With all this pressure, no doubt I'll say
something stupid. That's just the nature of this
business. So I've already decided to accept it,
forgive myself and move on,"
said Gordon
Fischer, chairman of the Iowa Democrat Party.
“I was never a Republican. I would never have
voted for the war. There was never a flip-flop. I
was never in favor of this war,”
said Wesley
Clark.
"All indications are that the Republicans have
gone to New York to exploit a terrible moment in
our country,"
Rod O'Connor, chief executive officer of the
Democratic National Convention Committee, told
hundreds of journalists who came to tour the site
of next summer's convention. "We are here
to re-ignite a movement in our country."
"In the 1960s and '70s when J. Edgar Hoover
was the bureau director,"
Edwards wrote to
Mr. Hatch, "agents routinely spied on civil
rights demonstrators, including the Rev. Martin
Luther King Jr., and on Vietnam War protesters."
As for today, Mr. Edwards says guidelines
developed by the Justice Department in the 1970s
to govern domestic surveillance by the FBI "have
been substantially weakened by Attorney General
John Ashcroft,"
wrote John Edwards to Senate Judiciary Chairman
Orin Hatch.
"It is fundamentally unfair that the citizens of
our nation's capital have no vote in Congress. As
president, I will work closely with Mayor Anthony
Williams and the people of the District to achieve
full voting rights and real home rule,"
said Wesley
Clark.
“Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri could
overtake Mr. Dean if he wins in Iowa and places
third or better in the New Hampshire primary,”
said pollster
John Zogby.
“If I announced I was the new Michael Jordan, the
press would have said that's cool 'cause we
allowed to bounce a basketball. They'd have said
I'm short and fat, but `Let him try.' If I said I
want to be the new Michael Jackson that would have
been all right. We're allowed to sing and dance.
But how dare I say I want to be the president of
the United States?"
Al Sharpton
said.
Dean’s response to attack
A conservative Republican group
known as Club for Growth began airing ads in Iowa
pointing out that Howard Dean’s numerous plans add
up to dollar amounts far greater than all of
President Bush’s tax cuts. The ad presents the
following:
“For three decades, Democratic Presidential
candidates have supported huge tax increases. This
year, they’re back.”
The ad says that Dean has promised to “raise
income taxes, marriage taxes, capital gains taxes,
dividend taxes, even bring back the death tax.”
It says Dean “will raise taxes on the average
family by more than $1,900 a year.”
With photos of Mondale, McGovern and Dukakis on
the screen, the ad says, “These Democrats found
out that Americans can’t afford higher taxes. Will
Howard Dean ever learn?”
In response to these ads Dean
for America announced that it was launching an ad
campaign in response to renewed attacks by
Republicans. Today, the Republican-backed group
"Club for Growth" announced that it would begin
airing ads attacking Governor Dean’s record on
taxes. This is the first known ad by a Republican
group attacking a Democratic candidate by name.
"It's obvious that the general election is already
underway, and that the Republicans are beginning
to understand that the greatest grassroots
campaign in modern politics poses a serious threat
to their special interest friends. This is the
third time that Republicans have launched attacks
on Governor Dean in the last ten days--first the
RNC put up an attack ad, then Ed Gillespie came to
Vermont to attack Dean, and now they’re having
third parties launch negative ads too," Campaign
Manager Joe Trippi said.
"We will not let such false attacks like today's
by the Republican 'Club for Growth' go unanswered.
The American people are tired of these politics as
usual--they want and deserve the truth," Trippi
said. "Governor Dean's strong record of fiscal
conservatism left Vermont with a legacy of
balanced budgets and reducing taxes through his 11
years as governor."
Here is Howard Dean’s TV spot:
Image of George Bush over a
closed factory. / "George Bush. His economic
policies created the largest deficit in our
county's history."
Footage from Club for Growth
ad. / "Now he's hiding behind negative ads
that falsely attack Howard Dean."
