Posted on 03/08/2003 10:11:31 PM PST by kattracks
An unexpectedly strong early showing by Democratic Party presidential hopeful Rev. Al Sharpton has party faithful looking to Hillary Clinton to rescue Democrats in 2004.
With charismatically challenged candidates like Sens. John Kerry, Joe Lieberman and John Edwards leaving audiences yawning - and Sharpton wowing crowds wherever he shows up - "U.S. News and World Report" predicts:
"If a favorite other than Sharpton doesn't become obvious by late fall, look for a strong effort to draft Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton."
"The Iowa Democratic Party," says the magazine's "Washington Whispers" column, "is already thinking that. We hear it wants Clinton as the featured speaker at an annual fall event--an invite that's irked Sen. John Kerry."
Democratic strategists fear that Sharpton "could actually score big" in the South, reports "Whispers." Others predict that the radical reverend could even win the South Carolina primary.
Last week, NewsMax.com's report that Sharpton is the presidential frontrunner among New York City Democrats in a recent Zogby International survey sent usually reliable party organs like the Washington Post into fits of apoplexy.
"Truth is, at this point, polls really don't mean much of anything," huffed the Post's Terry Neal, who, along with the rest of his media colleagues, was doing his best not to notice the Sharpton coup until NewsMax spilled the beans.
Mr. Neal, however, failed to explain why his paper and so many others keep commissioning, let alone reporting on, all those early, meaningless presidential polls.
The fact is, Rev, Sharpton is the nation's most popular presidential candidate among black voters, according to a separate Time/CNN poll. And if his supporters can't be convinced to support a white Democrat come Nov. 2004, the party's presidential prospects are toast.
No wonder party insiders are looking to the wife of "America's first black president" to save the day.
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
I know they have to decide if thet want matching funds -TAX PAYERS MONEY- - which I think shows their true side!!!) and is this just a way of selecting a popular vp who will carry alot of money from the primaries. So far 5 dems will request matching funds - thats alot of money if they can just turn it over to --- what ever
Newspaper reports that freed Puerto Ricans had ties to Cuba
News/Current Events News
Source: The Nando Times
Posted on 11/06/1999 20:21:20 PST by kattracks
HARTFORD, Conn. (November 6, 1999 8:51 p.m. EST
http://www.nandotimes.com)
The Puerto Rican nationalists offered clemency by President Clinton in September were members of two groups with ties to Cuban intelligence agents, The Hartford Courant reports.
In a story in Sunday's editions, the newspaper said FBI files on a Wells Fargo robbery in West Hartford document Cuba's support for the Puerto Rican independence movement. The contents of the files have not been disclosed until now, the Courant said.
The FBI monitored conversations and meetings between Cuban intelligence agents and members of the group Los Macheteros, Spanish for "The Cane Cutters."
"Numerous court-authorized interceptions of conversations ... have determined that the Cubans support and direct the Macheteros at a firsthand level," the FBI said in a confidential memo.
In addition to analyzing the FBI investigation of the 1983 armored-car robbery, The Courant said it interviewed 50 sources, including former Cuban agents, FBI agents and congressional investigators.
In September, President Clinton freed 11 jailed nationalists, members of Los Macheteros or the FALN, the Spanish acronym for the Armed Forces of National Liberation. The FALN has claimed responsibility for numerous bombings in the United States; its 1975 bombing of Fraunces Tavern in New York City killed four and injured 63. Los Macheteros, with the exception of the $7.1 million Wells Fargo robbery, attacked U.S. government targets in Puerto Rico.
None of the prisoners offered clemency were directly involved in violent acts, Clinton said, and he acted on human-rights activists' arguments that the prisoners had paid their debt by serving an average of 19 years in jail.
In its Wells Fargo investigation, the FBI learned that Machetero leaders met regularly with their Cuban contacts in Mexico City, but sometimes also met in Cuba. About a third of the stolen cash went to the Cubans, sources told the newspaper.
White House spokesman Jim Kennedy, asked whether Cuban support for the nationalists was considered during deliberations on the clemency offer, said decisions about clemency are confidential. Mike Hammer, another White House spokesman, said nobody was available Saturday to comment on the specifics of the report.
Filiberto Ojeda Rios, a wanted Macheteros leader who has been in hiding in Puerto Rico for years, angrily denied any ties to Cuba during an interview with Puerto Rican radio journalist Luis Penchi.
"That is ridiculous, absurd," he said.
A spokesman for the Cuban Interests Section, which serves as Havana's de facto embassy in Washington, also dismissed the link. The office was closed Saturday.
"I have no information on that," said Luis M. Fernandez. "In my opinion, it is more science fiction than anything else."
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
--------------------------------------------------------
1 Posted on 11/06/1999 20:21:20 PST by kattracks
Sharpton is a life-long liberal democrat...
So WHY do democRAT leaders think THIS PARTICULAR liberal is bad?
So WHY do democRAT leaders think THIS PARTICULAR conservative is bad?
P.S. Maddam Hitlery will run as soon as her handlers feel she will win, and R.I.P. to anyone to gets in her way.
[ Maddam Saddam - you heard it here first - Copyright © 2003 - FL_Engineer ]
and in New York they believe that the office fire was a gift from the beast
Bill Richardson is clearly a 2008 Presidential candidate and he's 1 of only 2 or so dems that make some tax cut and pro-business sense out there, so he'd NEVER run w/ HC, IMHO, and not as vp, nor so soon. I think the other half of your pick is correct though, but they'll put someone from the SE (florida) on the ticket w/ her, hopefully Janet Reno, which is ludicrous but would be a fun nightmare ticket to see flushed down the 2004 electoral toilet.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.