Washington Whispers
The Lobbying Scandal Workout
There's nothing like a good gym routine to get your mind off pressing issues like, say, whether or not you are going to prison. We hear that lobbying scandal figure Michael Scanlon has continued his workouts at the posh Sports Club/LA inside Washington's Ritz-Carlton, the same place where George Clooney and first daughter Jenna Bush sweat. Scanlon, convicted but not yet sentenced in the Jack Abramoff affair, looks fit, say fellow gym rats, but gets a bit testy with questions like "How is everything?" His answer to one: "Uh, don't you read the papers?" To others he predicts that he will avoid jail time.
The Ex-Secretary and the X-Mins
No, it's not a girl group like Josie and the Pussycats, but the leader of Madeleine and the X-Mins says it's just as cool, in a foreign-policy kind of way. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright reveals that she and the other Clinton-era foreign ministers like Britain's late Robin Cook became so close that they've kept an informal group together since, which she calls "Madeleine and the Ex-Mins." The goals: Share foreign-policy tips, and sometimes push an agenda. The Ex-Mins started about five years ago when Cook suggested the talking group. Lately, it has tried to influence policy in Russia and Darfur. The best part for Albright is that the approach is global. "The brilliant part about it," she says, is "we are talking without our national positions."
McCain's Cool, but Allen's the Goal
Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain might be getting all the headlines for burying the hatchet with political foe Jerry Falwell and agreeing to speak at the reverend's Liberty University. But that doesn't mean the Arizona senator is Falwell's guy in 2008. In fact, he sounds more like a Sen. George Allen fan. Just consider whom he wants to speak at the 2008 commencement. "Everyone asks if I support John McCain. Well, we agree on some things and not on others," Falwell tells us. "I am glad he is coming to speak. I hope to have President Bush speak next year and George Allen speak the year after that." In other commencement news, former President Bush is in another first: He and former first lady Barbara will give the May 21 address to George Washington University grads. The weekend before, Bush and former President Clinton will be making history by teaming to give the speech at Tulane University.
Bingeing on Terrorism Analysts
The new National Counterterrorism Center is supposed to be the nation's premier agency for analysis on terrorism, but it's still too small. So John Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, is adding 75 more analysts to its ranks from other agencies. But that's just a start. He eventually wants to hire several hundred more to double the analyst ranks of the secretive operation. Raiding the other agencies shouldn't be a problem: There are an amazing 5,000-plus government counterterrorism analysts to choose from.
With Suzi Parker, Alex Kingsbury and Kevin Whitelaw
advertisement
