Where the Money Is

Then Brother W, the current president of the United States, sparked a fuss when he accepted an invitation to speak May 11 at ceremonies at Saint Vincent College, a Benedictine liberal arts school in the Pennsylvania congressional district of an ardent opponent of the Iraq war, Rep. John P. Murtha (D). Turns out Murtha, commencement speaker in 1983, is the second cousin of former Saint Vincent president John F. Murtha, who headed the school from 1985 to 1995. Jim Towey, who ran the Bush White House office of faith-based initiatives, is now the college's president.

Towey anticipated the uproar in his announcement Monday of Bush's visit, saying it has sparked a "lively and welcome discussion." But "let me stress that our invitation to President Bush, like past invitations to other speakers for Saint Vincent commencements and other events on campus, is not an endorsement of his policies or politics." He noted that past invitees, in addition to Murtha, have included former House speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill and William F. Buckley Jr.

He's meeting with the senior class tonight, and there will be an "open mike" town hall meeting on April 17 for all 1,600 students to opine.

Meanwhile, the faculty voted 41 to 30 to uphold the invitation. An online petition is circulating that's gathered 140 or so names -- including one Ron MacDonald, who is not a student -- telling Bush that "linking the school to your administration would irreparably tarnish Saint Vincent."

Dead, but Still Dangerous

The Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control -- which tries to grab the ill-gotten gains of drug dealers, terrorists, dictators and such -- has a "watch list" of "Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons."

The list has nearly 3,500 names of people and organizations we should be on the lookout for, including one Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti, who was arrested in December 2003 and executed last Dec. 30. His sociopath sons, Uday and Qusay, killed in July 2003, along with just about everyone from Tikrit, are on the list.

The Post asked Treasury why we should still watch out for the late Saddam.

"Individuals are not pulled off the list because they can still have assets in their name after death," a spokeswoman explained. (Oddly enough, Cuba's Fidel Castro is not on the list, although lots of Cuban operations are.) So next time you happen to see Saddam driving a Brink's truck on the Beltway, get help!

Now, About That Pardon . . .

Former vice president Al Gore recently testified on the Hill about global warming, a subject about which he is well versed. Now Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) would like former president Bill Clinton to be at the House Judiciary Committee's hearing tomorrow on "the Appropriate Use of the Presidential Pardoning Power."

"Former President Clinton is no stranger to controversial pardons, most notably the pardon of Marc Rich on his last day in office," Smith said in a press release. The fugitive financier's wife donated $450,000 to the Clinton library. "I can think of no better person to address this issue."

Yesterday afternoon, however, Clinton's office called Smith's to say that Clinton won't make it because he will not be in Washington that day. A pity.