Daily Report: 2004 Presidential Watch: Republican conservative news on the Democrat caucus, primary candidates national campaigns.

THE CLINTON COMEDIES:

Hillary pulled off a RFK move when she ran – and won – in New York, but will she repeat his ’68 decision make a prez bid ahead of anticipated schedule? Headline from Dick Morris column in yesterday’s The Hill: “Hillary Clinton might not want to wait until 2008” Excerpt: “In 1968, a carpetbag senator from New York pondered a race to unseat an incumbent president. Determined to capitalize on his family name, raised to mythic proportions by his relative’s tenure in the White House, he judged, nevertheless, that his time had not yet come and that he should wait for four more years to venture out and run on his own. But along came an unknown candidate who saw the vulnerability of the incumbent and mounted a campaign driven by the left-wing activists of the anti-war movement. With the president’s strength more apparent than real and Americans chafing under the daily dose of combat casualties, the unknown candidate gathered momentum and support. With each passing week, the incumbent president seemed more and more vulnerable…Will the role Robert F. Kennedy was preparing for be played by Hillary Rodham Clinton, Lyndon Johnson by George W. Bush and Eugene McCarthy by Howard Dean? As that famous philosopher Yogi Berra said, ‘It’s déjà vu all over again.’ Bill and Hillary Clinton have one central idea in their uncluttered, ambitious minds: Hillary in 2008. Let Bush get re-elected, use the ’04 primaries and general election to clean out the underbrush of competing Democratic candidates, and proceed unimpeded to the ’08 nomination. Use the book tours to build support and popularity, but let somebody else take the fall in 2004. But those well-laid plans would go awry if somebody else beats Bush. With a Democrat in the White House certain to seek a second term in 2008, Hillary would have to wait until 2012 to run. By then, she’ll be 65 and have been out of power for 12 years. The bloom will have faded and the honors gone elsewhere. So as Bush continues his descent in the polls, the chance that Hillary will run becomes ever greater. The most recent polls put Bush’s job approval at 58 percent but, ominously, indicate that only 47 percent would vote for him against a hypothetical Democratic candidate. Forty-seven percent is just about what Bush won in 2000. And how committed could the top 11 percent of his backers be to say that they approve of the job he’s doing but won’t necessarily vote for him?…If Bush continues to drop and one or more Democrats start to catch fire, Hillary Clinton will have some thinking to do. She won’t have to look far to absorb the consequences of sitting on the sidelines. If 1968 is a distant recollection, 1992 would be doubtless more vivid. Bill Clinton got the nomination because Mario Cuomo decided not to run. Cuomo, figuring Bush couldn’t be defeated, elected to wait, as Hillary is waiting in 2004, calculating that Bush can’t be taken. Will Hillary remember 1968 … and 1992?”

Senate Republicans – unable to clear GWB’s key judicial nominations – may have to wait until after ’04 election to move the appointments. Headline from yesterday’s Washington Times: “Senate GOP sees little hope to snap judicial filibuster” Excerpts from article by Charles Hunt and Stephen Dinan: “Democrats are suffering no political damage from three ongoing filibusters of judicial nominees, and Republicans say they may have to wait for the next election to break the deadlock. ‘I think it's probably most likely to be solved by the American people in the next election, given the difficulty of changing the rules here in the Senate,’ Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, said as the Senate began it summer recess last week. Mr. McConnell and other top Republican leaders have rattled their sabers for months, threatening to alter Senate rules so that a simple majority would be needed to confirm nominees and essentially end filibusters against judicial nominations. Under current rules, 60 votes are required to end debate on a nominee so that a final vote on confirmation may be taken. This change in tactics comes at a time when polls suggest that Americans are simply not tuning in to the high-volume debate on Capitol Hill about President Bush's nominees to the federal courts. People for the American Way, a liberal interest group influential among Democrats on the issue of judicial nominations, commissioned a poll that found only a third of Americans had heard anything about the filibusters. ‘People just are not aware of it,’ said Anna Greenberg, vice president of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, the firm that conducted the poll in June. Democrats are preventing final votes on three Bush nominees to the federal court and have indicated that they will filibuster more. The most noted nominee stranded in the confirmation battle is Washington lawyer Miguel A. Estrada, nominated to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Republicans, along with several Democrats, have voted seven times to bring Mr. Estrada's nomination to the floor for a final vote. Each time, the effort has been turned by back by a group of 45 unwavering Democrats. Republicans have tried making the plight of the Honduran-born Mr. Estrada into a rallying cry in Hispanic communities. But most Hispanics, polling has found, have not heard of the filibuster and many of those who had were confusing Mr. Estrada with actor Erik Estrada, who was on the 1970s television police drama ‘ChiPS’ and is now a popular Spanish-language soap opera star. Also being filibustered is Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen, nominated to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The block of 45 Democrats has voted three times to prevent a final confirmation vote on her. A third filibuster began last week against Alabama Attorney General William H. Pryor, nominated to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Democrats also have vowed to filibuster other nominees, including California Judge Carolyn Kuhl, nominated to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and U.S. District Court Judge Charles W. Pickering of Mississippi. Judge Pickering is nominated to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Still, Republicans say they intend to continue fighting with Democrats over the nominations, hoping their charges of obstructionism will stick to Democrats in the next election. ‘We're going to make them vote over and over and over again — obstruct, obstruct, obstruct, obstruct,’ Mr. McConnell said. ‘And that's what they're doing. We're going to give them an opportunity to demonstrate that in public on any and all nominations they will not allow to have an up-or-down vote.’”

