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Insider Report: McCain's Fund-Raiser, Giuliani, Falwell, Wiccans... Special From NewsMax's Most Informed Sources
Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories): 1. McCain Nabs Bush Fundraiser Sen. John McCain's political action committee (PAC) has landed another George Bush insider, Susan Duprey, co-chairperson of Bush's 2000 fundraising effort in New Hampshire. "Duprey is a big nab for McCain," according to the National Journal's Web site The Hotline. Duprey is the latest member of the Bush team to join the McCain effort as he gears up for a presidential run in 2008.
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As NewsMax reported earlier, media consultant Mark McKinnon who oversaw advertising for Bush in 2000 and 2004 has committed to help the Arizona Republican in a bid for the White House. McCain has also been targeting other Bush fundraisers in addition to Duprey, particularly Bush's "Rangers" (those who raised $200,000) and "Pioneers" (those who raised $100,000), The Washington Post reports. McCain's trip to Texas in December included receptions in four cities attended by many of Bush's leading allies. After Texas, McCain flew to Florida and had lunch with Gov. Jeb Bush. A comprehensive list of Bush supporters who have helped the McCain effort "is hard to come by, because many in the Bush world are reluctant to go public with their McCain affiliations too early," according to The Hotline. But the Web site compared a list of McCain donors who have given at least $4,000 to the PAC with a list of Rangers and Pioneers, and found at least a dozen names:
2. Wiccans Want to Tax Bibles A Wiccan group has gone to court to challenge a Florida law exempting Bibles and religious publications from sales tax. Now the Liberty Counsel has joined the fray, filing a brief with the Florida Supreme Court defending the state law. Here's what is exempted from sales tax as stated in Florida law: "the use, sale, or distribution of religious publications, Bibles, hymn books, prayer books, vestments, altar paraphernalia, sacramental chalices, and like church service and ceremonial raiments and equipment." Organizations that promote Wicca a neopagan religion related to a form of witchcraft can receive tax-exempt status. But the Wiccan Religious Cooperative of Florida is evidently disturbed because it paid sales tax on the purchase of "The Satanic Bible" and "A Witch's Bible Compleat." The group filed its suit against the state's Department of Revenue, citing the First Amendment and the separation of church and state. "The Wiccans are trying to collapse the entire house on itself by seeking to eliminate all sales tax exemptions on Bibles and religious publications," said Mathew D. Staver, president and general counsel of Liberty Counsel an Orlando, Fla.-based nonprofit litigation and policy organization that seeks to promote religious freedom. "Even if Florida's law were questionable under one of the Supreme Court's fractured prior opinions, which it is not, any attempt to tax religion will not be met with enthusiasm by a majority of the justices on the Supreme Court. "In case the Wiccans haven't been paying attention lately, they should realize the times have changed. We have a new Court."
3. Giuliani Wooing Christian Conservatives
Despite Rudy Giuliani's liberal stance on some social issues such as abortion and gay rights, a poll of social conservatives revealed strong support for the former New York City mayor. "He's got a significant problem," Fabrizio told Ryan Sager of the New York Post. "Half or more of the Republican base is opposed to his positions on a host of social and moral issues." Social conservatives, says Fabrizio, know Giuliani "in one dimension" as a warrior in the fight against terrorism. "I guarantee they don't know his position on abortion, gay rights It is very rare that they know the positions of someone who is not in their face every day." Sager is skeptical: "It's hard to believe that so many social conservatives would be living in almost total ignorance of the fact that Giuliani hails from New York City as much of a red flag on social issues as a Boston accent," Sager writes. He suggests that terrorism could now be the Republicans' "central organizing issue," and that "strong leadership on this score might be enough to outweigh perceived shortcomings in other areas." In the end, however, a Giuliani campaign for the White House in 2008 will likely hinge upon his support among Christian conservatives, according to Sager. And he has already begun to reach out to that group. In late January, Giuliani showed up unexpectedly at the Global Pastors Network conference in Orlando, Fla., and told the evangelical crowd: "I can't tell you from my heart how much I appreciate what you are doing saving people, telling them about Jesus Christ and bringing them to God."
