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INSIDER INFO -- AUGUST 2008
Convention Blues
Mr. Controversy
Cancer-struck
Four Corners of Pennsylvania
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Convention Blues
As Democrats convene to nominate fall ticket Gov. Rendell goes ‘off message’ in Denver while Casey offers full support for Obama
For almost a month, Gov. Ed Rendell has been saying the anger of supporters of U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton at her primary defeat by Sen, Barrack Obama is ended, and “90, 95 percent of us are supporting Sen. Obama enthusiastically!”
But Rendell found a creative way to show he was still angry on behalf of Clinton, but instead of taking out that anger on Obama, as polls show many women voters are doing, as McCain’s numbers are rising in the battleground states, Rendell spun out at a media panel, scolding the Sunday talk show hosts of all three major networks: ABCs George Stephanopoulous, NBC’s Tom Brokaw and CBS’ Bob Schieffer.
Scheduled to give closing remarks, Rendell instead said, with Brokaw, Stephanopoulous and Schieffer sitting there in a Denver ballroom in front of a live audience: “Ladies and gentleman, the coverage of Barack Obama was embarrassing. “It was embarrassing.”
Rendell and Brokaw began debating campaign coverage, and Rendell said: “MSNBC was the official network of the Obama campaign,” saying their pro-Obama slant in coverage was “absolutely embarrassing.”
Rendell said Chris Matthews of MSNB “loses his impartiality when he talks about the Clintons.”
This was nothing new for Rendell. In March, he told PBS’s Charlie Rose: “The first two months of this campaign, January and February, it was absolutely reprehensible what the media did. Senator Obama literally walked on water. Senator Clinton could do no good and do nothing right. Her demise was predicted over and over again with much glee. … Let me ask you, when is the last time you watched MSNBC? Keith Olbermann? I love Keith`s show. In fact, it breaks my heart, but Keith Olbermann should be on the Obama payroll. If he is not, he should be on the Obama payroll. And then the sad part is, I used to love Keith Olbermann. He was one of my favorite shows to watch. He should be on the Obama payroll.”
All of which just goes to show that Rendell and his closest allies like Comcast executive David L. Cohen knew what they were talking about when they said Rendell would never be a Veep pick for Obama, because as Cohen said last summer: “What makes him so appealing also makes him too loose (of tongue) for the national stage. He wouldn’t be miserable, but he would make the president’s life miserable.”
And Rendell by showing the bitterness that still runs deep within the Clintons, and spilling it in public just as the convention to unify the national party, or at least give the appearance of national unity, undercut that message.
Then he garnered state headlines by saying former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge would not be the GOP pick for vice president, basing that on “inside information” and the knowledge that Ridge’s job on Saturday in Washington County, to is to introduce Sen,. John McCain, the GOP presidential nominee, who will then introduce the GOP Veep nominee – who will not be Ridge, according to reliable sources with whom we have been checking.
Then on Tuesday, Rendell made a fairly rare bad speech at the convention, giving a talk on energy that had good lines and read well, but an unusually nervous-looking and sounding Rendell clearly never got the attention of the audience.
That made a sharp contrast with U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and Clinton, both of whom were praised for their Tuesday night speeches. Casey gave a talk on the challenges workers faced, said Obama would help people most, and drew even national press for his line that McCain was not a “maverick” when he votes with President Bush 95 percent of the time, but a “sidekick.”
Rendell’s best line was: “"And if you look past the speeches to his record, it's clear: John McCain has never believed in renewable energy, and he won't make it part of America's future.
". . . It's clear: The only thing green in John McCain's energy plan is the billions of dollars he's promising in tax cuts for the oil companies. And the only thing he'll recycle is the same failed Bush approach to energy policy."
Rendell’s diatribe at the media Sunday also kept the focus on him and off Obama’s Veep pick, Pennsylvania native and, Obama hopes, favorite son Joe Biden.
