The Iowa Daily Report, Tuesday, December 23, 2003

* QUOTABLE:

"I will do whatever the Americans want because I saw what happened in Iraq, and I was afraid," Mr. Gadhafi told Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, according to a Berlusconi spokesman who was quoted in yesterday's Telegraph of London.

I don't have the nomination yet. Not one vote has been cast. We're working really, really hard in Iowa. We want support there in the caucuses, but until it looks like I am going to be the nominee I am not going to be offering anybody the vice presidency," said Howard Dean.

"Just to be clear, he made the offer. Nobody's going to formally offer that position until the whole process is gone through. But let's put it this way, as I said yesterday, it was dangled out there and discussed. I mean it was offered as much as it could have been, I think," Wesley Clark said.

“No matter, he has anger and despair to work with, as well as all those enemies in the party. If Dean is indeed headed toward the Democratic nomination, he might want to channel some of that anger toward a less punitive approach to the very people he seeks to represent. His position on Iraq is enough of an albatross.” -- writes Thomas Oliphant of the Boston Globe.

“There used to be monopolies in such industries as steel and shipping, but today the monopolies are “in media, energy, health care and banking,” Dennis Kucinich said.

“Gephardt's main appeal might be the very blandness (he and his wife are named Dick and Jane), the granite values that cynics like myself assumed would be his main obstacle. The world these days seems unstable, the people trying to run it uncertain. George Bush attacked Iraq because of weapons of mass destruction and then changed the rationale when he couldn't find any. Dean says he's proud of his record in Vermont, but fights to conceal his papers as governor.” -- writes Brian McGrory a Globe columnist.

"Every time we go on one of these orange alerts that we're on now, we have to bring people on to do overtime," Mr. Gephardt said. "We're not training them. We're not giving them the equipment they need. Bush talks a lot about this, but he doesn't play a very good game."

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut praised the decision to raise the alert status. "They made the right decision," he said in Manchester, N.H. "They had enough intelligence information to make me worry about the possibility of another terrorist attack and a serious one."

"Dennis speaks from his heart and his mind. I find that to be so profoundly courageous," said actress Lindsay Wagner.

Nonpartisan political analyst Charles Cook said Kucinich won't win but will considerably enhance "his stature as a spokesman for liberal and populist causes."

"U.S. strategy is widely accused of being unilateralist by design," Mr. Powell wrote. "It isn't. It is often accused of being imbalanced in favor of military methods. It isn't. It is frequently described as being obsessed with terrorism and hence biased toward preemptive war on a global scale. It most certainly is not."

A politically correct greeting: "Please accept with no obligation, explicit or implied, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, non-judgmental, tolerance embracing, inclusivity enhancing, equality seeking, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious/secular persuasion of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice any religious and/or secular traditions."

* TODAY’S OFFERINGS:

Howard Dean: *Dean’s silence *Dean’s enemies
*Dean’s brother *Dean’s call for peace *Dean’s dollars

Ralph Nader: *Nader isn’t Green

Dick Gephardt: *Gephardt’s heat *Gephardt gets UAW
*Gephardt’s Christmas Carol

John Kerry: *Kerry’s appeal *Kerry’s Real Deal Express
*Kerry to meet with soldier’s families *Kerry: Dean’s weak

Wesley Clark: *Clark’s Iowa effort *Coleman endorses Clark
*Clark attacks terrorism strategy

Joe Lieberman: *Dean’s judgment questionable
*Lieberman moves in

John Edwards: *Edwards’ security aid
*Edwards’ 60 minute boost

Dennis Kucinich: *Kucinich: uses alternative media
*Kucinich makes mainline seem groovy

Polls: *Poll watching 
*Bush up in Washington Post-ABC poll

* CANDIDATES & CAUCUSES:

Dean’s silence

The Washington Times reports on the speechless nature of the Dean campaign regarding Libya’s decision to give up WMDs. The Times repeats the Italian Prime Minister’s quote in the Telegraph of London:

"I will do whatever the Americans want because I saw what happened in Iraq, and I was afraid," Mr. Gadhafi told Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, according to a Berlusconi spokesman who was quoted in yesterday's Telegraph of London.

When the Times questioned the Dean campaign about why no comment they said:

"Look, the agreement with the Libyans is good news and an important step forward in the effort to combat weapons of mass destruction," conceded Dean spokesman Jay Carson. "But the agreement is the result of years of diplomacy and sanctions, conducted in concert with the international community, which Governor Dean believes is the most effective means of pursuing that goal," he added.

The success not only frustrated the Democrats but also brought out long of tooth comments, even if they were incongruous. However, that was their charge against Bush:

Mr. Bush said the Libya agreement was made possible by nine months of "quiet diplomacy," which prompted criticism from Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat… "Ironically, this significant advance represents a complete U-turn in the Bush administration's overall foreign policy," Mr. Kerry said. "An administration that scorns multilateralism and boasts about a rigid doctrine of military pre-emption has almost in spite of itself demonstrated the enormous potential for improving our national security through diplomacy.

