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Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. NBC Will Stop Fred Thompson Reruns
2. Reports: Castro's Health Deteriorating
3. Ann Coulter Targeted by Left-Wing Group
4. The Secret Behind the Dubai Ports Deal
5. Katie Couric Freaking Out Over New Book
6. We Heard: Obama, Cheney, Bin Laden, Maloof, Bill Donohue, More
1. NBC Will Stop Fred Thompson Reruns
If Fred Thompson announces his intention to run for the White House, NBC-TV is
prepared to stop showing reruns of the "Law & Order" episodes he appears in
because of Federal Communication Commission regulations.
Those rules allow presidential candidates to demand equal time if an opponent
appears on TV. Stations did not air Ronald Reagan's films or TV appearances when
he ran for president in 1980, nor did they broadcast Arnold Schwarzenegger
vehicles during his run for California governor in 2003.
But with "Law & Order," there a catch: The show is syndicated on the cable
station TNT, which does not have to abide by the equal time rule because cable
stations don't use the public airwaves, The New York Times points out.
However, TNT could choose to stop showing Thompson episodes voluntarily, just as
cable networks did during Schwarzenegger's campaign.
In May, Thompson told NBC he did not want to appear in any new "Law & Order"
episodes, and his final episode was rerun on Aug. 5.
In September, the Times reports, Sam Waterston — who played Thompson's deputy on
the show — will replace him in the role of district attorney.
Editor's Note:
2. Reports: Castro's Health Deteriorating
Two reputable Spanish-language newspapers are reporting that Cuban leader Fidel
Castro's already precarious health has taken a turn for the worse.
The Madrid paper Hechos De Hoy and the Mexican newspaper Reforma both say Castro
can no longer eat solid food and is hooked up to an IV after recent emergency
surgery.
Reforma also reported that Castro has lost a great deal of weight and does not
want to walk or receive visitors.
Several other developments seem to confirm that Castro is severely ailing:
Castro did not appear in public on his 81st birthday, on Aug. 13, and there were
no major celebrations to mark the event. He has not appeared in public for over
a year.
Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage telephoned Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's
talk show on Sunday, Aug. 5, to fill in for Castro, who usually phones. Lage did
not explain why Castro did not call, the Miami Herald reported.
Cuban dissidents say that Internet access has been curtailed for the very few
Cubans who have it — mostly trusted "journalists" who work for the regime's
official publications. Their correspondence is now routed through one
government-monitored Web portal.
The Spanish news agency EFE quoted Mariela Castro — daughter of Fidel's brother
Raul and a Castro family spokesperson — as saying: "The concern that we all had
about losing our leader is now closer to us."
She also reportedly said: "For the first time, the people are taking stock of
[Fidel's] process of aging, the process that the revolution has to continue
without him, be it with my father or with other leaders who will come."
Editor's Note:
3. Ann Coulter Targeted by Left-Wing Group
The left-wing organization People For the American Way has sent out a mass
e-mail to its supporters targeting Ann Coulter at an upcoming speech she will
deliver at Xavier University in Cincinnati on Sept. 6.
The e-mail sent this past week says it is seeking to turn the conservative
commentator's "hatemongering against her" at an Ohio rally.
Noting that Coulter will receive a speaking fee of around $20,000, or about $5
per Xavier student, the mailing says People For the American Way (PAW) is
"asking 'progressives' to chip in $5 to support groups like Xavier's
Gay-Straight Alliance, Amnesty International, Habitat for Humanity, and
Earthcare.
"Can you spare just $5 to support the same communities Coulter regularly bashes
for pay?"
While Coulter is speaking, PAW and other left-wing students and activists "will
participate in a rally on Xavier's campus, where we will counter Coulter's
divisive message and present a check to Xavier's progressive student groups for
the total amount raised."
The mailing touts the effort as "a way for progressives to turn radical
right-wingers' vitriol, bigotry, and intolerance against them, while at the same
time bolstering our movement."
