Issued today by Senator Harry Reid’s office: AGRICULTURE — Tom Harkin APPROPRIATIONS — Robert Byrd ARMED SERVICES — Carl Levin BANKING — Chris Dodd COMMERCE — Daniel Inouye ENERGY — Jeff Bingaman ENVIRONMENT & PUBLIC WORKS — Barbara Boxer FINANCE — Max Baucus FOREIGN RELATIONS — Joseph Biden HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR & PENSIONS — Edward…

Here are copies of two letters that Congressmen Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Jim Walsh (R-NY) have distributed today to Members of Congress calling for the President to nominate Congressman Jim Leach as US Ambassador to the United Nations “in the event that Ambassador Bolton’s term is not extended.” Here is the “Dear Colleague“.

(House Speaker Dennis Hastert, former Prime Minister of Japan Junichiro Koizumi, and former US Ambassador to Japan Howard Baker) Sources have confirmed to TWN that outgoing House Speaker Dennis Hastert tops the list of possible alternatives to succeed George Bush’s Texas Rangers baseball buddy Tom Schieffer as US Ambassador to Japan, a role that Hastert…

Congressmen Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Jim Walsh (R-NY) have begun to float a “Dear Colleague” letter asking members to sign on to an appeal to the White House to nominate outgoing Iowa Congressman Jim Leach as Ambassador to the United Nations “should the Bolton nomination expire.

A few days ago, I suggested that outgoing Iowa Congressman and House International Relations Committee Member Jim Leach be made John Bolton’s successor as a “100% Sure Senate-Confirmed” US Ambassador to the United Nations.

Senator Harry Reid’s office just released this roster of the new management team of the Senate: Robert C. Byrd, President Pro Temp Harry Reid, Majority Leader Dick Durbin, Assistant Majority Leader Barbara Boxer, Chief Deputy Whip Thomas R. Carper, Deputy Whip Bill Nelson, Deputy Whip Russell D. Feingold, Deputy Whip Charles E.

I’m sure that many will see Judith Miller’s comments in this report as an enormous “make-over”. Miller was speaking at Kansas State University’s “Community Readiness Communications: Accurate Messages in Times of Crisis” conference.

I read Tony Blair’s speech, given a few hours ago. It’s getting some whopper attention, but I think it’s a far less robust declaration that America should wrestle “directly” with Syria and Iran than the press thinks it is — but that said, I agree completely with the ‘perceived’ sentiment.

For those at their internet terminals now, Daniel Levy — who has been a whirling dervish in Washington changing the currents of opinion and possibility on Israel-Palestine negotiations — and I will be on Radio Open Source with Christopher Lydon (Boston National Public Radio) from 7 pm until 8 pm EST.

The President’s team ‘has a plan’ regarding the seemingly irrational obsession with keeping John Bolton working at the United Nations. We just don’t know what that plan is. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will vote Bolton down, decisively and definitively, if called to vote this week.