Month: May 2005

Categories
Music Music Features

Alternative Classic Rock

As regular Flyer‘s contributor Stephen Deusner notes with some dismay this week, “post-punk nostalgia” seems to be the reigning style for would-be-hip guitar rock these days, with the sound and style of old new wave informing buzz bands from the prefab (the Bravery) to the just plain fab (Franz Ferdinand — like the Talking Heads gone shamelessly pop).

But, for whatever its worth, the two hands-down best guitar-rock records of 2005 so far evoke those pre-punk dinosaurs we now call classic rock.

Three-member Pacific Northwest punk band Sleater-Kinney are supposed to be the furthest thing imaginable from classic rock. Riot-girl grads back when they debuted in 1995, their spirited, amateurish music embodied punk’s DIY principle — the notion that anybody could do this. A decade later, the band’s leftist politics are still in good standing, but they’ve evolved in a manner that gives lie to the punk promise: Very few people can do what this band does.

Since adding powerhouse drummer Janet Weiss to guitarist-singers Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker for 1997’s whiplash Dig Me Out, Sleater-Kinney has evolved into arguably the most accomplished rock band on the planet. Cite U2 and Radiohead all you want, but there’s no more flawless or durable sound in all of rock music than the guitar-drum-voice of Brownstein, Weiss, and Tucker. Indeed, the virtuosity of those three sonic elements acting in concert evokes nothing so much as an earlier guitar-drum-voice nexus: Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, Jon Bonham, and Robert Plant.

Sleater-Kinney’s gender, lyrical concerns (political and relationship musings instead of leering blues tropes and fantasy frippery), and musical roots (punk rather than blues) are radically different from Led Zep, but their sonics are closer to those durable arena gods than anything in punk rock, right down to the way Tucker’s titanic pipes, much like Plant’s operatic banshee wail, inspire as many detractors as devotees.

Sleater-Kinney’s cultural moment (a decade ago, Greil Marcus was writing Time magazine profiles hailing them as America’s best band) may have passed, but the band is in such command of its sound that they are no more capable of making a bad record than Led Zep or the Rolling Stones were in the early ’70s. Their latest, The Woods, only underscores this classic-rock-style command.

Less blistering and delighted than Dig Me Out and without the precision and clarity of 2003’s diamond-hard and beautiful One Beat, The Woods is nevertheless a near sonic equal of those great records. It’s more rattled, more chaotic, more fuzzed-out. It’s where Brownstein (owner of the finest guitar-star dance moves since prime Prince) gets to flaunt her inner guitar god, unleashing a solo on “Wilderness” that would fit in on Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland and otherwise freaking out like she’s on stage at the Fillmore back in ’69, all while Tucker shreds vocal cords and Weiss pounds the skins like Keith Moon never went away. The centerpiece is the 11-minute “Let’s Call It Love,” which opens with huge distorted guitar riffs and Tucker exploring the blues-mama belting she first flashed on One Beat‘s closing “Sympathy.” At the five-minute mark, it takes off, launching into a furious jam that might be at home on a Bonnaroo stage if the sheer aggression of it wouldn’t frighten the gentle hippie kids.

But as good as The Woods is, the best guitar-rock record so far this year belongs to Brooklyn cult band the Hold Steady. The band’s 2004 debut, The Hold Steady Almost Killed Me, simultaneously topped Rolling Stone and Spin magazine lists of “best records you haven’t heard,” and deservedly so. But the new Separation Sunday is even better.

Where Almost Killed Me was very self-consciously a bar-band record, Separation Sunday tackles more expansive, more romantic classic-rock influences, most notably Bruce Springsteen, but also evoking such Boss-lite figures as Billy Joel, Meatloaf, Bob Seger, and Thin Lizzy. In concert with this increase in sonic ambition are greater thematic concerns.

Where the songs on Almost Killed Me were relatively self-contained, Separation Sunday is more akin to Fiestas and Fiascos, the swan song from singer Craig Finn and guitarist Tad Kubler’s previous band, Lifter Puller. Fiestas and Fiascos was a song cycle about the seedy goings-on at a rock bar called the Nice Nice. There were separate tracks on the CD, with separate song titles and everything, but functionally, it all ran together as one long, vicarious, cinematic musical experience.

