GENERAL NEWS:                                                                                  Tuesday, April 22, 2003

… Earth Day. Environmentalists all over morning newscasts this morning warning that state and federal budget cuts will hurt environmental, anti-pollution initiatives – including concern state parks won’t be maintained and improved. 

… Among the offerings in this morning’s update: OpinionJournal.com says Edwards’ campaign has become a “wholly owned subsidiary of the national tort bar.” …Sharpton criticizes Bush during Easter sermon…Former general from IA urges NATO involvement in postwar Iraq (in war/terrorism section below)…Pro-troops rally set for northwest IA tomorrow night…Graham – finally – schedules IA visit…Updates on several Dem wannabes…Chicago Sun-Times columnist Bob Novak writes that if GOP Sen Leader Frist “does not undo what he did on April 10 [on GWB’s tax cut proposal], Bill Frist could be in real trouble” and more. Read on…

… And the biggest IA news of the morning – even more important than anticipation building for Dean visit to eastern Iowa later this week – is that former Hawkeyes basketball coach Dr. Tom Davis will resume career as Drake’s new coach. Top front-page headline, today’s Des Moines Register: “Dr. Tom to Drake …Bulldogs hire ex-Hawkeye hoops coach” Top sports-page headline, today’s Des Moines Register: “Bulldogs ready to run, Dr. Tom style…That means lots of substitutions, pressing” Main sports headline on QCTimes.com (Quad-City Times): “Dr. Tom takes over at Drake” Keep reading…

CANDIDATES & CAUCUSES: 

… Veteran Washington Times writer Donald Lambro reported yesterday – under the headline “Democrats still stumble on security” – “While our forces were fighting and dying to free Iraq, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the ultimate straddler on the war, was calling for ‘a regime change in the United States.’ Incredibly, he was ‘implying a resemblance between the American president and the crazed megalomaniac we deposed in Iraq,’ Noemie Emery of the Weekly Standard wrote last week. These irresponsible anti-war outbursts by party figures are troubling some Democratic officials, and for the first time they are beginning to complain – publicly. ‘We haven’t done a good job of getting our message out on the whole issue of terrorism and national security,’ said Arizona Democratic Chairman Jim Pederson. ‘We have to come up with a common-sense response instead of ideological and emotional responses.’”  

… Sidebar in today’s Des Moines Register – headlined “He’s coming” – reports that Graham will finally make his first campaign visit to Iowa next month: 5/9 and 5/10. 

… Register’s Thomas Beaumont reports this morning about Michigan Dem Party efforts to move up on presidential nominating ladder. Headline: “Michigan set to ditch early-caucus proposal…Iowa, New Hampshire likely to maintain first-in-nation status.” Beaumont account says Michigan likely to hold caucuses 2/7/04 – not, as some Michigan Dems wanted, on same date as NH primary. Beaumont coverage is a basic rehash of previous Iowa Pres Watch morning report updates from Michigan and New Hampshire media -- and last week’s Quad-City Times. 

… Headline from “Review and Outlook” commentary yesterday on OpinionJournal.com (Wall Street Journal) -- “Favorite Son Candidacy…Tort lawyers open their wallets for John Edwards.” An excerpt: “Everybody knew that, as a former trial lawyer, Senator John Edwards would be courting his plaintiffs’ bar allies for the Presidential bid. But even political professionals seem stunned by the degree to which his candidacy has become a wholly owned financial subsidiary of the national tort bar. According to several analyses of the Federal Election Commission’s first-quarter campaign finance reports, Senator Edwards landed on the top of the Democratic money-raising heap, pulling in $7.4 million from donors. This is impressive, but the more amazing number is that nearly two-thirds of his cash came from attorneys and their families, or other law firm staff. And only a fraction of the funds originated in Mr. Edwards’ home state of North Carolina. The rest came from a Who’s Who of every class-action law firm in the nation.”

