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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 Tuesday, October 14, 2003
midday…
"The person who is in charge is me. In all due
respect to politicians here in Washington, D.C.,
who make comments, they're just wrong about our
strategy. We've had a strategy from the
beginning."
– President Bush, during an interview with Turner
Broadcasting yesterday.
"This is haphazard, shotgun, shoot-from-the-hip
diplomacy, and I think it's causing us great
risk."
– John Kerry, on
the Bush Administration.
“But it was Mr. Kerry who was accused of
shooting from the hip yesterday by rival Democrat
Howard Dean, a former Vermont governor, whose
presidential campaign released numerous
conflicting quotes by Mr. Kerry on the subject of
Iraq.”
– Bill Sammon,
reporting for the WashingtonTimes.com
“We put it in the hands of the FBI and the
Justice Department, when it should have been in
the hands of the Defense Department, because Bin
Laden was more than the equivalent of a Muslim mob
guy." – former Clinton deputy attorney
general, Eric Holder, on the flaccid,
law-enforcement response to terrorism in new book,
“Legacy: Paying the Price for the Clinton Years
– Ex-Clinton aides on Clinton,” written by
National Review editor Rich Lowry.
"No one should claim that what we did, what
President Clinton did, created the eight most
productive years in the history of the United
States. No one should claim that."
– Mickey
Kantor, former Clinton secretary of commerce and
trade representative quoted in new book,
“Legacy: Paying the Price for the Clinton Years –
Ex-Clinton aides on Clinton,” written by
National Review editor Rich Lowry.
morning
"I would direct the Food and Drug
Administration to facilitate this proven strategy
for achieving significant savings on prescription
drugs. These drugs [from Canada] are made by the
same companies and contain the same ingredients as
drugs sold in the U.S." -- Howard Dean,
speaking to Iowa seniors.
“I am running for president of the United
States to enable the goddess of peace to encircle
within her arms all the children of this country
and all the children of the world. As president I
will work with leaders of the world to make war a
thing of the past, to abolish nuclear weapons."
–
presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich in
Cleveland yesterday.
"He's [Bush] spending more energy looking out
for his friends than he is looking out for the
American people and taxpayers,"
– Dem
candidate John Edwards, on MSNBC’s “Hardball”
"This race in undecided."
– Joe
Lieberman, campaigning in New Hampshire.
midday…
Bush says he’s in charge
Dean turns war of words back
onto Kerry – using Kerry’s own words on Kerry
Former Bill Clinton aides pan
Bubba in new book
Clark wants a civilian reserve
corps at Congress’ disposal
People-Powered Howard Dean
edging closer to opting out of public financing
for campaign
morning
Dr. Dean blitz on Iowa seniors
Dennis Kucinich makes it official
John Edwards on “Hardball”
Lieberman’s “Leading with
Integrity” Tour
midday…
… In the first of four agenda speeches to come
this month from Wesley Clark, Clark said he
wants a new corp of civilians created. Clark
spoke yesterday at New York's Hunter College.
Associated Press writer Nedra Pickler reports today
(Yahoo.news/AP).
Excerpts: “Democrat Wesley Clark says if elected
president, he would create a corps of civilians who
could be called up for service in national
emergencies much like the National Guard. Every
American age 18 or older could register for Clark's
civilian reserve, listing skills that could aid the
country in a disaster.” Highlights of the Clark
proposal:
·
Voluntary registration
·
Five year commitment
·
Presidential power to call to active
duty up to 5000 civilian reservists for national
emergencies, i.e., floods, forest fires, terrorist
attacks
·
6-month limit on tours of duty
·
Congressional power to authorize
higher numbers of civilians to be mobilized.
·
Civilian reservists could be sent
overseas, i.e., Afghanistan and Iraq.
·
Active duty civilian reservist
benefits: health care, a stipend, the right to
return to their jobs when service is completed.
·
Civilian reserve program would be part
of the Department of Homeland Security
… People-Powered-Moneybags-Howard Dean may be the
first Dem candidate to say ‘no, thanks’ to the use
of public financing. Associated Press reporter
Sharon Theimer gives account of the Dean campaign’s
maneuverings
(DRUDGE.com today). Excerpts: “… In the latest
sign Dean may forego public campaign money and the
accompanying spending limits, the former Vermont
governor has begun gathering signatures to get on
the North Carolina primary ballot. Candidates who
accept public financing automatically qualify for a
spot on the state's ballot; those who do not must
collect at least 10,000 signatures from party
members in the state, said Don Wright, a state Board
of Elections spokesman. Dean spokeswoman Tricia
Enright said Dean hasn't decided whether he will
skip public financing. … Those who take the public
money for next year's primaries will be limited to
about $45 million in spending. They will receive
taxpayer-financed "matching funds" for the first
$250 of each contribution, up to a maximum of about
$18.7 million. In addition to Dean, Sen. John
Kerry of Massachusetts and Clark, a retired general
from Arkansas, are considering opting out of
matching funds in the nine-way Democratic race.
