Who's Who

Washington Monthly, March, 2004

In retrospect, it's clear that Wesley Clark's key mistake was skip the Iowa caucuses in January. So who had the bright idea? Chief among those pushing to bypass the state was communications strategist Chris Lehane, who argued that Iowa wasn't worth the resources it would take to win there, and that the media would give Clark a "bye" for skipping it because fellow candidate Joe Lieberman was, too. But other staffers--including deputy, policy director Chris Kofinis and director of Internet strategy John Hlinko--pushed for a "Potemkin strategy," whereby Clark would aim to place third in Iowa, giving him a major boost going into New Hampshire. But the Lehane camp won, and leaked their decision to the Associated Press in mid-October. "It was a decision that didn't have to be made then," fumes one Clarkiac. "Clinton didn't compete in Iowa, but Clinton didn't say he wasn't going to compete in Iowa. Because politics changes. Dean is at the top of the mountain, and two weeks later he's at the bottom. Where were we?" Meanwhile, John Edwards--who had invested about as much time and money in Iowa as Clark had, and was running neck-and-neck with the former general in October--decided to stay in the running. When the caucuses rolled around, Edwards finished second.

When we last checked in with the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, "Who's Who" noted that many key jobs there had been filled with folks with little to no experience in such areas ,as post-conflict reconstruction, transitional economies, and the like--a consequence of the Bush administration's disdain for anyone with roots in the NGO community, the State Department, or the various Clinton-era nation-building projects, and its preference for loyal Republican operatives who could be trusted to toe the White House party line. Thus, Simone Ledeen, the 29-year-old daughter of Michael Lendeen of Iran-Contra eminence, now helps .set economic policy, for northern Iraq, while Dan Senor, a recently-minted MBA who spent a few months working for White House Press Secretary Scott McLellan, is in charge of rebuilding Iraq's media. Joining them recently was Jay Hallen, a fresh-faced 24-year-old Yale graduate who, reports The Wall Street Journals Yochi J.Dreazen, "majored in political science, rarely watched financial news stations and didn't follow the stock market." His job at the CPA? Relaunching the now-shuttered Iraqi stock market.

It seems like only yesterday that right-wing impresario Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform, raised eyebrows for his lobbying work on behalf of Abdurahman Alamoudi, an American Muslim leader and thus a target for Norquist's efforts to get Arab-Americans to vote Republican--who allegedly helped raise money for groups linked to al Qaeda and Hamas. Now it appears that Richard Perle, the controversial Defense Policy Board member and neoconservative field marshal, is trying to get in on the act. In January, Perle gave a paid speech at a conference organized by the Iranian-American Community of Northern Virginia (IACNV), a group U.S. law enforcement officials suspect may be a front for the terrorist organization Mujahedin-e Khalq. Shortly after the conference, Treasury Department officials froze the IACNV's assets. Perle has yet to return his fee or say how much it was.

Rush Limbaugh may or may not end up doing jail time for his alleged abuse of a doctors prescriptions to obtain OxyContin, the powerful and addictive painkiller. But it may already have cost his cousin, Missouri Supreme Court Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr., a promotion. Cousin Limbaugh was widely thought to be the Bush administration's pick for a vacancy on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. But in January the White House announced that Limbaugh was no longer a contender--they picked his colleague on the Missouri court, Judge Duane Benton, instead.