Text appears: The Truth:
/ "The Truth?"
Footage of HD on the
campaign trail. / "Howard Dean balanced
budgets 11 years in a row. He's a fiscal
conservative who cut state income taxes--twice.
Raised the minimum wage. And provided health care
coverage for nearly every child in his state."
HD voice over under footage.
/ "I'm Howard Dean. I approved this message
because they’re not trying to stop me, they’re
trying to stop you."
Speaking of attacks
Dean is diagnosed by the
political commentator Charles Krauthammer for
having Bush Derangement Syndrome: the acute
onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in
reaction to the policies, the presidency -- nay --
the very existence of George W. Bush.
Krauthammer makes the diagnosis
because of Dean’s indicating on NPR that the
reason President Bush is not releasing the 9-11
report is because the Saudis told him not to.
Dean as Thomas Pain
Howard Dean has cast himself as
the modern day Thomas Pain and written a pamphlet
titled Common Sense for a New Century. The
campaign has begun distributing 500,000 of the
pamphlets.
Dean quotes everyone from Pain -
“We have it in our power to begin the world over
again,” to Barbra Jordan
-
“Let each person do his or her part. If one
citizen is unwilling to participate, all of us are
going to suffer. For the American idea, though it
is shared by all of us, is realized in each one of
us.”
The manifesto covers the key
points of Dean’s insurrection campaign of the
peoples’ need to fight corporate America and bring
about justice in the world:
As America developed its industrial potential, the
work of many began to yield vast riches for the
few. Industrial barons began to dominate the
economic and political systems, subjugating the
interests of the people to their own narrow
benefit….
…And now we enter a new era. After a few decades
of relative peace and prosperity, we are beginning
to see that our system is once again out of
balance, and the interests of the people are not
being served. It should not be this way; as Thomas
Jefferson said, “Public offices were [not] made
for private convenience.”
Dean’s experiment
Howard Dean’s experiment to
utilize his Internet contacts to elect a Democrat
congressman seems to be working. The Des Moines
Register reports that Dean’s efforts have resulted
in pledges of $51,557 for Leonard Boswell. It has
also been learned that the congressman who first
turned down the offer of being the first test case
of Deans’ money machine was New York Congressman
Tim Bishop. Bishop did not want to participate
because he thought it would look like a tacit
endorsement. Bishop has since endorsed John Kerry.
Boswell has no such concerns according to his aide
as reported by the Register:
Boswell aide Eric Witte said Thursday that Boswell
did not view accepting the money as a tacit Dean
endorsement.
"The congressman has always and will continue to
view his role as trying to make sure that Iowans
have a chance to express their views to the
candidates and make sure the candidates have a
chance to meet Iowans," Witte said.
"He thinks the actions with Dean are not related
to that role as facilitator."
Simon for Dean
Former Illinois Sen. Paul Simon
on Thursday announced his endorsement of Howard
Dean’s bid for the Democratic nomination, and Dean
aides said Simon experienced attacks similar to
their campaign. In 1988, Gephardt narrowly
defeated Simon in the Iowa caucuses. Both
campaigns lost to Michael Dukakis. In a twist of
fate, Joe Trippi, Dean’s campaign manager, was
working for Dick Gephardt and was the author of
most of the attacks on Simon.
How to organize
Marshall Ganz, a Harvard
University sociologist -- who helped pioneer these
methods during 16 years with the United Farm
Workers -- is one of the keys as to why Howard
Dean is so far ahead. Dean’s campaign is set to
surpass its 1,000th house or community party.
These parties are run by an out of town staff
person who is trained in the method Ganz learned.
NY Times story on the subject details the benefits
of this style of organizing:
Dr. Dean's campaign has used information collected
from these house meetings to create a database of
voters that ranks their views of Dr. Dean, on a
scale of 1 to 6, and that includes detailed
notations about their the voters' opinions and
personal lives that organizers can turn to help
nail down supporters.
