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Thursday Jan. 18
Media Bistro / Fishbowl DC

Very impressive, Mr. Chairman: Local boy/author/political guru Terry McAuliffe's new book,
"What a Party!" is not even out yet and last week it was Amazon's #1 non-fiction bulk preorder.

http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlDC/taking_out_the_trash/taking_out_the_trash_011807_51310.asp

What A Party: Terry McAuliffe's Years And Yarns

The following is a true story. One night, South Korean security agents guarding the suite of then-President Bill Clinton noticed a handsome young man stumble through the door at 4:40 in the morning. The agents wondered whether Clinton was having an affair. With a man. They asked their U.S. Secret Service counterparts whether there was anything they should know about the president. Was he... you know?

The agents laughed. The man, they said, was just Terry McAuliffe, the happily married, very heterosexual best friend of the president's. Clinton had kept him up late playing cards.

McAuliffe delights in revealing that story in his new book, What A Party, which is full of candor, (a wee bit of) blarney (or so the author says), and McAuliffe;s famous, endearing bluster. There are also more than a few good stories.

Reading it with an eye for nuggets and keeping in mind McAuliffe's penchant for being McAuliffe, we learn that

(a) Bill Clinton was irate on the eve of his '00 convention that Gore's staff allegedly "slowed down" the schedule to prevent him from appearing in prime time.

(b) At the end of her Senate campaign in '00, Hillary Clinton was close to running out of money.

(c) Ralph Nader is an "egomaniac."

(d) Yassir Arafat liked to the rub the legs of those he was conversing with
over dinner.

(e) Arafat's aides trusted McAuliffe and used him as an emissary to Pres. Clinton

(f) the Marc Rich pardon "was a mistake" but wasn't, according to McAullife, Clinton's fault

(g) McAuliffe reveals the details of "many heated discussions" with Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) over the primary calendar.

(h) McAuliffe, accompanied by then AZ Dem chair Jim Pederson and his wife Roberta, once walked in on Kerry shirtless, and "pulling up his pants"

(i) Asked by Cherie Blair what Americans thought of her husband, McAuliffe responded that "most people think you're a lap-dog for President Bush." Cherie Blair then elbowed her husband and said "See, Tony, I told you so."

There's oodles in the book about the '04 election and behind-the-scenes disputes with Kerry and his team.

One name we couldn't find in the book: Bob Shrum. [MARC AMBINDER] return to top

Hillary runs for the White House as New Thatcher¹
Sarah Baxter, Washington

HILLARY CLINTON is to be presented as America¹s Margaret Thatcher as she tries to become the first woman to win the White House. As she entered the 2008 presidential race yesterday, a senior adviser said that her campaign would emphasise security, defence and personal strengths reminiscent of the Iron Lady.

³Their policies are totally different but they are both perceived as very tough,² said Terry McAuliffe, Clinton¹s campaign chairman. ³She is strong on foreign policy. People have got to know you are going to keep them safe.²

Clinton, 59, used her website to announce that she was taking the first step of her campaign by forming a presidential exploratory committee. ³I¹m in. And I¹m in to win,² she said.

It made the New York senator the instant frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. ³She has the name recognition, the money, the glitz, she¹s got it all,² McAuliffe said.

If she wins, she will return to the White House where she spent eight years as first lady during Bill Clinton¹s presidency from 1993-2001.

McAuliffe predicted a rough campaign. ³She is going to fight for herself and she is going to have people around her who will fight,² he said.

³They are going to play mean, nasty and dirty on the other side. You don¹t walk into a knife fight without adequate gloves.²

The Clinton campaign intends to paint the Republican nominee as President George W Bush¹s political heir, particularly over the war in Iraq. ³George Bush is going to be on the ticket whether they like it or not,² McAuliffe added.

Clinton said she would talk to voters about ³how to bring the right end to the war in Iraq and restore respect for America around the world². She also hopes to appeal to women voters in their twenties and thirties.

Clinton faces strong competition from Barack Obama, the charismatic but inexperienced 45-year-old Illinois senator. The race is already being billed ³the magic v the machine². return to top

The Lady wants the White House

It¹s official: Hillary Clinton is running for president. The polls are looking good and she will be as tough as it takes, her campaign chairman tells Sarah Baxter THE biggest juggernaut in the 2008 American presidential race is ready to roll after Hillary Clinton announced yesterday that she is running for the White House. The New York senator and former first lady is eager to return to her former home, this time as the boss.

³She has the name recognition, the money, the glitz that goes with all this < she¹s got it all,² said Terry McAuliffe, her campaign chairman, in an interview with The Sunday Times. ³She has got a great case to make about why she should be president of the United States.²

The race for the Democratic nomination will instantly become Hillary versus the rest. Every other contender, including Barack Obama, the most promising political newcomer, will have to get past her formidable electoral machine for the nomination.

Clinton, 59, still bears the battle scars inflicted during husband Bill¹s two terms in office. She will have to contend with the nay-sayers in her own party who wonder whether she is electable. The party left is already pressing her to disown her Senate vote to authorise the war in Iraq.

Yet Clinton¹s focus has always been on 2008 rather than on revisiting the past. Slowly but surely she has been altering her image from controversial first lady to experienced senator with a glint of Margaret Thatcher¹s Iron Lady image.

Just as Thatcher swept past the doubters to become Britain¹s first woman prime minister, so Clinton is determined to make the same historic journey to the American presidency.

³Their policies are totally different but they are both perceived as very tough,² said McAuliffe. ³She¹s strong on foreign policy. No matter what people say, you still have to check that box on national security. People have got to know you are going to keep them safe.²

From his office a few tantalising blocks from the White House, McAuliffe has the outlines of her strategy mapped out. ³It¹s going to be a great campaign. It¹s going to be wild!² he said.

The gregarious McAuliffe, 49, a legendary fundraiser, will be second only to Bill as Hillary¹s most enthusiastic cheerleader. He regards it as his job to inject the fizz and fun into her run.

McAuliffe wants Americans to see the Hillary he knows close up: ³They respect her intellect and her toughness, but when they know Hillary better they are going to love her.²

Her frosty image ³drives me crazy because she has got a great sense of humour², he said. ³She¹s got a great belly laugh. She¹s loads of fun. I say, O Let her be herself¹, and it will come through.²

Looking warm and relaxed in a video on her website, Clinton promised to hold regular online chats with voters, a sign of the internet¹s new political reach. ³Let¹s talk. Let¹s chat. The conversation in Washington has been just a little one-sided lately, don¹t you think,² she said.

The timing of her annoucement will enable her to dominate the airwaves in response to President George W Bush¹s state of the union address on Tuesday. The Clinton camp is already planning to hang Bush¹s failings around the 2008 Republican nominee¹s neck.

³No matter who wins, George Bush is going to be on the ticket whether they like it or not,² said McAuliffe. ³It will be, OThank you, Mr President. You have been a disaster¹.²

Bush¹s crash in popularity has enhanced Clinton¹s prospects. Before last November¹s congressional elections she was commonly regarded as too polarising to reach the White House. Although few said it to her face, plenty of loyal Democrats whispered that they would not vote for her in the primaries because they wanted a winner.

The issue still lingers, even though she was re-elected senator by a landslide. Senator John McCain and Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, are redoubtable opponents with almost as much celebrity-power as ³Hillary², who like Madonna and Britney needs no second name.

The surge of enthusiasm for Obama also shows that Democrats want a genuine race, not a coronation. Yet a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll revealed that Clinton is now viewed favourably by 56% of Americans: more than Bush or Democrat nominees Al Gore and John Kerry on election day.

While her caution on Iraq has alienated party activists, former sceptics are coming to regard Clinton as a sensible moderate rather than a left-wing harridan who is concealing her true colours. Although she is now tilting towards the anti-war camp, so is the rest of the country. And if the situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate, the voters who booted the Republicans out of Congress may stick with the Democrats in 2008, regardless of whose name is on the ballot.

Ken Mehlman, the outgoing chairman of the Republican national committee, warned last week: ³If we shrug our shoulders and say it was just a fluke, a perfect storm of factors out of our control . . . then we will lose again in 2008.²

McAuliffe was his opposite number at the last election. As chairman of the Democratic National Committee, he boiled with frustration as he watched Kerry¹s campaign make one mistake after another.

In his book, What a Party! (published by St Martin¹s Press this week), McAuliffe recalls indignantly that nobody bothered to tell Kerry that Bush had just declared the war on terror unwinnable, because the candidate was too busy windsurfing. He regards the failure to tackle Bush head on as ³one of the greatest acts of political malpractice in American politics².

His watchword for 2008 is: never again. The Republicans, he said, are ³terrified of Hillary Clinton and they should be².

She is going to be ³tough, very tough², he warned. ³She¹s going to fight for herself and she¹s going to have people around her who fight. They are going to play mean, nasty and dirty on the other side. You don¹t walk into a knife fight without adequate gloves.²

McAuliffe, who comes from fiery Irish stock, is positively relishing the prospect of close combat. ³There is all this horse manure about people not wanting a negative campaign. You can say whatever you want. If you call someone up and ask them whether they want a negative campaign, of course they¹re going to say no. But they (the Republicans) are effective with it.²

On hand to advise her will be Bill Clinton, the greatest political charmer of his generation, who presided over a brutal war room during his campaigns, but always with a smile. ³There is no question, Bill Clinton is a huge, huge asset. He¹s probably the greatest political strategist in our country.²

For those who say two Clintons are too many after two Bushes in the White House, McAuliffe has a ready answer. ³President Clinton was a historic success; Bush one was not. Bush two is a disaster. I¹ll make that comparison any day you want. It is failure, failure; gigantic success, gigantic success.²

Bill Clinton will be able to double Hillary¹s presence across the country, glad-handing on her behalf, although they will not usually appear side by side.

³Comparisons are unfair,² said McAuliffe. ³Bill Clinton is Bill Clinton. Why should one compare Hillary to him or anybody else? He is unique. The president left office with the highest approval rating of any president ever. Ronald Reagan was 65%, we were 66%.²

A victory for Clinton would be a vindication of Bill¹s own White House years and a sign that the public has forgiven his sexual indiscretion. A chastened Bill is reportedly on his best behaviour now, despite occasional bursts of tabloid speculation.

³There have been a lot of unfounded rumours and we¹re going to have to deal with them throughout the campaign,² McAuliffe admitted, ³but I spend more time with the Clintons than most people. I know their relationship, I know their marriage, it¹s great.²

While Bill was in the White House, his wife got to know ³every world leader on a first-name basis². McAuliffe believes that one of her first acts in office would be to hold an international summit. ³She will have the best chance of anybody of getting a deal together in the Middle East because people respect her and idolise her husband.²

On the domestic front, Clinton intends to have another go at introducing a form of universal healthcare, with due attention paid to the lessons learnt from her failed attempt as first lady in the 1990s.

³She¹ll want to have everybody covered,² said McAuliffe. ³Maybe we went about it the wrong way, maybe we tried to do too much too quickly, but all her goals were laudable.²

He believes that she will be able to change the demographics of the presidential race by bringing twenty to thirtysomething female voters ³in record numbers² to the polls. ³You just change 60,000 votes in Ohio and she¹s president of the United States. But I¹ll add Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, I¹ll add New Mexico < there are many more states she will carry,² he vowed.

First, however, Clinton has to persuade party activists to nominate her in the Democratic primary elections. She has been rattled by the outpouring of support for Obama, the charismatic senator for Illinois, who is said to have her husband¹s charm without the baggage.

Their battle is being dubbed ³the magic v the machine² and it is too early to say which will be more powerful. But Clinton is battle-hardened while Obama is barely tested. She is also vacuuming up the support of virtually every Democrat who worked for her husband and hiring the top party guns.

³We want everybody to be involved in her campaign. I want Hillary to be open to as much new advice and conflicting advice as possible. We need fresh ideas. We always need new people,² McAuliffe said in a nod to critics who believe her campaign has been too risk-averse and insular.

It is possible that Obama will be strong enough to see off her other rivals, but not strong enough to win. He is already being subjected to insinuations about his Muslim background < his African grandfather was a Muslim convert < and attendance at a Muslim school in Indonesia. A Gallup poll of likely Democrat voters last week showed that in a head-to-head match-up, Clinton would beat Obama by 53% to 39%.

But John Edwards, the former vice-presidential nominee, who is making a pitch for the party left, is also proving a resilient candidate. A poll in the key primary state of New Hampshire last week placed Obama in the lead on 23%, with Clinton and Edwards tied at 19%.

A similar poll in Iowa put Edwards ahead on 27%, with Obama at 17% and Clinton in third place with 16%.

These numbers are giving the Clinton camp heartburn, since Iowa and New Hampshire traditionally vote first, but big states such as California, Florida and Michigan may yet bring forward their primary timetable < a difficult process under party rules < and deliver a win for the favourite.

McAuliffe subscribes to the comforting theory that it will be good for Clinton to face a serious challenge in the primaries. ³You¹ve got to beat someone,² he said. ³There¹s going to be a good fight over the issues, but Hillary is going to win.²

He added casually as if their outcome could not be in doubt, ³I love these primary warm-ups but they are nothing like what we are going to go through in the general election. We have to be ready to fight in the big one.² And Clinton? ³She says she¹s ready to have fun with me.² return to top

A Life of the Party:
By Frederic Pierce

The deal that allowed Bill and Hillary Clinton to buy the Westchester County home the first lady needed to run for the U.S. Senate was quietly struck on two Central New York golf courses while thousands of spectators looked on.

Syracuse native Terry McAuliffe agreed to lend $1.34 million to the first family and worked out the details while he and the president golfed at Bellevue and Lafayette country clubs during the Clintons' 1999 vacation, according to a new book.

"Nobody knew what was really going on, and we didn't want to leak it out," McAuliffe said in an interview about his memoir, "What a Party! My Life Among Democrats, Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators, and Other Wild Animals."

"They were about to lose the house. She was very upset - she obviously needed a house to run for the Senate - and I said, don't worry about it, I'll take care of it."

The story is one of many the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee shares in the 400-page book. It highlights his childhood in Syracuse as well as his encounters with world leaders ranging from Pope John Paul II, who blessed his wife's engagement ring, to Prince Andrew, Duke of York, who took him boar hunting in Hungary.

The book is expected to hit stores nationwide today.

"I think they'll get a kick out of a kid from Syracuse who's had all these great experiences," said McAuliffe, a self-made millionaire and the Democratic Party's top fundraiser. "My hope is you get other people involved in politics and hopefully they can have the same experiences I've had."

It was at Syracuse's Bellevue Country Club in 1999 that McAuliffe said he was surprised to find the vacationing President Clinton red-faced and unusually agitated after taking a phone call on the ninth green.

The Clintons' home loan had fallen apart at the last moment, and Clinton was afraid to tell his wife, McAuliffe said. Because of the millions they owed in Whitewater-related legal fees, banks were turning down the Clintons' request for a mortgage.

"Mr. President, screw it," McAuliffe recalled saying. "I'll help you. I've got the money."

Later that night, as the presidential motorcade was heading down Route 20 to Skaneateles, Clinton asked to stop at Mark's Pizzeria. At the last minute, he realized he didn't have any cash and turned to McAuliffe for $25, according to the book.

"Jeez, Mr. President," McAuliffe recalled saying. "I just lent you a million three and you can't even buy me a piece of pizza?"

Two days later, McAuliffe and Clinton were on the 12th green at Lafayette Country Club when McAuliffe received a call that the money had to reach the bank within two hours or the Clintons would lose the house.

McAuliffe hustled to the office of club pro Jack Conger, and worked the fax machine to get the money wired to the bank. Conger, who stayed on the course with the president, had no idea that was going on.

Bill Clinton went on to shoot an 80 that day, one of his best rounds ever. McAuliffe's loan made national headlines and, within a week, the Clintons had a conventional mortgage and McAuliffe got his money back.

Among other insights in the book:

Vacation planner: McAuliffe says it was his idea for the first couple to vacation in Skaneateles, a visit that he says gave Upstate New Yorkers a first real look at Hillary Clinton as a candidate. He remembers advising her to eat the sausage sandwich at the New York State Fair.

Golf critic: Syracuse Common Councilor Van Robinson is immortalized in McAuliffe's book as "the worst golfer I had ever seen."

Robinson, a novice golfer who just couldn't say no in 1999 when McAuliffe's father asked him if he wanted to golf with the president at Bellevue Country Club, inspired McAuliffe to devote two pages to his whiffs, botched shots and 45-yard drives that day.

It turns out that when Robinson had told Jack McAuliffe he golfed, he meant miniature golfing.

Teen hustler: As a teenager, McAuliffe hustled his uncle, Bill Byrne Sr., for a junked Byrne Dairy truck to start a driveway sealing business.

Once, his mother was riding next to him on the metal chair he used as a passenger seat when the rotted floor of the truck gave out. All four legs of her chair poked through and scraped the road as they drove along Erie Boulevard.

"There I am running along with my feet on the pavement," Millie McAuliffe recalled last week. "He laughed so hard, you could hear it all over Bellevue Country Club."