It's signed "Your Allies (Against the Radical Right) at People for the American
Way."
Coulter's next book, "If Democrats Had Brains, They'd Be Republicans," is due
out in October.
Editor's Note:
4. The Secret Behind the Dubai Ports Deal
The Bush administration reportedly had a secret reason for pushing for the 2006
deal that would have allowed the United Arab Emirates-based Dubai Ports World to
take over management of several American ports.
According to Rowan Scarborough, author of the new book "Sabotage: America's
Enemies Within the CIA," the administration supported the deal because the
United Arab Emirates government had agreed to let the U.S. post agents inside
its global port network to report on world shipping.
"Dubai Ports, in essence, was going to become an agent of the CIA," Scarborough
told Bill Gertz, author of the Washington Times' "Inside the Ring" column.
The agents could then help the U.S. "detect whether any kind of terror
contraband was being moved around."
The deal to turn over the management of New York and five other ports to Dubai
Ports World was eventually killed due to concern in Congress that it could
affect American port security.
Scarborough's book is also critical of the CIA's intelligence support for the
Iraq war.
Editor's Note:
5. Katie Couric Freaking Out Over New Book
The author of an upcoming book about Katie Couric promises it will reveal "a
dark side" of the struggling CBS News anchor — and says Couric is already
"freaking out" about the book.
Ed Klein, author of the New York Times best seller "The Truth About Hillary,"
declares that his new book "will knock readers' socks off."
"Katie: The Real Story" will show readers "a dark side of Katie, personally and
professionally," Klein told mediabistro.com. This book is due out at the end of
August.
"Beneath the public image of the blithe spirit, there is a life story of great
tumult, confusion, conflict, ambition, over-reaching, diva-like behavior, and
romantic relationships gone bad."
Klein is keeping mum about the details, but the book could offer insight into
CBS News' dramatic fall since Couric took over the anchor chair.
Couric's publicist Matthew Hiltzik told mediabistro: "We de-Klein comment."
But Klein insisted: "There's no question she's freaking about the book."
Editor's Note:
6. We Heard . . .
THAT Barack Obama is hitting South Beach.
The Democratic presidential hopeful will be on hand at the Mansion nightclub in
Miami Beach on Aug. 25 for what an e-mail from his campaign calls a
"ground-breaking event."
The occasion: The launch of "a new nationwide grass-roots campaign called
Generation Obama aimed at engaging young professionals."
The cost: $100 for general admission and $25 for students.
That Vice President Dick Cheney will be in Salt Lake City on Sept. 28 to address
the General Session of the Council for National Policy, a networking group of
several hundred prominent conservatives.
An e-mail from the Council acknowledges that historically, vice presidents have
been "fairly useless," but then states in the case of Dick Cheney: "We are
blessed to have a vice president who plays a key role in the effort to defend
America."
THAT former Defense Department official Michael Maloof believes al-Qaida leader
Osama bin Laden is hiding out not in the Waziristan region of Pakistan, but in
Iran.
"I still believe that he is alive and well in the eastern part of Iran in
Baluchistan," Maloof told Bill Gertz of the Washington Times.
In the most recent videotape depicting bin-Laden, he appeared well-nourished and
healthy.
Said Maloof, who was a member of the Pentagon's Policy Counterterrorism
Evaluation Group: "He could not look that well or obtain such quality
videotaping in Waziristan."
THAT the Bush administration spent some $1.6 billion for good press.
Seven federal departments shelled out that much money from 2003 through the
second quarter of 2005 on 343 contracts with public relations firms, advertising
agencies, media organizations and individuals, a new Government Accountability
Office report discloses.
Some of the outlays went to feed TV stations "prepackaged, ready-to-air news
stories that touted administration policies, but did not reveal the government
as the source," according to The Washington Post.
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., charged that the Bush administration was using
taxpayers' money to pay for "covert propaganda."
