By The Prowler on 4.18.02 @ 12:04AM
Florida renewed a touchy subject, though Al pretended he had nothing to hide. Plus: A Clinton surprise.
ON THE SPOT IN FLORIDA
In the wake of the Florida Democratic Party convention last
weekend, national party chairman Terry McAuliffe
returned to Washington telling colleagues that he saw little hope
for Democrats beating Jeb Bush in Florida. This,
after McAuliffe watched the performances of Democratic
gubernatorial candidates Bill McBride and
Janet Reno. "He thought they both looked mediocre,
and this event was designed to rally the ground troops to win the
big one down here," says a Florida Democratic Party board member.
"Neither inspired confidence that we can beat Jeb."
McAuliffe's downbeat take on the Sunshine State, though, has to
be weighed against his enthusiasm for his party's national chances
down the road. Attendees in Florida reported that presidential
hopefuls Sens. John Kerry, John
Edwards, Joseph Lieberman and even
Christopher Dodd all performed well. What's more,
each spent time politicking with the grass roots folks.
The same cannot be said for Al Gore, who spent
little to no time with state party officials, angering many who
expected him to use the weekend to try to reconnect with people who
felt he let them down last year during the great recount fight.
"Maybe he just doesn't want to relive it," says a delegate to the
state event. "He just didn't seem interested in spending more time
here than he absolutely had to."
Clearly, though, Gore saw the Florida convention as a tool to
get him back in the campaign groove. Sporting a new hairstyle
designed to cover up an ever larger bald spot in the center of his
head ("It kind of looked like a modified combover from front to
back," says one convention attendee), Gore rallied the troops, but
also made sure his performance was picture perfect. "We videotaped
it and we'll be sending it out to donors around the country to let
them see for themselves that Mr. Gore is ready to roll," says a
Gore staffer.
The donor angle appears to be Gore's prime concern right now.
New quarterly fundraising reports show that he was outgained by Joe
Lieberman and John Edwards, not to mention John Kerry and House
Democratic leader Dick Gephardt (if amounts each
raised for his elections coffers and various PACs are
combined).
"We'll get our money, that's not an issue," says the Gore
staffer. "What's important is that Mr. Gore is helping many other
Democrats raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for their
campaigns all across America. We'll focus on ourselves after 2002.
Then we'll see who's raking it in."
AN INTIMATE REUNION
It was politics and canapés on the verandah last week when
Hillary Rodham Clinton hosted some of her
husband's old friends at her home in Washington. And the big
surprise was ... Bill was actually there, answering the door and
welcoming the likes of Democratic bigwig Al From,
former chief of staff John Podesta and former
National Security Adviser Sandy Berger.
"They weren't expecting Bill," says one former Clinton staffer.
"He thought it would be a nice surprise. He hadn't seen some of the
gang in a while."
The substance of what was talked about isn't known, although the
2002 and 2004 elections did come up. "How could they not with
Clinton there," says the former staffer. "Politics is one of the
top two or three things he loves to talk about. And the other two
he probably can't discuss in front of Hillary."
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