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Gov. Still Plans To Run Despite President's Request He Not Brings President Clinton's Former Deputy Chief Of Staff On BoardEmbattled Gov. David Paterson is pulling out all the stops to save his job. He plans to mount a major ad blitz to tell New Yorkers about all the good things he's done for the Empire State. The election may be over, but the political ads aren't. The governor is now taking to the air waves to convince New Yorkers he deserves to stay in office. "What it's geared to do is talk about his very good record over the last...

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN NOV 30, 2003 20:42:05 ET XXXXX HOLLYWOOD DEMS GATHER FOR 'HATE BUSH' MEETING AT HILTON **Exclusive** Top Hollywood activists and intellectuals are planning to gather this week in Beverly Hills for an event billed as 'Hate Bush,' the DRUDGE REPORT has learned! Laurie David [wife of SEINFELD creator Larry David] has sent out invites to the planned Tuesday evening meeting at the Hilton with the bold heading: 'Hate Bush 12/2 - Event' The message reads: "This is the most important meeting you can attend to prevent the advancement of the current extremist right wing agenda....

Seventy five years ago is going to seem like yesterday here in just a second. Take a look at this cartoon published in the Chicago Tribune on April 21, 1934 titled, “PLANNED ECONOMY OR PLANNED DESTRUCTION?” It’s true for most that their sense of history usually extends into the past only about as far as the day they decided to start paying attention to what was going on around them. An old saying goes something like this: “History, it is said, repeats itself. Few but are reminded almost every day of something that has gone before.” Every “crisis” seems brand...

Barack Obama stands on the brink of capturing the presidential nomination in large part because of Democratic Party reforms initiated by the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s -- movements in which Hillary Clinton's top strategist, Harold Ickes, was a key player. When Obama was barely three, Ickes took part in Mississippi Freedom Summer, helping the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party send a primarily black delegation to the 1964 national convention in Atlantic City. After the Freedom Democratic delegation was denied seating by the virtually all white male Democratic Party establishment, Ickes -- then 24 -- went on to...

A Clinton donor tells me that on a conference call today with major fundraisers this afternoon, Harold Ickes told them Clinton isn't planning to drop out. He pressed donors to stay unified, and reviewed tactical options, including challenging the Michigan delegation. State finance committees are also circulating letters to deliver to Clinton tomorrow in New York, and I've obtained a draft of the Illinois finance committee's letter, being circulated by a Clinton fundraising aide, Rafi Jafri, which stresses a fight until the convention, and a resolution in "August, and no earlier." We, the Illinois Finance Committee, want to show our...

Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign on Saturday angrily rejected a compromise deal among Democrats that was aimed at ending a bitter fight over disputed primaries in Florida and Michigan. Clinton's supporters erupted in boos and catcalls after the party's 30-member Rules and Bylaw committee voted to recognize the Florida and Michigan delegates, but award them only half votes at the party's nominating convention this August in Denver. The decision came amid another dramatic development Saturday in the Democratic presidential race. Obama announced he was renouncing his 20-year membership in Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ after a visiting preacher last week...

Maybe it will prove an idle threat. But as the Democratic rules committee ended its lengthy meeting today in Washington today with a decision on the Michigan primary that left Hillary Clinton's campaign irate, the words from one of her chief strategists have to haunt party leaders striving for elusive unity. "Mrs. Clinton has instructed me to reserve her rights to take this to the credentials committee," Harold Ickes said. The rules panel, which Ickes serves on, achieved its goal of resolving one of the party's two disputed primaries -- the Florida contest -- in a way that Ickes and...

