06-29-2004 

QUOTABLES:

"After decades of brutal rule by a terror regime, the Iraqi people have their country back," said President Bush.

“President Bush recognizes that Israel and Palestine are not the whole of the problem in the Islamic world. He recognizes, like President Reagan, there is a more fundamental issue at stake. The issue is the most fundamental of life’s necessities: Hope.” – writes Roger Hughes, Iowa Presidential Watch.

"The most likely outcome right now in the fight for the House is anything from a small Democratic gain of a couple of seats to a small Republican gain of a couple of seats," said Stuart Rothenberg in the Rothenberg Political Report's latest "House Outlook for 2004."

"The Iraqi people made history today and so did John Kerry with his unprecedented pessimism about today's progress in Iraq," Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said.

"He [Al Gore] has not only found his voice,'' Donna Brazile - Gore's campaign manager in 2000 - said, "but he has really gone after the Bush administration in ways I don't think the Kerry campaign can go after Bush administration. They should give Al Gore a key position, a prime time speech, and let him roll." Brazile said about putting Gore on the convention slots.

"The issue is not whether black voters will choose a Democrat, it's how many will turn out to vote," Lowery said the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, former president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta.

BUSH BEAT

Bush pushes for Turkey

President Bush defied French President Jacques Chirac and continued to push for the inclusion of Turkey into the European Union. "America believes that as a European power, Turkey belongs in the European Union," Bush said.

Bush pointed to the religious cultural exclusion, "Including Turkey in the EU would prove that Europe is not the exclusive club of a single religion, and it would expose the 'clash of civilizations' as a passing myth of history."

In December, EU leaders will decide if Turkey has met the political criteria to be put on the formal road to EU membership.

Countries such as Germany, Italy and Britain strongly back Ankara's bid, but Chirac's government has expressed wariness about kicking off a formal process to admit the relatively poor country of 70 million people.

 Just POlitics

France's goal of weakening U.S.

Reuters reported on France’s continued goal of weakening the U.S.’s influence in the world at the NATO conference in Istanbul:

Chirac criticized Bush in Istanbul for backing Turkey's bid to join the European, saying it was none of his business.

He also challenged U.S. policy on the Middle East conflict, arguing that the isolation of Yasser Arafat would hinder the peace process and announcing that his foreign minister would visit the Palestinian leader this week.

"France is always trying to undermine NATO," complained one diplomat, noting that whenever communiques are being drawn up it is France that insists on inserting the words "where appropriate" in paragraphs on alliance operations.

President Charles de Gaulle pulled France out of NATO's integrated military structure in 1966, forcing the alliance to move its headquarters from Paris to Brussels. More recently, France's drive to promote an EU security policy has been seen in Washington as an effort to subvert NATO and curb U.S. influence.

France profited from business with Saddam Hussein and French companies.

Brzezinski’s Orwell

by Roger Wm. Hughes

Zbigniew Brzezinski continues on PBS as one of the Democrat appeasement policy wonks. Brzezenski, the creator of one of America’s greatest disasters, has taken the more than the appeasement road. Brzezenski has chosen to redefine the terrain of diplomatic discussion. He has chosen to call the neo-conservative foreign policy advisors: Orwellian.

He calls them Orwellian because they dare to offer a different vision for the Middle East.

Brzezinski has a lot of gall deriding the neo-conservative given the fact that he was a part of one of the worst foreign policy administrations in the history of the U.S., under President Jimmy Carter. It was only by the grace of God that Ronald Reagan was elected for eight years after the ruinous four Carter years.

On the National Security Council’s official web site the following is offered:

The Iranian revolution provided the coup de grace to the disintegrating Vance(Brzezinski relationship. As the upheaval developed, the two advanced fundamentally different positions. Brzezinski wanted to control the revolution and increasingly suggested military action to prevent Khomeini from coming to power, while Vance wanted to come to terms with the new Khomeini regime. As a consequence Carter failed to develop a coherent approach to the Iranian situation. Brzezinski continued, however, to promote his views, which the President eventually accepted. Vance's resignation following the unsuccessful mission undertaken over his objections to rescue the American hostages in March 1980 was the final result of the deep disagreement between Brzezinki and Vance.

