Washington Whispers
And Besides, I Don't Look Like That!
To the list of Clintonista complaints leveled at ABC's The Path to 9/11, add a funny new gripe: Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright tells students of the Clinton School of Public Service in Arkansas that the actress who played her was a fraud. "She actually had a face-lift, and I haven't," she said to laughs. As for the rest of the story that hit the Clinton crowd pretty hard: "Pretty interesting program when I wasn't frothing at the mouth."
Debating in the 'Cave of the Winds'
John Danforth was probably one of the most levelheaded U.S. ambassadors to the United Nations in years, but that doesn't mean he's a fan of the 192-member General Assembly. "The General Assembly, which has no power, is the debating society," says Danforth, who's pitching his new book, Faith and Politics: How the Moral Values Debate Divides America and How to Move Forward Together. Worse, he says, the General Assembly's goal is attacking Washington and Israel. "When I went there, [former Secretary of State] Colin Powell said, 'Well, try to improve our vote on anti-Israel resolutions.' So I asked, 'Well, how many votes do we get?' Four. We usually get four votes ... so they had a big vote and we got six, and I said, 'Well I've increased our vote by 50 percent!'" His choice is where the power is: the 15-member Security Council and the U.N.'s do-gooder agencies. "The General Assembly," he says, "is not where the action is in the United Nations. The General Assembly is the Cave of the Winds."
The Oval Office or Comedy Central?
If New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson doesn't run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, he might have a chance in comedy. Over bacon and eggs last week, he laid out his view of the political landscape, which has him helping Democrats regain control of Washington. But it was his joking references to Hispanics-he is one-his support for embattled Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, and his remarkable recovery of Chicago Tribune reporter Paul Salopek and two colleagues from Chad prisons that had us thinking he was Comedy Central material. Addressing the explosion of Hispanic voters, he said, "It's not just in the Southwest. As you know, they're everywhere. I was just in Maine, and I met the three of them." Then on Dean, rapped by House Democrats for spending too much building party offices in all 50 states, Richardson said: "I'm on Dean's side. Jeez, how do I step out of that one?" Finally, on Salopek, he told the Christian Science Monitor's David Cook, "On that prison exchange, let me just say that the good news was that we got Salopek back. The bad news, David, is that it is a prisoner exchange, and I'd like you to leave with me after this interview." Badda-bing.
With Angie C. Marek, Thomas Omestad and Suzi Parker
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