‘Everybody knows that corruption thrives in secret places, and avoids public places, and we believe it a fair presumption that secrecy means impropriety.’ Although this observation came from President Woodrow Wilson, former Nixon White House counsel John Dean recognizes the same secretive behavior in Washington these days that he saw Nixon employ to cover up the Watergate break-in’behavior that ultimately led to Nixon’s resignation 30 years ago. In his book ‘Worse Than Watergate’ (Little Brown), Dean, now 64, characterizes the Bush-Cheney administration as operating with obsessive, unjustified and disproportionate secrecy, ‘far worse than Watergate.’ While he told nearly 200 members and guests of the Palisades Democratic Club Sunday afternoon that he unabashedly calls his book a polemic’a first-person, strongly felt, and relatively brief form of discourse’he eschewed writing a diatribe. Instead, he has provided detailed documentation systematically tracking 11 potential areas of scandal’from Bush’s character issues and prior business conduct, to civil rights violations in squelching dissent and his misleading Congress regarding war with Iraq. After his White House years, which he described in his best-selling account ‘Blind Ambition,’ Dean wrote numerous books and has read deeply on the American presidency. He recently retired from a career as a private investment banker, fulfilling the promise he made to himself that ‘when I turn 60, I would turn my attention to writing.’ Perhaps the comparison Dean makes between Richard Nixon and George W. Bush is most revealing and largely unknown to the American public. ‘Bush and Nixon seem like very different personalities,’ Dean said, but then proceeded to describe many shared traits. ‘Both Nixon and Bush invested greatly in projecting carefully crafted public images. Nixon appeared the master of extemporaneous speaking, when in fact such talks were the product of great diligence, for he had all but memorized his material.’ Bush, he suggests, is not as intellectually handicapped and inarticulate as many think. ‘Bush is ignorant by design, not stupid. He is not a particularly good speaker, but has gotten better at reading the teleprompter.’ Dean notes that both men learned from other presidents how to do (Continued on Page 5) the job’Nixon from President Eisenhower, Bush from his father. ‘But neither of them quite fills the shoes of the men they learned from and are rather uncomfortable in the job, which explains the secrecy and attention to image.’ Each of these men also politicized the office, bringing a posse of advisors in media manipulation with them into the White House and running ‘a perpetual campaign.’ But it is the issue of secrecy that has even more serious consequences, according to Dean. ‘No president can govern in a fishbowl, but there is a difference between privacy and secrecy, and with Bush and Cheney there has been intentional concealment, beginning with their backgrounds. Dick Cheney and George Bush would have trouble passing a full-fledged FBI investigation to work in the White House,’ each having taken their past personal and business life off the table. Each man brought a lot of baggage that the media decided to ignore, Dean said. To achieve secrecy, it is necessary to control all means of communication both in and out of the White House, something the current administration managed from the outset, Dean said. ‘They have shrink-wrapped the White House, which operates on a need-to-know basis. ‘I would have expected the Fourth Estate to jump in and dig some of this out. It has happened in the prisoner scandal [Abu Ghraib and Guant’namo], but nowhere else.’ Dean asserts that at no time in our history has the vice president held so much power, stating that Cheney has even set up a shadow National Security Council, equipped with a staff of experienced national security experts, which is part of the Executive Office of the President with zero accountability. Cheney dismays Dean, whom he calls ‘a man with a dark view of human kind and a distressingly secretive man by nature.’ He questions the legality of his relationship with the oilfield service company Halliburton, which he served as chief executive officer before becoming vice president, and wonders about the stability of his health. A registered Independent, Dean told the highly partisan group that he is a social liberal and a fiscal conservative but since the beginning of 2004 has become ‘an outspoken critic of George W. Bush,’ who ‘worries about the safety of our Constitution.’ He writes: ‘My goal is to raise several important, if not critical, issues now being hidden from the public and place them on top of the table of public discussion.’

