Step Counting: The First 100 Days

By CALVIN TRILLIN

Washington, March 28, 2001--In the view of some analysts here, when a front-page New York Times story reported in March 1999 that Elizabeth Dole "prepares so thoroughly for appearances that she even requires aides to count the steps she must take to the podium," it should have been obvious that a Dole presidency could include just the sort of unfortunate incident that occurred in Quincy, Ill., last week. As a veteran politician put it, "When you elect someone with a step counter on her staff, you should know that what you're definitely not getting is devil-may-care."

It is easy enough to find harbingers of the Quincy episode in the early coverage of President Dole's candidacy. In April 1999, for instance, Robert Novak reported that officials of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, whose meeting in San Antonio, Texas, Mrs. Dole had addressed, were informed in advance that in the question-and-answer session following the speech she would provide not only the answers but also the questions--a procedure the White House press corps has so far been unwilling to embrace.

President Dole defended her actions in Quincy by repeating (word for word) what she had said during the campaign: the press is, in essence, blaming her for "being organized, disciplined and thinking carefully before I speak." There is indeed no hard evidence that Cabinet meetings are scripted, although the Secretary of Labor only added fuel to the widespread media speculation by saying, "One person's script is another person's extremely detailed agenda." Mrs. Dole's chastising of the Queen of Belgium for ad-libbing in the Oval Office has probably been overplayed.

In Quincy, where President Dole had gone to comfort victims of the Mississippi flood, it is undisputed that Heather May Hamm, 4, whose family's home was lost, had been instructed by White House staff members to say to the President, "We thank you, President Dole, for your love and prayers" and said instead, "I have to make tinkle."

What happened after that is less certain. The President's voice can definitely be heard on one tape shouting, "Tinkle! Tinkle!? Can't anybody around here get anything right!" It now seems clear, though, that the President was not shouting at Heather May--and definitely did not shake her, as some early reports had it. The President's remonstrance was directed at an aide only recently promoted from senior step counter to script manager.

All the same, there is no doubt that Heather May was frightened. Apparently, she has since insisted on leaving the room whenever the President's face appears on television, and she has, with no apparent prompting, referred to Mrs. Dole as "one scary lady."

The White House spokesman showed bad judgment in claiming that since there were times during the past Administration when millions of Americans felt they couldn't watch the TV news with their children, reducing that number to only one family in Illinois could be seen as progress. Still, Elizabeth Dole remains enormously popular, and the Democrats are indulging in wishful thinking, not to speak of poor taste, with their constant demands for an investigation of what they persist in calling "Tinklegate."