“The NRA and its lawyers will "look at every
option to continue to exercise our First Amendment
rights," even anchoring a ship "in international
waters and beaming in" if necessary to get its
gun-rights message on the air at election time,”
Wayne LaPierre,
executive vice president NRA said.
"That's beneath John Kerry. ... I'm hoping that
he's apologizing, at least to himself, because
that's not the John Kerry that I know,"
said Andrew
Card, chief of staff for President Bush,
commenting on Kerry’s use of the “f” word
regarding the President during in an interview for
“Rolling Stone” magazine.
“He is the candidate of America's professoriate
and others whose strongest passion is as much
aesthetic as political -- intellectual contempt
for George W. Bush. But Dean's bantam-rooster
pugnacity is not unlike Bush's shoulders-squared
jauntiness, which critics consider an enraging
swagger. Bush's imperturbable certitude infuriates
Dean's supporters because they believe it arises
not from reflection but from reflex. Actually,
Dean really resembles his supporters' idea of
Bush,” writes
George F. Will.
"Economists are opposed to any kind of trade
restrictions,"
said Sung Won Sohn, chief economist at Wells Fargo
in Minneapolis, "but political reality
often forces compromises."
"Dean has a profile that works with the biscotti
and latte-sipping crowd but is a much tougher sell
for the biscuit and gravy crowd,"
said Chris
Lehane, a senior adviser to General Clark, as he
previewed the kind of attack that would be used
against Dr. Dean.
"If Dean comes into South Carolina with the Big
Mo, he's going to be very competitive,"
said Dick
Harpootlian, the former chairman of the South
Carolina Democratic Party.
“It's almost as if nobody's focused on this yet
[foreign policy],"
said Joe
Lockhart, who was White House spokesman under
President Bill Clinton. "In my view, we
shouldn't go forward and elect someone who we
don't think is electable. It could be that Dean
will make a compelling case as to why he is. He
has not done that yet. We ought to have that
debate now and not in March."
Gingrich said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that the
U.S. had failed to "put the Iraqis at the center
of this equation -- not foreign governments, not
the U.N., not more American troops -- put the
Iraqis at the center of this equation."
"The one thing that is sure is that the Iraqi
people are better off without Saddam Hussein. The
region is better off without Saddam Hussein's
regime. And the United States and its interests
are better off because we don't have that horrible
dictator in power,"
Andrew Card
said.
"It's aggravating,"
said Bob
Diffenderfer, a West Palm Beach lawyer and
Democratic activist. "It is outrageous that
we're the fourth largest state in the country and
we're the tail of the dog."
"I've served with five presidents and this one is
by far the worst. I'm serious. I'm nostalgic for
Ronald Reagan,"
Rep. Richard Gephardt said of Bush. "Like
father, like son, four years and he's done."
It’s the budget stupid
Analysis by Roger Hughes
The latest and maybe the most
important battle issue for Iowa between Howard
Dean and Dick Gephardt is emerging as the
Balancing of the Budget. The
Des Moines Register covers the issue in one of
its best pieces on the race to date. The coverage
has several former Clinton administration
officials commenting on the Dean and Gephardt
proposals. Both candidates are claiming to be able
to balance the budget.
The fight between the two
candidates is over a comment Howard Dean made on
Iowa Public Television’s Iowa Press. On
the show Dean said, "We're going to have to limit
the growth of entitlement programs." He also said,
"The way that you balance budgets and keep them
balanced is to restrict spending."
Gephardt has hit hard at Dean
for cutting social services while Governor of
Vermont and for Dean’s statement on Iowa Press
of his intentions to do so again if elected
President. Gephardt claims that he can
balance the budget through stimulus of jobs
through the creation of a new energy and expansion
of healthcare. Gephardt would raise taxes by
removing all of Bush’s tax cuts and his proposed
health care would cost $214 billion in the first
year and increase annually.
The Register quotes Dean as
using a variation of the line that Gephardt has
had his chance and is part of the problem:
"I
just don't think he understands balancing the
budget. Most legislators don't," Dean said in an
interview while campaigning in Iowa last week…
They never really have to make the decisions that
a governor or a president has to make when they
are building those budgets, because when you do
that, you make choices and you make people mad,
and legislators don't like to do that."
