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Weekly

RICHARD DREWAP

This Week in Washington OBAMA FACES A HARSH REALITY AT THE U.N. AND G-20 TALKS 4Irans secret nuclear facility, Mideastpeace, and U.S.-Russian relationsdominate the discussions

HIGH COURTS HOT-BUTTON ISSUES 6Cases of children behind bars, a crossdisplayed in public, and photos ofdetainee abuse to be heard soon

HEALTHCARE: THE SWING VOTE 7Democrats hope Republican Sen. OlympiaSnowe will support their reform bill

DEMOCRATS FILL KENNEDYS SEAT 8Massachusetts governor names formerDNC Chair Paul Kirk to the Senate

TERROR SUSPECTS LAPTOP TALKS 9Officials say Internet trail offers a chillingpeek at a bombers acts and shopping list

THE PRESIDENCY | KEN WALSH 10A perilous decision on Afghanistan

Commentary and Features WASHINGTON WHISPERS 2Emanuels library card; Panettas CIA stars;Chu is lights out on energy costs; Steelesmoney mojos working; Abe Was The Man

QUIZ OF THE WEEK 11

TWO TAKES 12Should health insurance be required of all?

CAPITAL NOTIONS | ROBERT SCHLESINGER 15The new assault on campaign cash rules

WASHINGTON BOOK CLUB 16

BLOG BUZZ 18

ON HEALTH | BERNADINE HEALY, M.D. 19Lessons we must learn from flu pandemic

VIEWPOINT 21

EDITORS NOTE 21

VITAL STATISTICS 22

HAROLD EVANS | EDITORIAL 23For Israel, hatred; for Hamas, a free pass

CROSSWORD 25

THE BIG PICTURE 26

Irans presidentat the U.N.

G-20 TO IRAN: BUSTED

September 25, 2009 Volume 1 Number 36

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One ex-Bushie says the best place for Obamas teamto get re-election campaign advice is in the libraries

of past presidents, especially two-term winners

Keep up with thelatest Washington

buzz at www.usnews.com/whispers

WHISPERS PODCAST

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and hispolitical team are busy pushing President Obamas agendaand building a legacy to run for re-election. And now a

former Bushie is offering up some free advice thatcould make the 2012 election a whole lot easier for

Obama. When you get a chance, says formerGeorge W. Bush pollster Matthew Dowd, go mine

presidential libraries for cheat sheets on howpredecessors ran their re-election campaigns.

One of the things we were concerned about is thedifference in running a re-election when you hold the

White Housewhen you are a president running forre-electionas opposed to somebody coming in, said

Dowd. Speaking recently at the Clinton School ofPublic Service in Little Rock, Ark., he revealed that the

idea to see how other presidents handled re-electionscame from Bush Chief of Staff Andy Card and politicaladviser Karl Rove. They didnt want anybody to knowabout this, he said, which is why he was tasked to do theresearch and report back the best tips.

Dowd, who split with W over the war in Iraq, said hevisited the libraries of former Presidents George H. W.Bush, Reagan, and Ford. Some documents at the Reaganlibrary were still under lock and key, so he had to get aspecial pass from Nancy Reagan. And he even paid a callon Rice Universitys James A. Baker III Institute, where

Hit the Libraries, Rahm

ABOVE: ILLUSTRATION BYJOE CIARDIELLO FOR USN&WR

By Paul BedardWashingtonWhispers

PLAY

ED WEXLER FOR USN&WR

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WASHINGTON WHISPERS

he hit the mother lode of old campaignmemos, in part because Baker workedfor three presidents.

What Dowd found in 2004 filled a10-page memo to Card and Rove. But itwasnt all heavy campaign strategyhidden away in the presidential stacks.He found McDonalds wrappers andpapers stained with coffee. And on theback of a 1984 debate memo to anunnamed aide, Baker wrote: Thepresidents feeling down today. Whydont you tell him he looks good?

Bushs White House may have beenthe first to dig into the libraries. BillClintons team didnt, says formerspokesman Mike McCurry. Referring toClintons reliance on GOP strategistDick Morris at the time, McCurry says,We did not not need presidentiallibraries because we had Dick Morris.He assured us he was smarter than allthe other presidents combined.

