Oh-eight (D): Paging Dr. Melfi!
Posted: Friday, June 22, 2007 9:12 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Democrats
CLINTON:
As predicted, columnists are using the Sopranos spoof to do some
Clinton analysis. Here's Peggy Noonan: "So, the Sopranos spoof wasn't bringing up That Which Must Not Be Said. It was saying it and getting rid of it. (A piquant aspect: The bad guy in the video who eyeballs Mrs. Clinton really ‘is’ a mobster, the actor who played Johnny Sack in ‘The Sopranos.’ The Clintons' enemies are the real gangsters!)”Apparently, Stevie Van Zandt, a.k.a. Silvio,
turned down the Johnny Sacks part in the Sopranos spoof because he’s supporting Obama. Van Zandt amazingly is now more known for his role in the Sopranos than as a member of Bruce Springsteen's band. What a country!
Bill is taking a hands-off approach, he says. “‘I don't expect to do a lot of this this year and I don't think it's helpful,’ the former President said, referring to an upcoming campaign trip in Iowa in which he will accompany her. ‘I want people to get to know Hillary.’”
DODD: Like a bridge over troubled campaigns... Paul Simon is going to campaign with Chris Dodd for two days in July in Iowa.
EDWARDS:
The
New York Times examines the poverty center Edwards formed just after the 2004 election, and it says Edwards "pushed at the boundaries of how far such organizations can venture into the political realm." The organization, "the Center for Promise and Opportunity, raised $1.3 million in 2005, and — unlike a sister charity he created to raise scholarship money for poor students — the main beneficiary of the center’s fund-raising was Mr. Edwards himself, tax filings show.”
More: “A spokesman for Mr. Edwards defended the center yesterday as a legitimate tool against poverty. The organization became a big part of a shadow political apparatus for Mr. Edwards after his defeat as the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2004 and before the start of his presidential bid this time around. Its officers were members of his political staff, and it helped pay for his nearly constant travel, including to early primary states.”
The AP covers Edwards’ speech in New York last night, in which he “focused on the economic gap that he argues has widened since his last run… Edwards told the crowd at the Cooper Union school that people deserve the American dream, the right to succeed on the strength of one's own merits, but that too many Americans don't have the opportunity anymore.”
OBAMA:
In his speech today, per his campaign, Obama will pledge to enact the most sweeping ethics reform package in history on his first day as president. His plan includes: 1) closing the revolving door between government and the private sector by requiring that no political appointee be able to lobby the executive branch for the remainder of his potential administration; 2) ending the abuse of no-bid contracts; 3) restoring objectivity to the executive branch; and 4) increasing public access to information.
Obama will say, according to excerpts of his speech: “I know that in every campaign, politicians make promises about cleaning up Washington. And most times, you end up disappointed when it doesn’t happen. So it’s easy to become cynical -- to believe that change isn’t possible; that the odds are too great; that this year is bound to be no different from the last. But I also know what I’ve seen and what I’ve done. I know that for me, reform isn’t just the rhetoric of a campaign; it’s been a cause of my career.”
Yet the speech comes at the same time as this news does: It appears that the first 527 formed to benefit one of the '08 Democrats is out and it's a group formed to benefit Obama. The group, "Vote Hope," does not bill itself as a 527 group. In fact, on their Web site, they specifically ask for money that falls under federal hard money campaign limits. But the group has also registered as a 527 group (established March 21, 2007).
The Los Angeles Times reports on the existence of the group but calls the group a PAC, not a 527. The paper says that the group was formed by California Dem activists, Steve Phillips and his wife, Susan Sandler. Phillips said his organization would not attack Obama's foes, and instead would focus on getting out the vote for the Illinois Democrat among minorities, the poor and students.
For the record, Obama has been outspoken against the rise of 527s. To date, we know of two other 527s related to '08 candidates. Newt Gingrich actually uses one to pay for his political expenses, and there's an anti-McCain one called "Vietnam Veterans against John McCain."
The Obama campaign chose four donors to have dinner with the Illinois senator. One is a Bronx man who works in a food bank and gave just $25 the campaign. “I gave him $25. It's all I could afford. Now I'm trying not to jump up in excitement,” Haile Rivera, a former Clinton Senate campaign volunteer, told the NY Daily News.
Here's something we're likely to hear more about in the coming months. Did you know that Obama's church "took a stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that the Anti-Defamation League rebuked as "unfair and one-sided”? The Sun-Times profiles the church.
And the Chicago Tribune's McCormick offers up a news analysis lead only Phil Singer could love: "Despite often lofty rhetoric that he plans to bring the nation a ‘new kind of politics,’ Sen. Barack Obama has surrounded himself with operatives skilled in the old-school art of the political backstab."
