Diary Prequel Package — page 154

Rose Garden. As he left the stage and went back to the Oval Office, we caught each other's eyes and he said "Hi Denny", walked a few steps, turned around, came back and said "What am I talking about, Hi Tony"; he laughed and went on. April 27, 2007 - Went to the National Cathedral this AM to see Megan receive the honor as one of 12 NCS girls to be inducted into the "Cum Laude Society" . It was a beautiful ceremony at the Cathedral. Found out during the evening as I was on the way to a Nats Baseball game (call from Greg Folkers) with Bob Seder, Stewart Simonson, and Gary Nabel that Randy Tobias just abruptly resigned effective immediately. There is a woman who runs an "escort service and sexual fantasy service" who is being charged with running a prostitution ring. She is a bit bizarre and is using as a defense that if her girls did prostitution, then they did it on their own. For some unexplainable reason, she released the cell phone numbers of the clients of her girls and Randy's number was on the list. ABC News confronted Randy and he stated that he merely used the girls to get massages and had no sex, but he resigned anyway. My impression is that unlike Attorney General Alberto Gonzales who will not resign and keeps embarrassing the POTUS with his incompetence in handling the firing of the Federal Attorneys, Randy does not want to cause more bad press for the POTUS. Irony is that Randy runs the AID Programs which require recipients of Federal Funds to condemn prostitution. This is probably the reason that he resigned, i.e. the appearance of hypocracy. April 28-May 6, 2007 - Just a very busy time for me preparing for the Board of Scientific Counsellors Review of my Lab (LIR) to take place on June 4. Weather turned absolutely beautiful - typical DC Spring with sunny skies and balmy temperatures. Have been following over the past several weeks the St. Alban's baseball team. They are having their best year in decades. Danny Hultzen (pitcher/first base) is clearly the best pitcher in the league and one of the best hitters. May 7, 2007 - Went to the British Embassy for a Garden Party in honor of the visit to the USA of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. Everyone who is anyone in DC was there. Spent time speaking with Sen. Joe Lieberman, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader of House Steny Hoyer, Columnist David Brooks, CNN's Judy Woodruff, Fox News Chief Editor Britt Hume, Former Mayor of Baltimore Schmoke, Harvey Fineberg of IOM, etc. Spoke with Prince Philip who showed an astounding lack of understanding of what is biomedical research. He asked me what I did and I explained. He said "Of medical stuff; that is statistics, i.e. numbers". I explained that we actually do research to answer questions. He insisted that it was all about statistics of diseases. I said that the statistics inform us of the extent of the problems, but then we do basic and clinical research to diagnosed, prevent and treat diseases. He then said, "Oh yes, like I said, it is all about numbers". I hope that he was just jet-lagged. May 10-14, 2007 - Had one of the most intensely busy weeks in recent memory with preparations (rehearsals) for my upcoming Board of Scientific Counselors review of LIR, NIH Budget Retreat, NIH Roadmap Retreat, Commencement Address at Penn State, Major talk in Miami to AAI, NIAID National Advisory Council Meeting, and Senate