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Did Obama Jump the Gun on Rosh Hashana?
Tweet Share on Facebook August 19, 2009 Comment (16)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
You know how Republicans sometimes whine that if President Bush and his aides had taken some of the kinds of moves President Obama and his associates have, the critics would be on the Bushies like white on rice? Well, they might have a good case with Obama's early new years message to Jewish leaders.
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Tom Ridge on National Security After 9/11
Tweet Share on Facebook August 19, 2009 Comment (67)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
Tom Ridge, the first head of the 9/11-inspired Department of Homeland Security, wasn't keen on writing a tell-all. But in The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege...and How We Can Be Safe Again, out September 1, Ridge says he wants to shake "public complacency" over security. And to do that, well, he needs to tell all. Especially about the infighting he saw that frustrated his attempts to build a smooth-running department. Among the headlines promoted by publisher Thomas Dunne Books: Ridge was never invited to sit in on National Security Council meetings; was "blindsided" by the FBI in morning Oval Office meetings because the agency withheld critical information from him; found his urgings to block Michael Brown from being named head of the emergency agency blamed for the Hurricane Katrina disaster ignored; and was pushed to raise the security alert on the eve of President Bush's re-election, something he saw as politically motivated and worth resigning over.
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Congress Looks at Puppies for Injured Veterans
Tweet Share on Facebook August 18, 2009 Comment (6)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
If one of Congress's dog lovers gets his way, grants will soon be heading to animal groups to pair soldiers and vets suffering from war injuries with therapy dogs. It's the idea of Kentucky GOP Rep. Ed Whitfield, known for traveling on the Hill with his Jack Russell terrier, Nigel. The highlight in his bill: Those with post-traumatic stress disorder would get a dog. It's a Whitfield family affair. Wife Connie, a Humane Society exec, tells our Suzi Parker it could help the troops and empty animal shelters.
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CIA: Panetta Secure as Director
Tweet Share on Facebook August 18, 2009 CommentBy Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
The CIA is pushing back hard on insider rumors that Director Leon Panetta, in turf battles with Congress and the national intelligence director, is frustrated and thinking about leaving at his one-year mark in February. "That's complete garbage," spokesman Paul Gimigliano tells Whispers. "His place at the table's secure, and he hopes to be at the CIA for a good long time. You only leave a place like Monterey [in California] for something really good—and he did." Whatever Panetta decides, look for President Obama to press him to stay, if for no other reason than few others are eager to take the job.
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Toomey Woos Pennsylvanians in Steelers Country
Tweet Share on Facebook August 18, 2009 Comment (3)By Nikki Schwab, Washington Whispers
GOP Senate candidate Pat Toomey may have been wooing Pennsylvanians in Steelers country over the weekend, but it's the Philadelphia Eagles football team that warms his heart. "Despite the fact that I'm sitting here in Pittsburgh right now, I have to confess that I'm an Eagles fan," Toomey told Whispers at the RightOnline conference, where he was the keynote speaker Friday night. In a state where football and food mean a lot, he also admitted that he had yet to try a Primanti Bros. sandwich, considered the Pittsburgh counterpart to the world-famous Philadelphia cheese steak. "I have to say I'm not a connoisseur yet, so I will have to take the opportunity to sample some," Toomey said.
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Town Hall Anger Headed to Washington
Tweet Share on Facebook August 17, 2009 Comment (19)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
The angry Americans expressing themselves at lawmaker town halls around the country are heading to Washington. A planned September 12 taxpayer march on Washington, initially focused on taxes and corporate bailouts, is gaining momentum from the recent town halls where the administration's healthcare proposal has been hit for being too big and expensive. Organizers are now expecting thousands to parade on the White House and Congress to demand that Washington keep taxes low. Initially a follow-up to the springtime tea parties, the Saturday "Taxpayer March On D.C." is bringing together "tea party patriots, 'Resistnet,' FreedomWorks, Campaign for Liberty, and a host of other limited-government groups to storm the Capitol," organizers say. A conservative organizer tells Whispers that "a lot of unhappy taxpayers are busing in from as far away as 700 miles" and that much of the crowd will include seniors worried about healthcare and personal finances.
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Whispers Poll: Truman's Key West Bests Obama's Martha's Vineyard
Tweet Share on Facebook August 17, 2009 CommentBy Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
Americans just don't seem to be as crazy about vacationing in Martha's Vineyard, Mass., as White House residents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Asked in our new Whispers poll which summer White House location Americans would most like to visit, Key West, Fla., the fave of former President Harry S. Truman, took the prize with 35 percent. Martha's Vineyard, where Obama is taking a $25,000 holiday with his family, was second at 19 percent, tied with Ronald Reagan's Santa Barbara. In the Internet poll conducted by Synovate eNation, Kennebunkport, Maine, the summer vacation spot for former President George H. W. Bush, and Jackson Hole, Wyo., where Clinton rested for two summers, came in fourth and fifth.
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Secret Service Opens Up on Protecting Obama, McCain
Tweet Share on Facebook August 17, 2009 Comment (82)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
Only one figure really matters in the first-ever annual report issued by the Secret Service. "Achieved a 100 percent success rate in safe arrivals and departures for all protectees," it says on Page 22. More bluntly: Nobody in its protection was hurt or worse. But the fiscal 2008 annual report, fashioned after those of other agencies, reveals much more, especially how the 2008 presidential election taxed the nation's premier protection and financial policing service.
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It's Up to Obama on Healthcare
Tweet Share on Facebook August 14, 2009 Comment (10)Pollster John Zogby regularly updates our ObamaMeter. Each week, Zogby uses his polling, expert analysis, and interaction with major players to come up with a rating of between 1 and 100. The ObamaMeter, however, is not simply a poll-generated job approval number. Instead, the Washington Whispers ObamaMeter is Zogby's judgment on the performance of the president based on multiple factors.
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Mark Sanford's Wife Urged to Write Tell-All Book
Tweet Share on Facebook August 14, 2009 Comment (10)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
Ever notice how the guys of political affairs write books about their cheating, make big dollars, and then sometimes go on to greater fame? What about the victims in those cases: the wives? Well, we hear that the New York publishing world would like Jenny Sanford, the wife of South Carolina's odd Gov. Mark Sanford, to tell her side of their story. The reason: Unlike the wives of some politicians who have been ensnarled in scandal, she seems to have taken a different role than the supportive mate, leaving the governor's mansion with her kids while he pines about his Latin lover in Argentina.
