B8 Sunday, October 10, 2010
WASHINGTON
National security shuffle: Jones out, Donilon in
WASHINGTON (AP) — Gen. James Jones, the gruff-talking military man President Barack Obama drafted as his national security adviser, announced Friday he was quitting after a tenure marked by ambitious foreign policy changes and undercurrents of corrosive turf battles. Jones will be replaced by his chief deputy, Tom Donilon, a former Democratic political operative and lobbyist who in many ways is already the day-to-day leader of the White House national security operation. The move deepens a season of White House turnover near the midpoint of Obama’s term, with White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel departing last week, chief economic adviser Lawrence Summers leaving by year’s end and other changes expected before long. Obama described the transition from Jones to Donilon as expected and seamless, thanking both men in a sunny Rose Garden ceremony. The president put an emphasis on the patriotism of Jones, a Marine who served in Vietnam and retired as a four -star general after a career of more than 40 years. The two barely knew each other when Jones took the post. As Obama’s chief national security aide, Jones served during a time when Obama has sought to reshape American foreign policy on many fronts, from ending the combat mission in Iraq to expanding the war in Afghanistan to attempting to improve relations across Europe and Asia. Jones had quiet clout but found himself in a world of squabbles given the competing demands, ideas and personalities in the government and the challenge of trying to coordinate them through the National Security Council. Questions always seemed to loom over whether Jones’ vast military experience translated as Obama had hoped into the job of national security adviser, which requires informing and
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President Barack Obama, followed by outgoing National Security Adviser James Jones, center, and his replacement, Tom Donilon, walk from the Rose Garden back to the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Friday.
counseling the president and coordinating views from agencies. “Jim has always been a steady voice in Situation Room sessions, daily briefings and with meetings with foreign leaders,” Obama said. He added that Jones had represented the U.S. before its allies in every region of the world, and he said the American people owe the general a debt for making the nation “safer and stronger.” Jones, 66, is expected to serve in the job for about two more weeks. He recalled that he met Obama just over two years ago and that he was persuaded to join him because of Obama’s desire to take on the hardest
AP interview: Breyer unsure about cameras in the courtroom
WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Stephen Breyer says it’s important for television viewers to see Supreme Court justices in their black robes when the pr esident delivers the State of the Union speech each year. He’s less certain that TV cameras have a place at the court. When the justices take their seats among lawmakers, military brass and Cabinet members for the pr esident’s annual address to Congress, the public can see the whole government in one place, he said. “Maybe some will wonder, ‘Who are those people in black r obes?’ If they wonder, they might read about it and if they do they’ll learn more about the government,” Breyer said in an interview with The Associated Press to talk about another way to educate the public, his new book “Making Our Democracy Work.” Breyer, 72, joined the court 16 years ago, a nominee of President Bill Clinton. He has attended almost every State of the Union since, including the address in January when President Barack Obama criticized the court’s decision a few days earlier that struck down campaign finance laws. A dissenter in that case, he said he wasn’t bothered by Obama’s criticism. Br eyer acknowledged that allowing TV viewers to see the court in action, at the 80 or so arguments it hears each year, would convey “that the court is very serious about dealing with very difficult problems.” But he said he remains concerned that coverage of the court would turn into a succession of “sound bites” that might be ultimately misleading. Worse, he said, would be if televising high court arguments wer e to lead to “television in every criminal trial in the United States and witnesses began to become afraid to appear.” “So I’m taking a hesitant attitude,” Br eyer said, while calling for independent research to assess television coverage in state courts around the nation. Showing people how the
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Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer court works is the aim of Breyer’s book tracing the country’s acceptance of the court as the final word in legal disputes, he said over tea in his Supreme Court office. He said the court has struggled in some of its most important decisions with finding a balance between national security and civil liberties. The decision that ratified the internment of JapaneseAmericans during World War II was a stain on the court, he said. But he believes that history helped lead to dif ferent outcomes in recent rulings that extended some constitutional protections to detainees at the Guantanamo Bay naval prison. “The public has to generally accept the existence of an institution that to do its job must sometimes make decisions that are very unpopular,” Breyer said. “In addition, since we are dealing with fallible human beings and not angels, sometimes those decisions will be wrong.” His second book in five years also sets out Breyer’s judicial philosophy of “prudence and pragmatism,” in contrast to the originalist views of Justice Antonin Scalia. Breyer believes
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judges sometimes must be guided by more than the language of laws, if the words are ambiguous or embody a value that must be applied to specific circumstances. Scalia’s text-based approach focuses on giving a fair reading to the words of the Constitution as they were meant when they were written. Scalia and the other conservative justices have had the upper hand on the court over Breyer and the other liberals since Justice Sandra Day O’Connor retired in 2006 and was r eplaced by Justice Samuel Alito. “Five years ago, I think I was in the majority more than anybody. Now I’m probably more in dissent,” he said. Br eyer both concedes that the court has changed and rejects the ideological labels as simplistic. “My object here is not to say that political kinds of influence ar e zer o,” he said. “I just want to say that’s not the right word. It doesn’t describe things accurately. I’d say it’s not a single set of words.”