"If the president can put aside his go-it-alone unilateralism to engage with a longtime enemy like Gadhafi, why are the ideologues in this administration so hesitant to negotiate with North Korea to end their nuclear-weapons programs?" he added. "Why not rally the United Nations and NATO to forge a new cooperative effort to combat proliferation around the globe?"

Other Democrats also treated Libya's disarmament as an opportunity to criticize the president.

"Libya's certainly good news, but we've got a long way to go before we can feel we've really made the American people safe in a time of terrorism," Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri said on "Fox News Sunday." "There are failures that are still bedeviling us on a number of other fronts… "We've got North Korea apparently going ahead and making nuclear weapons," he added. "And we still don't have the international help in Iraq that we should have gotten a long time ago."

Dean’s enemies

Howard Dean may not have his enemies list formalized but there is no doubt it exists. If then first lady Hillary Clinton wanted the FBI files on the Clinton enemies, what will Dean do if he gets to the White House? Thomas Oliphant of the Boston Globe offers a column with the observation that Howard Dean must utilize one of the great political themes of rallying the troops against the enemy at the gate. However, Dean has drawn his barricade around a pretty small group:

This kind of politics requires enemies against whom to mobilize. For a year, Dean's campaign has made it very clear that the enemies are not just conservatives. They also permeate the Democratic Party, and they must be crushed as permanently as the right-wingers. He tells his followers that they have the power not only to "take back" the country but to take back the party as well… From whom? Well, for starters there are the "Washington Democrats," also known as the "Washington politics as usual club."

Dean’s brother

The NY Times reports on another miss-step involving a question regarding Dean’s closeness to military service personnel:

Asked by The Quad-City Times, which is based in Davenport, Iowa, to complete the sentence "My closest living relative in the armed services is," Dr. Dean wrote in August, "My brother is a POW/MIA in Laos, but is almost certainly dead."

Dean’s response is as follows:

"The way I read the question was that they wanted to know if I knew anything about the armed services from a personal level," he said. "I don't think it was inaccurate or misleading if anybody knew what the history was, and I assumed that most people knew what the history was. Anybody who wanted to write about this could have looked through the 23-year history to see that I've always acknowledged my brother's a civilian, was a civilian."

Dean’s call for peace

Even when Howard Dean is calling for peace among his fellow Democrats he can’t seem to stop insulting them. There is no greater insult than calling a Democrat a Republican. This is exactly what Dean did, according to the LA Times:

"One of the reasons I wish the others guys running for president would tone it down a little bit is that at the end, we're all going to have to pull together in order to beat George Bush," he told several hundred people at a packed town hall meeting.

And, he added, "even the Democratic Leadership Council, which is sort of the Republican part of the Democratic Party … the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, we're going to need them too, we really are." The Democratic Leadership Council was founded in 1985 by Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Missouri Rep. Richard A. Gephardt, among others, to remake the Democratic Party in a more centrist, competitive mold.

Dean’s dollars

USA Today has a good analysis of Dean’s greatest strength -- his fund-raising:

• Dean has spent far less than he has raised. By Sept. 30, he had spent 51% of his campaign cash, the lowest "burn rate" among the established candidates.

• His biggest investments have gone into staff, travel and advertising. That has helped him build a multi-state campaign while spending less than some of his rivals for consultants and campaign offices.

• Dean's contributions grew at a faster rate than his spending during the third quarter of the year, the most recent to be disclosed. He was the only candidate to accomplish that. It left him with more money in the bank than his competitors.

• Even with more advertising this quarter, Dean's aides expect fundraising to equal or outpace spending. "Our cash on hand is going to go up, unless something crazy happens," campaign manager Joe Trippi says.

That would leave Dean with a big financial advantage as the primary season enters its most intense period.

Based largely on his fundraising, Dean has decided to forego as much as $18 million in federal matching funds he would have been eligible for next year. As a result, he will avoid the spending limits that go with the federal money. It's an indication of his campaign's confidence that the money flow, much of it raised inexpensively through the Internet, will continue.

The article also shows how the Dick Gephardt campaign is trying to deal with this high-powered Dean spending effort:

Gephardt has been the second most frugal of the top-tier candidates. He had spent 57% of the money he had raised by Sept. 30. He spent the least on consultants, payroll and events, and the second-smallest amounts on offices, travel and media buys. It's partly out of necessity; Gephardt has raised roughly half as much as Dean. "We've had two people to a hotel room, staying in cheap hotels," Elmendorf says. "Even Dick has stayed in Super 8s and Motel 6s."

