During the mad holiday rush to cease reading all things election related, THE SCRAPBOOK worries that many may have missed the 6,446-word peek behind the Gore campaign curtain by Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz, who produces compelling fly-on-the-wall pieces when he isn't clucking about why the public distrusts the press (memo to public: We distrust you too).
Kurtz brokered a deal with spokesmen Chris Lehane and Mark Fabiani -- the Gore campaign's self-proclaimed "Masters of Disaster." Over the course of the campaign, the MDs delivered tidbits to Kurtz, but he couldn't report them till after the election. This gave Kurtz access to some great scenes in which Lehane and Fabiani show that they are more than on-message automatons; meanwhile, Lehane and Fabiani can salve their campaign wounds with the knowledge that their tortured genius didn't go unrecognized.
What results is a series of snapshots that prove the Gore soldiers were every bit as cynically opportunistic as their boss. Kurtz leads with Gore (who staffers took to calling the "Don Corleone of candidates") subtly ordering a hit on Florida secretary of state Katherine Harris. Gore later reversed himself, as was his custom, telling his staffers to refrain from "using inflammatory language," but not before Lehane had branded Harris a "hack" and a "lackey" -- a breed Lehane probably became well acquainted with on the Gore campaign staff.
Kurtz also serves up revealing campaign memos, such as the one where the MDs worried that "The Bush campaign long ago fastened on their mantra: Gore will say or do anything it takes to win. This description is effective because it encapsulates the core criticism of Gore in a single, easily repeated sentence." THE SCRAPBOOK would suggest it was effective because it was true, but give the Masters points for self-awareness.
The most entertaining passages, however, detail Lehane's and Fabiani's attempts to manipulate and collude with journalists. In order to upstage Bush's announcement of his prescription drug plan, Lehane tried to secure front-page New York Times coverage for his boss (unsuccessfully, it turns out) by showing up with Gore's book-length treatise on the subject at the Cleveland hotel door of Times reporter Katharine Seelye, where he called out, "Room service."
Lehane was pushing so hard, that Seelye put him on the phone with her editor, who yelled at Lehane to "leave the room and give her time to write the story."
Another instance has Fabiani frantically searching for a reporter who will agree to break the embargo of a RAND Corp. report critical of Bush's education record (he succeeded with Reuters). But the most over-the-top courtship saw Lehane driving the Times's Rick Berke to an office to screen a slowed-down version of Bush's allegedly "subliminal" Democ-RATS ad, as part of what a Fabiani memo called "Rat-Gate Roll-out." Lehane later dressed down Berke for writing about how Gore's "shading of the truth" had become problematic, perhaps feeling betrayed after serving as the Times-man's taxi service.
Lehane and Fabiani (whose final e-mail to Lehane reads "WE WUZ ROBBED") have now left the stage to contemplate their political futures. But THE SCRAPBOOK, for its part, wants to congratulate them for innovation in sucking up to the press. The Bush White House flacks had better realize that Lehane and Fabiani have raised the bar! We will be expecting, at the very least, a breakfast mint with our political press releases. No rides are necessary, thanks; but those expecting big favors should know that we like our room-service eggs over easy, on white toast.