Kerry critic: McAuliffe was sharply critical of Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign, accusing "the geniuses around John" of "gross incompetence." return to top

PICTURES:

http://newstracker.blogs.syracuse.com/default.asp?item=444891

BOOK EXCERPTS:

EXCERPTS FROM TERRY McAULIFFE'S 'WHAT A PARTY' BOOK
Sunday, January 21, 2007

Third-grade difficulty
My rowdy streak got me kicked out of third grade, and I mean that literally. The teacher refused to teach a single day more if I remained in the classroom. But I didn't expect my parents to come to my rescue. I dealt with the humiliation of carrying my desk upstairs to another class and carried on.
- On his childhood days at St. Ann's School

Golfing with President Clinton
"Mr. President, screw it," I said as we stood thirty yards away from the ninth green. "I'll help you. I've got the money."
- On the $1.35 million loan he offered the Clintons to help buy their Chappaqua home as they golfed at Syracuse's Bellevue Country Club

Wrestling the alligator
"Are you nuts? I'm from Syracuse, New York, the most dangerous animal I've ever seen is a squirrel. I ain't wrestling no alligator."
- To Seminole Chief Jim Billie, of Florida, who pledged in 1980 to donate $15,000 to the Democratic Party if McAuliffe wrestled a 260-pound alligator for three minutes; McAuliffe eventually did it.

Dining with Yasser Arafat
Arafat would get very animated when he spoke and every time he was making a point, he would lean over and rub my leg under the table. He'd be saying something to the whole table full of people and then he would look right at me, emphasizing a point, and rub up and down on my leg. . . . (T)his was unique for me, given my Irish Catholic heritage. What would the nuns at St. Ann's think?
- On a comically uncomfortable dinner meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 2000

An early political start
I worked my first political fundraiser when I was six. My father put me at the front door of the Persian Terrace Room at the Hotel Syracuse for the Onondaga County Democratic Party annual dinner and gave me strict instructions, which I always kept in mind later in life, much to the chagrin of many, many Democratic donors over the years. "Terry, if they don't give you the money, they don't get in the door," my father taught me. "No
exceptions." - On the political lessons he learned from his father, Jack McAuliffe, the
longtime treasurer of the county Democratic Party

His father's death
I was in deep shock at the loss of my best friend, someone I talked to every day, when the phone rang again not more than half an hour after Millie had called with the sad news. It was the President. "Mac, I'm so sorry for your loss," Bill Clinton told me. "You know how much I loved Jack's spirit. Hillary and I will miss him."
- On Clinton's response to the death of McAuliffe's father, Jack, whose funeral at Syracuse's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception was attended by the Clintons and other national Democratic figures shortly before Clinton left office in 2001 return to top

In his new memoir, "What a Party!," former Democratic National Committee chief Terry McAuliffe airs all the dirty laundry on Sen. John Kerry's doomed 2004 presidential bid, calling it gun-shy, incompetent and distracted from the mission of defeating President Bush's more organized campaign.

Kerry, who's on the cusp of announcing his own presidential intentions for 2008, declined to comment when asked for his reaction to McAuliffe's book. But later that same day, Kerry spokesperson Vince Morris produced a statement, saying, "McAuliffe's book looks backward and the senator is looking forward at ways to solve the mess in Iraq, to improve health care for children and to improve our environment, among other things."

McAuliffe, who has said he will support Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) in 2008, plans a 25-city book tour, including two parties, one hosted by his friend and mentor, former President Bill Clinton, the other hosted by Sen. Clinton.

McAuliffe will be at Borders on School Street in Boston on Friday to promote the book. return to top

Red, white, and blue balloons festooned the pool room of the Four Seasons last evening. It was not a political rally, but attendees might have mistaken it for one. Rather, it was a book party that

President Clinton hosted for a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Terry McAuliffe, for his "What a Party! My Life Among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators, and Other Wild Animals" (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press).

Mr. McAuliffe thanked Mr. Dunne for bidding more on the book than Judith Regan did. The audience laughed when Mr. McAuliffe said that the Reverend Al Sharpton, who was present at the party, had asked if he could play Mr. McAuliffe in the movie.

Looking on in the crowd were Chelsea Clinton, Mikhail Baryshnikov — whom Mr. McAuliffe in the book says is a great golfer — and Gay Talese, who attended a book party for Norman Mailer earlier in the evening.

The event reached a crescendo when the prodigious fund-raiser introduced President Clinton as "the greatest president in the history of the United States of America."

Mr. Clinton replied: "Ladies and gentlemen, Terry's book will not be criticized for understatement." The audience roared when Mr. Clinton said Mr. McAuliffe had asked him to come and speak not to help promote the book but because "he says I need practice in a supporting role."

He said Mr. McAuliffe combined the skills of an Irish brawler, the mind of a scholar, and a businessman's instinct for getting results.

January 23, 2007
From the NYT Blog

Clinton in New Hampshire, and the Party
By Patrick Healy

This just in:
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is expected to make her first political trip to New Hampshire in early February, after a visit to Iowa this weekend. And she'll be back to New Hampshire in March as well, to headline the state Democratic Party's signature annual fundraiser, known as the 100 Club. The party invited
Mrs. Clinton to speak at the fundraiser weeks ago, and a senior party official, Nick Clemons, confirmed this morning that she would appear at the event on March 10.
In New York last night, her spouse, former President Bill Clinton threw a book party at the Four Seasons for his old friend/golfing buddy/fundraiser/Democratic wingman Terry McAuliffe. While the two men are pros at holding an audience's attention, the real buzz in the room centered on the Democrat who wasn't there, newly minted '08 candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The two men let it be known - surprise! - that they were indeed thrilled about Senator Clinton's presidential candidacy, and that they would do everything they could to help her. (She was absent, in Washington, for the first of her three live video webcasts.) President Clinton has said for years that Mrs. Clinton is "now the
politician in the family," and he told the crowd last night that he would take his cues from the missus. Indeed, his remarks to the few hundred guests were sufficiently lacking in gusto that some people in the audience wondered aloud if he was already husbanding his oratorical skills so he does not make his wife look like the lesser speaker.

That said, Mr. Clinton lavishly praised Senator Clinton's talents and abilities and offered himself up as her loyal foot-soldier. "I'll do whatever I'm asked to do," he said. Referring to Mr. McAuliffe, Mr. Clinton quipped: "He says I need practice in
a supporting role. Only thing I can tell you is, I love it." "I can only tell you that I know her better than anybody on earth, and she's got the best combination of mind and heart, the ability to lead and learn, to stand fast."

Mr. Clinton was joined at the event by his daughter Chelsea, as well as a cavalcade of Democrats and a few celebrities, including former New York City Mayor Edward Koch, Nassau County executive (and former Democratic candidate for governor) Tom Suozzi, Clinton fundraisers Alan and Susan Patricof, film executive Harvey Weinstein, and the Rev. Al Sharpton. Mr. McAuliffe joked that Mr. Sharpton would play him in the film version of his book, "What A Party! My Life Among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators, and Other Wild Aninams."
"We have the same hair," Mr. McAuliffe said about he and the Rev. return to top

FIRST MAN
By MAGGIE HABERMAN

-- Former President Bill Clinton, speaking for the first time since his wife declared her 2008 candidacy for the White House, said last night that he's ready for his "supporting role" in her historic bid to follow in his footsteps. "I'll do whatever I'm asked to do," the ex-president said of the campaign launched by his senator wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).

"I am very proud of my wife. So is her daughter. I wish her well," the former prez gushed. "I can only tell you that I know her better than anybody on Earth, and she's got the best combination of mind and heart, the ability to lead and learn, to stand fast . . . and to make honorable agreements with people who disagree with her, than anybody I've known."

Bill Clinton spoke at a Midtown book fete for longtime adviser Terry McAuliffe - now the chairman of Sen. Clinton's campaign for the White House.

"I was instructed to be here for Terry. . . because he said I need to practice in a supporting role. Only thing I can tell you is, I love it," Bill Clinton said.

The comments by the charming former president - still an extremely popular figure with powerful Democrats across the country - were a signal he's willing to pass the torch to his wife.

Bill Clinton is known for his charisma and has sometimes upstaged his wife.

Sen. Clinton announced her widely anticipated presidential bid Saturday. She was in Washington, D.C., last night, and did not attend the event.

Her husband, speaking to the politico-packed room at the posh Four Seasons, heaped praise on his wife by noting her past tremendous, vote-getting victories in traditionally Republican counties in a state that President Bush won just a few years ago.

McAuliffe - sporting a "Hillary Clinton for President" button - followed suit.

