ALL QUIET ON THE CLINTON FRONT
The boos and catcalls continue to rain down on Bill
Clinton and his wife in inopportune moments. Much was made
of the jeering he and Hillary endured during the large fundraisers
they attended after 9/11, particularly in Madison Square Garden,
where fire and police personnel nearly jeered them off the stage.
Mr. Clinton was embarrassed again on Super Bowl Sunday, which he
spent in New York. In town for the Davos confab, he and his staff
organized a Super Bowl party at his Harlem digs to coincide with
the former prez’s big screen participation in the special patriotic
segment shown on Fox before the game. But party revelers who paused
to hear Clinton’s utterances also heard loud boos from the
Louisiana Superdome that overwhelmed any cheering from the crowd.
According to a Clinton staffer who attended the party, the sound on
three television sets inside the Harlem offices was briefly turned
down to prevent further potential embarrassment.
HEARING WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR
After Majority Leader Tom Daschle went before the
cameras yesterday to announce he was pulling the plug on the Bush
stimulus package in the Senate (and withdrawing a Democratic
alternative), the White House thought he was doing so in order to
jump-start negotiations on a compromise. Says a White House aide
who tracks Capitol Hill legislation, “Daschle needs some good news
for his party.”
But according to several Democratic leadership sources, Daschle
wants nothing to do with a stimulus package. “He has polling data
that is telling him Americans don’t want tax cuts or credits,” one
of the leadership people says. “This is all about positioning for
2002 and beyond. Daschle is in full election year mode.”
The data Daschle is using comes from an extensive poll
commissioned by the DNC. The poll surveyed more than 1,000
respondents in 22 congressional districts that are considered “up
for grabs” this year. The survey showed a majority of uncommitted
voters didn’t support tax cuts, even if those cuts might be a help
to them directly. “We paid a lot for that survey and it’s going to
be our blueprint for the next year,” says another Democratic
leadership aide. “It has to be. We have nothing else to hold on
to.”
RUSSELL MANIA
Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina may be flavor
of the moment for Democrats hopeful of taking back the White House
in 2004, but another second-tier senator is looking to steal some
of Edwards’ thunder. According to several of his staffers, Sen.
Russ Feingold of Wisconsin has set up an ambitious
national speaking tour before Democratic grass roots groups that
began last month in Florida. With the Enron dustup touching on his
pet issue: campaign finance and election reform, he’s become that
much more popular on the circuit and has plans to travel to Iowa,
New Hampshire, and California in the coming weeks. “He’s done some
polling and his name recognition is zilch,” says a DNC fundraiser.
“But he’s talking about things that are topical and he makes a good
presentation. The little old ladies love him.”
A Feingold aide says his boss hasn’t discussed what his future
plans are. “He’s young enough and ambitious enough that he might
make a run at Bush in 2004 even if it appears hopeless. Remember,
that is what Clinton was thinking back in ‘92, run just to lay the
groundwork for the future. And look what happened there. Senator
Feingold could find himself in a similar situation. Better him than
Edwards.”
SUPREME MATTERS
The White House is telling senior Republican Senate staffers that
they expect two Supreme Court retirements this summer. “They are
saying John Paul Stevens and Sandra Day
O’Connor,” says a Senate staffer. Stevens, a Ford
appointee, is 81; O’Connor, the first female justice and a Reagan
appointee, is 71. Both names have appeared on any number of
possible Court retirement stories in the past year. Other rumored
Supremes looking to jump include Chief Justice William
Rehnquist (exhaustion, bad back, wants a life),
Antonin Scalia (wants to make more money) and
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (health).
“I don’t think the Justice is interested in retiring,” says a
former O’Connor clerk. “Her health problems are largely behind her
and she’s enjoyed the past year immensely, what with the book she
has written and some of the cases the court is handling.” While no
one in the White House has spoken with any of the justices about
their future plans, one Senate aide says that White House
strategists have spoken of wanting O’Connor or another
“conservative” judge to retire first, so that Democrats would in
some small way have to give Bush a nod toward his first appointment
to the court. “If it were Stevens, Democrats would put up a huge
fight to block any conservative,” says a Judiciary Committee
staffer. “With O’Connor or Scalia going, placing a conservative in
that slot would be a slightly easier fight.”
DIRTY POOL
But will it feature a nudist beach? Former President Bill
Clinton has been crowing to friends and associates about
one of the greatest honors bestowed on him. Israel is naming a
reservoir in the Negev the “Clinton.” Apparently, the construction
costs were covered by private funds Clinton helped steer Israel’s
way, not to mention plenty of U.S. aid.
