TREASURY THIS MOMENT
When Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill sat down with
a small group of reporters about six months into the Bush
Administration, he laid down an ambitious set of goals for
Treasury. Then, he said he and the White House were committed to
getting tax fairness and simplification legislation passed, as well
as some Social Security reform.
This was all before 9/11 and the ongoing sputtering economy
pulled the wheels off a legislative locomotive that appeared to be
gaining steam with the success of the Bush administration’s tax
cuts. Yet senior Republicans on Capitol Hill were surprised
yesterday to read in local papers O’Neill’s comments that he was
going to return to Washington in the fall and press hard for Social
Security reform.
“Where did that come from?” asks one GOP Senate leadership
staffer. “Maybe he didn’t notice, but that isn’t something any of
us are interested in touching two months before an election.”
O’Neill’s comments came as he joined the president at his Waco
business/economic summit, and before the T-man embarks on a swing
through economically struggling parts of the country. In what is
viewed as a PR push, O’Neill is expected to spend a lot of time in
the next few weeks meeting with American workers, small business
people and executives, touting America’s economic potential and
bright future. From there, O’Neill said he wants to tackle some
form of Social Security reform.
“We’ll listen, we’ll let him testify all he wants, but it just
isn’t realistic that we’d get knee deep into a mess like Social
Security,” said the Senate staffer.
That said, after spending several weeks among constituents,
lawmakers could return to Washington with a sense of what voters
will expect from them leading into November elections. But even
then, everyone agrees the kind of broad-based reform the Bush White
House has called for Social Security would be almost impossible to
accomplish in what amounts to a six-week window of opportunity.
GUN FUTURES
Don’t expect any sudden changes in the leadership of the National
Rifle Association now that Charlton Heston has
announced he is exhibiting Alzheimer-like symptoms. The NRA was
careful to orchestrate the announcement of his condition, and has
already announced there are no plans for him to step aside before
his term ends.
And according to some board members, the group feels that this
is a critical period for the organization. “We’re coming off some
real successes,” says one NRA board member. “It’s been a good run.
I don’t think we want to do anything to undercut what we’ve been
able to accomplish.”
The latest victory was the NRA late push on behalf of Michigan
Rep. John Dingell, which is partially credited
with helping the Democrat win his primary challenge against
anti-gun-rights Rep. Lynn Rivers.
Already the name of actor Tom Selleck has been
tossed about as a possible replacement for Heston. Selleck is a
lifetime member of the NRA and famously took on lesbian talk-show
host Rosie O’Donnell in debating gun-ownership
issues.
Unlike Heston, though, Selleck has distanced himself from
politics in recent years, and most likely would not be able to
provide the NRA with the full-time attention that Heston has given
the group.
A darkhorse possibility? Well-known conservative activist
Grover Norquist, who has sat on the NRA board for
several years. “He’s media savvy, knows our issues and really
pushes them,” says an NRA lobbyist, who knows Norquist. “But he
probably wouldn’t want to do it, given all of the different hats he
wears.”
LAST STOP, ATLANTA
In one of the few congressional districts where his support would
be welcome, Jesse Jackson preached in Atlanta’s
Ben Hill Methodist Church and from the pulpit pushed the candidacy
of Rep. Cynthia McKinney. Where many of her
colleagues in Congress find her to be rather extremist in her views
(recall she called for an investigation into whether or not
President Bush knew in advance of the 9/11 attacks and let them
happen so his family friends could make a profit), Jackson told
reporters and an audience outside of the church that McKinney was a
“cutting edge politician.”
Ever since reports of extramarital dalliances and possible
financial shenanigans in his Rainbow Coalitions and Operation PUSH
offices, Jackson has been on the outs with a Democratic Party that
once embraced his support for its candidates, especially African
Americans. “He’s not on the top of our list of people to send out
campaigning,” says a DNC advance staffer. “There aren’t many places
we could send him where there wouldn’t be controversy. He’d just
take attention away from the candidate. In the case of McKinney,
that could work to her advantage.”
