Kind of a quiet day at the White House today. Hey, why not plant a tree?

President Obama was on hand for a commemorative tree planting on the White House front lawn.

There’s always a good tale behind these things and here’s this one: Benjamin Harrison planted a Scarlet Oak tree in the same spot in 1889. There it stood through good times and bad, triumph and tragedy, rain and shine, and, well, you get the idea.

Then it rotted straight through and tumped over in a 2007 rainstorm. George W. Bush planted a Scarlet Oak in the same spot as a replacement in 2008, but it didn’t take hold.

Thus came Obama with a Little Leaf Linden tree donated from Halka Nurseries Millstone Township, New Jersey.

It’s supposed to be a sturdier tree so maybe this one will take root. We hope so, because in Washington, if you want a friend, get a tree. Wait a second, that doesn’t sound right.

Click here for more Reuters political coverage

Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young (Obama plants commemorative tree at White House)

President Barack Obama is finding out what his predecessor experienced — closing Guantanamo Bay is easier said than done.

As early as May 2006, former President George W. Bush said he wanted to close the prison for terrorism suspects in Cuba that was constructed during his administration after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

But the Bush administration found it was not easy getting other countries to accept some of the prisoners and faced a dilemma of what to do with other prisoners who could not be released.

When Obama came into office in January, one of his first edicts was to close Guantanamo Bay by January next year. Now that the deadline is four months away, his administration is acknowledging that it will be difficult to meet that goal.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who also served under Bush, said on Sunday that it would be tough to meet the January deadline.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs was peppered with questions about Guantanamo Bay closing at his media briefing today, but refused to get cornered into saying the deadline would be missed.

Question: Robert, back in June, when you were asked about whether or not the deadline to close down Gitmo could be reached, you said, “absolutely.” Over the weekend, I’m sure you heard the secretary of defense saying that it’s going to be tough. What happened?

Gibbs: Well, I would believe the secretary. He always trumps me.

Question: I’m sure he does. What happened between the “absolutely” and “it’s going to be tough”?

Gibbs: I think we’re continuing to make progress. I think we’ve had more and more people transferred out of Guantanamo Bay…

Question: So is the White House resigned now, resigned to the fact now that the deadline cannot be met?

Gibbs: Well, we’re not focused on whether or not the deadline will or won’t be met on a particular day. We’re focused on ensuring that the facility is closed and doing all that has to be done between now and the 22nd of January to make the most progress that we can that’s possible.

Doesn’t sound like anyone should bet on the deadline being met…. How important is it that Obama meet his own Jan. 22 deadline for closing Guantanamo Bay? Does it matter if the deadline is not met?  How much more time is reasonable for closing the prison?

Click here for more Reuters political coverage

Photo credit: Reuters/pool (Guantanamo detainee inside open-air yard), Reuters/Jim Young (Gibbs at Monday’s media briefing)

President Barack Obama’s new missile defense plan is an exercise in reading between the lines.

Does it signal a diminished threat from Iran if he is scrapping the Bush-era system that was to be based in Poland and the Czech Republic? Obama’s plan would use missile interceptors based on ships.

Former President George W. Bush would rattle off Iran and threats in the same sentence so often that sometimes it seemed all roads to fear led to Tehran. He wanted the missile shield as protection.

Obama said one factor guiding his decision was updated intelligence assessments of Iran’s missile programs that emphasized the threat of short- and medium-range missiles capable of reaching Europe.

So the unsaid line appears to be that the threat from a long-range missile is not prevalent.

Greg Thielmann, a former State Department intelligence official, said it became evident that Iran was not reaching some of the milestones needed to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile before 2015 as an intelligence estimate in 1999 had predicted.

On the nuclear threat, we’ve learned that key judgments still stand from a 2007 intelligence report that said “with moderate confidence” Iran had not restarted its nuclear weapons program as of mid-2007.

The timing of Obama’s announcement — the week before the U.N. General Assembly and G20 meetings where he will mix with other world leaders — is worth raising an eyebrow. Why give away a bargaining chip ahead of time?

The fact that the announcement comes on the 70th anniversary of the Russian invasion of Poland on Sept. 17, 1939, may be worth raising the other eyebrow.

Photo credit: Reuters/Morteza Nikoubazl (missile driven past picture of Iran’s supreme leader during parade in Tehran in April), Reuters/Raheb Homavandi (Man in Tehran reacts to a camera in April)

Matt Latimer, who used to make a living writing speeches for former President George W. Bush, has decided to let loose in a book under his own name that describes the White House as more like the TV show “The Office” and less like “The West Wing.”

In excerpts of his book “Speech-Less” appearing in the October issue of GQ magazine, out on newsstands Sept. 22, Latimer says Bush had something unflattering to say about the leaders of the pack running to win the White House in last year’s election.

(We obtained, and more importantly, read all the excerpts to be published in GQ. There is some discussion about the plan to boost the economy which we leave you to read in the magazine or book).