The group meets and hears the story by the staff
person as to why they are involved in electing
Howard Dean. The key is to make the story relate
to the people in the meeting and their
circumstances. Then others are asked to tell their
stories of why they are interested in Howard Dean.
It is all about gaining
supporters, finding out what interest those who
are leaning toward Dean and then using the
information to persuade them to support Dean.
After compiling the list of supporters, it is then
the organizations goal to turn them out on
election day.
How not to organize
On Wednesday night, nearly 1,500
Iowans were to gather across the state, from
P.H.A.T. Daddy's in Marengo to the Farmer's
Kitchen in Atlantic, to demonstrate the
organizational muscle of their favorite
presidential candidate. However, no one showed up
at the Farmers Kitchen in Atlantic, there was a
hitch: Despite the Dean campaign's bold promise,
no one in Atlantic knew to meet up. The Chicago
Tribune relates the mess up in detail as an
attendee calls the owner of the Kitchen, Forrest
Teig, to find out why there isn’t a meeting:
"No. There's no meeting planned," said Teig,
reached at home on the telephone by a visitor who
showed up at Farmer's Kitchen at the appointed
hour of 7 p.m., only to find Johnson serving his
final two customers and hoisting black
vinyl-covered chairs onto the tables for closing
time.
When told the Dean campaign had promised a Cass
County Meetup and he was to be its host, Teig was
surprised but understanding, explaining the
foul-up by saying: "It's a group of amateur people
working on the campaign."
Darling of NY
The
New York Daily News reports that Howard Dean
is the darling of the Democrats in NY. The backing
of the hospital workers union and the Queens
Democratic organization have placed him out front
in the Big Apple. The big question for Dean is
where Hillary Clinton will end up on his
candidacy. There is the perception that she finds
him too weak on the war to beat Bush. While a lot
of other candidates have campaigned in the state,
the story indicates that NY could come down to
Dean and Dick Gephardt:
"A lot of insiders believe it will boil down to
Dean and [Dick] Gephardt in New York. They are
people who have good-sized audiences in the
state," said consultant Norman Adler.
This weekend Dean will see if he
can keep his climb in Florida going (see poll
below) as he attends the Florida Democrat
convention. He is expected to put on the biggest
show at the convention. Next weekend Dean will be
back campaign in South Florida, raising money in
Miami and at the Palm Beach home of Netscape
Communications co-founder Jim Clark
Former Arizona Governor to endorse Dean
When Bruce Babbitt, former
governor of Arizona, endorses Howard Dean it will
be further evidence that the front-running Dean is
steadily gaining support from Democratic Party
leaders despite a campaign that has been fueled by
his anti-establishment, anti-Washington rhetoric.
Babbit was formerly Interior Secretary under
President Carter
New Hampshire lead not too big
One of those conducting the poll
that showed Dean with a 30 percent lead in New
Hampshire said that the lead was not too big for
someone to upset Dean’s race to the White House,
according to the Manchester
Union Leader:
Dean’s lead has become so large that it raises the
question of whether he can meet such high
expectations on primary election day. Most
elections tighten up as the voting draws closer,
but, according to ARG pollster Dick Bennett, Dean
may hold his lead in this race.
“Because of the nature of this race, I don’t think
his lead is becoming too large,” said Bennett.
“Part of his strength is the collective weakness
of the other candidates.”
S. Carolina airwaves
Gephardt began running his first
TV ad in South Carolina on Thursday, using a
biographical commercial that has run in Iowa and
New Hampshire. The 30-second spot titled,
"Struggled," is a biographical spot that has run
in Iowa and New Hampshire previously. The ad
tells of how his hard working parents put him
through college.
"I'm Dick Gephardt and I approved this message
because I want to stop George Bush and fight for
America's middle class. President Bush and I see
things very differently. My mother was a secretary
and my dad delivered milk door to door. They
struggled so I could go to college. They taught me
to do what's right, no matter the consequences. I
owe them more than I can say. It's people like my
folks who make America great. I won't forget them
as president."
