Inside Politics

In the closet

“What were the odds that a top Obama adviser, and then the top Clinton adviser, would find themselves in trouble with their respective campaigns over the issue of trade?” Byron York writes at National Review Online (www.nationalreview .com).

“Pretty good, actually. Next to race, trade has become the most explosive issue in the Democratic presidential contest. And especially at a time when Hillary Clinton is trying to build on her win in Ohio with a last-chance victory in Pennsylvania,” Mr. York said.

“It’s no accident that Austan Goolsbee, the top Obama adviser who told Canadian officials not to worry about Obama’s anti-NAFTA posturing, became an issue during the campaign in economically troubled Ohio. And it’s no accident that Mark Penn, the top Clinton strategist who has been demoted over his private-business promotion of the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, has found himself in hot water in the midst of campaigning in Pennsylvania.

“The two controversies point up one central fact: Many staffers and surrogates, in both campaigns, simply don’t believe what Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are saying about NAFTA, and free trade in general, on the campaign trail. But they can’t say so. ’A lot of them are free traders, but during the Democratic primaries they stay in the closet,’ one Democratic strategist who is not affiliated with either campaign told me Monday. ’More the Clinton campaign than the Obama campaign, but probably both.’ ”

Lose to win

“Should Republicans want to hold onto the presidency in 2008?” political analyst Charlie Cook asks at national journal.com.

“It sounds like a stupid question, and maybe it is. But one thing that has been true over the last couple of decades is that both parties have enormously strong self-destructive tendencies. If left to their own devices, they will do themselves in. To give one party the White House and majorities in the House and Senate is like a ticking time bomb; it’s only a matter of time before it explodes and the party loses, and loses big,” Mr. Cook said.

The columnist added: “A different way of approaching it is that every decade or two, a party has to destroy itself and be reborn. Like forests need fire to begin the regeneration process, from time to time, parties need the dead wood cleared out and space made for new growth to emerge. But to rise like a phoenix, you have to get down to ashes first.

“As painful as 2006 was for the GOP, the party did not appear to hit rock bottom. A good case can be made that the Republican Party would be a stronger, better party five years from today if it reconstituted itself now. …

“All of this is fine to say from the cheap seats. But in the real world, competitors always play to win. Republicans and Democrats should fight this election as if there were no tomorrow. That’s the way it should be.”

Stop sign

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s plan to charge drivers extra tolls to enter Manhattan’s most congested neighborhoods earned him invitations to speak at such gatherings as the U.N. climate conference and raised his profile as he considered a presidential run.

But the plan died Monday when Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in Albany announced his chamber wouldn’t take up the proposal because of strong opposition within the conference dominated by New York City Democrats, the Associated Press reports.

In a speech yesterday at Georgetown University in Washington, the mayor shrugged off the defeat and said courage is needed in political leaders to take decisive action on the environment.

“It takes courage to ask people to change — even if it won’t really cost them much. It is sad but it is true. Political leaders today are afraid of their constituents,” he said in a speech at an environmental conference.

The traffic fee proposal, known as congestion pricing, called for drivers of cars to pay $8 and trucks $21 to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays. Opponents argued that it was an unfair tax on middle-class commuters who drive to work for lack of mass-transit options in their neighborhoods.

Hail Mary pass

“The reason for Clinton strategist Mark Penn’s departure from the campaign [Sunday] night was ostensibly his conflict of interest in representing the government of Colombia’s position in favor of a trade treaty while his candidate, Hillary Clinton, was a fierce opponent of the same trade agreement,” John Fund writes at opinionjournal.com.

“In reality, Mr. Penn had to go because the Clinton campaign needs a new strategy. The latest polls show Barack Obama’s massive saturation ad buys in Pennsylvania are working. He is now tied with Mrs. Clinton in that state’s April 22 primary. Hillary has perhaps one more Hail Mary pass in her and Mr. Penn wasn’t the man to execute it.

“That job will now go to Geoff Garin, a respected pollster and a man with a reputation for digging candidates out of holes they’ve put themselves in. In 2001, he helped craft the message that enabled Mark Warner to be elected governor of Virginia, a state that hadn’t voted Democratic for president in a quarter century. Many of the leading Democrats in the Senate, from Dick Durbin to Chuck Schumer, have relied on Mr. Garin’s advice.

“Of course, Mr. Garin would be the first to admit that some candidates are beyond help. In 2004, he was the pollster for Gen. Wesley Clark’s ill-fated presidential campaign, an effort that no amount of resuscitation could save.”

An apology

Democratic Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV apologized yesterday for suggesting that Republican Sen. John McCain doesn’t care about people because he was a Navy fighter pilot who dropped bombs on Vietnam.

Mr. Rockefeller supports fellow Democratic Sen. Barack Obama for president. He made the comments in an interview published yesterday in the Charleston Gazette in his home state of West Virginia.

“McCain was a fighter pilot, who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit. What happened when [the missiles] get to the ground? He doesn’t know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues,” Mr. Rockefeller said.

He said he called Mr. McCain to apologize, the Associated Press reports.

“I made an inaccurate and wrong analogy, and I have extended my sincere apology to him,” Mr. Rockefeller said. “While we differ a great deal on policy issues, I profoundly respect and appreciate his dedication to our country, and I regret my very poor choice of words.”

• Greg Pierce can be reached at 202/636-3285 or gpierce@washingtontimes.com.