President Barack Obama told a U.S. Naval Academy graduation Friday that the full story of the Navy’s recent rescue of commercial sea captain Richard Philips from Somali pirates will never be publicly known.
 
Speaking to graduating midshipmen at the academy in Annapolis, Maryland, Obama urged them to follow the example of those who had gone before them and cited several examples, including Philips’ rescuers.
 
Philips was taken captive while fending off Somali pirates who attempted to seize his cargo ship. Held for days in a small boat shadowed a U.S. warship, Philips was ultimately freed when Navy snipers shot and killed three of his captors.
 
“I will not recount the full story of those five days in April. Much of it is known. Some of it will never be known,” Obama told the midshipmen.

The victory, Obama told the 1,036 graduates, belonged to “all the sailors — officers and enlisted, not on one ship, but several — who diligently stood their watch.”
 
“They did their duty. They performed their job. They stood their watch. They took their time and then they took their shot. And they brought that captain home,” Obama said.
 
The graduates included 833 men and 203 women. Among the 755 new Navy ensigns was John Sidney McCain IV, the son of Senator John McCain, who received a huge cheer from the crowd of some 30,000.
 
McCain, who ran against Obama last year, is a Naval Academy graduate, as was his father and grandfather before him. Wearing a Navy cap, he sat in the front row with his wife Cindy and received a standing ovation when he was recognized by the 2009 class president.
 
Another 267 of the graduates become Marine second lieutenants and two others received an Air Force or Coast Guard commission.
 
Obama, who took delight in shaking each graduates hand and giving many a friendly slap on the back, embraced the younger McCain when he came to the stage.

Obama won over the crowd early with a display of his powers as commander-in-chief.
 
“Now, I know it’s customary at graduation for guests to bring a gift. And I have. All midshipmen on restriction for minor conduct offenses are hereby officially absolved,” Obama said.
 
Returning midshipmen got a bigger present.
 
After consulting  with Vice Admiral Jeffrey Fowler, the school’s superintendent, “I hereby grant you something extra — an extra weekend” of leave, Obama said.
 
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Photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (Graduating midshipmen toss caps in the air after commissioning ceremonies); Reuters/Larry Downing (Graduate reacts after receiving diploma)

It’s almost Memorial Day Weekend, the unofficial start of summer. No bottlenecks yet at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, the gateway to Maryland’s Eastern Shore beach towns.

Traffic out that way is likely to get worse around 10:00 a.m., when President Obama delivers the commencement address at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. He’ll also sign bills to limit abusive credit-card practices and reform the Pentagon’s weapons-buying process.

Vice President Joe Biden is in Lebanon, where he’s already managed to tick off Hezbollah. No, he hasn’t said anything unwise yet, they’re just upset that he’s there.

Folks still seem to be talking about yesterday’s Gitmo faceoff between Obama and former Vice President Dick Cheney. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who also served in Cheney’s administration, said that Gitmo is a fine facility but has a “taint.”

“The name itself is a condemnation,” he said on NBC’s “Today” Show.

Gates dismissed worries that any terrorism suspects would pose a security threat if moved to U.S. prison facilities.

“There’s a lot of fearmongering about this. We’ve never had an escape from a Supermax prison, and that’s where these guys will go,” he said.

photo: REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

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Old habits are hard to give up, and that seems especially true for newly-minted Democratic Senator Arlen Specter.

As he entered the chamber through the Republican side for a vote on an amendment to a war funding bill, he stopped at the Republican desk where aides put information about the pending measure.

Democratic Senator John Kerry, standing by the Democratic desk, called out across the chamber to Specter: “Arlen, Arlen, we’re over here!”

Specter looked up from the desk and, with a sheepish grin on his face, walked over to the Democratic side of the Senate chamber.

And even though he has made it clear that he will not always vote with his new Democratic friends, Specter did vote with them to reject a Republican amendment that would have stripped out President Barack Obama’s request to extend up to $108 billion in credit lines to the International Monetary Fund.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (Specter with Obama assembling care packages for U.S. troops at the White House)

                                      There was political theater, drama, but no surprise ending on Thursday on a topic involving spies, torture and truth in the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives.

Republicans again ripped into Speaker Nancy Pelosi for accusing the CIA of misleading Congress — and her fellow Democrats quickly blocked their bid for a bipartisan probe into her truthfulness. The vote was 252-172.

“The Republicans … have been focused on the politics of personal destruction,” House Democratic leader House Steny Hoyer said afterward.

Hoyer also accused Republicans of trying to divert attention from the Bush administration’s treatment of prisoners as well as Democratic efforts this year to revamp healthcare and move the nation toward energy independence.

