None of this makes much sense to Armey. He pulled a 100 percent rating from the American Conservative Union this year, he's popped off to the president's face, he's dressed down the first lady, and he's near enraptured with the flat tax. Live flat or die, he often says. But we have to learn to manage our disappointments. However much its political denizens might imagine themselves a quaint village of homespun values, these past two weeks represent Washington at its purest.
Nothing is as it seems.
No word of assurance is taken at face value. Knives are sheathed in smiles. The vote for majority leader is a secret one. And that means no member's pledge of support is certain. But many more purr right back through the phone receiver.