- Sat. Sep. 6, 2008
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Them's Fightin' Words
Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, is frustrated with Congress these days because lawmakers still haven't enacted the reforms to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that the administration wants. Has McConnell's impatience even led him to rewrite history?
"We had a bill go into the Senate. It was debated vigorously," McConnell said on March 28, in a speech at Furman University, his alma mater. "There were some who said we shouldn't have an intelligence community," he continued. "Some say the president of the United States violated the process, spied on Americans, should be impeached and should go to jail."
"Says who?" Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., a member of the Select Intelligence Committee and an outspoken opponent of the administration's warrantless surveillance efforts, wants to know. In a letter to McConnell this week, Feingold said he was "not aware of any senator" making such remarks, and he asked the DNI for "a list of all statements made by senators during the debate that you believe support these assertions. If there are no such examples, you should issue an immediate correction and an apology." --Shane Harris
Murmurs
Psst! Those Obama folks and Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania can sure keep a secret. In a phone conversation on Easter Sunday, Casey informed Barack Obama that he was endorsing him for the Democratic presidential nomination. That was big news for the senator from Illinois, who is hoping to overtake Hillary Rodham Clinton as the Keystone State's primary nears. But it was kept under wraps until March 27, when the story was handed out in advance of the actual endorsement on March 29. ... Silver screen icon Robert Redford, who testified on federal arts funding before the House Appropriations panel's Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee on April 1, overshadowed FBI Director Robert Mueller's simultaneous appearance across the hall. Before questioning Mueller at a hearing of the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies panel, Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., noted the competition. The FBI director humbly responded, "I prefer [to listen to] Mr. Redford" ... With the imminent departure of embattled Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson, whose relations with Capitol Hill were frayed, HUD insiders hope that the Senate will get on with its confirmation of Joseph Murin, Sheila Greenwood, and Susan Peppler for senior department positions ...
Vital Statistics
• 56: Percentage of paper consumed in America that was recovered for recycling in 2007
-- American Forest & Paper Association
• $3.96: Average cost of a gallon of diesel fuel as of March 31
-- Energy Department
What Wreck?
If a remote-controlled aircraft crashes in the forest, does anybody have to report it? Currently, no. But the National Transportation Safety Board is poised to require operators of unmanned aerial vehicles to abide by the same regulations and reporting requirements that manned planes must follow when an accident results in a human injury or substantial aircraft damage. The rule, proposed late last month, "appears to clarify that the NTSB considers an unmanned air vehicle to be equivalent to manned aircraft for the purpose of monitoring the safety of the air transportation system," said MIT professor John Hansman, who anticipates commercial UAV use in the future. --Winter Casey
Out There
It's happy days again for presidential dark horse Lyndon LaRouche, who is at his best when things are at their worst. The iconoclastic candidate says that the financial sector's recent meltdown shows that the "world monetary-financial system has entered the terminal, hyperinflationary-collapse phase" he has long predicted. LaRouche's remedies, which are described in his flagship publication Executive Intelligence Review, fall under the upbeat headline "Doom Has Struck!" The answers include fixed currency-exchange rates, massive spending on new nuclear reactors, and a rejection of all global-warming ideas. Any failure to adopt his policies, LaRouche says, will ensure "a plunge of the planet into a mass-murderous new dark age." Sound a little unorthodox? LaRouche says that people who disagree with him "clearly require professional psychiatric care." --Neil Munro
Aussie Odyssey
EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson says his controversial $280,000, two-week trip to Australia is no big deal. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., is fuming about the junket, which took Johnson -- and 11 of his closest agency colleagues and advance staffers, plus a security detail -- out of town just as Congress was returning from its Easter recess. "It's all part of the continuing collaboration between Australia and the United States," a slightly peeved Johnson told National Journal three days before his departure. "And candidly, this is much ado about nothing. I, as administrator, have taken a very limited number of international trips." Johnson predicted that the sojourn would include meaty climate-change discussions -- even though his critics contend that he has shown very little real interest in the subject. --Margaret Kriz
What Ever Happened to ... Mark McClellan?
McClellan doesn't miss the limelight. To be sure, in his last high-profile job as Medicare administrator, being front and center meant implementing the program's controversial prescription drug benefit while dodging bullets from critics intent on killing it. McClellan left that gig in 2006 to embrace his inner wonk. The economist/physician is now director of the Brookings Institution's Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform. He sees his efforts there as different from policy work at other think tanks. In addition to focusing on conceptual ideas, McClellan says, the new program provides practical support. That means bringing stakeholders together to create a process for implementing ideas -- for example, going beyond what data are needed to suggesting how to get the information. Much of his work is on quality measurement and drug safety.
McClellan thought about returning to his roots in academic life (he taught at Stanford University before coming to Washington), but decided he wasn't ready to leave the policy world. At Brookings, he said, he can work on health care policy without the political pressure and long hours. "It's the same issues, but life is much more predictable," McClellan said. "Instead of getting calls in the late evening from The New York Times about a breaking story, I get to spend evenings with my family. It's a trade-off I needed to make after six years in government." --Marilyn Werber Serafini
Harry VanSickle, Pennsylvania elections commissioner
NJ: Can you describe the interest in Pennsylvania's April 22 primary?
VanSickle: Registered voters now total 8,270,361, and that's 96,302 shy of our high point, which was the general election in 2004. And we're still processing applications. That's unprecedented for a primary -- close to half a million more registered voters than we had on the rolls in April 2004. We're seeing this huge number of people changing parties because of the candidates. Almost 147,000 people since January changed their party affiliation. The number of people who switched to Democrat from another party is 132,688, and the number who switched to Republican is 13,937. That just shows you the interest. As of the March 24 registration deadline, the highest number of voters by age bracket -- between 45 and 54 -- is now 1,680,216, or about 20 percent. The lowest age bracket, between 18 and 24, is 726,044, or 9 percent.
NJ: Is Pennsylvania ready at the polls?
VanSickle: Oh, yes. I try to keep in touch with other states that have already held primaries, and we pass on information. The counties are very good at preparing, and we try to help them by sending out reminders: "You're going to see long lines at the polling places, so be prepared and make sure you have enough ballots on hand if you're one of our 16 optical-scan counties. If you're one of the 51 counties with touch screens, make sure you have some paper ballots as backups in case all your machines go down. Just be prepared for anything!" --Alexis Simendinger