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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.
THE DAILY
REPORT for Thursday, October 2, 2003
... QUOTABLE: morning quotes: …
Among the offerings in today’s update:
morning offering:
·
Des Moines Register: Dem wannabes
increase campaign spending in Iowa; Graham rents
apartment in Des Moines, Dean adds 50 Iowa staffers
·
Clark says ABC should fire Rush
Limbaugh for comments about McNabb
·
RNC reports over a million new
donors to the Republican Party.
·
Dean tries it again… says he’s the
only politician who talks to white people about race
the way it should be talked about
·
NY poll shows Clark takes the lead,
Bush support plummets
·
Fred Barnes says Bush’s political
condition is ‘normal’
·
Iowa delegation divided on alleged
White House leak… Grassley points to Clintons’
maneuverings during Whitewater investigation
Lieberman calls for a new special-prosecutor law
for the alleged White House CIA leak
·
Howard Dean’s LA experience…
·
Wesley Clark: Hollywood's new
darling…
·
John Kerry adds another strategist
to his campaign entourage: Jill Alper
·
Empower Play: The Pitch That Works
for Dean
·
Connecticut Courant writer Kevin
Canfield asks, ‘Why Do Sure Losers Run?’
·
Bob Graham concedes $15M
fundraising mark for the year will be a struggle
·
Kerry outlines what US should do to
win the peace in Iraq
·
Dick Gephardt picks up his 15th
union endorsement
·
More on the Sharpton campaign
upheaval…
·
Bush Bests His Own Fundraising
Record
·
Paul Greenberg writes of the ‘Fall
of the House of Kennedy’
·
Clinton accuses Bush administration
of attempting to "undo the 20th century”
·
Dean says campaign has raised $7.5M
through the internet
* CANDIDATES/CAUCUSES:
Morning …
Des Moines Register’s Thomas Beaumont
reports today that Democrat presidential
candidates on both ends of the ‘war chest size’ are
increasing campaign spending in Iowa. Excerpts:
“Florida Sen. Bob Graham, who admits his
fundraising has been disappointing, has rented an
apartment in Des Moines amid rumors he’s scaling
back in other states and will make his stand in
Iowa. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who leads the
field in money-raising for the year, is adding 50
campaign staff workers to his Iowa caucus operation.
Graham aides denied Wednesday that the former
Florida governor will marshal all his resources into
a make-or-break Iowa strategy, but they also have no
plans to increase campaign operations in other early
nominating states. The apartment on Grand Avenue
in Des Moines was rented in September to
accommodate Graham and his family when they visited
Iowa, Graham spokesman Mo Elleithee. Elleithee
declined to estimate how much money Graham had
raised during the third quarter, which ended
Tuesday. Graham raised roughly $3 million through
June, putting him at the lower end of the field.
Graham also has appeared near the bottom of polls in
Iowa and nationally. "We know it's not going to be a
phenomenal quarter for us," Elleithee said. Reports
on third-quarter fund-raising are due to the Federal
Election Commission Oct. 15. Meanwhile, Dean's
$15 million quarter makes the beefed-up field staff
possible, Iowa spokeswoman Sarah Leonard said.
"We certainly wouldn't be able to do it unless we
had the necessary resources," Leonard said. "The
main reason is that the Iowa caucuses are all about
organization." Dean's total was a record for a
Democratic presidential candidate and brought his
annual total to roughly $25 million, more than any
of his nine rivals. Sen. Joe Lieberman of
Connecticut continued to deflect rumors he planned
to shut down his campaign in Iowa as he
estimated he will have raised about $4 million.
Lieberman said when he announced his candidacy he
did not expect to win the caucuses and chose to
focus more on early nominating contests after Iowa,
such as the Arizona, Oklahoma and South Carolina
primaries. Still, Lieberman plans to open a third
Iowa campaign office in Council Bluffs this month
and has 20 staff workers in Iowa, up from three last
spring. Kevin McCarthy, Lieberman's Iowa
manager, said the senator's Iowa plan is unchanged
despite rumors he planned to shut down the Iowa
campaign. "The national campaign receives a lot
of advice from a lot of people," McCarthy said.
"Rumors that he would either not compete or skip
Iowa have been around since Day 1." Campaign aides
for Rep. Dick Gephardt said a string of big labor
union endorsements helped the Missouri congressman
improve his fund-raising from a lower-than-expected
second quarter. But Gephardt's national campaign
manager, Steve Murphy, declined to say how
much the campaign expected to have raised or how the
Iowa campaign would be affected. "We'll raise
more than we did in the last quarter," Murphy said.
"We will be fully funded in Iowa. We continue to add
staff. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts reported
Tuesday he had surpassed the $20 million mark for
the year, raising more than $4 million in the
quarter. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina raised
about $3 million. … The
Yahoo/USA Today gives note to this regarding
Lieberman’s reaction to the supposed Bush White
House CIA leak: “Democrats, of course, are
reveling in the latest Bush pratfall. About the only
Democrat not to call for an independent prosecutor
in the case is Transportation Secretary Norman
Mineta. Presidential contender Joe Lieberman went
so far as to advocate a new special-prosecutor law,
even though the prior legislation entangled the
Clinton administration in an endless web of
investigations.” …
Wesley Clark leads and support for Bush plummets in
New York survey. Clark pulls in 18 percent in the
New York survey by the Quinnipiac University
Polling Institute.
FoxNews.com carries the following AP
report, headlined “Clark Pulls Ahead of
Democratic Pack in New York.” Excerpts:
“Wesley Clark is among the leading Democratic
candidates in New York just two weeks after he
entered the presidential race, according to a poll
of state voters that also shows President Bush's
ratings falling. Clark, a retired general
with no political experience, was at 18
percent in the survey by the Quinnipiac
University Polling Institute released Wednesday.
Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean had 17
percent support, Sen. Joe Lieberman
of Connecticut 13 percent and Sen. John Kerry of
Massachusetts 12 percent. The numbers were
within the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 5
percentage points for Democratic voters. The
remaining candidates in the 10-way field were in
single digits. In a reflection of Clark's
political strength -- and Bush's drop -- the race's
newcomer outpaced the president 48 percent to 41
percent. Several of the other Democratic
candidates also were favored over Bush in the
Democratic-leaning state, with Dean over Bush,
47-43 percent; Lieberman favored, 49-42
percent and Kerry 48-43 percent. Bush
and Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt (search) were
running close, 46 percent to 44 percent. The
poll found Bush's job approval among New Yorkers
had dropped from 52 percent in June to 42 percent,
close to where he was prior to the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks. After the attacks on the World
Trade Center and Pentagon, Bush's approval ratings
in New York soared into the 80s. Republicans plan to
nominate Bush at their convention in New York in
August 2004. "He's had a bad run," Maurice
Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac poll, said of
Bush, adding: "The economy is sinking in." In
New York, there are 5 million Democrats and 3
million Republicans. The poll surveyed 1,201
registered voters, including 454 Democratic voters
Sept. 23-29 and had a margin of error of plus or
minus 3 percentage points.” …John
Kerry’s editorial in the
Des Moines Register, “What U.S. should do
to win the peace in Iraq” -- “In the coming
weeks the president and Congress will take actions
with serious consequences for our standing in the
world, Middle East peace, our strength and security
at home and the lives of hundreds of thousands of
U.S. personnel in Iraq. The challenge is great; we
must get it right. There is no easy way out of Iraq.
Despite presidential proclamations, the mission is
not accomplished, and it won't be soon. While the
administration foolishly promised that American
forces would be welcomed as liberators and return
home in months, the reality, as so many warned, is
far more complicated. Iraq's ethnic, tribal,
religious and political divisions pose a challenge
for forging a new government under the best of
circumstances. As long as Iraqis see us as
"occupiers" rather than "liberators," they will not
unite under an American-imposed government or even
begrudgingly accept a large American military
presence. That is why since President Bush declared
an end to the fighting, more than 150 Americans have
died, along with religious leaders, United Nations
officials, and countless Iraqis. There are too many
interests, too willing to use violence, to expect
that the killing will end soon. The cost of
occupation and reconstruction is also disturbing.
Before and during the war, the administration
grossly underestimated the cost of the operation
with predictions ranging from the ludicrous "oil
self-financing scheme" to about $50 billion. One
Bush official estimated a total cost of $100 billion
to $200 billion; he was fired. Now a year later,
Congress will likely have appropriated over $160
billion, and the nation is on track to spend $350
billion to $400 billion over five years. The Bush
administration has only now begun to admit the
magnitude and nature of the problems we face in
Iraq. President Bush was right that Saddam Hussein
needed to be held accountable. But he was wrong to
believe America could wage the war and win the peace
alone. America's military - the greatest fighting
force ever assembled - carried the burden of war
without faltering, and Saddam and his henchmen are
scattered. But a peaceful, stable Iraq will require
a government trusted by the governed, laws that are
enforced, freedoms that are protected and the
rebuilding of the nation's infrastructure. The
burden of peacemaking must be shared by the
international community - not America's military
alone. I have called for the president to seek a new
United Nations resolution that would authorize
America to command a Multi-National Force - drawn
from allied armies around the world - to keep the
peace. They will hunt down terrorists and provide a
security presence in the streets. Some should come
from the Arab world so that Iraqis see fellow
Muslims working for peace in their land. This
resolution would also shift responsibility for the
creation of an independent Iraqi government and for
reconstruction to the United Nations. Putting
governance and rebuilding Iraq under the authority
of the United Nations would change our role from an
occupying force to protectors of U.N.-sponsored
security, making it easier to increase international
participation and funding, both military and
civilian. Such a resolution would mean that we could
begin a process of bringing home some of our troops
and reducing the threat to those still serving in
Iraq. It would open the door to sharing the economic
cost of reconstruction among many nations. And it
would show the Iraqi people and the rest of the Arab
world that rebuilding Iraq is not an American
occupation but an international campaign. It will be
a great test for Secretary of State Colin Powell to
secure such a resolution. Prior to 9/11, the
president derided international cooperation. With
30-second sound bites of blustering unilateralism he
scuttled environmental and arms-control treaties
that took years and hundreds of countries to create.
Even after 9/11, Cabinet officials sought to divide
our oldest allies with divisive and regrettable
posturing about an "old" and "new" Europe. Success
now will require a great philosophical change by the
president and his administration - and if they fail,
America will pay a price in treasure and blood.
