Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been everywhere in the media over the last several days, talking about swine flu. His calm demeanor and practical advice — cover your cough, wash your hands — showed up on every major television network this morning. It seemed like he was live, simultaneously, on several of them.

In some Washington circles, this kind of media blitz is known as “The Full Ginsburg.”

For those with long memories, when sex was the biggest scandal in the U.S. capital, William H. Ginsburg had 15 minutes of fame as Monica Lewinsky’s attorney. He represented the former White House intern in 1998 when she was called to testify about her relationship with then-President Bill Clinton. The case ultimately led to Clinton’s impeachment.

But when Lewinsky was flavor-of-the-month in Washington, Ginsburg controlled access to her, and that made him much in demand. He was an almost constant media presence, especially on morning television. In an age before tweets and blogs, when using the Internet was considered novel for much of official Washington, Ginsburg got coverage simply by showing up.

Times change and the world has changed, and a sex-and-lying scandal seems almost diverting compared to the possibility of a flu pandemic, Somali pirates and deep economic turmoil.

Besser is not the only voice on the swine flu situation. President Barack Obama speaks to the National Academy of Sciences this morning and the disease outbreak is expected to be mentioned there. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano explained that the U.S. declaration of a public health emergency was needed for free up government money and resources to tackle the problem.

Elsewhere in Washington, diplomats from 17 of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas polluters — including the United States — gather at the State Department to discuss the fight against climate change. On Capitol Hill, the Senate scheduled a vote to end a Republican roadblock against an anti-fraud bill and a House committee considers the status of trade with Cuba.

Photo credit: REUTERS/Mike Theiler, Dr. Richard Besser (R) makes remarks to the media as Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano listens at a briefing on swine flu outbreak, April 26, 2009

Poor bankers.
 
Just as they’re catching flak for everything from the global financial crisis to high credit card interest rates, along comes the president and adds another grievance.
 
Barack Obama, it seems, thinks using banks to dole out federal college loan funds is a waste of taxpayer money.
 
So on Friday he discussed his scheme to boost the flow of federal dollars to those looking to get a higher education.
 
To pay for it, he said, “we’re going to eliminate waste, reduce inefficiency and cut what we don’t need to pay for what we do.”
 
Look out banks.
 
Obama said there are two kinds of federal education loans — direct loans and Federal Family Education Loans.
 
Under direct loans, tax dollars go directly to help students pay for tuition, “not to pad the profits of private lenders,” he said.
 
But under the FFEL program, “taxpayers are paying banks a premium to act as middlemen — a premium that costs the American people billions of dollars each year,” he added.

The loans are federally backed, so the banks don’t even have to take on significant risk.
 
Cutting out the middleman, Obama said, could save the government tens of billions of dollars that it could use to help more students.
 
But making that change won’t be easy, he said.
 
“The banks and the lenders who have reaped a windfall from these subsidies have mobilized an army of lobbyists to try to keep things the way they are.”
 
“They are gearing up for battle. So am I,” Obama said. “For those who care about America’s future, this is a battle we can’t afford to lose.
 
For more Reuters political news, click here.

Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (President Obama discusses federal education programs in front of a portrait of George Washington)

Al Gore — who sometimes jokes that he “used to be the next president of the United States” — heads for Capitol Hill to testify about the fight against climate change. The former vice president and star of the Oscar-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” is slated to go before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where he’ll discuss the latest legislation to curb the greenhouse gases that spur global warming.

Gore shares the spotlight with former Senator John Warner, the Virginia Republican who pushed a bill to cut greenhouse gas emissions in 2008, his last year in Congress.

It’s been an environmentally-friendly week in Washington, with Earth Day on Wednesday prompting almost every U.S. agency to go green, starting with the Environmental Protection Agency. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson headed for the Hill to urge passage of the American Clean Energy and Security Act, the climate bill working its way through the House of Representatives. A similar bill failed last year, but that was then. Supporters hope that with a new administration which has been clear on its commitment to curb climate warming emissions, this kind of law has a better chance.

The green spree continues next week, when 17 of the countries that emit the most greenhouse gases — including the United States — gather at the State Department on Monday and Tuesday. But whatever happens in Foggy Bottom, there will still be plenty of attention focused on Congress. Todd Stern, the top U.S. climate diplomat, says domestic legislation is the key to successfully negotiating a global climate pact.

For more Reuters political news, click here.

Photo credit: REUTERS/Larry Downing (Al Gore before his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, January 28, 2009)

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has an idea for dealing with the heroin trade in Afghanistan: pomegranates.

That could in effect shoot two birds with one stone, as the saying goes, merging her previous focus as first lady on healthcare with her new responsibiities as U.S. diplomacy chief.

