September 26, 2002

By Ed Henry

Hollywood diva Barbra Streisand fired off a confidential memo to House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) and Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle (D-S.D.) on Wednesday evening urging Democrats to "Take the Offense" against President Bush.

The memo -- which was faxed to the Capitol several hours after Daschle delivered a fiery speech about the war on Iraq in which he demanded an apology from the president for suggesting that Democrats do not care about national security -- was obtained by Roll Call Daily on Thursday morning.

Gephardt's office confirmed that it received the memo. The one-page document is marked as coming from Streisand and Margery Tabankin, the liberal activist's top political adviser.

Tabankin told Roll Call Daily that she sent the memo to Gephardt and Daschle after she had a phone conversation with Streisand. "We had just watched Tom Daschle's speech," said Tabankin. "We were both very emotional."

After Streisand vented to her about how Daschle had finally gotten the Democratic message out, Tabankin tapped out the memo. (It was done so quickly that the original copy that went to Gephardt addressed him as "Gebhardt" and was accidentally sent to a Republican office on the Hill, which is how it leaked).

For the full story, go to Roll Call Daily.

-- Anonymous, September 26, 2002