07 January 2001 The term "Boondoggle" is derived from the Middle English "boon," or pleasant flavor, and "doggle," or pack of slavering wolves. I am leaving on a boondoggle tomorrow. This is a boondoggle of the Congressional variety, arguably one of the spectacular of the breed. The term is normally used disparagingly by co-workers. "Oh," they will say. "You are off on a boondoggle." The clear connotation is that you are shirking work, frittering away the taxpayers money, and generally tip-toeing the line of propriety. I'll grant you there is some basis to that thesis. I will not deny that you get free headsets on the jet. The Chairman then signs out a letter to whatever Agency happens to have responsibility for the issue in the Executive Branch. The Agency hands the request over to its Congressional Liaison shop, which assigns a middling-senior specialist to arrange the trip. That includes tickets, reservations, State Department clearances, the whole shooting match. It's really quite elegant. Congress doesn't have to cough up the money for the trip. It all comes out of the individual budgets of the Agencies or Departments. And you will love this: the Appropriations Committees, the ones who REALLY dole out the dough, insist on having a separate system to handle their needs. But I won't go into that- it would seem to make this process cumbersome and duplicative. Which would be me, and people like me. There are three of us on this trip. Any garduate of a high school civics class knows that the Government cannot lobby itself. That would be wrong. But it is entirely appropriate to provide timely information to decision-makers to ensure that the fact-finding trips indeed find the right facts. There is nothing quite so unsettling as knowing there is a Congressional Delegation out there somewhere, talking to other disgruntled bureaucrats. Drastic changes to the budget can result, and the time spent trying to correct impressions warrants having someone along to provide damage control on-the-spot. Perceptions are everything. And in this town, if you have to explain something in the Washington Post, you have already lost. Industry recognizes the importance of a little extra comfort in long distance travel, but let's face it: it's a guilty pleasure. If we were paying for it ourselves, we'd be in the back with all the other main-cabin trash. And since we are actually providing timely information, or at least have the potential to do so, it is important to be right there with the members of the delegation. He likes to regularly run the traps overseas, feeling it is his duty. Last time it was Saudi and Bahrain. Africa was the trip before that. With all the interest in the looming China Threat and the unsettling prospect of Korean unification, it is time for him to re-visit Northeast Asia. Something might be up. The itinerary winds it's way through Hawaii ("Let's see: It's January in Northern China. Then Waikiki. Do I have galoshes and flip-flops in the bag?"). Onward, northeast then through the Pacific Northwest before finally running out of steam in Alaska. Never in a hotel more than one night, so it is pointless to unpack. We return to Dulles International around midnight on Day Eleven. T You man sleep well in the complete confidence that I will be available to provide timely information to whoever might need it. And if you need a favor, or help in beating back a pack of slavering Congressional wolves, this is just the boondoggle to do it. |