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Iowa 2004 presidential primary precinct caucus and caucuses news">
Iowa 2004 presidential primary precinct caucus and caucuses news, reports
and information on 2004 Democrat and Republican candidates, campaigns
and issues Iowa
Presidential Watch's
IOWA DAILY REPORT Holding
the Democrats accountable today, tomorrow...forever.
... QUOTABLE: "I think it's going to be
a long slog in the jobs market,"
said Mark Zandi,
chief economist at Economy.com. "I think that is one of
the most misguided assumptions in the history of
United States' strategic thinking,"
said Rep. Jim
Leach ( [R] IA) about the Bush administration’s
foreign policy. "We've seen the worst of
nature,"
President Bush told the California firefighters,
but the "absolute best of mankind." “Our political system is
drowning in a flood of large corporate interest
money. The pens that sign the checks of the
lobbyists in Washington are the same pens that
write our legislation,”
writes Howard
Dean in asking his supporters to vote on declining
public financing of campaigns. “If any of us decide to
play outside the public financing system this
year, it will directly contradict our ability to
legitimately advocate for additional reforms of
this system in the future. In order to truly level
the playing field, every single presidential
candidate should pledge to stay within the public
financing system this year,”
wrote Dick
Gephardt. Mr. Grossman's comparison
of Governor Dean's comments on the confederate
flag to Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream'
speech could not be farther from the truth. The
symbolism of the confederate flag is in direct
opposition to the spirit of the civil rights
movement and throughout the years has become a
symbol of defiance for so many who disapprove of
Martin Luther King's courageous efforts."
Dick Gephardt's
campaign manager Steve Murphy’s release in
response to Dean Campaign Chairman Steve
Grossman's comparison of Governor Dean's comments
on the confederate flag to Martin Luther King's "I
Have a Dream" speech. “I do support safe
genetically modified food. It holds the promise of
doing away with pesticides and dangerous
substances in the production of food. But we must
determine that genetically modified food is safe
for human consumption,”
– Dick Gephardt "I think the field of '72
was more capable than this year's group. [But]
Every time I've heard them this year, I think
they're better than they were the last time,"
-- George
McGovern. "He never wants to
elevate or diminish one sacrifice made over
another," said
Dan Bartlett, the White House communications
director about the fact that the President does
not comment on every Iraqi casualty. “Frankly, I cannot
understand the candidates' shrill, manufactured
opposition. We've freed a nation from a cruel and
oppressive dictator. A free Iraq, most everyone
agrees, can transform the Middle East,”
-- from Sen.
Zell Miller’s book.
… TODAY’S
OFFERINGS:
Show me the money
Can Dems bet on bad economy?
Rock the Vote
Right to Work
No truck
Kerry countdown
Lieberman/Fox
Clarkapallooza
Laughter is the best medicine
Clark critical
Beating up Edwards
Now, a word from McGovern
Make mine Benedict
President Visits California
Doh!
Iowa Republican questions Iraq
How embarrassing
* CANDIDATES &
CAUCUSES: Dean calls for vote:
Dean continued to demonstrate his unconventional
campaign by asking his supporters to vote Thursday
and Friday by e-mail, Internet, telephone or U.S.
mail on whether he should abide by campaign limits
and take the federal contributions. His website
headlines read; Your Country, Your Campaign, Your
Decision. Ballots are being sent to 600,000
supporters by e-mail today. Supporters can vote by
e-mail. Balloting runs from Thursday through
Friday at midnight. The results of the balloting
are to be announced Saturday. Dean’s on-line
appeal is clearly one sided in its argument to his
supporters to vote to not abide by spending
limits. Federal campaign spending
limits also prevent a candidate from spending more
than a certain amount per state. If he rejects the
spending limitations, he will be the first
candidate in Democratic Party history to reject
federal campaign money. He will also be able to
spend more than his opponents in key states. Dean’s primary opponents will
be limited to $45 million in spending if they opt
for the campaign financing. Those who opt for the
financing are eligible to receive $18 million in
contributions from the Federal Election Commission
who matches candidate’s contributions of $250 or
less with the $45 million cap. Dean has already
raised an estimated $30 million to date which
means he has raised all he can to maximize the $18
million contribution. John Kerry and possibly
Wesley Clark are the only two Democrat opponents
who have the possibility of not taking matching
federal funds. Gephardt is the candidate who has
the most to lose if Dean goes outside the limits.
