THE DNC'S DIRTY DISK (Terry caught with his pants down??)

Washington Prowler ^ | 6/24/02 | The Prowler

[Elkiejg]

SLIPPED DISK

No one is buying Terry McAuliffe's story that some innocent Democratic staffer happened upon a computer disk on a street corner that revealed the White House and the Republican Party's assessment of the 2002 elections.

You'll recall, the DNC earlier this month announced that it had obtained through Republican bumbling a computer disk that contained a PowerPoint presentation prepared by Karl Rove, the White House and the RNC, and outlining their evaluation of the fall campaign. It was mildly embarrassing, if only because the presentation took a more cautious approach to certain elections: it didn't predict a sweep of open Senate seats for Republicans, it portrayed negatively GOP hopes to win gubernatorial elections around the country, and it was cautious about House elections.

McAuliffe claimed a Senate Democratic staffer came upon a computer disk somewhere between the White House and the Hay-Adams Hotel. Once the staffer realized what it was, he handed it over to the DNC, which released it to the media with much fanfare.

But, in fact, Republicans now believe there was no disk. They believe after a White House political staffer made the presentation at the Hay-Adams to a group of California Republicans, a Democratic Party sympathizer at the hotel copied the presentation off of the temporary file that was created in the hotel's overhead projection system.

"The presentation was made using a White House laptop and the Hay-Adams projection system. There was no disk, because you can't easily store a full PowerPoint presentation on a disk like that. It's easier just to store it on a hard drive and use the computer," says a White House source. "We know the computer wasn't stolen, so it had to come from somewhere else."

Some in the White House even checked into whether the presentation could have been videotaped by a DNC operative, then re-created by Democrats. "Anyone could redo the PowerPoint presentation, there was nothing special about it," says the source. "The DNC has the same capabilities we do. It would take them a day to do it."

Either option portrays McAuliffe and his DNC elves as more devious and industrious than Republicans might prefer. "But we know we didn't bumble this," says an RNC senior adviser. "The Democrats didn't get this because we were careless. If McAuliffe is so concerned about his party's standing that he felt he had to sneak into one of our meetings for a campaign update, then he can crow about it all he wants. It just makes them look desperate."

HOMELAND LEAKOLOGY

According to White House sources, no one was impressed with Tom Ridge's performance on Capitol Hill last Thursday. "It certainly confirmed in our minds the reasons why we didn't let him testify before. It wasn't good," says a White House policy staffer.

That said, the testimony hasn't dimmed the president's opinion of Ridge or his abilities to master the Homeland Security bureaucracy. While insiders insist that Ridge has not told the president he doesn't want the job, the president isn't considering other names. "If he is, he isn't telling anyone. No big surprise there," says another White House political staffer. "They launched this Homeland plan with a working group of five and it never got leaked. What makes anyone think names of possible Ridge replacements would be leaked?"

So where did the rumor about chief of staff Andrew Card becoming Secretary of Homeland Security come from? White House staffers believe it came from backers of Card who see him as the only counter-balance they have to Karl Rove's influence with the president. "There are some people working here, who do some good work, but who work for the vice president and some others here, who don't see eye to eye with Mr. Rove and others," says the White House policy staffer. >b>"Now that it appears Karen Hughes is losing influence, you see them leaking again, the way it was back under Bush I. But we aren't going to let things get out of hand. It's pretty easy to close up the leaks once you figure out where they are coming from."

[Redbob]

I think it borders on the silly to say "You can't store a powerpoint presentation on a disc."
I do it frequently.
The story I read wasn't specific, but I assume they were talking about a COMPACT disc, with 650 MB or more of storage. A really big .ppt file is maybe 10 MB.

[Dales]

The Republicans would know, however, if there was a floppy disk involved at all (which could get us into the land of he said/she said). Unless they could prove that no removable media was involved.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

a Democratic Party sympathizer at the hotel copied the presentation off of the temporary file that was created in the hotel's overhead projection system.

