Pataki Drifts Toward The Sidelines

Former New York governor George E. Pataki, a moderate Republican long thought to be considering a White House bid, is sending clear signals that he is backing away from a campaign.

Former Iowa Senate majority leader Stewart Iverson, a senior adviser to Pataki's political action committee in Iowa, announced yesterday that he is leaving to join former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.

Pataki isn't completely writing off a bid just yet, but he is making clear to supporters in Iowa and New Hampshire that they can join other campaigns.

"The governor has said he's focusing on policy, not politics, and understands if some of his good friends want to make decisions [about joining other campaigns]. He's completely supportive of it," said Alicia Preston, a Pataki spokeswoman.

The three-term governor also recently joined a prominent New York City law firm to work on environmental issues.

Perhaps Pataki's biggest problem in trying to mount a campaign has been the presence of a more famous New Yorker in the GOP race -- former mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.

Clinton on Pace, Take II

Twenty-four hours after Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) passed up an opportunity to condemn comments by Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, calling homosexuality "immoral," the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination sought to clarify her remarks.

When asked for her judgment on the question Wednesday, Clinton responded, "Well, I'm going to leave that to others to conclude."

By Thursday she had changed her tune.

"I have heard from many of my friends in the gay community that my response yesterday to a question about homosexuality being immoral sounded evasive," Clinton said in a statement released by her Senate office. "I should have echoed my colleague Senator John Warner's statement forcefully stating that homosexuality is not immoral because that is what I believe."

Liberal Group Targets Baucus

They Work for Us, a group of high-profile progressive activists tied to organized labor and the Net roots, has launched a flight of radio ads urging Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to oppose renewal of fast-track trade authority for President Bush.

"The Bush administration, surprisingly with Senator Max Baucus's support, wants the power to fast track these bad trade deals, costing Montana thousands of good-paying jobs and undermining our state's rights," says the ad's narrator. "As chairman of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus has the power to influence this debate about trade. So please call Senator Baucus . . . and ask him to reject fast-track trade authority and stop trade deals that hurt Montana."

The 60-second ad, which will air for a week in the Butte, Bozeman and Missoula media markets, is the first foray of They Work for Us (TWFU) into the political and policy debate since the group's formation earlier this year. The stated goal of TWFU is to hold wavering Democrats accountable on votes and issues regarded as critical by the liberal wing of the party. The group is explicitly modeled after the Club for Growth, an organization that aims to recruit and finance conservative primary challengers to GOP incumbents who do not hew closely enough to the party line on fiscal policy.

TWFU head Steve Rosenthal estimated that the group will have a fundraising goal of $3 million. Because it is registered as a nonprofit organization, it is not required to publicly disclose its donors or its expenditures -- making judgments about its financial success nearly impossible.

Baucus is a proven vote-getter in Montana, but the last time his reelection coincided with a presidential year -- 1996 -- he narrowly escaped with a victory of 50 percent to 45 percent.