Separation Sunday works the same way, but with more gravitas and emotional commitment. The album’s story (“a comeback story,” Finn calls it) centers on a Catholic schoolgirl named Hallelujah (Holly for short) who skips out on CCD class and falls in with shady characters, first diving into the rock scene, then the drug scene, getting involved with drug trafficking. Years later, she wakes up in a confessional and then stumbles back to her old church, crashing Easter mass, limping on broken heels with an offer to tell the congregation how a resurrection really feels.

Finn, perhaps the most distinctive singer and songwriter in pop music right now (like Tucker, he inspires detractors), tells the story in a series of lunging, literary rants, while the band spins classic-rock riffs and swooning piano licks around him, just trying to keep up. The story allows Finn and company to tap into the nearly religious, romantic fervor that teenagers and 20-somethings sometimes invest in music-related social culture, which has always been Finn’s great subject, even if the immediacy of his performances masks the intellectual distance from which he approaches it.

Categories
News The Fly-By

THERE FOR YOU

At the behest of the Senate’s two floor leaders, Memphis Democrat Jim Kyle and Blountsville Republican Ron Ramsey, members of the Senate Finance Committee recently put on their hooded robes, lit some skull-shaped candles, and held a secret meeting to determine how the state should spend a miniscule amount of taxpayer money totaling somewhere in the neighborhood of $25 billion. The clandestine event, which delayed the committee’s official public meeting by an hour, wasn’t, as it might seem, in violation of state Sunshine laws … because they somehow don’t apply to the legislature. Dresden senator Roy Herron told reporters that, money issues aside, it wasn’t really like an “official meeting” or anything, but more like a gathering of “friends.

Plante: How It Looks

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News The Fly-By

WOMAN TO WOMAN

Woman to Woman

While on the subject of manifest destiny as applied to the female body, Tennessee legislators have crafted quite a few anti-abortion bills. The most curious of all seeks to redefine the word “person” to mean “a live human being with life beginning when the ovum is fertilized by the male sperm.” May we assume that this forward-looking bill anticipates a time in the distant future when mutated lesbians will produce their own sperm? God help us all! — Chris Davis

Plante: How It Looks

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News The Fly-By

On the scene with Chris Davis at an UrbanArt Commission Workshop

On Saturday, May 14th, about 20 people met at the Cordova branch of the public library to attend an UrbanArt Commission workshop titled “When Bad Things Happen to Good Projects.” No, in spite of recent clashes with the City Council over everything from budgetary concerns to the personal aesthetics of certain council members, this wasn’t a meeting to announce that the UAC would be closing its doors. “Bad Things,” part of an ongoing series of UAC workshops, focused on Murphy’s Law — and how to beat it.

A pair of benches sculpted to resemble animals sit outside the Cordova library. Inside, there’s a giant wooden storybook surrounded by painted sculptures of children and animals. According to the creator of these artworks, Memphis sculptor Pam Cobb, there were days when she wondered if her designs would ever see the light of day.

Cobb kept her audience on the edge of their seats with stories about expensive tools that spent more time in the repair shop than in the studio. She made them gasp as she spun terrifying yarns about how her wood supplier went bankrupt in the middle of her project and about crippling tendinitis that set in without warning, making it nearly impossible for her to use a chainsaw. But as problems arose, solutions were discovered, and Cobb praised the UAC for their flexibility and willingness to get scrappy in order to see the project completed.

“Things go wrong,” says UAC executive director Carissa Hussong. “Schedules are always changing, and you’re always having to work with people who don’t care about your project. Lately, material prices have gone crazy, and it’s important for artists to know that they aren’t alone. That we can go to bat for them.” The question is: Will a bad thing happen to the UAC?

“I think it’s unwise to ever feel secure,” Hussong says concerning the future of public art, in light of recent budget cuts. “I do think the City Council strongly supports us and other projects that enhance quality of life.”

“When Bad Things Happen to Good Projects” is one in a series of workshops to help Memphis artists create public art. June’s workshop will focus on the types of relationships that can exist in public-art projects, including subcontracting and collaborations.

