HIGH DRAMA
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou's party may have
won a nail-biting confidence vote, but that may not be enough for him
to hold on to power. The main opposition New Democracy party, headed by
Antonis Samaras, is refusing to join any coalition with Papandreou,
instead demanding elections. There's an intriguing subplot to all this
drama: Papandreou and Samaras, now the fiercest of rivals, were
roommates at Amherst College. It's a battle for power in a bromantic
drama as the world watches anxiously. The Daily Beast's David Graham
retraces the history of the pair.
AFGHANISTAN
One of the top U.S. commanders in Afghanistan, Major
Gen. Peter Fuller, was relieved of his duties Friday after reportedly
making some off-the-cuff comments about Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
In an interview with Politico, Fuller called the Afghan government
“isolated from reality,” and blasted Karzai saying, “When they are going
to have a presidential election, you hope they get a guy that’s more
articulate in public.” In response, NATO Commander Gen. John Allen
called the remarks “inappropriate public comments,” and said, “These
unfortunate comments are neither indicative of our current solid
relationship with its government in Afghanistan, its leadership, or our
joint commitment to prevail here in Afghanistan.”
SUPERCOMMITTEE
This doesn't bode well for the deficit supercommittee.
Republicans on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees are
preparing legislation that would undo the automatic $500 billion in cuts
to military programs that will take effect if the deficit panel fails
to trim $1.2 trillion from the budget. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South
Carolina drafted a bill that replaces military cuts with reductions from
elsewhere in the budget, plus a 10-percent decrease in pay for members
of Congress. Similar measures are being worked out in the House. But
House Speaker John Boehner said the automatic cuts, called
sequestration, shouldn't be tampered with. “The sequester is ugly,” said
Boehner. “Why? Because we don’t want anybody to go there.”
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