As The Ticket reported earlier, John F. Kennedy's secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara,died today at 93. He was a key architect of the disastrous U.S. military involvement in Vietnam who later admitted his mistakes.
In this C-SPAN archive video from 1995, McNamara discusses with Brian Lamb the role of the often-attacked media in that Southeast Asian conflict, specifically about whether the critical American press coverage caused the loss. It's worth a listen in light of subsequent events.
Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), who was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday after fainting in his Los Angeles office, is being discharged from the hospital today and is expected to be back at work next week, a spokeswoman for the 69-year-old congressman said. She would not say what is ailing Waxman.
The 18-term congressman was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on Tuesday and was kept there for evaluations and what was called “routine testing."
Phil Schiliro, Waxman's former chief of staff (and the current White House liaison to Congress), said on Thursday that Waxman is "feeling fine and is in good spirits." Schiliro said he did not know what was wrong with Waxman but noted that "he takes great care of himself."
Waxman wields a great deal of power in Washington these days because he is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees the energy and healthcare legislation crucial to President Obama's agenda. Waxman co-wrote an ambitious energy and climate-change bill that passed the House, 219 to 212, on June 26. And he is expected to help craft the chamber's healthcare legislation.
We will keep you informed of updates on Waxman's health, when we hear them. In the meantime, check out the L.A. Times review of the congressman's recent book, "The Waxman Report: How Congress Really Works." The very complimentary review is written by the always erudite Times critic Tim Rutten (who rarely lavishes praise so freely).
-- Kate Linthicum
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Photo: Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills) with members of his House Energy and Commerce Committee in May. Credit: Matthew Cavanaugh / European Pressphoto Agency
Terry McAuliffe, the money man of the Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton presidential campaigns, is running for governor of Virginia. Yes the behind-the-scenes back-slapper is looking to move out front.
With two other competitive candidates in the Democratic primary, McAuliffe has borrowed a page from Barack Obama's playbook, organizing a massive grassroots effort, campaigning (as seen above) with backing from will.i.am, stumping as an agent of change, someone who can "shake up" politics and business in the Old Dominion.
Now comes Ralph Nader, the bad boy of Democratic politics, to shake up McAuliffe.
A onetime car safety advocate and perennial presidential candidate, Nader is widely viewed as the spoiler who robbed Al Gore of the controversial 2000 election eventually decided for George W. Bush by drawing votes away from the Democratic vice president in Florida.
Although McAuliffe's staff has not denied the allegation, it's clearly are not happy about this.
"It looks like Ralph Nader misses seeing his name in the press," said spokeswoman Elisabeth Smith. "Terry's focused on talking with Virginians about jobs, not feeding Ralph Nader's ego."
Nader made the charge in an interview with the Washington Post, calling to verify the allegation, which was made in a recent book by Theresa Amato, who was Nader's national campaign manager in 2000 and 2004, called "Grand Illusion: The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny."
Nader not only confirmed it, he made clear he thinks the former DNC chairman and Syracuse, N.Y., native now running for Virginia's governor is unfit for office. Nader's actual words: “Terry McAuliffe is slipperier than an eel in olive oil.”
With the primary election on June 9, it's not clear how much such an allegation will hurt among the Democratic base, who regard Nader with all the warmth of a skunk at a family reunion.
The more former Vice President Dick Cheney criticizes the Obama administration for drastically changing the national security policies of the Bush administration, the more popular Cheney seems to become among some Americans.
Surprising to some. Even annoying. Or worse.
But a little-noticed new CNN/Opinion Research poll released the other day shows Cheney's favorable ratings have jumped by more than a quarter since last winter.
And this May poll of 1,010 adults was taken before his widely viewed speech to the American Enterprise Institute that further assaulted President Obama's policies for threatening U.S. national security. (See video below.)
The Cheney speech -- the full text is right here -- drew much more public attention and even liberal comments and denunciations than one would expect for an old conservative guy with a heart problem and bad aim hunting doves.
In fact, the speech of the has-been vice president and former representative from Wyoming was discussed on a par with the presidential address of Obama defending his own policies with the Constitution and Bill of Rights encased right near the TelePrompter. (Obama text here.)
Almost as if the two cousins, Obama and Cheney, were debating as equals.
