Secretary of State Hillary Clinton griping about Pakistan while in Pakistan.

She says it was “hard to believe” that no one in Pakistan’s government knew where al Qaeda leaders were hiding. She talked about her tough talk in a series of morning television interviews, and said on CNN “trust is a two-way street.”

Top military brass coming over to the White House this afternoon. President Barack Obama meets with the military Joint Chiefs of Staff on Afghanistan and Pakistan this afternoon in the Situation Room (so you know it’s important).

Vice President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Robert Gates are also down to attend the meeting where they are all expected to go over recommendations on troop strength and strategy.

No definitive word yet on when Obama will issue his decision on a new U.S. strategy on Afghanistan, so the waiting continues…

On the economic front, consumer spending fell in September and sentiment turned gloomier, underscoring the fragile nature of the economic recovery, while signs emerged that manufacturing activity may be picking up.

And it’s Halloween weekend so there will be plenty of ghosts and goblins out on the streets, may all your spirits be friendly ones…

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Photo credit: Reuters/pool (Clinton in Lahore, Pakistan, on Oct. 29)

The latest violence in Afghanistan may raise the drumbeat in Washington for a decision from President Barack Obama on whether to send more U.S. forces.

He’ll make remarks today at a Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony, and could address the matter there. Plenty of other topics are on the front burner, though, including healthcare reform and overhauling financial regulation, to name just two.

Senator John McCain, Obama’s Republican presidential rival in 2008, said the decision on sending more troops to Afghanistan should come soon. McCain told CBS television’s “Early Show”: “Overwhelmingly the military establishment and those who have had the experience of our success in Iraq know that the people there don’t want the Taliban back … and they want an environment of security. And we watch this situation continue to deteriorate while this long protracted process of decision-making goes on. We’re not operating in a vacuum. The president of the United States needs to make this decision and soon. Our allies are nervous and our military leadership is becoming frustrated.”

Afghanistan is clearly not the only focus of U.S. foreign policy concern. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Pakistan, pledging a fresh start in U.S.-Pakistani relations. Clinton’s visit came as a car bomb killed over 80 people in a crowded market.

Back in Washington, the struggle continues to get doses of swine flu vaccine to those most at risk. One top U.S. health official says the government may end up throwing away unused doses of the vaccine if people can’t get it fast enough.

And it’s raining. Again. Still.

One bright note: U.S. consumer confidence is on the rise for the first time since 2007.

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Photo credit: REUTERS/Ahmad Masood (Security forces around an international guest-house in Kabul after an attack by Taliban militants, October 28, 2009)

Hillary Clinton was walking with her husband Bill in a nature preserve near their home in New York when the cellphone in his pocket started ringing.

It was five or six days after the November election that Barack Obama won after defeating her for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Instead of turning the phone off while strolling through nature, Clinton’s husband, the former president, answered it.

(Probably a good thing in hindsight. What would have happened if he hadn’t brought the phone? What if he had decided not to answer it? Who would have been Secretary of State then?)

OK, OK, it probably would not have made a difference (but who knows?)

It was the newly elected Obama calling to discuss some potential candidates for his administration. And then he popped the question, and asked Hillary Clinton to be his Secretary of State.

Clinton says in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that she initially demurred saying others were qualified for that position, and then answered yes.

“I finally began thinking, look, if I had won and I called him, I would have wanted him to say yes. And, you know, I’m pretty old-fashioned, and it’s just who I am. So at the end of the day, when your president asks you to serve, you say yes, if you can.”

And if tables were turned, and she were president, would she have called Obama? “Absolutely. Absolutely. Oh, of course.”

But she is not running for president again. “I have absolutely no interest in running for president again. None. None. I mean, I know that’s hard for some people to believe, but … I just don’t.”

Here’s the ABC News interview

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Photo credit: Reuters/pool (Clinton during meeting with Russian president)

It turns out the relationship between the United States and Britain is very special.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton went to great lengths on Sunday to reassure Britons and their political leaders that the “special relationship” between the two allies is strong and intact.

Exhibit A: at a news conference with Foreign Secretary David Miliband, Clinton opened her remarks by stressing their strong relations.

“First, let me just underscore how grateful I am for this opportunity to reaffirm the historic importance of the special relationship between our two countries,” she said.

Exhibit B: at a meeting later with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Clinton reiterated the message again. Note how many times the word “special” creeps into her sentence.

