Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:
Blast from the Past
Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign has added former Bill Clinton National Security Adviser Sandy Berger to the team.
Berger stole highly classified terrorism documents from the national archives prior to the 9/11 Commission hearings — stuffing them into his pants and socks and eventually destroying them. Berger also lied to investigators. He was fined $50,000 and placed on two years probation.
The Washington Examiner reports some Hillary Clinton supporters are questioning the decision to use Berger. Case Western Reserve University law professor Jonathan Adler calls it “simply incomprehensible.”
The Clinton campaign says Berger is an unpaid informal adviser — and that he provides valuable and welcome input.
Good News Is No News?
Washington Post media writer Howard Kurtz spoke Sunday with Post reporter Robin Wright and CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr about why the media paid so little attention to the shrinking casualty numbers coming out of Iraq. Kurtz asked Wright if the story should have received more play.
She responded — “Not necessarily. The fact is we’re at the beginning of a trend — and it’s not even sure that it is a trend yet… The numbers themselves are tricky.”
Starr said she needed more than one month’s numbers before she “gets too excited” about the subject. But when Kurtz asked if an increase in casualty figures would have received more coverage, she replied — “I think inevitably it would have. I mean, that’s certainly — that, by any definition, is news.”
Helping the Competition
Dan Rather — who claims in his lawsuit against CBS that he played a largely supervisory role in his discredited story about President Bush’s service in the National Guard — wanted to leak some of his own exclusive information to The New York Times — because CBS at one point would not promote the story.
Howard Kurtz writes in his latest book that Rather told “60 Minutes” executive producer Josh Howard that the Times would run the leaked document — crediting CBS — and — “That way we can put our stamp on it.”
Howard told Rather the story had not yet been fully checked and approved by network lawyers. Eventually of course the story ran — and the fallout led to Rather’s resignation.
In God’s Name
And House Republicans are demanding that the architect of the Capitol reverse a policy than bans the use of the word “God” on certificates sent to constituents who ask for commemorative flags. A group of several GOP reps has written to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asking her to review the rule.
A constituent of Ohio Republican Michael Turner asked that a certificate and flag be sent to his grandfather for — “his dedication and love of God, country and family.” But the “God” reference was left off and that’s when the trouble started.
Lawmakers point out the architect of the Capitol oversees a building that contains many religious references, including “In God we trust” in the House and Senate chambers.
— FOX News Channel’s Martin Hill contributed to this report.
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