s no index.

Dana Milbank:

Yes, in fact I have written about also the social rituals, in particular the “gate keepers” who decide who goes to which party. Journalists frequently “suck up” to a particular “gate keeper” in exchange for having a party thrown for him.

I’m pleased to note that I have achieved a book party at the very-famous “gate keeper”’s house.

Ray Suarez:

So even when you make fun of them they still have you over. That’s pretty nice.

Dana Milbank:

Well there’s something very special about Washington. And you know the old adage: “Just spell my name right.” And there’s something to be said for that here in Washington. Other cities may be about money or about celebrity. Washington is about power. It doesn’t necessarily mean whether it is used for good or ill, it doesn’t mean whether you’re a good person or a bad person but if you have power, so fame is a vehicle to power, so “just spell my name right.”

Ray Suarez:

Well, it’s not like you’re just folks anymore yourself being on the inside front cover of The Washington Post regularly. Even people you skewer in this book will still talk to you.

Dana Milbank:

Not all of them. To be sure I’ve had precious few conversations with Tom DeLay, although I did dedicate the book to him for all the “good things” he’s given to my profession over the years and I not had many cozy, fireside with, say, David Vidder or the DC Madame but, yes, everybody in Washington sort of realizes that this is a game that we play. I should say, of course, that “they play” since I’m of course the pith-helmet-wearing anthropologist. Not a “Potomac man” myself.

Ray Suarez:

Is there a transformation that occurs. Do people actually come to Washington full of that “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” kind of idealism – I’m still a regular person even though I was elected to this job, even though I’m representing this industry or these workers – and then gradually transform???

Dana Milbank:

It almost invariably happens and it doesn’t happen all that gradually. What happens is you get here and say “Great, I’ve got to get re-elected now” so you begin to say “How can I collect that money, well I’m going to collect that money by going to the steak house with the lobbyists representing the industries that my committee oversees” and its virtually inevitable that somebody will succumb to that and virtually everybody does at some point.

I think it might be interesting to note that, for example, the President is not really a character in this book. He’s sort of a bit player, a figurehead if you will. The same was true of Denny Hastert, the Speaker of House. They’re controlled by the real “Potomac men” – the Carl Roves that really determine how business is done.

Ray Suarez:

And the aforementioned Tom DeLay. You note and give some support for the idea that having a big title and even a big job with a big staff doesn’t mean that you’re necessarily a big man.

Dana Milbank:

No, that’s absolutely true. THE “BIG MAN” IN FACT IS NOT THE POLITICIAN IN THE EXAMPLE OF “THE MELONESIAN TRIBESMAN” (editorial note – this is a reference to Milbank’s third comment above). I’M TALKING ABOUT THE LOBBYIST BEING THE “BIG MAN”!!! IN THE PROGRESSION OF WASHINGTON, YOU COME IN AS A NEW LAW MAKER, YOU WORK YOUR WAY UP TO COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN OR THE LEADERSHIP AND THEN AT THE VERY PINNACLE OF YOUR POWER YOU BECOME A LOBBYIST!!! AND THOSE ARE THE MEN WHO ARE ABLE TO HAVE THE MOST POWER HERE BECAUSE THEY’RE THE ONES WHO TOSS THE CHECKS AROUND (unintelligible).

Ray Suarez:

“Homo Politicus” – Dana Milbank, thank’s for joining us.

Dana Milbank:

Thank you, Ray.