Duck, duck, sniffle

Yesterday I was on a bit of a lurp (Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol), attending the Washington Ideas Forum, which is put on by AtlanticLive as part of the Washington Ideas Week, here in the District They Call Columbia.

It’s a policy-wonk kind of affair; ish. And there were some heavy hitters speaking. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) announced, “The Senate is out and we did not shut down the government,” as he took off his tie. And CIA Director John Brennan, when asked if the Russians are trying to hack the U.S. elections, said, “What we do at CIA is to look at a country’s capabilities, look at their intent, look at things that they have done in the past and determine whether something that certainly looks like a duck, smells like a duck and flies like a duck, whether it’s a duck or not.”

Then there was Labor Secretary Thomas Perez telling us, “We’re living in a ‘Modern Family’ world and we have ‘Leave It to Beaver’ policies” when it comes to protecting workers in our society.

But I think one of the biggest laughs came when Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) sat down and announced, “I have the sniffles and I’m not using cocaine.” He went on to speak cogently and compassionately about issues like immigration and the economy.

The forum is more of an ideas sampling, because we get about 20 minutes per conversation (between a subject matter expert and a journalist; or a journalist speaking with a panel of experts) and then, boom, off to another conversation. It’s like being at a banquet, taking one bite out of something and then having the plate snatched away before you can really taste what it’s all about.

Also, I find it interesting that they’ve made it almost impossible to network—between conference badges that only give your name, not your organization, and no time or space for having those little chats about what you just heard. That seems very odd, especially for a networking veteran of the Valley They Call Silicon.

Tomorrow they start out the day with a whimper—or, more precisely, with House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-19^th Century), and move on to a panel discussion that includes historian and president of Harvard University Drew Gilpen Faust. That should be a slice.