GETTING THERE
Newt Gingrich isn’t fully into the 2008 Republican
presidential nomination race yet, but he’s getting there. Over the
weekend, according to sources with knowledge of the meeting,
Gingrich met with advisers at a small, swanky restaurant/retreat in
Virginia horse country to discuss laying the logistical groundwork
for his formal entry in the race.
“Newt commissioned the memo some time ago, and [longtime
Gingrich adviser] Joe Gaylord has been working on
it,” says a Gingrich insider. “Newt is taking this possible run
very seriously and in a way that you would expect: looking at the
tactics, the history, the opportunities. He’s looking at all the
angles.”
Gingrich had already commissioned a planning memo that is said
to read out at more than 100 pages, covering everything from policy
development to travel to the need for the former House Speaker to
drop a few pounds for all the TV appearances.
Reviewing the memo was one of the agenda items for this
gathering. Gingrich has been visible in conservative and Republican
circles of late, pushing a book on his new Republican agenda, and
over the past five or so years, he has served as a private sounding
board for the Bush Administration, particularly on Washington
politics and reform of the American health-care and retirement
systems.
As other GOP presidential hopefuls have traveled the country and
seen their visibility — and poll numbers — rise and fall as the
next hopeful comes into view of potential voters, Gingrich to date
has not overplayed his hand. He — along with former New York City
mayor, Rudy Giuliani — remains one of the most
popular Republican figures whose name has been mentioned for a
presidential run, but who has not gotten fully into the race.
“We’re all expecting he’s going to accept the memo, go home and
add to the piles of materials he’s working through to make the
decision,” says the Gingrich associate. “We expect we’ll all be
charged with various tasks related to it, and we’ll have a decision
early in the fall.”
IT’S ALL ABOUT THEM
Former President Bill Clinton arrives in
Waterbury, Connecticut, today to stump for Sen. Joe
Lieberman at a time when poll numbers for the Senator show
him in a dog fight for the Democrat nomination for the Senate. Some
polls show upstart, anti-war Kossack/MoveOn puppet Ned
Lamont leading Lieberman within the margin of error.
Clinton’s involvement, according to Democrats familiar with his
thinking, was something he was hoping to avoid, but it also
highlights the odd dynamics at play in national Democratic
politics. “Clinton’s presence in Waterbury is less about Lieberman,
and more about Hillary’s future and the future of
the Clintonian wing of the Democratic Party,” says a Democrat
political consultant in Washington, who has worked for Clinton in
the past.
In Clinton’s view, the Howard Dean, MoveOn.org,
Daily Kos, and My DD activists have served a useful purpose within
the party, but have overplayed their hand and now have put the
party on a path that could take it over a cliff in the 2006 and
2008 election cycles.
“If Joe Lieberman wins the primary, and wins by a decent margin,
then it’s another loss for the far left activists of the party who
have only been successful in placing one of their own in charge of
the party, and that’s Howard Dean,” says the consultant. “The far
left has staked its future to a large degree on beating Lieberman.
If they lose that claim, then it makes it a bit easier for the
moderates in the party to reassert some control.”
And it’s Clinton who wants the control. While he has been
helpful to the Democrat party, his activities for the Democrats
have been limited since Dean took over as DNC chairman. The
relationship between Dean and Clinton’s wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham
Clinton, has been rocky at best.
Clinton’s arrival in Waterbury surprised some Democrat
observers, particularly since Senator Clinton had announced that
she would take no position on the race. But according to the
Democrat consultants, that was all part of the Clinton plan.
“The Clintons know that if Joe wins, the MoveOn types are going
to turn their guns on another traditional Democrat and they think
that traditional Democrat will be Hillary, and they don’t need to
give those nuts any more ammunition,” says the Democrat
consultant.
Other national Democrats with bigger aspirations have come out
in support of Lieberman, including presidential hopeful Sen.
Joe Biden. But Hillary has had the rockiest
relationship with the far-left crowd.
In Clinton’s view, the organizations that have elevated anti-war
protester Cindy Sheehan and law-enforcement
assaulter Rep. Cynthia McKinney as the faces of
the Democrat party make it increasingly difficult to attract
moderate and undecided voters, particularly in general elections.
“A lot of us think that the Lieberman race is going to be a
watershed for Democrats. That’s why you see so much energy around
it,” says a Democrat activist in New York.
