Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Central Intelligence Agency building in Langley, Virginia.

The Central Intelligence Agency is better known for secrecy than it is for family fun.

But tomorrow you will find spies amid the cotton candy, crafters and carnival rides at the annual McLean Day fair at Lewinsville Park, some three miles from CIA headquarters in McLean, Virginia.

Rather than occupying an Undisclosed Secret Location, a safe house or a Secure Compartmented Information Facility, the spooks will be manning Booth 003, between Chain Bridge Bank and Post 8142 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

For undisclosed reasons, the Old Dominion Animal Health Center got Booth 007.

No word, either, on whether those staffing the Agency’s booth will be using their real names or wearing their own hair.

The CIA didn’t respond to requests for comment on its participation in the event.

Original post is CIA Day at the Fair: 007 is Taken by Political Capital.

Photograph by STR/AFP via Getty Images

A vehicle and the surround buildings burn after they were set on fire inside the U.S. consulate compound in Benghazi late on September 11, 2012.

President Barack Obama, addressing a live television audience from the White House, said the commissioner in charge of the IRS has been removed following the agency’s targeted scrutiny of conservative groups.

“The misconduct uncovered is inexcuseable,” Obama said in a brief statement delivered from the East Room. “Americans have a right to be angry about it, and I am angry about it. I will not tolerate this kind of behavior at any agency, especially the IRS.”

“We’re going to hold the responsible parties accountable,” he said, announcing that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew had accepted the resignation of the acting IRS commissioner, Steven Miller.

The president said “new safeguards” will be put in place to ensure this doesn’t happen again, and he will cooperate with Congress in its oversight “to get this thing fixed.”

“I’ll do everything in my power to ensure that nothing like this happens again,” Obama said in remarks delivered in under three and a half minutes.

The White House has faced widespread criticism for not standing up more quickly to the questions emerging from the fatal attacks on a U.S. mission in Libya, the Internal Revenue Service’s handling of requests for tax exemptions from Tea Party-related groups and the Justice Department’s tracking of Associated Press reporters’ phone calls.

The White House rose to all three today:

– Obama faced the television cameras this evening after meeting with high-level Treasury officials at the White House today about what the IRS’s inspector general had called “ineffective management” in the screening of requests for tax-exempt status for groups organized under section 501(c)(4) of the U.S. tax code — groups that are supposed to have only limited political activity. IRS employees in Cincinnati screened for the words Tea Party in their scrutiny. The broadcast and cable networks lined up to carry his words live.

– The Obama White House this afternoon released almost 100 pages of e-mail traffic among officials at the White House, CIA and State Department. The e-mails show the Central Intelligence Agency made major revisions to administration talking points after the attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya in Benghazi —as they were developed and before they were delivered to Congress and supplied to United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice. See the talking points here.

– This afternoon, the White House allowed that it had spoken with Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York about reintroducing a shield law to protect the confidential sources of reporters, following the revelation that the Justice Department had tracked the phone records of AP reporters citing an investigation into a leak with national security implications. The president supports the First Amendment, press secretary Jay Carney said today — a shield law should prove it.

In that scandal-industrial complex, that’s one busy day.

Original post is Charge of the Obama Brigade: IRS, Benghazi, Reporters by Political Capital.

Photograph by Ken Cedeno/Bloomberg

Retired Army General David Petraeus, pictured as the top U.S. commander in Iraq, in 2007. Photo by Ken Cedeno / Bloomberg

KKR & Co.  the private-equity firm run by Henry Kravis and George Roberts, is in discussions with former Central Intelligence Agency Director David Petraeus about a role at the company, according to a person with knowledge of the talks.

It hasn’t been decided yet what role he would have at KKR, said the person, who requested anonymity because the discussions are private. Petraeus and Kravis are friends and talk often, according to the person.

Petraeus, 60, resigned from the CIA on Nov. 9 after a probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation uncovered evidence of an extramarital affair with Paula Broadwell, the author of a biography about the former commander of U.S. military forces in Afghanistan and Iraq entitled “All In.” Last week, City University of New York named Petraeus a visiting professor starting Aug. 1.

