Who's who.

• Author: Glastris, Paul
• Position: War on terrorism

Those who have lost family members to terrorism often speak of the frustration and powerlessness they feel at not being able to do anything personally to help bring the guilty to justice. This is one emotion that perhaps Solicitor General Theodore Olson has been spared. Ever since his wife, conservative commentator Barbara Olson, was killed in the jet that crashed into the Pentagon Sept. 11, Olson, the Bush administration's top lawyer, has been one of the driving forces behind tougher anti-terrorism laws, including the new executive order requiring military trials for suspected terrorists.

Postmaster General John Potter drew a hail of criticism for his lax response to the anthrax contamination that swept post offices. If George W. Bush is inclined to replace him, he might consider National Journal publisher David Bradley. Bradley was so spooked by anthrax that he arranged for two physicians to hold open hours for National Journal staffers, convinced Dr. David Parenti, director of infectious disease at George Washington Hospital, to be on call, and set up an email address for worried staffers to send questions: drquestions@nationaljournal.com. Bradley is also hoping to team up with The Washington Post, NPR and NBC News to irradiate the magazine's mail.

James Dobbins is sort of the Mr. Cleanup of American diplomacy. The career foreign service officer was tapped by the Clinton administration for such thankless jobs as extricating the U.S. from Somalia in 1994 and overseeing peace operations in Haiti and Kosovo. Two years ago, Capitol Hill conservatives, eager to upend Clinton's Kosovo policy, accused Dobbins of lying to Congress regarding his knowledge of investigations into a politically motivated killing in Haiti. Former Clinton administration officials say the charge was bogus and that Dobbins is a first-rate diplomat. The Bush administration seems to agree. Dobbins is now the new U.S. envoy to the fractious Afghan opposition, responsible for pulling together a new government.

Speaking of thankless jobs, consider the new position that former Montana Governor Marc Racicot now has in the Bush administration: special envoy to Canada for soft lumber. This is the same Marc Racicot who is a longtime Bush buddy and was thought to be a shoe-in for attorney general last winter, until right-wingers decided he was too liberal and convinced Bush to choose John Ashroft. As it happens, the soft lumber job, while not prestigious, is actually pretty...