One of the strangest episodes in my life occurred during a strategy session involving approaching a politician.
To one of the very closest friends and mentors I ever had, I suggested, brightly:
“We might be able to get some real inside track in Washington if we can get Senator (Bob) Graham interested....He’s Phil Graham’s half-brother, you know...the late husband of The Washington Post publisher, Kay Graham....”
“THAT’S NOT SO, “ was the immediate reply.
Well, I KNEW it was so, having delved into the lives of the half brothers through my interest in old “Cap” Graham, the Miami wheeler-dealer who sired them. Phil was born, however in South Dakota, Bob on Miami.
My friend was a bright professional man, an innovator and a risk taker. But he did not know what he did not know.
This country is at the mercy of people just like that right now.
The Great Charles Dickens, in “Little Dorrit”, caused quite a row in Parliament when he set up these people in the Department of Circumlocution.
They were all specialists in HOW NOT TO DO IT. (Finding out how to do it would have put them out of business.) And none of them know what they do not know.
Sound familiar ?
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