We now know who is booked at Blair House, bumping President-elect Barack Obama and his family across Lafayette Square to the Hay-Adams Hotel. The only overnight visitor at the presidential guest manse is none other than former Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

He and his entourage will be bunking at Blair House on Jan. 12, the night before he, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe are to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bush, said Sally McDonough, a spokeswoman for First Lady Laura Bush.

The three men are longtime political allies of the president's, and Blair and Howard were key partners in the Iraq war.

The incoming first family requested an early move-in at the 70,000-square-foot, 119-room mansion across the street from the White House so the children could settle in to start school this week at Sidwell Friends School.

But the Obamas were told the residence had been booked, so they took a suite at the Hay-Adams.

WASHINGTON POST