"I knew that time would
pass and people would take the comfortable
position of saying the dangers have passed,"
President Bush
said. "That's just not reality. My job as
your president is to be realistic, be open-eyed,
to understand the lessons of September the 11; to
understand that there's still terrorists who plot
against us."
“I’m not a perfect
person,” Dean
said. “I think a lot of people have had fun
at my expense over the Iowa hooting and
hollering.”
“I wanted to say to Gov.
Dean, don’t be hard on yourself about the
hootering and hollering,”
the Rev. Al
Sharpton said. “If I spent the money you
did and got 18 percent, I’d still be hollering to
Iowa. Don’t worry about it, Howard.”
"He's in a hole, there's
no doubt about it,"
Harkin said of
Dean, who is now locked in a struggle to win the
New Hampshire primary on Tuesday. "But he's
been beat up before. The one thing I've admired
about Dr. Dean is that he's resilient. He's
getting beat up and he's coming back,"
Iowa Sen. Tom
Harkin said.
"I just can't believe the
people of New Hampshire are going to say because
of one speech, I cannot support this guy,"
said Harkin.
"So he made a mistake, all right? So he made a
mistake," Iowa
Sen. Tom Harkin said.
"We went through six
weeks of getting battered,"
said Joe Trippi,
Dean's campaign manager. "Attack, respond,
attack, respond, attack, respond. That's what
happens when you become a frontrunner. That's what
happened to Bill Clinton in 1991."
"[He] really provided
health care to people in his state, really did
balance those budgets,"
Joe Trippi said.
"He really did stand up against the war when no
one else would. I don't believe that New Hampshire
is going to let 15 second of video tape erase it."
"Didn't you realize you
were speaking to the country and maybe the world?"
Ron Fournier of
the Associated Press asked Howard Dean about his
Iowa speech.
"I thought in context it
would be fine,"
Dean said.
"It's hard to hit those
high notes when you don't have any voice left,"
Dean said.
Jay Leno said
about Howard Dean that, “It's a bad sign in
politics when your speech ends with your aides
shooting you with a tranquilizer gun.”
“I think Alan Greenspan
has become too political. If he lacks the
political courage to criticize the deficits, if he
was foolish enough -- and he's not a foolish man
-- to support the outrageous tax cuts that George
Bush put through, then he has become too political
and we need a new chairman of the Federal
Reserve," Dean
said in response to a question from an audience at
a town hall meeting in Londonderry.
[Dean] "could fall
through the floor, or he could be poised for a
Clinton-like finish here,"
Ron Brownstein
of the Los Angeles Times said. "The
difference is most candidates have not blown
themselves up on national television."
"My God, to suggest that
responsible people, the president of the United
States, would have known about that before the
fact and not done anything about it, it is just,
it's just, it's awful,"
Sec. Of State
Colin Powell said about Howard Dean’s accusation
that Bush knew about 9-11 in advance. "It's
outrageous."
“Right now,''
John Kerry said,
“this (campaign) is like a freight train out of
control.''
"For a guy who says, 'Aw
shucks, I'll just go to New Hampshire and see how
things turn out,' he's spending a heck of a lot of
money," said a
strategist for President Bush. "He's
spending to win in New Hampshire, not to just sort
of show up and see how he does."
"I'm not drawing any
distinction in rank,"
he said.
"I'm drawing what I've done,"
said Wesley
Clark about calling Sen. John Kerry a junior
officer.
About the Iowa
Caucus:
Said Judy
Woodruff, host of "Inside Politics": "I'm
one of those who think the caucus system is what
democracy is all about. . . . I think we're better
off with this system than we'd be if we started in
California and everybody started out seeing how
much money they had."
Said James
Carville, a Democratic strategist who appears on
"Crossfire": "What's the argument against
it? They do a great job."
NH Debate
The Manchester Union Leader has
as part of its New Hampshire debate coverage a
fact-check concerning some of the things that were
said by the Democratic presidential candidates.
And low and behold… some of the statements made
during the debate do not line up with the facts.
