For Columbus Day, a Fond 'Arrivederci'

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, right, says President Bush could be a visiting professor. (By Gregorio Borgia -- Associated Press)

Indeed, GOP Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen-- three of South Florida's most prominent Cuban American politicians -- were notably absent from the presidential itinerary on Friday. The Diaz-Balart brothers, both of whom are facing serious Democratic challengers, had to attend their own Miami fundraiser hosted by House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio).

On the Bike Trail

Back in Washington on Saturday, Bush welcomed a new companion on one of his mountain-bike excursions at Virginia's Fort Belvoir: Gen. David H. Petraeus, the new chief of U.S. Central Command.

After returning to the White House's South Lawn, Petraeus posed for photos with other cyclists, including Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Edward P. Lazear, who regularly rides with Bush.

Petraeus, who oversaw a dramatic decrease in violence in Iraq, asked Lazear to do what he could to help the plunging U.S. economy, according to a White House pool report. Yes, sir!

Art Imitating Life

As if the economy and the polls weren't causing Bush enough trouble, now he has to contend with a new Oliver Stone movie. "W.," which stars Josh Brolin as the president, opens in theaters Thursday.

Trailers already airing on television make it clear that the film will have plenty of less-than-flattering moments, including depictions of Bush's youthful drinking, conflicts with his father and his ongoing battle with the English language. Another scene revisits the moment in April 2004 when Bush, queried at a news conference, was unable to think of a mistake he had made since Sept. 11, 2001.

Yet a handful of early reviews suggest the movie is less critical than might be expected from Stone, who is known for his liberal politics. Variety, the movie industry paper, called the film "a relatively even-handed, restrained treatment of recent politics," especially "considering Stone's reputation and Bush's vast unpopularity."

No word on the possibility of a screening at the White House movie theater.

Rodman Memorial

A who's who of past and present GOP administrations, as well as other Washington notables, turned out at the Fort Myer Officers' Club Friday morning for a memorial service for Peter W. Rodman, a former assistant secretary of defense in the Bush administration who died of leukemia in August at 64.

The Post's Michael Abramowitz notes that Rodman was a quintessential Washington figure who was little known outside the Beltway but enormously influential and well liked inside, having served every Republican administration since Nixon. At 25, he was recruited to the White House by then-national security adviser Henry A. Kissinger, who had supervised his undergraduate thesis at Harvard. As his special assistant, Rodman was one of Kissinger's confidants and kept the detailed notes of the diplomacy that led to the opening to China and other events that formed the basis of Kissinger's memoirs.

Rodman later served as State Department policy planning director in the Reagan administration, on the National Security Council staff for George H.W. Bush and as assistant secretary of defense under Donald H. Rumsfeld. After leaving the administration in 2007, Rodman became a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, where he managed to finish an account of presidential leadership in foreign policy before he died. "Presidential Command: Power, Leadership, and the Making of Foreign Policy from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush" will be published next year by Random House.

Among the many Washington figures who attended his service were Rumsfeld, former diplomat L. Paul Bremer, former Cheney chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Bush aide Elliott Abrams and Undersecretary of Defense Eric Edelman. The speakers included Brookings President Strobe Talbott, former National Review editor John O'Sullivan and Kissinger, who described Rodman as his "surrogate son."

Quote of the Week

"We'll get through this deal."

-- President Bush, Oct. 9, referring to the global financial crisis