issues of the day in a difficult time for the nation. The general said, “I believe that where we are today in the global playing field and how the United States is held in the esteem of the rest of the world is an accomplishment that I frankly find astonishing in such a short period of time.” To Obama, he said: “Thank you for letting me be a part of it.” Donilon’s promotion has a significant spillover effect on the rest of the White House. He had emerged as a top candidate to replace Emanuel as the permanent chief of staff. Now that job appears even more
likely to go to Pete Rouse, the newly installed interim chief and a longtime adviser to Obama. Donilon has played a leading role in the policymaking process that tees up the national security decisions for the president. He has overseen the coordination among deputy chiefs from across the security field and is known for bringing an understanding of domestic policy and politics to the job. At age 55, Donilon’s route to the national security adviser post has been an unusual one. He worked as a political aide for Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale, helped manage Democratic National Conventions, and served in the State Department during Bill Clinton’s presidency. A lawyer, Donilon served for years as executive vice president at Fannie Mae, the mortgage finance company taken over by the government during the economic crisis. He has long been close to Vice President Joe Biden; Donilon’s wife, Cathy, is chief of staff to the vice president’s wife, Jill. “Over the last two years, there’s not a single critical national security issue that has not crossed Tom’s desk,” Obama said. Expressing a clear comfort level with Donilon, Obama also noted his day-andnight work ethic, drawing laughs when he said it seemed to be fueled by Donilon’s penchant for Diet Coke. Donilon disclosed last year that he had made at least $3.9 million from his partnership in the O’Melveny & Myers law firm. Donilon’s clients at the firm included Citigroup, Goldman Sachs & Co., Verizon Communications, Obama fundraiser and hotel heiress Penny Pritzker and former EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman. Donilon said in his 2009 financial disclosure report that he had sold his individual company stocks.
Analysis: US-China ties strained by dissident WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama’s push for China to release an imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate and rising economic and trade friction could aggravate U.S. efforts to win crucial Chinese cooperation on global hot spots. Ever-delicate U.S.-China relations had seemed to be warming, with the countries agreeing recently to end an eight-month freeze on military exchanges. But Obama’s praise Friday for Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo’s Nobel award will likely further rattle China at a time when the United States is stepping up pressure on Beijing over a currency policy Washington blames for job losses in the United States. This recent swing from calls for cooperation to criticism is typical of a complicated relationship that both countries call important for world stability. U.S. officials are trying, with varying success, to press China on economic and human rights matters without jeopardizing Chinese support on Iranian and North Korean nuclear standoffs, climate change and other difficult issues. The Obama administration says the relationship is mature enough to weather disagreements and to engage in blunt discussions. But Beijing, wary of appearing weak at a time of rising nationalism and deep social tur-
moil, often bristles at what it views as U.S. interference. In a statement released hours after Liu was awarded the Nobel, Obama praised the dissident as an “eloquent and courageous” supporter of human rights and democracy “who has sacrificed his freedom for his beliefs.” He praised China for “lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty.” But, he added: “This award reminds us that political reform has not kept pace, and that the basic human rights of every man, woman and child must be respected.” Obama called “on the Chinese government to release Mr. Liu as soon as possible.” Liu was sentenced last year to 11 years in prison on subversion charges after he coauthored a document calling for greater freedom, among other activism. Asked about Obama’s comments, Wang Baodong, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said Chinese officials “oppose any other countries’ meddling in China’s internal affairs with any excuses.” He said Chinese people “fully enjoy basic human rights.” Beijing earlier warned that the decision to award Liu the Nobel prize would harm relations with Norway, which is the home of the independent Norwegian Nobel Committee,
which awards the peace prize. The United States and China, which have the world’s No. 1 and 2 economies, clash on a host of issues. Beijing has reacted with anger and unease to recent U.S. willingness to stick up for friends and allies in territorial disputes with China in the South and East China seas; and to joint U.S.-South Korean military drills in the Yellow Sea, part of which lies within Chinese sovereign waters. Taiwan and Tibet also are regular sources of tension. China suspended military contact with the United States in January to protest a $6.4 billion U.S. arms package for Taiwan, the self-governing island that China claims as its own territory. Obama also angered Beijing by meeting this year with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader whom China calls a separatist. Obama’s praise for Liu comes amid harsh criticism of China’s currency policies by U.S. lawmakers faced with make-or-break congressional elections next month. Many lawmakers contend that the Chinese yuan is undervalued by as much as 40 percent, which they say gives Chinese companies a significant competitive advantage over American businesses.