The inauguration madness

Editor’s note: At least once a month, David Olive (see his bio below) will provide readers of The City Wire a glimpse into the business of the Beltway, the wackiness of Washington and/or the grinding gears of government. It will be a perspective found only at The City Wire. Enjoy.

As Washington wakes up to a new year with a new Congress and the anticipation of a new Obama Administration, the activity behind the scenes is increasing from a fever pitch to outright frenetic activity. While the news reports are focused on whose names will be on political slots, or whether Illinois will actually have a person as its junior Senator before the inauguration ceremonies on the 20th, the hallways offices on Capitol Hill are buzzing with activity related to the anticipated Stimulus package.

Political leaders can use flowery rhetoric to proclaim that a multi-billion dollar spending package will not contain any “pork” but the reality is that almost any infrastructure program can be labeled “pork” by someone who thinks their (generally rejected) project should have been given the money rather than the “pork” project selected. Stay tuned for developments because political battle lines are being drawn by Blue-Dog (conservative) Democrats, Republican budget hawks, Union (job preservation) leaders and Industry chieftains (who are looking to mitigate financial risk and bad decision making in prior years by getting the taxpayers to protect them.).

To suggest that it is an interesting time is an understatement — and the behind-the-scenes jockeying is a mixture of old-fashioned arm twisting and new-fangled e-communications to Hill staffers and potential Obama administration appointees. Already we have seen the Obama team backtrack on some of their post-election hopes — House Democrats are not yet ready to hand Obama a Stimulus package by the date of his swearing in next Tuesday. Suggestions among some insiders are that a mid-February completion date may also be optimistic.

Governors, county officials and mayors have been asked, and have submitted, a list of “ready to go” projects that they claim could put people to work and stimulate the economy. What has NOT been discussed, however, is how many of these projects have cleared all of the environmental processes that are required to be resolved before the first shovel of dirt can be unearthed. If the Environmental Assessments (EAs as they are known) have not been completed, it does not matter how much money is authorized and appropriated by Congress, the environmental regs will keep stimulus money from being spent quickly, unless Obama is willing to waive their application — something that will surely upset a small, but significant base of his supporters. I don’t know about the list that was submitted by Arkansas officials, but no one in the press seems to have looked at this angle — yet.

What is clear, however, is that the Stimulus package is being directed from the Speaker Pelosi’s office in the House and the Majority Leader’s (Harry Reid) office in the Senate. Traditional committee chairmen are NOT being asked to participate, except in very limited areas — and most are none too happy with being excluded. While unhappy, they are not yet ready to revolt against their leadership so the public comments have been muted, but behind-the-scenes carping has been frequent and animated, even for closed-door "gripe sessions."

On another subject, the withdrawal of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as the Commerce Secretary nominee was not a surprise to many former Hill staffers. Richardson, at one time, was believed to be a rather “randy” Member of Congress. Whether some of these issues would have come out during Senate confirmation hearings is not clear, but the potential was there and Washington insiders were hoping that his confirmation hearing would produce some fireworks rather than a love fest — oops, sorry for the bad pun.

Confirmation hearings for other Obama administration nominees will begin later this week. Most are expected to be routine in nature (including that of Hillary Clinton), other than the hearing for Eric Holder, who has been picked to be the next Attorney General. Expectations are that Holder will be questioned extensively about his work in the Clinton
Administration and, in particular, about his work on the pardon application of former international financier Mark Rich — something that came on Mr. Clinton’s final day in office. No such last day pardons are expected by the departing President George W. Bush.

Finally, with the Inauguration now just one week away, the get-rich-quick schemes of those Washington DC area residents who hoped to rent out their houses to Capitol visitors seems to have evaporated. Most offers are going unanswered. Many area residents are still planning to leave town — the Caribbean is attracting quite a bit of attention.

January 20th crowd estimates, initially in the 4 million range, have been downgraded substantially. Last week the Secret Service was being blamed for the decision to shut down all Virginia bridge crossings into D.C. by vehicle traffic (other than approved charter busses.) But insiders say that this was not a Secret Service decision. Rather, officials from other law enforcement agencies seem to be using the heightened security
to make it difficult for local residents to go to work, and for visitors to gain a negative image of Washington. Whether this is intentional or not is a question being discussed at Capitol Hill watering holes and at breakfast and lunch tables.

As for me, the warnings worked. I’m going to watch the festivities on TV. It is a lot warmer, the pictures are better than being there in person, it is a lot warmer, the bathrooms are a lot cleaner and, if the weather reports are correct — it is a whole lot warmer (or have I mentioned that already?).

David Olive is the founder of Catalyst Partners, LLC (formerly Olive Edwards & Cooper) a Washington D.C.-based government relations and public affairs firm. He previously served as chief of staff for then-U.S. Rep. Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark., in the 106th Congress. Olive was director of the Donrey Media Group’s legal division. In July, 2005, The Hill newspaper named Olive one of the top six Homeland Security lobbyists in Washington D.C. He also serves as the moderator of the Washington Homeland Security Roundtable Inc. a non-profit organization comprised of private sector companies that seek to learn about policy, procedures and procurements affecting the federal homeland security marketplace.