The American Spectator

Washington Prowler

p> TERRY TOWN br> No big surprise that the Republican National Committee is reporting $71 million for the first six months of fundraising in 2002. A bigger surprise is the amount it says is hard money: about 66 percent, or about $45 million. This counters comments from Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe , who has been telling anyone who would listen that the RNC was raising more soft cash than hard. /p>

The DNC, by the way didn't do too badly, either, pulling in about $45 million for the first half of the year. But the big question is how much of that money has already been committed to the "Palace that Terry Built," a new DNC facility that actually won't be a new facility at all.

You see, originally, McAuliffe had slated more than $20 million to buy land and construct a totally new and lux DNC headquarters on Capitol Hill. But concerns about cost overruns and the appearance of wasteful spending forced McAuliffe to pull back on those plans, and the DNC is now renovating its current facility, as well as adding on. That said, at least $10 million of the $45 million raised, almost a quarter of their money for the year, is targeted for the building fund.

The DNC claims that $23 million of the money it raised (about 50 percent of the total) is soft. And much of that money is probably for McAuliffe's little renovation project. "A lot of that, probably more than half of that amount, is going toward the building," says a DNC fundraiser. "We're trying to figure out if we can have some leeway on how to spend it. It would be nice to use it for something constructive beyond construction."

The upshot of all this: the Republicans have a lot more cash to use in the 2002 election cycle than the Democrats, unless McAuliffe can somehow get his big-money renovation funders to rethink the uses for the money. And then, he's still left with his "White Elephant" -- or "White Donkey" -- of a building, which drives him nuts.

In private meetings with donors and reporters, McAuliffe has never missed an opportunity to complain about the DNC's facilities: the lack of proper TV production and broadcast technology, their poor high-tech wiring, etc. All of that was going to be fixed.

"He's not going to give up on that renovation dream, no matter how close we may be getting to retaking the House or holding the Senate," says another DNC staffer. "He's taking the long view. He wants the new and improved facilities in place before the next presidential elections. And the clock is ticking."

p> TOO LATE FOR BUDDY TO ENJOY br> With apologies to Barbara Walters, if President