Now that Congress is back from its week-long Memorial Day recess, it’s time for the U.S. top brass to hit the road. President Barack Obama heads to the Middle East today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Honduras, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is in China and U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke promises a visit to Pakistan this week.

Closer to home, Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor starts making the rounds on Capitol Hill in advance of her confirmation hearings. Meantime, Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal faces questions at his confirmation hearing today before the Senate Armed Services Committee today. McChrystal’s nominated to be the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

This might be an opportune time for travel. The Ipsos/Reuters poll indicates global consumer confidence is stabilizing, after dropping for 18 months.

Obama’s Mideast trip is in part a fulfillment of a campaign promise to deliver a speech to the Islamic world from a major Muslim capital early in his presidency. He’ll make the speech in Cairo on Thursday, where T-shirt vendors are ready with a version that reads “Obama: New Tutankhamon of the World.” His first stop in the region will be Saudi Arabia, where the discussion is expected to focus on oil prices.

Sometimes it’s not the distance traveled but what you say when you get there. That may be true for Dick Cheney, who last month emerged from his undisclosed location for a high-profile confrontation with Obama — they weren’t in the same room but Cheney started talking moments after Obama finished — over how to handle the threat of terrorism and its aftermath. The former vice president went to the National Press Club last night to offer support for gay marriage, regulated on a state-by-state basis. He has done this before, but doing it now puts him to the left of Obama, who favors civil unions for gay couples.

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Photo credit: REUTERS/Amr Dalsh (Souvenir shop shows the latest on June 1 in Cairo)

With General Motors expected to file for bankruptcy next week, former Vice President Dick Cheney said on Wednesday that he wanted the company to take that step months ago when George W. Bush was still president.

“Some of us at the time wanted GM to go bankrupt, go to Chapter 11,” Cheney said in an interview with CNBC’s “The Kudlow Report”. But Cheney apparently was in the minority with that view at the time.

“The decision was made that, in the final analysis, since our administration was almost over and a brand-new team was about to take over that the president wanted, in effect, not to take a step that wasn’t necessarily going to be followed by his successor, but rather to set up a situation which the new guys could address that issue and make a decision about what the long-term policy was going to be,” he said.

Cheney, who has been in a very public fight with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden over national security policies, took on the Obama administration’s economic policies in the interview with CNBC’s Larry Kudlow.

Asked whether he agreed with criticism that Obama was pursuing some kind of socialist agenda, Cheney  said he would not use that label but did not like what he was seeing.

“I agree with the criticism without using the labels. I don’t want to get into trying to label President Obama. He’s our president. At this point, he’s the only one we’ve got. He won the election, and he obviously is entitled to pursue those policies that he wants to pursue,” Cheney said.

“What we’ve been seeing, though, and what’s been advocated by the president and what looks to be in store if he’s successful is that we’re seeing a vast expansion, not only the power of the federal government over the private sector but also in terms of spending,” he said.

The former vice president also tried to take back a rebuke of retired General Colin Powell.  Cheney previously said that the former secretary of state in the Bush administration had left the Republican party.

“Well, we’re happy to have General Powell in the Republican Party,” Cheney said.

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- Photo credit: Josh Roberts (Cheney before giving a speech on national security on May 21.)

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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Dan Quayle played golf in Arizona. Al Gore taught journalism in New York. But Dick Cheney is breaking with the tradition that former vice presidents quietly leave Washington and the public eye when they exit the White House. Even Cheney’s ex-boss, George W. Bush, has refrained from criticizing the Obama administration, saying the new team deserves his silence. But Cheney was positively gabby on a Sunday talk show.

While many in official Washington were recovering from Saturday evening’s White House Correspondents Association dinner — where President Barack Obama got off some memorable one-liners and comedian Wanda Sykes took aim at radio talk jock Rush Limbaugh, among others — Cheney gave a lengthy interview to “Face the Nation” on CBS television. The replay of clips from that chat were still reverberating on Monday’s morning shows on CNN, NBC and ABC.

On waterboarding terror suspects, which critics say doesn’t work in getting useful information — aside from it being torture — Cheney disagreed. “Khalid Shaikh Mohammed … an evil, evil man that’s been in our custody since March of ‘03 … did not cooperate fully in terms of interrogations until after waterboarding. Once we went through that process, he produced vast quantities of invaluable information about Al Qaeda.”

