IPW Daily Report – Tuesday, February 3, 2004

* QUOTABLE:

"This government does not belong to that crowd of insiders in Washington, it belongs to you," said John Edwards.

"Some of the other candidates I think are heading down a path that has always been a losing path for Democrats, and that's the path of class warfare," Joe Lieberman said. "Class warfare never works. It doesn't reflect the values and desires of America's middle class."

"Of course I'm not going to apologize," Howard Dean said. "John Kerry gets his money the same way George Bush does."

"We spent a lot of money in Iowa and New Hampshire trying to win. We were trying to do what, essentially, John Kerry is now doing," Howard Dean said. "We took an enormous gamble and it didn't work."

"When you don't win and when you don't win repeatedly, your support dries up. Rank-and-file people switch to other candidates. Campaign workers lose heart and stop working," said David Rohde, a Michigan State University political science professor.

"I'm going to win South Carolina," John Edwards said. "Not only that, I expect to do well in other states today. And I expect to be the Democratic nominee because I believe I will prove in South Carolina today and in Oklahoma and other states that I'm the candidate who can appeal all across America."

"It's up to the voters now. We've given them a message," Joe Lieberman said outside a polling place in Wilmington, Del. "I've been optimistic that we're going to get enough support around the country to keep this going."

“I think John Kerry and I have run very serious, disciplined campaigns with very substantial policy foundations,' John Edwards said. 'I think he was in it for the long run, and so was I.”

“If we win delegates, we will be a factor,” said Al Sharpton.

* TODAY’S OFFERINGS:

Just Politics: *Kerry & Edwards duplicitous
*More Money *SC drops voter oath
*Who can win in the South? *Democrat populism

Howard Dean: *What are you doing?

John Kerry: *Gets NY Attorney General

John Edwards: *Attacks RNC *On Bush’s budget

Wesley Clark: *On Bush’s budget
*Endorsed by ambassadors

Joe Lieberman: *On Bush’s budget

Al Sharpton: *On stage

Poll watch: *Latest numbers

W: *Bush’s military service

National: *MoveOn.org boycotts CBS

* CANDIDATES & CAUCUSES:

Kerry and Edwards duplicitous

The NY Times reported on how Sen. John Kerry and Sen. John Edwards rile against lobbyist and special privileged interest and then take their money:

While Senator John Kerry regularly promises to stand up to "big corporations," his campaign has taken money from executives on Wall Street and those representing the telecommunications industry, which is under his purview in Congress. Mr. Kerry denounces President Bush for catering to the rich, but he has depended more heavily on affluent donors than the other leading Democrats except for another populist, Senator John Edwards. Mr. Kerry's spokeswoman, Stephanie Cutter, said the contributions had no effect on his votes.

Edwards’ special interest of choice is his fellow trial lawyers:

Mr. Edwards, a former trial lawyer, received $7.5 million from members of the legal profession through September 2003, the analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics shows. That was half the money he had raised to that point.

Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie said while visiting N. Carolina, “[John Edwards] gets 40 percent of his campaign contributions from trial lawyers at the same time he is blocking tort reform and medical liability reform legislation."

Although Edwards criticized Kerry for taking money from lobbyists, the North Carolina senator accepted one donation in 2002 directly from a lobbying firm and collected more than $80,000 from people who aren't formally registered as lobbyists yet work for lobbying firms in Washington. Edwards also has accepted more than $150,000 worth of flights aboard the corporate jets of special interests.

"I don't mean to sound holier than thou about this. Every presidential candidate has to raise money to run a serious presidential campaign. That includes me. But I have drawn lines that are voluntary, that the law permits contributions from those people and I've decided not to take money from those people," said John Edwards.

Kerry tends to favor large corporate financial interest that he oversees in his commerce committee:

Mr. Kerry is an experienced fund-raiser, having worked to raise money while on the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and for his own campaigns. In his campaign for the nomination, he has collected more than $1 million from employees of securities and investment businesses. He took in $70,000 from employees of Citigroup and $62,500 from workers at Goldman Sachs, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks campaign finance trends.

More Money

Money is the necessary ingredient to continue to win delegates. At this point there is some good news in the Howard Dean camp. It is reported that fundraising is coming in at around $10,000 per hour. Not enough to match Kerry or get Dean back into the Feb. 3 round, but it will set Dean up for Michigan (Feb.7) and Wisconsin (Feb. 17).