"I wrote this book to remind people what the Clinton administration meant to us and the world," McAuliffe said, adding that the Clinton years showed how to "restore moral authority."

McAuliffe's memoir, "What a Party," is largely about his time with the Clintons and as the all-powerful national head of the Democratic Party.

The crowd was filled with longtime Clinton supporters, including movie honcho Harvey Weinstein and dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov.

And of course, there was the Clintons' daughter, Chelsea.

McAuliffe insisted that it was coincidence that his book was being released as Sen. Clinton was launching her bid.

Additional reporting by Stephanie Gaskell return to top

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01232007/news/nationalnews/first_man_nationalnew

As humankind knows, fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, Clintons gotta raise money. Gonzo fund-raiser Terry, the P.T. Barnum of American politics, will chair Hillary's presidential run. That's dicey because should the run not go as well as all expect it will, who gets axed first? The Chairman. Friends or no friends, Hill and Bill will do just that. And hurt or no hurt, Terry understands that. We're talking political animals. Wild animals.

McAuliffe, a kid from Syracuse, has an oddly Southern sound. As in, to one guy, "Hey, muh man, buy the book yet?"

So, Terry, which is tougher - pushing a book or pushing your candidate?

"Pushing the book," he said, shaking my hand, smiling at another person, winking to a third, nudging a fourth and mouthing to a fifth, "Read the book yet?" Then: "This was hard to do. Took me a whole year. But it's been fun. And I think most people will appreciate the issues and still speak to me afterward, with the exception of Dick Cheney and George Bush, who'll probably never talk to me, and who cares. Hey, you see the book yet?"

His handsome wife, Dorothy, said, "Terry and I met when I was 15, and now have five children. Leaving them to do some of these events is not easy but, I guess, everyone needs to get out once in a while. Terry loves to plow into parties. He loves people. Not everyone may love him back because I think there's some jealousy around. A few may not like what he's written. I even suggested that maybe . . . just maybe . . . a few things should be cut out."

The conversation around the room: Bill O'Reilly to someone hanging on every word: "I'm not materialistic. I'd be a 6-foot-4 homeless bum if not for Fox." Oscar de la Renta: "My famous two-piece red Laura Bush gown? Would you believe the next day one lady tried to return it to the store?" Leading Dem fund-raiser Robert Zimmerman

The host, Bill Clinton, who McAuliffe describes as the Babe Ruth of American presidents - and admittedly didn't personally pay the tab for the bash- arrived late sans Senator Clinton as if to build even more anticipation among the group of mostly star-studded democrats.

The former president, looking slim, relaxed and elegant with his thick silver hair, said he'd been working out in the gym. And of course, Clinton understood when McAuliffe, the master fundraiser, who is credited with pulling the Democrats out of debt and is Senator Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, referred to him as "the first President Clinton."

When I asked President Clinton if he thinks a Hillary presidential victory would impact his legacy, and he'll be remembered not for his achievements in office, but rather for being the "first First Man," he laughed and shook his head, "I hadn't thought about that. I don't know. I'm just glad Hillary's running."

Self-appointed book flack, Bill Clinton, said the book is about the importance of strong convictions. Terry has "an Irish brawl" and "the heart of a child." He added, "You'll laugh, cry and learn."

"This is not a fundraiser," Terry exclaimed, "so it's a bit tacky not to give guests books." So they did. The author hopes his message resounds: "Political combat need not be moral combat."

Terry not-so-subtly suggested to film mogul Harvey Weinstein that he make a movie of the book. "Al Sharpton wants to play me," he exclaimed.

I asked the Rev. Al Sharpton if he's supporting Sen. Clinton or Sen. Obama for president. He hedged: "I'll let the Democrats decide which one."

Guy Talese said he's at work on his next book - this one about his own marriage to Nan.

Leading Authorities' talk agent Mark French, a self-admitted republican, represents Terry's counterpart, Ed Gillespie, as well. Gillespie advised: "Limit Terry to one cup of decaf before going on stage."

Overheard in the crowd: "That's Bill O'Reilly. I didn't realize he's taller than I am." And across the room as if size really matters, "That guy shrunk," pointed to Ed Koch.

"Fox bought me a suit," quipped Bill O'Reilly. "Otherwise, I'd be in gym clothes." Cindy Adams was bundled in a fur hat not purchased by Fox. Other familiar faces: Liz Smith, Joe Conason, Mike Wallace, Barbara Walters, Barbaralee Diamondstein Spielvogel, Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, and Lisa Caputo. Hillary had other commitment but will be hosting Terry's book and birthday party next month in D.C.

One guest summed the evening up this way: "This is the most successful political occasion in New York." It was certainly the most fun! What a party!

Parks' patronage in the past
By Fred Pierce

Syracuse's Terry McAuliffe, the self-made millionaire, record-setting Democratic fundraiser and key cog in Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, is now a best-selling author.

His political memoir, which went on sale this week, was listed at the top of Barnes & Noble's best-seller list Wednesday.

"What a Party! My Life Among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators and Other Wild Animals" details both the role McAuliffe has played on the national political scene and his beginnings in the Democratic stronghold of Syracuse.

It includes a description of a city position during the administration of Mayor Lee Alexander that McAuliffe recalls as the best job he ever had.

As a teenage master of ceremonies for the parks department's summer concert series, McAuliffe said he got paid for a full 40 hours but only had to work a few nights a week.

"My dad helped me get the job," said McAuliffe of his late father, former Onondaga County Democratic Committee Treasurer Jack McAuliffe. "He was the king of patronage and proud of it."

Politically inclined hustlers looking to follow McAuliffe's footsteps, however, should be advised that that job no longer exists. At least not in that form.

Since most concerts now have sponsors, the department usually has local celebrities do the introducing, City Parks Commissioner Pat Driscoll said. As a matter of fact, if McAuliffe is ever interested in stepping up on a mobile parks stage, he would be more than welcome, Driscoll said. return to top

January 26, 2007
From The Oregonian

He's still the life of the Party
By Jeff Baker

Terry McAuliffe is calling from a car in Los Angeles. He's going to a meeting and then he's going to give a speech, to somebody or other.

"I give a lot of speeches," McAuliffe says. "I'm not even sure who I'm talking to."

No matter. McAuliffe doesn't need a map to work a room, and he doesn't need a metal detector to find the deep pockets. The former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, McAuliffe is considered the most successful fundraiser in Democratic Party history and the No. 1 FOB (Friend of Bill). He's a great friend of Hillary Rodham Clinton, too, and he is going to do everything he can to see that she becomes president in 2008.

"Absolutely. You bet," McAuliffe says, the day before Clinton declared her candidacy.

McAuliffe's got a book out, a memoir called "What a Party! My Life Among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators, and Other Wild Animals" (St. Martin's Press, $24.95, 408 pages). It's the reason why he's calling, and he's more than happy to talk about the shots he takes at some of his fellow Democrats, particularly John Kerry, but he wants to get something straight first.

"Republicans are tough, nasty, dirty fighters," he says. "They play for keeps. When they hit you, you've got to hit them back."

That's McAuliffe's problem with Kerry. When the Swift Boat attacks started during the 2004 election campaign, questioning Kerry's service in Vietnam, Kerry didn't hit back. "He sat there and took it!" McAuliffe says. "I couldn't believe it." McAuliffe writes that George W. Bush told Bill Clinton in 2004 that "this Kerry campaign is the most inept group I have ever seen in politics. Don't let them ruin your reputation."

Kerry ended his campaign with more than $15 million in the bank. The thought of it drives McAuliffe's voice toward a shout.

"Sixty thousand votes shifted in Ohio would have made Kerry president," he says. "You have that much money and you don't spend it? That's absolutely crazy! It's a huge political mistake. You don't leave money sitting on the table. I couldn't believe it.

"And during the (2004) convention, we weren't allowed to use George Bush's name? That's completely unacceptable. The Republicans used Kerry's name every two minutes in their convention and they went up 12 points!"

McAuliffe is similarly tough on Al Gore's 2000 campaign and says he was golfing with Bill Clinton the weekend before the election when Clinton looked at him and asked, "What the hell am I doing golfing with you today?" If Gore had allowed Clinton to campaign for him, McAuliffe thinks Gore would have won the 2000 election "by 10 points."

McAuliffe says Republicans don't have a financial advantage over Democrats anymore. "We've fixed it," he says. The key to raising money is "you've got to make it fun and exciting," he says. "Make it a cause. Tell them they're going to change the world. You've got to engage them. When they say no, that's just the beginning of the process."
return to top

January 27, 2007
Irish Times

Party Animal
by Denis Staunton

Democratic Party chairman Terry McAuliffe is running Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign with the same no-nonsense touch that characterises his memoir, writes Denis Stauntonin Washington.