The campaign said the ad
schedule is for it to run ‘until further notice.’
Gephardt’s identity problem
The online
New Hampshire Politics reports on Rep. Dick
Gephardt’s infrequent visits to the Granite State:
In his long running joke most recently showcased
on the Tonight Show, Gephardt said he’s been
mistaken for a professional golfer, astronaut,
weather man and Dan Quayle.
Given the amount of time Gephardt has spent
campaigning in Iowa recently, his identity woes
may well continue in New Hampshire.
“I don’t think he has any other choice right now,”
said Rich Killion, political science professor at
Franklin Pierce College.
Killion said conventional wisdom that holds
Gephardt must win Iowa, where he’s locked in a
close race with former
Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, thus he’s got to spend
more time there at the cost of campaign time in
New Hampshire.
Gephardt is planning to spend
all of his time in New Hampshire after the Iowa
Caucuses. He will also shift his Iowa staff into
the Feb 3 round.
Lifting steel tariffs
Howard Dean
"Despite what President Bush may
claim, the steel industry needs additional
breathing room to get back on its feet. But the
tariffs are a short-term solution to a larger
problem - this Administration's broken trade
policy. Our trade agreements need to benefit
workers, not just big multinational corporations.
"The President's decision to
lift the steel tariffs early is just another
example of this Administration playing politics
with peoples' lives. When he imposed the tariffs,
the President's rhetoric suggested that he
actually cared about American steelworkers, their
families, and the communities in which they live.
If that were the case, he would not be lifting
them today," said Governor Dean.
Governor Dean believes that we
should be protecting American jobs by making trade
fair; that we need tougher labor and environmental
rights in our trade agreements; that we need to
enforce vigorously the terms of existing trade
agreements so that American workers, farmers, and
businesses get the benefits that we bargained for;
and that we must promote laws that encourage
companies to create jobs in the US, not laws that
encourage companies to move jobs overseas.
Gephardt
"The president's decision to
prematurely lift the tariffs on steel imports
severely undermines the recovery of the US steel
industry from decades of unfair trade practices
that have jeopardized the viability of a vital
domestic industry. The president's action today
demonstrates a callous disregard for the workers
and the communities whose jobs and livelihoods
have been decimated by unfair competition.
"Rather than bow to the pressure
of our trading partners, the president should have
immediately asked the International Trade
Commission to review whether the steel relief
program could be reinstated in a way that would
address the objections of the World Trade
Organization. Such an action would have prohibited
the European Community from retaliating and
provided the time needed to address the issues
raised. In addition, the Bush administration
should include provisions to restrain steel
imports into the US in any future trade
agreements.
Clark
"President Bush still has no
strategy to help the 2.6 million manufacturing
workers who have lost their jobs. We need a real
strategy to help our manufacturing communities,"
Clark said. "That's why I've released a detailed
Manufacturing Security Plan to jump-start the
manufacturing sector and keep jobs from being
shipped overseas."
General Clark's plan will help
all manufacturing firms, including the vital steel
and auto industries, by providing up to $10,000 in
tax credits for each additional full-time employee
they hire, ending incentives to ship jobs
overseas, and controlling the rising costs of
health care coverage.
Lieberman
"In George Bush's world,
ideology rules, except when trumped by special
interests. He put politics first when he imposed
the tariffs, and now he's been forced to backflip
when confronted by life in the real world. We need
a manufacturing plan with a spine of steel to
promote American businesses and workers, not a
manufactured plan that bends with every gust of
wind.
"This president had a series of
approaches he could have tried when the steel
industry went into crisis. He could have helped
workers and companies by addressing the legacy
costs of retirement and health care. He could have
jawboned some of our steel competitor nations into
fair practices. He could have worked with industry
on the manufacturing process.
