Posts Tagged ‘Bill Clinton’

Being an LA City Hall nerd just got a little more exciting. No we’re not talking about another rumble over one-way streets or a park or something that controversial. We’re talking about one dude name Jay Carson, Hillary Clinton‘s traveling press secretary in 2007. Who also worked for her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

Carson is now the Chief Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles.

Which is so notable, even Ben Smith at POLITICO wrote about it.

Patrick Range McDonald at LA Weekly sums it up best:

Whatever may have happened, Carson is here. It should be an interesting four years, if the young buck, and Villaraigosa, actually stay that long.

“It seems that Antonio is setting himself up for a run for something else,” the Democratic insider tells the Weekly. “Maybe a run for Senate. Jay has those national connections.”

Previously on FBLA:

President Bill Clinton was the keynote speaker last night at Netroots Nation. He opened by saying,”I apologize my voice is hoarse, I’ve been on a lot of planes the past couple of days.” Which made the crowd laugh and cheer. Indeed, a couple of days ago the former president negotiated the release Euna Lee and Laura Ling, two Los Angeles journos who were sentenced to 12 years hard labor in the “Axis of Evil” country of North Korea.

Clinton, who is a bit of a history wonk wooed the progressive and progressively geekier crowd. He was heckled by one blogger who stood up and yelled something about the policy of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. After which Clinton defended his compromise on gays serving in the military and made it seem seamless to the point he was trying to read in his speech, about (of course) health care.

But in true Clinton form, a man whose catch phrase as president was,”I feel your pain,” charmed the new media masses by announcing, “I read a lot of your blogs.”

Previously on FBLA:

We are here in Pittsburgh, PA covering Netroots Nation. Former President Bill Clinton will be the kick off speaker tonight and we can’t stop from making “Gap dress” jokes. We can’t help it.

Make sure to check back for all the hot blogger/flack/geek action all weekend long!

Is there going to be a book about the four month ordeal of Laura Ling and Euna Lee in North Korea? Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg at WSJ.com seems to think maybe:

Although publishers and literary agents in New York said they haven’t yet seen or heard of proposals for a book from either Lee or Ling, or the two as a team, there’s speculation that a book could fetch $500,000 or so-but only if they have a compelling story to tell.

We’re wondering as part of a pardon – for SPYING if there wasn’t some non-disclosure agreement as part of the deal. We think Bill Clinton must have glamoured Kim Jong Il. If he would have just kicked them out of the country like a normal dictator – there’d be no book. Yutz.

CNN confirmed two US journos Laura Ling and Euna Lee working for the Al Gore owned Current TV were pardoned by North Korean President Kim Jong Il after a visit from former President Bill Clinton.

Phew.

Previously on FBLA:

Unnamed sources in South Korea are reporting President Bill Clinton most likely returning home with Laura Ling and Euna Lee of Current TV. The two journalists were sentenced to 12 years hard labor by North Korea for what we believe amounts to trespassing or being in the country.

But here is our favorite sentence in the LAT:

Clinton, the husband of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, is the highest-profile U.S. official to visit North Korea in nearly a decade.

The husband of Secretary of State? May we say, congratulations Hillary.

We think it both fitting and tragic that both the NYTimes and LATimes used a picture of Ron Silver from the 2004 RNC. Sure, he did some stuff in his life, movies blah blah, theater blah blah – but he endorsed George W. Bush. We didn’t know Silver personally, but we think he’d be cool with that.

Bruce Weber at the NYT writes:

Ron Silver, a versatile actor and independent-minded political activist who played Henry Kissinger, Alan Dershowitz and Angelo Dundee on the screen and supported Bill Clinton, Rudolph W. Giuliani and George W. Bush on the stump, died at home in Manhattan on Sunday. He was 62.

Dennis McClellan at LAT writes:

As for those who mock celebrity participation in politics, Silver told the New York Times in 1993: “What do you want us to do? Have affairs? Become drug addicts? We have a certain visibility and power in the society. We’re a celebrity-driven society. Why not use that to try to do a little good?”

Photo by Brigitte Lacombe.

We got to take a picture (a crappy one from an iPhone) with soon-to-be Senator-Elect Al Franken at the Media Matters party.

And yeah, we are totally stoked about that. So suck it.

We also met (and got our picture taken with – but we’ll spare you the grainy horrible photo) political consultant and former President Bill Clinton adviser Paul Begala.

Plus we talked with Christopher Hayes the Washington editor of The Nation and frequent guest of Keith Olbermann on Countdown…mainly about Al Franken.

RadarOnline reports:

Sarah Palin has garnered more than fame from her failed Vice-Presidential bid. She is reportedly close to making a book deal for $7 million.

“Bill Clinton made over $10 million for his deal seven years ago,” a publishing insider told Radar. “That was more than any other former President.”

Palin offers more than just a political memoir with flashes of sexual mea culpa.

“She has huge appeal to a segment of the female reading public, and her private life hasn’t been an open book,” our source told us. “Not yet.”

Uhm, her appeal is not to the ‘female reading public’ – it’s to the male ‘I dig chicks that are hot and don’t make me feel like a dumb ass’ loving segment of the population.

Our sister blog GalleyCat’s Ron Hogan says,”Notice that this source said “huge appeal to a segment,” not “appeal to a huge segment.”

Good point. We say women who actually read books think she’s a dink.

Speaking of which, we have two copies of Dan Quayle‘s book “Worth Fighting For” on our desk. One for us. One for a gift. We got it in the one dollar bin…and he actually won an election.

Funny enough, that is the exact title of a John McCain/Mark Salter book, because he can’t do anything original.

The always well-read Marc Maron told FBLA he looks forward to Palin’s book, “If it’s half as exciting as trying to decipher her interviews it should be the new Ulysses.”

After Senator Bob Dole ran for president against President Bill Clinton, he went on television and said, “I slept like a baby. Woke up crying every two hours.”

Funny. Bob Dole is funny.

Last night on the Tonight Show Senator John McCain: “I’ve been sleeping like a baby – sleep two hours – wake up and cry.”

I guess the secret service and his joke writers took off after he lost.

So…Viagra commercials are next for the Senator?