Corridors of Power: Gadhafi’s Charm Offensive, Popes and Presidents, and More

GADHAFI REACHES OUT -- In recent days, Washington has been the target of a mini-media blitz by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, including an op-ed piece in the New York Times and a video conference with Georgetown University students. The advertised purpose of both was to push Gadhafi's idea of a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian impasse, which he calls Isratine. But as commentator Dana Moss points out in the Guardian this week, the quirky Libyan leader is reaching out to the Obama administration "using his stance towards Israel as bait."

According to a Libyan source in Tripoli, Gadhafi is disappointed with the pace of improving relations with the United States. He has hired a top New York public relations firm to get things moving, and to raise his own profile as a player in the international arena. Expect him in New York for the U.N. General Assembly in September, says the source.

Meanwhile, a less militant stance towards his former nemesis Israel must have seemed like a good way to gain Washington's attention, but a shared state with the Palestinians was as far as he could go. Demography would eventually take care of the Israelis anyway.