"Instead, he tried a single,
grandstand play, imposing unilateral tariffs. His
lawyers knew we didn't have a strong trade case,
and now, as we knew at the beginning we would,
he's lost that case. And even worse, now other
U.S. industries face $2.2 billion in retaliation
costs unless we withdraw those tariffs now. So
we're right back where we started."
The politics of steel
The
Los Angles Times tackles the question of what
is the political fall out from President Bush
lifting steel tariffs. The Democrats are
salivating and the Republicans -- while nervous --
believe social issues may hold Pennsylvania, West
Virginia and Indiana home to steel country. The
leaving out of Ohio may be due to that state’s
high unemployment. However, the fact that the
economy is beginning to move in the right
direction as a factor that could be of help to
Bush. Here are samples from the Times article:
"The president, unfortunately for him, made a
major blunder," said Bill Carrick, a strategist
for Missouri Rep. Richard A. Gephardt's
presidential campaign. "He didn't have the guts to
stick with his original position. I think it's
going to leave an awful bitter taste in people's
mouths."
Some political analysts cautioned that Democrats
were overestimating the potential of one issue to
influence the outcome of the presidential contest
in the steel-producing states. They noted that
Bush's stances on gun control, abortion and gay
rights still resonate with socially conservative
blue-collar voters in the region. And since
becoming president, Bush has visited each of the
states several times.
Convention funding close
The
Boston Globe reports that the Democrat
Convention is close to being funded:
Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic
National Committee, said the convention host
committee is close to fulfilling its initial
commitment of raising $32.5 million from private
sources, in cash and in-kind contributions. He
said the convention has enough cash already in the
bank to cover all its bills through the first
quarter of next year.
"They've done everything they said they would do,
and they're very close to finishing up," McAuliffe
said of the host committee. "We're in great shape.
The mayor has done a great job. The host committee
has done a great job."
Poll watching
Miami Herald reports that six months ago Dean
was at 1 percent among Florida Democrats. Now he
leads -- with 16 percent -- compared to 15 for
Clark and Lieberman, with a margin of error of
plus or minus 5.3 percentage points. Of the nine
Democratic hopefuls, Dean and Clark come closest
to President Bush in a general election matchup in
Florida, each coming within 8 points, with a
margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 points.
Lieberman would lose by 11.
To say this is a huge blow to
Sen. Joe Lieberman is an understatement. Florida
newspapers called their state Lieberman’s second
home because of all the campaigning he did in the
state in 2000.
Manchester Mayor endorses Kerry
Sen. John Kerry will receive
Manchester Mayor Robert Baines endorsement today
at a news conference at Manchester Central High
School.
Kerry scrambling
Sen. John Kerry knows he is in
trouble and is doing everything he can to turn
around his campaign. The latest two polls show him
losing ground rather than gaining it in New
Hampshire. A Washington Post story reveals the
candidate’s frenetic efforts:
Even before the latest numbers in New Hampshire,
Kerry said he recognized that time was of the
essence. "I need to campaign like a bandit over
the course of the next weeks and make sure people
are clear about my candidacy," he said, "and I
intend to make them clear."
Kerry recognizes that his voting
for the war remains his biggest hurdle:
What he must now do, Kerry said, is "make sure
people understand that I have the qualities of
leadership to get us out of this problem, that
everything that happened I foresaw [and] warned
the president about -- in fact that my position
was 100 percent consistent from day one and
unequivocating."
Kerry has wrong strategy
Dante J. Scala,
an associate professor at Saint Anselm College and
a research fellow at the College’s New Hampshire
Institute of Politics, offers an analysis of
Kerry’s campaign approach casting himself as a
populist. The professor points out that the last
populist who won New Hampshire was Jimmy Carter
and that the rest have lost. His analysis of how
to win is on New Hampshire Politics online:
To win, then, Kerry must either:
• win back support among liberal Democrats, the
constituency least likely to respond to a populist
message.
