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After toppling Representative Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in 1970, serving 20 terms in Congress and surviving censure last year to nimbly gain his 21st, Charles B. Rangel is no pushover. But don't mess with his wife, Alma, er, Mrs. Rangel, either. Among the 500,000 pages of presidential papers released last week by the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library and Museum was a letter dated June 7, 1971, from Mr. Rangel (see also bottom of post), then a freshman congressman, to the first lady, Pat Nixon. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the vast, cool basement of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library here, Jennifer Mandel held up a hand-drawn map of the United States from the late 1970s. A Reagan campaign staff member had colored states with red and blue ink at the start of his first successful run for president. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents the statement of U.S. President George W. Bush that reflects that he reads newspapers. In 2003 Bush said in an interview with Brit Hume on Fox TV that he hardly read a newspaper. But in his final news conference of 2006 he referred about some information he got from newspaper. On commenting on the news that Vice President of the U.S. Richard B. Cheney would be called testify in the CIA leak case Bush said that he read about it in newspaper.

The article focuses on the uproar over U.S. President George W. Bush's plans to store his papers at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, drawing new attention to the role of the U.S. system of presidential libraries. The National Archives and Records Administration oversees 11 presidential libraries. The office will take up to 100 years for the papers and records at the recent presidential libraries to be processed.

This article reports on the discovery of a letter handwritten by not yet United States President George Washington to a precocious ten-year-old named Julia Kean in 1787. The letter was found hidden in a leather scrapbook started by Kean and refers to the Constitutional Convention. Theodore J. Crackel, who is the editor in chief of the The Papers of George Washington project, says it is rare to find surviving letters and certainly unusual to find one in the scrapbook of a ten-year-old.

AS we all move forward with our New Year's resolutions, it's a good time to remember the promises our politicians have been making about the American mortgage market. The Obama administration, at a conference last August on the future of housing finance, pledged to have, come January, a plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage giants that are now wards of the government. Congressional Republicans, in their recent position paper, made an even bolder resolution: to build a mortgage market that ''does not rely on government guarantees'' and ''does not make private investors and creditors wealthy while saddling taxpayers with losses.'' This latter promise is pleasing populist rhetoric. The problem is, it may be neither politically nor practically feasible. Even if we forget about the gigantic near-term problem -- namely, that the federal government is in the housing market mainly because most banks simply won't issue mortgages that can't be guaranteed by Fannie, Freddie or the Federal Housing Administration -- there's the fact that federal involvement in housing has been a constant since the 1930s. A market without government support would almost certainly involve the demise (for most of middle-class America) of that populist favorite, the low-cost 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At first glance, President Obama's policy on Iran and its illicit nuclear program is not all that different from President George W. Bush's. They both committed themselves, on paper, to sanctions and engagement. Mr. Bush, however, was never really that serious about the carrots, and he spent so much time alienating America's friends that he was never able to win broad support for the sticks: credible international sanctions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design for the George W. Bush Presidential Center at Southern Methodist University, created by Robert A. M. Stern Architects, was officially unveiled in a ceremony Wednesday, The Dallas Morning News reported. In an interview Laura Bush told The Morning News that a year was spent discussing and planning the design for a 225,000-square-foot building that will be home to Mr. Bush's presidential papers, as well as a museum and a policy institute. ''We did not want this to be monumental like some other libraries are,'' Mrs. Bush said. ''We're very aware that the presidents are men. They are people. We wanted it to be human in scale.'' Mr. Stern said the building, which is scheduled to have its groundbreaking next year, was not designed to reflect on Mr. Bush personally. ''It's not a portrait or a defense of his policies,'' Mr. Stern told The Morning News. ''It is about the presidency, the dignity of the office.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

On Thursday morning, the president's wooden desk gleamed, bare except for a dark portfolio opened to two sheets of paper. Barack Obama glanced down and signed his name. ''There we go,'' Mr. Obama said. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It's time to remind President Bush as he leaves office that his White House records are not his personal property. They belong to the nation. The Presidential Records Act made that the law of the land after the Watergate scandal. Showing disturbing forethought, Mr. Bush signed an executive order in his first year, effectively decreeing that a sitting or former president can withhold his papers indefinitely. Congress is moving to strike down the Bush order. The House has overwhelmingly approved a corrective measure that has a good chance in the Senate. If there's any delay, we urge President-elect Barack Obama to issue his own executive order restoring the Presidential Records Act as soon as he enters the White House. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Just when Democrats thought it was time to triumphantly claim hard-won administration appointments, Team Obama has created a vetting process worthy of aspirants for political sainthood. Applicants are being required to spill the most detailed personal beans about their lives, families and finances in a seven-page, 63-question grilling that covers everything from paper trails to confessional revelations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Bush administration's quest for a deal with Iraq that would formally authorize an unlimited American troop presence there well beyond President Bush's tenure appears to be unraveling. The irony is that it may be a victim of the administration's successes in the war. Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq and his senior aides are now openly demanding a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops, at least on paper. That is partly a nod to Iraqi political realities, since Iraqi politicians must call for the end of American occupation. No one in Iraq realistically expects to throw out the Americans anytime soon -- and few in Iraq believe that it would be safe to do so immediately. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article comments on an executive order drafted by U.S. attorney general Alberto R. Gonzales, which was related to the public access of presidential papers as per the Presidential Records Act of 1978. It is stated that the order made it difficult for historians and public to gain access to the official records of a former U.S. president. However, it is stated that the U.S. House and Senate revoked the executive order's cumbersome rules.

The article presents the author's comment about U.S. President George W. Bush's plans to build a presidential library at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. The author views that the university should accept the papers and build the library and school. Bush is one of the most controversial presidents, however, in one of the most difficult of times.

Focuses on the job of Joe Haggin as the deputy chief of staff of U.S. President George W. Bush. His family background; Involvement in various activities of the president; His responsibilities as in charge of paper floe to and from the office; Evaluation of the activities of the president.