By John Gizzi

Despite all the complaints from Judicial Watch and other watchdog groups that not all of Hillary Clinton’s papers as First Lady will be available to the public because of the Presidential Records Act, the National Archives insists that this is standard practice because it takes so long because processing them is a long and complex process.

“It’s my understanding we have [most] of the [Clinton] papers, but they haven’t all been processed,” Miriam Cleiman, spokesman for the National Archives told me this afternoon. She explained that there will be a “long wait” for the all of the papers that cover the New York senator and ’08 presidential candidate’s eight years in the White House, but this is because “there are so many documents and we have a limited number of staff to process them.”

Cleiman was responding to my query following published reports today that nearly 2 million pages of documents covering her years with husband Bill in the White House were locked up in a building in Little Rock, Arkansas. According to the Los Angeles Times, “Clinton’s calendars, appointment logs, and memos are stored at her husband’s presidential library, in the custody of federal archivists who do not expect them to be released until after the 2008 presidential election.”

Several political consultants have voiced suspicions that many of these documents—which are being kept secret under the Presidential Records Act, which safeguards confidential advice—would be a goldmine for opposition researchers for Barack Obama and other opponents to the former First Lady in next year’s campaign. As Ray McNally, Sacramento GOP political consultant, told the Los Angeles Times, “Those files—that’s the mother load of opposition research.” Meanwhile, Judicial Watch has filed suit against the National Archives, demanding that diaries, telephone logs, daily planners and schedules of Hillary Clinton be released.

A prominent Arizona Republican leader who considers Fred Thompson his second choice for President after favorite son John McCain told me he was worried about the Tennessean’s recent choice of former Sen. Spence Abraham (R.-Mich.) as chairman of his still-unannounced campaign.

“I am concerned because Spence was not on the same side of Arizona Republicans on border security and amnesty,” John Rutledge, First Vice Chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, told me this week. Rutledge, a strong conservative and close ally of State Chairman Randy Pullen and Republican National Committeeman Bruce Ash, cited Abraham’s record in the Senate (1994-2000) as a vigorous opponent of any measures that would limit immigration.

Rutledge is himself a former Michigan resident. He served as chairman of the Young Republicans of Michigan, a Sixth District Party Chairman, and was actually a backer of Abraham for his first party position as youth vice chairman of the state GOP in the early 1970’s.

“However, based on his record, Spence is dead wrong on border security—at least as far as Republicans in Arizona are concerned,” Rutledge said. He added that Thompson himself is “with us,” based on his hard-hitting radio commentaries against the comprehensive immigration package backed by the Administration and thwarted in the Senate. The Arizona vice-chairman also said he had been assured by a close friend of his and Thompson’s, former Tennessee Gov. Don Sunquist, “that Fred was right on border security.”

The choice of Abraham did send a confusing message to potential Thompson supporters who believe in tough border security and no amnesty, Rutledge said. In discussing his concerns about Abraham, Rutledge took pains to emphasize that Thompson was “my second choice for President, so long as John McCain is in the race.”

---By John Gizzi---

Former Club Editor Jeffrey Rubin drew my attention to the Washington Post's habit of referring to the regime of socialist dictator Hugo Chavez as his "populist government."

I notice from this article in Tuesday's Post that our State Department also doesn't seem to want to call the things that are happening in Venezuela by their real names:

State Department spokesman Tom Casey said: "The government of Venezuela, like any other government, has the right to make these kinds of decisions to change ownership rules. We want to see them meet their international commitments in terms of providing fair and just compensation."

"[T]hese kind of decisions to change ownership rules" is a pretty smooth way of referring to what's going on there -- and what might also be called "expropriation," "nationalization," or even "theft."

There's some excuse for our diplomats to use euphemisms in their effort to get compensation for U.S. companies. It's harder to see what excuse the Post has for calling the dictatorship of a self-confessed socialist who's know to be crushing political dissent a "populist" government.

In the near future we're going to be carrying an important book on Hugo Chavez in the Conservative Book Club. Meanwhile, you can read Humberto Fontova's Fidel: Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant, and pray that the Venezuelan government by revolution doesn't turn out the same way.

June 16, 2007

Newington, Connecticut


Dear Gizz-ette Gang,


As I was home for a few days to see my parents, I began to reflect on how so many HUMAN EVENTS readers write me to ask why I continue to report on my home state of Connecticut and its Republican Party. It isn't a conservative party by any stretch of the imagination, they repeatedly inquire, so who cares?

And guess what? At least fifty percent of their outcry is accurate --the Republican Party in Connecticut is in no way, shape, or form a conservative party. Indeed, almost to a person, Republicans holding any office from state house to courthouse abjure discussion of cultural issues and it is near-impossible to find any Republican who styles his or herself "pro-life."

Gov. Jodi Rell, who succeeded disgraced Gov. John Rowland after he resigned and went to prison on corruption charges, won a big re-election last fall. She has a lieutenant governor who is there because Nutmeg State voters elect their two top officials as a team, the way we do president and vice president.

Like Rowland before her, Rell is unabashedly pro-choice (Rowland was pro-life while in Congress but changed on the subject when he ran statewide) and has strongly suggested she would back civil union. As Rell herself told me at the state GOP's Prescott Bush Dinner in Stamford, CT. last month, "Connecticut is a moderate state."