Nader isn’t Green

Ralph Nader has informed Green Party officials that he may run for President but not as a Green Party candidate. While this does not make any sense, it is clear it must be true because it does not make any sense -- that is the hallmark of Nader.

Nader told Green Party officials that he wants to make a serious challenge to Bush and is still assessing his chances. Now, that is why someone would forego a party structure that would automatically put you on the ballot in lots of states, right?

This has left the Green Party in a three-way quandary of what to do, according to the Washington Post:

Those present divided themselves into three groups: Those who wanted to run the strongest possible campaign throughout the country, those who wanted to run only in those areas where the Green Party candidate would not be a threat to cost the Democratic Party nominee electoral votes in the contest with Bush, and those who wanted to skip the 2004 campaign entirely and throw Green Party support behind the Democratic nominee.

Gephardt’s heat

The Sioux City Journal reports that Gephardt was on a real Bush bashing rant during his visit in Sioux City, Iowa. He seemed to deliver his usual lines with a fervor and rapidity that reached the passion of his beliefs:

"I've served with five presidents," Gephardt said. "He's by far the worst. He's leading us in all the wrong directions."

Gephardt said he and Bush come from different philosophical bases. "I think we're all tied together," he said. "I think Bush thinks we're all separate individuals -- survival of the fittest. I don't think that's moral. I don't think that's workable.

"We're all angry with George Bush. But we're not going to win this election by just being angry. We've got to have bold, positive, realistic ideas for how we can solve the major problems facing the country. That's what I'm doing every day."

He used the high jobless rate in the Iowa community to stick it to his Democrat opponents. He blamed NAFTA for the job loses in America:

Gephardt blamed current job ills on the North America Free Trade Agreement, saying when it was debated he had said that other countries needed to raise their wages and environmental standards or the U.S. would lose jobs. "It is happening," he said, citing the loss of even high-tech jobs to India and China.

Gephardt’s Christmas Carol

The Gephardt campaign is offering this visit to Christmas Future in an attempt to change Christmas Present with a scary look at Howard Dean. You can find this on Gephardt’s separate website titled Dean Facts:

The Ghost of Christmas Future: A Preview of what will happen if the Democrats nominate Howard Dean...

(the stage lights dim...in the distance, the face of Jim Lehrer appears...he is leaning over a small desk... as the camera angle widens, we can make out a stage with two podiums in front of him. At one podium stands George W. Bush; at the other, Howard Dean. A banner in the background reads: "October 2004 Presidential Debate")

Lehrer: President Bush, for two years now, Governor Dean has accused you of giving tax breaks to "Ken Lay and the boys" at Enron.

Bush: Well Jim, let me respond to that. First of all, what the folks at my Treasury Department have shown is that for an average family...

Dean: Excuse me - but whatever President Bush is about to say about the tax cuts, it is FALSE and I am not going to stand here and take it, because everyone knows he gave tax cuts to Kenny-boy Lay...

Bush: Excuse me, Governor Dean. I'd like to finish. But first let me address this Enron business. You have been attacking me for months for helping out Enron with my tax cut, but the fact is that you gave corporate tax breaks to Enron in the 1990s. What's worse, your administration even met with Enron officials. And you still won't release the files to show whether or not you personally met with Enron.

Lehrer: Let me bring up a related topic, gentlemen. President Bush, the public is still asking questions about the secrecy surrounding the Energy Task Force headed by Vice President Cheney. Will you ever release those secret documents? Don't you think the public has a right to know?

Bush: Well, I believe that we have the right energy policy. I think our energy plan was the right one. We need new sources of energy; we need to tap the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, for one thing.

Dean: Let me answer that. Yes, Jim, the public should know about the Energy Task Force. President Bush, you should release the Energy Task Force documents to the public.

Lehrer: Mr. Bush, will you release them?

Bush: Well Jim, what I won't do is stand on this stage and take any lectures from Governor Dean on this topic. He has refused to unseal his executive files in Vermont. He has refused to say what meetings he may have had with business executives in Vermont. But we do know one thing - and that is that Governor Dean is a pretty big fan of secrecy. In 1997, Governor Dean signed a law to allow corporations placing shell subsidiaries in his state, to hide their paperwork from public disclosure. In other words, a worldwide corporate evildoer can go to Mr. Dean's state, get a license to set up a subsidiary, and the public knows nothing about it...

Dean: Hey hey wait! But it's legal, just like in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.

Lehrer: Let's keep going on taxes here. Mr. Dean, let me start with you. What do you think about the results of the Bush tax cuts?

Dean: Well, as I have said, people need to ask themselves, did you really benefit from the Bush tax cuts? Because even if you got a tax cut under President Bush, the fact is that your property taxes probably went up. Your kid's college tuition probably went up.