“It is a special relationship,” she said at the prime minister’s country estate. “I have a special personal relationship with the prime minister and of course I think it can’t be said often enough, we have a special relationship between our countries.”

Here’s the background: some Britons feel President Barack Obama has snubbed Brown by, for example, not holding a full press conference with him in Washington earlier this year (the two spoke to reporters in the Oval Office instead) and not scheduling one-on-one meetings at various international summits.

U.S. officials often appear mystified by the concerns. Clinton did her best, verbally anyway, to show they need not worry.

Later in the day she visited Dublin. The Irish, who are perhaps less concerned about semantics, welcomed her warmly as she made a visit to a coffee shop and a local pub, sipping coffee and swigging part of a beer.

Now that’s a special relationship.

Photo credit: REUTERS/Jeff Mason (U.S. Secretary of State and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, October 11, 2009)

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spent the weekend in Switzerland and Ireland, but landed on the morning talk shows on Monday, fending off questions about whether she has been marginalized in the Obama administration. It’s not considered a good sign when people start asking this question in Washington, because the implication is that the answer is “yes.”

Clinton had no comment when newscaster Ann Curry on  NBC’s “Today” program asked whether she should be more visible on such hot-button issues as Iran and Afghanistan. But she responded fully when asked about concerns that the “highest-ranking woman in the United States needs to fight against being marginalized.”

“I find it absurd, I find it beyond any realistic assessment of what I’m doing every day,” Clinton said. “I believe in delegating power. I’m not one of those people who feels like I have to have my face in the front of the newspaper or on the TV every moment of the day. It would be irresponsible and negligent were I to say, ‘Oh no, everything must come to me!’”

She had a theory about why she’s comfortable working this way. “Maybe this is a woman’s thing. Maybe I’m totally secure in that I feel absolutely no need to go running around in order for people to see what I’m doing. It’s just the way I am.”

But aren’t there moments, she was asked, having campaigned so hard for president against Barack Obama, that you just want to make a decision yourself?

No. “I am part of the team that makes the decision.”

On another front, Clinton said flatly she would not run for president again. She said she’s looking forward to retirement “at some point.”

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Photo credit: REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton (Hillary Clinton in Dublin, October 11, 2009)

LONDON - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton went to great lengths on Sunday to reassure Britons and their political leaders that the “special relationship” between the two allies is intact.

Exhibit A: At a news conference with Foreign Secretary David Miliband, Clinton opened her remarks by stressing their strong relations.

“First, let me just underscore how grateful I am for this opportunity to reaffirm the historic importance of the special relationship between our two countries,” she said.

Exhibit B: At a meeting later with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Clinton delivered the same soothing message. Note how many times the word “special” creeps into her sentence.

“It is a special relationship,” she said at the prime minister’s country estate. “I have a special personal relationship with the prime minister and of course I think it can’t be said often enough, we have a special relationship between our countries.”

Here’s the background: some Britons think President Barack Obama has snubbed Brown by, for example, not holding a formal press conference with him in Washington this year (the two spoke to reporters in the Oval Office instead), and not scheduling one-on-one meetings at international summits.

U.S. officials often appear mystified by the concerns. Clinton did her best, verbally anyway, to show they need not worry.

Later in the day she visited Dublin. The Irish, perhaps less fretful about their standing with America, welcomed her warmly as she made a visit to a coffee shop and a local pub, sipping coffee and swigging part of a beer.

Now that’s a special relationship.

Photo credit: Reuters/Pool (British Prime Minister Gordon Brown greets Clinton at Chequers, the Prime Minister’s official country residence, near Ellesborough, southern England, October 11, 2009)

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This is one of those Washington days that seems to defy a theme. Consider:

Iran is the topic at the Senate Banking Committee, where officials from the State and Treasury departments are set to testify on economic sanctions against Tehran.

Afghanistan is expected to be front and center when President Barack Obama briefs congressional leaders about his Afghan strategy.

Pakistan’s foreign minister has a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The Dalai Lama is in town, too, meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and getting a human rights award.

In the background is the steady drumbeat of the healthcare debate, the fight over climate change legislation and defense spending.

Serious subjects, all of them. And what was the top story on the morning network newscasts? Ten points if you guessed the natural choice: David Letterman’s sex life.

What does this say about Washington? The U.S. media? The public appetite for scandal? Let us know what you think.

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Photo credits:  REUTERS/Christinne Muschi (exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, Montreal, Canada, October 3, 2009)

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque (U.S. President Barack Obama and David Letterman at a taping of the comedian’s show, New York, September 21, 2009)

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.

