http://www.washtimes.com/national/inbeltway.htm
Inside the Beltway
John McCaslin
Political tidbits and other shenanigans from around the nation's capital.
Stripped bare
The curators were warned to count the silver when the Clintons left the
White House, and the Air Force, as it turns out, should have listened, too.
Now that Bill Clinton is gone � after the longest goodbye anyone remembers �
an Air Force steward tells us about the former president's "official"
farewell flight to New York on Inaugural Day.
The presidential plane was "stripped bare."
Since Air Force One is the plane only of the president, the designation
of the Boeing 747 was changed from Air Force One to "Special Air Mission"
and by the time Mr. Clinton boarded he was no longer the president.
As a courtesy of President Bush, the plane was nevertheless equipped
with all the presidential amenities Mr. Clinton had grown accustomed to
during his two terms in office.
But not for long. Missing from the plane on arrival in New York, Inside
the Beltway is told, was all the porcelain china, silverware, salt and
pepper shakers, blankets and pillow cases � most of it bearing the
presidential seal.
What most astonished the military steward was that even a cache of
Colgate toothpaste, not stamped with the presidential seal, was snatched
from a compartment beneath the presidential plane's sink. (The good news, we
suppose, is that there was no halitosis on the return flight to Washington.)
Nation's avenue
Inside the Beltway understands that President Bush and Secretary of
State Colin Powell both want to reopen Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the
White House.
The Secret Service, citing security concerns in the wake of the
Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, abruptly closed Washington's "Main Street,"
much to the chagrin of everyone else.
In 1996, a House subcommittee held hearings on the closure, during
which several lawmakers appealed to then-President Clinton to reopen the
street. However, most senators disagreed, adopting a "sense of the Senate"
resolution that Pennsylvania Avenue could not reopen unless the Treasury
secretary and Secret Service agreed. The Secret Service doesn't.
Among other things, the closed stretch of the avenue makes a nice
parking lot for Secret Service cars and trucks.
The thinking now is that the avenue Mr. Bush has to reopen the street
is through presidential order.
Price of popularity
Democratic Sen. Thomas R. Carper is known by just about everybody in
his home state of Delaware. Being governor in a state smaller than some
congressional districts will do that. But his is not a name that necessarily
jumps out in the crowded town of Washington.
So, it was not unwelcome to have the cameras suddenly focused in his
direction at last week's Senate Environment and Public Works confirmation
hearing for Environmental Protection Agency-nominee Christine Todd Whitman,
the former governor of New Jersey.
Seems Mr. Carper and Mrs. Whitman are friends from their days as
governors and the photographers began clicking away when the two began
chatting beforehand.
But, according to Mr. Carper's press secretary, when Sen. Hillary
Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat, walked into the hearing and sat down next
to Mr. Carper, the cameras went berserk.
"It was like an explosion," Brian Selander said of the intense flurry
of flashes.
Mr. Carper, a little wilted at first, then leaned over to Mrs. Clinton
and whispered: "Don't worry, it's been happening to me all day."
Clinton's children
Several rooms of the White House's Old Executive Office Building were
"vandalized and trashed" by one or more departing members of the Clinton
administration, White House officials were informed in a morning meeting
yesterday.
That's what one White House official who was there told this column,
after we reported yesterday that several computer keys had been vandalized
by a "prankster."
"This was vandalism, not a prank," said the official.
Meanwhile, reader Dennis B. Turner asks: "Are these rather childish
individuals going to be prosecuted? They have openly destroyed government
property, which I believe is a federal offense. As a taxpayer, I am none too
happy about paying for this childish behavior."
John McCaslin, a nationally syndicated columnist, can be reached at
202/636-3284 or by e-mail ([EMAIL PROTECTED]).
Inside the Beltway -- The Washington Times.url