Dean would also repeal all of
Bush’s tax cuts and put it between health care,
education and deficit reduction -- despite the
fact he has spent the President’s tax cuts already
many times over in new proposals.
Gephardt record is not pure in
standing up for entitlement increases. Gephardt
voted for cuts in Medicare increases in both 1990
and 1993 as part of Clinton’s deficit reduction
measures while the Democrats controlled Congress.
Gephardt has attacked Dean for later supporting
larger Newt Gingrich Republican backed Medicare
cuts His defense of his 1990 and 1993 votes is
because the cuts went for doctor and hospital
reimbursement, not benefits. Gephardt argues in
the Register for the dynamic nature of his
program:
"It will cause deficit reduction in and of itself.
It's a much more dynamic - it's a much more
synergistic - way to deal with the budget problems
and the growth problems," he said. "If your goal
is getting rid of deficits, you're never going to
succeed if that's your single goal. If your goal
is getting job creation and growth in the economy,
then you're able to really get deficit reduction."
Gephardt friends from the
Clinton administration do not agree with him,
according to the Register:
Gephardt's plan could achieve a balanced budget,
in theory, but the chances of it passing in a
closely divided Congress are slim, said Robert
Reischauer, director of the Congressional Budget
Office early in the Clinton administration.
Reischauer also said the health-care and energy
investments Gephardt proposes are unlikely to
spark immediate wholesale economic growth.
Former director of the Office of
Management and Budget for Clinton, Leon Panetta,
is also quoted as being skeptical of Gephardt’s
plan. However, Gephardt received support from an
unlikely source on Meet the Press when Newt
Gingrich proffered the advice that the new boogie
man is not inflation but rather deflation.
The other factor between
Gephardt and Dean is the difference between
generations. Gephardt is more likely to be
supported by older Iowans and Dean by younger.
Gephardt knows his strength lies in those older
Iowans, who are more likely to sit through 3 or 4
hours of a caucus than their younger counterparts.
If Gephardt convinces older Iowans that Dean is
likely to cut entitlements (better known as Social
Security and Medicare), he can win.
Yepsen: Dean looks best
Des Moines Register columnist
David Yepsen’s column suggests that Howard Dean is
in the best position to win Iowa. Yepsen’s
argument is that Howard Dean is the candidate who
is on the move and his favorable ratings are the
highest. He also has the lowest unfavorable
ratings. Yepsen writes:
A four-point lead isn't much, especially in a poll
with that sort of margin of error. But other
things in the survey indicate Dean has the best
crowbar for breaking this thing open 43 days from
now. Obviously, with such a large percentage of
undecideds, the magic could happen for someone
else but Dean seems better positioned right now
than anyone else.
Part of the problem is that John
Kerry has not gained and John Edwards has gone
backwards in Iowa from the latest Zogby poll and
there are only 43 days left. Therefore, at the
over 900 Iowa caucuses many Edwards and Kerry
supporters will not make a viable 15 percent group
that is necessary to be counted. They will be
looking for a home. At that point, whether they go
for Dean or Dick Gephardt is going to be the big
question.
Yepsen’s column suggests Dean.
This presupposes that there will not be a Stop
Dean effort in Iowa. My bet and Dean’s is there
will be. And that is why Dean is dispatching two
of his top generals to Iowa for the next 43 days.
Send in the big guns
Howard Dean’s campaign,
signifying Iowa’s importance, announced they are
sending in two top aides to Iowa for the duration.
Tricia Enright, the campaign's communication
director, and Mike Ford, right-hand man to
campaign manager Joe Trippi, plan to work in Iowa
through the Jan. 19th caucuses. The Dean campaign
previously announced heavy staffing and media buys
for the Feb 3rd Super 7 primary round. Now, they
are signaling that they will not let up on Iowa
with the addition of a top mouthpiece and
strategist being dispatched to the state. Dean is
clearly stretching out the field to the point it
will be difficult for others to keep up. The only
way that it will be possible for others to compete
is if they divide up the targets the way the
Austrians, Russians and English did against
Napoleon. The other scenario that would be
devastating for Dean is if Gephardt wins Iowa. The
Associated Press reports:
"We're not going to let up in Iowa. It's going to
be tough," Trippi said Saturday after Dean
addressed Florida Democrats. "We're getting
hammered."
