[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/07/16/art.nunn.ap.jpg caption="Nunn brought Czechoslovakia back to center stage."] (CNN) - A lot of countries haven’t gotten a share of the spotlight at any of this week’s foreign policy-themed presidential campaign events, or shown up in any of the new national security-focused ads: most of the United States’ hemispheric neighbors, for instance, or just about any nation on the African continent.
Rating no fewer than three references in three days: the non-existent state of Czechoslovakia.
That country – which ceased to exist in 1993, when it split into two nations, the Czech Republic and Slovakia – has now been referred to as a present-day area of concern by two of the most respected current and former Senate foreign policy experts in the space of less than a week. On Monday and Tuesday, it was presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, who said he was worried about recent Russian moves to reduce energy supplies to “Czechoslovakia.”
On Wednesday it was the Democrats’ turn, as Republicans quickly circulated a clip of former Georgia senator and current VP prospect Sam Nunn making the same slip at a mid-day national security summit, flanked by his party’s presumptive nominee Barack Obama.
“…We in this country are about to, under this government, under the Bush administration, deploy [a] missile defense system in Poland and Czechoslovakia,” Nunn said at the Indiana event Wednesday.
So far this week, Persia, Yugoslavia and Siam have yet to come up for discussion.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/07/16/art.mccainad.cnn.jpg caption="Planned Parenthood is taking aim at McCain over his Viagra-birth control moment."](CNN) - Planned Parenthood Action Fund is launching a new ad Wednesday in crucial battleground states set to highlight a campaign trail moment John McCain would rather soon forget.
The 30-second spot aimed at women voters shows McCain's apparent unease when a reporter asked him last week whether it was unfair that some insurance plans covered Viagra and not birth control.
"Ever use birth control? Than you'll want to hear this," the ad's narrator states before a flustered McCain is shown saying, "I don't know enough about it to give you an informed answer."
Planned Parenthood spokesman Tait Sye says the ad will run in Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Washington, D.C. during television programs popular with women - including Wednesday's season premier of "Project Runway" and "Army Wives" on Lifetime. It will also air during Oprah in some markets.
The group is hoping this issue in particular resonates with the broad swath of the women voters McCain is trying to court - according to one study Planned Parenthood cites 98 percent of sexually active women have used at least one form of birth control.
The off-message moment stemmed from a comment by a member of McCain’s own team: national co-chairwoman Carly Fiorina, who had said earlier women often express frustration over the fact many health insurance plans cover Viagra but not birth control medication.
A McCain spokesman later said the Arizona senator supported competition in the healthcare industry, presumably allowing women to nix policies that cover Viagra but not their specific needs.
(CNN)—Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney laughed off questions about his vice presidential potential Wednesday.
“With regards to all the people that think I might be on some kind of shortlist, the only one that really counts in my regard is John McCain,” Romney told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “I don’t think he’s told anybody what his thinking is.”
The former Massachusetts governor continued to downplay his chances of joining the GOP ticket. “I don’t want to engage in any speculation with regards to the VP sweepstakes,” he said. “I expect to support the administration and the McCain team. I don’t expect to be part of it.”
Election Center: Who's on McCain's VP list?
In recent months, Romney has been a constant presence on the airwaves as a surrogate for John McCain’s campaign, often serving as a tough critic of presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/07/16/art.obama.serious.gi.jpg caption=]
One of the jobs of American presidents, whether they realize it or not, is to make us laugh.
You need look no farther than George W. Bush. But if you want to look farther, there's a gold mine of yucks. Whether it's Bill Clinton with his blue dresses and cigars, Al Gore with his robotic seriousness, Ronald Reagan sleeping through cabinet meetings, or Dan Quayle trying to spell potato. And of course, President Bush's dad meeting a grocery store scanner for the first time was priceless – as was President Carter's tale of being attacked in a rowboat by a rabbit.
But what about Barack Obama?
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[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/07/16/art.bush.cheney.jpg caption="President Bush used executive privilege to avoid turning over FBI interviews with Vice President Cheney."]
WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Bush has blocked the release of Vice President Dick Cheney's interview with investigators probing the leak of a CIA agent's identity, invoking executive privilege Wednesday to keep that document and others under wraps.
Bush asserted the privilege claim at the request of Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who has been under pressure from a congressional committee to turn over the transcript of Cheney's interview, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said. Mukasey argued that releasing the transcript would discourage
future witnesses from being questioned outside grand jury proceedings.
The records stem from the investigation into the 2003 exposure of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson, whose husband had accused the Bush administration of twisting the intelligence used to justify the invasion of Iraq. Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was convicted of obstructing justice and perjury in connection with the disclosure, but was not charged with leaking her name.
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