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3/28/06
Not over yet for GOP
President Bush's historically low public approval ratings, the depressing news from Iraq, and internal GOP squabbles over issues like immigration reform still don't have leaders and their political advisers worried about losing the majority in the House or Senate in the midterm elections. Top aides and strategists say that while the Republicans could lose a handful of House and Senate seats, they should remain in the majority. "It's a bit scary, but we don't think we'll lose control," says one strategist. Another says that in House races, most members should win re-election based on local issues and projects the lawmakers can cite for which they brought home federal funding. "Those aren't national elections this year," says the Republican political adviser, adding that the Democrats so far have failed to make the midterms a national election like Republicans did in 1994. The Republican advisers also say that the GOP should maintain control of the Senate, although about half of the four troubled races could go Democratic. Of the Senate re-election bids by Pennsylvania's Rick Santorum, Montana's Conrad Burns, Missouri's Jim Talent, and Ohio's Mike DeWine, the insiders expect only Burns and Talent to win.
3/24/06
The Mehlman parade
Lookout Midwesterners: Republican Party Chairman Ken Mehlman is on the road again looking to energize GOP grassroots activists and make sure they have the election tools needed to help Republicans in the fall elections. "His top priority is making sure that the national party and local party activists have the resources they need to highlight the choice voters will face," said a party spokeswoman. While he has spent days outside Washington pumping up the local troops, this week has been especially active for Mehlman, President Bush's 2004 reelection campaign manager. He has traveled to 12 cities in four states to conduct 25 events. Today he is meeting with GOP coalitions in Illinois and plans a Lincoln Day dinner in Pennsylvania and a meeting with activists in Ohio. On Thursday, he was in three Wisconsin cities listening to Republican officials and talking with five radio stations. "It's a labor of love," says an RNC insider. "He has so much energy and people at the grassroots level really feed off that enthusiasm."
And he's not alone: Democratic Party boss Howard Dean is also a big traveler who's been whipping up support for the anti-Bush crowd. Look for both to step up their national travels as the 2006 elections near.
Meet Ken Mehlman
Meet Howard Dean
3/22/06
Not yet "Commissioner Rice"
Count Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice out of the running for retiring NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue post. The job she's coveted for years comes open at a bad time for the huge football fan. And insiders say she's not just rejecting it for now; she doesn't want it even if Tag stays on until May 2007. Administration officials said that the timing of the vacancy is not right and that she plans to stay on President Bush's team as it handles world crises in the Middle East. When Tagliabue's resignation was announced Monday, State officials said that Rice for now was interested in staying at the department. But Tuesday officials added that she isn't interested in the job long term. Rice has often jokingly commented that the next best job for her would be NFL commissioner. She is a huge football fan who has attended Superbowls, including that last one, and who sometimes entertains football greats in her State office where she displays three team helmets. Her firm rejection of the NFL bid has naturally led to other speculation that she remains interested in running for vice president or president.
3/17/06
Still Milton and Rose after 67 years
Economic guru Milton Friedman has a
secret for his fellow Hollywood couples
in these days of celebrity divorce:
"Love and tolerance are the keys to a successful marriage." Friedman should
know – he's been married to Rose for 67
years and now that relationship and
their brainy takes on the world economy are getting the star treatement. We
hear that their life, career, and
marriage will be heralded in the new
PBS special, The Power Of Choice: The
Life and Ideas of Milton Friedman. It
premieres March 22 when the San
Francisco-based Pacific Research In-
stitute and Free to Choose Media host
the premier.
See the event here
The Friedman Foundation
3/17/06
Don't tell us Hillary's not running
Do you still need to be convinced that New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is running for president? Then check out the new Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraising letter she just wrote. Over three pages, she rails against the president and Republican Congress in very tough language. "What George W. Bush and the Republican Congress offer are irresponsible, short-sighted policies, and evasion of responsibility." Or: "This is our chance to stop George W. Bush's dangerous and reckless agenda." Here's what's interesting. Facing her own re-election race, which is expected to be easy but still costly, she's devoting time and effort to help raise money for her fellow senators, a move that could have big payoffs in 2008. What's more, the letter is seeking only a measly $2.1 million, an amount Clinton could raise in a couple of fundraisers or her husband could collect with a blast e-mail to supporters. Republicans see her letter as something much more than a plea for Senate dollars. "She's testing the language for a 2008 run," claims one GOP strategist. "I mean, she uses that kind of language just to raise a couple of million dollars?"