Pomegranate juice is proven to lower cholesterol, Clinton told a congressional hearing. “Afghanistan used to be and still is one of the principle growers of pomegranates, and I think there’s a lot we can do here,” she said.

The United States has been trying for years to wean Afghan farmers away from the lucrative poppy trade, but has found it difficult to find a substitute income matcher.

Narcotics trafficking “is not the main source of funding for the Taliban and al Qaeda, but it is a source of funding. So we’re going to emphasize agriculture,” Clinton said.

But there are complexities involved in trying to create an “alternative agricultural approach” in Afghanistan.

“It does pose a conflict because if you’re going to aerial spray poppies you can also kill fruit trees, so it’s complicated,” she said.

Anecdotal evidence based on eating out at restaurants in the Washington area finds that high-end Mexican restaurants and others are serving pomegranate margaritas, so there is a domestic market.

 Click here for more Reuters political coverage

Photo credit: Reuters photographer (Afghan man checks poppy crop), Reuters photographer (Afghan seller displays pomegranate)

Just as the cherry tree blossoms pass their peak and not long after the Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn, there’s another hallowed Washington spring tradition: Take Your Child To Work Day. That’s when Type A parents with Type A jobs bring their kids to the office to give them some idea of what Mom and Dad do for a living — and that includes people who work at the White House, the State Department and on Capitol Hill.

First Lady Michelle Obama hosts the under-age crowd at the White House, with an event in the East Room at mid-morning. Her husband, President Barack Obama, is expected to be otherwise engaged then, and later is set to meet with credit card company executives, and it might not be suitable for children: presidential aides have labeled some of the companies’ practices “abusive.”

At the State Department, Secretary Hillary Clinton welcomes the kids at an event that, in keeping with discreet diplomacy, is closed to the press. Children and their working parents are also expected to visit Capitol Hill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is an enthusiastic supporter of the event.

Another sign of spring in the U.S. capital is the blossoming of flamboyant real estate on the market. The Washington Post reports that a grand mansion called Evermay, in the city’s tony Georgetown section, is going for a bargain price. Listed last year at $49 million, the estate can now be had for $39.5 million.

For more Reuters political news, click here.

Photo credit: REUTERS/Jim Bourg, American Express and MasterCard credit cards, June 25, 2008

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi voiced confidence on Wednesday that Representative Jane Harman “would never do anything to hurt her country.” 

 Pelosi did so while disclosing that federal investigators advised the speaker a few years back it had overheard Harman, a fellow California Democrat, on wiretapped telephone calls. 

 ”I have great confidence in Jane Harman,” Pelosi told reporters. “She’s a patriotic American. She would never do anything to hurt her country.” 

 Pelosi made the comments a day after Harman demanded that the Justice Department release tapes and transcripts of any wiretaps to buttress her claims that she did not intervene in an espionage case. 

 Harman has accused the government of an “abuse of power” and denied reports she had offered to try to help two pro-Israel lobbyists charged with espionage in exchange for assistance in getting Democrats to appoint her to lead the intelligence committee. 

 Harman did not get the post after Democrats won control of Congress in 2006. She left the panel shortly afterward. 

 Speaking at a roundtable discussion sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor newspaper, Pelosi was asked if she had been briefed by federal investigators at the time of the wiretap, reported to be in 2005 or 2006. 

 ”A few years ago, maybe three years ago, they did brief me,” Pelosi said, explaining law officers notify congressional leaders when a member of Congress is overheard on a wiretap. 

 ”It was not my position to raise it with Jane Harman,” Pelosi said. “In fact I didn’t even know if what they were talking about was real.” 

 A Pelosi spokesman later said that the speaker was not fully briefed on the matter, “just notified.” 

 House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer said he wanted to find out more about the matter before deciding if there should be an investigation into the wiretapping of members of Congress. 

 ”The stories that I have read give me great concern and I’m going to be in the process of personally finding out more about it and then, with the speaker, determine what action, if any, needs to be taken,” Hoyer told his weekly news conference. 
 

 ”The Justice Department needs to take this under consideration,” Hoyer said.

For more Reuters political news, click here 

Photo credit: Reuters/Alessia Pierdomenico (Pelosi attends a news conference after a meeting with Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in Rome Feb. 17, 2009)

President Barack Obama  heads to Iowa later today for an Earth Day tour of a former Maytag plant which has been reconfigured to produce wind energy equipment, lining up the “green jobs” that the Obama administration is pushing as part of the future for the American heartland.

Green is on the menu back in Washington, too, where Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will talk about “Greening Diplomacy” at an Earth Day event, but only after she testifies at the House Foreign Affairs Committee about more down-to-earth aspects of U.S. policy around the globe.

