A truism about the Washington press corps is the Barone Rule, enunciated in this magazine by columnist Michael Barone. It says the press isn't reliably pro-Democrat, but can be counted on to be anti-Republican. Once in a blue moon, however, there's an exception, and last week House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt and his sidekick Patrick Kennedy, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, got caught in one. The DCCC filed a racketeering lawsuit against House Republican Whip Tom DeLay for allegedly leaning too hard on potential donors. No doubt Kennedy, who doesn't brush his hair without Gephardt's approval, and Gephardt himself expected the media to fall in line and salute. After all, DeLay is a favorite whipping boy of the press.
But the preposterous lawsuit touched off a backlash instead. The Washington Post condemned it. The Hill called it absurd. USA Today was skeptical. The New York Times ran a piece by Paul Begala, a political adviser to President Clinton, labeling the lawsuit "wrong ethically, legally and politically." On ABC's This Week, George Stephanopoulos, who worked for Gephardt before becoming a Clinton aide, said it was "stupid politics and sad civics." Members of Congress told reporters they heard nothing but criticism of the suit on the House floor, most of it aimed at Gephardt.
After all, Gephardt is not only Kennedy's boss but the guy who told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in April that if he becomes speaker he'll embrace bipartisanship, end "the cycle of near violence," and "restore a sense of civility." Who'd have dreamed that a reporter -- in this case Morton Kondracke of Roll Call -- would actually throw these quotes back in Gephardt's face? Not Gephardt or Kennedy, that's for sure.