Meet the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
3/17/06
Don't tell us Hillary's not running
Do you still need to be convinced that New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is running for president? Then check out the new Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraising letter she just wrote. Over three pages, she rails against the president and Republican Congress in very tough language. "What George W. Bush and the Republican Congress offer are irresponsible, short-sighted policies, and evasion of responsibility." Or: "This is our chance to stop George W. Bush's dangerous and reckless agenda." Here's what's interesting. Facing her own re-election race, which is expected to be easy but still costly, she's devoting time and effort to help raise money for her fellow senators, a move that could have big payoffs in 2008. What's more, the letter is seeking only a measly $2.1 million, an amount Clinton could raise in a couple of fundraisers or her husband could collect with a blast e-mail to supporters. Republicans see her letter as something much more than a plea for Senate dollars. "She's testing the language for a 2008 run," claims one GOP strategist. "I mean, she uses that kind of language just to raise a couple of million dollars?"
Meet the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
3/15/06
2008's Joe Lieberman
Jewish activist voters appear to be stepping gingerly into the 2008 Democratic presidential race as they size up candidates who plan to take on front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in the primaries. At last week's American Israel Public Affairs Committee, former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner won kudos for his comments, with several insiders suggesting that he is the "Joe Lieberman" in the race‑a moderate Democrat who strongly supports Israel. "They like Hillary, but not to the exclusion of Warner," said one attendee. "Warner has their attention and he was pretty popular," he added. Several likely presidential candidates attended the conference, which focused on Iran and Tehran's threat to Israel, but only a few made a positive impression. One other was Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh. His speech was called "surprisingly loquacious." But the appearances, even the short one, by Sen. John Kerry were panned. "Kerry's so yesterday's news," said one insider.
3/10/06
Look at what Dollard survived!
Earlier this week, Hollywood director Patrick Dollard explained how he survived a truck bombing in Ramadi while filming his series Young Americans. Now he's sharing exclusive photos.
Dollard writes: Picture one is of the Humvee about two hours after it was blown up. Lt. Fitzgerald was in the back right seat, I was next to him. Corporal Conley was in the seat in front of him. The IED was about 6 inches behind our back bumper. It left a hole about 4 feet deep and six feet wide. The asphalt around it was turned to 'soup' according to one Marine.
The second picture is of the three of us who survived. I'm in the middle. To my left is Private Zachary Kother, the gunner in the turret. He was being blown out to his likely death, but at the last minute a bunch of ammo cans slammed into his legs and stopped him. He's a wrestler, and the doctors told him that if he didn't have such unusually muscular legs, the cans would've broken his shins. He is still unable to run and therefor go out on patrols. The marine to my right is Lance Corporal Eric Cybulski. He suffered minor wounds.
Read our dispatch on Dollard earlier this week.
3/9/06
Hi, I’m George Bush
Top aides to President Clinton were doing a double take Wednesday when former President George H.W. Bush popped into Bubba’s Harlem offices for a meet and greet.
“I looked up and thought man that guy really looks like President Bush. And it was!” said a Clinton aide.
Seems that Bush had no agenda; Clinton wasn’t even there. He was speaking in Canada.
“Forty-one just wanted to come by and say hello,” says Clinton spokesman Jay Carson. “He was really great and our staff really appreciated it,” he added of the 41st president.
It was probably a payback for a Clinton visit to Bush’s offices in Houston recently, others said.
Bush, who was in between flights, spent a half an hour in Clinton’s offices talking with aides and posing for pictures in the latest demonstration of affection between the two ex-presidents brought together by current President Bush to raise money for tsunami and Hurricane Katrina victims.
