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Iowa primary precinct caucus and caucuses news">
Iowa primary precinct caucus and caucuses news, reports
and information on 2004 Democrat and Republican candidates, campaigns
and issues Iowa
Presidential Watch's
IOWA DAILY REPORT Holding
the Democrats accountable today, tomorrow...forever.
PAGE 1
Tuesday,
September 16, 2003
We've kicked it into high
gear!
IPW will be updating
throughout the day as news rolls in on the
2004 race!
“of all the
candidates, I'd say, I've had the guts to
stand up before audiences and not tell
them all they want to hear.” –
Lieberman, arguing in New Hampshire
that unions should respect his candor in
the endorsement derby.
“John
Kerry is a great American.” –
Former Kerry communications director
Chris Lehane, in statement confirming
his resignation
“Every election in
the South seems to be about race, because
the Republicans always make it about
race.” – Dean in Alabama “Dean
was governor of Vermont for so long, he
served through two Bush recessions, he
said.” – Sioux City Journal,
reporting on Dean’s visit to
Sioux City Sunday night
“Question is, once
Howard Dean stops all that
shifting, where exactly will he land?”
– New York Post editorial
“We're
not sold on any of the candidates.”
-- Gerald McEntee, AFSCME president
“…Their
goal is to create a conservative majority
for decades to come -- and they're close
to doing that.” – McEntee
“Dean's
support was significant because the
then-lieutenant governor was the first
major Vermont Democrat to endorse a
candidate other than Michael S. Dukakis…”
– Boston Globe, reporting on
Dean’s endorsement of Gephardt
in 1988. New York Post editorial
tackles Dean’s “duplicity” On the Clark Watch: Former
general summons advisors to Arkansas –
FOXNews says he putting “final touches” on
announcement Headline from yesterday’s
Newsday: “Talk of Clinton Run Persists” Sparks between Dean and
Vermont firefighters could cost alleged
frontrunner an endorsement Kerry’s communications
director resigns over campaign differences New York Times: Congressional
Dems -- “often blindsided” by the party’s
nominating process – still trying to figure
out Dean Kerry’s tears episode in New
Hampshire still getting editorial review Boston Globe: Edwards’
legal work takes him directly into debate
over limiting jury decisions since he
“made a career out of winning historic
awards for children who suffered birth
defects” In Florida, Graham
supporters applaud politely when he says
he’s in the race to stay At University of Iowa
yesterday, Kerry blasts rivals Gephardt
and Dean – by name – over tax cut repeal
plans In Sioux City, Dean arrives
late – but 300 meet him with standing
ovation, hoots and hollers Miami Herald: Unions already
ineffective and a mess – and now they can’t
even decide on a candidate Dean strikes back at
Gephardt – and charges that Gephardt’s
practicing “pathetic politics of the past” Iowaism: Come to the Red Feather
Prairie Festival this Sunday...
Clark to announce candidacy tomorrow in
Little Rock.
New
poll shows GWB would beat Edwards in his
home state Edwards does formal candidacy announcement, "vowing
to ‘be a champion for regular people every
day.
Dean plays the race card against Republicans
Filmmaker Michael Moore pitches Clark
candidacy
Edwards joins Hillary and Lieberman in
opposing Bush EPA nominee
Lieberman says unions should respect candor. All these stories below and more.
…
Clark to announce candidacy tomorrow in Little
Rock. Several media outlets are reporting –
and allegedly confirming – that the ex-NATO
commander will become the next wannabe.
From a CNN.com special report posted late this
morning: “Former
NATO supreme commander Wesley Clark has
decided to enter the Democratic race for
president in 2004, sources close to the
retired general told CNN Tuesday.
Clark is expected to announce his
candidacy Wednesday in his hometown of Little
Rock, Arkansas. He has assembled a team of
campaign operatives that include veterans of
the campaigns of former President Bill Clinton
and Vice President Al Gore. Clark,
a West Point graduate, Rhodes Scholar and
former CNN military analyst who led U.S. and
allied forces in the 1999 air war in Kosovo,
will be the 10th Democrat to launch a bid to
unseat President Bush. An increasingly
outspoken critic of the war in Iraq, Clark
declared his party affiliation two weeks ago.
The Democratic Party ‘stands for
internationalism. It's a party that stands for
ordinary men and women,’ he said. ‘It's a
party that stands for fair play and equity and
justice and common sense and reasonable
dialogue. It's a party that has had a great
tradition in our country. I'm very attracted
to it, and that's the party I will belong to.’
Political analysts have said Clark could
pose a formidable challenge to President Bush,
who is seen as a president strong on national
security issues. ‘I've got ideas on
national security and strategy,’ he said,
pointing out that he's a ‘military person.’
The 57-year-old Clark retired from the
Army after a 34-year career that included
combat in Vietnam, a Rhodes Scholarship and
leading the military negotiations in the peace
talks that ended the war in Bosnia in 1995. He
became NATO's supreme commander in 1997, but
reportedly clashed with Pentagon officials
during the Kosovo campaign and was relieved of
command after the war.”
… IOWA PRES WATCH
SIDEBAR: The News & Observer of Raleigh
reported today that a new poll shows GWB would
beat Edwards in his home state – 51% to 40%.
