6/27/01 The politics of polls
The reaction of President Bush's team to a recent slew of poor poll ratings
has a familiar ring: We don't pay attention to polls, and the questions
were rigged. Just ask Chief of Staff Andy Card. He says policy isn't
influenced by polls. "We would be in bumper cars if we were paranoid about
polls," he says. But that doesn't mean polls don't matter, since Card also
dissected them to find excuses for why the president didn't score
better. When referring to newspaper polls that failed to show a hoped-for
boost for Bush after the tax cut, Card offered two reasons: first, that
the questions were skewed against the prez; and second, that the tax break
was competing for headlines with Sen. Jim Jeffords's defection from the GOP.
"There was more than one tune being played during that window of measurement," Card told our Kenneth T. Walsh. But he predicts that folks will be high on Bush once they start receiving their
$300-$600 refund checks in next month's mail.
6/26/01 Rabble-rousing for DC statehood
Washingtonians have a funny way of showing they want a vote–make that three votes–in Congress. A group pushing statehood called DC Rabble (short for Representation Alliance for Ballot Box and Legislative Equality) is asking all citizens to boycott federal jury duty until the District gets two senators and a congressman. “Why should we serve the courts when we have no voice in writing the laws,” says a pamphlet distributed inside one federal jury room and provided to Whispers. The leaflet, which tells jurors how to talk their way out of serving, irks Washington’s federal judges who already have a hard time assembling juries. Tough, says the group. “We want to shut down the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia,’’ says the handout. “The jury boycott will create a severe backlog of federal cases and demonstrate to the country that D.C. residents are no longer willing to perform the duties of citizens without the full representation of citizens."
6/21/01 Bush doesn't spark voters
He's been president for five months and won passage of a major tax cut and education reform plan. But voters aren't terribly impressed by George W. Bush, according to a new Democratic poll. In fact, while folks believe he's brought morals and character back to the White House, they're not sure they'd re-elect him. A poll for Democracy Corps, a group including heavy Demo hitters James Carville, Stanley Greenberg, and Bob Shrum, found that voters would split 44 percent to 44 percent in a race pitting Bush against a generic Democratic challenger. The good news for the White House: Respondents like Bush more than ex-President Clinton and former Vice President Gore. What's more, if maverick GOP Sen. John McCain decides to run as an independent in 2004 he'd steal more votes from Democrats than Republicans, likely tilting the tide Bush's way.
6/20/01 How to keep tabs on Clinton
After months of money-making speeches, golf jaunts, and even a little
dieting, former President Clinton is returning to public life. His first step is a small one, for the consumption of his fans. It's in the form of a "thank you" note to Clinton staffers as far back as 1992. "I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank all of you who served on my Presidential campaigns, on my Presidential Inaugural Committees, on my 92-93 Presidential Transition Team, in my administration, and at the Democratic National Committee, for your years of service and steadfast dedication to the goals we set together in 1992," writes Clinton. He goes on to crow about the highlights of his administration and announce a cool new Web site – Clintonstaff.com – where Clintonistas can go to keep in
touch with the boss and themselves, reports our Suzi Parker. The site will be part
of the Clinton Presidential Library and is affiliated with the William J. Clinton
Presidential Foundation. Best of all, it will post Clinton's travel and
events schedules so that we in the media can keep an eye on him. And
there's a bonus prize: Clinton political adviser and guru James Carville wrote a similar
letter, only his was four pages to Clinton's two.
– Click here to read the letter for yourself.
– Clinton's new site: www.clintonstaff.com
6/19/01 First contribution to McCain 2004 Louie Nordbye, a Savannah, Ga. volunteer in John McCain's 2000 campaign, says he's not waiting until 2004 to support McCain. "The very instant I receive my tax refund from secretary of the Treasury," he tells us, "I'm endorsing it over to Senator John McCain." The fellow Vietnam War vet adds, "I could use the $300 to buy a nice rayon aloha shirt and a few beers at Spanky's to get me through the summer, but the money is better spent putting Senator McCain in the White House to get us through the decade." Nordbye isn't the first one to consider political uses for his tax refund. Both political parties are working on ways to grab the refunds. And it doesn't end there. We hear that lots of retail outlets are thinking the same thing because the checks will arrive during the summer vacation months and right up through the opening of school.
6/15/01 The Democratic tax-cut solution–hellooo?
Call us cheap, but you have to wonder what they’re smoking over at the Democratic National Committee. The latest DNC brainstorm: Get Americans to sign over their $300-to-$600 tax rebates to the party’s political coffers. DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe’s team says it’s the best way to fight the Republicans and Big Oil. “Dedicate a portion of your tax cut as a ‘long-term preventative solution’ to the energy crisis by using it to get rid of the very culprits that are creating the problem–George Bush and his Big Oil Friends,” says the DNC. “After all, the very people making energy policy in Bush’s administration are from the oil and gas industry!” Republican National Committee spokesman Trent Duffy says the effort might lead to a new Democratic motto: “Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses, and your tax cut.” Then again, we hear that Republican Party officials are planning a fundraising drive timed to the delivery of refunds.
6/14/01 The GOP presses a missing-papers case
Republicans are suspicious over the Federal Election Commission's unexpected move to withdraw from public view 6,000 pages of documents reviewed in the probe of improper coordination between the Democratic National Committee and the AFL-CIO. The papers, the first of 35,000 to be made public, were released in early May but then withdrawn. An FEC spokesman yesterday told Whispers that the move was made for "administration purposes" and nothing more. The spokesman added that all 6,000 will again be made public. He didn't say when. The documents are part of a July 2000 decision to close an investigation into allegations that the DNC and the labor union federation improperly shared information about their election plans for 1996. Needless to say, the Republican National Committee wants to review those papers. As a result, the RNC Wednesday filed a request with the FEC to make all 35,000 papers public now. In its letter, provided to Whispers, the RNC also claims that the "bizarre action by the commission" was the first ever in which documents made public were pulled from the public record.