3/7/06
Why Dollard stays in Iraq
When we scratched out a couple of sentences last week about how Hollywood director Patrick Dollard survived a truck bombing in Ramadi while filming his series Young Americans, we didn't have a long explanation from the hospitalized Dollard yet. Well, that just came in–from Dollard and his publicist. Dollard, who used to be Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh's agent, said he was traveling in a humvee when a massive improvised explosive device went off, killing two marines in the truck and injuring others who were part of a four-humvee convoy. He was injured and hospitalized, but he says he can't leave until he's done with his TV project of traveling in Iraq with marines. First, here's what happened, according to his publicist:
"Dollard was riding in the back left passenger seat of a humvee, the patrol's lead vehicle, in Ramadi in the Sunni Triangle. Seated next to him was the platoon's commander, Lt. Almar Fitzgerald, 23, a graduate of the Citadel, a first-timer to Iraq, and the battalion's only African-American lieutenant. In the front right seat sat the vehicle commander and section leader, Cpl. Matthew Conley, one week shy of his 22nd birthday, married, with the couple's first child due in a few weeks. Another marine drove, and a third manned the gun turret. Suddenly a loud explosion was heard, clearly an IED. Conley immediately got on the radio and discovered that the fourth humvee had been hit by an IED and was engaged in small-arms fire with the enemy. Conley and the lieutenant halted movement of the patrol, and were on the radio to assess casualties and vehicle damage and supervise the battle. Their humvee pushed through an intersection, leaving all the others stopped behind and across it. With a solid dispersion between each vehicle, the little patrol stretched a good distance down the street. After trying several times in vain, Conley was unable to get a clear casualty report (as it turned out two marines in the fourth vehicle were wounded) amidst the firefight and stepped out of the humvee in order to walk back to the engaged vehicle and handle the situation, protecting his marines. After just a few feet Conley stepped directly onto an IED buried beneath the asphalt. An insurgent hidden on a rooftop triggered it, killing Conley instantly."
In an e-mail to us from Iraq, Dollard added a few details and explained exactly why he isn't turning tail and returning home. "Vehicles get rocked with IEDs all the time," he says, and "usually it's no big deal, no real damage, no one hurt. But this IED was a rare monster, a killer that blew apart a fully up-armored humvee. To live through that, fully conscious from start to finish, to fly through the air and have to crawl back into the carnage, to be wounded and to know so precisely what I may have to live through again, well, frankly, every time I roll out that gate, which is every day, I am no longer dogged a bit by fear, but seized with unrelenting abject terror. You have to remember, the IEDs go off on the streets we patrol every day, without fail. But apparently it isn't enough to send me packing. I keep my focus. I do my job. I could not turn to my marine friends and say, 'You guys deal with this by yourselves, I'm out of here.' Many have told me, flat out, that they can't believe I'm staying."
Dollard says his is a personal mission to tell the story of the marines in Iraq. "I don't want any after-the-fact narration in this series, so I speak a lot to the camera, turning it on myself every night to summarize things," he says. "Anymore it's not so much to an audience; it's to my 10-year-old daughter. I cover things with a little more detail, the marines a little more personally. I want the full story available in the event I'm no longer here to shepherd its telling. But mostly I just worry more about the marines. I worry more about everybody."
3/3/06
Phoning Bill, watching Kerry
Attention, political staffers: Your junk could be gold. That's right, the Kerry for President fan or note from Bill Clinton could be worth hundreds, if recent auctions on eBay and memorabilia sites are right. This week, we came across two strange ones: Sen. John Kerry's DVD and a Clinton-era telephone. Kerry's Sony DVD playeris on craigslist for $25 with this note, "It works fine and is in excellent condition. The remote is missing, however (universal remote will do fine). The kicker is that this player belonged to Sen. John Kerry. So if you want to buy it just to smash it up cause you hate liberals, that's fine w/ me also." A Kerry ally E-mailed us that he's considering buying his boss's gear. Stuff from winning candidates seems to cost more. A Clinton White House phone just sold on eBay for $103.03, plus $12 shipping. "This phone was removed from the White House communications division in the early part of the George W. Bush administration, when the phone system was updated to touch-tone phones with black color," says the seller. Of course, the seller didn't say just how he got it.
The Clinton phone
The Kerry DVD
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