House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is considered to have excellent taste in clothing and appearance. Rep. Barney Frank, who announced last week he will retire from the House of Representatives, less so.

So in recalling Thursday some memories of the colorful Frank--as well as the gruff former Rep. David Obey, Pelosi offered reporters this anecdote:

"I was now the new Ranking Member (top Democrat) on Foreign Ops (House foreign operations panel). Now, when I was outside the Congress, you know, carrying pickets, Russians, Soviets out of Afghanistan, going to Central America, end the war. To me the most important place in the world was the Foreign Ops Committee of the House.

"They could stop the funding of all these things or make policy—not policy, but statements that related to our national security and human rights throughout the world. So to be the Ranking Member on Foreign Ops—never—it was one of those things I never expected, but this, that, and that and that and, you know, that around here, there I was, and when I came to Congress, I said does anybody know anybody on Foreign Ops because I want to talk to that person. Now I am the Ranking.

"So I go to make my first bill on the floor, managing the bill. I wasn't the Chairman, but we worked very closely together. Our Chairman, Sonny Callahan from Alabama, was just wonderful. We worked very closely together, but we had some differences, one of them being international family planning. Here we go again.

"Anyway, so I come to the floor, I have on a suit that I hadn't worn before and now mind you, Dave Obey had been the Chairman of that committee for, like, 13 years. He knew every semicolon, dot, everything in the bill. So he is the Chairman of the committee—no…the Ranking on the committee. It is his baby. You know, he thinks of this as his bill.

"I go to the floor, the first person I ran into is Barney Frank. Barney Frank, he says, 'That suit, give it away, give it away. Don't wear that suit anymore.'

"So I do the bill. I get everything accomplished that I set out to do. I was so proud. David is sitting there where David sits there and David says to me, 'You did what you came to do, you got the job done, but you could have been more diplomatic.'

"So I said this is really my day. I'm getting fashion advice from Barney Frank and diplomacy advice from Dave Obey. Can you imagine? Can you imagine?"

Longtime Iraq war critic Dennis Kucinich was not happy with President Barack Obama's Friday announcement about the war.

The Ohio Democratic congressman's statement:

"As one of the first Members of Congress to oppose the war in Iraq, I welcome the President’s announcement that he will withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq at the end of the year. The U.S. has spent over $806 billion on a war that was based on lies. The war in Iraq has cost the lives of over 4,421 U.S. troops and an estimated 1 million innocent Iraqis.

 "Yet today’s announcement fails to acknowledge that we will simply be replacing one U.S. occupation with another. Under the State Department’s current plans to take the place of the Department of Defense as the main U.S. force in Iraq post-military withdrawal, we are still maintaining a massive presence there, now with the State Department and its heavily armed private security contractors. And it is the presence of armed U.S. contractors that is the problem. It will continue to foment instability and violence in Iraq and the region. We need to get out now, not just trade uniforms and personnel. It is reasonable to ask whether the people of Iraq will notice any change."

By unanimous consent, the Senate confirmed former Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to be the new U.S. ambassador to China.

The usual suspects are there, of course: Madeleine Albright, Christiane Amanpour and hubby James Rubin, Supreme Court Justice Stepehen Breyer, martial arts movie star Jackie Chan, jazz legend Herbie Hancock.

But what's Lloyd Blankfein, chairman of Goldman-Sachs doing at the state dinner for the visiting Chinese chairman? Perhaps a secret investment deal for Facebook?

Read the full guest list here.

The official White House program for the dinner, with menu, can be found here.

From the office of the press secretary:

We anticipate the release of what are claimed to be several hundred thousand classified State department cables on Sunday night that detail private diplomatic discussions with foreign governments.

By its very nature, field reporting to Washington is candid and often incomplete information. It is not an expression of policy, nor does it always shape final policy decisions. Nevertheless, these cables could compromise private discussions with foreign governments and opposition leaders, and when the substance of private conversations is printed on the front pages of newspapers across the world, it can deeply impact not only US foreign policy interests, but those of our allies and friends around the world.

To be clear -- such disclosures put at risk our diplomats, intelligence professionals, and people around the world who come to the United States for assistance in promoting democracy and open government.

These documents also may include named individuals who in many cases live and work under oppressive regimes and who are trying to create more open and free societies.  President Obama supports responsible, accountable, and open government at home and around the world, but this reckless and dangerous action runs counter to that goal. By releasing stolen and classified documents, Wikileaks has put at risk not only the cause of human rights but also the lives and work of these individuals. We condemn in the strongest terms the unauthorized disclosure of classified documents and sensitive national security information.

That's the message Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair and Attorney General Eric Holder delivered to Congress this week in response to questions about how decisions were made about who among the Guantanamo detainees should be released, who should be tried and who should be held indfinitely without trial.

Depending on how you feel about the current regime of detentions, including the conclusion that "about 50" should be held indefinitely, the letter is either reassuring or frightening.

The bottom line: if any of the agencies involved in the review disagreed with the others' conclusion that someone should be released, then the individual was not put on the release list. That means the veto power on release was held by the agency that most wanted to keep detainees indefinitely.

