Mark Steyn: Capitol big shots out of touch

Buckingham Palace received nine direct hits during the London Blitz, including one occasion when a single German bomber flew low up the Mall and dropped its load directly above the living quarters. The king and queen were in their drawing room and showered with shards of glass. The first bomb fell on the palace 61 years almost to the day before the attacks of Sept. 11, on Sept. 13, 1940. Afterward, Queen Elizabeth (mother of the present queen) said, ''I'm almost glad we've been bombed. Now I can look the East End in the face.''

One shouldn't exaggerate the privations of the royal family during wartime--I recall one sycophantic courtier explaining that, because of wartime economies, the footmen ceased serving marmalade in a dish, which was felt to be wasteful, and the king was forced to spoon it direct from the jar. War is hell. Nonetheless, the queen's remark captures precisely the unspoken pact between the rulers and the ruled: they should be able to look us in the face; they should not require of us things that they are not willing to endure themselves.

You would think, in a democratic republic of free-born citizens, such an observation would be a statement of the obvious. But a lot of Washington big shots seem to be having a hard time grasping what the dear old queen mother, the last empress of India, instinctively understood. ''The American people need to know that these terrorists are going after specific people,'' said House Republican Whip Tom DeLay, seeking to reassure. ''People that are symbols. Somebody in Sugar Land, Texas, shouldn't worry about anthrax.''

Got that, you losers? You're not important enough to be targeted. You're not a symbol, as Tom is, though a symbol of what he didn't say (suggestions welcome, but try not to spill confectioner's sugar on the postcard). Given that the comparative losses of the war since Sept. 11 are Nobodies: 5,000, Symbols: zip, DeLay's remark is at the very least in extraordinarily bad taste. I can't speak for Sugar Land, Texas, but I know of, for example, a lady from Plaistow, N.H., who died on Sept. 11 for no other reason than her choice of flight. Even with anthrax, the grandees are so insulated that to get to the symbols you have to go through an awful lot of non-symbols. Yet, after the discovery of anthrax in a letter to Tom Daschle, the initial response was to offer widespread testing to any Senate aide who wanted it but none to postal workers through whose facility the mail had to have passed en route to Congress. Two postal employees are now dead, and those deaths most likely could have been avoided.

The impression that our leaders are looking out for No. 1 and leaving the little people to fend for themselves is not exactly conducive of public trust. In that respect, the stories of medics having to plead with Senate staffers to stop trying to pull rank and cut in line but just wait their turn are also very instructive. They contrast sharply with the survivors of the twin towers waiting calmly and politely to be treated by emergency workers.

''Wait your turn'': That's not something government bigwigs like to do. Speaking of New Hampshire, what's your preferred image of the state's famous primary? A candidate wandering into a diner or Legion hall and trying to get the attention of some cranky guy in plaid? Here's another view, from a couple of weeks before primary day last year: I'd just pulled up to the toll booth on the turnpike between Manchester and Concord and was about to toss my 75 cents in, when I was blinded by the flashing lights of the world's longest motorcade--I counted at least 12 cars plus an ambulance--coming in the opposite direction. They roared through the toll plaza without stopping, defying red lights and scattering meandering old biddies in beat-up sedans. ''What's going on?'' I asked.

''Al Gore,'' replied the toll lady. ''Does it every time. Never pays. He can't stop for 'security' reasons,'' she said with a chuckle. Even with a 13-vehicle motorcade, that's only $9.75, and she'd have been happy to take a single payment for the entire camel train. But a lofty fellow like Al Gore is too busy fighting for the little man to trouble himself with any of the things little men have to do, like paying tolls.

I think it's worth subjecting every new anti-terrorism measure to the Al Gore motorcade test: Are the politicians burdening us with stuff they themselves don't have to bother slowing down for? A key Senate aide is on the fast track to nasal swabs and Cipro; a mail sorter has to take a number. We've already had one incident of Hillary Clinton's ''security detail'' attempting to crash through a security barrier at the airport. Do you figure the junior senator's having her tweezers and nail-file seized every time she hops a flight? Think she has to get there two hours beforehand so her undies can be emptied out on the conveyor belt?