Congress must also move in a new direction. The cost
of Iraq can no longer be ignored. Already we're
shortchanging homeland security, education, health
care and many other needs to pay for Iraq and
President Bush's unfair tax cuts. Senator Joe Biden
and I have offered legislation to repeal tax cuts
for individuals whose income are in the top 1
percent, and use the savings to pay for President
Bush's $87 billion request for Iraq. With 130,000
troops sacrificing every day in Iraq, terribly
unfunded domestic programs and historic debt growing
in Washington, it is an equitable and responsible
proposal. And I am confident that these patriotic
Americans are prepared to sacrifice as well. To win
the peace in Iraq and support for this endeavor at
home, the administration must put away its pride and
rise above earlier disagreements with our allies,
pursue a meaningful U.N. resolution, and pay for
this operation without increasing the debt for
future generations of Americans.” …
Washington Post’s OnPolitics article by
Terry M. Neal, “Green Isn’t the Only Color That
Counts”. Excerpts: “One of the prevailing
views of former Vermont governor Howard Dean is that
his support is soft among minority voters -- a
constituency that any Democratic candidate must
inspire to win the nomination. This subject has
been broached by a number of journalists and
described as a potential weakness that could derail
his march to the nomination. While there appears
to be some truth to that point of view, the whole
picture -- like so many things -- might be a bit
more complicated. … I asked him why Dean
supporters have been portrayed as homogenous. "It's
not true," he said. Where does the perception
come from then? "It comes from the reporters who go
to the rallies." Well, that doesn't seem to be
an outrageous way for reporters to assess candidate
support. There have been few polls that have
attempted to gauge minority support for the
Democratic candidates. So reporting on the sort of
crowds a candidate draws appears to be fair. Dean
and most of his Democratic opponents were in
Washington last week for Congressional Black Caucus
week. Their presence was a sign not only of the
caucus's power within the party, but also a sign of
how seriously some of the candidates are beginning
to take the non-binding D.C. primary, which will
take place six days before the Iowa caucuses in
January. Washington's primary could be an early test
of black support in the first stages of the
nomination process, dominated by overwhelmingly
white Iowa and New Hampshire. … Dean
repeated his controversial contention that he is the
only one of the Democratic candidates who talks
about race to white audiences. Dean's opponents
took exception to that claim, so Dean put a caveat
in it that he thinks will make it more difficult to
dispute. "I'm the only politician who talks to
white people about race the way it should be
talked about," he said. …Dean's challenges
attracting minority voters are significant.
"Black voters are looking for a winner," said David
Bositis, senior political analyst at the Joint
Center for Political and Economic Studies, a
black think tank based in Washington. "They want
somebody to beat Bush. At this point, I don't think
any of the Democratic candidates would be considered
unacceptable. Of the ones who are there, I don't
think any of them stand out either." …
Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark has
jumped into the Rush Limbaugh controversy. He says
ABC should fire Limbaugh for remarks he made about
Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb.
The
New York Times article, written by AP
political writer Ron Fournier, headline,
“Democratic candidate Clark urges ABC to fire
Limbaugh over McNabb remark”. Excerpts: “Democratic
presidential candidate Wesley Clark on Wednesday
urged ABC to fire conservative commentator Rush
Limbaugh for saying the media wanted Philadelphia
Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb to succeed because
he is black. Clark, a retired Army general who
entered the race Sept. 17, called the remarks
"hateful and ignorant speech." Before McNabb led
the Eagles to a 23-13 victory over the Buffalo Bills
on Sunday, Limbaugh said on ESPN's pre-game show
that he didn't think McNabb was as good as
perceived. "I think what we've had here is a little
social concern in the NFL. The media has been very
desirous that a black quarterback do well," Limbaugh
said. "There is a little hope invested in McNabb,
and he got a lot of credit for the performance of
this team that he didn't deserve. The defense
carried this team." ABC is the parent company of
ESPN.s In a letter to ABC president Alex Wallau,
Clark said, "There can be no excuse for such
statements. Mr. Limbaugh has the right to say
whatever he wants, but ABC and ESPN have no
obligation to sponsor such hateful and ignorant
speech. Mr. Limbaugh should be fired immediately
…
Des Moines Register released the following
Associated Press figures today on the
Republican National Committee’s new donors. Over one
million new donors have contributed to the
Republican party:
Alaska: 2,335
Alabama: 10,318
Arkansas: 5,643
American Samoa: 1
Arizona: 17,830
California: 161,463
Colorado: 20,640
Connecticut: 10,532
District of Columbia: 1,002
Delaware: 4,201
Florida: 76,028
Georgia: 36,915
Guam: 12
Hawaii: 1,457
Iowa: 10,347
Idaho: 3,673
Illinois: 35,073
Indiana: 18,286
Kansas: 8,579
Kentucky: 9,555
Louisiana: 19,525
Massachusetts: 16,930
Maryland: 28,976
Maine: 2,991
Michigan: 32,225
Minnesota: 11,032
Missouri: 14,021
Mississippi: 7,407
Montana: 4,042
North Carolina: 34,016
North Dakota: 1,500
Nebraska: 5,175
New Hampshire: 3,912
New Jersey: 22,136
New Mexico: 6,860
Nevada: 9,162
New York: 48,897
Ohio: 45,621
Oklahoma: 11,978
Oregon: 13,995
Pennsylvania: 47,988
Puerto Rico: 129
Rhode Island: 1,748
South Carolina: 15,339
South Dakota: 3,345
Tennessee: 17,092
Texas: 61,487
Utah: 6,132
Virginia: 23,331
Virgin Islands: 11
Vermont: 1,296
Washington: 21,939
Wisconsin: 18,235
West Virginia: 4,449
Wyoming: 3,110
Americans abroad/military address: 383
Total: 1,000,305
… Washington Times
Inside Politics by Greg Pierce -- excerpts:
"The media's new word for President Bush is
'vulnerable,' " Fred Barnes writes in the
Wall Street Journal. "A Gallup Poll last week
found he trails Democrats Wesley Clark (49 percent
to 46 percent) and John Kerry (48 percent to 47
percent) in presidential race matchups. His job
approval rating dipped to 49 percent in a Wall
Street Journal/NBC News survey," Mr. Barnes said. "A
more accurate word for President Bush's political
condition is 'normal.' Mr. Bush has slumped in
his third year in office just as most recent
presidents have. A slump is the rule, not the
exception. "Still, there's far more reason than
not to expect him to recover and win re-election,
perhaps easily. His slump, assuming it's hit bottom,
has been milder than the slumps other presidents
faced and his prospects are brighter. President Bush
is lucky on the economy. His recession came early,
giving the economy time to revive before his
re-election campaign in 2004. And his foreign policy
crisis is hardly as threatening as Vietnam was for
Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. The
economy is almost certain to look better in 2004
than today and chances are Iraq will, too."