• hope that a competitor (Wesley Clark? John
Edwards?) cuts into Dean’s support among liberal
Democrats, while Kerry fends off Edwards, Clark,
and Joe Lieberman among moderate-to-conservative
Democrats and manages to increase his support
there. How much can Kerry, a senator with a
solidly liberal voting record from a very liberal
state, hope to increase his standing among such
voters?
• hope that in the week between Iowa and New
Hampshire, he can cast himself as the “stop Dean”
candidate to whom all non-Dean voters would flock.
If Richard Gephardt wins Iowa, this will not work
because Gephardt will claim that role for himself.
If Gephardt loses to Dean in Iowa, this probably
still will not work because Clark, Edwards, and
Lieberman will all find it in their interest to
keep Kerry from becoming the “stop Dean” candidate
in New Hampshire.
The ultimate problem for Kerry, of course, is that
he does not enjoy the luxury Clinton and Mondale
had to fight another day after New Hampshire. It
is difficult to see why the national media would
give the benefit of the doubt to a candidate who
cannot win in his own backyard. The only way Kerry
becomes the “stop Dean” candidate is if he stops
Dean on January 27. And it’s tough to see how a
populist pitch will make that happen.
Clark in New Hampshire
Wesley Clark campaigned at
Daniel Webster College. He denied that he was ever
for the war or a Republican and said that he never
flip-flopped on the war. He also restated that
NATO should take over Iraq, according to the
Manchester
Union Leader:
Clark said he would “end the American monopoly” on
the Iraq occupation by handing over authority to
NATO, something Clark said some people tend to
wave off as unrealistic.
“Excuse me, but I think if you change
administrations, we might be able to work better
with our allies,” he told the crowd, which
applauded the sentiment.
Clark further recommended ending the search for
weapons of mass destruction and reducing America’s
role proportionally in Iraq. However, when pressed
by reporters after his speech, Clark said he did
not have enough information to say whether he
would place more or fewer U.S. troops in Iraq or
when he would pull them out of the country
altogether.
The
NY Times reporting about the speech indicates
that Clark said he had a plan for Iraq but
wouldn’t share it with the reporters when
questioned latter. He also criticized the
President’s trip to Iraq:
General Clark had previously praised President
Bush for visiting the troops. But on Thursday, he
said that if he were to make such a trip as
president, "I'll actually be going over there to
have consultations with the people that are
there."
Illegal aliens health care access
Senator John Edwards Thursday
criticized Republican leaders in Congress who
agreed to bring up legislation to limit Hispanic
immigrants' access to health care. Desperate to
get needed votes to pass the Medicare bill in the
House, Dennis Hastert (R-IL), Tom DeLay (R-TX) and
other Republican House leaders made a late-night
deal with Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) last
week. In exchange for Rohrabacher's vote, the
leaders agreed to move forward with a Rohrbacher
bill requiring that hospitals immediately report
undocumented immigrants to the Border Patrol.
Hospitals would have to give the name of any
undocumented immigrants within two hours of
treatment.
"The Republicans sacrificed health care for
Hispanic children in order to win big profits for
HMOs and drug companies," Edwards said. "In
exchange for one congressman's vote on this
terrible bill, the Republicans agreed to move
ahead with a proposal that would scare Hispanics
away from hospitals, and almost certainly cause
Hispanics to die unnecessarily. This is
unconscionable."
Edwards discussed the issue at a
town hall meeting at La Familia Medical Center, a
Santa Fe, New Mexico health clinic where more than
a fifth of the patients are undocumented.
Edwards takes on Credit Cards
On the final day of his "Working
for All of Us" Iowa tour, Senator John Edwards
(D-NC) Thursday pledged to take on credit card
companies that employ abusive practices, which
plunge their customers deeper and deeper into
debt.
