White House Week
With Legacy on the Brain, a Sense of Panic in the Ranks
Congressional Republicans are worried that President Bush will cut secret deals with Democrats on Social Security, taxes, and the environment. "There is a lot of grief being channeled toward the White House right now," says one GOP strategist. "Republicans are concerned that Bush will be so concerned about his legacy that he'll focus on getting results on domestic issues." Not to worry, the White House has told Hill Republicans: Bush will "lay down the firewalls" and make clear during his State of the Union address how far he would compromise with Democrats. But this has not alleviated Republican fears. "The reason we're having all this heartburn," says the strategist, "is that we haven't gotten any assurances from the president that he won't cut too many deals."
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
In naming Texas Democrat Silvestre Reyes chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may have done herself as much harm as good. Hispanic groups hailed the Reyes selection, but in passing over Jane Harman of California, the committee's ranking Democrat, and Alcee Hastings of Florida, also senior to Reyes, Pelosi ruffled more than a few feathers. Harman and Pelosi have been at daggers-drawn for years, while Hastings was impeached as a federal judge. But dissing Harman won't sit well with women. Ditto with Hastings and the Congressional Black Caucus, of which he was a member. Republicans were delighted with Pelosi's dilemma: "She does have tendencies to self-destruct," says an adviser to the GOP and the White House, "so let's not get in her way."
Giving the Oil Companies Some Gas
Congress's top investigator, Comptroller General David Walker, wants to make sure that the government is getting its fair share from companies that explore for and produce oil and gas on federal and American Indian lands. In a recent letter to congressional leaders, Walker said that the Interior Department collected $8 billion in royalties in fiscal 2005, but he questions whether the amount was sufficient. The collections, he said, did not keep pace with the big increase in oil and gas prices since 2001. Walker cited Interior assessments that royalty relief provisions could potentially cost the government and American Indian groups $60 billion over the next 25 years. His Government Accountability Office is also reviewing deficiencies in royalty collections. Separately, Interior's inspector general, Earl Devaney, is looking at flaws in the agency's royalty auditing process and also its failure to include royalty payment provisions in some deep-water oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico.
And a Lump of Coal in Your Stocking, Too
How do you hurt a dictator, especially one you really don't like? Take away his toys. That's what the United Nations is trying to do to Kim Jung Il for testing a nuclear weapon. Each nation must decide what not to send to North Korea; the United States has opted to deny Kim his motorcycles, Jet Skis, Segways, race cars, fine crystal, and cognac. Tough, because North Korean rackets-including gunrunning and counterfeiting of cigarettes, drugs, and money-reportedly bring the odd little nation up to $1 billion in booty each year.
With Danielle Knight, Paul Bedard and Edward T. Pound
This story appears in the December 11, 2006 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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