A few weeks ago, after Goldman Sachs spokesman Lucas van Praag denied Charlie Gasparino’s report that Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein was planning on retiring by the end of the year because he was “exhausted,” the Fox Business Network anchor pitched a fit on the Huffington Post. How could van Praag deny something that was based on his “impression from a private conversation” he asked, adding that in his opinion the people at Goldman Sachs weren’t as smart or as powerful as everyone thought, and that incidentally he’d heard from his drunk friend at the bar that they were all midgets and bad in bed. (True, he didn’t say that outright but that was certainly the impression you got if you read it.) Anyway, either because he felt bad for being so harsh — everyone always picks on Goldman Sachs! — or because he has something else in mind, Gasparino has made a peace gesture by inviting van Praag to be his date to tomorrow night’s White House Correspondents Dinner, an invitation that van Praag has accepted. Because “détente isn’t dead?” he told us in an e-mail, when asked why he would willingly walk into a simmering cauldron of liberal media elite. Sure, LVP. Just wear something pig’s-blood-proof.