As the 2008 presidential race gets under way, Democratic Party chairman Terry McAuliffe is everywhere, talking up Hillary Clinton, whose campaign he is chairing and promoting his new memoir What a Party! My Life among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators and Other Wild Animals.

Amid the fauna of Washington's political life, few specimens are more colourful or more controversial than McAuliffe, a pugnacious Irish-American charmer who has been close to the centre of the Democratic Party for a quarter of a century. To his admirers, McAuliffe is a hard-headed hero who professionalised his party and succeeded in the 2004 campaign, for the first
time in history, in raising more money than the Republican National Committee.

He has no shortage of enemies, however, both inside and outside his party and some Democrats view him as the embodiment of a coarse political culture in which money matters above all and no blow against an opponent is too low. The grandson of a professional boxer from Co Cork who himself fought as a teenager, McAuliffe makes no apology for his rough political style.

"We've got to know that when we go into these races, we are representing millions of people who have no voice in American politics, who are counting on us to fight for them. And if we don't rise to the occasion and we don't fight and if we're not going to win and if we allow the Republicans to
distort our positions on issues, to distort our character and we don't respond in kind, then shame on us," he says.

In his book, McAuliffe blames John Kerry's timidity in responding to Republican attacks for the loss of the 2004 election. When a group of disgruntled Vietnam veterans ran adverts questioning Kerry's war record, the Democrat dithered until it was too late to effectively counter the charges.

"John Kerry went to Vietnam, he volunteered twice. George Bush was never on duty when he was supposed to be on duty with the National Guard. And we lost the issue? The American public is very smart. They know, if you don't fight for yourself, you sure as heck ain't going to fight for us," McAuliffe says.

A born salesman who started his first business at 14, tarring driveways for his neighbours in Syracuse, in upstate New York, McAuliffe has made a fortune from diverse interests in property, marketing, banking and financial services. Despite his success as a fundraiser, McAuliffe doesn't defend the role of money in American politics, but points out that, when he was chairman of the Democratic Party from 2001 to 2005, the average donation was just $48.

"We raised hundreds of millions of dollars in small cheques. That's good for democracy. It brought a lot of new people into the party. I'm not going to say it's good or bad. I'll say to you, it's part of the process. If you run for president or you run for office, you've got to buy media, you've got to pay for ground support, you've got to put your operations together. It's
expensive. It costs nearly a billion dollars when you're all done to run for president of the United States of America, counting the party and everything else," he says.

Much of McAuliffe's book, which he admits to be passionately partisan and seasoned with plenty of blarney, is devoted to his friendship with Bill Clinton, a political soul mate who is also a close friend. Indeed, the Clintons and the McAuliffes go on holiday together and when Clinton bought a
house in upstate New York at the end of his presidency, McAuliffe guaranteed the loan.

The Clintons left the White House $10 million in debt on account of legal fees run up during their various investigations, which Hillary Clinton saw as a Republican strategy to bankrupt them.

"They had achieved their purpose," Hillary Clinton told McAuliffe. "We owned nothing. We didn't own a car. We didn't own a house. Here we were, 50 years old, and we owned nothing. Nothing! All the money we had, which we had brought into the White House, was gone. I hadn't made any money for eight years, so it was really horrible."

McAuliffe's closeness to Clinton enabled him to get to know numerous world leaders, including Yasser Arafat, who spent one dinner stroking McAuliffe's leg under the table. In August 2002, after Clinton left office and the Bush administration was gearing up for war in Iraq, McAuliffe was chatting to Tony and Cherie Blair at the wedding of Spanish prime minister Jose Maria
Aznar's daughter in Madrid.

Cherie Blair asked McAuliffe what people in the US thought of Blair's stance on Iraq.

"We were all having such a good time talking, but I decided, what the heck, I'd tell them the truth. 'With all due respect, mister prime minister, most people think you're a lapdog for George Bush,' I said. 'No offence, sir'."At that point, Cherie slapped her husband on the shoulder and said: 'See, I told you so, Tony.' I knew I liked that woman," McAuliffe writes.

He identifies the 1995 visit to Belfast as the high point of Clinton's presidency, an event that cemented an emotional bond between Ireland and both Clintons.

"He talks about it as the greatest day of his life. And when he walked out on to that stage and he lit that Christmas tree, you could see for miles people waving Irish flags and American flags together, singing 'God bless America'. I don't think there was a prouder moment for Bill Clinton than that. He'll never get over it. Hillary will never forget it," McAuliffe says.McAuliffe's role as chairman of Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign is not clearly defined, but it will undoubtedly involve the use of his fundraising talents. He also believes he has a role in conveying to the public what he describes as Clinton's true character as "a warm, caring,
family person".

If these are not the epithets most Americans associate with the notoriously cautious senator from New York, McAuliffe says it is because Republicans have spent so much time and money trying to define her in an unflattering way.

"They are scared of Hillary Clinton. She is their biggest obstacle to keeping the White House. This is about power. The Republicans love power. They want to keep power and they will do anything they can to destroy anyone who gets in their path," he says.

Early polls give Clinton a huge lead over Democratic rivals Barack Obama and John Edwards and a slight edge over Republican frontrunners John McCain and Rudy Giuliani.

"John McCain is very formidable. But he's wrong on the war. He's wrong about sending 20,000 more troops over and the American public is 70 per cent against this war in Iraq. So I think he's wrong on the issues at the end of the day. But I think today for the Republicans, he's probably the frontrunner. They talk about Rudy Giuliani. I'm not sure if Rudy can win. He's pro-choice, pro-gay rights. That's a hard thing for the Republicans, the conservatives in that party to swallow," McAuliffe says.

He believes that Clinton's experience will persuade Democrats to nominate her and that, if McCain is the Republican candidate, he will be handicapped by his support for Bush on Iraq, but he cautions against making firm predictions too soon.

"If you go back and look historically at 2004, the polls all changed in the last three weeks of that race before Iowa. Howard Dean was the frontrunner for a long time in 2004. John Kerry was in third, fourth, fifth place and he ended up winning it with a large margin, followed by John Edwards, who came in second and Howard Dean was a distant third. My point is, these things
change all the time," he says.

If Clinton becomes president, McAuliffe could expect a plum ambassadorship, perhaps in London or even a cabinet post such as commerce secretary, but he insists his sights are, for now, firmly on the present.

"I'll chair her campaign for president. Then let's just see what happens after that. I'm focused for the next two years on getting Hillary Clinton elected president. That's my top priority. And selling a lot of books," he says.

What a Party!, by Terry McAuliffe, is published by Thomas Dunne Books.

Sat, Jan 27, 2007
The Irish Times: Plain speaking: Terry bites back: Book excerpts

On John Kerry's 2004 campaign:"The decision of the Kerry campaign to back
off any real criticism of Bush was one of the biggest acts of political
malpractice in the history of American politics."

On fighting back:"For Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and myself, if you're
going to go ahead and punch us, that's fine. But we're going to smack you
back harder."

What an Irish Book Launch!
By Debbie McGoldrick

What's the population of Northern Ireland? Former President Bill Clinton and his best buddy Terry McAuliffe, who's now chairing Senator Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, traded some good natured banter on the subject on Monday night at the book launch party for McAuliffe's new autobiography, What a Party!

The cocktail and canapés bash, held at the Four Seasons in New York, was packed to capacity with movers and shakers from politics, entertainment and every other field you can think of. The mood was buoyant, given McAuliffe's well-received book and, naturally, the historic White House bid launched by Senator Clinton.

McAuliffe describes himself as a proud Irish American, as you'll read in his book and in an interview with the Irish Voice on Page 10, and that certainly came shining through during the speech he gave during the party.

"When Bill Clinton and I were in Belfast to kick off the peace accords, millions of people were waving the Irish flag and the U.S. flag side by side," McAuliffe recalled. "That's what the U.S. means to the rest of the world."

And speaking of his friendship with the Clintons, McAuliffe heaped words of praise on the former (and future?) first family. "You could not ask for a better friend than Bill Clinton," McAuliffe said. "We're similar. To us the glass isn't half full, it's overflowing . . . and he's the greatest president we ever had."

When it was President Clinton's turn to speak, he good-naturedly took his pal to task on a couple of points. "You know, Terry, there are only three million people in all of Northern Ireland, so there couldn't have been millions of people in Belfast when we were there!" Clinton said to howls of laughter. "And as for greatest president ever, what about Washington or Lincoln?" (No, he definitely didn't mention the current White House occupant!)

