And in another letter, he doubts the veracity of Fox News. “I don’t think Fox News is ‘Fair and Balanced,’ ” he writes. “If they were . . . they not have to say it every 5 minutes.”
Rocking with Dick Lugar
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Outgoing Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) got some particularly high praise Monday from President Obama.
“It was Dick who took me on my first foreign trip as senator,” Obama reminisced at an event commemorating a program to deal with nuclear weapons in the former Soviet Union.
The trip was to Russia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan. “We were there to see the . . . program in action,” Obama said, “and the first thing I learned is that when Dick Lugar travels overseas, it’s not a junket.
“You know, we didn’t stop and look at a lot of beautiful sites and sort of lounge around on a lot of shopping excursions,” Obama recalled, implying that this is somehow the usual routine on such trips.
And “the more remote the place is,” the president said, “the bigger a rock star Dick Lugar is. They love him in these places.”
Hey, that’s what we wrote back on Feb. 8.
The grind at Justice
Gary Grindler , chief of staff for Attorney General Eric Holder and before that acting deputy attorney general in 2010, is headed out Wednesday, most likely to the private sector.
This was Grindler’s second tour at Justice, having been there during the Bill Clinton administration as a counsel to Attorney General Janet Reno and deputy chief of the civil division.
Margaret Richardson , current deputy chief of staff, moves up to replace him.
His announcement comes after word that Lanny Breuer , assistant AG for the criminal division, is also said to be heading for the exit, perhaps by year’s end. Another talked-about departure is Ignacia Moreno , the assistant AG for the environmental and natural resources division.
Ofttimes, such movement signals a change at the top, but we’re still hearing that Holder is staying, perhaps until next fall, after a potential battle over a successor for FBI chief Robert Mueller . The special two-year extension to his 10-year term expires Sept. 4.
No papal retweets either?
It’s only Monday, and we’ve already found a contender for the quote of the week that’s going to be tough to beat.
Don’t look for a follow-back from the newest addition to the Twitterverse, Pope Benedict XVI (his handle: @pontifex), according to Vatican spokesman Greg Burke: “He won’t follow anyone for now. He will be followed.”
With Emily Heil
The blog: washingtonpost.com/intheloop. Twitter: @InTheLoopWP.
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