The Next Hurrah: Adjunct Vice Presidential Press Secretary Gets Testy

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February 18, 2006

Adjunct Vice Presidential Press Secretary Gets Testy

by emptywheel

I'm working on a much more comprehensive post about the grande dame of Republican scandal, Anne Armstrong. But in the meantime, I see that most of the people who do play by play on this kind of thing are fighting the cruel Blogger gods. And I didn't want the testiness of said grande dame and her daughter, grande-dame-in-training Katharine Armstrong, to escape notice.

You see, it appears the Adjunct Vice Presidential Press Secretary doesn't realize that press secretaries are supposed to, well, you know, talk to the press. When the Houston Chronicle's James Pinkerton tried to get Katharine Armstrong to comment for a Friday 8:46 PM article, she didn't return his calls.

Katharine Armstrong did not return repeated calls.

Which is really a problem, given that the grande dame of Republican scandal referred Pinkerton to her daughter, the grande-dame-in-training ... maintaining all the while that there was no cover-up going on.

Anne Armstrong, widow of longtime ranch owner Tobin Armstrong, said ranch employees who guided Cheney's hunting party will not make any comments.

"I promise you there is no cover-up," said Anne Armstrong, who referred questions to her daughter in Austin.

The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

Anyway, we know that Katharine is fairly picky about which journalists she speaks with. After all, on Sunday, it wasn't just that she wanted to speak exclusively to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. She wanted to speak to Jaime Powell, because as Jaime's colleague Kathryn Garcia explained,

From what I understand, Catherine Armstrong, the Armstrong family, and “The Corpus Christi Caller Times” have a very close relationship. We‘ve been reporting over their family for, you know, many decades now. And Catherine Armstrong and one of our amazing reporters that we have here, Jamie Powell, and her have a very close personal relationship as well.

So maybe Katharine Armstrong simply didn't return calls because she doesn't like James Pinkerton. Because, by Saturday morning at 2:08 AM, Pinkerton and his colleague Janet Elliott had a different version of Pinkerton's story, one that made no mention of the alcohol or the doctor's report but did include a quote from Katharine Armstrong. Only the grande-dame-in-training doesn't sound too happy about her role as Adjunct Press Secretary anymore.

Katharine Armstrong, the ranch's co-owner who witnessed the shooting, admonished the news media for how it has handled the incident.

"I'm so upset with the press corps — the whole group needs a sound thrashing," Armstrong said. "These are people of the highest integrity — and the media put them through a meat grinder."

Now, Texas was the very last of all 50 states that I ever visited, so I'm sure my Texan is less than fluent. But I'm pretty good with foreign languages so I'm going to guess that this phrase, in plain English, means something like, "Don't you understand we are the Armstrong family, direct descendants of a Texas Ranger and a real hero? Don't you understand that we--and our guests--are good people? How dare you, you rabble, questioning the transparent lies I told you?"

Gosh, if grande-dame-in-training wants to give the press corps a sound thrashing, I wonder what punishment she has in store for bloggers?

February 18, 2006 at 11:02 in Bush/Republican Scandals, Contributor--emptywheel | Permalink

Comments

ew-
I think we'll never know the details of the Whittington shooting, but it sure has opened up a window into cheney's world. I've long argued that OVP and neocon treachery of the Halliburton corporate variety is preparatory looting for a post-Republic world. If this world is not successfully imperial (clearly it cannot be) it will be feudal - based on rent and tribute instead of taxes, warlords, private security forces and armies, compulsory labor, etc. etc. The Whittington episode has shed light on a land regime that has coexisted with the Republic that is clearly feudal and clearly very functional in the world of vicepresidential power - undisclosed locations,etc. etc.

Posted by: peanutgallery | February 18, 2006 at 11:39

Agree completely (although I think the Armstrong women are struggling too much to keep folks quiet that either someone in the Sheriff's office or someone in the hospital will talk). That's the point of my upcoming post on Anne Armstrong. This woman is like Republican evil incarnate. I don't necessarily know that Dick was actively involved in the latest Republican mega-scandal, but Anne Armstrong's presence begs asking that question.

And yes, they're heading to neo-feudalism, not imperialism.

Posted by: emptywheel | February 18, 2006 at 11:44

It's obvious they didn't talk for so long because they were trying to get their stories straight. And the poor guy who got shot (Oh, please forgive me, Mr. Cheney.) wouldn't be recorded because his voice was "raspy." Yeah, right!

Posted by: Susan S | February 18, 2006 at 12:09

EW:
For your upcoming post, this from Michael Lind's "Made in Texas," (page 49):

"The flamboyance of many rich Texans, and their Southern kin, is that of an upper class that feels no guilt about its wealth and privileges. It is that of an aristocrat from a British-American culture that was untouched by bourgeois and Puritan influences during its formative years in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries."