The N&O’s John Wagner reported that the poll
found that more North Carolinians now approve
of his bid but that Edwards still would face
an uphill battle in his home state to beat
President Bush. Fifty-three percent of Tar
Heel voters approve of Edwards' decision to
seek the presidency, while 40 percent
disapprove, according to the poll commissioned
by The News & Observer. It marks the first
time since Edwards announced an ‘exploratory’
bid in January that more voters in the state
approve of his White House run than
disapprove. Edwards has yet to convince a
majority of constituents that he should
replace Bush. If the general election were
held today, Bush would beat Edwards in North
Carolina 51 percent to 40 percent, according
to the poll, conducted by Research 2000 of
Rockville, Md. The poll has a margin of error
of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Edwards'
long-anticipated announcement might be his
best chance yet to change some minds.
…
Edwards – after deciding to put all eggs in
his presidential basket – formally announces
candidacy at textile mill where his father
worked for 36 years, heads for South Carolina
to push his southern strategy. Associated
Press coverage from FOXNews.com – an excerpt:
“Democrat John Edwards, the Southern
moderate dogged by complaints that he's short
on political experience, formally launched his
candidacy for the presidency Tuesday, vowing
to ‘be a champion for regular people every
day.’ The North Carolina senator, who made
millions as a trial attorney before entering
politics five years ago, highlighted his blue
collar roots by staging his announcement at
the Robbins, N.C., textile mill where his
father worked for 36 years. A young John
Edwards once had a job there, mopping
beneath looms in the weave room. Edwards
used the speech to assail President Bush's
record, offer his own biography and address
some of the criticism he has faced as a
first-term senator. ‘I haven't spent most
of my life in politics, but I've spent enough
time in Washington to know how much we need to
change it,’ Edwards told the crowd.
The next stop on the official kickoff was
Columbia, S.C., a must-win state in Edwards'
strategy to reach the White House. Rather than
try to take a win in Iowa and New Hampshire
against more seasoned rivals, Edwards was
looking for his candidacy to take off with a
win in South Carolina. He was banking that
voters in the state would be attracted to a
fresh-faced moderate with Carolina roots…In
some ways, Edwards is a presidential candidate
in the mold of Bill Clinton -- a youthful
centrist with Southern charm. But having run
for office just once before and served only a
single term in the Senate, he doesn't have the
resume or the experience of his leading rivals
in the race for the Democratic nomination.
Nine candidates have announced, with a 10th --
Wesley Clark -- telling advisers he
would enter the Democratic primary. In most
state and national polls, Edwards draws
single-digit support and ranks behind rivals
with less funding and organization, such as Al
Sharpton and Carol Moseley Braun, despite
working for the nomination for more than a
year. He was the leading fund-raiser in the
Democratic field early this year, but has lost
that advantage to insurgent candidate Howard
Dean, the former Vermont governor.
‘This is where I learned that the simple
promise of America is the enduring greatness
of America -- a better life for all who work
for it,’ Edwards said. ‘And so this is
where -- today -- to make opportunity the
birthright of every American, I declare myself
a candidate for president of the United
States.’
…
In Alabama, Dean says South won’t be forgotten
– and plays the race card against Republicans.
Headline from this morning’s The Union
Leader: “Dean: South won’t be ignored this
campaign” From AP report –
dateline: Huntsville, Ala.: “Democratic
presidential candidate Howard Dean told an
Alabama A&M University audience Monday that he
won't give up on Southern votes, which have
gone heavily Republican in recent presidential
elections. Dean, speaking to about
300 students and faculty at the historically
black school, said it was time the South had
an election that wasn't about race. ‘Every
election in the South seems to be about race,
because the Republicans always make it about
race,’ said Dean, whose ability to connect
with minorities has been questioned.
‘Since 1968, the white South has voted
Republican. But when white people and black
people vote together, that's when we make
social progress.’ The former Vermont
governor said Karl Rove, the political
strategist for President Bush, may laugh at a
liberal New England governor making a campaign
stop in the Deep South. ‘If it takes a
liberal to balance the budget, mercy help us,
we desperately need one,’ he said to cheers.
‘The truth is most people in America would
gladly pay the same taxes as when Bill Clinton
was president if only they could have the same
economy.’…’Let's not talk about guns and
race and abortion and the Confederate flag,’
Dean said. ‘Let's talk about jobs and
education and health care and a strong
defense.’ Dean said he supported the first
Gulf war and the invasion of Afghanistan after
the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. But he said
Bush deceived the public on the reasons for
the invasion of Iraq. ‘I will never send our
children and grandchildren to fight without
telling the truth to the American people about
why they're going,’ he said. Dean, who spoke
prior to a downtown fund-raising event, told
the audience he would not promise that he
could solve all their problems. ‘The truth
is you have the power to take back the
Democratic party and make it stand for
something,’ Dean said. ‘You have the power to
take back the White House in 2004.’”
… Odd pairing –
Filmmaker Michael Moore pitches Clark
candidacy, says the
next wannabe may be the only one able to beat
Bush. Under
the subhead “Moore or less” in today’s
“Inside Politics” column in the Washington
Times, Jennifer Harper reported: “Film
director and vociferously outspoken Bush
critic Michael Moore has a message for retired
Army Gen. Wesley Clark: ‘You
may be the person who can defeat George W.
Bush in next year's election,’
Mr. Moore wrote yesterday in an open letter at
his Web site (MichaelMoore.com). ‘This
is not an endorsement. For me, it's too early
for that. I have liked Howard Dean (in spite
of his flawed positions in support of some
capital punishment, his grade 'A' rating from
the NRA, and his opposition to cutting the
Pentagon budget). And Dennis Kucinich is so
committed to all the right stuff. We need
candidates in this race who will say the
things that need to be said, to push the
pathetically lame Democratic Party into having
a backbone — or get out of the way and let us
have a REAL second party on the ballot.’…’This
is war, General, and it's Bush & Co.'s war on
us. It's their war on the middle class, the
poor, the environment, their war on women and
their war against anyone around the world who
doesn't accept total American domination.’ Mr.
