By Steve Clemons

Pete Pace is out, and it’s good for the country.

I’ve just spent a morning meeting the dynamic and extremely impressive Mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newsom — followed by a talk I gave (but can’t report on) in the most famous lion’s den of movement conservatives about the positives and negatives of President Bush’s foreign policy efforts.

And the word is 30 months in prison and a fine of $250,000. Obstruction of federal investigations is serious. I do feel somewhat badly for Libby in this — as he’s clearly taking much of the heat for this to protect Cheney, who many think should be paying the fine and doing the time.

Applied Materials, the largest semiconductor equipment manufacturer in the world is getting into the business of clean technology and clean energy.

One of the things that few people know about James Wolfensohn is that when he served as Special Emissary of the Quartet in Palestine/Israel matters, Wolfensohn put his own private money on the table to help fund infrastructure and to help Palestinian businesses ship strawberries to Europe.

I received a note last night that another of the people who was responsible for opening many doors for me in Washington when I first moved here in 1994 died yesterday.

This afternoon, World Bank President nominee Robert Zoellick departed on a grueling two-week long “global listening tour” to check in with key stakeholders and clients of the Bank. Zoellick is hitting Africa first — before Europe. The first trip defines much of the mission. He is going to Ghana, which chairs the Africa Union now….

I have just come by a lucid, excellent analysis of the recent “formal negotiations” between Iran and the U.S. which took place in Baghdad written by Iran expert and Columbia University/School of International and Public Affairs scholar Gary Sick.

In my debate commentary below, I could not recall a vote in the Senate or House regarding Bill Clinton’s policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” I doubted there had been one since I thought that the measure had been enacted through Executive Order.

I’m not traveling so am going to watch and report on the Democratic presidential debate tonight. I’m not expecting a lot. The frontrunners are still a bit too much “Bush-lite” for me. For more, see this essay by Financial Times Washington Bureau Chief Edward Luce on “timidity” in Democratic presidential ranks.