STILL THE ONE
Ex-Prez Bill Clinton had people scratching their
heads in Boston the other night when he spoke before the 10th
Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, one of the
most prestigious gatherings of researchers specializing in
AIDS.
The speech had been long planned, but Clinton used the address
to sidestep one controversy while creating a new one. At one point,
in discussing the Bush Administration’s decision to target $15
billion in funds to contain and defeat AIDS in Africa, Clinton said
he was “very grateful for that.”
“It was like he had asked Bush to do it, or had proposed the
plan, that’s how it sounded to us,” says an attendee, who works at
NIH. “He led right into what his foundation was doing elsewhere,
and how this money was going to help him achieve his own goals. He
did give Bush his props, but made sure everyone realized that Bush
couldn’t have done this if he hadn’t taken the lead. It was classic
Clinton.”
Clinton’s insistence on taking credit for budgeting the $15
billion he really had nothing to do with comes on the heals of an
embarrassing — for him — moment at a New York fundraiser ten days
ago, when Buddhist AIDS activist and actor Richard
Gere lambasted Sen. Hillary Rodham
Clinton’s husband for doing nothing in the fight against
AIDS in his eight years in the White House.
A-CAROLING WE WON’T GO
Ex-Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun can’t be happy about
the slotting of speakers at the Democratic National Committee’s
winter meeting in Washington, D.C. next week. As it stands, the
so-called six pack of Sens. John Kerry,
John Edwards, and Joe Lieberman
and Rep. Dick Gephardt, former Vermont Gov.
Howie Dean and Al Sharpton all
have speaking slots on the February 21-22 schedule. Braun as yet
does not, despite having been promised a prominent place on the
two-day program.
(As of Tuesday evening, after news broke that Kerry will undergo
prostate surgery today, his staff had not withdrawn his name from
the DNC event.)
Braun, you’ll recall, is mulling a presidential run, and has
already visited Iowa on a campaign swing to get the lay of the
land. She’s met twice with DNC chairman Terry
McAuliffe, who had promised her slot at the winter
meetings as part of a brokered deal to persuade her not to run
again for the Senate seat she lost six years ago to Sen.
Peter Fitzgerald.
According to the current lineup, Lieberman, Gephardt and Dean
open the conference and Kerry, Edwards and Sharpton speak the
following day. A DNC source said the agenda for the two-day soiree
had yet to be firmed up and that “Moseley Braun is supposed to
speak, but it isn’t clear her speech would coincide with other
presidential candidates. All the others speaking are announced
candidates. She’s still exploring her options.”
According to another DNC staffer, aides to Edwards were unhappy
to learn their man would be speaking on the same day as Kerry:
“They didn’t want him speaking with the frontrunner, and then
having to deal with Sharpton, who will probably put on a pretty
good show. He really wanted the Lieberman, Gephardt day.”
Edwards’ concern is that many of the attendees at the DNC
meeting are delegates for the national convention which will be
held in Boston. This is the first chance a presidential hopeful has
impress uncommitted party ground troops leading into the primary
season. Kerry would be expected to get the bulk of the attention
from the media, and Sharpton’s speaking style is wildly different
from any of the other speakers. Edwards’ people are concerned their
man will get lost in the shuffle.