Republicans hold no other statewide offices aside from the top two. They have only 56 seats in the 187-member General Assembly (state legislature). As for talent and political stardom on the horizon, the name most talked about last week was that of State Sen. John McKinney of Fairfield, son of the late "Gypsy Moth" (liberal) GOP Rep. (1970-87) Stewart B. McKinney (R-CT). The 43-year-old John McKinney became leader of the handful of GOP state senators after incumbent Minority Leader Lou DeLuca was forced to quit following revelations he had asked a reputed mob figure to "go have a talk" with the husband of his grand-daughter who DeLuca felt was being abused by him. Where DeLuca worked closely with the Roman Catholic Church in opposing the same sex civil unions, McKinney voted for the measure and pointed out to the Hartford Courant that he is "of a generation that is comfortable with diverse lifstyles."

McKinney, whose father served as minority leader in the state House of Representatives before going to Congress in 1970, said he will push some of the same agendas as the elder McKinney, particularly the preservation of open space and wild areas.

The new Senate leader, conlcuded the Courant, "is a link to a bygone age of Eastern Republicanism, before the party turned to the right. . ."

Another link to that age of Eastern Republicanism is Rep. Chris Shays (R.-CT), who won the 4th District House seat in a special election after the elder McKinney died twenty years ago. As Republican Reps. Nancy Johnson and Rob Simmons were going down in the Nutmeg State last fall, Shays was barely clinging to his district, which includes Fairfield, Westport, and other "bedroom communities" of New York City. Next year, the lone Republican left in Connecticut's U.S. House delegation will face a determined challenge; State GOP Chairman Chris Healy tells me he expects the Democrat will be either Greenwich cable TV tycoon Ned Lamont, who defeated Sen. Joe Lieberman in the '06 primary on an antiwar platform but lost to newly-minted independent Lieberman in the fall, or Ted Kennedy, Jr., now a businessman in New Haven in the 3rd District ("But he could easily move to the 4th," observed Healy, "Geography has never stopped the Kennedys before.").

Healy himself is one of the few bright spots for conservatives here. Having cut his political eyeteeth as a young New Yorker handing out leaflets for Barry Goldwater in 1964 and William F. Buckley's bid for mayor on the Conservative Party ticket a year later, Healy has spent his adult life running campaigns--more often than not for conservatives. While he understands and accepts that Republicans are going to "go wobbly" on social issues, Healy also points out that growing opposition to the Democrat-ruled legislature's plans to increase state spending could well fuel a backlash among fiscal conservatives that will pay dividends in '08--a rare election in which there are no statewide races save the presidential one, and thus the party can focus on congressional and legislative contests.

A final note: older HUMAN EVENTS readers may be interested to learn that a name from Connecticut that cheered them (yes, it was many years ago!) has recently resurfaced: John A. Danaher, III, former U.S. Attorney, has just been named state public safety director. Danaher is the namesake-son of the last truly conservative U.S. Senator, John A. Danaher, who held the seat from 1938 until his defeat in 1944 (I told you it was long ago). The late Allen Drury wrote glowingly of the intellectual firepower displayed by Sen. Danaher when he covered the Senate for the New York Times in the 1940's. Had Robert Taft become president in 1952, writes biographer James Patterson, he almost surely would have named friend Danaher to his Cabinet. As it was, President Eisenhower named Danaher to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, long considered the "second highest court in the land." Long before Robert Bork, Antonin Scalia, or John Roberts sat there, Danaher exemplified the term strict constructionist.

Whether the grandson lives up to the greatest and promise exhibited by his illustrious namesake will be something conservatives might want to watch.

Until next time, I remain.

Faithfully,


John Gizzi

By John Gizzi

Jackson, Mississippi -- Days before the controversial immigration reform package backed so strongly by the Bush Administration was stalled in the Senate, Mississippi Republican leaders were warning that the White House support of the 392-page measure and the perception that it does not deal firmly with the issue of illegal immigration would "destroy our party."

Those were precisely the word said to me on June 7th at a luncheon hosted by the Mississippi Center for Public Policy and the Mississippi Leadership Forum. State Auditor Phil Bryant, one of the two Republicans seeking nomination for lieutenant governor, told me "I love Sen. [Trent] Lott [R-Miss] to death, but I hope he will understand the severity of his support for the immigration bill," Bryant told me, referring to the Magnolia State's junior senator and Number Two man in the Senate GOP leadership who is a strong backer of the bill. "It's going to destroy our party."

Bryant, the state's top fiscal watchdog, went on to point out that since '05, the presence of illegal immigrants in the state has cost Mississippians an estimated $25 million.

State Sen. Stacey Pickering, who was also at the lunch, strongly seconded Bryant's view. In his words, "Illegal immigration is the THE hot grass roots issue." Laurel lawmaker Pickering, nephew of retired U.S. Appeals Court Judge Charles Pickering, said that the presence of illegal immigrants has increased the crime rate in the state because "illegal immigrants are becoming known as 'walking ATM machines'--they don't carry credit cards for fear of being discovered and have a lot of cash. So they become targets for robberies and muggings in the evening."

By John Gizzi

Hartford, Conn. -- Although the HBO series "The Sopranos" recently ended, a "Sopranos Story" in Connecticut politics came to an end yesterday -- this ending a bit more decisive than the unclear closing of the TV series that has so many fans bewildered and angry.

Two weeks after an emotional press conference in which he defended himself against charges of corruption, State Sen. Louis DeLuca resigned yesterday amid charge that he had asked a trash hauler with alleged ties to organize crimes to intimidate his grown grand-daughter's husband, whom DeLuca felt was abusing her.

The 73-year-old DeLuca, who has served in the Senate since 1990 and been minority leader since 2001, has admitted he sought the assistance of trash hauler James Galante to deal with his granddaughter's allegedly abusive husband. Galante is now under federal indictment.

