The American Spectator

Washington Prowler

(Page 2 of 2)

"We didn't go to the campaigns, we used the party infrastructure to get some people they recommended," says a CNN employee, who works in production. "It's a common practice. We want people who have some media training or who won't freeze up on camera on live TV."

But CNN had identified the questioners as "undecided" voters, not party apparatchiks, which is what just about all of them were. For example, LaShannon Spencer, served as the political director of the Democratic Party of Arkansas. Doug Ross has the full breakdown on at least six of the questioners' ties to the Democrat party.

According to the CNN source, recruiting for the questions began about two weeks before the event, and seating and coordination were put in place days before the debate took place. "The only requirement was that they not be paid or volunteer staff to a presidential campaign," says the source.

p> BYZANTINE U.S. VATICAN POLITICS br> While there are several Republican Senators, and many more Democrats, prepared to roll the hold on Harvard Law Professor and Romney supporter Mary Ann Glendon , the initial hold on her nomination as ambassador to the Vatican, as some would have reporters believe, was not Sen. Sam Brownback , whose presidential campaign routinely crossed swords with that of Gov. Mitt Romney 's during Brownback's time in the race. /p>

To be sure, Glendon's involvement with Romney, up until about two years ago a pro-abortion Republican in some areas of policy, has created some discomfort for Republicans.

"I, frankly, cannot understand how a person who has staked so much on the pro-life issue could go with someone so unsteady on the issue," says a Republican staffer for a Southern Senator.

GOP Senate staff say they cannot recall a time when the nomination fight spilled over into current Senate and White House politics the way the Glendon nomination has, but say that it remains doubtful her nomination will move any time soon, if at all.

topics:
Harry Reid, Abortion, Law, Military, Iraq, NATO