4. Alito Hires Former Ashcroft Aide Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has hired as his law clerk one of the key figures behind the policies of former Attorney General John Ashcroft. The appointment of Justice Department veteran Adam Ciongoli, 37, is "unusual," according to the Washington Post: "The vast majority of clerks are recent law school graduates. Among those who have come to the court after working elsewhere, none in recent memory had held a government position as senior as Ciongoli's at the Justice Department, where he was widely regarded as one of Ashcroft's closest confidants." Ciongoli served as counselor to Ashcroft from 2001 to 2003. Prior to that he clerked for Alito at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit from 1995 to 1996, and he helped prepare Alito for his confirmation hearings. Ciongoli also advised Ashcroft on terrorism issues following the 9/11 attacks. The hiring of Ciongoli means he could face issues that he had worked on while at the Justice Department, the Post notes. For instance, the Supreme Court is now considering whether to hear the appeal of U.S. citizen Jose Padilla, whose arrest and detention as an "enemy combatant" took place while Ciongoli served on Ashcroft's staff. There is, however, a process to recuse a clerk who worked on a case in a previous job. Ciongoli was one of five attorneys named as law clerks to Alito. The other four are switching over from the staffs of other Court justices.
5. Clinton Friend Seeks Knight Ridder Papers Bill Clinton's billionaire buddy Ron Burkle is financially backing attempts by a newspaper union to buy nine unionized Knight Ridder papers. The move could put staunchly liberal Burkle in position to pull strings at influential big-city dailies. Knight Ridder, the nation's second-largest newspaper company with 32 dailies, is exploring a sale, but has said that it wants to sell the company as a whole. That means the Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America would have to buy the nine papers from whoever acquires Knight Ridder if a sale goes through. Burkle's Yucaipa Companies will provide major financing for the union's purchase, the San Jose Mercury News revealed. "There is no guarantee that our interest in preserving the union properties will be taken up by the prevailing acquisition group," admitted Guild President Linda Foley. "But at the very least, with Yucaipa's critical support, we should be seen as an attractive partner." Burkle, No. 112 on Forbes' list of the 400 richest Americans, built his fortune through mergers and acquisitions of supermarket chains, including Ralph's, Fred Meyer and Food4Less.
6. We heard... THAT Jimmy Carter shows no signs of slowing down. A friend of his tells us that at 82 Carter still skis and tells his associates there's only two modes you can operate in: "park and pass." Carter proudly says he's in "pass" mode with all the other cars on life's highway. THAT the U.S. government remains woefully short on speakers of one of the world's most important languages and one vital for fighting the war on terror. At the State Department, how many of the 34,000 employees speak fluent Arabic? One thousand? Not that many. Only 100? Guess again. Just 10 are rated fully fluent in Arabic, even though it is the national language of more than a dozen countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Libya not to mention Iraq. Though Arabic is the fifth most spoken language in the world today with more than 200 million native speakers the State Department just can't locate more than 10 people who work for it who can speak the language. In Iraq, the military lacks American translators and must rely on foreigners. At home, an official revealed last year that thousands of hours of intelligence tapes remain untranslated. "The persistence of such problems four years after the 9/11 attacks is one measure both of the difficulty of the challenge and of the nation's sluggish response to it," USA Today reports. In his recent budget, President Bush tried to address the shortage by proposing a $114 million program to train Americans in such critical languages as Arabic, Farsi, Hindi and Urdu. Among several provisions, the plan would pay for 300 foreign teachers to come to the United States and for study-abroad opportunities for high school languages teachers. The goal: To produce 2,000 advanced speakers of critical languages by 2009. THAT the American Bar Association has granted provisional accreditation to the Liberty University School of Law at the earliest date possible for a new law school. The law school is the eighth college of Liberty University, which was founded by Dr. Jerry Falwell in 1971 and is the largest evangelical university in the world.
The school, in only its second year, was awarded provisional accreditation on its first attempt. "This is the second-most important news in the history of the university, eclipsed only by the announcement of Liberty's accreditation by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 1980," said Dr. Falwell. Liberty's school of law will graduate its first class in May 2007. The school currently has 100 students in its first- and second-year classes, and it will have a maximum student body of 450. New law schools must first apply for provisional accreditation. They cannot apply for full accreditation until they have operated for at least two years with provisional accreditation. A Liberty University spokesman said: "The School of Law has a distinctive Christian mission. The law is good if it is used properly, but the law can do great harm when it is separated from faith and eternal principles. The law school is training the next generation of lawyers and world leaders to use the law as a fulcrum for good."
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