But the administration has asserted that disseminating information about federal
programs is part of the departments' mission.
THAT Catholic League President, Bill Donohue is outraged over a Manhattan
billboard he calls a "crude cultural commentary" promoting abortion.
The billboard near the West Side Highway shows a large wire hanger with the
inscription, "Your closet space is shrinking as fast as her right to choose."
The ad was placed by a company called Manhattan Mini Storage.
"New Yorkers are accustomed to Manhattan Mini Storage posting billboards that
bash the Bush Administration, but when it makes the leap from partisan politics
to crude cultural commentary, it is stepping on dangerous turf," Donahue said.
"Why a storage company finds the need to advertise its support for abortion is a
story all of its own, but when it seeks to depict the pro-life community — which
is primarily Catholic and Protestant — as oppressive, then a line has been
crossed.
"Manhattan Mini Storage is not only guilty of crudeness, but of cowardice. To
wit: Why didn't it have the guts to identify the object of her ‘shrinking'
choice?"
THAT in the wake of large-scale downsizing at U.S. newspapers, editors are
increasingly "too busy" to return phone calls even from industry bible Editor &
Publisher.
That's the word from E&P Senior Editor Dave Astor, who says that until several
years ago, the vast majority of newspaper editors returned his calls.
"During the last few years, however, I have noticed a difference," he writes in
E&P. "Now when I phone a bunch of newspaper editors, I'm lucky to get 25 to 50
percent of them to return my calls.
"For instance, when I phoned more than 20 newspaper editors this March to find
out whether they might drop columnist Ann Coulter for hurling a gay slur at John
Edwards, only about a quarter of the editors talked. The other 15 or so never
even called back."
Astor says he has "a feeling that many editors at staff-shrunk newspapers are
just too busy these days."
Editor's Note:
Editor's Notes:
Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Liberal Blasts Washington Post Reporter
2. Americans Head for Canada
3. Congress Ready for Replay of 1995 Government Shutdown
4. Clarence Page: Why Don’t the Media Notice Ron Paul?
5. We Heard . . .
1. Liberal Blasts Washington Post Reporter
Washington Post reporter John Solomon is single handedly seeking to torpedo the
candidacy of former Senator John Edwards, according to a liberal critic.
Writing on the left-wing Alter.net website, Alexander Zaitchik asked "Can One
Reporter Take Down a Presidential Candidate? John Solomon Is Trying to Find
Out."
Wrote Zaitchik "The overblown 'controversies' over John Edwards' $400 haircut,
hedge fund work and real estate dealings are largely the product of one reporter
at the Washington Post who hides his grudges behind 'fair and balanced'
journalism.
Zaitchik zeroed in on Solomon's profile of hair stylist Joseph Torrenueva, as
one proof of the Post reporter's alleged vendetta against Edwards.
"The Torrenueva profile didn't offer 'some kind of commentary' on the state of
American politics so much as it offered insight into the peculiar priorities of
its author, Post money and politics reporter John Solomon."
Zaitchik goes on to cite numerous Solomon stories dealing with Edwards, all
accurate and well-researched and all legitimate criticisms of some of John
Edward's activities such as his less than savory role in his consulting work in
2005 and 2006 for a hedge fund, his sale of his Georgetown home for $5.2 million
or $1.4 million more than he paid for it in 2002.
"Although practically dripping with innuendo that Edwards had been involved in a
sleazy land deal with known criminals and then lied about it, the article
noticeably failed to contain any dirt. The article basically reported that
Edwards had bought a house in D.C.'s booming real estate market, fixed it up and
sold it three years later for a profit. The banality of these facts did not stop
Post editors from placing the article above the fold, alongside the latest news
from Iraq. "
He ends his screed by warning "If Solomon can keep getting away with his brand
of ‘fair and balanced’ journalism, John Edwards and the rest of the presidential
candidates are in for some trouble as the primary race heats up this fall."
