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The Morning Grind / DayAhead |
Democrats in Hillarywood
By John Mercurio
CNN Political Unit
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Hillary Clinton, the driving force behind Americans Coming Together, will miss the Hollywood shindig tonight.
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Senators Hillary Clinton and Jack Reed, who just returned from Iraq and Afghanistan, talk about the latest violence in Iraq.
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SPECIAL REPORT
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Anti-Bush Dems will gather in Los Angeles today, and not just the hordes of Dick Gephardt's aides there to watch Jay Leno grill their boss in Burbank. We're talking about famous Dems, like Michelle Kydd Lee from "Knots Landing" and Daniel Stern from "Diner," "Home Alone" and, of course, "Home Alone 2."
Notably, however, tonight's real celebrity, Hillary Rodham Clinton, will be far, far away.
Gephardt tonight becomes the latest aspiring politico to undergo the Leno probe, following, of course, in the footsteps of John Kerry, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hillary Clinton. Oh, the list goes on. The Missourian will appear alongside Phil Collins and actress Naomi Watts. (And right there, he's got an edge over Kerry, who, you'll recall, was forced to follow a dog puppet on stage last month).
But more importantly, we're focusing today on the meet-and-greet/fund-raiser of Hollywood's lingering lefties, a dinner down the street from the NBC studios, at the Beverly Hills Hilton, where roughly 100 actors and/or activists will meet with former Clinton aide Harold Ickes and EMILY's List President Ellen Malcolm to plot President Bush's demise.
Ickes is heading up the still-unnamed Democratic media fund, designed to help Democrats run issue ads in '04 and, perhaps, beyond; Malcolm is running the new group, Americans Coming Together, with help from former AFL-CIO political director Steve Rosenthal, SEIU President Andy Stern and the Sierra Club's executive director, Carl Pope.
"The goal [tonight] is to tell people about these two organizations," Ickes told the Grind yesterday. "There are a lot of new organizations so one of the purposes is to describe them, what they are about and yes, to raise money for them."
Clinton won't be there. And who knows, her name might not even come up. But really, it doesn't have to. It's written all over tonight's event, which is why we're devoting so much ink to it today.
Clinton and her leadership committee, HILLPAC, is the unofficial force behind Americans Coming Together, which has both a hard-money PAC and a 527 for soft-money contributions, and the larger think-tank, American Majority Institute, headed by former Clinton aide John Podesta.
ACT already has commitments for more than $30 million, including $10 million from financier George Soros, $12 million from six other philanthropists, and about $8 million from unions, including Stern's SEIU. The group hopes to spend more than $75 million in key races next year and, with that in mind, need some help from Hollywood's money crowd.
Laurie David, a chief organizer and the wife of "Seinfeld" creator Larry David, told CNN yesterday that the "huge meeting" will take place tonight at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Santa Monica Boulevard. David would not name celeb names but said that "anyone who cares about what's happening in the country will be there."
Joining David as co-hosts of what they're calling a "Mandatory Meeting to Change the Leadership in America" are few big-name celebs. They're mostly small-name money folks like Marge Tabenkin, a chief political adviser to Barbra Streisand; Ari Emanuel, the brother of Rep. Rahm Emanuel; Julie Bergman; Scott Burns; screenwriter Naomi Foner; Cammy Gordon; mega-producer Robert Greenwald; Sally Hardwick; Ruth Hunter; Laure and Daniel Stern; Michelle Kydd Lee of "Knots Landing" and "Love Boat" fame; Darcy Pollack; Nancy Stevens; Anne and Jay Sures; Heather Thomas; and Elizabeth Wyatt.
It's a safe bet that all these folks will be on hand if, say, the Dems lose next November and Hillary is drafted to run in '08 (a move that would start well before next Thanksgiving).
• Also today, John Kerry will lead a big student rally at Boston University (Go Terriers!!), Wesley Clark will start airing another TV ad in New Hampshire, and Howard Dean will launch an online fund-raising effort to help Democrats take back the House and Senate.
Kerry will speak at the George Sherman Union at 2 p.m. EST in the Metcalf Ballroom. Kerry will ask the students to join him on the New Hampshire campaign trail over the final weeks of the primary. (But, aides emphasized, they aren't asking any out-of-state students to vote in the Granite State's primary).
• The Clark camp plans to spend in the neighborhood of $80,000 to run this largely biographical, 30-second spot. "What kind of leader will he be? From a middle-class background, he graduated first in his class at West Point and rose to become a four-star general," an announcer says. "He was never a yes-man and stood up for what he believed was right. He fought for better schools and for better health care for those he led because it was the right thing to do. A quiet, real American courage, he will make an extraordinary American president."
• Today, Dean's campaign manager Joe Trippi plans to announce the launch of an unprecedented pilot project designed to show how Democrats can win back the House and Senate. In an e-mail to his online supporters, Dean will ask them to contribute to the campaign of Rep. Leonard Boswell, an Iowa Democrat and perennial GOP target. Once they reach the goal of the "$100 million revolution," the campaign's 2 million supporters will be asked to contribute to targeted House and Senate races.