“A lot of artists have come [to these events] and realized that they really can get public-art projects, that there are resources, tools, and other artists available to them,” says Hussong. “But it’s a constant struggle to get out there and network and to find and educate new artists.”

Future workshops will address paperwork, community engagement, and creating public artworks outside the context of the UAC. Details about upcoming workshops can be found at UrbanArtCommission.org/calendar.html.

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Chism Chills

Tennessee’s most recent state senator — save for one — came to Nashville on Monday morning, just as he has for the last three months but left not long after he got there. This was Sidney Chism, the ex-Teamster leader and former Shelby County Democratic chairman, who officially became an ex-senator on Monday, after newly elected Kathryn Bowers, formerly state representative from District 97, was certified as his successor and sworn in.

Bowers had two swearing-in ceremonies, actually — an informal one performed by state Criminal Court Appeals judge J.C. McLin before a group of supporters at Miracle Temple Ministries in Memphis on Monday morning, and another — the one that counted — on the floor of the Senate in Nashville later in the day. Meanwhile, Chism cleaned out his desk, said his goodbyes, and was gone.

The changeover was unexpectedly abrupt for both Bowers and Chism, who had been informed late last week by Senate Democratic leader Jim Kyle of an ad hoc ruling by the state attorney general’s office. That ruling said that Bowers’ election in last week’s special District 33 general election would invalidate any further service by Chism.

That in turn caused an emergency meeting of the Shelby County Election Commission, which met early Monday morning to certify Bowers’ win and clear the way for her accession to the office.

Bowers, who polled two-thirds of the vote to defeat Republican Mary Ann McNeil and two independents, had indicated she wanted to stay in the House long enough to finish up some bills she had under way. The attorney general’s ruling put the quietus on that plan.

Bowers still intends to create a precedent by becoming a Senate sponsor of record for two bills that have already passed the House under her sponsorship. But there is some protocol to go through first. “I have to talk to the senators to work that out,” she said Tuesday morning as she prepared for her first full day on the job.

Chism, meanwhile, was back in Memphis recollecting. “I considered my time up there fruitful,” said the man who won a narrow vote on the County Commission to fill in for the departed Roscoe Dixon, now an aide to county mayor A C Wharton.

It was no secret that certain members of the Shelby County delegation — including Bowers, state House speaker Lois DeBerry, and state senator Steve Cohen — had not been happy with Chism’s appointment by the commission and had lobbied against him. Mainly, this had to do with Democratic Party factionalism and Chism’s role as a power broker.

Chism, though, claims to have no hard feelings — not even toward Cohen, who recently sponsored a well-publicized bill to deny unelected interim members like Chism access to legislative pension and insurance benefits.

That bill, which would apply only to legislators appointed in the future, cleared the Senate but so far is bottled up in the House. Though members of the General Assembly have tended to be circumspect in discussing the bill, media focus has been on Chism, whose perks include what amounts to a substantial lifetime contribution by the taxpayers to defer the cost of his state insurance plan.

The well-to-do Chism has said he didn’t seek such benefits and hadn’t known of them beforehand but feels entitled to them now. But he’s willing to grant bona fides on the part of Cohen and other critics.

“Steve’s one of the most astute members of the Senate, and he’s right on most of the issues,” Chism said Tuesday, adding, however: “He’s got no reverse switch on his transmission. He doesn’t know when to back up once he gets going on something, even when it’s obvious he’s wrong.”

Chism also had kind words for DeBerry, who, he said, had done her best to get him up to snuff on pending legislation. “The fact is, I didn’t have any problems with any of them,” Chism said, offering special praise for Kyle’s Senate leadership and gratitude for what he said was the “helpful” attitude of members on the other side of the aisle, mentioning Senator Curtis Person of East Memphis, in particular.

“What I discovered was that Republicans are just people with a different philosophy. Other than that, they’re trying to do the right thing too,” Chism said.

As for the currently beleaguered Senator John Ford, Chism said, “John just used the system to his advantage, but not improperly under the rules. I don’t think he did anything wrong to merit the kind of scrutiny he’s getting now, and I don’t know of another politician up there as astute as he is or as public-spirited.”

Chism said he was astounded at the nature of the typical legislator’s workload. “Most of them work all day and well into the night, on the floor, in committees, and at various affairs they have to go to. They don’t pay those folks enough!”