Bush: Hang on a minute. I find it interesting Governor Dean, that you bring up property taxes. Because in your first year as Governor, you in fact cut state aid to education. That didn't just affect kids, it affected property tax payers. You cut the program that kept property taxes down.

Dean: But I only cut it once! After that I just froze the program. Which is just cutting the rate of growth really... it's not a cut.

Bush: That is most certainly a cut, if you are giving people the same amount of money, but there are more children in the school, and textbooks are costing more...

Dean: Is not! That is not a cut! It's a cut in the rate of growth.

Lehrer: Ok, enough on that topic. Let's talk about Medicare. Governor Dean, in 1996, you said you wanted to turn Medicare into a "wholly managed care" program. Do you still want that to happen?

Dean: No Jim, you have it wrong. That's what Mr. Bush is trying to do.

Lehrer: With all due respect Governor Dean, it was in your home state newspaper in 1996.

Dean: No no no, I do not think Medicare should be privatized. The prescription drug legislation that President Bush signed - that would dismantle Medicare by privatizing it.

Bush: It's competition, and competition is good. Plus - YOU are the privatizer, Dean, not me.

Dean: No YOU are the Medicare privatizer, Bush.

Bush: Don't stand up here and accuse me of something you've advocated yourself. I never said turn Medicare into a wholly managed care program like you did. That's not workable in many parts of the country, like Iowa, where there are no HMO's that cover Medicare. So you go way beyond me when it comes to this issue, all I want to do is create more competition - to make Medicare more efficient.

Dean: I never said that and you know it!

Bush: C'mon Governor, you promised to stop making stuff up back in the primaries.

Lehrer: Gentlemen, please. Now - Earlier this year, President Bush, your administration suffered a crushing defeat when the Congress refused to pass the Central American Free Trade Agreement, known as CAFTA, which would have expanded NAFTA-like trade status to four Central American countries. President Bush, what do you have to say about that defeat?

Bush: I was disappointed by that failure, Jim. I did support the CAFTA agreement. I think free trade is good for the country.

Dean: I completely disagree with President Bush. CAFTA was really an expansion of NAFTA, and I don't think we should expand NAFTA. NAFTA was a flawed treaty to start with, and as president, I would renegotiate it.

Bush: Pardon me a moment. When NAFTA was about to be signed, it was Governor Dean who was at the White House, not me. That's right; Howard Dean was at the White House to support NAFTA when the first agreement was signed. And then, he came to Washington again to lobby for NAFTA to be passed. Me, I was just playing a lot of golf down in Texas back in1993...

Dean: Well that's ridiculous. Anyway, I am against NAFTA now.

Bush: Wait - you said you still thought NAFTA was a "good thing" in March 2003! When are you going to make up your mind?

Dean: Ok well - China is the real problem. All of our jobs are going to China, and President Bush, you haven't done anything about it.

Bush: Well I'll tell you what I didn't do. I didn't write a letter to Bill Clinton begging him to pass the China trade deal in 1999. Which is what you did, Governor Dean.

Dean: I don't know how that got out! You can never trust your staff. I meant to seal that one with the rest of my records in Vermont.

Lehrer: Ok, President Bush: you still haven't signed a bill to renew the Assault Weapons Ban. It actually has now been expired for about a week. You said you were for it, why haven't you urged the House of Representatives to take it up? You know they would follow your wishes, and you know the votes are there to pass it.

Bush: Um, well I have avoided that decision for a long time, and I am going to keep avoiding it. Oops - did I say that out loud? Anyway, I don't think it matters much. Dean here was against the Assault Weapons Ban in the first place. That was way back in 1992 and I like I said before, in 1992 I wasn't taking any positions, I was just golfing, and kicking myself for trading Sammy Sosa, mostly.

Dean: I take offense to that because I am for renewing the Assault Weapons Ban.

Bush: Wait a second. Jim, can I make a dare? Do the debate rules allow for that? Because Governor Dean, I dare you to release all of your NRA questionnaires, because you had an A rating from the NRA, you opposed the Brady Bill, and now you're trying to attack me because I've been too busy to renew the Assault Weapons Ban. We'll get to it soon.

Dean: But I am for renewing the Assault Weapons Ban now.

Lehrer: Well, Governor, can you tell us exactly when you changed your mind on the Assault Weapons ban?

Dean: I've always been for it. What did you expect me to put on an NRA questionnaire when I was running for Governor?

Bush: All I know is that Governor Dean and I were both endorsed by the NRA in 2000.

Dean: Yes, but I didn't like getting their endorsement. You liked it! You liked your NRA endorsement more than I liked mine!

Lehrer: I want to move on to Social Security for a moment. Mr. Bush, you have called for privatizing Social Security. Mr. Dean, you have called for raising the retirement age to 70 and cutting Social Security benefits to balance the budget. Which is best way to save money on Social Security in the future?

