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For nearly half a century, Johnie Webb, the outgoing head of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Command in Honolulu, has helped thousands of soldiers' families recover the remains of their loved ones who died at war. | Photos by Misty Keasler/Redux Pictures for POLITICO | If you're a close relative of one of the approximately 110,000 U.S. servicemembers who are missing, you might just know Johnie Webb. For almost half a century, the tall, mustachioed Texan has been the heart and soul of the Pentagon's effort to bring some kind of closure to families whose loved ones were taken prisoner, killed in action or buried in an unknown grave and never given a proper homecoming. His team, built at what is now the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, has located and identified more than 3,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines — servicemembers from across time, who served in World War II, Vietnam, Korea, Iraq — and returned them to their families for proper burial. And he's performed his duties with a deeply personal approach, often crisscrossing the country to update family members face-to-face. Now, after decades of service, Webb has finally retired, stepping down from his HQ at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu, where the facility he helped build has become one of the most advanced forensics labs in the world. In this intimate profile of Webb, Bryan Bender looks back on his fascinating career and shows us the deep impact he's had on so many lives. He even introduced a couple that later married; they met after Webb reunited each of them separately with the remains of their lost fathers. "No one, no one deserves more credit for making the POW/MIA issue a national one," says Dr. Thomas Holland, who has also been part of the recovery effort for decades. "Thousands of men have come home to their families because of him. That is as good and sound a legacy as any man can hope to have." Read the story.
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| "He's nutty as a fruitcake. I called him a bunny boiler. I don't know if you've seen Fatal Attraction, but there are people like that out there." Can you guess who said this about Rep. George Santos? Scroll to the bottom for the answer.** | | | | 
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This month's announcement that White House chief of staff Ron Klain would depart seemed to sound the starting gun on the period when insiders naturally start contemplating life on the outside. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images | The White House Talent Pool … At the end of the Trump administration, it seemed for a moment as if America's charged political environment had killed the bipartisan tradition of sucking administration officials up into the private sector. Big-wigs had trouble landing high-profile post-government jobs, and activists set about making some of them unhireable. Not anymore. These days, a good spot on Biden's team can get you a cushy, multi-million-dollar private sector gig, writes Michael Schaffer in this week's Capital City column. "It turns out that once you remove the headlines about racism, the keystone-cops spectacles, and the constant public outrage, the revolving door will still spin just fine, thank you."
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| The fight over the "debt limit" will likely make Washington's top headlines for another six months — maybe longer. Feeling lost in all the talk about the deficit, the market for Treasury bonds and the vague warnings of financial Armageddon? Take a moment to get up to speed. (From POLITICO's Zach Warmbrodt) — To pay its bills, the U.S. takes on debt, selling bonds to investors who are eager to buy them because the federal government is typically the most trustworthy borrower in the world. Congress sets a limit on how much the U.S. can borrow, and the government hit the cap on Jan. 19. House Republicans and President Biden are at odds over how to raise it again. — How's the government still functioning, then? The Treasury Department has started using accounting maneuvers known as "extraordinary measures" to buy time until Congress reaches a deal. In this case, it's suspended investments in certain government retirement accounts as a temporary way to preserve funds. — Pay attention to the "X date" — Treasury's drop-dead deadline for Congress to raise the debt ceiling before there's simply not enough cash to pay the bills. Early unofficial projections put it sometime around the middle of the year or later into the summer. If we cross the X date, the U.S. risks a global financial market crash. — You may have heard of "minting the coin," in which the U.S. would simply mint a trillion-dollar platinum coin to pay the bills. That probably won't happen because of the legal and economic uncertainties it would create. The most likely alternative, which is untested, likely disruptive and only a temporary crutch, is for Treasury to use what cash it has to prioritize paying its bondholders — ideally avoiding a global financial crash — while not paying everyone else, which could damage the U.S. economy.
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In his new book, author Bradley Onishi traces the rise of the white Christian nationalism that was on display on Jan. 6, when some Trump supporters brought crosses like this one to the Capitol. | Mike Theiler/Reuters, via Redux | Straight White American Jesus … Bradley Onishi, a faculty member at the University of San Francisco and host of the popular podcast "Straight White American Jesus," had a terrible thought when he saw rioters sacking the Capitol on Jan. 6: Could I have been there? A former evangelical, Onishi wasn't at all surprised to see crucifixes and statues of Christ among the rioters. In his new book, Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism — and What Comes Next, he examines the ways theology and far-right politics have coalesced into a radical ideology that high-profile lawmakers like Marjorie Taylor Greene have embraced. He spoke with Ian Ward about what sets this apart from your grandfather's religious conservatism. "There is a real sense [among white Christian nationalists] that the apocalypse is coming for this country if [they] don't do something radical," he says.
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| 71 percent … of Republicans exercised one or more times per week in January. Democrats weren't far behind, with 68 percent working out each week.
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1975, May 31 – The East Room – The White House – Washington, DC – Susan Ford, Billy Pifer; Students, Dates, Band – dancing; formal wear – Holton Arm's Senior Prom - Susan Ford's Date | Ricardo Thomas/Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library | The Holton-Arms School for Girls scored an exclusive venue for their 1975 senior prom: the White House. President Gerald Ford's daughter Susan, a senior at the Maryland school, hosted the dance for her 74 classmates and their dates. It's the only prom to ever be held at the White House, though the president and first lady weren't in attendance. Instead, Susan's aunt Janet, who was staying with her while her parents traveled to Europe, was among the chaperones for the event. Susan assisted with the event planning, and a memo from the Ford Presidential Library reveals her efforts to get the Beach Boys to play at the dance. While the band expressed some interest in attending, they didn't make it onto the final agenda. Another memo seems to indicate the event was significantly more elevated than previous Holton-Arms proms, and not just because of the setting — the class of '75 enjoyed hors d'oeuvres like miniature quiche Lorraine and Swedish meatballs, while the previous year's prom served up cokes and potato chips.
| | | **Who Dissed answer: It was Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), who also said that if the allegations against Santos are true, "I'd boot him." Santos tweeted that he was "saddened" by the remarks: "Language like that is hurtful and divisive, and has no place in Congress." politicoweekend@email.politico.com | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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