ON THE PROWL
ON THE PROWL State Sides Word floating around the State Department is that government approval for the recent visit by former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami was cleared at the "highest...
...Top of the list: President Bush's impeachment, the USA Patriot Act, NSA terrorist monitoring programs, and Internet Neutrality...
...According to CBS News sources who still talk to Mapes, the former producer will be a contract employee of HDNet, producing documentaries and news stories for the channel that caters to hidef TV owners...
...The careerists here were gleeful about getting Khatami cleared...
...The issue isn't so much that Schumer used his position as a senior senator to get the discounted, first-class travel...
...Charm Offensive New York Sen...
...You hear everything from our normalizing relations in return for bin Laden and the cutting off of Hezbollah, to small stuff like opening up face to face talks, all goofy, really, but this is what people at State live for," says the State source...
...Hillary Rodham Clinton's run for the Democrat presidential nomination, Senate and Democrat insiders say it is still too early to tell exactly what the junior senator's thinking is on the matter...
...Second, policy positioning: "There are a batch of small issues burbling around related to health care, retirement, telecommunications, and foreign policy that might be innocuous to most of us now, continued on poge 14 12 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR OCTOBER 2006 ON THE PROWL but which might be telling for the Clintons' thinking looking at 2008," says a current Senate leadership staffer who has worked with Clinton on health-care related issues...
...Where those people go to work over the next six months will give us a pretty clear indication of whether the Clintons are building a presidential campaign infrastructure or something a little less ambitious...
...Her staff is such a tight circle that no one beyond it has a clue about what the thinking is, and some of the people on the inside probably don't know what the latest thinking is with her...
...In early September, the CFG formally endorsed Republicans Michael Bouehard (Michigan), Mike MeGavick (Washington), and Michael Steele (Maryland), ensuring that CFG would focus its financial wherewithal on those three races...
...Someone there apparently offered to help him," says the former aide...
...Anyone who says they know, doesn't know," says a former Hillary staffer based in New York...
...It was just a huge thumb in the eye of the political appointees, but you know what...
...Reunited With news coming that disgraced former 60 Minutes producer Mary Mapes is joining her disgraced former colleague, Dan Rather, at the HDNet Channel, which is majoriW-owned by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, it appears the gang that couldn't lie straight is getting back together again...
...Meanwhile, look for Sen...
...ON THE PROWL State Sides Word floating around the State Department is that government approval for the recent visit by former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami was cleared at the "highest levels" out of a desire to see if Khatami might serve as an intermediary in negotiations between Iran and the United States...
...While the viewership of the channel may be low, word is that former vice president AI Core is looking for ways to get Rather'sand we assume by extension Mapes's-work onto his obscure, Google-backed cable TV channel, as well as its website...
...With the assistance of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, the former North Carolina senator is traveling overseas to politically strategic nations, meeting with foreign political leaders and getting lots of pictures taken with them...
...As with any high-ranking, shadowy figure, rumors abound at State about just what kind of message Khatami might carry back to Tehran...
...Those with the most access today are those from the White House days," says another former staffer...
...During the August recess they would openly discuss the issues...
...First, staff deployment...
...Jim Talent of Missouri to garner an increased influx of out-of-state GOP volunteers to ensure his reelection...
...All that said, former and current Clinton staffers from the White House days to today's Senate office say there will be some telltale signs about where Clinton's thinking is going in the coming months...
...Schumer spent much of August crisscrossing the country at prorated rates on private, corporate jets, campaigning for Democrat Senate candidates...
...14 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR OCTOBER 2006...
...Despite his tough race, he remains a rising star in the GOP Senate caucus, and is popular among Republican House and Senate staffers willing to take personal time offto help GOP candidates with their campaigns...
...John-Boy Watch Another Democrat looking to run is former vice presidential candidate John Edwards, who has been touring the country honing his "two Americas" populist message...
...The politicals just didn't care...
...Chuck Schumer apparently hasn't heard the old saying about not biting the hand that feeds you...
...Talent Show The Club for Growth is poised to make a national impact once again with its endorsements in the Senate campaigns...
...Why the last, obscure issue...
...They aren't going to want any missteps leading up to the campaign starting, so if we see her pulling back, it might be a sign that they are looking 18 months ahead...
...John Conyers and his staffhave been preparing for the possibility of a Democratic takeover of the House by prioritizing the investigative hearings they will launch in the committee in February...
...The issue is why Schumer's staff sought the use of the planes in the first place, knowing about the conflicts of interest...
...They aren't being particularly secretive about it," says a committee staffer...
...Khatami was the darling of the Clinton administration," says a current State Department staffer...
...But no sooner had he returned to Washington than his staff started telling a number of those corporations that Schumer had no interest in supporting any number of legislative issues now pending before the Senate...
...His lack of foreign policy experience was glaring during the 2004 campaign, and he's working to fix it," says a former campaign adviser...
...All three men are in highly winnable races, particularly given that their Democratic opponents (two of them incumbents) have consistently polled below 50 percent throughout the campaign...
...Nancy Pelosi probably wants it put on the agenda as payback to MoveOn for its efforts in the fall campaign," says a House Democrat leadership aide...
...Nor is it his utter lack of class...
...But he isn't just working here in the United States...
...And why the supposedly nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations...
...Inquisition Plans According to House Judiciary Committee staffers, Rep...
...Stay Tuned For all the "will she or won't she" talk about Sen...
...Outside of McGavick and Steele, Talent's is the race many GOP volunteers are requesting...
Vol. 39 • October 2006 • No. 8