Any regrets about his time in the White House? “No regrets. I think it was absolutely the right thing to do. I’m convinced, absolutely convinced, that we saved thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of lives.”

What about the detention center at Guantanamo, which Obama has said will be closed within a year? “We had to have a place, a facility, where we could capture these people and hold them until they were no longer a danger to the United States … we released hundreds already of the less threatening types. About 12 percent of them, nonetheless, went back onto the fight as terrorists. The group that’s left, the 245 or so, these are the worst of the worst.”

And what about Cheney’s Republican Party, now dealing with the defection of high-profile Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania? Should it move to the left to broaden its appeal to voters? “We are what we are. We’re Republicans … I think we win elections when we have good solid conservative principles to run upon and base our policies on those principles.”

If he had to choose between Rush Limbaugh and Colin Powell — the former Secretary of State and former head of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff — Cheney said he’d pick Limbaugh.

“Well, if I had to choose in terms of being a Republican, I’d go with Rush Limbaugh, I think. I think my take on it was Colin had already left the party. I didn’t know he was still a Republican.”

Does any of this matter? After all, Cheney is no longer in government. You tell us: should Cheney continue to speak out or does he owe the Obama administration his silence in its early months?

Photo credit: REUTERS/Mitch Dumke (file photo of former Vice President Dick Cheney, October 15, 2008, Washington DC)

So it has come to this: Dick Cheney is said to be angry at George W. Bush over Bush’s decision not to grant a pardon to Scooter Libby over the Valerie Plame affair.

That is according to long-time Cheney watcher Thomas DeFrank of the New York Daily News. DeFrank reported that former vice president Cheney repeatedly pressed Bush to pardon Lewis “Scooter” Libby, arguing that Scooter deserved a full exoneration.

Former President Bush had already kept Libby out of jail by commuting his 30-month prison sentence.

“He tried to make it happen right up until the very end,” one Cheney associate told the Daily News.

After repeatedly telling Cheney his mind was made up, Bush became so exasperated with Cheney’s persistence he told aides he didn’t want to discuss the matter any further, DeFrank wrote.

The unsuccessful full-court press left Cheney bitter. “He’s furious with Bush,” a Cheney source told the Daily News. “He’s really angry about it and decided he’s going to say what he believes.”

UPDATE: We’re hearing that while Cheney lobbied for a Scooter pardon and disagreed with the ultimate outcome, it might be exaggerating to describe him as furious with Bush. We’re told the two men remain close and have talked a number of times since Bush left office on Jan. 20.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (Cheney leaves White House for inauguration)

WASHINGTON - Vice President Joe Biden promised a “fully transparent” task force to help the middle class. So why is the audience laughing?

Biden is leading a task force to look at how to improve economic realities for working families. And it will have its own Web site astrongmiddleclass.gov as the Obama administration presses on with its goal to use the Internet to communicate with the public.

“This task force, I might add — which, coming out of the vice president’s office, will be a bit unique — will be fully transparent, totally transparent,” Biden said.

And the audience laughed.

“We are going to consult openly — openly and publicly with outside groups who can help us develop the most far-reaching and imaginative solutions to help us solve these problems and create the outcome we’re looking for,” Biden said. 

“And we’ll put all the material from our meetings and any report we produc`e up on the Web site.  None of this will happen behind closed doors.  We want the American people engaged.  We want them engaged from the outset,” he said.

Well…

All this talk about openness and transparency and no closed doors by the new vice president sounds a lot like a not so veiled dig at his predecessor, Dick Cheney, whom critics considered overly secretive.

The former vice president went to the Supreme Court to block adversaries from getting documents from an energy task force he headed.

And remember the undisclosed location?

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Photo credit: Reuters/Molly Riley (Biden and Cheney at vice president’s residence)

WASHINGTON - For those not among the throngs in the U.S. capital for the inaugural festivities for Barack Obama, many have turned to Facebook to describe how they were watching the ceremonies or their state of excitement about the new president.