Some turnaround from that chilly Jan. 20 inauguration day. There was Cheney naturally wearing a large black hat then and slumped in a wheelchair from a back injury. Many on the left make him out to be the evil Darth Vader driving the Bush administration to do all kinds of nefarious things.
Which, of course, is silly because Darth Vader always took orders from the Emperor until the very end, when he basically saved Luke -- and perhaps his own soul. Although he died when they took off the funny helmet.
Anyway, the CNN poll shows that, of course, George W. Bush and Cheney are still viewed...
... unfavorably by a majority of Americans (55% for Cheney, which is better though than Bush's 57%). In fact, virtually any American is viewed more favorably, not counting Nancy Pelosi orHarry Reid, of course.
The political twosome of Bush-Cheney were in a genuine poll hole on leaving office, although from former President Bush's silence since then and Cheney's frequent, escalating and aggressive defense remarks, few would think the two care much about current poll numbers.
Bush's favorable ratings have risen too since Obama took office, up 6 percentage points to now stand at 41%. Cheney's favorables remain slightly behind his ex-boss but increased by more (8 percentage points) to 37% now.
CNN's polling director says he doubts Cheney's growing popularity is due to his speeches critical of the Obama administration's security policy changes. But he can't prove they aren't. And what other explanation is there? The public's fond memories of cuddly Cheney story times at daycare centers?
It'll be interesting to watch the Cheney-Bush numbers in coming months as the Obama record lengthens and begins getting compared with itself instead of that of its predecessor.
But for now, Cheney's improving numbers are kinda puzzling given the president's strong popularity and the almost daily verbal bashings by his change crowd and the congressional cabal for all the troubles they inherited stemming from things done, not done or undone during "the last eight years."
To hear some tell it, George W. Bush is having a rough adjustment to civilian life.
In Newsweek, Bill Minutaglio reports that Bush, seen above at Elliott's Hardware Store on Maple Avenue, has taken to calling young supporters. One 14-year-old was invited to visit the Bush home in Dallas and "ask me anything you want." According to the kid's grandmother, the two chatted for 90 minutes.
Then there's the time, about a month after leaving the White House, when Bush dropped in to see students at Pershing Elementary School. He asked if the children knew who he was. One replied, "George Washington!" To which the 43rd president of the United States replied, "George Washington Bush." When a parent asked him to consider working at the school's haunted house carnival, Bush replied, "I'd make a good ghost."
But friends insist that the former president is busy and happy. "Every time I talk to him or have been around him, he has been very up," said Nolan Ryan, the baseball legend and Friend of George.
He's started giving speeches -- regaling an audience of businesspeople in Calgary, Canada, at a $400-a-plate luncheon. And in China recently he talked of the pleasures of walking his dog Barney in the Preston Hollow neighborhood. He's also reportedly raised millions for his presidential library at Southern Methodist University, also in Dallas.
In late May, he and President Clinton are set to appear in a two-hour "moderated conversation" before an audience in Toronto.
And, like most every president since Ulysses S. Grant, Bush is writing his memoirs. He has said repeatedly that he thinks history will judge him more kindly than the contemporary public, which gave him approval ratings from the low 20s into the low 30s on leaving office.
Still, Newsweek recounts, a 19-year-old Texas Christian University student was stunned when his cellphone rang with a call from Bush.
Patrick Bibb said the former president was calling to thank him for selling "Welcome Home George & Laura" signs to folks in the neighborhood; Bibb charged $20 per sign and used the profits to defray tuition costs.
-- Johanna Neuman
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Word just in by snow machine that Alaska's Republican Governor and most famous hockey mom Sarah Palin has signed a book deal with HarperCollins.
She'll have a collaborator but wants to write much of it herself for publication a year from now.
The advance figure was not revealed, but safe to say given her celebrityhood and controversy and loyal advocates and venom-filled non-advocates, it's significant. Certainly sufficient to buy a few winters' worth of snow machine gas and oil.
Palin was represented in the book deal by high-powered DC attorney Robert Barnett, who said HarperCollins was "first and fervent" in its pursuit of Palin's story. Last winter Palin laughed off a reported $11 million book deal as, well, "laughable."
Book advances are usually paid half on signing and half on acceptance of the finished manuscript with the agent usually receiving at least 15% off the top. Palin's book income would eventually be reported as part of her required state financial disclosures.