Bush: I personally think we should partially privatize it. If we have to have Social Security at all, at least some Wall Street brokers can make some money off it. That will help the economy even more than my tax cuts.

Dean: Wait, I don't want to destroy Social Security. I used to want to raise the retirement age - but I am happy to say I changed my mind. Now I am against raising the retirement age. And we don't have to cut Social Security anymore to balance the budget. We can just get rid of the Bush tax cuts and slow the rate of growth in Medicare.

Bush: Oh, I think this is my cue - Rove told me that I should read out loud this quote he wrote on a little index card for me. Hang on.... here it is: "The way to balance the budget, Dean said, is for Congress to cut Social Security, move the retirement age to 70, cut defense, Medicare and veterans pensions, while the states cut almost everything else. ? It would be tough but we could do it,' he said." That is from a newspaper on March 5, 1995.

Lehrer: Mr. Dean, would you like to respond?

Dean: It was my understanding we couldn't have props! That's not fair! Dennis used to do that all the time in the Democratic debates.

Lehrer: Let's talk about the defense budget. What level of investment should we be making in our national defense today? President Bush.

Bush: Can I read from my card again? "The way to balance the budget, Dean said, is for Congress to cut Social Security, move the retirement age to 70, CUT DEFENSE..."

Dean:No props, no props! Not fair!

Bush: ... Medicare and veterans' pensions...

Lehrer: President Bush? Enough with the card.

Bush: But I have another one in my pocket. It's about Iraq. Can I read it?

Lehrer: Sigh. FINE. But just one more card, and that's it.

Bush: Ok, this one is about Iraq, and the $87 billion for our troops you have criticized me for. This is what Dean said, at a Democratic debate in New Mexico, a year ago, about funding our troops in Iraq: "We have no choice..."

Dean: That's not fair. I have to object to that. Anyone who saw the ads I ran against Dick Gephardt last fall knows that I opposed the $87 billion for Iraq. I put it up on television all over Iowa.

Bush: Wait, Rove wrote another card for me. Ok, it says that Howard Dean said, on Iowa Public Television last fall, quote "I have no intention of making the $87 billion a political issue." So why did you say that Governor Dean, and then run political ads on funding for our troops?

Dean: Well now THAT is not fair to use. Obviously, that was just for the primaries.

Lehrer: We'll have to end it there.

Gephardt gets UAW

The United Automotive, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers (UAW) Western CAP Council announced its endorsement of Dick Gephardt in the race for the Democratic nomination for president. The Western CAP Council represents 120,000 members in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Alaska and Hawaii. Gephardt has also been endorsed by the Iowa UAW, Missouri UAW, Oklahoma UAW and UAW Region 3 representing Kentucky and Indiana.

"I am honored and proud to have the support and endorsement of the UAW Western Cap Council's active and retired members," said Gephardt. "With the help of these members in key early states we will build a winning campaign based on my bold ideas to create jobs, get our economy moving again and get every American covered with quality health insurance that can never be taken away."

Kerry’s appeal

The Des Moines Register reports on Senator John Kerry’s 24-hour campaign to bring attention to his Iowa efforts to get a boost out of Iowa into New Hampshire. The Register showed that not everything went well for the Senator:

"I agreed with some of the stuff he said," said Doug May, 42, a Kone Elevator apprentice from Sioux City who was working at the Davenport construction site. "He said he supported homeland security, thought it was underfunded, and said he didn't agree with the way we rushed into Iraq."

But May, a registered Democrat and member of the Iowa Air National Guard, wasn't swayed by the Massachusetts senator. He said he is supporting the re-election of President Bush, a Republican.

"I think he really stepped up to the plate," May said of Bush. "I did vote for (Al) Gore (in 2000), but I like the way George Bush has handled everything since September 11. Whether you like it or dislike it, you've got to stand behind the troops."

Kerry’s Real Deal Express

John Kerry will hit the campaign trail in New Hampshire this weekend. Kerry will deliver a major speech on Saturday about the upcoming choice facing New Hampshire voters, ride The Real Deal Express across the state, and meet Granite State voters in Portsmouth, Rochester, Manchester, Concord, and Franklin.

Kerry’s schedule includes a major address in Manchester, and five Holiday Chili Feeds. Members of the community are invited to come together to eat chili, meet John Kerry, and pepper him with questions.

Kerry to meet with soldier’s families

John Kerry has decided to extend his 24-hour campaign day to show his support for families affected by Bush’s reckless foreign policy. Kerry has been campaigning for 24 hours in Iowa to bring attention to his campaign. He said that he has been listening to hourly workers who have expressed their concern about overtime pay.

