Washington Whispers
A Nelson Mandela for an Earlier Time
Most White House reporters stick to what they know when it comes time to pen a book. But Cox Newspapers correspondent Bob Deans thought bigger. "I found it fascinating to write about the first great leader we know of in English America—Chief Powhatan. "Yes, the father of Pocahontas and the first native big shot the British encountered. In The River Where America Began, Deans charts civilization along Virginia's James and finds the chief to be more than the despot others have called him. If Powhatan had been born today, Deans thinks he knows whom the chief would be compared to: "It's not hard to imagine Powhatan as a kind of 17th-century Nelson Mandela, standing boldly for the cause of his people."
Juicing the GOP Message
Florida's Rep.Adam Putnam, the No. 3 House Republican, isn't shy about his Sunshine State pride. After his alma mater University of Florida Gators won the national football championship, he met with reporters in the Capitol sitting next to an alligator head. Since then, he's talked politics with reporters over jugs of Florida's Natural orange juice, produced from a farming co-op begun in 1933 that his family is a part of. "We try to sweeten the reporters' dispositions," he jokes, and he thinks it's working. "We've been having a couple of good-message weeks."
What's With Watts and Richardson?
It could have been the environment, the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, or the brash frankness of an ex-politician. But former Rep. J. C. Watts, once the House GOP's main communicator and a sometimes entry on Republican vice presidential lists, fessed up at the University of Arkansas last month that he likes Democratic New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson in the 2008 presidential race. "Personally, I'm a Bill Richardson fan," he admits. "I think he has the Bill Clinton touch with people."
A G-Man's Version of Oprah's List
He's no Oprah. But FBI Director and avid reader Robert Mueller has started a new bureau reading list to help his G-men broaden their horizons. The list has more than 60 books about the FBI's history, terrorism, intelligence, and professional development. "He just thought," says an insider, "that we must have more formalized intellectual stimulation." Some gems: Public Enemies, by Bryan Burrough, about the birth of the FBI; The Looming Tower, Lawrence Wright's book about al Qaeda's road to 9/11; China, Inc. by Ted Fishman; and Louis Gerstner's Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? about IBM's historic turnaround. We also hear that Mueller's a big fan of former GE bigwig Jack Welch. So naturally, Welch's Winning also gets top billing.
Paul Bedard's blog is at www.usnews.com/whispers
With Anna Mulrine, Silla Brush, Suzi Parker and Chitra Ragavan
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