George F. Will, I think, once said on This Week that the reason there is a fence around the White House was to stop reporters and other sundry government workers from cutting across the White House lawn as they left the Old Executive Office Building on their way to lunch at the Old Ebbitt Grill.
I was having lunch at the Old Ebbitt Grill today, thinking of that anecdote, when it occurred to me that it cannot possibly be correct, because the US Treasury Building is in the way. You’d still have to go around that even if you were cutting a path through the White House greens.
And while I’m on the subject, has anyone ever noticed that while the Constitution gives the “power of the purse” to Congress, the Treasury itself was built (beginning in the 1830s) right next to the White House?
1:01 pm on December 30, 2004