I have to confess that my first reaction, on hearing that 34 staffers in Tom Daschle's office had tested positive for anthrax, was a gasp of amazement: Tom Daschle has 34 staffers? Why? These aren't the citizen legislators foreseen by the founders so much as mini-sultanates, with all the inevitable consequences. Wandering round the country, I find more and people wondering why politicians and the media seem so uniquely panicked. They get all this intelligence, folks say; they must know something.

But maybe it's more basic. Politicians, like show biz types, are now so unnaturally sealed off from the world by their vast entourages that the sudden piercing of the perimeter has utterly confounded them: suddenly, they feel vulnerable, as many Americans do in a thousand situations--walking down an empty city street after dark, working the midnight shift at a convenience store in a crummy neighborhood.

As it happens, Tom DeLay is precisely wrong: One reason the world has terrorism is because in the last century it's become all but impossible for fanatics with political causes to kill politicians, so they have to slaughter grannies and toddlers to make their point. The safer you make politicians, the less safe you make the public.

Given that grim equation, we are entitled to expect that our war leaders at least act like war leaders. If Tom DeLay is really a symbol, he should start behaving like one.

Truth be told, one couldn't possibly exaggerate the bravery of the Royal family during the second world war. Their children were kept in London during the blitz while everyone else sent their children to relative safety in the countryside. By their everyday actions they showed their love of country and helped the citizens endure the unendurable and unimaginable.

Queen Elizabeth, now the Queen Mother [AKA the "Queen Mum"] when asked during WWII's blitz, if "the children," Princess Elizabeth and Pricess Margaret, would be leaving London, replied to the effect that the children wouldn't leave without her and that she wouldn't leave without the king and that the king wouldn't leave in any circumstance whatsoever.

Which goes just a tiny little bit of the way toward explaining why, sixty years on, the Limeys love her as much as they do!

Afterward, Queen Elizabeth (mother of the present queen) said, ''I'm almost glad we've been bombed. Now I can look the East End in the face.''

Hey, good read Mark.

But in the interest of historical accuracy, the Queen Mum is Queen Mary. And she's 100 years old.

One reason the world has terrorism is because in the last century it's become all but impossible for fanatics with political causes to kill politicians, so they have to slaughter grannies and toddlers to make their point. The safer you make politicians, the less safe you make the public.

Kennedy/Kennedy/Reagan Impossible eh

That plane hadn't gone down in PA there may have been no Capitol or congress

Most of us are cowards. Most of us grew up in the era of "conflict resolution" in schools, and grew to believe that our own hides were more important than any abstract principle of freedom and liberty.

It doesn't surprise me that congress thinks the same way.

Tom Daschle has 34 staffers? Why?

Well, in Gary Condit's case, it's kinda' like the 72 virgins promised to martyred muslims.

I've often wondered what a martyred muslim does for fun on day 73.

Read and learn, folks. After all this money and show, the only people any safer are politicians.

''The American people need to know that these terrorists are going after specific people,'' said House Republican Whip Tom DeLay, seeking to reassure. ''People that are symbols. Somebody in Sugar Land, Texas, shouldn't worry about anthrax.''

Well, now, I live just south of Sugar Land, and in DeLay's district. While I love Mark Steyn, he's being a bit too hard on DeLay here. All DeLay was trying to say was that we should all consider whether or not we are in the line of fire. I think he was urging caution to those who surround likely targets, whether those targets are personal, commercial, or emotional.

Ironically, though, DeLay's comment reminds me that since I DO live near him, near where he drives and shops and goes to church, that his reassurances fall flat. I am actually more at risk because I live near a "symbol."

[Most of us are cowards]

Speak for yourself. Maybe you're a coward. Maybe you grew up with "conflict resolution". Most people I know aren't cowards. Most politicians I've met are career politicians because they're cowards, and lazy to boot.

Yet, after the discovery of anthrax in a letter to Tom Daschle, the initial response was to offer widespread testing to any Senate aide who wanted it but none to postal workers through whose facility the mail had to have passed en route to Congress. Two postal employees are now dead, and those deaths most likely could have been avoided.

Absolutely scandalous! In some countries governments fall over things like this. (Or at least they should. Letting hundreds or thousands contract AIDS unnecessarily actually didn't hurt Francois Mitterand's government. But it certainly should have.)

He'd probably only pay with OUR money.

Thanks for the flag, Pokey....another good Steyn read.

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