Yesterday in the Russell Senate Office Building where we were holding the Al Qaeda 2.0 Conference, Howard Dean walked by and looked slightly interested in the proceedings before running into a meeting room that didn’t seem to belong to any particular Senator or Committee.
I tracked him down the hall and told Governor Dean that I was very tardy on writing a debate piece for American Prospect magazine where I was going to argue why he was the better candidate than John Kerry. Garance Franke-Ruta is going to advocate for Kerry, and she attended the conference too.
Dean told me he’d be very interested in checking out that debate.
So, now I really need to finish the first round of writing this exchange with Garance.
Then, John Kerry walked by. He really did. About 30 minutes later. . .same hall, different room.
But he was no fun — not interested in the conference, or all the cameras, or any of the interesting people. He was above it all. Dean was curious. Remember the criticism about George Bush not being a curious guy?
Well, Dean was more curious than Kerry about the conference we had. There’s one check mark in Dean’s favor.
But I am wondering what brought Howard Dean and John Kerry to the same hall of the same Senate Office Building within 30 minutes of each other. Take a guess at whose office dominates the hall.
That’s right. Ted Kennedy.
My hunch is that there were some negotiations going on yesterday about leadership of the Democratic Party, and with Kerry’s election loss and Dean’s spot in political purgatory, the guy whose ring needs to be kissed is still Ted Kennedy.
I am not going to analyze this. I am still too doped up on Allegra, Cepacol and Robitussin to think clearly. Just for the record, everything I have written except seeing Howard Dean and John Kerry walk by our mega-conference is speculation.
But I’m delaying the biggest media news about our Al Qaeda terrorism conference.
Last night, though it was not a Top Ten Countdown, David Letterman was spoofing the many holiday specials running on every network and then turned to check out what C-Span was offering and said that his second pick of several C-Span options to watch was “the New America Foundation’s Holiday Forum on Global Terrorism!”
No kidding.
I’m not sure why I care about our stuff making it on to the Late Show with David Letterman, but maybe serious stuff getting into comedic, mass market venues is one way to capture more public attention.
And besides, our conference deserved to be talked about on the Letterman Show.
Thanks Dave.
— Steve Clemons
