It wasn’t long after Judge Samuel Alito was confirmed for the Supreme Court yesterday that Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of the key members of the Senate’s “Gang of 14,” let slip his travel plans: He’s headed for Guantanamo Bay. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., recovering from knee surgery, sported a silver-handled walking stick yesterday. He borrowed it from his pal and colleague Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.
The Williams tax initiatives
“Anything that moves in the stadium will be taxed. I assure you of that,” D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams said the other day over a private breakfast at the Mandarin Oriental, while explaining that a new stadium is a good economic deal for the city.
… But what, us worry?
While some of us are getting lots of zzz’s, Williams said a few things keep him up at night: homeland security, fear of avian flu coming in via Dulles Airport, crime and the real estate market flattening out. “That would have a huge impact on our tax base,” concluded the mayor.
GOP to do New York again?
Buzz hears that both the Republican Party and the Big Apple were so pleased with the GOP’s 2004 national convention in New York City that they may do an encore in 2008. Other cities under consideration include Tampa, Fla., Anaheim, Calif., Minneapolis and Miami. The Democrats are also looking closely at New York as a favor to Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., but insiders say that Denver, with its strategic location, is a good bet at this early date. Detroit and Orlando, Fla., are also making a big play, as is New Orleans, where the Dems are holding their spring meeting.
Price is right for Reed’s followers
“It’s politics, not religion,” said Ralph Reed. Perhaps that justifies his campaign strategy for crowd-building. Political observers eyeing the way the Christian Coalition mobilized supporters for a recent Republican rally in Georgia wondered if they are operating in that state as if it were a corrupt country. Looked like it for a moment when we discovered that the crowd at the political rally in Atlanta turned out equally for Ralph Reed and State Sen. Casey Cagle, his GOP primary opponent for lieutenant governor of Georgia this year.
We’ve learned that the Reed campaign offered to pay for rally registration and one night in a hotel for followers to come to the Christian Coalition rally near Atlanta last week. It’s ironic that the group Reed once led didn’t turn out voluntarily to support him. Could it be his alleged ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff?