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Scooter's Money and Scotty's Book
Tweet Share on Facebook March 18, 2007 CommentSome random tidbits: Scott McClellan, the former White House spokesman, is shopping a book proposal around and hopes to land a deal this month. He tells us that it will be a "candid look at the president, the press, and defining events." Also writing a book: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, on his roots in Searchlight, Nev.—"13 brothels and no churches"—and how he got to Washington. And what about this news from former Sen. Fred Thompson, the Law & Order star who's thinking about a presidential bid: He's planning more fundraisers for convicted perjurer Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Friends say it will help him show conservatives that he not only believes in the Bush team but is not a fair-weather friend.
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This Tom Clancy Walks the Walk
Tweet Share on Facebook March 18, 2007 CommentEvery military thriller writer wants to be compared to Tom Clancy, but to be called better? That's what Aiden Rocke is hearing about his first work, Rogue Threat, and the upcoming sequel, Hidden Threat. Military writers say his books, filled with terrorist tales, are very realistic. So how does he make them so authentic? Rocke is a pseudonym for the real author: a member of the Army brass who has fought in Afghanistan. "The primary heroes," he tells us, "are amalgamations of role models I've observed from private to general." We can't tell you Rocke's real name or, you know, we'd have to kill you. Let's just say he doesn't want his hobby to interfere with his day job, though he does give a percentage of profits from book sales to the Army emergency relief campaign.
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A Vote From the Secret Service
Tweet Share on Facebook March 18, 2007 CommentHere's one group not crying over the speeded-up presidential primary process: the U.S. Secret Service. Instead of protecting more than a dozen candidates during the early months of the primary season, the agents might have just two candidates to oversee by the middle of February. Why? A quickened primary process could cull the list of nominees that early. Agency officials say they had expected to have a crowd of candidates to protect through April, so this change could save them millions.
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Tony Snow, Best of the Boomers
Tweet Share on Facebook March 18, 2007 CommentNobody loves the baby boomers more than the baby boomers, so it shouldn't be a surprise that one of the generation's notables, White House spokesman Tony Snow, takes a center-stage role in PBS's two-hour special, The Boomer Century 1946–2046, on March 28. It will show three pics of Snow: as a kid, playing his rock flute, and dressed up as the prez's spokesman. He comes across well—not too boomer-boosterish—though he says, "What you have with baby boomers is a kind of sense of excitement about life that distinguishes us a little bit from other generations." One example: trying several jobs. The newsman and radio host turned spokesman says, "I've been through about six different careers and I'll go through one or two more before I'm done." Then there's his rock band. "If I didn't have that band, I'd be playing the room and disturbing my wife and neighbors."
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Out Loud
Tweet Share on Facebook March 18, 2007 Comment"St. Patrick's Day is an occasion that unites two distinct groups of Americans: those who are of Irish descent, and those who wish they were."
President Bush, during his annual White House meeting with Ireland’s Prime Minister Bertie Ahern"Now I wake up in the morning and say, 'Who do I hate today?'"
Helen Thomas, the former UPI White House correspondent, on her role as a columnist"I prove the fact that there's no literacy test to run for office."
Rep. Dennis Rehberg, Montana Republican, joking during a hearing on education issues"It should be S-h-a-i-k-h or S-h-e-i-k-h, but not S-h-a-y-k-h. "
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the admitted 9/11 mastermind, on the spelling of his name during his closed military hearingSources: the White House, Washington Examiner (3)
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Cartoon
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The McLarty Dynasty
Tweet Share on Facebook March 16, 2007 CommentFrom our small-world file: When Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992, he called on an old school friend from Hope, Ark., named Thomas "Mack" McLarty to help build support in the business community. McLarty's reward was the post of White House chief of staff. Now we hear that the latest Arkansas presidential candidate, Republican Mike Huckabee, is copying Bubba. He's asked McLarty's younger brother, Bud, an entertainment exec, to help out in the arts world and fundraising. The reward, Huck tells our Suzi Parker: "He'd really like to be secretary of Funk, Soul, and Rock-and-Roll, and if I were to be elected, we'd probably have a job like that!"