Dean could flood cash into buying television and
direct mail in Iowa above the limits Gephardt
would have to abide by. Dean claims the election
system is broke as a reason for not opting for the
limits: “I
have always been committed to public financing.
But the federal matching funds law, though it was
meant to provide an incentive for ordinary
Americans to participate in the funding of our
elections, is doing the opposite of what it
intended. It could end up punishing a movement
that has raised more from ordinary Americans than
any campaign in history, while rewarding the
campaign that has blatantly abused both the spirit
and intent of campaign finance, selling off piece
after piece of our country.” Dean saves his best shots for
President Bush claiming the President sells out to
special interest:
“Oil corporations write energy laws in the
Vice-President’s office. The pharmaceutical
industry drafts our Medicare laws. Billions of
dollars worth of contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan
are awarded to Bush contributors. For the
Republican primary election, even though he has no
opponent, George Bush is raising $200 million from
large corporate interests…. The Bush campaign is
selling our democracy so they can crush their
Democratic opponent.” Much of Dean’s justification
for rejecting federal spending limits is the fact
the Bush campaign has rejected the spending
limits. Bush strategy has been to reject the
spending limits so that it can counter other
organizations’ independent expenditures, such as
the unions and organizations like MoveOn.org. Deans’ appeal to his
supporters is in part a way to garner their
support and commitment to funding his campaign.
When it comes to commitment, Dean wants it in a
big way: “We do have the option
to go toe-to-toe with the big corporate donors
of George Bush by getting 2 million Americans
to give a hundred dollars each. By declining
matching funds, we free ourselves to raise the
money needed to defend ourselves during the
crucial months from March through August
against the attacks of George Bush and his
special interest backers.” In an attempt to have it both
ways and deflect fellow Democrat candidates’
criticism, Dean has a pledge of his commitment to
reduce special interest role in campaigns. His
points are:
·
Provide qualified candidates with
the public funding necessary to wage meaningful
and competitive campaigns without having to rely
on wealthy contributors.
·
Allow candidates to focus more time
on communicating with voters by providing
qualified candidates with public financing much
earlier in the election season.
·
Supply additional public funds to
match excessive spending by non-participating
candidates.
·
Promote full participation by
presidential candidates in the public financing
system by appreciably increasing funding for an
expanded program.
·
Require a candidate at the outset
either to opt in or out of the entire public
financing system for both the primary and general
elections. The employment numbers are to
be released Friday, and they expect to show rising
employment. However, Democrats continue to bet on
running against Bush job loss of 2.6 million.
Republicans see the possibility of gaining back 2
million of those jobs before the election.
Associated press reveals most economist see
that the jobs and economy will not be the issue
they hoped for:
"The most likely scenario is we'll get enough jobs
so it won't be the issue Democrats need to oust
the president," said Mark Zandi, chief economist
at Economy.com said. About 100,000 new jobs
per month is likely later next year, he said. Hoover aside, Bush may well
be running on a Ronald Reagan economy instead of
his father's, said Sung Won Sohn, chief economist
at Wells Fargo in Minneapolis. Democrat Presidential
candidates went on CNN’s Rock the Vote and here
are some of the clips:
·
Edwards, Dean and Sen. John Kerry
said they had used marijuana in the past. Rep.
Dennis Kucinich, Wesley Clark and Al Sharpton said
they had not. Sen. Joe Lieberman said he had,
although he apologized for it. Former Sen. Carol
Moseley Braun declined to answer.
·
Kerry of Massachusetts drew the Red
Sox question and was asked whether he would have
removed Boston’s starting pitcher at the critical
point in last month’s Game 7 of a playoff series
with the New York Yankees. He said he would have —
that he was “throwing things at the television
set” urging the manager to do so.
·
Clark, asked about gay and lesbian
rights, said he would give homosexuals “the
opportunity to serve in the U.S. armed forces.”
·
"I understand the legacy of racism
in this country, and I understand the legacy of
bigotry in this country," Dean said. "We need to
bring folks together in this race, just like
Martin Luther King tried to do before he was
killed. He was right. And I make no apologies for
reaching out to poor white people."
