As a former HUD staffer, we were quite amused to read this in Al Kamen’s column today:

Yes, it’s the beautifully designed photo homage to one of our nation’s leaders, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson. The photo exhibit is boldly and proudly displayed in the lobby of HUD’s headquarters building, itself a dreadful gray relic of Great Society architecture.

Tour groups need not even go through the inviting metal detectors to admire 20 large, color photographs of the secretary, each about 2 feet by 3 feet. No fewer than five of them feature Jackson with President Bush– in the Rose Garden, in the Oval Office, chatting together, coming down the steps at the Capitol.

Our memory is a bit hazy from our days working in the HUD building — ten floors of basement — but surely we would have remembered any photo showing this great American, Sam Pierce, in his ever-lasting image:

Tough to read this item in Fishbowl …

From Mike Allens’ Playbook:

Certain members of the White House press corps are referring to dry-dry Saudi Arabia as “rehab.”

… without remembering this from President Bush:

“We have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil.”

Having worked in the area of public diplomacy and international broadcasting at the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors, we were intrigued this morning to read this Walter Pincus item in the Washington Post:

The State Department, departing from traditional public diplomacy techniques, has what it calls a three-person, “digital outreach team” posting entries in Arabic on “influential” Arabic blogs to challenge misrepresentations of the United States and promote moderate views among Islamic youths in the hopes of steering them from terrorism.

The department’s bloggers “speak the language and idiom of the region, know the culture reference points and are often able to converse informally and frankly, rather than adopt the usually more formal persona of a U.S. government spokesperson,” Duncan MacInnes, of State’s Bureau of International Information Programs, told the House Armed Services subcommittee on terrorism and unconventional threats on Thursday.

MacInnes’ entire testimony, which you can find here, is worth the read.  But this excerpt in particular stands out for exhibiting strategic and tactical appreciation for how the Web 2.0 world works:

The Digital Outreach Team was launched just one year ago as a pilot initiative to counter ideological support for terrorism. It employs Arabic speakers to post entries on influential Arabic-language blogs, challenging misrepresentations and providing accurate information about U.S. policy and American society. These bloggers speak the language and idiom of the region, know the cultural reference points and are often able to converse informally and frankly rather than adopt the usually more formal persona of a U.S. government spokesperson. This is a major departure from our previous ways of conducting public diplomacy. It requires both creativity and a new set of skills.

The cultural sensitivity that this approach affords has been very successful, but it is labor-intensive. We are currently in the process of expanding the original team of two Arabic bloggers to six, while also adding one Urdu and two Farsi (Persian) linguists. The team does not engage hardcore militant sites, but concentrates on mainstream sites with heavy traffic that discuss U.S. policy, such as BBC Arabic, Al-Jazeera Talk, and Elaph On-Line News. We are also exploring how we can use the applicability to our mission of new cyber-technologies such as Second Life and cell phone games to further advance our mission.

Second Life embraced by the State Department?  Bravo.

We’ve been skeptics of the old-school, traditional approach to public diplomacy, which essentially relegates the communications and information revolution to second-class citizen.  This testimony and this approach gives us — finally — some hope that the State Department will get it right.

Assuming that Michael Mukasey will be the next U.S. Attorney General, Extreme Mortman went to our resident team of diverse experts with this question: Will Mukasey be America’s highest ranking Orthodox Jewish cabinet official ever?

The happy news: Yes.  Presuming that none of these gentlemen were or are Orthodox, regardless of cabinet rank:

• Michael Chertoff (Bush’s homeland security secretary)
• Nicholas Katzenbach (Johnson’s Attorney General)
• Edward Levi (Ford’s Attorney General)
• Henry Kissinger (Nixon’s secretary of state)
• Henry Morgenthau (Roosevelt’s treasury secretary)
• Bob Rubin (Clinton’s treasury secretary)
• Mike Blumenthal (Carter’s treasury secretary)
• Arthur Goldberg (Kennedy’s labor secretary)
• Dan Glickman (Clinton’s agriculture secretary)

There are a few others.  But Mukasey stands alone.  Unless you include Judah Benjamin.  He got the Triple Crown: Attorney General, War Secretary, and Secretary of State.  For the Confederacy.

Turns out, those Condoleezza Rice boots are made for walking — and talking — and maybe some purring.
From the Washington Post:

During a trip to Europe early in her tenure as secretary, Rice sported a dramatic outfit at a U.S. military base in Germany: a black skirt that hit just above the knee, along with a black coat with seven gold buttons that fell to mid-calf — and hung open to reveal sexy, knee-high boots.
The trip was notable for the administration’s move to support European efforts against Iran’s nuclear program, but the photographs of Rice dominated the news. Talking with Wilkinson, Rice professed puzzlement about the fuss over her boots. Wilkinson said he didn’t feel comfortable explaining the reason.
“Oh, Jim, you’re like my little brother,” Rice teased. “Tell me.”
Wilkinson finally answered. “Men like these,” he admitted.
Rice leaned over and whispered: “We know that.”