Kristi Huller, a spokeswoman for New York-based KKR, declined to comment on the possible hiring. Robert Barnett, a lawyer for Petraeus, didn’t respond to an e-mail requesting comment.

KKR has more than 25 senior advisers, who help the firm find and evaluate investment opportunities, according to its website. Some of them advise KKR-owned companies or serve on their boards.

The firm last year named former Morgan Stanley Chief Executive Officer John Mack as a senior adviser to help make KKR “smarter investors,” Kravis said at the time. Other KKR advisers include Honeywell International Inc. (HON) CEO David Cote, former Caterpillar Inc. CEO James Owens and Qantas Airways Ltd. Chairman Leigh Clifford.

Private-equity firms pool money from investors including pension plans and endowments with a mandate to buy companies within about five to six years, then sell them and return the funds with a profit after about 10 years. The firms, which use debt to finance the deals and amplify returns, typically charge an annual management fee equal to 1.5 percent to 2 percent of committed funds and keep 20 percent of profit from investments.

Kravis, Roberts and their partner Jerome Kohlberg Jr. started KKR in 1976, joining a small group of firms doing leveraged buyouts. Kohlberg left the firm in 1987. Today the industry manages about $3 trillion of assets, according to research firm Preqin Ltd. KKR oversees $78 billion, investing in buyouts, energy, real estate and hedge funds.

See the full report on Petraeus and KKR at Bloomberg.com.

Original post is Petraeus ‘All In’ for Private Equity? by Political Capital.

Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

General David Petraeus speaks during a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing for reappointment and commander of the U.S. Forces in Afghanistan in Washington, D.C.

First it was Mark Sanford running for Congress. Then it was Anthony Weiner floating a New York City mayoral campaign. Now, David Petraeus is putting himself out there post-scandal — as both a university professor and one lucky philanthropist’s work0ut buddy.

Former CIA Director and retired Army General Petraeus is joining Macaulay Honors College at the City University of New York as a public policy visiting professor, the university announced yesterday. He starts Aug. 1.

“I look  forward to leading a seminar at Macaulay that examines the developments that could position the United States – and our North American partners – to lead the world out of the current global economic slowdown,” Petreaus, who has a doctorate from Princeton University, said in a statement.

The new professor is also the advertised prize of a virtual raffle hosted by Omaze, a for-profit crowdfunding website that raises money for charities. The raffle offers a “grueling” workout with Petraeus on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

The website, which deems Petraeus “the celebrity” of the “once-in-a-lifetime experience,” is raising money for the Mission Continues, an organization that awards community service fellowships to recent veterans, according to its website.

There’s no fitness requirement noted on Omaze, but participants might want to read up on Petraeus’ six-minute miles before entering.  Petraeus has had plenty of time for his rigorous workouts since he resigned as CIA director last year after the disclosure of his affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell.

“Test your physical limits during an intense workout with the man that was once in charge of all U.S. armed forces’ foreign operations before discussing military strategy over a well-deserved coffee,” the website advertises. It adds that the workout will occur “in late summer or early fall 2013″ and makes no mention of his fall from grace.

A contribution of just $10 will enter a donor into the drawing, so Omaze users don’t have to go all in.

Original post is Crowdfunding Site Offers Professor Petraeus as Prize by Political Capital.

Photograph by Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

A drone protest outside the White House in this file photo.

Sen. Rand Paul, the Republican  from Kentucky who held the Senate floor past midnight with a filibuster against the confirmation of John Brennan for CIA director, may have gone on for 13 hours with questions about the limits of American use of drones.

He has complained about the responses he’s gotten from the Justice Department.

Yet today he received the sort of one-syllable, one-word answer he was looking for.

In what may go down as the shortest written legal opinion in Washington history, Attorney General Eric Holder delivered a letter to the senator today. It reads, in full:

“Dear Senator Paul:”

“It has come to my attention that you have now asked an additional question: `Does the President have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on American soil?’ The answer to that question is no.”

“Sincerely, Eric H. Holder, Jr.”

Original post is Holder to Paul: ‘The Answer… is No’ by Political Capital.

Photograph by Chris Maddaloni/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images

Sen. Rand Paul is seen on the television in the Senate Press Gallery as he filibusters to the nomination of John Brennan to lead the CIA.