"There have been so many things written and said through mainstream media that have not been accurate," Palin told Sean Cockerham of the Anchorage Daily News today, "and it will be nice through an unfiltered forum to get to speak truthfully about who we are and what we stand for and what Alaska is all about."
Whatever she could possibly be talking about is a complete mystery.
Her daughter really did have the governor's baby and then miraculously get pregnant again herself while her mother was leading bookburning parties wearing $150,000 dresses while being unable to read a single newspaper and her husband was having a campaign affair with a videographer.
Oh, no, wait. That was one of the unsuccessful Democratic candidates whose wife is selling her book these days.
HarperCollins' chief, Brian Murray, said, "Gov. Palin is one of the most charismatic, inspiring and controversial figures to appear on the national political stage for many years.
"She has a fascinating story to tell, and we look forward to publishing what surely will be a captivating book." HarperCollins, BTW, is owned by Rupert Murdoch. So which TV network named Fox do you think gets first crack at next year's interviews?
Palin said she's eager to put her journalism education and background to work and has been keeping personal journals, especially in the past year.
"I just really look forward to being able to relate to people through this book, those who are anxious to hear stories about people who are facing similar challenges perhaps," Palin told the newspaper.
"That's balancing work and parenting -- in my case work does mean running a state, and family involves a large and fun and colorful ordinary family that really has been thrust into maybe some extraordinary circumstances."
And having her own book version out wouldn't hurt any political chances of Palin's 2010 state re-election campaign and, who knows, maybe some kind of national effort after that.
We've had our fun here at the Ticket these past couple of years with good old Larry King. (No, he's not really old enough to have interviewed Stonewall Jackson after the Second Battle of Manassas.)
But today we have to hand it to the veteran talker. Yes, yes, it seems like every other night he's interviewing show biz cronies who died long ago. And we don't really care about families that have walked off the set of "Cops" and put on shirts for CNN. But that's King's bookers' fault.
His most recent show had Elizabeth Edwards. Now, this is not her first broadcast appearance pushing her new book, "Resilience." But it was by far her best, thanks to the suspendered one.
In his old overnight radio days, King used to tell guests that he never read their books because he wanted to ask the questions real people would ask. Last night, he seemed to have read at least part of Edwards' book about coping with adversity.
He was curious, wondering, politely pressing. He asked the questions many spectators of her husband's marital betrayal, confession, her illness and now her promotional tour would ask.
Such as, why in the world are you doing this? How are you coping with this and with a terminal illness? Aren't you worried what the children will see/think? Have you forgiven him? Are the children angry? Do you want to meet the other woman?
People watching politics often make judgments about public figures. It is, after all, a whole lot ...
Speculation and chatter continued over the weekend on the motivation(s) for the terminally ill Elizabeth Edwards to have written her new book, "Resillience," and gone out on the promotional trail knowing full well her underlying message of survival would be overshadowed by questions and talk about her husband's affair with a campaign videographer. (We can't say her name, but it rhymes with Rielle Hunter.)
Last week EE went on the Oprah show, which no one does to duck public attention, especially among women. (Some may recall that Oprah was a major Obama booster.) When asked if she loved her husband, EE said that answering that question was "complicated." And this morning Edwards will appear on the "Today Show," surely igniting more talk. Which, after all, is what a book promotion tour is about.
We now know, for example, that when John Edwardsconfessed the liaison to his wife a few days after the announcement of his presidential candidacy, he led his wife to believe it was a one-night stand.
In fact, three months later when the couple called a news conference to announce that her cancer had returned but that the campaign would continue, the tape shows EE indicated to Oprah in passing that she still thought the affair was an over-nighter, rather than months-long.
Now, we learn in a fascinating blog post from ABC's George Stephanopoulos that what the wronged wife did or didn't do with that knowledge was likely moot.
Several Edwards' staffers have told the ABC host that only in December, two months after the initial heatedly denied National Enquirer expose, did senior Edwards aides begin doubting their boss's denials and believing that the affair reports were true.
As close-knit and intimate as traveling political campaigns are early, that strains credulity, suggesting that no one in those crowded charter jets ever noticed a single glance of accidental affection nor any surreptitious early-morning hallway tip-toeing between hotel rooms.
Anyway, they say that believing then that the Edwards candidacy had become a long-shot bid, they did nothing to force the issue. But they now claim to have secretly developed an ironic self-immolating "doomsday" strategy in case Edwards' campaign gained traction.
