DEM’S THE BREAKS
It was over. But it almost wasn’t. The No Labels group may have announced its failure to bring a nonpartisan third-party “unity” ticket to the 2024 presidential altar earlier this month, but Sneed hears a groom was actually ready to sign on — but a bride could not be found.
In an exclusive interview, Dan K. Webb, a top national trial lawyer headquartered in Chicago — who was in charge of creating the vetting process for the No Labels third-party run — tells
Sneed “the ticket came this/close to reality weeks ago.”
Webb says former
New Jersey Gov. Chris
Christie, who had nixed a No Labels invite to run for president soon after bowing out of the Republican presidential primary in January, “suddenly signaled late last month he would run if we secured him a Democrat as a running mate.”
Webb says recent polling by the centrist No Labels group last month “was matching polls Chris [Christie] was conducting showing a third-party candidate could split the vote three ways if Chris ran.”
“It could give the voters a clear choice: equally taking votes away from [Democrat] Joe Biden and [Republican Donald] Trump. And for the record, we never considered [Robert F.] Kennedy [Jr.]. No Labels was not going to destroy its brand,” he said.
While the mostly moderate Republicans considering leading the No Labels ticket were bowing out last month, the group had substantial polling “clearly proving beyond dispute that 65 to 70% of the American public today did not want the choice of the Democrat and Republican presidential candidates Biden or Trump,” said Webb.
“We needed a Republican on top of the ticket to beat Trump!
“Then Chris [Christie] signaled he was ready to run with ONE condition,” said Webb. “Finding a Democrat to run as Christie’s ‘unity’ vice president.
“But it didn’t work. We failed. We couldn’t do it. We needed a unity ticket, and no Democrat would run, because they were afraid of leaving the party and never going back!
“When that shut down, Chris pulled the plug. He felt he would not be able to capture the attention of the American public without a unity ticket.
“Up to that point, Chris was in the game, the only Republican who ran in the presidential primary who agreed to tell the truth and attack Trump,” said Webb.
A week later, on April 4, No Labels folded its big tent on the White House idea, also just a week after one of the group’s founders, former Sen. Joe Lieberman, died unexpectedly.
“That two monopolistic parties in this country, Republican and Democratic, have failed to field candidates the country wants is a disaster,” Webb said.
“And I fear the Democratic Party is engaging in aggressive, unacceptable conduct by attacking any third party competing in the presidential election,” he said.
“No Labels will persist in supporting major congressional figures committed to supporting nonpartisan political behavior as we have for a decade.
“And we are not folding up and going away,” said Webb, a longtime Republican and Chicago’s formidable former U.S. attorney.
“We’ve got work to do.”
Sneed could not get comment from New Jersey.
Helloooo, Chris.
The O.J. Simpson case …
The man in the mirror.
In 2017, Sneed interviewed Chicago’s former top cop Phil Cline, who was commander of the Area 5 Detective Division in 1994 when his troops searched the grounds outside the former O’Hare Plaza Hotel near the airport. That was where O.J. Simpson had briefly stayed after his former wife was found brutally murdered and nearly decapitated on June 12, 1994.
Quoth Cline: “Simpson had a cut hand and claimed he had cut it on a broken glass in the hotel bathroom. If I remember correctly, someone on the airplane coming from L.A. claimed he spotted a cut on Simpson’s hand.”
Simpson, who died on Wednesday, was eventually found not guilty of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
But Cline, who now heads the Police Memorial Foundation, told Sneed in 2017: “Like I said: For the crime of killing his wife, all [Simpson] has to do is look in the mirror.”
Sneedlings …
Ring the wedding bells and congrats to Chicago Sun-Times reporter Mitch Armentrout on his marriage to his beloved Chrissy Mysko on Monday, the day of the solar eclipse. It was also the fifth anniversary of their first date! ... Saturday birthdays: Al Green, 78; Rick Schroder, 54; Joan Hall, ageless. … Sunday birthdays: Julie Christie, 84; Adrien Brody, 51; Antwon Tanner, 49; Sarah Michelle Gellar, 47; and Abigail Breslin, 28 … and a special birthday shoutout to Carol’s Tom Carroll, ageless and often priceless.