Posted on 06/24/2002 3:08:22 AM PDT by Elkiejg
SLIPPED DISK
No one is buying Terry McAuliffe's story that some innocent Democratic staffer happened upon a computer disk on a street corner that revealed the White House and the Republican Party's assessment of the 2002 elections.
You'll recall, the DNC earlier this month announced that it had obtained through Republican bumbling a computer disk that contained a PowerPoint presentation prepared by Karl Rove, the White House and the RNC, and outlining their evaluation of the fall campaign. It was mildly embarrassing, if only because the presentation took a more cautious approach to certain elections: it didn't predict a sweep of open Senate seats for Republicans, it portrayed negatively GOP hopes to win gubernatorial elections around the country, and it was cautious about House elections.
McAuliffe claimed a Senate Democratic staffer came upon a computer disk somewhere between the White House and the Hay-Adams Hotel. Once the staffer realized what it was, he handed it over to the DNC, which released it to the media with much fanfare.
But, in fact, Republicans now believe there was no disk. They believe after a White House political staffer made the presentation at the Hay-Adams to a group of California Republicans, a Democratic Party sympathizer at the hotel copied the presentation off of the temporary file that was created in the hotel's overhead projection system.
"The presentation was made using a White House laptop and the Hay-Adams projection system. There was no disk, because you can't easily store a full PowerPoint presentation on a disk like that. It's easier just to store it on a hard drive and use the computer," says a White House source. "We know the computer wasn't stolen, so it had to come from somewhere else."
Some in the White House even checked into whether the presentation could have been videotaped by a DNC operative, then re-created by Democrats. "Anyone could redo the PowerPoint presentation, there was nothing special about it," says the source. "The DNC has the same capabilities we do. It would take them a day to do it."
Either option portrays McAuliffe and his DNC elves as more devious and industrious than Republicans might prefer. "But we know we didn't bumble this," says an RNC senior adviser. "The Democrats didn't get this because we were careless. If McAuliffe is so concerned about his party's standing that he felt he had to sneak into one of our meetings for a campaign update, then he can crow about it all he wants. It just makes them look desperate."
HOMELAND LEAKOLOGY
According to White House sources, no one was impressed with Tom Ridge's performance on Capitol Hill last Thursday. "It certainly confirmed in our minds the reasons why we didn't let him testify before. It wasn't good," says a White House policy staffer.
That said, the testimony hasn't dimmed the president's opinion of Ridge or his abilities to master the Homeland Security bureaucracy. While insiders insist that Ridge has not told the president he doesn't want the job, the president isn't considering other names. "If he is, he isn't telling anyone. No big surprise there," says another White House political staffer. "They launched this Homeland plan with a working group of five and it never got leaked. What makes anyone think names of possible Ridge replacements would be leaked?"
So where did the rumor about chief of staff Andrew Card becoming Secretary of Homeland Security come from? White House staffers believe it came from backers of Card who see him as the only counter-balance they have to Karl Rove's influence with the president. "There are some people working here, who do some good work, but who work for the vice president and some others here, who don't see eye to eye with Mr. Rove and others," says the White House policy staffer. >b>"Now that it appears Karen Hughes is losing influence, you see them leaking again, the way it was back under Bush I. But we aren't going to let things get out of hand. It's pretty easy to close up the leaks once you figure out where they are coming from."
Yup. That's right.
Do it all the time.
Best not to respond to media fiction.....after all it's summer and they are getting desperate for ways to bash the President and lower his poll numbers.
The question I have is, why would Ridge allow himself to be 'hung out to dry' over the last eight months? At this point he has to feel used and abused by an administration that called on him to leave his secure elected position in PA to take, what has turned out to be, a thankless job.
Hardly. The most obvious explanation, is a sympathizer, Writing down the points, and reproducing the Presentation...Considering that NO ONE has Seen the Dems Copy and the Pub Copy, you dont even know that they are in the same layout. It is more likely that the points were written down, and McAuliffe is crowing to make his boys look good.....(also not last week, the Prowler quoted McAuliffe, as Hoping to KEEP the senate....conceding the possibility of a loss..)
Secure, but also very temporary. Ridge was prohibited from running for re-election this year due to term limits. I'm sure he saw this current position as a means to increase his national exposure and further his future political ambitions. He may even have thought this could be a stepping stone to the 2004 VP nomination.
It is imperative that the demonRATS be fully investigated. Follow the money. Who knew what when. Did McAwful pay for this service?
This is about as likely to happen as it is for Clinton to own up to his felonies.
Thanks. That sheds some light on the subject.
I'm sure he saw this current position as a means to increase his national exposure and further his future political ambitions. He may even have thought this could be a stepping stone to the 2004 VP nomination.
Very insightful. As I remember, before W selected Cheney, Ridge was on the VP 'short list.' The talk back then was that W would have been intimidated by Ridge's physical size.
Exactly, just what I thought, too.
However, as some others have pointed out, some high end models do.
Either way, the fact is my experience tells me that most professionals would not be using floppies in situations like this. Most professionals would be bringing their laptop, with the files on the hard drive.
I remember when the story first broke, the thought that kept popping into my head was "why the hell were they using floppies anyway? Wouldn't they have brought a laptop?"
Generally, there will be no removable disks (floppy or zip) involved at all.
Would be fun to have him next to Daschle.
Ridge is big but Dubya doesn't have to stand on boxes!
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