<p>After millions of votes, dozens of debates and 18 months of incessant campaigning, 30 Democrats in a Washington hotel room this Saturday could seal the presidential fates of Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.).</p> <p>The stage is set for a titanic showdown that could reshape the Democratic nomination process.</p>

When Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton needed help rounding up superdelegates, she turned to Harold M. Ickes, the ultimate Democratic fixer, ... ... Mr. Ickes is also wearing another hat. He is president of Catalist, a for-profit databank that has sold its voter files to the Obama and the Clinton presidential campaigns for their get-out-the-vote efforts. With his equity stake in the firm, Mr. Ickes stands to benefit financially no matter which candidate becomes the Democratic nominee. In creating Catalist, Mr. Ickes, ... has formed a rare entity on the political scene, a for-profit limited-liability corporation that allows wealthy Democratic donors...

Harold M. Ickes never forgets a favor, especially if he's the one who did the favor. So the veteran political operative made sure that, when the time was right, he alone would call Garry Shay, former chairman of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party... And once Ickes started calling, he didn't stop until Shay said the words Ickes wanted to hear -- that he would support Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York at the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August... the man in charge of Clinton's feverish effort to lock up superdelegates is Ickes, whose enthusiasm for...

In an interview with me this morning, senior Hillary adviser Harold Ickes confirmed that Reverend Jeremiah Wright is a key topic in discussions with uncommitted super-delegates over whether Obama is electable in a general election. The comments from Ickes, who is Hillary's chief delegate hunter, are to my knowledge the first on-the-record confirmation from a Hillary adviser that the Wright controversy is a subject in conversations between the Hillary campaign and the super-delegates her advisers are trying to win over to Hillary's side. In the wide-ranging interview, Ickes also: * Said that it was possible that Hillary forces on the...

: Blame Penn by Jason Horowitz | February 28, 2008 Harold Ickes definitely doesn’t buy the argument that Mark Penn isn’t responsible for everything that has happened to the Hillary Clinton campaign. “Mark Penn has run this campaign,” said Ickes in a brief phone interview this morning. “Besides Hillary Clinton, he is the single most responsible person for this campaign. “Now, he has been circumscribed to some extent by Maggie Williams,” said Ickes, who then pointed out that that was only a recent development. When asked about the assertion by one senior Clinton official the campaign was effectively run by...

MILWAUKEE -- At this stage in the campaign, all eyes are fixed on Wisconsin on Tuesday, followed by Texas and Ohio on Mar. 4. But behind the scenes, the Hillary Clinton campaign is gearing up for what could be a nasty fight over the nomination at the Democratic National Convention in August. The current delegate count shows Clinton and Barack Obama in a relative dead heat, with Obama slightly ahead. But what the Clinton campaign hopes will happen is that delegates from Florida and Michigan - two states she won but whose delegates are not counted because these states moved...

A top strategist to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) on Saturday countered the recent claims of some prominent Democrats that party elders would be wrong to override the will of their constituents in their choice for the Democratic presidential nominee. In a phone call with reporters, Harold M. Ickes, argued that the 796 so-called superdelegates who could decide the party’s White House nominee were as much or “potentially more in touch” with the issues important to voters than the delegates amassed by the candidates through state He also suggested that Clinton would fight to the bitter end for the nomination,...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Harold Ickes, a top adviser to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign who voted for Democratic Party rules that stripped Michigan and Florida of their delegates, now is arguing against the very penalty he helped pass. In a conference call Saturday, the longtime Democratic Party member contended the DNC should reconsider its tough sanctions on the two states, which held early contests in violation of party rules. He said millions of voters in Michigan and Florida would be otherwise disenfranchised - before acknowledging moments later that he had favored the sanctions. Ickes explained that his different position essentially...

WAUSAU, Wisc. -- Barack Obama hit back at rival Hillary Clinton Saturday as she prepared to join him in Wisconsin, which stages the next Democratic presidential battle in three days. Mr. Obama, a first-term Illinois senator, has beaten Ms. Clinton in the last eight contests and gained the upper hand in their duel to become their party's White House nominee in November's election. Mr. Obama has spent four days in Wisconsin since his last round of victories last Tuesday and has a slight lead in opinion polls in the state. Ms. Clinton has focused on March 4 votes in Ohio...

