Hillary's Offensive Holding (Why isn't she being penalized? She Nixed Bush Appointee)

Sources on both sides of the Senate aisle say that, her denials aside, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was at the very least the most influential voice in sending the D.C. Circuit Court nomination of White House adviser Brett Kavanaugh back to the desk of President Bush.

"She has had a hold on his nomination in the past," says a Senate Democratic leadership source. "At the time that Senate Frist asked that the nomination be extended, I don't know that it was her hold, but she surely had influence over the decision. Everyone on our side knows why she was less than thrilled with Kavanaugh as a nominee."

Another Democratic staffer says that his boss, a Democratic Senator from a Western state, told staff that it was a "Hillary Hold" or objection that killed the Kavanaugh nomination. A Republican Senate staffer also confirmed that that her boss had confirmed Senator Clinton's involvement in the Kavanaugh nomination's death.

The reason for Hillary's hostility, of course, is Kavanaugh's former role as a deputy to former Clinton Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr. Kavanaugh's nomination has been stalled for years; at times Democrats have complained that he was too young for the D.C. Circuit, or pointed to his political past. But in the end, it was Clinton's holds and passive aggressive stance on the nominee that kept Democrats opposed.

Republican sources say that they do not know who had the final hold on Kavanaugh, or who raised final objections to Kavanaugh, though one knowledgeable GOP source says that Republican Senators on the Judiciary Committee discussed the nomination's failure, with one member saying that he was certain that it was Clinton's hold based on conversations with Democratic colleagues.

"If it wasn't her hold, it was a hold placed on Brett at her or her staff's behest. You can split hairs over just whose name is on the slip, but when it comes down to it, the Democrats in the Senate believe this is a hold that Senator Clinton wants and supports wholeheartedly," says a Democratic staffer on the Judiciary Committee. "This was a team thing, like a lot of the holds have been."

In fact, Democrats have increasingly been turning to so-called "rolling holds" on nominations as a strategy to stall nominations and relieve pressure from being placed on a single member of the caucus from outside groups lobbying on the nominee's behalf.

Republicans expect Kavanaugh to be re-nominated sometime this year by the White House.

Sen. Chuck Schumer took to the airwaves on Sunday saying that the leakers of the story about NSA data mining for al Qaeda operatives within and beyond U.S. borders, may have been whistleblowers rather than breakers of national security law, a point almost every knowledgeable source says is just not believable.

"Whoever the leaker was knew about the established law related to Presidential powers. If it didn't come from the NSA, it came from a handful of people who would have known about the program, understood what it did and did not do, and still leaked it to create political controversy, because there is no legal controversy," says a Senate Intelligence Committee staffer. "People here were briefed on this program for years and there was no crisis of conscience, because there was no crisis to be created. We are fighting the bad guys. And this program is helping us. It's that simple."

On Sunday, the New York Times went with a story that reported that the Department of Justice had been pursuing an ongoing audit of the NSA data mining project, and "[t]hat review is not known to have found any instances of abuses."

That fact was buried in the story, which instead focused on the internal Bush Administration debate over the NSA operation. Given the turf warfare such a program could engender -- Department of Justice, NSA, NSC, CIA, DOD, Homeland Security -- it shouldn't have been a surprise that there were ongoing debates and infighting.

"The New York Times is making this out to be the mother of all fights, but this kind of stuff always creates debates and turf fights," says a current Department of Homeland Security staffer. "Everyone wants their opinion on the record, they want their guy at the table, and this was one of those situations. Unfortunately you have people with axes to grind leaking and making it appear that this particular situation was somehow different."

Look for shakeups on Sen. John McCain's staff in the coming weeks as he begins to strategize about deploying an organization leading into his decision to run for President in 2008. Based on less than stellar results from fundraising forays in New York and elsewhere in the past six months, McCain is looking to strengthen his outreach to conservatives, and to shore up his financial standing compared to Republican challengers.

Right now, the only stated candidates focused on making plans for a run are Sen. George Allen and Gov. Mitt Romney. Others are exploring the possibility, including former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Sen. Sam Brownback, and Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

An unusually interesting Prowler. Thanks.

Here's an old article to explain Gingrich's not so new fondness for Hillary, as well as his disgusting habit of selling his soul for attention. (thankfully, Hillary's coziness with Newt will hurt her with the left more than it will help Newt with either political side of the aisle.)

"New odd couple: Hillary Clinton and Newt Gingrich

By Raymond Hernandez The New York Times

SATURDAY, MAY 14, 2005

WASHINGTON What do Newt Gingrich and Hillary Rodham Clinton want from each other?

In the 1990s, these two rivals stood on nearly opposite ends of the political spectrum, with him leading the assault on the Clinton presidency and helping derail the ambitious health care plan she championed.

But oddly enough, something has changed since then, and it has people talking.

Gingrich, the former Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, has been working alongside the wife of former President Bill Clinton, now a Democratic senator from New York, on a number of issues, and even appeared with her at a press conference on Wednesday to promote - of all things - health care legislation.

But more puzzling than that, Gingrich has been talking up Clinton's presidential prospects in 2008, to the chagrin of conservative loyalists who once regarded him as an iconic figure. Last month, he even suggested she might capture the presidency, saying "any Republican who thinks she's going to be easy to beat has a total amnesia about the history of the Clintons."

What gives? For Clinton, standing side-by-side with her husband's onetime nemesis gives her the chance to burnish her credentials among the moderates she has been courting during her time in the Senate.

But in recent comments, she portrayed the rapprochement as one born of shared policy interests, not calculated politics.

"I know it's a bit of an odd-fellow, or odd-woman, mix," she said. "But the speaker and I have been talking about health care and national security now for several years, and I find that he and I have a lot in common in the way we see the problem."

For his part, Gingrich, who helped lead the impeachment fight against the former president, called the senator "very practical" and "very smart and very hard-working," adding, "I have been very struck working with her."

Hillary Clinton has increasingly staked out moderate positions in several areas. On the health care front, she has recently promoted a more gradual approach to guaranteeing health care for more Americans, a departure from her efforts in the 1990s, when Republican critics like Gingrich accused her of advocating a big-government takeover of the health care system.

Her recent views on the subject struck a chord with Gingrich, she recalled. "Newt Gingrich called and said 'You're absolutely right,"' Clinton said.

As it turns out, Gingrich and Clinton have a lot more in common now that they have left behind the politics of the 1990s, when she was seen as a symbol of the liberal excesses of the Clinton White House and he was a fiery spokesman for a resurgent conservative movement in Washington.

Beyond the issue of health care, Clinton and Gingrich have forged a relatively close relationship working on a panel to come up with ways to improve military readiness, say people close to them.

Gingrich says he has been struck by how pro-defense Clinton has turned out to be at a time when other Democrats have criticized President George W. Bush's decision to go to war against Iraq. He chalked that up to her experience in the White House, where her husband had to deal with national security.

"Unlike most members of the legislature, she has been in the White House," Gingrich said. "She's been consistently solid on the need to do the right thing on national defense."

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