Washington, DC — In a worrisome signal for House majority leader Tom DeLay, the highly influential editorial page of the Wall Street Journal writes today that DeLay, “who rode to power in 1994 on a wave of revulsion at the everyday ways of big government, has become the living exemplar of some of its worst habits.”

The editorial, “Smells Like Beltway” sends a signal to a wide swath of mainstream conservative opinion
leaders that DeLay is in for a rough ride ahead, and that it’s okay to consider some of the allegations against him as credible — even as the Travis County/Ronnie Earle allegations are blatantly political, which they are.

More: “Rather than buck this system as he promised to do while in the minority, Mr. DeLay has become its undisputed and unapologetic master as Majority Leader.”

Concludes the editorial, which is the talk of DC this morning, “Whether Mr. DeLay violated the small print of House Ethics or campaign-finance rules is thus largely beside the point. His real fault lies in betraying the broader set of principles that brought him into office, and which, if he continues as before, sooner or later will sweep him out.”

That’s a legit observation.

New York, NY — On a quick business run to NYC today, it was hard not to notice the  multiple news reports regarding the new video footage of Hillary Clinton "embracing" Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison at a recent DC ceremony.

The video, shot by Kay’s potential rival for Governor, incumbent Gov. Rick Perry, is a major coup for Perry’s camp. The 46 second clip, recorded during a joint appearance at the Sewall-Belmont House and Museum, shows Hillary telling the group she’s "delighted that Kay is my partner on so many important fronts."

Despite the fact the clip is all over the internet and already in the political circulatory system — dailies in Texas and New York have already reported on it — the big payoff will be in a TV ad, and anyone who says this will not have an impact in a Texas GOP gubernatorial primary is certifiable.

At a minimum, this "controversy" has already established a "Kay is a liberal" narrative that’s of no help at all as she considers primarying Perry. One well known Texas GOP political operative told DCSpectator today this video is "pure poison" in a GOP primary, while another reporter in Dallas, asked for their reaction, simply laughed, and said, "looks like we have another substantive campaign to look forward to."

Just the fact the Perry camp had ther presence of mind and resourcefulness to a) surmise there was a huge opportunity up in DC with the event, b) line up a crew, and c) actually pull it off — and then get some free media and political buzz about the caper — should be troubling to Kay’s camp. There’s obviously some serious scheming going on, and this is likely just the tip of the iceberg.

Kudos to the crew guys who told the truth when asked who they were filming for. That’s absolutely required. What a race this is shaping up to be.

Note: From a full disclosure standpoint, I helped run a 2 day Texas fly-around in 1993 w/ John McCain and U.S. Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX) — organized and paid for by the RNC — during Kay’s ’93 special election against incumbent Bob Krueger, and I was paid for doing so. I have no favorite in this potential race, however, and will continue to look and write about this race as events warrant in a straight-up, unbiased manner.

Washington, DC — Whenever CNN’s John King fills in for Judy Woodruff on Inside Politics, as he did today, the show has more zip, more energy and is just more interesting.

Not to slam Judy Woodruff — she’s a superior, talented reporter, and has been for some time — but she seems bored with the show and with politics in general… same old, same old.

King, like AP’s Ron Fornier, benefits from having been AP’s chief national political correspondent, and enjoying access not just to the usual DC sources, but scores of other operatives and movers and shakers in states across America.

CNN execs should be thinking about creating a new IP format and set around King for the 2006 and 2008 elections. Woodruff should be assigned to weightier beats worthy of her gravitas — not sitting around shooting the breeze with Bay Buchanan and Donna Brazile.

Washington, DC — While a young Capitol Hill press secretary in the mid-eighties, my friends and I would often hang out at the House-side watering hole, Bullfeathers, and have a few brews with then-28 year old Congressman John Rowland between key votes and after the session had ended for the night.

Those were great days, and we’d also hang out with my former boss, Rep. Joe DioGuardi (R-NY), Duncan Hunter (R-CA) and a few other members just to shoot the breeze.

