(photo: Alex M. Lee.)

by Bay Fang

She calls it "yum-yum diplomacy," and when her press release first landed in my inbox, I thought it was a hoax. But Chicago-based installation artist Erin O'Brien really has built a model of the North Korean nuclear reactor at Yongbyon out of gingerbread, and really does plan to dismantle and eat it tomorrow as her Master's in Fine Arts thesis project.

What's more, her father, Pat O'Brien, really is in Pyongyang, overseeing the dismantling of the real version of this reactor. A retired foreign service officer, he has been stationed there since November, representing the State Department's Nonproliferation and Disarmament Fund. In a statement in his daughter's press release, he said, "It seems we have a little family legacy evolving here."

Yongbyon, 60 miles north of Pyongyang, contains a nuclear reactor, a fuel-rod factory and a reprocessing plant, where weapons-grade plutonium is extracted from fuel rods. It has been central to the efforts by US diplomats, under the auspices of the Six-Party Talks, to de-nuclearize the Korean peninsula, and under a landmark agreement reached last year, North Korea began dismantling it.

It was also featured prominently in briefings around Washington, DC a few weeks ago, when the Bush administration released details of an alleged nuclear site in Syria, bombed by the Israelis last September, that apparently had the same dimensions and layout as Yongbyon.

33-year-old Erin O'Brien has recreated the entire site in detail, doubtless with consultation with her father, down to the frosting trim on the 50-mw reactor and a cooling tower covered in chocolate. She has filled the inside with jellybeans and gumdrops, with the anticipation of breaking it open "like a piñata." She says the project is a combination of influences from her dad and her mom, who was once the pastry chef at such Washington, DC culinary institutions as Kinkead's and Citronelle.

by Matthew Hay Brown

Democrats are preparing for another confrontation with the White House over Iraq.

House Democrats have developed an emergency war spending bill that includes all the money President Bush has asked for, and much that he didn't, including spending on domestic programs that he has told Congress to leave out. The $170 billion legislation would also require the president to pull combat troops out of Iraq by the end of next year - a timetable of the sort Bush has already vetoed.

"We will address what we have consistently addressed, and that is a desire by Democrats, reflecting, we believe, the overwhelming desire of the American public, 60-percent-plus, for a change in the course that we have been pursuing in Afghanistan and Iraq," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, describing the bill that could hit the House floor as early as Thursday.

Hoyer said the legislation, which has not been made public, also would " reflect things that we have talked about before in terms of redeployment, in terms of dwell time, in terms of length of stay in theater and other things along that line that we have expressed our view on, including the status-of-forces agreement that the administration seems to be pursuing, which, without Senate approval, which seeks to bind a successor administration. We don't think that is appropriate without the Congress's involvement."

Finally, he said, it would address domestic needs. Democrats have spoken of funding for veterans, investment in infrastructure and extending unemployment insurance.

"Sending $100-billion-plus to Iraq and Afghanistan may be necessary in the short term," he said. "But both in the short and long term, investing in America and Americans is also a critical priority, certainly for us."

By David Nitkin

President Bush renewed his call for increased benefits for military families on Tuesday during a White House observance of Military Spouse Day.

"I sent up some legislation -- I certainly hope congress moves on it quickly -- that will make it easier to expand access to child care, create new authorities to appoint qualified spouses into civil service jobs, provide educational opportunities and job training for our military spouses, and finally, allow our troops to transfer their unused education benefits to spouses or children," Bush said during remarks on the South Lawn. "This legislation is moving. I hope to be able to sign it as quickly as possible. It is the absolute right thing to do."

Bush also promoted the package during his January State of the Union address.

At the morning ceremony, the president recognized six military spouses who are recipients of the President's Volunteer Service Award, including Ramona Vazquez of Baltimore. Vazquez is president of the Baltimore Area Coast Guard Spouses Association, and created and maintains a Web site for Coast Guard families coming to Baltimore. She also founded a service that provides free diapers, formula, clothes and toys to military and civilian families.

Other award recipients were Colleen Saffron of Fort Hood, Texas; Laprece James and Ellen Patton of California; Dawnle Scheetz of Sharon, Penn.; and Bob Davison of Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi.

by Matthew Hay Brown

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will give President Bush this much: He's one of a kind.

"Only President Bush could allow Big Oil to write our nation's energy policy, guarantee billions in oil tax breaks and refuse to stand up to OPEC or crack down on price gouging, and then shirk responsibility for gas prices that have more than doubled and oil prices that have quadrupled since he took office," the Nevada Democrat said today. "Only President Bush could be surprised to learn that gas was approaching $4 a gallon and then claim the White House is concerned about high gas prices."

