Page Two

By Josh Tyrangiel

This Is What You Call Protection?

As the novelty of margaritagate wears off, the most beguiling question to emerge from Austin is not why Jenna Bush used a fake ID in a place where literally everyone knew her name, but why the Secret Service agents hanging out at Chuy's restaurant in their Hawaiian shirts didn't do anything to stop her. According to a Secret Service source, agents have specific instructions from the President and First Lady to turn a blind eye to the collegiate high jinks of the First Daughters. "It's not our job to be substitute parents," the source says. "Our function is to keep her [Jenna] safe and secure and get her home every night." A good relationship between the Bush daughters and their minders matters, because as adults over 18, the twins can ditch their detail at any time. That means agents must take their lumps, letting misdemeanors go and trying to stay inconspicuous (which still doesn't explain the Hawaiian shirts). "If they push us away," says the source, "we can't do our job."

The Pitchers Strike Back

Indignation over the designated-hitter rule abides, but baseball traditionalists are a noticeably happier bunch these days. Through May, runs per game were down from 10.62 last season to 9.57 this season. Most of the credit is being given to better enforcement of the strike zone, but after years of looking like deer caught in Ted Nugent's backyard, pitchers are displaying a potent new weapon. "I call it the pitch of the new millennium," says ESPN baseball analyst Harold Reynolds, a former All-Star second baseman. The increasingly popular pitch is just a modified fast ball, but by putting pressure on the inside half of the ball, right-handed pitchers can aim at a left-handed hitter's body and still make it break over the plate, opposite from the movement of a curve or slider. The Atlanta Braves' Greg Maddux is the high priest of the pitch, but Reynolds estimates 30 or more hurlers are using it--with great success. "It's really deceptive," he says. "It's scaring hitters."

Giving Osama the Silent Treatment

The conviction last week of four men in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania set off hopes that the U.S. would step up its campaign to nab the bombings' mastermind, Osama bin Laden. But in the wake of the trial, a new U.S. counterterrorism tactic is on display: silence. Bush officials realize that bin Laden bashing has been counterproductive. The more the exiled Saudi millionaire is demonized by the U.S., the stronger he becomes to radicals around the world. Intelligence officials also feel that, despite a near 20% decline in anti-American terrorism incidents over the past decade, the war against terror may be unwinnable. "It's one of these phenomena we have to live with," says Bruce Hoffman of Rand, the California-based think tank. "It's the price we pay for being a superpower."

--Reported by Massimo Calabresi/Washington

With reporting by Massimo Calabresi/Washington