Brzesinski is like those individuals who challenged President Reagan’s assumptions that Communist Socialism was a policy that was doomed to failure because it failed to recognize the importance of individual action. Individual action, Reagan recognized, was at the heart of a dynamic economy.

Likewise, Brzezenski is one of those foreign policy individuals who believes that Israeli- Palestinian relationship is at the heart of solving the whole of the Middle East’s problems. Brzezenski sees an Arabic nationalist uprising in the making because America has failed to put back together Clinton’s bridge too far.

One of the greatest other disasters that has occurred in American foreign policy is President Clinton’s erroneous efforts to bring peace to the Middle East. He erroneously believed that Yasser Arafat was an honorable negotiating partner. Clinton’s error plunged East-West relations into the abyss.

President Bush recognizes that Israel and Palestine are not the whole of the problem in the Islamic world. He recognizes, like President Reagan, there is a more fundamental issue at stake. The issue is the most fundamental of life’s necessities: Hope.

President Bush is seeking to untie the Gordian knot by solving the underlying problem of Islamic extremism by bringing hope to that region of the world. Like Reagan, Bush believes in the fundamentals. He believes that unless you end the culture of oppression -- that is Islamic extremism -- the war of terrorism will not end. Unless the natural liberty of every woman and man is freed in Islam there will always be new recruits for terror.

The solution to the Israeli-Palestine conflict is beyond that geography. If we deny the murderous Arafat allies, the solution to Israel and Palestine will become easier. Wean Arafat of what enables him to create chaos and terror, and the solution will come more quickly. It is not as if Arafat is a darling of his Arabian neighbors. Arafat has fired shots at Jordan and other Middle East countries.

Until Arafat is gone it is unlikely that there will be peace in Israel. Bush, like Reagan, is waiting for his Mikhail Gorbachev.

Brzezenski, like the 26 other diplomats who have opposed Bush, would have us forego winning in the Middle East. They did not see the fundamentals when Reagan saw and named the "Evil Empire." Now, they cannot imagine hope in the Middle East.

Poll watching

The CBS News-New York Times poll shows that there is a correlation between the economy and which candidate people support for President. Three-fourths of those who say the economy is improving support Bush, and three-fourths of those who say it's getting worse support Kerry.

The poll found a slight increase in the number of people who said the economy is getting better — from 25 percent to 30 percent — and a significant decline in the number who said it's getting worse — from 30 percent to 21 percent.

Kerry received 45 percent support and Bush 44 percent in the poll. In a three-way match-up, Kerry and Bush were still running even while independent Ralph Nader was at 5 percent.

Florida

Bush and Kerry had the backing of 43 percent apiece in a three-way match-up with independent Ralph Nader, who had the support of 5 percent in the telephone poll conducted by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute of Connecticut.

GOP Convention lineup

Ed Gillespie, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, along with Bill Harris, CEO of the 2004 Republican National Convention, and Governor Marc Racicot, Bush-Cheney '04 Campaign Chairman, announced the following lineup of guest speakers for the 2004 Republican National Convention.

"We are thrilled to announce these inspirational leaders as part of the convention's sessions. When President Bush accepts the Republican nomination, the nation will see the energy and momentum behind our party and our candidate as we head into the fall," said Mr. Harris. "In addition to the names released today, dozens of other speakers will be announced as the convention nears."

Monday, August 30, 2004
- Mayor Michael Bloomberg
- Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani
- Senator John McCain (R-AZ)

Tuesday, August 31, 2004
- First Lady Laura Bush
- Secretary of Education Rod Paige
- Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

Wednesday, September 1, 2004
- Mrs. Lynne Cheney
- Vice President Dick Cheney
- Senator Zell Miller (D-GA)

Thursday, September 2, 2004
- Governor George Pataki
- President George W. Bush

The 2004 Republican National Convention will be held for the first time ever in New York City at Madison Square Garden from August 30 - September 2, 2004. Nearly 50,000 visitors are expected to visit the city for the occasion. For more information about the 2004 Republican National Convention, please visit our website at www.gopconvention.com.

