4/30/02 Cinco de Mayo à la Clinton
Don’t ask us how they know, but Hot Springs, Ark., officials now estimate that the little Bill Clinton trading cards they’ve been printing have generated $10 million in publicity for the tourist town. “These cards,” says Tom Daniel, chairman of the Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission, “have proven so successful in bringing favorable attention to Hot Springs.” This month, he introduced two new cards aimed at specific markets: Japan and Hispanics. Some 50,000 of the Japanese language cards were sent to fun city’s sister town of Hanamaki, Japan. Another 50,000 Spanish language cards were just printed, and some will be taken to Dallas for the annual Cinco de Mayo celebration. The front of the card shows Clinton during a visit to Mexico, and the back contains info about Hot Springs and the Clinton presidency. “It’s a very efficient way to reach a very large potential market for us,” says Steve Arrison, executive director of the advertising and promotion commission.
4/25/02 Leno lineup: Here's Ari
White House funnyman–just kidding–Ari Fleischer goes Hollywood next Monday when he's Jay Leno's guest on the Tonight Show. Ari's been working on his routine, but don't expect anything akin to former Vice President Al Gore's ashtray smashing on Letterman way back when. President Bush's spokesman tells Whispers, "Surviving the White House press corps requires a sense of humor, so I'm hoping to get some tips from Jay." Actually, Ari's been featured in some recent Leno jokes, one this week about Fleischer's newly announced engagement. "White House spokesman–that's a great job to have. You can come home at 4 in the morning reeking of alcohol, perfume all over your clothes, your wife says, 'Where have you been?' 'I'm sorry, I have no comment on that.' "
4/23/02 It's time to party
If you count in Washington, plan to be busy on Wednesday night. Alas, that doesn't include us. But here's what's happening: First, Paul McCartney is coming to town and he's hooking up with some political types. Folks like Sen. Blanche Lincoln, Arkansas Democrat, are hosting fundraisers at his concert. She's seeking $2,000 from individuals and $2,500 from PACs. The cash will fund her Leadership in the New Century political action committee. Get it? "LINC PAC." Then there's the coming out party for the revamped Crossfire, CNN's political shoutfest. CNN exec Walter Isaacson is hosting the event at West 24, the really good restaurant owned by show co-host James Carville and his White House wife, Mary Matalin.
4/19/02 Axis evildoer makes nice
It isn't often these days that the Bush administration has a kind word for Iran, a key member of the president's "axis of evil." So it was surprising this week to hear a senior State Department official laud a mission to Beirut and Damascus undertaken by Iran's top diplomat, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, just days before Secretary of State Colin Powell visited the same capitals. Kharrazi's trip, the U.S. official tells our Thomas Omestad, "seems to have contributed to lessening tensions" in the Lebanese-Israeli border area, the scene of recent Hezbollah rocket attacks and Israeli Air Force counterstrikes. Kharrazi met with Hezbollah's chief at the Iranian Embassy in Beirut; the next day, Kharrazi, considered a moderate who has been criticized by Iranian hard-liners, called for "self-restraint" toward Israel to avoid a wider war.
4/18/02 Clinton tips 25 percent for take-out
When Bill Clinton left office, aides worried that he would have difficulty learning to use phones, credit cards, ATMs, and even cash. Reason: As chief exec of Arkansas and the United States, he'd rarely had to make his own calls or pay in person. Well, Larry La of Washington's famous Chinese restaurant Meiwah says the prez has adapted just fine, thank you. The evidence: Wednesday night, the call came in from the Clinton residence in Washington for some takeout. Chicken and broccoli, to be exact. La's restaurant used to deliver to Clinton's White House all the time, and chicken and broccoli was always on the list. "That's his favorite," La says. La went with the deliveryman to make sure it went OK. And who showed up to take the bag but Clinton himself. "The president opened the door and he wanted to pay the bill," La tells us. He recalled the bill being $40 or $42. And, he said, "the president left a very good tip. $10." When La got back to his restaurant, he says, somebody asked him why he didn't get Clinton to sign the $50 bill he used to pay. Said La: "I needed that $50."
4/16/02 Kerry knows no fundraising boundary
Now that the likely 2004 Democratic presidential candidates have completed their first "beauty contest," this one in Florida last weekend, let's return to the real preliminary race: the run for the money. Here we turn to Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, who is not only running for re-election but working overtime to scoop up as many endorsements and as much cash as possible to beat Al Gore in Kerry's backyard of New Hampshire. Insiders brag that it's on the money front that Kerry is showing amazing political versatility. Examples: In the past two weeks, he hit Republican Utah and Idaho to raise $250,000 for his Citizen Soldier Political Action Committee. And how did he top that? When he returned to Washington, Big Lib Sen. Edward Kennedy hosted a fundraiser in his D.C. home. "Kerry knows the first primary is money," says an ally.
