[a clipped South Asian voice speaking with a British accent] Rachel? Rachel, where are you? I want to talk to you!
[walking into the room] Here I am Daddy. What's up?
I am in some ways disappointed with you! I want to ask you some things.
Okay, but before we begin, we have to establish some ground rules.
Ground rules? I am your father!
I know, I know. But there are some issues that are just off the table.
What?
First of all, there will be no questioning the things I charged last month. Absolutely none. Your job is just to pay the bill.
You went shopping again? How many times?
I'm warning you, Daddy.
I was actually going to ask you about the $400 cell phone bill I just got.
Sorry Daddy. I won't be accepting questions about that, either.
I'm just supposed to pay that one, too?
Of course. Now what else do you want to talk about?
I noticed that there is a big scratch in the fender of the car and that the petrol is exhausted!
Oh, that. Well, we can't talk about that either.
[sputtering] Daughter, what will you talk about?
[batting her eyes innocently] We could talk about how I'm doing so well in school.
Arugh! I give up.
Bye, Daddy. It's been nice visiting with you.
Apparently Rachel had practice before telling the press that she would only field questions about a prostitution bust in her first presser.
In what may have been a first for a Minnesota public official soliciting media attendance at a press conference in a public building, US Attorney Rachel Paulose's staff announced prior to the start of her Monday press conference that Ms. Paulose would NOT be taking questions off the topic of her indictment of 25 people in a prostitution ring.
Say what? No other questions? Did we just move to Uzbekistan? Not even George W. Bush has been so clueless as to dare admonish the press corps to avoid questions he might find uncomfortable. (Of course until his approval ratings cratered the boys and girls on the White House bus were thoroughly self-admonishing.)
She must have known that the news people wanted to ask her about other things, boys and girls! But Rachel would have none of it, and she was like, rilly rilly mad, when KARE 11's Scott Goldberg and others asked her questions about other things, such as the politicizing and hollowing out of the integrity of the Justice Department.
From Goldberg's blog:
In case you also missed it, here is what Powerline blogger Scott Johnson, who says he attended the same press conference, had to say:
Most of the reporters at the press conference focused their questions on the indictment consistent with the ground rules of the press conference. Jean Hopfensperger's Star Tribune story on the indictment, for example, evidences her interest in the investigation and the substance of the horrendous crimes charged in the indictment. At the press conference Hopfensperger asked about the involvement of murdered St. Paul Police Officer Jerry Vick in the origin of the investigation.
There were two notable exceptions to the professional demeanor of most of the reporters in attendance. One of the two was KARE 11's Scott Goldberg, whose story evidences his other interests, if not his rudeness. I forget the other, but he too was a piece of work almost up to the Goldberg standard. Let's call him the Goldberg variation.
Yes, Scott, it really is a sad day when the press doesn't just lap up the milk it is given and then go away and write it up! This country is really going to hell in a hand basket, isn't it?
Spot would love it, if just for a week, we transplanted the British press to our shores to ask all the lords and ladies serving in this Republican administration some questions, and George Bush had to stand up in the House of Representatives for Question Period.
And what's the lawyer for a savings and loan doing at a press conference to announce a prostitution bust? Sounds kind of kinky to Spot.
Tag: Rachel Paulose
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