Exclusive: "My Investment Paid Off"

Not everything is sweetness and light behind the scenes in San Diego. Steve Forbes has been all too willing in conversations with reporters at the Republican Convention to take credit for Bob Dole's choice of Jack Kemp as well as his embrace of what he calls a Forbesian (some say Kemp-inspired) tax reduction plan. On Monday morning, his visions of grandeur growing by the hour in the glow of the TV lights, Forbes was stepping up his attacks on House Budget Chairman John Kasich, saying that if Kasich thinks eat-your-spinach deficit-cutting is more important than tax-cutting, he is out of sync with the GOP ticket and ought to just sit down on the sidelines. By Monday afternoon, word reached Kasich that Forbes was running around telling people that Kasich ought to be stripped of his chairmanship. An incensed Kasich went straight to Speaker Gingrich and demanded that Newt "tell Forbes to shut up!" No word yet on that particular tete-a-tete. Lamia Abu-Haidar