At the White House briefing today, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked about news reports that the British government was not exactly thrilled to be in the dark about the decision to transfer four Chinese Muslim prisoners, known as Uighurs, from Guantanamo Bay to Bermuda this week. The Brits have told Bermuda, one of its territories, that they should have been consulted first, and the issue looks to also be causing drama between the U.S. and folks at 10 Downing Street. “They’re pissed,” an unnamed State Department official told ABC News yesterday. At the briefing, Gibbs was asked about the quote, which turned into a lot of talk about who was "pissed" at who:

Q: How do you respond to the charge that in the hurry to make the president's deadline of closing Guantanamo within a year some decisions are being made without proper consultation? A senior State Department official yesterday said that the British government was, quote-unquote, "pissed" that they had not been consulted about Uighurs going to Bermuda.

GIBBS: I think they were -- if I'm not mistaken, and I don't want to parse the word "pissed," but I think they...

(LAUGHTER)

Q:  It was your administration's word, not mine.

GIBBS: All right. But I -- I think if I read most of those stories correctly, they were not pleased with the government of Bermuda.

Q: They were pissed at the Obama administration is what we have been told by the State Department.

(CROSSTALK)

GIBBS: Well, maybe I misread many of the stories, but...

Q: Maybe they were pissed at both of them.

Long story short, Gibbs defended the administration's handling of the Uighurs, insisting that no "hasty decisions" are being made about GITMO.

So Denzel Washington was on Letterman last night, where the subject of Barack Obama, the movie, came up. As you can see in the video above, Washington put his thumbs behind his ears and pushed them forward, mimicking Obama’s more prominent ears. Denzel! “Now I’m in trouble with the president,” he joked. We doubt it. As New York Magazine notes, Obama has led the way in making fun of his big ears, thus making it cool for everybody else to do so. They’ve put together a helpful video and photo slideshow titled, you guessed it, “Barack Obama’s Ears: A History.” Until now, your Gaggler didn't realize that Obama sort of has a complex about his ears. There's video of Obama talking about how his wife, Michelle, keeps him in check: She makes fun of his ears. There's also the interview, which Washington references to Letterman, where Obama talks about how he'd prefer Denzel to play him in a movie, but how it will likely be Will Smith. You see, the Fresh Prince, like Obama, also has big ears. The president even thinks his big ears could keep him off Mount Rushmore. "There's only so much rock up there," he told reporters last summer. And just last week, Obama, in an appearance on The Colbert Report, jokingly compared his big ears to massive spy satellites. Oh come on, Mr. President, they aren't that big.

The Washington Post has a story out today about the Administration's decision to stop pushing Congress to allow freed Guantanamo detainees to settle in the United States. Although they've found homes in Bermuda and Palau for the Chinese Uighurs who were released without charge, abandoning efforts to settle detainees here complicates the Administration's requests for countries like Germany, France and Australia to accept prisoners. Like U.S. representatives, foreign politicians will have a tough time explaining to their constituents that detainees that the U.S. Congress refused to release on American soil should be settled in their communities. The Administration's best hope now is to find other small nations, like Palau, who are willing to take detainees in the hope of receiving increased aid.

It's unlikely though that this move signals that Obama will put the brakes on his plans to close Guantanamo by the end of his first year in office. Administration aides told me recently that although they were somewhat surprised by the Congressional resistance they've met so far, they have no intention of letting the GOP win this fight. One aide noted that the public had been engaged in a debate of national security for the better part of the last two years, and resounding triumph for Democrats at the polls meant their views won out. Adminstration officials are likely reminding Democrats on the Hill, in no uncertain terms, not to forget that they were the winners here. Don't be surprised either if the President ultimately decides to take a similar course of action on Gitmo as he did with the stimulus package and now with healthcare: Making his case to the people himself. He is after all, his own best messanger, and populist undertones of this debate will require the President to employ his most persuasive oratory in order to win this one. He began this process with his recent national security address at the National Archives, but we'll likely be hearing that message more, particularly once healthcare reform exits the headlines.

It’s not unusual for a president to phone up a member of Congress in the middle of the night to lobby for legislation, but this may be a first: the Commander in Chief talking to an impromptu meeting of lawmakers via a cell phone speaker? According to the Politico’s David Rogers, that’s what happened Thursday night when Obama intervened in stalled negotiations over the war supplemental bill. Senators, including John McCain, were looking for assurances from Obama that the administration will do what it takes to prevent the disclosure of controversial photos that allegedly show detainees being mistreated by members of the U.S. military. According to Rogers, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who was up on the Hill pushing for the bill, dialed up Obama on his cell phone and promptly put the president on speakerphone. “Good evening Angels!” Obama said. Well, ok, he likely didn’t say that, but your Gaggler is amused by the idea of Obama pulling a Charlie from Charlie's Angels to get the bill through Congress. (We openly admit flaws with this analogy: Rahm is not a very good Bosley.) While we don’t know exactly what the president said, it’s likely not far off the mark from a letter Obama sent to lawmakers yesterday, promising to use every “legal and administrative remedy” available to prevent the pictures from going public. The pledge was enough to get the bill out of conference committee and on to a full Congressional vote next week, though it puts Obama at odds with the ACLU, which has sued to get the photos released.

Jones, middle left, Gates and McDonough in the Oval. Photo by Pete Souza/White House

Over at Foreign Policy magazine, the very well-connected Tom Ricks, formerly of the Washington Post, says he’s “picking up the vibe” that some “powerful people” want to see Defense Secretary Robert Gates replace Jim Jones as President Obama’s national security adviser. A Pentagon spokesman shoots down the story, calling it “utterly and completely absurd”—though Ricks, for his part, seems to think he’s protesting a bit too much. Your Gaggler, for the record, hasn’t heard this rumor, but she’s heard the many others that have circulated around Washington in recent months that have suggested that Jones just isn’t quite fitting in at the White House.

Administration officials have been hearing these whispers too—and they always deny them, insisting that things are all right and swell in Obamaland. But Jones’s PR problems haven’t gone away. He’s taken a much lower public profile than his predecessors in the Bush administration. When they had Jones’s job, Condi Rice and Stephen Hadley were incredibly visible to the press and the public. They briefed reporters, gave lots of interviews and went on TV. In the Obama White House, Jones has largely ceded that ground to his deputies, including Denis McDonough and Mark Lippert, who worked for Obama during the campaign.

Perhaps knowing they have a problem, the White House has inched Jones out there a little bit more lately. Just over a month ago, Jones gave interviews to both the New York Times and the Washington Post for profiles that were published the exact same day. (Imagine that!) He gave a somewhat high-profile speech to the Atlantic Council outlining the administration’s national security goals. The White House has released photos showing Jones at key meetings. Still, the rumors haven’t stopped, which is perhaps why Gates, unsolicited, called up Post columnist David Ignatious to defend Jones last weekend, describing him as a the “glue that holds this team together.” He describes the rumors about Jones as “typical Washington” and insists they are coming from “lower levels,” not from anybody who actually is in the room. Is it enough to stop the whispers? In Washington, probably not, but the question is what the White House will do next. So far, the rumors haven't been damaging enough to merit Obama himself to come out and defend his man, as he had to do with Tim Geithner earlier this year. But it's still the relatively early days for the Obama team, and if the tension is truly there now, chances are it will only get worse.