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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: D. Long who wrote (16103)	11/14/2003 5:55:24 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793622

merican Journalists Against America Reuters reports from London on what the "news" service calls "a wave not of anti-Americanism but anti-Bushism," though it sounds a lot like anti-Americanism to us. Two of those piling on are American journalists: "It's tougher being an American in London than it used to be. Our President has made it so," said Newsweek Magazine's London correspondent Stryker McGuire. "Even among friendly Britons, there's a growing skepticism about the gun-toting, electric-chairing land that has let Dubya be Dubya for nigh on three years now." . . . The New York Times ' London correspondent Warren Hoge told Reuters: "America is now something of a rogue state, a pariah nation." "People repeatedly say it isn't Americans we don't like, it is just Bush. He pushes hot buttons. Bush has so much to do with this rather stupendous fall-off in American popularity. It is quite amazing to think where we were the day after September 11 and how much of that goodwill has been squandered." Why don't Newsweek and the Times just dispense with the pretense of objectivity and hire Michael Moore as a reporter? opinionjournal.com

To: D. Long who wrote (16103)	11/14/2003 12:23:34 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793622

Some "inside politics" on the Pros involved. Loyalties split between candidate, self-interest RON FOURNIER, AP Political Writer Thursday, November 13, 2003 ©2003 Associated Press San Francisco Chronicle Joe Trippi is not running for president. Neither is Bob Shrum, Jim Jordan, Chris Lehane, Mark Fabiani nor any of the other high-priced political consultants whose hiring, firings, resignations -- and all matter of Machiavelli in between -- too often eclipse the actions of their bosses. But they're getting a lot of attention. The 2004 campaign has been marked by an acceleration of the trend spotlighting political professionals over presidential candidates. "We had a movie made about our 1992 campaign, so it's hard for me to be critical about this cult of consultants," said James Carville, strategist for Bill Clinton's first presidential bid. "But this is getting out of hand." The media's obsession with the inner workings of campaigns is partly to blame for the rise of the consultant class. Carville and George Stephanopolous were media darlings in 1992. Republicans Lee Atwater and Karl Rove became household names for helping to elect two Bushes. The candidates themselves make stars or scapegoats of consultants. Democrat John Kerry's personnel moves have his staff bordering on revolt. But the consultants' culture is part of the problem too. More than ever, political professionals are maintaining business ties outside their campaigns, a practice that leads to split loyalties and conflicts of interest, say Democratic and Republican consultants who are beginning to condemn their own lot. "If you don't drop everything and focus on the campaign, you're not doing the candidate justice," said GOP consultant Rick Davis, who ran Sen. John McCain's 2000 presidential campaign. Some consultants seem to worry as much about their own reputations as their candidates' fortunes, with an eye toward future business prospects: television punditry, lobbying and private sector clients who pay fortunes for political-style campaigns to sell their products. Kerry's campaign is a model of dysfunction. The Massachusetts senator fired his campaign manager Sunday at the urging of fund-raisers who demanded he do something to jump-start the ailing effort. Jim Jordan left quietly, but the flap roared. Two staff members quit within days, apparently more loyal to Jordan than the man they were trying to elect president. A spate of stories quoted anonymous sources who blamed the campaign's woes on Kerry and Shrum, a veteran consultant with a history of high-profile clashes. Kerry told The Associated Press on Thursday that his campaign "will be better off moving ahead with people who want to be there." He claimed to have barely known one of those who quit, Robert Gibbs, who had been his chief spokesman since January. Kerry later called the former aides to apologize for his remarks, a senior Kerry adviser said. This was not Kerry's first staff problem. Lehane worked for commercial clients while advising Kerry for free, an arrangement the consultant said cost him money because he was forced to reject private sector work. He quit two months ago in a dispute with Shrum and others over the campaign's direction. Two days later, Wesley Clark entered the race with Lehane's business partner, Fabiani, serving as top adviser. Fabiani was criticized for rushing home to business in California after Clark's announcement, leaving an inexperienced candidate and staff behind as the retired Army general fumbled questions about Iraq. Lehane, who helped craft much of Kerry's strategy, now works for Clark. Steve Jarding and David "Mudcat" Saunders, experts in courting rural Democrats, have worked for two presidential candidates, Sens. John Edwards of North Carolina and Bob Graham of Florida. With Graham out, they've shopped their services to front-runner Howard Dean. Dean's campaign manager is Trippi, mastermind of a revolutionary Internet-driven campaign the leads the Democratic pack. "I'm not the reason Dean is doing so well," said Trippi, whose Washington consulting firm has represented the former Vermont governor for years. "All of our supporters are. They just make me look good." Good enough that he showed up at a Dean news conference with a lapel microphone. Television producers routinely wire him for sound. At one recent campaign stop in Phoenix, the candidate delivered his stump speech then turned it over to Trippi who held a news conference with local reporters. An elderly woman pushed herself on stage, brushed passed Dean and asked several people, "Where's Joe? I've got to meet Joe." "He's the man," she said. sfgate.com