Category: General

I had no idea my blogging experience would be helpful last night when I dropped by trivia at DC’s Wonderland Bar & Grill, but it was.

Carl Bernstein book on Hillary Rodham Clinton slated for massive release in June. Could influence the primary environment. Low key “Office of Special Counsel” launches highest profile investigation in its history. Promises to “leave no stone unturned” in investigation of U.S. attorney firings.

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has hired mega-lawyer and Bill Clinton’s legal counsel Bob Bennett to defend him against allegations of misconduct at the World Bank. Here is the zinger quote from the New York Times article by Steven Weisman on Bennett and Wolfowitz: “I am very worried about the rush to judgment,” Mr.

President Bush doesn’t like to lose battles over his political nominees. The White House’s tenaciousness on this front was clear in a 21 month long battle and three major drives to get John Bolton confirmed as US Ambassador to the United Nations — a battle that President Bush and his team finally lost.

A few years back, I read Lee Kuan Yew’s Memoirs. No matter what one thinks of his illiberal political tendencies, his leadership in carving out a successful city state in an unstable and convulsing Southeast Asia was breathtaking.

Barack Obama probably felt the need to outline his broad views on foreign policy because, unlike Joe Biden, John McCain, and Bill Richardson, for example, he hasn’t had the benefit of decades of talk show appearances and floor statements with which to illustrate them. He did just that with a speech today.

I made my first trip to Russia when Boris Yeltsin was president, when Russians were extremely anxious about economic insecurity and Russia’s declining influence in the world. Sadly, those feelings during Yeltsin’s up-and-down presidency tainted his image in Russia.

Last night, I had dinner with a long-time national security systems analyst who has worked in the Department of Defense and now works for one of the larger private think tanks funded mostly by government.

The two largest economic partners for Cuba today are Venezuela and China. Venezuela provides oil to Cuba in exchange for a finely tuned barter arrangement for tens of thousands of doctors deployed throughout Venezuelan cities and villages. China is pumping “tied aid” and financing into Cuba because it smells mercantilist opportunities there.

Secretary of the Treasury “Hank Paulson can easily control his enthusiasm for Paul Wolfowitz,” according to a source close to Paulson, “but he does not have enough yet to stick the final knife in.