“Don’t look back, something might be gaining on you,” – Satchel Paige (ap photo)

Beltway tends to get urpy over sweeping generalizations about “the elite” of any sort. We’ve flown first class a few times, generally on someone else’s dime. We enjoy elite status at the hardware store — but only because we recently undertook some exciting, rather pricey home improvement projects. Otherwise: Bleah. Just the term “elite” feels icky.