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.
Trivial Clinton
It probably won't include cigars, but former President Clinton's foundation is developing catalog gifts to raise moola. It begins with the sale of Clinton cuff links. One future treat: a Clinton Trivial Pursuit game.
British Cliffs Notes
President Bush said he wanted to brush up on his British culture and history before flying to London this week to huddle with Prime Minister Tony Blair. The plan: His staff was to include a copy of Master and Commander, the new epic about the British Navy, on his Camp David theater list.
The Embed Payoff
Former Reagan-Bush spokesman Marlin Fitzwater knows a losing PR strategy when he sees one, and he thought that the Pentagon's plan to embed reporters with troops in Iraq was a shining example. Until it worked. Now he's a big fan and this week will give ex-Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clarke the first Marlin Fitzwater Center Award for Leadership in Public Communication. "It was quite unique," said Fitzwater, the namesake of a new journalism center at New Hampshire's Franklin Pierce College. Before, he said, "the government's answer to coverage was more control. For the first time, they gave journalists more freedom and less control."
Dean's Rebel Yell
He blundered the line and awkwardly tried to turn it into a debate on race relations, but Howard Dean was exactly right when he reached out to white southerners. "We have to target white men," says Simon Rosenberg, head of the New Democratic Network. Without them, Democrats lose. Did in 2002 and will in 2004, adds ex-Clinton pollster Mark Penn. The duo has teamed up to identify and target swing voters for Rosenberg's New Majority Coalition Research Project. How to win? Talk up soldiers and C&W music, offer tuition plans, and don't bash Bush. Instead, sound like a leader.
Kremlin Grease
Want to know why Russian oil billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky is in jail? We hear it's because he offered to front the Communist Party's antigovernment plan. Sources say he did so in a meeting with Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov. This being Russia, where ex-KGB agent Vladimir Putin is president, the meeting was naturally secretly recorded and then provided to the Kremlin. When Vlad later asked Mikhail about the deal, the oilman denied it. Wrong move. He leaves the Kremlin and, badda bing, is soon arrested. A December 30 hearing is planned.
White House Blue
It's probably not as big a question as Ford, Chevy, or Dodge, but some hobby farmers wanted to know which color tractor the White House uses--John Deere green, Kubota orange, or New Holland blue. Finally the answer: We just saw a nicely equipped New Holland doing a little front-end-loader work at the northwest gate.
Bush's TV Dilemma
An admitted TV sports nut, President Bush pretty much hates this time of year. "He can watch baseball forever," says a pal, "but he's not really much into football." He stays up only to catch key Texas rivalries, bowl games, and college basketball's Sweet 16. But you won't catch him watching Dr. Phil instead. We're told that Bush uses his free time to work out, especially lifting weights a la Arnold Schwarzenegger. And fish, both at Camp David and his Texas ranch.
USNEWS.COM Subscribe to Washington Whispers E-mail newsletter: www.usnews.com/whispers
With Suzi Parker and Kenneth T. Walsh
This story appears in the November 24, 2003 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.