One of those mis-statements was made by Sen. John
Edwards, complaining about President Clinton’s
signing of the defense of family act:
Sen.
John Edwards, voicing his objections to the
Defense of Marriage Act signed by President
Clinton in 1996, said it "took away the power of
states ... to be able to do what they chose to do"
about gay civil unions." He said, "I think these
are decisions that the states should have the
power to make."
States
have that option under the law. The act allows
states to refuse to honor same-sex unions
performed outside their boundaries, but also lets
them legalize the unions if they want. It
specifies that such unions would not be recognized
by the federal government.
Another mis-statement was made
by Wesley Clark, when asked when it was that he
knew he was a Democrat:
"I
voted for Bill Clinton and Al Gore," the retired
general said in a Democratic presidential debate
Thursday, then stopped there. He also has said
previously that he voted for Republicans including
Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and the first George
Bush.
Clark was also asked about being
a superhuman President who would stop all future
9-11 attacks:
"…I
never used the word 'guarantee,’" he said.
However, here’s the actual quote
of Clark on the subject:
"If
I'm president of the United States, I'm going to
take care of the American people," Clark was
quoted by the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire
earlier this month. "We are not going to have one
of these incidents."
Maybe Clark just sort of means
it… kind of…
The Leader also accuses Sen.
John Kerry of demagogism on the issue of senior
health care:
Kerry
flatly accused President Bush of "pushing seniors
off of Medicare into HMOs."
The
new prescription drug program subsidizes costs for
low-income patients and encourages private
insurance companies to offer coverage for the
elderly willing to opt out of traditional
Medicare. Nothing in the law forces seniors off of
Medicare.
Overall, the debate was notable
for its lack of attacks upon each other and its
focus of attacks on President Bush. One of the
funniest moments came in an exchange from Al
Sharpton commenting on Howard Dean’s statement
about his hollering screaming speech in Iowa:
“I’m
not a perfect person,” Dean said. “I think a lot
of people have had fun at my expense over the Iowa
hooting and hollering.”
“I
wanted to say to Gov. Dean, don’t be hard on
yourself about the hootering and hollering,”
Sharpton said. “If I spent the money you did and
got 18 percent, I’d still be hollering to Iowa.
Don’t worry about it, Howard.”
“Thanks, reverend,” Dean replied.
Kerry is still having trouble
with some New Hampshire voters regarding his vote
to go to war. He has consistently offered the
following statement to get voters to support him:
“If
anybody in New Hampshire believes that John Kerry
would have gone to war as President Bush had done,
then they shouldn’t vote for me,” Kerry said.
There were no break-away
performances by any of the candidates. Sen. Joe
Lieberman offered a convincing performance that
kept him outside of the rest of the liberal
candidates seeking the nomination. There still are
no convincing events that suggest that he will
survive Tuesday’s election.
Clark failed to ignite the crowd
and looks to be sagging in New Hampshire voters’
minds when pitted against John Kerry. In addition,
Edwards might get a boost for just being himself.
"I think it's conceivable that
Edwards might go up in the polls beyond Clark in a
couple days as a result of his performance," Dean
Spiliotes, visiting politics professor at St.
Anselm College said. "Kerry seemed pretty even,
and I think it's going to be reasonably tight
between him and Dean," Spiliotes said.
In the spin room afterwards, the
Kerry campaign tried to turn down expectations for
Kerry according
to New Hampshire Politics.com:
Billy
Shaheen downplayed expectations for Sen. John
Kerry in the debate spin room. Shaheen, the state
chair of Kerry's campaign, said that he thinks
Kerry is still an underdog, despite Kerry's Iowa
victory and surge in the polls.
"Gov.
Dean still has a great organization," Shaheen
said. "He has a lot of people that committed to
him and have not abandoned, and I think he'll be a
tough competitor."
Poll watching
The latest MSNBC, Reuters, Zogby
poll shows: Kerry 30%; Dean 22%; Clark 14%;
Edwards 7%; and Lieberman 7%.
