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Insider Report: Gore Still Set for Comeback in 2008 Special From NewsMax's Most Informed Sources
Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories): 1. Gore Still Ponders 2008 An old friend may prove a roadblock to Hillary Clinton's plans to win the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 2008 - Al Gore. Gore says he has no plans of running in 2008. But Gore's friends view his recent political and business moves as a sign that he's preparing for another run for the White House, U.S. News & World Report column Washington Whispers reports.
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In recent speeches Gore has been increasingly airing his views on domestic and international issues. "And in raising money for his Current TV network, which targets the critical youth market, Big Al has built an issue base and donor network that's competitive with Sen. Hillary Clinton's," U.S. News says. The columnist said a top aide in the previous Bush administration is planning meetings with the Gore camp to urge an early entry in the 2008 race while Hillary runs for re-election in New York next year. And Gore's supporters have already handpicked his preferred running mate: Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. One thing is for sure. If Gore doesn't run - he, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry and Howard Dean (the ‘Gang of Four') will be actively working to stop Hillary Clinton.
2. Poll: Santorum Still Trails Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum has fallen further behind his likely Democratic opponent in the race for his Senate seat next year, a new poll reveals. In a match-up against Robert Casey Jr., the state treasurer, Santorum now trails 52 percent to 36 percent, with 12 percent undecided or choosing another candidate, according to the mid-October poll by Strategic Vision, LLC. In July, a Quinnipiac University poll had put Casey ahead by a smaller margin, 50 percent to 39 percent. Only 40 percent of those polled now say they approve of Santorum's job performance, down from 51 percent in July. Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has said that defeating Santorum, a leading Senate conservative, is one of the party's top priorities. Among Republican voters in Pennsylvania who were asked their choice to challenge Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell, 38 percent said they preferred former Pittsburgh Steeler Lynn Swann; 31 percent chose former Lieutenant Governor Bill Scranton, and 15 percent selected State Senator Jeff Piccola. But in a head-to-head match-up, Rendell defeated Swann by a 46-to-41-percent margin. Other findings of the poll of likely voters in Pennsylvania:
3. Conflict? Spitzer Raises Money in D.C. Last month New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer indicted eight executives at the huge Marsh & McLennan insurance brokerage for engaging in anticompetitive practices. Next month Spitzer - who's running for governor in the Empire State - is journeying to the Washington area in hopes of raising as much as $250,000 at a fund-raiser co-hosted by - a Marsh & McLennan lobbyist. "Democratic lobbyists may have to reconcile their interest in a candidate they see as a rising star in their national party with the enmity some of their clients have for an official who has aggressively policed Wall Street and big corporations," the publication Roll Call reports. Joel Jankowsky, a partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld - which earned more than $1.2 million lobbying for Marsh & McLennan last year - will be one of two dozen co-hosts at Spitzer's November 1 fund-raiser at his sister's home in Bethesda, Md. "I'm doing this personally and not really on behalf of the firm," Jankowsky said. Another co-host will be Larry Sidman, a lobbyist for Clear Channel Communications, which recently fired two programming executives for misconduct after Spitzer launched a probe into the company's alleged "pay-for-play" misdeeds. Echoing Jankowsky's explanation, Sidman told Roll Call: "My interest in him and his candidacy is entirely personal." The two are not the only lobbyists to help Spitzer. Tommy Boggs, partner at the lobbying firm Patton Boggs, and Virginia Pape, wife of the company's managing director, have each contributed $1,000 to the front-running Democrat's campaign. Both are listed on the firm's lobbying contract with Bristol-Myers Squibb, which was forced to pay New York State $13 million earlier this year as part of an antitrust settlement. Lobbyists who support Spitzer say their contributions to a candidate for state office are unrelated to their work for companies at the federal level. But Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, said Spitzer's coziness with certain lobbyists raises questions about a conflict of interest. "The same appearance issue that arises if he accepts money from a corporation he's investigating arises to only a slightly lesser degree from accepting money [from] lobbyists representing those companies," he declared. "Whether or not it actually influences his behavior, when a settlement is reached or a case is dropped, many in the public will wonder whether there is any apparent conflict."