Clinton talked further about his first trip to Ireland with 1995. "As an Irish American, he could see every square inch (in Belfast) was covered. They were letting go of old hatreds and making a new beginning. What we did in Ireland is what Terry's life is about – a means to an end."

Listening to all this Irish chatter were notables such as Bill O'Reilly – actually, he left the party just as President Clinton arrived, though the two ideological enemies greeted each other cordially – Barbara Walters, Chelsea Clinton, Greta Van Susteren, Mike Wallace, Charlie Rose, gossips Liz Smith and Cindy Adams, and 1-800-FLOWERS founder and chairman Jim McCann,
who also participated in President Clinton's first trip to Ireland as an invited guest, and has stayed friendly with McAuliffe ever since. return to top
http://www.irishvoice.com/

January 30, 2007
Washington, Examiner

Courage runs in McAuliffe family

FOT (Friends of Terry) who called the RSVP line for the Feb. 8 party to fete former DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe and his new book “What a Party!” may have noticed the voice on the answering machine wasn’t some official public relations spokesperson at the party locale — the Park Hyatt — or even the chairman himself. Instead, it’s that of some adorable little child telling you that “You reached the party line for ‘What a Party!’ Please tell us if you can come. Thank you.”
Well, it turns out the voice is none other than that of McAuliffe’s 7-year-old daughter, Sally, who apparently is no stranger to playing adult roles and taking charge of situations. In McAuliffe’s book, he recalls a vacation he and his family took with the Clintons in the Dominican Republic following the 2004 election.

“I’d see Sally in the pool playing mermaid with Hillary,” McAuliffe writes, “directing her to do this and do that, and Hillary was happy to obediently take orders from a 5-year-old. I’d never seen anyone order Hillary around the way Sally did.”

It is fitting, then, that Sen. Clinton will be a “very special guest” at the Feb. 8 event. No word on whether Sally will direct Hillary around the room.

February 1, 2007
The Politico

Like It or Not, Likability Matters
By: Roger Simon

"Hillary has a great belly laugh," Terry McAuliffe said. "Have you ever heard her belly laugh?"

Hmmm. Lemme think.

"She's tanned, she's rested, she's ."

Gimme a second, gimme a second. OK, no. I have never heard Hillary Clinton's belly laugh. Though I am looking forward to it.

I was talking to McAuliffe about how important likability is in presidential elections. Short answer: Very.

"It is going to be very tough for Hillary to win without likability," McAuliffe said. "They (her aides) know that. We have to show the personal side, the likable side."

McAuliffe, a personal friend of the Clintons, was chairman of the Democratic Party under Bill and is now raising money for Hillary. McAuliffe's new book, "What A Party!", is practically an encyclopedia of what is likable and what is not in American politics.

And in this personality-driven age of ours, candidates can't seem to win the presidency without likability.

Al Gore is likable now -- the planet isn't the only thing that has warmed up -- but when he ran for president in 2000, his demeanor became such an issue that his staff made up buttons that said, "I'm Al Gore and I don't like you either." (Gore occasionally wore one under his lapel.)

Roger Ailes, George H.W. Bush's media guru and now chairman of Fox News, once told me, "A presidential campaign is about cartoons. The media insists on them. They want every candidate's image summed up in a few words." In 1988, Bush started out as "The Wimp," but managed to win because Mike Dukakis was worse: "The Cold Guy."

Maureen Dowd did a famous article on likability on the front page of The New York Times in 1987, and afterwards I asked Dowd what gave her the idea.

"I had traveled with Dukakis really early, maybe his first campaign trip to Iowa," she recalled, "and I asked him what I always ask people: 'What do you do for fun?'

"And he said: 'Black mulch.'

"And I said: 'Black mulch?'

"And he said: 'I like to put black mulch on my tomato plants.'

"And I thought to myself right then: This man will never be president."

The public gets all this. People now know all about the cartoon and the importance of likability.

"The media in particular has a bad habit of taking our candidates and giving them back to us in a caricature," a focus group participant told Dan Balz of The Washington Post last week. "Al Gore was a bumbling elitist. With Hillary, they have her painted as a cold fish."

Personally, I think the candidates have more to do with their likability than the media, but the point is that a presidential candidate has to shape his or her own cartoon. And that cartoon has to be warm and likable.

I recently asked John Edwards about the importance of likability, and he said: "If people have a positive response to you, then they are willing to listen to what you have to say. If the reaction to somebody is 'I don't like them,' it colors everything. If I like them, I will look and see: Do I want
him to be my president? Likability is an initial screen."

It doesn't matter if candidates are likable in real life. What matters is that they convey likability in public.

"Voters always choose who is more likable," McAuliffe said. "They make the judgment: Do they want to watch this person in their living rooms for the next four years?"

And does Hillary get that?

"I think she understands that," he said. "I've got to tell you, I have spoken to her every day since she got in. She is in it for all the right reasons, and she is going to enjoy herself. She has to do that."

Candidates who actually enjoy what is a not very enjoyable process convey that enjoyment to voters, and that helps their likability. In 1996, Bob Dole, a likable person in person but not on the stump, conveyed the desire to go home and go to bed.

Not Hillary.

"She's tanned, she's rested, she's ready, she's pumped!" McAuliffe said.

Pumped?

"Pumped!"

OK, OK, gimme an example of how likable she is.

"We were at Camp David once," McAuliffe said, "and my son ran over her in a golf cart and she got up and said, 'Did Bill teach you to drive?' "

I like that.

February 2, 2007
Seattle Post Intelligencer

Lifestyles of rich and famous Democrats
By JOEL CONNELLY

As befits his role as chairman of the campaign to put a Clinton back in the White House, Terry McAuliffe was: a) running a little late yesterday, and b) the cause was a politician's dalliance.

McAuliffe was in San Francisco, closeted with ex-Mayor Willie Brown and learning about the scandal that has enveloped incumbent Mayor Gavin Newsom.

The mayor's campaign manager, Alex Tourk, learned from his wife, Ruby RippeyTourk, of her affair with Newsom some time ago. Not willing to emulate the role of Capt. Andrew Parker-Bowles -- the man who had but one wife to give to his country -- Alex Tourk confronted the mayor, and then quit.

Willie Brown was in a position to chuckle. At age 66, while in office, he fathered a child with his chief fundraiser.

Terry McAuliffe was Bill Clinton's best friend during the Monica Lewinsky scandal and multiple bimbo eruptions of the 1990s. He was the man who raised legal defense money, lifted presidential spirits and he even lent the Clintons $1.35 million to buy their Chappaqua, N.Y., home.

Ah, the Democrats: While randy Republican congressmen made news last year, America's pattern of scandal seems set: Democrats give us messy infidelity stories. The Republicans have given us a messy war.

Operating around these norms for the past 15 years, fighting each other but occasionally finding mutual interests, have been two dynasties -- the Bushes and the Clintons.

"I love both of them greatly," McAuliffe said of Bill and Hillary Clinton when he finally came to the phone.

He professes to be fueled both by idealism and outrage.

"I got lucky," McAuliffe said. "I started my first business when I was 14. I made money. Politics has been my passion. If Al Gore were in the White House, there would be no Iraq. If John Kerry had won, there would have been no 'surge.' "

McAuliffe has never really conceded a couple of the Democrats' presidential losses.
He claims that the 1980 Reagan campaign sent signals to Iran not to release American hostages, dooming the presidency of Jimmy Carter. He identifies Reagan-era CIA director William Casey as the backstage player.

And McAuliffe argues that Osama bin Laden kept John Kerry out of the White House. The al-Qaida leader released a tape, ridiculing America, in the closing days of the 2004 campaign.
"Bin Laden knew what he was doing," McAuliffe said. "He was scaring the American electorate just before the election. He felt that re-electing Bush would be good for his recruitment in the Middle East."

McAuliffe has penned a book, "What a Party!" (St. Martin's Press, $24.95) encompassing his years as the Democrats' biggest fundraiser, Clinton pal and stint as Democratic Party chairman.
Laying claim to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. at the same time our technology economy took off, the Bush and Clinton dynasties introduced the Seattle area to big-time fundraising.

The Clintons had a $5,000-a-couple Columbia Tower Club dinner in 1996. The George W. Bush campaign raised $1 million on the premises in 2000. Big-time Democratic givers were hit up to build the Clinton Library. The 2004 Bush campaign has erected tents on billionaires' lawns, raising $1 million at events that offered finger food. Hillary Clinton used a reception to scoop up money for her 2006 Senate re-election.

"It's brutal," McAuliffe said of the pace of fundraising. "Absolutely it is out of control! I leave five little children behind when I am on fundraising trips."

Still, "What a Party!" shows how life at the top can be fun.

