Archive → July 2nd, 2008
New phase, new campaign manager for McCain
Today, Senator John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee for president, announced he’d appointed a new head of his campaign, Steve Schmidt. Schmidt, who replaces Rick Davis (who’ll stay on in a diminished role), joins a campaign that has been dormant while waiting for the Democrats to settle on who they would run against McCain.
The McCain campaign has been lax on fundraising, headline-making, organization and direction under Davis, and it’s hoped that Schmidt, who served in George W. Bush’s re-election campaign, will be able to bring new energy and vision to the McCain camp, making the letheragy of recent months a mere memory.
One thing’s certain: McCain’s VP choice is the easiest way to get him back in the headlines; let’s hope Schmidt is up to the task of helping McCain settle on a running mate who’ll engage the party’s conservative wing, which would go a long way toward re-energizing the McCain campaign.
Eight more years! Eight more years!
As reported, variously, by the LA Times and the Drudge Report, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh signed an unprecedented contract extension with Clear Channel Media and Premiere Radio that will guarantee the host remains in place behind the “golden EIB microphone” he first made famous 20 years ago, through 2016.
The size of the deal is a record for regular, terrestrial radio, checking in at over $400 million for the eight-year extension. That’ll buy a lot of luggage.
Only Howard Stern’s deal with Siruis Satellite Radio eclipses the Limbaugh deal; Stern’s contract awarded him $500 million in contract money and $225 million in stock options for a total compensation package of $725 million over only five years.
Stern and satellite radio aside, however, Limbaugh’s deal is still one of the largest ever signed by terrestrial radio, and places his compensation well ahead of the traditional news media anchors Katie Couric, Brian Williams, Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer combined.
Still, Limbaugh has done a lot of work to earn the record-breaking compensation package; he has built and maintained one of the largest radio syndication networks for his program in modern radio history, and kept it going for over two decades.
The only X-Factor in the deal for Clear Channel and Premiere comes if Obama is elected in November and the Democrats retain control of Congress; it is strongly believed that in that event, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would push to bring back the so-called “Fairness Doctrine,” redesigned to silence voices like Limbaugh, as well as other conservative hosts such as Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage and others.
Congratulations, Rush!
Sex for… gas?
The Web site The Smoking Gun is reporting that Angela Eversole, 34, of Kentucky is facing prostitution charges after an arrest last weekend; according to reports, Eversole was nabbed at a Days Inn hotel for offering sexual services in exchange for a $100 Speedway gas card… or, about 25 gallons of gas.
The court documents had no custom boxes to record the exact nature of the charges, and so they had to be explained in the comment section. Apparently there were other gifts and trinkets offered to Eversole by her alleged customer, Kenneth Nowak, but the Speedway gas card held the highest value.
Of course, a $100 Speedway gift card won’t get you as far as it used to; but then, it’s of no use behind bars anyway.
