DESPITE assurances to the contrary from Senate Ma jority Leader Harry Reid, Democratic insiders are certain Sen. Joseph Lieberman next year will be kicked out of the party’s caucus and lose his Senate chairmanship if he addresses the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., as planned.
Lieberman’s Democratic colleagues willing to accept his support of Sen. John McCain for president consider speaking to the GOP convention as the last straw. Lieberman was re-elected from Connecticut as an independent in 2006 after losing the Democratic nomination because of his support for the Iraq war.
After his 2006 election, the Senate Democratic leadership agreed to give Lieberman the Homeland Security Committee chairmanship if he provided the decisive vote to make the Democrats a 51 to 49 Senate majority. However, with more Democratic senators likely to be elected this year, that agreement is expected to be null and void in the new Congress.
*
“Woody” Johnson, chairman and CEO of the New York Jets football team, will soon be named national finance chairman of the host committee for the GOP convention in St. Paul, Minn.
Head of a personal investment company based in New York City, Johnson has been a fund-raiser for McCain. One McCain event he ran in Manhattan yielded $7 million. He has family ties in Minnesota, where his mother resides.
*
OLD Democratic hands believe Sen. Barack Obama‘s decision to deliver his presidential nomination acceptance speech at the 75,000-seat Denver Broncos football stadium Aug. 28 ignores a lesson from 48 years ago.
The last presidential nominee to deliver an outdoor acceptance speech was John Kennedy in 1960 at the LA Coliseum. It was one of his best campaign speeches, in which he unveiled the “New Frontier” – but the then-100,000- seat Coliseum was only half filled, and the sound was imperfect.
Democratic pros feel the safer course for Obama would’ve been to give the speech in the 19,000- seat Pepsi Center, where the convention is being held.
*
THE nine GOP senators who switched positions Wednesday to pass the Medicare bill were taking their presidential candidate, McCain, off the hook to avoid the wrath of seniors and doctors.
McCain, who was on the campaign trail, was absent June 26 when the Senate fell a vote short of the 60 needed to pass a bill stopping a cut in Medicare payments to physicians. With Obama present when the bill came up again Wednesday, Republicans feared McCain would be blamed for blocking the measure.
The absent McCain was still opposed, but the nine Republicans switchers made his position moot. Three of the GOP converts are up for re-election this year and were under heavy pressure from the American Medical Association.
*
THE possible return of political consultant Mike Murphy to help McCain’s campaign is definitely off, with the candidate’s aides putting out word that Murphy will not be back. He has signed with NBC as a campaign commentator.
McCain was interested in returning Murphy, a key strategist in his 2000 presidential campaign. But it was determined that Murphy would cause too much friction within the staff.