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Insider Report: O'Reilly Battles Soros; Limbaugh; Kerry; Obama; More Special From NewsMax's Most Informed Sources
Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories): 1. Alcee Hastings: Bill Clinton Talked Me Out of Intelligence Post President Bill Clinton personally convinced Rep. Alcee Hastings to cease his quest for the chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee last fall. Breaking a six-month silence on the matter, Hastings told Jeff Stein of the Congressional Quarterly that there would have been "blood all over the floor" if the Florida Democrat had continued his bid for the post. After the Democrats won control of the House in November, Speaker Nancy Pelosi let it be known that Rep. Jane Harman of California would not get the chairmanship even though she was the ranking Democrat on the committee. Hastings was next in line. But Democrats worried about a GOP outcry over Hastings, who was impeached as a federal judge on corruption charges in the 1980s and as chairman would have access to extremely delicate intelligence information.
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As a result, Hastings said, "Democrats in high places" sought to derail his bid to head the Intelligence panel. "The Black Caucus dug in for a nasty fight," Stein reported. Then in late November, Clinton phoned Hastings. "We talked for close to an hour and forty minutes," Hastings told Stein. "And he was saying, among other things, that I would force a rift in the party if I was to force the issue. And that sometimes you come out better if you can accommodate the parties that have a direct interest — meaning, specifically, that if you could find a way to say, 'Fine, pass over me, choose someone else,' then I would come across better, and be thought better of by Democratic functionaries. "He was correct. I had had that feeling before speaking with him, but that reinforced it." Hastings said he then told Pelosi that she should choose someone else. Pelosi eventually turned the chairmanship over to Silvestre Reyes of Texas. Editor's Note: 2. More Signs Gore Leans Toward '08 Run Al Gore has been downplaying speculation that he may jump into the race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, but he's just hired an operative who served as Joe Lieberman's deputy campaign manager in 2004. Brian Hardwick — who worked in Gore's fundraising operation in 2000 — was most recently a vice president at Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, the company co-founded by Clinton pollster Mark Penn. He joins Gore's new environmental advocacy group, The Alliance for Climate Protection, Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider confirmed to Politico.com. The Web site notes that with Hardwick, Gore's circle "includes a group of political operatives with national campaign experience who haven't committed to other campaigns, including his former chief of staff, Roy Neel, consultant Mike Feldman and now Hardwick." In yet another sign that Gore is pondering a run, he has hired a personal trainer and gone on a form of the "South Beach Diet," which Bill Clinton used to drop more than 60 pounds, according to a report in The American Spectator. But one former staffer brushed aside the suggestion that the diet pointed toward a presidential campaign, saying: "He just thought he looked really fat at the Oscars." Editor's Note:
3. O'Reilly: Media Matters and Soros Funding The war of words between Fox News' Bill O'Reilly and the left-wing Web site Media Matters for America has heated up, with O'Reilly accusing the site of lying about funding from Bush-bashing financier George Soros. On April 24, O'Reilly told viewers of "The O'Reilly Factor" that Soros and several other wealthy radicals were helping to fund Media Matters — which says it is dedicated to "correcting conservative misinformation" in the U.S. media — by donating money to a foundation that in turn contributed to the Web site. Media Matters countered that while Soros' Open Society Institute (OSI) did contribute to the foundation, the Tides foundation, and Tides gave Media Matters more than $1 million in 2005, the OSI funds were specifically earmarked for two other beneficiaries. "Soros has never given money to Media Matters, either directly or through another organization," the Web site stated. On April 26, O'Reilly responded. "The vile Media Matters outfit is denying receiving funding from any of George Soros' outfits," he told viewers. "Well, that is a total lie. As we laid out for you, the smear Web site received more than a million dollars from the Tides Foundation alone in 2005, and just by coincidence, Soros' Open Society Institute donated more than a million dollars to Tides in 2005. Figure it out." Media Matters has featured a number of articles critical of O'Reilly on its Web site. Editor's Note: 4. Democrats Ban 'War on Terrorism' Phrase The House Armed Services Committee has banned the phrase "global war on terrorism" from the 2008 Defense Authorization Act. Committee Chairman Ike Skelton, a Missouri Democrat, said the move is intended to differentiate between battles fought in Iraq and those fought in Afghanistan.
A memo from a committee staffer lists as acceptable phrases "the war in Iraq" and "the war in Afghanistan," The Washington Times reported. "The Iraq war is separate and distinct from the war against terrorists, who have their genesis in Afghanistan and who attacked us on September 11," Skelton said.
