Just out from CNN ...

CNN has learned that President-elect Barack Obama is getting foreign policy advice from an unlikely source: Republican Brent Scowcroft, who was national security adviser in the first Bush administration.

Two sources familiar with the conversations confirm to CNN that Obama reached out to Scowcroft for phone chats even before he ran for president, and the back-and-forth has continued in recent days as the president-elect assembles his Cabinet.

Scowcroft is very close to current Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who is rumored to be in the running to stay in the Cabinet for at least an interim period at the start of the new Obama administration.

Referring back to our post of a week ago.