Would Bush want his girls on Iraq's front line?
Trivial Clinton
It probably won't include cigars, but former President Clinton's foundation is developing catalog gifts to raise moola. It begins with the sale of Clinton cuff links. One future treat: a Clinton Trivial Pursuit game.
British Cliffs Notes
President Bush said he wanted to brush up on his British culture and history before flying to London this week to huddle with Prime Minister Tony Blair. The plan: His staff was to include a copy of Master and Commander, the new epic about the British Navy, on his Camp David theater list.
The Embed Payoff
Former Reagan-Bush spokesman Marlin Fitzwater knows a losing PR strategy when he sees one, and he thought that the Pentagon's plan to embed reporters with troops in Iraq was a shining example. Until it worked. Now he's a big fan and this week will give ex-Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clarke the first Marlin Fitzwater Center Award for Leadership in Public Communication. "It was quite unique," said Fitzwater, the namesake of a new journalism center at New Hampshire's Franklin Pierce College. Before, he said, "the government's answer to coverage was more control. For the first time, they gave journalists more freedom and less control."
Dean's Rebel Yell
He blundered the line and awkwardly tried to turn it into a debate on race relations, but Howard Dean was exactly right when he reached out to white southerners. "We have to target white men," says Simon Rosenberg, head of the New Democratic Network. Without them, Democrats lose. Did in 2002 and will in 2004, adds ex-Clinton pollster Mark Penn. The duo has teamed up to identify and target swing voters for Rosenberg's New Majority Coalition Research Project. How to win? Talk up soldiers and C&W music, offer tuition plans, and don't bash Bush. Instead, sound like a leader.
Kremlin Grease
Want to know why Russian oil billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky is in jail? We hear it's because he offered to front the Communist Party's antigovernment plan. Sources say he did so in a meeting with Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov. This being Russia, where ex-KGB agent Vladimir Putin is president, the meeting was naturally secretly recorded and then provided to the Kremlin. When Vlad later asked Mikhail about the deal, the oilman denied it. Wrong move. He leaves the Kremlin and, badda bing, is soon arrested. A December 30 hearing is planned.
White House Blue
It's probably not as big a question as Ford, Chevy, or Dodge, but some hobby farmers wanted to know which color tractor the White House uses--John Deere green, Kubota orange, or New Holland blue. Finally the answer: We just saw a nicely equipped New Holland doing a little front-end-loader work at the northwest gate.
Bush's TV Dilemma
An admitted TV sports nut, President Bush pretty much hates this time of year. "He can watch baseball forever," says a pal, "but he's not really much into football." He stays up only to catch key Texas rivalries, bowl games, and college basketball's Sweet 16. But you won't catch him watching Dr. Phil instead. We're told that Bush uses his free time to work out, especially lifting weights a la Arnold Schwarzenegger. And fish, both at Camp David and his Texas ranch.
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With Suzi Parker and Kenneth T. Walsh
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