Updated at 2:55 pm EDT

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has taken the Senate floor to slow down the confirmation of John Brennan as CIA director.

“I rise today to begin to fillibuster John Brennan’s nomination for the C.I.A.,” the Republican announced on this day when the Capitol is shutting down for snow and he is shutting down the Senate for a lecture about constitutional authority and war.

Paul accuses the White House and its counter-terrorism chief of waging war against terrorists without oversight, leaving open the possibility of killing Americans on American soil. The government, with its drone strikes, is making its own determination about terrorist targets, Paul argues.

“I will speak until I can no longer speak,” he said.

“I will speak as long as it takes, until the alarm is sounded from coast to coast that our Constitution is important.”

His filibuster is viewable here, thanks to C-SPAN.

He tweeted it, too:

Sen. Paul filibuster of John Brennan happening right now on the Senate floor. Watch live here: c-span.org/Live-Video/C-S…

— Rand Paul (@DrRandPaul) March 6, 2013

 

Entering his fourth hour of filibustering, in which cows, farms and hunting have entered the monologue, the tireless Paul has drawn some Twitter support from another Tea Party-backed Republican senator:

why is it so hard for POTUS to just say NO,it is not constitutional to kill a citizen who is not an imminent threat with a drone on US soil.

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 6, 2013

Original post is Rand Paul’s CIA-Brennan Filibuster by Political Capital.

Photograph by Mark Murrmann/Zuma Press

Senator Chuck Hagel speaking with then senator Joe Biden in this file photo.

President Barack Obama will announce his choice of Chuck Hagel for defense secretary today, setting up a showdown with an ad hoc coalition that opposes the former Republican senator, including members of his own party who advocate muscular defense policies, supporters of Israel and gay-rights activists. Obama offered the post to Hagel yesterday in a phone call from the White House.

Obama will also nominate 25-year CIA veteran John Brennan, the president’s chief of counter-terrorism,  to be agency’s next director as the president fills out his Cabinet for a second term.

The National Archives holds a ribbon-cutting ceremony today for a “Nixon and the U.S. Space Program” display, starting of week of events commemorating centennial of the former president’s birth.

Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale is scheduled to be the featured speaker for a conference at the Brookings Institution on defense spending in a season of budget cuts. Banks including PNC Financial Services Group Inc., SunTrust Banks Inc. and BB&T Corp. are pushing Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to give them year to comply with new mortgage underwriting rules that could be released as early as this week.

The ITC is scheduled today to announce its final decision in a patent-infringement case brought by Vitec Group Plc’s Litepanels unit over lighting for television and movie studios.

Whatever the former president’s short-comings, Nixon is credited for opening China to western-style capitalism, which set the stage for that country’s rapid economic growth over the past several decades. Former N.M. Gov. Bill Richardson and Google Inc. Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt may be hoping to do the same for North Korea during their private, four-day visit that starts today.

Original post is Washington Daybook: Hagel, Brennan by Political Capital.

Photograph by Gerald Herbert/AP Photo

President Barack Obama greets people as he visits Island Snow for shave ice in Kailua, Hawaii, during his holiday vacation, on Jan 3, 2013.

President Barack Obama returns to Washington today from his annual family vacation in Hawaii for a week expected to include Cabinet nominations, a meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and preparations for a second-term inauguration.

Obama is scheduled to return to the White House before noon. Before his departure last night from Honolulu, the president also was gearing up for a political fight next month with Republicans over raising the U.S. debt limit. In his weekly radio address, which was taped from Hawaii and aired yesterday, the president reiterated a warning that he will not negotiate with Republicans over borrowing authority.

Former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, 66, is expected to be named as soon as tomorrow as Obama’s choice to be the nation’s next defense secretary, according to a person familiar with the cabinet-selection process.

The president is to meet with Karzai on Jan. 11. As the U.S. war in Afghanistan winds down, Karzai is visiting Washington to discuss concerns including the size of U.S. troop levels in his country after 2014 and the future U.S. financial commitment.

Obama has yet to name a new head of the Central Intelligence Agency. John Brennan, the president’s counterterrorism chief, is said to be among the leading candidates. Other pending announcements include a replacement for Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, and may include a new chief of staff if Jack Lew is named as Geithner’s replacement.

