Author: April Girouard

Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard C. Holbrooke echoed assurances by Secretaries Clinton and Gates that Afghan President Karzai is still a reliable partner to the U.S.

“There was a period where the waters got roiled a little bit, but that period is over,” he told gathered reporters in a State Department briefing on Monday.

The vote of confidence from the ambassador is the latest in a string of assurances from administration officials in advance of Karzai’s May 10th arrival in Washington. The White House had initiated the invitation, but threatened to cancel after the Afghan president’s inflammatory comments earlier this month.

But Ambassador Holbrooke says he was heartened by President Karzai’s attendance at last week’s Review of Concept Drill, an event hosted by Holbrooke and U.S. military commander for the Middle East General Petraeus, aimed at discussing civilian-military plans in Afghanistan. “It was a very important, symbolic statement that we have to move forward and focus on the future, and that’s what we’re doing,” he said.

Holbrooke noted that the session that followed was the most substantive meeting he’s had with the Afghan president to date. “I base what I said on my personal observations and interactions with President Karzai,” he said. “It was a very serious, substantial meeting in which neither he nor we even mentioned these issues.”

In addition to his May 12th meeting at the White House, President Karzai is expected to attend State Department meetings with Afghan cabinet ministers and U.S. government officials. Holbrooke noted that tentative plans for the visit include an open forum to be co-chaired by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Afghan president.

Asked what caused the tension in the first place, Holbrooke only responded, “I leave that for you to judge.”

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As the time period for accepting mailed-in census forms rolls to a close, the Census Bureau will deploy thousands of door-to-door census-takers – and the help of one former senior adviser to President George W. Bush. The Census Bureau today released a new public service announcement featuring Bush Administration alum and Fox News contributor Karl Rove.

“If you’ve not yet mailed back your 2010 census form, it’s not too late,” Rove says in the ad. “Please answer the ten easy questions. They’re almost the same ones Madison helped write for the first census in 1790.” In fact, it was founding father James Madison who made the Census Bureau think “Rove.” Samantha O’Neil, a Public Affairs Specialist with the bureau, tells Fox they found Rove through the Montpelier Foundation, which manages Madison’s estate. “When we were at Montpelier filming a piece with our director, the Montpelier Foundation recommended him as one of their supporters. We just approached him and asked if he wanted to do something relating to the census and the Constitution,” she says.

The ad comes days after Census Bureau Director Robert Groves cited lagging census participation in Rove’s home state. “We’re concerned about the relatively low response from parts of Texas,” Groves said in a March 30th written statement. Some Republicans worry that disillusionment with government expansion will cause a dip in census participation by conservatives.  Rove says that’s exactly why he participated in the ad campaign, “The census is used to reapportion the US Congress and I didn’t want people, particularly conservatives, to not be counted. They need to know that this determines what states get.”

Though Rove received two census forms, one for his Washington, D.C. residence and another for his place in Texas, he opted to fill-in the latter, saying his Texas home is the one that counts.

Other participants in the bureau’ s public service announcement campaign include President Obama, Miss America Caressa Cameron, Donny Osmond, and, most recently, civil rights leader Dorothy Height.

Presiding over his first hearing since he was named chair of the House Appropriations Committee’s Defense Subcommittee, Rep. Norm Dicks (D-WA) showed that not even members of Congress are immune to first-day-on-the-job jitters.

He wrapped up the second part of his smoothly-delivered introduction to this morning’s defense budget hearing with, “I’d like to call on the Ranking Member of the full committee, Mr. Obey, for any comments he’d like to make.” The problem? ‘Ranking Member’ is a secondary, minority title held by Rep. Don Young (R-AK). Rep. David Obey (D-WI) is the chair of the committee – a position controlled exclusively by Democrats, as long as they remain in the majority.

Obey, however, refused to hand over his powerful chairmanship so easily. “Did we lose the election?” he asked.

“We haven’t lost it yet,” Dicks replied.

“We’re not going to, either,” Obey assured the other members and witnesses in attendance. “I’m used to this kind of calumny from the other side of the aisle…We’re operating at somewhat of a disadvantage, because he’s very inexperienced, he’s only been on this subcommittee 31 years, and so he has a shortage of knowledge in terms of the issues at hand. In all seriousness, I think people understand him to be a serious, dedicated, and tenacious member of Congress.”

Rep. Dicks was named chair of the subcommittee in March, following the death of former chair Rep. John Murtha (D-PA).