I feel like I've had a lot of "pinch me" moments this spring, but few of them topped opening the New York Times yesterday to see Thomas Friedman quote me in his column "Laughing and Crying" on American competitiveness. He and I have struck up a friendship of sorts after I wrote a lengthy profile of him last year in the Washingtonian and we've exchanged a bunch of emails since then as I've been working on my book. We had breakfast earlier this week because I wanted to bounce some book ideas off of him and we ended up talking a lot about the column he was mulling over—after having spent so much time last year researching how he thinks and works it was quite impressive to see it all come together in front of me.
This week's column dealt with competitiveness, immigration, and how the country isn't focusing on the "right" issues because of how Iraq has swallowed the sun in political debate. Here's where Friedman turned to me:
Here’s the sad truth: 9/11, and the failing Iraq war, have sucked up almost all the oxygen in this country — oxygen needed to discuss seriously education, health care, climate change and competitiveness, notes Garrett Graff, an editor at Washingtonian Magazine and author of the upcoming book “The First Campaign,” which deals with this theme. So right now, it’s mostly governors talking about these issues, noted Mr. Graff, but there is only so much they can do
without Washington being focused and leading.
Jack Shafer over at Slate took issue with the premise, and Wonkette took a cheap swipe at me today, but hey his column, perhaps not surprisingly, actually sold some of my books on Amazon.com this week, which is pretty good considering because well, um, it's not even done yet.
UPDATE: Here's Friedman's full column.
There's a lament about conversations at Washington cocktail parties is that they all start the same way: "What do you do?" No one can figure out a better way to start a conversation here then "Well what can you do for me?"
Today I went to the British Ambassador's sprawling residence on Massachusetts Avenue to cover the garden party for the Queen's visit to Washington. From the moment I picked up the invitation on Friday, I've been very excited. The Queen of England!
The reception was really quite incredible—very fancy snacks, a military band, and lots of champagne under the large tent on the massive lawn of the ambassador's house. The crowd at the reception was pretty impressive (even though the most impressive names were reserved for tonight's state dinner). This afternoon's crowd included Brian Williams, Nancy Pelosi, CIA Director Michael Hayden, Roy Blunt, and a ton of others. The Queen worked her way through the crowd on one side, accompanied by assorted military aides and the ambassador, while on the other side, Prince Philip walked along with his hands clasped firmly behind his back. According to protocol, you don't shake his hand, he shakes yours, and many an overly friendly American was left in the lurch with hand extended as the Prince walked through the crowd.
I had resolved at the reception that I wasn't going to say anything to the Queen. It's not my style to have my picture taken with random celebrities or to shake hands with famous people I run into at parties just so I can say I "met" them. (The two exceptions to this rule since I started at Washingtonian? MC Hammer and Tim Gunn from Project Runway.) Also, I have absolutely nothing to say to the Queen of England, although I did like Helen Mirren's portrayal of her in
"The Queen."
So I was quite surprised when I found her speaking to me. After Sir David Manning, the British ambassador, introduced her to the businessman from BMW next to me and they discussed transatlantic cooperation, the Queen, Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, turned and, peering up at me from under her bright-pink hat, broke the ice.
"And you," she said in her royal British accent, "what do you do?"
"I'm a magazine editor, ma'am," I finally croaked out.
"Here?"
"Yes, in Washington."
"How nice." And she moved on.
Such was my brush with royalty. I managed to have the quintessential
Washington conversation with the British monarch.
This "DC Madam" story is all over the news in Washington and I've done a host of television interviews about it—I think I got eight calls from TV bookers on Sunday and Monday alone. So that I didn't spend all day running from studio to studio, I choose to just do Fox News and CNN. I was up front with the producers that I knew absolutely nothing about the case that hadn't been reported in the
newspapers—everyone seems sort of desperate because ABC News has all the records and everyone else is just speculating.
I went on, did my schtick, and both hits were about three or four minutes long. Then I had a strange experience today while flying out to Minneapolis: I was standing in line with a friend waiting to go through security and these two women next to us start chattering together. Finally one of them turns to me and asks, "Did I see you on TV?" I laughed and said yes and then she asked what I was on TV about.
"This DC madam prostitution story," I explained.
"Oh," she said and there was a long awkward pause before it dawned on
me.
"I'm not involved. I'm a reporter," I hastened to add.
A flash of relief crossed her face and she gave another more relieved "oh" before the line moved on.
I've never been recognized before for my television appearances, and I'm a little chagrined that the first time involved this prostitution ring.