Washington Whispers
Live From the Pentagon With Bob
Nothing screams change to an old setting like a new set of furniture and edgy decorations. President Bush signaled a new, more formal tone when he junked former President Clinton's gaudy Oval Office furnishings. Nancy Pelosi returned grace and style to the House speaker's office with flowers and bowls of chocolates. And Bob Gates, the latest defense secretary, is doing it at the Pentagon.
Distinguishing himself from Don Rumsfeld's combativeness, Gates held his first press conference around a big table in a small conference room. But it was too cramped, so he set his sights on making the larger briefing room cozier. Gone is the lone podium, replaced by a set that would better fit a morning TV news show: a big table for himself and Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in front of a world map. And unlike Rummy, Gates likes to sit, despite formerly heading Texas A&M University, where the "12th Man" tradition keeps students on their feet for Aggie games. "Frankly," says Gates, "I get tired when I stand up too long."
Now the decorations. Gates thinks the office looks better with a few trinkets from Aggieland, says spokesperson Hollen Wheeler. That, naturally, riled the larger corps of brass, who hail from the University of Texas. But Wheeler, herself a Longhorn, says the UT gang doesn't feel too threatened: They outnumber Aggies 9 to 2.
Breaking Bread Now, Heads Later
The groundwork is being laid for the first meeting between the two party chairmen, longtime Democratic boss Howard Dean and GOP newbie Sen. Mel Martinez. But it's not just to gab over a cup of Starbucks. Both sides want to make sure that the other won't let states hold primaries before New Hampshire's first. We hear that the GOP will activate a rule to punish state parties if they do by slashing their number of delegates at the nominating convention in half. The Democrats don't have a similar rule.
No Retreat, and a Plan to Get Even
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is joining the activist world with a plan to return conservatives to dominance. DeLay calls his new group the Coalition for a Conservative Majority, and it has one mission: recruiting and electing conservatives in all 50 states. He plans to begin building it during an April book tour to promote No Retreat, No Surrender, his blueprint for victory. Ironically, DeLay was inspired by Democrats who followed their loss to President Bush in 2000 with what he calls a liberal shadow party that ousted the GOP last year and is aimed at installing Sen.Hillary Rodham Clinton in the White House.
Don't Mess With This Texan's Picks
Katrina cleanup czar Donald Powell didn't get his Super Bowl picks right, but he did correctly predict the vastly underrated New Orleans Saints and San Diego Chargers would make the playoffs. So considering those creds, we asked him his pick for the World Series. "The Houston Astros vs. the California Angels," he tells us. It's an authoritative guess: He talks baseball with former President Bush, a longtime fan, and current President Bush, a former Texas Rangers partner.
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
This story appears in the March 12, 2007 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.