…
Washington Post’s OnPolitics article by
staff writer Laura Blumenfeld, “Empower Play: The
Pitch That Works for Dean”. Excerpts: “…"He's
short," said Teresa Pierce, 40. "Reminds me of
someone my mother might date," muttered
Denise Mallett, 33. Yet half an hour later, as Dean
finished his stump speech, Pierce stood up, joining
the crowd in a hooting ovation. The Democratic
presidential hopeful had moved her, she said, made
her feel like recruiting friends to vote for him. As
she reached for Dean's hand, her eyes lit up. "He
inspired me," she said. The question is: How? What
did Dean do to enchant Pierce, and to stir up
thousands of avid supporters? … While the other
candidates focus on their humble roots or heroic
feats, Dean inverts the telescope: He talks
about the voters. He tells them they're okay.
Instead of trying to get them to love him, he tells
them to love themselves. A doctor by training, he
injects psychology into politics. "I liked it when
he said the election wasn't about him, it was about
us," said Pierce. "He's empowering me." This is the
intended effect, the candidate said in an interview.
"People feel horribly disempowered by George Bush,"
he said. "I'm about trying to give them control
back. This is not just a 'campaign,' it's a movement
to empower ordinary people. I don't say, 'Elect me.'
" Instead, Dean says the election is in their hands.
Delivering a series of exhortations, he'll turn a
garden party into political group therapy:
"Stop being ashamed."
"Stand up and say what you think."
"You ought to be proud."
"The power to change this country is in your hands."
"You have the power."
"You have the power."
Yes, there is anger. But it is tightly managed.
"It's raw energy, an energy I know could be
channeled," Dean said. "It's similar in a patient
relationship, helping them channel their energy into
something better for them. " Which, notably, has fed
a river of campaign contributions.
… New Hampshire’s
Unionleader.com: The Dean campaign
claims to have raised $7.5 million through the
internet, senior political reporter John DeStaso
reports. Excerpts: “Howard Dean’s successful
use of the Internet for fundraising and campaign
organizing is a lesson for political leaders in New
Hampshire and across the country, political experts
say. But they also say that, as Dean himself is
proving, there remains no substitute in New
Hampshire for face-to-face, retail politics. The
Dean campaign raised $15 million in the third
quarter of 2003, which ended yesterday. About
half was collected through Internet donations, a
Dean campaign spokesman said. By comparison,
according to the Los Angeles Times, aides to Sen.
John Kerry announced he was expecting to raise $4.5
million to $5 million in the quarter, while Sen.
Joe Lieberman was expecting about $4 million,
a spokesman said. “It’s remarkable,” said Rich
Killion, director of the Marlin Fitzwater Center for
Communications at Franklin Pierce College. “But
you have to realize that even with all the Internet
importance in the Dean campaign, he has still been
in New Hampshire probably more than any other
candidate. In New Hampshire, the use of the Internet
complements what has always worked here, and that is
retail politics,” Killion said.
… In an interview with The Miami Herald and
the St. Petersburg Times, Bob Graham
concedes $15M fundraising mark for the year will be
a struggle. Headlined,“Graham admits he may
miss money mark”,
Miami Herald writer Peter Wallsten
details the interview. Excerpts: “Campaigning in a
key primary state, a Florida Democratic icon finds
supporters but is haunted by a wide gap in funds
between him and his rivals.
As he completes what is
now widely expected to be a disappointing
fundraising period and enters a make-or-break stage
for his White House ambitions, Sen. Bob Graham
acknowledged for the first time that meeting his $15
million fundraising goal for the year would be a
struggle. Graham made his comments during a
weekend visit to South Carolina, the first state on
the 2004 primary calendar that Graham strategists
believe he would have a chance of winning. In an
interview with The Herald and the St. Petersburg
Times, Graham also would not dismiss rumors that
he might be forced to reduce his staff. … As
for dropping out, Graham said he ``hasn't given it a
thought.'' Asked about speculation that he would
retire from politics and become president of his
alma mater, he said: ``I don't think it would be
possible to be both president of the University of
Florida and president of the United States at the
same time.'' … Graham conceded irritation about
his failure to find his rhetorical footing --
especially when public sentiment against the war is
growing and he, unlike the other senators in the
race, voted against the resolution authorizing the
invasion. ''I'm frustrated by the fact that if I had
been able to get into the race in January and
therefore had been able to talk about why I voted
against the war, I think I would have gotten some of
the uplift that Howard Dean has gotten,'' he
said.
… Dick Gephardt has picked up his 15th
union endorsement, according to AP’s Will
Lester.
San Francisco Chronicle is carrying the
story. Excerpts: “Dick Gephardt picked up the
backing of his 15th labor union Wednesday, a day
after the AFL-CIO dealt a blow to the Democratic
presidential candidate by postponing an endorsement
meeting for a second time. The 180,000-member
Amalgamated Transit Union announced its endorsement
of the Missouri congressman, with the union's
president, Warren George, saying Gephardt "stood
with us when the Republican Congress tried to take
away the job protections for transit workers and
we're proud to stand with him now." The ATU includes
bus, subway, light rail and ferry operators, as well
as clerks, baggage handlers, mechanics and others
involved in the transit industry.
