NewsMax.com
Monday, May 19, 2003

1. Hillary Can't Drive When Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton recently appeared at a Capitol Hill showcase of General Motors' hydrogen-fueled prototype, she froze when asked to take the new minivan for a test drive. Did she have visions of driving over Bill, or perhaps a Capitol Hill police officer? U.S. News reports that it seemed odd that Hillary would pass up some environmentally correct TV exposure. Then, the real reason: GM Veep Beth Lowery revealed to the magazine the truth: The former first lady fessed up that it's been at least seven years since she last drove and this wasn't the time to start. But the recent incident raised another question: If Hillary ever goes back to private life, will she ever be able to adjust without the limousines and private jets?

2. Pro-Family Conservative Still Angry With Racicot Some thought that RNC Chairman Marc Racicot had smoothed things over with religious conservatives when he met with them recently. Conservative groups had been hopping mad that Racicot had met with a gay rights group, the Human Rights Campaign. Some Christian leaders were openly saying they might even bolt the Republican Party in 2004. Apparently, some are still angry and are calling for Racicot's head. In his recent Washington Update, a fax alert sent to Christian leaders, Ken Connor, the president of the influential Family Research Council, lambastes Racicot. Connor said that "Marc Racicot is so out-of-touch with George W. Bush's most loyal and committed voters that his qualifications to serve as chairman of the president's re-election campaign must be seriously questioned. Mr. Racicot is leaving his post as Republican National Chairman to take charge of the Bush 2004 campaign." Connor said he was furious to find out in the gay news magazine The Advocate what Racicot told the gay activists. According to the Advocate, Racicot explained why Christian conservatives are so frightend by gay people. Racicot said: "They probably don't know gay people. People fear to educate them. [They have] their own fear and lots of misinformation and disinformation, which some do for political expediency." Connor wrote, "Racicot's remarks are outrageous." Connor also said he didn't buy Racicot's claim to Christian leaders that he had never heard of NAMBLA, the North American Man-Boy Love Association, and GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, which promotes the gay agenda in the public schools.

3. New Book on Fox News The inside story of how Fox News went on to beat, then trounce CNN in the cable ratings war is about to be written. Viking Books has just contracted with Hollywood Reporter Scott Collins to write the book, tentatively titled "Right Turn." Broadcasting & Cable reports the manuscript will be due this fall -- and will reveal how Fox players like Roger Ailes and Bill O'Reilly defeated CNN.

4. Iran-Contra Figure Is Alive A strange twist to the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s that became a major embarrassment to the Reagan administration. NewsMax has learned that a major figure in the scandal, long believed dead, is still alive. Iran-Contra erupted when it was revealed that the Reagan administration approved the sale of military equipment in 1985 and 1986 to Iran. At the time, Iran was at war with Iraq and was in desperate need of military equipment. President Reagan agreed to the plan, supervised by Col. Oliver North, and aided by Israel. Reagan believed the secret arms shipment might open relations with Iran and help with Americans held captive by radical Islamic groups in Beirut. But the secret arms deal became a scandal when it was discovered that profits from the sale of military equipment to Iran was siphoned off and funneled to the Contras, anti- communist insurgents who sought to topple the communist Sandinista government of Nicaragua. At the time, federal law prohibited any funding of the Contras. Democrats claimed that President Reagan was culpable for the illegal funding scheme. Reagan officials blamed Col. North, along with Adm. John Poindexter, for the rogue operation. But key answers in the scandal were never answered, largely because Amiram Nir, the Israeli official who handled the operation, died late in 1988, supposedly in a plane crash in Mexico. But a high-ranking Reagan administration official who still maintains close contacts in Israel revealed that Nir never died in the plane crash. According to the official, the "death" was staged by Mossad to let Israel and key administration figures off the hook. Nir, our source said, is living in palatial digs on Lake Kinneret (http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/100/places/kineret.html), which Christians know as the Sea of Galilee, in Israel.

5. NY Post Reports on 'Deck of Weasels' NewsMax's "Deck of Weasels" continues to rock America. Already, the Deck of Weasels has been featured in FoxNews' highly rated "Fox & Friends" and hundreds of other media outlets, not to mention foreign media in Japan, Sweden and Australia. On Sunday, the New York Post's must-read Page Six section, edited by Richard Johnson, headlined the "Hall of Shame" -- detailing our Deck of Weasels. Here's what the Post had to say: "The conservative NewsMax Web site has come out with a follow-up to the Iraqi most wanted deck of cards: the Deck of Weasels. "What's called a 'backhanded tribute to aiders and abettors of Saddam Hussein' has 54 cards for $14.95 showing world leaders and Hollywood stars in Iraqi Republican Guard berets: Jesse Jackson (joker), Jacques Chirac (ace of spades), Vladimir Putin, Hans Blix, Sen. Edward Kennedy, Martin Sheen, Michael Moore, Chrissie Hynde, Susan Sarandon, Barbra Streisand, Sean Penn, Woody Harrelson, and Ted Turner. "The decks have been selling like hotcakes, even outpacing the original." They sure have. Already the Deck of Weasels is setting records at NewsMax, breaking even those set by our sales of the Pentagon's Iraqi Most Wanted cards. You can check out all of the cards in the Deck of Weasels -- we promise you won't stop laughing! Just Click Here Now.