Top Clinton Adviser Says Superdelegates Will Decide Election, Obama's Victories 'Irrelevant' Saturday , February 16, 2008 A top Hillary Clinton adviser on Saturday boldly predicted his candidate would lock down the nomination before the August convention by definitively winning over party insiders and officials known as superdelegates, claiming the number of state elections won by rival Barack Obama would be "irrelevant" to their decision. The claims no doubt will escalate the war of words between the campaigns, as Obama continues to argue superdelegates should vote the way of their districts. But the special class of delegates, which make up about...

The Clinton campaign held a conference call, led by Harold Ickes, a top aide, to discuss the superdelegates issue and expectations for the upcoming contests. Ickes, a DNC member and superdelegate himself, said the campaign expects Clinton to "hold her own" in Wisconsin, to win Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania and to have come close to closing the delegate gap with Obama by March 5th. He said by the end of the process on June 7th, when Puerto Rico votes, she would be "neck and neck" with Obama and would wrap up the nomination soon after. Ickes said the...

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - The Examiner interviews David Horowitz, co-author with Richard Poe of “The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton, and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party,” published by Nelson Current. Examiner: What is “The Shadow Party” and why do you call it that, instead of a “movement” or even a “conspiracy”? Horowitz: Shadow Party is a term the Washington Post and other media organizations gave to a group of 527s — entities for funding political efforts — that were being organized by [billionaire activist] George Soros. It’s a transmogrification of “shadow government,” a political science...

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina would enter a compact that could eliminate the power of the Electoral College system to choose a president in a bill that passed the Senate on Monday night. If agreed to by enough states representing a majority of the nation's 538 electoral votes, the measure would require North Carolina to give its electoral votes to whichever candidate wins the popular vote nationwide.....

The Clintons are back on war footing, and Harold Ickes is back at the center of things. Ickes is technically a volunteer for the campaign known as Hillary for President. His title, carefully chosen in a world with intricate internal politics, is "Adviser to the Campaign Manager." "I jokingly refer to myself as the Assistant Sanitation Commissioner," ... But Ickes, 67, is a legendary figure in Democratic politics, a pedigreed political street fighter known for both his loyalty and his abiding grudges. The son of a key adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he came up in New York City's...

On July 6, 2006, Stonebridge International, a global strategy firm, announced that it had added a new member to its high-profile, five-member advisory board—former Democratic Congressman Lee Hamilton. True to form, the major media ignored the Hamilton appointment. They should not have. Hamilton, who had served as Vice-Chairman of the 9/11 Commission, had just joined a firm headed by the man who had criminally undermined that very Commission, Stonebridge chairman and founder, Samuel "Sandy" Berger.

A new book by David Horowitz and Richard Poe has enraged the Left and alarmed many conservatives. It exposes the machinations of a radical clique working at the highest levels of government and finance to undermine American power. That book is The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party. It hit the New York Times bestseller list in its first week in print. Here to tell us about The Shadow Partyis co-author Richard Poe, our esteemed colleague at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, where he serves as director of research. Mr....

Proving that he’s just as adept at stuffing an election candidate’s coffers as he is at stuffing his own socks, Sandy Berger hosted an "almost secret" Washington fund-raiser for a recently retired three-star vice admiral last night. Vice Adm. Joseph Sestak Jr, as the Village People would say, is "In the Navy". And when you want to take an Able Danger Congressman Curt Weldon down, what better way than to send in the Navy? Berger, dubbed "Sandy Burglar" by radio meister Rush Limbaugh, gained notoriety for trying to stuff classified documents into his socks and other attire. The man, who...

While Pennsylvania Seventh District voters will salute Adm. Joseph Sestak’s long military service to his country, they may also question the Democratic newcomer’s leadership ability in light of his removal from a high-level Navy post last summer.

