Internecine Profiteering
Terry McAuliffe’s book excerpted. “What a Party! My Life among the Democrats – Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists and other Wild Animals.” This chapter on the 2004 race should be titled, “How Kerry Bollixed It.” In a self-described self-serving tome, he’s blaming it all lot on Kerry. No indication in here however that he’s taking on Kerry’s fundamental unworthiness for the job after a lackluster career as a backbench coattails rider, or the problems with Kerry’s own war record of abandoning his command on a technicality, three scratches and you’re out. But what McAuliffe does say underscores Kerry’s perennial cluelessness, as recently exemplified by his ”stuck in Iraq” bumble and his decision to keep stumbling on toward 2008.
Boston Herald’s intro:
Former Democratic Party boss Terry McAuliffe shamelessly admits his scrappy new memoir is meant mainly to be self-serving. When his book, “What a Party! My Life Among Democrats – Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, and other Wild Animals” (Thomas Dunne Books, $24.95), isn’t serving McAuliffe’s interests, it’s genuflecting at the altar of his close friends and patrons, former President Bill and presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton.
With Hillary’s announcement yesterday that she’s “in it to win,” it’s probably no coincidence that McAuliffe’s memoir, which hits bookstores Tuesday, blasts one of her potential 2008 rivals, Sen. John Kerry. Indeed, McAuliffe goes out of his way to lambaste Kerry’s failed 2004 presidential bid, calling it “one of the biggest acts of political malpractice in the history of American politics.”
In these exclusive excerpts, McAuliffe takes us behind the scenes alongside the Democrats as they plot strategy to unseat President George W. Bush.
Here’s McAuliffe:
… I kept glancing down at my BlackBerry, expecting any moment to get word that John had made the big splash in the press with his response to Bush. . . .
Finally I sat down and watched the evening newscast and they reported the shocking news that Bush didn’t think he could win the war on terror. Then they cut to Nantucket for John Kerry’s reply. There was John in the water with his Windsurfer, and a reporter shouted a question, asking if he could win the war on terror. John smiled and gave a one-word answer, but it was so windy, you couldn’t really hear what he said, and they had to put a subtitle at the bottom of the TV screen.
“ABSOLUTELY,” it read.
Kerry’s aide reax to McAuliffe book: “He’s looking forward.”
Read the first excerpted installment here, exclusive in the Boston Herald.
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Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:24 am Comments (2) on Sunday, January 21, 2007
2 Responses to “Internecine Profiteering”
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January 21st, 2007 at 10:20 am
[...] *** Jules Crittenden of the Boston Herald, a nemesis of Ted and Kerry, is a happy man today. He previewed Terry McAuliffe’s book, which trashed Kerry for botching the 2004 race. [...]
January 21st, 2007 at 2:29 pm
What Dems don’t want to remember is that JFK was the best candidate they had. He won the primaries fair and square because he was the most electable. Who do they think would have done better? Howard Dean?