… John Kerry adds another strategist to his
campaign entourage: Jill Alper.
San Francisco Chronicle
is carrying the story. Excerpts: “Democratic
strategist Jill Alper is joining John Kerry's
campaign full-time to help plan and implement
strategy. "Jill's portfolio is extremely broad,
but it's best described as strategic planning and
driving the implementation of that strategy," said
campaign manager Jim Jordan. "She's enormously
talented and experienced, and John Kerry feels
himself very fortunate to have her play a major role
in this campaign." Alper has informally advised
Kerry and his staff for more than two years. Her
full-time status signals that Kerry is broadening
his campaign team as next year's primaries approach.
Alper, 38, worked for then-Vice President Al Gore's
2000 presidential campaign and is a former top
strategist at the Democratic National Committee.
…
Connecticut Courant writer Kevin Canfield asks,
‘Why Do Sure Losers Run?’ Excerpts: “NEW YORK -
U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich will almost certainly
not be the next president of the United States. Nor
will former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun. The Rev.
Al Sharpton has virtually no chance, and neither
does U.S. Sen. Bob Graham. Each of the four
candidates is spending incalculable hours and
millions of dollars on a run for the highest office
in the land with - let's be honest - no chance of
victory. What motivates a candidate who simply
can't win? "I have to be honest," said Jeff
Greenfield, senior political analyst for CNN. "I
think there is a real pay-attention-to-me factor
with some of these candidates." "Everybody wants
to win," Chris Suellentrop, Slate online magazine's
deputy Washington bureau chief, said last week at
the New York debate. "But they must realize on some
level that they're not going to. "Sharpton
himself admitted as much. Speaking to reporters at a
campaign stop in Harlem last week, he suggested that
he will consider himself victorious if he expands
voter registration in black communities, empowers
the poor and steers the national conversation toward
those who "too long have been ignored by those in
charge of the American economy." "There are
different levels of winning," Sharpton said. It
might seem premature to write the epitaph for the
Sharpton, Graham, Kucinich and Moseley Braun
campaigns several months before the official start
of the primary season. But remember: None of those
at the bottom of the pack has the financial
resources to compete with Democratic Party
contenders U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt, former Vermont
Gov. Howard Dean, U.S. Sen. John Kerry, U.S. Sen.
Joseph Lieberman, U.S. Sen. John Edwards and retired
Army Gen. Wesley Clark. Meantime, whether the
problem is a lack of name recognition (Kucinich and
Mosley Braun), a shortage of charisma (Graham) or a
credibility gap (Sharpton), each of the candidates
has more to worry about than a dearth of cash in the
campaign coffers. Still, the hopefuls who are
bringing up the rear insist they're in it to win it.
"I think what happens is if more and more people
become aware of my campaign, they will respond to
it," said Kucinich. For Sharpton, still
battling the notion that he lied when advocating on
behalf of alleged rape victim Tawana Brawley
in the late 1980s, this campaign is about
positioning himself as the unofficial leader of
African American voters. He also might run for mayor
of New York City some day. Moseley Braun,
meantime, might be happy if she is remembered more
for her plucky run for president rather than the
1993 scandal over the alleged misuse of funds
donated to her Senate campaign. And Kucinich,
analysts agree, wants to speak for a certain wing
(the far left) of the Democratic Party. For these
reasons, Sharpton, Moseley Braun and Kucinich are
"really just vanity candidates," argued Joe Klein, a
columnist for Time magazine. Klein is not alone
in suggesting that the aforementioned triumvirate
should be left out of future debates. Graham,
though, is a slightly different case. "Graham is a
really serious and a really estimable politician,"
Klein said. Elected as both governor of Florida and
a senator representing the state, Graham, several
analysts said, is the 2004 version of a candidate
we've seen often in the last two decades.
…
Unionleader.com article by AP writer
Robert Jablon, “Dean Campaigns in Los Angeles”.
Excerpts: “LOS ANGELES (AP) - Democratic
presidential candidate Howard Dean poked fun at his
fund-raising success Tuesday in his first appearance
on the Jay Leno show. In a film clip, Dean
was shown playing a guitar on a street next to signs
reading, "Your change for real change" and "We'll
strum for presidency." People were shown placing
money in an open guitar case. Posted updates on
his Web site showed Dean had raised more than $14.2
million in a three-month period, breaking the
Democratic presidential record for a single quarter
set by then-President Clinton, who raised $10.3
million over three months in 1995. Earlier in the
day, Dean campaigned in the inner city of Los
Angeles, promising jobs, health care and a dialogue
on race at a meeting with local leaders who have
long been skeptical of politicians' promises. Dean
didn't call for money but rather assailed President
Bush for what the Democrat said was the government's
failure to put money into blighted urban areas. The
former Vermont governor also promoted his plans for
widespread health care coverage and education
funding and promised to work toward creating jobs in
inner cities. He also supported affirmative action.
"We have a 400-year-old legacy of Jim Crow and
slavery and that is not going to be overcome because
we all have good intentions," he said. Dean
called for a national dialogue on racial issues,
saying whites can be indifferent to the plight of
minorities.
…
NewYorkTimes online article by Bernard
Weinraub, “The Latest Star on the Hollywood Circuit
– Clark”. Excerpts: “The hottest star in
Hollywood at this moment is not Nicole or Julia or
the two Toms, Cruise and Hanks. It is a 58-year-old
retired four-star general who seems to have
Hollywood's Democratic Party loyalists — which
means the bulk of the town — in a fever. "General
Clark definitely has the flavor of the month
status," Steve Tisch, a producer and prominent
Democratic contributor, said about Gen. Wesley
K. Clark of the Army, the newest entry in the
Democratic presidential primary contest. Mr. Tisch
may be overstating, or understating, the case.
