On the Prowl
ON THE PROWL Naughty Newt Much as House Majority Leader Dick Armey downplays it, he's mighty steamed at Speaker Newt Gingrich. It was Armey who hosted a June after-hours pow-wow with...
...They want the hearings to have an impact—without turning into a partisan shoutfest...
...In the end, it was her husband, Rep...
...The FEC suspects Nader's little Green Party organization accepted and used as much as $5o,000 in illegal contributions for local TV advertising during the '96 campaign...
...The perception is that Morris is working for a few people up here through intermediaries, who in turn pay him as their consultant," said a Senate source...
...But months before she was lured to CBS News, she was being offered million-dollar book advances from at least two loony publishers, Random House and Simon and Schuster...
...Meanwhile, Luntz has been caught in the crossfire between Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey, and John Boehner, and he's encountering problems in his efforts to remain a chief consultant to the congressional leadership...
...Great News for Sen...
...business hours...
...Little did they know that McLaughlin, like any good ex-Jesuit, had clearly anticipated the situation: his first marriage, to later Reagan transportation secretary Ann Dore, took place in a Washington, D.C...
...Hatch Hillary Rodham Clinton will spearhead a major legislative push for federally subsidized child care this fall...
...Luntz is said to be in frequent contact with disgraced Clinton triangulator Dick Morris, a longtime paid consultant to Lott 14 August 1997 • The American Spectator as well...
...They want to remain principled...
...Fred Thompson...
...These provide fully subsidized, all-day child care, in-home care for special-need children, and free or partially subsidized medical care to pregnant women...
...Incidentally, White House scribes can't wait for the increasingly insolent and unprofessional Mike McCurry to leave his press secretary post...
...As a courtesy to pool members, the White House press office for a number of years would inform the pool if the president was staying in for the evening, allowing pool members to go home...
...Rather, they were wondering why McLaughlin, who divorced his first wife, was allowed to marry his second wife in the Catholic Church...
...Everyone thinks Luntz is working as a beard for Morris...
...When it failed and bad press ensued, Armey was stunned to find unnamed leadership sources—i.e., Gingrich — e blaming him for the fiasco...
...But on at least five occasions in the past several months, the press office has misled the protective coverage pool: it sent reporters home early, before President Clinton and his security team left the residence to attend unscheduled dinners or social functions...
...She will take up a Manhattan residence, and some believe that if she chooses not to pursue Daniel Patrick Moynihan's seat in 2000, she may take a run in 2002 at one office her father never held: Mayor of New York...
...He's expected to be replaced by Joseph Lockhart, press secretary to the '96 Clinton-Gore campaign...
...Right now, everything is up for grabs," said a White House staffer familiar with the planning...
...Good luck...
...He knows Edgar and Voinovich have their eye on a presidential run," said a Senate leadership staffer, "and in the back of his mind he does too...
...Guy's Big Girl New television anchorette Susan Molinari used to be called "Guy's Little Girl" behind her back (her father is long-time Staten Island pol Guy Molinari...
...It was Armey who hosted a June after-hours pow-wow with thirty-five or so Republican colleagues fed up with Gingrich's leadership...
...As we went to press, the high-profile Dunn, less moderate than Molinari and a favorite of the Capitol Hill press corps, was already claiming she had the needed votes...
...Oddly, the hottest topic of conversation at the meeting :6` was Washington sophomore Rep...
...The American Spectator • August 1997 15...
...Lott has also been stroking Ohio governor George Voinovich, who is mulling a run for John Glenn's open seat in '98...
...Jennifer Dunn, whom Gingrich has hand-picked torun for the House Republican Conference Committee vice-chairmanship recently vacated by Susan Molinari...
...to 7 p.m...
...Lott's motives aren't entirely squishy...
...Both have told friends that they don't think her career change will remove her from politics...
...Lott has denied speaking to either man frequently, but staffers say Lott consults with Luntz at least once a week—and he's not expecting free advice...
...Luntz Time Some of Trent Lott's staffers blame their boss's conciliatory style on his newfound friendship with GOP pollster Frank Luntz, who in the past has advised Ross Perot, among others...
...Bill Paxon, who persuaded her to accept CBS's offer...
...Runny Lott Reluctant to push a conservative agenda in Congress, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott is busy recruiting moderate candidates for the 1998 election cycle...
...Armey had his own reasons to vent: During consideration of the ill-fated flood-relief bill, House Appropriations chairman Bob Livingston argued that the best way to get the bill passed was to strip it of all amendments...
...civil ceremony...
...Ralph's Nadir The Federal Election Commission is investigating Ralph Nader's presidential campaign for voter fraud and misuse of campaign funds...
...He's now joined Mitch McConnell, chairman of the Republican Senatorial Committee, in putting the screws on Illinois governor Jim Edgar to run for Carol Moseley-Braun's Senate seat next year...
...Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala has been promised a role in the project, and the White House has already met with aides to wayward Vermont Republican Jim Jeffords, to prepare for hearings by his Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee...
...According to a well-respected member of the House leadership, GOP House leaders are expressing concern about the "lack of experience and direction" of Dan Burton's Government Reform and Oversight Committee—a direct shot at David Bossie—and are pushing to have top staffers replaced prior to the start of its August hearings...
...He told us that the president and his family had the right to some privacy, and that meant keeping the press at a distance at times," said one of the reporters...
...On a rotating basis, most permanent White House correspondents work what is called the "protective coverage" pool—a team of reporters and photographers who follow the president to dinners, meetings, and other events taking place outside normal 8 a.m...
...It's a strange time on the Hill...
...It's not as though we're calling for Newt's head, like Tom DeLay and John Boehner have been doing behind his back," said a Republican member who attended the meeting...
...The idea that tax breaks will resolve this national problem isn't realistic...
...Armey agreed, but Gingrich refused to listen and ordered him to ram the bill through as is...
...Steve Largent and Bill Nethercutt, and longtime Gingrich ally Jim Nussle...
...Civil Society It wasn't the age difference that left guests agog at the June 22 church wedding of John McLaughlin and Cristina Vidal...
...Other plans call for a federal child-care system modeled on several Pentagon programs already in place at military bases around the country...
...Not a half a day goes by without Edgar getting a friendly call from good buddy Trent...
...She also has close ties to Walter Shorenstein, another well-known developer who is one of the DNC's biggest donors and fundraisers...
...When two members of the print pool confronted a presidential press aide, the aide didn't deny that Clinton was leaving the White House on unscheduled trips...
...A Marriott in His Future The White House press corps is beginning to think maybe the president's aides aren't being straight with them about the president's after-hour activities...
...Charlotte's Web There have been weirder romances in San Francisco, but maybe none of them involved prominent Republicans...
...Swig, whose last husband owned a number of historic properties in the Bay Area, including the Fairmont Hotel atop Nob Hill, is one of a handful of Brown minions busily remaking City Hall in Brown's image: It's to be cleared of bureaucrats to make room for money-making movie and TV projects, receptions, and parties...
...So he kind of plays them off against each other...
...But conservatives said they'd run their own candidate against her just to send a message to Newt...
...Among the most vocal were sophomore Reps...
...Former Reagan Secretary of State George Shultz heretofore not known as a wild and crazy guy—is all set to many Charlotte Mailliard Swig, one of the city's most prominent good-time girls and a close friend and fundraiser for Mayor Willie Brown...
...One of them goes by the name of Kellyanne Fitzpatrick, a former Luntz employee who now has her own firm, the Polling Company, doubles as a television talking blonde, and has been linked to would-be campaign investigator Sen...
...But each time he does something like Dunn or the flood-relief package he gives us less reason to defend him against his real enemies...
...But we're going in with the idea that the federal government is going to have to heavily subsidize any child-care plan we put forward...
...A detailed six-to-eightmonth schedule mapped out by White House staff foresees a White House conference on child care to be chaired by the first lady, and a major address by the president (perhaps his 1998 State of the Union address) to lay out pro-child specifics...
...Conservatives saw the open slot as a chance to put one of their own in a leadership position, but Gingrich thought it more important to give it to a woman...
...McCurry is said to be seeking a job as a TV commentator, perhaps with CNN or MSNBC...
Vol. 30 • August 1997 • No. 8