Editor's Note:
2. Americans Head for Canada
Some of those Americans who warned they'd desert the U.S. For Canada if George
Bush was re-elected in 2004 appear to have kept their word. New statistics show
that U.S. Immigration to Canada in 2006 hit a 30-year high.
According to the Toronto Star an analysis of immigration statistics by the
Association for Canadian Studies showed the number of Americans who moved to
Canada in 2006 was almost double the number who moved north in 2000 when Bush
was elected for a first term as U.S. President. The analysis also showed that
most of the American migrants are highly educated people who may be moving to
Canada for quality of life and social reasons.
And while the numbers were not huge — 10,942 Americans moved to Canada last year
- they were far smaller than the influx predicted when bogus maps of the United
States of Canada began hitting the Internet in the waning days of the 2004
campaign.
The day after Bush was re-elected president, there were 191,000 hits on Canada's
immigration website, six times its average traffic, most of it from the U.S.
The increase is symbolic, Jack Jedwab, the executive director of the association
that analyzed the statistic told the Star. "Given that most of these immigrants
are university-educated or better, you can assume they can find work in the
U.S., so the move must be based on other reasons.''
He cited politics, health care, social issues, and possibly even the
strengthening Canadian dollar as lures drawing Americans northward.
Tom Kertes, who moved north last April from Seattle, Wash. did it because he
wants to marry his male partner.
He said he moved to Toronto with his partner Ron Braun and they plan to marry,
something they could not do in Washington state. He added the war in Iraq and
the torture of Iraqi prisoners by Americans — and the failure of the Bush
administration to clearly disavow such practice — as contributing factors behind
his migration northward.
"Moving countries is not done lightly,'' he told the Star, explaining that he
found the tolerance of Toronto welcoming and he thought Canadians were proud of
their reputation for tolerance.
The Star suggested that the most surprising aspect of the study is the attention
it has received here in the U.S. where it was first reported by abcnews.Com.
Wrote the Star "It has become a hit on the blogosphere where many Americans have
reacted with venom to those who have left the country and some 80,000 persons
voted on whether they would move to Canada within hours of the question being
posted on an AOL.Com site.
The newspaper quoted one blogger as writing "If every American who didn't like
George W. Bush left the country, there would be no one here but illegal
immigrants.''
Editor's Note:
3. Congress Ready for Replay of 1995 Government Shutdown
When Congress comes back from their August hiatus the stage will be set for
another standoff between the Democrats and Republicans much like the one in 1995
that led to a shutdown of the Federal government.
As the Capitol Hill Newspaper Roll Call recalled, back in ’95 then Speaker Newt
Gingrich set the stage for the shut down when the GOP controlled defied
President Clinton by submitting their own budget which Clinton vetoed, leaving
the Federal cupboard bare and forcing the government to close its doors.
Now Republicans are warning Democrats that if they insist on spending more than
the 9 percent increase the President is willing to allow they should be prepared
to take the blame if the government shuts up shop after a Bush veto of spending
bills.
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, told
Roll Call the problem is that Democrats want to increase spending by more than 9
percent.
“There’s no question we’re going to have some kind of a showdown at the end of
the year,” Ryan predicted. “I don’t think an actual shutdown is necessary if we
just pass straight CRs (Continuing Resolutions that keep programs going without
passing new appropriation bills]. The problem is the majority might see that as
a leverage point and advantage in pushing an actual shutdown so they can load up
a CR with strings.
“If they refuse to pass clean CRs, they are responsible for the shutdown,
period, end of story.”
Editor's Note:
4. Clarence Page: Why Don’t the Media Notice Ron Paul?
Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page writes that Rep. Ron Paul may be getting
only 2 percent in nationwide polls, but if the election were held online, Paul
would probably win “hands down.”
"So why, I am often asked, doesn't Paul get more coverage?" Page writes. He says
it’s a catch-22: The mainstream media don’t think he has a chance to win, so
they don’t cover him, and the less coverage you get, the less of a chance you
have to win.
