Lehane joins Clark campaign

Fresh off his astounding success in helping John Kerry fend off Howard Dean and Gray Davis beat the recall campaign, Chris Lehane, my favorite boogeyman, has joined his long-time partner Fabiani at the Clark campaign.

Note the dirty tactics they used to push Fowler out:

The political intrigue plaguing Wesley Clark's Democratic presidential campaign continues to deepen. Insiders tell our Suzi Parker that one day after campaign manager Donnie Fowler quit over concerns that Clark was letting Washington hands, not Clark fans and activists, run the show, he fled Arkansas. Sources say his foes pushed him out by leaking his resignation to the Associated Press Tuesday while negotiations over his role were being discussed and before he quit. The message being sent: Hasta la vista, baby [...]

Interesting, said the insiders, was who showed up minutes after Fowler left his office: Ex-John Kerry and Al Gore spokesman Chris Lehane. He's the able partner to Clark PR adviser Mark Fabiani. Lehane's just the latest of a wave of Washingtonians and Clintonistas to lend a hand to the Clark effort.

The reason Lehane showed up yesterday was simple -- the recall race was over. And jobless, it was only natural he join his partner in Little Rock. And conveniently, Fowler had "quit" the previous day.

As I wrote on September 15:

The Kerry campaign is better off without [Lehane].

Now let's hope for Clark's sake that Lehane doesn't end up in that campaign.

And on September 16, when I saw that Fabiani had joined the Clark team, I noted that Lehane's appearance would be inevitable.

What a mess. Yeah, yeah, it's inside baseball. But Clark is depending on institutional support to make up for lost time. Those people are watching. Donors are watching. And given Clark's problems, Gephardt's star starts rising.

Don't count Dick Gephardt out of the Democratic presidential race is the message coming from top party officials. Long the favorite of many in Democratic Party HQ for his years in Washington as minority leader and chief congressional fundraiser, senior officials are now pitching him as the alternative to Howard Dean who has shunned Washington in his fast-moving campaign.

(Via Political Wire)

Update: Tapped has a short interview with Lehane, and he denies being a "formal" advisor to the campaign ("I haven't made any final determinations about what I am going to do in 2004.").

Posted October 09, 2003 09:33 AM | Comments (238)