Kerry’s divorce records next?

The Washington Times takes off on Drudge’s report that news media may try to open Sen. John Kerry’s sealed records from his first marriage divorce:

The Tribune Co., which sued "to gain access to Illinois Republican Jack Ryan's divorce papers and child custody records ... is considering a similar push on Kerry, the Drudge Report has learned."

"Tribune owns WLVI-TV Channel 56 in Boston. It could use its Massachusetts connection as a jumping point to petition the court which granted Kerry a divorce," Mr. Drudge said his sources told him.

Other news outlets might soon follow, according to Mr. Drudge's story, which said Mr. Kerry's campaign late Sunday called any old divorce digging a game of political "gutter ball."

Kerry’s statement on Iraq transition

Senator John Kerry made the following statement today on the transfer of sovereignty in Iraq:

"Today’s newspapers are full of stories about how the President and the administration are trying to repair relationships with NATO and with allies, and obviously, I hope that that repair job can be done as rapidly and as successfully as possible.

"On the day of the transition of sovereignty to the Iraqi people, I want to start by saying that our troops have conducted military operations with extraordinary courage and skill. And they have been doing a magnificent job under very difficult circumstances. We owe them – all of them – and we owe their families a great debt of gratitude for their service and their sacrifice.

"As we look forward today, there are very important challenges so that we can finish our mission and get our troops home as rapidly as possible. We have to focus on the top level priority of providing adequate security. It is absolutely stunning that of the $18 billion that we approved last year for the reconstruction of Iraq, only $400 million has been spent.

"90 percent of the coalition on the ground is American – 90 percent. And 90 percent of the cost is being borne by the American people. I believe it is critical that the President get real support – not resolutions, not words, but real support of sufficient personnel, troops, and money to assist in the training of security forces in order to be able to guarantee a rapid real transition, and most importantly, in order to be able to provide adequate security on the ground. You must have security on the ground in order to be able to proceed forward with the reconstruction and the political transformation. It is vital to do the hard work and statesmanship and diplomacy necessary to get that. I hope the President will be successful."

Police won’t picket convention

The Boston Globe is reporting:

Boston's main police union abandoned yesterday their threat to picket at the site of next month's Democratic National Convention, handing Senator John F. Kerry a major victory on the day he honored the union's picket line by not making a speech before a US Conference of Mayors meeting in Boston.

Kerry refused to attend the nation’s Mayors Convention because of police picketing at the convention. The fact that this was a political move of accommodation was confirmed in the story:

"The senator . . . kept his eye on the big prize, the convention, in order to achieve a trade-off with the unions," said a Kerry campaign official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The NY Times covers Gov. Mitt Romney, Republican governor of Massachusetts, filling in for Kerry at Boston:

Mayor Rich Borer Jr. of West Haven, Conn., a Democrat, said he believed that Mr. Kerry should have attended and might even have been able to mediate an agreement between the city and the union.

"It makes it a little more difficult for me as a man to sit there and say Kerry is the guy when he didn't show up," Mr. Borer said.

Blacks frustrated by Kerry

The Washington Post covers the issue of Blacks urging the Kerry campaign to do more to gain black votes:

"What [Democrats] usually do is wait until the last minute and try to stir up interest in the black community, which would be a serious mistake," said the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, former president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta and current chairman of the Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda. "They tend to take us for granted."

Some of the concern for John Kerry’s lack of visibility of blacks in his campaign and the fact that Kerry comes from a state with a small percentage of Black population:

Lowery and other civil rights leaders questioned Kerry's familiarity with black voters. Over the years the Massachusetts senator has received high marks from the NAACP and National Urban League for votes that supported the civil rights agenda on such issues as welfare reform, judicial nominations and affirmative action, but he hails from a state without a significant black population, unlike Gore, who is from Tennessee, and former president Bill Clinton, who is from Arkansas.

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