Your Sunday/Monday Morning Politics
This week, the big story for political minded DCers is Inauguration. Now that the big event is days away, the complaints of those who think the massive party is in poor taste with regard to the recent tsunami tragedy and the gripes of local commentators that Washington's getting stuck with a massively unfair chunk of the bill have started to fade from the newspapers, soon to replaced by those who ask more immediate questions: Can you get me into the ball? Sweet fancy Moses, what is she wearing? And of course, what do you mean I can't park here? You can count on your scrappy pals at DCist to get you all the coverage we can from behind the security cordon.
And speaking of security, just in time for this week's festivities and the ensuing changeover, President Bush has found a new candidate for the Office of Homeland Security. Chertoff (seen with President Bush in this White House photo), a former federal prosecutor from New Jersey, has worked for Democrats and Republicans, and is known for leading the investigation into Vince Foster's suicide as well as stepping forward to call the shots at the Justice Department immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, while Attorney General John Ashcroft struggled to return to Washington from an interrupted trip to Milwaukee.
Yet, for all these accomplishements, the aspect of Chertoff's career President Bush was quickest to highlight was his confirmability taking careful pains to highlight the fact that Chertoff has already in his career been confirmed by the Senate on three seperate occasions. After the fallout from Bush's hilariously unconfirmable first nominee, Bernard Kerik, it's the president's way of telling the Senate: "It'll be your fault if you can't confirm this nominee, not mine."
Washington residents smitten by the intrigue that goes on within diplomatic circles -- and you know who you are -- can celebrate the resolution of one of the big questions that followed Condoleezza Rice's ascencion at State: who would end up holding down the No. 2 job in Foggy Bottom? Many observers felt that while neoconservative golden boy John Bolton seemed to be squarely in line for the job, his outsized personality and outspoken point of view would stand a strong chance of undermining Rice's authority. Well, that won't be the pairing at State, as U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick has been tapped as the deputy secretary. In Zoellick, Rice will have a partner who brings the same sort on extensive knowledge of Cold War diplomacy and post-Soviet Union politics.
As you may remember, DCist speculated a few weeks ago that Zoellick might end up as the head of the World Bank. Obviously, that's not going to happen now, clearing the way for someone else to govern that body -- perhaps Colin Powell? As they say ... developing.