According to Latimer, Bush believed Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic nominee in the 2008 presidential election and quotes the former president as saying “Wait till her fat keister is sitting at this desk,” although the speechwriter-turned-book-writer says Bush didn’t say “keister” (guess he’s urging us to use our imagination).

“He didn’t think much of Barack Obama,” Latimer writes. He recalls an occasion when Bush was fuming that it was a dangerous world, and quotes the president as saying, “and this cat isn’t remotely qualified to handle it. This guy has no clue, I promise you.”

On Joe Biden, according to Latimer, Bush had a one-liner he liked to tell: “If bull—- was currency (pause), Joe Biden would be a billionaire.”

Of the Republicans running for president, Latimer opines that Bush liked Mitt Romney best and was uneasy about John McCain.

The writer recounts an incident in which Bush was to attend a McCain campaign event that suddenly was closed to the press.

“If he doesn’t want me to go, fine,” Bush is quoted as saying. “I’ve got better things to do.”

(McCain kept the unpopular Bush at arms-length during last year’s campaign).

When McCain surprised everyone with his vice presidential pick of then-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Latimer says Bush called the choice “interesting” and then quotes the president as saying with eyes twinkling that he was trying to remember if he’d met her before, “What is she, the governor of Guam?”

Bush’s current spokesman had no comment on Latimer’s book.

But Bush’s former spokeswoman, Dana Perino, told Reuters that while she hadn’t read the book, “I think that most people who worked in the White House would be hard pressed to pick this guy out of a line-up.”

She adds: “He wasn’t around the president much, and some of what he says the president said doesn’t ring true to me. For example, I was there outside the Oval when Sarah Palin was announced as the VP candidate and the president said to me, ’so, the Governor of Alaska was the pick? I just saw her a few weeks ago when we were on our way to China’.”

Perino also said she doesn’t recall Bush saying anything about anyone’s keister. “I’m not sure how people who write these books really feel about themselves. Oh well,” she says.

Click here for more Reuters political coverage

Photo credit: Reuters/Pool (Obama and Bush at the Capitol on inauguration day), Reuters/Brian Snyder (Bush and McCain at Kennedy’s funeral)

Mixing politics with national security? Maybe under Obama, but not under Bush. Well, not exactly.

That summarizes Tom Ridge in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Former President George W. Bush’s first homeland security secretary took on the Obama administration’s controversial review of Bush-era interrogations and his own published worries about politics and the threat of terrorism.

Ridge was asked what he made of former Vice President Dick Cheney’s public assault against the decision by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to name a special prosecutor to look deeper into harsh Bush-era interrogations of captured terrorism suspects including accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was waterboarded 183 times.

“I think he’s right, pure and simple,” Ridge told ABC.

In fact, the former Republican governor of Pennsylvania suggested the Justice Department investigation should itself be outlawed.

“To go back and investigate — criminally investigate — what these men were asked to do believing at the time that they were empowered to do it and it was consistent with the law, I think it’s wrong. It’s chilling and it’s inappropriate,” he said.

“To suggest four or five years later that what they did was criminal, I think that’s criminal,” Ridge said.

But Ridge, 64, tried to downplay the controversy sparked by his own upcoming book.

In his new book, “The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege,” Ridge says he worried that election politics might have motivated some top Bush administration officials to argue for a heightened threat level at the time.

“A lot of people are hyperventilating about that passage,” Ridge said.

“At the end of the day, I had to be absolutely sure that we’re on the right path. Process worked. We didn’t go up. And it was designed so that nobody could pressure anybody to do anything. A consensus was reached. We didn’t go up.”

But he didn’t take back the assertion that Bush’s political interests might have had a role in the discussion.

Click here for more Reuters political coverage

Photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (Ridge announcing his resignation in 2004)

The Bush White House years may turn into the book wars, which one will you buy?

Former President George W. Bush is writing a book on the decisions he made while in office, working title “Decision Points,” scheduled for release next year.

Former first lady Laura Bush is writing a memoir about her life experiences, expected to be published next year.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney may provide some juicy tidbits in his memoir if it ends up criticizing (would that be book-stabbbing?) the president, it won’t be out until early 2011.

Here’s our guess on how the pages will turn.

George W. Bush’s book will be a straight-forward accounting of what went through his mind as the “Decider” in chief. Laura Bush’s book will not be as soft and fluffy as a stereotypical first lady memoir. And Cheney’s will offer the most surprises, only because he has been the determined silent type.

What’s your pick?

Photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Coombs (people reading books on a British beach)

Officials from the Bush and Obama administrations crossed paths at the White House Tuesday to participate in a homeland security exercise.

The scary hypothetical scenario was how the federal government should respond to a terrorist attack using improvised explosive devices on the transportation infrastructure and other economic targets in major U.S. cities.