Who's Bud? Here's his bio from the Huckabee campaign:
"Francis B. (Bud) McLarty has been in the media, broadcasting, and entertainment industry over 25 years. His entrepreneurial career encompasses radio and television station ownership and broadcast and theatrical entertainment production. McLarty serves as president and chief executive officer of BMC Media Inc. and McLarty Entertainment Group Inc., with offices in Las Vegas and Colorado Springs.
The companies have produced numerous entertainment and corporate events, including the Rolling Stones, Neil Diamond, Jimmy Buffett, Rod Stewart, and others. The companies are currently in development of two major theatrical productions for the Las Vegas stage, one based on a long-running network television program and one conceived and written by McLarty. BMC Media Inc. remains a strategic consultant to several Fortune 500 companies, as well as the Broadmoor, a Mobil five-star, AAA five-diamond resort in Colorado. McLarty was a key adviser on the production and promotion of the Broadmoor's millennium package, "A Celebration of the Centuries," featuring Tony Award-winning Bernadette Peters and the legendary Temptations.
McLarty also served as senior adviser to Kissinger McLarty Associates, the international consulting firm located in New York City and Washington, D.C., and founded by Henry A. Kissinger and Thomas (Mack) McLarty, Bud McLarty's older brother and President Bill Clinton's initial White House chief of staff. Bud McLarty participated in the alternative project interests of Kissinger McLarty Associates through various ventures in the United States and Latin America. McLarty was both an active and passive investor throughout the late 80s and early 90s in various media and entertainment projects in Los Angeles and New York City through his Beverly Hills-based firm, the Bud McLarty Co. Inc.
McLarty graduated magna cum laude from Southern Methodist University in Dallas in 1978 with a bachelor of fine arts degree, a major in broadcast/film, and a minor in advertising and marketing. He began his professional career with his first Dallas-based entertainment company, Talent Warehouse Inc., which managed local musical artists and produced live concerts throughout Texas, as well as syndicating a nationally televised program entitled On the Road while still a student at SMU, the first college student to ever achieve such an honor." -
Friday's Cartoon
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Thursday's Cartoon
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Harry Reid's Story: 13 Brothels, No Churches
Tweet Share on Facebook March 14, 2007 CommentBig news today. And no, it's not that Rev. Jesse Jackson ate at the same restaurant that I did –D.C. Coast–or that Scooter Libby lunched at a sidewalk table down the street in the much more working-class Sizzling Express.
No, the big news is that the busiest guy in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, is going to find some time to write his autobiography. His goal in the still-untitled book due out next spring: to explain his tiny, poor home of Searchlight, Nev., to Washington.
"If I can do nothing greater in this book than explain those two places to each other, then I will have done something important," he said in a statement. Here's how he explained little Searchlight: "13 brothels and no churches." No wonder he's a politician. Anyway, G. P. Putnam's Sons bought the book, and it will be cowritten by Esquire Executive Editor Mark Warren. Putnam offered us a couple of quotes:
"Senator Reid: "I am honored and pleased to be working with such a distinguished publisher as G.P. Putnam's Sons on this book. Sometimes the long journey from the little town in the Nevada desert called Searchlight to Washington, D.C., seems strange, even to me. But the hard lessons I learned in that town guide me every day as we now confront the great crises of today–issues of war and peace and of essential American values and of the future of the planet. That's what this book will be about."
Editor Warren: "Harry Reid knows more about hard work than anyone I've ever met, and he is a character of many moods and of great dimension. His story is an impossible and inspiring and instructive story, a story of longer-than-long odds, one of those stories that could only have been made in America."Normally, politicians write these kind of stories when they are planning presidential bids, though Reid seems content manning the Senate. But let's think about him as a vice presidential candidate in 2008 for a minute. Now the book makes sense.
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