■ California’s GOP Gov. Pete Wilson is in the dumps: his approval rating is 15 per cent, and two-thirds of the state’s Republicans would like someone to challenge him in 1994 primary. Republican leaders are murmuring that there need be no move to rally around the governor. He trails likely Democratic opponent, Kathleen Brown (sister of Jerry), 2 to 1 in polls. … In contrast, GOP governors who haven’t moved left on economic and social issues are riding high. Illinois’s Jim Edgar has approval rating of 64 per cent; Ohio’s George Voinovich, 55 per cent; Wisconsin’s Tommy Thompson, 72 per cent. … In Michigan, conservative activist and former chairman of the NRCC, Spencer Abraham, will run for the Senate in 1994 against three-term incumbent Don Riegle (D.). Riegle grows more unpopular by the day, helped by Keating Five scandal and other dealings…Ted Kennedy’s son Patrick, currently a Rhode Island state representative (having rebounded from the infamous Night in Palm Beach with dad and William Kennedy Smith), is considering a run against moderate GOP U.S. Rep. Ron Machtley.
■ Possible Bill Clinton appointee for U.S. Attorney in Connecticut is Christopher Droney, 1992 Clinton state campaign chairman. Droney was mayor of West Hartford in 1989 when police brutally beat Operation Rescue protestors. Droney commended police handling of the event. . . . Continuing rumor is that FBI director William Sessions will soon be replaced. Possible successor: Charles Ruff. Ruff’s nomination to post of deputy attorney general was pulled in March because he had failed to pay Social Security taxes for household help—and also because he had gotten on wrong side of Virginia Gov. Doug Wilder and other prominent Democrats. Ruff publicly defended Sen. Chuck Robb when he and staff were found to have tapped phone of Gov. Wilder. . . . Impeached federal judge and current U.S. representative from Florida, Alcee Hastings, has put his girlfriend and former lawyer, Patricia Williams, on his congressional payroll. Hastings owes Miss Williams, who has been disbarred, some $500,000. . . . Sydney Williams, car salesman and husband of left-wing Rep. Maxine Waters of South-Central L.A., is expected to be named ambassador to the Bahamas. . . . Sen. Barbara Boxer’s daughter, Nicole, is to marry Tony Rodham, brother of Hillary Clinton, in prequel to Omen IV. . . . Martin Ginsburg, husband of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, will someday have a chair named after him at Georgetown Law School (where he is a professor), thanks to Ross Perot, who has donated $1 million toward endowing the chair. Ginsburg found a tax loophole some ten years ago that saved the future third-party candidate millions of dollars in his dealings with GM. . . . Close FOH Susan Thomases was a research assistant to Mrs. Ginsburg while the Supreme Court nominee was a professor at Columbia Law School. . . . The Boston Herald’s Don Feder writes that in order to find “a Jew to the left of Michael Lerner,” editor of the liberal Jewish magazine Tikkun and guru-at-large for Clinton Administration, “one would have to exhume the remains of Leon Trotsky.” … It was previously reported on this page that the White House Credit Union, among other agencies, was breaking with tradition: the portrait of the current President was accompanied, not by portrait of Vice President, but by portrait of First Lady. However the Credit Union has recently replaced Hillary Clinton with former Tennessee Sen. Al Gore.
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