Meanwhile, Kerry has dragged in over $500,000 since New Hampshire’s election. He has raised $1.6 million online since the Iowa Caucuses.

Bad news came in for Sen. John Edwards and Wesley Clark.  They have opted into the public financing of elections program. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is not able to pay 100 percent of the money owed. So, They will be paying out 43 to 45 cents on the dollar. Rep. Dennis Kucinich had been expecting $2.4 million in his February check; Wesley Clark, $1.4 million; Joe Lieberman, about $389,000; and John Edwards, about $302,000.

Candidates normally borrow against the money owed by the FEC.

Howard Dean

Howard Dean got some good news and some bad news in the poll numbers. The good news is that Sen. John Edwards is now 4 percentage points ahead of Sen. John Kerry in S. Carolina. The bad news is that Kerry is solidly in the lead in five of the other six states and has pulled within 3 percent of Clark in Oklahoma. Dean needs Clark and Edwards to slow Kerry’s gathering of delegates. His best hope is in these words from pollster John Zogby:

"Edwards moved up a couple of points over Kerry in South Carolina, is running respectably in Oklahoma and is within striking distance of achieving delegates in Missouri," Zogby said.

"Clark appears poised for a solid second place showing in Arizona. If Clark can couple that with a victory in Oklahoma, he will certainly make this pollster look twice."

If Kerry continues to build momentum, Dean will have a very difficult time creating a firewall. One of the big problems facing Dean is the latest USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll that has Kerry beating President Bush 53 percent to 46 percent. In the same poll Dean loses to Bush 45 percent to 53 percent. The other problem is that the number one factor for Democrats voting for a candidate is the question of who can beat Bush. The other candidates fail to beat Bush in the latest poll. The CNN poll also showed Edwards beating Bush, 49% to 48%.

Wesley Clark

Clark needs the second place finish in Arizona and the win in Oklahoma just to stay in the race. Edwards has to win S. Carolina to stay in the race. Money will dry up for both of them if they do not make a decent showing.

"Our intention and our focus is to go forward," said Chris Lehane, a senior campaign strategist for Clark.

As of Monday the poll numbers showed that Clark could still be in the race. We will see if the numbers translate to voters today. One of the factors for Arizona is the fact that half of the votes in that state have already been cast prior to today’s primary. Many of the votes were cast before the New Hampshire Primary.

Another factor is that Arizona is having bad weather today and polling places will be hard to find because they are only using 1/3 of the number of polling places than usual today.

McAuliffe asks for Unity Pledge

Democrat National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe is asking candidates to sign a unity pledge he has mailed out, "Another four years of a George W. Bush presidency would be a disaster for the nation and the world. I pledge to stand with the Democratic Party and support the Democratic nominee for President in 2004. I will do everything I can to help win back the White House for America."

What happens after today…

After today’s election results, there will be candidates who have run out of money and hope and the pledge will be important.

Also after today’s election we may still see John Edwards, Howard Dean and Wesley Clark creating such scenes as envisioned by ABC’s The Note, “…we can look forward to several weeks of attacks on special interest ties; comparisons of life experience; accusations of a do-nothing Senate record; talk about a French castle, off-shore tax shelters, the Big Dig, voting rights for felons, and the death penalty; and Roy Neel blog postings.”

However, if Kerry moves forward as the inevitable nominee, The Note suggest that we can look forward to: “tax cuts for the wealthy; Iraq credibility; Halliburton; manufacturing job losses; the Texas National Guard; Maverick Media finally doing something visible for all that money; several weeks of attacks on special interest ties; comparisons of life experience; accusations of a do-nothing Senate record; talk about a French castle, off-shore tax shelters, the Big Dig, voting rights for felons, and the death penalty; and Chris Heinz and Laura Bush blog postings.”

SC drops voter oath

The South Carolina Democratic Party dropped a controversial voter oath requirement one day before the state's first-in-the-South presidential primary, citing voter complaints and confusion. Voters going to the polls Tuesday were supposed to sign an oath that read: "I consider myself to be a Democrat" The concern was that this could have kept some independents and even Republicans from participating.  This changes who can vote in the S. Carolina polls and it will be interesting who will benefit from the change.

