A problem with covering the Bush administration executive branch is that rogue political appointees often stick around, and below the radar. Take Scott Bloch, the director for the Office for Special Counsel, the federal agency in charge of protecting whistleblowers and investigating the illegal politicization of federal agencies. Bloch has not done these jobs to a point where both the top House oversight Democrat (California’s Henry Waxman) and Republican (Virginia’s Tom Davis) want him out. The FBI even raided Bloch’s office in May.

But Bloch remains. His communications director, however, does not. Government Executive’s Robert Brodksy reported yesterday that spokesman Jim Mitchell was fired. Mitchell inspired respect from even Bloch’s critics, including this reporter, for being prompt and professional in defending OSC. Why he’s out isn’t clear. Meanwhile, the OSC will likely be left to "twist in the wind" until the end of the Bush administration.-MB

The Washington Post gives the cliffnotes version of the The War Within – the fourth book by Bob Woodward, a Post associate editor, on the Bush administration at war in Afghanistan and Iraq. According to the Post’s Steven Luxenberg, Woodward reveals that the President has set up an operation to spy on Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Also, Woodward credits new covert CIA techniques to kill insurgents as the primary reason violence in Iraq has decreased this year.

The spying revelation is particularly eyebrow raising since Bush tells Woodward how strong his relationship is with Maliki. The War Within will be released Monday.

Woodward’s last book, State of Denial, gave a crisp account of how deluded Bush administration officials were about both Saddam Hussein possessing weapons of mass destruction and what it would take to rebuild Iraq. The book may even have played a small role in the Democratic takeover of Congress. Now, though, neither political party is associating itself with the Bush administration’s Middle East misadventures.-MB

Ace Wall Street Journal defense contracting reporters August Cole and Yochi J. Dreazen tell us that the Iraqi government wants to buy 36 F-16 fighters from the U.S. Air Force. The purchase might make Iraq less dependent on U.S. air support in fighting insurgents and would certainly fill the coffers of defense contracting behemoths Lockheed Martin and Boeing. But there’s concern "about the placement of advanced weaponry in the hands of a nascent government of a country struggling for stability."

This is a long, A1 story, and, indeed, seems important and interesting. But it’s hard to know what to make of the request. Does this show the myopia of Iraq’s Maliki government, looking to blow their budget on fancy planes while the country lacks working electricity? Is the story here that the Iraqi government could be taken over by U.S. enemies…who will have access to U.S. planes? The motives and meaning of Iraq’s military build-up might not be known for a few years.-MB

Shhh! The New York Times’ Steven Lee Meyers reports that Vice President Dick Cheney flew to Georgia on Thursday and had a one-on-one talk with President Mikheil Saakashvili. They were likely talking about the $1 billion in aid Cheney promised the country, or the NATO membership the Vice President thinks Georgia should attain. Or maybe Cheney’s decision to give Georgia money for economic recovery but not fancy new weapons.

The point here is that the Vice President seems to be more than in control about what to do with Georgia after Russia’s brief invasion. Both the Democratic and Presidential candidates have run away, and kept running, from the policies of Bush-Cheney. But Cheney’s mark on Georgia is another example of the significant changes wrought by the Bush administration and how difficult they’ll be to undo.-MB

The Washington Post’s Karen DeYoung and Ann Scott Tyson report that the Pentagon doesn’t want any of its 146,000 U.S. troops in Iraq to be leaving until George W. Bush leaves the White House. In early 2009, though, about 7,500 troops would be withdrawn. And around 3,500 soldiers would be re-deployed to Afghanistan. There are currently 33,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, though 14,000 are under the command of NATO.

The decision to delay Iraq withdrawal — and redeployment to Afghanistan — seems largely thanks to David Petraeus, who will soon move from leader of the Iraqi forces to head of U.S. Central Command. The "surge" of U.S. troops in Iraq is Petraeus’s baby and he has disagreed with Defense Secretary Robert Gates about how soon to shift forces to Afghanistan.

Certainly both countries are volatile and underprotected. But why doesn’t the Pentagon better acknowledge, through their recommended deployments, that violence is down in Iraq and soaring in Afghanistan?-MB

I always feel a bit guilty for subscribing to the New York Review of Books.  Pulling it out of the mailbox, impressed by its authoritative headlines, I step inside and put it on the front left corner of my desk, confident that I’ll tackle it in a day or two and finally become a smart, thoughtful person with unassailable knowledge and intellectual confidence.  A month later, when my desktop copy is half-covered with bills and other unread magazines and the cover has taken on a slightly yellowed tinge, I realize that I may not be fated to be a true member of the intelligentsia. 

But I keep the Review around, not just to see colorful ads for all the amazing books I’ll never get to read, but also because it has reporting that is different from so much else we all consume in one form or another.  Take a look at Michael Massing’s excellent travelogue from today’s Iraq (with most stops inside the Green Zone) and you’ll realize how much we don’t know about our government’s continuing failures in Iraq — the country we’ve been occupying for five years.  You’ll also realize just how difficult it will be to extricate ourselves in the next five. (more…)