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Gore to Run if He Wins Nobel Prize Special From NewsMax's Most Informed Sources
Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories): 1. Condi: I'm Returning to California Condoleezza Rice said she plans to return to Stanford University when her role as secretary of state ends in 2009 — dampening the hopes of some who would like to see her run for president. Rice is on leave as a political science professor at Stanford and a Hoover Institution senior fellow while serving in Washington, and she was Stanford's provost from 1993 to 1999. During a recent visit to the Hewlett Packard labs near Stanford, she said: "We talked a little bit about the need for further education of our engineering and math-science graduates, something that I'm particularly interested in as a professor, former professor, soon-to-be professor again." In interviews with the Stanford Daily, faculty and administrators at the university agreed that Rice will return, but weren't sure in what role.
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Hoover Institution Director John Raisian believes she would likely focus on writing her memoir rather than teaching. Provost John Etchemendy told the Daily: "My guess is that she will not teach in her first year back, since anyone who holds a job as overwhelming as hers needs at least a year to decompress. She will probably spend that year recording her reflections about her terms as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State." But Marcus Mabry, author of the new biography "Twice as Good: Condoleezza Rice and her Path to Power," wouldn't rule out a political future for Condi. "She may have a political future, as the governor of California, perhaps, or vice president of the United States, or perhaps one day president, though not in '08," he said. Condi's former senior advisor Jim Wilkinson hasn't thrown in the towel on his efforts to draft Rice for a presidential run next year, however.
"I, like a lot of people, have begged Condi to run," Wilkinson, now chief of staff at the Treasury Department, told the Washington Post. "Consider me a card-carrying member of the 'draft Condi' movement." Editor's Note:
2. Gore to Run in '08 if He Wins Nobel Former Vice President Al Gore will join the 2008 presidential race if he wins the Nobel Peace Prize in October, Democratic Party players tell NewsMax. Gore has been nominated for the Peace Prize for his efforts to draw attention to the dangers of global warming. Party insiders believe that a Gore campaign launched as late as October will still have enough time to raise money and challenge front-runners Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards. They point to Newt Gingrich, who has said he won't announce whether he will seek the GOP nomination until Nov. 6. The view from across the pond is that Gore could actually benefit by waiting to join the race. Britain's Daily Telegraph, in an article headlined "Al waits in the wings as Hillary and Barack battle it out," notes this about the current campaigners: "All the efforts of all these candidates might be for naught. Fred Thompson, on the Republican side, and Al Gore, on the Democratic side, have been watching in amusement . . . "Al Gore tours the U.S. promoting his new book . . . and his apocalyptic movie, in the process gathering the names of thousands of potential volunteers and campaign donors." Editor's Note:
3. Neocons Pressed for Confrontation With China The Bush administration neoconservatives who urged the overthrow of Saddam Hussein also pushed for a policy that could have led to a nuclear showdown between China and the U.S. over Taiwan, a top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell says. Lawrence B. Wilkerson, the U.S. Army colonel who was Powell's chief of staff through two administrations, said that "neocons" in the administration quietly encouraged Taiwanese politicians to move toward a declaration of independence from mainland China, Jeff Stein reports in Congressional Quarterly. China has repeatedly warned that such a move would provoke a military strike. The top U.S. diplomat in Taiwan at the time, Douglas Paal, backs up Wilkerson's account, which is being strenuously disputed by former defense officials. Back in 1971, in an agreement between President Richard Nixon and Chairman Mao Zedong, the U.S. agreed that there is only "one China" — with its capital in Beijing. But a number of conservative Republicans continued to voice support for Taiwan as an anticommunist bastion long after their own party leaders and U.S. businesses embraced the communist regime, Stein observes. "With the election of George W. Bush in 2000, some of Taiwan's most fervent allies were swept back into power in Washington, particularly at the Pentagon, starting with Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld," he writes. "They included such key architects of the Iraq war as Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary, Douglas Feith, the undersecretary for policy, and Steven Cambone, Rumsfeld's new intelligence chief, Wilkerson said. President Bush's controversial envoy to the United Nations, John Bolton, was another." Wilkerson asserted that while Bush publicly continued the one-China policy, the Pentagon neocons were quietly encouraging Taiwan's pro-independence president, Chen Shui-bian. "The Defense Department, with Feith, Cambone, Wolfowitz [and] Rumsfeld, was dispatching a person to Taiwan every week, essentially to tell the Taiwanese that the alliance was back on," Wilkerson said, referring to pre-1970s military and diplomatic relations with the U.S., "essentially to tell Chen Shui-bian, whose entire power in Taiwan rested on the independence movement, that independence was a good thing." Wilkerson said Powell would then dispatch his own envoy to tell Taiwanese national security officials to ignore what they'd been told by the Defense Department. "This went on," he said of the pro-independence efforts, "until George Bush weighed in and told Rumsfeld to cease and desist [and] told him multiple times to re-establish military-to-military relations with China." Those relations had been suspended in early 2001 after China forced a U.S. reconnaissance plane down off Vietnam. Feith is among the former officials who dispute Wilkerson's allegations, saying they "are not even close to being accurate." And Rumsfeld's former spokesman Lawrence DiRita told Stein that Wilkerson's claims were "completely ridiculous" and "just crazy." But diplomat Paal told Stein: "In the early years of the Bush administration, there was a problem with mixed signals to Taiwan from Washington." Editor's Note:
4. Vice President Jeb Bush? Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush could play a major role in determining the Republican nominee for president in 2008 — and could even wind up as the vice-presidential candidate on the GOP ticket. That's the view of former USA Today White House correspondent Richard Benedetto, who writes in The Politico: "Despite warnings of 'Bush fatigue,' the notion [of a vice-presidential candidacy] is not as far-fetched as it might seem. Not only could Jeb help bring a key Southern swing state and its 27 electoral votes into the GOP column, but he also has broad appeal to conservatives, something lacking in each of the three Republican front-runners" — Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani ,and John McCain. Bush has said he won't endorse a candidate in the primaries, but some political analysts reportedly say he is leaning toward Romney. And Romney has said Jeb would have to be considered a strong candidate for vice president. It will become "increasingly hard" for Jeb to remain neutral, especially since Florida has decided to hold its presidential primary next Jan. 29, according to Benedetto, author of the book "Politicians Are People, Too." He writes: "A primary victory in Florida, the first big state to vote, would be a huge momentum builder, and a Jeb Bush endorsement would be a big boost. "So he is in a perfect position to become a kingmaker." Considering Jeb's accomplishments as Florida governor and his "Ronald-Reagan-like image," Benedetto adds: "If his last name were Jones rather than Bush, and if he'd chosen to run for president in 2008, he would likely be among the leaders, if not the leader, for the Republican nomination." Editor's Note:
5. Soros, Liberal Foundations Back Immigration The Ford Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation and Democratic activist George Soros are among the liberal funders that have donated millions of dollars to pro-immigration groups that favor a bill on immigration reform. Three of the nation's most influential pro-immigration groups — the National Immigration Forum, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), and the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) — have collectively received more than $3.25 million from Ford Foundation since 2005. The three advocacy groups generally support legislation that would give many of the estimated 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens in the U.S. a path to citizenship and allow aliens in the U.S. to bring close family members into the country, the Washington Times reports. The Open Society Institute, run by Soros, gave $825,000 to the National Immigration Forum from 2002 to 2004. Soros also donated $525,000 to NCLR and $325,000 to MALDEF during the same period. The Carnegie Corporation has contributed almost $7 million collectively to the National Immigration Forum, MALDEF, and NCLR since 1994. NCLR also received nearly $2.2 million from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation from 2003 to 2005, and $425,000 from the Rockefeller Foundation since 2004. Groups supporting stronger immigration policy and tighter border control, on the other hand, have relied more on small donations from individuals rather than large sums from foundations. NumbersUSA, which claims 366,000 members, saw its membership grow 50 percent since Jan. 1, spokeswoman Caroline Espinosa told the Times. Two-thirds of the group's financial support comes from private people, with the average donation being $40. Editor's Note:
6. We Heard . . . THAT Bill Clinton has denied a recent report that he bought property in a Dominican Republic resort. After the report appeared on the Web site Dominican Today, editor Jorge Pineda received this e-mail: "My name is Jay Carson and I am President Clinton's communications director. In regards to your May 20, 2007 article . . . reports that President Clinton (or Senator Clinton) has/have bought property in the Punta Cana Resort are completely false. We would appreciate you printing a retraction." Dominican Today sent back this e-mail response: "We regret any false information we publish."
THAT President Bush's daughter Jenna is reportedly pocketing a $300,000 advance from HarperCollins for her first book, but readers will learn almost nothing about Jenna in its pages.
Instead, "Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope" is a non-fiction account about Ana, an HIV-positive orphan shipped from one abusive home to another, according to Radar online, a pop-culture news site. At 16, she becomes pregnant after one night of unprotected sex with a fellow AIDS orphan. Jenna states that the work is derived from the few months she spent with poor children in Latin America through UNICEF. One interesting note: Radar reports that the book's "pro-condom/pro-education message is a kamikaze-like leap from Daddy's nest." The book is scheduled for release this fall.
THAT Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes has some advice for Democratic candidates who have decided not to debate on Fox: "The candidates that can't face Fox, can't face al-Qaida. And that's what's coming." The remark drew applause from the crowd at a June 6 journalism awards affair in Manhattan, the New York Observer reported. Democratic presidential candidates have bowed out of a Sept. 23 debate in Detroit to be co-sponsored by the Fox News Channel and the Congressional Black Caucus. The candidates were under pressure to shun the debate from liberal groups who say Fox is biased against Democrats. Only Joe Biden and Dennis Kucinich have agreed to attend.
THAT former college football star and NFL quarterback Doug Flutie has bought a $2.1 million oceanfront home in Melbourne, Fla., where he spent much of his childhood. Flutie lives in Natick, Mass., and he will use the Florida home for holidays and in the summer, The Wall Street Journal reports. Meanwhile AOL executive Ted Leonsis can't find a buyer for his home in nearby Vero Beach, Fla. The seven-bedroom oceanfront home is listed for $14 million but remains unsold after a year on the market.
THAT NBC's new programming chief Ben Silverman is telling friends he will do anything to get Rosie O'Donnell on the network. Silverman is talking to O'Donnell about hosting a prime-time game show, Fox News reports, and a daytime chat show similar to her former program, "The View."
THAT Washington Post Radio is considering airing conservative Glenn Beck's syndicated show. Washington Post Radio — WTWP — was launched 14 months ago in the Washington area and primarily airs news and talk programs, much of it featuring editors and reporters from the Post. But "WTWP has struggled to attract listeners since its inception," the Post reports, and "the station continues to lose money." Editor's notes:
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