Obama's historic all-female Marine One crew

It was another first in presidential history.

When President Obama left the White House on Thursday for Andrews Air Force Base, the Marine One helicopter that lifted off from the South Lawn was piloted by the first female helicopter aircraft commander in Marine One history. Maj. Jennifer Grieves of Glendale, Ariz., flew her first Marine One mission in May 2008, and had flown Obama and then-President George W. Bush.

In honor of Grieves' last day in the rotation, the Marines assigned two other female officers -- Maj. Jennifer L. Marino, of Palisade, Colo., and Sgt. Rachael A. Sherman, of Traverse City, Mich. -- to complete the crew. And that all-female crew was another first.

Marines say Grieves is off to Command and Staff College in Quantico, Va.

When the president boarded Marine One en route to try to salvage Gov. Jon Corzine's reelection bid in New Jersey and to address the NAACP in New York, he stopped to talk to Grieves and shook her hand.

Of course Obama is accustomed to being surrounded by women. At the White House he lives with First Lady Michelle Obama; their daughters, Malia and Sasha; and his mother-in-law, Marian Robinson.

Still, it was a singular moment in girl power when the chopper lifted off.

Perhaps CNN put it best when it called Grieves "the woman that shattered Marine One's glass rotors."

-- Johanna Neuman

Photos: President Obama. Credit: Associated Press.

Maj. Grieves. Credit: Getty Images.

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Pujols to Obama: 'Don't bounce it'

He is known in some circles as the First Fan, a devotee of the Chicago Bulls, a president so passionate about sports that he went on ESPN a few months ago to announce his bracket predictions for the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

But tonight, President Obama becomes the nation's baseball guy, throwing out the first pitch at the All-Star game in St. Louis, and doing a half inning of sports commentary in the Fox TV anchor booth.

Lots of people are already giving him advice.

Baseball legend Willie Mays is traveling with the president on Air Force One from Michigan (where POTUS was pitching education) to St. Louis, th esite of the ballgame. Hard to imagine they won't talk technique.

Then there's Cardinals all-star Albert Pujols, who's slated to catch the president's debut first pitch. During pregame interviews Monday, the Cardinals' first baseman offered some advice to Obama.

"Lob it up there. Don't try to be a perfect throw,'" Pujols said. "The worst thing, if you throw any first pitch, you don't want to bounce it. That's the advice that I'm going to give. Make sure that you don't bounce it."

Before leaving Washington, Obama was asked during an Oval Office meeting whether he'd been practicing. "I think it's fair to say I wanted to loosen up my arm," he said during a photo-op with Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, adding that he'd been reminiscing about that Chicago White Sox game in 2005 when he threw out the first pitch.

"I just wanted to keep it high," Obama recalled. "Now, there was no clock on it, I don't know how fast it went. If it exceeded 30 miles per hour, I'd be surprised. But it did clear the plate."

Pujols won't be the only Cardinals hero on the field for Obama's debut at a major league game. The six living Cardinals Hall of Famers -- Stan Musial, Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, Red Schoendienst, Bruce Sutter and Ozzie Smith -- will also be on hand.

And Obama won't be the only president to make an appearance. All four living presidents -- George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter -- appear in a video that honors community service volunteers in a ceremony MLB is calling "All-Stars Among Us."

As for Obama, according to Major League Baseball, he'll be wearing a black glove specifically designed for him by Wilson. The glove includes "Obama #44" written in script and an American flag. After the first pitch, the glove will be authenticated by MLB and sent to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

And that broadcast booth appearance? Fox's Joe Buck says the president will make his cameo appearance in the bottom of the second inning. Buck promised no wild pitches about politics.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: President Obama holds up a Philadelphia Phillies jersey given to him by Jimmy Rollins at the White House May 15, 2009, in Washington. Obama welcomed Major League Baseball's 2008 World Champions to the White House. Credit: Win McNamee / Getty Images

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What did the CIA lie to Congress about, and where was Cheney?

Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee set off a political bombshell this week. In a leaked letter, they disclosed that CIA Director Leon Panetta -- four months after taking office -- learned that his agency had misled Congress about a special project. He canceled the program and scheduled closed-door meetings with the House and Senate Intelligence Committees the next day to brief them.

