Little Calm in Wolfowitz's Wake

Talabani's office quoted him as saying last week that he didn't have any health problems "except my obesity, and I will treat it, God willing."

Switching to hospital food is a good start.

Check That

Seems House GOP backbenchers are getting a little cheeky when referring to the White House these days. There's a bill in the House that would remove two key legal barriers to having the Justice Department sue OPEC for obvious violations of U.S. antitrust laws.

The bill, aptly styled the "No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels," or NOPEC, is extremely popular on the Hill these days, with gas prices at all-time highs.

But President Bush, despite his dreadful poll numbers, issued a Statement of Administration Position saying that if it were "presented to the Present," his senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill.

Given that the bill was going to pass pretty overwhelmingly, Rep. Ric Keller (R-Fla.) said on the floor yesterday -- it later passed 345 to 72 -- perhaps the White House should spend less time worrying about OPEC and more time using spell-check.

Trading Baghdad for Athens

There were some raised eyebrows among the career foreign service folks at the State Department over word that a prize assignment, the cushiest European ambassadorship for a career foreign service officer -- we refer here to lovely Athens -- is likely going to Daniel Speckhard, a civil servant.

What's more, the incumbent ambassador, Charles Ries, is breaking off his assignment early to be No. 2 in Baghdad after receiving a call for his help from the ambassador there, Ryan Crocker. His wife, Marcie Ries, now ambassador to Albania, is leaving to join him in Baghdad.

Speckhard, a career civil servant, had been ambassador to Belarus, worked at NATO in Brussels and headed Iraq reconstruction for a year before moving up to be deputy in Baghdad to ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. This is seen as a nice reward for his service.

Well, the Rieses will have a lovely new home at the new embassy compound on the Tigris.

New in Pakistan

Speaking of embassies, Anne Patterson, former ambassador to Colombia and now head of the State Department's bureau for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs -- known as "drugs 'n' thugs" -- is the pick to replace Crocker as ambassador to Pakistan.

Strongman for Life?

Sometimes the path to democracy has some truly mysterious detours. Sure-footed State Department spokesman Sean McCormack was asked by a reporter about news that amendments to oil-rich Kazakhstan's constitution would let strongman President Nursultan Nazarbayev, already in power for 17 years, stay in office for the rest of his life.

"It's a step -- ultimately, when you look at the balance of these things -- in the right direction," McCormack said, noting other reforms in the constitutions.

Kinda like when Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier became president for life in Haiti?