Dinner repartee

The thing with this $20,000 dinner of GMA that gets to me is that they don't get it. 

None of the President's lapdogs seem to grasp what's so objectionable about her dining habits, and why people are reacting so negatively. Instead of responding with candor and humility, they've pooh-poohed it as p.p.: political propaganda, point-scoring by critics, or potshots by bored columnists. Having no clue as to the fundamental nature of the clamor, their strategy has been to float various balloons to the hungry media, thinking that hopefully, eventually, one of the bubbles will pacify the indignant crowd.

It's fun to watch the balloons being floated, and then getting shot down. It's like watching a tennis game, but this time being played by strategists versus critics. And from the way the match is progressing, the critics are bashing the heads of the strategists.

First came (as I predicted) the response that government funds didn't pay for it, but a private individual. My theory was temporarily derailed when fingers were first pointed to Congressman Martin Romualdez, but then validated when an aide for Martin then diverted the rising tide of criticism by saying it was Martin's brother that paid the bill. (Note that the congressman never opens his mouth to confirm or deny the statements of his aide - keeping a way open just in case?)

Of course, the critics pointed out that public servants aren't supposed to accept splashy gifts from the private sector. So that way out was shut, and the strategists had to think of a new way out.

As some form of damage control, the strategists tried to spin that this was a small simple dinner, just a few courses, and with only a few people in attendance. However, even mathematically challenged individuals (like me) could do the simple division required: $20,000 divided by 20 people translates to a thousand bucks per person. And so the Palace had to inflate the figure to 50 to make it more palatable.

Then came the argument that surely, we can't expect our most high and lofty President to (gasp) eat hotdogs. Or, for that matter, at a McDonalds or a turo-turo. (This time, playing on the nation's notion of face). All the critics had to do was cite Obama: the US President eats burgers and drinks beer. Simplicity is a virtue, correct? 

The "minority retort" was next. This one-time dinner was too tiny in the scheme of things, a minuscule portion of the vast majority of problems the President had to face. There being more pressing problems, the President wouldn't even bother to dignify or 'glamorize' this further. But the bloggers kept blogging, the columnists kept opining, and the news was picked up by international press. And so the strategists had no other choice but to keep defending.

The defenders next airbrush the image of the President with the announcement that she had created a regional Anti-Hunger Task Force. Eyes rolled, and the pundits moved on.

The strategists came back with: this President is super hard-working, and only by eating lobsters and steak was she able to deliver investments in the billions. The critics dove in with natch, an analysis of what she did bring in. The Philippine Star concludes, after an examination of the items bruited about by the defenders, that most of the success stories can't be attributed to her trip, or aren't even successes at all.

Rep. Walden Bello then files a complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman, questioning the President's excessive habits. But irony of ironies, the Ombudsman herself was part and parcel of the President's travel party. So now, the Ombudsman is in a bind. The next move is, the Assistant Ombudsman floats the theory: There is no real standard for what is a lavish lifestyle, so how to judge the accusation? (This is where I willingly sign up to be part of the jury.) 

Despite the squid tactics employed by the strategists, this thing hasn't died down, and doesn't look as if it's going to. Just the other day, former President Ramos kept the issue alive by quipping he couldn't be bought by a 20-grand dinner. 

Nothing like great dinner conversation, is there?