Posted on 11/12/2005 12:38:24 PM PST by wagglebee
After eight months as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, how is Howard Dean doing? Poorly -- at least from a financial perspective.
Republicans are handily winning the fundraising race by nearly a 2-to-1 margin, reports the Washington Post. That massive imbalance has caught the attention of Democratic leaders, who are worried the party will suffer as a result in the 2006 midterm elections.
Dean, a former Vermont governor, assumed the top DNC job amid questions from leading Democrats who wondered if he was suited for a job that traditionally has centered on fundraising. The latest figures are an indication those concerns were well founded.
From January through September, the Republican National Committee raised $81.5 million, with $34 million remaining in the bank. The DNC, by contrast, showed $42 million raised and $6.8 million in the bank.
"The degree to which the fundraising has not been competitive is obviously troublesome," former Rep. Vic Fazio, D-Calif., told the Post. He expressed confidence in Tom McMahon, Dean's executive director at the DNC.
One House Democratic leadership aide put it more bluntly: "There is plenty of time, but the red flashing sirens should be going off there."
1) George Allen
2) Mark Sandford
3) Rudy Giuliani
4) John McCain (RINO)
I am highly suspicious of Dick Morris. On one hand he comes off as 'critical' of the Toons but on the other hand he's 'allowed' to do it. Methinks he's still working for them in a subtle kind of way.
By the way a Condi Rice nomination is so stupid and ridiculous it's not even funny. Are Republicans so desperate to show they're not racists that they'll pretend this woman is qualified or fit for the office?
If you add the beast's funds to Dean's, it's much closer.
Conservatives are allowed to criticize the Klintoons, but I have never seen a former Clintonista "defect" without suffering serious consequences.
Now that's a funny comment! Most of our VP's have been picked just for the voters they could bring to the ticket. Cheney is the first truly able VP we've had in ages.
Tell me how qualified Gore, Quayle, Agnew, Mondale, etc. were?
Zero.
and / or 2008?
Possible, but unlikely.
Giuliani's polling within striking range for the NY Senate seat, but will he even run?
Not a chance.
Meanwhile, Condi Rice won't run, will she?
No.
You have absolutely nailed it.
Coming from you that's a big deal -- do I get my own song or something? -:)
Billionaires in Secret Meeting to Defeat Bush Administration
From NewsMax --
"Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2004 1:09 p.m. EDT
Billionaires Secretly Met in Aspen to Defeat Bush
In the days following the Democratic National Convention in Boston this past August, several billionaire Democratic activists secretly met at the famed Aspen Institute in Colorado.
The purpose of their clandestine meeting was "to use their fortunes to engineer the defeat of President George W. Bush in the 2000 election," The New Yorker magazine reports in its most recent edition.
Details of the meeting remain sketchy, but the magazine described the Aspen conference this way: "Five billionaires joined half a dozen liberal leaders in a lengthy conversation about the future of progressive politics in America."...
When The New Yorker inquired about the meeting, an assistant to one of the attendees was surprised by the call.
"No one was supposed to know about this," the aide told the magazine. "We don’t want people thinking it’s a cabal or some sort of Masonic plot!"
Apparently the leader of the secret cabal is billionaire Peter B. Lewis, chairman of the Cleveland, Ohio-based insurance company Progressive Corporation.
Like another attendee, wealthy financier George Soros, Lewis has poured millions into Democratic 527 groups, including Americans Coming Together and MoveOn.org.
One of Lewis’ top agenda items has been the decriminalization of marijuana, a policy position also shared by Soros.
Another billionaire who attended was John Sperling, founder of the online University of Phoenix.
Also present were Herb and Marion Sandler from California. The couple founded Golden West Financial Corporation, a California bank reportedly worth $17 billion...
The wealthiest and most notable of those attending the meeting was George Soros, the 74-year-old Hungarian immigrant who desperately wants to defeat George Bush and has even compared him to the likes of Adolf Hitler.
Apparently, all was not roses at the billionaire confab, according to The New Yorker.
"The billionaires spent much of the time moaning the superior powers of the GOP," the magazine said, and the group even needed some cheerleading from Harold Ickes, a former top aide to Bill Clinton who is involved in the 527 efforts...
Though not the leader of the group, Soros holds the largest bank account and as such is the 800-pound gorilla, having given more than $18 million to the 527s in an effort to defeat Bush...
Soros hired a publicist and began a 12-city, $3 million personal crusade to defeat George Bush.
According to the magazine, Soros has nothing but contempt for Bush, who he considers "an ignorant fool."
More than that, he sees Bush as the face man for a secret cabal. "Bush was just chosen as a figurehead, an acceptable face for a sinister group," Soros told The New Yorker, adding, "Cheney is the Capo."
Clearly, Soros knows a thing or two about secret cabals and capos."
Mark
I cannot believe that the RNC will have at the top of their ticket in '08 any person from the SAME state as the DNC's nominee for president, especially when it is known that the DNC nominee will carry the state. Do you really believe this could happen?
Good point. The MSM nothing less then SIEZED on the victories in NJ & VA, as if the dims had cleaned house accross the country. Hard to beleive there are still some idiots who dont see through the smokescreen.
Are you guys forgetting how Howard Dean got elected to his present job? He went around to every state delegation and promised them all $ if they would elect him chairman. If he were not making good on his promises to pay them all off and make their wishes come true, they would have booted his sorry butt out of there by now.
Do you believe there is a Chinaman's chance in he!! that Romney could deliver Teddy Kennedy and John Kerry-Heinz's state to the Republicans? Or that Guiliani could deliver Hillary Clinton's state to them? Think that over carefully before you answer.