Obama insiders believe Biden, whose eloquence does not equal Obama’s, but whose tongue is better at old-politics whipping of the GOP than Obama is, will be a big help.
He is a Scranton native and the campaign hopes Biden will help them in Lackawanna and Luzerne County, especially among moderate Democrats in those two counties, for whom the economy is the top issue.
McCain has cut deep into the white union-and-working class voter segment that wants to vote Democrat, and gives more votes in polls to a generic “Democrat” than Obama get, and more votes to McCain currently than a generic “Republican gets.”
Both Rendell and Casey strongly endorsed Biden, who is well-known as “Pennsylvania’s third senator” because his state, tiny Delaware, is dominated by the Philadelphia media market, and because of his still-strong roots in his native Scranton.
There is some debate among GOP circles about where Biden helps. GOP insiders say his influence will not help Obama in the campaign’s now clear key battleground: southwestern Pennsylvania.
As one Republican strategist said: “If Obama can tie or barely win the west, from Erie on down, as Kerry did, he wins. Right now McCain is winning that western run of the state, and he has to win it. So if Biden just helps in Lackawanna, maybe a little in Luzerne, we can live with that. If Biden helps Obama win back the west, which I don’t see how he can, or Obama figures a way to make those voters comfortable with his lack of experience, and frankly, his race, then he wins.
“We were all thrilled he didn’t pick Hillary, which might have made the race in this state over, although of course he didn’t want to have to govern with Hillary as VP if he won.”
Casey saw it differently, as did Rendell, both of whom felt Biden was the strongest pick, and most likely to help in Pennsylvania.
Rendell insiders said Biden would help also in Chester County and Delaware County, two regions that border on his state, where some white male Democrats are tentatively supporting McCain in polls.
One GOP strategist scoffed at that assertion, saying: “The Ds will get all the votes in the southeast they can get, just like with Kerry. Biden can’t add any votes for them there.”
Former Lt. Gov. Bill Scranton, a moderate Republican, said he thought Biden would add strength to the ticket only in their shared native Lackawanna County, and in the rest of the state: “It will be one-on-one between the candidates for president.”
One Republican state senator called the nomination “polarizing,” while another said it marked “a sad day for our Commonwealth’s business community.”
To be sure, John Hanger has clashed with Republican lawmakers over environmental and energy policy during the last decade in which he has led the prominent environmental lobbying group Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future.
So when Gov. Ed Rendell tapped him last week to replace Kathleen McGinty as secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection, few Republicans held back their concerns.
He and Rendell said Hanger would win Senate confirmation, even as some Senate Republicans expressed doubt.
“I think it’s very important to work together when we can, and to identify, when we can’t, what is the source of disagreement, why do two reasonable people see things differently,” Hanger told reporters last week. “And even then once that has happened, try to narrow those differences one more time. I’m committed to doing that.”
He also said: “I look forward to talking to the Senate. I think the General Assembly has been a partner in many of the things the governor has accomplished on energy and the environment.”
White, a Venango County Republican who chairs the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, wasn’t moved.
She told several newspapers that the nomination was polarizing and that Hanger had a poor track record in working with the Legislature.
She told the Harrisburg-based Capitolwire internet news service that “I would have hoped with two years left, we could have found someone with a better working relationship with the Legislature.”
White explained further in an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “When I would disagree with him, instead of making logical arguments to change my mind, he would say I was in the pocket of the polluters, that I take money from polluters and that's why I vote this way. That doesn't get a dialogue going. It's offensive. ... You can say I'm wrong or you can say I'm stupid, but don't say I'm corrupt.
“He's a very intelligent guy; I just don't know if he's somebody we can work with,” she lamented.
Sen. Roger Madigan, R-Bradford, told Capitolwire that the nomination marked “a sad day for our Commonwealth’s business community,” and that “I think he has an uphill battle to get confirmed.”
Business groups also voiced concern about Rendell’s choice of Hanger. Gene Barr, a top lobbyist for the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, put it this way: Hanger believes economic development comes “through regulation, litigation and taxation, and that’s something our members have a real problem with.”
