Wacky Canadians Still Believe in Privacy

Nope, Apparently Not

Former senator Paul Laxalt's all male, annual lamb fry dinner at the Georgetown Club tends not to be an especially raucous affair. The 28th dinner the other night, prepared as always in Basque style in honor of Laxalt's heritage, featured the usual delicacy of the night, lamb's testicles, which are said to have unusual medicinal qualities.

And while some of the tuxedoed and slightly aging pols and pals -- including Vice President Cheney, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), former House Republican leader Bob Michel, retired Marine Gen. P.X. Kelley, former GOP chairman and now lobbyist Frank Fahrenkopf, former Veterans Affairs secretary and former ambassador to the Vatican Jim Nicholson, and legendary lobbyist Bill Timmons-- don't move as fast as they used to, they can still hop to it in an emergency.

And they did when White House counsel Fred Fielding appeared to be choking -- not on the featured delicacy, we are assured. Ron Kaufman of Dutko Worldwide (and a volunteer for Mitt Romney's campaign) and then Ed Rollins (who played a lead role in Mike Huckabee's bid for the White House) took turns trying the Heimlich maneuver to dislodge it. Rollins brought over a chair to stand on for extra leverage, one guest said.

There's some disagreement about what happened next. One attendee said Rollins popped the obstruction out, another said Fielding eventually swallowed it. Well, either way . . .

Out of African Affairs

Buzz at the State Department is that Jendayi Frazier, assistant secretary for African affairs, is heading for the private sector, perhaps something like the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Frazier, who has something of a reputation at State for an abrasive, confrontational style, had been a graduate student at Stanford University when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was teaching there. Frazier worked at the National Security Council as head of African affairs during President Bush's first term, and then was ambassador to South Africa before taking her current job in 2005.

Frazier's deputy, Linda Thomas- Greenfield, a career diplomat who might have taken over, has been nominated to be ambassador to Liberia. There had been chatter about trying to confirm a political appointee in the assistant secretaryship, but that move was quashed and a career officer is said to be stepping in to run the shop.

Language Alert! You can call Islamist extremists lots of things, but do not call them: 1) jihadists 2) mujaheddin or 3) Islamo-fascists. And remember that al-Qaeda is not to be called a movement.

The Associated Press reports that agencies such as the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Counterterrorism Center are telling their people not to describe Islamist extremists in those terms, according to internal documents.

The reason for the change is tactical. Using such words, the administration now believes, may act to boost support for radicals among Arabs and Muslims by giving them a veneer of religious credibility or offending moderates.