When he’s not grilling rocker Jon Bon Jovi, or tooling around Dubai with ruler Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft is often found chatting up the various characters at Café Luxembourg on West 70th Street.

“It’s always been my local,” said Mr. Kroft.

On Sept. 10, owner Lynn Wagenknecht’s longtime celebrity haunt celebrated its 25th anniversary with a bubbly, sliders-and-fries-stuffed party attended by such notable guests as screenwriter Nora Ephron and actresses Kathleen Turner and Aida Turturro.

Mr. Kroft was among the first to arrive—and last to leave.

“It’s halfway between work and home…I know that I can walk home, stop here, have a drink and meet interesting people,” said Mr.  read more »

Eighteen months after former secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld retreated from his post under heavy criticism for, among other things, mishandling the invasion of Iraq and legitimizing torture as an interrogation technique, some Washington insiders are revisiting his strategies and tactics.

Notably, resurrecting Rumsfeld's idea - a comprehensive plan to overhaul the military - hasn't been reintroduced into the public dialog by die-hard neo-conservatives. The project is being led by a faction of security-obsessed Democrats.

Several weeks ago, military analyst Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution published a 60-page report, "Unfinished Business: U.S. Overseas Military presence in the 21st Century," which recommended that the next president return to Rumsfeld's "chief intellectual and policy accomplishment during his six-year tenure at the Pentagon.  read more »

The topic today is an adversary that poses a threat, a serious threat, to the security of the United States of America. This adversary is one of the world’s last bastions of central planning. It governs by dictating five-year plans. From a single capital, it attempts to impose its demands across time zones, continents, oceans and beyond. With brutal consistency, it stifles free thought and crushes new ideas. It disrupts the defense of the United States and places the lives of men and women in uniform at risk.  read more »

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld secured a book deal yesterday from Sentinel, the conservative publishing imprint of Penguin Books USA. Sentinel publisher Adrian Zackheim acquired the book via Washington lawyer Robert Barnett, who represents many of Washington's most powerful figures when they decide to write books and often gets them enormous, seven-figure advances.

Mr. Barnett did not conduct an auction for the book, according to someone familiar with the negotiations who would not speak for attribution. Instead, Mr. Rumsfeld was presented with "several large offers" before deciding to go with Sentinel.

   read more »

WASHINGTON, D.C.—"Sometimes the end comes like a thief in the night," said Sam Donaldson.

Mr. Donaldson was standing on a stage at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., yesterday morning, quoting the Bible. Like the hundred or so mourners who had gathered in the large auditorium, Mr. Donaldson was struggling to make sense of the sudden recent death of his friend and former colleague, John "Jack" McWethy.

A week earlier, on Feb. 6, Mr. McWethy had been skiing with his wife Laurie at a resort in Keystone, Colo. He was cruising down an intermediate slope, when suddenly the accomplished, veteran skier lost control and slid chest first into a tree. The fluke crash proved to be fatal. He was 61.  read more »

Here is Chad Shepard, a 23-year-old Maryland resident who was sightseeing in DC today with some friends, and who was pleased with the news of Karl Rove's imminent departure.

"I'm happy," he said. "I was waiting for this day. His ideas did not benefit most citizens. It seems like everyday somebody is resigning."

Referring to the trio of Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove and George W. Bush, he said, "We just need one more to go."