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

President Barack Obama heads for Capitol Hill tomorrow to address a joint session of Congress on one of the most pressing issues of the day, healthcare reform. For those with middling-to-long memories of Washington, this may have a familiar ring. Another Democratic president argued for healthcare reform on another September day some 16 years ago, and somehow healthcare remains unreformed.

Back then, it was President Bill Clinton, who spoke to Congress on September 22, 1993. That speech was full of sounding phrases like “healthcare that can never be taken away” and “security, simplicity and savings.” It also paid tribute to contributions from then-first lady and now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whose efforts to change U.S. healthcare went down to defeat.

Obama tried out some sounding phrases of his own on Labor Day in Cincinnati, calling on Congress to pass healthcare legislation this year.

Those who question Obama’s plans to reform the American health insurance system have noted the earlier Clinton efforts to do the same thing — and the earlier failure. Fox News warned about “echoes” of the Clinton plan. Politico.com said “history does not seem to be on (Obama’s) side”, citing the Clinton speech and noting that the Clinton healthcare reform plan was dead a year later.

It’s a different time, a different economy, a different president. But will it be deja vu all over again when Obama gives his prime-time health care speech tomorrow? Let us know what you think.

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Photo credits: REUTERS/Larry Downing (Colette Carl listens to U.S. President Barack Obama speak at an AFL-CIO Labor Day picnic in Cincinnati, Ohio September 7, 2009)

REUTERS/Pool photo (President Bill Clinton in the House chamber before his State of the Union address, with House Speaker Newt Gingrich in background, February 4, 1997)

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya is having a hard time convincing the Obama administration he was deposed by a military coup.
 
Zelaya argues that being awakened at 5 a.m. by soldiers in your presidential palace, flown to another country by hooded and armed military guards and deposited on the tarmac in your pajamas pretty much fits the description of a military coup.
 
The Obama administration agrees the scenario is a coup but maybe not a military coup since the legislative and judicial branches were involved as well.
 
The Honduran president met Thursday with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to prod her on the issue.
 
He was rewarded with a pledge to cancel $30 million in aid to the de facto government, but did not get a formal military coup declaration. Zelaya said the U.S. decision was nonetheless a sign the region is unified against the coup government.
 
While he awaits his restoration, Zelaya speaks out frequently on the situation in his country. He’s done the speech so often it has become a routine, delivered with a dry sense of humor.
 
“In Honduras, on the 28th of June, barely two months ago, a cruel coup d’etat took place,” he told a George Washington University audience Wednesday.
 
It was a poorly managed affair, Zelaya said, citing a Spanish constitutional law expert who labeled it “anti-aesthetic.”
 
“I can say that it was obscene and not aesthetic to pull out a president at 5 a.m., raiding his residence, shooting guns,” Zelaya said, adding that soldiers pumped 150 bullets into a metal door at the house.
 
He had his cell phone as he left his room, and made an effort to call his wife to let her know.
 
“When they saw my cellular, they didn’t want me to make a call to let the people know perhaps,” he said. “They surrounded me, 10 military men with their rifles.

  
“They were saying, “This is a military order. If you do not let go of your cellular, we will shoot you.
 
“I was dragged in my pajamas, as we say. I was put in a plane by force,” Zelaya said.
 
Three armed military men in fatigues with hoods on their heads accompanied him on the plane.
 
“Perhaps they were thinking they would throw me out of the plane. I mean, why so much force in a small plane?
 
“I asked the one that was closer to me, I asked, ‘Officer, where are we overflying?’” Zelaya said. “And he said, ‘I don’t have any orders to advise you of anything.’”
 
“Forty minutes later we were landing at San Jose, Costa Rica. I thought it was strange that they didn’t deplane, but they were careful to open the door. They pulled out the steps — it’s a small plane — and they told me, ‘Get off.’
 
“So they just left me on the street, in my pajamas. And what do I do now, in my pajamas?  I’ve never experienced something so bad. They just turn around, put the steps up and left.”
 
Costa Rican President Oscar Arias came to the airport to greet him, and a news conference was called.
 
“They offered me if I wanted to change, that they could give me some clothes — a suit,” Zelaya said. “But I said I wouldn’t fit in President Arias’ clothes. They would be short for me.”
 
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Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (Zelaya gestures at letter outside State Department after meeting with Clinton); Reuters/Jason Reed (Zelaya discusses his ouster on Wednesday in a speech at George Washington University)