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12/30/03
Iowa push for Wes Clark
The Draft Clark movement hasn't stopped just because their man is in the running. In fact, some that disagree with Wes Clark’s decision to skip the Iowa Caucuses are returning to the Internet to promote their guy in Iowa. We learn that they’ve created Operation Sodbuster–www.sodbuster.org. The mission: Get Iowans to pick Clark on caucus day even though he’s not running there. More than 1,000 supporters from around the nation are involved in calling Iowans from a national phonebank. Draft Clark volunteers in Florida are also helping. On New Year's Day, volunteers will give out pro-Clark fliers and buttons at the Outback Bowl featuring the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Florida Gators in Tampa, Fla. Max Guyll, a Sodbusters organizer said, "Clark will make a great president and the grassroots in Iowa want to do what we can to make that happen. It's the grassroots that got him into this race and will get him to the White House."
See the Sodbuster effort here:
www.sodbuster.org/index.htm
12/19/03
Tehran tourists?
A North Korean delegation is now secretly visiting Tehran for discussions with Iranian officials that are believed to focus on cooperation in the production of missiles or nuclear weapons, a knowledgable U.S. official tells U.S. News. The Bush administration has been watching North Korean-Iranian cooperation for some time, and North Korean scientists and technicians have previously been spotted at a town near the Caspian Sea. They are believed to be working on Iran's development of longer-range missiles. Other officials also say the two countries–the remaining members of President Bush's "axis of evil"–are working together on weapons of mass destruction.
--Thomas Omestad
12/18/03
Dean's list
When Democratic presidential aspirant Howard Dean arrived at Yale in 1967, the university had just bagged letter grades for a softer "honors, high pass, pass, fail" evaluation scale. A college transcript recently provided to U.S. News by Dean's campaign shows the former Vermont governor got pretty decent marks: seven honors, 17 high passes, and 14 passes. His grades climbed steadily through his New Haven years, with almost all high-pass and honors marks junior and senior year. Political junkies will recall that candidate George W. Bush suffered a few bruises in 1999 when a leaked transcript from the very same school revealed him to be a "gentleman C" student.
While it lists his parents' home address on New York's glitzy Park Avenue, Dean's transcript is a road map of late-'60s anti-Establishment politics, with a healthy serving of courses on revolutionary movements: "History of Soviet Union," "Marxism Existentialism," "Soviet Foreign Policy," "Reason and Revolution," "International Communism," "Marxist Theory," and "Chinese Politics." And, of course, there's a less-than-radical class on "President and Bureaucracy."
12/16/03
Don Evans’s Midas touch
How does Commerce Secretary Don Evans do it? Just last week he goes on CNBC to talk about the economy as the Dow busts the 10,000 mark. And on Tuesday, while touring the Polish stock exchange in Warsaw, that market jumped higher, ending up 7 points as Evans and his aides were on the floor (see photo).
As the session bells rang the close Tuesday, Evans spokesman Ron Bonjean phoned with the news. "On national security or economic issues," he said, "America and her allies work together."
Bonjean, who had to talk over the ringing bells, said Polish exchange boss Wieslaw Rozlucki jokingly encouraged the visiting U.S. official to extend his visit: "I wish you could stay an extra day."
Besides talking up the economy and trade, Evans is also carrying a message of gratitude to Poland, which has been one of Washington’s biggest supporters in the war in Iraq.
• See the Warsaw market
• Read about Evans’s trip
12/3/03
Publisher shelves Boeing executive Sears
What a great book title for a Boeing Co. exec: Soaring Through Turbulence. Publisher John Wiley & Sons certainly thought so, gushing in a November press release that the management advice book by Boeing Chief Financial Officer Michael Sears should be a guide to fixing any slumping company. Our copy showed Sears giving managers great tips, such as avoid scandals because "the effect of scandal can be paralysis." And there was "Soaring Rule #5: Protect your secrets."
Well, as we all now know, Sears apparently didn't read his book, cowritten by lawyer Thomas Schweich, because he was linked to a hiring scandal late last month and fired.
Now the inevitable: Wiley has shelved the book. In a memo sent to us this week, the firm said, "Last week you were issued advance, uncorrected proofs of Soaring Through Turbulence by Michael Sears and Thomas Schweich, which was due to publish in March 2004. Please note that in light of recent events, the book has been delayed indefinitely and will not be published at this time. We will contact you if the status of the book changes. Please disregard the current galleys. Thank you."
• Read the original press review release from Wiley.
• Read the book suspension notice.
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