THIS WEEK
THIS WEEK
Monday, March 20, 2006; Page A02
Are We Safe? Let's Talk (And Talk) About It
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff took a beating for bobbling Hurricane Katrina and the Dubai port deal. Now comes the inevitable charm offensive. Today, he'll speak at 11:20 a.m. at the International Association of Fire Fighters legislative conference. Then he's got to dash over to the Heritage Foundation for a 1 p.m. discussion. Tomorrow, he's the keynoter at the National Chemical Security Forum. Thursday, it's the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
Chertoff isn't the only one on the security-speaking circuit. Washington plays host to no fewer than three homeland security conventions this week. The firefighters got the biggest names: Andrew Card, Ken Mehlman, Howard Dean and three would-be presidential candidates.
SMOKING 'EM OUT OF THE COURTS: The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington will hear a pair of habeas corpus cases involving more hundreds of "enemy combatants" imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The administration says that recently passed legislation stripped the federal courts of the power to consider cases brought by these detainees even if they were filed before the law was passed. GOP sponsors of the law agree with President Bush that it kills the old cases; the Democratic cosponsors say it does not.
DO I HEAR $20,000 FOR THE LOUIS PHILIPPE COMMODE? At a Treasury Department warehouse in Compton, Calif., on Thursday, there will be a public auction of the loot received by former congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) in a bribery scandal that landed him an eight-year sentence. The Duke-stir's take included a 19th-century commode and other antique furnishings.
In other scandal news, on Friday there will be pretrial motions in Washington in the case of David Safavian, the former Bush administration official charged with obstruction of justice for lying about his dealings with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, which included a Scotland golf trip.
MARCH MADNESS : Embattled Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), badly trailing in his reelection race, has decided to call in Bush to campaign for him in Pennsylvania on Friday. Problem is, Bush (approval rating: 35 percent) is one of the few politicians more unpopular in the state than Santorum (approval: 42 percent).
-- Dana Milbank
