White House Week
The Capital Comes Unglued Over a Guy Named Rove
The elusive strands of fact surrounding the outing of a covert CIA agent--and what role, if any, Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove played--may one day be untangled by the special prosecutor probing the leak. But for now, the issue has upset what passes for the balance of power in Washington. Senate Democrats tried to strip Rove of his security clearance last week, while Republicans cried dirty politics. Then the Dems watched gleefully as the White House--which for nearly two years had denied any involvement by Rove in the leak--fumbled its response to disclosures that he spoke to two reporters about former CIA agent Valerie Plame, even if he didn't actually use her name. (Democrats contend that Rove did it either to discredit or retaliate against Joseph Wilson, Plame's husband, who was sent to Niger to see if Iraq had tried to buy uranium there. He found no evidence, and he blasted the White House.)
Whatever the case, the normally hypereffective White House spin machine threw a rod. "The main story coming out of the White House this week was all about Karl Rove," said one Democratic operative, suggesting the White House had instead wanted to "use the bombings in London to shift the story line back to terrorism and try to get a little boost in the polls." Senior White House officials fretted that the controversy would depress President Bush's public approval ratings still further and considered mounting a public defense, but they opted to wait out the storm, expecting the issue, eventually, to blow away. "Rove is personally cool as a cucumber," said one adviser. "He has a heck of a lot more information than the rest of us."
Rice, and a Breakthrough in Beijing
BEIJING--As an American official and his North Korean counterpart dined on steak and cheesecake here, the rogue nation at last said yes to resuming six-nation negotiations on eliminating its nuclear weapons programs. The timing was perfect for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who had arrived that very evening to begin a four-nation Asian swing. Restarting the talks will relieve some of the pressure on Pyongyang--but it also cuts the White House some much-needed slack. So it was not surprising that Rice last week welcomed a set of South Korean inducements calculated to gin up the talks: proposals to deliver electricity to the power-starved North, foster trade, and give more food aid. "We sought to make a breakthrough in the stalemate," said South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon. The administration wanted the same, but it relied on others to step in and offer most of the goodies.
Bush Team Quacks: No Lame Duck Here
Despite--or because of--slumping ratings, administration officials have ramped up their talk that President Bush is not a lame duck. Insiders say that with his war on terrorism, tax cuts, judicial picks, and expanded GOP control of Congress, Bush is on track to have as lasting a legacy as former President Ronald Reagan. The latest example: The president is likely to name a new Federal Reserve chairman sometime next year, putting his stamp on future economic policy.
With Terence Samuel, Paul Bedard and Thomas Omestad Terence Samuel, Paul Bedard and Thomas Omestad Terence Samuel, Paul Bedard and Thomas Omestad
This story appears in the July 25, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.