Negative campaigning
Peter Jennings tried to get Joe
Lieberman to criticize Howard Dean and John Kerry,
to which Lieberman replied, ‘nice try.’ Everyone
was gun shy from the fallout from the negative
campaigning in Iowa. Edwards is also riding a
popular perception of being Mr. Nice. The American
public cannot expect that negative campaigning
will suddenly vanish from the political scene
after Iowa. The reason is: negative campaigning
works.
It has long been understood that
not only does the recipient of negative
campaigning go down in support, but those
delivering the negative message about the opponent
lose support as well. Howard Dean was attacked
relentlessly by Rep. Dick Gephardt prior to the
Iowa Caucuses. Both of these candidates watched
their support erode as Senators John Kerry and
John Edwards went up in support and eventually
came in number one and two in Iowa.
The key to running in a multiple
field is to stop your attacks with enough time to
rebuild your positives -- something Gephardt
failed to do.
The NY Times covers how the campaigns have changed
their TV ads to not be the one who fails to switch
in time to a positive ad.
Dean’s performance
"Dean has to perform at that
debate," said Andrew Smith of the University of
New Hampshire, director of one of several tracking
polls charting the movement underway there. "Dean
has to turn it around to show that what happened
in Iowa was an aberration."
Howard Dean is trying to
turn his campaign around. He was on television in
an interview with Diane Sawyer, and in the New
Hampshire debate. He had two at bats and best
indications are the faithful still believe but
others still can’t remove the image of the howling
Dean in Iowa from their memories. It still seems
to be the speech that kills Dean’s hopes for the
Presidency.
The only thing that could save
Dean is the field he is running against. The truth
is, Sen. John Edwards could become President
Bush’s next nightmare.
The Washington Post reports on
how the howling Dean speech continues to follow
him:
When a
candidate loses his footing, even fleeting moments
seem to feed the larger narrative.
Thus
it was that when Dean showed up at Lou's
Restaurant in Hanover -- for the sort of event
where he orders hot chocolate while 11
photographers behind the counter snap away -- the
first customer he encountered was Marisa Kraus,
holding a Bush-Cheney sticker.
"Governor Dean -- what about the scream?" she
taunted.
"Tell
us: was it cathartic?"
"It
was great, it was cathartic, yahoo," Dean muttered
sarcastically, moving on to the next table.
The performance of The Doctor
and His Wife The Doctor on ABC News, Primetime
with Diane Sawyer did not offer a breakthrough
from the deathwatch that is taking place on his
campaign. Dean did offer a moment of coming to his
wife’s defense on her not being a part of the
campaign, and that was Dean at his
best:
There's really another side to this. I have women,
my age, coming up to me in the campaign trail
saying, "Thank God your wife is like that." We
just got a bunch of letters at home saying "Thank
God. Hallelujah. A woman who has her own career
and doesn't get dragged around." … some people
would say "Where has she been?" Other people would
say "Thank heavens. A different kind of First
Lady," Dean said.
Dean is still in trouble and it
continues to not look good for him and his Deanies.
Dean’s top ten
Following in the footsteps of Dick Gephardt,
Howard Dean taped an appearance on Late Night
with David Letterman in which he presented the
Top 10 list. The subject of Dean's list was "Ways,
I, Howard Dean, can turn things around."
10.
Switch to decaf.
9.
Unveil new slogan, "Vote for Dean and get one
dollar off your next purchase at Blimpie."
8.
Marry Rachel on the final episode of Friends.
7.
Don't change a thing, it's going great.
6.
Show a little more skin.
5. Go
on American Idol and give them a taste of
those pipes.
4.
Start working out and speaking with an Austrian
accent.
3. I
can't give specifics yet, but it involves Ted
Danson.
2.
Fire the staffer who suggested I do this lousy Top
10 List instead of actually campaigning.
1.
Oh, I don't know - maybe fewer crazy, red-faced
rants.
Embracing the monkey
Howard Dean issued the following
statement on the Lunar New Year:
"Today
is the beginning of the Lunar New Year. As
millions of Chinese and Asian Americans across the
country celebrate the start of a new year, I offer
them my best wishes for a year of prosperity and
hope.
