No Role For Morris In Giuliani's Campaign
Hoffa Worried About Fraud In Teamsters Vote
No Role For Morris In Giuliani's Campaign
NEW YORK (AllPolitics, Dec. 19) -- Dick Morris, the ex-advisor to President Bill Clinton, talked with New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani about joining the mayor's re-election campaign, but apparently nothing will come of it. According to reports in the New York Post and The New York Times, the discussions occurred in November, but it was not clear whether Morris said he wasn't interested or Giuliani Decided against it. Morris enlivened an otherwise dull Democratic National Convention last summer by resigning after tabloid reports he let a $200-an-hour prostitute listen in on his private conversations with Clinton.
Some Good Trade Numbers
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Dec. 19) -- The U.S. trade gap narrowed dramatically in October to $7.99 billion, with exports up because of a hefty rise in the sale of jetliners. The Commerce Department reported the trade deficit fell 30 percent from a bleak September figure that had been the second worst on record.
Hoffa Worried About Fraud In Teamsters Vote
DETROIT (AllPolitics, Dec. 19) -- James P. Hoffa, trying to win election as president of the Teamsters Union, charged today that 66,000 ballots had gone missing and he would ask for a recount. "This looks like a banana republic the way they are running this election," said Hoffa. He complained that a federal official appointed to oversee the election had waffled on how many ballots were mailed in and was now planning to leave the ballots unsecured over a Christmas break. Hoffa, the son of the late union leader, is trailing Teamsters President Ron Carey in the vote-counting.
Yellen Tapped For Economic Council
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Dec. 19) -- Janet Yellen, a Federal Reserve board member and former economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, will become the new chairman of the three-member Council of Economic Advisers. According to an Associated Press report, President Bill Clinton has chosen Yellen to replace Joseph Stiglitz, who is going to the World Bank. The 50-year-old Yellen was named to the Federal Reserve Board in 1994. She has described herself as a "non-ideological pragmatist." Clinton's next round of second-term Cabinet and staff announcements could come Friday.
A New Path For The Reform Party?
DENVER (AllPolitics, Dec. 19) -- Former Reform Party presidential candidate Dick Lamm said today neither he nor party founder Ross Perot should run for president in 2000, and instead allow a grassroots process to choose the candidate. In an interview on CNN's "Inside Politics," the former Colorado governor said Perot needs to reduce "his visibility and control" to let the party grow. "I think that neither of us should be a candidate in the year 2000," Lamm added. "I believe that the only credible way we have to build a party is to be able to go to a lot of people out there and say, 'We really have an exciting party... It's going to be truly a grassroots party. Help us form it... We've got the clay there, help us mold it.' And I think if Ross Perot and I would both say we don't want to be candidates anymore, but we want to build the party, that would be the best thing."