The Political Grapevine - August 23, 2001

And now the most edifying two minutes in television, the latest from Special Report's "Political Grapevine." 

A buck in my hand is worth two in yours

New York Democrats may not have had much enthusiasm for the Bush tax cut -- nearly every one of them voted against it -- but it seems they would like to get their hands on as much of it as they can.  State Democratic Chairwoman Judith Hope is urging New Yorkers by the party's Web site to sign over their tax rebates to the party.  "What better way to help fuel  next year's campaign," she writes, adding, "Face it: For many of us, this check was unexpected and is ostensibly found money."

Happiness is a warm gun

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking of New York Democrats, may favor gun control, but her brother Tony Rodham says he wishes he'd had a gun when a jealous neighbor barged into the Rodham vacation home last weekend and attacked him as he lay on a couch with the neighbor's girlfriend. 

"I would have killed him," Rodham told The New York Post, adding, quote: "And I would have been in my right to shoot him.  Charlton Heston would have given me a medal."

The attacker, Daniel Coyne, has been charged with burglary and assault.  He says he caught Rodham having sex with his girlfriend, but Rodham denies it.

Don't forget the exploding cigars

The Cuban government is claiming that the U.S. is using biological warfare against the island nation.  The state-controlled weekly newspaper, Grandma International, is blaming the U.S. for a disease that has destroyed 16,000 beehives and allegedly cost the Cuban government $2 million in lost honey revenues in the past five years.

The newspaper says that if the disease had spread naturally, it would have first occurred on the east end of the island, not the west.  In the past, Cuba has blamed U.S. chemical warfare for diseases affecting Cuban pigs, sugar and tobacco.

Too quick with the forward button

After first refusing to do so, a North Carolina Republican state legislator is now apologizing for forwarding his colleagues an e-mail that claimed: "Two things made this country great: white men and Christianity."  Originally, State Representative Don Davis said he received the message last Friday, adding: "I just put it out for information.  There's a lot of it that's true, the way I see it."

Now, though, he's saying that the message "was not intended to be indicative of my personal views," and he says he's sorry.

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