Moore, who signed his letter ‘Lottery # 275,
U.S. military draft, 1972,’ continued:
‘Michael Moore likes a general? I never
thought I'd write these words. But desperate
times call for desperate measures.’”
… Edwards joins Hillary and
Lieberman in opposing Bush EPA nominee.
Headline from FOXNews.com: “Edwards Agrees
to Oppose EPA Nominee” Excerpt from AP
coverage: “President Bush's nominee to head
the Environmental Protection Agency ran into
more problems Monday in the Senate as a third
Democrat, presidential aspirant John Edwards,
said he would join efforts to block the
nomination. Democrats Sens. Hillary Rodham
Clinton of New York and Joe Lieberman of
Connecticut, who also is seeking the
presidential nomination, previously had said
they would put a hold on the nomination of
Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt as EPA administrator.
Edwards of North Carolina said Monday
the nomination should not go forward until the
Bush administration provides detailed
information on how human health will be
affected by changes the administration wants
in the way the EPA regulates air pollution,
especially from power plants. The Democrats
have accused the administration of rolling
back protections under the Clean Air Act by
easing pollution control requirements on power
plant operators and industrial plants.”
…
Lieberman – probably the unlikeliest of the
Dem wannabes to get even one union endorsement
– says they should still consider his platform
and credentials to win the presidency.
Headline from this morning’s Union Leader: “Lieberman
says unions should respect candor.” From
AP report out of Nashua: “Given his
positions on free trade agreements and school
vouchers, Sen. Joe Lieberman makes few short
lists of Democrats likely to grab endorsements
from the nation's most powerful unions. But on
Monday, Lieberman said unions still should
consider whether his platform can win the
presidency and improve the economy. ‘Maybe
because I've been willing to talk straight to
the unions, some of them prefer others. But I
urge them to look at my overall record and
bottom line and to consider, if their goal in
the 2004 election is to beat George W. Bush,
the candidate who is going to do it is the one
who runs a campaign like Bill Clinton did in
'92,’ Lieberman said hours before he
addressed an AFL-CIO group during a session
closed to the press. The Connecticut
senator, one of nine Democrats seeking the
presidential nomination, said union members
should respect him for his willingness to talk
about his unpopular positions. He was
booed at a recent AFL-CIO event in Chicago
when he said he would support a pilot voucher
program to send poor children to private
schools. He also has disappointed some union
leaders with his support of free trade
agreements, including the North American Free
Trade Agreement. He has criticized the Bush
administration for not protecting American
intellectual property rights abroad. ‘Of
all the candidates, I'd say, I've had the guts
to stand up before audiences and not tell them
all they want to hear,’ he said Monday. ‘I've
fought throughout my career for working
people, I believe in the labor union movement,
I've supported labor law reform…but I'm not
going to deceive anybody into thinking I'm
against trade. One-fifth of jobs in
America today -- that's millions of jobs --
are dependent on trade. You're not going to
help the American economy by putting a wall
around America.’”
…
Is this a good or bad sign for the original
wannabes? FOXNews.com and others report that
Clark is calling advisors to Arkansas.
Headline from FOXNews.com: “Clark
Puts Finishing Touches on Presidential Run
Announcement”
Excerpt from AP report: “On
the verge of running, retired Army Gen. Wesley
Clark on Monday summoned his fledgling
political team to Arkansas to discuss strategy
for mounting a Democratic presidential
campaign. Several party officials said legal,
financial and political advisers were invited
to the Tuesday session in Little Rock,
Arkansas. They were told Clark had made
a decision about whether to run, but they were
not told what it was. Clark told
friends and associates last week that he is
likely to run, and Monday's developments left
little room for doubt about his intentions.
‘We haven't been told for sure, but I think we
know what this is about,’ said George Bruno, a
New Hampshire activist who will attend the
meeting. ‘It's up to the boss to call the
shots.’ Mark Fabiani, former spokesman for
the Clinton White House, and Ron Klain, a
strategist in Al Gore's 2000 campaign,
also were among those invited to the meeting,
officials said. Clark, 58, has aggressively
recruited staff in the last week. His
earliest allies would be from former President
Clinton's Arkansas-based political network,
including former White House aide Bruce
Lindsey, though not all will have formal
campaign roles. Clark has met with several
presidential contenders who covet his
endorsement and might consider him for a vice
presidential slot. He also has been in
touch with top lawmakers and union chiefs,
urging them to hold off supporting any
candidate until he decides whether to run.
Though late to the race and lacking in
political experience, Clark's resume is
formidable -- Rhodes scholar, first in his
1966 class at West Point, White House fellow,
head of the U.S. Southern Command and NATO
commander during the 1999 campaign in Kosovo.
A Clark White House bid would grab the
political spotlight and undercut the strength
of several in the nine-way Democratic race.
However, he would be competing against more
experienced politicians with more money and
deeper staffs. An Internet-fueled draft-Clark
movement has developed the seeds of a campaign
and more than $1 million in pledges. ‘In New
Hampshire, there are many people ready to move
out if they're given the green light,’ said
Bruno, one of Clinton's earlier backers in the
key primary voting state.”
… Dean
strikes back at Gephardt, says that the early
Iowa favorite is “desperate.” Report by
AP’s Jennifer C. Kerr: “Howard Dean hit
back at Dick Gephardt Sunday for the Missouri
congressman's comments likening Dean to former
House Speaker Newt Gingrich. ‘I think he's
desperate,’ Dean said of Gephardt, during
an interview on ABC's ‘This Week’ program.