According to Page, Paul’s supporters flooded ABC News’ online polls after last
week’s debate, yet he all but vanished in the post-debate coverage.
Page marvels, "You might think the mainstream media would pay more respect to a
guy who ended up the recent fundraising quarter with more cash on hand than Sen.
John McCain.”
Andrew Kohut, president of the non-partisan Pew Research Center told Page that
Paul’s message on getting out of Iraq is what’s resonating. "There's a
defensiveness about Iraq among Republicans," he said. "Many [Republicans] say
they want a different approach. I think that under the surface there is a market
for someone who will say something different from what Bush is saying."
Editor's Note:
5. We Heard . . .
THAT although cool, calm and collected are the words usually used to describe
Mitt Romney, they didn't fit when he went toe to toe with Des Moines, Iowa talk
show host Jan Mickelson.
When challenged over his Mormon faith and past abortion support. Romney got
fired up.
Mickelson said, "I think you are making a big mistake when you distance yourself
from your religion," he said.
"I'm proud of my faith," Romney shot back. "There is nothing I distance myself
from." But Romney said he did not wish to impose his faith on anyone else – for
example, he said, his church forbids sex outside marriage and the consumption of
alcohol, but a law forbidding those things would be out of the question.
"So don't confuse what I do as a member of my faith with what I think should be
done by government," he said.
THAT veteran Washington columnist Robert Novak told NPR radio hostess Diane Rehm:
“I don’t support this administration. The President’s cut me off the list of
conservative columnists that are invited there,” adding “They consider me a lot
of trouble.”
He went on to say that it’s not just George W. Bush’s White House that has a
problem with him. “Every administration has considered me a lot of trouble,
Novak continued. “We start good — and particularly with Republican
administrations. But it’s like a bad marriage — It starts nice after the
honeymoon and it just gets worse.”
Editor's Note:
Editor's Notes:
Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Key Bush Supporters Defecting to Obama
2. WSJ: Brazil’s Drug Patent Theft Threatens Markets
3. FBI Agent Sticks Up for Ann Coulter
4. Report: Sharpton Backs Hillary, Not Obama
5. Changes on Neptune Link Sun and Global Warming
6. Bush Tunes Out Republican Debate
7. David Gregory in Line for Imus’ Job
8. We Heard: Andrew Cuomo, Al Gore
1. Key Bush Supporters Defecting to Obama
Disillusioned supporters of President Bush are defecting from the Republican
ranks and turning to Democrat Barack Obama as the best 2008 presidential
candidate for uniting a divided nation.
One of those Obama admirers is Tom Bernstein, who attended Yale University with
Bush and co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team with him. In 2004 he donated
the maximum $2,000 to Bush’s re-election campaign and gave $50,000 to the
Republican National Committee, reports Sarah Baxter, a Washington correspondent
for the Times of London.
This year he is supporting Obama, and has said he admires the Democrat’s call
for action on Darfur.
Another Obama fan is Matthew Dowd, Bush’s chief campaign strategist in 2004, who
last month declared that he was disappointed with the president’s leadership.
Dowd hasn’t yet endorsed a candidate, but he said the only one he likes is
Obama.
Robert Kagan, a leading neoconservative, is an informal policy adviser to
Republican candidate John McCain. But in a recent article in the Washington
Post, Kagan wrote glowingly of a speech by Obama at a Chicago gathering, saying
it was “pure John Kennedy.”
In that speech, Obama called for an increase in defense spending and talked
about building democracies and the right to take unilateral action to protect
American interests if necessary, Baxter reported.
Financiers have also been “oiling Obama’s campaign,” Baxter wrote, noting: “John
Canning, a ‘Bush pioneer’ and investment banker who pledged to raise $100,000
for the president in 2004, has given up on the Republicans. ‘I know lots of my
friends in this business are disenchanted and are definitely looking for
something different,’ he said.”
