What's the Plan?

The documentary does suggest that intelligence analysts felt some pressure to give the "First Customer" intelligence that fit the White House's preconceptions, and that top policymakers chose to ignore evidence that didn't make their case.

Karen Hughes Watch

Steven R. Weisman writes in the New York Times: "For years, President Bush has called on Karen P. Hughes, his confidante from Texas, to help devise replies to attacks from political foes. Now Ms. Hughes, installed at the State Department, plans to set up 'rapid response' teams to counter bad news and defend administration policies around the globe."

Karl Rove Watch

U.S. News reports: "The recent controversy swirling around Karl Rove hasn't slowed him a bit. That's according to White House insiders who say Bush's political boy genius is as engaged as ever in high-level decision making despite all the attacks by angry Democrats alleging he improperly -- and possibly illegally -- outed a covert CIA operative. Rove was a key player behind the recently passed transportation and energy bills, and now he's planning Bush's fall agenda, which will include a renewed push for Social Security overhaul, changes in immigration law, and tax restructuring. Says a White House insider who talks to Rove regularly, 'He is as instrumental as he ever was.' "

Bushless San Francisco

Marc Sandalow writes in the San Francisco Chronicle: "Presidential visits to San Francisco have been a tradition since Rutherford Hayes lunched at the Cliff House in 1880.

"Presidents arrived by stagecoach and jet. One was shot at. Another died. In all, 20 presidents have visited the city, including every chief executive for the past 75 years.

"Except George W. Bush.

"Now in the fifth year of his presidency, Bush has yet to set a foot in the city that was home to his childhood baseball idol, Willie Mays, and shows no inclination to do so. The White House is planning a California visit by the end of the month, and San Francisco is not on the itinerary."

He's More Likely to Go to Libya

Agence France Presse reports: "Libya has opened a new phase in its journey from pariah state back to the international fold by calling for US President George W. Bush to visit and pledging action on human rights."

Chef Watch

Jose Antonio Vargas writes in The Washington Post about Cristeta Comerford.

"Her new position as the White House's top toque -- a uniquely high-profile and sought-after celebrity chef job -- is an affirmation, her former bosses and co-workers say, of the hard work, focus, imperturbable demeanor and culinary talent she has shown in the kitchen."

No word directly from Comerford yet. "The White House is planning a 'press event' in the first week of September to accommodate the hundreds of requests -- 'more than 500 so far and counting,' says an overwhelmed Susan Whitson, Laura Bush's press secretary -- to interview Comerford."

Vargas also spots an error: "She attended the University of the Philippines-Diliman, in Quezon City, and majored in food technology. Contrary to a news release issued by the White House, though, she didn't complete her degree."

Fitzgerald Watch

Shawn McCarthy writes in Toronto's Globe and Mail: "U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has prosecuted mobsters, terrorists and even journalists. He has investigated and charged state and city officials in this notoriously crooked state with pit bull tenacity.

"And always, he has methodically, inexorably pursued his investigations to target the man at the top of the organizational pyramid."

The Chicago Tribune weighs in with an editorial about Fitzgerald today.

"All summer long the question has brushed against the polished marble in Chicago's corridors of power. . . . Will some powerful someone in the Republican Party persuade the White House to promote, fire or otherwise remove Patrick Fitzgerald, the aggressive U.S. attorney in Chicago?"

But Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, speaking to the Tribune editorial board earlier this summer, "came close to saying Fitzgerald has the most untouchable stature in the Department of Justice. After all, Fitzgerald leads the ongoing investigation of who--was it someone at the White House?--outed CIA agent Valerie Plame. 'In light of [Fitzgerald's] role as special prosecutor,' Gonzales said, 'if there is talk in the White House about him, that is probably not very smart. That kind of talk would be foolish. I don't think it's happening.' "

Book Notes

Disregard what you may have read about Bush's highbrow reading list. (See my Aug. 16 column.)

Bumiller notes in the New York Times that Bush told a small group of reporters a week ago: "I'm reading an Elmore Leonard book right now."

Blowing His Own Cover

Dana Milbank and Peter Baker wrote in Saturday's Washington Post: "As it routinely does, the White House insisted that yesterday's briefing on North Korea be 'on background,' meaning that the Senior Administration Official was speaking 'on the condition of anonymity,' as the newspapers usually put it.

"To preserve that anonymity, the White House edits the public transcripts of such briefings to take out references to the Senior Administration Official's name. But the scrubbing has its limits."

Friday's would-be anonymous source mentioned three times that he used to work at the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. And if that wasn't enough, during a spirited argument with reporters about why the briefing was in fact anonymous, he outed himself.

The briefing was about Bush's choice for special envoy on human rights in North Korea.

From the transcript: "[O]n this question of why we're keeping this on background, it's really out of consideration for the position. The big news here is Jay Lefkowitz, the President's immediately former head of his -- Deputy Assistant for Domestic Policy, getting this job. The story isn't what Mike Kozak is saying about trying to find the office space for the office and that kind of thing. So I don't know how to characterize that, but that is the reason. It's not because we're giving you anonymous tips or something."

Michael G. Kozak, now a member of the National Security Council, is the former acting assistant secretary of the State Deparment's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. You can still see his bio on this cached version of a State Department page that suddenly vanished over the weekend.