Diary Prequel Package — page 150

there including Ethel Kennedy, Ben Bradlee, Tom Brokow, Dave Barry, and most important people in the media in DC and nationally. It was a warm and hilarious event filled with stories about Art and film clips of him March 6, 2007 - Busy day. Unfortunately, Scooter Libby was convicted today on 4 of 5 counts of lying to FBI and grand jury in association with the Joe Wilson/Valerie Plame CIA leak. Had House Appropriations Subcommittee Hearing today and it went well. Also, had a farewell dinner at Oceanaire in honor of Alex Azar who is stepping down as deputy Secretary at HHS. The old HHS crowd was there including former Secretary Tommy Thompson. Had a great conversation with him. He has put his name in as a candidate for Republican nominee for President. He is optimistic about winning the Iowa Caucus. He discussed with me the best plan that I have heard yet about how to handle the dreadful Iraq situation. Also, at the dinner were Janet Rehnquist, Stew Simonson, Scott Whitaker, Bruce Gellin, Lester Crawford (recently convicted for lying on his financial disclosure when he was FDA Acting Commissioner), Paula Staudard, and others. Very cold day in DC with temps in the teens. March 13, 2007 - Briefed Vice President Cheney today in his WH office on second floor. Beautiful "pre-Spring" day with temps around 50 and sunny skies. He wanted briefing on Pandemic flu and biodefense. I included a discussion about HIV/AIDS particularly the great success of PEPFAR since I wanted him to know that this Administration has done more than anyone in the world for Global AIDS. The briefing was as usual for the VP and me, i.e. very friendly and expressing multiple times how pleased he was to get briefed by me since he enjoys it so much. Also in the room were David Addington (Chief-of-Staff), Bruce Miller (Chief for Biodefense), Steve...? And Scott Deitchman. March 16, 2007 - Have been preparing for a briefing of the POTUS on pandemic flu preparedness. Interesting evolution of process. The HSC staff (Joel Bagnell and Rajeev Venkaaya) want us (HHS) to present a major discussion of "gaps" in stockpiling and others want us to just update the POTUS. Friendly tension going on. Today, we (me, Bill Raub, Bruce Gellin and Eric Hargan - Deputy Secretary) briefed the Deputies in EEOB 208 in preparation to brief the Principals and then the POTUS. Among them were junior staffers from WH as well as Rajeev, Joel Bagnell, Bruce Miller, Scott Deitchman, Jeff Runge. Continued disagreement about what the Secretary (MOL) will ultimately present to the POTUS. March 19, 2007 - MOL, Bill Raub and I briefed the principals today in final preparation for the POTUS briefing. Present were Fran Townsend, Michael Chertoff, Joel Kaplan (now Deputy Chief-of-Staff to Josh Bolten), Joel Bagnell, Bruce Miller, other cabinet people. Briefing went better than on March 16. We are about ready to brief the POTUS. March 20, 2007 - Dinner at the Mellon Auditorium on Constitution Avenue, N.W. (13th Street) for Research! America. Usual DC Glitterati. At my table was Susan Dentzer (Newshour), Sam and Jan Donaldson, Tenley Albright, Paul Rogers. Awardees were Don Seldin, Joe Goldstein, Mike Brown, Mike Wallace, Sen. Orin Hatch among others.