As five congressional panels held hearings in recent days on Mexican drug cartel violence and border security, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff had one thing to say about legalizing marijuana in hopes of easing the bloodshed: “It won’t work.”
In a conversation with a columnist on Saturday, Mr. Chertoff compared today’s drug wars in Mexico to previous mob wars in America, which, he noted, did not end when Prohibition ended in 1933.
In 1986, it was Mr. Chertoff, as an assistant U.S. attorney working hand-in-hand with then-U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York Rudolph W. Giuliani, who dealt a major blow to organized crime. As lead prosecutor, Mr. Chertoff’s goal was to build a case against the five Mafia families who ran organized crime in New York. When the dust settled, the leaders of the Genovese, Colombo and Lucchese crime families, as well as the captain of the Bonannos, were convicted.
Mr. Chertoff’s last assignment as director of homeland security was ensuring the secure inauguration of Barack Obama. Still, he told one interviewer that despite all the safeguards, he feared an incident like the Virginia Tech case, in which one disturbed person went on a killing spree.
Today, Mr. Chertoff is writing a book about his experiences and speaking through the Harry Walker Agency on topics including terrorism, cybersecurity and economic infrastructure, the immigration crisis and emerging threats for the next decade.
THE REAL OFFER
If Republican Senator John McCain had won the presidency, he would have woken up at the White House on Saturday morning, had breakfast with his wife Cindy, given his weekly radio address and reflected on the global financial crisis with visiting Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Instead, President Obama did all of the above, while Mr. and Mrs. McCain started Saturday like other ordinary Americans.
“I was leaving Starbucks, they were coming in,” says Leslie Bauman, referring to the Crystal City coffee shop. “They were both dressed casually and he was wearing a navy cap, so I didn’t even recognize him at first. But Mrs. McCain is truly wonderful and I recognized her immediately.”
Ms. Bauman, who works for the BF Saul hotel group, said the couple were extremely gracious.
“They stopped and shook my hand,” he says. “I then thanked him for his service to our country and for being a voice for moderate conservatives. He asked my name – they were so nice, polite, really genuine. I interned for my U.S. congressman throughout high school and college, so I can tell when a politician is feigning interest and when someone is being sincere.”
shoemaker’s blood
It’s St. Patrick’s Week in Washington. Patrick, and Megan Smolenyak, chief family historian at Ancestry.com, assures us that both President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden shed good Irish blood.
Obama’s Irish heritage comes from the villages of Moneygall and Shinrone in County Offaly, Ireland. The president’s third great-grandfather, Fulmoth Kearney, immigrated to America at the age of 19, landed in New York Harbor on March 20, 1850, and settled in Fayette County, Ohio.
Biden’s Irish ancestors arrived in the United States within six months of the Obama family’s arrival. The relatives of both men were shoemakers by profession.
GREEN CANDIDATE
He says he’s given up on running for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania, but that doesn’t mean he can’t still act like a candidate.
We’re referring to Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s “Hardball,” who has appeared at more than one local Pennsylvania St. Patrick’s Day event, including the Sunday afternoon concert and the $100-per-person “Chieftains” party on Sunday afternoon in Philadelphia, sponsored by the American Irish Fund.
MAIL BAG
In connection with our Friday article on more Americans being issued U.S. passports – 16.2 million in 2008, up from 8.8 million issued in 2004 – Beltway reader Owen Jones of Atlanta writes: Perhaps more and more Americans are becoming like pre-Castro Cubans, preparing to leave if the political/economic situation becomes unbearable.”