Hollywood may turn out to have a short-term
infatuation with General Clark, comparable to the
way agents, producers and executives embraced Steven
Seagal for what seemed like a few minutes and then
dropped him. Or General Clark may have the endurance
and staying power of Clint Eastwood. Whatever the
case, General Clark is, in a word sometimes used by
Variety about a film or a star, a luminary. He is in
town on Wednesday and Thursday for a series of
fund-raisers and meetings given by some of the most
vocal and affluent Democrats in town. They
include Norman Lear, the producer; Peter Morton,
chairman of the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino; Larry
David, creator of "Seinfeld"; and Mr. Tisch, a
member of the wealthy Tisch family in New York.
The couple Mary Steenburgen and Ted Danson,
longtime friends and supporters of former President
Bill Clinton, are also holding an event for General
Clark. Richard Donner, the producer-director, and
Jerry Moss, the music executive, are planning a
fund-raising breakfast. The other week, General
Clark had lunch with Steven Spielberg. … Andy
Spahn, a political adviser who runs corporate
affairs for Dreamworks, attended the Spielberg lunch
with General Clark, who is based in Little Rock,
Ark. "There's a lot of buzz about General Clark
now," Mr. Spahn said. "He combines in one package
the attributes of several other candidates. He's got
the Southern base of John Edwards, the outsider
status of Howard Dean and a military record that
trumps John Kerry." … Mark Fabiani, a top
adviser to General Clark,said, "The outpouring of
interest from California has been incredible, and
we're struggling to keep up with it."
… More on the Al Sharpton campaign upheaval
in a
New York Times online article by Michael
Slackman, “Sharpton Loses 2 Pivotal Aides; New
Hurdle for Campaign”. Excerpts: “The Rev. Al
Sharpton's long shot bid for the Democratic
nomination stumbled on Tuesday after two top aides
resigned, and some ardent supporters complained that
the candidate had failed to build a cohesive
campaign. Mr. Sharpton's campaign manager,
Frank Watkins, and Kevin Gray, his coordinator
in South Carolina, a critical state, resigned, aides
said. They were longtime supporters of the Rev.
Jesse Jackson, having worked on his two
presidential races. Their departures suggest a
deepening rift between Mr. Sharpton and Mr.
Jackson's camp, a gap that could complicate Mr.
Sharpton's efforts to win the support of people from
the civil rights movement. Mr. Sharpton has, in
fact, been trying to copy Mr. Jackson's successes in
the 1984 and 1988 primaries. Mr. Sharpton said
that he was naming Charles Halloran, a veteran
political worker, as campaign manager and that Mr.
Halloran would also help develop national
fund-raising. Mr. Halloran was campaign manager
for Tom Golisano, the billionaire executive from
upstate New York who ran for governor of New York
last year. "This was something everyone was aware of
for weeks, Mr. Sharpton said in an interview on
Tuesday night, insisting that any assessment that
his campaign had stumbled was a "total illusion."
Mr. Gray's loss is particularly significant, because
Mr. Sharpton has devoted much time and energy to
South Carolina.
* ON THE BUSH BEAT: …
Washington Post’s OnPolitics article by
Mike Allen, “Bush Bests His Own Fundraising Record”.
Excerpts: “CHICAGO, Sept. 30 -- President Bush
broke his own one-day record for fundraising with a
two-stop, 12-hour visit to the Midwest, but he
could not leave the leak investigation behind. Bush,
speaking to 1,700 supporters who had paid $2,000
each for a sandwich and a 28-minute speech,
condemned "needless, partisan bickering that
dominates the Washington, D.C., landscape and the
zero-sum politics of Washington." …
"Washington is a town where there's all kinds of
allegations," Bush said. "We'll get to the bottom of
this and move on." … The fundraisers were held
at a hotel here and at a castle-like Lindner family
mansion in Cincinnati. The receptions raised a total
of $5.3 million on the final day for candidates'
third-quarter financial disclosure reports. That
edged the $5.2 million Bush raised on one day in
California in June, and brought his campaign total
to nearly $84 million, according to Bush-Cheney 2004
officials.
*
THE CLINTON COMEDIES:
…
Des Moines Register article by Jane
Norman, “Iowa delegation is split on alleged leak.
Both sides bring up the Whitewater investigation.
Harkin says this is more serious; Grassley says Bush
is behaving better.”. Excerpts: “Iowa
politicians, many with long memories of Clinton-era
investigations, have plenty to say about
Washington's latest scandal over allegations that an
undercover CIA employee's name was leaked for
political reasons. Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin of
Iowa appeared on the Senate floor every day this
week to demand a special counsel be appointed to
probe charges that someone in the Bush
administration illegally disclosed a covert
officer's name. The officer, Valerie Plame, is
married to former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, a
leading critic of administration policy on Iraq.
"If a situation ever called out for a special
counsel, this is it," said Harkin. "This really does
bring back memories of enemies lists." Former
President Nixon was found during the Watergate
investigation to have kept a list of political
opponents. The Justice Department announced Tuesday
that it would conduct a full criminal investigation
into the leaks, and the president has promised full
cooperation. But Harkin said it is a"sweetheart
deal" for Attorney General John Ashcroft to
investigate his own administration, despite
Ashcroft's promise that career professionals will do
the work. "This is a gross violation. This is
not some little real estate deal someplace," said
Harkin, a chief defender of President Clinton in the
1990s. Republicans praised Bush's conduct and
contrasted it with that of the Clintons when they
were embroiled in the Whitewater investigation.
Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa said
that Bush warned his staff members that relevant
records should not be destroyed. "Just think how
different that is than . . . the telephone records
that Hillary Clinton had and were lost in the White
House and mysteriously showed up one day," said
Grassley. Records from Clinton's work at a law
firm were subpoenaed but missing for two years
during the investigation of the Whitewater land
deal. They were discovered in 1995 in the reading
room of the White House residence. Bush knows
"you don't get any place in government by covering
up," said Grassley. "If he dug a hole and pulled it
in after him, the criticism would be much higher
than it presently is," he said. Rep. Tom Latham,
R-Ia., said the Justice probe is proper. "I think
it's very common knowledge on the Hill, the
motivation of this Joe Wilson," said Latham.
Wilson makes no secret of being a left-leaning
Democrat and is expected to endorse the presidential
bid of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., according to the
Washington Post. In 2002, Wilson was sent by the CIA
to Niger and debunked claims that Saddam Hussein was
trying to buy uranium there. The president repeated
that claim in his State of the Union address in
January. Rep. Steve King, R-Ia., said "the person
that ought to be investigated" is columnist Robert
Novak, who revealed Valerie Plame's name in a
July column. "I just see this as part of
presidential campaign politics," King said. Rep.
Jim Leach, R-Ia., called the leak a "very
serious and unfortunate" incident. "There are two
issues at stake - the implications of removing the
cover of a covert agent and the issue of possible
political efforts to delegitimize an embarrassing
report," said Leach. Rep. Jim Nussle, R-Ia.,
added: "This matter requires an investigation,
and we should let the career investigators determine
the best way to proceed. If they determine there
needs to be a special counsel to investigate the
situation, I will support that decision as well."
Rep. Leonard Boswell, D-Ia., a member of the
Select Committee on Intelligence, said an
independent counsel is needed. "It appears some
White House officials cannot be trusted with
classified information," he said. "It is
unacceptable to allow individuals who have such
little regard for national secrets access to
sensitive information."
… Greg Pierce, The Washington Times,
writes in his
Inside Politic’s column: “Century of
criticism”. Excerpts: “Sen. Hillary Rodham
Clinton, New York Democrat, accused the Bush
administration of attempting to "undo the 20th
century" by rolling back federal environmental
regulations. Speaking at the League of
Conservation Voters dinner in Washington, D.C., on
Monday night, Mrs. Clinton told a crowd of about 550
environmental activists that the Bush administration
is determined to reverse more than just
environmental regulations, Marc Morano reports at
www.CNSNews.com. "When I first got to the Senate,
I realized that on so many issues that I thought
were important for our country and the world, that
the [Bush] administration wanted to turn the clock
back, and they certainly wanted to undo everything
that the Clinton administration had done — which I
admit I took a little personally," Mrs. Clinton
said. "Then it became clear that [the Bush
administration] didn't want to just turn the clock
back on the Clinton administration, they wanted to
go all the way back and undo Franklin Roosevelt and
were on their way to Teddy Roosevelt." Mrs. Clinton
added: "This was an ideologically driven agenda to
... try to undo the 20th century when it came to the
frameworks of regulation and law."
*
WAR/TERROR:
…
VOA news article online, “UN Nuclear
Inspectors Head for Iran”. Excerpts: “U.N.
nuclear inspectors are headed to Iran in another
attempt to determine if the Islamic republic is
seeking to develop atomic weapons. The
International Atomic Energy Agency team, led by
Belgian Pierre Goldschmidt, is to meet with top
Iranian officials on Thursday. Before leaving Vienna
Wednesday, Mr. Goldschmidt said the team expects to
make a lot of progress. His comments coincided with
remarks by Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi,
who told reporters Tehran will do all it can to keep
the IAEA from referring Iran's nuclear program to
the U.N. Security Council. Mr. Kharrazi promised
greater cooperation with inspectors but also
indicated Iran does not want to allow limitless
inspections of its nuclear facilities without its
right to enrich uranium being guaranteed. The
United States suspects Iran is enriching uranium to
make nuclear bombs. Previous IAEA inspections
revealed traces of weapons-grade uranium at two
sites. Tehran blames the finds on contaminated
equipment it imported from another country, and
insists its nuclear activities are peaceful in
nature. Tuesday, IAEA Director General Mohamed
ElBaradei warned that without full access, the
inspectors will not be able to verify Tehran's
statements to the agency's governing board. That
board, in turn, would have to report to the U.N.
Security Council for possible economic and
diplomatic sanctions.
…
Unionleader.com article by AP writer
Soo-Jeong Lee, “SOUTH KOREA – No troops for Iraq
before crisis settled.” Excerpts: “South
Korea must be confident that tensions over North
Korea's nuclear ambitions will be resolved
peacefully before Seoul considers sending troops to
Iraq, South Korea's president said Wednesday.
Washington has asked South Korea, a major Asian
ally, to dispatch thousands of combat troops to help
American forces secure stability in postwar Iraq.
Talks to end the standoff over North Korea's
suspected development of nuclear weapons are
stalling over strident differences between
Washington and Pyongyang, and South Korea wants
the United States to make a firm commitment to a
peaceful solution. "Prior to making any decision
on the troop dispatch, it is extremely important to
arrive at a positive outlook for and conviction in
peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula," South
Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said in a speech
marking Armed Forces Day. Speaking before 25,000
soldiers and other guests at an airport outside
Seoul, Roh said, "I again urge the North to abandon
its nuclear development and come onto the path
toward peace and coexistence." North Korea has
said repeatedly that it wants a nonaggression pact
and aid from the United States before it scraps its
nuclear weapons programs. Washington said the North
must first give up its nuclear ambitions. The
United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and
Russia met in Beijing last month for talks on the
North's nuclear weapons program but did not set a
date for further talks. On Tuesday, North Korea Vice
Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon told the U.N. General
Assembly that Pyongyang would not return to talks
unless Washington took "simultaneous action" to meet
its demands, saying it made no sense for the
communist country to "put down the guns first." The
crisis began in October, when U.S. officials said
North Korea admitted having a nuclear program in
violation of international agreements. Some South
Koreans believe sending troops to Iraq would boost
Seoul's military alliance with the United States,
vital to its national security. Others oppose it,
saying the U.S. military operations in Iraq were
unjustified. Activists staged violent protests when
South Korea sent 675 non-combat troops to assist in
the U.S.-led reconstruction of Iraq earlier this
year.
