Occasional morsels from Campaign 2000

Of Men and Mosh Pits

Filmmaker Michael Moore, who introduced the term “mosh pit” into the 2000 campaign, is considering withdrawing his endorsement of Alan Keyes, the only candidate to dive into Moore’s crowd of college students. After Keyes made an unsettling analogy about abortion to New Hampshire schoolchildren this week, Moore looked to Steve Forbes. “We’ll endorse you for president, if you get into the mosh pit,” Moore told Forbes on Tuesday, offering to hold the wealthy candidate’s wallet while he crowd-surfed. “That’s all you have to do--no favors, money exchanged, nothing. Get in the mosh pit and you’re our man.” Forbes deadpanned that he was “shocked” that Moore would withdraw the endorsement “for political expediency. . . . You are going to take the endorsement away. All the more reason to say I’ll consider it and let you know.”

Bill Chills

Reporters at Bill Bradley’s New Hampshire primary headquarters could see their breath Tuesday night. Just the media’s hot air? Not entirely. The temperature in New Hampshire College’s spacious gym was about the same as the subfreezing air outside. Engineers insisted that they had to keep the large doors behind the press tables wide open while they fiddled with cables and electrical lines. The three dozen shivering reporters swathed themselves in coats and hats as they hunched over their laptops, sipping hot coffee to stay warm. ABC producer Rebecca Cooper suggested another use for the barbecue dinner being served by the campaign: “If it’s hot barbecue, can I put it in my socks?”

Towing the Line

A warning from the vice president of the United States: Move that black Suburu and that red Ford from in front of the school. The police are about to have them towed away. Al Gore said he’d never been assigned to read a message quite like that. But in Amherst, N.H., folks aren’t big on ceremony. So Gore was interrupted Monday with a note from the town police officers as he answered questions. “There are two cars that are about to be towed,” the vice president said, reading the license plate numbers. “Fair warning.”

Buy the Book

The Connecticut-based Easton Press, which offers what it calls “exclusive leather-bound editions” of books ranging from memoirs to novels, is offering signed copies of the autobiographies of Bill Bradley, George W. Bush and John McCain. The cost? Two monthly installments of “just $39.75.” The correlations aren’t clear but that’s the same price of the memoirs by boxer Joe Frazier, “Smokin’ Joe,” and actor William Shatner’s “Get a Life!” Signed copies of Al Gore’s “Earth in the Balance” are more pricey--four installments of $32.50.

Quote File

“The Service Corps shall be permitted to fly helicopters . . . from which servicemen can rappel to any disabled vehicle, secure it to cables from the chopper and lift the vehicle off the highway to a service station.”

--From a proposal to unclog highways by obscure Democratic presidential candidate Mark Greenstein of Culver City, Calif.

Compiled by Massie Ritsch, in Manchester, N.H., from Times staff and wire reports.