[Newspoetry] FW: Newspoem from Madrid

[Robert Porter]

One may have missed this the first time around..

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From: Robert Porter <bwp61 at ix.netcom.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 16:07:59 -0600
To: Newspoetry <newspoetry at lists.groogroo.com>
Subject: Newspoem from Madrid

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/23/national/23LEAD.htm
 
A Flurry of Hugs in Capital:  Politics Makes Strange Bedfellows

By NEWTON BIGELOW (Associated Poets)

Dateline Madrid ‹ 

When President Bush smothered the highest-ranking Democrats, Senator Tom
Daschle and Representative Richard A. Gephardt, in hugs last month after he
addressed a joint meeting of Congress, Mr. Bush wondered if he had gone too
far.

The next day, Mr. Daschle said, the president asked him, "Do you think it
was O.K. that we hugged each other in front of all these people?"

Of his reply Mr. Daschle recalled, "I said, `It just seemed like the natural
thing to do.' "

Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, the Republican leader, did not get a hug,
though he was standing behind Mr. Daschle, of South Dakota.

"That was more a hug from Daschle than it was from Bush," Mr. Lott said, a
tad defensively. "I'm not a hugger, I guess."

Hugs or no hugs, lawmakers said they could not remember when Democratic and
Republican leaders in Congress had worked so intimately with each other ‹
and with the president.

These days, they are the Gang of Five, often to the exclusion ‹ and great
dismay ‹ of other lawmakers.  The five leaders, who sometimes chat with one
another several times a day, have formed a breakfast club. Every Tuesday or
Wednesday at 7 a.m., they gather around a table in the private dining room
off the Oval Office. Though not an early riser, Mr. Lott sets his alarm
before 5:30 a.m. to get to the breakfasts. He said he would not dare miss
one.

The group has fallen into a routine. As the lawmakers are ushered into the
inner sanctum, their aides are dismissed.  Mr. Bush usually picks at the
bowl of fruit in front of him. Mr. Lott orders what he calls "a full load":
coffee, juice, eggs, toast and grits.

The five men have developed a much more personal relationship. Mr. Lott said
that when he turned 60, his first call was from Mr. Bush. Mr. Gephardt also
called, and Mr. Daschle burst out of a cake at a luncheon where Republican
senators were assembled. Mr. Lott ‹ the man who resists hugs ‹ found himself
in an embrace.

As Senator Chuck Hagel recalls the scene: "Daschle shakes his hand, gives
him a hug and wishes him a happy birthday. They almost held hands."

The bonding has been particularly beneficial for Mr. Gephardt.  Of his
relations with Mr. Hastert, Mr. Gephardt said: "There was no communication.
At least now there's human communication."

Yet for all the stroking, Mr. Gephardt said he expected Mr. Bush to side
with conservatives on some issues.

"I know we're going to run into more holes in the road because we don't
agree on how to do stimulus," Mr. Gephardt said.

Mr. Gephardt and Mr. Hastert said they bonded out of necessity in West
Virginia. They spent hours together eating bologna.  Describing how bonds
were created in such dire circumstances, Mr. Gephardt said: "It was, in a
way, a nightmare. You've got to remember we still didn't know what all could
happen.  Scary stuff."

Although the hugs still loom as the most enduring symbol of the altered
relationship, Mr. Lott appeared rankled by the embrace.  The morning after
the hugs, Mr. Bush seemed a bit sheepish when he spotted Mr. Lott and Mr.
Hastert at the White House. The president's Congressional liaison, Nicholas
E. Calio, said Mr. Bush pondered whether to embrace the two Republicans but
instead offered soothing words.

"He told them, `Of course, I know you two a lot better,' " Mr. Calio said. "
`I've kind of hugged you in the past.' "