Whore City - Former President Bill Clinton, who is expected to meet with top
                   Chinese officials in Hong Kong next week, was briefed by national security adviser
                   Condoleezza Rice yesterday on the sticky state of affairs between the U.S. and China.

                   It was the second top-level China briefing for the ex-President before his trip,
                   during which he is expected to meet with Chinese Premier Jiang Zemin.

                   Nevertheless, the administration insisted that Clinton won't carry
                   any messages from President Bush.

                   ha ha - another lie.

                   Without fanfare, Clinton slipped into the State Department on Thursday
                   for a skull session with James Keith, head of the China desk. An
                   administration official described it as "a courtesy we routinely
                   extend in situations like this," adding that Clinton requested the
                   briefing. He chatted with Rice by phone yesterday.

                   Earlier in the week, a Clinton aide telephoned a top staffer at the
                   National Security Council to ask whether the administration had
                   any problem with his travel plans. Two officials said Clinton was
                   told there was no objection to his trip.

                   At a political event in upstate Rochester attended by her husband
                   yesterday, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) was asked
                   whether it's appropriate for him to go to China while relations
                   between the two countries are strained by the collision of a U.S.
                   spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet.

                   "I will leave that to him and his staff to comment on," she said,
                   "but I know that he's been in very close touch with the Bush administration."