Ever since, observers of the national security scene have been puzzling over the story. Aside from the disturbing -- but not particularly surprising news -- that someone at the CIA sat on this news for four months after getting a new boss, the question is: what classified program did Panetta close down?

Early speculation rested on waterboarding, a technique the Bush administration used in interrogating terrorists. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had earlier accused the CIA of misleading her on use of the controversial practice. But President Obama has already banned waterboarding, so it's not something Panetta would need to shut down.

Now, some are quoting the New Yorker's Seymour Hersh, who in March alleged that a secret army of CIA operatives reported to former Vice President Dick Cheney. In remarks he has not substantiated in print, Hersh talked about "a special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently. They do not report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office.... It's an executive assassination ring essentially, and it's been going on and on and on."

Cheney makes a convenient target. He's already enraged Democrats for suggesting that Obama's policies are making the United States more vulnerable to terrorist attacks. In fact, Panetta accused Cheney of hoping America would be attacked again, just to prove his point. As a result, some Republicans argue that the Democrats are just floating the Cheney rumor to deflect attention away from Pelosi's credibility on the issue.

Others argue that there is less there than meets the eye. As one unnamed former intelligence official told the Washington Post, "This characterization of something that began in 2001 and continued uninterrupted for eight years is just wrong. Honest men would question that characterization. It was more off and on." If the nature of the program could be revealed, said the source, it would be seen as "no big deal."

Either way, look for the guessing game to continue.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo Credit: Getty Images

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Sonia Sotomayor cramming in practice sessions near the West Wing

These days, federal appeals court Judge Sonia Sotomayor is not in her New York chambers. She's not weighing cases or interrogating counsel or even writing opinions.

Instead, with hearings to start Monday in the historic, much-anticipated Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation process, Sotomayor is holed up in a small office in the Eisenhower Old Executive Office Building next to the White House.

A group of young aides and lawyers assigned by Team Obama poses mock questions based on research about each committee member's records. But mostly, reports CNN, Sotomayor is sitting quietly by herself, reading her back opinions, boning up on anything that might provoke a senator to raise a fuss.

"She's got to hit the books," said Thomas Goldstein, a D.C. appellate attorney. "They can ask you about any part of the law. And she's got to be ready for that."

In an earlier round of get-acquainted-sessions, Sotomayor met with 70 of the Senate's 100....

Obama scripts town-hall meeting on health care. What would Bush say?

Remember when public opinion turned so dramatically against the Iraq war that the White House only let invited guests attend George W. Bush's out-of-town speeches?

Well it seems like the same thing might be happening to President Obama's healthcare proposal.

As the Ticket reported yesterday, Obama answered questions at a town hall at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Va., about protecting the uninsured, giving consumers a public option and converting medical records from paper to digital files. The White House portrayed the town-hall meeting as one in a series of public outreach events, a way for the president to keep his finger on the pulse of public opinion, and in turn to sway Americans on the complex and contentious issue.

This morning, the Washington Post is reporting that "of the seven questions the president answered, four were selected by his staff from videos submitted to the White House Web site or from those responding to a request for 'tweets.' " And the three audience members he called on randomly? The Post says "all turned out to be members of groups with close ties to his administration: the Service Employees International Union, Health Care for America Now, and Organizing for America, which is a part of the Democratic National Committee."

None of this would surprise any good White House advance staffer. Better to control the crowd, screen the questions, anticipate the topics. And, to be fair, a college campus in a Democratic county might be expected to produce friendly questioners.

The problem is that Obama himself made an issue of transparency, promising an administration that allowed the public to see what its government was doing. In fact on Jan. 22, his first full day in office, Obama issued a series of executive orders instructing government agencies to open their files, saying, "Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency."

So, naturally, reporters jumped on the apparent discrepancy, led by veteran Helen Thomas, a thorn in the side to many a presidential administration, and CBS' Chip Reid. See what you think.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, deflecting the criticism, protested that the White House was not trying to manage the questions. Thomas reminded him that the Obama administration, unlike its predecessors, calls reporters the night before a press conference to tell them they will be called on, a new way of managing the topics.

Waving off the criticism and arguing that the healthcare forum would be expansive, Gibbs asked the reporters how they could make the case that the White House is muffling dissent when "you haven't heard the questions."

