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Don't Mess With This Texan's Picks
Tweet Share on Facebook March 4, 2007 CommentKatrina cleanup czar Donald Powell didn't get his Super Bowl picks right, but he did correctly predict the vastly underrated New Orleans Saints and San Diego Chargers would make the playoffs. So considering those creds, we asked him his pick for the World Series. "The Houston Astros vs. the California Angels," he tells us. It's an authoritative guess: He talks baseball with former President Bush, a longtime fan, and current President Bush, a former Texas Rangers partner.
With Anna Mulrine, Silla Brush, Suzi Parker, and Chitra Ragavan
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A Nelson Mandela for an Earlier Time
Tweet Share on Facebook March 4, 2007 CommentMost White House reporters stick to what they know when it comes time to pen a book. But Cox Newspapers correspondent Bob Deans thought bigger. "I found it fascinating to write about the first great leader we know of in English America—Chief Powhatan." Yes, the father of Pocahontas and the first native big shot the British encountered. In The River Where America Began, Deans charts civilization along Virginia's James and finds the chief to be more than the despot others have called him. If Powhatan had been born today, Deans thinks he knows whom the chief would be compared to: "It's not hard to imagine Powhatan as a kind of 17th-century Nelson Mandela, standing boldly for the cause of his people."
With Anna Mulrine, Silla Brush, Suzi Parker, and Chitra Ragavan
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Juicing the GOP Message
Tweet Share on Facebook March 4, 2007 CommentFlorida's Rep. Adam Putnam, the No. 3 House Republican, isn't shy about his Sunshine State pride. After his alma mater University of Florida Gators won the national football championship, he met with reporters in the Capitol sitting next to an alligator head. Since then, he's talked politics with reporters over jugs of Florida's Natural orange juice, produced from a farming co-op begun in 1933 that his family is a part of. "We try to sweeten the reporters' dispositions," he jokes, and he thinks it's working. "We've been having a couple of good-message weeks."
With Anna Mulrine, Silla Brush, Suzi Parker, and Chitra Ragavan
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What's With Watts and Richardson?
Tweet Share on Facebook March 4, 2007 CommentIt could have been the environment, the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, or the brash frankness of an ex-politician. But former Rep. J. C. Watts, once the House GOP's main communicator and a sometimes entry on Republican vice presidential lists, fessed up at the University of Arkansas last month that he likes Democratic New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson in the 2008 presidential race. "Personally, I'm a Bill Richardson fan," he admits. "I think he has the Bill Clinton touch with people."
With Anna Mulrine, Silla Brush, Suzi Parker, and Chitra Ragavan
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A G-Man's Version of Oprah's List
Tweet Share on Facebook March 4, 2007 CommentHe's no Oprah. But FBI Director and avid reader Robert Mueller has started a new bureau reading list to help his G-men broaden their horizons. The list has more than 60 books about the FBI's history, terrorism, intelligence, and professional development. "He just thought," says an insider, "that we must have more formalized intellectual stimulation." Some gems: Public Enemies, by Bryan Burrough, about the birth of the FBI; The Looming Tower, Lawrence Wright's book about al Qaeda's road to 9/11; China, Inc. by Ted Fishman; and Louis Gerstner's Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? about IBM's historic turnaround. We also hear that Mueller's a big fan of former ge bigwig Jack Welch. So naturally, Welch's Winning also gets top billing.
With Anna Mulrine, Silla Brush, Suzi Parker, and Chitra Ragavan
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Out Loud
Tweet Share on Facebook March 4, 2007 Comment"I'm pro-American, pro-democracy. I'm pro-government. I follow my boss. He's my boss; that's the way it goes."
Pat Riley, coach of the Miami Heat, referring to Bush while being honored at the White House for the team's 2006 NBA title"You know you drag this out as long as you can. ... You've got to do it over and over."
Sen. John McCain, telling Late Show host David Letterman about his plans to announce for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination over several weeks"We did try buying a Powerball ticket."
Tom Vilsack, the former Democratic presidential candidate, joking about poor fundraising"It's a pain in the you-know-what."
Tony Snow, the White House spokesman, on his previous colon cancer, during an event where he and others were honored by Great Comebacks, a program for cancer victims to share storiesSources: Washington Post, Late Show With David Letterman, The Colbert Report, Washington Examiner
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Cartoon
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On Plame, We Got It Right
Tweet Share on Facebook March 2, 2007 Comment
Plame and Joseph Wilson Credit: Nathans of Georgetown Remember our tease earlier this week that it looked as if famed CIA gal Valerie Plame was planning to take her story to Hollywood? Well, it's come true. But whether Morgan Fairchild, the dishy look-alike who recently lunched with Plame and her husband, Joe Wilson, will play her hasn't been decided. Maybe Sharon Stone or Gwyneth Paltrow. Hmmm. Who'd play Wilson? Oh, how about that brooding coach on Friday Night Lights, Kyle Chandler?
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Bolton Throws Book at United Nations
Tweet Share on Facebook March 2, 2007 CommentWe went to the annual Conservative Political Action Conference last night for dinner. Red wine, red meat, chocolate pudding cake with red berries for dessert. Heard the veep, just back from a tour of the war zone, where he was targeted by al Qaeda.
"As you might have heard, I've just been out of the country–which, in some quarters is considered a good thing," he joked. Dick Cheney was tough, but not as hard on his enemies as John Bolton, the former American ambassador to the United Nations. In fact, when Bolton was introduced to the crowd, he got a loud applause, second only to Cheney's. In his address, he revealed that he is writing a book about his experiences, a surprise to a book publisher I was sitting with.
"It ought to sell," said the publisher.
That's because it will be very tough on the U.N., which Bolton tried to reform during his year there with admittedly little success. In fact, he suggested that former U.N. boss Kofi Annan "should have been fired for incompetence long ago." And he'll call for major funding changes so that the United States doesn't get stuck paying for a large portion of the bill. Here was his novel idea: The United States, which now funds 22 percent of the U.N. budget, should just voluntarily pay what it wants to. Or, as he said, "Pay for what we want and demand we get what we pay for."
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Friday's Cartoon
Tweet Share on Facebook March 2, 2007 Comment
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