Gathering for Ideas

It's almost time once again for the annual gathering that is the Aspen Ideas Festival.

A partial list of those planning to attend this summer was released this week and it's possible to group the speakers into several categories.

While we're glad everyone on the list is coming to Aspen, the first group might be called by some “Surely You Have More Important Things To Do Than Come to Aspen, Even If It Is Fourth-of-July Week.”

In this group, you'll find Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the chief of staff of the United States Army, Eric Holder, the attorney general of the United States, Peter Orszag, the director of White House Office of Management and Budget, and James Steinberg, a US Deputy Secretary of State.

Another group this year kind of sticks out. The Aspen Institute, which puts on the event, seems to have to invited more red-blooded Republicans than in years past.

This category of attendees could be called “Least Likely to Normally Be Found Relaxing In The Democratic Outpost That is Aspen.”

The group includes Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, Haley Barbour, the governor of Mississippi, Fred Barnes, the executive editor of The Weekly Standard and host of Fox News’s “Beltway Boys,” Thomas Donohue, the president and CEO of the US Chamber of Commerce, and Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee.

The third group includes "Media Heavyweights on Vacation." It's a long list, and includes Bob Schieffer, the moderator of “Face The Nation” and chief Washington correspondent for CBS News, Martha Raddatz, a senior foreign affairs correspondent for ABC News, Tavis Smiley, the host of PRI’s “The Tavis Smiley Show,” David Sanger, the chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times, Kai Ryssdal, the host of American Public Media’s “Marketplace,” and Charlayne Hunter-Gault, a foreign correspondent with National Public Radio.

It also includes Tom Friedman, a columnist for The New York Times, E.J. Dionne Jr., a columnist for The Washington Post, Elisabeth Bumiller, the pentagon correspondent for The New York Times, Maria Bartiromo, the anchor of CNBC’s “Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo,” Peggy Noonan, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, Tom Gjelten, the national security and intelligence correspondent for NPR, and Andrea Mitchell, the chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News and the host of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports."

And the media list includes Nicholas Kristof, a columnist for The New York Times, Pattie Sellers, an editor at Fortune, Michael Gerson, a columnist at The Washington Post, Jeffrey Brown, a senior correspondent for “PBS NewsHour, ” Vijay Vaitheeswaran, a global correspondent for The Economist, and Vivian Schiller, the president and CEO of National Public Radio.

If news breaks that week in Aspen, we'll be covered.

There are also some new media types coming, including Evan Williams and Biz Stone, the co-founders of Twitter. Also coming is Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist.org, who newspaper executives love to blame, in part, for the loss of classified ad revenue from newspapers. Put them in the category of "Most Likely To Be Doing Some Aspen House-Hunting On The Side."

Rounding out the affair are some big names from the category of "General Wealth, Power and Influence," including Jeffrey Katzenberg, the CEO of DreamWorks Animation, Bill Gates, attorneys David Boies and Ted Olson, Bill Clinton, Sandra Day O'Connor, Henry Louis Gates, Jr, and Alan Greenspan. Stay tuned for "General Wealth, Power and Influence: Audience Division."

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