8/31/01 State Racism team may leave early
The low-level delegation sent by the Bush administration to the United Nations world conference against racism in Durban, South Africa, may come home early if it fails to win support for stripping anti-Israeli language out of proposed conference documents, a senior State Department official says. Secretary of State Colin Powell decided to skip the eight-day conclave, which began Friday, because preliminary conference texts single out Israel for criticism, portraying Zionism as a form of racism. The State Department official cited some 20 instances of objectionable language. Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson said Friday that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is willing to drop the anti-Israeli wording from the final declaration at Durban. But it's still there for now. Powell's move to downgrade the U.S. presence drew criticism by American civil rights leaders and some foreign governments. But, reports our Tom Omestad, even the trimmed U.S. delegation now in Durban–led by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs E. Michael Southwick–will not work on any conference business aside from removing the offending rhetoric. "They won't participate in anything else. They're a one-issue delegation," says the senior State Department official.
8/31/01 Rollout day for www.whitehouse.gov
It's been a long time coming, but today marks the rollout of the new White House Web site. Insiders say it will be highly interactive and graphic rich. The best new features: Some pages will be in Spanish, and the new kids' section will be hosted by the president's pets–two dogs, a cat, and a cow. But it won't be all fun and games. Remember, we have a schoolteacher in the White House. Insiders say it will be targeted to kids in grades five through 12, complete with historical information and quizzes. The section will also act as a gateway to the federal government. It's about time: The "placeholder" pages that the Bushies put up on January 20 are getting stale. While it won't be unveiled by President and Mrs. Bush until Friday afternoon, we're told that the new Web site will be as good as the Bush campaign site that won universal kudos.
8/29/01 Bobbing for Bubba
Is there no end to Bill Clinton kitsch? Not in Hot Springs, Ark., his proud boyhood home. Our correspondent Suzi Parker reports that funville wants to issue a Clinton Christmas card as part of its stepped-up bid to use the ex-prez to promote itself as a tourist Mecca. It all started when the town issued Clinton baseball cards. Up to 3,000 requests a day rolled in. Another idea under consideration: a limited-edition, bobble-headed Clinton doll. City officials say that piggy-backing off Clinton's popularity has brought them lots of attention, but they run the risk of turning into a Clinton fan club clearinghouse.
8/28/01 GOP sees 10 House seat gain
House Republican leaders are taking a page out of the Democratic playbook as they strategize a way to build on their tiny majority. Sources tell Whispers that the GOP plans to target moderate Democrats that represent Republican-leaning districts. The strategy: Use votes by Democrats that appear liberal or supportive of House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt against the lawmakers. The simple theme: If voters want a moderate, then vote Republican. The voting records of virtually all House Democrats are under the microscope. “Even conservative Democrats have voted with [Gephardt] at some point,” says one plan architect. The strategy has long been used by Democrats against moderate Republicans holding Democratic-leaning districts. Employing that and other strategies–and aided by a big bankroll–the GOP looks to increase their majority by eight to 10 seats next year.
8/24/01 Political life before cellphones
The former presidential yacht Sequoia continues to ply its way back into
government service. A year after new owner Gary Silversmith rehabbed the
boat and brought it home, it has collected quite a long list of guests and
users from the government. The latest: The Department of Veterans Affairs.
Agency bosses, wowed with the history of the yacht, want to use it to
entertain veterans groups. Look also for Democratic senators, notably Edward Kennedy, to host fundraisers on the wooden craft. Since its Washington homecoming last year, Sequoia has seen the return of those who sailed on it when it was part of the government's fleet. One guest, Washington pundit Robert Novak, told Silversmith, "The worst decision Jimmy Carter ever made was to sell the Sequoia." Surely former
President Lyndon Johnson would agree, suggests his daughter Lynda Robb.
"Daddy used to like to use the Sequoia to lobby and work, since his guests
did not have phones."
8/23/01 West Wing president’s secret home
Southerners rejoice: That cute New Hampshire setting for the hometown of
West Wing President Josiah Bartlet is really tiny Bluemont, Va., just a few
miles from the Shenandoah River. How do we know? The NBC-TV series is
setting up shop there this Sunday to film a homecoming trip for Bartlet,
played by Martin Sheen. It’s not just the town that’s proud of providing a
set for the show: The Loudoun Valley High School Band from nearby
Purcellville, Va., has been told to be ready to play “Hail to the Chief.”
Rick Reaves, director of the Marching Vikings, is preparing by using music
supplied by the Marine Corps Band, known as the “President’s Own.” Should
you care to watch, the filming begins at 8 a.m. near the community center,
which is a 70-minute drive from the real White House. There’s a general
store just down the street for coffee and ice cream.
8/22/01 CNN bags a new wag
Just when Arkansas political bigs figured that local-boy-done-good Wesley
Clark was set to make a bid for public office, he's surprised them all by
signing on as a military and current affairs analyst with CNN, Whispers
learns. Clark, a retired Army general who was one of the U.S. military
bosses in Bosnia, is expected to be a regular on the cable network as it
scrambles to recover viewers who've switched to Fox News Channel and
MSNBC. Since
retiring, Clark has been a fixture on the Arkansas political trail,
speaking at key events normally reserved for campaigning pols. That's led
most state politicians to assume he's planning to run for Senate or
governor. Clark, however, keeps them guessing. And not just about his
future: folks don't even know if he's a Republican or Democrat.