Posted by: Pandora | February 18, 2006 at 12:27

at yale I fell in with a crowd of dallas rich boys by going out with a poor but talented classmate of theirs whom their wealthy parents sponsored with private scholarships and loans. it really was a different culture - one story they used to tell was about a prep school classmate who on summer trips to Europe would call from hotel long distance for hours on end to whisper sweet nothings to a (bass or perot) daughter, explaining afterwards to his mystified schoolmates "think of it as an *investment*, guys..."

the land regime has coopted the language of conservation as a tool of privatization in another orwellian twist. this texas observer article provides a good overview of the ranch/conservation discourse http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=583. not unrelated this nyt article about the great gulf coast oil windfall - a whole new take on "royalty"

February 14, 2006
U.S. Has Royalty Plan to Give Windfall to Oil Companies

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 — The federal government is on the verge of one of the biggest giveaways of oil and gas in American history, worth an estimated $7 billion over five years.

New projections, buried in the Interior Department's just-published budget plan, anticipate that the government will let companies pump about $65 billion worth of oil and natural gas from federal territory over the next five years without paying any royalties to the government.

Based on the administration figures, the government will give up more than $7 billion in payments between now and 2011. The companies are expected to get the largess, known as royalty relief, even though the administration assumes that oil prices will remain above $50 a barrel throughout that period.

Administration officials say that the benefits are dictated by laws and regulations that date back to 1996, when energy prices were relatively low and Congress wanted to encourage more exploration and drilling in the high-cost, high-risk deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

(snip)

Indeed, Mr. Bush and House Republicans are trying to kill a one-year, $5 billion windfall profits tax for oil companies that the Senate passed last fall.

Moreover, the projected largess could be just the start. Last week, Kerr-McGee Exploration and Development, a major industry player, began a brash but utterly serious court challenge that could, if it succeeds, cost the government another $28 billion in royalties over the next five years.

In what administration officials and industry executives alike view as a major test case, Kerr-McGee told the Interior Department last week that it planned to challenge one of the government's biggest limitations on royalty relief if it could not work out an acceptable deal in its favor. If Kerr-McGee is successful, administration projections indicate that about 80 percent of all oil and gas from federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico would be royalty-free.

"It's one of the greatest train robberies in the history of the world," said Representative George Miller, a California Democrat who has fought royalty concessions on oil and gas for more than a decade. "It's the gift that keeps on giving."

(snip)

If that view prevails, the government said it would lose a total of nearly $35 billion in royalties to taxpayers by 2011 — about the same amount that Mr. Bush is proposing to cut from Medicare, Medicaid and child support enforcement programs over the same period.

Posted by: peanutgallery | February 18, 2006 at 13:32

you snooty landed-gentry typepad folk... taking your platform-stablity for granted and posting whenever you damn feel like it... meanwhile, us Blogger-serfs can do nothing but surf. grrr,

Posted by: lukery | February 18, 2006 at 19:53

lukery

Oh, I don't know. These days either Typepad is down or Blogger. We're all serfs subject to shitty software.

Posted by: emptywheel | February 18, 2006 at 22:51

That hospital appearance by Whittington was another bizarre fascist Republican swine photo-op and stage show. It was all about Il Duce Dick, not his victim. Meant to gloss over the drunk's ineptitude and subsequent coverup. And yet the whole absurd performance was covered straight, as if there wasn't anything at all phoney about it.

The only people who got it exactly right are Jon Stewart, David Letterman, Jay Leno and other comedians.

I suspect that the tremendous laughter and applause that comes from these folks is a sort of psychic relief that finally SOMEONE is willing to tell the plain truth about what's going on around us.

The US government has descended into the moral bankruptcy and criminality of fascism. Fascists lie by necessity, it's the only way they can survive. They have blood on their hands by lying their way into a pre-emptive, unnecessary war. They've got a leader who has achieved cult status. To their brain-dead followers, neither Bush nor Cheney can do any wrong.

The rest of the world looks on, and wonders. How on God's earth can this sort of thing happen again? Didn't we learn our lesson in the 40s?

Apparently not.

Posted by: John Palcewski | February 19, 2006 at 00:57

Can't wait for the full Armstrong piece. I can only assume the "confusion" after the shooting (the confusion they wanted to clear up before going to the press) concerned how far everyone was willing to go to cover for Cheney. The first word that got out, that there had been a shooting but not that Cheney was the shooter, was a trial balloon while they quickly discovered not everyone was willing to cover to that extent. Easily my favorite quote of this or any news cycle: "The hunting party somberly ate roast beef..." They somberly ate roast beef!

Posted by: SaltinWound | February 19, 2006 at 14:33

I've seen Whittington referred to as tanned. Is it just me, or was he wearing a lot of make-up ?

Posted by: SaltinWound | February 19, 2006 at 15:54

EW,

As you probably know (but your readers may not), LBJ came to leadership fast in Congress based upon his ability to steer campaign money from big Texas donors.

His chief sponsor in Texas was Brown & Root. They grew together.

So, to the extent, there is a corporate culture, you may want to follow it from farther back.

Caro's book is good on this topic. Maybe others that I just don't know.

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