Hanger rejects the criticisms, saying that they are caricatures of his actual policy views.
“My views can be caricatured, but they’re not simply black and white, they’re not highly ideological, they don’t neatly fall into the left-right categories that some people in this town try to pigeonhole,” Hanger told Capitolwire, noting, for instance, his support for electric deregulation and the introduction of electric competition to the state.
“My views on regulation are not purely pro- or anti-regulation. Some folks have never seen a regulation that they think is appropriate, and some folks have never seen a regulation that they think shouldn’t be imposed.”
Hanger was an early and vocal proponent of deregulating the electric generation industry when he was a member of the Public Utility Commission in the 1990s. That record prompted J. Michael Love, president of the Energy Association of Pennsylvania, to remark to Capitolwire: “I think he would say that he truly believes an informed public makes correct energy decisions in a competitive marketplace.”
But David Patti, president of the Pennsylvania Business Council, told Capitolwire that even with electric deregulation, Hanger’s motivations are rooted in something other than free market innovation.
“John wants more than anything else alternative energy,” Patti said. “So if prices are controlled and kept low right now, then where he would like to go with alternative energy is not affordable and doesn’t compare favorably. Now if prices go up, wind energy or solar energy don’t look as bad because everything is more expensive.”
“He’s not like Mr. Free Market,” Patti added, but a “government knows best” type of advocate.
But Hanger tells those who point to his decade-long record leading PennFuture to argue he’s a bad fit for DEP that: “I know exactly the difference between being an advocate in the private sector and having a public responsibility. And I look forward again to serving all of the people of the state.”
“What's important is working hard, listening to everyone, taking into consideration differing views and trying to arrive at fair, productive answers.”
In the end, all the chest-pounding over Hanger’s nomination may have little significance.
Rendell minced no words when a reporter asked him if Hanger would serve as “acting” DEP secretary, in the absence of Senate confirmation: “I’m happy to have him lead our agency in any case.”
Even Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, remarked after the nomination: “But let’s not kid ourselves, with the nomination, whether he’s confirmed or not, he’ll be the acting secretary
“We can grill him, we can ask him every question we want. I think that’s very important, that he put his philosophies and views out on the table.”
Rendell praised Hanger and PennFuture in announcing the nomination, saying: “I know there is no one who knows the subject matter better than John, and no one who can lead an environmental organization that has effectively balanced the interests of business and economic growth with the need to protect the environment. I think that’s the approach Penn Future has taken, and that’s the approach that I want John to take as secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection.“
Rendell said Hanger would play a key role in shaping how the state implements the recently-enacted alternative energy fund, a $650 million program that Penn Future and Rendell lobbied for in the Legislature for nearly a year and a half.
Rendell said Hanger will also help shape the state’s still evolving climate change strategy and develop a policy that addresses the environmental threats of natural gas exploration in the Marcellus Shale through Western Pennsylvania.
Hanger praised Rendell’s environmental record and promised to be a good steward of taxpayer money by drawing on his years as a utility regulator and lawyer when it comes to helping direct money from the new energy fund to worthy projects. That fund will be controlled by the Commonwealth Finance Authority, but the DEP will play an advisory role.
Hanger has led Penn Future for the past 10 years. Before that, he spent five years, from 1993 to 1998, as a PUC member. From 1988 to 1993, he was counsel to then-PUC Commissioner Joseph Rhodes.
Hanger graduated from Duke University in 1979 and is a 1984 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Law.
Hanger plans to step down as president of PennFuture on Aug. 29 and to take the DEP post after Labor Day.
Cancer-struck Lt. Gov. Knoll is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer but vows to be back at work by Sept. 22 while being treated for neuroendocrine tumors
Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll announced last week that she is battling a rare form of cancer known as neuroendocrine illness.
She was diagnosed in July, after a routine checkup, and so far has completed radiation treatment, and is on her second round of chemotherapy. But she kept the diagnosis from the public for a month.