… More on the Edwards money machine: Headline on report from yesterday’s Tacoma (WA) New Tribune – “Sen. Edwards attracting state’s biggest donors” – further highlights the Dem wannabe’s vacuum cleaner approach to fundraising. From the report by Kenneth P. Vogel: “Some of Washington state’s highest-rolling Democratic donors are lending early support to U. S. Sen. John Edwards’ presidential campaign. With the help of a slew of prominent Puget Sound lawyers and key supporters of Gov. Gary Locke, Edwards raised more than twice as much from Washington in the first three months of 2003 as the next highest-tallying Democratic presidential hopeful, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean. ‘Those are all personal decisions’ by people who have supported Locke’s campaigns, said Roger Nyhus, a spokesman for the two-term governor. He said Locke hasn’t yet endorsed any of the Democrats vying to challenge President Bush in 2004.” Report says Edwards received $101,800 from Washington state contributors and “at least 34 of his 65 state contributors identified themselves as attorneys or listed the same address as an attorney.” Other sample Washington state fundraising totals: Dean, $37,900; Lieberman, $21,900; Kerry, $14,750; Gephardt, $13,000 – and Kucinich, $1,500. Graham and Moseley Braun listed no Washington state contributors while – as The Union Leader in New Hampshire keeps pointing out – Sharpton has refused to disclose his financial contributions.

… Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz reported yesterday that ABC News and George Stephanopoulos are staging debate next week featuring “the baseball-team-size field vying for President Bush’s job.” Kurtz wrote: “Just as the media are showing signs of Iraq withdrawal syndrome, nine Democrats and one network are trying to fill the void” – by televising the 5/3 South Carolina debate that was scheduled in conjunction with the state Dem convention that weekend. Kurtz reports that “ABC is excited about it [the debate broadcasting] coup. ‘It’s early, but the whole cycle started earlier this time around,’ says Stephanopoulos, who will moderate the debate – to be shown on ABC affiliates in such early-contest states as New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina – and play excerpts on “This Week” the next morning. ‘The whole thing is speeded up.’”  

… Leftover report on Lieberman campaign – headlined, “Lieberman Has Yet to Electrify Key Backers” – from his home state newspaper, the Hartford Courant. The Courant’s Washington Bureau Chief David Lightman reported last Friday: “There’s a distinctively Jewish wrinkle to Joe Lieberman’s latest fund-raising report. Hundreds of donors sent dollar amounts that were multiples of 18, considered a Jewish lucky number. Trouble was, there were not enough of those contributors to make Lieberman look as good as some expected he would. The Connecticut Democrat raised $3 million in the first quarter of 2003, a dismal sum compared with other major candidates. Perhaps more troubling for his 2004 presidential bid, he has only $1.8 million left. That placed him fifth in the cash derby, behind former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who had $2 million.” 

… Associated Press report by Lolita C. Baldor of DC Bureau about presidential wannabes missing congressional votes gets solid play in several early caucus-primary states. Top headline from yesterday’s The Union Leader online political page: “Kerry, Lieberman miss key votes to campaign” Key excerpt from Baldor story: “U. S. Sen. Joe Lieberman was wrangling support for his presidential bid in Keene, N. H., and Sen. John Kerry was winging his way to sunny Florida to meet with the teachers’ union in mid-January when the Senate rejected increased funding for education and Medicaid. The amendment lost by two votes.” (Iowa Pres Watch Note: Baldor report on candidate missed votes and absenteeism similar to weekend coverage in Des Moines Register by Thomas Beaumont, which was reported in the Saturday – 4/19 – Pres Watch morning update.)

… The Union Leader’s “NH primary” page yesterday also featured a photo of Sharpton delivering Easter sermon at the East End Baptist Tabernacle Church in Bridgeport, CT, on Sunday – and added another line to the photo caption: “Sharpton has yet to disclose campaign finances.” For more on Sharpton’s Easter anti-Bush sermon, read on…

… Headline from yesterday’s Bridgeport Connecticut Post: “Sharpton critical of Bush, war in sermon…Sharpton returns to city for Easter…Nation needs to get priorities straight, candidate preaches” Linda Conner Lambeck reports: “As he has the past few Easter mornings, the outspoken New York preacher and activist brought a foot-stomping, crowd-pleasing sermon to the Central Avenue pulpit, only this time as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president. In a sometimes raspy but most times booming voice, Sharpton lashed out at President Bush, questioned the logic of the war in Iraq and said he was not afraid to do so…Sharpton hopes the troops will have jobs to return to when they take off their uniforms. ‘What bothers me more as I look here in Bridgeport and look around this country, at a time we are cutting funds for education, cutting health care, laying off state and city workers, we can take $100 billion to occupy [Iraq],’ said Sharpton. ‘We don’t have the money for the 50 states we already have.’” 