Judge should decide
Speaking on "Fox News Sunday,"
Dean said he has decided to use a lawsuit by the
government watchdog group Judicial Watch, suing to
open the records, as a mechanism to determine
which records should be released and which should
be kept sealed.
"What we think the best thing to do is to let the
judge go through every single document and decide
for himself what ought to be revealed and what not
to be revealed," Dean said.
Dean’s community strategy
Howard Dean opened his campaign
headquarters in South Carolina with the following
speech:
In 1968, Richard Nixon won the
White House. He did it in a shameful way -- by
dividing Americans against one another, stirring
up racial prejudices and bringing out the worst in
people. They called it the "Southern Strategy,"
and the Republicans have been using it ever since.
Nixon pioneered it, and Ronald Reagan perfected
it, using phrases like "racial quotas" and
"welfare queens" to convince white Americans that
minorities were to blame for all of America's
problems. The Republican Party would never win
elections if they came out and said their core
agenda was about selling America piece by piece to
their campaign contributors and making sure that
wealth and power is concentrated in the hands of a
few. To distract people from their real agenda,
they run elections based on race, dividing us,
instead of uniting us. But these politics do worse
than that -- they fracture the very soul of who we
are as a country. It was a different Republican
president, who 150 years ago warned, "A house
divided cannot stand," and it is now a different
Republican party that has won elections for the
past 30 years by turning us into a divided nation.
In America, there is nothing
black or white about having to live from one
paycheck to the next. Hunger does not care what
color we are. In America, a conversation between
parents about taking on more debt might be in
English or it might be in Spanish, worrying about
making ends meet knows no racial identity. Black
children and white children all get the flu and
need the doctor. In both the inner city and in
small rural towns, our schools need good teachers.
When I was in medical school in the Bronx, one of
my first ER patients was a 13-year-old African
American girl who had an unwanted pregnancy. When
I moved to Vermont to practice medicine, one of my
first ER patients was a 13-year-old white girl who
had an unwanted pregnancy. They were bound by
their common human experience. There are no black
concerns or white concerns or Hispanic concerns in
America. There are only human concerns. Every time
a politician uses the word "quota," it's because
he'd rather not talk about the real reasons that
we've lost almost 3 million jobs. Every time a
politician complains about affirmative action in
our universities, it's because he'd rather not
talk about the real problems with education in
America - like the fact that here in South
Carolina, only 15% of African Americans have a
post-high school degree.
When education is suffering in
lower-income areas, it means that we will all pay
for more prisons and face more crime in the
future. When families lack health insurance and
are forced to go to the emergency room when they
need a doctor, medical care becomes more expensive
for each of us. When wealth is concentrated at the
very top, when the middle class is shrinking and
the gap between rich and poor grows as wide as it
has been since the Gilded Age of the 19^th
Century, our economy cannot sustain itself. When
wages become stagnant for the majority of
Americans, as they have been for the past two
decades, we will never feel as though we are
getting ahead. When we have the highest level of
personal debt in American history, we are selling
off our future, in order to barely keep our heads
above water today.
Today, Americans are working
harder, for less money, with more debt, and less
time to spend with our families and communities.
In the year 2003, in the United States, over 12
million children live in poverty. Nearly 8 million
of them are white. And no matter what race they
are, too many of them will live in poverty all
their lives. And yesterday, there were 3,000 more
children without health care - children of all
races. By the end of today, there will 3,000 more.
And by the end of tomorrow, there will be 3,000
more on top of that. America can do better than
this. It's time we had a new politics in America
-- a politics that refuses to pander to our lowest
prejudices. Because when white people and black
people and brown people vote together, that's when
we make true progress in this country. Jobs,
health care, education, democracy, and
opportunity. These are the issues that can unite
America. The politics of the 21^st century is
going to begin with our common interests.
If the President tries to divide
us by race, we're going to talk about health care
for every American. If Karl Rove tries to divide
us by gender, we're going to talk about better
schools for all of our children. If large
corporate interests try to divide us by income,
we're going to talk about better jobs and higher
wages for every American. If any politician tries
to win an election by turning America into a
battle of us versus them, we're going to respond
with a politics that says that we're all in this
together - that we want to raise our children in a
world in which they are not taught to hate one
another, because our children are not born to hate
one another.