He will now travel to Sioux City to meet with families of soldiers who are fighting for our country overseas.  Kerry said as a Veteran that he understands the commitment of our nation’s service men and women. With the country off on the wrong track, we need new leadership with the right values and the right experience. In his first 100 days in office, John Kerry said he will end the Bush policy of unilateralism and pre-emptive war.

Kerry: Dean’s weak

John Kerry’s latest swipe at front runner Howard Dean:

Yesterday Howard Dean admitted what many of us have been saying for months – when it comes to foreign policy he has a huge gap in his resume that needs to be filled. We’ve had experience with a president who tried to fill the hole with advisers, with horrible results. In today’s world, we need to nominate a candidate and elect a president who has the experience, temperament and judgment to be president, not someone who requires on-the-job training.

Dean yesterday told a New Hampshire audience “the only way to have a Jewish democracy is to get out of the West Bank at some point because otherwise, you have a democracy; it's not a Jewish state. It's a Jewish state, it's not a democracy.”

Every candidate who aspires to be president should know that Israel is a democracy and our closest ally in the region. Unfortunately, Howard Dean is the only candidate who seems to be committed to retreating from this relationship.

Dean has previously said that we should take an “even handed” approach to the conflict, force Israel to remove “enormous numbers of settlements,” called Hamas “soldiers,” and recently shocked Florida Democratic activists when he said would work to strengthen “moderates’ in the Islamic world."

Moreover, Howard Dean named the controversial author and former Reagan adviser Clyde Prestowitz as a key member of his foreign policy team. Prestowitz advocates out-of-the-mainstream views like “making aid to Israel conditional on withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza."

Dean’s latest in a string of misstatements further demonstrates his ignorance and lack of commitment to a US-Israeli relationship of shared values, including a commitment to democracy, which have bound our countries for over a half a century. And they demonstrated the problems of having presidential candidates mouthing the policies of their advisers rather than exercising independent judgment built on years of experience. In the post-9/11 world, mapping our country’s role in the world is a complicated job; not a hole that needs to be plugged.

From Truman to Kennedy to Clinton, every American president has understood that Israel is a critical ally to the United States. The Oval Office is no place for on-the-job training and it is clear that Howard Dean doesn’t have the experience needed to serve the nation’s interests as a global leader.

Clark’s Iowa effort

Iowa supporters of Wesley Clark are not giving up, even though the retired Army general has decided to bypass the Iowa caucuses. Max Guyll of Nevada, an Iowa State University research scientist, announced Monday the launch of a new grass-roots effort to support Clark in the Iowa caucuses. Operation Sodbuster, named for settlers who came to Iowa to break new ground for farmland, will work to organize Clark supporters in Iowa and other states, Guyll said.

"Between now and caucus night, hundreds of Clark supporters in Iowa and across the country will be contacting prospective Iowa voters," Guyll said. "Like the sodbusters before us, we feel we exude their grit, determination and perseverance."

Clark attacks terrorism strategy

Here’s what Wesley Clark had to say about the increase in the national alert level:

"We should have gone after that network and we should have gone after it directly instead of taking half the United States Army and putting it in Iraq and using $150 billion and distracting us from our world leadership in the war on terror," he said. "It was a strategic mistake. I just hope that we'll be able to protect this country and we don't have more Americans who will suffer as a result of the president's bad leadership," reports a story in the NY Times. The story also covers other candidates’ reaction to going on Orange Alert.

Coleman endorses Clark

Wesley Clark announced that Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman is joining the Clark campaign as a Senior Advisor and the Ohio State Chair. In making the announcement Clark stated, "Michael Coleman is a remarkable man and a remarkable mayor -- and I am honored to have his endorsement today.

“Since he took office, he's created thousands of jobs - jobs we desperately need under a President who's lost 3 million of them. He's started after school programs for thousands of children across the city - programs we desperately need under a President who's left so many children behind. And he's working hard to keep the streets of Columbus safe.

“Today, Columbus is ranked as one of the nation's hottest job markets - and one of the best cities in America to live and work.

“When it comes to homeland security, Mayor Coleman believes, as I do, that our cities are a key line of defense. And like me, he thinks it's outrageous that our President hasn't provided cities with the funds they need to keep us safe. He's been leading the fight to turn this around. And I'm proud to be with him every step of the way.

“I'm looking forward to getting Mayor Coleman out there on the campaign trail with me - from Columbus, Ohio to Columbia, South Carolina - and all across America."

Lieberman: Dean’s judgment questionable

"This guy [Saddam Hussein] hated us. He was a mass murderer. He supported terrorism. We were in danger so long as he was in power," Lieberman said. He added that Dean's view will lead the "majority of Americans" who supported the war to wonder, "If Howard Dean doesn't think we're safer with Saddam Hussein in prison, are we going to be safe with Howard Dean as president?" Joe Lieberman is quoted in the Concord Monitor.