But what also led to DeLuca's arrest, guilty plea in court and resultant suspended sentence for a misdemeanor conviction was, according to the affadavit justifying his arrest, that the Senate GOP leader had promised to help Galante at the Capitol if he could. Moreover, according to the affadavit, an undercover agent offered the senator a bribe which he refused but did not report to authorities. DeLuca later said he was afraid after being offered the attempted bribe and did not know what to do.

DeLuca's resignation as leader and apology to his colleagues brings to a close a drama that has gripped the state Capitol for months. Now senators will meet to discuss further sanctions against DeLuca, State Senate President Donald Williams (D) told the Hartford Courant.

In a state where the terms "conservative" and "Republican" have grown increasingly mutually exclusive, DeLuca's near-certain successor is the heir to one of the iconic names in GOP liberalism in the Nutmeg State: John McKinney, eight-year senator from Fairfield County and son of the late Rep. (1970-87) Stewart B. McKinney (R.-CT), a leading "Gypsy Moth" (liberal Republican) throughout his House career. John McKinney, a 43-year-old attorney who had been deputy minority leader under DeLuca, has long been considered heir apparent to liberal GOP Rep. Chris Shays in the 4th District once held by his late father.

By John Gizzi

With the dramatic comeback yesterday of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak in taking the leadership of the Labor Party, the stage is now set for the next general election in Israel to be that country's "star wars"--a battle for control of the 120-Member Knesset (parliament) and the next national government in which the three main contenders are all former prime ministers.

In winning the Labor leadership over former Israeli intelligence chief Ami Ayalon, the 65-year-old Barak emerged triumphant by a margin of about 35,000 to 31,000 votes from Labor members in an American-style primary. In so doing, Barak--former Israeli Army chief of staff and prime minister from 1999 until his defeat in '01 -- replaces former leader Amir Peretz, who serves as partner in the ruling coalition and as defense minister. Peretz, under fire for Israel's performance in the Lebanese war earlier this year, was eliminated in the first round of the party leadership battle. Ayalon and Barak, who has been out of politics and out of the country since his big defeat six years ago, then met in a run-off.

The next national election, then, will feature Barak, Likud(conservative) Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu (who served as prime minister from 1996-99), and Prime Minister Ehud Ohlmert, whose Kadima Party broke away from Likud two years ago over relinquishing control over Israeli settlements in the Palestinian Directorate. At that time, then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon lead the break from his former Likud Party, with Netanyahu remaining in Likud and emerging as its new leader--and opposed vigorously to what he deemed "land for peace." Following Sharon's stroke, his Number Two man Ohlmert became prime minister and party leader.

Like Peretz, Ohlmert has been under intense fire from opposition parties and the media for the government's handling of Israel's strike in Lebanon earlier this year. Polls show the government trailing Netanyahu's Likud party in parliamentary elections. However, the Ohlmert government has survived four attempts at a vote of no confidence in the Knessett--meaning that the date of the "battle of the three premiers" has yet to be determined.

By John Gizzi

Manchester, N.H.--The hottest rumor to hit the "spin room" after last night's Republican presidential debate here at St. Anselm's College was that Rudy Giuliani, despite his front-running status in most Republican presidential polls nationwide, would soon announce that he was skipping the most famous of all "straw polls" of GOP presidential candidates.

Giuliani's campaign team would neither confirm nor deny the mounting rumors last night that the former New York mayor was poised to announce that he would tkae a pass on the celebrated Iowa "Straw Poll," scheduled this year for Ames, Iowa on August 11th. The reason was that people pay to participate in the poll and, as one source told me, "Rudy knows that Mitt Romney has the money to bring in people by the busload and pay their way to vote, as he did when he came in second to [then-Sen.] Bill Frist in Tennessee during the Southern Republican Leadership Conference's straw poll last year."

Should Giuliani opt out of Ames, he is likely to raise fresh doubts about his fund-raising prowess against Romney, who has so far raised more than $20 million for his '08 campaign.

Although the "Straw Poll" is based on who shows up and pays to vote, it has nonetheless been an historic barometer of who will win the "season opener" of the '08 campaign--the Iowa Caucuses, to be held at the beginning of the year. Bob Dole's strong showing in the poll in 1987, for example, pointed to what would be a smashing win in the caucuses over Pat 'Robertson and George H.W. Bush the following year. Similarly, Dole in 1996 and George W. Bush in 2000 both won the "straw poll" and went on to win the caucuses as well.

When I asked Giuliani pollster Ed Goeas if the "out of Ames" rumors were true, he replied: "I don't know." A spokeswoman for the New Yorker said she would "get back with" me on that. Published accounts say Giuliani is "weighing" whether or not to participate in the event two months from now, which one survey shows that 37% of registered Republicans in the Cornhusker State now say they plan to participate in.

By John Gizzi

Manchester, New Hampshire: The former congressman considered Newt Gingrich's closest friend and political ally during their early years in the House together does not think the onetime House speaker will get in the '08 Republican sweepstakes.

In a discussion with me before the presidential debate at St. Anselm's College here last night, former Rep. (1980-92) Vin Weber (R.-Minn.) said "I talk to Newt all the time, and he's never said he's not going to run. But I don't think he'll get in." Rated as one of the "fifty top lobbyists" in Washington DC by "Washingtonian Magazine," Weber also serves as chairman of presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's policy committee.

His support for the former Massachusetts governor notwithstanding, Weber does not believe his close friend and former colleague Gingrich will run because of the present complex rules of fund-raising. Noting that raising money under this system--with maximum donations at $2300 per person--works against a late entry into the GOP field, Weber said he feels "Newt will take a look at it in the fall, but, in the end, I don't think he'll get in." Weber and Gingrich worked closely together in the 1980's as conservative backbenchers in the House and together launched the Conservative Opportunity Society, an aggressive group of young right-of-center lawmakers whose activity and combativeness contrasted with the more moderate House GOP leadership at the time

By John Gizzi

Manchester, New Hampshire--Although he is not yet in the "Big Three" category of Republican presidential hopefuls or has anywhere near the campaign kitties of Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee gains new and widespread contributors everytime he appears in a debate with his nine Republican rivals.