We're going to talk about
justice again in this country, and what an America
based on justice should look like -- an America
with justice in our tax code, justice in our
health care system, and justice in our hearts as
well as our laws. We're going to talk about making
higher education available to every young person
in every neighborhood and community in America,
because over 95% of people with a 4-year degree in
this country escape poverty. We're going to talk
about rebuilding rural communities and making sure
that rural America can share in the promise and
prosperity of the rest of America. We're going to
talk about investing in more small businesses
instead of subsidizing huge corporations, because
small businesses create 7 out of every 10 jobs in
this country and they don't move their jobs
overseas -- and they can help revitalize troubled
communities. We're going to make it easier for
everyone to get a small business loan wherever
they live and whatever the color of their skin.
We're going to talk about rebuilding our schools
and our roads and our public spaces, empowering
people to take pride in their neighborhood and
their community again. We're going to talk about
building prosperity that's based on more than
spending beyond our means, a prosperity that
doesn't force us to choose between working long
hours and raising our children, a prosperity that
doesn't require a mountain of debt to sustain it,
a prosperity that lifts up every one of us and not
just those at the very top. The politics of race
and the politics of fear will be answered with the
promise of community and a message of hope. And
that's how we're going to win in 2004.
At the Democratic National
Convention in 1976, Congresswoman Barbara Jordan
asked, "Are we to be one people bound together by
common spirit sharing in a common endeavor or will
we become a divided nation?" We are determined to
find a way to reach out to Americans of every
background, every race, every gender and sexual
orientation, and bring them -- as Dr. King said --
to the same table of brotherhood. We have great
work to do in America. It will take years. But it
will last for generations. And it begins today,
with every one of us here. Abraham Lincoln said
that government of the people, by the people and
for the people shall not perish from this earth.
But this President has forgotten ordinary people.
That is why it is time for us to join together.
Because it is only a movement of citizens of every
color, every income level, and every background
that can change this country and once again make
it live up to the promise of America. So, today I
ask you to not just join this campaign but make it
your own. This new era of the United States begins
not with me but with you. United together, you can
take back your country.
Dean lacks party support
The Washington Times covers the
establishment endorsement numbers count game. Dean
is in bad shape, considering his front-runner
status, according to the Times:
Despite five terms as governor, his chairmanship
of the Democratic Governors' Association and a
30-point lead in New Hampshire polls, not a single
governor and relatively few members of Congress
are backing the physician turned politician in his
bid to challenge President Bush in 2004.
Mr. Dean has been endorsed by 15 House Democrats
and only one Senate Democrat, Patrick J. Leahy,
who represents his home state of Vermont. This
compares with 33 House members who have endorsed
Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri and 20
lawmakers who are backing Sen. John Kerry of
Massachusetts. Wesley Clark, a retired general,
has the support of the two senators from Arkansas
and Rep. Charles B. Rangel of New York. None of
the nation's Democratic governors has endorsed
anyone.
The story goes on to point out
that there are probably two reasons for this: one
being the philosophical differences in the party;
and the second being his anti-establishment
campaign. Gephardt has been receiving state
legislative endorsements and has received the two
largest service unions’ endorsements.
Kerry’s four steps for Medicare
John Kerry today outlined a
four-step plan to restore Medicare and provide
‘real’ prescription drug relief for all Americans.
In his first 100 days as President, Kerry will
propose a bill that keeps Medicare strong, instead
of privatizing it, and allows seniors to choose
their doctor, instead of forcing them into HMOs.
“If you want to see a prime example of
Republican’s working for powerful interests, just
look at this latest Medicare bill. This bill is
less about prescription drug benefits and more a
prescription to benefit big drug companies. This
bill is less about prescription drug benefits and
more a prescription to benefit big drug
companies,” said John Kerry. “Say what you want
about President Bush, it’s clear his powerful
campaign contributors get what they pay for. But
we’re getting left with the tab. The AARP pays
actors to play seniors in TV commercials. But
real-life seniors are getting left out in the
cold.”
John Kerry’s four-step
plan to restore Medicare:
I. LOWER PRESCRIPTION
DRUG COSTS – DON’T RAISE DRUG COMPANY PROFITS:
John Kerry will change that so Americans can get
lower-priced medications.
II. GIVE CHOICES TO
SENIORS - NOT GIVEAWAYS TO HMOS: Kerry
will make sure seniors can choose their doctors
and aren’t forced to join an HMO.
