We try to report on all the comings and goings of homeland security hottie Frances Townsend — her Situation Room appearances, her bird flu briefings, etc. MORE »

Live, in The Situation Room: MORE »

You can’t believe how excited we were to read this speculation, at Firedoglake: MORE »

Earlier this afternoon, homeland security hottie Frances Townsend graced our television screens, to outline federal government preparations for a possible outbreak of pandemic flu. We were alerted to this development when our traffic spiked, due to Google searches for “frances townsend” and “frances townsend pics.”

The Times offers this account of the federal plan:

Although the federal government will stockpile 75 million doses of antiviral drugs and 20 million doses of vaccine to combat any outbreak of pandemic flu, local governments and individual communities will have to shoulder most of the burden in battling the disease, the White House said today.

Translation: “Good luck, kids, you’re on your own! This is not going to be another Hurricane Katrina, where the federal government gets blamed for everything. Fault your state and local governments instead.”

After the jump, a few more comments on the federal plan (such as it may be).

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…mostly because the response was so unthrilling. Here’s the passage, from yet another SHAKE-UP-A-THON ‘06 story:

“It’s really weird right now,” says another senior White House official who likewise asked for anonymity. “People are worried about their jobs.”

Three of you responded. Two of you with “George W. Bush.” Here’s the more substantial guess:

The key to this is the phrase “senior White House official”. Some reporters will use this to describe the cleaning staff if they think it makes their story sound good, however, it usually applies to the President, VP, or an official who is titled as an “Assistant to the President”. Deputy Assistants and Special Assistants are usually “White House officials” or “Administration officials”.

Who is an “Assistant to the President”? … [It] can vary as the President wishes but the following is a pretty good first cut: Chief of Staff, VP’s Chief of Staff, Deputy Chiefs of Staff, National Security Advisor and his deputy, communication director, press secretary, staff secretary, head speechwriter, White House Counsel, director of personnel, and advisers for domestic policy and homeland security.

I am fairly certain Bush and Cheney are not going to fire themselves. Let’s also assume that Josh Bolten is not going to fire himself, that Joel Kaplan is not complaining about a promotion, and that no one can fire Karl Rove. The press secretary can’t be worried about getting fired since he already got the boot. Given all that, as Wonkette first postulated, Miers is a good guess. However, I’ll go with Frances Townsend, the homeland security adviser. This is in keeping with my desire to see the hot chicks in the administration get more blog exposure, not due to any actual knowledge.

And hey, we’ll drink to that. If you have another, better guess, go ahead and send it our way, though no guarantee we’ll still care tomorrow. The other two responses, cheeky though they are, after the jump.

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We’ve been blogging about the White House homeland security adviser, Frances Fragos Townsend, quite a bit lately. Readers have offered impassioned arguments for and against her physical attractiveness — just the kind of robust debate about important issues that we are here to foster. (The latest reader rave about Townsend: “Fran a man? If so, then I am coming out! Lipless? Who are these evil doers? Fran has lips sweet enough to kiss. To nibble…to love.”)

But we realize that some of you may be getting Fran Townsend fatigue. So after this post, we’ll move on to other subjects. We just wanted to share two tidbits with you before doing so — after the jump, for those of you who share our interest in this homeland security hottie.

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After we professed our admiration for White House homeland security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend, we received a number of conflicting reader opinions about her. This reader strongly agreed with us: MORE »

Today the White House issued a hefty, 228-page report identifying some of the many failures in the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina. The report was submitted to President Bush by his homeland security adviser, Frances Fragos Townsend. MORE »

• White House shuffles list of possible successors to Sandra Day O’Connor; intention is to find nominee who will survive confirmation fight. Specter: “I think that there’s been a lot frustration on this one, and it’s been commented upon very broadly and I think that frustration may well be vented on the next nominee.” [NYT]
• Administration’s former lead federal procurement official arrested for allegedly lying and obstructing the investigation of Jack Abramoff. [WP, NYT]
• Administration’s nominee to head the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is faulted for having nominal experience. [WP]
• Domestic Security Advisor Frances Townsend will oversee the White House inquiry of the administration’s response to Katrina. [NYT]
• Al Qaeda takes credit for London bombings. Zawahri: “The blessed London attack was one which al Qaeda was honored to launch against the British Crusader’s arrogance and against the American Crusader aggression on the Islamic nation for 100 years.” [WP]
• Approval of Bush remains at 40% in USAT/Gallup poll; a record 66% of independents disapprove. [USAT]

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