The Best Minds of Kissinger's Generation, Starving Hysterical Naked

Henry Kissinger, right, traveled with Donald Rumsfeld to Beijing in 1974 but eyed him warily, newly released documents indicate. (The Washington Post)
Buy Photo

Ginsberg said he wanted "to arrange a conversation" or meeting involving Kissinger, Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), "maybe even Nixon," Ginsberg, McCarthy and various anti-Vietnam War leaders.

Kissinger said he'd met with peace groups before, and he complained that they just rushed out afterward and blabbed to the press. He told Ginsberg he "would be prepared to meet in principle," but "on a private basis." Ginsberg said it was "difficult to set limits" on such an unruly group but added: "We can try to come to some kind of understanding."

"You can set limits to what you say publicly," Kissinger observed -- perhaps a bit irrationally, given the crowd involved.

"It would be even more funny to do it on television," Ginsberg said.

"What?" Kissinger responded.

"It would be even more useful if we could do it naked on television," Ginsberg offered.

"K: (Laughter)," the transcript says.

We warned you.

Brennan's 'Blogocide'

Meanwhile, the incoming administration is still looking hard for someone to be CIA director. Everyone's apparent first choice, John Brennan, a former deputy director, ran into a firestorm of Internet criticism when word circulated of his near-pending nomination. Liberal bloggers argued that Brennan had tolerated aggressive interrogation techniques or even torture while at the agency. Brennan withdrew.

"No one went to bat for him," a source said. Insiders call this the first example of a "blogocide."

The episode bothered a lot of Brennan fans in the Obama operation, where he still heads the CIA transition team. "If we're afraid of bloggers," one transition observer quipped, "how can we take on al-Qaeda?" Various names have popped up since for the job, including Washington lawyer and former agency general counsel Jeff Smith.

More Names Named

Present-elect Barack Obama continued to fill in his White House staff yesterday, moving down to the deputy level. Cassandra Butts, a longtime friend since Harvard Law School days and now general counsel at the transition office, will move in to be deputy White House counsel, focusing on domestic policy and ethics.