‘I worked for his campaign in '88. And this is
really the pathetic politics of the past.’
The trouble between the two Democratic
presidential hopefuls began last week, when
Gephardt launched the opening salvo by
telling a union audience that ‘Howard Dean
actually agreed with the Gingrich
Republicans.’ Gephardt said the former
Vermont governor sided with Republicans in the
90s who wanted to overhaul the Medicare
program and increase the Social Security
retirement age. Asked to respond on
Sunday, Dean said that he would
consider looking at the ‘rate of growth’ for
Medicare and Social Security. However, he
insisted that he would not cut Medicare
benefits. Dean also took issue with a
characterization by a TV interviewer that he
had been a ‘strong supporter’ of NAFTA, the
1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. Dean
acknowledged that he had supported NAFTA, but
took exception to the ‘strong’ part. ‘I
never did anything about it,’ he said. ‘I
didn't vote on it. I didn't march down in the
street demanding NAFTA. I simply wrote a
letter (to President Clinton) supporting
NAFTA.’ The Gephardt campaign
subsequently called attention to a transcript
of a Jan. 29, 1995 ‘This Week’ show in which
Dean told a different interviewer that ‘I was
a very strong supporter of NAFTA.’” (Iowa Pres
Watch Note: Related coverage on Dean’s
support for ’88 Gephardt presidential
bid below.)
… Kerry
continues attack on rival wannabes who want to
repeal tax cuts, but this time he actually
identifies the culprits – Dean and Gephardt.
Headline from this morning’s Union Leader:
“Kerry criticizes Dean by name over tax
cuts” Coverage – an excerpt – by
AP’s Iowa caucus watcher, Mike Glover:
“Presidential hopeful John Kerry on Monday
criticized his Democratic rivals who favor
repealing President Bush's tax cuts -- and
this time, he named names. The Massachusetts
senator has assailed primary foes such as
Howard Dean and Dick Gephardt for favoring a
rollback of Bush's tax cuts from 2001 and this
year, but as recently as Friday in South
Carolina, Kerry declined to single them out.
That wasn't the case in Iowa Monday, and it
reflected a weeklong concerted effort by the
Democratic candidates to challenge
front-runner Dean on issues from the
Middle East to Medicare, from race to Social
Security. ‘Unfortunately some in my party,
including Howard Dean, want to repeal the tax
cuts Democrats gave middle class families,’
Kerry said. ‘This would mean that a family
of four -- with two parents working hard on
the job and at home -- would have to pay about
$2,000 more a year in taxes.’ Dean, the
former Vermont governor, argues that a repeal
of the tax cuts is necessary to pay for
universal health care, homeland security and
job creation, particularly in a time of
increasing budget deficits. During a speech
on corporate responsibility in which he
criticized President Bush, Kerry said that in
the event of a wholesale repeal of the tax
cuts, ‘Democrats will be no better than George
W. Bush if we also turn our backs on the
middle class.’ Kerry has called for
repealing that portion of the tax cut that
benefits those making more than $200,000 a
year, leaving in place the child care tax
credit and the elimination of the marriage
penalty. Gephardt, the Missouri
congressman and former House Minority leader,
also favors repeal of Bush's tax cuts to
finance health care coverage.” (Iowa Pres
Watch Note: Related coverage of Kerry’s
visit yesterday to the University of Iowa in
Iowa City below.)
… “Kerry’s
tears: We’d rather vote for Mrs. Woodman”
– headline from yesterday’s The Union Leader
opinion page on reprint of Pennsylvania
editorial. The editorial: “Sometimes the
media can miss a story even when they're right
in the room. Democratic Presidential
candidate John Kerry made national
headlines when he wiped away a tear after an
encounter with an unemployed mother during a
campaign stop in New Hampshire. A slew of
stories followed detailing how Kerry finally
showed his softer side and how the incident
might boost his sagging campaign. Some even
compared Kerry's tears with an incident that
sank Ed Muskie's Presidential chances in 1972.
But the focus in this story shouldn't be on
Kerry; it should belong to the unemployed
mother, Concord native Barbara Woodman.
She told the senator that she was recently
laid off from a publishing company and how the
loss of income was making life hard for her,
her husband and their two teenage boys. But
despite her ordeal, she wasn't asking Kerry
or anyone else in the government for help. She
isn't seeking a program from Washington, D.C.,
to put her back to work or to take care of her
children. ‘We're not about to let our sons pay
the price for whatever we're dealing with,’
Woodman said in words that caused Kerry
to tear up. ‘I don't care how many jobs I have
to work; those kids are going to college.’
Woodman's spirit of self-reliance and personal
responsibility are the qualities that have
kept America strong for more than 200 years.
And her determination to do the best for her
family is repeated millions of times across
the country, especially in difficult economic
times such as these. These stories are
worth much more than the tears of a
politician. Kerry, meanwhile, desperately
needs to find something to excite voters.
An early favorite for the Democratic
nomination, he trails badly in recent polls in
Iowa and New Hampshire, two early key
political tests. But that's fine with us.
Given the choice, we'd cast our vote for Mrs.
Woodman. — The Valley Independent
Monessen, Pa.”
… For a guy who
has sprinted to the front of the Dem field,
Dean sure spends a lot of time back-pedaling
on the issues. Headline on Sunday New York
Post editorial: “Dean’s Duplicity”
Editorial excerpt: “Once again, Democratic
presidential frontrunner Howard Dean is
furiously back-tracking -- this time over his
call for a more ‘even-handed’ U.S. policy
toward Israel. In a campaign appearance
last week in Santa Fe, Dean departed
from his past pro-Israel line to insist that
America must not ‘take sides in the [Middle
East] conflict,’ adding that an ‘enormous
number’ of West Bank settlements must be
removed -- which certainly sounds like taking
sides to us. Not
surprisingly, Dean was called on the
carpet by two of his White House-wannabe
rivals, Sens. Joe Lieberman and John
Kerry, at Tuesday night's debate.
