Hill Staffer Against Hill.
A former aide to ex-New York Sen. Alfonse D'Amato (R.) is considering a possible run against Hillary in 2006. Republican Adam Brecht is 37 years old and also worked with late Sen. John Heinz (R.) of Pennsylvania. Brecht is now a Wall Street investor, who made news when he tried to raise private money to keep city firehouses open after 9/11. He spent $6,000 to run his first ad in Hamptons magazine to announce his Senate exploratory committee, and said that he will buy more around the state after the November elections, hoping to gauge support for a run at the seat Mrs. Clinton has vowed to keep-no matter whom the GOP throws at her. "I think she's been a good celebrity but not necessarily a good senator," said Brecht. "The upstate economy is worse now, there's been zero progress on health care and I don't think the state gets its share of the homeland security money." Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R.) and New York GOP Rep. Pete King (R.) are often mentioned as potential Senate candidates, but if they enter the race, Brecht said he will likely step aside.
Kerry Can Do No Wrong.
Hillary recently made a stop in upstate New York, ostensibly to celebrate a new business partnership for the Syracuse area, but soon her appearance degenerated into a campaign appearance to sell John Kerry for President. According to Hillary, the government needs new approaches to homeland security and the economy, and Kerry has plans to provide them. "First of all, he advocates a return to fiscal responsibility," she said. "I think it's key because it goes hand-in-hand with creating conditions for employment and investment that really are more likely to be positive for New York and elsewhere." She spoke about how Kerry would reduce the deficit, which would increase investment by U.S. businesses and make us less dependent on money from China and Japan. "We have lost control over our financial destiny," Sen. Clinton said. "It is not smart, and it is also not good for either investment or employment." She also spoke about terrorist threats, saying that while there may be more credible ways than the current terror alert system to warn the public of security threats, the threats themselves are real: "We should just know that we are engaged in a long-term struggle against adversaries who wish us ill. They want to kill Americans. They want to disrupt our way of life. How best we deal with it is the real challenge."
Streep Denies Being Hill.
Although movie executives and producers were concerned that actress Meryl Streep was channeling Hillary in her portrayal of a dangerous senator in the Manchurian Candidate, Streep has since come out to deny she is imitating Mrs. Clinton at all. "I'm disappointed," said Streep when Katie Couric asked her whether her aggressive and ambitious character was based on Hillary. Streep, an outspoken liberal, not only insists that she is not playing Hillary, but also now claims she based her character on conservatives such as columnist Ann Coulter, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R.-Tex.). When told that her resemblance to Mrs. Clinton extends to her character's very hairstyle, Streep giggled, "That's the Washington helmet! You can't find a woman politician who doesn't have that hair. Who doesn't have that hair?" In the end, Streep says any and all attempts to consider her role as being Hillaryesque as merely "an agenda to attack Hillary."
Educate the World.
Hillary has introduced a bill called the "Education for All Act," and its goal is to provide Universal Education by 2015. It is designed to provide universal basic education for all children throughout the world, and she has said that "We will fail to reach this goal unless poor countries make a firm commitment to education and develop credible national education plans. But the developed world needs to step up its investment too." Hillary estimates that such a plan would cost U.S. taxpayers $5??¢â???¬ ¦quot;$10 billion a year, as compared to the $300 million the U.S. spends for global education funding. She recently claimed that her bill would help the War on Terror, because children in places like Afghanistan would be "taught math and science, instead of hate."
