HARD BAYLOR
The White House was disappointed by the brutal treatment President
Bush’s economic summit at Baylor University received in the press
Wednesday. Almost to a paper, from the New York Times and
Washington Post to the L.A. Times and the San
Francisco Chronicle, Bush’s event was hammered for its heavily
managed aura.
“What event like this isn’t?” wonders a White House staffer who
didn’t make the trip to Waco. “It’s days like this that make you
wonder if those media guys are just looking to do the Democrats’
business. They complain we didn’t have any opposing voices there,
but I’ve seen how the Clinton people did their so-called summits
and they never had them either. No one complained then.”
Bush’s people were criticized for inviting speakers to Waco who
presented testimony prepared by special interest groups, and for
having obvious friends, like U.S. Chamber of Commerce president
Tom Donohue, sitting on panels.
“The frustrating thing,” says the White House staffer, “is that
the press knows that’s how these things work. They know what it
takes to pull off one of these events. There’s a double standard
here.”
The White House made sure that the 200 or so attendees featured
a cross section of the country, including organized labor. “The
AFL-CIO might not have liked the White House’s roster, but it’s not
in the business of making the AFL-CIO happy,” says an RNC advance
staffer. “We had a number of people we would have loved to have
sitting at the table with Bush, but the White House ignored us and
went with its own list. Hell, it even had DNC donors there.”
AMERICAN GOTHIC
Concerned about the growing press fascination with his fellow
Democrat presidential aspirants, such as Sens. Tom
Daschle, John Edwards and Joe
Lieberman, Democratic House leader Dick
Gephardt is looking at his upcoming trip to Iowa as
critical to setting up his presidential goals.
Gephardt, who will be in Iowa campaigning for Sen. Tom
Harkin, is concerned that he is being lost amid the high
profile Senators who are also exploring presidential runs. He hopes
that his push in Iowa, where just about every House seat is in play
for the fall, will bear some good PR fruit down the road.
“Daschle seems to be getting so much attention lately,” says a
Gephardt staffer on Capitol Hill. “Edwards is the media darling.
The only time Gephardt gets out from underneath that is when he
hits the road and campaigns. Out there, he’s a big shot Democratic
leader and it carries some weight.”
The advantage Gephardt has in Iowa is a grass roots organization
that is far superior to just about everyone else’s, perhaps even to
Al Gore’s. “He has spent a ton of time there over
the years,” say the Gephardt staffer. “Iowa may make or break his
campaign in 2003.”