"According to the Chinese calendar, this is the
year 4702--the Year of the Monkey. The sign of the
monkey is characterized by determination,
innovation, and a never-give-up attitude. On this
particular Lunar New Year, it is worth noting that
1776, the year our nation was born, was also a
year of the monkey.
"A
cornerstone of this campaign to take back our
country is to bring new voters to the process.
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are the
fastest growing racial and ethnic populations in
our country and an important base of our support,
and ensuring that their voices are heard is
critical to our political process. At this
traditional time of change, we should unite to
ensure a democracy that represents all people."
Governor Dean will be hosting a national Lunar New
Year for America house party this Sunday in
conjunction with Asian Americans and Pacific
Islanders for Dean. For more information or to
host a party, please visit:
www.deanforamerica.com/lunarnewyear.
Dean on Roe vs. Wade
Howard Dean issued the following
statement today to mark the anniversary of Roe v.
Wade:
"Thirty one years ago, the Supreme Court
recognized that American women have a
constitutional right to control their own bodies.
But the right to choose hangs in the balance of
the 2004 election. If George W. Bush gets to
appoint even one anti-choice justice to the Court,
the era of safe, legal abortion in the United
States will end.
"As a
family doctor, a Board Member of my local Planned
Parenthood and Governor of Vermont, I have worked
my entire adult life to promote women's health. If
elected President I will defend the right to
reproductive privacy and fight to keep politics
out of medicine."
Kerry skates for homeless
John Kerry will face-off with a
team of legendary Boston Bruins, including Ray
Bourque and Cam Neely, for a history-making game
of hockey on Saturday, January 24, at the JFK
Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire. The
unprecedented event will bring together legendary
hockey stars and a presidential candidate on ice
for the first time in the history of the New
Hampshire primary.
Also scheduled to skate with
John Kerry in this pre-primary celebration of
hockey, family and politics are Bruins greats: Bob
Sweeney, Ken Hodge, Rick Middleton, Ken Linesman,
Gord Kluzak, Nevin Markwart, Gary Doak, Bob Beers,
Billy O’Dwyer and Ken Hodge, Jr. Local
firefighters and other New Hampshire supporters
will also be on hand to cheer John Kerry as he
heads toward the goal in New Hampshire.
Doors will open for this unique
event at 12:00PM. Tickets are free to the public
and available by contacting John Kerry for
President at (603) 622-9100. Callers should ask
for John Haines.
All those attending the game are
asked to bring a canned good to the JFK Arena
which will be distributed to local homeless
shelters.
Kerry endorsed
John Kerry today was endorsed by
the The Cabinet Press. The Chain Four New
Hampshire Weekly Papers have a Combined
circulation of 35,000 – the Milford Cabinet, the
Bedford Journal, the Hollis Brookline Journal, and
the Merrimack Journal. Here is an excerpt from the
endorsement:
Kerry's the choice
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry is a man of
experience in foreign and domestic affairs and
that counts in an increasingly complex world.
That
is one reason that he is the Cabinet's choice for
the Democratic nomination for president the Jan.
27 First in the Nation New Hampshire primary.
While
he did support President Bush's imprudent
invasions of Iraq, Sen. Kerry has pledged to work
closely with our allies and the United Nations to
solve the problems facing us as we try to help
Iraqis rebuild their country.
"We
have to be prepared to be a partner in the global
community," the senator recently told the
Cabinet's editorial board. We couldn't agree more,
and we hope the senator isn't merely talking about
Iraq. America will never be safe from terrorist
attacks until the people of the world see us as a
partner.
Among
Kerry's many other strong positions is his pledge
to roll back President Bush's tax cuts for the
wealthy.
Unlike
Vermont's Howard Dean, one of his major
challengers for the Democratic presidential
nomination, Sen. Kerry would allow middle class
voters to retain their tax cuts, such as they
were.
