White House Week
Democrats Want to Avoid Same-old, Same-old
Senate Democrats will use a nomination hearing strategy that was cooked up well before John G. Roberts got the nod for the Supreme Court. The plan--to raise questions about Roberts's support for civil and human rights--was designed to avoid stereotypical attacks on antiabortion candidates, Democratic officials said. Sen. Edward Kennedy (this will be his 20th Supreme Court confirmation hearing), whose aides helped plan the strategy, concedes that Roberts's nomination is going well, but he cautions the GOP about overconfidence. He also says that despite her activism as both a feminist and antiabortion advocate, Roberts's wife should not be an issue at the hearing. "I admire her for it," Kennedy said of the personal and professional career of Jane Sullivan Roberts. Senate aides added that they don't expect outside groups to make the Catholicism of Roberts and his wife an issue either.
Bush's Short, Hot Summer Timetable
The president felt he was under a lot more deadline pressure than White House officials let on publicly in the run-up to his nomination of John G. Roberts to the Supreme Court. Bush's aides started with his desire to have a new justice confirmed for the court's fall term in October, then backed up the timetable, taking into account the Senate's summer recess and the expectation that confirmation hearings would take about four days and that votes in committee and on the floor would consume another two or three days. Their conclusion: It was do or die last week, Friday at the latest.
More Mystery in the Plame-Rove Affair
As the news turned to the president's Supreme Court nominee and the latest London attacks, congressional Democrats strove mightily to keep alive the issue of who in the White House leaked the identity of a covert CIA agent. To that end, they held a Democrats-only hearing, questioning former intelligence officers on the dangers posed by such a disclosure. Meanwhile, the case of who knew that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA and who told that to the press took a new turn when the Wall Street Journal reported that her name and role appeared in a classified State Department memo prepared in 2003 for then Secretary of State Colin Powell--a memo possibly seen by other White House officials. The paragraph containing Plame's name was marked "S" for Secret. While it has been disclosed that Bush deputy Karl Rove talked to two reporters about Plame--apparently without naming her--Rove's lawyer says his client saw the memo only when a prosecutor showed it to him.
Troublemakers, Right to the Bitter End
The Treasury Department has learned that four sons of Saddam Hussein's half brother have provided financial support--and even weapons and explosives--to groups that have attacked coalition forces. So Treasury put their names, and those of two more nephews, on a list that would freeze any assets they might have in the United States and urged the United Nations to do the same overseas. That's key, officials say, because the six nephews live in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Lebanon.
With Paul Bedard, Kenneth T. Walsh and Danielle Knight Paul Bedard, Kenneth T. Walsh and Danielle Knight Paul Bedard, Kenneth T. Walsh and Danielle Knight Paul Bedard, Kenneth T. Walsh and Danielle Knight
This story appears in the August 1, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.