“This town is worse today than I’ve ever seen it in all the years that I’ve been in Washington. And that’s a lot of bad years.”
Lanny Davis is racing down K Street on a sweltering day in early August–late for an interview at ABC News. That line, the one about how D.C.-is-worse-today-than-he’s-ever-seen-it-before, is his main talking point of the moment; it’s an idea he first tested out in a column for The Hill the day before and a point he went on to make almost verbatim on his ABC World News appearance, later that day as a guest on MSNBC, to this reporter in his car, and even to an old acquaintance he happened to run into. Davis gets so distracted mining his own thoughts on the subject that, at one point, he turns the wrong way on a one-way street and freezes for what feels like hours (though he continues talking) before finally pulling over to the curb. It’s a truly amazing skill: the ability to stay on message in the face of oncoming traffic. But Davis is experienced.
