US: Every morning sleek Lincoln Town Cars draw up to 92nd Street on Manhattan's wealthy upper east side, bringing pre-school children to a nursery school. This is no ordinary pre-school playgroup. Competition for the 175 places is so fierce that parents recruit family and friends to speed-dial the school when applications open each September, and often don't get through, writes Conor O'Clery
Woody Allen, Michael Fox and Sting have had their kids there. Madonna failed to get her daughter in. The 92nd Street Y is like Eton for toddlers, an essential first step on an elite education path. For parent Jack Grubman it also had "a healthy Jewish culture". Some people in New York society would pay a million dollars to get their under-5s in there (a lot easier than making all those phone calls). Which is just what happened, it seems, in the case of Grubman, a star analyst in financial services giant, Citigroup. In the latest corporate scandal which has New York buzzing, investigators have unearthed evidence that three years ago Citigroup chief executive Sanford Weill asked Grubman to re-examine a negative rating he had given the telephone company AT&T, in which Weill was a director. Replying by e-mail, Grubman asked Weill to help get his twins into the 92nd St Y, complaining that "it's statistically easier to get into the Harvard freshman class". (This was correct). Not long afterwards, several events occurred. Grubman upgraded AT&T shares from a "hold" to a "strong buy". The nursery school got a donation of $1 million from Citigroup. The Grubman twins got admitted to the school. And AT&T gave Citigroup $45 million of underwriting business. Grubman, Weill and the school all deny wrongdoing.
The case is being investigated.
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Coincidentally the 92nd St Y this week sponsored the launch of a book about the American family by Al Gore and his wife Tipper, called Joined at the Heart. Gore plans a promotional blitz. In an interview with Barbara Walters aired last night, the former vice-president for the first time spoke about losing to George Bush in 2000. It was "a crushing disappointment", he said. He "absolutely" believed he had won, and the 5-4 decision for Bush by the US Supreme Court was "completely inconsistent" with the judges' conservative philosophy. He did not believe Bill Clinton's sexual indiscretions hurt him, as voters were "plenty smart enough" to distinguish between Clinton's personal life and presidential accomplishments. He acknowledged mistakes, like sighing audibly during a televised debate while Bush was talking. He said he was exasperated by a lot of the things he was saying. He still is. Gore didn't say if he'd run again, but every Democrat with ambitions for 2004 is bringing out a book.
Gore's 2000 running mate, Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, has written, with his wife, Hadassah, An Amazing Adventure: Joe and Hadassah's Personal Notes on the 2000 Campaign. Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota is working on a book about his time in Congress. Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts is co-operating on Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War, that will recall his heroic deeds in the Mekong Delta. His book will come just before the 2004 Democratic Convention, which will be held in Boston for the first time, a few blocks from Kerry's home, which should help his nomination campaign nicely. Hillary Clinton is writing a book but she's got her eyes on 2008.
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As he re-positions himself for 2004, Al Gore may be tempted to take the Democratic Party to the left, a decade after Clinton pushed it towards the centre. In comments at his book launch he stunned colleagues by supporting a single-payer health- care system, reversing his more conservative arguments of 2002. In Congress the Democrats are also moving to the left. This week Democratic House members elected Nancy Pelosi, from the liberal stronghold of San Francisco, as Minority Leader. The 62-year-old mother of five marches in gay pride parades and voted against war on Iraq. Democrats are in a bind as to which way to go after their debacle in the mid-term elections. They were unable to energise their base of union members, ethnic groups, abortion rights supporters and environmentalists. And they lost several key elections by failing to attract moderate swing-voters in the suburbs.
Democratic Senator Zel Miller from Georgia said the party lost because it "stands for nothing and does nothing". New York Times columnist Frank Rich said it had to find something beyond "knee-jerk liberal sloganeering, cynical political strategies and anti-Bush whining". John Kerry believes "it's not a question of moving left or right. People want you to look them in the eye and tell them what you're for."
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As Nancy Pelosi becomes a gravitational force in Congress, pulling the party to the left, her opponent will be pulling Republicans in the opposite direction, widening the ideological gulf on Capitol Hill. Republican members of Congress this week chose Texan conservative Tom DeLay (55) to be House Majority Leader. The former pest exterminator from Houston, known as the "Hammer" for the way he enforced party discipline as whip, has deep ties to Christian conservatives. His views on environmental issues can be gleaned from his fight to prevent enforcement of water and air pollution rules. He dismissed a 1995 Nobel Prize as the "Nobel Appeasement Prize" after it went to US scientists working on pollution damage to the ozone layer. Watch out, Alaska.
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The British royal butler Paul Burrell came to New York this week. He was greeted with the splash headline "Queen of Mean" in the New York Post. The story, based on quotes from one anonymous bellhop, revealed that Burrell gave a mere $10 tip to have his bags carried. Many porters would consider that generous. But then the Post is owned by Murdoch, whose Sun newspaper is still smarting over losing Burrell's story to the Daily Mirror. Burrell is promoting his TV show, What the Butler Saw.