Democrat Hillary Clinton has been attracting some support from Republican
defectors, too. John Mack, who helped raise $200,000 for Bush’s re-election, has
said he was “impressed” by Clinton’s expertise.
According to figures cited by Baxter, Obama and Clinton have received more than
$750,000 in individual donations from former Bush donors.
Editor's Note:
2. WSJ: Brazil’s Drug Patent Theft Threatens Markets
Brazil’s recent decision to seize the patent for Merck’s HIV/AIDS drug efavirenz
poses a severe threat to the pharmaceuticals industry — and ultimately, the
world at large, the Wall Street Journal warns.
In April, Thailand forced Abbott to slash prices for its HIV/AIDS drug by
threatening to seize the patent and manufacture the medication domestically.
Brazil went a step further, brushing aside Merck’s offer to lower prices by 30
percent and seizing the patent outright, a move the Journal calls “a slap in the
face of the World Trade Organization.”
Brazil’s generic drug industry could benefit greatly by manufacturing efavirenz
without paying patent royalties and selling it to a large domestic market.
“This is a dangerous game,” the Journal’s editorial cautions. “Pharmaceutical
companies can’t afford to develop new drugs if they can’t charge market prices
for their existing products.”
That could stifle investment in research and development, especially on diseases
that affect the poor in developing countries, the Journal notes, adding:
“Without vigorous resistance at the [upcoming] WHO meeting in Geneva, more
countries could soon follow the Thai and Brazilian examples.
"That would be bad for intellectual property rights worldwide, and it would be a
disaster for the world’s poor.”
Editor's Note:
3. FBI Agent Sticks Up for Ann Coulter
Conservative pundit Ann Coulter has been cleared of charges that she falsified
her voter registration and voted illegally — thanks to the intervention of an
FBI agent.
Coulter had been embroiled in controversy after she registered using an address
that wasn’t hers and allegedly cast her ballot in the wrong precinct in Palm
Beach, Fla., in February 2006.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office (PBSO) launched an investigation, and the
local press routinely reported on the case. Coulter’s attorney said she might
have used the wrong address when registering to protect herself from a stalker.
Enter Supervisory Special Agent Jim Fitzgerald of the FBI Academy’s Behavioral
Analysis Unit, a serial-killer specialist who worked on the Unabomber case.
He spoke with a PBSO detective and confirmed that he had been “working a
stalking incident” involving Coulter, Palm Beach Post columnist Jose Lambiet
reported.
The PBSO closed the investigation on April 12.
Editor's Note:
4. Report: Sharpton Backs Hillary, Not Obama
Does Al Sharpton have an agreement with the Clintons to help them handle their
Barack Obama problem?
That’s the question posed by Geoffrey Gray in New York magazine.
The answer: Obama’s campaign thinks so.
“It’s no state secret that he’s with Hillary, and that’s fine,” a source close
to Obama sniffed.
Gray cites a Sharpton source who says Bill and Hillary have turned on a
“full-court press” to win over the black activist, including “personal touches”
— Bill called Sharpton to offer condolences after James Brown died, while Obama
only wrote a note.
Sharpton has denied he’s backing anyone yet, and listed both Hillary and Obama,
plus John Edwards and Bill Richardson, as speakers at his National Action
Network Convention in April.
Editor's Note:
5. Changes on Neptune Link Sun and Global Warming
Skeptics of manmade global warming have found further support in research
linking solar output with the planet Neptune’s brightness and temperatures on
Earth.
The findings appeared in a recent issue of Geophysical Research Letters. The
authors of the article, H.B. Hammel and G.W. Lockwood from the Space Science
Institute in Colorado and the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, note that
measurements of visible light from Neptune have been taken at the Observatory
since 1950.
Those measurements indicate that Neptune has been getting brighter since around
1980. And infrared measurements of the planet since 1980 show that Neptune has
been warming steadily as well.