Chism’s next move? He intends to run for the County Commission seat now held by Cleo Kirk — one that, incidentally, draws more pay ($30,000) than does a state senator ($16,500 plus expenses), whether elected or appointed.

Kirk, who is a party to a suit seeing to overturn current term-limits restrictions, confirmed last week that he did not intend to run again in 2006, regardless of the eventual ruling by Chancellor Tene Alissandratos.

• Sullivan gets go-ahead: Cohen, incidentally, was among the senators who joined in an amendment to a Senate bill that cleared the way for Shelby County election commissioner Maura Black Sullivan‘s reappointment. The main import of that bill — passed two weeks ago, largely in reaction to the ever-mounting saga of state senator John Ford — was to prevent members from using their business address, as Ford had done, to fulfill residency requirements.

The amendment creates an exemption for school system employees in a state law that bars most government employees from serving on election commissions.

Citing that law, Cohen had objected last month to Sullivan’s then-pending reappointment by the state Election Commission and secured a state attorney general’s ruling backing his interpretation. •

ITICS by J

Broken Harmony

Only last Saturday, the presidents of Shelby County’s two school boards — Wanda Halbert of the city and David Pickler of Shelby County — appeared to be singing from the same hymnbook. In a joint appearance before the Dutch Treat Luncheon at the Piccadilly restaurant Saturday, each endorsed the concept of special school districts contained in a bill which seemed on its way to passage in the Tennessee General Assembly.

That bill, by state senator Mark Norris of Collierville, passed the state Senate by a 31-0 vote and was on its way to apparent approval this week in the state House, where it was sponsored by Representative Paul Stanley. Pickler predicted as much Saturday, and Halbert, who had arrived late for the luncheon meeting, seemed to concur.

But that, Halbert said on Monday, was before she learned that the bill evidently contained a provision freezing the current boundaries of the two school districts. “That would be unacceptable to me and my board,” she averred.

Pickler, reached later for comment, insisted that the bill did no such thing, leaving the boundary lines to be worked out by the two school boards acting in concert. “She evidently got a misleading impression from the article on Sunday,” Pickler said, referring to a Commercial Appeal account of the pending legislation. “I think she’s also gotten some flak from members of her board.”

Halbert said that neither she nor the Memphis school board would be likely to support special school districts unless the boundary matter was settled to their satisfaction and other provisions favored by the Memphis board were accepted.

“I didn’t even know that the bill had already passed the Senate,” she said.

“I think we’re still on track, and she’ll realize that we are once she understands what the bill really does,” Pickler said.

But that may be overly optimistic. The bill, which among other things would endow both the city and county districts with limited taxing power, became the focus of discussion and opposition during Monday night’s regular meeting of the Memphis school board.

Attorney Percy Harvey, who lobbies the legislature for the board, told members he would attempt — with some assurance of success — to block the special-district bill during a meeting of a House education subcommittee scheduled to consider it on Tuesday. Harvey noted that representatives of both systems had indeed, as Pickler had indicated, come near to agreeing on a joint plan. But that accord, which Halbert said had involved considerable “give-and-take” by both districts, had come unhinged.

Both districts have been seeking an accommodation of some sort to deal with vexing problems of school funding, capital construction, and local autonomy.

Harvey stated the obvious during Monday night’s board meeting: “There is no agreement at this point between the two boards.” Nor, he said, would either the legislature or Shelby County mayor A C Wharton be likely to sign off on a plan without such an agreement. “It just will not happen.” •

ACKSON BAKER

Categories
Music Music Features

Sound Advice

Rock-and-roll guitar heroes are supposed to be confident showmen, larger-than-life figures. Their bravado makes plain why the guitar is so often taken as a phallic symbol. But Built To Spill‘s Doug Martsch is a different kind of guitar hero: a guitar hero for people who don’t trust traditional guitar heroes. His obsessive playing, sometimes elegantly epic, sometimes spastic and unhinged, feels more feminine, more exploratory than assertive. His winsome voice (which contrasts with his Pacific Northwest lumberjack looks) and wonder-filled songwriting add to the package. If you want a visual equivalent for the typical Built To Spill song, think of the opening shot of the Jodie Foster/Carl Sagan sci-fi flick Contact, where the entire universe is revealed to be a gleam in a little girl’s eye. Like that shot, Martsch’s music threatens maudlin but usually finds magic.