Though the former governor sputtered that his
stance is ‘not any different than Bill
Clinton's,’ his opponents were right in
suggesting that Dean's stance would mark a
radical departure from a half-century of U.S.
policy in the region. Almost since its
creation, Israel has enjoyed a special
relationship with the United States -- one
that has well-served America's strategic
interests in the Middle East. Though Dean
in the past has claimed -- before Jewish
audiences -- that his position is akin to that
of the pro-Israeli lobbying group AIPAC, his
latest pronouncements have an unsettling sense
of the discredited notion of moral equivalency
at a time when Israel faces an unremitting
wave of Palestinian terrorism. On Thursday,
by the way, AIPAC itself praised Dean's own
fellow Dems in the House for the letter they
sent him, schooling him on America's special
relationship with Israel. Nor did Dean
help himself by declaring that ‘I wish the
president had spent more time on the Middle
East and less time on Iraq.’ Uh, governor
-- exactly where do you think Iraq is located?
Since leaping to the front of the
Democratic field, Dean has been forced to
switch gears abruptly on a number of issues --
like raising the retirement age and lifting
the U.S. embargo of Cuba. When caught out, he
invariably denies having done a 180 - even
though his own words clearly betray him.
Now add U.S. support of Israel to the list.
Question is, once Howard Dean stops all
that shifting, where exactly will he land?”
… Just after
Kerry spent days denying possibilities of a
major campaign shakeup, his communications
director exits. Headline from this
morning’s Union Leader: “Communication
director quits Kerry campaign”
Report – excerpt – by the AP political warrior
Ron Fournier: “John Kerry's communications
director has resigned over differences in the
direction of the Democrat's presidential
campaign. Chris Lehane's departure comes amid
speculation of a wider shake-up in the Kerry
campaign, which has been torn by internal
fights and a lack of public support from the
candidate. Kerry, a Massachusetts
senator once considered the leading contender
in a nine-person field, has seen his campaign
eclipsed by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.
‘John Kerry is a great American,’ Lehane
said in a statement confirming his
resignation. ‘He has assembled a great
team to take on George W. Bush and I wish him
the best of luck as the campaign goes
forward.’ Lehane was a key adviser and
spokesman for the campaign, though he was not
on the payroll. That move was planned later
this fall. He resigned last week. Campaign
officials, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said Lehane told them he was leaving over
philosophical differences with Kerry.
They said Lehane, who was Al Gore's
press secretary in the 2000 race and worked
for President Clinton, was among a cadre of
Kerry aides who believed that Kerry
ran too cautiously against the threat posed by
Dean. Campaign strategist Bob Shrum and
others urged Kerry to remain above the fray in
an attempt to look presidential. Kerry avoided
confrontation with Dean in the first two
debates, but his rhetoric on the campaign
trail has become more critical of the former
governor. Dean leads Kerry
in the latest polls in New Hampshire, an early
voting state that neither candidate can afford
to lose. His front-runner status lost,
Kerry recently dropped out of contention
for at least one key union endorsement and is
scrambling to shore up support in Congress and
among party donors. Though Kerry has
insisted he's satisfied with his team, his
less-than-firm denials of a shake-up have
fueled rumors and created angst among his
staff.”
… In Sioux City,
it’s apparently OK for alleged frontrunner
Dean to be fashionably late as 300 wait and
then cheer his arrival. Headline from
yesterday’s Sioux City Journal: “Democratic
hopeful Dean rouses crowd at Sanford Center”
Coverage – an excerpt – from report by the
Journal’s Julie Weeder: “When the
lead contender for the Democratic nomination
for the presidential election is running late,
it's evidently OK -- the people will wait.
When Vermont
Gov. Howard Dean arrived 40 minutes late at a
town hall meeting Sunday night at the Sanford
Center in Sioux City, the crowd of close to
300 people greeted him with a standing ovation
and hoots and hollers normally reserved for a
high school football game.
It probably
helped that the opening act was the
ultra-popular former U.S. Rep. Berkley Bedell,
who also entered the cramped auditorium to a
standing ovation.
‘I think it's about time for our Democratic
Party to stand up for what we believe,’
said Bedell, who was recently named to
Dean's Iowa leadership team. ‘This is the
second time I've been traveling with him, and
let me tell you, you're going to love Gov.
Dean.’ And love him they did. Though
Dean spoke for a less amount of time than the
crowd waited for him, they peppered his speech
with frequent bursts of applause. The issue
that will put a Democrat back in the White
House, Dean said, is lost jobs. ‘This
president has lost 3 million jobs -- the
fastest loss of jobs ever,’ Dean said.
To get more jobs, shape up the economy, by
first balancing the federal budget, Dean
said. ‘This is a
borrow-and-spend-borrow-and-spend-credit-card
presidency. The Republicans cannot, do not and
will not handle money,’ he said. Dean was
governor of Vermont for so long, he served
through two Bush recessions, he said. ‘And
I still maintained a balanced budget in
Vermont,’ he said. ‘The reason we're going to
win is we are going to care about all
Americans and people and not just the ones who
are going to get us re-elected.’ Standing
in front of a handmade banner painted with the
words, ‘Restoring our Community,’ Dean
criticized President George W. Bush's ties to
campaign finance supporters from big
businesses, including Kenneth Lay, former
chairman of Enron. Dean charged
that it's those supporters who reaped the
benefits of Bush's $3 trillion he took out of
Social Security and put into tax cuts. Dean
also criticized the figure of $87 billion –
‘which is the same amount Bush asked for to
wage war in Iraq for another year.’ Dean
said he has a health insurance program that
could insure every American, at the cost of
$87 billion. Perhaps knowing his audience,
Dean also took time to criticize the federal
education legislation No Child Left Behind.”