Edwards noted that middle-class
families are borrowing more just to make ends
meet, and, as a result, are plunging deeper and
deeper into debt. In Iowa alone, personal
bankruptcy filings increased 290 percent in the
last decade, and the average debt carried by an
in-state graduate of Iowa State University, the
University of Iowa, or the University of Northern
Iowa climbed to $20,225 in 2002. Instead of
helping customers get out of debt, irresponsible
predatory lenders, payday lenders, and credit card
companies are now employing abusive practices that
prey on customers when they can least afford it.
Credit card companies in
particular are taking advantage of customers
inexperienced with credit and using late fees and
hidden fees to increase company profits. Credit
card late fees have risen from $1.7 billion in
1996 to $7.3 billion in 2002, and credit card
giant MONA just set a record late fee for prime
customers of $39, which is often supplemented by
hefty interest charges and increases.
Lieberman New Mexico
Joe Lieberman's campaign
announced the formation of its New Mexico steering
committee, led by former State Senator Pauline
Eisenstadt and State Senator John Arthur Smith.
Lieberman also announced the
appointment of two in-state staff members: Senior
Advisor David Griffin and State Field Coordinator
Scott Madison. Griffin and Madison will coordinate
the campaign's outreach programs in New Mexico
leading up to the state's February 3 presidential
caucus.
Lieberman’s pitch for money
Appealing to the sympathies of
Democrats who believe they won the election, Sen.
Joe Lieberman sent out emails asking his
supporters to raise $1,000 for each of the 538
votes that cost the Gore-Lieberman team the
election.
Sharpton’s legacy
The
NY Times is profiling Al Sharpton and it all
seems to be about his legacy and what some believe
to be an attempt to be the next Black leader.
Driving it all may be his need for attention and
that should be served well with his appearance
tonight on Saturday Night Live. A long time
friend confirms in the Times article that Sharpton
is in part driven by the need for attention:
"On the one hand, he has an intolerance of
injustice," said Mr. McKee, a civil rights
organizer. "On the other, he is after a sense of
recognition, a need for recognition."
Many still believe the reason
Sharpton is running for President is to improve
his standing as a Black leader. One of the reasons
for this is Sharpton’s speech to the NAACP:
"They make an issue this week on whether or not
Reverend Jackson or Reverend Sharpton going to
dominate," he said at a recent N.A.A.C.P.
convention, venting his frustration. "I'm not
running against Reverend Jackson." He added, "But
we can only listen to one Negro at a time?"
Middle East Peace
Washington Times covers the
Middle East Geneva Plan:
President Bush yesterday called a new unofficial
Middle East peace plan "productive" as long as it
adheres to his principles that the Palestinians
end terrorism and Israel pulls back settlements in
land he envisions as part of a democratic
Palestinian state.
"We appreciate people discussing peace," Mr. Bush
said. "We just want to make sure people understand
that the principles to peace are clear."
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell will meet today
with the architects of the so-called Geneva
Accords — Yossi Beilin, a veteran Israeli
negotiator, and Yasser Abed Rabbo, a former
information minister for Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat.
Baker to negotiate debt
President Bush appointed Howard
Baker to negotiate debt reduction on behalf of
Iraq. Iraq's foreign debt could be as high as $125
billion. The Associated Press reports that:
Bush said he made the appointment in response to a
request by the Iraqi Governing Council.
"The future of the Iraqi people should not be
mortgaged to the enormous burden of debt incurred
to enrich Saddam Hussein's regime," Bush said.
With experience in diplomacy and world finance,
Baker "will help to forge an international
consensus for an equitable and effective
resolution of this issue," Bush said.
Baker will serve as a volunteer, working out of an
office at the White House and traveling to other
countries.
Of the total Iraqi foreign debt,
some $40 billion is owed to the United States,
France, Germany, Japan, Russia and other countries
who are among 19 nations belonging to the Paris
Club, an umbrella organization that conducts debt
negotiations.
Bush to meet Fox
President Bush will meet
Mexico’s President Vicente Fox in the Western
Hemisphere at an Organization of American States
summit in Monterrey, northern Mexico on Jan.
