Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 6

A6 SUNDAY, AUGUST 11,2002 THE HARTFORD COV RANT FROM PAGE ONE Gimmicks Used To Get Attention i 1 11 uma I i J) a I NK i 1 I A 1 1 I fl ix On the 30th anniversary of Medicare, the AARP sent cakes, with one piece missing, to Congressional offices. The message, according to Hahn, was that Medicare was missing a piece prescription drug benefits. Supporters of gimmicks concede that they don't work by themselves. Grassroots organization and lobbyists follow up with other more mundane tools. Daily phone calls, hearings, testimony, gathering information and meetings with staff members or Congressmen are the normal ways of influencing legislation, according to Jim Albertine, the president of the American League of Lobbyists.

Those tools not necessarily gimmicks win support for issues and eventually influence votes. The benefit of gimmicks, however, has not been lost on those they're most designed to influence members of Congress. "The imagination of politicians trying to get attention is pretty fertile," said Sen. Fred Thompson, an actor who appeared in more than 18 films before becoming a senator. His point is illustrated best with bloodhounds.

The Senate Republican leadership brought in the dogs to search for lost bills and media attention. "Whatever you do in life," said Sen. Minority Leader Trent Lott, "you should have a little fun." ities," he added. Common Cause, which promotes campaign finance reform, held a New Orleans-style funeral for soft money, campaign funds that can be raised and spent in unlimited amounts, when the soft-money ban passed the Senate earner this year. The group dressed in black, hired a Dixieland band to play songs and paraded on the Capitol grounds with a coffin representing soft money.

After a lengthy lobbying struggle to enact reform, such events "are fun for our members and our staff," said Lauren Coletta, the national field director for the group. "They're a way to get people involved." Diana Evans, a professor of political science at Trinity College, said the events keep a grassroots organization's often small base of volunteers motivated. "You have to do something to evoke that passion" people have about certain issues to keep them motivated and increase support, Evans said. "Attention-getting activities don't just influence opinion leaders, but they also influence the public so that the money voices aren't the only ones Congress hears." There is one rule for getting attention, gimmick or not: It has to be timely. "The best idea, if not timed to current events, will probably fall on deaf ears," said Steven E.

Hahn, a spokesman for AARP. CONTINUED FROM PAGE Al tion is tough to get So it's no surprise that lobbyists sometimes turn to gimmicks especially those that make eye-catching pictures for TV cameras. But a Playboy bunny handing out vegetarian hot dogs? Well, she is a vegetarian. Otherwise, "It's a light-hearted way to address the issue," said Dan Shannon, PE-TA's campaign coordinator. "We live in a very tabloid-style society," Shannon added.

"You can't just open your mouth and expect people to listen to you." But it's a dangerous road. The gimmick "becomes the story rather than what you're trying to say," said Sen. Christopher J. He said he's always been a little reluctant to use gimmicks because they can detract from the message. But he has been a part of them, all the same, most recently at a rally organized by The Children's Defense Fund to support increased child care funding for welfare mothers.

The featured "lobbyists" were toddlers in strollers sporting multicolored diaper bags and purple and green balloons, a definite departure from the usual dark suits and sober ties on the Hill. "I'm delighted to see all these young lobbyists," Dodd said at the event. "It has an impact on senators because they see lobbyists every day they don't see moms and babies and young toddlers," said Alice Johnson Cain, senior campaign events coordinator for the Children's Defense Fund. "One can never underestimate the power of a well-heeled lobbyist, but a kid with a parent can get better press attention," said Marshall Wittmann, a senior analyst at the Hudson Institute, a conservative Washington think tank. But if the media don't buy into the gimmick, they're probably not buying the message either, and the effect is lost There were few reporters' notebooks, and even fewer television cameras, at the stroller brigade.

But the gimmick peddlers are convinced they work. For instance, a live pig, along with men dressed in pig suits, grace the annual press conference of Citizens Against Government Waste. The group releases an annual "pig book" listing the major pork-barrel spenders, and generally gets a good turnout including those coveted TV cameras. Sean Rushton, the media director for Citizens Against Government Waste, said the group doesn't use gimmicks very often because they are "a sort of sopho-moric way of getting attention for an issue." Not everyone goes for a laugh. The National Right to Life Committee, for example, doesn't use gimmicks because "our issue is a very serious issue," according to Laura Echevarria, the director of media relations.