I'm not so sure I buy this load of crap either. I use these projectors many times per week and a projector of the type used to project a PowerPoint presentation from a laptop is nothing more than a projector.

You plug the laptop into one of the video input ports on the back of the projector.

There is no "temporary file" created. This would require an intermediate link to another computer between the laptop and the projector. And if that is the case (and there is no reason for it) then the Republicans got what they deserved for being so galactically stupid.

In any event, these projectors have no buffer to speak of and certainly no storage device. There can be no "temporary file".

.

[PhiKapMom]

My first question when I first heard about this was --"Where is McKinnon?" I am still not buying all of that from the campaign. Sounds to me like there is a mole!

[Dales]

Someone pointed out above, some high end models do. However, look at what you just wrote:

I'm not so sure I buy this load of crap either. I use these projectors many times per week and a projector of the type used to project a PowerPoint presentation from a laptop is nothing more than a projector.

You plug the laptop into one of the video input ports on the back of the projector

If there is a laptop, why a floppy?

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

...But then I read some of the other replies on this thread...now I'm wondering. I hadn't thought of the network possibility.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Exactly. Why a floppy? It's all on the laptop's hard drive or a cd rom.

[Dales]

Which implies, if the DNC has it and says they found it on a floppy on a streetcorner, that the DNC is obviously lying (oh, knock me over with a feather I am so shocked).

[PhiKapMom]

When I first heard it, I knew that a disc just didn't sprout legs and walk out of the WH! I didn't think that a projector would store the data, but I didn't know for sure.

[Redbob]

"As I remember, before W selected Cheney, Ridge was on the VP 'short list.' The talk back then was that W would have been intimidated by Ridge's physical size."

The talk back then was that the conservative wing of the GOP,i.e., those who actually get out and work in the party, would have gone ballistic if an Eastern RINO like Ridge had been nominated; we'd have stayed home in droves.

[LouD]

Not necessarily correct. Some projection systems are more than just a projector, and do have a PC, which also controls room lighting, drapes, etc. It also serves as a backup for people who have laptop problems.

Using such a system, you would basically put your laptop on the same network, then copy the file to the AV system PC.

My former employer had this type of system in their training center. Whenever I presented anything sensitive, I would crawl around under the console and disconnect the monitor output cable, so that I would not have to make a local copy on the other PC.

[Redbob]

Story says a "disc;" it doesn't say "floppy disc."

[Dales]

As pointed out above, almost all of them don't. A few do. But I don't think it matters either way in determining if the DNC is lying here about how they got it.

Almost certainly, there was no floppy involved in the Republican presentation. As such, since the DNC says they have by finding a floppy, and there was no floppy involved, it pretty much means they got it by copying the file from somewhere. If it was from the office it was produced, or if it was from getting access to the laptop, or if it was from a mole, or if it was from the rare case of one of the really high end projection systems being used, there is no essential difference to the conclusion that the Democrats once again were acting completely without ethics, committing what in business would be considered corporate espionage, and quite possibly violating some laws.

[LouD]

See post 51

[Dales]

If one is supplying the laptop, why would there be any removable media involved? It would all be on the laptop.

The DNC says it has a disc. Odds are, there was no disc of any variety involved.

[ironman]

"This briefing has too much data for a standard disc"

How do you know this? Do you even know approximately how many slides were in the presentation and if graphics were used? If it's just text you can have a very long brief and still get it on a floppy.

[PhiKapMom]

There are a lot of charts and some contain maps with data -- John King showed one of the maps on TV. My source was a connected Republican.

[Neets]

They could have easily gotten it off a server also, before they made it to the Hotel....

[PhiKapMom]

I vote for violating the laws. No way did they get this legitimately!

[Paul Atreides]

PowerPoint has a feature called Pack-and-Go than enables a person to format a presentation over several floppy disks, and then set up the presentation on another computer. In essence, it is transferring the presentation to another computer. Since the White House is treating this as no big deal, I am wondering if it is a campaign of misdirection aimed at the Dims.