Epstein Secrets

since 2007, Carl Levin leads Senate oversight of the Pentagon and is at the forefront of the raging debate over the defense budget. Levin and Sen. John McCain, the committee's ranking member, agree that the $600 billion in military cuts set to take effect next year unless a new budget passes would be, in

passes would be, in Levin's words, "a train wreck." (Defense Secretary Panetta has preferred the more apocalyptic "doomsday mechanism.") But while McCain has proposed protecting the defense budget by reducing federal spending elsewhere, Levin has argued, "We should do something intelligent, which mea

onal security advisor to the resident and his chief foreign- policy speechwriter. After getting an . at New York University and abandoning a novel, Rhodes gave up a publishing job and moved to Washington to write speeches for Rep. Lee Hamilton, eventually helping to draft the 9/11 Commission and Iraq

t that wasn't their approach—to put it mildly." He insisted that the G.O.P. had moved too far to the right to make bipartisanship possible. He and John McCain had agreed on issues like immigration, climate change, and campaign finance. "The center of gravity for their party has shifted." But maybe, Obama

de and welfare reform. In 2000, Bush ran on a more progressive education platform than E FTA_R1_02204187 EFTA02720658 his Republican colleagues. McCain once supported a cap-and- trade system and a version of immigration reform now condemned by almost all Republicans. There would be no such "zones o

nt; the building was filled with foreign-policy luminaries. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was climbing up the staircase alone as I descended. Rhodes's windowless office has a large printer marked with a sign that says "Classified." On his desk was a thick briefing book, "The President's Trip to

troops will come home from Afghanistan this year. As he promised in his first Presidential campaign—to the outraged protests of Hillary Clinton and John McCain alike—he has extended a hand to EFTA00684488 traditional enemies, from Iran to Cuba. And he has not hesitated in his public rhetoric to acknowled

he outraged protests of Hillary Clinton and John McCain alike—he has extended a hand to EFTA00684488 t

shington was "trapped in very stale narratives." "In the foreign-policy establishment, to be an idealist you have to be for military intervention," Rhodes went on. "In the Democratic Party, these debates were defined in the nineties, and the idealists lined up for military intervention. For the Presid

side and trying to take over the Trump movement. There was the Republican leadership in Congress, trying to stymie Trumpism—if not slay it. There was John McCain, doing his best to embarrass it. There was the special counsel’s office, pursuing the president and many of those around him. The stakes were very c

4, 69, 99, 106, 159, 189, 193-94, 210, 228, 248-49 Marcus, Bernie, 309 Mattis, James, 4, 21, 103, 109, 188, 264-65, 288, 296, 304-5 May, Theresa, 258 McCain, John, 112, 306 McCarthy, Joe, 73 McConnell, Mitch, 32, 117, 301-2 McCormick, John, 167 McGahn, Don, 95, 212-14, 217 McLaughlin, John, 10 McMaster, H

, 253 Republican Party, 2, 18, 30, 40-41, 81, 86, 98, 111-12, 117-21, 128, 161-67, 171-72, 201, 290, 303 fracturing of, 179-80, 253, 283, 306, 309-10 Rhodes, Ben, 41, 154, 159, 185, 215 Rice, Susan, 7, 41, 153 Rometty, Ginni, 88 Rose, Charlie, 309 Rosen, Hillary, 78 Rosenstein, Rod, 212, 214, 216-21, 279

Careers advance by how well you learn on the job and how well you get along with the rest of the swamp and play its game. In 2008, Walsh became the McCain campaign’s midwest regional finance director— having majored in marketing and finance at GW, she was trusted to hold the checkbook. Then on to deputy

n you are ahead. The Best and the Brightest described the people who should be in power. A college-age Barack Obama was smitten with the book, as was Rhodes Scholar Bill Clinton. Halberstam’s book defined the look and feel of White House power. His language, resonant and imposing and, often, boffo pompou