The
senator has a $75 billion plan to significantly
lower the cost of health insurance, funded in part
by the rollback of tax cuts for the wealthy. It
would include a $35 billion federal fund to pay 75
percent of catastrophic cases.
He
would allow people 55-64 to buy into Medicare
early and allow others to buy into the
congressional insurance plan; he would allow bulk
purchasing of prescription drugs; he would reduce
America's dependence upon foreign oil by providing
tax incentives for those willing to break from
reliance on fossil fuels.
He
pledges to close tax loopholes that have made
taking jobs offshore profitable and would create
health-care and tax incentives for companies that
create jobs in the U.S.
We
believe it is much more beneficial to the nation
to have in the White House an insider like Sen.
Kerry who knows how to get things done.
These
are the reasons Democrats should select John Kerry
as their nominee.
They
are also the reasons the nation should select him
over President Bush in November.
Kerry on Roe vs. Wade
“The 31st anniversary of Roe v.
Wade marks the year when women who were not afraid
to stand up and fight won a victory for choice.
But today, it also marks a moment when all
Americans must stand up and fight harder than ever
to preserve this victory. Never in my years in
public service have the rights of women been at
such risk – never have women been assaulted in
their citizenship here at home or womanhood around
the globe as they are by this Administration.
“I have always believed that
women have the right to control their own bodies,
their own lives, and their own destinies. And I am
proud that I am the only presidential candidate to
pledge that I will support only pro-choice judges
to the Supreme Court. Some may call this a litmus
test – but I call it a test of our will to uphold
a Constitutional right that protects women’s right
to choose and to make their own decisions in
consultation with their doctor, their conscience,
and their God. And If I get to share a stage with
this President and debate him, one of the first
things I’ll tell him is: ‘There’s a defining issue
between us. I trust women to make their own
decisions. You don’t. And that’s the difference.’
“We can’t go back to the days of
back alleys – days in which women were shamed and
put to all kinds of risk. We can’t put women in
the place where their choice is to break the law
and be branded a criminal.
”The right to choose didn’t just
happen. People made it happen – women most of all.
Now we need to work just as hard to protect it. We
need to energize a new generation of citizens who
care about freedom – who care about respect for
women – and who will stand up and make clear that
we can’t go back. We will never go back. We will
never, ever let this right be taken away.”
Clark: Honoring Roe V. Wade
"Thirty-one years ago the
Supreme Court ruled that the guarantee of liberty
in the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
extends the right of privacy to encompass a
woman's decisions related to pregnancy and child
bearing in Roe v. Wade. Time and again,
during the last three decades, that right has been
threatened. The Court's ruling has been tried and
tested and reaffirmed - but it will be tested
again. So we must continue to defend it.
I am pro-choice. I stand with
the United States Constitution, the United States
Supreme Court, and the majority of the American
people in believing that our government has no
right to come between a woman, her family, and her
doctor in making such a personal and private
decision. A woman, of any age, should never be
forced to endanger her life. I opposed the ban on
late term abortion enacted by President Bush and
Republicans in Congress last year because it
didn't provide an exception for the health of the
woman. And I have opposed parental notification
laws that don't allow judicial bypass or
notification of another responsible adult,
because, while parental involvement is always
preferable, it isn't always possible. Our goal
should be to make abortion safe, legal and rare.
We should not stand for attempts
to return this country to the dark days before
Roe v. Wade. We, as a nation, have embraced
several simple important constitutional values,
such as one-person, one-vote and the right to
privacy that are now matters of settled law. I am
committed to appointing people from all
backgrounds, with the highest qualifications, who
are committed to upholding the law and enforcing
fundamental constitutional guarantees-- including
the rights of privacy and equality," said Wesley
Clark.
Clark gets Gephardt staff
The Wesley Clark Campaign
announced the addition of twenty-five former
Gephardt staffers. They will be sent immediately
to join established Clark campaign offices across
the country.
"I am
pleased to welcome these hardworking Gephardt
staffers into our campaign. Congressman Gephardt
ran a good race and he is a great American leader.
