Instead, Daschle will hit the speaking circuit, write another book, become a television commentator or even star in his own television show, join several corporate boards and ultimately land a job at a Wall Street investment-banking firm, according to a person privy to his thinking.
“The world is his oyster,” a Washington lobbyist who is close to Daschle said Tuesday. “The only option he’s ruled out is that he’s not going to be a lobbyist because Linda [his lobbyist wife] has a big, thriving practice of her own.”
The Daschle confidant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Daschle will join a speakers bureau — where he probably could command fees in the $15,000-to-$25,000 range, and join several corporate boards. “A few, not a lot,” because of the increased liability faced by board members as a result of the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation.
Daschle also plans to write a sequel to his 2004 book, Like No Other Time, but he’d better get a good advance since it’s not likely to be a best seller, judging from the earlier book. The hardcover version is No. 284,375 on Amazon.com, while the paperback trails 690,885 other books in sales.
And the departing Democratic leader hopes to emulate former Reps. Joe Scarborough (R-Fla.) and John Kasich (R-Ohio) by becoming a regular commentator on network or cable television, or by hosting his own TV interview program, à la Tim Russert or George Stephanopoulos.
“Daschle wants to do a TV gig,” the lobbyist said. “He has a warm personality and does well on TV.”
Finally, Daschle is weighing offers from several Wall Street investment houses, the lobbyist said. The latter includes Goldman Sachs, where Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.) piled up an estimated $400 million fortune as a partner before spending some $60 million to win his Senate seat.
McCulloughs celebrate 50th anniversary at the Hay-Adams
Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough chose a most appropriate setting for his 50th wedding anniversary last Friday when he and his wife, Rosalee, invited 70 friends and family members to the Hay-Adams Hotel.
The historic hotel is just across Lafayette Park from the White House, where President Harry Truman, the subject of McCullough’s 1992 biography, once worked, and it is named in part for the grandson of President John Adams, the subject of McCullough’s 2001 biography. Both books won Pulitzers.
The guests, who included Sen. and Mrs. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), whose daughter is married to one of the McCulloughs’ three sons, dined and danced in the John Hay Room, named after President Lincoln’s private secretary, who with Henry Adams owned the lots the hotel is built on. (One of the McCulloughs’ two daughters is married to a cousin of Army Gen. George Casey Jr., commander of coalition forces in Iraq.)
McCullough, who lives on Martha’s Vineyard, may be in line for a third Pulitzer when his next book, 1776, hits the bookstores in May.
“It’s not a biography but a story of all that happened in that crucial year,” McCullough said. “It was the deciding year of our existence, and the noble words and ideals of the Declaration of Independence would have been no more than words on paper if those who marched with Washington hadn’t held on as they did.”
RTCA elections so volatile, police stepped in
Talk about hotly contested elections that don’t even involve politicians!
Last Thursday’s annual Radio-TV Correspondents Association (RTCA) elections apparently became so heated that U.S. Capitol Police were called to the Senate Radio and Television Gallery to extinguish the fire.
Sources told The Hill that a war of words eupted between Fox News reporter Brian Wilson and CNN producer Ted Barrett after Wilson questioned the eligibility of some of CNN’s voters.
Wilson was elected chairman, receiving 178 votes, followed by C-SPAN’s Annie Tin (164), CNN’s Barrett (126) and Heather Dahl from the Capitol Hill Bureau of Public Radio International (114).
Wilson will take over from NBC’s Mike Viqueira next December, while the runners-up will serve on RTCA’s seven-person board.
“This came down to an issue of CNN and Fox thinking they can get all these people to vote, when in fact they aren’t eligible and are being turned away,” one person who witnessed the contretemps said.
Barrett declined to comment on the elections, and Wilson did not return phone calls.
Historic Hay-Adams ranks among world’s best hotels
There’s a reason why Hans Bruland, general manager of the Hay-Adams Hotel, is wearing a big smile these days, and it has nothing to do with David McCullough’s 50th wedding anniversary party or with Christmas cheer.
It’s because the historic hotel at Lafayette Park is included among the 80 best hotels in the world by Institutional Investor magazine, which ranks it No. 45, ahead of such famous hotels as Raffles in Singapore (48), the Dorchester in London (55), the Imperial in Tokyo (73) and the Crillon in Paris (77).
The Hay-Adams also was ranked 12th among 23 U.S. hotels on the 80-best list, ahead of the Four Seasons, the only other Washington hotel to make the list.
Another Four Seasons hotel, the George V in Paris, was ranked first overall, and the Bel Air in Los Angeles was ranked third overall and best in the United States.
Maybe that explains why the Hay-Adams is already sold out for Inaugural Week.
Not even former Vice President Dan Quayle could get a reservation.
How Weaver talked a bill to death in the House
Even though the House, unlike the Senate, has a rule against allowing speeches any longer than five minutes, former Rep. Jim Weaver (D-Wash.) was once able to conduct a filibuster on the House floor.
In a letter to The New York Times, responding to a recent editorial about Senate filibusters, Weaver, who served from 1975 to ’87, explained how he stopped a bill in 1980 by talking it to death.
Weaver offered 113 amendments to the bill, which would have allowed a federal bailout of five nuclear-power plants under construction in his state.
After several hours went by, when it became clear he could continue for more than nine hours altogether, Weaver recalled that Speaker Tip O’Neill (D-Mass.) “gave up, came on the floor, tapped my chest with a hand holding a cigar, and said, ‘Well, James, you won.’”
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