… Also from Sharpton’s Bridgeport visit, more Connecticut Post coverage: “One of nine Democratic hopefuls, Sharpton said his campaign is going well. ‘I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people,’ he said. ‘I expect we will have a lively and constructive debate about which direction the Democratic Party should be going in and whether we should be an opposition party or co-sign to the Bush administration.” 

IOWA POLITICS: 

… On the Harkin-Boswell Cuba Watch: No indications yet that Harkin or Boswell (or IA Ag Secretary Patty Judge) planning to cancel or delay planned Cuba visits, despite apparent Coast Guard concerns about a major exodus from Cuba in coming weeks. Report by Alfonso Chardy in yesterday’s Miami Herald: “Coast Guard cutters operating off South Florida’s shores have picked up fewer Cuban migrants in the first three months of the year than Haitians and Dominicans combined. But the absence of large numbers of Cuban migrants headed to South Florida may be the calm before the storm. A wave of repression in Cuba in recent weeks has been so alarming that U. S. officials have begun to wonder whether Cuba may unleash a new Mariel-style exodus – a typical Cuban response in times of crisis. American officials are so worried that they have already quietly advised Cuba not to attempt any such action.” 

… From yesterday’s Congressional Quarterly mid-day update yesterday: “TODAY’S TRIVIA: Drafted in 1956, when he was 22, Rep. Leonard L. Boswell, D-Iowa, became a helicopter pilot and served two tours in Vietnam, earning a pair of Distinguished Flying Crosses and a pair of Bronze Stars. Upon his retirement as a lieutenant colonel, Boswell returned home to farm cattle on 475 acres in his native Decatur County.” 

MORNING SUMMARY:   

 … This morning’s headlines --

Des Moines Register top front-page headline: Outside of dedicating the big typefaces to Dr. Tom taking Drake coaching job, the other main front-page headline: “Head of effort to rebuild Iraq sees short stay…Baath figure caught; toxic agents found?”

Quad-City Times main online head: “For now, U. S. ex-general runs Iraq”

Daily Iowan (University of Iowa) main national online head: “U. S. leader for Iraq gets taste of Baghdad”

Omaha World-Herald top online national headline: “Shiites want role in Iraq”

Sioux City Journal main headline: State issue – “Vilsack optimistic of compromise on regulatory bill” Report says Vilsack was optimistic yesterday a compromise can be reached on regulatory reform bill that’s stalling action on his key priority – a large-scale economic development fund. 

Chicago Tribune online headlines: “U. S. Postwar Official Visits Kurd Region” & “Laci Peterson’s Parents Break Silence”

… From this morning’s Des Moines Register – headline, “U. S. panel tackles Meskwaki dispute” – report says, “The National Indian Gaming Commission is threatening to shut down the Meskwaki casino near Tama unless control of the operation returns to the elected tribal council, an attorney said Monday. Dennis Johnson, a Des Moines attorney representing the elected council, he did not know when such action might be taken.” 

… Daily Iowan reports this morning Phyllis Nelson, the “Iowa City woman convicted of killing her cheating husband in a fit of rage,” was sentenced yesterday to a maximum of 10 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter. She could, however, be released in 22 months with good behavior and credit for time already served. Nelson, 55, was found guilty in the stabbing death of Dr. Richard Nelson – her husband of 33 years and the executive dean of the University of Iowa medical school. He was killed in a Cedar Rapids apartment during an argument about an affair he was having with his secretary, Mary Jo Young.  

WAR & TERRORISM: 

… Retired Maj. Gen. Evan “Curly” Hultman of Waterloo says the United States should work with NATO – rather than the United Nations – to rebuild Iraq’s infrastructure. Hultman, the U. S. representative on the Partnership for Peace Committee, told the Des Moines Register that the U. N. has a dismal track record for previous peacekeeping missions in Kosovo and elsewhere. He said: “We can’t walk away from Iraq because freedom will suffer, and not just freedom in Iraq, but freedom around the world. But we can’t allow [U. N. Secretary-General] Kofi Annan to run the show.” Hultman, a retired Army Reserve general and former two-term Iowa attorney general, said he fears the challenging task of restructuring Iraq would be plagued by the same discord and ineffectiveness as the decision-making process of the United Nations. The Partnership for Peace Committee on which Hultman represents the United States is a group of close to one million military officers in NATO member nations.   