So thats were all of the D.N.C money is going ?
Democrats have half the news media, all the print media, all the entertainment media, all the public sector (except the military) including N.P.R., all of academia, and every crooked union in America.
Every one of those institutions "donates" free ads and bias reporting for democrats. As an abstract total, the net income of each party most certainly favors the Left.
And much of our own money ends up going to RINOs anyway.
It is mainly the power of our ideas that sells itself.
Hillary doesn't need to pay for ads when she has the New York Times and other MSM doing it for her...
******
Hillary Clinton Visits Israel, This Time As a Senator
By MICHAEL COOPER
Published: November 13, 2005
TEL AVIV, Nov. 12 - As her race for re-election begins in earnest, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton returned on Saturday to a region whose politics played an unusually large role in her first campaign for the Senate.
Mrs. Clinton's trip to the West Bank in 1999 as first lady was questioned by Republicans during her campaign in New York the next year.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton speaking on Thursday at a symposium in Washington.
The trip she scheduled this time seemed intended to put to rest any lingering doubts about her support for Israel as she embarks on her re-election campaign and, many Democrats believe, sets her sights on the presidential nomination in 2008.
Senator Clinton was scheduled to meet with the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, and top Israeli defense officials; to discuss disaster preparedness; to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin; and to visit the Israeli separation barrier, much of which runs through the West Bank - the territory the Palestinians are seeking as part of a future state.
Upon landing in Israel, Senator Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, took an impromptu stroll through the Old City of Jerusalem. When they visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, they bumped into Phil Gramm, the former senator from Texas, an aide to Mrs. Clinton said.
No visits to Palestinian territories or meetings with Palestinian leaders are on Senator Clinton's public schedule. It was one such meeting six years ago that created an uproar, and a campaign issue that dogged her for much of the campaign.
In 1999, Mrs. Clinton traveled to the West Bank and was acclaimed there as a champion of Palestinian nationhood, because of comments she had made in 1998 that seemed to express support for a Palestinian state. Those comments were criticized by some American Jewish groups and disavowed by the White House.
In Ramallah, Mrs. Clinton stood by, uncomfortably, as officials denounced Israel, and as Yasir Arafat's wife, Suha, accused Israel of using "poisonous gas" on Palestinians. Mrs. Clinton denounced the remark a day later, saying she had gotten an incomplete translation.
Then there was the famous kiss. A photograph of Mrs. Clinton kissing Mrs. Arafat surfaced and became fodder for her critics. The White House later released a photograph of her opponent, Rick A. Lazio, enthusiastically shaking Mr. Arafat's hand, and the politics of the Middle East remained front and center in the Senate campaign.
With New York's large Jewish population, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict often plays some role in local elections, and Israel is almost as common a stop for political aspirants as Flatbush Avenue or the Grand Concourse. But in 2000 the Senate candidates seemed to discuss Israel nearly as much as they discussed local issues.
That year, Mrs. Clinton staked out a number of positions that appealed to Jewish voters, declaring, for example, that Jerusalem should be the "eternal and indivisible capital of Israel." And since taking office, she has moved to solidify her position by becoming an early supporter of the Israel separation barrier.
To be sure, the situation on the ground differs today from the situation when Mrs. Clinton was last here. Yasir Arafat is dead, creating more uncertainty for the future of Palestinian self-government. The Israelis have withdrawn from Gaza. And the Israeli government is going through another period of change.
Those changes are on the agenda at a conference Senator Clinton is attending, called the Saban Forum 2005, a dialogue between Americans and Israelis. It was organized by the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution and the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies of Tel Aviv University. Mr. Clinton gave the keynote address.
The conference is named for Haim Saban, a media mogul and major Democratic donor who made his fortune by turning the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, a children's television show, into a global franchise.
The conference is also expected to draw Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who has been mentioned as a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2008.
After Mr. Clinton's address, he, Mrs. Clinton and their daughter, Chelsea, drove to Tel Aviv to attend a rally at the site where Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated, by an Orthodox Jewish nationalist who opposed Israeli concessions to the Palestinians.
An emotional Mr. Clinton told the cheering crowd: "In a world in which we are not in total control, the only honorable way to resolve competing claims, to wipe away old wounds, to overcome fresh fears, is by sharing the responsibilities and the fruits of an honorable peace. It is that for which Yitzhak Rabin gave his life on this spot 10 years ago, after singing a song of hope and peace."
I think these are the people you should challenge.
For a person to be so ignorant as to believe they can vote for Hillary and not have to accommodate Bill in the WH is just ignorance personified.
And .. Hillary's poll numbers continue to slump. She's at 29% of those who say they will vote for her. I don't think we should rest on our laurels because of that number, but I don't think Hillary's as strong as a lot of people hope she is.
And .. all these conferences her husband is having around the world .. it's just to drum up money for his wife's campaign, and support for hubby to be Secretary General of the UN. With both in the office at the same time, they would basically have America by the jugular.
WE CANNOT ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN.
If he had not sent them the $ as he promised, I think he would be out of a job or there would at least be lots of noise about getting rid of him by now.
Totally agree. This particular incident was on a forum that has a hard and fast rule about not discussing politics. She got her hand slapped for her comment. I had to bite my keyboard not to respond.
And you may be on to something about his worldwide "reaching out". Both are in Israel now at a ten year anniversary ceremony and going on to Jordan to offer sympathy at a meeting with the king and then a press conference there.
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.