213/365 George Little

2013/1/8 DC

第一次做國防部的新聞，一堆Afghanistan和Al-Qaeda聽得我霧煞煞，倒是發言人George Little低沉的嗓音讓我第一次有被煞到的感覺。Little長得很帥，斯斯文文戴個細框眼鏡，和白宮發言人Jay Carney感覺很像，典型的白人精英。這些發言人平時面對連珠炮的問題，永遠都要耐著性子不疾不徐陳述政府立場，雖然老在發言台上板著個臉孔，但我總覺得他們骨子裡應該都挺悶騷的。

就像奧巴馬才提名前參議員Chuck Hagel擔任下屆國防部長，卻因為他反以色列反制裁伊朗甚至反同性戀而鬧得沸沸揚揚，當一堆參議員說要在聽證會給他好看時，大家都很關心 Hagel昨天和現任國防部長Panetta晚餐會面時談了什麼事，結果Little居然這樣回答:

Q: On that last point, do you have any readout of the dinner between Panetta and Hagel last night?

MR. LITTLE: The dinner occurred last night here at the Pentagon. It was a one-on-one dinner with Secretary Panetta and Senator Hagel. It was a very good discussion. I'm pleased to report that the dinner included corn chowder, filet mignon and chocolate cake. So it was more Midwestern-themed with a little steak and corn than Italian this go-round.

Q: Do you have a follow-up?

MR. LITTLE: I don't know if there was any Nebraska wine. (Laughs, laughter.)

把菜名完整講了一遍，還說是中西部主題式菜色，讓底下記者哄堂大笑，聽到這段時我傻眼，還真猶豫了一下要不要把這段放進新聞，後來為了維持這條新聞嚴肅的定位，還是選了個講國防部全力輔助Hagel進行國會聽證，以及國防部積極應對三月一日政府削減開支啟動的bite。

只能說，鏡頭前的國防部都是些反恐戰爭等嚴肅到不行的模樣，私底下還是有很輕鬆搞笑的一面呀!