12-13. The two are expected to discuss immigration
and trade issues.
Hillary up for a Grammy
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is
going head-to-head against pundit Al Franken for a
Grammy. The New York Democrat was nominated
yesterday for the audio version of her
autobiography "Living History." Talk show host
Bill Maher also was nominated.
"That's tough competition," said
Mrs. Clinton, noting that former President Bill
Clinton also was nominated for a recorded book he
made with former Soviet President Mikhail
Gorbachev and actress Sophia Loren.
"I'm glad he's not my
competition," she said, noting that recording a
book is "very, very hard work. It's done so
precisely, you have to be careful about breathing
too hard."
War talk
We are sure to hear more talk
about how Bush is not getting the war against
terrorism right from Hillary Clinton on Sunday.
However, we will see another cold war between
Hillary and former Clinton White House aide George
Stephanopoulos come to an end. She will appear for
the first time on his struggling "This Week"
program on ABC.
The former First Lady saw him as
a betrayer after he recommended a special
prosecutor handle the Whitewater scandal. The
problem stems from Stephanopoulos 1999 memoir,
"All Too Human," where he told how she berated the
President over a bowl of cereal.
But Clinton's interview likely
won't help Stephanopoulos' sagging ratings too
much - she's also appearing on CBS and NBC Sunday
morning.
Medicare fallout
The
Washington Times reports on how the vote on
the Medicare Bill is already a political factor:
The
Republican Main Street Partnership began running a
radio ad Wednesday against Rep. Patrick J. Toomey,
Pennsylvania Republican, for voting with 24 other
conservatives against the $395 billion bill
President Bush is set to sign Monday. Mr. Toomey,
who said the bill didn't adequately reform
Medicare and was too costly, is running in the
Republican primary for the Senate seat of Sen.
Arlen Specter, whom the partnership backs.
"Pat
Toomey slammed the door on President Bush, who
championed the Medicare bill," says the ad, which
airs on a Harrisburg station through Dec. 16.
There are of course differing
views on its political effects. The Republicans
believe:
In
House races, National Republican Congressional
Committee spokesman Carl Forti agreed the Medicare
vote will be a key issue next year. He said House
Democrats who already were vulnerable will be more
so because they voted against the bill. Those
include Baron P. Hill of Indiana, Tim Holden of
Pennsylvania, Darlene Hooley of Oregon, Leonard L.
Boswell of Iowa and maybe Lloyd Doggett and Chet
Edwards, both of Texas, depending on the outcome
of that state's redistricting.
The Democrat line is:
"The
Republican Medicare bill presents tremendous
opportunities for Democratic candidates in 2004,"
said Rep. Robert T. Matsui, California Democrat
and chairman of the Democratic Congressional
Campaign Committee. "We'll make sure seniors
understand that its limited benefits are a Trojan
horse for giveaways to HMOs and drug companies
that will keep their drug costs high and threaten
Medicare."
Soros’ explanation
George Soros has an op-ed piece
in the Washington Post that answers the question
of why he is giving millions to defeat President
Bush:
I and a number of other wealthy Americans are
contributing millions of dollars to grass-roots
organizations engaged in the 2004 presidential
election. We are deeply concerned with the
direction in which the Bush administration is
taking the United States and the world.
If Americans reject the president's policies at
the polls, we can write off the Bush Doctrine as a
temporary aberration and resume our rightful place
in the world. If we endorse those policies, we
shall have to live with the hostility of the world
and endure a vicious cycle of escalating violence.
Hate, hate, hate
On the track WE AS AMERICANS,
obtained by DRUDGE, the nation's top selling
rapper shockingly rants: 'F**k money. I don't rap
for dead presidents. I'd rather see the president
dead. It's never been said, but I set precedents
and the standards and they can't stand it... We as
Americans. Us as a citizen. We've got to protect
ourselves'...
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