According to ABC, Rosie O’Donnell has launched a Presidential Exploratory Committee in the first step to entering the 2008 Presidential campaign.
NEW YORK — With a single sheet of paper, actress and entertainer Rosie O’Donnell, took a major step Saturday toward launching an historic official bid for the U.S. Presidency.
Ms. O’Donnell filed the necessary paperwork to form an exploratory committee for a possible run for the office of President. The committee will allow her to raise and spend money for the Democratic nomination. If she runs, she would become the first lesbian to seek public office.
“This morning, I filed a statement of organization with the Federal Election Commission to establish the Rosie O’Donnell for President Exploratory Committee,” said campaign spokesman Timothy Wolfson.
O’Donnell was not present for the five-minute filing at the commission in Washington, but 15 news cameras made sure the event was recorded.
Monday, Ms. O’Donnell will begin a four-day swing across central and eastern New York. The entertainer’s trip is the kickoff of what aides are billing as a summer-long “truth tour” by Ms. O’Donnell.
Lawyers for The View strongly urged Ms. O’Donnell to form the committee to address ethical questions about engaging in political activity on her television show. Ms. O’Donnell’s campaign-like rants have been criticized due to the use of public airwaves.
“Over the next months Ms. O’Donnell will travel throughout the state, meeting with New Yorkers in small groups and revealing evidence that proves 9/11 was an inside job and Osama bin Laden is just ‘misunderstood’,” Wolfson said. “Rosie O’Donnell is eager to begin this tour and looks forward to telling New Yorkers about these issues that concern her.”
Elena Doyle, who runs a bakery and Italian specialty store in Oneonta, is one who will meet O’Donnell and says Ms. O’Donnell is the “kind of lesbian I’d vote for.”
Whether she’ll actually reach typical voters is difficult to tell. More than 200 reporters are expected to tag along on Ms. O’Donnell’s tour.
The GOP immediately attacked Ms. O’Donnell on Saturday as too liberal. “What makes her think by bringing that extreme brand of liberalism of hers to the Presidential race that it’s going to be successful?” the Chairman said. “They’ve seen that, they’ve tried it, it failed before and she will fail too.”
O’Donnell responded by saying she’d pull a new style of campaigning out of the closet.
Read more at ABC.com