Another key player on Obama’s environment team — Energy Secretary Stephen Chu — will also be on the Hill talking green at a hearing on energy and climate change legislation.

Red will be back in focus at the Economic Club of Washington, DC, however, where Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner delivers a speech about the Obama administration’s efforts to fight the global recession.

One Washington-area man evidently came up with his own strategy for fighting the recession. The Washington Post reports that an Alexandria, Virginia,  parking meter repairman has been accused of stealing $170,000 in quarters, nickels and dimes from local parking meters — a haul that could weigh between 4 and 19 tons depending on which kinds of coins were pocketed.

For more Reuters political news, click here. 

REUTERS/Jason Reed (President Barack Obama planting tree)

REUTERS/Jim Young (A pile of newly minted US $1 coins at the U.S. Mint)

Washingtonian is making the most of the buzz on its May issue with a shirtless President Obama on the cover.

Obama didn’t pose for the picture. It’s the same shirtless paparazzi photo taken  while he was on vacation in Hawaii in December.  But the magazine took some creative license and changed the color of his swim trunks from black to red.

The glossy magazine that bills itself as the guide to life, media, gossip and politics in Washington used the photo to illustrate its cover story “26 Reasons to Love Living Here” (he’s reason #2 - “Our New Neighbor is Hot,” according to the cover).

Now, Washingtonian is asking visitors to it  web site to weigh in on  what they think of the cover. So far among the responses, variations on inappropriate  and “tasteless” prevail.

“Tasteless! President Obama should be given the respect he deserves, instead of turning him into a bathing suit hot model,” wrote Sharon Okolicsanyi and a writer identified as Bernadette posted: “Tacky, tabloid-esque, inappropriate, and smutty. That’s what I think of this cover.”

Some readers didn’t mind, as in this comment by Linda: “I love this cover! I’m a sixtyish woman and don’t find one single thing wrong with a picture of a handsome man who just happens to be President on your cover.”

What’s your opinion? Is the swimsuit cover okay — or not?

Photo credit:Reuters/Jason Reed (Obama during a tree planting at a park in Washington)

President Barack Obama’s decision to release memos on the CIA’s use of “enhanced” interrogation methods on terrorism suspects appears to have started a trend in some unexpected quarters.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney,  who used to have his own “undisclosed location” and seemed to thrive on secrecy, is joining the bandwagon to let the sun shine in.

Cheney told Fox News that what bothered him about the disclosure of the legal memos was that they didn’t put out the memos that showed that the interrogations produced a successful result.

“There are reports that show specifically what we gained as a result of this activity. They have not been declassified,” Cheney said.

“I’ve now formally asked the CIA to take steps to declassify these memos so we can lay them out there and the American people have a chance to see what we obtained and what we learned and how good the intelligence was,” he said.

Yes that’s right… Cheney is asking that secret documents be released to the public.

But wait, this train is still adding cars.

Congresswoman Jane Harman is calling on the Justice Department to release all transcripts and material, unredacted, involving her, after media reports that the FBI or NSA secretly wiretapped her conversations while she was on the House Intelligence Committee.

Conspiracy buffs better watch out. If the government declassifies enough material, those theories on JFK, Elvis, and Roswell may well be doomed.

Click here for more Reuters political coverage

Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (Obama and CIA director Panetta at CIA), Reuters/Jason Reed (Cheney and Bush in January)

The last time Barack Obama saw Jordan’s King Abudullah, the monarch literally gave him a ride to the airport in Amman. That was before Obama was elected president, and the king shouldn’t expect a return of the favor during his visit to Washington today.

But Abdullah — the first Arab leader to hold face-to-face talks in the White House since Obama took office – has been invited to Obama’s personal dining room for a one-on-one meeting with the American president before a more formal gathering with aides in the Oval Office.

Abdullah is expected to lobby on behalf of Arab states for a stronger U.S. role in Middle East peacemaking, according to Jordanian palace officials.

On the economic front, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner heads to Capitol Hill this morning where he is likely to be grilled over his handling of the financial bailout program and his plans to purge problem assets from bank balance sheets.

His testimony comes after the government’s bailout watchdog said the U.S. Treasury’s plan to purge the toxic assets is vulnerable to fraud and abuse and needs tough rules against conflict of interest.

Geithner’s appearance on Capitol Hill also comes after a dismal day on Wall Street on Monday. Stock futures point to a lower opening on Tuesday too on concerns about the state of corporate profits after a slew of companies reported dour first quarter financial results.

For more Reuters political news, click here.

Photo credit: REUTERS/Hugo Correia (Abdullah arriving at the palace in Lisbon last month)