Who can win in the South

One of the questions that’s supposed to be answered today is which Democrat can win votes in the South. Sen. John Edwards must win South Carolina -- the state where he was born -- or he will not be able to claim that title of Southern vote winner. 

Clark was the person who boasted that when the campaign turned South he would be in the driver’s seat. But now his best shot is in Oklahoma. If Edwards loses South Carolina and is out of the race, Clark will get the chance to prove he is the candidate that can win in the South in some head to head race with Kerry. He certainly ski-daddled out of S. Carolina, as a Southerner would put it. Clark is also faced with a delegates problem – with the exception of Florida, there are not a lot of delegates in the South. And Florida is not considered a real Southern state anymore… then again, Southerners seem to question whether Clark is real Southerner, too.

If Kerry beats Edwards in South Carolina can he claim the title of Southern vote winner? Well, I wonder what former Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi -- who is appearing on Hardball as an election analyst tonight -- will say about it.

Electability continues to be the driving force for all candidates and winning in the South is important only so far as it demonstrates the ability to win needed electoral votes.

The Wall Street Journal writes, "With the war issue fading, the party's 2004 competition increasingly revolves around an issue normally confined to strategists' back-room discussions: the candidates' 'electability' in November. The focus on electability reflects a country more sharply polarized between Democrats and Republicans than at any time in a generation. Mr. Bush has become both a symbol and a cause of that polarization. And it is increasingly clear that Democrats' antipathy toward him is driving primary voters far more than are familiar intraparty splits pitting the liberal left against the moderate center, or the old guard against a new generation."

The NY Daily News reports if Edwards wins South Carolina he will be going South:

Edwards' strategists said he would likely bypass the Michigan and Washington votes on Saturday to focus on Virginia and Tennessee next Tuesday.

Democrat populism

The Christian Science Monitor reports on the new populism that the Democrats are using to rally people against ‘The They’:

Fighting for the "little guy" against wealthy, powerful interests has been a staple of American politics since the first New England patriots railed against King George III's tax policies.

Today, in similar manner, the leading Democratic presidential contenders are trying to present their effort as a populist uprising against a plutocratic administration in which wealth is the basis of power. They remind voters incessantly that while Vice President Dick Cheney's old firm got large contracts for work in Iraq (some of them without bid), 3 million jobs have been lost on President Bush's watch. Or that the drug industry, oil companies, and HMOs are profiting at the expense of average Americans. Or that paychecks for middle-class and lower-income workers have lagged in comparison with managers and executives at the upper end of the pay scale.

Dean, what are you doing?

There is some question about Howard Dean and his new plan to play like former Gov. Jerry Brown and hang back, hoping Sen. John Kerry will implode. Brown tried that tactic against Bill Clinton and it didn’t work out very well for him.

Well, Kerry now leads Dean in the delegate count by one. The count is 115 for Kerry and 114 for Dean. Dean can’t keep saying the reason he is staying in the race is because he has more delegates than Kerry. After Tuesday’s voting Kerry will be significantly ahead of Dean. The question is whether Dean can collect even a single delegate today.

Dean promised to keep going

However, in the meantime, Dean still keeps the public entertained. Dean received one of his biggest ovations after a heckler asked what he'd do to reduce the abortion rate. Dr. Dean suggested universal health care for children, sex education that isn't just abstinence-based, and finally, "We're going to tell all those white boys who run the Republican Party to stay out of our bedrooms." YYYEEEEEAAAARRRRLLLL!

Another entertaining moment was last Sunday when Howard Dean (on Meet the Nation) told Tim Russert that half the money to pay for insurance and prescription drugs in the new Medicare bill was going to pay for insurance and prescription drugs.

Hey, where is the other half going?

Dean, when asked about the Janet Jackson nipplegate debacle, said that an official investigation into FCC violations was ‘silly’ and went on to comment, "I'm a doctor," he said, "so it's not exactly an unusual phenomenon for me."

When asked about his non-front-runner status Dean said, "It's just the same as it was a year ago," he said, "just put one foot in front of the other and keep going."

Dean looks like he is going to abandon Michigan and set up his firewall in Wisconsin on Feb 17. The big question tomorrow is whether Dean will have won any more delegates. He has to get to 15 percent in order to be awarded delegates in the primary states.

In Lansing, MI, on a university campus with tens of thousands of students used to attend Dean rallies, 500 showed up last Thursday, and no other event since has come close to the 1,000 mark. Dean’s showing in these states where Dean used to draw capacity crowds is not helping to improve Dean’s image as someone who still has the capacity to draw new people into the party and election.