The band’s first album (Martsch essentially is Built To Spill), 1993’s Ultimate Alternative Wavers, was a lovably disjointed slab of post-punk prog, with Velvet Underground homages and a theme song (“Built To Spill,” natch) that set a tone simultaneously sad-sack and chin-up (“This is how you’ll always feel/It’s no big deal”).

Next was 1994’s distinct pure-pop gem, There’s Nothing Wrong With Love, an anomaly in the band’s catalog in that the guitar work was overshadowed by the songcraft, but it was perhaps the most underrecognized rock record of the decade. Mixing his sugar-rush guitars with some of the finest cello work to ever grace a pop record, Martsch produced an unforgettable batch of songs, touching on such topics as elementary school eroticism (“Seven-up, I touched her thumb, and she knew it was me”), stargazing (“Big Dipper”), wistful childhood memories (“My mom’s good/She got me out of Twin Falls, Idaho/Before I got too old/You know how that goes”), knowing slacker humor (“Jack thought it twice and thought that that had made it true/Some brains just work that way/That’s what chemicals can do”), and the perspective of his own unborn son (“Ain’t it strange that I can dream when there’s nothing I have ever seen?”).

But Built To Spill’s third album, 1997’s Perfect From Now On (which also marked the beginning of one of the longest and oddest indie-band/major-label partnerships ever), set the pattern the band has locked into since. The lyrics, though still lovely, were somewhat less essential, but the music was anything but. It’s a guitar-rock album of epic grandeur, like an indie-rock answer to Neil Young’s Ragged Glory or a shy kid’s alternative to Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation or My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless. Since then, the band has been playing with that formula: Keep It Like a Secret a little harder-edged, Ancient Melodies of the Future more modest. Live captured the arena-rock-for-small-clubs dynamic, with a take on Young’s “Cortez the Killer.”

It’s somewhat surprising that the band is still around, but they have a new album due out later this fall, and Martsch is one of those singular talents worth a special trip. The first time I saw him was at a tiny Minneapolis dive bar in 1994, and it still ranks as an all-time personal concert highlight. Check out Built To Spill at Young Avenue Deli Monday, May 23rd.

Local indie-rockers Snowglobe play the Hi-Tone Café Saturday, May 21st, which ordinarily might not be so notable, but this particular show will mark the final performance with co-founder Brad Postlethwaite, who recently quit the band. Postlethwaite is apparently focusing on graduate school aspirations but says he’ll continue recording solo and working with Makeshift, the local indie label he helped found and which has become a major force on the local rock scene. Snowglobe will be joined by Glossary and May Gray for this farewell gig.

Though I doubt Congress has approved it, this week is apparently Hip-Hop Appreciation Week, and the city’s underground hip-hop scene isn’t letting the week pass without proper observance. There will be a panel discussion — “Memphis Hip-Hop: Originality or Conformity?” — at Precious Cargo coffee house Thursday, May 19th, a “Hopped Out” happy-hour event at the Center for Southern Folklore Friday, May 20th, and then some serious music Saturday, May 21st: first, an MC and DJ battle at Tower Records at noon and then a group hip-hop show being dubbed “Revenge of the Lyrisith” that night at Precious Cargo featuring the Iron Mic Coalition, Poisonous Dialect, and others.

—

Categories
News The Fly-By

Cheat Sheet

1. The new pope, Benedict XVI, announces he will put his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, on the “fast track” (il ferrari testarosa) to sainthood. Meanwhile, it’s been — what? — almost 30 years, and we’re still waiting on a decision about Elvis. It hardly seems fair.

2. Charges of official misconduct against Shep Wilbun are postponed until November and will likely be dropped. The former Juvenile Court clerk and two other defendants had been accused of using county funds to bribe a woman who had allegedly been assaulted by one of Wilbun’s associates, and — oh, it’s just too complicated. No wonder they’re putting it off.

