Washington Whispers

Despite a long list of House and Senate supporters, the Pentagon is refusing to consider making the U.S. Marine Corps equal to the Navy when it comes to the name of the department the two services share. But Mike Mullen, an admiral who chairs the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says that despite his long opposition, he'd rename it the Department of the Navy and Marine Corps, if Congress ever passes the change. "We don't need to do it," says the former chief of naval operations. If ordered? "Oh sure. I actually do follow the law."

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Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalyn kicked off their 27th annual work project with housing nonprofit Habitat for Humanity in Northeast Washington, D.C., today. Between hammering nails and raising walls in the chilly rain in front of a throng of news cameras, Carter took a moment to endorse another housing nonprofit, The Fuller Center for Housing, for a plan to build houses in North Korea, set to begin shortly. “They’ve already gotten permission from the government of North Korea to come in; they’ve already had a team there to assess the construction possibilities. This has to be a very flexible thing because as you know all of the houses in North Korea are owned by the government,” Carter said. “We’re just thankful that we’ll be able to get some houses built in North Korea for people in need.”
 

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Monica Lewinsky was the last thing on the mind of former Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Hugh Shelton at his final meeting with President Clinton, days before George W. Bush's 2001 inauguration. But in a rare look at the shame Bubba felt over the affair, it seems that Lewinsky and his own behavior were front and center in Clinton's last days. "Hugh, I need to see you in private, please," the retired general recalls Clinton saying, in his upcoming autobiography Without Hesitation. Shelton pulled the president into an office near the White House Situation Room, and Clinton came clean to the officer whom many call among the most ethical to hold the top brass slot. "Hugh, I know the last few years have put a tremendous strain on you based on my ... activity. I know the principles for which you stand, and I know the values, and character, that our men and women in uniform expect—and possess—and in truthfulness, I have not lived up to those values; and yet, you have stuck by me," Shelton recalls Clinton saying.

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Some 52 days after his near death in an Alaska fishing plane crash that killed Sen. Ted Stevens, former NASA administrator and Navy Secretary Sean O'Keefe has been released from the hospital and true to his reputation went right to work.

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