III. EXPAND PRESCRIPTION
COVERAGE -- DON’T TAKE IT AWAY FOR THOSE WHO HAVE
IT: Kerry will strengthen drug coverage
for those who have it – not make it worse.
IV. ASSURE SENIORS HAVE
REAL MEDICARE DRUG PLAN -- NOT FORCED INTO HMOS:
Kerry will make sure there is always a
Medicare-run plan for every senior. There will be
access to providers that are fairly reimbursed for
their high quality services.
Attack Bush for 9/11
Democratic candidate for
President John Kerry today stood up to the Bush
Administration for their response to the terrorist
attacks of September 11th and for failing to
provide U.S. soldiers in Iraq with the proper
protective body armor.
"After the attack on Pearl Harbor sixty-two years
ago, President Roosevelt responded quickly and
decisively, not just to go to war with our
attackers but also to find answers for what had
gone wrong in order to prevent such a tragedy from
happening again," said John Kerry. "After the
attacks of September 11th, George W. Bush has done
the opposite. Where Roosevelt sought answers, Bush
has sought to avoid blame by stonewalling the 9/11
commission and congressional inquiries into
intelligence failures."
In San Diego today, John Kerry
and two of his Viet Nam swift boat crewmates
commemorated the sacrifice of those who died in
the attack on Pearl Harbor by placing a wreath at
the swift boat memorial at the Coronado Naval
Amphibious Base where Kerry trained for his
service in Vietnam. John Kerry also unveiled
details of his plan to improve intelligence
gathering, protect U.S. ports, and reimburse
military families for body armor purchases. John
Kerry's plan:
·
Enhanced Intelligence Capabilities:
1) Fix the information flow between the
intelligence and law enforcement communities; 2)
Reform domestic intelligence capabilities so that
the Director of the CIA is the true director of
domestic intelligence with authority and power;
and 3) increase the number of linguists in
critical languages in our intelligence agencies.
·
Improved Port Security: 1) Develop
standards for security at ports for containers and
ensure that facilities can meet basic standards;
2) Accelerating timetable for the U.S.-Canada and
U.S.-Mexico "smart border" accords; 3) implement
security measures for cross-border bridges; 4)
pursue moderate safety standards for privately
held infrastructure; and 5) develop and fund a
system of container security that includes
tracking devices.
·
Reimbursements for Body Armor
Purchase: One-fourth of the 130,000 U.S. troops in
Iraq are still waiting for the latest body armor.
In the meantime, family members and friends are
paying hundreds of dollars for the updated armor
themselves and shipping it to Iraq. On Tuesday
Kerry will introduce legislation to reimburse
family members who paid money out of their own
pockets to provide the personal body armor that
the government failed to deliver.
"In the rush to war, this administration failed to
adequately outfit military personnel shipping off
to Iraq. As a result, many of our fighting men and
women do not have the latest technology for body
armor. It's a disgrace that their families had to
use their own funds to buy the body armor and ship
it to Iraq. My legislation will reimburse those
families," said John Kerry.
Kerry also noted that the Bush Administration has
done very little to improve port security.
"With 95 percent of shipping containers coming in
through U.S. ports, we need a President with a
real plan to protect our ports from dangerous
materials hidden in these containers, not one who
continues to ignore real imminent threats to our
security. My plan would put in place an affordable
technology to track containers and their contents
and improve security at U.S. ports," said Kerry.
Edwards responds to Dean
Senator John Edwards (D-NC)
released the following statement Sunday in
response to Governor Howard Dean's speech in
Columbia, South Carolina:
"While we all agree on the need to bring working
class people of all races together to fight for
better jobs, health care and education, coming to
the South during the Sunday church hour to tell
Southerners what they should believe is not the
way to reach out to Southern Democratic voters.
"Democrats like Terry Sanford and Jim Hunt won in
the South by running campaigns based on solid
values and progressive ideas that would help lift
all Americans, regardless of the color of their
skin or economic background. As a Southerner and
North Carolinian, I am proud of that tradition.
"I have no intention of ceding the values debate
to George Bush -- anywhere in America. His values
are not America's values and Democrats cannot be
scared to take him on. There is only one way to
win this fight, and that is by taking it directly
to George Bush in every region of the country."