Indeed.  Sexy legs and a foggy bottom.  Works for me.  We want a State Department, not a Staid Department.
And truthfully, which gets you more excited about foreign policy opportunities.

This:

Or this:

Tony Snow said this about the next White House press secretary Dana Perino: “a smart, capable person who is able to spell out the issues of the day in a way that people listening on TV can understand.”

TV indeed.  Replacing Tony Snow might be just a stepping stone.  Perino might actually be angling for Alex Trebek’s job.
From an April 2007 White House press briefing:

Q Yes, thank you, Dana. Two questions on American business. In the –
MS. PERINO: American business for 200. (Laughter.) I’ve always wanted to be on that show.

We hope her job’s not already in Jeopardy.

From today’s Washington Post story on “beseiged” President Bush:

Nixon swam in self-pity during Watergate, talking to paintings and once asking Henry Kissinger to pray with him. Bill Clinton fumed against enemies and nursed deep grievances during his impeachment battle.

But if Bush vents like that, no one is talking. Kissinger, who advises Bush, said the president has never asked him to kneel down with him in the Oval Office.

Oh, Dr. Kissinger, don’t feel scorned.  Get over it.  You know what they say, after you kneel down once in the Oval Office, it’s never the same again.

To resolve the question of whether Dick Cheney as Vice President is part of the executive or legislative branch, we solicit wisdom from Extreme Mortman senior historian Richard Andrews.  He offers this:

It’s not either/or.  He’s both.  This is not an unusual concept. 

Many state lieutenant governors are not only state senate presiding officers, but (unlike the VP) have substantial executive responsibilities imposed on them by their state constitution and/or statutes.  These vary greatly.  (I believe there has been a good bit of litigation among the states on the leg?-or-exec? question about lt. govs. The answer is, generally: it depends.) 

A number of them automatically become acting Gov. whenever their Gov. leaves the state.  (Like, famously, California; That always means an interesting time when they are of opposing parties, and the Gov. is trying to run for President.  This happened to Jerry Brown & Pete Wilson.)

Something not addressed in the Washington Post series on Cheney (and that I doubt will be) is that Cheney’s ability to carve out this sort of relationship with “W” is partly based on the uniqueness of Texas.  Bush’s ONLY previous gov’t. experience is being her Governor.  The only kind of #1/#2 relationship he’s had is the one he had THERE.

The Lieutenant Governor of Texas is unquestionably the most powerful in the nation.  On the legislative side, as President of the state senate, he is not merely some once-in-a-while presiding officer; he’s like Maryland’s Mike Miller - appoints all the committees and their chairmen, decides which committee(s) bills will be referred to, establishes the chamber’s “calendar” (agenda), et cetera.  On the executive side he is a member of numerous state commissions & boards that are the  (hydra-) heads of many state agencies, and exercise vast power.  These commissions are not directly answerable to the governor, and to the extent that he appoints their members at all, it is to staggered fixed terms.

Additionally, W was exceeding fortunate to have had a lt. gov. who, even though a Dem., was highly cooperative. 

These two happenstances have necessarily molded the relationship w/Cheney.

Chalk up another example of the Internet shaping our lives: the Transportation Security Administration’s MythBusters site.

It’s not a blog, more of a novel approach to get the TSA’s position out.  But it’s one of the most personal, direct online ventures you’re likely to see from a federal government agency.

The site, linked off the TSA’s main page, is currently debunking this “myth”:

TSA Officers Hassle Female Passenger with Toddler at Reagan National Airport over Sippy Cup?

Then it presents two videos and one document as the “busters.”

A fascinating presentation — worth checking out.

This Progressive.org story, “Is Martial Law Coming?” gets this response from Extreme Mortman senior historian Richard Andrews:

Have you looked at the latest heavy-breathing Left obsession/urban myth?

All about some recent National Security Directive which the usual ignoramuses take as Evil W somehow giving himself power to declare an emergency, take over the entire U. S. Gov’t. in case of natural or mad-made disaster, and (this is the callers, not the Directive) cancel the ‘08 election so he can hold on to power.

I started hearing this called in to C-SPAN, et all, early this week, then received a link to Progressive.org from a lib cousin of mine.

Shades of the early ’70s, and Tricky Dick.  (Recall, he HAD to cancel the election, because with Youth in Revolt, he couldn’t possibly win!)  Of course, back then they had to use mimeographed flyers illegally posted on telephone poles.

Upon review, I find it to be a painfully bureaucratic missive about everyone getting their act together about having a comprehensive ‘continuity of government’ plan, when and if.   The Dept. of Homeland Security has been putting out similar stuff for years.  I had to write one for my tiny unit of MD State gov’t.

If we have such an event in DC, the POTUS certainly will have to coordinate routine matters for the other two Branches, if only because only military planes would be flying (remember?), he fills judicial vacancies & GSA operates the couthouses, and it would take forever to elect a new House leadership if they were all lost at once, especially if large numbers of Members were gone, too, as the Constitution requires that they can only be replaced by special election (Even the WashPost has nagged Congress on doing something about this last).