Think Progress

ADMINISTRATION -- ROVE IS ORCHESTRATING THE 'BUSH LEGACY PROJECT': President Bush's interview with ABC's Charlie Gibson this week was the "first of several planned 'exit interviews.'" According to White House press secretary Dana Perino, Bush's next interview will be with ABC's Cynthia McFadden on the topic of the faith-based initiative, which will air on Nightline next week. If the first interview with Gibson provides any clue as to what we can expect from these interviews, Bush will paint a rosy picture of his legacy and "refuse to take responsibility for a single thing that went wrong on his watch," as the Washington Post's Dan Froomkin observed. On CNN yesterday, the Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes revealed that former Bush adviser Karl Rove is currently orchestrating the Bush legacy project. "There's an ongoing Bush legacy project that's been meeting in the White House, really, with senior advisers, Karl Rove, Karen Hughes has been involved, current senior Bush administration advisers," said Hayes. "They are looking at how to sort of roll out the President's legacy." Rove has previously been reported to be advising the George W. Bush Presidential Library Foundation and is said to be spearheading the conservative Institute for Democracy think tank that will accompany the future Bush library at Southern Methodist University.

MILITARY -- CONTRACTOR HOLDS FOREIGN WORKERS IN WAREHOUSE OUTSIDE BAGDHAD: "About 1,000 Asian men who were hired by a Kuwaiti subcontractor to the U.S. military have been confined for as long as three months in windowless warehouses near the Baghdad airport without money or a place to work," McClatchy reports. The company is a subcontractor to KBR, the notorious military contracting company that has been embroiled in scandals, including numerous sexual assault charges from its female employees. The 1,000 employees were hired from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. The contractor then held them in conditions that "appear to violate guidelines the U.S. military handed down in 2006 that urged contractors to deter human trafficking to the war zone by shunning recruiters that charged excessive fees." The workers said the company had seized their passports, in violation of the military's rules. "A group of about 50 men living in tents about a mile away were even worse off than the men in the warehouses, and they appeared to be victims of human trafficking. They live in huts they built with tarps and pieces of carpet, and said they had no access to food or water," noted McClatchy. In August, a Washington law firm sued KBR for allegedly engaging in the human trafficking of Nepali workers who were sent to Iraq. 

ADMINISTRATION -- WHITE HOUSE DECIDES AGAINST HANGING 'IMPEACH BUSH' ORNAMENT: When First Lady Laura Bush asked members of Congress to pick local artists to decorate the White House Christmas tree, Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) turned to a local arts organization who assigned the task to Deborah Lawrence. The Seattle-based artist said, "I was at first nauseated, then realized it was an opportunity to highlight Jim McDermott because he's a hero of mine." So Lawrence, who frequently combines politics and satire in her work, covered a nine-inch ball "with swirly red and white stripes -- and, in tiny glued-on text, salutes the Democratic congressman's support for a resolution to impeach President Bush." But unfortunately for Lawrence, Sally McDonough, a spokeswoman for Laura Bush, reported yesterday afternoon that the ornament would not be displayed. "It's inappropriate and it's not being hung. ... We reviewed the ornament along with all the [other] ornaments, and Mrs. Bush deemed it inappropriate for the holiday tree," McDonough said. Lawrence responded, "Oh, dear. This doesn't really surprise me. But it's disappointing that I won't get to see it on the tree." While Lawrence's ornament was deemed "inappropriate" for public display on the tree, Lawrence was still  allowed to attend "the White House reception for the artists yesterday ('They let us in') but didn't get a chance to chat with the hostess."

Former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL) told Politico, "I am considering" a run for Senate, after Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL) announced yesterday he would retire in 2010. "A lot of people are calling him and contacting him and encouraging him to look seriously at this," a source close to Bush said. In an e-mail to ABC's The Note, Bush wrote, "I am going to think about it for the next month or so."

CNN reports that President-elect Barack Obama has a "hearty appetite for intelligence." Obama is receiving intelligence briefings on all seven days of the week, "exceeding the six days given to President Bush." Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell jokingly wondered aloud whether "there's a little bit of competition" between the men.

Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson "was awarded a $4 million bonus in 2008" and was granted 225,000 shares of restricted stock. He will also receive a 10 percent increase in his annual salary in 2009, raising his base salary to $2.06 million.

Yesterday, federal prosecutors expanded the corruption indictment against former NYC police commissioner Bernie Kerik. "The main charges -- that Kerik accepted free apartment renovations from a would-be city contractor, lied to the White House and filed false income tax returns -- remain," but the indictment adds new details regarding Kerik's lies about his finances.

Yesterday, the White House approved "one of the most contentious" regulations officials are trying to push through in Bush's final weeks in office, making it "easier for coal companies to dump rock and dirt from mountaintop mining operations into nearby streams and valleys." Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson claimed that the new rule would "protect fish, wildlife and streams." More »

Government unions are criticizing a White House executive order signed Monday that bars roughly 8,600 federal employees from joining a union "because they are engaged in intelligence gathering, investigations and other national security work." Peter Winch of the American Federation of Government Employees called the move "an abuse of discretion in the last few days."

According to a new annual report from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, "The rising cost of college -- even before the recession -- threatens to put higher education out of reach for most Americans." Tuition and fees "increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007" while “students from lower-income families…get smaller grants from the colleges they attend than students from more affluent families."

The poor state of the U.S. economy is helping the Army's retention rate. In 2008, "more young members of the Army, Air Force and Navy decided to re-up" and Pentagon officials acknowledge that the "bad news for the economy" may have been "good news for the military." "We do benefit when things look less positive in civil society," said David Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.

Obama will name Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM) as his commerce secretary at a press conference today in Chicago. Additionally, Obama has reportedly offered Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA) the position of U.S. Trade Representative, but a Becerra spokesperson said, "There's no announcement."

And finally: Although District and federal officials expect approximately four million people to descend upon the nation’s capital for Barack Obama’s inauguration, many Republican staffers are planning to "surrender the town for warmer weather and, in some cases, a nice profit." GOP lobbyist Jason Roe said, "I am hoping to capitalize on the enthusiasm by renting my house for $2,000 a night and spending it in the Virgin Islands." Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) aide Gregory Keeley said he would unfortunately likely stay in town for work. "It's not going to be my favorite place to be, put it that way," Keeley said. "If there's a horse out of Dodge, I'd like to be on it."