Washington watch

The Republican right is rallying around George Allen as the presidential candidate for 2008. He has one vital thing on his side—good connections in sport
March 22, 2006
Everyone's out to block McCain

JFK's entire presidency lasted 1,000 days, but these days that's barely enough for a campaign. On 8th February, Fox News TV network celebrated the 1,000 days to go until election day 2008 with an Opinion Dynamics poll that showed the maverick Arizona senator John McCain beating Hillary Clinton by 13 percentage points and Rudy Giuliani beating her by 11. Oddly, that's not good news for the Republicans because their right wing hates both candidates. Indeed, the campaign really got under way with a bipartisan agreement to "Stop John McCain." Both Republican and Democratic party machines have quietly agreed to fix the system to block McCain's bid to win his party's nomination. Since Bush cannot run again and Cheney will not, the Republican race is wide open. In Michigan, the central committee of the Republican party has agreed to change the rules in the primary election to stop non-Republicans from voting. This change blocks McCain's plan to win independent votes or crossovers from the Democrats, which is the way he carried the state in the 2000 primary. The Democrats are going along with this ploy since McCain is the Republican candidate they fear the most. And in Washington state, the Republicans are bringing in another rule change to downgrade the primary election and rely on caucuses of the party faithful. The caucus system traditionally favours conservatives and hurts figures like McCain whose appeal crosses party lines. Reckoning that he will lose the south, as he did in his epic battle with Bush eight years ago, McCain is focusing on the northern and western states—hence the countermoves in Michigan and Washington.

Sport, politics and money

The conservatives are starting to rally behind Virginia senator (and former governor) George Allen, who has just come out top Republican of a discreet and informal poll of Washington insiders run by the National Journal (Hillary was the favoured Democratic candidate). Allen is following the George W Bush strategy of winning the sporting vote. Allen's father, also George Allen, was a legendary football star and Washington Redskins coach. Bush had baseball and the Dallas Cowboys, and Allen Jnr played his football connections with a big fundraiser in Detroit on the eve of this year's Superbowl. The fundraiser was graced by several tons in weight of former football stars and that old conservative icon Jack Kemp, who was Bob Dole's running mate in 1996. Never underestimate the money-raising power of sports. Allen has already tapped Florida thanks to his brother Bruce, who manages the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And his Superbowl party included the mega-rich Dan Snyder, owner of the Redskins, the Spanos brothers, who own the San Diego Chargers and Tim Rooney, whose family owns the Pittsburgh Steelers. They all loved Allen's speech on how football is the school of American life that shows how everyone can contribute and work as a team.

Hillary is minted

"It's great to be here with my president and former presidents," said Bill Clinton from the pulpit, his wife beside him, at the funeral in Atlanta for Coretta Scott King. "And the future president," came the inevitable shout from the crowd, which got the kind of laughs and applause seldom heard at funerals. The latest Gallup poll has 51 per cent opposing a Hillary bid in 2008, but the money says otherwise. By the end of January she had already raised $33.3m for her Senate re-election later this year, which means by November she'll probably have near $100m for a race in which she's a certainty. Since she can transfer this money to a White House bid, she'll start her campaign with over $50m in the bank—compared to the $3m John Kerry started with in 2003.

Hillary's last trip to Hollywood saw Paul Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward put $2,000 each into her Senate campaign, and Oscar nominee Reese Witherspoon, Jerry Springer, Danny DeVito, Nancy Sinatra and the Seinfeld family all turned up with cheques. She has so much cash she even returned a $5,000 donation from the Arkansas-based Wal-Mart, target of a trade union campaign for higher wages and medical benefits, citing "serious differences with current company practices." Not that she quite looks the part in the company of the horny-handed sons of toil as she sports the monster three-carat diamond Bill bought her for their 30th wedding anniversary in October.

Tom DeLay down but not out

Do not think that the last has been heard from the deposed Republican congress leader Tom DeLay, who had to step down when indicted for campaign finance violations. He still had the power to get a seat on congress's coveted appropriations committee, fondly known as the cookie jar, which runs all public spending. And he will run the subcommittee that funds Nasa, whose Johnson Space Centre is based in DeLay's constituency.

Buying Danish

Right-wingers throughout the US are stocking up on Danish products to counter any Arab boycott. And the biggest cheer at a recent conservative conference came for the anti-immigration congressman Tom Tancredo of Colorado. At the end of a long diatribe against the tradition that being born in the US automatically guarantees citizenship, Tancredo got a standing ovation with his new foreign policy line: "God bless Denmark."