Characters on government stage can't find the exit

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

By JOEL CONNELLY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST

An iron rule governs the annual White House Correspondents Dinner in Washington, D.C.: The biggest generators of controversy draw the largest number of picture and autograph seekers.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, were reportedly basking in attention this year.

The correspondents dinner says something about the culture in our nation's capital: A lot of people never want to leave. They hang on to power and -- even in extreme circumstances -- must be pried loose one finger at a time.

"If Don Rumsfeld were in the private sector, he would not last a day," Robert Reich, secretary of labor during the first Clinton administration, said in an interview. He'll be speaking at Town Hall Seattle tomorrow. He's also a rare person who left government voluntarily and went home to teach economics at Brandeis University.

Very different standards apply in other democracies, Britain and Canada for example. If something awful occurs on a cabinet minister's watch, the minister takes responsibility -- and resigns.

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