“I
thought everybody was going to break out in ‘Kumbaya.’”
— Former Clinton White House aide Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.),
commenting on the good vibes surrounding the unveiling of Bill and
Hillary Clinton’s
official portraits at the White House on Monday
For Clinton book, it’s 24/7 media
You can call it the Bill Clinton Book
Blitz.
It’s the all-out nationwide promotion tour that kicks off
this weekend, and it’s going to be something to behold.
patrick g. ryan
This nondescript condominium on 3rd Street
N.E. is at the center of the impeachment trial of Connecticut
Gov. John Rowland (R). Rowland, who bought Unit 303 in 1989
when he was a congressman, began renting the studio in 1996
for $1,750 per month to the niece of a wealthy Connecticut businessman.
Other units were renting for $400 to $600 at the time. He then
sold the property through a third party at an inflated price.
Even President Bush gave his predecessor’s
much-anticipated 957-page memoir, My Life, a nice plug
at Monday’s White House ceremony unveiling Bill and Hillary’s
official portraits.
The former president’s book doesn’t go on sale until
Tuesday, but the buildup begins Friday as the Infinity radio network
runs audio clips from the book, and with an exclusive interview
with Time magazine, which will publish a cover story in
next week’s issue.
Then, on Sunday, Clinton will appear on CBS’s “60 Minutes”
in an hour-long interview with anchor Dan Rather — which he’s
already taped — followed by a live interview Tuesday with
Oprah Winfrey, just before he does his first book-signing at noon
at a Rockefeller Center bookstore.
That will be followed by live appearances on ABC’s “Good
Morning America” and NBC’s “Today” Wednesday
and an interactive town-hall meeting on AOL and the Infinity radio
network, which has never been tried before. The joint effort has
a potential audience of 110 million people.
And that’s before Clinton begins a nationwide tour of more
than a dozen cities to promote the book, which has a first printing
of 1.5 million copies, according to the publisher, Alfred A. Knopf.
Clinton’s book, for which he received a $12 million advance,
has already set a record for pre-orders for a memoir on Amazon.com.
Rather, one of the few people who has read the tightly held volume,
told the New York Observer that he “liked it more
than I thought I would.” He added, “As presidential
memoirs go, on a five-star scale, I give it five.”
As for what’s in the book, you’ll have to wait for Rather’s
interview and the book itself, but Robert Barnett, the Washington
literary lawyer who sold both Clinton’s book and that of his
wife, isn’t telling.
“I think we have scrupulously tried to allow the reader to
judge,” Barnett told The Hill this week when asked about the
extreme secrecy surrounding it. “We have not discussed the
content in advance of publishing, and we hope a whole lot of people
will buy this book.”
And as for the question everybody wants to know, what does Clinton
write about the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Barnett’s lips are
sealed.
Once people have read it, he predicts, “I think they will
take away from it new insights and find in it humor and an unprecedented
look at what it’s like to be president of the United States.”
And you are?
Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) got a quick lesson in House membership
earlier this week as he and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.)
were leaving the Capitol and ran into newly minted Rep. Stephanie
Herseth (D-S.D.).
As he got into his car, Hoyer asked Weldon, “Hey Curt, do
you know Stephanie Herseth?”
“No,” replied Weldon. “Do you work for Steny?”
Herseth then informed Weldon that she’s not a staffer but
the newest member of Congress. Wily politician that he is, the 18-year
member quickly recovered. “Oh, you look so young,” he
told the 33-year-old lawmaker.
Then, segueing almost seamlessly into one of his pet issues, he
added, “Well, you ought to join the fireman’s caucus
— doesn’t cost you anything.”
D-Day coins in mint
condition
As former director of the U.S. Mint, Jay Johnson knows a business
opportunity when he sees it.
Johnson, a former Democratic congressman from Wisconsin, was instrumental
in persuading the California-based numismatic company he works for
to team up with Monnaie de Paris, the French counterpart to the
U.S. Mint, to issue special gold and silver proof coins commemorating
the 60th anniversary of D-Day.
Johnson presented two of the coins to former Sen. George McGovern
(D-S.D.) and former Rep. Sam Gibbons (D-Fla.) at the recent ceremony
at the French Embassy for the 100 World War II veterans who were
awarded the Legion of Honor by the French government in Paris on
June 5.
The coins are the first of 2,000 gold coins and 20,000 silver coins
distributed by Johnson’s company, Collectors Universe Inc.
Each coin depicts American, English and French soldiers in Normandy
on June 6, 1944, and is inscribed, “D-Day, Liberté,
Egalité, Fraternité.”
Russo: Congress should
take over its own redistricting
Former Rep. Marty Russo (D-Ill.) has a solution to the redistricting
kerfuffle: Let Congress handle it.
“States redistrict themselves, counties redistrict themselves,
cities redistrict themselves,” he said. “It doesn’t
have to be this way. [Congress] can take it over.”
And while they’re at it, he added, districts should be made
smaller. “We should make the Congress bigger,” he said.
“But you’re never going to pass that. The last time
we did that was 1909; we went to 435 [members]. It’s tough
to do a great job for
625,000 constituents. It’d be a lot easier to do it for 275,000
or 300,000.”
Russo should know about the perils of redistricting and overly diffuse
districts. In 1992, he lost his job as a result of post-census redistricting
when he was forced to run against Rep. William Lipinski in the Democratic
primary and lost. He landed on his feet, however, at lobbying powerhouse
Cassidy & Associates, where he is now vice chairman and president.
Lipinski just announced his retirement.
“Years ago, Bill [Lipinski] used to tell me he didn’t
like it here,” said Russo. “That’s why I ran against
him in the primary. It turns out he really liked it here. He’s
a dear friend. We only ran once against each other but that certainly
hasn’t tarnished the relationship. It’ll be interesting
to see what job he takes. He must have something in the offing to
make him leave.”
New look at Gen.
Washington
David McCullough, the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author and
historian, is racing to finish his latest book this fall in time
for publication next spring.
Speaking from his home on Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., last week,
McCullough said the book is “about the American Revolution,
with the focus on the early part.”
McCullough, whose last book was a best-selling biography of President
John Adams,
said his book follows George Washington as he led the Continental
Army against the British “at the darkest time in the nation’s
history.”
He added, “Washington took command in 1775, and my book takes
him up to the Battle of Trenton in December 1776, when Washington’s
Army crossed the Delaware and surprised the British. That’s
when he and his troops suddenly realized, ‘Hey we can beat
these guys.’”
While Washington is the main character, the book is “history,
not biography,”
McCullough said. “I tell it from the point of view of the
British and Hessian troops as well.”
What’s next for the prolific author? “I’m thinking
about taking a year off to paint,” said McCullough, an avid
amateur painter.
McCullough did not volunteer an opinion about the chances that his
son’s father-in-law, Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), will be named
John Kerry’s running mate.
Cane Caucus, not lame
ducks
Reps. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.) and Sam Johnson (R-Texas) are mulling
a new tongue-in-cheek, bipartisan congressional alliance. As they
were waiting for an elevator in the Capitol Tuesday, Ackerman noted
that they were both sporting the same perambulatory addition. “We
can start a caucus!” he quipped. “What? The Cane Caucus?”
retorted Johnson.
