Posted on 10/07/2005 8:38:56 PM PDT by Libloather
Half-baked Barbara
By John McCaslin
October 7, 2005
It's not easy being the master of ceremonies for a roast when half of the roasters don't show up.
Ask political commentator Mark Shields, who found himself in that uncomfortable position Wednesday evening as the Spina Bifida Association attempted to put TV personality Barbara Walters in the "hot seat" at the Hyatt Regency Washington.
"This is more like a bake-off," a visibly embarrassed Mrs. Walters said after the roasting, expressing disappointment that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and fellow roaster Sen. Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana were no-shows.
As it was, the two remaining roasters — Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes and ABC newsman Sam Donaldson — went easy on Mrs. Walters, while last-second stand-in Mary Matalin, who was in the audience as Mrs. Hughes' guest, tried to read from Mrs. Landrieu's prepared remarks.
It got even worse at the close of the evening when organizers quickly dragged wires and cords on stage, hoping to patch through Mrs. Clinton by telephone, but to no avail. (Mrs. Clinton and Mrs. Landrieu were said to be "detained" by official Senate duties.)
Nevertheless, the annual fundraising event — which had in the audience Washington power couples Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn and Alan Greenspan and Andrea Mitchell — accomplished its goal of raising awareness of the most common permanently disabling birth defect in this country.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
I am dead serious when I say this: this very well could cost Hillary any hope she has of the presidency; this is THE event of the year EVERY year in D.C.
And it is sponsored by Al Hunt and Judy Woodruff; their child has spina bidifa. NOBODY says no to them. Nobody.
This is HUGE.
Now that these fat cats have gotten their face time and shown us their 'Compassion' and charity they can go back to what most of them do so well - Creating chaos and driving the Middle Class to drink.
Can anyone confirm that the US Senate was even in session during this event...?
I wasn't aware of this Howlin, but don't you think they will forgive Hillary? I can't imagine Judy not fawning all over her. But I like what you said better! :-)
You ARE serious aren't you???
I can tell you this much...I was watching C-span Wednesday night...there wasn't anything that Clinton and Landrieu HAD to be there for...
Landrieu spent most of Thursday and Thursday night standing on the Senate floor, making a fool of herself, begging for money...
I think she also did that on Wednesday night...but this was long after any votes were being taken...and she could have gone...
When do you ever hear of these politicians turning down a chance to speak at glitzy fundraisers with celebrities???
.
'Rule-making for others,
...Rule-breaking for herself' =
...HILLARY's Lifetime M.O.
...per Political Columnist extraordinaire MICHAEL BARONE in U.S. News & World Report-1999
.
Maybe Hillary and Mary were trying out cigars
I thougt it was only when it's somebody else's cash.
I just went back and looked at the Senate thread from Wednesday....the Senate was voting on McCain's stupid amendment giving the terrorists more rights than our military...at about 8:30 or so MY time...so that would have been 9:30 Eastern time...
So...I guess they were doing Senate business...but, Landrieu then stood up on the floor until about midnight, by herself bemoaning the money being spent on the defense bill, instead of spending more money in LA.
I guess it worked. I'd heard of it, but never really looked it up. Now I know what Spina Bifida is, thanks to Hilterly and Landrieu.
They said Fox News tonight, that by law, Greenspan can't accept a gift over $50 I think...
so, they gave back the car....poor Andrea.
That's leadership!
LOL! Hitlery might just go for Landrieu's little baby face.
I wouldn't think Landrieu would go that way, unless it involved aquiring political power or favors...Oh, nevermind, what was I thinking?
I guess Ba-ba Wawa knows she's officially over now when the players Clinton and Moon-Unit Landrieu don't even bother to show up!
This is a HUGE slap in their faces. I mean EVERYBODY goes to this.
$25.
I know but Judy is off the air and Al? Does he still have a column in the WSJ? Or is CAPITAL GANG still on? Hillary must figure there aren't any votes from the audience of THE VIEW. That in and of itself is amazing though.....
This is one of the premier social events in D.C.
Mary Matalin reading Landrieu's remarks? More eveidence that the MSM andf pols in think of themselevs as the Ruling Class! Jeez, where was Snake Man?
Especially when he is using gas prices as a "monitor" for whether to raise interest rates!!!
Dang, how would the man know how far a car goes on a tank of gas...unless he has actually had to pump that stuff into the tank....drive for a couple hundred miles, and then have to stop and fill up again!!!!
People are howling because Miers has never been a judge...how about this guy never even putting gas in a car???
Has he even gone to the grocery store and bought toilet paper??? Has he ever had to stand at the pharmacy and pay for his medicine???
The best thing that could be said about these two witches is that they are consistent in their pro-murder mentality.
I'm thinking there were a couple of late running bills they voted on today before they left for the weekend. One was the Oil Refineries, and another was concerning torture of prisoners??
Sorry....whoa. only $25, huh?
I wonder how many gifts Bubba and Hitlery got that were over $25????
Lots.
Well her father was 'Moon' Landrieu wasn't he?????!!!!
To Bill??? MILLIONS AND MILLIONS....
His book, his appearance fee...all went UP because of that.
To HIll???? The same thing...book, (not appearance fees so much YET)...a Senators job.
When I saw on Fox tonight, that Clinton is really trashing Louis Freeh about his book...and saying it is all "lies"...and KNOWS he can say that and get away with it...I am convinced that they must have sold their souls, because anyone else would not be able to be in public after doing what he/she has done.
If you ask me, this is sort of like treating the common cold with cyanide - There are no complaints from the patients that are on record.
