Kissinger Plants One On Buddy Weld

The boss of the Conservative Party, Mike Long, is officially against him, and that Decker College scandal just won’tgo away, but convivial gubernatorial wannabe Bill Weld’s big-time Republican Establishment friends are still behind him. Sources say Henry Kissinger (whom Weld knows from his past, including a gig in the Reagan Justice Department) and his wife, Nancy, are hosting a cocktail party for Weld at their River House apartment on March 14, with the goal of raising $100,000. Weld is also tapping the GOP lobbying Establishment in D.C.: On March 8, former Michigan governor John Engler—now president of the powerful National Association of Manufacturers—is hosting a big D.C. fund-raiser for Weld, sources add. But will it help? “He can have fancy fund-raisers till the cows come home, but he’ll still be dogged by Decker and still be a liberal elitist in the eyes of the Conservative Party,” says an aide to a Weld rival. But a Weld backer says it shows that “none of the other candidates have Bill’s résumé and reach.” Next: Summers Scooper Gets Kicked Out of Harvard

Kissinger Plants One On Buddy Weld