8/21/01 A different Ford-Firestone axis
While doing a little research in Betty Ford's book Betty: A Glad Awakening, we stumbled across a 1983 conversation that plays into today's fight between Ford Motor Co. and Firestone over tire quality issues on Ford Explorers. Mrs. Ford is hosting a board meeting and worrying about every detail and patient of her then-new alcohol abuse center when tire king, friend, and donor Leonard Firestone asks, "What if I worried about every tire with my name on it that went bad?" Mrs. Ford writes: "The group broke up laughing."
8/10/01 Abortion foes try again
Antiabortion proponents are taking a new tack in trying to scuttle the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. "The time to grovel before the Supreme Court is over," says Sen. Bob Smith, New Hampshire Republican, in a letter for the National Pro-Life Alliance. Instead, abortion foes are trying to muster up support for a new law that would define life as beginning at conception. If Congress were to pass such a measure, Smith says, abortion would be unconstitutional because it would violate the 14th Amendment by depriving "any person of life." It's a long shot, but the group is mailing out 1 million petitions in hopes that supporters will forward them to their House and Senate representatives.
• See the National Pro-Life Alliance's campaign spending record.
8/9/01 Bill Clinton, on deck Bill Clinton was thrown a lot of heat but never went down swinging, which may be why his hometown of Hot Springs, Ark., is issuing commemorative Clinton baseball cards beginning Friday. We're told that the Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission has printed up three cards that show the ex-prez in informal poses. But instead of his batting average, there's info about the town on the flip sides. The cards are free to locals who show a driver's license. The first set of cards will be presented to Clinton's stepfather, Dick Kelley, who still lives in Hot Springs.
8/8/01 Hillary's got what it take$
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton may have been the darling of liberals in her New York Senate race last year, but a new analysis of her donors shows that Republicans liked her too. Good news should she decide to plunge into the 2004 presidential race. The Center for Responsive Politics, which keeps tabs on political cash, found that of all 2000 candidates, Clinton was the top choice of 15 of the 50 biggest industries. What's key: A third of those traditionally give more to Republicans than to Democrats. They include real estate firms, manufacturers, and booze makers. Analysts say her donations from corporate America show that she's got wider appeal than previously thought, something that might kick her ambitions up a notch.
8/7/01 Dissing the sugar daddy
Just how much protection money does Black Entertainment Television founder Robert Johnson have to pay the Democrats to get treated right? The legendary Dem donor is a member of the White House commission calling for an overhaul of Social Security. Democrats have savaged the plan and mocked panel members as "Luddites"–a fine how do you do for a guy who's dumped more than $673,000 into their coffers over nine years. No problem. If the Democrats don't appreciate it, the GOP's more than happy to take Johnson's money. "This must be one of [the Democrat's] new fundraising schemes," says Trent Duffy, Republican Party spokesman. "In return for your generous donations, Democrats will publicly kick you in the teeth if you express alternate views."
8/3/01 Bush researching Clinton policies
It will be months, possibly years, before the public gets access to internal Clinton administration papers, but requests from scholars and the Bush administration are already pouring in. Clinton library boss David Alsobrook says that the Bush White House wants to see documents spelling out national-security and foreign policy. Many scholars, meantime, are interested in former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's lawsuit- plagued healthcare task force. Nobody's yet interested in any of the Clinton administration's successes. Alsobrook, who helped organize former President Bush's library, says the requests are coming in unusually early. The reason: Folks can go online to http://www.clinton.nara.gov and E-mail their requests.
8/2/01 Rummy's cheering squad
While much of the military brass has been grumbling about Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's first six months on the job, Air Force Chief of Staff Michael Ryan has nothing but cheers for him–at least when he compares Rummy to little-loved ex-Pentagon boss William Cohen. "We have met more with Mr. Rumsfeld over the past four months than I think I met with the previous Secretary of Defense in four years," he crows. Ouch. And while he concedes he had hoped President Bush would hand over more cash to the Pentagon, he says things are better now than during the Clinton budget-slashing days. "As far as I'm concerned," says the blue-suiter, "after living through what I lived through for the past four years, this is not bad." But does the proposed $18.4 billion increase really make good on a campaign pledge that help is on the way? "Well," says the chief, "it's better than a blow in the face with a dull ax."
8/1/01 The Bill Clinton story
The hottest ticket in Little Rock these days is a trip to a former car dealership where ex-President Clinton's records are being housed pending the opening of his library and museum. Skip Rutherford, the Clinton Foundation's director, says he gets calls all the time from VIPs and Clinton cronies asking to tour the cache of 100 million White House documents, including Clinton's papers and those of some his cabinet secretaries. Eventually, the collection will make its way down the street to the Clinton library. But why wait?
