LOOK WHO’S TALKING
The Senate Democratic Caucus was up in arms earlier this week,
complaining to reporters on Capitol Hill that Sen. Jay
Rockefeller was not the source they should be going to for
comments about the just-released 9/11 Report and the purported
White House “misuse” of intelligence data to buttress arguments for
taking down Saddam.
Senators Tom Daschle and Harry
Reid, the Senate’s Democratic leader and whip
respectively, were both bad-mouthing Rockefeller, and let it be
known in a meeting of all Democratic press secretaries that they,
along with Sen.Bob Graham, were to be the only
conduits for official Senate Democratic statements on either
issue.
“This is the first time this White House has made a misstep we
can capitalize on, and Rockefeller is out there soft-peddling the
stuff like it is no big deal,” says a Senate leadership staffer.
“If Bush emerges from this unscathed, Rockefeller deserves a lot of
the blame from our end.”
Daschle and Reid had both told party caucus members that the
past ten days have given them the best chance at wounding the White
House. They asked for a coordinated communications effort, in line
with their House counterparts and the Democratic National
Committee. But then Rockefeller, who serves as ranking Democrat on
the Senate Intelligence Committee, went off the reservation and
told reporters that before there was any serious finger-pointing,
the committee had to take in all the information. That was not the
spin Daschle and company wanted.
Rockefeller’s comments, however, were nothing next to those from
former President Bill Clinton’s on Tuesday’s
“Larry King Live,” which left the Democrats on Capitol Hill almost
speechless. Clinton, who said he had bombed Iraq in 1998, in part
because of the threat of Saddam’s nuclear program, took virtually
all the air out of the Democrats’ plans to continue attacking the
White House’s handling of uranium purchase intelligence used in the
State of the Union Address.
“He had to have done it for Hillary. They are up to something,”
says a Howie Dean presidential campaign staffer in
New Hampshire. “We can’t believe our party’s leader would stab us
in the back unless there was something more to it. Maybe he’s
setting us all up for something else. Or he thinks by clearing the
field of a national security topic, it will be easier for Hillary
to enter the race and focus on domestic policy. Whatever, we can’t
believe he did it.”
As for Rockefeller, a leadership staffer for Republicans said
the word on the Hill was that Rockefeller was aware of what his
party was trying to do to the White House, but chafed at taking
orders from Daschle and Reid, particularly when the senator from
West Virginia was basically told to steer all interview requests to
higher-ups in the party.
CHEESY CHUCK
Sen. Chuck Schumer has a lot of explaining to do
about his rationale for blocking federal judge nominees. After
holding back the nominations of four Bush nominees to the federal
bench, all of whom were rated as qualified by the American Bar
Association, Schumer trumpeted the fact that he and the White House
had cut a deal to fill several open federal judgeships in New York
state.
Schumer announced the deal without giving the White House the
chance to announce it, a protocol no-no. “It’s the kind of glory
hound behavior you have to accept in dealing with him,” says a
White House legislative staffer.
But if the White House is upset about Schumer’s jumping the gun,
they won’t say, in part because they believe they have caught
Schumer in a double standard that undercuts his arguments about
many Bush judicial nominees.
Dora Irizarry is a Republican nominated by the
Bush White House to a seat on the United States District Court for
the Eastern District of New York. She has been fully backed for the
slot by Schumer, in part because she a New Yorker, and in part to
annoy New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who
beat Irizarry in a race for that office, and who has clashed with
Schumer for — get this — Spitzer’s desire to be in the
spotlight.
At any rate, Irizarry recently got her review from the ABA, and
a majority of the ABA’s review committee found the judicial nominee
“not qualified” for the federal bench. Still, Schumer is backing
her.
“He can’t do it for long,” says a Democratic Senate Judiciary
staffer. “Otherwise, how can he support a sub-par nominee while
refusing to back qualified nominees?”
That’s exactly what the White House would like Schumer to have
to explain.
FORTNEY’S COMPLAINT
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill
Thomas’s tearful mea culpa on the House floor Wednesday
was forced upon him by Speaker of the House Dennis
Hastert, who told the prickly pol from California that if
he didn’t end the simmering story, he was risking his
chairmanship.
Thomas, who is famous for his temper, and who has been known to
stalk out of meetings in his own private office, angered Democrats
when he ordered the House sergeant at arms to call in the Capitol
Hill police if Democratic House Ways and Means committee members
refused to re-convene for the markup of a bill. Most Democrats had
marched out of the committee room in protest, leaving Rep.
Pete Stark to scream homophobic remarks at
Republicans. Evidently he hates it when they call him by his real
name, Fortney.
“It was all very embarrassing to us,” says a House Republican
leadership aide. “Hastert has been hearing from a number of
Republican members that it has been increasingly difficult to work
with Thomas. He’s been a real pain in the ass, and this was just
the last straw.”
Thomas beat Illinois Rep. Philip Crane for the
Ways and Means seat three years ago, upsetting some conservatives
who disliked Thomas’s brash style.
Thomas had refused to apologize for his actions, even in a
closed door meeting with the Republican caucus. But on Tuesday,
according to Hill sources, Hastert laid down the law and told
Thomas to get with the program.
For all of the glee some Republicans took in seeing Thomas
humbled, they were reminded that there are worse personalities in
their midst. While many Democrats welcomed Thomas’s weepy tale of
woe, Nancy Pelosi, who herself is facing
increasing doubts about her leadership future, said the apology
wasn’t good enough.
