Diary Prequel Package — page 165

Mike and Meryl Chertoff, among others. Spent nice time speaking with the VP about Stephen Hayes's book "Cheney" that I just finished 2 days ago. We had fun since we discussed the parts of his earlier years from the book such as his sports in high school. Also discussed with Lynne Cheney the part about her giving him an ultimatum of shaping up in school or she would leave him as his girlfriend. He had flunked out of Yale twice. Dec. 11, 2007 - Another exciting Washington social night. First visited home of Ellen and Gerry Sigal at 2909 - 44th Street, N.W. just 2 blocks from our house. Occasion was book signing party for Valeria Plame Wilson to celebrate publishing of her new book "Fair Game" about her outting as a covert CIA agent. Chris and I have gotten to know her and her husband Joe Wilson over the past year, mostly through the Sigal's. Interesting irony (see previous notes) that I am friends with Joe and Valerie at the same time as I am friends with Scooter Libby. Had to leave party early to go to Italian Ambassador Giovanni Castellenata's residence. On way out as I apologized to Joe for leaving early, he joked "As long as you are not going to a party at the VP's house". In fact, that is exactly what I am doing on Thursday (see below). Function at Italian Ambassador's house was fun. Party to honor the visit of Italian President Enrico Napolitano. Usual DC glitterati were there - Mike and Meryl Chertoff, Colin Powell, Lee Hamilton, Frank Balducci (author), D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and wife Michelle, former head of Italian CIA Carrado Cantatore (had nice conversation with him about Italian covert ops in Iraq - i.e. Italian Special Forces are still operating there even as Italian troops pull out), Sen. Pat Leahy, etc. I sat next to my good friend Cecilia Piccione (Chief-of-Staff to the Ambassador). Dec. 13, 2007 - Two issues today: Went down to White House with Mark Dybul to visit Dan Price (new SHERPA for the upcoming G-8 meeting in July, 2008). Dan, at the suggestion of Gary Edson, was looking for some bold initiatives for finish off the legacy of the POTUS over the next 11-12 months. Gary mentioned to Dan how I had developed the PEPFAR program. We discussed various options. I brought up several such as elimination of TB and malaria, and aggressively addressing neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Mark had the great idea of using the PEPFAR infrastructure that has been built up over the past 4 years to deliver the meds for NTDs. The bulk of the costs for attacking NTDs is the delivery systems since the drugs are free (ivermectim) or very cheap. In addition, Mark suggested major tax breaks for private sector corporations that donate their expertise such as computer programming, etc. Mark and I were charged with putting together a proposal. This matches nicely with what HHS, NSC, and HSC are asking me to do with putting a bold program together for TB together with CDC, FDA, USAID, and DHS. After talking to Dan, we walked over to Josh Bolten's office and described briefly the plan to him. He likes it a lot and urged us to go forward. Seems strikingly similar situation to what we did with PEPFAR 5 years ago. This evening I went to the Christmas Party at the Vice President's mansion. Chris is in Boston having given a lecture and ran into a big snow storm. She is stranded in Boston and will have to take a train home that will get her in during the middle of the night. I took Ali to the VP party and she had an exciting time meeting the VP and such notables as David Addington (Chief-of-Staff to the VP), Joel Bagnol (HSC), Bruce Miller (VP's Staff, Carol Kuntz, etc.