However, Dean’s campaign is still able to raise money in significant quantities. Over the course of the past two weeks, close to $2 million have come into his Burlington headquarters. This leads Dean to believe that if he spends no more than $1 million a week, he'll have the resources to compete until Super Tuesday on March 2.

Dean, who doesn't expect to win any of Tuesday's contests, will explain his strategy for staying in the race during meetings later this week with his three labor backers: the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the Service Employees International Union and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades.

There are rumors that SIEU President Andy Stern has said that if Dean doesn't win any states on Tuesday, perhaps Dean should pull out.

Latest update on delegate count is Kerry is first with 118, followed by Dean with 111.

Kerry gets NY Attorney General

New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer traveled today to New Mexico to announce his support for John Kerry at a rally in Albuquerque. Since becoming Attorney General in 1999, Spitzer has worked to make New York a national leader in investor protection, environmental stewardship, labor rights, personal privacy, public safety and criminal law enforcement.

"With his long record of standing up for all Americans against special interests, John Kerry is the best candidate for President,” said Attorney General Spitzer. “He and I have fought together against the violation of clean air laws and to resolve the mutual fund scandal and other corporate wrongdoings. I know that he will help small investors and consumers. John Kerry has a real plan to end the era of special interests and I am convinced he is the man to take back the White House from President Bush and his corporate allies.”

“I am proud to have Eliot Spitzer's support in my campaign.” said John Kerry. “He's been leading the fight for investor and consumer fairness for years in New York. His work has set the standards for the rest of the country. America's small investors and consumers want fairness; an economy where they can succeed and build a better life; a country that rewards what's right; a government that is on their side. That's what I'm fighting for.”

With investor confidence still rocked by corporate scandals and charges of illegal trading practices, John Kerry has taken aim at the mutual funds scandal and developed a plan to restore ethics, integrity, and honesty to business and government by holding corporate America accountable. His plan will stop unfair trading practices, protect shareholders, and assure that all investors get a fair deal. His three-point plan includes:

·        Ending Market Timing and Late Trading. John Kerry will put a stop to practices that allow big investors to get deals not available to average investors, curbing late-trading and market-timing abuses by fully prosecuting Wall Street insiders that steal from American investors.

·        Protecting Shareholders with Independent Oversight and Strong Penalties. John Kerry will develop an independent board to ensure that mutual funds are protecting their shareholders, and increase penalties for defrauding investors. John Kerry will help investors recover their losses by applying racketeering laws to late trading schemes.

·        Assuring Everyday Investors Pay Fair Fees. Kerry will make sure that mutual funds charge fair fees to all shareholders and disclose any significant relationships with companies that receive contracts.

Edwards attacks RNC

 With Republican National Committee Chair Ed Gillespie fundraising in Raleigh today, Edwards for President press secretary Jennifer Palmieri issued the following statement on cleaning up Washington:

"If the Republican plan to rein in Washington lobbyists starts by sending their party leader and former Enron lobbyist Ed Gillespie down to North Carolina to raise money, then it's clear that the only way we are ever going to clean up Washington is by putting a Democrat in the White House."

Senator John Edwards (D-NC) has never accepted a dime from Washington lobbyists or Political Action Committees, and he has proposed the toughest lobbying reforms of any candidate. To help get lobbyist money out of Washington, Edwards has proposed:

Stopping Politicians from Taking Lobbyists' Money

·        Edwards will ban members of Congress and the president from taking campaign contributions from federally registered lobbyists.

Stopping the Revolving Door From Both Directions

·        Edwards will bar individuals who acted as federal lobbyists in the preceding 12 months from taking senior executive jobs with responsibility for the subject areas on which they lobbied.

·        Edwards will reinstate the five-year ban on top executive branch officials becoming lobbyists. This ban will apply to all top-level officials throughout the executive branch, including officials at independent agencies and in the United States Military.

Shining a Bright Light on Back-room Lobbyist Meetings

·        Edwards will require lobbyists to specifically disclose every two weeks which members of Congress or executive branch officials they met with, what specific regulatory or legislative matters they discussed, and what money they spent on that lobbying and how they spent it.

·        Edwards will require expert witnesses at congressional hearing to disclose all their clients or financial supporters with an interest in the matters at issue.

