Entries for June 04, 2007

The surprise announcement that longtime Bush communications adviser Dan Bartlett is retiring has set the GOP P.R. world afire with debate over who's the best replacement. Early speculation has settled on his deputy, Kevin Sullivan, and on former Republican Party chief and sometime Bush adviser Ed Gillespie.

Others include Treasury Chief of Staff Jim Wilkinson, Senate Republican Conference Chief of Staff Ron Bonjean, and Rob Nichols, a former Treasury spokesman who is now president of the Financial Services Forum. What's mudding up the issue is how the job will be crafted and whether the White House will make it a broad counselor's position, as it is now, or a supercommunicator's job.

The indictment of Louisiana Democratic Rep. William Jefferson on bribery charges today is the latest chapter in a long and sordid story of less-than-above-board politics in the Bayou State.

In 2005, U.S. News looked at the history of Louisiana and political corruption as well as that legacy's possible ramifications for Hurricane Katrina relief money.

Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia whose trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity began this morning in The Hague, declined to appear for the opening statements and fired his lawyer, saying he would not receive a fair hearing before the international tribunal, the Associated Press reports.

Background on the long road of political quandaries that eventually led to Taylor's arrest in March 2006 in Nigeria appears in this May 2005 article in U.S.News & World Report: "Africa's Most Wanted."

This morning's top stories:

• The fighting in Lebanon between militant members of Fatah Islam and the Lebanese Army spilled over into a second Palestinian refugee camp in the southern region of the country over the weekend.
• A 6.2-magnitude earthquake in China near the border with Laos has left tens of thousands homeless.
• Democratic presidential hopefuls sparred over questions of political leadership during a debate in New Hampshire Sunday night.
• An informant in the alleged plot to blow up a fuel line at JFK International Airport was so convincing to his fellow conspirators that they supposedly thanked God for his involvement.
• President Bush departs for the G-8 summit in Germany today, and will also make stops in Eastern European countries with developing democracies.