The American Spectator

The fact that Edwards was interested in Hessburg is telling, given her ultra-liberal background. Prior to landing in Iowa, she ran the left-wing People for the American Way. “It just shows how desperate Edwards is to have a top-flight operation there,” says the DNC-er. “He doesn’t need to win Iowa, he doesn’t need to win New Hampshire, but he has to have a good showing in both places to remain viable going into the rest of the campaign season. And in Iowa, it’s all about your grassroots organization.”

p> LOOKING FOR MR. BIG MOUTH br> The Democratic National Committee has budgeted more than $500,000 to develop an alternative radio voice to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity . That’s in addition to a small investment the party made in Democracy Radio, a private business that is trying to develop “progressive” syndicated talk radio. Gee, whatever happened to NPR? /p>

“You have to look at the situation from [DNC Chairman Terry] McAuliffe’s perspective,” says a DNC staffer. “He’s sitting there and sees Limbaugh and Hannity and Fox News, and what do we have? Donahue.”

The money that the DNC has set aside, according to the DNC-er, was intended to develop a radio show, perhaps broadcast from the DNC, that could be made available either through syndication or through public broadcasting systems. “This wouldn’t be for profit, simply for politics,” says the party staffer.

One name bandied about for the radio show, of course, was McAuliffe pal Bill Clinton. Another possibility was Jesse Ventura, but he was deemed too unreliable to tout a progressive message. “We’ll probably have to go back to Hollywood to see if there’s anybody out there who’d be interested,” said the DNC aide.

The imagination runs wild with likely names. There’s Barbra and Alec and Martin and Meathead. In fact, Martin and Meathead has the ring of an act that could take off.