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11/29/05
It's all about the Bush pets
Here's the secret on the Bush White House Christmas card: It features three family members and none of them are human. Done by the famed artist Jamie Wyeth, the 2005 White House Christmas card to be unveiled Wednesday finds the first family's two dogs, Barney and Miss Beazley, and cat, India, on the snow-covered South Lawn. The scene is a western shot of the White House framed by the Jackson magnolia and the Truman balcony. First lady Laura Bush is expected to explain the setting at a press conference Wednesday. The card marks a return to White House art by Wyeth. He was tagged by the Reagans in 1981 and 1984 to paint the holiday cards, which are traditionally paid for by the Republican National Committee and sent to tens of thousands of Bush supporters, aides, and even to reporters.
The inside of the Bush card features a biblical passage, Psalm 28:7: "The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts; so I am helped, and my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him." And the first couple adds, "With best wishes for a holiday season of hope and happiness. 2005."
11/28/05
It's coal for Christmas
Christmas arrived at the White House yesterday, with the first lady accepting delivery of the tree, but the holiday looks to be a stinker as far as political presents go. New polling out this week finds that Americans want a whole new direction for the country and are ready to take their frustration out on President Bush and the GOP-led Congress. Democracy Corps, the Democratic polling firm, finds that Bush's job approval rating is stuck at 42 percent; the portion of those who want a new direction is steady at 62 percent; and 64 percent of those polled want a change in Congress for the fourth survey in a row. Worse: Americans know that Republicans are in charge of Washington so it's the GOP that could be socked if the mood sticks into the 2006 midterm elections. According to Republican insiders, there's good news and bad news in all that polling. The good: There is normally little news during the holidays, and what there is the president dominates. The bad: There's little good news the president can seize upon.
But before you think it's all positive for the Democrats, the polling shows that since the president started taking swipes at his Democratic critics on the war, the poll numbers for Republicans in Congress have popped up a bit. And White House officials tell Whispers that the president plans to spend the next few weeks cheerleading on Iraq and other issues critical to his base like immigration and the Supreme Court. "I hope," says one official, "that we've bottomed out." Check out the Democracy Corps Poll here.
11/16/05
Stock of McCain, Giuliani rises
Republicans are taking a new look at moderate Republican presidential hopefuls in light of last week's gubernatorial elections in which voters seemed to reject candidates who ran on hard-right social issues. Leading the list: Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Virginia Rep. Tom Davis, seen as one of the GOP's best political strategists, suggests that both can energize and win independent voters, who he believes are the key to victory. "Both Giuliani and McCain exert leadership qualities that we don't see" in other GOP leaders, he said at a breakfast with reporters. Davis, himself a GOP maverick, suggested that one of the problems facing more conservative candidates is that they don't reach beyond the party's conservative base. He added that Democrats in his state of Virginia realized this a few years back when they offered up moderate Mark Warner for governor. He won and became very popular in the state despite increasing taxes. And last week, the candidate he campaigned for, Tim Kaine, was elected as the next governor. Friends of McCain said he is positioning himself for a primary bid. And today, a group organized to push a Draft Rudy Giuliani campaign went public with its Web site.
11/9/05
Denny the blogger
It turns out that you can teach an old dog—or coach—new tricks. Witness House Speaker Dennis Hastert, nicknamed "Coach" for his years as a high school wrestling coach. He's got blogging fever.
For the past two weeks, the Illinois congressman has been blogging on his House site, offering tidbits on policy and his personal style. And it's a hit.
Spokesman Ron Bonjean says the first week saw 60,000 hits, probably driven by media stories on the speaker's effort. But in week two, the numbers nearly doubled to 110,000.
"It keeps growing," Bonjean says of the blog site, called "The Speaker's Journal." And now other House leaders are taking notice and may unveil their own blogs.
Bonjean says the speaker likes the forum because it allows him to touch on issues the mainstream media might not be paying attention to. For now, the site will remain hard news only and updated only weekly. But Bonjean sounded open to our suggestions that the coach offer a few inside secrets, like recipes or maybe even wrestling moves.
11/4/05
From Capitol page to Hollywood
Watch for this name: Courtney Fine. On GQ's "Next Best Thing" list for entertainers, she suggests that we also put her on our list of potential future political stars. "I see myself as a new kind of leader," she tells us. What's her story? Fine started in Kentucky campaign politics at 3, moved to Washington as a teen to be a Republican House page for a year, and worked for New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg. A good start for the 20-something, but she saw the best way to jazz people to her causes was through entertainment. So she went to Hollywood, hooked up with America's Most Wanted's John Walsh, and worked for his charity for exploited kids and also for the Discovery Fund for Eye Research. Now she's written Me2, a play with political overtones that opens in L.A. on Election Day. One goal: To become that Next Best Thing and maybe transition back into politics. As she said, Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger did. "It's definitely a possibility."
Meet Courtney Fine
Here's her new play
11/3/05
Preacher Jimmy says drop abortion, go to church
Former President Jimmy Carter has what he thinks is a winning message for Democrats in 2008: Stop obsessing about and politicizing abortion and go to church. "I think that to let deeply religious people and the moderates on social issues like abortion feel like the Democratic Party cares about them and understands them is a crucial element that has to be inserted for victory in 2008," says the moderate Democrat and Sunday-school teacher. On a book tour to promote his latest, Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis, Carter has been speaking out against liberals almost as much as he has against the policies of President Bush.
But few issues get him sputtering about his party more than abortion and the problem party leaders have relating to churchgoing folks. "I think our party leaders, some of them, are overemphasizing the abortion issue," he says. "Many Democrats, like me, have some concern, say, about late-term abortion, where you kill a baby as it's emerging from the mother's womb and so forth. And to make that a litmus test of democracy, I think, hurts our party."
Ditto with how the 2004 Democratic presidential candidates seemed uncomfortable in church. "In 2004, there was a substantial aversion of the Democratic leaders to demonstrate—or maybe failure is a better word than aversion—to demonstrate a compatibility with the deeply religious people of this country. And I think that absence hurt a lot," he says. His advice: Spend some time in churches and get a feel for the crowd, because it can prove a winner at the polls. "I felt at ease at going to an African-American church and taking over the role of the pastor and so forth. There was a feeling, I think, among deeply religious people in this country that maybe Bill Clinton and I were compatible with them. I don't think they had that feeling in 2004."
11/3/05
Will Theo bat in the Senate?
Will the Red Sox Nation's loss of Bosox General Manager Theo Epstein be Washington's gain? That's the crazy buzz in both worlds as anybody touched by the Red Sox considers what's next for the 31-year-old Epstein, the whiz kid credited with making the Boston team world champions of baseball a year ago. Republican and Democratic strategists this week were suggesting that he'd be a great U.S. Senate candidate, though there's no indication that he's mulling over a bid. But, heck, he wouldn't have to make up his mind until 2008, when Sen. John Kerry's term is up. Here's what we do know. Epstein is old enough to be a senator; the minimum age is 30. He is a Democrat. He's a big Kerry fan, campaigning for the senator toward the end of the 2004 presidential election. One political strategist said that would most likely rule out a run if Kerry opts for re-election, but there are strong indications that Kerry wants another shot at the White House instead.
Meet Theo Epstein
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