The Monitor reported that Lieberman told a crowd gathered to celebrate the Hanukkah that deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was a latter-day Antiochus, the oppressive Syrian king and villain of the Hanukkah story.

Lieberman moves in

Joe Lieberman took temporary residence in New Hampshire in a last-month push to win over voters, reports the Associated Press and Politics New Hampshire.com. The U.S. senator from Connecticut, who is seeking the Democratic nomination, greeted reporters Monday at his new, furnished, two-bedroom apartment in the state's largest city. He called the move "another turning of the corner."

"Obviously, I've said for a long time I was going to start my quest for the White House here in New Hampshire ... we we're going to do better than expected with that typical feisty, independent-minded, surprise-the-pundits-and-pollsters attitude of voters of New Hampshire, and then we we're going to go on the next week and do well in the other states that have primaries," he said.

Edwards’ security aid

John Edwards urged President Bush to give state and local communities the funds they need to keep our communities safe:

"A higher alert level won't make us safer unless cops and firefighters in our communities get more help. They bear an enormous burden from this new 'orange alert.' Yet because of budget shortfalls, many communities have been forced to lay off cops and close firehouses. As far as they're concerned, this administration is just sucking up more homeland security money in Washington, with less money for needs on the ground.

"If President Bush were truly serious about homeland security, he would do more than increase the threat level; he would increase support for cops and firefighters in our communities. I introduced a $50 billion state fiscal relief package that included $10 billion specifically dedicated to state and local homeland security needs. That $10 billion is the help our communities need."

A state-by-state distribution of the $10 billion for state and local homeland security needs is below.

Edwards: Homeland Security Funding for States (in millions of dollars)
	States	Cities	Total
United States Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming	$5,000 $77 $11 $93 $46 $601 $77 $59 $14 $10 $286 $146 $21 $23 $216 $105 $50 $46 $70 $77 $22 $93 $110 $172 $86 $49 $97 $16 $30 $37 $22 $147 $32 $328 $142 $11 $195 $60 $60 $211 $65 $18 $70 $13 $99 $373 $40 $11 $125 $104 $31 $93 $9	$10,000 $69 $6 $95 $28 $723 $77 $71 $14 $12 $317 $121 $20 $11 $231 $96 $29 $34 $43 $74 $10 $108 $134 $184 $76 $23 $84 $7 $20 $35 $16 $184 $22 $377 $116 $6 $206 $46 $54 $229 $66 $21 $62 $6 $84 $383 $37 $4 $121 $108 $17 $80 $3	$5,000 $146 $17 $188 $75 $1,324 $154 $130 $28 $21 $603 $268 $41 $34 $447 $202 $79 $81 $113 $151 $32 $202 $244 $356 $162 $72 $181 $22 $49 $73 $38 $331 $54 $705 $258 $17 $401 $106 $115 $440 $131 $39 $132 $19 $183 $756 $76 $14 $246 $212 $48 $173 $12

Edwards’ 60 minute boost

Sen. John Edwards’ campaign expressed that Edwards’ appearance on 60 Minutes Sunday, caused his campaign offices to be inundated with requests for more information and pledges of support. The CBS show regularly reaches 14 million viewers. Edwards' profile with Lesley Stahl examined his working-class background, his career as an attorney and his campaign for the Democratic nomination.

“John Edwards has the ability to connect with voters from all walks of life, in person and on television," Edwards' Campaign Manager Nick Baldick said. "We've been overwhelmed with calls from voters attracted to Senator Edwards' message and intrigued by his life story."

During the 12-minute interview Edwards took on tough questions about his candidacy, and had this to say about the battle that lay ahead: "What people figure out over time is there is a toughness inside of me that can take on any challenge. It is not an accident that I've gotten to this place."

Response from voters was immediate and overwhelming. Traffic on Edwards' website jumped more than 860 percent from a typical Sunday night. Calls from all over the country poured into the Raleigh headquarters and offices in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Voters called to volunteer as well as to get additional information, like copies of Edwards' 60-page policy book, Real Solutions for America.

Kucinich: uses alternative media

Dennis Kucinich may be shut out of traditional media due to horse race coverage but he is finding a voice in alternative media. There he frequently rails against media monopolies. In California, he recently commented on relations South of the border on Spanish television there. It was carried by the Berkeley Daily:

Beatriz Ferrari, with Spanish language television network Univision asked Kucinich his view on U.S.-Mexico relations. “I propose to ‘take down the wall’ and encourage a new cooperation between Mexico and the United Sates,” he said. This would include canceling the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which only decreases wages for workers under threats of moving jobs overseas, Kucinich said. He would instead replace NAFTA with bilateral trade agreements, which take into consideration workers’ rights, human rights and environmental principles.

