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June 2, 2007
Washington, DC Code Translated into Laymen's Speak
There's a strange phenomenon here in DC that goes on where there will be facts that "everyone" knows, but no one is willing to say to the rest of the public. Things like who Deep Throat was-- if you really wanted to know, you could have just asked Carl Bernstein's ex-wife, Nora Ephron, and she would have told you. Or take the liasons of Jessica Cutler, aka The Washingtonienne. Outside of the one guy who is currently suing her, no one publicly outed all of the men in government she was sleeping with, even though, by an large, pretty much everyone who worked on the Hill knew who they were.
And so we come to another case of this, where journalists write articles in "code" that everyone here in DC understands but no one says outright. I refer to the latest story of the resignation of White House advisor Dan Bartlett, most famous for saying that "It's never been a stay-the-course strategy" in Iraq when the White House tried drop that phrase. The Politico contains a fawning retrospective (fawning to the point of embarassing) on Dan Bartlett and lets loose this little tidbit, in the form of a quote from one of his White House colleagues, Michael Gerson:
"[Bartlett and the President] both have a casual manner and a manly humor and share a lot of political interests, coming out of that Texas Republicanism."What is this "manly humor" being referred to? That is left up to the reader to figure out. Those who know what's going on know exactly what this mention of "manly humor" refers to-- fart jokes:
President Bush loves to swap fart jokes with Karl Rove. Before a morning senior staff meeting in 2005, Woodward reports, Bush schemed to have Rove sit in a chair that triggered some sort of high-tech whoopee cushion activated by remote control. The prank was postponed in deference to news of the al-Qaida bombings in London. When the gag was carried out two weeks later, the room erupted in riotous laughter while Rove hunted down the culprit.Also featured at USA Today:
A top insider let that slip when explaining why President Bush is paranoid around women, always worried about his behavior. But he's still a funny, earthy guy who, for example, can't get enough of fart jokes. He's also known to cut a few for laughs, especially when greeting new young aidesThis is all apparently too delicate for the virgin eyes of The Politico's readers.
Posted by Dean at June 2, 2007 3:19 PM
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