6/14/01 A surprise resignation from Bush's Social Security panel
Whispers just learned that Carolyn Weaver, a former resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, has resigned from President Bush's Social Security Commission. Weaver, an aggressive proponent of privatization, flew the coop on the eve of the commission's first meeting on Monday. Weaver told friends she was giving up the post for family reasons, but privatization fans worry that her abrupt departure means something's afoot with what is widely viewed as a commission mandate to rubber-stamp the prez's privatization plan. Should they brood? They're waiting on names of a possible successor, which could signal a change in focus.
6/13/01 Attention, Army history dropouts
As he visits Army bases to explain the controversial decision to have all soldiers wear black berets starting this week, the Army's sergeant major is discovering that up to 30 percent think it's a bad idea. And that's just among those who are aware of the pending change. But he's also finding little knowledge of Army history, and that seems to upset him. Just 25 percent know that June 14 was the service's 226th anniversary, prompting this pledge: "In the future, we're going to take pride in the Army's heritage to the point that if there's two soldiers in a fighting position on June 14, I expect them to put a match in a piece of [Army] poundcake, blow it out, and then sing 'Happy Birthday' to the Army."
6/12/01 Pataki takes a well-worn path
It's old and faded, but Republicans think their fall-back political strategy of making voters afraid that Democrats are liberals is still solid gold. Case in point: New York Gov. George Pataki's campaign. In a fundraising letter to GOP-ers and provided to Whispers, he warns that liberals are lurking everywhere to rob his job. Listing how he fixed New York after crushing "Cuomonoics," he states: "We've done such a good job of turning New York around, even Bill and Hillary Clinton decided to move here. But now, after Hillary Rodham Clinton's victory for the United States Senate last year, the national liberals are back." Hopeful for up to $1,000, he adds, "Make a stand for reasonable and responsible government by rejecting the overbearing brand of Clinton extremism and the dismal failure of Cuomonomics."
6/7/01 Sequoia's secrets slowly filter out
The ghosts of the presidential yacht Sequoia are alive, or so says boat owner Gary Silversmith. Now back in Washington for a full year after undergoing a costly and extensive overhaul, Sequoia is becoming a favorite for political bashes and fundraisers. Naturally, past guests of the ship are eager to return to regale the assembled with stories of old presidential visits. Fortunately for us, Silversmith likes to dish up the tidbits. Two recent parties featured aides of Richard Nixon and JFK sister-in-law Ethel Kennedy. First Nixon. Former Nixon deputy housing chief H.R. Crawford says Nixon forbade him to go downstairs during visits to the Sequoia. He gave no reason. Unfortunately for Crawford, the bathrooms were below, so he jested that he would have to "do what some boaters do" when the urge called, says Silversmith. Also: Nixon only liked to talk while on the back deck because he thought the ship was bugged. It wasn't. On to Kennedy. Ethel fondly remembered the 1963 birthday party for JFK held on the ship and memorialized in several famous photos. "You know when sometimes you are at an event and everything just clicks," she told Silversmith. "On that night, everything just clicked. Everyone had a great time."
6/6/01 Republicans are rolling in it
In politics, money talks, and you just can't shut them up at the Republican National Committee. Insiders say the RNC has raised record amounts since President Bush came to town, surprising even the most senior GOP-ers who thought Clinton-hating and partisanship was the best fundraising bait. RNC spokesman Trent Duffy tells us that the committee has $33 million on hand and raised a whopping $7.1 million in April. How come? "People say they just like President Bush," says Duffy. The best part, he says, is that the money was raised from small donors, making it "hard money" and not the type that would be limited or worse under pending campaign finance legislation. In April, for example, the average donation was $66.24 and came from 106,685 contributors. The Democrats, chasing bigger "soft-dollar" donations,
haven't filed their figures, but Chairman Terry McAuliffe says he plans to break records too–just like he did when heading then President Clinton's re-election fundraising team.
6/5/01 Ashcroft shows 'em nothing in Mo.
Missouri politicos are gabbing about how often Attorney General John Ashcroft has flown home since losing his seat and getting a new job. But they are dismissing reports from tea leaf readers who say it's a sign that he's going to run again in 2002 to recapture his seat, now held by Sen. Jean Carnahan. "He'd be crazy to leave Justice so soon," says a key Show-Me state GOP official. State GOP bigs now expect Jim Talent, who lost the gubernatorial race by a whisker, to run against Carnahan. It's a long way off, but if Carnahan runs and pulls off another victory next year, then Ashcroft allies say he'd begin laying the groundwork for a 2008 bid.
6/1/01 Bradley's back, but is he running?
Former Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley lives! Or so he says in a letter to supporters. Our copy reads like a political manifesto in which the liberal takes both a lofty and practical path. Try this paragraph on for size: "As a nation, I believe we must sustain the prosperity of the past decade and use it wisely. We are an increasingly diverse nation, which means the challenges and joys of living together will multiply. We cannot permit any American to live without the hope of realizing his or her potential, for the diminishment of some of us is really the diminishment of all of us. I hope that more of us will come to see that ultimate connection and that our insight will be expressed in public policies and private actions that move us all toward an America that lives up to its ideals." What's to argue? Is his letter the first step toward another presidential bid? The answer is unknown, but other Democrats planning to run read it that way.
• Click here to see the letter for yourself.