3. After an investigation, police announce there is no proof that the “Sam Cooper Sniper” ever existed. And what about all those motorists who reported their cars had been hit by gunfire in that area? Apparently just the random, aimless shootings that take place all over town every day in Memphis. Hmmm, maybe it’s time to “up-armor” (as they say in Iraq) the old Honda Accord.

4. The University of Memphis law school may lose its accreditation because the building is a leaky, cramped dump. Oh, and it’s ugly too. Options include renovating the existing structure or moving into the old Custom House downtown at Front and Madison. We favor the latter, mainly because it’s such a cool building.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

FOOD NEWS

Last week, Andy Grooms celebrated the fifth anniversary of his liquor store, the Corkscrew, by opening Alice’s Urban Market next door.

Grooms took over the space that once housed Fratelli’s at 513 S. Front about a year ago. He envisioned a deli that would not only serve the professionals downtown during the day but would also give the growing residential community a casual spot to eat at night or grab a few groceries.

Plus, he says, “I want to become the grilled-cheese king.” Among the many sandwiches Alice’s serves, the grilled cheese can be ordered every way imaginable. For example, the “drunken goat” is made with Wensleydale Cheddar, caramelized onions, and bacon bits on fresh bread.

Amelia Carkuff of Carkuff Interiors helped Grooms remodel the space. She created a small market section for fresh veggies, milk, sushi, and other specialty items, as well as a small café. John Pearson, a local chef who has worked at many Memphis restaurants and most recently the Glass Onion, helped Grooms create the lunch and dinner menu.

“I think John’s passion is fine dining, so I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep him, but he’s helping me create recipes for my slaws and salads,” says Grooms.

Pearson and Grooms also want to create meals-to-go. Some dinner entrées will include rotisserie Cornish game hen, duck, and free-range chicken and take-and-bake pizza made fresh to order on a self-rising sourdough crust. The dough for the pizza and a number of specialty breads are baked daily by another friend, Sheri McKelvie, who formerly worked at City Bread Co. McKelvie joined Grooms and created her own wholesale bread company, Alice’s Artisan.

Grooms plans to pair his businesses for wine tastings a couple times a month. “For the first time in Memphis, there’s wine, bread, and cheese — the trinity — all in one place,” he says.

Alice’s will also serve breakfast and will be open 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday.

Alice’s Urban Market, 513 S. Main (575-9979).

Another downtown eatery, Alcenia’s, may have been open since 1996, but it looks like a whole new restaurant. With owner BJ Chester-Tamayo in charge, however, it still feels like home. Customers who walk in the door don’t just get some Southern comfort food. They also get a big hug.

“Food is half the process. The other half is the feeling they get when they eat here,” Chester-Tamayo says.

To that end, Alcenia’s has a new logo, new menus, and new décor designed to bring cheer.

“I’ve always loved color,” says Chester-Tamayo. “I chose colors to make people feel better.”

Purple, orange, yellow, and green adorn tablecloths, placemats, uniforms, hand-painted chairs, and the menu. Many of the menu choices are the same — recipes she learned from her mother while growing up in Meridian, Mississippi.

Chester-Tamayo has also added some other favorites from her youth. “We’re getting ready to do fried sweet potatoes as an appetizer,” she says. “My mom used to do them with pork chops.”

The food isn’t the only way she pays homage to her mother. She’s planning to unveil a portrait of her mother and granddaughter soon.

Alcenia’s, 317 N. Main (523-0200)

There’s a new leader at the helm of the Memphis Restaurant Association. After 10 years on the MRA board of directors and four as the president, Christian Georgi, owner of East End Grill restaurants, resigned. Vice president of the MRA, Jeffery Dunham, chef and co-owner of the Grove Grill, will succeed Georgi.

“I am the first chef to be installed in this position,” Durham says. “Most of the other presidents have come from the front of the house or ownership side of the restaurant business. I want to refocus on some different things, specifically membership. I want to make our meetings more interesting to draw more members and to continue to do the things that MRA does, which is acting as a liaison to city, county, and state government and [supporting] local charities.”

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Situations and Circumstances

Editor’s note: Last week, more than 30,000 people — including Vice President Cheney, first lady Laura Bush, and members of Congress — were evacuated from their offices or homes in Washington, D.C., due to a perceived threat from a nearby small plane. President Bush, who was biking in Maryland, was not notified until the threat passed. Members of the White House press corps found this puzzling.