… “Edwards’s
career tied to jury award debate” –
headline from yesterday’s Boston Globe. The
Globe’s Wendy Davis, from Raleigh, reported: “Senator
John Edwards, the North Carolina lawyer
running for president, built a career out of
winning historic jury awards for children who
suffered birth defects allegedly because
doctors mishandled their deliveries -- from a
record $6.5 million in 1985 to a new record of
$23 million in his last trial in 1997.His
summations became legendary, with lawyers
crowding the courtroom to listen to Edwards
move jurors to tears. ‘What value do you
attach to the emotional suffering that this
little girl will have for the rest of her
life?’ he asked in his breakthrough case, in
1985. ‘I wouldn't take $10 million for it.’
Edwards also persuaded the jury that the
hospital was responsible, even though the
doctor was not an employee. But in a
precursor of battles to come, the trial judge
set aside a portion of the $6.5 million
verdict as excessive, and an appeals court
agreed. The North Carolina Hospital
Association filed an unsuccessful protest
brief, claiming Edwards had opened a new
avenue for malpractice cases. Now, spurred by
President Bush, Republicans are seeking to
limit awards for pain and suffering, saying
juries are driving up the cost of health care.
On Saturday, Texas voters narrowly supported a
$750,000 cap on pain and suffering awards.
Today, North Carolina is scheduled to consider
limiting such awards to $250,000. While
Edwards helped block a similar bill in the
Senate last July, Republicans are vowing to
take it up again, putting Edwards -- and his
career -- back in the spotlight. ‘To the
extent that he's been able to persuade a jury,
he's succeeded,’ said state Senator Robert
Pittenger of North Carolina, referring to
Edwards's ability to make a jury cater to
his client's needs. But Pittenger, a
Republican supporting limits on jury awards,
insists, ‘That's not, to me, an equitable way
to try to stabilize the health care industry.’
A Globe review of Edwards's career from
the mid-1980s through 1997 reveals that he was
more than just a practitioner of medical
malpractice law. He was one of its most
prominent specialists, stretching the reach of
the law for nearly two decades. But he also
came to personify some of the alleged excesses
that reformers have sought to curb.”
… “At UI,
Kerry slams Bushonomics” – headline from
this morning’s Daily Iowan (University of
Iowa). Excerpt from report by the DI’s Jeffrey
Patch: “Approximately 200 people welcomed
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., to Hubbard Park on
Monday afternoon, as the candidate for the
Democratic presidential nomination continued
his effort to sow grass-roots support on
campuses and in Iowa. Tuition increased
17.9 percent at the UI this year, and Kerry,
who attends approximately eight events per
day, took note and struck a chord. ‘No family
income went up 15-20 percent,’ he said. ‘Every
family is struggling.’ Speaking to the
mostly student audience, he outlined his
higher-education plan, which includes a $4,000
tax credit to households for each college
student and a proposal to offer four years of
free tuition at a public, instate university
in exchange for two years of community
service. ‘Campuses have always been a big
part of his politics,’ said David Wade,
Kerry's national spokesman. ‘It's in his
blood.’ Kerry also criticized Rep.
Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., and former Vermont Gov.
Howard Dean for plans to scrap the entire Bush
tax cut to pay for social programs. ‘Some
of my opponents -- Mr. Gephardt, Mr.
Dean -- want to get rid of the whole tax
cut.’ Kerry said. ‘I want to fight to
help the middle class, because the last time I
looked, the problem wasn't that the middle
class had too much money.’ Mark Lucas, a UI
freshman and Republican city councilor from
Wilton, Iowa, said Kerry cannot have it
both ways. ‘He was talking about how the
tax code was bloated, yet he wants to offer
targeted tax cuts,’ Lucas said. In the
30-minute speech, Kerry noted his role
as an activist after he returned from fighting
in the Vietnam War. ‘I learned what it was
like to be an instrument of American foreign
policy,’ he said. ‘I watched what happened
when we lost the consent and legitimacy of the
American people.’”
… Battle
with Vermont firefighters could douse Dean’s
bandwagon and douse endorsement possibility.
Headline from Sunday’s Washington Post: “Dean’s
Failure to Woo N.H. Firefighters May Cost Him
Endorsement” Coverage by the Post’s Dana
Milbank: “Red-hot Democratic presidential
aspirant Howard Dean is about to get some cold
water thrown on his candidacy. Sparks are
flying between the former Vermont governor and
a crucial group in the New Hampshire
primaries, the Professional Fire Fighters of
New Hampshire labor union. The group's
fiercely active 1,200 members and their highly
visible mode of transportation were
instrumental in Al Gore's defeat of
Bill Bradley in the New Hampshire primary in
2000. This time, Dean is in the hot seat.
It began when the Professional Fire
Fighters of Vermont sent a letter in June to
their brethren in New Hampshire warning that
Dean ‘failed to ever put the weight of the
governor's office behind any piece of
legislation firefighters introduced.’ The
Manchester Union Leader in New Hampshire got
hold of the letter and produced a statement
from Dean's campaign outlining his
strong stance against . . . sparklers. ‘It's
fair to call him a national advocate against
sparklers,’ the statement said. The
firefighters were not impressed by Dean's
opposition to party novelties. ‘We think
he should be focused on first responders, not
pyrotechnics,’ said New Hampshire union
President David Lang, noting that the group is
agnostic on sparklers. Dean has twice blown
off meetings proposed by the firefighters and
hasn't been in touch with them since the last
meeting was canceled on Aug. 22. The
firefighters are steamed. ‘I'm glad New
Hampshire's firefighters have a better
response time,’ Lang said. Dean's
state director, Karen Hicks, sought to douse
the conflagration on Friday. ‘We really look
forward to meeting with the professional
firefighters at a time when it works for Dr.
