Now the conspiracy against Hillary really is vast!
Et Tu Nadler? There has been much buzz that the press operation of Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is none too pleased with all of the attention that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) gets at her senior colleague's expense, and now the office of Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D) can be added to the list of New Yorkers keeping a close eye on Clinton in the cutthroat Big Apple media market.
For months, Nadler's sharp-elbowed press secretary, Eric Schmeltzer, has been sending out a daily barrage of e-mails to reporters about the Congressman's crusade to get the Environmental Protection Agency to test the air quality around Ground Zero in his district. But last Monday, Clinton held a field hearing in Manhattan on the matter, then followed it up with questioning of EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman at a Wednesday hearing in D.C.
The EPA finally agreed to create a task force on the matter, and Clinton's office rushed out a press release saying it came "in response" to her hearing. Word spread to Nadler's office that reporters were working on stories giving Clinton credit. Schmeltzer sprung into action and may have breached Congressional courtesy a bit by suggesting that Clinton was late to the cause, though the Senator has been involved from the beginning.
"I realize [Clinton aide] Karen Dunn got word to all of you before on this, but I wanted to make sure you had Rep. Nadler's reaction, since he was the one who moved Sen. Clinton to do something about this," he wrote in an e-mail to reporters who were filing stories on the matter. "Thanks, and please, if you still can get something in, mention Rep. Nadler."
Schmeltzer told HOH he was merely defending his boss. "It wasn't a shot at Clinton, just a reminder to my reporter friends that Nadler's been raising this issue daily since back in October."
Dunn told HOH: "The bottom line is that Administrator Whitman deserves credit for promptly responding to concerns raised at Monday's hearing and establishing a much-needed task force," she said.
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