4. Joe Scarborough: I Didn't Kill My Intern MSNBC pundit Joe Scarborough is piping mad at Vanity Fair magazine after it implied he killed a female employee while he was a member of Congress. The VF article in question, written by James Wolcott, appeared in October 2003. In a letter to the magazine that has been published in the November 2005 edition, Scarborough writes that Wolcott's "libelous charge, pulled from a hate site on the Internet, led readers to believe that a good woman named Lori Klausutis carried on an adulterous sexual affair with a congressman before being killed in a sleazy sex-scandal cover-up. "The article suggests that this imaginary sex scandal forced me to leave office. I was painted as the Republican Party's answer to Gary Condit, saved from prosecution by a right-wing media machine." Scarborough said that in fact, Lori worked at an annex office and he met her no more than three times; he was never alone with her; he announced his retirement from Congress several months BEFORE she died. Scarborough said he was willing to let the "lie" fade away without taking legal action. But he's decided to "set the record straight" after a March 2005 Vanity Fair profile of Michael Moore included a Web site domain name that Moore purchased, JoeScarboroughKilledHisIntern.com, which he feared would promote the magazine's "original reckless charge." In a response to Scarborough's letter in the November issue, Wolcott wrote that he regretted "any emotional distress caused to Mr. Scarborough, his family, and the family and friends of the late Lori Klausutis." As for Michael Moore, we expect no apologies.
5. Katie Couric Mulls Late Night Job "Today" show host Katie Couric is considering a move to late-night TV after her stint on the morning show is over, according to the trade publication Broadcasting & Cable. When she appeared at the American Dental Association's annual convention in Philadelphia, Couric's prepared remarks included this revelation:
"I'm excited about what's ahead for me professionally and personally. Even though I'm not sure what life after the ‘Today' show will bring … I guess there's always late night - I had so much fun filling in for Jay Leno a couple of years ago!" Couric hosted Leno's late-night show in May 2003, while Leno sat in for Couric on "Today." Her "Today" show contract expires next May.
6. Mimic Warren Buffett, Beat the Stock Market Want to beat the stock market big time? Just mimic the moves of investment guru Warren Buffett. A research paper by Ohio University professor John Puthenpurackal and Gerald Martin, a visiting scholar at Texas A&M University, reveals that an investor who followed Buffett's lead in buying and selling stocks would have beaten the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index by an average of 11.6 percent a year from 1980 to 2003. Federal disclosure rules allow the so-called Oracle of Omaha to wait 45 days - in some cases, longer - after the end of a quarter before disclosing changes in the portfolio of his investment firm, Berkshire Hathaway. And since Buffett's stock picks tend to jump in price when disclosed, the researchers didn't start measuring performance until two weeks after each new filing, Business Week reports. Nevertheless, an investor mimicking Buffett's moves would beat the market by a solid margin. To reap the rewards of Buffett-watching, investors need not buy shares of Berkshire Hathaway, which are currently selling for more than $84,000 a share. They need only buy the stocks that Buffett buys for his firm, and sell when he sells. Said Martin: "Disciples (of Buffett) can make money and beat the market." Editor's Note:
7. We Heard … THAT just in time for the 2008 election - and a possible Hillary Clinton run for the White House - former President Clinton mouthpiece Dee Dee Myers is planning to release a new book, "Why Women Should Rule the World."
The Texas Republican and former House Majority Leader once likened Clinton to Karl Marx and said "all her friends are Marxists." THAT Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) isn't mincing words when responding to the optimistic talk from Vice President Dick Cheney that the Iraqi insurgency is dying. "That's just plain bulls---," he said at the Democratic National Committee's annual fall conference. "The American people know it, the military leaders know it and our troops know it." THAT House GOP leaders have floated Cheney's name as a recipient of the prestigious Congressional Medal of Freedom award, along with CIA director Porter Goss, according to the Heard on the Hill column in Roll Call. The Republicans quietly conveyed their nominees to House Democratic leaders - who, not surprisingly, balked at the GOP's choices.
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