Inside the Beltway

By Jennifer Harper - The Washington Times - Thursday, July 29, 2010

NEWS AND OPINION:

CLINTON A GO-GO

Got Chelsea Fatigue yet? It is almost tragic how many news organizations breathlessly have reported the cost of luxury portable toilets destined for Chelsea Clinton’s wedding in upstate New York on Saturday. Enough, already. Enough about the guest list, cake height, party favors, wedding gown, reception music and whether or not former President Bill Clinton will cry before, during or after the ceremony. But wait. The wedding is also political theater.

“So what’s with the tizzy over Chelsea? This isn’t even an in-office wedding and it’s a news blowout,” observes Newser.com founder Michael Wolff. “Continuing fascination with one of the most public family dynamics in the history of public family dynamics, is part of it. Still, what’s new to learn? Perhaps a wedding such as this represents the triumph of dysfunctionalism - the new norm.”

Well, that and the persistence of Mr. Clinton and Secretary of State/mother-of-the bride Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“The motor here is politics. The Clintons, forever being dissed, dismissed, and declared kaput, stubbornly, intractably, remain at the heart of the Democratic Party. It’s an entire liberal political establishment yet wanting to be friends of Bill’s and Hillary’s. It’s the Clinton media machine - even as a shadow of itself - working overtime,” Mr. Wolff continues. “It’s Camelot in Rhinebeck … President Barack Obama is nothing but an upstart and interloper.”

And forever ’n’ ever, in sickness and in health, 2012 looms.

“The Democrats are feeling very bad about themselves. They see the wilderness - precisely where the Clintons have been living for some time now. Bill is the president of this realm,” Mr. Wolff adds. “It’s buyer’s remorse, a sense that will grow stronger as the next election approaches. Hillary is the do-over and if-only choice. That’s the wedding dynamic: This is the official celebration of the once and future Clintons.”

THE ALIEN BOOST

There is much squawking over the propriety of President Obama’s recent appearance on ABC’s “The View,” his endless campaigning, fundraising and speechifying - all meant to shore up the flagging Democratic cause, critics say.

Presidential strategists, however, could be overlooking a mammoth opportunity to make, well, the biggest splash of all time.

Stephen Bassett, executive director of Paradigm Research Group and X-PPAC - the Extraterrestrial Phenomena Political Action Committee - advises the White House to release all classified materials about UFOs, alien encounters and additional otherworldly fare. Should the media-savvy, publicity-sensitive Mr. Obama broach that subject, it’s blockbuster headline time, Mr. Bassett reasons.

“Eleven countries are proactively releasing their UFO files to the public. The Vatican has taken a clear position. More witnesses to the UFO/ET reality are coming forward,” he tells Inside the Beltway.

“The leader who makes the first move will acquire an extraordinary political and historical legacy as will the leader’s party and the nation. If President Obama does not meet with the military/intelligence managers of the ET issue and effectuate disclosure, another nation will. And one leading candidate is the People’s Republic of China,” Mr. Bassett warns.

LEGAL EAGLES

So many lawsuits, so little time. Former Department of Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod plans to sue online publisher Andrew Breitbart for posting a video clip that suggested she made racist remarks.

“Andrew Breitbart is going to be fine,” predicts Media Research Center director Brent Bozell. “He’s done nothing wrong. I wonder if Ms. Sherrod, who is such a champion of transparency, will publicly disclose who is putting her up to this. And I also hope this champion of honesty will stop lying about Fox News. I’m also waiting for Ms. Sherrod to publicly apologize for accusing anyone opposed to nationalized health care of being racist. Last time I checked, that was more than half the country.”

NO LONGER AN ISLAND

Former CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour permanently takes the anchor’s chair of ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, wrangling House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates for her debut, and adding a whole new tenor, perhaps, to a political insider show.

“I’m really interested in the policies of this country, and I’m fascinated also in exploring the nexus between domestic American policy and foreign policy. Because the truth of the matter is, this is the most important and powerful country in the world, but it is no longer an island. Everything is globalized now,” Ms. Amanpour observes.

LOOSE LIPS

Now under FBI investigation, the great “WikiLeaks” hubbub made a kind of folk hero out of Julian Assange, the young Australian who posted 92,000 classified military documents that included the names of intelligence informants at his website, all in the name of transparency and the public’s “right to know.”

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Navy Adm. Mike Mullen dismisses such stuff.

“Mr. Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing, but the truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family,” Adm. Mullen says.

POLL DU JOUR

85 percent of Americans say immigrants arriving in the U.S. in the last decade are hard-working.
73 percent say they are “basically” good, honest people.
69 percent say they are a “burden” on American taxpayers.
62 percent say they add to the “crime problem.”
59 percent say they take jobs away from Americans.
62 percent say policies that enhanced the “melting pot” made the nation stronger at the beginning of the 20th century.
31 percent say those policies make the country stronger today.