Edwards against Internet voting
Senator John Edwards: Calls on
Michigan to Abandon Unfair Internet Voting Scheme.
In America, everyone should have the right to
vote, and everyone should have the same chance to
vote. Yet our country also has a shameful history
of blocking the polling place to people based on
their race or poverty. Because of that history, we
have a special responsibility to make sure our
voting rules do not discriminate against
minorities or the poor, intentionally or not.
Michigan's Internet voting scheme does not live up
to that responsibility. The Digital Divide is
simply a reality today. Wealthier families are
more than twice as likely to have Internet access
at home than poorer families. Whites are 50
percent more likely to have Internet access at
home than African Americans and 90 percent more
likely than Hispanics.
Until we have closed the digital divide,
Michigan's Internet voting scheme will reduce the
influence of poor and minority voters-the very
groups who have historically suffered
discrimination at the polling place. John Edwards
believes this is wrong. He asks the Florida
Democratic Party to join him in calling on the
Michigan Democratic Party to abandon its Internet
voting system.
Clark: Pearl Harbor
Wesley Clark comments on
remembering Pearl Harbor:
"I want to mention that today is Pearl Harbor
Remembrance Day. Today, I laid a wreath at Hampton
National Cemetery in Virginia.
"Every year, on the anniversary of the Pearl
Harbor attack, I stop to think about the
sacrifices of the people who wore the uniform
before me. It was on the shoulders of those
soldiers and sailors that I stood during my 34
years of service. The whole country is eternally
indebted to them for the legacy of freedom they
left behind.
"That's why we must never neglect our veterans or
our soldiers. No veteran should be forced to wait
for medical attention. And our fighting men and
women deserve fair and prompt pay, the best health
care and the best base schools for their
families."
Clark teacher endorsement
The Arkansas Education
Association today voted to endorse General Wesley
Clark for president of the United States. General
Clark met with state education leaders to discuss
the issues facing teachers today-and his ideas for
tomorrow. AEA Board members emerged from the
meeting confident that General Clark is the best
candidate to move America's public education
system forward.
Clark: goals, no details
Wesley Clark continues to offer
goals that sound too good to be true -- like the
one of increasing every American family’s income
by $3,000 by the end of his term -- but again, he
gives no details or plans on just how he’ll
accomplish that goal.. Clark, campaigning in
Missouri, offered the following:
* Raising family income by $3,000 a year by the
end of his first term.
* Strengthening environmental laws with the goal
of preventing 100,000 premature deaths a year over
12 years.
* Sending 1 million more students to college while
keeping tuition under control.
* Helping 2 million children move out of the ranks
of the poor.
* Broadening health care coverage to an additional
30 million people.
Lieberman in Florida
Joe Lieberman rallied Florida
Democrats on Sunday by telling them that he and Al
Gore should have won the 2000 election and calling
for them to seek revenge during next year's
presidential election.
"So, here I am back in Florida," Lieberman said
during the state party convention. "I love this
state and its people and I won't ever forget how
hard you worked for Al Gore and me in 2000. You
helped us win this state until others took it
away. And we got mad, didn't we, but now let's get
even."
The 2000 election and the
recount that followed was a recurring cry
throughout the three-day convention, with
candidates, party leaders and delegates still
expressing their anger over a race they feel was
stolen from Gore. Gore lost Florida to George Bush
by 537 votes after the U.S. Supreme Court voted
5-4 to end a recount of Florida ballots five weeks
after the election. Democrats believe Gore would
have carried the state and the 25 electoral votes
he needed to win the presidency if the recount
were allowed to continue. Lieberman blamed
Republicans for not allowing all the votes to be
counted and compared their actions then to the
recent leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity.
Her husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson,
has said he believes her identity was disclosed as
retribution for his assertions that the Bush
administration exaggerated Iraq's nuclear
capabilities to build the case for war.
"Look at what they did to the CIA agent who was
the wife of the ambassador who dared to tell the
truth about the allegation of uranium being
purchased from Niger. It is the politics of
personal destruction, but it's not unique to that
case," Lieberman said. "It is what they did to Al
Gore and me and you here in Florida, denying
African-Americans, Haitian-Americans, senior
citizens the right to vote and to have their vote
counted."
But after the speech, the
Connecticut senator insisted he is not trying to
make the recount an issue in the campaign.
