Who's who.

• Author: Threadgill, Susan

Who will rule Iraq when the shooting stops? The Bush administration has already announced that retired Gen. day Garner will head the Pentagon's new Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance. But Garner has maintained a low profile since his appointment in February--and for good reason. Until January, he was president of SY Coleman, a defense contractor that manufactures many of the missile systems that are being fired on Iraq. Then there's Michael Mobbs, a Pentagon lawyer whom the administration has tapped to head the civil government. He is best known for drafting the so-called Mobbs Declaration, which states that the president has wide latitude to indefinitely detain American citizens alleged to be enemy combatants, without charge or counsel.

So who will be the next Norman Schwarzkopf or Wesley Clark--the telegenic general taking a star turn--of Gulf War II? Army insiders say that Lt. Gen. John P. Abizaid is a good bet. Abizaid, who holds a master's degree in Middle Eastern studies from Harvard and studied at the University of Jordan, was recently appointed top deputy to Gen. Tommy Franks, head of U.S. forces in the Gulf, and seems groomed for success--in addition to being a favorite of Donald Rumsfeld, Abizaid speaks fluent Arabic.

Will The New Republic endorse George W. Bush for president in 2004? That's what some of the magazine's long-suffering liberal readers feared after a Feb. 24 Howard Kurtz article in The Washington Post speculated that, given TNR's hawkish foreign policy views and Al Gore's decision not to run again, a Bush endorsement was "not inconceivable" But TNR insiders tell us there is "no possibility of that happening."

Much of Washington is puzzling over the mysterious behavior of Kevin J. Martin, a Republican member of the Federal Communications Commission. In February, Martin voted with Democratic members to block a major effort to "deregulate" (i.e. enhance the monopoly power of) local phone companies. The "deregulation" plan was the centerpiece of FCC Chairman Michael Powell's sweeping new agenda for the telecommunications industry. Powell--son of Colin Powell--is so infuriated that some close observers think he may resign.

So why did Martin do it? After all, he's a handpicked George W. Bush loyalist who's tight with the vice president's office--his wife, Catherine Jurgensmeyer Martin, is Dick Cheney's chief of staff. And the White House itself seemed to back the "deregulation"...