Congressman Gephardt has been a lifelong champion
for working families. I share his commitment to
working families and I am pleased these talented
individuals have joined my campaign to champion
the causes of working families across the
country," said Clark.
Edwards on Roe vs. Wade
Sen. John Edwards released the
following statement on the anniversary of Roe vs.
Wade:
"On the same day that we are
honoring the 31st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we
are also fighting to save it. You and I know that
since the Supreme Court handed down this landmark
decision, forces have been hard at work trying to
overturn it. When it comes to a woman's right to
choose, there is no choice: I support it and will
protect it one hundred percent.
"The president and the
Republican Leadership have one goal in mind-to
over turn Roe v Wade-and we have a million reasons
and ways to stop them and we will start by taking
back the White House in 2004."
Edwards has broken
spending limits law
Sen. John Edwards, according to
a story in the Washington Times
,
has spent more in advertising than is allowable
under the Campaign Finance Law. Edwards has
accepted public financing of campaigns and the
requirement to comply with state spending caps.
Sen. John Kerry and Howard Dean have opted out of
the public funding program and are not subject to
the limits:
Between June 1 and Tuesday, Mr.
Edwards spent $950,915 in New Hampshire, just less
than the $966,285 spent by Mr. Kerry. That means
Mr. Edwards outspent both rivals who skipped Iowa
to concentrate on New Hampshire: Sen. Joe
Lieberman of Connecticut, who spent $827,223, and
Mr. Clark, who spent $717,748. Federal Election
Commission limits spending in New Hampshire to
$729,600.
Edwards’ expenditures do not
include money spent in Boston that goes against
his Massachusetts limits. Edwards has spent
$682,517 in Boston, where TV stations broadcast
into neighboring New Hampshire. It is likely that
the spending caps were broken in Iowa as well only
an audit that will occur much latter will show
whether that is true.
Edwards gets Gephardt staff
The Edwards for President
Campaign in South Carolina today announced that
Isaac "Ike" Williams, top aide to Congressman Jim
Clyburn and former state director for Rep. Dick
Gephardt's presidential campaign, has joined the
Edwards team.
"Ike
will be a tremendous asset to our campaign in
South Carolina," said Edwards. "His knowledge of
this state spans some four decades and his work
for Congressman Clyburn is unparalleled. Without
question, we have the team in place to bring home
a victory in South Carolina on February 3rd, and
I'm proud to have Ike Williams on board."
"I
have surveyed the field of remaining candidates,
and John Edwards' campaign exudes the kind of
comprehensive platform that best relates to issues
important to this state," said Williams. "His
emphasis on jobs, housing, healthcare, and
education clearly addresses South Carolina's
needs. He can win this state and he can beat
George Bush."
A
veteran of South Carolina politics for over 40
years, Williams ran Congressman Clyburn's first
campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives in
1992. Following that successful election bid,
Williams served as Clyburn's state district
liaison until 2003, when he joined the Gephardt
campaign as state director. Williams also served
as the South Carolina field director for the NAACP
from 1969 to 1983.
Lieberman on Roe vs. Wade
Joe Lieberman issued the
following statement on the 31st anniversary of Roe
v. Wade, which gave constitutional protection to a
woman's right to choose:
"Thirty one years ago, Roe v. Wade upheld the
basic constitutional principle that women and
their doctors, not the government, have a right to
make critical personal decisions about their
lives, their healthcare, and their futures. I have
strongly supported the decision throughout my
career -- as I do today -- and when I am President
I will work to make abortion not only legal and
safe, but rare."
Lieberman also praised Kate
Michelman, President of NARAL Pro-Choice America,
who is retiring after twenty years with the
organization. "If there is a person more dedicated
to protecting women's constitutional rights than
Kate Michelman, I have yet to find her or him," he
said. "For two decades every effort to curtail
women's rights has been met or stopped by Kate at
every turn, and millions of American women have
her vigilance to thank for the freedoms they
enjoy."