·
"When Bill Clinton was found to be a
member of a white-only country club, he
apologized. You are not a bigot, but you appear to
be too arrogant to say `I'm wrong' and go on,"
said the Rev. Al Sharpton, the New York civil
rights leader and presidential contender.
·
“Teresa Heinz Kerry is right: nine
podiums on a well-lit stage do not make a
substantive debate, not any more than nine
candidates in frantic motion make a serious
primary campaign” -- Eileen McNamara, Globe
columnist. One of the sacred cows of the
union movement is the battling of provision14-b of
the Taft Hartley Act. This provision enables
states to pass laws guaranteeing the right to work
in a unionized job without joining the union.
Unions resent fighting battles for non-union
employees who do not pay dues to the union. Unions
and their candidates rarely mention wanting to
fight to repeal this law because it causes
business interest to get out their checkbooks to
make contributions to opposing candidates.
Gephardt once again, as he has been characterized
in the past, brought the skunk to the party and
mentioned the subject:
"The reason we have a middle class in this country
is because of organized labor. Our nation has a
tradition of free and open workplace elections in
which employees can choose to form a union.
Nothing is more instrumental to a strong middle
class than the right to organize and any effort to
undermine that fundamental right denies economic
opportunity to every hard working American. "I
challenge every candidate for the Democratic
nomination to join me in opposition to efforts to
undermine the right to organize by agreeing to
repeal "right to work" provisions from the
Taft-Hartley Act. Nothing would send a clearer
message to middle class families, and those
struggling to get into the middle class, than the
Democratic Party uniting behind their right to
organize.” Dean was in Florida, the
state he promised not to participate in the Straw
Poll, campaigning. He got off his MD line
concerning the controversial right to die case in
Florida according to the Miami Herald:
''I'm tired of people in the Legislature thinking
that they have an MD when what they really have is
a BS,'' Dean, a physician and former Vermont
governor, said to thunderous applause from about
200 lunching at the Capital Tiger Bay Club, a
bipartisan group of Tallahassee movers and
shakers. Dean also hit the President’s
brother -- Florida Gov. Jeb Bush -- on gays and
lesbians:
Dean also lambasted Florida's Republican governor
for his refusal to end the state's ban on gay
adoptions. Earlier in the day, Bush unveiled a
program aimed at finding homes for thousands of
foster children -- but reaffirmed the ban on gay
adoption while endorsing adoptions by single
parents. Dean took the issue of the
flag and pickup trucks head on:
''We want people who drive pickup trucks in the
South to vote Democratic because their kids don't
have health insurance either,'' Dean said Tuesday.
``We have got to stop having our elections in the
South based on race, guns, God and gays and start
having them on jobs and health insurance and
foreign policy.'' The hosts presented Dean some
country music CDs, a photo of NASCAR star Dale
Earnhardt Jr. and a Florida State Seminoles cap --
but there were no flags or model pickup trucks….
By the way, while he was in Florida, Dean said
Florida Senator (and former presidential
candidate) Bob Graham was on the short list for
V.P. John Kerry’s campaign website
now has countdown clocks that count the seconds
till the Iowa and New Hampshire presidential
contests. The website also has four ways to help
Kerry win in those states: travel to one of them
and volunteer; send money now; if you live in Iowa
or New Hampshire pledge support; and last straw
you can make phone calls, write letters or send
e-mails from home.
Scariest
Republican?
For those of you who have been waiting
breathlessly for the results of Kerry’s Scariest
Republican contest results: You guessed it -- John
Ashcroft won with 476 votes over Karl Rove with
364 votes. Where did your viewers go, John? Joe Lieberman was in Arizona
greeting Mexico’s President Vicente Fox. He used
the event to chastise President Bush on trade and
immigration. Joe Lieberman's statement: "I
welcome President Vicente Fox to the United
States. Our relationship with Mexico is more
important than ever as our countries work to
expand trade, and create more jobs. In fact, trade
between Arizona and Mexico stands at $6.4 billion
a year.