"It doesn't matter. It's the process," Reid argued. "Even if there's a tough question, it's a question coming from somebody who was invited or who was screened or the question was screened."

With the president's popularity dropping from his stratospheric inaugural highs -- the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll this week found that Americans are evenly split, 48 to 48%, on how Obama is handling the deficit -- the White House may be just trying to improve his standing by controlling the optics.

Saving his healthcare plan might prove more difficult.

-- Johanna Neuman

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Iraqis dance in streets as U.S. troops pull back -- Americans like it too

Iraqis danced in the streets today as American soldiers pulled back from towns and cities (including  Basra, above) to the stronghold of U.S. bases. A countdown clock on Iraqi TV ticked to zero as midnight approached. Fireworks lit up the skies over Baghdad.

Some voiced fears about renewed violence. And some 200,000 U.S. soldiers remain in the country -- four tragically killed just last night during the transition, joining the more than 4,300 U.S. soldiers who have died in the cause.

Iraq declared a national holiday and Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki proclaimed June 30 Iraq's "National Sovereignty Day." "All of us are happy — Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds — on this day," Waleed al-Bahadili said to the Associated Press as he celebrated in a Badghad park. "The Americans harmed and insulted us too much."

Americans might be upset to hear that, given that they gave so much of blood and treasure to give Iraq a chance at democracy. But the latest poll by CNN found 73% of Americans favor the withdrawal with surprising unanimity -- 72% of Democrats and 74% of Republicans said yes. And two-thirds said even if violence flares again (which a majority think is likely), U.S. troops should not go back into Iraqi population centers.

Of course, the Big Number is that two-thirds of Americans no longer support the war in Iraq, a rebuke to President Bush's policy -- though his neo-con supporters hope he will be vindicated by history's more long-range endorsement -- and an explanation for President Obama's decision to end combat operations in Iraq by Aug. 31 of next year.

But for today, the news was not in the Oval Office but in the streets of Iraq. Here are more photos:

-- Johanna Neuman

In Ramadi, as Iraqi forces take charge of patrols in the city.

In Basra, Iraqi police officers celebrate.

At a cafe in Baghdad.

In Baghdad's Green Zone, a parade of Iraqi security forces.

Spc. Charles Lewis of the 10th Combat Support Hospital prepared to leave Baghdad.

Photo credits, from top: Khalid Mohammed / Associated Press; Karim Kadin / Associated Press; Haider Al-Assadee / European Pressphoto Agency; Khalil al-Murshidi / AFP/Getty Images; Ali al-Saadi / AFP/Getty Images; Daniel C. Britt / Reuters

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Obama prepares to hold Gitmo guys indefinitely, just as Bush did

In yet another sign of political perfidy, the White House of President George W. Bush has drafted a presidential executive order that would allow that double-dealing Republican chief executive to hold suspected terrorist detainees indefinitely.

According to the president's intentions, such suspects could be detained for long periods of time, virtually indefinitely. Is this really what the nation voted for last November?

Oh, wait. No. According to an exclusive Washington Post/Pro Publica report this afternoon, it's the refreshing new Democratic administration of Barack Obama that's now preparing this new executive order to hold certain terrorist suspects indefinitely.

This is an obviously inspiring sign of the new style of leadership the Democrat promised and is finally bringing to the White House. As one blogger put it, George W. Obama. And it shows the kind of powerful political pragmatism with which the ex-senator from Illinois approaches this job at such a crucial and globally turbulent time.Strangely, it was leaked to the Post on a slow summer Friday afternoon when it wouldn't gain much attention.

According to the Post report, the 44th president is now starting to think that closure of the internationally-reviled Guantanamo Bay detention facility, which Obama announced with so much fanfare on his first day in office last winter, may be impossible to actually accomplish before the one-year deadline he set for himself before actually planning where else to put these prisoners.

In other words, fanfare aside, status quo ante. Democrat or Republican, same deal. Ex-Vice President Dick Cheney will be so pleased that the Obama-Biden folks finally accepted his advice to protect national security.

Another sign, finally, of real change after eight long years of the very same thing.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Associated Press

Bush breaks silence, says economy won't need Obama intervention

For 150 days, he was a model citizen, and certainly an admirable former president, a member of the Golden Rule of the elite Ex-Presidents' Club.