The researchers plotted on a graph the changes in visible light from Neptune
over the past half-century, changes in temperatures on Earth during that period,
and changes in total solar irradiance.
The results: The correlation between solar irradiance and Neptune’s brightness
was nearly perfect; so was the correlation between changes on Earth and solar
output, according to a report on the research appearing on World Climate Report,
a climate change blog.
“When the sun is more energetic and putting out more energy, the Earth tends to
warm up, and when the sun cools down, so does the Earth,” World Climate Report
notes. “The Hammel and Lockwood article reveals that the same is true out at
Neptune — when the sun’s energy increases, Neptune seems to warm up and get
brighter . . .
“How is it possible that the Earth’s temperature is so highly correlated with
brightness variations from Neptune? The news from Neptune comes to us just weeks
after an article was published showing that Mars has warmed recently as well.
“If nothing else, we have certainly learned recently that planets undergo
changes in their mean temperature, and while we can easily blame human activity
here on the Earth, blaming humans for the recent warming on Mars and Neptune
would be an astronomical stretch, to say the least.”
Editor's Note:
6. Bush Tunes Out Republican Debate
When 10 GOP presidential hopefuls took part in the televised May 3 debate, there
was at least one staunch Republican who did not tune in — President George Bush.
A White House spokesman said Bush declined to watch the debate between the
Republican candidates who are vying to succeed him, Agence France Presse
reported.
He is not alone with his less than enthusiastic interest in the race. A recent
report by the Pew Research Center disclosed: “With nearly nine months to go
before the first presidential primary, many voters are showing early signs of
campaign fatigue.”
According to Pew, 52 percent of U.S. voters say the campaign is “dull,” and
almost two-thirds believe the early-starting campaign is “too long.”
Editor's Note:
7. David Gregory in Line for Imus’ Job
NBC News chief White House correspondent David Gregory could be the leading
candidate to replace Don Imus on radio and TV.
This week Gregory will be the first potential replacement to be simulcast on CBS
radio and MSNBC, and network executives were impressed with his earlier trial on
MSNBC in April, reports Ben Widdicombe of the New York Daily News, who noted:
“Some are wondering whether his solid White House style will be a fitting
replacement for Imus’ freewheeling ways.”
Jim Roberts of The National Ledger had this take: “David Gregory has long been
accused by Republicans of being a left-wing hatchet man disguised as a reporter.
Add to that, Gregory certainly does appear to love the limelight as his
questions at presidential news conferences . . . turn into long-winded
filibusters . . . That would make him a really good radio talk-show host to
replace ousted shock-jock Don Imus.”
Editor's Note:
8. We Heard . . .
THAT “impatient” New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is eyeing a run for
governor in 2010.
Eliot Spitzer, who was elected governor in 2006, was formerly the state’s
attorney general, and he now holds the office once filled by Cuomo’s father,
Mario.
Observers in the state believed Andrew Cuomo would wait until Spitzer had
completed two four-year terms before seeking the governor’s mansion. But a Cuomo
fundraiser has been telling donors that he may be running sooner than they
think, an inside source told the New York Sun.
Cuomo, 49, is an “impatient person,” the source said. “While he’s enjoying being
attorney general, he would rather be governor.”
According to a Quinnipiac University poll, Cuomo is now the most popular
politician in New York’s state government, surpassing Spitzer – thanks in large
part to Cuomo’s headline-making investigation of the student loan industry.
THAT Al Gore is ready to jump into the race for the Democratic presidential
nomination if Hillary Clinton’s ratings continue to fall.
Hillary enjoyed nearly 60 percent positive ratings in January, but they have now
dropped to the 40s. If they reach the low 30s, Gore will join the campaign, say
political insiders in California.
CBS News in the state capital, Sacramento, reported: “The former vice president
is well positioned to run. He’s fixed up his image as a statesman, and wouldn’t
have any trouble raising money. And he has no love for the Clintons.”
Editor's Notes:
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