I'm sure this was well calculated. After all, they figure Babwa is a has been and Andrea will be gone before Hillary starts her campaign. They just figured it wasn't worth their time.
It's just a habit I picked up on FR, but you're right, I hate it when the libs equate Republicans with Nazis.
Good point.
Hillary is pretty vile though, and President Bush is about as far from Nazi as you can get.
Do you have any suggestions for an alternate derogatory name for old crusty pantsuit?
Your name precedes you, no doubt about it, but I have to ask: If she's been able to dodge all that she has until now so deftly, why would missing a fundraiser like this do her in?
It seems counterintuitive to me; all the rape, the theft, the treason, the arkancide, the missing law firm records, Foster, the FBI files, the guy her motorcade ran over, the three (3) clear FEC violations that haven't really been able to raise so much as an eyebrow at any media outlet.
Why would something like this do her in?
Believe me, I am hoping you have a very good answer to this, because I think she has caused more damage than any other person ever. Even the Rosenbergs or John Walker did less damage to the country than she has.
Here's a list of the things that were donated to the Clintons while they were in office.
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a848e855955.htm
One year BEFORE he left office, they shipped FIFTY TONS of furniture FROM THE WHITE HOUSE (which does NOT belong to them) to the storage area in Little Rock for their library.
(Note: when they moved to the White House in 1993, they came in ONE U-Haul truck.)
Now, that does not count in the $190,000.00 worth of "gifts" they took with them in January of 2001.
Nor does that count Hillary's "bridal registry" for setting up her house in D.C. and Chappaqua.
-----
WASHINGTON -- Bill Clinton and his wife accepted a massive amount of gifts last year, most of it in furniture, art, rugs and flatware that could fill much of their new mansion in Washington.
A member of a previous administration called the amount of gits carted off as "absolutely unprecedented ...I've never heard anything like it."
The final financial disclosure statement of the Clinton presidency also showed the couple's legal defense fund chipped in $1.05 million for attorney fees in 2000 as a result of various federal investigations faced by the administration.
The Clintons' assets, including investments, savings and income, were listed at $1 million to $5 million in the report, which requires presidents and their families to estimate their net worth.
The release of the disclosure statement Friday night was part of a day-long document drop at the White House as Clinton wound up his second term in office.
But it was the seven pages of gifts that the Clintons received last year that broke from the norm for the Clintons. The most they had ever reported before was $23,602 in gifts, in 1999.
By comparison, $52,853 in gifts in 1992 was the most President George Bush listed in his four annual disclosure statements.
The gift issue was so sensitive that Lori Krause, director of the White House Gift Office, advised the press staff who released the disclosure form to be cautious.
"Please keep in mind that the first family has stressed to my office their desire for privacy regarding the gifts they receive," Krause said in a White House memo.
Among the biggest gifts were two sofas, an easy chair and an ottoman valued at $19,900 from Steve Mittman of New York; china worth $4,920 from movie mogul Steven Spielberg and his wife, actress Kate Capshaw; two coffee tables and two chairs estimated at $7,375 from songwriter-philanthropist Denise Rich of New York, and $4,787 in flatware from husband-and-wife actors Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen.
The class of '68 at Georgetown University, the former president's alma mater, gave the Clintons a $38,000 basket set by artist Dale Chihuly, and Chihuly himself chipped in a glass sculpture worth $22,000.
The Clintons also were given a travel humidor, china cabinet and a copy of President Abraham Lincoln's Cooper Union Speech worth $9,683 from insurance magnate Walter Kaye, who lobbied to get Monica Lewinsky her White House internship.
Other gifts included a $5,000 rug from Martin Evans of Chicago, a sofa valued at $2,843 from Brad Noe of North Carolina, a cashmere shawl and flatware worth $5,767 from Morris Pynoos of Beverly Hills, Calif., and a painting listed at $3,000 from Joan Tumpson of Miami.
Actor Sylvester Stallone gave the president boxing gloves valued at $300, actor Jack Nicholson gave him a golf driver worth $350 and documentary filmmaker Ken Burns (PBS' "Jazz") forked over an $800 photo of Duke Ellington.
Lamps, more flatware, antiques, a portrait of Buddy the dog, television sets, a DVD player and a leather jacket were among the remaining gifts.
"It's almost enough to furnish an entire house," said one source who reviewed the list.
Sheila Tate, Nancy Reagan's White House press secretary, called the amount and value of the gifts "absolutely unprecedented."
"Now we know why they had to have such a big house," an incredulous Tate said.
"I've never heard anything like it," she added. "These are not the kind of gifts you take with you. It's usually a silver bowl with your name on it."
Because this is a big "insider/Ben & Sally Bradlee/Al and Judy/etc. gala; these are THE people who run D.C. She desperately needs them to open the doors and grease the skids. They are like a cabal.
It is akin to not showing up at Katherine Graham's when you're invited.
I am really floored that she blew them off. Just floored.
Um.....Katharine Graham.
Your name precedes you, no doubt about it,
Short of a vote to impeach Bush, there ain't no senate business that a senator can't get out of. I think you're right, Hillary's misjudged her priorities and this will cost her down the road.
"Almost enough to furnish a house..." I couldn't fit all of that stuff in my house!!!
Interesting the over $7000 dollar tables and chairs from Denise Rich...
THAT name still is a lightning rod for me...because of her husband...and I am convinced that she and Bubba had something going on...
BTW...and after reading this, NO ONE should ever discount how desperately Hillary wants to get back in the White House...not just the power, but the bounty that goes with it!
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