"An e-mail went out last week to government agencies to get working on a project to lay out 'THE BUSH RECORD,'" reports Al Kamen. The e-mail tells agencies to "provide a one or two paragraph summary on the overarching communications strategy for your Department," listing any plans to produce "a document listing your Department's major accomplishments over the past eight years, a video of Department successes, etc." It also asks agencies to categorize accomplishments as one of the "three main themes of 'Kept America Safe & Promoted Liberty Abroad,' 'Lowered Taxes & Reformed Government,' and 'Stood on Principle / Tackled Tough Issues / Showed the Way Ahead.'" Asked for comment, White House spokesperson Tony Fratto said it's "only natural to collect data" to help reporters writing retrospectives on the George W. Bush administration. Otherwise, the public may not be aware that "minority education test scores went up or that teenage drug use is down 18 percent," he added. Kamen concludes, "Looks like a pretty big PR blitz."

The defunct $10,000 billThe insurance company American International Group (AIG), which "vowed to temper spending after hosting a conference at a California resort amid a federal bailout," belatedly canceled "a similar event planned for next week at a $400-a-night hotel." The U.S. government loaned AIG $85 billion in September and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York just loaned the company another $37.8 billion, to "replenish liquidity." Members of Congress harshly criticized AIG's earlier luxury conference, which cost $440,000. Before AIG canceled its more recent event, it considered buying ads to explain that such conferences are necessary to "motivate and educate" independent agents selling AIG coverage. But AIG's public relations consultant, George Sard, warned against the move. Sard, who heads the PR firm Sard Verbinnen & Co., emailed that "to spend the taxpayer's money on an expensive ad campaign to apologize for how you used taxpayer money leaves you open to further attacks." However, Sard mistakenly sent his advice to a Bloomberg reporter.