Several members of President Bill Clinton’s national security team are hosting a Washington fund-raiser tonight for retired Vice Adm. Joseph Sestak Jr., the Democrat running against U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon in November. Officials at Sestak’s campaign headquarters in Media will not comment on the event, though an invitation sent out to potential donors and obtained by the Daily Times lists Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger as a host. "As a general rule, campaigns don’t comment on fund-raisers or people who hold them," said Sestak’s campaign chairman, Myles Duffy. Berger, who served as Clinton’s second-term national security adviser, pleaded guilty last year...

A longtime aide to Sen. Hillary Clinton has launched a massive data mining project in a bid to get the Democrat vote out in 2006 and 2008 - a direct snub to Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, whose job it is to run his party's turnout machine. Harold Ickes, who strategized Mrs. Clinton's first Senate campaign, as well as others involved in the project, tell the Washington Post that their activities are in part a vote of no confidence in Dean. "The Republicans have developed a cadre of people who appreciate databases and know how to use them, and...

A longtime aide to Sen. Hillary Clinton has launched a massive data mining project in a bid to get the Democrat vote out in 2006 and 2008 - a direct snub to Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, whose job it is to run his party's turnout machine. Harold Ickes, who strategized Mrs. Clinton's first Senate campaign, as well as others involved in the project, tell the Washington Post that their activities are in part a vote of no confidence in Dean. "The Republicans have developed a cadre of people who appreciate databases and know how to use them, and...

HAROLD ICKES M for voter database. One of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's top political advisers is taking in big bucks from liberal moneyman George Soros to create a massive Democratic voter database.........Harold Ickes, a former White House deputy chief-of-staff to Bill Clinton and a campaign aide to Hillary, is collecting more than $10 million in the bid to outflank the GOP's high-tech research, The Washington Post revealed yesterday. His secretive effort is ruffling feathers at Howard Dean's DNC, the outfit officially tasked with building detailed voter lists. Ickes, who's partnering with Democratic operative and former DNC research guru Laura...

HILLARY GURU PLANS DATABASE TO RIVAL DNC; SOROS FINANCED Tue Mar 07 2006 20:38:16 ET A group of well-connected Democrats led by a former top aide to Bill and Hillary Clinton is raising millions of dollars to start a private firm -- that plans to compile huge amounts of data on Americans to identify Democratic voters. The effort by Harold Ickes, a deputy chief of staff in the Clinton White House and an adviser to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., is prompting intense behind-the-scenes debate in Democratic circles, the WASHINGTON POST is planning to report on Wednesday. Officials at the...

George Soros is an exacting  taskmaster. In return for his money, he demands productivity. What he requires of employees and business associates in the investment world, Soros also demands from the political operatives he funds. “Mr. Soros isn't just writing checks and watching,” notes Wall Street Journalreporter Jeanne Cummings. “He is also imposing a business model on the notoriously unruly world of politics. He demands objective evidence of progress, and assigned an aide to monitor the groups he supports. He studies private polls to track the impact of an anti-Bush advertising campaign, and he is delivering his money in installments,...

We want to hear from you. We value the input of all our activists. Filling out the following form ensures that your feedback will be seen by the right people. Due to the amount of comments we receive, we can’t guarantee that every comment will get a reply, but rest assured that it will be read. To contact us by mail or phone: ACT National Headquarters 888 16th Street NW Suite 400 Washington, DC 20006 (202) 974-8300

The mastermind of Hillary Clinton's successful 2000 Senate race is urging the Democratic Party's liberal wing not to be upset over her alliance with the moderate Democratic Leadership Council, assuring critics that Hillary is still a left-winger at heart. "It's much more important to look at what she does and how she votes, and not that she has associated herself with the DLC," Harold Ickes told the Washington Times on Friday. Ickes reminded that Bill Clinton also came under fire from party liberals for his more centrist rhetoric. But they stuck with him because "his record in totality was extraordinarily...

  hillary's Mastermind's Eye Insufficiently Close to Spy FEC Lie?(and why hasn't the demonstrably biased, clinton-appointed judge recused himself, anyway)       osen, 38, who was Clinton's national finance director, is accused of repeatedly misleading the FEC about contributions for the star-studded Los Angeles gala on Aug. 12, 2000. He is charged with three counts of concealing campaign contributions and faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.... The defense led off their case in the afternoon by calling Harold Ickes, who was the mastermind behind Clinton's Senate victory and hired Rosen to raise funds for the...

