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BY ALICIA MUNDY
How real is the new HBO series K Street? At one point, it was so real that a Democratic political consultant who has handled major candidates said, ?Jeez, why'd they give away so much good advice for free? I mean, if that's what they're telling Howard Dean on a TV show, how am I gonna charge my candidate to give him the same, special advice??
So, is this what K Street ? or as we Washingtonians call it, ?Gucci Gulch? ? is really like? The answer, sadly, is not yet.
HBO's K Street is still too sanitized. Issues such as how to forestall Congressional action when a corporate disaster causes death and destruction, or an Enron-type meltdown, how to sell and buy access and bare knuckles backroom bullying will have to emerge eventually if HBO wants to present this as true Washington. Still, it's a fun show.
Political consultants are at odds over the first episodes. Paul Begala's advice was not that special, says Republican consultant Greg Stevens. ?Telling Howard Dean that he should never respond to a ?what if?? question is just political coaching 101,? says Stevens. A successful political ad strategist, Stevens was the adviser to Big John McCain (R-Ariz.) when he ran for president in 2000.
Still, Stevens says, the debate prep session that aired was on the mark. For instance, as Dean wondered how to deal with separate issues that could be asked in an upcoming debate, Begala said that there's only one question in any debate: ?Why should you be president??
Many Washington insiders who crammed (along with me) into the Palm Restaurant for K Street's premiere Sept. 14 found it very watchable. One part that was particularly realistic was the interplay between James (liberal and proud of it) Carville and his wife, GOP tactician Mary Matalin. Some scenes were filmed in their house (which is down the street from me), and those of us who know them can vouch that they didn't have to act at all. In just seconds they go from holding hands in Old Town Alexandria to snapping like Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn did in The Lion in Winter.
At the kickoff party at the Palm, producer George Clooney arrived out of breath, looking for the bar; he and director Steven Soderbergh had been editing till 3 a.m. to get the first half-hour episode ready to go. The place was packed with Washington VIPs, including senator-turned-TV star Fred Dalton Thompson, now on NBC's Law & Order.
Part of K Street was reminiscent of The War Room, the documentary about Carville and Begala's handling of Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign in 1992.
Adding Howard Dean was a nice touch. And the mysterious Francisco Dupre elicited a typical Washington assessment from Matalin/Carville pondering what he is ? white/black/gay/straight/whatever: How can we make him useful to us?
But there are better issues than mere political campaigns to keep this thing going. For instance, in the midst of the senior drug prescription debate and Medicare battles, it would be fascinating to see what it's like in the pit when the drugmakers' powerful and wealthy lobby, PHARMA, tightens the screws on a few waffling pols.
To be really, well, real, K Street will have to dig into the behind-the-scenes dirt of lobbyists and crisis management firms here. Matalin and Carville may not want to be part of showing, as the Wizard of Oz warned, the man behind the curtain. When it's lobbying firms in Washington behind the curtain, the truth can be rather grim.
Tom Shales, cultural critic for the Washington Post, applauded Oscar winner Soderbergh (Traffic) for ?keeping up a steady sense of tension even when little really seemed at stake.?
But that's Washington; you can't always tell what's at stake. If you're in politics here, you spend half your time playing the corners and covering the angles.
That's one reason why Shales and others wonder whether this show can catch on. As Greg Stevens said, ?It matters to people 20 minutes from K Street. But after that, who will watch it??
Well, NBC found an audience for The West Wing. Too bad the show's gotten to be so self-important and pompous ? and less like the Washington most of us know. West Wing's actually more like the Washington Karl Rove would prefer America to know: a White House deeply committed to the public interest and completely oblivious to corporate connections. A White House that doesn't exist.
For K Street to be real (as opposed to just a well-made TV show), it will have to show the corporate octopus winding its tentacles from K Street to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's (R-Texas) office. It will have to show the ubiquitous Grover Norquist (Americans for Tax Reform) strong-arming politicians into signing his ?no tax raise? pledge. DeLay and Norquist authored the infamous ?K Street Project? in which lobbying firms and trade associations were told to dump Democrats on their staffs if they wanted to continue having access to power.
In fact, that would make a really terrific episode. There for all to see would be a particularly noxious interest group representative blatantly asking Matalin and Carville how much they might charge to deliver high-level ?access.?
When you see them citing a figure, you'll know K Street has cut through the scenery at last.
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