Dean and Mr. Lang,’ she said. But it
may be too late. At the firefighters'
parent union, the International Association of
Fire Fighters in Washington, General President
Harold A. Schaitberger said the IAFF is
getting ready to endorse a presidential
candidate at an executive board meeting at the
end of the month. Schaitberger, who has
met with all the major candidates, won't say
who it will be, but people who have been
following the endorsement sweepstakes say
Dean will be hosed. Sen. John F. Kerry
(D-Mass.) is said to be the heavy favorite for
the endorsement, which would be his first from
an AFL-CIO union.”
… “Democrats
in Congress Ponder Dean” – headline from
yesterday’s New York Times. Excerpt from
report by the Times’ Robin Toner: “Congressional
Democrats are often blindsided by their
party's presidential nominating process; three
of the last five Democratic nominees were
governors who, at least initially, were
largely unknown on Capitol Hill. As
Representative John P. Murtha, the western
Pennsylvania Democrat now in his 29th year in
Congress, put it, ‘I've never been right in a
primary yet.’ In recent days lawmakers have
been buzzing as they try to figure out the
surge of another little-known governor, Howard
Dean of Vermont. Who is he? How does he get
those crowds? And, one of the crucial
questions for lawmakers who must run next
year, would Dr. Dean, who was governor for 12
years, help or hurt them at the top of the
ticket? Even some of the most senior
lawmakers say they do not know the man. A
colleague of Representative Jim McDermott, the
liberal Washington Democrat, summed up the
bewilderment among lawmakers recently when he
asked Mr. McDermott: ‘What do you think,
Jim? Is this guy McGovern or Carter?’ Mr.
McDermott, who said he was ‘definitely
attracted’ to Dr. Dean, said he thought
he was a Carter. Other lawmakers clearly
have worries about Dr. Dean's electability if
he wins the nomination. … ‘People are
looking for a winner,’ the Senate strategist
said, "and it's not clear whether Dean is a
Babbitt/McCain/Tsongas phenomenon or if he can
truly take hold all over the country."
Many Democratic lawmakers are only beginning
to focus on the race for the nomination and
say they plan to stay unaligned until it is
more fully developed. Of the nine
candidates, four are members of the Senate and
two are members of the House, and thus far
better known on Capitol Hill. The sheer number
of candidates from the Senate has frozen many
of their colleagues in place. Richard A.
Gephardt, the Missouri Democrat and
longtime minority leader in the House, is by
far the leader in Congressional endorsements,
with 31. But Mr. Gephardt has been
eclipsed by Dr. Dean in both
fund-raising and recent polls in important
states; his supporters recently sought to
reassure his base in the House with a memo
outlining ‘Why Dick Gephardt will be the
Democratic nominee.’ Mr. Gephardt
and his top strategists also met with many of
those Congressional supporters this week.
Senator John Kerry, Democrat of
Massachusetts, who has endorsements from 15
members of the House, held a similar meeting.
Dr. Dean has the backing of seven
members of the House, his campaign said…Many
Democratic lawmakers are clearly impressed by
Dr. Dean's surge in August — his fund-raising,
his use of the Internet, his crowds. Mr.
Murtha, who supports Mr. Gephardt,
said, ‘I'll tell you what: this guy's doing
something right to get those kinds of
crowds.’”
… Report
from Florida says Graham gets polite applause
– a “welcome respite from the underwhelming
reception” he gets on campaign trail.
Headline in yesterday’s The Union Leader: “Graham
comfortable coming from behind” Report –
from Tallahassee – by AP’s Brent Kallestad:
“About 100 people turned out for a
recent Bob Graham fund-raiser near the state
Capitol, where the presidential hopeful served
as governor and lawmaker for more than a
decade in the 1970s and 1980s. The inside of
the Governor's Club, a private hangout for
lobbyists and politicians, looked more like a
reunion of longtime Graham loyalists than a
campaign appearance. Most of those in
attendance were around the age of the
66-year-old U.S. senator. They applauded
politely when he told the crowd he was in the
race to stay. For Graham, it was a welcome
respite from the underwhelming reception he's
received in other states. His campaign has
struggled to garner attention among a crowded
field of Democrats and has been hearing calls
to drop from the race and seek to return to
the Senate. ‘To this point, Graham has
not connected,’ said University of Virginia
political science professor Larry Sabato, who
specializes in presidential and Southern
politics. ‘Not in Iowa, not in New Hampshire,
not anywhere outside his home state.’ And
while former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean is on
the cover of Time and Newsweek, Graham has
found himself reading unfavorable pieces in
The New York Times and The Washington Post.
A major home state paper, the Orlando
Sentinel, has urged him to give up his
presidential ambitions and run again for the
Senate. Even the news events of the day
seem to conspire against his campaign. He was
in Oklahoma the same day former WorldCom chief
executive Bernie Ebbers was arraigned there on
criminal charges of violating the state's
security laws. But in Florida, Graham
loyalists are legion. No one at the $500 a
person fund-raiser last month talked about
Graham leaving the race. But some
loyalists are getting jittery. Raising
money can be a problem for candidates trailing
in the early going.”
