Enter and Win: What Makes Alan Run?

Frankly Speaking

Speaking of carpetbaggers, retired Gen. Tommy R. Franks, head of the Iraq war effort when he ran the U.S. Central Command, was asked Monday at the National Press Club whether, if asked, he would run for the U.S. Senate seat in Illinois.

"Actually," Franks said, "I was thinking maybe of New York." The crowd roared. "Hey, they have a precedent for that, you know."

The retired general appears to be having a good time these days, working the circuit, flogging his memoir, "American Soldier."

Maybe he's having too good a time, in fact, because he has been veering dangerously off-message. On ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, he was asked, "Do you think Senator Kerry is qualified to be commander in chief?"

"Absolutely!" he said. Absolutely?

Is Franks going to endorse President Bush? "I don't know yet. I'm leaning in that direction." Leaning?

Then he said he hasn't decided whether he'll speak at the Republican National Convention. "I'm a fiercely independent kind of guy and rather proud of it," he said.

Oh, really? Got news for you, soldier. You're going to be in the Big Apple on Sept. 2, according to our GOP draft convention schedule. Let's see, you'll be on the stage at precisely 8:55 p.m., where you'll give 15 minutes of "remarks" praising Bush.

Or maybe you don't want that fine box of Arturo Fuente Opus X cigars they have waiting for you?

Pencil That In

Speaking of the convention, things are, of course, fluid. A bit after Franks's remarks, we're to hear a little speech from former housing secretary Mel R. Martinez. Next to his name is "(Primary?)." Presumably this means no Aug. 31 Senate GOP primary win in Florida, no remarks. After Martinez, there's "Iraqi Scholar, Mrs. Nasreen Mustafa (Minister of Public Works) or any Fulbright Scholar from Iraq."

Moving On

Bryan Cunningham, who helped lead the team prepping national security adviser Condoleezza Rice for the 9/11 hearings, is leaving the National Security Council legal counsel's office this week to move his young family to Denver to open the law firm of Morgan and Cunningham.

Cunningham was a key player in development of the Homeland Security Act, intelligence reform, legal underpinnings of the war on terrorism and the 9/11 commission.

For the Record

The Council on Foreign Relations notes that upset Republicans shouldn't blame new council President Richard N. Haass for a forthcoming series of anti-Bush blasts in its magazine, Foreign Affairs. The magazine's editor, James F. Hoge Jr., is the real culprit.