Gossip Roundup: Bulletproof?

• Reliable Source: Laura Bush dropped two sizes after a year of private fitness classes; she works out three times a week at 8 a.m. [WP]
• Rush & Molloy: Bloomberg, David Remnick, Bob Schieffer, Lesley Stahl, Kurt Andersen, Richard Holbrooke, and Ron Silver attended Joe Klein’s New York book party… Actor Dennis Hopper defends Bush. [NYDN]
• Page Six: Cheney was accidentally shot on a hunting trip in the late ’90s… Emails from Aaron Sorkin to call girl are revealed in her new book. [NYP]

READ MORE: Personalities, aaron sorkin, bob schieffer, david remnick, dennis hopper, dick cheney, george w. bush, joe klein, kurt andersen, laura bush, lesley stahl, michael bloomberg, richard holbrooke, ron silver

The State Department: More Gossipy Than a High School Cafeteria

While Condoleezza Rice is busy doing bicep curls, her State Department underlings are doing heavy lifting in the gossip department. For some reason, lately we’ve received a fair amount of State-related scuttlebutt. Here are some highlights.

A tipster tells us: “The U.S embassy in Sudan held a private dinner at their residence. [U.S. Charge d’Affaires] Cameron Hume was dropping the usual comments about the Sudanese goverment. A couple of Sudanese businessmen — incidentally, they don’t support the GOS whatsoever — felt he was being over the top. One told the ambassador that his comments were inflammatory and did nothing to foster better relations between the two countries. This is where it gets good. Apparently the man has a temper. So he said that they were like the businessmen in Nazi Germany and they indirectly supported the regime. They told him that his tone wasn’t acceptable. This is where it gets better. He told them to ‘Run tell your goverment and your Prophet too.’”

OH NO HE DIN’T!!! And did he draw a cartoon of the Prophet too? (If you think we’re making this up, the broad outlines of the story are confirmed by this news account.)

Additional gossip — concerning Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick and the infamous Pamela Willeford, Ambassador to Switzerland and Dick Cheney hunting partner — appears after the jump.

A reader sent us an email about Bob Zoellick with the subject heading, “Zacharia Blows Zoellick in Bloomberg piece!” Thinking that the message was about a sex scandal involving Zoellick and our favorite foreign policy guru, we eagerly opened the message.

As it turned out, the message was about an adoring profile of Zoellick written by Janine Zacharia of Bloomberg News (no relation to Fareed Zakaria). The fawning article was less interesting to us than the commentary of our tipster: “People at State are snickering over this one, since Zoellick’s corridor rep is ‘a bigger asshole than Richard Holbrooke.’”

Finally, a brief postscript on Pamela P. Willeford, who recently was in the news as a hunting companion of Dick Cheney. If you haven’t done so already, check out Al Kamen’s interesting write-up about Pam Willeford. Kamen points out that Willeford’s husband, George “Boots” Willeford III, was at the Armstrong ranch on the day that Dick Cheney shot Harry Whittington. Unless the Cheneys and the Willefords are real swingers, this casts serious doubt upon the wild rumor that Cheney and Pam Willeford were having an affair.

(Yeah, we know, Mr. Willeford was part of a different hunting party that day, in a different part of the ranch. But come on, people — don’t you pride yourselves on living in “the reality-based community”?)

Kamen also notes that Willeford, as U.S. ambassador to Switzerland — and Liechtenstein! — has taken tons of vacation during her term as ambassador: about five months of vacay, in a little over two years. Nevertheless, she’s regarded as “one of the more dedicated and hardworking of the noncareer chiefs of mission in Europe.”

Ah, an ambassadorship to a friendly, tiny European nation. Nice work, if you can get it!

Washington Recalls U.S. Envoy in Khartoum [Sudan Tribune]
U.S. Envoy at Home With a Gun and a Plane [WP]

READ MORE: Robert Zoellick, al kamen, bloomberg news, bob zoellick, cameron hume, department of state, dick cheney, fareed zakaria, gossip, janine zacharia, liechtenstein, pamela willeford, richard holbrooke, state department, sudan, switzerland

Daily Briefing: Condi to ‘Come Out Swinging’

• McCain intends to remain steadfast with his effort to ban torture of detainees. [WP]
• Condoleezza Rice, visiting Europe, “plans to come out swinging” on the issue of secret prisons, “shifting the focus back to the responsibilities of Europe’s governments in the war on terror.” [Time, NYT]
• Top Democrats disagree and waver on Iraq strategy. Richard Holbrooke: “I’m not prepared to lay out a detailed policy or strategy.” [WP]
• Moderate and liberal states are rejecting national conservatism, notes Ronald Brownstein. [LAT]
• Republicans “are trying to ease widespread confusion and apprehension” about the new Medicare drug benefit program. [NYT]
• Republicans “want to end the year with a legislative bang.” [LAT]
• Documents reveal rift between Bush and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco in immediate aftermath of Katrina. [WP]
• Andrew Card may resign come January. Card: “My entire life has been exhaustion.” [NYT]
• Rice’s senior aide Jim Wilkinson is largely responsible for her “rock star status.” [NYT]
• Kennedy Center Honors dinner is the “marriage of art and politics, of the Hollywood glitterati and New York theater crowd rubbing elbows with Washington’s haute monde.” [WP, NYT]

• White House efforts to claim responsibility for the strong economy have their superseded goals for tax reform. [WSJ]
• The fall of Rep. Randy Canningham (R-Calif.); rumors “strained his marriage, and that the lavishly furnished mansion represented an effort to make things up to his wife.” [LAT]
• House ethics committee “has been virtually moribund” this year. [WP]
• Cheney is expected to remain on board. Political scientist: “It’s almost like everything that’s bad in the administration has come back to stick to Dick Cheney.” [USAT]
• Pithy slogans like “Plan for Vistory” are “about reinforcing the message,” says Scott McClellan. [USAT]
• Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) has his own entanglement with Jack Abramoff. [WP]
• Gov. Mitt Romney touts “remarkable plan to bring mandatory universal health-care coverage to Massachusetts by next summer, the first time a Republican has tried to pull off this most Democratic of policy goals.” [Time]
• Hillary Clinton courts the security vote with war stance. [Newsweek]
• Alito frequently mentions his admiration for his father. [NYT]
• Man jumps White House fence; is promptly captured. [AP]

READ MORE: 2008, CIA, Democrats, Republicans, SCOTUS, andrew card, byron dorgan, condoleezza rice, dick cheney, economy, europe, george w. bush, hillary clinton, iraq, jack abramoff, jim wilkinson, john mccain, kathleen blanco, katrina, kennedy center honors, medicare, mitt romney, randy cunningham, richard holbrooke, samuel alito, scott mcclellan, tax reform, treatment of detainees, white house fence