Rowland was a fun guy — and a good guy, and it’s sad to see him hauled off to jail for one year on corruption charges. He F’d up bigtime. The charges, especially, are dispiriting: a free hot tub from a state contractor and a few trips to Vegas; pretty low rent graft — more worthy of corruption at the state representative level.

"I let my pride get in my way," Rowland, now 47, said Friday before U.S. District Judge Peter C. Dorsey
sentenced him to a year in prison for selling access to his office for personal gain. Once Connecticut’s youngest governor and one of the Republican Party’s fastest-rising stars, Rowland told Dorsey that he lost sight of his ethical judgment and developed a "sense of entitlement and even arrogance."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nora Dannehy kicked Rowland in the teeth, saying, "He has corrupted the office of the governor as if he took a bag of cash in a dark alley. He was corrupt. It was a six-year conspiracy to deprive this state of honest services."

When Rowland gets out in one year’s time, I wish he and his family the best as they try to move on with their lives. It’s sad to see a guy you knew at one time turn out to be in this situation.

Washington, DC — What a joke: the baseball executives all made fools of themselves and their sport during congressional hearings today. Hour after hour the bullshitting, the half-truths and the pretending continued until MSNBC simply decided to keey carrying it live, even preempting Hardball.

These baseball carneys — especially Bud Selig — were on the run all day, and credit MSNBC for realizing the news value of watching a sinking ship go down.

As soon as Mark McGwire pled the fifth, things got even more interesting — and the hearing’s still going at 830pm EST.  

These guys were almost as bad as the infamous tobacco executives’ appearance in the 90′s — when they said there was no evidence smoking causes cancer. Pathetic performance. And Barry Bonds — what a pompous asshole. Where is he hiding?

Football is where it’s at — always was, and always will be.

Washington, DC — Leslie Gelb, the former New York Timesman, U.S. Government official and now professor emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations turns in a must read Wall Street Journal article on Dick Cheney’s gravitas on the world stage.

A few snippets:

“Dick Cheney sees the dark side of the world, a reality that largely eludes Democrats but not most Americans. He understands power and knows how to wield it, as opposed to the soft-power prose of intellectual Democrats…

“Meantime, too many Democrats portray the rest of the world as just a bunch of misunderstood bunny rabbits who misunderstand us. It’s just one big misunderstanding. Democrats often seem to say that we can cure so much of the nastiness in the world with anti-poverty programs, and by allowing more foreign students to study here…

“Most Americans get the need for power, and Mr. Cheney lets them know he fears not to use that power. Sometimes, even often, he and President Bush use it too blatantly and bluntly, and it backfires. Such has been true of the administration’s clumsy and erratic efforts to stop nuclear weapons programs in Iran and North Korea. But leaders around the globe now realize that they will pay a price, even a heavy one, for opposing the Bush administration. They know Washington can array carrots and sticks that will make their lives easier or harder, and they prefer easier…

“By contrast, the Clinton administration left town being feared neither in Washington nor the world…
“Most Americans need to feel assured that our leaders will crush those who would hurt us. Correctly or incorrectly, Americans wonder whether Democrats have the stomach for this. They don’t wonder about Mr. Cheney or Mr. Bush.”

Awesome truthtelling many in the Democratic Party just don’t want to hear, much less deal with.

Washington, DC — If not apparent by now, it’s abundantly clear the Washington Post is gunning for Tom DeLay. A series of page one investigative pieces by Mike Allen, Jim Grimaldi and other Posties have uncovered some interesting financial disclosure tidbits that, quite frankly, merit the coverage — although perhaps not continuously meriting front page placement.

Today’s damaging front page Mike Allen piece, "DeLay Ethics Allegations Now Cause of GOP Concern," and a follow-up Post editorial, should concern the DeLay camp. There’s now a sense of blood in the water inside the Beltway, and this will merely stimulate continued follow-on reporting from the New York Times, which is becoming more interested in this story. Particularly worrisome are background quotes from a GOP "ally" starting to say there may be some big time problems.