What follows are excerpts from press secretary Scott McClellan’s briefing the next day. Make of it what you will. — Bruce VanWyngarden

Question: Scott, yesterday the White House was on red alert, was evacuated. The first lady and Nancy Reagan were taken to a secure location. The vice president was evacuated from the grounds. The Capitol building was evacuated. The continuity-of-government plan was initiated. And yet the president wasn’t told of yesterday’s events until after he finished his bike ride, about 36 minutes after the all-clear had been sent. Is he satisfied with the fact that he wasn’t notified about this?

McClellan: Yes. I think you just brought up a very good point — the protocols that were in place after September 11th were followed. The president was never considered to be in danger because he was at an off-site location. The president has a tremendous amount of trust in his Secret Service detail.

The fact that the president wasn’t in danger is one aspect of this, but he’s also the commander in chief. There was a military operation under way. Shouldn’t the commander in chief have been notified of what was going on?

The protocols that we put in place after September 11th were being followed. They did not require presidential authority for this situation. I think you have to look at each situation and the circumstances surrounding the situation. And that’s what officials here at the White House were doing.

Even on a personal level, did nobody think [about] calling the president to say, “By the way, your wife has been evacuated from the White House; we just want to let you know everything is okay”?

Actually, all the protocols were followed and people were … officials that you point out were taken to secure locations or evacuated, in some cases. I think, again, you have to look at the circumstances surrounding the situation, and it depends on the situation and the circumstance.

Nobody thought to say, “By the way, this is going on, but it’s all under control”?

I think it depends on each situation and the circumstances surrounding the situation when you’re making those decisions.

Isn’t there a bit of an appearance problem, notwithstanding the president’s safety was not in question, protocols were followed? Has the president indicated that even if everything was followed that he would prefer to be notified, that if the choice is, tell the commander in chief or let him continue to exercise — that he would prefer to be informed?

Again, it depends on the situation and the circumstances. And you have to take all that into account, and I think that’s what people were doing here at the White House, as well as those people who were with the president.

I think there’s a disconnect here because, I mean, yesterday you had more than 30,000 people who were evacuated, you had millions of people who were watching this on television, and there was a sense at some point … a sense of fear. Was this not a moment for the president to exercise some leadership, some guidance during that period of time?

The president did lead, and the president did that after September 11th, when we put the protocols in place to make sure that situations like this were addressed before it was too late. And that was the case in this situation.

Might there be something wrong with protocols that render the president unnecessary when the alarm is going off at his house?

That’s not at all what occurred. And I would disagree strongly with the way you characterize it for the reasons I stated earlier. This was a situation where the president was in an off-site location. He was not in danger, a situation where protocols have been put in place to address the situation. The protocols were followed.

And those protocols are okay with the president, despite the fact that his wife was in a situation where she might have been endangered?

She was taken to a secure location, as were some other officials.

And wouldn’t he want to know about that as it was happening?

He was briefed about the situation.

After it happened.

He was briefed about the situation. And I think that he wants to make sure that the protocols that are in place are followed. The protocols that were in place were followed.

Scott, if there is a possibility that a plane may have to be shot down over Washington, doesn’t the president want to be involved in that type of decision?

Well, I think, again, it depends on the circumstances in the situation. You have to look at each individual situation and the circumstances surrounding that situation. There are protocols.

Doesn’t the president want to be involved in what could be a decision to shoot down a plane over Washington?

I was just getting ready to address exactly what you’re bringing up. The protocols that were put in place after September 11th include protocols for that as well. And there are protocols there. They’re classified. But they do not require presidential authority.

Wouldn’t he want to be involved?

It depends on the circumstances and it depends on the situation.

Wasn’t there a possibility that a plane headed for the White House, that this was the leading edge of some broader attack? Isn’t the president concerned that maybe he should have been alerted to the fact that this could have been the beginning of a general attack?

That was not the case, and I think the Department of Defense yesterday indicated that they didn’t sense any hostile intent on the part of the plane, so again …

How did they know this plane wasn’t laden with WMD or some other type of weapons like that? Did they get reassurances from the pilot? Or how did they know that?