Chip Salzman, top fund-raiser for the former Arkansas governor, told me after last night's debate that "as Gov. Huckabee's more esposed, people like what he's talking about and they are sending money."

Salzman, who signed up with Huckabee after former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R.-Tenn.) decided not to make the race, noted that after his man's memorable line in the Columbia, South Carolina that government was spending "more than John Edwards at the beauty shop," the campaign asked supporters to send them the cost of their haircuts. "Within a day and a half," Salzman told me, "more than 400 people had sent in a total of $50,000." He added that "Gov. Huckabee does very well fund-raising on line."

Has Huckabee signed on any big-name Republican fund-raisers, who will write checks and raise even more money like the backers of Romney and Giuliani? "Yes," Salzman replied, "but I'm not ready to give out any names yet."

By John Gizzi

Columbia, S.C.--Less than twenty-four hours after what even opponents conceded was a strong performance in last night's debate of '08 Presidential hopefuls here, Rudy Giuliani began to flex political muscle in the South. According to a member of the former New York mayor's presidential team, Giuliani will soon unveil a long and impressive list of endorsements from the region long considered the most difficult political turf for him: the South.

But Giuliani is expected to get the blessings of a group of Georgia state legislators, including the speaker of the state House of Representatives. Less than a week before the debate in Columbia last night, Giuliani attractred an overflow crowd of 800 to a breakfast in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In Florida, State Attorney General Bill McCollum has signed on as state campaign chairman for the New Yorker. Moreover, Karen Unger, a top operative in former Gov. Jeb Bush's campaigns, has also joined "Team Giuliani"--considered a political coup in the Sunshine State, as most of Bush's campaign operation is now working for Mitt Romney (Bush himself remains neutral in the race to succeed his brother as president).

But South Carolina and its early bird primary next February are clearly the main political battleground for Giuliani. In the Palmetto State, State Treasurer Thomas Ravenel is on "Team Giuliani" and former State GOP Chairman Barry Wynn is the former mayor's state finance chairman. Jason Miller, who managed Gov. Mark Sanford's winning re-election campaign last year, recently became deputy communications director for Giuliani's national operation. Fresh from Tuesday night's debate, Giuliani campaigned vigorously Thursday morning in Charleston.

Columbia, S.C.-- Reaction to reports in the Washington Times and the New York Times that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was considering using his billion-dollar plus fortune to fund an independent bid for President next year drew either yawns or hopes that the liberal GOPer does run for members of the Republican National Committee.

"Hey, it's a big country and [Bloomberg] is welcome to think what he wants," said Ron Nehring, Republican State Chairman of California, of the liberal Democrat-turned liberal Republican New Yorker.

"Bloomberg doesn't fit any niche at this stage and I don't see where someone like him comes in," said Michigan State Chairman Saul Anuzis, but quickly added "when you resources like he does, you have to take him seriously."

David Norcross, New Jersey's Republican National Committeeman, told me that he felt "Bloomberg would hurt the Democratic nominee more than our candidate. New York, New Jersey, and everything north that Democrats were counting on for electoral votes would be in play if he ran third-party."

Norcross's view that Bloomberg would hurt the Democrats more than the Republicans was echoed by Oklahoma's National Committeeman Lynn Windel, who told me: "Bloomberg might be more attractive to greens and might draw more liberal support than conservative. I'm not sure what impact he would have."

Columbia, S.C.-- After post-mortems on the presidential debate this evening, the hottest topic among Republican State Chairmen at the downtown Marriott Hotel here was how to let Ron Paul know they were fuming over his remark that U.S. foreign policy rather than terrorists caused 9/11. Michigan State Chairman Saul Anuzis told me he was considering drawing up a petition among his fellow RNC Members denouncing Paul's statement and calling for his exclusion from future presidential debates.

"Where do I sign that?" asked Chuck Yob, Michigan's Republican National Committeeman, after hearing Anuzis's suggestion. Yob, leader of John McCain's presidential campaign in the state, and Anuzis, a self-styled "Kemp Gingrich Republican" who is neutral in the '08 race, are not always in agreement on party matters.

But it is not just Anuzis and Yob who agree that Paul's remark may require some sanction from the party. Florida's National Committeeman Paul Senft told me he felt that Texas Rep. Paul "destroyed himself" and agreed that he should be disinvited from future presidential debates. "If he's going to blame us for 9/11, we don't need him. Let him go to the Democrats."

"Paul won't get any votes from this," West Virginia State Chairman Doug McKinney said. Anuzis said he would check on party rules and sound out other members of the RNC before proceeding with the petition on Paul.

One of those most angry at Paul for his 9/11 statement tonight is not an RNC Member but someone particularly impacted by the events of that day in '01. "It's appalling that a congressman could have fallen for that crap that our policy rather than terrorists caused 9/11!" an angry Ted Olson told me. The former U.S. Solicitor General, a strong Giuliani supporter, said his candidate's response to Paul was "real Rudy Giuliani passion--what you saw was Rudy's ability to inspire." Olson went on to say that Paul's comments were "so outrageous and personal--certainly personal to me." Olson's wife Barbara was killed on one of the flights seized by terrorists on 9/11.

Columbia, S.C.-- "I support Rick Renzi," Arizona Republican Chairman Randy Pullen told me without hesitation over lunch today. Pullen, who was at the downtown Marriott Hotel with his fellow GOP state chairmen to watch their party's presidential debate this evening, was referring to the embattled three-term congressman from his state's 1st District. Following an FBI raid of his wife's office over alleged co-mingling of corporate and campaign finances, conservative GOPer Renzi at one point suggested resigning and later dug in his heels and said he had done no wrong and had no intention of leaving office before his term was up.

While Pullen was correct in pointing out that the congressman has not even been formally charged with any wrongdoing, Grand Canyon State Republicans are quietly preparing for the possibility that Renzi may leave office before his term is up next year and that there may be a special election in a district that the incumbent won last fall with an unimpressive 53% of the vote.

Privately, there is mounting worry that a Republican might not be able to hold the seat in the event of a special election--particularly if, as rumored, the Democrats field former State Party Chairman and '06 U.S. Senate nominee Jim Pedersen for the seat. Last year, in losing to Republican Sen. Jon Kyl, multi-millionaire real estate developer Pedersen spent freely of his own exchequer and developed significant statewide name recognition. Pedersen is a resident of Casa Grande, in the 1st District.

Among Republicans, the two most-oft discussed candidates if Renzi should exit are former State Senate President Ken Bennett and state legislator Bill Kopnicki. Both have significant personal resources and both are considered conservatives.

Another possibility is former radio talk show host Sydney Hays, one of the runners-up to Renzi in the '02 primary. Hays, who was in Columbia to help Rep. Duncan Hunter (R.-Cal.) in his presidential race, reportedly never forgave Renzi for the way in which he deployed his personal wealth to defeat her for nomination in the just-created 1st District five years ago.

Under state election law, the governor of Arizona has ten days to set the date of a primary and special election once a congressional seat is vacant. Should the state attorney general and secretary of state agree, either party can forego a primary and name a nominee through special districtwide convention.

By John Gizzi

With the recent election of Nicholas Sarkozy as president of France, the speculation has just begun over whether he will name as ambassador to Washington—easily the most critical diplomatic appointment Paris can give—to his longtime arch-rival in the ruling UMP (conservative) Party, Premier and former Foreign Minister Dominque de Villepin.

The relationship between Sarkozy, a past finance and interior minister under outgoing President Jacques Chirac, has been likened to that of George W. Bush and John McCain in the Republican party: cordial, but highly competitive. Last year, du Villepin had been considered a rival to the 52-year-old Sarkozy for their party’s presidential nomination but Sarkozy wrapped up both the party chairmanship and later the nomination for president in short order. Many pundits and pols speculate that if the UMP still had its old-guard leaders select a candidate for president rather than the primary-style system in which Sarkozy was a near-unanimous choice, the nominee would surely have been Chirac man de Villepin.

Although de Villepin irked the Bush Administration as foreign minister by voicing opposition to the Iraqi War, one fellow White House correspondent acquainted with the Paris political scene assured me that this would not be a roadblock to his appointment to the “Citroen ambassadorship.” In my colleague’s words,. “He was only doing his government’s bidding. This does not undercut his close personal relationship with many American political leaders.” De Villepin is considered a master at the dinner party circuit and in old fashioned snail mail correspondence with the powerful—major assets to being ambassador to Washington.

Sarkozy opponents have likened the wily president-elect to Macchiavelli. If the analogies are accurate and the speculation is on target, then Sarkozy may have taken a page from The Prince in showering enemies with rewards by appointing them to ministries abroad and far away.

By John Gizzi

The man who was pivotal to launching Chuck Hagel’s career in politics nearly four decades ago and said he “loved him like a son” told me that the Nebraska senator’s stand on Iraq and suggestion that war opponents impeach President Bush “did a great disservice to the nation.”

In an exclusive interview with me this afternoon, former Republican Rep. (1970-76) John Y. McCollister, who hired the young Hagel for his staff as a freshman congressman in 1970, voiced strong disappointment with the recent actions of his protégé.

“Chuck upset me when he started talking about impeachment,” the 86-year-old McCollister told me from his Omaha (Neb.) home, “That kind of talk [of impeaching President Nixon] destroyed the 93rd Congress in 1973 and made the 94th intolerable in ’74. You don’t throw that kind of impeachment talk around carelessly.”

World War II veteran McCollister, who left the House in 1976 to run unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate, first made it known that he disagreed with former staffer Hagel’s call for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq in a letter to the Omaha World Herald earlier this year (although he did not mention the senator by name). There were also some Republican eyebrows raised earlier this month when the name of McCollister—along with those of Rep. Adrian Smith and State Treasurer Shane Osborn—was conspicuously absent from the host committee for a $100-a-plate Hagel fund-raising dinner at the Happy Hollow Country Club in Omaha. The former congressman has supported and contributed to Hagel since he first ran for the Senate in 1996.

McCollister recalled to me how, as a Douglas County Commissioner in the late 1960s’, he first met Hagel, then finished with his tour of duty in Vietnam and working as a radio newsman in Omaha. After he unseated Republican Rep. Glenn Cunningham in the 1970 primary and then won a tight fall contest against Democratic nominee and TV anchorman John Hlavacek, McCollister went to Washington and hired Hagel for his staff. After losing the Senate race in ’76, McCollister ran the Washington office of Firestone Tires for two years with Hagel at his side. When McCollister went back to Omaha for the private sector in 1978, Hagel took over from him at Firestone and later joined the Reagan Administration.

“Chuck has enormous talent and great personal magnetism, and I loved him like a son,” said McCollister, “But he has gotten off the track. It’s with great sadness that I talk about him now. Chuck did a great disservice to the nation for his stand on Iraq and talk of impeachment. And I’m bothered by this talk of his about supporting a third party candidate for President this year.”

