Hillary’s response

Hillary Clinton is crying wolf and wants more money according to her latest e-mail appeal:

It's August and things are heating up! There are now four people vying for the Republican nomination to run against Hillary for the United States Senate. The latest is Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro, who launched her campaign last week.

Eventually, one of these four candidates will emerge as Hillary's opponent. Until that happens, we'll face attacks from four different directions. That's why Hillary needs your immediate help to fight back.

It seems as if the race for the Republican nomination is little more than a contest to see who can best attack Senator Clinton. Pirro wasted no time in joining the mudslinging, accusing Senator Clinton of not working for New Yorkers, and starting her campaign with a string of insults.

Meanwhile, Edward Cox, son-in-law to former president Richard Nixon, continues to attack Hillary for what he calls her "extreme" positions on health care, abortion, and taxes. And former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer went so far as to accuse Hillary of "aiding and comforting the enemy" when she asked Secretary Rumsfeld about divisive comments made by White House aide Karl Rove. There's also tax lawyer William Brenner whose campaign touts him as the "anti-Hillary."

We know Hillary's Republican opponents will be well-financed. In 2000, Rudolph Giuliani spent $20 million to run against Hillary and Rick Lazio spent $40 million more. Between Republican candidates, party organizations and efforts like the "Stop Hillary Now" attack machine, we will see an even more aggressive effort to weaken and defeat Hillary over the next 18 months.

According to news reports, Pirro's candidacy may be the result of urging from White House officials and national Republican Party operatives who have made Hillary their number one target in 2006. This May, the New York Times reported:

Ken Mehlman, the chairman of the Republican National Committee and President Bush's campaign manager last year, recently called Ms. Pirro and urged her to run for the Senate, her advisers said. Deputies of Karl Rove, the president's chief political strategist, also pointed to Ms. Pirro as a natural choice against Mrs. Clinton during a meeting with New York Republicans last week.

It's absolutely essential that our campaign has the resources to fight back. With Republicans revving up their anti-Hillary efforts into high gear, we need your immediate help.

They know they can't beat Hillary by running against her record. Hillary has been working her heart out for New York. She helped win $20 billion in reconstruction and homeland security funds following 9/11 attacks, and fought for resources to cover the screening and monitoring of 9/11 workers and volunteers at Ground Zero. Because of Hillary's work, the new transportation bill includes billions for badly needed transportation projects in New York. She's launched an innovative "Farm to Fork" initiative that links upstate and Long Island farmers to New York City restaurateurs and helped to advance an "eBay university" that allows upstate craftspeople to use the power of the Internet to build their businesses. Now Hillary is fighting to protect children from violent and inappropriate video games like Grand Theft Auto.

Hillary continues to be a strong advocate for New York's children and families and a persuasive voice on the most critical issues facing America. Don't let the Republican piling on undermine the political strength of a Senator who has been effective and straightforward. Don't let Republican attacks define the political landscape in 2006. Send Hillary your help right now.

Sincerely,

Patti Solis Doyle

Gingrich impresses

The Des Moines Register's top political writer David Yepsen was impressed with Newt Gingrich's latest visit to Iowa:

        He also said immigrants must become Americans. "There is an important question about America remaining American. America is a cultural society. We don't have a DNA that says you are American. It's history, rule of law, elections, free speech, participating. But for the last 30 or 40 years, we have lost the nerve to teach it," he said. To become a U.S. citizen, "you should have to pass a test in American history, and it should be in English."

Gingrich also said China and India form a unique competitive threat to U.S. prosperity. For the first time since the 1840s, the United States will face competitors with markets as large as ours. To match them, the nation must follow high-growth policies such as lower taxes, fewer regulations, less litigation and more science and math education.

In the future, "China will graduate eight times as many engineers as we do. We'll graduate more lawyers," he said. One way to correct that is to pay students in poor neighborhoods to take math and science classes, which could be taught by people with math and science backgrounds who may not have teaching certificates.

Poor students are sent all sorts of positive messages about football, basketball, rock stars and drug dealing, he said. It's time they are sent positive messages about the value of math and science as a path to a better life.

As Yepsen said, Gingrich has set a high standard for others to follow.