Below the Fold for May 12

Let's check out some political stories we found Below the Fold.

Sees Forests, Misses Trees

Jack Thompson, an Australian movie star, has Alec Baldwin potential.

Thompson, an environmentalist, recently said about the logging of old growth forests: "if the impact of such logging was projected into the future, the consequences would be far greater than those of the September 11 attacks."

With Friends Like These...

Mark McKinnon, President Bush's chief media advisor, enraged White House staffers and key Republicans by contributing $14,000 to three Texas Democrats.

A spokesman for the Lone Star State's Republican Senate nominee put it this way: "How can Mark claim to be a loyal Bush team player and support somebody who will subvert Bush's agenda?"

McKinnon, a former Democrat, says, "I realize I've created some heartburn for the administration… As a representative of the president, I have to be more careful about my actions."

The president evidently agrees: He granted a rare Oval Office interview to a Dallas TV station, using the occasion to blast the Democratic candidate for the senate, a recipient of McKinnon's largesse.

A footnote: You may recall that a former McKinnon aide was convicted for mailing Bush debate briefing books to the Gore 2000 Campign.

Defining a Role Model

ABC TV's online store has stopped selling a doll modeled after One Life to Live character "Todd Manning."

Manning, it turns out, is a rapist. Said an ABC vice president; "we didn't exercise proper sensitivity to the history of the character of Todd."

That's What Friends are For...

If Israel succeeds in tossing Yasser Arafat out of the West Bank, the Palestinian leader has a place to go.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has offered Arafat safe haven in Baghdad. In another show of Saddam's generosity, Iraq has doubled the compensation it pays to families of homicide bombers.