Jewish World Review June 30, 2003 / 30 Sivan, 5763

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Consumer Reports


Rep. Patrick Kennedy: I've never worked a (bleeping) day in my life; Drudge's dressing down; Ken Lay's Kerry connection


http://www.jewishworldreview.com | WASHINGTON Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry regularly scorches Enron, the scandal-ridden, bankrupt energy company founded by Kenneth Lay.

A couple of representative attacks:

Feb. 16, 2002: "No worker in America should be robbed of years of labor by unconscionable personal greed. . . . One of my colleagues compared Enron executives to the Corleone family. Well, I think that's insulting to the Corleones."

June 5, 2003: "It is time we had a president who is on the side of the many, not the few. . . . (I)t means that when an Enron bilks the retirement savings of ordinary investors and shatters consumer confidence, those greedy few at the top are going to go to jail."

This week, self-styled muckraker Bernardo Issel of NonprofitWatch.org told us that the much-maligned Lay has been a longtime member of the board of trustees of the Heinz Center, an environmental group founded by the candidate's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry. She's the group's vice chairman, and Lay left the small board earlier this year after serving for nearly a decade.

Issel calls this situation "hypocrisy." We'll settle for "irony."

Chris Black of the Heinz Family Philanthropies told us: "Whatever troubles he had at Enron, Ken Lay had a good reputation in the environmental community for being a businessman who was environmentally sensitive. When someone does wrong in one part of their life, it doesn't mean they can't do good in another part of their life."

MATT DRUDGE'S DRESSING DOWN

The ladies of "The View" were highly displeased when guest co-host Ann Coulter brought her pal Matt Drudge into the dressing room before Wednesday's show. "View" regulars Meredith Vieira, Star Jones and Joy Behar later gave Coulter a hard time on the air for everything from her right-wing political views to her micro-miniskirt.

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Drudge told us that "the gals were furious" when he showed up to help prep Coulter, who has been flogging "Treason," her latest book-length attack on liberals. "It was a communal makeup room, and this one didn't have a face on, that one didn't have her hair on, and the other one didn't have any bra support," Drudge elaborated. "The security guard came and asked me to leave. As we were going out, I heard him say into his walkie-talkie, 'Yes, I have him, and he's leaving now.' They put me in a small dressing room and made me stay there for an hour and a half."

"View" spokesman Kurt Nilsson said Drudge shouldn't take it personally. "It's a private meeting for the co-hosts, and visitors are never allowed to be in there," he said. He added that far from being locked in a holding cell, Drudge was given the dressing room previously occupied by former "View" host Lisa Ling.

THIS JUST IN . . .

-- Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., let his mouth race ahead of his brain Wednesday night at a gathering of Young Democrats at the Washington nightspot Acropolis. After presidential candidate Howard Dean spoke, Kennedy delivered an impassioned peroration against President Bush's tax cut: "I don't need Bush's tax cut. I have never worked a (bleeping) day in my life." A witness told us: "He droned on and on, frequently mentioning how much better the candidates would sound the more we drank." Kennedy's spokesman told us: "He was energizing the crowd and got caught up in it and used an unfortunate word, which he regrets using."

-- ABC News investigative reporter Jackie Judd, who scooped the world on the existence of Monica Lewinsky's infamous blue Gap dress, accepted lovely parting gifts this week from colleagues in the Washington bureau. "World News Tonight" senior producer Ian Cameron gave her a navy Gap dress with a plunging neckline, minus Bill Clinton's DNA. "It's a size 6, so I can't wear it," said Judd, who is leaving ABC for the Kaiser Family Foundation. As for the real garment, the FBI recently returned it to Lewinsky, and we've been waiting for it to turn up on eBay.

-- Speaking of which, writer Fredric Alan Maxwell has set a floor of $1,000 for his eBay auction of a handwritten fan letter from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., who liked Maxwell's recent New York Times column in which he opined that "Hillary looks far better in person." Clinton wrote that "anyone who thinks I look better in person is a true patriot, albeit myopic." Maxwell told us: "I'm working on a biography of my mom, and the bucks will help with my research."



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Up

06/26/03: Rapping the beat
06/23/03: Another Watergate scandal?; AL GORE TV!
06/19/03: Tony Snow, rocker?; that won't be crow on Mr. Carlson's plate
06/16/03: Missing dog, ransom demand, Hollywood ending
06/12/03: Giving both parties the needle
06/09/03: WHAT DID SHE KNOW, AND WHEN DID SHE KNOW IT?
06/05/03: Incoming from Barbara Bush?
06/02/03: Bob Dole's plan for fighting unemployment
05/29/03: Newt's new novel
05/27/03: Hitchens & Blumenthal, together again; He still believes in a man called Hope
05/09/03: Close, but no cigar; Romeo & Juliet with a happy ending?; Geraldo to help Heebs?
05/05/03: So Bill Gates and Tom Brokaw walk into a coffee bar . . .; hotel hell; more

© 2003, Creators Syndicate