Des Moines Register, top front-page headlines: “Prepare for the fair…Workers take care of last-minute details” & “First Marines land in Liberian capital…President Bush says no more Americans will join the seven-person logistical team until Charles Taylor leaves.”

Quad-City Times, main online stories: Local – “Davenport balances budget” Report says there will be no home garbage collection fee and budget also keeps the parks and recreation department. & “Schwarzenegger to run for California governor”

Nation/world heads, Omaha World-Herald online: “Schwarzenegger decides to run” & “Liberian leader still has to go, Bush says”

Featured reports, New York Times: “To Mollify Iraqis, U. S. Plans to Ease Scope of Its Raids” & “Female Suicide Bombers Unnerve Russians”

Sioux City Journal, top online stories: “Team of U. S. Marines arrives in Liberia” & “Arnold Schwarzenegger announces gubernatorial bid”

Chicago Tribune, main online heads: “Schwarzenegger gets into the act” & “334 Palestinian prisoners freed”

Several media reports said authorities are continuing the investigation into a northern IA accident in which an 86-year-old driver – Cecil Plath of Kensett – killed a 12-year-old girl while she was riding her scooter. The Iowa State Patrol identified the girl as Cassandra Petty, who was riding the scooter Tuesday evening on a county road about two miles southwest of St. Ansgar in Mitchell County (Osage).

From the Korean Front: Headline from yesterday’s Washington Post – “Paper: N. Korea Plans to Export Missiles to Iran” Excerpt from report: “North Korea is in talks to export its Taepodong 2 long-range ballistic missile to Iran and to jointly develop nuclear warheads with Tehran, a Japanese newspaper reported on Wednesday. The conservative Sankei Shimbun, quoting military sources familiar with North Korea, said that the communist state planned to export components and Iran would then assemble the Taepodongs at a factory near Tehran. The paper, known for its hardline stance on Pyongyang, said North Korea would also send experts to provide Iran with assistance on missile technology and the two states -- both included in President Bush's ‘axis of evil’ -- would jointly develop nuclear warheads. They have been discussing the plans for about a year and are expected to reach an agreement in mid-October, the Sankei added. The United States and North Korea's neighbors are putting pressure on Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear programs. North Korea has finally agreed to multilateral talks, which are expected to take place in Beijing later this month or early in September. If Iran acquires the Taepodong 2, which has a range of over 6,000 km (3,700 miles), it would be able to hit targets in Europe, the paper said. Missile exports are a vital source of foreign currency for cash-strapped North Korea and it is widely believed that Pyongyang has had dealings with countries in the Middle East as well as with Pakistan.”