At a time when State Attorney General Jon Bruning has strongly signaled he will run for the Senate in the Republican primary regardless of what Hagel does, who will McCollister support in a contested nomination fight? “I’m not sure what’s going to happen,” he replied, “We’ll have to see.”

Philadelphia, Penn. -- One of the hottest political rumors to emerge in Philadelphia is if multimillionaire Tom Knox wins the Democratic primary for mayor next month, Republicans will then substitute one of the best-known city Democrats as their mayoral candidate.

As the Democratic primary to succeed lameduck Democratic Mayor John Streets goes into the final stretch, a Philadelphia Inquirer poll this morning showed Knox, whose big-spending from his own exchequer is not covered by campaign spending limits, still in the lead over four heavyweight primary opponents.

Knox, as one prominent Philadelphia lawyer told me over lunch at the storied Palm Restaurant this afternoon, "is outside the 400-or so power brokers who run things at City Hall. They don't want him because he'll be our version of [New York Mayor] Mike Bloomberg -- uncontrollable and out of control."

At least two Republican activists who requested anonymity told me that if Knox does indeed emerge as the Democratic nominee, they will promptly try to convince likely Re-publican nominee Al Taubenberger to relinquish the GOP standard and then move to make Lynn Abraham, Democratic District Attorney of Philadelphia, their mayoral standard-bearer.

Abraham succeeded present Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell as District Attorney when he was elected mayor of Philadelphia in 1991. She formerly served as an assistant district attorney under Rendell and is known as a tought prosecutor.

The same source at lunch who voiced concern Knox being the Democratic nominee also voiced some cynicism over lifelong Democrat Abraham suddenly accepting the GOP nomination. In his words, "I wonder if Lynn knows all these big plans Republicans are making for her."

Philadelphia, Penn. -- One of the hottest political rumors to emerge in Pennsylvania last week was that football Hall of Famer and 2006 Republican gubernatorial nominee Lynn Swann would run for Congress next year in the state's 4th District (Aliquippa-Beaver Falls).

Although Swann -- only the third African American since Reconstruction to run for governor anywhere--was unavailable for comment, several GOP operatives told me that he is looking at the race against freshman Democratic Rep. Jason Altmire. Last year, attorney and first-time candidate Altmire scored a stunning upset over three-term Rep. Melissa Hart in a hard-hitting campaign that slammed the conservative incumbent's support of President Bush on Iraq. Hart has not indicated whether she will seek a rematch in '08.

In his losing '06 campaign against Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell, Swann was praised for holding firm on conservative issues such as gun control and abortion, but was criticized for what seemed to be a lack of solid grasp of state issues. As one GOP wag put it, "A 4-2 speed in the 40-yeard dash and a great set of hands do not a governor make."

But Swann, who also had a career as TV color commentator in football games, is committed to the Republican Party. Whether he has grown as a candidate and is ready to play in the political "big leagues" again by running for Congress, only time will tell.

Philadelphia, Penn. -- The heir to one of the best-known political names in Philadelphia and himself one of the few Republican office-holders in the City of Brotherly Love is neutral in the '08 presidential race.

"I have no favorite in the race -- not now anyway," City Councilman Frank Rizzo told me this afternoon. The 64-year-old Rizzo, whose namesake-father was the city's police commissioner in the 1960's and mayor from 1972-80, said that he "was so focused on the local situation" that he had not really strongly considered any of the GOP contenders vying to succeed George W. Bush next year.

"Sure, I know them -- and I really like [Massachusetts Gov.] Mitt Romney," Rizzo told me at this office in City Hall, "But I know John McCain and I have campaigned with Rudy Giuliani." Rizzo recalled how he once introduced the New Yorker at an event in Philadelphia as "the second greatest mayor in American history" -- an obvious reference to the councilman's legendary father, known for his hard-nosed "law and order" stand while in City Hall. (Giuliani knew the elder Rizzo while he was a Justice Department official in the 1980's and was a great admirer of the policeman-mayor, whose statue now stands in downtown Philadelphia).

Given his political clout of the Rizzo name as well as Councilman Rizzo's own reputation as a hard-worker for constituents, his endorsement would clearly be a boost for any of the Republican hopefuls. But, like State Attorney General Tom Corbett -- the lone Republican in statewide office in Pennsylvania -- he is clearly unmoved by the current crop of '08 contenders and has adopted a "wait and see attitude."

Other Pennsylvania Republican leaders have taken sides in the presidential primary next year. David Gerard-DiCarlo, one of the closest associates of former Gov. and Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, is a McCain man. Republican National Committeeman Bob Asher has weighed in for Giuliani, while financier Charles Kopp is a Romney booster.

Philadelphia, Penn. -- Although he has yet to say officially whether he will run for President, Fred Thompson today picked up a critical endorsement for the Republican nomination in '08.

"I like Fred Thompson," Dennis O'Brien, speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, told me at his office here this afternoon. "And I'm for him for President. I have no problem being for him because I like what he stands for." Although the 52-year-old O'Brien did not offer specifics, he did point to the role the former Tennessee senator played two years ago in guiding President's Bush's nomination of John Roberts as chief justice through the Senate confirmation process. In his words, "Supreme Court justices are among the most lasting things a President can give the nation, and [Pennsylvania Republican Sen.] Arlen Specter and Fred Thompson were among those most responsible for securing confirmation of a great jurist."

