7/27/01 Barbara Bush's starfish It's not every day that a former first lady signs her name to a fundraising letter, but AmeriCares isn't your ordinary charity, says Barbara Bush. "In this sea of turmoil and suffering, when you contribute to AmeriCares, you will make a difference," she writes. The group delivers medicine to troubled areas like El Salvador and the former Yugoslavia. The group's symbol is a small starfish, and the former first lady relishes in explaining why in her letter, provided to Whispers. It starts with a little boy returning stranded starfish to the ocean. "An elderly man watched this performance one day, and as the little boy continued down the beach, the man went up and spoke to the lad, saying, 'Little boy, why are you doing this? Can't you see that there are literally millions and millions of these little starfish dying here in the sun on the beach? What you are doing can't possibly make a difference.' " You know the punch line. "I made a difference to this one," says the boy. • Find more information about AmeriCares.

7/26/01 Social Security Web war Want a preview of how hot the fight over Social Security reform could get? Sign onto the Internet. As President Bush prepares to receive a blue-ribbon panel's gloomy forecast supporting his plan to allow 2 percent of payroll taxes to be put into the stock market, both sides are digging in for a long battle. The Dems and GOP are just beginning to get off their shots in Congress, but they're already in the World Wide Web trenches. The Republican National Committee, for instance, links its site to former President Clinton's pessimistic analysis of the package. It also has an RNC site that lights into foes of the proposal. The Democrats, meanwhile, are using the Web to slay the Bush plan as well as gin up support. Like the RNC, the Democratic Party has dedicated a special page to Social Security. Aiding the Dems, the AFL-CIO, which also has a site condemning the GOP package.

7/25/01 Superstitious Ari Fleischer Confidently installed as President Bush's spokesman, Ari Fleischer is opening up about how he trained for the post and how superstition played a role in the prepping process. He says he began preparing way back in October 2000 when the Bushies were "feeling good" about beating Al Gore in the presidential election. He started reading transcripts of White House briefings conducted by Clinton spokesman Michael McCurry and Marlin Fitzwater, former President Bush's spokesman; he also called the two spokesmen to chat about the job. But as Gore surged, he felt a twinge of superstition and put the transcripts aside. He even refused to read them or consider the job during the Florida recount. Only after George W. Bush made the cut did Fleischer go back to flack training. Of course, by then it was too late–his transition briefings drew the White House press corps eager to get a jump start on the new administration.

7/20/01 Surprise! Pentagon bickering The bickering between Pentagon brass and President Bush's appointees has reached new highs over the so-called "Quadrennial Defense Review," which will guide defense reform and define the new military. The crux of the problem: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's review rules. The brass say they're not clear. Rumsfeld says they're being ignored. One example: This week one of the review panels looking at ships and troops recommended tripling the number of aircraft carrier groups and noodling with Army division numbers. The panel thought it filled the bill; Rumsfeld called it a joke. So far, the public hasn't had a chance to look at Rumsfeld's QDR "Terms of Reference" rules. Our Pentagon correspondent Mark Mazzetti got a copy–scrubbed of classified info–and you can judge it for yourself.

7/19/01 Representative Condit on the auction block Rep. Gary Condit, the virtually anonymous lawmaker turned celeb because of his affair with missing intern Chandra Levy, has finally made it: He's all over the mega Internet auction site eBay. Friends and foes of the California congressman have posted over a dozen different items on eBay, including "Resign Condit!" T-shirts, letters he's signed, and even dirt from his Modesto County district. One seller is asking $100,000 for "Rep. Gary Condit.com" [view auction]; another wants $500,000 for the Web addresses "ChandraLevyCase.com" and "GaryConditTrial.com" [view auction].

Clinton's presidential envy Most ex-presidents just fade away, but not Bill Clinton. Far from it. He's setting up a presidency in exile back home in Arkansas. Just this week, he filed an architectural plan with the Hot Springs zoning board to create a mini-Camp David. Friends say he wants to use the secluded site on Lake Hamilton to schmooze world and corporate leaders. He even looks to do some freelance foreign policy in his favorite interest areas: the Middle East, Ireland, and Africa. The Clinton Presidential Foundation Retreat is actually on 6.98 acres of family land in Hot Springs, where the kid prez grew up. It will be linked directly to the bigger Clinton presidential library in Little Rock. It's amazing how much the retreat copies Camp David, the real presidential resort in Maryland, according to the master plan retrieved by our Suzi Parker. (View the development plan.) For example, it will have several–up to five–cottages where guests can stay. It will also have a main conference center, called the Lodge, just like at Camp David. But there's more. Clinton wants a boathouse, a fancy patio for parties, a gatehouse, and a remote building for his U.S. Secret Service detail. He's asking for two major zoning variances, but they shouldn't be a problem. The first is to increase the height of the perimeter fence to 8 feet. He also wants to plant the gatehouse closer to the main road than is normally allowed. This makes four homes that Clinton can sleep in: Washington, Chappaqua, N.Y., soon in his library, and at the retreat. View the documents: • Conditional use permit • Board of zoning adjustment petition • Existing site survey • Master development plan

