SIGNING OF THE TIMES
After being spurned by the White House, Democrats and Republican
backers of the campaign finance reform law are talking about
holding a “passage” ceremony on Capitol Hill after the spring
recess. The reason for the staged event, for media purposes
obviously, is that, as reported
first by The Prowler on March 21, the Bush administration held no
signing ceremony for the CFR bill that the president signed into
law on Wednesday.
After if became apparent to Senate Majority Leader Tom
Daschle and House Minority Leader Dick
Gephardt that no invitation to a Rose Garden signing
ceremony was in the offing, they sent staffers to inform Capitol
Hill reporters that not only had they not been invited to the
signing, but they didn’t even get a phone call from anyone of
import at the White House.
Instead, senior White House staff, such as deputy directors of
the legislative affairs office, made the calls to inform them that
the bill had been signed. According to one staffer in legislative
affairs, this is common practice. “Clinton used to do it all the
time,” the staffer said. “And you never heard Republicans whining
about it.”
“It was like high school,” says one Hill reporter for a wire
service. “‘Oohhh, [Bush] didn’t call me.’ Like some junior
cheerleader got the cold shoulder from some senior jock. You’d
think they’d be happy that he even signed the bill.”
Apparently the man most insulted about getting the bum’s rush
from the Bushies was someone who should have most expected it:
Republican turncoat political consultant John
Weaver. As reported
here on March 20, Weaver is the former adviser to Sen. John
McCain who recently went to work for Daschle and Gephardt,
after working tirelessly with McCain on CFR. “I think he really
expected someone like Bush or Karl Rove to call
and congratulate him for a job well fought,” says a senior
Republican House leadership staffer.
Instead, Bush did the only thing a red-blooded Republican would
do after signing campaign finance reform into law. He went out and
raised $3 million for candidates in Georgia and South Carolina.
BICYCLERS AGAINST TERRORISM
Several large environmental groups, including Greenpeace and the
Environmental Defense Fund, are mulling a television ad campaign
that would mirror the anti-drug ads that popped up after the
September 11 terrorist attacks. You’ve seen the ads that
essentially say, “If you do drugs, if you buy drugs, you’re
supporting a terrorist.” The new environmentalist ads will pitch
the idea that buying oil supports terrorists in the Middle East and
parts of the “axis of evil.”
“We’re trying to tell Americans that if you fill your car’s gas
tank, if you buy oil for your car or even your lawn mower, if you
ride public buses to work, you’re supporting terrorists because of
the oil you’re using,” says a lobbyist for one of the groups
pooling funds for the ad campaign. “We want Americans to walk, ride
a bike to do whatever they have to do. If they love their country,
they’ll make the sacrifice.”
Producers of the ads will be the same ones who have been putting
together the “Truth” antismoking ads.