"The Review Panel made disposition determinations only by unanimous agreement," Blair and Holder wrote the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence committees in a letter dated March 17. "[N]o determinations were made over the objection of any of the six agencies," who were identified in the letter as the departments of Justice, State, Defense and Homeland Security, plus the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Those who participated in the deliberations came from the CIA, the National Counter Terrorism Center, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the FBI. There were federal prosecutors, State Department analysts, military officers and military prosecutors. One hundred federal employees served on the task force over its lifetime. Decisions were made by senior officials and when there was a disagreement, it went to the principals, meaning the secretaries of the departments and the heads of the agencies, for a decison.

The Director of National Intelligence agreed with the recommended disposition of each of the 240 detainees subject to the review, including the more than half of the detainees the group concluded ought to be released or transferred to other countries.

Sounds like a very thorough process. Until you remember that the Justice Department and the Defense Department, relying on evidence gathered in part by the Intelligence Community, have fought to keep at least 33 detainees at Guantanamo in instances where federal court judges later found there was no evidence to hold them. The case of Fouad al Rabia, the 50-year-old fat Kuwaiti Airlines employee who was held for years even though his own interrogators didn't believe his tortured confession, should give pause to anyone willing to rely on evidence gleaned from intelligence sources. It's worth reading District Judge Collen Kollar Kotelly's opinion in the case to see one arbiter's opinion of the quality of the evidence in one case.

For a look at Holder and Blair's letter, click here.

Al Haig died in Baltimore today, succumbing to an infection that had kept him hospitalized since Jan. 28.

The adviser to three presidents was President Richard Nixon's chief of staff during Watergate and is largely considered to have been president in everything but name as Nixon's administration crumbled. Bob Woodward reported in Shadow that Haig negotiated the deal that led to Nixon's resignation in exchange for a pardon from Ford.

He also famously asserted that he "was in control" at the White House after President Reagan, whom Haig served as secretary of state, was shot outside at the Washington Hilton. That of course was untrue, at least as legal theory; the secretary of state was well down the list of succession. But Haig was the face of continuity for American television viewers in the moments after the assassination attempt.

He ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1988, then withdrew to back Bob Dole, who lost the race to the first President Bush, who'd been Reagan's vice-president.

You can read The New York Times obit here.

The White House has released this photo of Obama meeting this morning with the Dalai Lama.

The meeting, which Obama postponed last year so as not to anger China, began at approximately 11:21 a.m. and ended at approximately 12:31 p.m. White House officials present were Valerie Jarrett, Jeff Bader (senior director for Asian Affairs, National Security Council) and Evan Medeiros (director for Asian Affairs, National Security Council).

Here's what White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said about the meeting:

“The President met this morning at the White House with His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama. The President stated his strong support for the preservation of Tibet’s unique religious, cultural and linguistic identity and the protection of human rights for Tibetans in the People’s Republic of China. The President commended the Dalai Lama’s 'Middle Way' approach, his commitment to nonviolence and his pursuit of dialogue with the Chinese government. The President stressed that he has consistently encouraged both sides to engage in direct dialogue to resolve differences and was pleased to hear about the recent resumption of talks. The President and the Dalai Lama agreed on the importance of a positive and cooperative relationship between the United States and China.”

Later, the Dalai Lama held his own news conference — outdoors at the Park Hyatt Hotel near the White House. The Dalai Lama wore only his traditional robe, so his arms and head were bare in the 40-degree weather, McClatchy's Margaret Talev reports.

In addition to Tibet and China, the Dalai Lama said that he and the president talked about Lincoln, Martin Luther King and Obama's role as the first non-white to hold the presidency. They also discussed the importance of religious harmony and freedom and agreed that "females are more sensitive about others' pain and suffering."

Asked about China's likely reaction to the meeting, the Dalai Lama said he expected there would be criticism and some "scolding." Then he laughed.

"Fifty years have passed," he said, referring to his exile. "We never give up our hope."

Traveling in Africa, America's top diplomat, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, has raised eyebrows for remarks she made about elections in Nigeria.

Clinton tried to push the message that embracing violence is never the answer, ABC News reported. But it was her reference to the disputed 2000 presidential election -- and Florida's role -- that drew attention.

"Our democracy is still evolving," ABC reported her as saying. "You know we've had all kinds of problems in some of our past elections as you might remember. In 2000, our presidential election came down to one state where the brother of the man running for president was the governor of the state, so we have our problems, too."

That former governor, Florida's Jeb Bush, told ABC he was "declining to weigh in on these ill-advised comments: "But wishes Secretary Clinton a safe and successful trip."

The Obama administration's penchant for background briefings took a little hit at today's State Department briefing.

It began when State Department spokesman Ian Kelly noted there would be a conference call this afternoon with State and Treasury officials to talk about the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue now being held in DC.

The call, Kelly said, would be "on background" -- meaning no names, no identities. Noting that the Chinese officials who were conducting a similar briefing planned to do so on the record, a reporter asked Kelly "which country is more open and transparent?"

The spokesman said he'd take the concerns "on board and I’ll see what we can do."

"I hope you do," the reporter retorted. "Because I think you should be embarrassed, actually."

UPDATE: The actual conference call was held on the record.