Cheney favoring Georgia over the Republicans? He'll do both

Never mind that Vice President Dick Cheney will actually keep his speaking date at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul on Monday night. Or that he never intended to stick around after that anyway. Or that President Bush is speaking that night and also making a hasty exit.

It was just too delicious to ignore: We're talking about the possibility that Bush had found a way to keep the man with an even lower job approval rating than his far from the Twin Cities while the GOP meets there.

It didn't take much to suspect that Bush had something other than national security on this mind when he decided to send Cheney to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine and Italy next week in the midst of the Republican convention. Can you say "political security?"

Conspiratorialists immediately began fanning the fires, spreading the word that perhaps Bush's real motive in sending Cheney to the Caucasus region was to get him as far from the upper Midwest as possible. The Far East and Middle East are relatively quiet now; a trip there would have been too obvious a detour.

Enter the latest hot spot.

Besides, Georgia is probably somewhat more distant from St. Paul than the vice president's infamous "undisclosed location." With fears of a new Cold War, what better place to send the nation's premier cold warrior?

CBS News' Political Animal had some fun at the vice president's expense, reporting Christopher Orr's notion that Georgia was chosen only because the International Space Station was booked.

But Megan M. Mitchell of the vice president's press office had a six-word no nonsense message for any who suspected that Cheney was splitting the country rather than letting himself be seen anywhere in the vicinity of Republicans about to nominate Sen. John McCain as their presidential candidate:

"He will still speak on Monday."

As for the conspiracy? Oh, never mind.

-- James Gerstenzang and Johanna Neuman

Photo: Jim Mone / Associated Press

Vacation? What vacation? That's the White House message

 

One way or another, every presidential administration must face it once a year: August.

Washington quiets down. Congress leaves town. The president goes on vacation. He just can't quite let it look that way.

August, after all, is the month of Saddam Hussein's assault on Kuwait in 1990, Katrina's assault on the Gulf Coast in 2005, and, now, depending on whether you are in Sochi or Crawford, Georgia's assault on South Ossetia or Russia's assault on Georgia.

It was in August from a Kennebunkport, Maine, golf course that President Bush memorably delivered --after a suicide bomb attack in Israel--a nearly-one-breath-no-nonsense message:

"I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers thank you now watch this drive."

That  gaffe was one of the few slip-ups in a concerted White House effort to make the point that the president is never fully on vacation. Never mind what Mike Allen, writing in the Washington Post in 2002, called "golf-cart diplomacy."

Now, with Bush's ratings hovering around 30% month after month, it certainly wouldn't do to suggest that the president was just  "on vacation," as reasonable as it might seem for any president to need to take some time off, specially in his eighth war-torn year in office.

Regardless of popularity, the staffs of all recent presidents have gone to some length to present him as hard at work--even as he clears brush and rides his bike (President Bush); clears brush and rides his horse (President Reagan); plays aerobic golf and rides on his speedboat (the first President Bush); plays slow golf and schmoozes aerobically with friends (President Clinton); or plays softball and swats gnats (President Carter).

So, along comes ...

Palestinians have gotten 'very little justice,' former diplomat says

In his 25 years as a U.S. diplomat, Nicholas Burns proved it is possible to serve as a senior official in both Democratic and Republican administrations while almost never uttering a word that could cause trouble.

But since he gave up his job in March as No. 3 at the State Department and confidant to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, he’s been loosening his tie a bit. Just look at what he said about the Middle East.

In an appearance at the Woodrow Wilson International Center this week, where he is now a scholar, Burns casually remarked that Palestinians “have received very little justice” for the last 60 years.

While he was in pinstripes, that kind of language could have brought a strong reaction, because it may have been taken to suggest an official Bush administration view that Palestinians have a right to reclaim former lands in Israel, or, more broadly, that our allies the Israelis are guilty of injustice. Neither is U.S. policy.

But life as a former diplomat is so much quieter. So far, his comments have passed without raising eyebrows -- let alone prompting the firestorm they might have a few months back.

-- Paul Richter

Photo: Mikhail Metzel / AFP-Getty Images