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So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Rumsfeld
"How long ago?" the defense secretary asked.
"Two years. But I . . ."
  On Friday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld heard praise from President Bush at a farewell ceremony. (By Lois Raimondo -- The Washington Post) |
Sign Up for RSS Feed"She's showing her years," Rumsfeld observed.
"Yeah, well -- no, she looks great," Thomas said.
Rumsfeld laughed.
"I waited for her outside the Majestic Theater in 1962 in the rain," Thomas continued. "That's when it started."
Rumsfeld laughed.
"And that's how I opened the letter to her, you know," Thomas said, according to the transcript. "So anyway, you got more important things to do." Well, maybe not.
"Good to see you," Rumsfeld said.
"Good to see you," Thomas said, "and let's stay in touch."
Maybe lunch sometime?
The Replacements
The rumor mill is working overtime at the Agency for International Development, where morale is said to be a bit low these days. Word is that the administrator, former Eli Lilly and AT&T top executive Randall Tobias, is leaving early next year after his big reorganization plan, putting the office of reconstruction and stabilization into AID and rearranging a bunch of other offices, is finalized.
There were even candidates being mentioned as likely prospects to replace Tobias -- John Herbst, who runs the reconstruction office, and James Kunder, assistant AID administrator.
Tobias was said to be going back to Indiana to run for governor or senator or something. But the governor, Mitch Daniels, is a Republican and is apparently running again in 2008. Sen. Richard Lugar (R) was just re-elected and Sen. Evan Bayh (D) isn't up until 2010.
Asked Friday whether Tobias was on his way out, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, "He's got no plans to leave in the near future."
After State, State School
While we're at it, the rumors at Foggy Bottom were that counselor Philip Ze likow, who had been advising his close friend of many years, Condoleezza Rice, on Iraq and other matters, was eased out last month because he wasn't on the same page with the administration.
Some insiders felt there were suspicious leaks of his internal memos -- taking issue with administration policy on Iraq and the Middle East -- in books and articles, culminating with one at the end of November in the New York Times that was headlined: "Rice's Counselor Gives Advice Others May Not Want to Hear." That one was called the last straw.
Rice, cornered by The Washington Post's Peter Baker after her visit last week to The Post, said she didn't give him the boot. "Nooooo," she said. "Philip and I had an understanding that it would be about two years. So he had to go back or he'd lose his chair" at the University of Virginia.
Must be a really tough crowd down there in Charlottesville.