Spies, Garlic, and VodkaAt the CIA, winning the prizedTrailblazer Medal is like getting intothe Spook Hall of Fame. And our spiesover there tell us that CIA Director LeonPanetta gave out two last Friday, theagencys 62nd birthday. One went to acurrent secret techie who was

recognized for building amazing toolshe and his teams brought online. Theother was to the late John Guilsher, a 52-year vet of the agency and Russia pro,who recruited Soviet scientist AdolfTolkachev at the height of the Cold War.Secrets from Tolkachev helpedinfluence U.S. military planning. At theceremony, Panetta said that Guilsherwas a rare combination of carefulplanner and audacious operator. He

was practical yet imaginative. Anexpert at detecting and evadingsurveillance. And a master of disguiseeven if it meant adding a dash of garlicand vodka to his clothes.

Real-Life Energy StarJust call Steven Chu the Secretary ofSaving Energy. The energy boss spentsome of his vacation researching waysto conserve electricity. I spent four orfive days on vacation this summerlooking into ways to decrease energyuse in my home, says Chu. So far,weve saved roughly $100 a month.Hoping his obsession spreads, hesconsidering pilot programs to showhomeowners how to cut energy andsave money.

Steeles Saving Grace: MoneyDespite a rocky start, RepublicanNational Committee Chairman MichaelSteele has mojo when it comes toraising money and finding new donors.Fundraising has been his savinggrace, says a party ally. The proof:When Steele started in February, theparty received donations from anaverage of 328 new donors a day. Nowits 2,000 new donors a day, paying anaverage of $40.

Abe Was The Man FirstAbraham Lincoln wasnt just honest. He was The Man! long before Shaqand others who claim that title. Therecently reopened Fords TheatreMuseum reveals that among theartifacts it may display is a Lincolninaugural medallion etched withthese words: Thou Art The Man.Gloria Swift, museum curator, says,Every time I hear the currentphraseology of that, Im alwaysthinking of that coin, and Im like, oh, yeah, let me tell you, it goes way back. lWith Suzi Parker and Nikki Schwab

The Whispers PollAmericans are deeply concernedabout government spending andgrowth. Which of the following is thebest way to address those worries?

Cut salaries for Congress and top White House officials 51%

Fund the growth with new taxes on wealthy families 17%

Return government spending to pre-stimulus levels 15%

Delay new initiatives like energy and healthcare reform 14%

Halt all new federal hiring 3%

Source: The Synovate eNation Internet poll wasconducted September 2224 among 1,000nationally representative households by globalmarket research firm Synovate.

A week complicated by JimmyCarters race allegation, a troopdebate, a big U.N. speech, and afailed try to influence the NewYork governors race. On a degreeof difficulty, Obama was steady.

National pollster John Zogbyfor Washington Whispers

REPORT CARDPPRREESSIIDDEENNTT

OOBBAAMMAAWeek 36

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President Obamas disclosure this morning thatIran has been building a secret uranium enrich-ment plant underscores a truism in foreignpolicy: Harsh reality trumps good intentions.

Obama said the plant is further evidence of an Iraniannuclear weapons program, and he promised to pusheven harder for sanctions against the Tehran regime.

The revelation interrupted the presidents internation-al outreach, which climbed to dizzying heights this week.He preached cooperation in an address to the United Na-tions General Assembly in New York, met there with a widerange of world leaders, and held important talks with Is-raeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and PalestinianAuthority President Mahmoud Abbas and, separately, withRussian President Dmitry Medvedev. He won U.N. Secu-rity Council approval for a new commitment to stop thespread of nuclear weapons. And he ended the week at theG-20 summit, a high-profile session with leaders of 20major industrial nations in Pittsburgh.

Obama, as usual, was brilliant in the rhetoric and sym-bolism departments. But this time, he seemed to come upshort on results. The Mideast leaders shook hands andposed for photographs but refused to give ground on sub-stantive issues. The Security Council resolution was littlemore than a high-minded statement of principle rather thana blueprint for change. Even though Medvedev suggestedthat his government might be more open to tougher sanc-tions against Iran over its suspected nuclear weapons pro-gram, there was little indication that a breakthrough in co-

operation between Washington and Moscow was at hand.Finally, there was Iranian President Mahmoud

Ahmadinejads announcement that Tehran would letits nuclear experts meet with scientists from the Unit-ed States and other nations to ease concerns about thatnuclear program. Critics saw it as a ploy to discour-age tougher sanctions.

International conferences, meetings, and summits tendto be hyped by the news-hungry media and the PR-focusedWhite House, no matter who is president. And the sessions

On the Court Docket HealthcareDebate Kennedys Replacement

Potential Plot Foiled ThisWeekInWashingtonA Dose ofReality onthe WorldStage Obama faces thefacts on Iran and the