One of the more tantalizing mini-stories leading up to the inauguration is why wasn't President-elect Barack Obama's family able to stay in the official state guest house, a 70,000-square-foot, 119-room mansion across the street from the White House in the run-up to the festivities, so that his children could acclimate themselves to life in the Washington DC fishbowl as they start at their new school, Sidwell Friends. Media organizations as varied as Sydney Morning Herald and The Times Online to Rachel Maddow's MSNBC talk show have followed the story with rapt attention (as have I), inquiring as to who might be the mystery guest that caused the Obama family to stay in a luxurious suite at the Hay-Adams instead of on the grounds of his future residence. Who could be so important as to bump the next POTUS? The Washington Post has the answer:

"The only overnight visitor at the presidential guest manse is none other than John Howard, a former Australian prime minister and leading member of President Bush's coalition of the willing in Iraq.

"Howard and his entourage will be bunking at Blair House on Jan. 12, the night before he, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe are to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Bush, said Sally McDonough, a spokeswoman for first lady Laura Bush. The three current and former heads of state are longtime political allies of Bush, and Blair and Howard were key partners in the U.S.-led war in Iraq."

This news morsel in the run-up to the inauguration is even getting coverage Down Under. Howard, who has run up $257,864 in taxpayer-funded bills for travel and other expenses since leaving office, has announced that he will be picking up his own tab on his trip abroad to the states. Curiously, former Prime Minister Howard and President-elect Obama have tussled once before. Howard, an ally of exiting President Bush, interjected himself into the 2008 election in favor of the Republicans. Last year, the day after Obama announced his candidacy, Howard suggested that Al Qaeda "would put a circle around March 2008 and be praying as many times as possible for a victory not only for Obama but also for the Democrats." Obama, who during the campaign sharply compared Hillary Clinton to Annie Oakley when she corralled him into a corner on gun-conrol, replied to Howard, "I would also note that we have close to 140,000 troops in Iraq, and my understanding is Mr. Howard has deployed 1400, so if he is ... to fight the good fight in Iraq, I would suggest that he calls up another 20,000 Australians and sends them to Iraq. Otherwise it's just a bunch of empty rhetoric."

[Image: Sydney Morning Herald]