Well, again … the protocols were followed. This situation turned out to be an accident. The Department of Defense pointed out yesterday that they didn’t sense any hostile intent on the part of the plane. There were fighter jets scrambled. There was a Blackhawk helicopter scrambled as well, to get in contact with the plane.

So if it was assessed that there was no hostile intent on the part of this aircraft, can you tell us why 35,000 people were told to run for their lives?

Because of the protocols that are in place. We want to make sure that the people in the area of the threat are protected. We live in a very different world than we did before September 11th, and the president is going to do everything in his power to make sure we are protecting the American people and to make sure that the people in areas that could be high-risk areas are protected as well.

Right, but there seem to be so many disconnects here. You’ve got a plane that was assessed as not being a threat; you’ve got 35,000 people evacuated; you’ve got a person who you claim is a hands-on commander in chief who is left to go ride his bicycle through the rural wildlands of Maryland while his wife is in some secure location somewhere. It’s just not adding up.

I disagree, and let me tell you why: You have highly skilled professionals who are involved in situations like this, in a variety of different fronts, from our Homeland Security officials to our National Security Council officials to our Secret Service officials and to others and to local officials, and they work very closely together. The protocols that were put in place were followed, and I think they were followed well.

Q

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Opinion Viewpoint

Reprising Capra

Where’s Frank Capra when you need him?

Pity he is no longer around, because the great Hollywood director is just the sort of guy congressional Democrats need at the moment.

He was the man, after all, who gave us Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, in which Jimmy Stewart played Jefferson Smith, the senator who held the floor for nearly 24 (movie) hours, losing his consciousness but never his audience and, in the process, introducing Americans to a wonderful parliamentary procedure: the filibuster. It should take a bow.

Capra knew he was making a movie about both a man and, of all things, a parliamentary maneuver. He came to Washington to do his research and soon looked up Jim Preston, the longtime superintendent of the Senate press galleries, who had become assistant administrator of the National Archives. The man knew everything.

“They tell me that you’ve kept track of everything the Senate has done for the past several decades,” Capra said, according to a contemporary newspaper account. Preston demurred. Not everything, he said, just the interesting things and he pointed to a shelf of bound notebooks. “My five-foot diary,” he said. “One of these books isn’t, by any chance, called Filibusters I Have Known, is it?” Capra asked.

“Whereupon it developed that Preston was an admirer of filibusters and filibustering,” the newspaper recorded. Capra put Preston on the payroll.

Now, of course, the filibuster is being slowly marched to the procedural gallows. Senate Republicans are threatening to do away with this hallowed senatorial procedure so that seven of George Bush’s judicial appointments can be confirmed.

They are the Odious Seven, men and women of such extreme views on matters such as abortion or the role of government that they are deemed unworthy by the Democrats to be elevated to the federal bench.

So the Democrats, being only 44 of the Senate’s 100 members, have threatened to filibuster each one. The Republicans have responded by saying they will do away with the filibuster entirely for judicial nominations. This is called “the nuclear option” a bit of mutually assured destruction for American politics.

The president claims he should have the judges he wants because he won the last election. He has a mandate, he alleges, but if so, it is an insubstantial one a bit more than 2 percent of the popular vote. Bush’s mandate is, like weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, a figment of his imagination.

I concede that I was not always so kindly disposed toward the filibuster. There was a time when it was used to thwart civil rights legislation and other legislative acts of basic decency. Now, though, it is being brandished to block a handful of prospective judges from narrowing those hard-earned rights.

In some cases, the nominees have views so extreme they suggest early trauma to the head. One of the nominees, Priscilla Owen of Texas, issued opinions that even Alberto Gonzales, Bush’s own attorney general but once her colleague on the Texas Supreme Court, faulted as “an unconscionable act of judicial activism.”

The sensible people of Washington are urging both sides to compromise especially the Democrats. Outnumbered and, at this point, outmaneuvered, they are told they are fighting for a lost cause. No doubt, Senate Democrats are the underdogs, their odds long indeed. In a Capra movie, they would not lose but if they do, then so do we all.

Richard Cohen is a member of the Washington Post Writers Group.