The story is all the more juicy due to the fact former GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former DeLay aides are part of the investigatory picture relating to foreign trips and junkets financed by others. Former key DeLay aides Ed Buckham and Susan Hirschmann appear to be unfairly dragged into the story.

It’s been a while since the Jim Wright and Newt Gingrich feeding frenzy, and while this DeLay story is still far from analogous, it has all the potential to get there — fair or not.

Photo Credit: Washington Post

Washington, DC – From just a few informal conversations the past week with various folks in town and in Texas, the looming ’06 intra-party primary race between Texas Governor Rick Perry and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is starting to finally get more chatter, and deservedly so.

This is a great and interesting race to watch from the standpoint of contrasts, beyond just the obvious gender difference: stark contrast in style, backgrounds and political bases — west texas vs. dallas/ft. worth metro.
There are also plenty of very experienced political gunslingers around for this contest if Kay proceeds to primary Rick. Among them: Dave Carney, Dave Beckwith, Reggie Bashur, David Weeks and many others.

A well known TX GOP operative told DCspectator this evening that there is a small yet discernible boomlet developing in TX GOP circles that Kay is going to kick Perry’s ass. Hmmmm… I’m skeptical. While Kay Bailey is the state’s most popular politician, according to a variety of surveys, it’s far too premature to evaluate what may happen in a high stakes, high visibility gop primary.

As John Kerry and so many other Senators have found, a Senate voting record is a target rich environment — especially in a GOP gubernatorial primary context in which you can make the “Washington politician” charge stick in all the wrong (good) ways: taxes, spending, flip flopping and inflammatory votes on issues like abortion and gay rights. Fumbling, waffling or mishandling either of these two seminal hot button social issues can be fatal in a gop primary.

If you end up as “the liberal” in the race you will lose the primary. period.

From a full disclosure perspective, i worked on behalf of Kay’s ’93 Senate campaign via the Republican National Committee (RNC).

This race definitely merits more reporting and analysis. This is gonna be hot. Stay tuned.

Delaplane, VA — Despite various viewpoints, 1985 was an outstanding year for the Grateful Dead. Twenty years ago tonite the Dead performed at the cozy, hometown Berkeley Community Theater.

The setlist is as follows:

1) Aiko, Little Red Rooster, Dupree’s Diamond Blues, Me and My Uncle>Big River, West L.A. Fadeaway, Looks Like Rain>Dont Ease Me In
2) Touch of Grey, Playin’ in the Band>Drums>Space>He’s Gone>Throwing Stones>Not Fade Away>Lovelight
E: U.S. Blues

Didn’t make this show, but caught the heart of the early summer tour by taking a week off while serving as a capitol hill press secretary:

6/25 — Blossom Music Center/Cuyahoga Falls, OH
6/27 — SPAC/Saratoga Springs, NY
6/30, 7/1 — Merriweather Post Pavillion/Columbia, MD

what a great little run! probably the hottest consecutive brief run of shows i ever saw. Check out the 6/25 Cuyahoga (Cleveland metro) show:

1) Day Tripper, West L.A., CC Rider, Dire Wolf, Beat it on Down the Line, Row Jimmy, Me and My Uncle>Big River, Big Railroad Blues, Jack Straw>Might as Well
2) Gimme Some Lovin’>China Cat>Rider, Playin’ in the Band>Drums>Space>China Doll>Sugar Magnolia
E: Touch of Grey

Great time to be young, free and American. Still is…

Washington DC – Utah GOP Senator Bob Bennett isn’t a high visibility legislator, but he makes up for it in thoughtfulness and sense of professional seriousness devoid of media antics and cheap photo-ops.

As Robert Novak reports today, the plan avoids a payroll tax increase but does cut benefits — graduated to hit hardest in upper income brackets. President Bush’s proposed voluntary personal accounts as part of Social Security would be written into law but would not go into effect for five years.

Besides the desire to have the personal accounts immediately, this seems to be where the political equilibrium exists at the moment — and a best case GOP hope. There should never be a compromise on a tax increase, and no compromise on government sanctioned private accounts.