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2/23/05
Is Gingrich running?
Forget about trying to answer that one because when former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is asked if he plans to run for, say, president in 2008, he says no–and yes. We ran into him at one of the regular Christian Science Monitor newsmaker breakfasts hosted by the paper's bureau chief, David Cook, and here's what Newt had to say about a potential run: "It strikes me as implausible," he says. So he's not running? "Why would you rule out anything in this country?" Confused? Add this other note from Gingrich to the muddied mix. He plans to pitch his new book of big ideas, titled Winning the Future, a 21st Century Contract With America, to voters in Iowa and New Hampshire, sites of the first presidential caucuses and primary in the 2008 election. "We'll see what happens," he teases.
2/17/05
Tony Snow under the knife
Popular Fox News TV and radio host Tony Snow is about to undergo surgery to remove his cancerous colon. "I've been living in fear of cancer for 27 years," he tells Whispers. "I've got too much to live for." He was meeting with a surgeon today and might go under the knife this weekend. Snow, who is 49, said he has had colitis for years and knew he was a high-risk candidate. His mother died of cancer when she was 38. He got the diagnosis last week during a routine check. "Of course I was shocked," he said. "I didn't know something was up." But, he said, "we're dealing with it. We're forging ahead." Snow said the game plan is to remove the whole colon. "The kind of cancer I've got is a real baddie." He and his doctors expect a full recovery within a year. The cancer scare comes right as he's renegotiating a new three-year contract with Fox, but Snow said it shouldn't interrupt the talks and eventual agreement. And he wanted to thank his listeners who have been praying for him. "The power of prayer is pretty powerful. You really do feel better," he said.
Snow's radio show website
Snow's biography
2/16/05
GOP hits the Web
The fight over who was going to run the Democratic Party, which picked Howard Dean as chairman just last weekend, seems to have slowed down the party's webpage development just as the GOP was adding lots of new items to its website. Open the Democratic page, and you get a nice memo from Dean and an offering to blog. But open the GOP page, and you're introduced to a new feature from webteam developers "Mindy & Katie," who offer a video interview with new Sen. John Thune, the first in what they promise to be a regular feature. And check out the House Republican Conference's site, which copies the Capital One "No" ad, this time in a funny hit on Democrats fighting President Bush's agenda. But not to be outdone, House Democrats have a cool ad of their own, one attacking Bush's plan to offer private Social Security accounts. And it's done to the Pink Floyd tune "Money." And look for Dean, known for his Internet fundraising successes during the presidential campaign, to get his site up to speed–and soon, we're told.
2/9/05
It's Dean vs. Clark
Here's another reason why some Democrats are fretting over installing antiwar former presidential candidate Howard Dean as chair of the Democratic National Committee. He might cede national defense to the Republicans. That's the charge from associates of another former presidential candidate, former NATO boss Wes Clark. Seems the Clark and Dean teams have been warring over the future of the Democratic Party, and now that threatens to spill into the public if Dean, as expected, wins the chairmanship this Saturday. Here's the fight: Clark wants the Democrats deeply involved in foreign policy and the war, and Dean's team isn't as jazzed about that. They see domestic policy and issues like Social Security and the deficit as the keys to success. But this might be the real rub against Dean: Clark fans think the retired general will be marginalized by Dean. Chart the fight on their blogs.
Dean fans blog here: www.peopleforchange.net
Clark supporters chat here: chat.forclark.com
2/4/05
Bob Dole: One thing after another
Washington Whispers Editor Paul Bedard interviewed former Sen. Bob Dole, who returned home Wednesday after 22 days in Walter Reed Army Medical Center following a nearly fatal fall:
Sen. Bob Dole: Hey Paul, Bob Dole, how ya doing?
Paul Bedard: Senator, how are you doing?
Dole: Well, I don't know, but I'm out of the hospital after 22 days. I was in there before to get a hip replaced, then all this stuff happened.
Bedard: I saw the hip replacement story, but what's the latest story about your fall at home? It sounds pretty serious.
Dole: I guess it was serious. I didn't realize it. It happened on the 11th of January, and I had just come back from Florida. I went down there for a week to finish the book I'm working on. Got back on a Monday. On a Tuesday morning about 10 o'clock, I fell in the bedroom. I went to Walter Reed because I cut my eye. You wear glasses? Those two little things (the pads that hold the glasses on your nose), well, one of them went into my eye so they had to sew that up. That was about 5 o'clock, 6, or 7. I don't know, I was in the operating room. And my hand was sore, but otherwise I just said I might as well go on home. About 10 o'clock that night, boy, I was in misery. I couldn't stand anything. And apparently I had done a lot of damage to my left shoulder, and the whole left shoulder and arm was swelling up. I looked like a pro football player. It had all that fluid in there. I still haven't recovered full use of my left arm. Of course, I don't use my right arm. It's kind of ironic because my book is about recovery and rehab for five years after World War II, and I said couldn't feed myself or walk and stuff. It's coming out April 12. And almost 60 years to the date I was wounded, I get all this stuff where I can't feed myself, I can't walk. Talk about an ironic repeat, anyway. But I'm getting better slowly–that's the good news. It apparently was fairly serious.
Bedard: Now apparently you had some bleeding in your head?
Dole: Apparently so, yeah. We were thanking the doctor, and he said don't thank me–it must be some higher power, I don't know. That subsided. The problem was that I was on a blood thinner because I had the hip replaced and they always put you on blood thinners. So here I was with all this potential problem taking blood thinners. So they reversed it right away with frozen blood plasma and vitamin K. The doctors did a great job in reversing everything. They took me off the blood thinners, of course. But in the meantime, my left leg where I had the hip operation just sort of collapsed on me. It wasn't the hip; it was the leg itself, so I couldn't walk, and it was just sort of one thing after another. Then I end up with a blood clot in my right groin where they had a line in there so they can give you things intravenously. I don't know, just one thing after another.
Bedard: So you're lucky to be with us?
Dole: Somebody was looking out for me. I don't know who it was. I'm still pretty weak and trying to get the use of my left arm. I don't use my right one at all, and I can't comb my hair yet or put a necktie on. But I'm getting better. I think it's just a matter of time.
Bedard: Are you able to do any editing work on your book?
Dole: Oh yeah, in fact, I'm able to write, though I never could write very well.
Bedard: You're pretty much wrapped up with it and now just doing the final edit on the book?
Dole: It's pretty much finished. In fact we went down to Florida and went over it word for word . . . to make certain we were accurate and all that stuff. I wish I would have taken another day or two so none of this would happen.
But in any event, it's going to be a good book.
Bedard: We're looking forward to it. It's about the war and your recovery, right?
Dole: Yeah, it's not about politics or power or that stuff. It's about having a spinal injury and a bunch of other things and learning how to walk and teaching yourself all those things.
Bedard: Well, congratulations for surviving again.
Dole: Yeah, talk about irony; I end up coming full circle back in the hospital. Somebody else feeding me, somebody else dressing me, somebody else bathing me. Boy, some of it is kind of humiliating, going to the bathroom and stuff.
Bedard: Well, it will make for a better story for you.
Dole: I guess, I appreciate your interest. Thanks Paul.
More on Bob Dole: www.bobdole.org
2/3/05
Jackie's bubble-top
It's probably the most famous government limo ever sent into action. Now we learn that Jackie Kennedy's "bubble-top" Lincoln fetched $632,500. It was one of the features at the RM Auctions sixth annual vintage sale in Arizona. But it wasn't the top seller. That was a 1934 Duesenberg Model J convertible, which took in $2.75 million. The Kennedy car was famous for its see-through back-seat roof. It's a smaller version of the Lincoln in which President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Still, it was the highest price ever paid for an old Lincoln, said Rob Myers of RM Auctions. "We suspected this year's selection of historically significant and impeccably restored cars was poised to set new records, and we were not disappointed," he said.
Jackie's bubble-top limo
2/2/05
Blog the president
Just in time for President Bush's speech tonight, an online magazine called TechCentralStation.com is conducting a live blog with liberal and conservative pundits like Andrew Sullivan on the State of the Union. Site executives, who are still adding names of prominent bloggers, said it would be the first blog of its kind and let viewers spin the news with members of the traditional press. TCS is advertising itself tonight as a one-stop site for blogging. Other pundits expected to play are Stephen Green, Andy O'Reilly, Ann Althouse, Ed Morrissey, Michael Totten, Matthew Yglesias, Kevin Aylward, and the National Review. It will work this way: Go to the TCS site, and click the blogger you want to write to.
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