According to Stephanopoulos, as loyal Democrats protecting their party from an autumn disaster, they agreed to destroy the primary candidacy of their employer by surreptitiously leaking the scandal news if things got going well for the trial lawyer and ex-North Carolina senator. As presumably political opponents would have done come any general-election campaign involving Edwards.
One need not be a political novelist to imagine how history might differ had those suspicious aides acted immediately, allowing anti-Obama Democrats to coalesce behind Hillary Clinton before Barack Obama won the party's Iowa caucuses. Clinton finished third there. Edwards was runner-up, his best showing. She went on to win New Hampshire, which would have given her considerable momentum moving on.
Not that any marital partners anywhere would ever relish such a retributive thing, but the perverse beauty of such news is that now Edwards himself can spend the rest of his days wondering which of those long-trusted aides of his were the ones plotting behind his back to return his betrayal in kind.
Photo: Associated Press (The Edwards couple arrive at Ames, Iowa campaign rally New Years Day 2008, about the time suspicious Edwards aides were plotting to undermine any success he achieved.); Associated Press (Hunter films Edwards in New Hampshire).
Well, it looks like we're going to be hearing plenty more in the near future from E2 -- Elizabeth Edwards. We've had her on "Oprah." On Monday comes the "Today Show." and Tuesday she drops in on good ol' Larry King. (FYI, one condition of these TV interviews seems to be that no one says the mistress' name.)
Mrs. Edwards might have hoped that media attention would focus on the new book's title and theme -- "Resilience" -- or how to successfully handle difficult personal times.
Dream on.
Of course, most attention has skipped the prose of the terminally ill mother to focus on one of her other difficult times -- her husband's oft-lied-about-and-now-admitted affair with someone we'll call Rielle Hunter. She was an Edwards campaign videographer who reportedly lured the wannabe president of the United States off the path of marital fidelity by telling him he was "hot."
When he confessed to the affair on TV last summer, the Democratic former senator, former Democratic VP nominee and former Democratic POTUS candidate noted, for some reason, that at the time of the affair, first exposed by the National Enquirer, his wife's cancer was in remission.
E2 has said her husband confessed to the affair shortly after announcing his candidacy for the 2008 Democratic nomination. And that this caused her to cry, scream and vomit.
Today, ABC's George Stephanopoulos blogs that he interviewed the couple shortly after Edwards' announcement and noticed no tension between the husband and wife. He asked her on the video if she had a say in his campaign decision.
"I probably could have vetoed it," Mrs. Edwards replied, "but I didn't. Part of it was my health, which is good now, and the other is whether or not we would support him and, of course, I have to say he was beside me every step of the way during my fight against cancer."
Stephanopoulos then notes she looks healthy.
"Thanks, I appreciate that. And that's what a marriage is about. I'm with him in the fights that he has to undertake.... The way I've always described it is that I'm a window, I mean, in a sense, another surrogate, somebody who believes in him and believes in what he's saying and if I can reach out and talk to people."
The unanswered question tonight: Did she know in this video and was just being a super actress sitting by her man's side? Or was her husband sitting there by her side just about to sandbag her with the disturbing news? Either way, she kept the secret and kept on campaigning for him until he dropped out.
It's the show that already has political Washington buzzing. And it doesn't air until Thursday.
Oprah Winfrey, who offers the biggest, most powerful stage in daytime TV, asks Elizabeth Edwards, who has untreatable bone cancer, if she still loves her husband. That would be John Edwards, the Democrats' 2004 vice presidential candidate, a former senator from North Carolina who has confessed to having an affair while a presidential candidate.
In an excerpt provided to the Associated Press by Harpo Productions, the conversation goes like this:
“’You know, that's a complicated question,’' says Edwards.
To do the show, Winfrey traveled to Chapel Hill, N.C., where the Edwards live with their children, Cate, Jack and Emma Claire. For the show, she spoke with both Elizabeth and John Edwards.
The only restriction: No mention of Hunter by name.
"I've seen a picture of the baby," Elizabeth Edwards says. "I have no idea. It doesn't look like my children, but I don't have any idea."
When they married 31 years ago, Elizabeth Anania told her fiancé John Edwards that she only wanted one gift. "I wanted him to be faithful to me," Edwards tells Oprah. "It was enormously important to me."
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Our Bloggers
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the Countdown to Crawford blog here at The Times.
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