Edwards on Bush’s budget

Senator John Edwards (D-NC) today released the following statement on George Bush's fiscal year 2005 budget:

"Today President Bush didn't propose a budget for America's future; he proposed a budget to no where. When you comb through the hundreds of pages one thing is clear: this president values wealth and not work. The numbers do not lie. He would rather do more to drag our nation deeper into debt, than do more to lift our families up.

"In the tax breaks he would add and the corporate loopholes he would ignore, the president is once again shifting the tax burden away from wealth and onto work. Big corporations get to run away from their responsibilities and take good paying jobs overseas. The wealthiest Americans watch their share of the tax burden drop even more while our hard working men and women and their children and their grandchildren are stuck with the bill.

"This budget reflects the values of George Bush and his insider friends, not the values of the American people. This budget is wrong for America, and I will make it right. When I am president, we will have a budget that honors our values: rewarding work, not just wealth; investing in education and health care; and acting responsibly for ourselves and our children."

Clark on Bush’s budget

Wesley Clark criticized President Bush's proposed budget, which projects a $521 billion deficit for Fiscal Year 2005:

"Today's budget proposal makes it clear what President Bush's priorities are: tax cuts for the rich and tough luck for everyone else. Bush's new budget slashes funding for agriculture, the environment, and small businesses. And he wants to make his tax cuts for the rich permanent, creating deficits as far as the eye can see. George Bush is leaving our children to pay off his record debt increases.

"Worst of all, President Bush has resorted to cheap gimmicks to disguise the full cost of his plans. The President says we're at war, and he's right. So where is the money in this budget for Iraq and Afghanistan? He's going to wait until after the election to tell the American people what this war is really going to cost. I will bring a higher standard of leadership to America, and that means being honest with the American people about how the government spends their money."

Clark endorsed by ambassadors

Fifty-five former U.S. ambassadors and diplomats, women and men who have served in some 36 countries during the last four administrations, believe that Wesley K. Clark is the right choice to lead America at this critical time in the world.

"Serving as representatives of the United States has allowed each of us to meet with world leaders and see what terrific leadership looks like," said Cynthia Schneider, Ambassador to theNetherlands and co-chair of Ambassadors for Clark. "We know that the world is more interconnected than ever before, and so the impact of good and bad leadership impacts Americaand the world more than ever before. Wes Clark appreciates that and ambassadors understand the interconnectedness of the world and the critical need for a new leader to repair and strengthen our global ties."

"I am thrilled by the endorsement of those that have the respect of world leaders on every continent," Wesley Clark said. "They understand the importance of rebuilding America's alliances and restoring our country to a position of leadership based on cooperation and respect."

Ambassadors and Diplomats for Clark grew out of the unique phenomena of the Draft Wesley Clark movement. Not only did Wes Clark receive encouragement to run from thousands of individuals from across the U.S., the letters of support came from people, both U.S. citizens and citizens of many other nations, who understand that Wes Clark is the person we need to lead America at this crucial moment in history. The full list of ambassadors and diplomats is below.

