PILLOW TALK
You know you have former Vermont Gov. Howie Dean
in your pocket when he sleeps on you. Lately, on long trips,
whether in a plane or in a car, Dean’s pillow of choice has been a
purple silk jacket emblazoned with the logo of the Service
Employees International Union. Reporters covering the campaign have
spotted Dean sleeping with it ever since the union endorsed him
last month.
“It’s almost like a security blanket for him,” says one Dean
staffer. “He carries that thing everywhere. We’ll have to get a
couple of spares so he doesn’t stain it too badly.
TERRIFIED TOM
Apparently Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle is
feeling enough pressure from his caucus that he’s decided to get
down in the mud like some of his House colleagues.
On Monday evening came word that Daschle had raided the offices
of Rep. Henry Waxman and hired away Philip
Schiliro, one of the California Democrat’s most senior
advisers, to serve as the Senate Democratic leadership’s policy
director.
Waxman, who has become the gadfly of the House Democratic
caucus, recommended Schiliro to Daschle
Schiliro has also come highly recommended by House Democratic
leader Nancy Pelosi, though not to Daschle.
“Hillary Clinton was looking at him for something,
and Waxman tipped off Daschle,” says a House leadership
staffer.
The bidding war, such as it was, was due to Schiliro’s
reputation for down-and-dirty politics on issues from the
environment to government oversight, and an ability to strategize
on a caucus level.
Daschle has increasingly been criticized by his Democratic
colleagues for failing to stand up to the Republican majority and
White House. “We’ve been rolled almost constantly this session,”
says a Senate leadership staffer. “The leader had to do something,
or he was going to find himself on unsteady ground in January.”
It isn’t clear what Clinton wanted Schiliro for, but his work
over the past year should give Senate Republicans a pretty good
idea of what to expect. Schiliro directed Waxman’s calls for
independent investigations of the White House’s use of intelligence
material leading up to Operation Iraqi Freedom, as well as
investigations of the Bush Administration’s national energy plan
and Vice President Dick Cheney’s relationship with
former employer, Halliburton.
As it stands, Daschle is on uncertain ground. He failed in a
last minute attempt late last week to dissuade Sen. John
Breaux from retiring, again angering moderate members of
his caucus. Former Rep. John Thune is ready to
take him on for his Senate seat in 2004. And Daschle’s upcoming
book is said to be falling flat with booksellers. “The DNC is
making a big bulk buy, but there doesn’t appear to be much interest
otherwise,” says a DNC staffer, who added that the party is buying
about 90 percent fewer copies of the leader’s book compared to
Hillary’s.
CURSE OF THE MENINO
The Democratic National Committee’s decision to hold its national
convention in Boston next summer is beginning to look like a huge
mistake. DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe spurned
superior facilities in New Orleans and Miami for the extra cash
being dangled by Boston for using its Fleet Center. But, as is
usually the case in such situations, the deal has come loaded with
strings attached and other complications.
Perhaps the biggest problem is the small size of the building.
Already, McAuliffe has been told by TV executives that Fleet is a
confined space that will limit television’s ability to cover the
convention. Print journalists who toured the facility last month
were told most of them will have to operate outside of the building
from tents or temporary holding areas.
Boston officials had promised a number of corporate underwriters
for the event, but those companies so far have been few and far
between. City economic development staffers have told the DNC that
the downturn of the economy is mostly to blame.
“Still, a sucky convention isn’t the way to persuade the
American voters that the economic direction of the nation should
change,” says a DNC fundraiser. “And without money, we’re looking
at a sucky convention. It’s to a point now where even we are
praying for the economy to get better, faster.”
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino is clearly growing
tired of the DNC’s belly-aching, particularly about the lack of
resources and local talent to draw on for the convention. Just this
week, McAuliffe and Rod O’Connor, CEO of the
Democratic National Convention Committee, were talking about the
cost of bringing in an executive producer and technical staff to
produce the weeklong television event for the party. O’Connor has
already held preliminary meetings in Los Angeles, Washington and
New York about the production of the convention, and the party
expects to hire someone for the producer slot some time in
January.
But Menino wants to see local folk and companies brought into
the production, and he wants to see the party spend locally,
instead of in New York or Los Angeles. He has been telling local
businesses to be patient with the Democrats, but appears to be
losing his own patience, and is asking for a meeting with McAuliffe
and O’Connor to discuss convention planning.