Democrats rushed to Pelosi’s defense earlier this week, saying they believe her statement that the CIA did not inform her at a September 2002 briefing that it had used waterboarding, simulated drowning widely denounced as torture, during interrogations of suspected enemy combatants.

Prior to the House vote, Republican leader John Boehner, who has pounded Pelosi for saying the CIA had misled Congress, said, “Getting to the bottom of this quickly is important.”

“The speaker has made a very serious charge,” Boehner told reporters. He added it has had “a chilling effect on our U.S. intelligence officials around the world.”

Hoyer fired back by citing what he said were remarks by a number of Republicans, including Boehner, in recent years critical of the CIA.  On Wednesday, Senator Arlen Specter, a former Republican who recently switched to Democrat, defended Pelosi — known as one of the most liberal Democrats in the House and a favorite target of conservative critics.

“The CIA has a very bad record when it comes to — I was about to say ‘candid;’ that’s too mild - to honesty,” Specter, a former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told members of the American Law Institute.

REUTERS/Stephen Hird (House speaker Nancy Pelosi at No. 10 Downing Street after meeting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on May 12)

Democrats in the House Energy and Commerce Committee had a secret weapon — a speed-reader — who they were prepared to pull out in case Republicans forced the public reading of a nearly 1,000-page climate change bill and lengthy amendments that have been debated all week.

The procedural maneuver to delay progress on the bill had been threatened by Republicans, who oppose the “cap and trade” program Democrats constructed to gradually reduce industry’s greenhouse gas emissions.

In the end, Republicans didn’t resort to the delay.

But not wanting to waste the talents of the speed-reader Chairman Henry Waxman hired, the committee gave Douglas Wilder his moment in the sun by asking him to read out loud hundreds of pages contained in a Republican counter-proposal that everyone knew was doomed.

Sporting an orange-colored shirt, patterned tie and brushed-back hair, Wilder took off, sounding almost like an auctioneer.

The words flew by, sometimes almost  unintelligible and too fast for even the most competent note-takers in the hearing room filled with lawmakers, lobbyists and journalists.

“Section one…short title…energy production and conservation act…table of contents…federal…efficiency…”

After about 40 seconds, Joe  Barton, the senior Republican on the committee who played along with the moment of levity, signalled he had enough of the fast-talking Wilder.

Amid a burst of applause and laughter that rippled through the room, Barton folded. “I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with,” said the Texan in his soft drawl. “If he’ll just work on his accent a bit, he’ll have a bright future,” Barton said.

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (Waxman at a House hearing)

Former House speaker Tip O’Neill famously said that all politics is local, and President Barack Obama has encountered a phrase all too familiar to city councils and zoning boards: Not in My Backyard.

Obama’s plans to shutter the Guantanamo Bay military prison have foundered on fears, drummed up by Republicans, that terrorism suspects could roam the streets and parks of America if they are set free from U.S. prisons.

Now even Obama’s Democratic allies in Congress have said they won’t give him money to bring the Gitmo suspects into the U.S. legal system.

At 10:00 today, Obama will explain his plans for closing Gitmo with the hopes of curbing the fears of NIMBYism and convincing Congress to cough up the necessary dough.

To get things rolling, his Justice Department plans to bring one suspect to trial.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney, a primary architect of the terrorism policy now giving Obama headaches, will offer a lively counterpoint at a separate speech shortly after. He’s likely to raise the specter of coddled terrrorists, out on parole, plotting suicide bombings at the local middle school.

Do we see a new role for Cheney? America’s #1 Neighborhood Activist, perhaps? Hmm, that sounds sort of like a community organizer.

photo credit: REUTERS/Mike Theiler (Demonstrators mark the 100th day of President Barack Obama’s administration and his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison on April 29).

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The U.S. Customs and Border Protection is making a big push to make sure Americans are aware that effective June 1 new document requirements will be in effect for entering the United States by land or sea from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.

The promotional material handed out to reporters to show the different acceptable forms of identification all used the name in the example of  ”Happy Traveler.”

Verbal statements of American citizenship, birth certificates, or ordinary driver’s licenses will not comply with the new requirements for re-entry after camping in the wilds of Canada, sunning on the beaches of Mexico, or cruising the Caribbean.

The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, created in response to the Sept. 11 attacks, will require one of the following for Americans: passport, passport card, enhanced driver’s license, or one of three trusted traveler program cards.

Except for the passport, they all have a Radio Frequency Identification chip that can be held up to an electronic reader before the traveler encounters the officer at the entry booth.

