Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JohnM who wrote (5924)	8/25/2003 8:48:07 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793617

THE WASHINGTONIAN Bush Sends Money Summit Safely South Why did President Bush decide on Sea Island, Georgia, as the site of next year's international economic summit? Some insiders thought he would do like his father, who hosted the 1990 summit in his hometown of Houston, and give the plum to a Texas city like San Antonio, which is heavily Hispanic, a voting bloc Bush is courting for his 2004 reelection campaign. Bush political mastermind Karl Rove thinks Georgia is an electoral lock, so there was no political reason to go there. The decision came down to a single overriding calculation: It?s the security, stupid. In recent years the G8 summit, which began three decades ago as a meeting of the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Canada but has been expanded to include Russia, has become a magnet for whata White House official calls "professional protesters," hard-core activists guaranteed publicity in the international media just by showing up. Increasingly, the demonstrations have gotten out of hand. Summit planners from all eight nations are still traumatized by riots at the 2001 meeting in Genoa, Italy, where one protester was killed by police. Sea Island, by contrast, is a security officer's dream. A five-mile sliver of sand south of Savannah, the barrier island has several resorts nice enough to accommodate world leaders in grand style. It's connected to the mainland by a causeway?making it easy for the Secret Service and Coast Guard to seal it off. "There's no way the protesters will get anywhere near the action," says a Bush planner. The Texas option was ruled out because President Bush doesn?t like to behave the way his father did, believing it gives his adversaries another reason to attack him. For $50,000, Ari Will Tell All Viewers used to get the wit and wisdom of White House press secretary Ari Fleischer for free. Now you have to pay thousands of dollars to hear him. The former White House mouthpiece is seeking up to $50,000 a speech. That's a sign that inflation has set in since Marlin Fitzwater and Mike McCurry left their White House posts. "His fee is almost triple what past White House press secretaries have received," says a person who knows the market. Fleischer is represented by the Washington Speakers Bureau. Fleischer?s agent is offering four kinds of speeches, according to promotional material. He can spin about everything from Bush?s leadership style (?How a Harvard MBA president brings CEO skills to the White House?) to crisis communications (?How [Fleischer] kept the nation informed during troubled times of war and tragedy?). Fleischer can put on his policy cap with the topic of ?America and Israel: The Path to Stability in the Middle East.? And then there?s a ?Daily Briefing? speech, where he will offer a ?refreshingly candid look at current events? and touch on ?his relationship with the press and how the media?s perspective can affect national policy.? Given that more than a few members of the White House press corps cheered Fleischer?s departure, that speech could be interesting. Rice Takes Hit But Still Solid President Bush?s strong defense of national-security adviser Condoleezza Rice means the plan for Rice to replace Colin Powell in a second Bush term is still on track. Bush?s defense of Rice also indicated to the foreign-policy establishment that Rice has been damaged by the contretemps over the phony intelligence information about Iraq and uranium that made it into Bush?s State of the Union speech. Although her deputy, Steve Hadley, took the fall, some White House colleagues believe Rice bears the ultimate responsibility?and that she was too quick to blame the CIA. ?It?s her shop,? a Bush staffer says. ?She?s supposed to be the ultimate coordinator.? The episode has made it easier for insiders to criticize Rice for what?s been considered her biggest weakness?inability to shut down the infighting between hardliners in the Pentagon and Vice President Dick Cheney?s shop and the more moderate forces at Foggy Bottom. ?It would be a tall order for anyone to keep Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Tenet in line,? one Rice sympathizer says. ?Even the President hasn?t been able to shut down the squabbling.? ?The SOB Pardoned . . . ? At a National Press Club lunch honoring Gerald Ford on the former president?s 90th birthday, Bob Woodward, who shared the Ford reporting prize this year with Washington Post colleague Dan Balz, brought down the house with a tidbit on the Watergate era. Woodward told how he learned that Ford had pardoned Richard Nixon, a decision that probably doomed Ford?s 1976 reelection chances. Woodward said he was awakened on that fateful Sunday morning by his partner, Carl Bernstein, who reduced the momentous news to the essentials: ?The son of a bitch pardoned the son of a bitch!? Ford roared with laughter. washingtonian.com

To: JohnM who wrote (5924)	8/26/2003 6:04:20 AM
From: Lazarus_Long	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793617

The language will be found. The same problem existed with Vietnam. So we "Vietnamized" the war, declared victory, and went home. We have a precedent.