On the Prowl
on THe PRowl after Reid A year ago, there were whispers that senior Democrats in the Senate were prepared to move against majority leader Harry Reid. Now those whispers are becoming...
...Some press aides on the Senate side have noted that many of the Internet alerts sent out from various media outlets, which the aides receive on their Blackberrys, appeared to be strategically delayed...
...From a PR perspective, it was a win,” says one CFR adviser...
...The challenge was removed when Senate leadership went to Hutchison and asked her to reconsider, which she did...
...dissing snowe Republican efforts to maintain a “working minority” in the Senate might have become a bit more challenging in late July...
...Ted Stevens...
...It was really quite surprising...
...Durbin, by rank, as the majority whip, would be next in line, and his close ties to junior Sen...
...It just shows a lack of experience and insight into the European political scene,” says an Obama foreign policy adviser, a former journalist who claims to have helped the Obama advance team in Germany...
...Ted Stevens lost his ranking position on the Commerce Committee, opening the door for another GOP senator on the committee to take that prized and conservative members of the caucus behaved in the run-up to the selection of the next ranking member...
...According to campaign insiders, the campaign has nixed several high profile political consultants from senior manage ment jobs at the campaign due to their refusal to walk away from their state lobbying businesses...
...Among them are operatives in Florida, Ohio, and Michigan...
...Same with John Sununu and even John Thune,” says a Senate leadership aide...
...John McCain has seniority, but is ranking member on the Armed Services Committee), but conservative members of the Republican caucus objected to Snowe being handed the post...
...We have our eye on her already...
...Now Snowe and her aides are angry at the way the more junior 14 THe aMeRIcan sPecTaToR sePTeMbeR 2008 on THe PRowl be part of the campaign structure...
...But then just before the lunch broke up the alerts started showing up...
...The McCain campaign is willing to take the money I fundraise for them using my lobbying connections, but I’m not good enough to position...
...For what it’s worth, McCain aides believe their boss would not have cast a vote in this fight...
...Much was made in the heat of the Democratic presidential primary of former President Bill Clinton’s financial ties to the Yucaipa Companies, an investment fund run by Clinton buddy Ronald Burkle, for which Clinton is a key adviser and financial partner...
...Clinton claimed at the time that he would sell off his financial interest...
...We just couldn’t hand it to Snowe...
...It’s a huge amount of money, and no one is going to be paying attention six months from now,” says the aide...
...Olympia Snowe was next in line (Sen...
...I was surprised that they didn’t take more of my advice, and it highlights the need for people like [former Clinton UN ambassador] Richard Holbrooke to be brought into the process...
...None of us saw breaking news on our Blackberrys, so we were in the dark...
...Hillary Clinton indicate that her hubby has not completed the deal, and according to a former Clinton aide, the expresident has no intention of doing so...
...The lobbying issue is one that many Republicans have found troubling with the McCain campaign, which makes all of its employees and volunteers sign an ethics waiver and lobbying disclosure form before allowing them to do work for the campaign...
...But to date, that process has barely begun...
...What I do on the state level with my business has nothing to do with what I’d be able to do for the McCain campaign,” says a lobbyist in Michigan...
...sePTeMbeR 2008 THe aMeRIcan sPecTaToR 15...
...John McCain loses in November, part of the reason will be his campaign’s failure to lock up top talent to manage operations in several critical states...
...He seemed oblivious that his campaign’s machination played into domestic politics that put her in a very difficult position,” says another CFR adviser...
...I really think they did it on purpose so they could sandbag the Senator when he walked out with his colleagues...
...It won’t be an ongoing issue three months from now...
...That’s why they’ve been stalling...
...losing clean If Sen...
...on THe PRowl after Reid A year ago, there were whispers that senior Democrats in the Senate were prepared to move against majority leader Harry Reid...
...If Democrats want to peel off a Republican member to bulk up their majority, just like Republicans did in 1994, Snowe is going to be willing to hear them out, particularly if it gets her a plum committee slot,” says a Democratic leadership aide...
...We had a huge number of cameras outside the room where the lunch was taking place, and we couldn’t figure out why the number was so large for a late July lunch,” says one Senate GOP press secretary...
...Next in line would have been Sen...
...She’s not running for president...
...Hillary Clinton taking the reins...
...But in terms of substance, it was less successful...
...Barack Obama might have wowed the public on his July European tour, he failed to impress the actual leaders he met with, according to sources inside the Council on Foreign Relations, which helped the Obama campaign organize the trip, and which got feedback from various advisers to the leaders Obama met...
...Obama basically let Frank-Walter Steinmeier take advantage of the situation, and that was a slap at Merkel, yet Obama didn’t seem to understand the politics of it all...
...Stevens and his attorney were given no indication that an indictment had been handed down, and in fact, Stevens learned of his indictment from press aides, who pulled him aside during the weekly GOP Senate policy lunch...
...No, they say, it won’t be Sen...
...Obama’s campaign received similar reviews from his appearances in France and Great Britain...
...Impolitic obama While Sen...
...The controversy at the time focused on Clinton’s ability to draw Saudi and Asian money into the investment vehicle...
...But Sens...
...With his indictment, Sen...
...Now those whispers are becoming louder...
...In fact, Smith aides believe that they might have had the committee Republican votes to leapfrog Smith into the ranking chair...
...Steinmeier made no secret of wanting to leverage Obama’s appearances in Germany at the expense of Merkel...
...As it stands, Clinton’s piece of Yucaipa is valued at about $25 million...
...That’s ridiculous...
...stevens sandbagged Republican senators were stunned by the way the U.S...
...Recent quarterly financial and ethics documents filed by Sen...
...Barack Obama would give him an edge should Obama win the White House...
...According to the reviews, Chancellor Angela Merkel was particularly unimpressed with Obama...
...Justice Department handled the indictment of Sen...
...Most alerts appeared to show up around one p.m., just before the lunch would have broken up, but the indictment was handed down before noon...
...you believed Me...
...But Schumer, who loves the media spotlight, and who has raised tens of millions of dollars in the past two election cycles for his colleagues, is considered the odds on favorite to unseat Reid, whose management style and failure to create a working majority in the Senate have angered and alienated his Democratic colleagues...
...Kay Bailey Hutchison, who initially told colleagues she was too focused on planning for her Texas gubernatorial run to fill the slot...
...You have Gordon Smith in a tough reelection race, and that ranking slot would be helpful for him...
...Why should he...
...Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin both have their eyes on bumping Reid to the side of the road...
...Steinmeier, who is Germany’s foreign minister and a leader of Germany’s leftist Social Democratic Party, intends to challenge Merkel in the next national elections some time in 2009...
Vol. 41 • September 2008 • No. 7
