Posted on 11/15/2004 9:14:34 PM PST by nickcarraway
ENERGY IN THE EXECUTIVE
So Senator Hillary Clinton has a presidential campaign headquarters and it has both a Washington and New York address.
With the announced move of Clinton fundraiser Patti Solis Doyle over to the Glover Park Group, it might as well be called Clinton '08 Headquarters.
The Glover Park Group is a communications and corporate and political consulting firm founded by longtime Clinton/Gore rat packers Carter Eskew and Joe Lockhart, as well as former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee director and Hill Clinton spokesperson Howard Wolfson and Hillary Clinton adviser Gigi Georges, who manages the firm's New York office.
When Sen. John Kerry's campaign foundered in the late summer, Democrats turned to Glover Park for help. Lockhart signed on as the campaign's communications guru. Wolfson was also involved in the campaign, though due to internal campaign power struggles, was never formally brought on board.
Senator Clinton has signed what amounts to a six-figure retainer for the group, which, according to sources, locks down Wolfson and Georges, and at times Lockhart should she decide to run for re-election to the Senate in 2006. Doyle until a few weeks ago served as Clinton's national political director of HillPac, her senatorial political action committee.
It's important to recall that Georges in particular, as well as longtime Clinton ally Harold Ickes, are strong New York state operatives, and Clinton may be looking at another office to run for in '06, one that might further burnish her political and management background, say a governorship of large northeastern state.
There has been a growing buzz that Clinton is not wholly satisfied that she can run for the presidency as a U.S. Senator, and junior Senator at that. Lord knows it didn't work out so well for John Kerry.
But Clinton would find running for governor of New York to be perhaps a far greater challenge than some inside the Beltway might think, though with some potential, long-term upside.
"Her campaign would have to address the 'Will she run for president in two years?' question everywhere she goes, and she would have to answer it more honestly than her husband did back in '90," says a former President Clinton staffer. "That said, six years as governor of New York and then running for President certainly gives you everything you'd want for a résumé. There is a ton of political calculation there, but it would be awfully ballsy to pull off, and I'm not sure even the Clintons think that far ahead."
Regardless of what Clinton runs for, Patti Solis Doyle's presence at Glover Park is a sign that that firm will be the political beehive for whatever Clinton decides to do. Doyle will most likely oversee fundraising for Clinton's re-election account, as well as coordinate national and in-state donor programming for Clinton, according to a Clinton Senate staffer. "I wouldn't be surprised to see a couple more Clinton people end up over there, too," the staffer said.
CAN'T TRUST THAT DAY
Midday Monday, members of the conservative "Monday Meeting" group in New York received the following e-mail:
"We regret to announce that Senator [Arlen] Specter's office has informed us that Senator Specter would be unable to attend tonight's Monday Meeting. According to Senator Specter's office, the Senator is held up in Washington by the demands of regular business in light of plans for a shortened lame duck session as well as the demands of meetings relating to leadership issues."
Specter was expected to attend last night's meeting with Sen. Rick Santorum, and to mount his most public defense for the chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Specter's office was doing a bit of spin on Specter's cancellation. Santorum, after all, remained committed to attending the meeting and shilling for his fellow Pennsylvanian.
Word among senior Senate staffers was that Specter over the past 36 hours has grown increasingly alarmed at what he is hearing out of the GOP caucus in the Senate. Pointedly: that support for his chairmanship is rapidly crumbling under an assault from conservative groups across the country.
On Monday in Washington, a number of incoming freshman Republican Senators were asked about their support of Specter, and to a man, most declined to say what they were thinking of doing.
These were piled on top of the brutally frank remarks of Senate leader Sen. Bill Frist on Sunday, which made it clear that Specter will have to fight for his chairmanship without the aid of his GOP leadership.
Even Judiciary member Sen. John Cornyn is believed to privately be leaning voting against Specter, despite some public words of support late last week. "What Senator Cornyn said was not a public statement of support, it was an attempt to convey to Senator Specter that he had to be more vocal and clear about where his head was at, and that if he were more open and frank publicly, support for him would follow," says a Cornyn staffer. "If Senator Specter misconstrued the remarks, that is unfortunate."
There is a school of thought inside the Senate that Specter has indeed badly misjudged the environment in which he has been operating. "Specter for the past week has believed that he was winning this thing," says a Senate leadership staffer. "Today [Monday] it appears that it has finally become clear to him that he is not winning this thing. He is losing it, unless he starts making a concerted effort to sway some votes. The Senator's staff may have done him a great disservice by leading him to believe he was successfully weathering this situation."
