NBC has posted a few clips from Brian Williams's White House special airing tonight. Most of them show jocular aides putting on a happy face for the cameras, but at least one shows a not-so-pleased Rahm Emanuel booting the camera crew from his office.
"Alright, you guys can go now," a curt Emanuel says. "I'm gonna read the Times. C'mon, c'mon. I got some stuff I've got to catch up on. I'll catch up with you later."
Something tells me he didn't go out of his way to catch up with them later.
Former President Jimmy Carter said today that he disagrees with President Obama's decision to keep under wraps photos of detainee abuse.
Carter said he thought the photos should be released and probably would not harm American troops because America's image in the world couldn't get much worse.
"I think it's hard to realize how much anger there already is based on the revelations that have already been made," Carter told CNN's Campbell Brown.
"And any knowledgeable person within the Arab world or around the rest of the countries on Earth know that these pictures exist," Carter added. "They can now only imagine how bad they are, and maybe the actual publication of them wouldn't exacerbate an already bad situation."
At the same time, Carter said he would not criticize Obama's decision because the President must deal with the potential consequences.
"I don't agree with him, but I certainly don't criticize him for making that decision," Carter said.
Carter demurred on whether the U.S. should prosecute the architects of enhanced interrogation policies, but called for a "complete examination" of what happened.
"Prosecuting is too strong a world," Carter said. "What I would like to see is a complete examination of what did happen, the identification of any perpetrators of crimes against our own laws or against international law...And then after all that's done, decide whether or not there should be any prosecutions."
The Republican National Committee (RNC) might be taking a swipe at President Obama for his weekend date in New York City, but Rush Limbaugh isn't biting.
"Bickering over the Obama's Saturday night date is chump change compared to some of the big stuff going on out there," Limbaugh said during his radio show today. "There's bigger stuff to grumble about than that," he later added.
The RNC had criticized Obama for flying to New York for a date with his wife while the country is in recession.
"As President Obama prepares to wing into Manhattan's theater district on Air Force One to take in a Broadway show, GM is preparing to file bankruptcy and families across America continue to struggle to pay their bills," RNC spokeswoman Gail Gitcho wrote to reporters.
"Have a great Saturday evening--even if you're not jetting off somewhere at taxpayer expense," she added.
But alas, Limbaugh isn't so enthused. The RNC really can't catch a break these days. Even when they go after the "low hanging fruit," conservatives (if Limbaugh is any indication) take issue with their strategy.
Dick Cheney's speech tomorrow on national security will be carried live on the cable networks immediately following President Obama's address on similar topics, giving the former Vice President a huge platform to pick a fight with Obama.
Greg Sargent reports that CNN and MSNBC will cut to Cheney at 10:45 AM, right after Obama's major address at 10AM. (Sargent simply assumes that Fox News will do the same, which is probably a correct assumption.)
Democrats and liberal bloggers are already pushing back against the notion that Cheney's opinion is somehow equivalent to the President's. It's certainly true that what the President of the United States has to say about national security will have more implications for U.S. policy than the former Vice President's thoughts, but the scheduling of these two addresses, as well as the network's willingness to cover Cheney, may at least partially undermine the White House's goal for tomorrow's address.
The administration is hoping to use tomorrow's speech to cool down the heated debate surrounding interrogation policy, Pelosi's spat with the CIA, the decision not to release photos of detainee abuse, the closing of Guantanamo Bay, etc. It's the same tactic Obama applied to the economy in an April 14th address at Georgetown University.
Now that Cheney--Obama's most visible opponent on the issues he'll address--will effectively rebut the President on live TV, one has to wonder if tomorrow's events will simply add fuel to the fire.
Secretary of Defense Bob Gates does not like his job, the cabinet secretary said in a recent interview.
In a profile airing on 60 Minutes last night, Gates accidentally called himself the "Secretary of War" and described the painfulness of sending soldiers into war.
"The truth of the matter is being Secretary of War in a time of war is a very painful thing," Gates told CBS's Katie Couris. "And it's not a job anybody should like. How can you like a job when you go to Walter Reed and you know you sent those young men and women in harm's way? Every single person in combat today I sent there. And and I never forget that for a second. So no, I don't enjoy my job. "
Gates also offered a colorful if somewhat curt reserved analysis of the situation in Afghanistan. Pressed on whether U.S. soldiers would be gone from the country within four years, Gates said answering that would require too many hypotheticals-- what he called a "fairy story."
Pakistan intelligence services, he said, was "pay[ing] both sides" in Afghanistan because they're unsure who will win.
And the fact that we are not fighting the Islamic militants whom we funded and supported during the Cold War simply proves "that history is ironic."
Offering a tepid comparison of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, Gates labeled his old boss "committed, questioning, [and] eager to make a decision and move on." Obama, on the other hand, is "deliberative, decisive and calm."