White House spokesman Scott Stanzel responded: "It makes you wonder if House Democrats don't think the challenge we are facing is global, if it is not a war or if the threat we confront is not terrorism." House Minority Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, weighed in: "The attempt by Democrats to erase the words 'global' and 'terror' from our current war is an absurd effort to deny the fact that America is battling terrorism on a global scale." And Boehner's spokesman Brian Kennedy said: "What's next, banning the use of the phrase 'tax hike'?" Editor's Note: 5. Catholic League's Bill Donahue Compared to bin Laden An Esquire magazine writer likely ruffled the feathers of some American Catholics by attacking the Catholic League's President Bill Donahue and terror kingpin Osama bin Laden in the same breath. The link came in an article by Mark Warren exploring the recent spate of what he calls "down-with-God books." Among them he mentioned "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins, "The End of Faith" by Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens' "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything." Warren writes: "This is a healthy development, for the religious have not been well behaved lately. "One need not say any more about the ridiculous Osama bin Laden and the crazy fundamentalists worldwide, but what on earth have we done to deserve the Catholic League, for instance, with its public face, the dashing Bill Donahue, who said the accusers of child-raping priests were guilty of 'sexual McCarthyism'?" But in the end, Warren comes down squarely on the side of religion, noting what these books miss: "For all the bad things it has wrought, the profound and revolutionary social force that religion has been in the life of man." Editor's Note: 6. Press Ignores Encouraging Terror Statistics Last week the State Department issued its annual report on terrorism around the world, which showed a sharp decline in terrorist attacks and murders in many regions last year. Aside from the Middle East, the number of attacks was down by more than 300 incidents compared to 2005. According to the report, terrorism was down by 10 percent in South Asia, down 18 percent in Europe, and down 54 percent in Central and South America. "That, however, has not been the lede story in America's liberal media," reports NewsBusters.org, a blog from the Media Research Center dedicated to combating liberal media bias. "Instead, they've chosen to focus their attentions on how terrorism has increased in Iraq and Afghanistan." One wire service story cited by NewsBusters was headlined "U.S. sees sharp rise in global terrorism deaths." NewsBusters complains: "What is unacceptable is the American press' complete ignoring of the rest of the State Department's numbers." Can America Avoid a Nuclear 'D-Day'? Get the INSIDE Story Here. Editor's Note: 7. We Heard . . . THAT despite a recent report claiming Rush Limbaugh wolfed down a gargantuan meal in New York, the top-ranked talker insists he's still on a diet and has lost about 50 pounds. The report in the New York Post's "Page Six" column said Rush "lived large" at Manhattan's Kobe Club, "devouring bacon with truffles, Japanese strip steak, Kobe beef cheek ravioli, a large seafood platter, a combo of American, Australian, and Japanese Wagyu steak, and several side dishes. After the $700 feast Limbaugh left the server a $1,000 tip." Rush took issue with the report, telling his listeners that a friend's brother-in-law owns the restaurant and when he visited "they just started bringing things. It was like a tasting sampler." He said he had "little portions" of meat and "didn't eat but a smidgen" of what was brought to his table. Rush said: "This thing gets written up as though I'm a pig in the midst of this diet that I'm losing 50 pounds on." THAT sports executive Ray Negron, author of the book "The Boy of Steel: A Baseball Dream Come True," is in negotiations with HarperCollins for his next two family books. His first upcoming book, "Greatest Story Never Told," has been called "an incredible piece of work" by a publishing source. Negron is a consultant to New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. "The Boy of Steel" was released last year to rave reviews and quickly hit The New York Times best-seller list. All profits from the book have been donated to help cancer research and education. Negron now seeks to aid the fight against juvenile diabetes. "The Boy of Steel" animation will be out early next year, with a premiere scheduled at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
THAT White House hopeful Barack Obama had dinner with another Democrat who is already a veteran of the presidential campaign trail — John Kerry. It is well known that Kerry has little love for Sen. Clinton. At the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, the pair kibbitzed for an amazing three hours as they feasted. Sen. Obama ordered hamachi salad and scallops, The Washington Post reported. Sen. Kerry opted for the octopus salad and striped bass. THAT Barak Obama's recently discovered Irish ancestors were not Catholic, but Protestant. New research has traced Obama back to his great-great-great-great grandfather Joseph Kearney, an Irish Anglican shoemaker from Moneygall who lived between 1794 and 1861, The New York Sun reports. His son emigrated to the U.S. in 1850 and is a forebear of Obama's mother. THAT the Center for Reclaiming America for Christ, founded in 1996 by the Rev. D. James Kennedy, closed its doors in April. An offshoot of Coral Ridge Ministries, the Center laid off workers at its headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and in Washington, D.C., in what was called a "streamlining," according to WTVJ in Miami. Rev. Kennedy has been out of public view since December, when he suffered a heart attack. The Center launched e-mail and petition drives for its causes and held conferences that attracted Ann Coulter and other conservatives. THAT President Bush used a regular black-ink, felt-tip pen, and not his usual personalized pen, on Tuesday when he vetoed a timeline for a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq. The pen was a gift from Robert Derga of Uniontown, Ohio, whose son Dustin Derga, a Marine corporal, was killed in Iraq in May 2005, The Washington Times reported. Derga gave the president the pen after attending a Bush speech on April 16. It was the pen Derga used to write letters to his son, and he asked Bush to use the pen when he vetoed the timeline measure. Bush promised that he would. Editor's Note: Editor's notes:
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