1.      Morton Abramowitz, Ambassador to Turkey and Thailand, Assistant Secretary of State

2.      Brady Anderson, Ambassador to Tanzania.

3.      Christopher Ashby, Ambassador to Uruguay.

4.      Jeff Bader, Ambassador to Namibia, Senior Director National Security Agency

5.      Robert Barry, Administrator, Agency for International Development; Head, OSCE

6.      J.D. Bindenagel, Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues.

7.      Donald Blinken, Ambassador to Hungary

8.      Amy Bondurant, Ambassador to OECD

9.      Avis Bohlen, Ambassador to Bulgaria, Assistant Secretary of State

10.  George Bruno, Ambassador to Belize

11.  Paul Cejas, Ambassador to Belgium

12.  Tim Chorba, Ambassador to Singapore

13.  Bonnie Cohen, Under Secretary of State

14.  Nancy Ely-Raphel, Ambassador to Slovenia

15.  Ralph Earle, Deputy Director of State, Chief U.S. Negotiator, SALT II Treaty

16.  Thomas H. Fox, Assistant Administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development

17.  Mary Mel French, Chief of Protocol

18.  Edward Gabriel, Ambassador to Morocco

19.  Richard Gardner, Ambassador to Italy & Spain

20.  Robert Gelbard, Ambassador to Indonesia & Bolivia, Assistant Secretary of State

21.  Gordon Giffin, Ambassador to Canada

22.  Lincoln Gordon, Ambassador to Brazil, Assistant Secretary of State

23.  Anthony Harrington, Ambassador to Brazil

24.  John Holum, Under Secretary of State

25.  William J. Hughes, Ambassador to Panama

26.  Swanee Hunt, Ambassador to Austria

27.  James Joseph, Ambassador to South Africa

28.  Rodney Minott, Ambassador to Sweden

29.  John McDonald, Ambassador to the United Nations

30.  Stan McLelland, Ambassador to Jamaica

31.  Gerald McGowan, Ambassador to Portugal

32.  Arthur Mudge, Mission Director for Agency for International Development

33.  Lyndon Olson, Ambassador to Sweden

34.  Donald Petterson, Ambassador to the Sudan, Tanzania & Somalia

35.  Kathryn Proffitt, Ambassador to Malta

36.  Edward Romero, Ambassador to Spain & Andorra

37.  James Rosapepe, Ambassador to Romania

38.  Nancy Rubin, United Nations Commission on Human Rights

39.  James Rubin, Assistant Secretary of State

40.  David Sandalow, Assistant Secretary of State

41.  Howard Schaffer, Ambassador to Bangladesh, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State

42.  Teresita Schaffer, Ambassador to Sri Lanka & Maldives

43.  David Scheffer, Ambassador at Large for War Crimes

44.  Cynthia Schneider, Ambassador to the Netherlands.

45.  Derek Shearer, Ambassador to Finland

46.  Richard Schifter, Assistant Secretary of State

47.  Thomas Siebert, Ambassador to Sweden

48.  Richard Sklar, Ambassador to the United Nations

49.  Peter Tarnoff, Under Secretary of State

50.  Peter Tufo, Ambassador to Hungary

51.  Arturo Valenzuela, Senior Director, National Security Council

52.  William Walker, Ambassador to El Salvador & Argentina, Head, Kosovo VerificationMission

53.  Vernon Weaver, Ambassador to the European Union

54.  Phoebe L. Yang, Special Coordinator for China Rule of Law, State Department

55.  Andrew Young, Ambassador to the United Nations

Lieberman on Bush’s budget

Joe Lieberman released the following statement on the Groundhog Day release of the latest Bush budget:

"George W. Bush comes out of the White House to deliver his budget, and once again all of America falls in a deep, dark shadow of deficit -- this time a record $521 billion budget gap. We can't afford another four years of the same destructive fiscal leadership.

"We have Social Security to strengthen, homeland security gaps to close, schools to improve, health care to deliver, and middle class Americans still hurting. With all these urgent needs, it is fiscal insanity to make George Bush's irresponsible and unfair tax cuts permanent -- carving in stone his huge giveaways to the well-to-do, and shifting the tax burden onto the backs of the middle class.

“It's time for all Americans to share the sacrifice so we can balance our budget books, grow the economy, and stop the mortgaging of our future."

Sharpton on stage

Al Sharpton is in South Carolina and he will get his moment in the sun. He may or may not reach the 15 percent viability factor required to receive delegates. He currently is at 10 percent in the S. Carolina poll numbers. However, it is unlikely that Sharpton will end his campaign. The NY Times in a rundown of the candidates offers this glimpse of Sharpton campaigning in S. Carolina:

Like a man told Martin Luther King in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963," Mr. Sharpton said as he began an appeal to black voters at the former slave market. "We ain't where we want to be, we ain't where we ought to be, we ain't where we going to be — but thank God we ain't where we was."

Poll watching

Zogby tracking polls as of Monday:

Arizona, 55 delegates: polls open at 8:00 am ET and close at 9:00 pm ET.

John Kerry 40 (36)

Wesley Clark 27 (24)

Howard Dean 13 (14)

Joe Lieberman 6 (6)

John Edwards 6 (4)

Dennis Kucinich 1 (3)

Al Sharpton less than 1 (less than 1)

Undecided 5 (13)

Missouri, 74 delegates: polls open at 7:00 am ET and close at 8:00 pm ET.

