War Room

How important timing is. "The War Room," a documentary on the inner workings of the 1992 Clinton presidential campaign that opens today at the Charles, feels almost like a post-World War II unit tribute, celebrating some regimental combat team or airborne division's charge to glory across occupied Europe. But it has the bad fortune to arrive too late, when the celebrating has stopped and the complexity of the post-war environment has become evident and people are beginning to ask: What did we win?

At some point in next week's NFL draft, the Ravens will get the itch. It's usually a good itch, and few teams, if any, have been as successful at scratching it as they have been the past two decades. That's why during the draft it has become a question of when, not if, the Ravens will swap one of their picks. They have made at least one trade in each of the past 10 drafts and 14 of 16 overall. Their preference has been to trade down, but they can be aggressive when trying to secure a player they believe is special.

WASHINGTON -- Without fanfare, the Joint Chiefs of Staff have been making gradual changes in the way they watch the world from the windowless command center inside the Pentagon.The changes are supposed to increase efficiency and improve the flow of information throughout the complex -- with fewer people. The military chiefs consider this as much a response to recent budget cuts as an adjustment to the reduced threat of nuclear war.In the "war room" -- actually a maze of secure communications rooms and conference areas that are usually off-limits to outsiders -- it was revealed during a recent visit that staffing has been cut by about 25 percent since 1990.

There are three things you should know about the HBO documentary "By the People: The Election of Barack Obama." First, this two-hour film is the document in all likelihood by which the landmark presidential campaign of 2008 will be known to future generations. Think Theodore White's book on the 1960 campaign of John F. Kennedy, "The Making of the President." Second, the documentary is so skillfully crafted that it will transport many viewers back to Nov. 4, 2008, and they will re-experience what they felt on that emotion-charged election night as the returns came in and it was announced that the nation had elected its first African-American president.

WASHINGTON -- Inside a converted White House conference room that has a feverish buzz of activity and a growing sense of urgency, a fax that ordinarily would have been filed in a trash can instead became a presidential introduction yesterday.The fax in question was a run-of-the-mill news release from Michael Walsh, chairman and chief executive of Tenneco Inc., endorsing President Clinton's economic plan. In the White House "war room" its potential was spotted immediately.The war room, or "boiler room," as some call it, is where veterans of the Clinton presidential campaign are trying to shape public opinion about the president's $500 billion deficit reduction package.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton may have promised yesterday to shrink the White House staff, but for now he's brought back into the fold the hip and high-powered team that turned his floundering presidential campaign into a smooth and sophisticated hit show.With crisis after crisis entangling his first three weeks in office, Mr. Clinton has enlisted the help of former campaign strategists James Carville and Paul Begala, pollster Stanley Greenberg, and Mandy Grunwald, the media manager and mastermind of the "Arsenio" appearance.

On the day the "War Room" was unveiled to the public, it scored a big success yesterday. As state and local leaders talked about the War Room, which targets violent repeat offenders, officials got a hit on a database search that let them detain a child abuse suspect with an outstanding warrant. "He could have possibly hit the streets, but because of the War Room's efforts, he will not be released," Robert Thumma, a field supervisor with parole and probation, said of the arrested man, whose name was not released.

In July last year, after a stray bullet intended for someone else struck a 10-year-old West Baltimore boy in the neck, the gunman was released on $35,000 bond, causing Mayor Martin O'Malley and State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy to publicly point fingers. Police were angry that there wasn't a prosecutor at Perry Spain's bail-review hearing to argue for higher bail. Prosecutors said they weren't notified by the police about the hearing. It's that kind of problem that city authorities are trying to eliminate with the "War Room," a new office where prosecutors, probation agents and pretrial officials will share information about offenders in an attempt to ensure that defendants aren't released prematurely.

WASHINGTON - The Gore brain trust is huddled inside 2 1/2 rooms just past the donkey doormats on the ground floor of the Democratic National Committee headquarters here, a "war room" so hastily arranged that many of its phone lines don't work, the muck-a-mucks have no private cubicles and no one has even set up a computer. "It looks like one of those dot-coms," says Chris Lehane, campaign spokesman for Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore, the dark circles under his eyes and rumpled sweater making him look like a man who has pulled a few too many all-nighters surfing the Web. Instead, his sleeplessness can be blamed on the nature of this race, which for Gore has moved into Democratic Party headquarters on Capitol Hill.

WASHINGTON - In the war room where the White House works to mold public opinion in the Arab world, all eyes are turned to March 21. It is the first day of the new school year in Afghanistan, and it promises to be a media event. Will President Bush urge American students to send school supplies and adopt Afghan pen pals? How many headlines can be generated about the arrival of girls in school after the fall of the Taliban, which prohibited their education? Can any U.S. officials get on TV to discuss the image of America among young Muslims?

