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Cartoon: June 17, 2007
Tweet Share on Facebook June 17, 2007 Comment (78)
MICHAEL RAMIREZ / COPLEY NEWS SERVICE / INVESTORS BUSINESS DAILY -
The P.U. Factor in Money Politics
Tweet Share on Facebook June 17, 2007 CommentBob Shrum, the political guru who helped Sen. John Kerry in the 2004 presidential race, tells us that it stinks to campaign on the cheap. The No Excuses: Confessions of a Serial Campaigner author tells this story: Though Kerry spent about half his $12 million fortune, his bank was bare early on. "Even after we won Iowa and the money started coming in, we had just enough money to go through New Hampshire," says Shrum. In the Granite State, he and Kerry stayed in a rustic inn. "It didn't have a breakfast room; you got coffee out of a little machine that didn't work a good deal of the time. And one morning he's banging on my door ... and I open it and there's John Kerry in chinos and a T-shirt and he says, 'Do you have any hot water?' And I said, 'Well, I assume I do.' So I go in the bathroom and, no, I don't have any hot water. He doesn't have any hot water. So we campaigned through the day hoping our deodorant held."
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You Have Been Warned -- Again
Tweet Share on Facebook June 17, 2007 Comment (2)Osama bin Laden isn't the only one out to get us. In the Words of Our Enemies by Human Events Editor Jed Babbin reveals a host of other countries and foreign agents threatening the United States. Babbin went through thousands of pages of Arabic translations, those from Russia and Venezuela, and found bellicose threats. Newt Gingrich, who wrote the foreword, says, "We've been warned. It's up to us now to make sure we have the leaders necessary to mount America's defense."
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Secretary's Serenade
Tweet Share on Facebook June 17, 2007 CommentA long-planned get-together between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel finally came off last week, with the two huddling in Rice's private little office in Foggy Bottom. We hear Rice schmoozed the New Yorker, talking up his big issues of trade, education, diversity at State, and the differences between South Korea today and when he was in the Army during the Korean War. "She really wanted to reach out to him and across the aisle," says an aide. But when Rangel mentioned that it was his 77th birthday, the diplomat in Rice took over. Emerging from the one-on-one meeting to a room of staffers, she hummed a note and then led the crowd in "Happy Birthday."
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Bid for Camelot
Tweet Share on Facebook June 15, 2007 Comment
This weekend features another live auction at Alexander Autographs, where lots of JFK and Jackie O items will be up for sale. A rare signed wedding picture, with an estimated price of $12,000, is just a little bit of the stuff our pals at Alexander have to offer. They traffic in all sorts of historical documents, autographs, and Americana. This auction, for example, includes bronze-clad plaster castings of Abraham Lincoln's hands, John Lennon's signature on a book about spies, and a note written by Jürgen Stroop, the Nazi SS leader who ordered the torching of the Warsaw ghetto. -
Quick: Call the Fashion Police
Tweet Share on Facebook June 14, 2007 Comment
Check out this presidential fashion statement: Scottie hat, western shirt, baggy bike pants, presidential socks, and Crocs. Our good pal at Politico, Anne Schroeder, found this and diplomatically posted it without comment. But we couldn't help but wonder: Just what is Laura doing letting her husband out in public like this? -
Suckers for Seersucker
Tweet Share on Facebook June 13, 2007 Comment (2)
If it's summer in Washington, then Sen. Trent Lott, the No. 2 Republican, is plotting Seersucker Thursday. -
Pumping Political Pain
Tweet Share on Facebook June 12, 2007 CommentWhen it comes to laying blame, little speaks louder than a nice picture, and this time it's the Republicans who have the better image when it comes to who's at fault for rising gas prices.
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Spreading the Wings of 'the Wall'
Tweet Share on Facebook June 10, 2007 Comment"The wall": It's not just for the Vietnam War anymore. The folks who brought us the wing-shaped Vietnam Veterans Memorial are making plans for an expansive underground visitor center that will tie all American wars together. "The casualties of the Vietnam War," says memorial founder Jan Scruggs, "are being used metaphorically to show this group of citizens who throughout the nation's history have given literally their lives for freedom."
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Salad Days for State Dinners
Tweet Share on Facebook June 10, 2007 CommentPresident Bush's new position on global warming has come with some helpful suggestions from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Namely: Go all veggie for state dinners and promote vegetarian menus in federal programs like school and prison lunches. PETA's Bruce Friedrich says eliminating stockyards is a better way to cool the planet than buying a Toyota Prius. Can it be done? Yes, says former Bush chef Walter Scheib. But, he explains, "I doubt strongly if the president would willingly give up his beloved beef without a fight, although Mrs. Bush is very much into organics."