"Campaigns are always about the future, the
recount of 2000 is the past," he said. "It's fact.
I don't dwell on it. Coming back to Florida for me
is like coming back to your family after you've
been through a crisis in the family together. We
went through a trauma together here and it would
have been thoughtless of me not to talk about it."
Lieberman was the last of seven
candidates to address the delegates. Massachusetts
Sen. John Kerry, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean,
retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark of Arkansas, Sen.
John Edwards of North Carolina, Reps. Dick
Gephardt of Missouri and Dennis Kucinich of Ohio
all spoke Saturday. The other two Democrats
running for president did not attend. Rev. Al
Sharpton opted to host NBC's "Saturday Night Live"
and Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun was sick
with the flu. About 4,000 delegates attended the
convention, but only about half stayed for
Sunday's events, which included speeches by the
three Democrats running for U.S. Senate in
Florida. Lieberman attacked Bush on the war in
Iraq, his environmental record, the loss of jobs
during his three years in office and the lack of
health insurance for millions.
"He said he was going to be a compassionate
conservative," Lieberman said. "So many of the
policies of his administration have been the
opposite of compassion."
Kucinich investigation
Presidential candidate Dennis
Kucinich will ask for an investigation of last
night's air attack by the United States-led
military against a suspected terrorist in
Afghanistan, which killed nine children as well as
the intended target, according to the Central
Command. Kucinich released this statement:
"I will ask for an investigation to determine the
circumstances in which the nine children died.
This incident is damaging to world peace. Last
year an American flying gunship attacked a wedding
party in Afghanistan killing 48 people.
"In the name of fighting terrorism, the Bush
administration has killed thousands of innocent
civilians, including many children. The Bush
administration turned what should have been an
international criminal investigation into a war.
It has set aside international laws. It has not
found Osama bin Laden.
"Considering the amount of time the Bush
administration allegedly spends on surveillance,
the deaths of these nine children cry out for an
explanation -- and an investigation."
Kucinich is the Ranking Democrat
on the Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging
Threats, and International Relations. He will ask
the Subcommittee to hold an investigation of last
night's air attack. Kucinich will be contacting
members of the Subcommittee to ask them to join in
this call for an investigation.
Feb. 3rd hopes
The
NY Times caries a story about how John
Edwards, Wesley Clark and Joe Lieberman are now
pinning their hopes on the Super Seven Feb. 3rd
primary. However, most agree if Dean has blow-outs
in Iowa and New Hampshire then the Feb. 3rd round
is probably mute.
Florida Dem Convention:
I’d rather be in Iowa or New
Hampshire
Democrat candidates for
President gathered in Buena Vista, Florida for
their party’s state convention and preached to
over 4,000 of the faithful. The state’s Democrats
are still bruised from the recount and subsequent
loss to George Bush. They are also upset over the
loss of the straw poll and the $100,000 per
candidate they were going to collect for allowing
the candidates on the straw poll ballot. In
addition, the state’s influence in choosing a
candidate is nearly zip -- the state’s March 9th
primary date is so late that a one of the
candidates will already have the delegate-count
needed to secure the nomination.
Howard Dean once again showed
that he is the candidate with money and
organization. Dean’s union friends helped him pack
the convention hall. Dean shelled out $50,000 to
the Florida Democrat Party so he could receive
special treatment. The real cost for Dean in
Florida is probably more in the $100,000 range.
For the $50,000 price tag, Dean's staff were able
to hold campaign-training seminars for their
supporters. None of the other candidates made as
much effort. Dean’s campaign was also able to
practice their National Democrat Convention
technique by staging a made-for-television arrival
on the convention stage. Hundreds of supporters
screamed his name, waved signs, blew whistles,
carried banners and delayed the start of his
speech with a 10-minute demonstration.
Away from the stage-managed
events, Clark and Dean both struggled a bit during
their news conferences. Clark, who has praised
President Bush and attended a GOP fund-raiser, was
repeatedly asked why he did not complain about the
2000 election before he became a Democratic
candidate for president.
Florida recount – sound bytes
from the candidates:
"We had more votes. We won," North Carolina Sen.
John Edwards said.
"I never thought the frontline for democracy would
be the United States in the beautiful state of
Florida," former Gen. Wesley Clark said.
"Florida is the place where America's democracy
was wounded," Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry said.