The Clintons and McAuliffes adjourn for a Thanksgiving vacation at Julio Iglesias' "spectacular oceanfront estate" in the Dominican Republic. They drop by ballet star Mikhail Baryshnikov's beach villa one afternoon. Misha shows them around his dance studio and leads the families in a round of stretching.

At a 2000 Clinton Library brunch, host Barbra Streisand objects to the Secret Service bringing bomb-sniffing dogs onto her Malibu estate. The diva backed down, went out to inspect her garden and stepped in dog poop.

McAuliffe applies the airbrush at times. We never hear that Bill Clinton takes mulligans on the golf course.

McAuliffe excoriates the Kerry campaign for not counterpunching and having $10 million left over at the end of the 2004 campaign. But McAuliffe doesn't mention the names of strategist Bob Shrum or campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill.

The Clintons are high-maintenance, which no book can conceal. McAuliffe is summoned to the Yellow Oval Room to hear Hillary Clinton's plans for a 2000 millennium celebration in the capital.
"Hillary laid out her exciting, lavish -- and costly -- plans and said that of course she and the president didn't want any public funds used, so we would need to raise $2 million to $3 million," he writes. "I know after hearing her ideas that the price tag was going to be at least $10 million."
McAuliffe will need to raise $100 million to put Hillary back in the White House. "You can tell she's having a load of fun," he said after HRC's kickoff.

Is this man a selfless helper, or an enabler of what's wrong with American politics? Is he doing good, or doing well?

Go see McAuliffe. He will be at Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way N.E. in Lake Forest Park, at 6:30 Saturday night. Draw your own conclusions.

Former DNC chair McAuliffe stumps for book at Coffman
By Charley Bruce

He remembers the name of the alligator he wrestled 27 years later: Jumper.
By taking on the nine-footer in 1980, Terry McAuliffe raised $15,000 for
President Jimmy Carter's re-election campaign.

That's one scene from the former Democratic National Committee chair's new
book, "What a Party! My Life Among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates,
Donors, Activists, Alligators and Other Wild Animals." McAuliffe spoke at
the University bookstore in Coffman Union on Wednesday night.

The biography catalogues what it's like to be chair, his experiences
politicking and lessons learned through his life. McAuliffe now chairs
Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

McAuliffe, whose book was released last month, said he began campaigning
when he was 6 years old for political candidates. He was working for his
father, a local Democratic leader.

He said he started his first business at 14 and has owned many since. He
retired at 35 and has worked pro bono for the Democratic Party for the past
decade and a half.

McAuliffe said the secret to his success has been his attitude.

"Go for it, the worst thing you can do is lose," he said.

His fundraising style mirrors that mantra, but it helps that he loves to ask
people for money.

"What's the worst they can say, no?" McAuliffe said.

Mike Walters, vice president of University DFL, sounded like he wasn't sure
how the book talk would go, but found McAuliffe to be funny.

"It was better than I expected him to be," he said.

Walters especially liked one anecdote McAuliffe told, even if he wasn't sure
if it was true.

McAuliffe said he has a law degree, but only on paper. He's won only one
case, which was argued at 2 a.m. after a few drinks.

He was at a bar, and a bouncer was charged with assault after punching a man
who had hit his own girlfriend, McAuliffe said.

McAuliffe was friends with the owner, he said, who asked him to defend the
bouncer. He said he didn't want to.

He said a few more beers changed his mind.

He went to the jail, got a judge to come down, and argued for the charges to
be dropped.

He won.

"I won my first and only case,"

McAuliffe said. "I'm one and O."

Marion Blomgren, a University alumnus, said she came with her daughter and
was impressed with McAuliffe's ability to talk.

"He knows how to work a crowd and hit all his points," she said.

February 9, 2007
Washington Post

Terry McAuliffe's Hearty Party
By Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts

Everything's great! The glass is always half full! Hillary's going to be the next president!

No naysayers allowed at last night's book party for Terry McAuliffe, the exuberant, peripatetic author of "What a Party!: My Life Among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators, and Other Wild Animals." Hillary Rodham Clinton hosted the soiree at the Park Hyatt hotel for a few of McAuliffe's friends (roughly 1,000 -- but who's counting) and presented him with a cake -- today is his 50th birthday.

Terry McAuliffe with daughter Sally, wife Dorothy and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton at his book/birthday bash at the Park Hyatt.

"The bottom line is that you gotta have fun in life," McAuliffe said. "You gotta love every single day, you gotta be passionate about what you do."

The former chairman of the Democratic National Committee is passionate about his family, politics, the Clintons and (right now) electing the first female president -- he's chairman of the Hillary for President Committee, utterly convinced she can and will win. "She is winning," he claimed, and started reciting poll numbers until we made him stop. "It's her turn. That's my message to her every day, 'Go out there and have fun.' "

And what's more fun than a party? Bill Clinton hosted the NYC book launch for McAuliffe last month, and invitations to last night's bash were quickly snapped up -- all the better to chmooze with other Dems, Republicans and other FOTs like James Hoffa, Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame.

"Everyone's a friend, whether a Democrat or someone to bring back from the dark side," said McAuliffe's wife, Dorothy.

The newly renovated hotel laid out a lavish spread -- raw bar, roast pig, gourmet chocolates, vintage cognacs and open bars. Topic A: Will Hillary ever start showing voters that "spectacular" sense of humor McAuliffe insists she has? Last night she was the earnest politician ("Terry McAuliffe loves his country"), not the Marco Polo-playing, sausage-eating,
belly-laughing Hillary he describes in his book.

"You haven't lived until you've seen a 5-year-old order Hillary Clinton around in a swimming pool," McAuliffe told the crowd.

Truth is, smarts and substance only go so far. "People gotta like you," he said earlier in the day, describing the "Beer Test" that every presidential candidate must take: "Who would you rather have a beer with?" Al Gore and John Kerry failed, he said; Hillary passes. Really ? He's so confident that the entrance of Barack Obama into the presidential race doesn't worry him a
bit. In fact, he predicts the junior senator from Illinois will so energize and excite Democrats . . . that they'll eventually vote for Hillary. "There is no downside for him running."

Alas, Clinton didn't jump out of McAuliffe's birthday cake. (Now, that would have been fun.) Everybody got a free book, but McAuliffe promised a sweet perk to anyone heading for the bookstore: "Buy 100 books -- get to hold the Bible at the next inauguration."

February 9, 2007 (ABC Article)
Terry McAuliffe's Political Life -- You Are Cordially Invited to the Party

Democratic Fundraising Star Publishes Political Tell-All
By SUNLEN MILLER

WASHINGTON - - Terry McAuliffe has led anything but a boring life. And he's not too shy to admit it. "I view my life as nothing but one great big party," McAuliffe said in an interview on ABC News Now's "Politics Live."

For McAuliffe, the party is so wonderful that he put the party to paper in his book, "What a Party! My Life Among Democrats, Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators, and Other Wild Animals."

Former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, longtime activist in the Democratic Party, and one of the top fundraising machines in politics, McAuliffe shared with ABC's Mark Halperin some personal stories about his experiences in U.S politics.

Life Among Democrats

McAuliffe is certainly close with former President Clinton, but he admits they were not as close as they once were mistaken to be.

Seoul, after getting caught up in a card game lasting until 5:30 a.m. with Clinton, rumors started flying.

"The South Korean police were thinking we were gay lovers together," he recalled, after he was spotted leaving Clinton's hotel room so early in the morning. The Secret Service set the record straight, and McAuliffe recalled the tears of laughter that rolled down Clinton's face after he heard the rumor.

Life Among the Bushes

While admitting that President George H.W. Bush was always nice to him, McAuliffe took issue with the current President Bush, saying, "[He] is somewhat of a towel snapper, a good old boy . belongs more in the locker room than sitting in the Oval Office."

McAuliffe went on to say, "I think he is our worst president ever. I think the Iraq decision was the biggest foreign policy blunder of all time." While he didn't have anything positive to say about Bush and his policies, McAuliffe added, "I am not going to punch the man. I'm going to be civil."

Fundraiser Virtuoso

McAuliffe is perhaps best known for his leading ability to raise money for candidates. He served as national finance co-chairman of the Clinton-Gore re-election campaign, and said that the re-election of Clinton was his greatest accomplishment in politics.

On his distinct talent to raise cash for candidates, the star fundraiser insisted, "I just happen to love to ask people for money. I've been doing it all my life. What's the worst they can do? They can say no?" And if they do, McAuliffe said he would march right to the next person, because "It's the gas that you need to get the car going."

It's Terry McAuliffe's life. It's Terry McAuliffe's party. And one that, thankfully, we're all invited to, with the release of his new book, "What a Party!"