By MARIE-CLAUDE HAMEL Palisadian-Post Contributor When Palisadians Shirene Miller and Mike Robinson got married in 2003, adopting a child was a desire they both naturally shared. Although the simple dream of having a family may seem like an easy goal to achieve, Robinson and Miller knew that for many children, this hope remains beyond reach. Now turning their dream into reality, 10-year-old Nikolay is joining the Miller-Robinson family, finally completing the circle they say they all so wanted in their lives. Miller and Robinson, longtime Palisades residents who met two years ago and were married 11 months later, viewed adoption as a wonderful way to have a family. For them, looking to another country for adoption was a logical choice. ‘If you think about how fortunate we are here and that we had the opportunity to give a child a family’it seemed like such a wonderful way to get to have a family,’ Miller says. Considering that there are millions of children around the world who live in orphanages or are shuffled through the foster care system, Nikolay from Kazakhstan was one of the lucky ones. Nicknamed Kolya, he’s ‘sensitive, analytical and enjoys taking things apart and putting them back together,’ Robinson says. Sponsored by Kidsave International’s Summer Miracles program, this little boy was one of about 180 children who were selected to come to the United States this summer in the hope of getting adopted by a loving family. Kidsave, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that reaches out to older orphans between the ages of 5 and 15 from Russia, Kazakhstan and Colombia, provides a chance for these children to experience family life and hopefully find the right match. Miller and Robinson are hosting both Nikolay and another boy from Kazakhstan, 7-year-old Marat, at their Via Bluffs home. The two boys, who arrived July 6, have enjoyed Movies in the Park on Saturday nights, the Sunday farmers market, hiking in Temescal Canyon and outings to the beach. Although the couple would love to also adopt Marat, Miller says that she was afraid that two children would be too great a responsibility to take all at once. She is hoping that the little boy, whom she describes as very intelligent, engaging and active, will be able to find a loving family to adopt him. Robinson, an executive for an aerospace firm, describes Marat as ‘energetic, musical and a very happy boy.’ For many of these Kidsave youngsters, the feeling of a real family is something they have never previously experienced. ‘Although some of these children are true orphans, most of them are social orphans, which means that their parents could not take care of them,’ says Liz Zeigler, program assistant for Summer Miracles. She adds that in certain countries, when children are abused or neglected by their parents they are often placed by the state in an orphanage after the parental rights have been removed. Since 1999, more than 1,000 of those children have been sponsored by Kidsave and brought to the United States for its Summer Miracles’ six-week program, which gives the child the experience of a family life but also has the ultimate goal of adoption. Zeigler, however emphasizes that Kidsave is careful about not giving the children an expectation to be adopted, therefore minimizing the risk of psychological stress if no match is found for a particular child. After placing the children with various host families in the U. S., Kidsave then actively tries to make a match between children and families, understanding the fact that every child will have different needs and may not be adequately matched with a host family to begin with. Although this sometimes occur, according to Zeigler, more than 90 percent of the children in the summer program find permanent families in the U. S. Miller explains that the children who are sent back to their country without having found an adoptive family receive the help of psychologists and therapists when they return home and participate in programs that allow them to perform better in society than most children who are brought up in an institution. ‘They are learning skills that they may not be able to learn in an orphanage, allowing them a chance at a better future,’ Miller says. But the parting is not an easy one, especially for the adults. ‘It’s often harder on the host families. [The children] miss their caretakers back home and are often looking forward to seeing their friends again. But the real young ones and the older ones are sadder.’ Miller adds that even if they find an adoptive family, each child must go back to their country of origin until the adoption has officially been approved, and cannot stay in the United States past the six-week program period. In order to enhance the chances of adoption, Miller, who with her husband hosted a little girl named Tanya last summer, stresses that the process of being a host family is crucial to finding out more about the child and the dynamic needed for a good match. ‘On weekends we have events where [the children] can get to meet other families. The kids get to also see each other and interact.’ Although the match was not ideal for the Miller-Robinson family and little Tanya, she was eventually adopted by a family in Moscow, Idaho, who already had a daughter. Miller says that Tanya had always wanted a sister and found herself right at home with her adoptive family. Little Marat and 28 other children between the ages of 5 and 14 hosted in Southern California have not yet found a home. With the August 16 deadline approaching, Miller, who is now a full-time employee at Kidsave’s West L.A. office, says she hopes that families interested in adopting a child will step forward and take action. ‘There is still time for people to get involved.’ Kidsave has also established a Summer and Winter Miracles programs in Russia to help children find families and long-term mentor relationships in their own countries. The organization is in the process of establishing similar programs in Kazakhstan and Colombia. Kidsave has also launched a Weekend Miracles program in the U.S. for children in the foster care system in Fairfax County, Virginia. ‘We are developing Weekend Miracles programs in three other U.S. cities, including Los Angeles,’ Miller says. If you are interested in adopting a child or if you wish to donate time or money to Kidsave, you may call 479-5437 or visit their Web site at www.kidsave.org

1954: Sue and Tom Haldeman

Edited by LAURA WITSENHAUSEN Associate Editor Sue Fenton and Tom Haldeman met as students at USC. ‘He sat in back of me in one of my classes junior year,’ Sue recalls. Both of them had grown up locally’Tom in Beverly Hills and Sue in Cheviot Hills. Haldeman Road in Rustic Canyon was named after Tom’s grandfather, Harry Haldeman, a founding member of the Uplifters, whose summer house still remains. After Sue graduated with a degree in education and Tom with a degree in business, they were married on August 20, 1954 at the Westwood Christian Church. Two months later, Tom was called up to serve in the Navy overseas. Sue moved back to her parents’ home in Playa del Rey during these two years and taught school. After Tom finished his Naval service, the couple lived in Baldwin Hills for five years, then moved to Brentwood. Sue continued to teach, and after the couple had their first child, she became a substitute teacher until their second child was born, at which point she stayed home full-time. Meanwhile, Tom worked at Haldeman, Inc., the heating and air conditioning business started by his father, and now run by the couple’s son-in-law, Mark O’Donnell. The Haldemans moved to Pacific Palisades in 1967 with their four children and Tom began volunteering at the Palisades-Malibu YMCA, was active in the Huntington Palisades neighborhood and worked with the Salvation Army. Sue volunteered with the Junior League and in the public schools. When their youngest daughter was in seventh grade, Sue returned to school and obtained her master’s in psychology and her psychotherapy license. She worked as a psychotherapist at the Southern California Counseling Center near Fairfax and Pico and volunteered with OPICA (Older People in a Caring Atmosphere) in West L.A. The couple took up golf 10 years ago, and now enjoy the game when they visit their home at the Ironwood Country Club in Palm Desert. Sue, who is retired, plays bridge and started a book club. Tom still goes to the office every day at Haldeman, Inc. in the City of Industry when they’re in town. ‘The greatest pleasure is that three of our four children live close by,’ Sue says. Lauren Haldeman O’Donnell, her husband Mark and their children Patrick and Katherine, along with Tim Haldeman and his wife Tammy and their children, Austin and Allison, are still residents of the Palisades. Melissa Haldeman Mullin lives in Santa Monica with her husband Charlie and their children, Marley and Zade. Carolyn Haldeman Hansen lives in Chicago with her husband Art and boys, Christopher and Thomas. ‘My parents feel very fortunate to have lived in the Palisades and to have raised their children in such a lovely town,’ says Lauren O’Donnell. Asked about the success of their marriage, Sue says: ‘I attribute it to having gone back to school and studied psychology and learned about human nature’realizing we all have our strengths and weaknesses and learning to appreciate them in ourselves and other people.’ Their son, Tim, will be hosting a 50th anniversary party at his home in the Palisades this month.