Keep your own counsel, pay no attention to what you see and hear

Dear Hecate:

Well, the session is over for the summer, and our line item that had been vetoed by the governor was NOT over-ridden by the Legislature. In fact they did not take up any of the vetoes, even after we did all the stuff you told us too. We got one theory from our so-called champions in the House and Senate, another theory from our so-called friends in the administration, another theory from our contract lobbyist, and still another theory from a reporter from the State House News Service we ran into in the coffee shop. As a matter of fact, the reporter's theory made the most sense. She said "Don't pay any attention to what you hear from any of them. they are all making excuses --- think of it as a big circle of potential heroes all pointing fingers at the other guy for "not doing his or her part." NOT helpful. How do I figure hout what really happened?

Confused and Bewildered


Hecate says:

Maybe you have heard the wonderful advice from Frank Mankiewicz, Press Secretary to Robert Kennedy's Presidential campaign. Keep your own counsel. Pay no attention to what you see and hear. In practice that means you soak it all in - listen to every insider's theory -- no matter how goofy or cockamamie and file away every single factoid in your head. Assuming you have a reasonable amount of judgement and common sense, there will come a moment when one of the insiders will give you one piece of gossip that will set off bells and whistles and all the odd pieces of information will fall into place. HA! That's what the SOB's were doing! Then keep it to your self and act on it strategically. None of the other insiders have to know you figured it out.