HILL PAL IS CASH COWED By NICOLE CAMPBELL May 21, 2005 -- LOS ANGELES — Prosecutors in the trial of Hillary Rodham Clinton's former top fund-raiser David Rosen closed their case yesterday by driving home the point that an extravagant Hollywood gala cost three times as much as was reported to the Federal Election Commission. **SNIP** After the prosecution rested, Rosen's attorney, Paul Sandler, quickly filed a motion to dismiss each of the counts in the case. Judge A. Harold Matz said he would rule on the motion when the case resumes on Tuesday. Matz said he expected the jury...

May 11, 2005 -- WASHINGTON — As the trial of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's former chief fund-raiser opened yesterday, it was revealed that one of her closest aides — always by her side when she ran for Senate — could be a key player in the case. She's Kelly Craighead, who was Clinton's ever-present travel director and close pal — so close that the former first lady performed the 2001 civil ceremony when Craighead wed Erick Mullen, a former aide to Sen. Chuck Schumer. Craighead's name surfaced as jury selection began in the federal trial in Los Angeles of Clinton's...

527s? That’s so over. Now, the big money is going somewhere else. Although Democrats often maintain that their unprecedented outside-the-party campaign against President Bush last year, led by the so-called 527 groups, was a broad-based, grassroots effort, it was, in fact dependent in substantial part on just five donors: financier George Soros, Progressive Insurance chairman Peter Lewis, Hollywood mogul Stephen Bing, and the California investors Herbert and Marion Sandler. Together, they spent about $78 million in the effort to defeat the president — more than the $75 million in federal funds that each presidential candidate received to conduct his entire...

From the site's front page:ProtectYourCheck.org is a non-profit advocacy organization established to oppose the White House's effort to dismantle Social Security, the most successful retirement and anti-poverty program in our nation's history. ProtectYourCheck.org will educate Americans on the financial health of Social Security, promote policies to strengthen Social Security and encourage citizens to speak out about this issue to ensure that Congress doesn't pass legislation that weakens the Social Security Trust Fund. I was watching FOXNews earlier today and caught a political Social Security commercial by a group called ProtectYourCheck.org (which of course was NOT identified as a political commercial)....

People who are eager to see a Hillary Rodham Clinton angle in nearly every Washington personnel move -- and three years before the next presidential election, there are plenty of those -- will enjoy a frisson from the latest machinations at the Democratic National Committee. The new communications director for the party is Karen Finney, who served as deputy press secretary to the first lady's office during the Clinton years. She was also a spokeswoman for Clinton's successful campaign for Senate in New York in 2000. Finney's move is part of a shuffling at the DNC under new Chairman Howard...

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=17027

Ten Liberals to Watch in 2005 Posted Feb 11, 2005 Evan Bayh Democrat senator from Indiana # Born: Dec. 26, 1955, Shirkieville, Ind. # Resides: Indianapolis # Significance: Son of former liberal Sen. Birch Bayh, he is chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, the "moderate" organization that helped launch Bill Clinton. Served as governor of Indiana. Likely 2008 presidential candidate, who has tried to position himself to the middle (voted for the partial-birth abortion ban), but ultimately delivers for liberals (voted for judicial filibusters). One of 13 senators to vote against confirming Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Also opposed Atty....