Other groups thrive on gimmicks, using them to strengthen their support base. Oil derricks sprouted in a pond near the Capitol when Greenpeace decided to protest the lack of alternative energy sources. The massive derricks displayed banners that said, "Don't rig our energy future" and "Stop global warming: clean energy now!" Greenpeace prefers such protest activities to "lobbying by press conference," according to spokesman Gary Skulnik. Greenpeace's main support base of young activists "really get excited and thrilled about these activ- ROLL CALL THE "VEGGIE HOT DOG" lunch was to promote vegetarian food for PETA, but the attraction was Playboy's Miss July, Lauren Anderson, who obligingly posed with an attendee on Capitol Hill last month LANCOMEABSOLUE Plus, a fabulous gift of choice ABSOLUE EYE Absolute Replenishing Eye Treatment This patent-pending LancSme formula features a bio-network of natural Pop Music Is Slow On The Downbeat When Playing 911 and wrinkles and skins firmness around the delicate eye area. Use with Absolue Cream to experience our most powerful innovation for i mature skin Absolue Eye Treatment 5 ot, $60 Absolue Cream SPF 15, 1.7 06 $90 'wmih) CONTINUED FROM PAGE Al understand that.

We know Americans are mad and a lot of us want revenge. We don't need Toby Keith and his redneck country dirge, "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry Ameri ViiM can)," to know that. "Do these songs let us see what has happened in a fresh way?" asks Michael Goldberg, a former editor 4K SPRINGSTEEN 1 nrmmp i ihji.iiiimiailj a Vi and writer at Rolling Stone magazine. "I don't think they do." It is admittedly difficult to write a pop song that also serves as social commentary. That's because Springsteen's and Keith's chosen medium compresses even the most complex set of circumstances to a series of short, rhyming stanzas.

"It's as hard to express sincere political or social commentary in a pop song as it 1 5 i PWMORDIAIE 'ffliil exactly represent the sort of nu-anced thinking that produces enduring music. "We'll put a boot in your ass," sings Keith. Why? Because "it's the American way," of course. And then there's Springsteen. Though hell probably never make a record as great as, say, "Darkness on the Edge of Town," or anything else he recorded in his 20s, he is still capable of turning a phrase.

And "The Rising" is an OK album. But it is not the em-pathetic piece of emotional reportage that it seems. It's so lyrically vague that, had it been released a year from now or had Springsteen been unwilling to sell himself like never before it wouldn't be seen as a 911 album at all. "You're Missing," one of the album's apparently 911-inspired tracks, might be about a loved one lost in the World Trade Center. Or it might be about a husband who went out to get a pack of cigarettes and just kept on driving.

Another song, "Empty Sky," might be about the hole in lower Manhattan. Or it might be about a senseless crime of any sort. In interviews, Springsteen himself has seemed unsure of what inspired him to make "The Rising." But he has been quite willing to play along with the marketing team that has cast this as his "911 album." "I think it's crass of him and all the media who have bought into Springsteen's whole Christ-like resurrection," Strausbaugh says. Steve Earle, a talented country songwriter, has taken a different approach. His song, "John Walker's Blues," has not been released yet but when it is there is sure to be controversy.

It is told from the perspective of John Walker Lindh, the so-called "American Taliban." "I'm just an American boy raised on MTV," Earle sings. "And I've seen all those kids in the soda pop ads But none of 'em looked like me So I started loo-kin' around for a light out of the dim And the first thing I heard that made sense was the word Of Mohammed, peace be upon him." Earle will be pilloried for glorifying Lindh, and he surely could've found a more sympathetic figure to identify with. But again, if it's art it ought to mean something. It ought to be challenging. Sympathizing with John Walker Lindh might be challenge enough for us all.

is in a bumper sticker," says John Straus-baugh, author of last year's "Rock 'Til You Drop: The Decline From Rebellion to Nostalgia." "It's KEITH LANCOME GIFT OF CHOICE Yours with any LancSme purchase of 22.50 or more. Choose from two colour palettes: ROMANTICS: Rouge Sensation LipColour in Brarae Goddess Rouge AbsoluCreme lipstick in P6che Colour Focus EyeColour in Daylight Candid, Vue and Green Tourmaline or SOPHISTICATES: Rouge Absolu Creme Lipstick in Rose Fleur Sheer Magnetic LipColour in Precious Colour Focus EyeColour in Flash, Silver Screen, Darkroom and Slide Plus: Definicils Mascara in Black Primordiale Intense Night Treatment Cosmetics case Matching double lipstick case The Signature of American the medium. It's a three-minute pop song everything's got to rhyme, it's got to be instantly recognizable you end up reducing and condensing." Still, it's not impossible to craft catchy songs that mean something, too. Hip-hop artist KRS-One has been doing it for 15 years. The Brooklyn born-rapper's new album, "Spiritual Minded," was the first by a bankable pop artist to deal explicitly with 911.

KRS-One has been responsible for some consistently thoughtful lyrics, but even he was incapable of writing with real insight about it all. In his hands, the tragedies were reduced to baby talk: "We all gonna reap what we all are se-win'," he says in a track called "Tears." "There is no death, just constant growinV We can't stay here forever We all gotta go to a place we believe is better So why be sad, why be mad?" Country singer Toby Keith is no better. His sentiments may be understandable, but they do not To order, call Lord Taylor: 1-800-223-7440, 8 am to 8 pm (ET) Monday through Saturday; 9 am to 6 pm (LT) Sunday. One free gift per customer, while supplies last. Available at selected Lord Taylor stores.

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