Kucinich also supports amnesty for millions of undocumented workers. For too long these “immigrants have been used to reinforce the wealth of private companies while being relegated to second class citizens,” he said. The workers are exploited as cheap labor and if they complain, companies only need to threaten to report their status to immigration officials. “We must change this system,” he cried. Additionally Kucinich said that he supports the controversial measure to offer drivers’ licenses to undocumented immigrants.

Kucinich makes mainline seem groovy

The LA Times reported on Dennis Kucinich campaigning in Malibu. The headline was “Kucinich Vibrations Feel Good to Malibu Crowd.”  Here is a part of the account:

In a 10-minute speech, the 57-year-old Ohio lawmaker incorporated Simon & Garfunkel and the Hindu gods Vishnu and Shiva, along with a ringing call for the U.S. to withdraw from Iraq. "My presidency will be about the end of fear and the beginning of hope in this country," Kucinich said in remarks that urged the replacement of American troops with U.N. forces… With a crowd of about 150 whooping and rising to its feet, Kucinich advocated universal health care and slashing the nation's defense budget to better fund education.

Poll watching

Howard Dean appears to be gaining strength in the Democratic Presidential race in South Carolina, according to a poll that suggests the race remains competitive in the state with a Feb. 3 primary. Dean was at 16 percent in the poll released yesterday by the American Research Group of Manchester, N.H. Wesley Clark and Al Sharpton were at 12 percent and North Carolina Sen. John Edwards was at 11 percent. While Dean appears to have a slight lead, the poll suggests the race is wide open.

Bush up in Washington Post-ABC poll

Americans expressed greater confidence in the President’s handling of Iraq with 60 percent approving of how he is dealing with events there, compared with 48 percent in mid-November, and 59 percent said the war was worth fighting, up six points in a week. 51 percent approve of Bush's performance, the first time he has been above 50 percent since late April. The new poll found that 42 percent of Americans rate the economy as "good" or "excellent," up from 33 percent in late October. The percentage who rate the economy as "not so good" or "poor" (57 percent) is the lowest since just before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Dean gains

Asked to choose among the nine candidates for the Democratic nomination, 31 percent of registered Democrats said they favored Dean, up from 20 percent a week ago and 15 percent in October. No other Democrat reached double digits. Although he is known as the candidate of the antiwar Democrats, Dean draws roughly equal support from Democrats who believe that the war in Iraq was not worth the cost and from those who believe it was, another sign of his broadening support. A solid majority (60 percent) of Democrats continue to say they believe the United States should not have gone to war.

Dean loses

When all respondents were asked who they would trust more with national security, 67 percent said Bush and 21 percent said Dean. When asked who they would trust more to handle domestic issues like Social Security, health care and education, they picked Bush by 50 percent to 39 percent.

* ON THE BUSH BEAT:

President’s response to terror

"American citizens need to go about their lives but as they do so, they need to know that governments at all levels are working as hard as we possibly can to protect the American citizens," said President Bush.

* THE CLINTON COMEDIES:

Hillary’s coming out

The NY Times reports on Hillary Clinton’s phone call complaining about callers who had been lambasting the Clintons on a talk show. The article explores Hillary’s more outspoken approach:

Relentlessly and ubiquitously, Mrs. Clinton is out there, pounding away at Republicans, responding to her critics, staking out distinct positions on everything from Afghanistan and Iraq (she is a hawk) to terror money and unemployment insurance benefits (she wants more). By design or not, in the last few months she has been showing a feisty side that her critics long suspected was there but that her advisers say she has been reluctant to display.

Hillary’s call to arms

The Hillary campaign is asking her supporters to help her out:

We all know that Hillary is out there making the case for change, speaking out about why we have to change the direction of this country. As Friends of Hillary we're working to do our part, by getting organized and building support to make sure Hillary can keep speaking out.

The response to our last email was tremendous! Hillary wants you all to know how much she appreciates your support. BUT when I see how hard the right wing is working to stop her, I realize that we need to do more!

Just this past week, a former Republican Congressman appeared on Fox Television to announce the new organization StopHillaryPac.com. This organization states that its sole purpose is to defeat Hillary Clinton. The Congressman made a direct plea on national television to get "average people to give $25 to get a campaign ready so the minute Hillary is on the ballot, we go national to stop her."

* NATIONAL:

Rice’s new assistant

For those who want to keep up, they should read the Washington Post profile of Robert D. Blackwill, who used to be Condoleezza Rice’s boss but is now working for Rice. He is coordinator for strategic planning, a new post that makes him the in-house visionary at the National Security Council. It means he has free rein to think, track global trends and predict the unnoticed or unintended consequences of U.S. foreign policy decisions anywhere in the world, according to officials. In his spare time, Blackwill also handles three of the trickiest foreign policy challenges facing the Bush White House -- Iraq's political transformation, Afghanistan and Iran the Post explains.

 

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