* NATIONAL POLITICS:
…
WashingtonTimes.com online article by
Paul Greenberg, “Fall of the House of Kennedy”.
Excerpts: “"Uncivil," the president of the United
States called it, referring to a statement from Ted
Kennedy about how the war in Iraq was nothing but a
Republican plot. For once, George W. Bush has
displayed a sense of understatement. His restraint
is all the more impressive coming from a Texan. For
here is what the senior senator from Massachusetts
said about the origins of this war: "There was no
imminent threat. This was made up in Texas,
announced in January to the Republican leadership
that war was going to take place and was going to be
good politically. The whole thing was a fraud."
Can this be what Democrats mean by a return to
civility in American rhetoric? And if so, how
does it differ in any important aspect from plain
old McCarthyism, conspiracy theories and all? …
All this talk about whether the threat from Saddam
Hussein was imminent is a bright-red herring, The
question was whether Saddam should have been stopped
before he became an imminent threat, and he has
been. The heart of Sen. Kennedy's accusation is
his strange description of this war as just a
hatched-in-Texas plot. It sounds like something
you would hear on al Jazeera, or on one of those
tapes attributed to Osama bin Laden. Only it came
from an American senator. There hasn't been a baser
accusation against an American president by a
sitting United States senator since Burton K.
Wheeler's infamous description of Lend Lease as "the
New Deal's Triple-A foreign policy; it will plow
under every fourth American boy." Isolationist
vituperation really doesn't change much from
generation to generation in this country, does it?
That this outburst should come from the Knight of
Chappaquiddick should not surprise after his
personal history, which is scarcely honorable.
Yet it does. Maybe because some of us, led astray by
a great name and legend in American politics,
assumed a Kennedy would uphold some minimal
standards in public discourse. Clearly we were
mistaken. What a contrast Ted Kennedy's vicious
words make to those his brother uttered at another
critical time a half-century ago: "Let the word go
forth from this time and place, to friend and foe
alike, that the torch has been passed to a new
generation of Americans ... unwilling to witness or
permit the slow undoing of those human rights to
which this nation has always been committed, and to
which we are committed today at home and around the
world. Let every nation know, whether it wishes us
well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any
burden, meet any hardship, support any friend,
oppose any foe to assure the survival and the
success of liberty," said John F. Kennedy, Jan. 20,
1961. How far the Kennedys have come since that
sunlit, windswept day when Robert Frost shared the
platform, and a new birth of freedom was being
celebrated. The forces of tyranny were being
defied that day, not placated. The torch of
freedom was being passed to the next generation.
What a contrast to that bright memory Ted Kennedy's
dark words offer. What a sad, shadowy conspiracy
theory he is selling. This Kennedy is so caught
up in partisan throes that he does not speak so much
as thrash about, even while another decisive
struggle is being waged to determine what kind of
future awaits America and the world. Will it be a
future of fear or of freedom? A future in which
America waits to be attacked again, or one in which
the forces of freedom take the offensive? There
was a time when there could be no doubt which side
of that question a scion of the Kennedys would take.
But now ... well, it would take an Edgar Allan Poe
to do justice to the Fall of the House of Kennedy.
*
FEDERAL POLITICS:
…
Washington Post’s OnPolitics article by
staff writer Eric Pianin, “Vote on EPA Nominee
Delayed”. Excerpts: “Sen. James M. Jeffords
(I-Vt.) and his Democratic allies blocked a
committee vote today on President Bush's nomination
of Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt to head the Environmental
Protection Agency in a bit of partisan theater
designed to dramatize their pique with the
administration's environmental policies. Insisting
it was "nothing personal" against Leavitt,
Jeffords and the Democrats boycotted a meeting of
the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee,
denying chairman James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) the
quorum he needed to send the nomination to the
Senate floor for consideration. Jeffords showed
up just long enough to complain that he and his
colleagues needed more information from Leavitt and
the administration about Bush policies before they
could vote, but none of the eight Democrats
attended the session…. A furious Inhofe said the
boycott of the committee was an unprecedented act of
partisan obstructionism and insulting to Leavitt,
whom he described as "one of the most highly
qualified people ever to be nominated for this job."
He said the Republicans never attempted to block
a Democratic nominee to the EPA and that they
had demanded only a fraction of the information from
President Clinton's choice to head the agency that
the Democrats are now demanding of Leavitt. When
Jeffords replied that he considered Leavitt a friend
and intended eventually to vote for him, Inhofe
fired back: "If that's the way you treat your
friends, how do you treat your enemies?" "It's easy
to say this is not personal about him," Inhofe said.
"It is very personal." … with the presidential
campaign heating up, Leavitt' nomination
increasingly has become a source of partisan rancor
and maneuvering. Four Democratic senators -- Sen.
Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and presidential
candidates John Edwards (N.C.), John F. Kerry
(Mass.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.) -- have said
they would use senatorial "holds" to prevent the
nomination from reaching the floor until Leavitt and
the White House address certain issues.
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