The resulting panic is what led Specter to cancel his appearance in New York and to focus his attention, not on public relations, but on private discussions with his Senate colleagues. "The folks at the Monday Meeting aren't the ones who are going to cast a vote for him behind closed doors in a couple of months," says another Senate staffer. "That he has been unable to shore up support within the committee is troubling. Perhaps he isn't working hard enough."
POWELL FIRED
Word is that Secretary of State Colin Powell was surprised by President Bush's decision to ask him to step aside last Friday. Over the weekend, the news of Powell's unceremonious dumping began to leak out at private cocktail parties and dinners.
To be fair, Bush has treated the exit of Cabinet members with equal swiftness and candor, according to White House sources. "There has been thanks for their service, clear gratitude, but that it was time for a change and a shakeup. No one should be surprised by this," says an insider.
Powell, however, unlike Ashcroft, Abraham, Veneman and Paige, didn't expect to get the ax so quickly. According to State Department sources, with the death of Palestinian terrorist Yasser Arafat, Powell expected to be kept on at least to get the ball re-rolling on the long-stalled Bush Administration "road map" peace plan. Now it appears the opening created by recent events will be filled by a Bush protégé.
CARRYING CHARGES
The Clinton Library is spending some of its hard-earned corporate donations to fly down more than 170 former Clinton White House staffers to the Little Rock dedication ceremonies. Not all of the 170 are going entirely gratis, however. Only about 50 of Clinton's closest advisers are making the three-day trip cost-free. The library will pick up all expenses for those special few, excluding incidentals.
Don't shoot 'til you see the yellow of her eyes!
she's had no problem lying in the past. What would make anyone think she'd have any compunction about lying when running for any office anywhere? She, like sick willie or kerry, has no honor, no sense of decency, no morals.
Hillary! is positioning herself for a run. She's carefully and strategically voted on the war and foreign stuff. She's not going to rolled on foreign relations like John Kerry was. She's also shuffled enough money to the right politicians that she can call in favors from now until the cows come home. Will this be enough to overcome her divisiveness in 2008 among Americans?
Can you think of a single red state (maybe Arkansas) that she could turn blue? Maybe I'm way off, but I just don't see it.
Look, let Specter save face....
Let him chair another committee -- it's a great face saving move for all and quells the controversy.
Yes, after all those years of saying he only planned to work one term I'm sure Secretary Powell was shocked.
There are a lot of women out there who have been waiting for a female candidate, both Republicans and Democrats. And as we saw with Kerry's campaign, she'll be able to skate through without any hard questions from the mainstream media. That said, I still think she'll be incredibly devisive, but we should be aware of what she is doing.
BUMP!
Great stuff here. The Prowler comes up with the goods before everybody else again.
Do you suppose Powell was really fired, or did he leave because he wanted to?
On Brit Hume's show today it was clear that Bush didn't want those leaving to drag it out...if you are going, go NOW and let me get new people in as soon as possible.
Hopefully this shows Bush is going to do something most 2nd term Predsident's do: actually accomplish something.
He won big, has a mandate and brought in more Republicans even if they are ungrateful jerks like Specter. And he has nothing to lose.
I know lots of women that were "Bush haters" (even though most either didn't vote or voted for Bush in the end because they were really scared of Kerry) that have told me that they would NEVER vote for Hillary.
And the main reason is that she sat there while Bill fooled around. I then explain that he's allowed because it was a marriage of convienence and her only anger was that Bill went off the offical list and messed with bimbos. But they don't buy it! They really hate her for putting up with his crap.
And these are idiots that vote on emotion.
Surprise, surprise Hillary wants to be president. Now all she has to do is get the votes from people other than her fan club.
The political climate has changed since the days when she was First Lady, and it's going to take more than the support of the MSM to get her back into the White House.
That would risk pissing off another, more deserving, senator who would have been in line for the chair given to Specter.
Powel annouced two years ago he was not going to work a second term. He said last year he would retire right after Bush's re-election.
This is pure gossip, so put it back on the bottom of the bird cage. I can't believe anyone would even try write such B.S. after the countless number of times Powel has said he was going to retire as soon as possible after the election.
Now Condi is taking his place, THAT is interesting. She's going to be tough one! Chiraq is probably very nervous now...
So swap seats..
I think Powell expected President Bush to ask him to stay around longer, and to not be so quick about replacing him. I think Powell said he was leaving his position, but he wasn't in a hurry.
Other interesting news is that Kerry was planning to put George Soros in as secretary of State if he won.
THAT is a thought that really makes a person's skin crawl...
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