Iraq's March 7 elections were only the first phase in a complex, potentially long and drawn-out battle to form a government. With neither major candidate -- former interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and current Prime Minster Nouri al-Maliki -- picking up enough seats to form a majority, each finds himself waging the war of promises and compromises to grab the 163 required seats to claim his seat as prime minister.
It remains to be seen if the sectarian division that has driven the narrative of Iraq after Saddam Hussein will continue to play a key role in the country's democratic evolution. Sectarianism, says Ambassador Samir Sumaida'ie, is not native to Iraq. Governing institutions will take hold, he adds, because Iraqis are ready for them.
NationalJournal.com spoke with the ambassador about his country's successes and the considerable challenges that lie ahead. Edited excerpts follow.
Continue reading Iraq: A Return To The 'Natural State'.
Many of today's senior U.S. military leaders came of age on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, rising through the ranks because of their ability to adapt to those conflicts' fluid demands. Maj. Gen. Terry Wolff, commander of the 1st Armored Division, is one of them.
As a colonel during the March 2003 invasion, Wolff led the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment into Iraq. He returned in 2006 as the commanding general charged with training the Iraqi security forces. Wolff then spent nearly two years on the White House's National Security Council staff as special assistant to the president and senior director for Iraq and Afghanistan. Back in Iraq this year, he is responsible for Baghdad and Anbar province.
National Journal Staff Correspondent James Kitfield spoke with Wolff at his Baghdad headquarters about the recent Iraqi elections and the withdrawal of 50 percent of U.S. forces from Iraq by August, with the rest scheduled to leave by December 31, 2011.
Subscribers can read the full interview here. For James Kitfield's first-hand report on the Iraqi elections, click here.
In January, Dean Garfield succeeded 15-year veteran Rhett Dawson as CEO of the Information Technology Industry Council, an association of major info-tech companies that includes Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Apple, and eBay. Garfield previously worked in California as chief strategic officer for the Motion Picture Association of America, building bridges with Silicon Valley's Internet companies, which are both rivals and allies of Hollywood. In an interview for this week's issue of National Journal, Garfield discussed his new role, the challenge of discussing complex tech issues in Washington, and why lawmakers should be "conservative and cautious" in regulating the Web.
Subscribers to National Journal can read the full interview here.
As Costa Rica's ambassador to the Organization of American States, Jose Enrique Castillo Barrantes has a unique perspective on the state of democratization in Latin America. Under the leadership of Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza, the OAS has drawn criticism for its responses to the June coup in Honduras and President Hugo Chavez' policies in Venezuela. Insulza was re-elected to a second term Wednesday after running unopposed.
Despite calls for Insulza's ouster and questions about the organization's continued relevance, Barrantes believes the OAS continues to play a valuable role in Latin American democratization. In an interview at the OAS General Assembly on Wednesday, Barrantes argued that despite its limitations, the organization "cannot be replaced."
Edited excerpts follow.
Continue reading In Defense Of The OAS.
During a political career spanning five decades, Guillermo Cochez has seen drug-fueled violence as mayor of Panama City and as a political dissident openly serving during the narco-state of former dictator Manuel Noriega. Thinking back before the 1989 American invasion that ousted the dictatorship, Cochez remembered "those were dark days" when he risked his life as part of the opposition party.
So he watched with great interest the call to action against drug cartels that emerged from Tuesday's Mexico City summit with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and several other top Obama administration officials. Cochez is now Panama's ambassador to the Organization of American States. He spoke with National Journal about making Latin America's future more secure.
Continue reading Mexico's Cartels Infect Latin America.
"There are some who want to kill health care reform. We don't," Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., the head of the House Blue Dog Coalition's health care task force, told National Journal (subscription) last July, after leading a contingent to the White House to negotiate on an early markup of the bill. But even though the Blue Dogs have won a number of concessions from liberals over the course of the health care debate that Ross now says "made the final product a better bill," he still decided to vote against his party's signature legislation on Sunday.
In an interview with National Journal on Monday, Ross reflected on the year-long debate, why he ultimately voted no and what could have been done differently.
Continue reading A Blue Dog Explains His 'No' Vote.
America's Health Insurance Plans, the trade group for the health insurance industry, is led by Karen Ignagni, a key player in the health care debate who fought key parts of the proposed legislation such as the public option while endorsing efforts to expand the pool of the insured. President Obama and congressional Democrats have vilified the insurance industry as a key obstacle to reform. In an interview with National Journal on Tuesday, Ignagni described the role her group will play now that Obama has signed the health care bill. Edited excerpts follow.
Continue reading Ignagni: Beware Unintended Consequences.
Veteran Washington policy hand Nancy LeaMond, who oversees government relations, advocacy and outreach at AARP as the vaunted seniors lobby's executive vice president of social impact, talked to National Journal about the health care bill passed by the House on Sunday and the priorities of her organization going forward. Edited excerpts follow.
Continue reading For AARP, Outreach Is Still A Priority.
Shortly after speaking at a boisterous rally this Sunday on the National Mall in which many thousands gathered to rally for comprehensive immigration reform, SEIU President Andy Stern said he was upbeat about the prospects for energizing the Democratic base going into the midterm elections.
