Just POlitics

Hillary vs. Greenspan

Hillary Clinton took on Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan at a Senate hearing. Clinton took Greenspan to task for supporting President Bush’s tax cuts that helped reduce the recession started under her husbands Presidency.

Greenspan said that the predictions that there would not result the deficits that occurred were wrong by all involved.

"Just for the record, we were not all wrong, but many people were wrong," Clinton, said.

Bush betrayed

Five Republicans voted for a Senate resolution that would prevent the adoption of personal accounts. The vote on the resolution, offered by Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., was 50-50, with Republicans Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, Mike DeWine of Ohio, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania joining with the chamber's Democratic minority.

The resolution declared that, "Congress should reject any Social Security plan that requires deep benefit cuts or a massive increase in debt."

Reid betrayed

Sen. Minority Leader Harry Reid made a threat to shut down the Senate if the Senate voted to end the filibuster of confirmation of judicial appointees. However, nine Democrat Senators were absent in supporting his declaration.

Reid did offer some exceptions to shutting down the Senate.

"Of course, Democrats would never block legislation vital to our troops or other national security interests, and we will help ensure that critical government services continue to function for the American people," Reid said.

Some Democrats not supporting Reid’s declaration include: Sen. Ben Nelson, of Nebraska; Sen. Mary L. Landrieu, Louisiana; Sen. Ken Salazar, the Colorado.

Ickes is back

Harold Ickes is organizing a group called Americans United to Protect Social Security to coordinate a grassroots attack on Republicans. Their budget for the next two months is $15 million. The logic is to make it look like Republicans are destroying Social Security.

Their plan is to spend the upcoming congressional recess holding mass rallies in dozens of targeted districts across the country and to mobilize thousands of volunteers in a grassroots-style campaign to cement opposition to personal/private accounts.

Their deal is called "60 Faces over 60 Days." The group will hold rallies featuring "real people" who depend on Social Security. They plan to make appearances by Republicans in Congress in their home districts, in the hope that the local media will cover the rallies co-equally.

Rice balancing India & Pakistan

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is visiting India and Pakistan. She is balancing these two nations’ hatred and conflicts with each other.

Rice expressed displeasure with the fact that India and Iran recently announced an oil pipeline agreement between the two countries. India expressed displeasure with the possible sale of F-16’s to Pakistan.

Rice suggested possible further sale of U.S. weapons to India. India is negotiating for 120 fighters with Russian and French companies.

Edwards/Kerry strains

Adam Nagourney of the NY Times writes about the conflict developing between John Edwards and John Kerry:

John Kerry and John Edwards, rivals turned running mates in the last presidential campaign, have become rivals once again, assembling competing political networks, jostling for attention and staking out ideological turf in preparation for a potential rematch in 2008.

... Mr. Edwards has begun criticizing major tactical decisions of the Kerry-Edwards campaign last year, saying he disagreed with them at the time. Mr. Kerry's campaign advisers disputed those recollections, and described Mr. Kerry as irritated by what appeared to be a calculated effort by Mr. Edwards to distance himself from the losing campaign.

"John Edwards is not going to comment on confidential and private conversations with John Kerry," said David Ginsberg, an adviser to Mr. Edwards. "He will decide whether or not he is going to run again based on how Elizabeth and how his family are doing and where the country is at that time."

But wait – isn’t 2008 a bit far away for all of this? Apparently not, in the new political climate:

The image of former running mates heading so quickly back to their corners is highly unusual in recent American political history. It reflects the pressure on potential candidates from both parties to get moving earlier in a campaign that will feature wide-open contests on both sides for the first time in 50 years.

After 2000, Mr. Lieberman delayed recruiting supporters and raising money in keeping with his pledge to Mr. Gore, a delay that Mr. Lieberman later said contributed to his weak showing in the 2004 contest, and a lesson that presumably has not been lost on Mr. Edwards.

Post on hunt for DeLay

The Washington Post remains on the hunt for Rep. Tom DeLay’s head. The Post has another story today:

The Washington Post reported last weekend that an Indian tribe and a gambling services company made donations to a policy group that covered most of the cost of a $70,000 trip to Britain by DeLay, his wife, two aides and two lobbyists in mid-2000, two months before DeLay voted against legislation opposed by the tribe and the company. The group said it paid for the trip, and the group and DeLay said he did not know about the gambling money.

The Post also recently reported that an organization that had registered as a foreign agent picked up the cost of DeLay's trip to South Korea . DeLay and the policy group have said that he did not know of the registration. House ethics rules bar the acceptance of travel funds from registered lobbyists. They also require lawmakers to report the original source of funds and prohibit them from taking gifts of any kind from foreign agents.

Last year, the House ethics committee admonished DeLay three times for official conduct, including asking federal aviation officials to track an airplane involved in a Texas political spat and for conduct that suggested political donations might influence legislative action. The committee found that DeLay had not violated a specific House rule. Nonetheless, the committee told him in one of the rebukes that it was "clearly necessary for you to temper your future action."

Wolfowitz to World Bank

President Bush said today he is nominating Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz to be the next president of the World Bank, tapping one of his administration's most controversial figures as the U.S. choice to head the 184-nation institution.

Doomsday

A document, known simply as the National Planning Scenarios, reads more like a doomsday plan, offering estimates of the probable deaths and economic damage caused by each type of possible terrorist’s attack. The in-house working document was leaked and now making the rounds of the media. The NY Times has a graph of the basic scenarios.

Drilling for oil

Republican Pete Domenici, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said drilling supporters have enough votes to defeat an effort by Democrats to strike ANWR drilling language from budget legislation.

A vote was expected in early afternoon.

Hyde retiring?

The talk is that anti-abortion advocate Rep. Henry J. Hyde of Illinois is probably going to retire at the end of this session. Hyde, who is 81, first came to the House of Representatives in 1975.

Martin to FCC

President Bush plans to appoint Kevin Martin to head the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

Martin, 38, became a Republican FCC commissioner in 2001 and if confirmed will replace departing FCC Chairman Michael Powell. Martin clashed with Powell over deregulating local telephone network sharing rules and relaxing media ownership limits.