Kerry 50 (43)

Edwards 15 (14)

Dean 9 (8)

Lieberman 4 (3)

Clark 4 (3)

Sharpton 3 (3)

Kucinich less than 1 (1)

Undecided 11 (22)

Oklahoma, 40 delegates: polls open at 8:00 am ET and close at 8:00 pm ET

Clark 28 (25)

Kerry 25 (23)

Edwards 21 (18)

Dean 8 (8)

Lieberman 7 (8)

Kucinich 1 (1)

Sharpton 1 (1)

Undecided 9 (16)

S. Carolina, 45 delegates: polls open at 7:00 am ET and close at 7:00 pm ET.

Edwards 31 (30)

Kerry 24 (23)

Clark 11 (12)

Sharpton 10 (10)

Dean 9 (9)

Lieberman 4 (3)

Kucinich 1 (1)

Undecided 10 (12)

* ON THE BUSH BEAT:

Bush’s military service

The Democrat National Chairman Terry McAuliffe is trying to peg President Bush with the AWOL moniker. The Washington Post reports on the question of whether Bush failed to report for duty:

White House communications director Dan Bartlett said yesterday that although no official record has been found, "obviously, you don't get an honorable discharge unless you receive the required points for annual service." He said Bush "specifically remembers" performing some of his duties in Alabama. Bartlett also provided a news clipping from 2000 quoting friends of Bush's from the Alabama Senate campaign saying they recalled Bush leaving for Guard duty on occasion.

The extent of how Democrats are going to use this issue is still in doubt:

Kerry said yesterday that he had not decided whether to make Bush's service an issue in the general election. Asked whether he has suggested that surrogates pursue this line of attack, he said: "I have not suggested to any of them that they do so, and I spoke out against the use of the word deserter, which I thought was inappropriate, wrong and over the top."

* NATIONAL:

MoveOn.org boycotts CBS

MoveOn.org recently mailed the following to its members asking them to have a one-minute boycott of CBS. Little did they know that their own liberal friends would do more to get CBS in trouble than they ever could. The Democrats in Congress added to the reproach of CBS for not airing their Bush-bashing ad that insinuates that Bush is running up the national debt needlessly. Here is their email:

The CBS networks still refuses to run our winning ad in the Bush in 30 Seconds ad contest during the Super Bowl. The MoveOn.org non-partisan campaign to get CBS to air issue ads continues, but we're not going to let CBS's censorship stop us in the mean time. That's why we're spending over $1 million to air the ad in our swing states and nation-wide on other channels -- starting with two spots on CNN that will air during the Super Bowl half time.

This Sunday, during the Super Bowl half time show, join us in changing channels on CBS. At 8:10pm and 8:35pm EST, switch over to CNN to watch "Child's Pay" on a channel which doesn't censor its ads. We'd like to keep a tally of the number of people who participate -- you can sign up here:

http://www.moveonvoterfund.org/boycott/?id=2293-3383857-QOr_ZkpByiM4_OC0QBrZ6w

The number of groups, individuals, and newspapers that have called on CBS to run our ad is remarkable. The National Organization for Women and the American Civil Liberties Union have asked their own members to call CBS. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) gave a powerful speech about CBS on the floor of the Senate, saying, "Maybe network executives at CBS are so afraid of political pressure from the right wing and their business advertisers who are in league with the right wing politics of America that they are afraid to put anything on the air that might in fact make things uncomfortable. If that is the case, it is time for CBS to announce the name of their network is the 'Conservative Broadcasting System' and come clean with American viewers."

28 members of the House of Representatives wrote a letter to CBS which stated, "The choice not to run this paid advertisement appears to be part of a disturbing pattern on CBS's part to bow to the wishes of the Republican National Committee. We remember well CBS's remarkable decision this fall to self-censor at the direction of GOP pressure. The network shamefully cancelled a broadcast about former President Ronald Reagan which Republican partisans considered insufficiently flattering." Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) wrote a separate letter to CBS urging them to reconsider their decision.

Today, the L.A. Times printed an Op-Ed piece of ours which lays out the case against CBS's censorship. That's attached below. But the editorial pages of the Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, and many other papers came out in our favor as well. As the Globe wrote, "MoveOn.org's 30-second ad, which has aired on CNN, is a gentle yet powerful depiction of how hard today's children will have to work to pay off the country's mounting deficit. That's a vital message that might get lost in a year of campaign rhetoric, and it deserves a response from the White House in its own 30 seconds of imagery. America, sitting on the couch, junk food in hand, just might sit up and want to know more."

 

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