Like Missouri Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder -- so far the highest elected official outside Tennessee to endorse the 64-year-old Thompson for President--O'Brien cited the former senator and TV actor's reputation as a communicator and said "Fred Thompson approaches the level of the greatest communicator, Ronald Reagan, in being able to have Republicans viewed in terms of what we're for rather than what we're against."

O'Brien, a thirty-year state legislator from the City of Brotherly Love, emerged as speaker in January following an election that left a state House that formerly had a Republican majority with a breakdown of 102 Democrats and 101 Republicans. Because most of the Democrats and a handful of Republicans voted with O'Brien, Republican Speaker John Purcell was forced to relinquish his gavel to the Philadelphian. O'Brien, however, steadfastly refused to consider overtures to become a Democrat, still meets with the Republican caucus in Harrisburg, is proudly pro-life, and today told me "I am a conservative."

In supporting Thompson, O'Brien predicted that the former senator "could carry Pennsylvania because he will carry blue-collar districts like mine." A just-completed survey of likely GOP voters in the Pennsylvania primary next May showed Rudy Giuliani leading with 44%, followed by John McCain with 17%, Fred Thompson 10%, Newt Gingrich 5%, Mitt Romney 3%, and Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback and Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo at 2% each.

Other Republican heavyweights are expected to join O'Brien on the Thompson bandwagon soon. One name increasingly mentioned as a Keystone State Thompsonite is that of Delaware County Republican Chairman John McNichol. Clearly, such strong backing for someone who has not filed an exploratory committee nor even announced his intentions will put more pressure on Fred Thompson to indicate his plans -- sooner rather than later.

Despite a 37-year history of members of the President’s staff testifying under oath before congressional committees, the White House today insisted that the present cases of Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and former Counsel Harriet Miers were different circumstances.

At today’s gaggle (early morning briefing) of White House correspondents, I cited a report by NBC-TV News correspondent Pete Williams that, since 1970, there have been 49 cases of White House staffers appearing before congressional committees -- 31 from the Clinton Administration and seven from the Nixon Administration, including the President’s speechwriter Pat Buchanan and his personal secretary Rosemary Woods, according to Williams’ report. What was the differences between those circumstances of those of Rove and Miers, I asked Press Secretary Tony Snow.

“I’m not going to get back through and try to play legal analyst on all these,” Snow replied, “But you have a whole different set of circumstances, natures of hearings.”

“So they weren’t ‘show trials’ or were they?” I asked, referring to a phrase Snow and the President have both used to describe what could come about if Rove and Miers appeared under oath instead of the more informal interviews the White House has offered Congress as a venue for questioning them.

“Again, you’re asking me to comment on -- you referred to a series of hearings and I don’t which ones you’re referring to,” said the President’s top spokesman.

The White House won’t give the same statement of support for Deputy Atty. Gen. Paul McNulty that both the President and Press Secretary Tony Snow have voiced for embattled Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales.

At today’s gaggle (early morning briefing), I asked Snow whether he would express the same confidence in McNulty that he expressed for Gonzales last week and that the President did when he appeared before reporters last night.

“I’m not in the business of assessing the deputy attorney general,” the President’s top spokesman told me, “The attorney general -- I would direct that question back to the attorney general. And this is not a dodge; it’s one of these things where you’re asking us now to talk about senior staff in an agency and I don’t think the President is busy handing out report cards to people. What you do when you delegate authority is that you delegate it to folks -- just like asking me, well, what do we think of number two at Treasury. I’m not going to answer a question like that.”

I pointed out to Snow that “[y]ou did last Thursday, and the President did last night.”

Snow replied: “Well, what we said -- we said that we have faith and confidence in Alberto Gonzales, and I leave it at that.”

“And I’m asking,” I remonstrated, “do you have the same—“

A slightly irritated Snow fired back: “I know what you’re asking, and it’s not something that I think is appropriate to answer.”

The exchange with Snow was just a snippet of a stormy morning session between the White House Press Corps and the press secretary. At one point, Snow got into an explanation of the President’s use of the phrase “show trials” last night and whether litigating before a federal court would be a “show trial.” At that point, colleague Andrei Sitov of the Tass (Russian) News service whispered to me: “They don’t know what show trials are!”

One of Fred Thompson’s oldest political friends from Tennessee said that the former Volunteer State senator and movie and television star is “at this time, 4-to-5 on a scale of ten” on seeking the Republican nomination for President next year.

Tom Griscom, editor and publisher of the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times-Free Press, told me today that “I haven’t reached out to Fred yet, but I’m going purely on instinct” on guessing where the 64-year-old Thompson was in considering a White House bid. Griscom added that he would contact the common mentor he and Thompson shared, former Senate Republican Leader Howard Baker (R.-Tenn.), before calling Thompson. Griscom served as press secretary to Baker and came to know Thompson in 1973, when the lawyer became minority counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee on which Baker was ranking Republican.

“It’s late in the game and, at least in terms of raising money, Fred may not have the luxury of time,” observed Griscom, who served as operating head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 1986 and later director of communications in the Reagan White House. He also conceded that Thompson had been out of office since he left the Senate in 2002 (“He really didn’t like the way the Senate worked”). But he added that Thompson -- best known these days as “District Attorney Arthur Branch” on TV’s popular Law and Order series -- has kept himself politically active as the White House pointman on the confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts and, more recently, through the legal defense fund for Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former top aide to Vice President Cheney convicted of perjury.