4/12/02 Christian right teams with Jews
It's not just American Jews who are pushing the Bush administration to stifle calls for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to yank his troops from Palestinian territories. Oddly enough, Christian-right leaders are doing it too, led by the Rev. Jerry Falwell and 2000 GOP presidential candidate Gary Bauer. Earlier today, says Bauer, the group of evangelicals dispatched a letter to President Bush asking that he mute his criticism of Tel Aviv and quiet Secretary of State Colin Powell's urgings to withdraw. "We would ask you to end pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon so that he has the time necessary to complete the mission he has undertaken–the elimination of terrorist cells and infrastructure from the West Bank territories," they wrote in the letter provided to Whispers. "It seems to us that Secretary Powell's current peacemaking trip is sending a dangerous message. The focus of the trip appears to be more pressure on Israel to withdraw without any commitment by Arab nations to control the terrorists dedicated to Israel's destruction. And we are pressuring Israel to negotiate with Arafat in spite of his complicity in promoting terror. Both of these outcomes violate your well-articulated antiterror doctrine."
4/10/02 Gays gain ground in Congress
Gays and lesbians, who've gained ground in Hollywood and corporate circles, are also seeing their fortunes rise on Capitol Hill. According to the nation's largest lobbying group for homosexuals, the Human Rights Campaign, more lawmakers than ever won a perfect score on their legislative report card. Based on whether House members backed HRC-backed legislation, the group reports that 198 members of Congress scored a perfect 100, up from 161 in 2000 and 136 in 1998. What's more, it's not simply a Democratic affair: 14 Republican members of Congress scored 80 percent or above. "The marked increase in supporters from both parties, as well as in the members of Congress with perfect scores, shows real progress on Capitol Hill," said Winnie Stachelberg, HRC's political director. It makes sense, adds HRC's Executive Director Elizabeth Birch in the group's report card. "Americans are talking increasingly about issues of importance to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community" around "kitchen tables and around office water coolers." According to the report, California and New York members backed the groups issues, such as hate crimes and rights legislation, most. But some states failed to have a single House or Senate member score 100 percent. They were: Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
4/9/02 It's official: Ridge will talk
After standing defiant for weeks amid bipartisan demands that President
Bush let his homeland security office director testify before Congress, Tom Ridge will appear before a House Appropriations subcommittee Wednesday, Whispers learns. Ridge is set to reveal all at a 4 p.m. closed-door briefing of the House Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Treasury, Postal Service, and Government Service, we're told. Both the House and Senate had wanted Ridge to testify in open. Still, says a top House leadership aide, "I think this will begin to address our problems. This is a workable solution." Look for Ridge also to meet with Senate appropriators. Ridge hasn't testified about his budget or actions because Bush considers him an aide, not a department head answerable also to Congress. But lawmakers argue that if they're going to fund Ridge's office, they want to know how it's to be spent. This is a major coup for the subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Ernest Istook, Oklahoma Republican, who opened a recent hearing by scolding Mitchell Daniels, director of the Office of Management and Budget, for advising Bush to shield Ridge.
4/5/02 Castro comeback on July 4th prank
Since 9/11, the Cuban government has been holding its fire, trying to make nice with Washington, declaring itself to be with the civilized world and not the terrorists. But Saturday on the regular "Round Table" TV show, Cuban officials intend to denounce a neat propaganda trick that the United States Interest Section in Havana pulled last summer at its annual Fourth of July party. The event is the Americans' main social event of the year; the entire dissident community, brave intellectuals, and assorted press and diplomats come out despite the Castro regime's penchant for blackballing those who attend. Last year, according to U.S. sources, a former CIA official now posted to the Interest Section came up with a bright idea: hand out small short-wave radios tuned to Radio Martí, the U.S. government-funded broadcast of news and anti-Castro commentary. The party favors were distributed, disguised in red-white-and-blue bunting.
4/4/02 The book on Rummy
If the first book on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, The Rumsfeld Way by Jeffrey Krames, had been published last May instead of next month, we'd have ignored all those tipsters predicting his firing. Because Krames, the first to jump on the Rummy craze, writes that Rumsfeld never loses, even when backed into a corner. In fact, he reveals that Rumsfeld is something of a visionary, citing a 1998 report in which Rummy singled out the same three rogue states President Bush tagged the "axis of evil" this year. We just got our review copy, but it's already for sale at: http://shop.mcgraw-hill.com/cgi-bin/pbg/0071406417.html
4/3/02 New York's Governor 9/11
Officially, of course, nobody's trying to profit politically off September 11. But that's how some are looking at New York Gov. George Pataki's American flag-decorated re-election fundraising letter to GOP-ers. Three times he directly cites the date, noting repeatedly that the Big Apple is recovering nicely, presumably with Albany's support. And, he suggests, that tracks nicely with the state's recovery from "Cuomonomics." If you didn't know, former Governor Cuomo's son, Andrew, the former Clinton bigwig, is also running. What's Cuomonomics? Says Pataki: "It's characterized by soaring liberal oratory, fast and furious spending, deep and dangerous deficits, and a firm belief that Big Government will solve all our problems."
4/2/02 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Toxins
You would think that the folks over at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms would be excited about this month's groundbreaking for their new
$104 million headquarters in Washington. The 1,000-worker center will sit
near a new Metro subway stop at Florida Avenue and N Street NE. The first-ever stand-alone HQ for ATF, it will be better protected from terrorists, with state-of-the-art defenses including a three-story "garden wall" that doubles as a shield. But some staffers now fear a different threat–from within, or, at least, below: The center is being built atop an old city industrial site, leading to fears of toxic residues. But ATF bigwigs say it's no big deal–a cleanup is on the planning board.
