IMPEACH BUSH

[Advice to incoming GOP political appointees and nominees from former Treasury official Bruce Bartlett, January 1, 2001. Published in the neocon Weekly Standard. No comment needed:]

"WASHINGTON will soon be inundated with a fresh wave of political appointees. This being the first Democratic to Republican transition in 20 years, many of the new people will find themselves in the Washington pressure cooker for the first time. And quite a few are leaving corporate America with its well-established rules for a city that operates under a completely different set. How they cope will be important to the success of George W. Bush . . .

Navigating these waters is tough enough for experienced pros. For newcomers, it is not just like being dumped into the deep end of a pool without knowing how to swim, it is like being dropped into the middle of the Pacific Ocean. . .

Getting used to dealing with the press is especially tricky for newcomers. My best advice is never to say anything "on the record" -- that means reporters can quote you directly and mention you by name. Always insist that your comments are "off the record," meaning that you can be quoted, but not identified. Better still is to stay "on background," which means that you cannot be quoted or cited in any way by a reporter. Of course, reporters are bound only by their honor to uphold such commitments. If they decide to blow your cover, you have no recourse whatsoever.

Keep in mind that the press is the enemy of all administrations, because its primary goal is to know your secrets. Most reporters are liberal Democrats, but this is small comfort to Democratic administrations -- and also not an insurmountable obstacle for Republicans. Ultimately, all administrations have one critical advantage and that is a monopoly on information. How, where, when, and to whom an administration chooses to impart that information can make or break careers in the media. With skill, any administration can play the press like a violin.

A note on "leaking": All administrations hate leaks, which are unauthorized information given to the press. In practice, however, leaks seldom do any real harm. The main objection to them is that higher-ups in the chain of command lose the opportunity to divulge the information themselves to their favored reporters, who often repay such generosity with "puff pieces" in their papers.

Leaks can also be a very powerful way to get an administration's story through a hostile media. Thought of as exclusive news items, leaks can force reporters to run with stories they would never publish if sent out as a press release. Especially if the information comes to them close to a deadline, they have little choice but to run the item with your "spin" on it. They don't have time to check it and cannot afford to risk losing the story to a competitor. During the Reagan years, master leakers like James Baker and David Gergen were notorious for getting good press in liberal papers through the skillful use of this method.

One way to stay on the good side of the press is simply to be successful. Reporters respect power, and they have an infallible sense of who's got it and who doesn't. The dirty secret, however, is that no one has real power. Power in Washington largely consists in the appearance of power. In other words, those who are thought to have power actually have it. That is why being "out of the loop" is the worst thing that can happen to anyone in Washington. It means they have no power at all.

If all this sounds silly, it is. But it is also the way the world works. Those who learn the rules fast can prosper quickly. Those who fail had best get out of town as soon as possible, while their reputations are intact. The press are like hyenas. They can smell blood from far away and quickly pounce on and devour the weak. It is not just because it's their job -- they do it for fun. That is why they joined the Washington press corps in the first place.

So, good luck to all the newcomers. You are going to need it. Most of you won't be around very long -- you'll stay just long enough to get a line on your resume and then move on to greener pastures. The rest will either be successful and join the permanent Washington establishment, or be run out of town, an embarrassment to everyone who ever knew them. Sadly, over the last quarter century, there seem to be fewer of the former and more of the latter."

[Note: In 2005, Bartlett was fired from the think tank he worked for because of his criticisms of George W. Bush. He has since published the book Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy (2006).]