An Insertion Meant for Deletion

In Roberts's Footsteps

Speaking of Roberts, his replacement at Hogan & Hartson as head of the appellate group, Gregory G. Garre , is the pick to be No. 2 in the solicitor general's office -- a job Roberts once had. Garre, who also clerked for the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist , worked as an assistant solicitor general.

The Last-but-Not-Least Portfolio

Chatter at the White House last week was that it is looking as if Meghan O'Sullivan , who's been handling the Iraq portfolio at the National Security Council since Robert Blackwill left 11 months ago and worked for former Iraq viceroy L. Paul Bremer in Baghdad, is the leading candidate to be deputy national security adviser for Iraq and Afghanistan. This would fill the last of the six deputyships at the NSC under a reorganization earlier this year.

Word was there'd been a search for a while for a more gray-bearded type, perhaps a two-star or three-star general who had served in Iraq. Another candidate, former charge d'affaires in Baghdad James F. Jeffrey , left to be senior adviser on Iraq at the State Department.

Category 4 Politicking

The Democrats are using fuzzy math against a Louisiana state senator running for Congress, his campaign says.

An item Friday here and in other papers said state Sen. Craig F. Romero (R) distributed a document when he was in town recently that indicated that if residents made homeless in his district by Katrina didn't return, Republicans would have a better chance of winning the seat next year. That's sure what it looked like.

But that conclusion, campaign consultant Brent Littlefield said Friday, distorts the data. The fact is, he said, if the residents all came back, the GOP would gain votes, not lose them. Romero was not advocating the displaced should not go back home. The Democrats, Littlefield said, "are playing politics with the hurricane."

This is shaping up to be a fun race down there.

Credit Where It's Due

An item Friday failed to note that the translation of one of Egyptian cleric Mohammed Sayed Tantawi 's television interviews was done by the Middle East Media Research Institute.