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Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Updated: Hutchison won’t run for leadership post

By Jason Embry | Tuesday, December 4, 2007, 11:41 AM

Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison will not run for chair of the Senate Republican Conference and will keep her current post as chairman of the Senate Policy Committee, she said Tuesday.

She had been widely speculated to be looking to move up from the policy job, which is No. 4 in the Senate GOP leadership, to conference chair, which is the No. 3 spot.

“I love the position that I’m in,” Hutchison said. “I really like it better than the position of Conference, and I didn’t need to be in that race.”

Hutchison is getting good at dangling her names for offices that she eventually does not seek, having flirted before with running for governor of Texas and then opting out of the race. She’s now looking at running for governor again, this time in 2010.

Her office insists that she did not drop out pf the Senate leadership race because she feared she would lose. It’s worth noting, however, that news broke that she would not run on the same day that the following headline stretched across the front page of the Politico: “Hutchison’s rise troubles GOP peers.”

The story pointed to concerns among conservatives over her views on children’s health insurance, creating a path to citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants and creating autonomous zones for ethnic groups inside Iraq.

Hutchison’s position on the race has created a little dissension in the Texas Senate delegation.

The other senator from Texas, John Cornyn, was going to run for Hutchison’s current leadership post if she tried to move up. Now it appears that Cornyn is stuck where he is. Did Hutchison hang Cornyn out to dry by leaving open the possibility that she would try to move up and open up a better spot for him, only to publicly withdraw after the leadership races had largely taken shape?

Hutchison spokesman Matt Mackowiak says Hutchison told Dave Beckwith, a former Hutchison aide who now works for Cornyn in Texas, a week ago that she was not going to try to move up.

Cornyn spokesman Brian Walsh said Hutchison expressed qualms about running to Cornyn’s office last week, but that Cornyn “learned of her decision definitively” when the two senators talked Tuesday morning.

One other question: If Hutchison knew a week ago that she would not run for conference chair, as her office claims she told Beckwith, why did she not publicly respond to reports saying she was in the race? Hutchison’s spokesman said he had no answer for that.

Here’s audio of Hutchison discussing her decision with reporters.

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Bush: CNN Political Ace Brought a Bug On My Plane

By Bob Deans | Tuesday, December 4, 2007, 11:34 AM

President Bush keeps the traveling press corps at arm’s length: maybe now we know why.

Reflecting on the 2000 presidential campaign, Bush recalled Tuesday that “my friend Candy Crowley,” - the CNN political ace - brought a “virus” on the campaign plane seven years ago.

“I got a respiratory infection,” Bush confided to the cameras and a roomful of scribes at his White House news conference on Tuesday. “So did half the press corps. They got off the plane; I didn’t get to get off the plane.”

“It was a tough experience,” Bush recalled.

“Well look,” he said, glancing toward CNN White House correspondent Ed Henry, “I’m not dissing Candy. I said ‘my friend.’ That’s going to happen to the best of them, you know?”

Bush made the jocular reference during an almost wistful riff on things his misses - and doesn’t miss - watching the presidential campaign unfold from the comfort of the Oval Office.

“I miss the campaigning,” Bush said. “I like campaigning, you know. And if somebody ever says they don’t like campaigning, they’re not telling you - either that or they’re a lousy candidate. I mean, it’s fun. I enjoy it. I enjoy the crowds. I enjoy the noise. I enjoy giving that message. I enjoy the competition. And, yes, I’m going to miss it.”

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