Chip Griffin serves as senior consultant for Capital Idea Ventures,
advising CIV clients on Internet communications strategy. Chip brings to
CIV a unique combination of corporate, political, and public-policy
experience and in-depth technical knowledge.
The Washington Post, Washington Times, Manchester Union Leader, Des Moines Register, Concord Monitor, San Francisco Chronicle, National Review, The Weekly Standard, and other leading publications have featured his work.

Cornell Health Services is contemplating selling um, err, umm, self-pleasuring devices for females.

The Judiciary Committee chairman responds to Bush’s proposal on judicial nominees.

I know it would be suicidal to go negative on Mondale, but why couldn’t he run an ad which said something like this:

“All Minnesotans, and all Americans, were saddened by the recent tragedy….But one of the things Paul Wellstone stood for most forcefully was fighting for what he believed in. He believed politics was about arguing and persuading. He stood against the idea that elections should simply be coronations of the powerful and the popular. Well, I agree with Paul on that. That is why I’m asking Walter Mondale to debate me. Now. Today. Mr. Mondale is an honorable public servant, but no man is entitled to a Senate seat without explaining his views. Paul understood that leadership is something you earn, not something you inherit. There isn’t much time. Please ask Walter Mondale to do the right thing. Thank you.”

If Mondale agrees to a debate, great. He would either have to run as his own man or he would constantly invoke Wellstone, which I think would backfire. But he probably wouldn’t debate and that would reinforce the idea that Mondale is either unready or underserving.

Guess who Kathleen Kennedy Townsend’s godfather is?
None other than Joseph McCarthy!
I learned this last night during the toasts at a tribute to Bill Schulz the longtime Washington editor of the Reader’s Digest and all-around conservative über Mensch. When this tidbit sunk-in, some in the crowd actually started chanting “Townsend! Townsend!”

The thing that bugged me about the Mondale election rally/Wellstone memorial service wasn’t the event itself–nothing wrong with an Irish wake–but its contrast to the tone of the days leading up to it. Daschle et al were being such sanctimonious wieners about keeping politics out of the whole thing, attacking the most-innocent statements from Coleman’s camp with high dudgeon, keeping high ranking Republican’s at arms length, generally behaving boorishly–then capped it with the Mondale good-time revival. Now the apologies? Please. Everyone in America should be plain disgusted.

Jim Nuzzo is the Managing Partner of The Colchester Group, a public-policy consulting firm. He was Deputy Director for Economic and Domestic Policy for Vice President George HW Bush. He is a Adjunct Scholar at the Ethics & Public Policy Center in Washington and a Research Fellow at Harvard University. He has been a freelance producer for ABC News Nightline and on-air Republican analyst for New England Cable News. He received his JD with honors from Harvard Law School in 1994.

NARAL sent out an urgent plea from Tom Daschle yesterday: Rarely has so much been at stake for a woman’s right to choose in a U.S. Senate Election. If you and thousands of other pro-choice Americans like you don’t act today by giving to NARAL’s Save the Senate Campaign, the U.S. Senate could fall into anti-choice hands on November 6th – the first day after the election.

Anti-choice forces are organizing and mobilizing right now to defeat champions of reproductive rights, champions like Missouri Senator Jean Carnahan. The U.S. Senate’s pro-choice leadership cannot afford to lose an ally like Senator Carnahan.

So the president thinks. He’ll be campaigning for Coleman this weekend.

If this were a Catholic or evangelical church handing out pro-life election-guides, wouldn’t Donna be taking them to court?

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are working to repeat their aggressive voter turnout effort of 2000, while Republicans are countering with a campaign they acknowledge tries to match the successful face-to-face strategy used by the AFL-CIO.

“We have experienced grass-roots veteran organizers on the ground,” said Donna Brazile, who is heading up the voter turnout efforts for the Democratic National Committee. “We have the best technology we’ve ever had, our ground operation is fully funded, we have gas in our vans, gas in our trucks, we have literature for our churches.”

Minnesota Democrats filed a HREF=”http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/3396872.html”>lawsuit
yesterday regarding the Senate election. Among their demands: “To include
English, Hmong, Russian and Spanish instructions on supplemental
ballots.” The translation issue only invites further litigation given
that, as National Review Online’s Byron York HREF=”http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york103002.asp”>reports today, Minnesota Democrats are also upset with the English version of those
instructions.

Minnesota Democrats filed a HREF=”http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/3396872.html”>lawsuit
yesterday regarding the Senate election. Among their demands: “To include
English, Hmong, Russian and Spanish instructions on supplemental
ballots.” The translation issue only invites further litigation given
that, as National Review Online’s Byron York HREF=”http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york103002.asp”>reports today, Minnesota Democrats are also upset with the English version of those
instructions.

“Rich, Rich, Rich:
Love your magazine, love you, but your Yankee-centric baseball list is seriously misguided. Here’s mine, composed during Series Game four:

Willie M’s catch against the Indians’ Vic Wertz in the 54 Series would have been my first; for pure physical effort, nothing will top this.

Carleton Fisk’s Sixth game-winning homer in the 75 series would be my second.

Bill Mazeroski’s walk-off homer to win the ‘60 Series for the Pirates is number three, getting the nod over number four, the Blue Jay’s Series-winning walkoff homer.

Number five I give to Ripken 2131, not for the record itself but for the emotion of the victory lap.

Six goes to the Mookie Wilson/Bill Buckner 6th game hit (though the score already was tied by then; Boston had essentially already given away the game).

Seven is the Babe’s called shot.

Eight is Bobby Thompson’s shot heard ’round the world.

The final out of Don Larson’s perfect 1956 World Series win is number nine.

And number ten is a close call, but I’ll go with the Merkle boner that cost the Giants the ‘06 pennant, which just beats out Gibson’s game winning homer off Eckersly to win Game One of the Dodgers-As series.” (Thanks to all the others who wrote)

“Subject: Two L’s Two R’s
They are confirming that the safeties for the emergency exit slides are in. Without these safeties the slides deploy explosively when the doors are
opened.”

(Thanks for everyone who wrote in about this.)

I wrote earlier that teacher unions are breaking with tradition by not endorsing the Democratic candidates in the Georgia governor’s race and North Carolina Senate race. Now I am told that the same thing happened in the Alabama governor’s race, where Democrat Don Siegelman won election in 1998 promising to boost education funding with lottery revenues. The following year, an anti-lottery coalition formed and killed a referendum authorizing it. Now Siegelman is on the defensive, locked in a dead-heat race with U.S. Rep. Bob Riley — and without the strong support of a key element of the Democratic base as the teacher union has not issued an endorsement.

There’s been a lot of talk in the media about how the 200 Haitians who landed in Florida had “chosen freedom”. How can this be? Isn’t the Haitian president the sainted “Father Aristide” about whom we used to hear so much?

This story doesn’t reflect well on the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, but it doesn’t reflect well on Robert McTeer or the National Center for Policy Analysis either.

In remarks earlier today, President Bush outlined specific proposals to accelerate the nomination and confirmation of federal judges, including deadlines for nominations, hearings and Senate votes. The proposals are eminently sensible, but don’t expect the Senate — or at least not the current Senate — to go along.

Just spoke to a pretty savvy Republican strategist. Here’s what he had to say: “I don’t think things are going well for us. We’re catching some bad breaks. . . . I think our chances of winning the Senate are slim. I’d put them at 25 percent.” On the other hand, he’s more optimistic about GOP senator Tim Hutchinson’s re-election bid in Arkansas than most observers are.

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