Inside Politics

Bosnia bounce

Bad news is big news for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Her “Bosnia gaffe” made the New York Democrat the top newsmaker last week, says Mark Jurkowitz of the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Fallout from her oft-repeated story about encountering sniper fire during a 1996 trip to Bosnia and her subsequent claim she “misspoke” garnered 63 percent of the campaign stories from March 24 to 30, compared with Sen. Barack Obama, at 54 percent.

“That marks a major turnaround from the previous week, when 72 percent of the stories were significantly or predominantly about Obama, and Clinton lagged far behind at 30 percent. Then it was Obama on the hot seat as he delivered a high-stakes March 18 speech designed to minimize the political damage caused by the widely circulated and inflammatory remarks of his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright,” Mr. Jurkowitz wrote yesterday at www. journalism.org.

“Once again, the still-contested Democratic race dominated the media’s attention, generating about six times the number of stories as the Republicans. But much of the news was negative. … John McCain, who picked up the endorsement of Nancy Reagan last week, saw his coverage move up to 24 percent from 17 percent the previous week. But that still amounted to less than half of Obama’s or Clinton’s coverage, something some observers see as a boon to the presumptive GOP nominee.”

A pugilist’s insight

Along with suggesting that Sen. Barack Obama join her in a round of bowling for April Fool’s Day, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday likened herself to a famous Hollywood boxer. It wasn’t Joe Palooka.

“When it comes to finishing a fight, Rocky and I have a lot in common. I never quit. I never give up,” she told an AFL-CIO gathering in Philadelphia.

“Um … senator. Rocky lost,” ABC News’ Jake Tapper observed in his Political Punch blog.

“Rocky Balboa has spoken, and he’s with John McCain,” said Alex Conant, spokesman for the Republican National Committee.

Indeed, “Rocky” actor Sylvester Stallone endorsed Mr. McCain in January.

Pushing for Kwame

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s staffers, including a cousin, have launched an e-mail campaign to encourage city residents to “push back” against what they say is unfair media coverage of the mayor, the Detroit Free Press reported yesterday.

City officials said the e-mails, dubbed Media Watch, were sent from personal accounts during private time but defended the use of City Hall phones and fax machines for residents to respond to their call.

“We weren’t privy to this e-mail,” said Kilpatrick spokeswoman Denise Tolliver. “This was sent from a personal e-mail account. It’s our job to monitor the press. People call us all the time. I don’t think that’s a misuse of city funds. It’s part of our job.”

Rich Robinson, director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, a Lansing-based watchdog group, said the effort doesn’t surprise him. “But it’s hard to imagine that’s a legitimate use of city resources.”

“I’d be curious to find out how the City Council feels about how city employees are spending their time,” Mr. Robinson told the Free Press.

Gore lurking

Al Gore launches his three-year, $300 million public advocacy campaign to save the planet from climate change tonight — in a venue with some built-in hot air of its own. The first 30-second spot premieres on Fox’s “American Idol,” with a $700,000 price tag.

The former vice president also is buying up time on NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” — and was just deemed the “Warm Monger” by American Spectator magazine.

He’s only just getting started, though. Spots to follow will offer “unlikely pairs,” who disagree on just about everything, but who are willing to speak out against global warming.

So far, the roster includes televangelist Pat Robertson and the Rev. Al Sharpton; the famously anti-President Bush country group the Dixie Chicks and Bush-lovin’ country crooner Toby Keith; and Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Meanwhile, rumors persist that Mr. Gore will join the presidential race in some capacity to unify the Democratic Party, exemplified by this headline in the EuroNews: “Obama and Clinton continue to scrap while Gore lurks.”

The Bubba factor

Uh-oh. Will he talk too much and wag that index finger? Finding a spot for former President Bill Clinton on the campaign trail can be a challenge.

In “the past few weeks, the Clinton campaign seems to have settled on a consistent strategy for the former president: Keep him largely out of the national spotlight while deploying him to small cities and towns like Washington, Pa., and South Bend, where figures of his stature are rarely seen,” Brian Montopoli reported on CBS News’ Web site yesterday.

The concept must appeal to Mr. Clinton, who already has billed himself a “rural hit man.”

“It’s the ’boy from Hope’ stuff, the fact that he grew up in a small town,” suggested Democratic strategist Steve Jarding.

“There’s this weird line he has to walk that no one else has to walk,” said CBS News analyst Joe Trippi, a longtime Democratic campaign consultant. “People might expect [the spouse of a presidential candidate] to say something unflattering about one of the other candidates, but they don’t expect that sort of thing from the former president of the United States, a man who is the biggest Democrat alive in a lot of ways.”

Goof-proof?

Former CBS producer Mary Mapes still believes she was right. In 2004, she collaborated with anchorman Dan Rather on a story claiming that President Bush compromised his Vietnam-era military service. It was based on falsified documents. She was fired, and he resigned.

“Bush spokesmen themselves never told us they thought the documents were false. In fact, when we showed the documents to White House staff before airing the story, presidential spokesman Dan Bartlett said the memos really confirmed Bush’s version of events; that they indicated his commanders were aware that he had skedaddled away from the Guard,” Ms. Mapes wrote at thenation.com yesterday.

“Despite a months-long, multi-million-dollar corporate investigation, the documents were never proved false and never have been proved false. I am perfectly willing to believe they are, but I need some kind of real proof, something that holds no tinge of politics, something tangible. … I’m not persuaded by the bullying rantings of the radical right or the pompous disapproval of the lapdog Beltway media set.”

• Contact Jennifer Harper at jharper@washingtontimes.com or 202/636-3085.