When I asked him whether Thompson is a conservative, Griscom told me: “Look, a lot of people call him a centrist because his introduction to politics was via Howard Baker. He’s actually a lot more conservative than people realize. Fred’s not an extremist—he’d never be part of the religious right, but he’s certainly more conservative than Howard Baker.” With a lifetime rating of 86% from the American Conservative Union over his eight years in the Senate (1994-2002), Thompson’s record in the Senate, with few exceptions, was rather solidly conservative. His breaks from the right were almost all related to campaign finance reform issues and to tort reform. (He practiced law before entering politics.) In ’02, for example, as a strong supporter of McCain-Feingold, he broke with most conservative senators to support limiting donations to federal candidates to $2,000 per year and opposed a measure to require medical malpractice suits against doctors and medical providers to be filed within two years of discovering an injury. In ’01, Thompson voted for three measures to enhance government regulation of campaign finance and, in a rare break with fiscal conservatives on taxes, he opposed an accelerated elimination of the marriage penalty. His overall record on fiscal issues, however, is conservative. In ’02, the National Taxpayers Union rated Thompson 73%, making him the 7th best senator in the NTU ratings of lawmakers on spending issues.

Griscom quickly referred to the recent Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington and said “no one [of the candidates who participated in the conference] can make the claim of being the anointed conservative.

Among those closely advising Thompson on a prospective White House bid are Baker and Tennessee State Republican Chairman Bob Davis, who ran Thompson’s state operations while he was in the Senate.

At a closed-door meeting of the Senate Republican Conference earlier in the week, the consensus among the 49 GOP senators was that Atty. Gen. Albert Gonzales should step down.

"Most of us who were present felt he should go," said one senator who requested anonymity. Although the discussion at the meeting of the Conference focused primarily on the upcoming debate on funding for U.S. troops in Iraq, the senator told me today, there was also "some discussion" of the embattled attorney general and his recent performance in explaining the forced resignations of eight U.S. attorneys. The senator said that the feeling was that Gonzales -- whom he said has never had a close relationship with him and his Republicans -- should resign "soon."

Although longtime Bush friend Gonzales insisted at a press conference yesterday that "mistakes were made" in the exits of the federal prosecutors, he would not resign as the nation's top law enforcement officer.

With the announcement this morning that Nebraska’s Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel will declare his political intentions at noon 10 a.m. Central on Monday, speculation is mounting that the two-termer will run for neither the presidency nor re-election, but simply call it quits.

As Hagel’s office confirmed that he would make an announcement of his plans on Monday, an old brochure from the Republican’s first Senate race in 1996 in which he expresses support for a two-term limit on senators has begun circulating. Although Hagel himself never actually took a pledge to serve only terms, he did voice sympathies for the then-popular movement for two six-year terms for senators.

Regarding a presidential race, there was considerable buzzing in Washington that the Nebraskan—best known recently for breaking with President Bush in backing a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq—might announce a President bid of his own or at least an exploratory committee. But the consensus among pundits and pols is that Hagel has waited too long to prepare for a national race and could not, at this late date, match the fund-raising prowess or political organizations of the three GOP front-runners: John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

(In 2000, Hagel supported fellow Vietnam War veteran McCain for President. Although the two have sharply different views today on the US presence in Iraq, a decades-long friend of McCain’s recently told me: “Chuck and John don’t have a problem over their disagreement on this one issue. The friendship is too close.”).

Others who have known Hagel well and supported his past campaigns in the Cornhusker State point out the first senator from Nebraska who never held nor sought elective office before going to the Senate had been very successful in the cellular phone business and investment banking. Public office, they almost universally conclude, has meant a pay cut for the 60-year-old senator.

The growing betting that Hagel will step down came days after Nebraska State Attorney General Jon Bruning was in Washington for the National Association of State Attorneys General. A former state senator, Bruning is considered to have a better relationship with the conservative grassroots among Nebraska Republicans than Hagel and would be regarded as the GOP favorite in the event of an open Senate seat. Also considered a potential candidate is Republican National Committeeman Hal Daub, former four-term U.S. Representative and mayor of Omaha. Daub lost bids for the Senate in 1988 and ’90.

A high-powered political lawyer blasted the guilty verdict in the case of Lewis “Scooter” Libby and called for President Bush to pardon the former vice presidential chief of staff.

Richard McLellan, head of the Government Policy Department in the “super-firm” of Dykema-Gossett, told me hours after the verdict that the case of Libby and whether he leaked the identity of former CIA operative Valerie Plame to different reporters “expects attention to detail and memory that none of us could muster.”

“In general, the jury system works and there is some value in trusting the system,” said McLellan, a one-time special assistant to Michigan’s former Democratic Atty. Gen. Frank Kelley, from his office in Lansing, “But any politically-driven prosecution raises real concern about public service.” In the case of Libby, he added, “it expects attention to detail and memory that none of us could muster.” Recalling his own years dealing with grand juries, McLellan noted that witnesses are required to testify without notes, appointment calendars, or counsel.

“Can you recall who you had lunch with 11 months ago?” McLellan asked rhetoricially -- an obvious reference to Libby not recalling lunch with former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, who testified in court that the former Cheney aide told him over a meal in the White House Mess that Plame -- the wife of Administration critic Joseph Wilson -- did indeed work for the CIA.

McLellan believes that the case will be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals and that “any minute mistake can mean that the verdict will be overturned.” However, he quickly added, that would only open the way for a second trial in District Court unless Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald decided to terminate the prosecution of Libby outright. Getting the Libby verdict considered by the Supreme Court is “remote,” according to McLellan.

The Water Wonderland lawyer strongly voiced his view that, given the circumstances of the Libby case, “George W. Bush should pardon Scooter Libby on his last day as President, just as his father pardoned all of the people convicted in the Iran-Contra case in his final days as President [in 1993].”

At this afternoon’s White House briefing for reporters, Acting Press Secretary Dana Perrino refused to entertain any questions about Bush pardoning Libby, saying discussion of a pardon was “hypothetical.”