In a surprising move, President Obama will name Gov. Jon Huntsman (R) the new U.S. Ambassador to China, reports say. Huntsman is expected to accept.
Huntsman was considered a possible GOP Presidential candidate in 2012. In fact, Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe said recently that Huntsman was the candidate he most feared.
Huntsman was deputy trade representative under George W. Bush, and was U.S. Ambassador to Singapore from 1992 to 1994. As govenor, he recently led a trade mission to China. He speaks fluent Mandarin, and his wife and he adopted their daughter from China.
Re-elected to a second four year term in November, Huntsman has taken heteredox positions for a Republican, announcing recently that he favored civil unions for same-sex couples. He recently traveled to Michigan to speak with the Republican state party, fueling speculaiton that he was considering a presidential bid.
Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert (R) will assume office once Huntsman steps down and will serve until 2010, at which time a special election will be held.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the roster of her department's staff members working on health reform Monday.
Topping the list is Jeanne Lambrew, director of the HHS Office of Health Reform. Lambrew originally held the title of deputy director of the White House Office of Health Reform, where she was to serve under former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.). Daschle was slated to run the White House office and be secretary of HHS but withdrew his nomination after revealing that he'd paid more than $140,000 in back taxes while being considered for the posts.
Working alongside Lambrew are Mike Hash, a former senior Medicare official during the Clinton administration, and Neera Tanden, who advised both the Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton presidential campaigns on healthcare and previously worked for Clinton in the Senate and in the Clinton White House.
Obama campaign aide and former journalist Linda Douglass moves from the White House to HHS to run communications for the department's health reform efforts. Five additional staffers round out the team.
"The HHS Office of Health Reform and the White House Office of Health Reform will work in tandem to advance legislation and take immediate actions to cut costs, assure quality and affordable healthcare for all Americans, and guarantee Americans can choose their doctor and their health plan," Sebelius said in a statement.
The White House has formalized its short list of Supreme Court contenders and asked six prospects to provide personal background information, with an intensive vetting process well underway, according to sources close to the process.
The leading contenders on the short list: federal appeals court Judges Sonia Sotomayor and Diane Wood, and Solicitor General Elena Kagan, sources close to the process say.
No huge surprises there. But then comes this:
[T]he pick has prompted an internal struggle between legal and political officials within the administration, sources say.
Political officials like Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel are favoring Sotomayor, who would be an historic pick as the Court's first Hispanic justice.
[snip]
Legal officials in the Administration want Obama to tap a candidate who would be a more obvious force on the Court, bringing both intellectual prowess and a proven ability to build coalitions. They favor either Kagan or Wood--prospects who could be considered judicial rock stars capable of going toe to toe with Scalia and Roberts.
The idea that Sotomayor doesn't have the gravitas for the nation's highest court sparked an uproar on the blogosphere this week. TNR's Jeffrey Rosen launched the debate on Monday, when he quoted anonymous former clerks and prosecutors who criticzed Sotomayor's demeanor and intelligence.
Numerous bloggers pushed back against Rosen--notably Glenn Greenwald--but the meme seems to have found its way into the administration. Whether Rosen's piece is the symptom or cause of this, of course, is unclear.
If there's any merit in following the day-to-day speculation on who Obama's SCOTUS pick will be, then Sonia Sotomayor had a bad couple days.
First, conservative bloggers dug up this exchange from 2005, in which Sotomayor contends that "court of appeals is where policy is made." Sotomayor quickly backtracks, somewhat uncomfortably:
All of the legal defense funds out there, they're looking for people with court of appeals experience. Because, it is, court of appeals is where policy is made. And I know, I know this is on tape and I should never say that because we don't make law, I know. Um, ok. I know. I'm not promoting it, I'm not advocating it. I'm, you know...
Republicans have already accused Obama of looking for a justice who will "legislate from the bench," and these statements from Sotomayor won't boost her reputation among moderate GOP senators.
Then, TNR's Jeffrey Rosen penned a pretty harsh indictment of Sotomayor's qualifications for the nation's highest court. Quoting (anonymously) several of Sotomayor's former clerks and colleagues, Rosen concludes that, well, Sotomayor isn't smart enough for the job.
But despite the praise from some of her former clerks, and warm words from some of her Second Circuit colleagues, there are also many reservations about Sotomayor. Over the past few weeks, I've been talking to a range of people who have worked with her, nearly all of them former law clerks for other judges on the Second Circuit or former federal prosecutors in New York. Most are Democrats and all of them want President Obama to appoint a judicial star of the highest intellectual caliber who has the potential to change the direction of the court. Nearly all of them acknowledged that Sotomayor is a presumptive front-runner, but nearly none of them raved about her. They expressed questions about her temperament, her judicial craftsmanship, and most of all, her ability to provide an intellectual counterweight to the conservative justices, as well as a clear liberal alternative.
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