Entry by Canadians also requires passport, enhanced driver’s license, or a trusted traveler program card. There will be no change for Mexicans who will continue to be required to present a passport with visa or a border crossing card.

The government will be flexible for some time after the June 1 start of the program for those who didn’t get the memo on the changes, but repeat offenders will be noted.

“We’ll get to a point where enough is enough,” Jayson Ahern, acting commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, told reporters.

Asked whether the identification cards were similar to an EZPass to get through toll booths, Ahern replied: “Similar but different.”  He said he doesn’t expect the changes to increase traffic backup at entry points.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Rebecca Cook (The Bluewater bridge connecting U.S. and Canada)

Republican Party chairman Michael Steele yesterday urged his fellow GOPers to stop “navel gazing” and go on the offensive against President Obama and his Democrats, and it appears they are getting right to it.

Today, the party votes on a resolution to ask the Democratic Party to rename itself “The Democrat Socialist Party.”

And Newt Gingrich, the former Republican House speaker, said current House speaker Nancy Pelosi should step down for accusing the CIA of lying to Congress about torture.

“Even Democrats have to be concerned that she is clearly not telling the truth,” Gingrich said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

So far, no Democrats have called on Pelosi to resign over the flap.

Elsewhere in Washington, the White House panel trying to find a way out of the economic crisis holds its first public meeting today. The 16-member Economic Recovery Advisory Board, led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, meets at 10 a.m.

Lots of administration officials on the Hill today.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testify at House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee at 12:30.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee at 9:30.

FBI Director Robert Mueller testifies before the House Judiciary Committee at 10:00.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner testifies on TARP at Senate Banking Committee at 9:30.

And finally, Attorney General Eric Holder and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announce an effort to crack down on Medicare fraud at 1 p.m.

photo credit: ABC News (Steele appears on an ABC News show, Feb.

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President Obama’s push to reduce the global nuclear arms threat received an endorsement Tuesday from some big names in U.S. national security policy.
 
With a new round of strategic arms talks getting under way in Moscow, Obama met in the Oval Office with former Secretaries of State George Shultz and Henry Kissinger, former Defense Secretary William Perry and former Senator Sam Nunn.
 
Obama, who outlined his vision of a world free of atomic weapons in a speech in Prague last month, said he welcomed the support of the bipartisan group, who have been pushing for over two years for the United States to lead an effort to eliminate nuclear arms.
 
“We do not want a world of continued nuclear proliferation,” Obama told reporters after the meeting.
 
“It is absolutely imperative that America take leadership working with not just our Russian counterparts but countries all around the world to reduce and ultimately eliminate the dangers that are posed by nuclear weapons,” he said.
 
“We can take some very specific steps in order to do that. We can revitalize our Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. We can work with the Russians as the two countries with by far the largest nuclear stockpiles to continue to reduce our dependence on nuclear weapons. We can move forward on a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty …  And we can lock down loose nuclear weapons that can fall into the hands of terrorists.”
 
Shultz, speaking on behalf of the group, said the four former U.S. officials supported Obama’s approach.
 
He did have one little quibble though. The group, he said, was really non-partisan, not bipartisan.
 
“This is a subject that ought to somehow get up above trying to get a partisan advantage,” he said. “And it’s of such importance that we need to take it on its own merits. And that’s the way we’ve proceeded, and that’s the way, at least it seems to us, you’ve proceeded.”
 
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Photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (Obama with Shultz and Kissinger in the Oval Office)

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who has ended up on many media lists speculating about potential Supreme Court nominees,  says she is not looking for a new job.

At a news conference to introduce the new head of FEMA and talk about hurricane preparedness — the season starts June 1 — the former governor of Arizona was asked about the chatter that she may be a contender for the vacancy of retiring Justice David Souter.

“I have a job,” Napolitano said.

“And as you can tell from this press conference it’s a pretty big one,” she said to the reporters gathered in the FEMA press room. “I’m not looking for another job.”

Analysis — A fairly standard Washington response. Officials possibly being considered for other posts almost never want to divulge anything for fear of appearing eager, and always try to make sure they verbalize satisfaction with their current jobs.

In the parlor game of who will take Souter’s robe, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm’s visit to the White House for an announcement on emissions got tongues wagging about whether that was cover for a chat with President Barack Obama about the Supreme Court.

And the answer is… drum roll please…

We don’t know.

As usual with these guessing games, Washington works itself into a froth, and then the true candidate finally steps forward when the White House is ready to let the cat out of the bag.

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- Photo credit: Kevin Lamarque (Supreme Court justices listen to Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress)