On the Prowl
ON THE PROWL Haley to the Chief Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott has so far refused to comment on speculation that he might run for the Republican presidential nomination, insisting he's even...
...Sure enough, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston is said no longer to be speaking with House Majority Leader Dick Armey—this, after Livingston told Gingrich he would seek the speakership should the Georgian step down...
...But the president wouldn't let go...
...In fact, Lott and Barbour are in the preliminary stages of a book deal that would have the majority leader publishing within the next six months a tome similar to the ones currently on the market from Newt Gingrich, Sen...
...The book 3 would make life easier for 9 Barbour...
...If it went over well, Lott would feel much more secure in openly considering a bid...
...This time it was Rep...
...Bill Paxon is living up to advanced billing as an arm-twister par excellence in his role as "adviser" to the National Republican Congressional Committee...
...borders...
...May the Best Man Win Public assurances from Newt Gingrich that all is well on his leadership team can only mean infighting continues...
...By July, Paxon was expected to have another $750,000 on hand for GOP candidates...
...It would be a very personal book...
...Armey is also expected to run for speaker if and when Gingrich steps aside...
...If you're talking presidential politics, we got screwed," says a Gore political aide...
...That's more in two months than the NRCC raised in the first five months of 1998...
...CNN did some bumping of its own recently, when Larry King removed cyber-reporter Matt Drudge from his June 17 show starring Steven Brill...
...and Capitol Hill police cruisers chased Kennedy's government-issue sedan onto the Capitol grounds...
...Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I...
...The Republican National Committee, Philip Morris, RJR, and their lobbyists had polling numbers that showed the tobacco issue would probably be a nonstarter for Democrats," says an aide to Trent Lott...
...The wear and tear may also be getting to consigliere Bruce Lindsey, who got out of another appearance before the Starr grand jury for medical reasons: He's been bedridden with a slipped disk...
...His firm is also 0 doing political consulting for 0 House Budget Chairman John Kasich's exploratory presidential nomination bid...
...Sticking his nose into just about anything he wanted to beyond U.S...
...Barbour is said to feel more comfortable working with Lott, and would prefer his fellow Mississippian to Kasich as a long-term client...
...Some of that "erratic" behavior includes: Going AWOL for about 45 minutes during a fundraiser for Rep...
...I just wish they'd been able to show us that on paper...
...Miracle Worker Rep...
...He may have spoken too late: Most of the polling was more than a month old at the time the Senate walked away from the bill on June 16, and had been conducted when media attention wasn't focused on the tobacco debate...
...But the network passed on the idea, in part because it couldn't get the satellite clearance to beam the broadcast into China itself...
...At a New York fundraiser he said that, what with the success of his Bosnia and Ireland policies, he believes the American public trusts him on foreign policy...
...Wild Bill In early May, then-U.N...
...Vice President Al Gore has tobacco worries of his own: The day after the Senate killed the McCain bill, he pulled in his top political advisers, including former White House counsel Jack Quinn...
...In the month since taking de facto control of the NRCC after members proved reluctant to open their campaign coffers, Paxon has gotten his colleagues to pay and pay and pay...
...We still don't know...
...Albright wouldn't let him...
...In a speech at Walden Pond in Massachu=setts, Clinton lumped together Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela—and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton—as people who "were all moved by the insights of Thoreau...
...They're putting personal recollections and anecdotes on paper...
...And that's fine with Clinton, who is said to have told advisers that he thinks Richardson is one of his staunchest loyalists, who will do a good job defending him on TV in the coming months...
...Back in April, Armey's staff was telling Republicans their boss was booked solid through early fall...
...But it still doesn't explain why the leadership allowed Paxon to retire in the first place...
...The president stole Gore's thunder and gave it to McCain...
...In the days before Drudge's announced appearance, White House staffers Mike McCurry, Ann Lewis, and Rahm Emanuel are said to have lobbied CNN news chief Rick Kaplan (now known as Richard Kaplan) to pull the plug on Drudge, warning that the network's White House reporters might otherwise lose access...
...Tionanmen Town Hall Desperate to make President Clinton appear pro-democratic (small d) for a change, the White House tried to set up a Chinese "National Town Hall Radio Call-In" for Clinton's China visit...
...ambassador Bill Richardson met privately with President Clinton to discuss his future...
...44 The American Spectator • August 1998 15...
...Richardson said he would take the Energy Department post, with the understanding that it would allow him to take part in broader, non-Energy matters as well...
...When members of the press pool inquired as to his whereabouts, the White House declined to comment...
...He considers Livingston a threat, and wants a clear shot at the speaker's chair when it opens up," says an Armey adviser...
...At least three D.C...
...They were on TV that night saying the tobacco deal was no big thing," says the leadership source...
...His big concern: What to do now that his anti-tobacco position was handed over by Clinton to McCain...
...Not so, says a source at the law firm of Barbour, Griffith & Rodgers, where Lott's close friend and former RNC chairman Haley Barbour hangs his hat...
...In part, we think it's because he has been speaking without a lot of prepared comments...
...and one of his assistants...
...Livingston has been hard at 14 August 1998 • The American Spectator work lining up support...
...So in the end, Drudge's seat was filled by none other than CNN White House correspondent Wolf Blitzer...
...I guess this was one of his `legacy' issues...
...More than a month earlier, Gore is said to have asked Clinton to hand over the tobacco legislation to him...
...More than z4 hours later, Kennedy was still refusing to pay the ticket for the staffer, but then changed his mind when it was suggested the story could get some press attention...
...Asked about Clinton's remarks, Sen...
...He wanted out of the U.N., Richardson told Clinton, in part because he was finding it difficult to operate under the watchful eye of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright...
...John Ashcroft, and New York Gov...
...Feeling the Heat Bill Clinton has some supporters wondering if maybe Ken Starr is getting to him...
...Clinton would take phone calls from PRC citizens and answer their questions...
...He's telling reporters he already has no House Republicans behind him, as he criss-crosses the country to attend campaign fundraisers for GOP candidates...
...The issue became moot when the Chinese refused the White House three hours of requested air-time on their national radio station...
...Rushing back from a DNC event for a vote, Kennedy is said to have ordered his staffer to run a red light on New Jersey Avenue, near the Capitol...
...He wants a much higher political profile," says a White House source...
...In some of his recent public appearances, he has been acting a bit erratically," says a communications staffer at the DNC...
...Kennedy hopped out of the car and ran up the Capitol steps to make his vote, leaving his aide to face the angry police officers and accept a $75 ticket for running the light...
...We're all a bit miffed about it, but Clinton's people ignored us on this issue...
...He's been through too much to let a tax-and-spender like Livingston just take it away with promises to members of generous appropriations considerations...
...Barbara Kennelly hosted by Martha Stewart at a Connecticut TV studio...
...On the hot seat are the dueling Republican pollsters Frank Luntz and Kellyanne Fitzpatrick, both of whom have been lobbying hard for two years to be the GOP pollster on Capitol Hill, and neither of whom provided clients with up-to-date numbers...
...In response, Armey is scrambling to add a series of appearances at similar events in Western states...
...ON THE PROWL Haley to the Chief Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott has so far refused to comment on speculation that he might run for the Republican presidential nomination, insisting he's even declined opportunities to gauge support for such a move...
...Suddenly Armey's schedule is very flexible...
...He took the job thinking he'd be able to do the kinds of things he'd done as a congressman," says a State Department political appointee...
...Uh, Oh It's widely assumed that Republican senators felt free to jettison the huge McCain tobacco legislation because they had a good sense that killing the bill wouldn't hurt them at election time...
...In May '97 Wilson came to Washington to announce that her campaign against millionaire Democrat Philip Maloof was broke — an embarrassment to Republicans who had already targeted the New Mexico seat as a "must win" this fall...
...George Pataki...
...In what is called "member-to-candidate" giving, Paxon raised more than $250,000 for Heather Wilson, a New Mexico Republican who this June won the seat of the late Republican Steve Schiff...
...Gore wanted to be out front representing the White House," says the aide...
...He's going to be everywhere and anywhere he wants to be...
...Republicans now worry their dated polling may come back to haunt them...
...White House communications staff hoped that Larry King would host the program, and that CNN would broadcast it live around the world...
...He's even talking about running a low-key campaign for the bottom of the ticket in z000...
...Daniel Patrick Moynihan remarked, "What about his policies in Haiti, the Middle East, Asia, Kosovo, Iraq, Russia, Pakistan, India, and China...
...Ticket to Ride Could it be, another Kennedy running away from an incident involving a car...
...It won't be issue-oriented," says the source...
Vol. 31 • August 1998 • No. 8
