ABC to tread lightly with D.C. madam

Washingtonians eagerly — and, some nervously — await Friday night’s “20/20” special on ABC, when reporter Brian Ross and his investigative team present what they’ve unearthed about Deborah Jeane Palfrey (aka the “D.C. Madam”) and her clients.

But the show is likely to disappoint viewers eager to see a roster of VIPs who patronized Palfrey’s escort service. Yeas & Nays hears that, as of this writing, the segment will reveal only two new names and is currently slotted for a mere seven minutes at the end of the hour long broadcast (you’ll recall that Palfrey turned over nearly 15,000 phone numbers to ABC News back in March).

Interviews with both Palfrey and former Deputy Secretary of state Randall Tobias (who left the State Department last week after being interviewed by ABC News for the “20/20” piece) are currently scheduled, leaving precious little time remaining for much else (or for all of those salacious details you’ve been waiting for).

Sources tell Yeas & Nays that Ross, who had anticipated a far juicier piece, is none too happy with the final results, especially after he and the network promoted this story for weeks. It’s worth remembering that Ross and his team have a big-story reputation: They are the ones who helped bring down former Rep. Mark Foley because of his sexually explicit contacts with congressional pages.

“This isn’t going to blow the lid off Washington,” says one ABC employee who asked not to be named. “If they had any big fish, we’d know it by now. There’s no way this lives up to the hype.”

Part of the reason why the “20/20” segment may end up being so tame is that there were serious discussions within ABC News over the legal and ethical questions involved in identifying men on Palfrey’s client list. Questions such as: What makes a public figure a public figure (and worthy of mention on the broadcast)? Does merely having your phone number appear in Palfrey’s phone records prove that you used her service? What if you called Palfrey’s service only for a massage (as Tobias claims) or female companionship? How can the network prove that sex actually took place? And is ABC being used by Palfrey to do her dirty work?

“I think it’s a difficult story,” says Peter Prichard, president of the Newseum and former editor of USA Today. “And it’s right on that line about whether or not you should cross it. … If you don’t have a lot of witnesses to what actually happened, it’s not entirely fair to just connect a phone number and say something happened. … I’m glad I’m not the editor deciding whether to run it.”

Jeffrey Schneider, executive vice president at ABC News, told Yeas & Nays, “We are proceeding very thoughtfully and very carefully, as we do on any work that we do. Obviously, there are sensitivities here and we are very mindful of that. If a name is going to be included in our report, it would have to rise to a certain level of newsworthiness.”

Of course, sex still sells: ABC’s special takes place during the all-important television sweeps.

Valenti’s burial at least seven years in the making

 Former Motion Picture Association of America head Jack Valenti, who passed away last week and had a star-studded funeral on Tuesday, will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery next Wednesday.

But the story behind his burial there goes back to the Clinton administration. On Jan. 18, 2001, just before the first inauguration of President Bush, then-Secretary of Defense Bill Cohen responded to a request from Valenti to be buried at Arlington.

In a letter to Valenti, a copy of which was obtained by Yeas & Nays, Cohen wrote, “I am granting a waiver as an exception to policy that upon your death, you will qualify for an In-Ground Burial at Arlington. Please accept this letter as another token of our appreciation for the many outstanding efforts you have undertaken on behalf of America’s men and women in the Armed Forces.”

Valenti flew 51 combat missions as a B-25 pilot in World War II. Yet burials at Arlington are typically reserved for career soldiers or those killed in action.

An e-mail sent from Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ office to several senators and congressmen Tuesday indicated that “Gates has agreed to honor the exception to the internment policy at the Arlington National Cemetery that was approved for Mr. Valenti by [Secretary Cohen].”

Valenti’s VIP friends

If you are special, you were among the 1,300 or so individuals who attended Jack Valenti’s memorial service Tuesday at St. Matthew’s Cathedral.

If you are really special, you were among the nearly 700 who subsequently drove to the Ritz-Carlton for a reception (Sandra Bullock walked the six blocks, we hear).

But if you are superspecial, you were in the gang of 100 that headed back to Valenti’s home Tuesday afternoon to swap stories, obtain copies of Valenti’s not-yet-released book, look over Valenti’s memorabilia and hobnob with the likes of Steven Spielberg, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Kirk and Michael Douglas, Bullock and Michael Eisner.

Steny Hoyer: GOP’s train led to ditch

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., was six minutes late to his weekly pen and pad briefing on Wednesday.

When he entered, the assembled journalists, led by Linda Scott of PBS’s “NewsHour” chided him for his tardiness.

“I am late,” Hoyer said. “I apologize.”

“Even the Republicans could keep the trains running on time,” joked Scott.

Hoyer was ready for that one.

“The American public’s conclusion was they were running the train into a ditch,” he said. “And getting to the ditch on time is not necessarily a great policy to be pursuing.”

Speakeasy

“Have you heard her music? It’s so depressing, it makes you want to lie down and die.” – An anonymous Army officer privy to the discussions within Walter Reed on whether singer Joan Baez should have been allowed to perform there, as quoted on the blog at susankatzkeating.blogspot.com

“The appropriate World Bank panel may consider attaching a shorter, tighter leash to Mr. Wolfowitz because the present leash — if there is a leash at all —appears to be inadequate.” – Rep. Howard Coble, R-N.C., speaking on the House floor Tuesday about Paul Wolfowitz

By the numbers

317: E-mail addresses of journalists and Democratic insiders inadvertently included in an e-mail alert from Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office Wednesday

3: Members of Congress who, amid all the debate over the president’s veto of the Iraq war supplemental bill, managed to make floor speeches Tuesday regarding the University of Florida’s NCAA basketball championship, won April 2

Jeff Dufour and Patrick Gavin cover people, power and politics in the beltway each weekday. Email them at yan@dcexaminer.com.