Lieberman ads for after NH
Joe Lieberman's campaign
unveiled a new ad describing his family's journey
to America to live the American Dream, and
Lieberman's vow to make that dream a reality again
for the millions of Americans who are struggling
under George Bush's leadership. The ad will begin
airing this week in Arizona, Delaware, Oklahoma
and South Carolina.
"His grandparents came to this
country full of the dream of America. But they
never dreamed this big," the ad says. "He was the
first in his family to go to college. He joined
the fight for civil rights. As Attorney General,
Joe Lieberman stood up for women's rights."
The 30-second ad, entitled
"Great Country," is similar to a 60-second ad
airing in New Hampshire entitled "I Love America."
It touts Lieberman's plan to ease the squeeze on
middle class families, including his proposals to
cut taxes for 98 percent of taxpayers, make health
care more affordable, and provide four weeks of
paid family and medical leave.
"I'm going to bring the American
Dream back alive," Lieberman says. "This is about
the future of the greatest country in the world."
Kucinich refuses reality
There is a story by The Democrat that reports on how Rep. Dennis
Kucinich continues to live on another planet --
Kucinich still expects to be the Democrat
Presidential nominee:
Even
though he’s been registering in the single digits
since his entrance into the race, and in the Iowa
caucuses, he’s said he will gain the support
needed in New Hampshire.
"I
have a distinct message," he said. "I believe that
message will resonate with the people in this
state."
His
stop at UNH wasn’t necessarily a move to gain
support, but to support and urge students to look
at the issues, register, and vote.
"We’re
getting the word out," he said.
Kucinich: Guard and Reserves stretched
Democratic Presidential
Candidate Dennis Kucinich said today that the
National Guard and the Army Reserve are stretched
too thin.
"Reservists are being sent into combat in Iraq for
periods of a year or more, lacking equipment
including body armor," said Kucinich, "and our
country at home is left without the ability to
call on them in a crisis. West Point is replacing
National Guardsmen on security duty with private
security. That's how thinly we are stretched. Our
military academy has had to hire a private company
to protect it.
"Lieutenant General James Helmly has said we are
in danger of seeing a major exodus from the
Reserves when Reservists get back from Iraq.
Defense Secretary Rumsfeld is proposing that
military police and civil affairs personnel be
sent into active-duty to relieve the strain on the
Reserves.
"And
the situation our Reservists and Guardsmen are
facing in Iraq is going from bad to worse. Two
Reservists were burned to death earlier this month
when their fuel truck was attacked. The death toll
for US troops reached 505 today when two more
soldiers were killed.
"According to wire service reports, the commander
of the 4th Infantry Division believes Iraqis not
connected to Saddam Hussein are taking up the
battle out of a sense of nationalism. Those
fighters 'really just want Iraqis to run their own
country,' said Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno. They
'are going to try to use Iraqi nationalism to say
we need to get the Americans and the coalition
forces out of Iraq, and they will continue to
attack us.'
"Our
own military understands the situation it is in.
The Bush Administration needs to understand it and
go to the United Nations with an entirely new
approach that will turn control on an interim
basis over to UN peacekeepers and bring our troops
home."
Bush going to NH
President Bush will travel to
New Hampshire Jan. 29, two days after the state’s
Democratic Presidential primary.
Former New York Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani, New York Gov. George Pataki and Arizona
Sen. John McCain, who defeated Bush in the New
Hampshire primary in 2000, will make appearances
before voters go to the polls Tuesday.
Bush won the state in the 2000
general election.
Bush: 1% budget increase
The Washington Times reports
that President Bush will propose that non-homeland
security part of the budget be raised 1 percent
while homeland security would rise 9.7 percent
under his budget plan:
President Bush will propose an increase of less
than 1 percent for federal programs not related to
defense or homeland security, effectively freezing
discretionary spending in the next budget, after
coming under fire from conservatives to control
runaway spending.
But
the president will propose increasing
government-wide homeland security funding by 9.7
percent in the fiscal 2005 budget, and the
military budget is expected to increase by a small
amount.
"This
is going to be an austere budget," White House
spokesman Trent Duffy said of the budget that Mr.
Bush will send to Congress on Feb. 2.
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