Though polls show an enthusiasm gap in which Republican voters appear far more energized, Stern said in an interview that passage of health reform legislation will excite core constituencies even though it did not contain a public option or government-run plan favored by labor advocates and taxes certain high-cost health insurance plans that many union members have won in collective bargaining.
Stern, who was the most frequent visitor to the White House during the first six months of the Obama administration, according to White House visitor logs, also made clear that labor will target Democratic lawmakers who opposed health reform after union backing had helped them win in 2008. Edited excerpts from the interview follow.
Continue reading Stern: Anti-Reform Dems Will Be Targets.
Camden Fine, CEO of the Independent Community Bankers of America, believes small banks are being punished for the sins of Wall Street. Fine's organization wants Senate Finance Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., to protect community banks, not saddle them with further regulation, because of the role they could play in the nation's economic recovery. National Journal discussed his thoughts on current regulatory overhaul and the effectiveness of his lobbying efforts. Edited excerpts from the interview follow.
Continue reading Small Banks Play Big Role In Finance Overhaul.
The United Kingdom fully supports the U.S. Defense Department's recent actions on climate change, the U.K.'s first-ever climate security czar said in an interview last week. The DOD's decision to include climate change in its Quadrennial Defense Review for the first time is an important step highlighting the security risks associated with climate change, Rear Adm. Neil Morisetti told NationalJournal.com while in Washington visiting with lawmakers and Defense officials.
But he also pointed out that U.K. has benefited from something the United States is lacking: a bipartisan climate bill, which became law in 2008 and calls for greenhouse gas emissions to be cut 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. "Undoubtedly, having that bipartisan support from a political perspective has helped in the United Kingdom," said Morisetti, who assumed this newly created position in September. Edited excerpts from the March 11 interview follow.
NationalJournal.com also explored the climate security issue in more detail in this story published last month.
Continue reading U.K. Climate Security Czar Comes To D.C..
Robert Charles sees some similarities between the Obama administration's approach in Afghanistan and that of its predecessor, and he doesn't consider it a good sign.
"The Pentagon is putting forward many of the same proposals that were Rumsfeld-era proposals," he said in an interview with NationalJournal.com. "...Until they do significant interdiction, significant demand reduction and significant eradication, they will never win in Afghanistan."
As assistant secretary of State under President George W. Bush, Charles was a fly on the wall to a feud between Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on whether civilians or the military should rebuild the Middle East, as well as what to do about ending the drug economy. Charles, who advised on counternarcotics, police training and other stabilization efforts, said progress has been insufficient.
Charles also spoke about the consequences of that turf war and some of the continuing reconstruction strategies.
Read the full interview at NationalJournal.com's new blog Burn After Reading.
Modern restrictions on influence-peddling would certainly be a challenge for pioneer lobbyist Sam Ward. The late-19th-century Washington insider, known for his savoir-faire and lavish dinners, is the subject of a new biography by Kathryn Allamong Jacob: King of the Lobby: The Life and Times of Sam Ward, Man-About-Washington in the Gilded Age. Jacob, a curator of manuscripts at the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute, recently sat down with National Journal to talk about Ward. Edited excerpts follow.
Read an excerpt from Jacob's book, King of the Lobby.
Continue reading 'King Of The Lobby'.
National Journal recently interviewed Heather Conley, who worked in the State Department during George W. Bush's first term and now is director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Edited excerpt follows.
Continue reading 'Rough Patch' Ahead For U.S. And Europe.
President Obama spoke extensively last year about a peace between Israel and Palestine. Geoffrey Aronson focuses on the same goal as director of research and publications at the nonprofit Foundation for Middle East Peace, and he is concerned about the way Obama is approaching it.
Under this administration, numerous government officials have gone to visit the Israeli government; on Monday, Vice President Joe Biden became highest-ranking diplomatic visitor. Yet a New America Foundation poll released in December gave Obama only a 41 percent favorability rating among Israelis.
Aronson spoke with NationalJournal.com about whether the administration's outreach efforts are paying off for Obama's agenda. Read the full interview at NationalJournal.com's new blog Burn After Reading.
The world is fast approaching a nuclear tipping point, many experts warn. And one key reason is a global smuggling network that traffics in nuclear technologies, materials, and know-how. National Journal spoke recently with David Albright, founder of the Institute for Science and International Security and a former weapons inspector in Iraq, about this network and what it means to the world's stability and safety.
Edited excerpts follow. The full interview will be available to National Journal subscribers Friday.
Continue reading Nuclear Smugglers Still At Work.
Iraq's elections this week may signal a turning of the tide. Though violence riddled the country's major cities throughout the early voting weekend, determined Iraqis came out in droves to cast their vote. Confident security forces maintained order at polling centers and kept their American support patrols at bay. As Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and former Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi -- both Shia -- await the results, questions remain about post-election sectarian violence, the formation of a governing coalition, and the place of the Kurds in that new government.
National Journal's James Kitfield, reporting from Baghdad, took questions Monday on the elections and their impact.
