Change Of Course?

"Sadat later said that he felt he was 'under house detention' at the presidential retreat. Begin used stronger language, calling it 'a concentration camp deluxe.'

" 'That's part of the magic of Camp David for presidents - controlling people, controlling the agenda and having the president on his own territory,' said Kenneth Walsh, a White House correspondent for U.S. News and World Report and author of 'From Mount Vernon to Crawford,' a book about presidential retreats. 'There's been a lot of history made at Camp David.' "

In the Baltimore Sun, Julie Hirschfeld Davis quotes Texas-based presidential historian Lewis L. Gould: "The feeling is that if you get away from the fetid, overheated, media-driven Washington and get off to this cool, mountainous place where people can clear their heads and think big thoughts . . . out of this will come wisdom and perspective that is lacking at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue," Gould says.

But the ultimate question, Gould tells Davis, is "when you come down off the mountain, what have you got?"

Gitmo Watch

Jennifer Loven wrote for the Associated Press on Saturday: "President Bush expressed 'serious concern' Saturday over the suicides at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay and directed an aggressive effort by his administration to reach out diplomatically while it investigates.

" 'He wants to make sure that this thing is done right from all points of view,' White House press secretary Tony Snow said Saturday evening . . .

"Snow said it was during his daily intelligence briefing just afterward when the president voiced his concern over the incident and directed that the bodies be 'treated humanely and with cultural sensitivity' to show respect for Muslim traditions regarding the dead."

David S. Cloud and Neil A. Lewis write in the New York Times: "The suicides renew the question of what the Bush administration will do with the detention center at Guantánamo, which President Bush has told interviewers recently that he would like to close at some point in the future."

Another Waas Scoop

Murray Waas writes in the National Journal: "Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft continued to oversee the Valerie Plame-CIA leak probe for more than two months in late 2003 after he learned in extensive briefings that FBI agents suspected White House aides Karl Rove and I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby of trying to mislead the FBI to conceal their roles in the leak, according to government records and interviews."

And Waas lets loose this bombshell as well: From the get-go, investigators apparently believed "that Libby might have been holding back to protect Cheney."

Snow Faux Pas Watch

New press secretary Tony Snow committed yet another faux pas in his briefing Thursday , when he misattributed a comment about Iraq made in a meeting with Bush by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee to another black congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney, who wasn't even there.

"Cynthia McKinney made the point yesterday in the meeting with the President that the one thing they had gotten from generals there were thorough and honest assessments of what's going on," Snow said.

The White House press office only compounded the error in its correction, spelling Jackson Lee's first name incorrectly."

Heckuva Job Watch

CNN reports: "The former emergency management chief who quit amid widespread criticism over his handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina said he received an e-mail before his resignation stating President Bush was glad to see the Oval Office had dodged most of the criticism. . . .

"The September 2005 e-mail reads: 'I did hear of one reference to you, at the Cabinet meeting yesterday. I wasn't there, but I heard someone commented that the press was sure beating up on Mike Brown, to which the president replied, "I'd rather they beat up on him than me or Chertoff.' "

Puff Watch

Departing New York Times White House correspondent Elisabeth Bumiller apparently had at least one last puff piece left in her.

This one is about "someone who is largely unknown outside the administration, but who colleagues say is instrumental in shaping Mr. Bush's views: Meghan L. O'Sullivan, the 36-year-old deputy national security adviser for Iraq and Afghanistan, and the most senior official working on those nations full time at the White House. . . .

"Ms. O'Sullivan, who was crisp and wary in a recent interview in her office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, would say little more about her conversations with Mr. Bush. But people who have seen her brief the president say she has been succinct, unpretentious, full of facts and cheerful -- exactly what Mr. Bush likes."

And Time's Mike Allen pens a fond farewell to Blake Gottesman, the personal aide to the President. "It's a job that traditionally meant being 'body guy' to the chief, the young aide who carries the souvenirs and dispenses the Purell. But Bush is uniquely sensitive about his personal ecology, and Gottesman has blossomed into a systems analyst, gatekeeper and diplomat who serves as the membrane between the President and the rest of the staff. . . .

"'If the aide looks nervous, the President will think there's something to be nervous about,' Gottesman, who is intensely private even for a Bushie, tells Time in a rare interview. 'So you look calm even when everything is going wrong.'

"White House Counselor to the President Dan Bartlett calls Gottesman 'a walking mood ring,' the unquestioned authority on whom the President wants in his limo, what member of Congress he may accept in his office on Air Force One and whether it is wise for a top aide to bring up a particular topic at a particular time."

Departure Watch

Friday was Erin Healy's last day as assistant press secretary. Deputy press secretary Dana Perino informed the press corps. I'm told Healy is taking some time off before heading to the private sector.

Specter v. Cheney

The Associated Press reports: "The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman says he's prepared to force telephone company executives to testify about the White House's eavesdropping program if the Bush administration doesn't fully cooperate in drafting new rules on what's allowable.

" 'If we don't get some results, I'm prepared to go back to demand hearings and issue subpoenas if necessary,' Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said Sunday on CNN's ' Late Edition .'

"Specter said he was more hopeful, after talking Thursday with Vice President Dick Cheney, that committee hearings and subpoenas could be avoided."

Reid on Cheney

Tim Grieve interviews Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid in Salon:

Reid: "I think we've come to learn that the intelligence community in America is run by one person -- one person -- and that's the vice president. [Sen. Pat] Roberts, who is the supposed chair of that committee -- I shouldn't say 'supposed chair'; he is the chair -- he can't do anything without [Dick Cheney]."

Grieve: "We saw some of that last week , when Arlen Specter went public about Cheney's efforts to block him from having the telephone companies testify on the NSA database program before the Senate Judiciary Committee. . . . What kind of pressure does Cheney exert on these guys?"

Reid: "I don't know. A phone call? I don't know what he does."

Grieve: "But what's the threat?"

Reid: "I guess he won't like them anymore. Maybe he'll use, like he did with Leahy , the F-word. I don't know."

Grieve: "Whatever it is, they ultimately buckle under. Specter talks a good game, but -- "

Reid: "It's not 'ultimately.' Specter is the only one who's given an ostensible reaction, negatively [to the NSA program]. But that didn't last. He caved in like soft cake, you know. . . . "

Grieve: "[House Minority Leader] Nancy Pelosi has apparently taken impeachment off the table, even if the Democrats win in November."

Reid: "But see, I've cooled that impeachment [talk] from the beginning. You know why? Who would be the president if the president were impeached? Why would I want Cheney president?"

Valerie Plame Watch

I was on a panel about the CIA leak investigation Friday at the Yearlykos progressive bloggers convention in Las Vegas. My main point was that the traditional media has not done a bang-up job of investigative reporting on this story.

Other panelists included former ambassador Joseph Wilson (who introduced himself as "Mr. Valerie Plame"), former CIA operative Larry Johnson, National Journal reporter Murray Waas, and bloggers Christy Smith and Marcy Wheeler. The moderator was Jane Hamsher of the Firedoglake blog.

C-SPAN has video of the panel; it's the first link on this page .

Josh Gerstein has coverage of the event in the New York Sun.

A Very Special Event

The president is at Camp David for a five-day weekend -- so what was he doing zipping back to the White House Sunday night on Marine One? It turns out he had a long-scheduled social event planned: A special screening of a cowboy movie called "Broken Trail."

Not to be confused with that other cowboy movie with a similar name, this one stars Robert Duvall, will air later this month on the AMC cable channel, and is apparently of the more traditional variety.