NEW YORK POST: In an explosive interview with The Post, the McGreeveys’ longtime man-in-the-middle, Teddy Pedersen, recounted explicit details of alleged, titillating, three-way sex romps he had with the now-divorcing duo, starting during their courtship and continuing into the marriage. Pedersen — who said he has already spilled the beans on the steamy ménage a trios arrangement under oath in a deposition for the couple’s divorce battle — hinted that he thinks his presence was required to get Jim’s motor running for Dina. Matos McGreevey’s basic claim in her divorce war with the former Garden State gov is her argument […]
EAVESDROPPING: How Obama’s Spin Doctors Do Brain Surgery On The Fourth Estate Over The Phone
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Today I listened in on another one of those campaign conference calls to reporters, this time from the Obama people. Same deal as the Hillary campaign conference call, you get an email announcing, with little or no warning, that the conference call is happening in 40 minutes, along with an 800 number and a special code to punch in. Representing Team Obama was Chief Strategist David Axelrod and Communications Director Robert Gibbs. Axelrod pointed out that Clinton Chief Strategist Mark Penn yesterday raised the issue of transparency, while assuring reporters that Senator Clinton has been ‘fully vetted.’ […]
WORTH REPEATING: Legalize The ‘Oldest Profession’
*SMERCONISH: It is ridiculous that governance of the nation’s third-largest state is changing hands because two consenting adults swapped sex for money instead of the conventional cosmopolitan or margarita. When the dust settles over this brouhaha, I hope we’ll be ready for a long-overdue, realistic, adult conversation about prostitution. It’s time to bring the world’s oldest profession aboveboard in communities willing to allow it, clean up the trade, and clamp down on the exploitation. Let government share in the revenue, but otherwise stay out of the private affairs of consenting adults. Beyond the role of the tax man, prostitution doesn’t […]
TIBET: Quiet Riot
BEIJING (AP) — Soldiers on foot and in armored carriers swarmed Tibet’s capital Saturday, enforcing a strict curfew a day after protesters burned shops and cars to vent their anger against Chinese rule. In another western city, police clashed with hundreds of Buddhist monks leading a sympathy demonstration. The violence erupted just two weeks before China’s Summer Olympic celebrations kick off with the start of the torch relay, which passes through Tibet. China is gambling that its crackdown will not draw an international outcry over human rights violations that could lead to boycotts of the Olympics. The latest unrest began […]
JUST IN: Superdelegate Race Breaking For Obama
JOE SUPER DELEGATE: Illustration by ALEX FINE BLOOMBERG: Barack Obama has pulled almost even with Hillary Clinton in endorsements from top elected officials and has cut into her lead among the other superdelegates she’s relying on to win the Democratic presidential nomination. Among the 313 of 796 superdelegates who are members of Congress or governors, Clinton has commitments from 103 and Obama is backed by 96, according to lists supplied by the campaigns. Fifty-three of Obama’s endorsements have come since he won the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses, compared with 12 who have aligned with Clinton since then. “That’s not glacial, […]
EAVESDROPPING: How Clinton’s Spin Doctors Do Brain Surgery On The Fourth Estate Over The Phone
GIVE ‘EM HECK, HILLARY: Clinton in Scranton, Monday, by VIC SUEDE BY JONATHAN VALANIA So, I couldn’t get anyone on the line today for our Keystoned Cell Phone Poll — all four of the guys in Pennsylvania named John Doe must have day jobs or are still sleeping off last night, and likewise with the eight guys named Mike Hunt and the two Jane Does. Man, this polling is hard work! So instead, I sat in today on one of those Hillary campaign conference calls to reporters that you have no doubt read about or heard referenced by columnists or […]
BUSHCO: This Is Your Tax Dollars NOT At Work
WASHINGTON POST: After Philadelphia‘s housing director refused a demand by President Bush‘s housing secretary to transfer a piece of city property to a business friend, two top political appointees at the department exchanged e-mails discussing the pain they could cause the Philadelphia director.”Would you like me to make his life less happy? If so, how?” Orlando J. Cabrera, then-assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, wrote about Philadelphia housing director Carl R. Greene. “Take away all of his Federal dollars?” responded Kim Kendrick, an assistant secretary who oversaw accessible housing. She typed symbols for a smiley-face, […]
HOT DOCUMENT: Geraldine Ferraro Resigns From The Clinton Campaign, Citing Foot And Mouth Disease
Dear Hillary – I am stepping down from your finance committee so I can speak for myself and you can continue to speak for yourself about what is at stake in this campaign.The Obama campaign is attacking me to hurt you. I won’t let that happen. Thank you for everything you have done and continue to do to make this a better world for my children and grandchildren. You have my deep admiration and respect. Gerry [via POLITICO] PREVIOUSLY: In a newspaper interview last week, Ferraro said, “If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. […]
ENDGAME: Fumo Acknowledges Reality
INQUIRER: State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo announced today that he was dropping out of the race for re-election, ending a more than 30-year political career. Fumo cited the ‘cloud’ of indictment as the main reason for his decision to leave office once his term ends in January. He suffered a heart attack March 2 that sent him to the hospital for a week. He was released on Sunday. Flanked by his family and Gov. Rendell, Fumo made his announcement at a 25-minute press conference at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. “I did not make the decision to retire because of health […]
ABOUT LAST NIGHT: Flix & Snacks With Hillary
BY TIFFANY YOON LIVING ARTS CORRESPONDENT Last night Phawker was literally EVERYWHERE! And boy, are my arms tired. Bada-BUM! First stop, the 17th Annual Philadelphia Film Festival’s press conference turned cocktail party to brush elbows with other anxious members of the media. This year’s Philadelphia Film Festival runs from April 3-15 and is focusing on music and documentary. It will commence with Young@Heart and close with Patti Smith: Dream of Life, which is a documentary on cult rocker Patti Smith. Should be awesome. Second on the list, in an order that doesn’t seem to make any sense, the Hillary Clinton […]
MISSISSIPPI: ‘Yes We Can’
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Barack Obama coasted to victory in Mississippi’s Democratic primary Tuesday, latest in a string of racially polarized presidential contests across the Deep South and a final tune-up before next month’s high-stakes race with Hillary Rodham Clinton in Pennsylvania. Obama was winning roughly 90 percent of the black vote but only about one-quarter of the white vote, extending a pattern that carried him to victory in earlier primaries in South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana. He picked up at least six Mississippi delegates to the Democratic National Convention, with 27 more to be awarded. He hoped for a win […]
I, POLLSTER: Phawker’s Hilariously Un-Scientific Pennsyltucky Primary Keystoned Cell Phone Poll
BY JONATHAN VALANIA A long time ago, in a Clinton campaign far, far away, James Carville famously declared that Pennsylvania is Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and Alabama in between. Aw, yeah: Pennsyltucky. We know thee well. It’s sort of like watching the Dukes Of Hazzard after smoking too much kielbasa. Like sweat socks with a Sunday suit. Like the Deer Hunter costumed by Wal-Mart. It’s the long dark Chicken Dance of the national soul. Lord help us all. Anyway, with the national press are already converging on the Keystone state to get some local color on their laptops, we feel an […]
HOT DOCUMENT: Federal Lawsuit Claims McCain’s Panama Birth Disqualifies Him From Presidency
[via JUSTIA.COM] PREVIOUSLY: Panama Birth Canal Could Disqualify McCain U.S. CONSTITUTION: No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States. AMERICAN CHAOS: John McCain was born August 29, 1936 in the Panama Canal Zone, to two U.S. citizens. It’s a common misunderstanding that the zone was a U.S. […]