"Unfortunately, our President has not been as
welcoming--of President Fox or America's immigrant
population. Instead of keeping his promise to work
with President Fox on common sense immigration
reforms, President Bush has abandoned the talks
and abandoned hard-working immigrants who
contribute so much to our culture and economy. "As
President, I will immediately resume talks with
President Fox to ensure that hard-working
immigrants who pay taxes and obey our laws earn
the right to become legal residents. If we fail to
do this, we'll continue to see the exploitation of
immigrants by ruthless traffickers, unscrupulous
employers, and unnecessary deaths in Arizona's
desert." While this campaign season
has seen some different innovative tactics, those
Clintonistas over at the Clark campaign are not
taking any of their ideas off the table. The
latest idea is to hold a Clarkapallooza --
a concert to bring together great bands in support
of Wes Clark. The website press release says the
concert is in the planning stages. For those of you who want to
enjoy a lighter perspective of the Iowa
Presidential Campaign Trail check out John Carlson
in the
Des Moines Register. Here are some teasers for
you:
“Nonsense. Iowans love hysterical, baseless or
unprovable charges in a presidential campaign. We
delight in the horrified, indignant backfilling by
the accused. … We want more. And I'm betting we
won't be disappointed… Dean defended his goof-up
by attacking Richard Nixon. No kidding. Then he
said his statement means he wanted people with
Confederate flags on their trucks "to put down
those flags and vote Democratic." Clark took the opportunity to
criticize The defense department, according to an
Army Times report that outlined the Defense
Department, is completing a study on whether to
close or transfer control of 58 schools it
operates on 14 military bases in the continental
United States. Clark’s response according to
USA Today was: "Our armed forces and the
United States Army are under enormous stress,"
Clark wrote. "Sacrifice will no doubt be demanded.
Surely, the Department must know better than to
recommend such a proposal in wartime." While John Edwards landed the
best punches on Howard Dean in the latest
cacophony of debates (Rock the Vote), he is now
taking possible body blows in South Carolina. This
state is Edwards’ best shot and a must-win to stay
in the race. The body blows come in the form of
television commercials decrying his lack of
support for California Supreme Court Justice
Janice Rogers Brown, who is nominated to the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She has
faced stiff opposition from Democrats on the
Senate Judiciary Committee, which plans to vote on
her nomination tomorrow. The ad: "Shame on you,
Senator Edwards," the female announcer says, "Put
qualifications before politics." The ad is paid
for by supporters of President Bush’s judicial
nominees. While Edwards is the point of
the attack the real aim of the attack is minority
voters. The
Washington Times article covers the fact that
ethnic politics are taking new forms of divisions
along ideological tracks: “Justice Brown's
opponents "are practicing racism of the worst
kind, believing we must not only all look alike,
but we must all vote alike and think alike," said
an open letter from the New Black Leadership
Coalition.” The Times provided Sen.
Daschle’s response: “I am becoming more and more
amused," said Minority Leader Tom Daschle, South
Dakota Democrat. "We're either anti-Catholic,
anti-Hispanic or now anti-African-American. It
seems like just about every time we raise
reservations or concerns about a nominee, race or
ethnicity or religion comes up. I think it's
wrong. I think it's bad for the institution, and I
think it's bad for the debate itself." The New York Times has a
story about what the last great Democrat Dove
candidate, George McGovern, thinks about the
current situation:
“The pivotal issue in the coming primaries, Mr.
McGovern said in an interview, is sure to be the
"foolish war in Iraq," just as the Vietnam War was
central to his own campaign for the Democratic
nomination. Next year, he believes, Democratic
voters will insist on a nominee who is outspoken
against the war, just as they did then. "I don't
see that this war has any more to commend it than
Vietnam did," he said. The Times also has this
interesting quote:
"You need to appeal to rank-and-file Americans to
win" a general election, Mr. McGovern said. But
winning the nomination, he added, is something
else, and this is working to Dr. Dean's advantage. The
Charlotte Observer is running a story about
how all the candidates are going to Benedict
College:
“And the nine candidates have made just a couple
of trips to the University of South Carolina's
Columbia campus and to The Citadel in Charleston.
Instead, the Democratic hopefuls are flocking to
Benedict College, a private 3,000-student school
in Columbia. Since January, Benedict has hosted
Howard Dean, John Kerry, Joe Lieberman and Carol
Moseley-Braun. In addition, John Edwards, Dick
Gephardt and Bob Graham showed up for the
Benedict-S.C. State football game. Edwards is
scheduled to appear on campus next month.” The reason: Benedict is a
historically black school whose student body and
faculty remain virtually all African American --
and it's in the state capital.