7/18/01 Ready for primary time If early organizing and fundraising are the keys to winning the next Democratic presidential primary, then early bets are on Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry. Whispers has learned that Kerry has been on a whirlwind hiring spree, gobbling up the best and the brightest in the business nearly three years before the first 2004 primary. "Kerry understands politics is a winner-take-all game," an adviser tells us. "He's going to sign up the top talent and best fundraisers in the Democratic Party early and build a state-of-the-art operation easily transitioned into a presidential vehicle." The team so far includes: Peter Maroney, Kerry finance director. Maroney honed his skills under fundraising whiz and Democratic Party boss Terry McAuliffe. His resume includes stints with House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt and Rep. Joe Kennedy. Bob Farmer, Kerry campaign chairman, who served as finance director for Clinton-Gore 1992 and raised cash for the Dukakis 1988 campaign. Erin Bilbray, one of the directors of the 2000 Democratic convention, who heads Kerry's D.C. fundraising operation–a first for Massachusetts's junior senator, who until now has steered clear of a Washington money shop because he shuns PAC contributions traditionally given by Washington-based groups. Richard Reeves, a Florida money man. The team is already scoring well: It raked in $2.1 million in six months–without taking any PAC money.

7/17/01 Vlad, the sweet talker As President Bush prepares for his second meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin this weekend in Genoa, Italy, new details are emerging about their first summit in Slovenia last month. And they're anything but soothing to critics who think Dubya flubbed big time when he gushed about how much he trusts the Kremlin boss. During their first tête-à-tête June 16, Putin unabashedly flattered his American counterpart, even bringing up the little-known fact that Bush had played intramural rugby at Yale. "I know more about you than you think," joked the former KGB agent, adding: "You are a student of history." Okay, so that tidbit was no biggie: just about every Bush bio mentions that he was a history major. But the rugby roots? America's commander in chief was smitten, we're told.

7/13/01 What Powell, Rice, Rumsfeld rift? Moi? That’s the reaction of White House National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to reports she, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and State Department boss Colin Powell are fighting with each other. “I wish I knew which rift that was,” she said at the end of a National Press Club speech of the rumored tiff. In fact, she says, everything is lovey-dovey. Her words: “I’ve actually never had a better working relationship with anyone. First of all, Colin Powell and I know each other from a very, very long time ago, and we even know each other through family ties of [Powell’s wife] Alma Powell, who is also from Birmingham, Ala. We are good friends and good colleagues. And Don Rumsfeld and Colin Powell and the rest of the administration really work awfully well together. We like each other. We believe we can solve problems together. And I know everybody keeps looking for the story that we are clawing at each other. We’re not.” So there.

7/12/01 Campaign candy bag Democratic backers of campaign finance reform, which is slated for a House vote on Thursday, are starting to dole out the goodies in hopes of keeping their plan alive. But one proposed amendment floating around Capitol Hill and provided to Whispers seems to fly in the face of reform. It's dubbed by critics the "sham charity plan." It would allow federal candidates to solicit up to $20,000 in individual contributions on behalf of non-profit charities, including political groups. One source suggested that candidates and parties would quickly move to establish charities with apple-pie sounding names that would essentially run ads for their political sponsors. And contributions would be tax deductible, most likely resulting in huge donations to the politically aligned groups. "Imagine that: The Democrats want a tax deduction for the rich," chortles a Republican source of the Democratic amendment. With this and other last-minute amendments being offered to win enough Democrats to pass the bill, both sides now fear that consideration could be delayed until after every potentially embarrassing proposal can be studied.

7/11/01 Marching orders The Pentagon is a lonely place these days, as the White House is pulling the plug on several potential Defense appointees, Whispers has learned. Pentagon sources say the next could be Matt Fong, former California treasurer and failed Senate candidate who was slated to become undersecretary of the Army, the No. 2 position. Our Mark Mazzetti buzzed the White House and Fong, but neither would comment. One insider says Fong balked at the Bush team's demand that he sell his defense-related stocks upon taking office. It's a do-or-die rule that has irked many top Bushies. The reason: With the stock market in the dumps, Bush appointees–who could at most earn $130,000 a year in government posts–would lose millions by selling low. Government work's cool, but for some the payoff is chump change, they say.

7/10/01 Oh, the horror of it all Do Newt Gingrich, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan give you nightmares? Well, they had them, too. A dream researcher reports that Republicans are nearly three times as likely as Democrats to have nightmares. "Half of the dreams of Republicans in my study were classified as nightmares, compared to only about 18 percent of the dreams of Democrats," says University of California-Santa Cruz researcher Kelly Bulkeley. Why he'd study dreams from a political bent we don't know, but Bulkeley thinks he knows why there's a difference between the political parties. His speculation: "People on the right are very attuned to the dangers in the world, and they're seeking ways to defend themselves against those threats. They're drawn to a political ideology that favors things like a strong military and traditional moral values. People on the left tend to be more utopian and open to the possibility of going beyond the way things are now to how things could be made better." He plans to offer more at this week's annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Back to Washington Whispers