Still, the Allegheny County Democrat said her prospects for recovery are good, and promised to be back in the Capitol, “gavel in hand,” when the state Senate resumes session the third week of September.
She wrote that so far, “the results are encouraging ... The doctors say I'm responding well. Although the treatments will continue, the outlook is good. I'm optimistic. Most of all, I feel fine and I anticipate resuming a full work schedule.”
Gov. Ed Rendell praised Knoll, calling her “about as energetic a fighter as there is,” and adding at a news conference at Philadelphia City Hall on Aug. 21 that “we have high hopes she can overcome this.”
Doctors say neuroendocrine tumors can turn up anywhere in the body, but about 70 percent of the time, they form in the gastrointestinal tract. They generally affect cells in the body that manage hormonal and digestive functions.
One factor working in Knoll’s favor is that the tumors are slow growing and, thus, easier to catch and stop, doctors say. If the cancer has not yet spread, doctors say, surgery is the best option.
“If you have to pick a cancer to have, this would be the one you would pick,” Dr. David Bartlett, of the division of surgical oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “You can often live with these tumors for many years.”
But as David Metz, a professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania with expertise in neuroendocrine tumors, told The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, the fact that Knoll was receiving chemotherapy “suggests that this is widespread or is a very aggressive tumor.”
Doctors also note there is always a risk of the cancer spreading to vital organs, like the liver.
Knoll, 77, was diagnosed in July after undergoing a routine exam, according to Salvatore Sirabella, her chief of staff. Sirabella said she had been feeling slightly sluggish during the waning days of the budget negotiations and legislative session.
Knoll completed radiation treatment in July and is now in her second round of chemotherapy.
Sirabella said he did not know where the cancer was found but said repeatedly that tests were ongoing to track the illness. Knoll is being treated by doctors at the Penn State Hershey Medical Center, but she and her family have decided not to disclose who her treating physicians are.
In her statement, Knoll said: “I fully expect to conduct my duties as lieutenant governor. The next two years in Pennsylvania are going to be exciting as the governor follows through with his agenda on education, the environment and the economy. I intend to be right there to help him.”
Sirabella said Knoll informed Rendell during the second week of July that she was ill and being treated, but did not tell him she had cancer until she spoke with him on Aug. 16.
Sirabella said Knoll delayed public disclosure until Aug. 20 to give herself time to inform her extended family of her illness.
Knoll continues to work from her Fort Indiantown residence, including chairing a meeting of the Board of Pardons by phone teleconference on the morning of Aug. 21, Sirabella said.
Knoll, a native of McKees Rock, a working-class town just outside Pittsburgh, is the first elected female lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania. She previously served two terms as treasurer from 1989 until 1997.
While it’s difficult to say with any certainty the severity of Knoll’s illness – since she has opted not to identify her doctors – she and her aides are brimming with optimism over the prospects of recovery.
If Knoll could not fulfill the remaining two years and four months left in her term as lieutenant governor, Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, would take that post. That would create a unique dynamic, with a liberal Democratic governor and a staunch, conservative Republican in the number two spot.
Furthermore, it will give Rendell further pause before he ponders any opportunities that could come his way, if U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is elected president.
While Rendell has said repeatedly that he will finish his term as governor before considering a cabinet post in a Democratic presidential administration, he may now have that much more reason to stick around. Few political analysts believe Rendell would take a cabinet post and hand the governorship over to an ailing Number Two, or, perhaps much worse from his point-of-view, a Republican.
Four Corners of Pennsylvania Regional news you can use
Southwestern Pennsylvania
She would have been the oldest delegate at the Democratic Convention if she had attended but former Pittsburgh Mayor Sophie Masloff, 90, decided against attending the Democratic confab for personal health concerns. Masloff said she was feeling fine but her doctors had concerns about Denver’s mile-high altitude that caused her to miss this Democratic gathering the first she hasn’t attended since 1960.
