6/21/02
Clinton's secret to attacking Bush
Making the rounds at Democratic fundraisers, former President Clinton has begun to articulate a way for the loyal opposition to attack the popular President Bush in the fall elections. It boils down to this: Terrorists win if they shake up Washington so much that the administration diverts money needed for critical domestic programs to the war. And, guess what? Clinton said that Bush was doing just that. If it sounds familiar, it is. Clinton made the same charges in 1992 when he beat former President Bush, claiming the then president was too much of a foreign policy leader and a zero at home. He laid out his battle plan this week at a Senate Democratic fundraiser hosted by powerhouse Washington lawyer Weldon Latham. A member of the firm Holland & Knight, Latham is considered the new Ron Brown of Democratic and African-American politics. Over $200,000 was raised for Sens Tom Harkin and Mary Landrieu. Those in attendance were spellbound, describing Clinton being supportive of the war but hard on Bush's efforts to flat-line spending on some domestic programs while growing the intelligence and military budget. Of course, the president has seen the evolution of this type of attack and is taking steps to focus part of his time on domestic programs and announcements.
Click here to see who attended the private fundraiser.
6/20/02
Asleep on college campuses
America's conservative educator and virtues boss, William Bennett, has a message for today's college kids: Wake up! Bennett, the former education secretary and popular author on American thought and virtues, just gave us a poll that says college students are gripless when it comes to understanding the war on terrorism. "It's deplorable that people don't know," he says. The poll, conducted for Empower America and Bennett's new group, Americans for Victory Over Terrorism, says: Students don't think U.S. culture is better than Arab culture; over one third wouldn't serve if drafted; and a majority can't name key world and U.S. leaders in the anti-terror war. "We have a right to expect more knowledge from our kids," says Frank Luntz, whose survey company conducted the poll. Adds Harvard professor Ruth Wisse, an adviser to Bennett's group, "Democracy is in trouble when its main beneficiaries don't know that their society is better than its alternatives and why–on that account–it is worth protecting." Bennett plans to tour the country for "teach-ins" to promote better student involvement in the war.
• See the poll highlights here: www.avot.org/stories/storyReader$72
6/19/02
Shocking: Uncle Walt was a liberal
When you get a letter with Walter Cronkite's picture on it above a quote screaming, "For years I kept my opinions to myself, but now I must speak out," you open it. We did, only to find out he was lending his name to liberals who just hate Pat Robertson, Pat Buchanan, and Jerry Falwell. "I will not remain silent while these political operatives manipulate religion to condemn those who oppose their narrow view," he says in the letter endorsing the Washington-based Interfaith Alliance, a lobbying group promoting diversity and tolerance. It comes at a time when the politics of TV anchors is under scrutiny, and Cronkite's revelation could provide more fodder for conservatives who think that all newsies are liberal.
• See the envelope and fundraising letter here.
6/18/02
Aw-Clinton's new jelly-belly pup
We know his name – Seamus. We know his breed – a chocolate Lab. And now we have the evidence that there really is a puppy behind all those stories that Bill Clinton has a new pet. Thanks to the Clinton Presidential Center, we finally have a picture of the ex-president's new puppy, a chubby, thick-pawed bird dog. The center included the first story about Seamus broadcast on ABC News.
See Seamus here: http://www.clintonpresidentialcenter.com/seamus.html
6/14/02
The White House political strategy
The buzz in Washington is over the secret White House 2002 election strategy accidentally left on a Washington street corner. It tells all, including which races will be tough to win and the war chest Democrats are expected to spend fighting Republicans. See the powerpoint slides here.
6/13/02
Bill Clinton dissected
Scholars from around the country have gathered at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville, where both Bill and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton taught, to dissect the Clinton administration. Our reporter Suzi Parker found that everything from the ex-president's psychological vulnerability to his adultery to policy management was on the table. One expert, for example, former CNN reporter Ken Bode, said that Clinton policy got better after controversial Republican pollster Dick Morris became an adviser. But are the scholars moving too fast to review Clinton, out of office for just 17 months? That's what Darlene Clark Hine, president of the Organization of American Historians, is hearing from her colleagues. "They think you are putting your reputation on the line by not having access to all documents" generated by the Clinton presidency that will one day make it to the Clinton library. But she says that's the wrong way to look at it. Instead, she says, the historians should consider themselves scholarly pioneers.
6/12/02
Republican begging to fight
Art Hackney, a Washington-based political consultant with clients such as the National Rifle Association, says he has the fortitude to take on the Paul Begalas of the TV talk show world. "That's why I moved to D.C.," he says about his recent relocation from Alaska, where he was a campaign organizer. Hackney says it's time the Republicans stopped playing passive and fired back at Begala, James Carville, and other Democrat big mouths. Hackney says he has let the White House know that he can be the point man for them on talk shows like CNN's Crossfire. "Republicans need to stop being so darned polite. Someone has to come back and defend," he just told a Little Rock, Ark., crowd, reports our Suzi Parker. He says that he won't play in the game until the Bush White House asks him, but Hackney says "Called, I will serve." So far, the call hasn't come in.
6/7/02
Heart smart
Getting Vice President Dick Cheney healthy has become a family affair. Just look at what his wife, Lynne, is doing. She not only makes sure the heart attack victim eats right, but she's exercising with him in their home gym. "He exercised this morning even before I did, and I was in there at 7." Then there's her policing of the diet. "We've always got people who are trying to make us healthy menus that still taste good, because tasting good and being healthy are not always the same thing." But it's not all work. The veep has been riding the Naval Observatory grounds on a Segway loaner, the two-wheeled gyro bike.
6/6/02
We're shocked! Pork in Congress?
The E-mail sent to reporters all around Washington opens: "Here's a shocker!" Of course it's not. Instead it details the grim reality of congressional pork, and the billions added to the legislation slated to fund the antiterror war. Such as $3.5 million for a cultural exchange program for Egyptian journalists. What is shocking is the unusual campaign to cut the pork, led by congressional staffers, White House officials, and outside groups like Citizens Against Government Waste. Their campaign includes help from Sen. John McCain, the Republican maverick known for fighting defense pork. He takes pork personally, claiming it robs money needed for critical weapons and parts. "Put simply, unless something is done immediately, I fear young Americans will needlessly lose their lives," he pens.
See the pork E-mail here.
Read Sen. McCain's letter: Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4
6/5/02
The plan to get Saddam
At the Pentagon, the brass are laughing at some of those stories about delaying an invasion of Iraq. The truth is, say insiders, that's just spin from military services trying to discount plans by their rivals. "All that's going on there is the typical interservice rivalries," says Jed Babbin, a deputy under secretary of defense in the previous Bush administration. The real story, he says, is that there are active plans to attack Iraq. According to Babbin and Pentagon insiders, one scenario looks like this–Step 1: Launch a missile attack on the so-called Scud box, from which Saddam Hussein's missiles are launched. Of course, some Iraqi missiles would probably be launched, but the insiders say 36 hours of attacks should eliminate the Scuds. That would open the door for Iraqis who fled to Iran in the Gulf War to return to their homeland and invade Baghdad. Here, the Pentagon expects Turkey to help, too. That would make it look like a homegrown affair, not a U.S. mission that could raise tensions in the Middle East. Once the offensive is underway, the Marines would go in to close the deal.
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