Perhaps somebody or other at CATO can explain this [emphasis added]:
POLICY FORUM
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
11:00 AM (Luncheon to Follow)Featuring Tim Reif, General Counsel, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (remarks off the record);Anne Kim, Economic Program Director, Third Way; and Dan Ikenson, Associate Director, Center for Trade Policy Studies, Cato Institute.
. . .
To register for this event, please fill out the form below and click submit or email events@cato.org, fax (202) 371-0841, or call (202) 789-5229 by 11:00 AM, Monday, April 27, 2009. Please arrive early. Seating is limited and not guaranteed. News media inquiries only (no registrations), please call (202) 789-5200.
If you can’t make it to the Cato Institute, watch this forum live online.
How, exactly, does Mr. Reif give off the record remarks at an advertised forum? Particularly one that’s going to webcast live? Erik Wemple at the Washington City Paper suggests this as a possible story under the given constraints:
Yesterday, Tim Reif, general counsel of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative participated in a discussion about trade policy at the Cato Institute. The session touched on the splintering of a political consensus that guided the country through NAFTA and other free-trade pacts but fell apart under the Bush administration. In a heated discussion, the Cato Institute’s Dan Ikenson argued that low trade barriers are so important that the United States should consider taking unilateral steps in that direction. Reif responded.
Picking up on Reif’s comments, Anne Kim argued that what Reif said wasn’t necessarily the case. Reif then said something else.
Ah, DC.
Posted by Hubbard in CHANGE!, Denizens of DC