. . . with THESE guys at the helm.

And what’s with Speaker Dennis Hastert going on and on about uncertain evidence?
At his news conference, Hastert told reporters that his staff offices on the fourth floor of the Capitol had been placed under quarantine. Hastert spokesman John Feehery said the step was taken after an aide to the speaker recalled seeing a letter that bore lettering similar to what was on the letter sent to Daschle and a second anthrax-tainted letter addressed to NBC anchor Tom Brokaw.



Hastert also told reporters that anthrax had gotten "into the ventilation system" in Senate portion of the Capitol complex. But a short while later, Scott Lillibridge, a bioterrorism expert at the Department of Health and Human Services, said the only known evidence of anthrax was found in Daschle's office across the street from the Capitol and in the Senate's mailroom in a second office building.





Boy needs to settle his butt down and just do his job. Don’t we have any workaholics in Washington anymore? I mean, seriously...

“Is this contagious?”

“No, sir, it is not.”

“I see. ...Could I potentially get anthrax -- just sitting here and working?”

“The possibility does exist, sir...”

“Strong possibility?”

“In the current concentrations, it would be an extremely small possibility, sir.”

“Uh-huh. And you want me to shut down so you can -- what? -- vacuum?”

“Well, yes, sir. We need to collect the spores and...”

“You go ahead. I’ll stay out of your way.”

“I can’t do that, sir. We really do need you out.”

Where’s the argument? Give the man a mask so he can continue to run the country. Nope, we HAVE to shut down. Oh, I understand the need to get complete access to every corner of the building minutely combed, and it would be a far more thorough job without the House and the Senate in session, the hundreds of GS-types and pages running around with reams of paperwork in-arm (and it would be nice if the AP mentioned that fact, considering the majority of the planet they're reporting to has never seen the House and the Senate in operation), but the way the press reads, anthrax was discovered and the government ran home in a state of panic, and that simply is not the case. Hell, they’d have to pull me from the building...

I'm sure it's not as bad as I make it sound, but it's an interpretation of what's posted here, and I do wish we were receiving more facts and less hype from the press. Airing insubstantial data about a non-event (i.e., alluding that an office was "quarantined for anthrax contamination" instead of "quarantined for testing") is what we have the National Enquirer for. Maybe the AP just didn't want to be out-scooped.

Another thought:
How many tourists to the Capital have been called in for anthrax testing? I’ve seen no bulletins on this, so the anthrax is not a threat to casual passersby. Sounds about as deadly as radon today.

Dan