In December, the president announced his choice of Massachusetts Senator John Kerry to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of state.

Obama originally was set to spend two weeks in Hawaii, where he was born and raised, to recharge following his re- election campaign and work on the Jan. 21 address he is to deliver for his second-term inauguration.

That plan was interrupted when the congressional standoff over how to prevent automatic tax hikes and spending cuts from going into effect beginning Jan. 1 forced him to cut short his trip on Dec. 26. Obama, who arrived in Hawaii on Dec. 22, to returned to Washington and then, after Congress passed a budget deal late Jan. 1, flew back to Hawaii for another four days.

During the second part of his Hawaii trip, Obama took his daughters bowling, ate shave ice with his daughters, golfed, and dined out with his wife and friends.

Obama on Jan. 2 signed the law raising income-tax rates on couples to 39.6 percent for annual income above $450,000 while extending tax cuts for lower incomes and delaying automatic spending cuts until March 1.

Markets rallied in response to the agreement, even as Obama and congressional Republicans are poised for a new fight over the U.S. government’s debt ceiling.

The U.S. reached its $16.4 trillion legal debt limit on Dec. 31, and the Treasury Department began using extraordinary measures to finance the government. It will exhaust that avenue as early as mid-February, the Congressional Budget Office says.

In the radio address, Obama said, “One thing I will not compromise over is whether or not Congress should pay the tab for a bill they’ve already racked up.

“If Congress refuses to give the United States the ability to pay its bills on time, the consequences for the entire global economy could be catastrophic.”

Obama said rich Americans and companies should pay more taxes beyond the fiscal cliff accord as part of a balanced approach with spending cuts.

“The last time Congress threatened this course of action, our entire economy suffered for it,” the president said in the address from Hawaii.

Original post is Obama Home from the Holidays: Hard New Year’s Nights Ahead by Political Capital.

Photograph by Brian van der Brug-Pool/Getty Images

Colleagues celebrate a successful landing inside the Spaceflight Operations Facility for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover at Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Aug. 5, 2012 in Pasadena, California.

At NASA, they get to launch rockets.

Little wonder it tops the list of big federal agencies where employees are happiest — at the top of the Best Places to Work in the Federal Government in 2012, according to the survey of the Partnership for Public Service.

The Intelligence community and State Department rank pretty high — world travel.

Homeland Security, low — living in fear of threats.

Among mid-sized agencies, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation stacks up pretty high — all deposits insured, to a certain level.

Broadcasting Board of Governors, not so high — Big Bird is continually under threat.

Among small agencies: the Congressional Budget Office — even though the predict another recession if Congress goes over the fiscal cliff.

Low: Office of the U.S. Trade Representative — treaties are hard work.

Another really low-ranked place to work: Voice of America.

Everyone blames the bearer of bad news.

Original post is Best and Worst Workplaces: Government Plum-Jobs and Prunes by Political Capital.

Photograph by Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, with his golden retriever dog Bravo, during an interview at the Pentagon.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta today suggested his dog Bravo turned out to be a better keeper of secrets than David Petraeus, who resigned in disgrace as CIA director last month after acknowledging a sexual affair.

Panetta appeared surprised when asked at the National Press Club why Petraeus had to resign instead of accepting a lesser punishment.

“In this town, with that kind of e-mail, do you think he could have survived as director of the CIA? I don’t think so,” Panetta said during a luncheon appearance. The Petraeus affair was exposed after the FBI discovered e-mails he wrote to his biographer, Paula Broadwell, with whom he had an extramarital affair.

While Petraeus couldn’t keep the affair secret, Panetta touted the discretion of his own golden retriever, who he said sat in on many of the top-secret meetings that focused on planning the raid that killed terrorist Osama bin Laden last year. Panetta was CIA director when the raid occurred.

The dog “used to come to the office when I was CIA director,” Panetta recalled. “And Bravo sat in on almost all of the meetings involving the operations against bin Laden. And you know, to this day, he hasn’t told a damn soul what happened.”

Original post is Panetta Says His Dog, Unlike Petraeus, Proved Soul of Discretion by Political Capital.