Southeastern Pennsylvania
Chris Matthews, MSNBC political analyst and host of its “Hardball” program, showed up at a breakfast meeting of the Pennsylvanian delegation during the convention sounding very much like a candidate, according to those in attendance. Much speculation has surrounded Matthews’ future about whether he remains with MSNBC or leaves the network next June when his current $5 million-a-year contract expires to begin a bid for a U.S. Senate seat from Pennsylvania, the one now held by veteran Republican Arlen Specter. At the breakfast meeting, Matthews, a Philadelphia native, was treated like a rock star, according to the Philadelphia Daily News. He greeted well-wishers, posed for photos and chatted up the state’s political elite.
Northeastern Pennsylvania
The Republican congressional candidate running against freshman Democrat Chris Carney decided to take a trick from the handbook of gubernatorial candidate Tom Ridge and bicycle his way across the vast district. All totaled, Chris Hackett planned to make 20 stops along a 150-mile-route mostly following Route 6 and touching on 13 counties. He is joined in his trek by his wife, Ramah, another biking enthusiast. They began Monday and planned to finish this Friday, August 29, always traveling together and sometimes sharing a tandem bike built for two. Ridge did a similar summer ride in the Altoona area as a candidate for governor in August 1994 and later incorporated annual bicycle rides in different regions of the state as part of his efforts to promote tourism of Pennsylvania.
Northwestern Pennsylvania
Some time Friday, Aug. 29, the dreams of many political fans in Erie will be dashed again when native and favorite son Tom Ridge is passed over again for vice president. At least that’s what our good reliable sources tell us right now. If proven wrong, I will gladly eat these words in the next issue. But I don’t think so.
Ever since his improbable election as governor in 1994 as an unknown Erie congressman, many in his home region have felt that it was Ridge’s destiny to be in the White House some day – president, they hoped. He had the great resume: raised in public housing in Erie, father worked two jobs to send his children to school, got a scholarship to Harvard, was drafted and became a decorated combat veteran in Vietnam. Came home and became a prosecutor and was elected to Congress as a Republican by a thin margin of just over 700 votes in 1982 during a recession for which the GOP was largely blamed.
Ran for governor 12 years later in 1994 and beat four opponents in the Republican primary and a sitting lieutenant governor in the general election. Easily re-elected in 1998 and was the subject of nationwide speculation that George W. Bush would pick him as his running mate in 2000. It didn’t happen. If it had, Bush might have carried Pennsylvania and the whole Florida fiasco be avoided. But Ridge, who supported the Pennsylvania Abortion Control law, was rejected by his party’s right wing simply because he is against outlawing abortion completely.
Then in Ridge’s seventh year as governor, the 9/11 terrorists’ attacks happened and he got the call to go to Washington to head up homeland security. No more attacks during his three year tenure in that job. Opened a Washington-based consulting firm after that and remained politically active supporting his long-time friend John McCain, even when others gave him up for gone in 2007 when his campaign nearly went bankrupt. But Ridge and McCain were elected to Congress together in 1982 and became fast friends through their shared Vietnam connection. You don’t leave your buddy bleeding in a foxhole and neither did Ridge.
So Ridge fans felt that if anyone had the courage to select Ridge in the face of some GOP opposition it was the Arizona senator and longtime friend. But the latest word is that Ridge will be passed over again. The former governor turned 63 this past week and it’s now unlikely Tom Ridge will ever fill the destiny his Erie partisans hoped for him.
This people person and simply a wonderful human being will never get even the chance he deserved because his own party does not think enough of him because of one issue and what some consider a few controversial votes he cast while in Congress (supporting the Equal Rights Amendment and opposing some Star Wars defense spending). If Ridge had been a Democrat, his profile would have easily propelled him onto the national stage in 2000. But he is loyal – even to the GOP. It’s sad that what started out as a soaring, inspiring and all-American political story is now coming to a close without the storybook ending his fellow Erie partisans had dreamed for him.
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