WHAT A BOOK PARTY CLINTON GAVE TERRY
BYLINE: MARK WEINER WASHINGTON NOTEBOOK

Syracuse native Terry McAuliffe can add "best-selling author" to his list of accomplishments as his political memoir debuts today at No. 5 on The New York Times best-seller list.

McAuliffe, the self-proclaimed greatest fundraiser in political history and chairman of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign, had a chance to thank his supporters Thursday night in Washington, D.C.

Clinton hosted a book party for McAuliffe and about 1,000 of his friends, who took over several floors of the Park Hyatt hotel. Guests dined on a lavish display that included oysters, roast pig, Alaskan rockfish, gourmet chocolates, cognac and rare and vintage teas.

A supporter bought more than 1,000 copies of McAuliffe's book, "What a Party! My Life Among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators and Other Wild Animals" to hand out to guests.

Before introducing Clinton as "the next President of the United States," McAuliffe offered a few wisecracks. He said those who buy 100 books will be invited to the inauguration and "200 books, you ride in the limo."

On a serious note, McAuliffe made several references to his childhood in Syracuse and told the crowd how much it meant to him when Bill and Hillary Clinton traveled to Syracuse in a snowstorm after the death of his father on New Year's Eve 2000.

Hillary Clinton said that during her family's eight years in the White House, Terry McAuliffe became an important part of the "extended family."

"When Terry McAuliffe is your friend, you really understand why philosophers have written about friendship as being the purest of all relationships," the senator said.

Clinton referred to McAuliffe's roots, and told the crowd about his mother, Millie , and late father, Jack , "who was a great Democrat up in Syracuse, New York."

"He was raised by parents who understood the promise of America," Clinton said. "He never forgot the lessons his parents taught him. I am so grateful he is in my life, but even more that he has been a standard-bearer for our party and for America."

New York's junior senator then unveiled a surprise - a giant birthday cake for McAuliffe on the eve of his 50th birthday.

Clinton, who recently was caught on video singing a less-than-perfect version of the national anthem, poked fun of herself as she made a quick exit from the stage.

"Many of you may have seen on YouTube that I'm not the Clinton who can carry a tune," the senator said. "So I'm not going to remain at the microphone as we sing Happy Birthday."

http://urbancny.com/cover_story/article.php?article_id=tF1172599903t45e4745f917a0

[Note: TRM just had this forwarded to him by his Bishop Ludden classmate who
wrote the story below and who had this published in the Solvay/Geddes
Express, City Eagle as well as at the above website. He wanted to make sure all
of you saw it. Enjoy.]

February 27,2007
What A Party! Terry McAuliffe's return to Syracuse
By Ken Jackson

The e-mail began with an announcement that Terry McAuliffe, Bishop Ludden's most prominent graduate is coming back to Syracuse as he embarks on a 25-city book-signing tour for What A Party! My Life Among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators, and Other Wild Animals.

The former Democratic Party National Chairman, class and school president, penned a book that not only talks about navigating the waters of Washington, D.C. but how he developed a style that became the Clintons' and Democrats' mantra for fighting back.

Boiled down into a rich Irish stew of anecdotes, stories of famous and not-so-famous people, local friends and family are tastefully sprinkled amongst the down and dirty politics of America.

The book signing was not without controversy, based on McAuliffe's comments regarding the abortion issue in a radio interview. Bishop Moynihan of the Catholic Diocese of Syracuse revoked permission previously granted to host a book signing at Bishop Ludden High School on Saturday Feb. 23.

E-mail messages were dispatched giving alumni a new location for the book-signing which suddenly had grown into perhaps a larger event than originally anticipated.

The Fay Road parking lot of Morgan's Restaurant filled quickly and overflow parking spilled out into the surrounding Geddes neighborhood. People were arranged clutching books like a well organized production line. Post-Its with "the name to be signed" glued to the spot where you'd want the author to ink the page.

Betty DeFazio, a Planned Parenthood staffer said that she attended, "Partly because I'm really concerned about discourse in the community being shut down so I came as a show of support to be able to actually have conversations about difficult issues."

A woman with a camera asked, "Will I be able to get a picture with him?"
"Oh no. He won't have time to take out and pose with people, sorry," snapped the suited advance woman as she swung into to her final sweep of the venue before bringing McAuliffe in for the signing ritual.

The crowd had grown to a point where there was a line for those buying books that quickly spilled into a waiting vestibule that fed into the bar receiving area where McAuliffe would sit and sign books for the 200 people who showed up in the first hour.

Like a rock star or sports figure, McAuliffe entered Morgan's and immediately began mingling with those in line as he stopped to exchange greetings with old classmates. Where several elderly women were seated, McAuliffe immediately froze, bent over and responded to a question shouted over the hubbub of crowd noise: "Yes, we're ready for a woman president," as
if anyone in the room expected a different answer from the man whose newest job is running Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

Nancy Pasquale, Geddes area resident and teacher at Solvay High School, hoisted an armload of books to the receiving table. "I bought all of these books for my Republican friends." As far as not having time for photos? Pasquale and Mark Re chatted and posed with McAuliffe before a disposable camera.

It was apparent why the event was held so close to Bishop Ludden High School. This book signing event, just like portions of the book, is an historic love letter to a neighborhood and community that influenced his life which he's woven into a book chronicling his journey and impact on national politics culminating as Democratic Party National Chair.

What a Party! May be the only place where can you read about Arafat rubbing McAuliffe's leg up and down during dinner to make a point, the State Fair sausage or McAuliffe's role in selecting Skaneateles as a vacation spot for the Clintons.

As a member of Bishop Ludden's class of '75, I had to read the book to see if I recalled anything. There were stories of the Clintons, Democratic Party affairs and the world stage but I searched for the local that was familiar. And to my surprise just as I had remembered, the election campaign that got everyone's attention.

"A group of my buddies, including Duke Kinney, Marty Salanger, Joe and Steve Snyder, Jim Bright, Dave Mulherin and Mike McInerney, had a great time with my campaign for student body president at Bishop Ludden High School. We dimmed the lights in the school auditorium, which was packed with more than a thousand students, and cranked up 'Hail to the chief" I drove up in a golf cart with a big presidential limousine sign dressed in my best sweater-vest-and-tie combo. My buddies followed in another golf cart and were all dressed up like secret service agents with trench coats sun glasses and ear plugs."

To this day no one has eclipsed that landslide election.

Some of those in the crowd were also mentioned in the book. John "Duke" Kinney and Mike McInnerny, "Coach" Wilcox and others who were part of Bishop Ludden High School at some point in history especially the mid-70s.

Richard Ferguson, former Geddes Democratic Chairman, recalled an earlier visit by McAuliffe. "We had a chairman's dinner when he came in a few years ago," Ferguson said. "He came here to help us raise money. He hasn't forgotten where he's from and that's evident in the book."

These folk knew McAuliffe and showed up to give him and his book support.

"I've been in touch with Terry all these years, all of us have kinda kept in touch,' said Mark Re, class of '75. "I'm here to support Terry and Hillary but also was astounded by what happened with the 'Ludden thing' because he wasn't giving a speech he was just doing a book signing; so if he was giving a speech people have a right to the way they feel. If you want to look at it
this way, that means if we're pro-choice we can't go to a Ludden football or basketball game. He's been there for Ludden in the past, this is disgraceful."

McAuliffe has previously donated thousands of dollars to Bishop Ludden fund drives.

Cancellation and subsequent location change of the Bishop Ludden High School event caused an immediate uproar that played itself out on local radio and television airwaves. E-mail messages were dispatched to class of '75 alumni mobilizing the change in location and soliciting support for what seemed at first to be a benign book signing event at an alma mater.

Terry McAuliffe's book details what it takes to fight back and where his love of politics is rooted. "My dad taught me to go all out on every political race, no matter how small, and I took him at his word."

When asked about the change of venue for the book signing, McAuliffe was clear.

"I don't want any controversy," he said. "I'm on a 25-city tour. I'm just here to see my friends, I'm doing a book signing I wasn't going to talk about any issues just wanted to sign books. The Bishop made his decision. I believe I'm a very strong Catholic as you know 85 percent of Catholics believe that a woman should make her own decision in the case of rape or the
welfare of her life. We just got to have open minds.. It's unfortunate. But you know what, I love Bishop Ludden and I love Syracuse and I'm here to see all of my friends. We're going to move on."

It became clear early at the event, no advance persons could keep Terry McAuliffe from seeing his friends. Neither could the Bishop.

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Ken Jackson is a graduate of Bishop Ludden High School, class of '75