… More than two-thirds of respondents to an online poll by KMNS Radio (AM620) in Sioux City indicated their longest lasting image from the war with Iraq was the “toppling of the Hussein statue.” Just under 20% named “the bombing of Baghdad” as their most lasting image with the rescue of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch as third choice.   

… From the North Korean Front – headline, “South Korea Agrees to Cabinet-level Talks in Pyongyang” VOANews (Voice of America) dispatch from Tokyo reports: “South Korea has accepted a proposal from Pyongyang to hold cabinet level talks in the North in a week. Those talks will follow a meeting between North Korea and the United States in Beijing. Pyongyang seems to be backing away from recent belligerent statements to make sure the meetings go ahead.” The discussions – which were canceled earlier this month by North Korea -- are scheduled to start in Pyongyang on 4/27. 

FEDERAL ISSUES:  

… AP story appearing in newspapers across country this morning on GWB tax cut goals says “the political balance of the Senate is still on the side of chopping Bush’s original wish list in half.” Report says the White House – “determined to save the major features of the president’s economic growth plan – floated ideas Monday” to try to recover as much of president’s original $726 billion tax cut as possible. The top priority – getting the Senate to vote for a tax cut above $350 billion that IA Sen Grassley committed to before Easter recess. But Associated Press reported an aide to Grassley – who’s chairman of the Senate Finance Committee – said: “I guess we would caution folks to be realistic about the Senate and what it can accomplish.” AP report added: “Grassley has said the only way to successfully clear all the hurdles – committee debate, floor consideration and final negotiations with the House – is to keep the tax cut at $350 billion favored by Senate moderates. He expects that the president’s plan to eliminate taxes on corporate dividends paid to shareholders will not survive, but that many other elements of the president’s plan will.”

… In his Chicago Sun-Times column yesterday, Robert Novak reported “House Republican leaders blame old hands like Grassley and Nickles rather than the inexperienced Frist, who was frantic to pass a budget and to start the Easter recess promptly.” Novak’s references were to Grassley, Senate Budget Chairman Don Nickles of Oklahoma and first-year GOP Senate Leader Bill Frist, who – as Novak noted in his column – “cannot be enjoying himself if he appreciates the intensity of two Republican critics back in Washington, freshman Sen. Lindsay Graham and House Majority Whip Roy Blunt.” Novak concluded that Frist must get a tax cut of  “around $550 billion” on the president’s desk – adding: “If he does not undo what he did April 10, Bill Frist will be in real trouble.”

… And more: Weekend coverage of Bush tax cut debate from the Portland, ME, Press Herald, headline: “Snowe in cross-fire of dueling ads” Copyrighted coverage by Tom Bell, “Two Republican political action committees based in Washington are starting dueling advertising campaigns this weekend in Maine, one in support of Sen. Olympia Snowe, the other opposing her. The ads, which aim to influence Snowe by targeting her constituents in Maine, reveal the political pressure that Snowe is facing because of her efforts to limit President Bush’s tax cut to $350 billion, less than half of his $726 billion proposal.” One ad campaign – as indicated in yesterday’s Iowa Pres Watch morning report – is sponsored by the Club for Growth, criticizing Snowe for her opposition to a bigger tax cut. Bell’s article reports: “In response to that [Club for Growth] ad, a political action committee that supports moderate Republicans in Congress launched $60,000 worth of print ads this weekend. The group’s full-page newspaper ad…counters the Club for Growth ads...The Republican Main Street Partnership, the largest group of moderate GOP elected officials in the country, is paying for the ads. The group has more than 65 U. S. senators, representatives and governors.” 

