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Run Warren run
A Beatty campaign could force both parties to admit their addiction to special-interest money
By David Talbot
[09/02/99]

My dinner with Bulworth
The Minnesota adman who helped Jesse Ventura become governor advises Warren Beatty on how he might claim the White House.
By Jake Tapper
[09/02/99]

Big Willie style
Controversial Florida state Rep. Willie Logan is hiring Jesse Ventura's adman to launch his grass-roots Senate campaign.
By Jake Tapper
[09/01/99]

The ugly American embassy
The U.S. wants to build a new mission in Berlin, and cut into the grounds of a tree-filled park and the new Holocaust museum to do it.
By Steve Kettmann and Guy Raz
[09/01/99]

Is welfare reform sending more kids to foster care?
Despite the success stories, more families at the bottom are falling apart.
By Nell Bernstein
[09/01/99]

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For now, Beatty is being coy about whether, if he runs, it will be as a Democrat, a Reform Party candidate or an independent, though he seems to revel in opportunities to take swipes at his once-beloved Democratic Party for "its failure to mold public opinion in resistance to big money."

Also Today Run Warren run A Beatty campaign could force both parties to admit their addiction to special-interest money My dinner with Bulworth The Minnesota ad man who helped Jesse Ventura become governor advises Warren Beatty on how he might claim the White House.

So far a Beatty bid has gotten little formal comment from political officialdom. Democrats don't want to talk about it. "I don't think I have anything to offer you on that," said Erik Smith of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "It's just very new and I don't think anyone's thought through it yet." The Bill Bradley campaign, which is positioning itself for a run from Vice President Al Gore's left, was tightlipped. "We'll leave [Beatty] to his own perspective," said spokesman Eric Hauser. "Sen. Bradley just talks about and does the things that he believes."

Even legendary left-wing talkers like Oakland, Calif., Mayor Jerry Brown and California state Sen. Tom Hayden have refused to comment. "I don't want to get involved in all that," said Bob Mulholland, the typically garrulous political director of the California Democratic Party.

Reform Party officials, likewise, have been fairly quiet, and less than fully enthusiastic about the possibility that Beatty might run for their party's nomination. Although Beatty's dinner with Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura's adman, Bill Hillsman, has fueled speculation that the party wants the famed actor to run, workaday party activists and leaders are less interested.

"Warren hasn't called me," joked Donna Donovan, press secretary for the national Reform Party. Donovan said that after reading Beatty's Aug. 22 op-ed in the New York Times, she was uncertain whether Beatty would be a good fit for the party. "I don't know where he stands on a lot of issues to the Reform Party -- a balanced budget amendment, term limits, trade agreements, jobs, finance reform. Where is he on NAFTA or GATT? Is he a free trader or fair trader? He's still got a lot of cards to play."

"Beatty, I believe, is more interested in bringing the Democrat Party back to its original roots," said Gerry Moan, the incoming vice chairman of the national Reform Party. "Would he try to disrupt the vote totals to take votes away from the Democratic nominee? I don't think that's his goal. I think his mission is strictly ideological."

Even Hollywood political luminaries have been fairly standoffish about a Beatty candidacy. "Vice President Gore has the majority of support in this community," said Chad Griffin, who serves as an advisor to Rob Reiner on political issues. Reiner came to the forefront of the Hollywood-political fusion last fall when he sponsored a successful California ballot initiative to levy an additional 50 cents-per-pack tax on cigarettes to fund children's programs. "Gore cares about issues that [Californians] in particular care about -- the environment and education."

Some of that may be spin from Reiner's camp, which received help on the stump from the Clinton/Gore team last fall. As proof that some within the Hollywood community are looking for other options, last June former Warner Bros. executive Terry Semel hosted a meeting at his Bel-Air home for Texas Gov. George W. Bush, which Beatty attended.

But even Beatty confidante and supporter Norman Lear said, "I don't see [the Hollywood reaction to a Beatty candidacy] being as big as the national press reaction. He's heard from every television talk show -- Larry King, Cokie Roberts -- anyone you can think of. I don't think he's been invited to as many dinner parties as talk shows."

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