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Insider Report: Rose Law Firm Disses Hillary Special From NewsMax's Most Informed Sources
Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories): 1. Rose Law Firm Not Backing Hillary A wide gulf has opened between presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton and her old employer, the Rose Law Firm — to the apparent satisfaction of both sides. Clinton does not make a single mention of the firm on her Web sites. And even though she is arguably the firm's most famous ex-employee, Rose does not mention Hillary on its Web site either. Clinton joined Rose in 1976, becoming the venerable firm's first full female partner in 1979, and she continued to work for Rose after husband Bill became governor of Arkansas. But in many minds Rose became inexorably linked to the scandals that surrounded the Clintons during his presidency: notably Whitewater and the missing billing records from Rose that were found in Hillary's book room at the Executive Mansion, The Politico observes.
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These days Rose is "a paranoid shell of its former self," according to Politico. The firm — founded in 1820 — presently employs 32 lawyers, down from 53 attorneys in 1991, when Bill Clinton launched his White House bid. Within the office, every document is shredded to prevent journalists from rifling through trash for company records. When Hillary announced she was forming an exploratory committee earlier this year, partners sent out e-mails warning lawyers not to speak to the media about Clinton. The firm does still have a Clinton connection — Rose represents the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation, an international non-profit organization. But only one Rose partner has reportedly contributed to Hillary's campaign. CEO Steve Joiner gave $250 in March. Editor's Note:
2. Bloomberg's Record Belies 'Fiscal Conservative' Tag Calling New York City mayor and potential presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg a fiscal conservative doesn't make him one, says Club for Growth President Pat Toomey. Toomey, whose organization promotes tax reduction and limited government spending, writes in The Wall Street Journal: "The Big Apple mayor has been touted as the ideal candidate — a nonpartisan CEO and the perfect combination of a social liberal and fiscal conservative. But even a cursory analysis of his five-year record demonstrates the absurdity of the 'fiscal conservative' moniker." Although Bloomberg began his first term with a vow not to raises taxes, he soon boosted taxes on cigarettes by nearly 90 percent, from 80 cents to $1.50, followed by another 50-cent increase in 2006, Toomey points out. Early in his tenure Bloomberg proposed a 25 percent property tax increase, which was eventually reduced to 18.5 percent by the Democratic City Council. Then in 2003 he raised the city's income and sales taxes. "Although Mr. Bloomberg offered tax rebates and is now implementing property and sales tax cuts, this relief is small compared to the additional burden imposed on homeowners and businesses in his first term," Toomey writes. City-funded spending has also risen while Bloomberg has been in office. During his first term, spending increased by an average of 10 percent per year, surpassing inflation and easily outpacing the 2.84 percent average during the administration of his predecessor, Rudy Giuliani. Bloomberg has also spurned many of Giuliani's cost-cutting efforts, shying away from privatizing government services and abandoning "some of Mr. Giuliani's plans to sell off government assets that the city has no business owning, like U.N. office buildings and off-track betting," Toomey asserts. "What kind of fiscal conservative believes New York City should be in the real estate and gambling business?" Toomey concludes, "Calling Mike Bloomberg a fiscal conservative doesn't actually make him one . . . His ideology is pretty hard to distinguish from the Democratic Party to which he belonged not so long ago." Editor's Note: 3. Anti-Michael Moore Blogger Saved by 'Sicko' Filmmaker Jim Kenefick is the founder of Moorewatch.com, a Web site highly critical of documentary filmmaker Michael Moore. But when he disclosed that he needed help paying his wife's medical bills, he got a $12,000 check from an unexpected source — Moore himself. The unlikely story began to unfold when Kenefick, 36, wrote on his site that he needed money to keep Moorewatch.com alive because his wife has a neurological disorder and her medical bills had left him nearly bankrupt. On May 1, he received an anonymous e-mail saying that an unnamed donor was willing to help pay at least some of his bills. "A month or so later a checklike document for $12,000 arrives from one of those anonymous third-party check companies," Kenefick said in an interview with Tony Dokoupil of Newsweek. "The check cleared, and I felt this immense wave of relief." The money allowed Kenefick to pay health insurance premiums for a year and keep his Web site afloat. Around this time, Moore was preparing for the premiere of his latest film, "Sicko," a documentary critical of America's healthcare industry. A few weeks after the check arrived, Moore called Kenefick from the Cannes Film Festival saying he wanted the blogger to know that Kenefick and his blog appear anonymously in the film — and that Moore was the "guardian angel" who sent the $12,000. Asked if Moore's gift had changed Kenefick's opinion of the filmmaker, the blogger told Newsweek: "I don't oppose Moore as a human being, or even on all of his positions . . . My issue with Moore is with how he goes about doing things. He gives people quick peeks, juxtaposing images that stir people but don't give them enough information to make judgments for themselves. He's harming the big picture with his chicanery — with his ridiculous, malicious, dishonest, and deceitful way of doing things. "I haven't seen 'Sicko,' but it sounds like more of the same." Kenefick added that while he's very grateful to Moore for his financial aid, he believes the filmmaker has reasons of his own for helping out: "It's in his interest for the site to stay running. Moore's publicity depends on us and others like us." Editor's Note: 4. Kiplinger: Fred Thompson Could Face Rocky Campaign Road The respected personal finance and business publishing company Kiplinger is predicting that Fred Thompson will shoot to the top of the polls if and when he announces his candidacy for president in 2008 — but he might not stay there for long. Writing for Kiplinger.com, Mark Willen said that the former senator from Tennessee would have an immediate appeal to conservatives who aren't happy with the current crop of GOP candidates. But that appeal could fade as time goes on and Thompson comes under closer scrutiny. The New York Times has already published a front-page story on the lobbying work of Thompson's sons. NewsMax's Insider Report disclosed last week that the Democratic National Committee sent out an e-mail citing the "fortune" Thompson has made as a Washington lobbyist and claiming he has a "flip-flop problem." And as for the hope that the "Law & Order" star will be another Ronald Reagan, Willen points out that "Thompson is no Reagan." For one thing, he's not a conservative ideologue — he's much more a pragmatist. He's also not the Washington outsider that Reagan painted himself to be. Furthermore, as Thompson articulates his positions on a range of issues, he's liable to alienate at least some of his admirers. Willen has another observation: "Should Thompson falter, one other conservative Republican will be waiting in the wings: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says he'll decide this fall whether to enter the race." Editor's Note: 5. Gore Gets 'Sopranos' in a 'Lockbox' When big "Sopranos" fan Al Gore realized he was going to be on a plane as the HBO crime series' final episode aired, he contacted Brad Grey, an executive producer of the show, and asked if he could get an advance copy. Grey told him: Fuggetaboutit! The ending of the long-running series was a closely guarded secret, and Grey said he couldn't risk it being leaked. But the next day, Grey — chairman of Paramount, the studio that distributed Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" — had a change of heart. He said Gore could view the episode, but there were special conditions. On the day of the finale, June 10, Grey had a copy of the episode — inside a Halliburton-made steel case — delivered to the tarmac where Gore's plane sat in Chicago, according to The New York Times. "The case was locked with a code [some might call it a 'lockbox']," the Times reported. Gore couldn't gain access to the tape until his plane was in the air for the trip to Istanbul, Turkey, and he called Grey's office for the numeric code to open the case. After the story of Gore's special delivery reached Rudy Giuliani's ears, the presidential hopeful — a longtime friend of Grey — contacted the film executive to ask why he hadn't gotten a special "Sopranos" delivery too. Editor's Note: Editor's notes:
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