WHEN the British ultra-liberals in the pre-Tony Blair Labor Party published their lengthy election manifesto in the late 1980s, the radical document so explicitly spelled out their defiance of English public opinion that a Tory politician called it "the longest suicide note in history." Now, in choosing their new national leader, the Democratic Party is publishing a much more succinct suicide note. It reads "Chairman Howard Dean." ... Here's how it works: When moderates and centrists embrace the GOP and President Bush, they leave the Democrats to the tender mercies of the liberals. The party is deprived of the ballast...

Saturday, Jan. 29, 2005 11:31 a.m. EST Ickes Deserts Hillary to Back Dean Harold Ickes, a leading Democratic activist and former aide to President Bill Clinton, said yesterday he is backing Howard Dean to be chairman of the Democratic National Committee - giving a powerful boost to the front-runner. "I think all the candidates who are running have strong attributes, but Dean has more of the attributes than the others," said Ickes, who considered running for chairman himself before dropping out in early January. "Many people say Howard Dean is a northeastern liberal; he is progressive, but his tenure as...

Longtime Clinton aide Harold Ickes yesterday threw his support behind Howard Dean for the Democratic National Committee's new chief, fueling the growing belief Dean is unstoppable. Ickes, who heads Sen. Hillary Clinton's political action committee, said the Clintons aren't behind the move — Sen. Clinton's spokesman said she's neutral and other activists insist that other Clinton allies are trying to stop Dean. But Ickes' move gave Dean momentum as Dean and his six rivals began a New York weekend of schmoozing DNC members at the Roosevelt Hotel with just two weeks to the Feb. 12 vote by the 447...

Ex-Clinton Aide Ickes Backs Dean for DNC By WILL LESTER WASHINGTON (AP) - Harold Ickes, a leading Democratic activist and former aide to President Clinton, said Friday he is backing Howard Dean to be chairman of the Democratic National Committee - giving a powerful boost to the front-runner. ``I think all the candidates who are running have strong attributes, but Dean has more of the attributes than the others,'' said Ickes, who considered running for chairman himself before dropping out in early January. ``Many people say Howard Dean is a northeastern liberal, he is progressive, but his tenure as governor...

FReepers, tune in Wednesday at 2pm to hear author Richard Poe interviewed on RIGHTALK radio. If you have heard bad stuff about Hillary, it is all true. If you have heard bad stuff about Ickes, it is all true. I am at a hotel in L.A., not on my comptuter, and am having trouble. Can someone put up the links? BobJ? Diotima?

Just came across the crawl on CNN

The mudslinging has already begun in the fight to see who'll replace Democratic Party chairman Terry McAuliffe, with backers of Howard "The Scream" Dean and Clinton pit bull Harold Ickes preparing their ammunition. On Wednesday one Democrat insider told the New York Post that an Ickes supporter warned him, "If you don't back my guy, it's going to be Dean" - insinuating that the hot-tempered Vermonter would lead the party to an even more devastating defeat in 2008. There's certainly no love lost between Ickes and Dean. A year before the 2004 election, the one-time Clinton fund-raiser was blasting the...

DNC SHOWTIMEIt is expected that most if not all of the nine identified candidates vying for DNC chairperson will travel to Orlando later this month for a dog and pony show set up by the Association of State Democratic Chairmen. That group represents about a quarter of the 447 or so DNC votes the eight would-be DNC leaders are wooing right now. As well, some of the other non-ASDC committee members attend the conference, so the ASDC appears to be the first major DNC event where serious internal politicking can take place. As it stands, former Vermont Gov. Howie Dean,...

The telephone that never stopped ringing now is silent. The visitors who clamored for an audience have disappeared. The man, who had been the room's center of attention for the past two years, has moved from behind the desk to a chair in the corner. Since John Kerry's concession speech he has been sitting in that chair, pouting. The pouter is Harold Ickes, 65, an influential member of the Democratic National Committee, a close friend and campaign manager for Hillary Clinton and a shoe-in for the post of attorney general in a Kerry administration that never happened. Ickes also is...