Reid was responding to Bush's press conference this morning, during which the president said it was the Democratic Congress that was standing in the way of his efforts to restrain rising prices at the pump.

"One of the main reasons for high gas prices is that global oil production is not keeping up with growing demand," Bush said. "Members of Congress have been vocal about foreign governments increasing their oil production; yet Congress has been just as vocal in opposition to efforts to expand our production here at home.

"They repeatedly blocked environmentally safe exploration in ANWR," Bush said. "Congress has repeatedly blocked efforts to expand capacity and build more refineries. ... Congress continues to block provisions needed to increase domestic electricity production by expanding the use of clean, safe nuclear power."

By David Nitkin

The White House has abruptly announced a news conference in the Rose Garden at 10:31 a.m. today -- giving reporters less than two hours to prepare their questions for President Bush.

Bush will launch the news conference with an 8 minute statement, the White House says, "regarding Americans' understandable anxiety about issues affecting their pocketbooks."

According to the press office, "He will also call upon Congress to send him sensible and effective bills that will help Americans weather this difficult period and keep our country moving forward.

He will specifically reference:

1. Energy prices - Congress should pass legislation which would clear away obstacles to more affordable, more reliable energy here at home.

2. Rising food prices - Congress should reform our farm programs by passing a fiscally-responsible bill that does not impose new burdens on American consumers.

3. Mortgage payments - Congress should pass specific legislation that will help more families stay in their homes.

4. Student loans - Congress should give the federal government greater authority to buy federal student loans."

by Matthew Hay Brown

Republicans have taken to calling the 50 percent increase in gasoline prices since Democrats took over last year the "Pelosi Premium." Democrats say Republicans are looking at the wrong time frame.

"When President Bush took office, gas prices were less than half of what they are today - and oil was less than one-third," Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey says in today's Democratic radio address. "Then, seven years ago, President Bush and Vice President Cheney secretly invited executives from the big oil and big energy companies to the White House to write our national energy policy. ...

"Now, they are hauling in record profits," Lautenberg says. "We are paying record prices. And their profits are coming out of our pockets."

Republicans have been hounding Pelosi to explain the "commonsense plan" to hold down gas prices that Democrats promised two years ago.

"Two years later, they appear to have no plan other than to increase taxes on energy companies and stand in the way of increased domestic production," Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said. "So what we want to know is, where is the 'commonsense plan' to lower gas prices? And what is taking them so long to unveil it? The American people are waiting--and paying more at the pump each day they wait."

In fact, Pelosi has spent a good part of the last week calling on Republicans to help pass legislation to crack down on price gouging, hold OPEC accountable for price fixing and end tax breaks for oil companies and invest the savings in renewable energy.

On Thursday, Pelosi urged Bush to halt deliveries to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. On Friday, Democrats called on the Federal Trade Commission to use the authority recently granted by Congress to investigate prices for possible market manipulation.

The larger problem is that for a price surge linked to market speculation, unrest in the Middle East, the week U.S. dollar and growing demand from China and India, there are no easy solutions. Lautenberg's address follows.

by Andrew Zajac

Downstate Illinois Republican powerbroker Robert Kjellander stoutly denies going to the White House to try to get Chicago federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald fired. But former Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, who recommended Patrick Fitzgerald for his Chicago post in 2001, said there's no doubt in his mind that top White House political operative Karl Rove knew of his long-time pal Kjellander's unhappiness with the prosecutor.

According to Peter Fitzgerald, Rove, in late 2003, told him that "Kjellander felt that I was out to get him through my U.S. attorney appointments."

Fitzgerald said he's baffled by that perception. "What would any law abiding person have to worry about from a U.S. attorney?" he said.

Yes, but was Peter Fitzgerald using his prosecutorial picks to get fellow Republican Kjellander? Peter Fitzgerald said that's a 'when did you stop beating your wife' question and declined to answer directly. "I brought in U.S. attorneys who I thought would be independent and aggressive...and would be the best possible U.S. attorneys in Chicago and elsewhere in Illinois," he said.

by Matthew Hay Brown and David Nitkin

The White House is resisting bipartisan calls to halt new shipments to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve while gasoline prices at the pump continue to rise.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain today in asking President Bush to stop adding 60,000 barrels of oil each day the giant undergound caverns in Texas and Louisiana where the government keeps the reserve - a move they say would help reduce demand.

"Today the SPR is nearly 97 percent full," Pelosi told reporters today. "Independent experts report that suspending deliveries to SPR could cut as much as five cents on the low-end to 24 cents off a gallon of gas and provide real savings for families. ...

"Suspending delivery to SPR will not only increase supply, but impact energy prices by sending a signal to the market to stop runaway speculation."

The White House disagrees.

