Just POlitics

Ukrainian visit

Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko is making a state visit to the United States. His agenda covers the issues of trade, Iraq war, War on Terror status and other good will events to help boost Ukraine’s future prospects.

Leonid Kuchma, Yushchenko's predecessor, provided Ukrainian soldiers for the coalition of the willing in Iraq. It is widely believed that it was a bid to mend fences with Washington after Kiev's alleged sale of radar equipment to Saddam Hussein.

Yushchenko is hopeful to pull his nation’s troops from Iraq in October.

In a joint press conference, President Bush stated that he had emphasized Yushchenko’s desire to fight corruption in his country. Part of the corruption deals with Ukraine guaranteeing intellectual property rights -- a key to U.S. approval of Ukraine receiving War on Terror support.

Afghan: don’t move envoy

Afganistan’s Chief Justice Fazil Hadi Shinwary wrote a letter to President Bush asking that he not reassign U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad to Iraq.

Shinwary expressed in his letter that Khalizad, who is a native Afghan, is needed until after Afghan’s September parliamentary polls.

Khalilzad was widely credited with saving Afghanistan's first presidential election from disaster in October after opposition candidates threatened to boycott the results following allegations of fraud.

"No one else can work as he has been doing or has done in the past," Shinwary wrote.

Lott vs. Bush

Sen. Trent Lott still has bitter feelings towards the Bush Administration. The Administration did little to help the former Majority Leader in his troubles. It is well known that Sen. Bill Frist was the White House pick to replace Lott.

Sen. Lott picked up the issue of base closings as an something that could adversely effect his home state of Mississippi. Lott placed a hold on the nomination of Anthony J. Principi, Bush's designee as chairman of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission. President Bush used his capacity to make appointments during Congresses recess to appoint Principi.

"The existing BRAC law sets a very tight schedule, with specific dates, within which the commission must hire a staff, travel to numerous military bases, consult with community leaders, conduct a thorough analysis, and prepare its detailed report," Senate Armed Service Chairman John Warner stated in support of President Bush.

Who knew ?

Former CIA Director George Tennet offered defense of his actions in not knowing that what was taken as a reliable source that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction was a screwball, according to the WMD report. The Associated Press covers the story:

"It is deeply troubling to me that there was information apparently available within CIA as of late September or October of 2002 indicating that Curveball may have been a fabricator," Tenet said in a detailed seven-page rebuttal. "There is nothing more serious or galvanizing in the intelligence business than associating the word fabricator with a human source."

[former acting CIA Director John] McLaughlin said "unequivocally" that he wouldn't have allowed Curveball's information to be used "if someone had made these doubts clear."

Democrat Civil War

The Washington Times reports on the fact that the Centrist Democrats are going to war with the Liberal wing of the Democrat Party:

In an attack on the party's dominant left wing, anti-war base, and a warning for new Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean "to do no harm," the centrist-leaning Democratic Leadership Council said it is "a delusion to think that if we just turned out our voters, we could win national elections."

This, followed by the release of Jane Fonda’s apologistic - un-apologistic book of angst, is not good for the Howard Dean faction of the party.

Iraq’s government

President Bush called Sunni Arab Hajem al-Hassani and thanked the newly elected speaker for agreeing to take on that important leadership role during this nascent period in Iraq's history.

White House spokesman stated that at the end of the conversation both the President and al-Hassani expressed confidence that democracy would prevail in Iraq.

Bolton supporters trump opposition

The Associated Press reports that 66 former key diplomats and government officials have called for the confirmation of John R. Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations. Previously 62 former ambassadors and government officials called for the rejection of Bolton:

Bolton supporters said his stance "reflects a clear-eyed necessity of the real limits" of accords with other nations that demand one-sided terms from the United States. They included Max Kampelman and Edward Rowny, arms control negotiators in the Reagan administration.