Giuliani counts backers who aren't fans
- By Politic Now
- Published 04/30/2007
By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer
CONCORD, N.H. - Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani released his latest slate of New Hampshire supporters last week. One problem: Not all of them back the former New York City mayor.
Alongside a former state GOP chairman, a congressman and an executive councilor who do support Giuliani, a handful of people made the list of 125 supporters despite their objections.
Some are openly criticizing their mistaken inclusion. Others, who did not want to be quoted or to embarrass the Giuliani campaign, have since decided to join it.
Wendy Stanley Jones, named a state co-chair for Women for Giuliani, said she was considering Giuliani, but also was weighing staying out of the race because of a busy personal schedule.
In New Hampshire, "we take our endorsements very seriously," she said. "I wasn't ready to endorse. I'm not sure I will be endorsing. I'd like to think this is because of a little sloppiness."
Mike Galante said a friend told him he had been named as the Carroll County small business chairman, although he never agreed to the post.
"I'd been traveling and there were messages on my machine. I hadn't returned them," Galante said.
He said he is likely to support Giuliani, but wanted a chance to check out other candidates before deciding. To make things worse, his name was misspelled on the list released Thursday, the day after rival Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) formally entered the race in New Hampshire.
"We have county chairmen in each of the counties," campaign political director Mark Campbell told New Hampshire reporters on a conference call announcing the roster. "We have great leadership in each of the counties."
Not exactly. The Giuliani campaign said on Monday the list's errors were simple confusion.
"This is a regrettable oversight on our part," said campaign spokeswoman Maria Comella. "We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused."
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ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — While she is known to millions simply as "Hillary," New York's junior senator is having something of an identity crisis in her official life.
When it comes to running for president, she is " Hillary Clinton," according to her campaign Web site. But when it comes to her official Senate releases, she is still " Hillary Rodham Clinton."
The Clinton camp appeared to be at a loss to come up with an explanation when the Albany Times Union newspaper asked about it.
"I haven't, I haven't," Clinton said with laugh when asked about her apparent name change.
A strategic decision? Clinton campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson told The Associated Press on Monday: "The campaign hasn't given any thought to this issue."
"When we started writing press releases on the presidential campaign, we started using Hillary Clinton," Wolfson said.
Why? "Why not," he said.
The Clinton aide said there had been "zero" discussion about the matter and that given her celebrity, "I don't think anybody's going to be confused."
The name game has been going on for some time in Clinton's world.
"Hillary Rodham Clinton" became the standard in 1993 as the Clintons moved into the White House. She continued to use that when she ran for Senate from New York in 2000.
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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said former CIA Director George Tenet's points on the buildup to the Iraq war in his memoir show that Congress must press its demand for a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops.
"It's just further evidence of how strong the Congress needs to be in standing up to President Bush," Edwards told The Associated Press in a brief telephone interview Monday.
Tenet writes in his new book, "At the Center of the Storm," that Vice President Dick Cheney and other administration officials pushed for the U.S. to invade Iraq without a "serious debate" about whether Saddam Hussein was an imminent threat. The book was officially released Monday.
President Bush said Monday that he wants to work with Democrats on compromise legislation to fund the Iraq war even though he promised to veto a funding bill that sets an October timetable for withdrawing U.S. forces.
Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, voted to authorize the invasion in 2002, but has since called his vote a mistake.
Tenet isn't the only one with a new book.
John Edwards co-edited a book released Monday that details a variety of possible solutions to poverty in the United States. The book is titled, "Ending Poverty in America: How to Restore the American Dream," and contributors include former Republican presidential candidate Jack Kemp.
Edwards helped coordinate the collection of essays while serving as director of The Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Has U2's Bono finally found what he's looking for?
The rocker and global do-gooder will pair up Tuesday with Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to back legislation to expand education efforts in impoverished countries.
When Bono's Irish supergroup performed in the nation's capital in 2005, Clinton seized it as a fundraising opportunity, charging $2,500 a seat to rock out with the New York senator in a luxury box.
Then as now, Bono is not endorsing her politically, just her policy stance on the issue of global education.
The two will participate in a conference call with reporters Tuesday to tout the legislation that would add billions in U.S. aid to overseas education programs. The bill would expand education for the estimated 77 million children worldwide who are not enrolled in primary school. The legislation, which has been offered in past years, would spend $10 billion over 5 years.
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