Washington Whispers
Condi's Ready to Play—Golf, That Is
Condoleezza Rice, the popular secretary of state oft-touted as White House timber, has taken up the sport of presidents—golf. "She's got the bug," says a close aide. Now before you take this as evidence she's running and slap a Condi for President sticker on your car's bumper, we're reliably told that she took up the sport for fun. "It's one more mountain to climb," says a friend.
Seems she caught that bug about three years ago when Stanford pal Stephen Krasner, her former policy adviser, urged Condi to hit the greens. It started with a few lessons in Washington, blossoming into a love affair. Now we didn't know about this because Rice chooses to play out of the public eye with friends, like on the three golf courses at Andrews Air Force Base. She even carries her clubs on diplomatic trips to Asia so that she can get in a few holes during long layovers in Hawaii. How good is she? Her aide jokes that her handicap is "probably classified," but we're told that she didn't embarrass herself in 2006 when playing with teen phenom Michelle Wie.
Rice wants to take her passion for the sport to another level. Like helping Tiger Woods, who hosted last week's pro tourney in Washington, use golf to push major causes. "She would very much like to do what she can to raise awareness of golf as a sport," says her aide.
Quit the Senate, McCain Is Urged
Before he falls out of the top tier of GOP White House hopefuls, chief advisers to Sen. John McCain are urging him to quit his day job and become a full-time presidential candidate. "Just resign," one says he told McCain. "Show you're all in." Advisers say being a senator is a drag. He doesn't have enough time to campaign and raise money. Worse: The issues he has to vote on, like immigration reform, are killers. If McCain takes that advice, here's the game plan. "Pick three issues conservatives care about and nail them," says one adviser, "and attack [Sen.] Hillary Clinton every day. He needs to break out, and becoming the anti-Hillary will work."
Barney's Got That Butterball Look
First pup Barney's almost 7 years old, and you know what that means: He's starting to fatten up in his older years. Once the energetic kid who used to run around with the famous "Barney Cam" on his noggin, we hear that the president's Scottish terrier is putting on weight. So much so that he has to be carried down the steps of Air Force One, behind Laura Bush's bounding younger Scottie, Miss Beazley.
Tony Snow Tells Pals He's OK
White House Press Secretary Tony Snow is telling friends that he has a very good shot at winning his second bout with cancer. He's even boasting that he has a better chance this time than he did when he was first diagnosed with colon cancer. For now, he's still undergoing chemotherapy every other Friday, and that wears him down. But we're assured that he'll be there for the grand opening of the renovated White House briefing room July 12.
Powerless Dems Told to Fess Up
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Joe Biden is fast winning the straight-talking title that Sen. John McCain had in his first White House run. The latest example: He says Democrats deserve their poor public-approval ratings because they oversold their powers to the voters in 2006. "We do not have control," he says, explaining that the party doesn't have enough votes to overturn a presidential veto. "They elected a Democratic Congress in anticipation we'd end this war, get the hell out of there, and we'd move on to attending to the business of the country. It was an unrealistic expectation."
Even Bob Novak Needs an Editor
His new autobio, The Prince of Darkness, is a great read that tells all about his leading role in the Valerie Plame affair. But we hear that Robert Novak needed a good editor just like the rest of us scribes to get it to press. At 662 pages-not including 16 pages of pictures—it's half of what he originally submitted. His team tells us that it goes on sale next week after he officially unveils it on Meet the Press. A big media tour is scheduled but so far no stop at CNN, which in 2005 unceremoniously dumped the longtime guest host—then under fire for revealing Plame's name—after he blurted out an obscenity.
Tax Dollars—a Lot of Them—at Work
A Jeopardy quiz: In the category of federal jobs, this position pays almost $20,000 more than the vice president's salary. No, sorry, it's not the president. He gets $400,000. It's the chief information technology job for the Comptroller of the Currency at $231,000. Sound extravagant? It's not, says a department spokesman, who argued that it's hard to find good IT people. "What we pay our folks doesn't come close to what Wall Street does," says Kevin Mukri. And Comptroller isn't the only one. Mukri says competing agencies like the Federal Reserve pay the same to stifle competition. He adds that while the pay can go as high as $231,000, as advertised in newspapers, Currency voluntarily caps the salary at the vice president's pay, now $212,100. And anyway, says Mukri, people don't go to Currency for the money. "It's the work that drives the people."
PETA Says Jenna Bush Laid an Egg
You knew it was coming. Following a report that first twin Jenna Bush was seen munching down foie gras, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have filed a protest. "You were recently spotted doing something truly scandalous," writes PETA President Ingrid Newkirk: "Eating foie gras, an item so cruel that it has been banned in several nations and parts of the U.S." Newkirk explains the yucky details of force-feeding ducks to bloat their livers then asks: "Will you commit to never eating foie gras again?" The White House says it never got the fax and had no comment anyway.
Paul Bedard's blog is at www.usnews.com/whispers
With Thomas Omestad
This story appears in the July 16, 2007 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.