So professional baseball has been played for, what, about 140 years, give or take, and has managed to get along without the technological assistance commonly referred to as "instant replay." Now, suddenly, Major League Baseball has to have instant replay and it has to have it immediately. By immediately, we're talking yesterday. Most fans are aware that replay will be applied only to home runs - fair or foul, over the fence or still in play, fan interference or not. And it might be a good idea in concept, but what's not a good idea is the timing.

WASHINGTON - Minutes after Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement, 24-year-old Georgetown University graduate Kristin Bateman rushed to her computer in People For the American Way's fifth-floor "war room" and hit the "send" button. Through the miracle of instant messaging, nearly 2,000 of the liberal advocacy group's Washington volunteers received an e-mail urging them to rush downtown and start calling activists in battleground states. Two hours later, the war room's 40 computer stations and 70 phones overlooking M Street N.W. were nearly full, and a conference table was packed with volunteers stuffing envelopes.

On the day the "War Room" was unveiled to the public, it scored a big success yesterday. As state and local leaders talked about the War Room, which targets violent repeat offenders, officials got a hit on a database search that let them detain a child abuse suspect with an outstanding warrant. "He could have possibly hit the streets, but because of the War Room's efforts, he will not be released," Robert Thumma, a field supervisor with parole and probation, said of the arrested man, whose name was not released.

In July last year, after a stray bullet intended for someone else struck a 10-year-old West Baltimore boy in the neck, the gunman was released on $35,000 bond, causing Mayor Martin O'Malley and State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy to publicly point fingers. Police were angry that there wasn't a prosecutor at Perry Spain's bail-review hearing to argue for higher bail. Prosecutors said they weren't notified by the police about the hearing. It's that kind of problem that city authorities are trying to eliminate with the "War Room," a new office where prosecutors, probation agents and pretrial officials will share information about offenders in an attempt to ensure that defendants aren't released prematurely.

Despite a bleak fiscal environment, the state was fairly generous to Baltimore during the most recent legislative session -- providing $789,000 to pay for a "war room" to help prosecutors target violent repeat offenders, as well as more money for playgrounds and drug treatment. And although city officials feared that the state would kill a successful tax credit program that encourages the renovation of old buildings, the state preserved it but imposed a limit on the payouts, Mayor Martin O'Malley told the City Council during a briefing yesterday.

IT'S BEGINNING to look like a 1998 reunion at Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend's Mount Washington headquarters. After complaints that her campaign has failed to spark much interest among the party faithful, the expected Democratic nominee for governor is busily reassembling the crew that engineered Gov. Parris N. Glendening's successful re-election effort. "In the 1998 campaign, we had a great model," said Alan Fleischmann, Townsend's campaign chairman. Peter S. Hamm, spokesman for the 1998 Glendening-Townsend campaign, took over the same role for Townsend yesterday.

Despite a bleak fiscal environment, the state was fairly generous to Baltimore during the most recent legislative session -- providing $789,000 to pay for a "war room" to help prosecutors target violent repeat offenders, as well as more money for playgrounds and drug treatment. And although city officials feared that the state would kill a successful tax credit program that encourages the renovation of old buildings, the state preserved it but imposed a limit on the payouts, Mayor Martin O'Malley told the City Council during a briefing yesterday.

So professional baseball has been played for, what, about 140 years, give or take, and has managed to get along without the technological assistance commonly referred to as "instant replay." Now, suddenly, Major League Baseball has to have instant replay and it has to have it immediately. By immediately, we're talking yesterday. Most fans are aware that replay will be applied only to home runs - fair or foul, over the fence or still in play, fan interference or not. And it might be a good idea in concept, but what's not a good idea is the timing.

WASHINGTON - In the war room where the White House works to mold public opinion in the Arab world, all eyes are turned to March 21. It is the first day of the new school year in Afghanistan, and it promises to be a media event. Will President Bush urge American students to send school supplies and adopt Afghan pen pals? How many headlines can be generated about the arrival of girls in school after the fall of the Taliban, which prohibited their education? Can any U.S. officials get on TV to discuss the image of America among young Muslims?

WHEN THE war against international terrorism is over, will the Irish Republican Army remain? Will the Tamil Tigers still slaughter, the Basque separatists deliver bombs to Spanish officials? No doubt all that will remain, to the continuing anxiety of the people of Ireland, Sri Lanka and Spain. Though these groups fight against the legitimate governments of nations with which they are at odds, they keep in touch with counterparts in other lands. They trade arms, explosives, advice. The IRA has gotten much of its financing from sympathetic Americans, and trained its volunteers in Libya.