The Yent-a-Matic Returns!

With a match made on Hardball ...

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Posted Monday, November 1, 1999

        An occasional feature in which kausfiles.com suggests romantic possibilities between public figures who may or may not know each other. This one is so . . . well, inevitable, it just might work!:

        Robert Torricelli -- single (divorced) Democratic U.S. Senator from New Jersey who has been linked with a series of glamorous women (e.g. Bianca Jagger; Patricia Duff Medavoy Perelman)

        and

        Arianna Huffington -- glamorous woman writer and social climber who divorced failed California Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Huffington.

        Notes: Arianna -- OK, he may be a bit conservative for you in your current bleeding-heart incarnation, but he's got what you want: a seat in the Senate. You've put up with worse! You'll be back in Beltway dinner party/talk-show heaven! Tip: Don't call him "The Torch" to his face. Bob -- True, there's that cult business in her background, but she's handsome, charming, and funny, and she's got what you want: a knack for attracting press! Play up her right-wing connections and you can spin it as a Romeo-Juliet/Carville-Matalin thing. Tip: You'll eventually have to do something about her Greek mama ("Yaya") hanging around all the time, but better be nice to her for now.

        Beltway Gossip Dump: Washington politicos think the death of Rhode Island Senator John Chafee means that: a) as has been reported, the Republican governor of Rhode Island will appoint Chafee's son, Lincoln -- who was already running for the Senate seat from which his father was retiring -- to serve the remainder of his father's term; b) as only kausfiles will tell you, Rep. Robert Weygand, a Rhode Island Democrat, will decide to stand for reelection to the House rather than run against Lincoln Chafee for the Senate, since the younger Chafee will be much tougher to beat as an incumbent, even an appointed one; c) with Weygand staying put, the Democrats will have to worry about only four open House seats in November 2000, while the Republican open seat total (counting resignations expected in the next month) will soon go up to about 20; d) but Chafee's Rhode Island Senate seat, which Democrats thought they might capture, is now in the probable-Republican column. Bad news for the Torch! (Senator Torricelli, when he's not dating glamourpusses, is chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee); e) unless, that is, Torricelli can prevail on Rhode Island Rep. Patrick Kennedy to run against Lincoln Chafee. Kennedy has the name and fundraising ability to win the Senate seat, but right now Rep. Richard Gephardt needs him to raise money for the Democrats' campaign to retake the House. ... Got all that? ... Charlie Cook, eat your heart out! ... Bonus opinion item: On Sunday, Vice President Al Gore told viewers of ABC's This Week they could "rest assured" that Roe v. Wade would be safe in a Gore-appointed Supreme Court. Of course, Gore said, he "would not use a litmus test." Some questions: How can Gore be so sure his appointees will support Roe unless he uses a litmus test? And what's wrong with litmus tests anyway? Wouldn't support of Brown v. Board of Education be a legitimate litmus test in picking a Supreme Court justice? If Gore feels so strongly about Roe (which I think was wrongly decided) he should by all means make it a litmus test. ...

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