They also looked at responses to other disasters like pandemic flu and hurricanes during briefings, including time spent in the White House basement “Situation Room” where  national security crises are handled.

“As Republicans and Democrats, we disagree on a lot of policy issues, but we agree completely that we want this new team to be as successful as they possibly can be, especially in the areas of national and homeland security,” Josh Bolten, Bush’s chief of staff , said before the exercise began.  “And this morning’s activities, I think, will be an important contributor to that. ”

Both sides were definitely playing nice.

“I’ve now been over with Josh one way or another four separate times.  I’m going miss you,” Rahm Emanuel, who will be Obama’s chief of staff, said standing next to Bolten before reporters at the White House.

Reporters were assured that the security drill did not involve any kind of competition between the Bush and Obama teams. 

And so it goes in the post-election era, where each side is patting the other on the back for a smooth transition.

For more Reuters political news, please click here.

Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (Emanuel, left, and Bolten outside the White House Tuesday)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush says he’s disappointed that his younger brother Jeb Bush has ruled out running for a Florida Senate seat in 2010.
The former Florida governor removed himself from consideration this week, saying now is not the right time for him to return to elected office.

“I am disappointed he didn’t run. I haven’t talked to him since he made the decision,” Bush said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News on Thursday.

“I actually wanted him to run for senator, but you know … We all have different family issues you’ve got to deal with,” Bush said. The Morning News will be Bush’s hometown paper when be begins his post-presidential life at his new home in Dallas later this month.

Bush said he will see his brother, and maybe get more details on his decision, when the family get together on Saturday in Norfolk, Virginia.

The Bush brothers will attend the commissioning of an aircraft carrier named for their father and former president, George H.W. Bush.

Asked about Jeb Bush’s decision and the future of the Bush “dynasty,” the president responded with a question of his own.

“You meant to ask: What is the future of the Bush family?” Bush said, laughing off the “dynasty” premise. “We will be healthy, happy people.”

Bush hands over the reins of presidential power to Barack Obama on Jan. 20, and says he plans to steer clear of party politics for a while.

  - Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (President George W. Bush with brother Jeb Bush at the White House, April 19, 2006)

Gulp.
    
Senate brinksmanship kills a proposed $14 billion bailout for Detroit’s struggling “Big Three” automakers, so eyes turn back to the White House. 
    
The Senate is due back in session at 10 a.m. Eastern for what could be a quick round of final recriminations.
    
Analysts say the most immediate hope for help for GMC, Chrysler and Ford is now the Bush administration, which could possibly decide to use financial bailout funding to help the massive car manufacturers — if there’s any money left.
    
Bush, who had resisted this idea in the past, is headed to Texas A&M University where he is due to deliver a commencement address. The White House said this morning it was willing to consider steps to avoid an auto apocalypse.
    
There’s finger pointing in every direction — the UAW union, recalcitrant Republicans, overreaching Democrats, and the lame-duck White House — but nobody seems sure what happens next for companies which say they are responsible for one out of 10 U.S. jobs.
    
Stock futures were down, indicating that benchmark U.S. indexes could open down about 3 percent or more amid a worldwide sell-off. 
    
Meanwhile, whatever attention is left is fixed firmly on Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who is still in office three days after being charged with corruption in connection with allegations that he sought to “sell” the vacant U.S. Senate seat of President-elect Barack Obama.
    
Lots of people seem to want the man out — Obama described himself as “appalled” — but there’s no word on whether Blagojevich  intends to resign. Obama, who has sought to distance himself from the Democratic governor, has no public events scheduled today.

Click here for more Reuters political news. 

REUTERS/Yuri Gripas (Bush on South Lawn)

Washington is focused on one issue this morning — how to stop the U.S. auto industry from driving off a cliff.
 
The Senate reconvenes on Monday, and congressional aides say it may consider as early as Tuesday legislation on a $15 billion deal to rescue America’s “Big Three” automakers from oblivion.
 
Democratic negotiators in Congress modified their draft proposal on Sunday, a congressional aide said, and planned to get it to the White House for consideration.
 
The New York Times and Washington Post reported that Democrats were considering creating an oversight board made up of five cabinet secretaries and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency and led by an independent chairman or “car czar”.
 
The board would oversee the restructuring that the car giants have agreed to in exchange for the short-term loans. The Post said the board would develop broad restructuring goals for the companies but could not compel them to act.
 
Investors appeared confident on Monday that the automakers will be thrown a financial lifeline. Shares of General Motors shot up 22.5 percent to $5 before the bell, and Ford shares climbed 19.5 percent to $3.25.
 
U.S. stock index futures also rose on hopes that President-elect Barack Obama’s plan for major infrastructure investment will help get the economy back on its feet.  

Elsewhere in Washington, President George W. Bush will attend a Christmas reception for children at the White House before visiting the National Counterterrorism Center in McLean, Virginia.