Evelyn Iritani of the Los Angeles Times wrote an interesting piece on Rob Portman’s departure as U.S. Trade Representative to serve as Joshua Bolten’s successor at the Office of Management and Budget. Susan Schwab, who is now one of three Deputy USTRs, will be succeeding Portman as America’s third female U.S.
Seymour Hersh’s article on Bush’s plan for war with Iran has helped confirm the worst suspicions of those on the left scared of another neocon-like and neocon-led war in the Middle East and has bolstered some on the far right who were afraid that the White House had become too weak to take on the…
For those who have the time and interest, I’ll be speaking with Al Franken today at 2:30 pm about what’s brewing with Iran. More later.
John Bellinger is the best that it gets in the Bush administration. As I’ve written before, there is a multiple personality reality in any presidential administration, and the trick is to try and make sure that the “dominant personality” of the administration gets the nation on what is mostly a constructive, enlightened course.
President Bush is rebuffing the nation in clinging to Rumsfeld. Someone remind the President that his Secretary of Defense presided over behaviors that led to the image below, and to far worse: The calls for Rumsfeld to depart will only intensify now.
Others, including House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, have said Doha was dead over and over, but today I believe it. U.S. Trade representative and former Ohio Congressman Rob Portman will move over to take Joshua Bolten’s position as Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
When Henry Kissinger was making his way into China to negotiate China’s coming out details, all sorts of subterfuge was deployed to disguise Kissinger’s travel. The press was told that he was seriously knocked out with intestinal disorders while he was secreted out for a quick trip to Beijing.
Congressman and Senate candidate Harold Ford, Jr. (D-TN-9) has just appealed to Republican Congressmen to join him in calling for Colin Powell to replace Don Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense. I like Harold Ford a lot — but he’s veering into reckless theatrics with some of his latest positions.
Dana Priest of the Washington Post for beat reporting — mostly for her coverage of intelligence matters and for the scoop on the secret CIA detention facilities; James Risen and Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times for national reporting — and they, of course, broke the story on warrantless wiretaps. . .
Defense strategist Harlan Ullman writes a regular “Owls and Eagles” column for the Washington Times, and I frequently learn a great deal from it. I have come by an early draft of what will appear in his column tomorrow — titled tentatively “It is Bush’s War, Not Rumsfeld’s”.
