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By BILL ADAIR and PAUL DE LA GARZA
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 4, 2001
Rep. Kleczka, we'd all like to meet Ernie
It's time for the famous waitress to step aside. We now have Ernie.
For months, President Bush has been mentioning the mythical waitress in his speeches to illustrate how an average American would benefit from his tax cuts. Bush initially said she earned $22,000 per year but raised that to $25,000 when White House officials realized she needed a raise to benefit from the tax plan.
Now comes Ernie.
He was introduced by Rep. Jerry Kleczka, D-Wis., during Thursday's Ways and Means Committee meeting on the first Bush tax bill. He said Ernie was a friend who had asked Kleczka when he was going to get his big tax cut, but Kleczka had to give him the sad news that it wouldn't be until 2006.
That prompted a few Ernie jokes from Republicans on the committee, who seemed to question Ernie's credentials.
So just who is this guy?
"I'm not sure," said Kleczka spokeswoman Kelly Clark. "It wouldn't surprise me that he has friends named Ernie. But I can neither confirm nor deny that he exists."
Mary Masserini, the protocol press officer at the State Department, was having a tough day outside the White House last week.
As a mob of reporters staked out the driveway by the Oval Office, she was yelling at people to move.
"Laura Bush's motorcade is coming!" shouted Masserini, a Washington institution whose job is to babysit the foreign press corps.
When a TV cameraman tried to get in her way, Masserini, an older woman who walks with a cane, shoved him. When a reporter crossed the driveway, she grabbed him.
"Get out the way!" she demanded.
"It's Laura Bush!"
Before long, sirens blared, and the gates to the White House along Pennsylvania Avenue opened. Sure enough, a black limousine pulled up.
But it wasn't the first lady who got out.
It was Colombian President Andres Pastrana.
Quipped a reporter, "She looks different in person."
He's not a lawyer, but retired Sen. Connie Mack is joining a Washington law and lobbying firm.
Mack will be a senior policy adviser for Shaw Pittman, a firm that has 440 lawyers and branch offices in London, New York, Los Angeles and suburban Washington, the firm announced last week.
Mack, a Republican, will join Shaw Pittman's government relations section, representing clients with ties to government policy.
"We think of Sen. Mack as a senior strategic consultant on a broad range of issues of interest to our clients, particularly in the health care, financial services and technology sectors," said Paul Mickey, managing partner of the firm. "Some of that will involve their legislative needs."
Mack, who was president of a small bank in Cape Coral before being elected to Congress in 1982, retired last year.
Under federal ethics legislation, Mack can't lobby his former colleagues for a year from the end of his term. But he can do work related to arguing clients' cases before the government, including lobbying the White House and government agencies.
A spokeswoman for the firm said Mack will spend most of his time in Florida.
- Staff writers Bill Adair and Paul de la Garza contributed to this report, which also includes information from the Associated Press.