"The Administration continues to fill the reserve at a modest rate," spokesman Scott Stanzel said. "We don't believe the fill rates have a meaningful impact on oil supplies, as this oil equates to less than one tenth of one percent of daily world consumption. We continue to fill the reserve to provide an added layer of protection to the American people in cases of severe supply disruption."

Pelosi cited precedent for the move.

"Ahead of the first Gulf War, the first President Bush withdrew oil from the SPR. Withdrew oil from the SPR," she said. "We're not asking for that. President Clinton suspended SPR deliveries in 1995 and even the current President Bush withdrew oil from SPR and sold it on the market following Hurricane Katrina."

by James Oliphant

The Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday approved a bill that attempts to limit the government's use of the state secrets privilege, a broad-based evidentiary claim based on national security concerns that the Bush administration has used frequently in court cases involving the government.

Federal courts have routinely dismissed lawsuits over the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping program and the government's use of detention, interrogation and "extraordinary rendition" after the privilege has been cited because the suits cannot proceed with the requested evidence.

The government has even been able to use it successfully in cases in which it isn't the defendant, such as the wiretapping suits against telecom companies, to knock out the claims.

A federal judge in Chicago Wednesday took the rare step of disagreeing with the government's use of the privilege in a case involving the Department of Homeland Security's terrorist watch list, saying the plaintiff, a local businessman, could find out whether his name is on the list.

(Rep. Pete Hoekstra., a Michigan Republican. AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke)

by Matthew Hay Brown

The senior Republican on the House Select Committee on Intelligence said that lawmakers felt "used" by the White House after finally getting briefed today on alleged North Korean nuclear assistance to Syria.

Rep. Pete Hoekstra warned of a "damaged" relationship that could hinder the administration's ability to get congressional approval for an agreement on the North Korea's nuclear program.

CIA Director Michael Hayden was to show video footage and photographs showing the heads of the North Korea's and Syria's nuclear programs together at a Syrian reactor, administration officials said before the closed-door session. Some have speculated that the administration's motive in sharing the information now -- it was leaked to newspapers yesterday -- is to scuttle the six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear program.

Hoekstra, the ranking member on House Intel, said he had been calling for a briefing for months. "I think many people believe that we were used today by the administration because - not because they felt they had to inform Congress because it was their legal obligation to do that, but because they had other agendas in mind," the Michigan Republican said.

"Remember, it is the legal responsibility of the administration to keep Congress fully and currently informed on the issues that the administration is dealing with," Hoekstra continued. "I think we have a question as to whether the administration actually moved forward in that direction."

Dana Perino, White House press secretary, said of Hoekstra's complaint: "Obviously we would be very disappointed that he feels that way...and hope he understands our tremendous respect for members of Congress.'' Yet, she acknolwedged, that "there are tensions that exist'' between the executive and legislative branches on many matters.

She said she hoped, but could not guarantee, that further explanation by the administration today would satisfy the chairman's questions.

by Frank James

Who to believe? On one hand, as we heard on National Public Radio yesterday, former President Jimmy Carter says he wasn't told by the Bush Administration that he shouldn't meet with Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist and political organization.

On the other, we have the State Department and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice saying that Carter was told in no uncertain terms not to meet with Hamas.

Actually, that's not what Rice seems to have said as she travels through the Middle East.

The Associated Press is reporting this morning that Rice pushed back against Carter this morning in Kuwait City in language that seemed far from declarative. 

Rice, attending a regional meeting on Iraq's security and future, contradicted Carter's assertions that he never got a clear signal from the State Department. Rice told reporters that the U.S. thought the visit could confuse the message that the U.S. will not deal with Hamas.

"I just don't want there to be any confusion," Rice said. "The United States is not going to deal with Hamas and we had certainly told President Carter that we did not think meeting with Hamas was going to help" further a political settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.

Actually, Rice is creating plenty of confusion here, intentionally or not. Her statement does anything but clarify the matter.

by Mark Silva

It's difficult to imagine what anyone can hope to accomplish, assuming a new role in the Bush administration with months left in the president's term.

But President Bush has moved quickly to replace the resigning Housing and Urban Development Secretary, Alphonso Jackson, who left under the cloud of an investigation into his possible manipulation of campaign fundraising and his agency.

The Associated Press is reporting that Bush has tapped Small Business Administration chief Steve Preston to take over as "head of the government's troubled housing agency at a time of deep crisis in the industry.''

In the midst of a housing crisis, one might also expect swift confirmation of the appointment by the Senate.

Bush plans to name Preston at midday before leaving for Camp David, the A.P.'s Terence Hunt reports.

"Jackson leaves behind the wreckage of a national housing crisis and a trail of unanswered questions about whether he tilted the Housing and Urban Development Department toward Republican contractors and cronies,'' Hunt notes.

