He has a beat-up Potomac River bridge named after him - one of the most treacherous spans a motorist can cross in this country - but no official presidential library overseen by the National Archives and Records Administration. His birthplace and adjoining property in Staunton, which includes a library and museum, is overseen by the private Woodrow Wilson Birthplace Foundation, which was chartered in 1938 by the commonwealth of Virginia to purchase and preserve the site. Now, if a Virginia congressman has his way, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States (1913-1921), will receive proper national support for exhibits and other materials to create an official presidential library. Republican Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte has introduced the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library Authorization Act, to honor a "statesman, scholar and president" who faced "economic crisis, democratic decay and world war." Goodlatte's legislation mandates a public-private library partnership in which a private entity raises at least twice the money to be allocated by Congress. Once the library is complete, the legislation states, the federal government will have no role or responsibility for the operation of the library. THE FIELD Time to check in with oddsmakers tracking Republican and Democratic horses as they approach the 2008 starting gate for the White House. The latest Political Derby "Jockey Wire" forwarded to The Beltway Beat shows that Virginia Sen. George Allen remains the Republican favorite. Although Allen doesn't poll as well with the general public as some of the horses trailing him, "D.C. insiders still rate him No. 1," according to the wire. Behind Allen, in order of Republican popularity, are Arizona Sen. John McCain (given his popular ethics reform platform, he "owes [(ormer lobbyist) Jack Abramoff a steak dinner," says the wire), former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. On the Democratic track, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton remains so popular that she owns first, second and third place. ("She can still walk down any street in any major American metropolis and Democrats practically throw their wallets at her," notes the wire.) In her rearview mirror, in order, are Old Town Alexandria resident and former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner ("Though he's still an unknown across most of the country, the self-made gazillionaire won't have problems buying his way onto the backstretch."), Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Delaware Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. ("He has already acknowledged Hillary as the one to beat and is formulating a strategy to do just that.") and finally former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota. LAND OF OZ Suffice it to say, Pakistan is not Kansas. Security concerns and challenges abounded throughout President Bush's journey into the belly of the terrorist beast, with wary eyes cast around every corner Bush turned - right up until his presidential luggage was loaded aboard Air Force One for his return flight to Washington. Consider the official White House pool report of the departure: "If anything had happened to Air Force One, the congressional inquiry would have opened with this question: 'Now where did those luggage trucks with the tin trinkets hanging off the fenders, mirrors and bumpers, and the circus tents for covers over the Noah's Ark-like bows erected atop the cabs, lighted inside with a hot red glow, come from? Who hired those guys?'" FULL CIRCLE "We need Saddam (Hussein) or somebody like Saddam back in that country. It's been held together by somebody like him for the last 300 years, and we're not going to do it by democracy." - Former CIA field officer Bob Baer on controlling the increasing unrest among opposing factions in Iraq, on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher." Continued... |