… “In a
shift of strategy, Kerry takes on Dean” –
headline from Sunday’s Boston Globe. Excerpt
from report by the Globe’s Michael Kranish: “During
an early July weekend of Cape Cod kiteboarding
and campaign strategizing, Senator John F.
Kerry gathered a dozen of his top aides on the
porch of his Nantucket home to debate a key
question: Should they respond to Howard Dean's
surprise early airing of television
commercials in Iowa? Kerry's
advisers concluded that Dean was
foolishly frittering away precious campaign
cash at a time when few voters were paying
attention. The Massachusetts senator waited
until 10 days ago to launch a commercial
counterattack, finally airing spots in New
Hampshire and Iowa. The July decision
wound up costing Kerry and helping
Dean, as the former Vermont governor rose
in the polls over the summer, followed his
Iowa blitz with similar ads in New Hampshire
in early August, appeared on the covers of
Time and Newsweek, and collected millions of
Internet dollars. Dean also hinted that he
might break the federal spending cap necessary
to get public funds, posing even more of a
threat to Kerry. With the beginning of
primary season just four months away, Kerry
-- once considered the Democratic front-runner
-- has faced woes extending beyond just
advertising decisions and Dean's surge
in popularity. The Massachusetts senator's
message is criticized by some as muddled and
by others as too oriented toward a general
election against President Bush. Some liberal
activists continue to question his vote to
give President Bush the authority to go to war
in Iraq, a matter that has dogged Kerry in his
race against the antiwar Dean. Now
Kerry, who insisted earlier this month
that he planned ‘no changes’ in his staff,
said he plans to add people to ‘plug holes’
and is demonstrating a new willingness to
challenge Dean. Significantly, when asked
about a simmering dispute between his
Washington and Massachusetts campaign staffs,
he told the Globe he is working to ‘find a way
for the people not there every day to weigh in
more effectively…We are making changes every
day.’…’What's important is someone was unarmed
for a period of time,’ Kerry said, in a
revealing comment referring to his lack of
television ads, ‘and we're now there.’
While the ads don't attack Dean, Kerry was
especially tough on his opponent during an
interview last week with the Globe.
`Somebody who wants to be president ought to
keep their word,’ Kerry said. ‘I think
somebody who wants to be president shouldn't
run around the country breaking their policies
on a daily basis, going backwards on foreign
policy, backwards on Cuba, backwards on taxes,
changing around, and now possibly on a
campaign finance pledge. I think it goes to
the core of whether you are a different
politician or a politician of your word or
what you are.’ Dean campaign manager Joe
Trippi, asked to respond, said: ‘I'll just
let it stand. He wants to say that, he can say
that.’”
… Interesting
read: Campaign tests old alliance
between Dean – early ’88 Gephardt support –
and Gephardt. Headline from yesterday’s
Boston Globe: “Dean, Gephardt test buddy
system” Excerpt from report by the Globe’s
Brian C. Mooney: “Early this year, Howard
Dean's staff issued a press release strongly
criticizing the health care plan of
Representative Richard A. Gephardt, one of
Dean's rivals in the Democratic presidential
race. The former Vermont governor hadn't
approved it in advance, and thought the tone
was too harsh. ‘He came in and said: `Dick
Gephardt's a friend of mine. I don't think
his health plan can get passed, but make sure
that never happens again,' ‘ Dean
campaign manager Joe Trippi recalled. It
wasn't an isolated incident. Trippi
said Dean, who rarely criticizes staff, has
chewed out him and other aides ‘when he
thought someone was a little overexuberant in
saying something about Dick Gephardt.’
Gephardt had likewise been restrained in
his criticisms of Dean, and, on
occasion, praised him. The reason for the
cordial byplay? Dean and Gephardt have been
friends since 1988, when Dean campaigned in
New Hampshire and Iowa for Gephardt's
unsuccessful presidential campaign. Dean's
support was significant because the
then-lieutenant governor was the first major
Vermont Democrat to endorse a candidate other
than Michael S. Dukakis, governor of
neighboring Massachusetts. Trippi also
joined the Gephardt team that year, and
to this day he and Steve Murphy, Gephardt's
campaign manager this year and a veteran of
the '88 Gephardt race, remain close.
Bill Carrick, who managed Gephardt's
'88 campaign, recalled meeting Dean to
enlist his support. He quoted Dean as
saying: ‘Dick may be a little more liberal
than I am, but he's not as liberal as Dukakis,
so I'm more comfortable supporting him.’
In an interview last week, Carrick,
Gephardt's media consultant this time out,
was asked how long the cordial relationship
would last. ‘Not long,’ he chuckled. ‘But
hopefully until your deadline.’ It didn't.
Gephardt hammered Dean on Friday for comments
in 1995 endorsing Republican budget-cutting
initiatives that would have cut Medicare
benefits and raised the Social Security
retirement age to 70. The Missouri
congressman also exhumed Dean quotes
referring to Medicare as ‘one of the worst
federal programs ever.’ Still, Gephardt
bristled when a reporter described his
comments as an ‘attack’ on Dean. ‘This
is not an attack. This is a legitimate policy
difference,’ he said. ‘I like all of my
opponents. I respect them. I think they're
good candidates…But you have to have a debate.
That's what elections are all about.’
Trippi, however, wasn't having any of it.
‘This was just a political play and nothing
more that that,’ he said. ‘It has a lot more
to do with where we are in the polls today,
vis a vis Dick Gephardt, than it does with
anything that happened in 1995.’”
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