For This W, It's 1776 All Over Again
The original W is making a comeback as President George W. Bush and his top brass scramble to rekindle public support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That's W as in Gen. George Washington . To encourage public resolve, the president and top officials will suggest that, as in the American Revolution, war can be slow and gritty and that people shouldn't react only to the death toll or negative media coverage. The strategy was inspired by a simple comment made by 1776 author David McCullough in an interview with Tim Russert on CNBC, insiders say. "If [the Revolution] had been covered by the media, and the country had seen how horrible the conditions were, how badly things were being run by the officers, and what a very serious soup we were in," said this historian, "I think that would have been it."
Both Bush and Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld have picked up on that theme and are urging the nation to stay tough, just as the nation's first patriots did.
And there's more to the sales pitch: Top generals are planning to get back into the press-briefing game to sell the war, reversing a harebrained idea to let the Iraqis do it. Leading that charge will be Gen. George Casey and Lt. Gen. John Vines . "The Iraqis were too silent," says a top Pentagon official. Worse, he says, they didn't talk about Americans enough for TV viewers back home. "Now, we're trying to get the generals out in front."
Anchors Ahead for Henry and Bash?
Pay attention to CNN's brat pack: Dana Bash and Ed Henry. Insiders say they're emerging as top candidates for anchor roles. Both have been doing double duty as reporters and fill-in anchors. "They're great," says one insider. And Henry won kudos for his on-air roughing up of fellow CNN-er Robert Novak on his refusal to dish about his involvement in the Valerie Plame outing case. Their profiles couldn't be rising soon enough. Inside Politics' Judy Woodruff is gone, and Wolf Blitzer is overexposed. And now we hear--and CNN execs deny--that NewsNight 's Aaron Brown is on the outs. His latest faux pas: He didn't come in on a day off to anchor coverage of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor 's resignation. Some say he actually refused a request to come to work; a spokeswoman denied that. But CNN made a point of bragging on Blitzer, Paula Zahn, and others for interrupting vacations to anchor London bombing broadcasts.
Once a Dealer, Always a Dealer
It would seem that Bill Richardson can't stay away from negotiating on the world stage. The former United Nations rep and current New Mexico guv was recently seen enjoying a cool refreshment at Berlin's Checkpoint Charlie, where West and East nearly came to blows over 40 years ago at the Berlin Wall. The reason for his visit? "Trying to hustle business," he said while relaxing at Cafe Adler, near the site of the wall, destroyed 16 years ago. Actually, while there he won Germany's promise to continue to have its pilots trained at New Mexico's Holloman Air Force Base, a nice deal that could boost his possible presidential credentials.
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