Would Bush want his girls on Iraq's front line?
It's a question every parent with a daughter in military service, or considering it, has mulled since Pfc. Jessica Lynch, bloodied and possibly raped, was rescued: What the heck were she and other female soldiers doing in the line of fire? The answer is simple, though little publicized: Rules changed in the Clinton years to get women closer to the front. "This is exactly what we warned would happen years ago," says Elaine Donnelly, head of the Center for Military Readiness, a group devoted to limiting female combat exposure. "We need brave women in the military," she says, "but no one's daughter should have to suffer an ordeal" like 19-year-old Lynch's. Even some Pentagon officials agree and would like to see new limits on female combat roles. But it's all up to President Bush, the father of twin 21-year-old daughters, who has yet to weigh in on the issue. Donnelly's attempts at an Oval Office visit have been ignored, so she has started a petition to get Bush to dump the rules. "He needs to give direction," says Donnelly. "We're tugging on his sleeve."
Dick Nixon Goes From D'oh to Dude
It was probably only a matter of time. With today's kids like, wowed, by everything 1970s, should we be surprised that the decade's biggest political bummer, "Tricky Dick" Nixon, is making a comeback? It's true; it's true. "It makes sense," says Robert Garcia of the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda, Calif. "When you think of the time period, you think of Dick Nixon." Granted, he's a biased source, but Garcia has evidence of a Nixon revival. The library gift store has just unveiled the first of what are several planned "retro" Nixon trinkets, this one a T-shirt showing the ex-prez bowling in the White House. And they are selling out fast. "Vintage stuff is back, and we wanted to see if this would work," says Garcia. "People love it." The retro plan is one of two that copy the already popular elvis line of goods stamped with that famous pic of Dick and the King. The other: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Nixon, their 1991 pose on clothes and gifts over the California guv's line: "I'm a Republican because of Richard Nixon." What next? An "I am not a crook" apron?
Leno For Cheap
Here's a first for one of the hottest annual Washington political dinners. Instead of desperately shelling out big bucks to land a last-minute celeb, the White House Correspondents' Association has already lined up funnyman Jay Leno to take shots at the press and President Bush at the annual spring dinner. What's more: Leno isn't asking a king's ransom. Association Prez Carl Cannon of the National Journal kept the fee to $10,000. One hitch: Leno doesn't fly commercial, but maybe some news exec coming to the dinner from the West Coast can make room in the Learjet for the Tonight Show host. It hasn't been so easy in the past. At one recent dinner, Aretha Franklin demanded frills and $50,000. It got so expensive that the group had to cheapen the chow and booze or lose cash on its moneymaker.
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