Feb 14 2009
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“ Politico learned Tuesday that Plouffe had told Georgetown University that he wanted his speech to be off the record. The political news site worked with Georgetown University right up until Plouffe’s Thursday remarks to get the architect of Obama’s White House win to reconsider. In an interview with ABC News, Harris said that Politico did not want to be in the business of co-sponsoring an off-the-record talk with a newsworthy person. “I’m not trying to be on a high horse on this,” said Harris. “I can appreciate the bind that Georgetown was in. But I couldn’t participate in an off-the-record conversation. It seemed pointless to me.” To showcase his displeasure with Plouffe’s off-the-record policy, Milbank stood outside of the National Press Club’s ballroom wearing a sandwich board on which he had written: “unPLOUFFable: what the Plouffe?” Milbank then handed out reporters’ notebooks and pens to the lunch participants as they were walking into the National Press Club’s ballroom, urging them to take notes on Plouffe’s remarks and promising to cite their account of the speech in a future Washington Post column. Shortly before Plouffe began speaking, the president of the National Press Club registered her displeasure with Plouffe’s off-the-record policy by e-mailing him a letter of complaint.