Preston has served as head of the SBA since July 2006, after his nomination was unanimously confirmed by the Senate. "Bush is expected to praise him as an effective manager and problem-solver who can take on complex challenges'' Hunt reports -- with a nod to the National Journal's Congress Daily for breaking the story.

by Frank James

The fact that the Bush Administration is down to its last few months now isn't stopping some liberal groups from calling for the removal of one of its best-known faces--Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

They want her gone because of recent reports that as the president's National Security Adviser she was involved in White House meetings with other senior officials who decided what harsh interrogation techniques, which many people also call torture, were to be used on al Qaeda suspects.

This Condimustgo.com campaign would have zero chance of accomplishing its end, one would think. Rice is extremely loyal to the president and he to her.

But at least the people behind it have the satisfaction of knowing that in about nine months they will get their wish.

by Frank James

When Stephen Hadley, President Bush's National Security Adviser, repeatedly and erroneously referred to Nepal instead of Tibet on ABC News's "This Week" on Sunday during a discussion of whether President Bush would attend the Olympic opening ceremonies in Beijing, many of us just assumed it was a senior moment.

Many, but not all. Some people apparently thought he could've meant it intentionally, especially since on an earlier Sunday talk show he had gotten it right.

For instance, this is from Daily Kos:

Very curious -- is Hadley just a moron? Or is there some diplomacy reason that someone would tell him to actively switch from "Tibet" to "Nepal" between shows?

Or how about the other option, that Hadley just had a moment of brain fade, especially since George Stephanopoulos, host of this week, had just had a discussion with President Jimmy Carter about Nepal?

It's just another example of how the Bush Administration by its actions has helped to create such an air of distrust among many Americans, that when a top Bush aide makes an obvious gaffe, it takes on an ominous meaning.

What many of us saw was a flub by a man who probably spends a lot more time looking for his car keys than he used to, an experience many of us can relate to.

Almost as jarring as hearing the president's National Security Adviser repeatedly cite the wrong Asian country was that Stephanopoulos didn't step in to correct Hadley which is what he normally does in a situation like that. Was he having a premature senior moment too?

by Mark Silva

Michael Brown -- introduced to the world with President Bush's "You're doing a heckuva job, Brownie'' -- has found happiness in life after government back home in Boulder, Colo..

He also has found a home on Facebook (see his latest photo at left) where he has a lot of friends.

Eighty-five, at last count the other day. They include Newt Gingrich and a few reporters, such as Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post, Mark Leibovitch of The New York Times, and even yours truly. (Thank you, Michael)

His political views: "Mostly conservative.''

And Brown, the former Federal Emergency Management Agency director who fell victim to his own agency's handling of the response to Hurricane Katrina, now heads or works with firms that have their hands in disaster relief -- contracting with the federal government.

You read about all that here in the Swamp, and in the Tribune, exclusively not too long ago:
Brown was working for Atlanta-based Charys Holding Co., whose subsidiaries Cotton Cos. and Viasys Services build and restore wireless communications -- cell phone towers, fiber-optic networks and the like. In June, Cotton restored services after flooding in Gainesville, Texas.

Brown's curriculum vitae on Facebook tells us he is now chairman of Cotton USA..

"There is life after government," Brown had told the Tribune a while back, with a caustic assessment of how the Bush administration treated him -- "even after you have been run through the wringer, even after you have been thrown under the bus by the leader of the free world."

These days, Brown tells his Facebook friends, he has his hands in a lot of ventures:

Condoleezza Rice and the Rice Cake: eBay.

By Bay Fang

In the latest of a series of unusual eBay offerings, a seller in upstate New York has put up for sale a "Condoleezza Rice Cake." In a photo on the listing, he juxtaposes a photo of a scowling Secretary of State with a slightly lumpy, but ordinary-looking, rice cake.

In the item description, under "Type: Caramel" and "Subject Area: Foreign Policy," the seller writes, "This Condoleezza Rice Cake expired on March 26, 2008. I think the real Condoleezza Rice will be with us until at least November. Unlike the real Condoleezza Rice, my rice cake really is an expert on foreign policy. It managed somehow to convince American kids that puffed rice was tasty."

The starting bid is 99 cents.

As the subject of a weird food posting, the Secretary of State will be in good company. Other snacks sold on ebay have included a pretzel in the shape of the Virgin Mary (which sold for $10,600 in 2005), and a 10-year-old Virgin Mary grilled cheese sandwich (with a bite taken out of it), which sold for $28,000 in 2004. Bidding is still open for French toast left over by popstar Justin Timberlake, but interested parties should be ready to fork over some real dough for that one - the price is already up to $3154.