The politics of Jews and Arabs
A Washington Post article
explores how Jewish voters who are traditionally
Democrat voters and Arabs who favor Republicans
are switching sides because of 9/11 and Bush’s
treatment of Israel. However, the changes may not
be as significant as many believe. The Times
quotes a Zogby poll:
John Zogby agreed. The pollster's data put a
majority of Jews in the Democratic camp, along
with the Arabs. In fact, Zogby said, the
communities agree on more than one might imagine:
They both believe in Israel's right to exist;
majorities believe in a Palestinian state; neither
likes secret evidence or the Patriot Act -- Arabs
because they're the victims, Jews because they're
liberals.
Ken Mehlman, campaign manager of
Bush-Cheyney ‘04, has emailed Republicans asking
them to view video of Democrats ranting and raving
against the President. The message states:
Democrat candidates for President continue their
angry, personal attacks while President Bush
focuses on creating jobs, growing our economy,
winning the war on terror and making sure our
seniors have a prescription drug benefit.
How do Democrats respond to this historic record
of accomplishment?
Howard Dean compares President Bush to the Taliban
and calls him the "enemy" and "despicable." Dick
Gephardt calls the President "a miserable
failure." John Kerry compared President Bush to
Saddam Hussein, called for "regime change" and
accused him of fraud.
Hillary makes the rounds
Hillary made the Sunday morning
talk show rounds and bashed Bush, as would be
expected. However, she did offer the insightful
admission that going to war in Iraq was the right
thing to do. She did qualify whether America was
safer now than before because of the war in Iraq
on Meet the Press:
MR. RUSSERT: Do you believe that Iraq is more or
less a terrorist threat to the United States now
than it was nine months ago?
SEN. CLINTON: I don’t think we know that. I think
that Saddam Hussein was certainly a potential
threat. I mean, he had, after all, not only
invaded his neighbors and gassed the Kurds and
Iranians but had tried to kill former President
Bush, was seeking weapons of mass destruction,
whether or not it ever turns out he actually had
them. He had not made any direct attacks on our
homeland, but we don’t know what the future would
have held. It is, however, fair to say that now we
have a very unstable situation with not only the
former regime loyalists but terrorists and foreign
fighters coming in to try to use Iraq as a basing
point against us.
Hillary brought up her “Vast
Right Wing Conspiracy, accusation and that led
into her recent accusation that Bush is out to
destroy FDR’s New Deal:
MR. RUSSERT: What if Republicans or conservatives
said that environmental groups, labor groups,
women’s groups are part of a vast left-wing
conspiracy, that they have an inordinate amount of
influence on a Democratic president and Democratic
senator?
SEN. CLINTON: Well, again, I would say if they
are, they’re doing not as good a job as the other
side. And I think part of the challenge is to look
at where we’ve come as a country. You know, when I
first saw the Bush administration in action, I
thought that they wanted to undo everything Bill
Clinton had done. Basically, I took that a little
personally because I thought that a lot of good
had happened during the 1990s. Then I realized
that, you know, they’re taking aim at the New
Deal. They really do have a mission in mind to
radically restructure the social safety net, the
kind of consumer and worker protections that have
been at the base of building the American middle
class. I don’t think anybody voted for that in
2000, and I regret that it has been pursued so
relentlessly.
About those WMD
A
Washington Times story has an Iraqi Colonel
admitting that he is the source of the British
intelligence that weapons of mass destruction
could be deployed in 45 minutes:
Lt. Col. al-Dabbagh, 40, who was the head of an
Iraqi air defense unit in the western desert
during the buildup to the war, said that cases
containing warheads for weapons of mass
destruction were delivered to front-line units,
including his own, toward the end of last year. He
said they were to be used by Saddam's Fedayeen
paramilitaries and units of the Special Republican
Guard when the war with coalition troops reached
"a critical stage." The containers, which came
from several factories on the outskirts of
Baghdad, were delivered to the army by the
Fedayeen and distributed to the front-line units
under cover of darkness.
In an exclusive interview, Col. al-Dabbagh said he
believes he was the source of the British
government's claim, published in September 2002 in
the intelligence dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass
destruction, that Saddam could launch such weapons
within 45 minutes. "I am the one responsible for
providing this information," said the colonel, who
now is working as an adviser to Iraq's Governing
Council.
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