Edited excerpts follow after the jump.
Continue reading Kitfield In Iraq: 'Through Hell And High Water'.
Updated at 10:35 a.m. on March 11.
Born and raised in Iran, Reza Aslan studied first-hand the struggle within Islam to define its existence in the modern world. Today Aslan sees that same dualism in a Middle East wracked by the lure of terrorism, but also pulsing with a growing middle class that has energized massive protests in Iran. An Islamic studies scholar and author of How to Win a Cosmic War: God, Globalization, and the End of the War on Terror, he closely watches the growing influence of a large under-40 demographic that takes a new, individualistic approach toward Islam.
Aslan spoke with NationalJournal.com about those changes, how Iran's Green Movement may already have won and what Obama can accomplish in the Middle East.
Edited excerpts follow.
Continue reading Obama And A Fractured Middle East.
Updated 10:53 a.m.
As Sens. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., draft a financial regulatory bill, consumer and finance industry lobbyists are working tirelessly to influence the outcome. Consumer groups support the creation of a strong Consumer Financial Protection Agency, but the financial services lobby is skeptical of "overregulation," in the words of Scott Talbott, senior vice president for government affairs with the Financial Services Roundtable.
Talbott, who represents 100 of the largest companies in the finance industry, refused to speak directly about the ongoing Senate negotiations in an interview last week with National Journal, but he was willing to discuss what steps the industry wants Washington to take in confronting a financial system in crisis.
Edited excerpts follow.
Continue reading Finance Lobby: Regulate, Don't 'Overregulate'.
National Journal LIVE presents a discussion on the state of financial services regulation, moderated by Atlantic Media Political Director Ronald Brownstein. Brownstein spoke with Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Mark Warner, D-Va., about crafting a bipartisan proposal for financial services legislation. Plus, a panel of experts debated the implications of legislative action. Video of the event can be viewed below.
Chancellor Gene Block has overseen UCLA during the most challenging fiscal climate in decades. Last week, thousands of students, teachers and other stakeholders protested education budget cuts and increases in student fees across the Golden State. This week Chancellor Block is in the nation's capital to meet with lawmakers and the members of the UCLA community in Washington. He sat down with National Journal to discuss money woes and his strategy for the future. Edited excerpts follow.
Continue reading Public Universities Struggle To Stay Afloat.
As president of the Managed Funds Association, former Rep. Richard Baker won a battle inside the organization last year to endorse the registration of hedge fund managers, a strategic shift that increased the industry's clout as financial reform moved through the House. Baker, a Republican, represented the 6th District of Louisiana in the House from 1987 to 2008. With the Senate closer to a deal this week on financial reform, Baker fielded questions recently on the prospects for action this year, and what hedge funds are looking for in the legislation.
Edited excerpts follow.
Continue reading A Soft Sell For Hedge Funds.
Updated at 8:55 a.m. on March 8.
House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., told NationalJournal.com on Friday that for a Consumer Financial Protection Agency to do its job, it can't be run by bank regulators.
"The problem we've had is that there are consumer protection laws, but they're administered by bank regulators, whose primary obligation and orientation is towards keeping the banks profitable," Frank said. "... I admire Sheila Bair [of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.], she's a wonderful regulator. But her primary job is to keep the banks safe, and it is not to worry about consumers. I don't think there's a major conflict there, but it's a question of mindset."
Among a bundle of reforms before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee are a mechanism to dismantle financial behemoths "too big to fail," new rules on credit default swaps, and a new agency to protect consumers from dubious lending practices. This last has proven the most controversial, and a source of indigestion for lawmakers in both chambers.
NationalJournal.com also asked Frank to recap why a financial overhaul is needed in the first place and discuss what's ahead for the Senate. Edited excerpts follow.
Continue reading Frank: Consumers Need Their Own Advocates.
Discussion of a so-called "jobless recovery" doesn't have many American workers smiling. With the unemployment rate near double digits, National Journal talked with labor economist Heidi Shierholz of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute about what can be done to put more people to work. Edited excerpts follow.
Continue reading Can Jobs Bill Help The 'Jobless Recovery'?.
Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio was one of only a couple Republicans to join almost a dozen moderate Democrats in a closed-door meeting Tuesday to discuss the climate and energy proposal being crafted by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Joe Lieberman, I/D-Conn. In an interview with reporters afterward, Voinovich said he was open to learning more about the limited cap-and-trade system the proposal will likely include. Still, he said, the best bipartisan path forward would be with an energy-only bill.
Edited excerpts follow.
Continue reading Voinovich: Energy-Only Bill Still The Way To Go.
As awareness of post-traumatic stress disorder has increased in recent years, Americans have gotten a clearer understanding of what some veterans have to fight against every day. NationalJournal.com met with a clinical psychologist in the Department of Veterans Affairs, Stacey Pollack, for her perspective on the battle against PTSD. Pollack is also the director of trauma services at the VA Medical Center in Washington, where she says there is no such thing as a typical day.
Edited excerpts follow.
Continue reading A Deeper Look Into A VA Psychologist's Life.
