Washington Whispers
'Secretary of Tech' Is No Fan of E-mail
He may be in charge of the gizmos used to find illegal border crossers and deadly chemicals in subways, but Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff likes to keep his personal tech simple. "I don't use E-mail," he confides. "You just get deluged with a lot of garbage." Chertoff describes his experience with electronic mail as "picking through genuine work E-mails and invitations to baby showers." Worse: "People sometimes will think you've gotten something that you actually haven't gotten." Been there.
Chertoff insists he's not out of touch just because he isn't glued to a BlackBerry. "I rely on people communicating with my staff," he says. "At any moment, I can request an update, and I can always be reached." His E-mail discipline has roots in last year's Hurricane Katrina, when unfiltered messages about the levee breach flooded in after he'd left for the night. "It is unhelpful to have 15 or 16 E-mails coming from all different directions being thrown at you," he says. "When people rely on E-mail chains, it can sometimes leave the decision maker unable to sort out good information from information that's just plain wrong." His new rule for aides: Verify the info before clicking "forward." As for this hurricane season, he's doing better than E-mail by personally traveling to the Gulf region to view rescue drills. "I'm going down there," he says, "and kicking the tires myself."
Time for Some Hill Hazard Pay?
Being a top aide to congressional leaders isn't normally risky business, but that wasn't the case last week when House Speaker Dennis Hastert led a small delegation to Baghdad. About halfway through their first day on the ground, Hastert and other lawmakers helicoptered from an Army base to the Iraqi speaker's office. His aides and physician were to follow in another Black Hawk, but when it got 30 feet off the ground, it suddenly fell, bouncing a few times, spilling fuel everywhere, and damaging the landing gear. "We were pretty scared," Hastert's spokesman, Ron Bonjean, tells us, "but we had faith in the pilots." Bonjean said the chopper was leaning badly, the rotors just skimming the pebble-strewn ground. "The pilots were shouting to us to stay seated so it wouldn't tip over," he says. "They saved the day--and us." After a brief wait, they got a ride on another chopper. Noting the danger, heat, and heavy gear, Bonjean says, "we certainly got a real appreciation of what our troops go through to fight the war on terror."
In Iraq, Squabbling Over an $11 Tab
Influential retired Gen.Barry McCaffrey has finally reported to West Point on his recent trip to Iraq, and what he found surprised even the gruff old critic of the war: troops pumped up, local military are up to the job--even the Baghdad government is starting to take charge. But McCaffrey,an adjunct professor at the Point, found the nonmilitary U.S. bureaucracy a total mess. The federal agencies, he writes, "actually fight over who will pay the $11-per-day per diemon food."
The CIA Isn't Big on Freaking Out
After the hit book Freakonomics came out last year, economist and coauthor Steven Levitt got a surprising phone call--from the CIA. The spooks wanted Levitt--famous for attributing a drop in crime to the legalization of abortion and other controversial theories--to offer a bit of feedback on a few of their ideas. At a recent party in New York marking the one-year anniversary of the book, Levitt recalls the visit: "I told them that if I were a terrorist, I'd smuggle a metal-free gas mask onto an airplane, set off some sarin gas that would kill everybody, then slowly make my way to the cockpit." The spooks scoffed--and didn't invite Levitt back. "They weren't impressed with me," Levitt says, "and I wasn't impressed with them."
Brangelina's Baby Isn't Namibia's No. 1
Turns out that Brangelina's new baby wasn't Namibia's first celebrated infant from abroad. When Rep. Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, was in Namibia in 1989 and 1990, his newborn, Ryan, was named Namibian Baby of the Year in a local contest. Why was Flake in Namibia? "It's kind of a Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie story," he jokes before turning serious to reveal that he was there running Foundation for Democracy, which advised the southern African country on how to draw up its constitution. Flake first started working in the region in the early 1980s, when he was a young Mormon missionary in South Africa. He shocked his staffers shortly after he was elected to Congress in 2000 when he started speaking fluent Afrikaans at an event at the Dutch Embassy. "There aren't many opportunities," he observes, "to speak Afrikaans."
Unique Fundraising: Masks and Guns?
Republican Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is seriously considering a run for the presidency in 2008, telling supporters that he'll finally decide after he leaves office in January. One hurdle: raising the money needed to fight in the primaries, a situation so difficult that he jokes about it. "I've got a map of 7-Elevens, a bunch of blue steel revolvers, and some ski masks," he kids. "We're going to go all over the country and raise money in a very unique way."
Not Just Any Chevy Suburban
Please don't ask National Association of Manufacturers President John Engler to give up his gas-guzzling 2002 Chevy Suburban. "I happen to like my Suburban," says the former Michigan governor. And not just because it was built in Motor City. "It was my gubernatorial limo," he says, explaining that he bought the lease on the SUV when he left office.
Eat Organic, Just Like the President
Free-spending foodies aren't the only ones flocking to Whole Foods Market. We hear that the organic-obsessed White House kitchen shops there, too--and often. But the tipsters won't say which of the 13 area stores the chefs shop at because of security concerns.
With Angie C. Marek, Rick Newman and Danielle Knight
This story appears in the June 19, 2006 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.