Unlike his vice president, the chatty Dick Cheney (or, to be fair, the Democrats' oft-quoted former President Carter), former President George W. Bush promised not to throw spitballs at the new administration. "I'm not going to criticize my successor," he said.

But last night, speaking in Erie, Pa., at the Manufacturer & Business Assn.'s annual meeting, Bush allowed as how Barack Obama might be a socialist.

According to the Washington Times, Bush told a cheering crowd, "I know it's going to be the private sector that leads this country out of the current economic times we're in. You can spend your money better than the government can spend your money." As for the president's healthcare reform ideas, Bush said he didn't like them. "I worry about encouraging the government to replace the private sector when it comes to providing insurance for healthcare," he said.

And asked whether he considered Obama a socialist, Bush said, "We'll see."

The former president also defended his administration's handling of terrorism suspects, like waterboarding, a torture technique that Obama has banned, and the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which Obama is working to close.

"There are people at Gitmo that will kill American people at a drop of a hat and I don't believe that -- persuasion isn't going to work," Bush said. "Therapy isn't going to cause terrorists to change their mind."

So much for silence.

-- Johanna Neuman

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Photo credit: Associated Press

Washington's dreamboats? You've got to be kidding

Maybe this only proves the old adage that Washington is Hollywood for ugly people.

This morning, politico.com named its top dreamboats, and the list of seven admittedly powerful names is a bit, well, surprising.

No question Grover Norquist is an influential lobbyist, whose Americans for Tax Reform has impacted policy on the Potomac ever since the Reagan administration.

Undoubtedly Budget Director Peter Orszag, seen on the right in a photo with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, is a pivotal figure in bureaucratic circles, with his hands on the tiller of government spending.

And the list goes on, including Emanuel, "the West Wing version of Joe Pesci’s character in 'Goodfellas.'" House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, "a diamond in the rough." MSNBC's Chuck Todd, for bringing back the goatee. Vanity Fair's "chain-smoking, whiskey-drinking, God-denying" Christopher Hitchins. Libertarian presidential candidate Ron Paul, for his "tireless devotion to the Constitution."

OK, so these guys have power and influence, but calling its article The Hunks of Capitol Hill? Even politico.com acknowledges that Washington is about the only place where former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer would have a stalker.

Still, the website defends its selections by saying: 

The haters call Washington “Hollywood for ugly people,” but they’ve got it all wrong. Ugly is in the eye of the beholder, and the beholders inside the Beltway see beauty where others might miss it. ... Let the rest of the world have its Brad Pitt. D.C. knows who the real dreamboats are.

Let's just say Hollywood hasn't called yet.

The full story is below. Let us know what you think.

-- Johanna Neuman

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Photo Credit: Associated Press

Obama's admission, Sonia's 35 minutes, Specter's specter, Arnold's hogs

Notes for a summer Friday:

Or Try a Cold Shower

If you experience an election lasting more than four hours -- or even four months -- seek medical attention immediately. Ask your physician if you are healthy enough for legal activity.

If so, just go to court, the way they did up in Minnesota, where they are still in court over the battle between Republican Norm "I Used to Be Mayor of St. Paul, You Know" Coleman and Democrat Al "I'm Not a Big Fat Idiot" Franken.

Minnesota's Supreme Court is now mulling (a favorite word) the case fully seven months and an additional $13 million in legal fees and salaries after the $37-million campaigns ended Nov. 3.

Coleman, who's losing by 312 votes at the moment, wants about 4,400 rejected absentee ballots counted too. And depending on the state outcome, Coleman could always appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which isn't required to take the case.

A lot of Democrats, who'd like 60 party members in the Senate, think Coleman should just give up already and accept defeat graciously the way, for instance, Al Gore did after the close 2000 presidential election night. Oh, wait. Not.

Again, Obama Agrees with Bush

One of the little-noticed tidbits out of President B. Hussein Obama's speech from the presidential minaret in Egypt this week was his brief, brushing acknowledgment that Saddam Hussein's absence from Iraq is a good thing. It was clearly yet another bold, bipartisan bid by the new chief executive to agree with George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney.

Obama famously opposed the war in Iraq, though he's keeping...