ON THE FRITZ
DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe was telling people on
Tuesday that the Democrats would absolutely hold the Senate seat of
retiring Fritz Hollings, after Columbia Mayor
Bob Coble dropped out of the 2004 Democratic U.S.
Senate primary race. That leaves the Palmetto State’s Education
Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum as the likely
Democratic nominee.
Coble, who was viewed as more of a moderate compared to the
far-left views of Tenenbaum, wasn’t raising enough money to keep up
with the state official, and even trailed businessman
Marcus Belk. Belk is a businessman virtually
unknown in Democratic Party circles, who is partially financing his
campaign with his own money.
Perhaps McAuliffe was so happy because Coble’s decision to step
aside may have solved a second problem for the party in the state.
Coble can take his war chest and donate it to the state party,
which in turn would use the money to finance its primary. As it
stands, the Democratic Party in South Carolina doesn’t have the
money to hold its primary in February.
“It would be great if Coble helped, but he didn’t do
conservative Democrats any favors by stepping down,” says a
Democratic activist in Charleston. “Tenenbaum is not a candidate
many Democrats here would want to see in Washington. She’s way too
liberal.”
CLASS ACT
The newspapers on Sunday and Monday were filled with punditry
saying the presidential campaign of Howie Dean
that had captured the imagination of Democrats far and wide was
running out of steam.
Poll numbers in Iowa showed Dick Gephardt
catching up to the Vermont wunderkind, and Dean’s numbers in New
Hampshire appeared to be plateauing months before a vote will be
cast.
Beyond the competition saying Dean is done, though, there isn’t
much evidence of Dean decline. Money is still pouring in via the
Internet, and the media still seem fascinated with the man who
seems incapable of not spouting off on any subject put forward to
him.
That said, Dean’s campaign did find difficulties during his tour
of rural northwestern Iowa on Sunday and Monday. If there is a
Republican stronghold in the state, that is where it can be found,
but Dean ventured there anyway in an attempt to match Gephardt’s
1988 feat of visiting all 99 counties in the state (such an effort
pales in comparison to the Herculean effort of political genius
Michael Barone, who visited every congressional
district in the nation several years ago).
Nevertheless, Dean is trying to act like a national political
figure. So he shows up in Iowa Lakes Community College for a
speech. His advance team promises more than 100 people. “It was
clear we weren’t going to get even 75 people for the speech,” says
an Iowa Dean hand. “We needed bodies.”
So a sympathetic instructor offered her class extra credit to
attend the speech (this, after all, is junior college). “The
left-leaning world of academia comes to a Democrat’s rescue once
again,” the Dean volunteer crowed.
BABE IN THE WOODS
Given Sen. John Kerry’s supposed grounding in all
things environmental, you’d think he’d have his facts straight.
This week, Kerry spent time in New Hampshire, attempting to play
the “Green” card with voters looking for a pro-environment
candidate.
Kerry and his staff chose to hold an event at the University of
New Hampshire, where he would lay out his plan to clean up the
environment. Key among his goals was to “leverage Superfund cleanup
dollars,” he told an enthusiastic crowd of granola munchers.
Only problem is, there is little money in the Superfund account.
Instead, cleanups today are being financed by fines and civil
penalties imposed by prosecution of polluters. And Kerry failed to
mention that the Bush administration has collected more fines and
civil penalties in the past two years than the Clinton
administration did in the final four years of its time in control
of the Justice Department and EPA.
