What Condi Whispered About Don

The tabloids have Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie -- or "Brangelina," as the couple is called -- to fret about. But Washington has the relationship between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld -- "Donoleezza" -- to worry about.

The two seemed to be on the outs of late, particularly when it came to Iraq policy.

So at a news conference Wednesday, after they briefed the Senate Armed Services Committee, a reporter asked about "this issue that you're not getting along or that you're somehow at odds on Iraq policy?"

Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), the committee chairman, said, "Well, I can only testify in this joint briefing they got along superbly well, each of them contributing from their own expertise of knowledge in their respective fields."

Warner noted that he had been at the Pentagon years ago, and relations between State and Defense can be "interesting." But "I'd say this team is managing that marvelously."

"Mr. Secretary, do you care to comment?" Warner asked Rumsfeld.

"I agree," Rumsfeld said.

"I agree," Rice chimed in. "I like him. I think he likes me."

Stay tuned.

Pleaded Guilty but Defends His Degree

Michael Scanlon , the former Rehoboth Beach lifeguard who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bribe a congressman and other public officials in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, is waiting for Johns Hopkins University's Krieger School of Arts and Sciences to mail him his master's degree based on his thesis on -- what else? -- the history of the House ethics process.

Scanlon, Roll Call reported Wednesday, was at the university's Washington campus Monday night to defend his advanced government thesis before four faculty members and nine students in the room.

A dysfunctional House ethics committee is nothing new, he said because that's the way things have been since the panel was created. No one in the room, other than Roll Call's source, seemed to recognize Scanlon, who's out on $5 million bond. At least no one asked about current corruption cases, but they discussed instead the 1960s case of former representative Adam Clayton Powell (D-N.Y.), who was expelled for ethics violations.