Inside Politics

Feeding frenzy

“Clearly, there is blood in the water” in the Karl Rove-Valerie Plame affair, syndicated columnist Pat Buchanan writes.

“To listen to and look in the gleaming eyes of the liberal media on cable news, you can see they smell it,” Mr. Buchanan said.

“Clearly, when Scott McClellan said no one in the White House had any connection with the outing of Joe Wilson’s wife as a CIA operative, he was misled by White House colleagues. For we now know, from Matt Cooper’s notes, that Rove cited Plame — if not by name — as promoting Wilson for the CIA-sponsored visit to Niger to check out the yellowcake story. But the White House press corps has begun treating McClellan not like a man who misspoke, but like some defiant inmate at Guantanamo.

“What is causing the beginnings of a press feeding frenzy is a sense — and probably correct — that something big is coming down. After all, Patrick J. Fitzgerald has likely not spent two years turning over rocks without finding at least one lizard. And he and Judge Tom Hogan would probably not be sending journalists to jail unless they were onto something serious.

“And if Judy Miller went to jail rather than reveal a source, why did the source not release her rather than have her go through this? Is she covering for a high White House aide with a criminal liability?

“But with the baiting of McClellan and the ’death watch’ of TV cameras outside Rove’s home, the press should know it is not perceived here as simply advancing ’the people’s right to know.’ Everybody knows this is about what Watergate was about and Iran-Contra was about: bringing down a Republican president the left could not defeat at the ballot box.

“New York Daily News columnist Michael Goodwin calls the mainstream media ’basically liberals with press passes,’ who have become the opposition party.

“But if the White House wins this fight, the media will be the losers. And even if the White House loses this fight, Middle America will say the press crippled another president. Lose-lose, as they say.”

Duly noted

A reporter from the Asia Today & India Globe took the White House press corps to task yesterday for their inside-the-Beltway myopia during the White House’s daily press briefing — a public slap that some observers felt was long overdue.

Raghubir Goyal is called on at every briefing by White House spokesman Scott McClellan, and yesterday was no exception. He is normally counted on to be the fly in the ointment, asking detailed questions about the intricacies of U.S.-Indian relations and the ongoing conflict between Pakistan and India over the disputed Kashmir region — issues that are far off the minds of most Americans, let alone politics-obsessed White House reporters.

Yesterday, however, Mr. Goyal had good reason to bring up such topics because President Bush was hosting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for an official state visit, not exactly an everyday occurrence for the Indian people.

Yet with the leader of 1 billion people standing next to the president in the White House, the American press peppered Mr. Bush with questions only about contemporary politics — in this case his impending Supreme Court nomination and the kerfuffle surrounding Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove. This follows a pattern of questions no matter which foreign leader Mr. Bush is hosting.

Yesterday, Mr. Goyal decided he’d had enough of this, and he let the White House press corps and viewers of C-SPAN know it.

“Scott first of all, I have a great respect for this White House press corps and they’re very nice and kind to me,” Mr. Goyal said. “When the leaders visit the White House, and they have press availability in the East Room — not only the Indian [prime minister] today, but any prime minister or president — I feel it’s kind of insult to that leader; he’s standing there, only two questions, but only his own people are asking about his visit or his nation.

“Other questions are always on different topics,” he said. “I feel, personally, it’s insult to that leader and that if it’s the Indian leader visiting here, that press availability should be only on India.”

“Your opinion is noted,” Mr. McClellan replied, before taking a question from Mr. Goyal about — what else? — the Indian prime minister’s visit.

Spellings vs. Clinton

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said yesterday the “achievement gap is beginning to close” between Hispanic and white students, while Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton countered that she’s not convinced the federal government is doing enough to help Hispanic youths get through school.

Mrs. Spellings and Mrs. Clinton each spoke in Philadelphia at the convention of the National Council of La Raza, a four-day event that ends today.

The two did not dispute statistics that show Hispanic students have the nation’s highest high school dropout rate and the lowest college enrollment rate, but they diverged on whether the government is fixing the problem.

Praising No Child Left Behind, the education act President Bush signed in January 2002, Mrs. Spellings pointed to National Assessment of Educational Progress scores released Thursday that show 9-year-olds, including Hispanics, have improved their reading and math scores.

“These results did not come out of thin air,” Mrs. Spellings said. “They came from a commitment to doing something that’s never been done before, a commitment to giving every child a quality education.

“The achievement gap is beginning to close,” she said.

But minutes later, the New York Democrat told the same group: “You are doing your part, but I don’t know that your government is doing its part right now.”

Cash totals

The Republican National Committee said yesterday it received nearly $59.4 million in contributions during the first six months of 2005, a fundraising record for a non-presidential-election year.

RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman reported more than $34 million cash on hand at the end of June after raising over $6.5 million last month.

The RNC said it has averaged 9,247 contributions for each deposit day this year with an average contribution of just over $50. There were more than 106,000 donations in the month of June.

QB seeks seat

Former NFL quarterback Heath Shuler is mounting a challenge for the U.S. House seat held by Republican Charles H. Taylor of North Carolina, the Associated Press reports.

Mr. Shuler, a Democrat, said in a statement yesterday that he has filed papers with the Federal Election Commission that clear the way for him to run next year in the 11th Congressional District.

• Greg Pierce can be reached at 202/636-3285 or gpierce@washingtontimes.com.