Word: saying
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...White House officials are concerned about the politics. "The White House is acting like [Holder's] great sin was the failure to read the mood of Congress," says the Administration official familiar with the White House deliberations. Justice officials insist that Holder has the President's support. "Definitely the President is with him," says a senior Justice official. "The President sees it exactly as Holder does." Others are not so sure. "You haven't heard anyone leaping forward to say they back the Attorney General right now," the official familiar with Administration deliberations says...
...nobody's pushover. In July, he rocked Capitol Hill when he testified that instead of bringing the government's health care costs down, earlier versions of legislation under consideration in both the House and the Senate would drive them up faster. "I can think of 30 ways to say that, that would have been honest but would have gotten less in the way of headlines," says Urban Institute president Robert Reischauer, one of Elmendorf's predecessors as the head of the CBO. "I fired off a congratulatory e-mail...
...liners he's collected over the years. His favorite comedians are both dead - George Carlin and W.C. Fields. Their sensibilities suit Gates' own - taking down institutions, puncturing pomp. He's even adopted some of their style. He loves to tell the same jokes about egos in Washington - "where people say, I'll double-cross that bridge when I get to it," and "the only place in the world you can see a prominent person walking down lovers' lane holding his own hand." (See pictures of U.S. soldiers delivering aid to Haiti...
...Whatever Gates chooses to take a position on, Gates is the single most influential guy," says Leslie Gelb, the president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations and a skeptic of the Administration's strategy in Afghanistan. Gelb points out that in early December, days after President Obama's West Point speech announcing his decision to send 30,000 additional troops (on top of the 32,000 deployed in 2009) to the war zone and then begin bringing them home in July 2011, Gates went on the Sunday talk shows to say the withdrawal would depend on conditions...
Gates' ambition and intensity didn't always endear him to his colleagues, who say he has mellowed with age. "He was on the make when I knew him. He's made it now," says one. In 1987, after then CIA director William Casey retired, Reagan nominated Gates to become director of central intelligence. It was the midst of the Iran-contra hearings, however, and there was little hope of a quick confirmation. After four weeks, Gates withdrew his nomination. He recalls going back to his job as deputy and wanting to hide from his colleagues, then getting a call that...