And yes, it even became a spot for soon-to-be former aides to outgoing President George W. Bush to describe their future after their tenure at the White House.

One Bush staffer described being “employed for only 1hr and 28 more minutes” while another told his friends he was on his way to Andrews Air Force Base to attend a closed-door departure ceremony before Bush flies back to Texas on the 747 airplane used as Air Force One (it’s only called that when the current president is aboard).

Another Republican offered his appreciation for the outgoing Bush team, saying ”THANK YOU President Bush and Vice President Cheney for your service to our nation.”

Others declared their excitement for Obama’s inauguration and his upcoming presidency.  As Mercedes Grandin from Portland, Maine described it, “bring on our new President!!”  Heather Morrow, from Overland Park, Kansas, said on Facebook she “cannot tear herself away from the television. this is amazing!”

Others griped about stalled subway or buses to the National Mall or the U.S. Capitol while some described the ease with which they cleared the numerous security checkpoints.

Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (the US Capitol before sunrise hours before the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States)

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It’s official. Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States.

The Senate and House of Representatives just concluded a joint session in which the electoral college vote results of the Nov. 4 election were counted and certified with great fanfare.

Vice President Dick Cheney, who serves as president of the Senate, presided over the meeting and read the official results - Obama of Illinois received 365 of the 538 electoral votes for president and Sen. John McCain of Arizona received 173.  Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware received 365 electoral votes for the office of vice president while Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska received 173 votes, Cheney said.

With the electoral votes duly recorded by Congress, Obama will be free to take the oath of office on Jan. 20, on the west front of the Capitol. 

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Photo credit: Reuters/Joshua Roberts (Ballots from the Electoral College are carried into the House Chamber for joint session of Congress/ Vice President Cheny hands Rep. Robert Brady of Pennsylvania vote results from Ohio.)

UPDATED - Adds Laura Bush event

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney will take a different approach than his boss to the presidential campaign this last weekend before election day — he will spend it at a public rally in his home state.

Cheney will attend a Get-Out-the-Vote rally in Laramie, Wyoming on Saturday, a rare public sighting on the campaign trail by Cheney or his boss, President George W. Bush. Both have attended numerous fundraisers around the country this election cycle but with their job approval ratings hovering around record lows, they have almost all been closed-door affairs.

Unlike Cheney, Bush is spending the last weekend of the 2008 campaign season secluded at the Camp David presidential retreat.

Cheney’s spokeswoman Megan Mitchell said he plans to spend Election Day on his annual hunting trip in South Dakota and has already voted by absentee ballot — for Republican hopeful John McCain in case anyone had any doubts.

While McCain has been locked in tight races elsewhere, he can likely count on winning Wyoming. The latest polls show him ahead by 20 points.

First Lady Laura Bush will attend a Get-Out-the-Vote rally in Shepherdville, Kentucky on Monday, another state where McCain is ahead by a comfortable margin according to the latest polls.

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (Cheney in his limousine earlier this month)

QUANTICO, Va., Oct 30 (Reuters) - Aside from the treasured memories, President George W. Bush will probably take back to Texas a souvenir or two from his years in the White House.

And as president he gets more than just T-shirts and mugs.

On Thursday, the Marines and sailors who take care of Marine One presented Bush with a little piece of the presidential helicopter to take home.

Any helicopter that carries the president is called Marine One and only a handful of senior aides get a lift in it. When Bush goes out of town, he takes the helicopter from the White House South Lawn to Andrews Air Force Base where his plane, Air Force One, is waiting.

He also flies the helicopter to the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland and has flown in Marine One for aerial views of disaster areas such as in the aftermath of hurricanes. And the fleet is also used occasionally to ferry foreign leaders to Camp David as well as Vice President Dick Cheney.

On Thursday Bush visited the Marine Helicopter Squadron One Hangar to thank those who fly and service the official helicopters and received a gift — a piece of the helicopter’s tail rotor and a window.

The rectangular window was framed. “It was a window that he used to look out,” White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said.

Stanzel sought to allay some concerns among the press corps traveling with Bush that the presidential flight may become a touch too breezy with a missing window, telling reporters dryly that the squadron had a few extra ones for the helicopters.

- Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (Bush arrives at the White House aboard Marine One)