Harkin – home for the August holidays – blasts GWN on prescription drug proposal. Headline from yesterday’s Quad-City Times: “Harkin chastises Republican drug plan” Coverage – an excerpt – from report by the Times’ Ed Tibbetts: “A Republican plan to give 40 million senior citizens prescription drug coverage is hopelessly complicated and stingy, U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said at a town meeting Tuesday in Davenport. Several people in the audience at the Harkin-sponsored meeting also objected to the GOP plan. Only a couple of months ago, it looked as though the drug bill was headed for approval. The House and Senate passed it at the urging of President Bush. But in recent weeks, seniors have complained about the bill’s details, according to various reports. And Harkin, on recess and traveling through Iowa to explain why he voted against the measure, sought to build on that. The longtime senator said he hopes a ‘groundswell’ of citizen revolt will force Congress to make major changes. He complained that the bill would force a third of Medicare recipients to pay more in premiums and deductibles than they would get in actual drug coverage. He added that the plan would impose a means test to determine what senior citizens pay to get coverage and that it would allow private plans to move in and out of areas at a moment’s notice. ‘This is the kind of shifting that takes place,’ he says. ‘You would be bounced from one plan to another.’ Seniors in the audience of about 60 people seemed perplexed by the plan and many objected to it. ‘It’s going to add confusion to confusion,’ said Gloria Fisher, the chairwoman of Senior Voice, a senior advocacy organization. Fisher said she has not received a single call in favor of the plan.”

Arguments set for September in federal case on state’s sexual predator law, but Guv Vilsack says he’s ready to upgrade the statute if the court strikes it down. In addition to fed action, the Iowa Supreme Court to hear a different attack on the anti-predator law. From coverage – an excerpt – by the Quad-City Times’ Todd Dorman: “Gov. Tom Vilsack said Tuesday he will work with state lawmakers to find other ways of keeping sex offenders from living near schools if Iowa’s current legal barriers are knocked down by dual court challenges. ‘I think anytime we’re talking about children and the protection of children, it is good public policy,’ he said. ‘I don’t know if we’ve found the right formula yet, or the right balance.” Last month, a federal judge halted enforcement of an Iowa law barring those convicted of sex offenses or other violent crimes against children from living within 2,000 feet of a school or day-care center. The temporary injunction was ordered in response to a legal challenge filed by the Iowa Civil Liberties Union on behalf of several ‘John Doe’ offenders. Arguments in the federal case are set for September. In April, a state district judge in Washington County ruled the law is unconstitutional. The Iowa Supreme Court will review that decision. Civil libertarians argue that the distance requirement, in many cases, has placed whole towns off-limits to offenders seeking housing, pushing some to the brink of homelessness. But supporters contend the law was designed to create a safety buffer between dangerous offenders and potential victims. Vilsack, who signed the legislation into law in 2002, called it a ‘good-faith effort’ by lawmakers.”

Des Moines Register: Local – “All for one, one for all…Arranging deals like the Wells Fargo expansion would be smoother with merged government.” Register editorial returns to common theme of promoting merger of Des Moines and Polk County governments. & “Do the math: Tough choices” Editorial on series of Concord Coalition sessions in Des Moines – and elsewhere across the state -- that illustrate difficulty in balancing federal budget and setting priorities.

Iowa native Shawna Robinson will return to her roots – the Iowa State Fairgrounds racetrack – on Saturday for a special event on the half-mile oval dirt track. Robinson, who attended Saydel High School north of Des Moines, has raced in NASCAR’s Winston Cup division and was in a Craftsman Truck Series event at Texas Motor Speedway earlier this summer. Hot laps begin at 9 a. m. Saturday.

DSM 7 a. m. 65, fair/clear. Wide temperature range across the state at 7 a.m. – from 52 in Harlan and 55 in Audubon to 66 in Keokuk and Burlington and 68 in Davenport and Oelwein. Today’s high 84, patchy fog. Tonight’s low 64, patchy fog. Friday’s high 85, patchy fog. Friday night’s low 62, clear.

… Iowa State Extension Service to try to improve eating habits amid 180 food stands at the Iowa State Fair. Excerpt from Liz Owens’ story in the Quad-City Times: “Though it may be finger-licking good, state fair food doesn’t always do a body good. With about 180 food stands boasting treats such as fried candy bars, caramel apples and corn dogs, the 2003 Iowa State Fair can help people pack on the pounds in a hurry. So, this year, Iowa State University Extension Service employees will be on hand to try to make people aware of the effects of the choices they make. The extension's display at the fairgrounds will encourage people to ‘lighten up’ by steering away from super-sized treats and convenience food and heading in the direction of healthy eating and regular activity. The fair display is an expansion of the Extension’s ‘Lighten Up Iowa’ campaign, co-sponsored by the Iowa Department of Public Health, that spanned January through June.”