IOWA ISSUES: 

… IA GOP Congressman King will be among the featured speakers at a “massive” Support the Troops rally scheduled in northwest Iowa tomorrow night. The Sioux City Journal reported that the “Buena Vista County-wide” rally – which will be held in Alta, between Storm Lake and Cherokee – also will be broadcast live on the local radio station (KKTA, FM92.9). The event will be held at the Summit Church – located across the street from the Alta grade school – at 7 p.m. Organizers said admission is free to “anyone wishing to lend their support to American troops their country in Iraq and anywhere in the world.” Area motorcyclists are planning to meet in front of King’s Storm Lake office at 5:45 p.m. to proceed to the rally. The Journal report says more than 600 veterans live in the county and the Buena Vista County GOP has donated $500 to help underwrite rally costs.    

OPINIONS:  

… Today’s Des Moines Register editorials: State legislative issues – “Just get on with it…Create the development fund. Don’t even think about adjourning without it.”  “Penny-wise…Cuts in child-welfare services will hurt the schools, too…Cuts in drug treatment now will raise prison costs in the future.” 

… Des Moines Register columnist David Yepsen writes this morning about state legislative issues – headline, “Broken tax promise here, there leaves us…where?” Excerpt: “It looks like some Statehouse politicians, including Gov. Tom Vilsack, lied to us in the last campaign when they promised they wouldn’t raise taxes.” Yepsen notes efforts to raise cigarette taxes and to tax Internet sales.

IOWA SPORTS: 

…  For most Iowans, this may be bigger story than 2004 Iowa caucuses – especially since Republicans and most Independents basically excluded from January Dem nominating process: Dr. Tom Davis, 64, after being dismissed as Hawkeyes basketball coach four years ago, will become the next men’s head coach at Drake. Although official announcement of Davis hire not expected until today, the anticipation is already building for “Doctor Tom” – the winningest basketball coach in UI history – to return to Hawkeye-Carver Arena on the Iowa City campus next season for annual Drake-Iowa game. It will be his first visit to the arena since being dismissed as Hawks coach in 1999. (Iowa Pres Watch Note: Prudent Dem wannabes should be in NH, SC, AZ or elsewhere – with IA events, phone banks shutdown – during that game because even Gephardt vs. Kerry vs. Edwards can’t compete against Dr. Tom vs. Iowa successor Steve Alford. Actually, Tom Davis after coaching at Lafayette, Boston College, Stanford and Iowa – with a 543-290 career record/269-140 over 13 seasons at Iowa -- has more high-profile experience and credibility than nine of the nine Dem pres contenders.)   

… Almost lost in the Drake coaching shuffle: Amy Stephens – as expected – was introduced yesterday as the new Drake women’s basketball coach. She became the third former Iowa State University women’s assistant coach to land head coaching job in the Missouri Valley Conference this year. 

… Drake Relays officials have announced that a record 9,359 athletes representing 791 teams will participate in “America’s Athletic Classic” in Des Moines later this week. The entrants include DSM grade school students – a Relays tradition featuring about 560 young participants in relay competition – to world-class Olympians. Among those expected: 47 men’s university teams, 67 women’s university teams, 75 men’s college teams and 63 women’s college teams. 

IOWA WEATHER: 

5 a.m. DSM 40 fair. WHO Radio says it’s “a bit nippy” across IA this morning – ranging from 32 in Spencer and Estherville, 33 in Mason City to 42 in Lamoni – with frost possible in low-lying areas. High today 65, sunny. Low tonight 40, mostly cloudy. High Wednesday 68, partly sunny. From WHO-TV’s Ed Wilson: “Some drier air coming through the region the next couple of days. The highs will be back into the 60s and lows in the 40s…the sunshine will be much improved over the showers and thunderstorms of the last week. More much needed rain coming by Thursday.” 

IOWAISMS: 

… Since this appears to be the Dr. Tom edition of the Iowa Pres Watch update, he’s called “Dr. Tom” because he got his Ph. D. from Maryland. His dissertation – “Athletics in colonial Massachusetts and Virginia”

… Radio Iowa reports that “what promises to become a major tourist asset” – The National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque – is on schedule to open in a little over two months. The museum – a major project in Dubuque’s $188 million river renaissance effort – is on target to open 6/26.  

… The Firestone Agricultural Tire Division broke ground in Ankeny yesterday for a state-of-the-art global distribution center. The new warehouse – scheduled for completion in December – is expected to generate about $11 million for local companies and contractors.

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