* ON THE BUSH
BEAT: President Bush visited
California and comforted those devastated and
praised the firefighters, according to an
Associated Press story: "I
saw firsthand what it means for people to draw a
line in the sand and say, 'This fire's not getting
any further'," the president said. From Air Force
One and later from Marine One, the presidential
helicopter, Bush saw the evidence of the
firefighters' efforts: Mile after mile of
undeveloped hills were blackened, but the flames
stopped at housing developments. Bush promised no money in the
meetings with both Governor Gray Davis and
Governor- elect Arnold Schwarzenegger .
* THE CLINTON
COMEDIES: Another Hillary embarrassing
moment. As a lawyer, Hillary knows the first
important rule of lawyering: Don’t ask a
question you don’t know the answer to. Well,
she violated that in a Senate hearing on Head
Start. She wanted the testing of four year olds to
be delayed because it was biased against urban
children. The bias mentioned was asking urban
children to pick the picture of a swamp from four
possibilities. The director for the program
responded to the supposed bias question, according
to the
Washington Times:
Wade F. Horn, assistant secretary for families and
children at the Department of Health and Human
Services, which has oversight of Head Start, says
there's no reason for the national test to get
bogged down over some pictures. First of all, the
"swamp" question comes directly from a Head Start
test developed during the Clinton
administration, he said.
Second, when Head Start 4-year-olds were asked in
2001 to "point to swamp," "urban children were
slightly more likely to get that item correct than
rural children," said Mr. Horn, noting that 22.4
percent of urban children picked the right
picture, compared with 20.2 percent of rural
children. "So
much for the urban-bias theory," he said.
*NATIONAL: Iowa’s most moderate
Republican and most qualified foreign policy
expert raised questions and criticism of the Bush
administration’s Iraqi foreign policy. Leach, a
graduate of John Hopkins foreign policy studies
and foreign services officer before resigning
after the Nixon’s Watergate Saturday Night
Massacre (when Nixon fired the special prosecutor)
challenged the Administration’s appearance of
willingness to spend years in Iraq. He further
questioned the soundness of establishing a
military presence in the country -- a policy
attributed to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
Leach worked for Rumsfeld when Rummy was an
Illinois Congressman and when Rumsfeld was
director of the Nixon administration's Office of
Economic Opportunity. The
Associated Press reported Leach did feel that
some positive things were happening in Iraq:
Leach, a member of the House International
Relations Committee, said positive things were
happening in the north and south of Iraq, but in
Baghdad and areas in which the Sunni Muslims
dominate, "it clearly isn't working" and "with
each passing moment, it appears we're causing ...
more problems than we're solving." Democrat Senate Intelligence
Committee staff members had heir inner most
desires laid bare in a
LA Times article. Surprise, surprise -- they
want to play politics with the bi-partisan
investigation of intelligence materials on which
the decision to go to war in Iraq was based. The
Times quotes the Senate committee’s chairman:
Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), the chairman of the
intelligence committee, described the memo as a
"slap in the face" to the committee's bipartisan
traditions and called the plan an effort to
undercut the panel's inquiry. "It's an attack
plan," Roberts said late Tuesday in an interview
on Fox News Channel. In a statement released by
his press office, Roberts said the memo "exposes
politics in its most raw form…. It's a purely
partisan document that appears to be a road map
for how the Democrats intend to politicize what
should be a bipartisan objective review of prewar
intelligence." So
what are the Democrats’ hopes? Still, the memo provides a
rare glimpse into the workings of the secretive
committee. The document advises Democrats to "pull
the majority along as far as we can" in focusing
the inquiry on the use of intelligence by the
White House. It notes that Democrats have already
compiled "all the public statements on Iraq made
by senior administration officials" leading up to
the war. "We
will identify the most exaggerated claims," it
says. "We will contrast them with the intelligence
estimates that have since been declassified."
Democrats should "assiduously prepare" additional
views to attach to the final report, which is now
expected to be completed sometime next year. Finally, it maps out a plan
to "pull the trigger" on an independent
investigation "when it becomes clear we have
exhausted the opportunity to usefully collaborate
with the majority …. The best time to do so will
probably be next year."
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