… The wannabe War of Words winds on. According to
the
WashingtonTimes.com today, the Dean campaign
has released numerous conflicting quotes by rival
candidate John Kerry regarding various Kerry
statements on Iraq. Excerpt from the article:
“Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, had
accused the president Sunday of failing to protect
U.S. troops in Iraq. Mr. Bush said GIs and other
Americans "remember the lessons of September the
11th, 2001. And so do I. It's something we should
never forget." His remarks came 24 hours after Mr.
Kerry, a presidential candidate, accused the White
House of treating the Iraq war like a political
"product," not a matter of life and death. "It's not
a product," Mr. Kerry said on ABC's "This Week."
"It's the lives of young Americans in uniform." He
said Mr. Bush had created a "mess" in which "young
Americans are dying by the day in Iraq." … "He ought
to be apologizing to the people of this country,
because what they've done now is launch a PR
campaign instead of a real policy," Mr. Kerry said.
"They rushed the war without a plan for the peace,
and we are paying an enormous price for that now,"
he added. "This is haphazard, shotgun,
shoot-from-the-hip diplomacy, and I think it's
causing us great risk." But it was Mr. Kerry who
was accused of shooting from the hip yesterday by
rival Democrat Howard Dean, a former Vermont
governor, whose presidential campaign released
numerous conflicting quotes by Mr. Kerry on the
subject of Iraq. For example, last month Mr.
Kerry said: "It was wrong to rush to war without
building a true international coalition — and with
no plan to win the peace." The campaign for Mr. Dean
said in a statement: "Perhaps the Senator should
re-read the resolution that he voted for." It then
cited the congressional authorization for Mr. Bush
to wage war: "The president is authorized to use the
Armed Forces of the United States as he determines
to be necessary and appropriate in order to defend
the national security of the United States against
the continuing threat posed by Iraq."
morning
… John Edwards appeared last night on MSNBC’s
“Hardball” with host Chris Matthews, saying he was
worried the Bush administration’s $87 billion
request to rebuild Iraq will ‘end up in the pockets
of Bush’s friends.’ Excerpts from the article,
online at
MSNBC.com: “It is not the right thing to do for
our troops . . . to just continue to give this
president a blank check," he said. "We have
questions we need answers to." Pressed by Matthews
for an example of such cronyism, Edwards cited oil
services giant Halliburton, a company once headed by
Vice President Dick Cheney. A Halliburton subsidiary
has received no-bid work worth $1.2 billion to
restore Iraq's oil industry. "He's spending more
energy looking out for his friends than he is
looking out for the American people and taxpayers,"
he said. A national CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll
released yesterday indicated that Edwards was tied
with the Rev. Al Sharpton, with 6 percent of the
vote. Retired General Wesley K. Clark was first with
18 percent, followed by Dean, Senator Joseph I.
Lieberman of Connecticut, and Kerry.”
… Joe Lieberman “Leading with Integrity”
Tour – coming soon to a state near you… Campaigning
in New Hampshire yesterday, Lieberman stepped up his
rhetoric on President Bush, venturing into the risky
area of personal attacks on Bush. Lieberman sought
to sully Bush’s moral integrity, in the hopes of
gaining momentum for his stagnant campaign.
Lieberman takes his tour to Oklahoma, South Carolina
and Florida this week.
The Boston Globe gives this account of the
latest Lieberman tactic: “Seeking to energize his
presidential bid, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of
Connecticut yesterday launched an aggressive
personal attack on George W. Bush, questioning his
integrity and trustworthiness in an attempt to frame
the election as a referendum on the president's
moral character. The new campaign push, which uses
the slogan "Leading With Integrity," seeks to
capitalize on Lieberman's reputation, which came to
national prominence five years ago. In 1998,
Lieberman, standing on the Senate floor, criticized
President Clinton's behavior during the Monica
Lewinsky scandal. … Lieberman also reintroduced
his tax plan, which would give lower- and
middle-income families a $300 billion tax cut and
pay for it by substantially increasing taxes on the
wealthy and corporations. Under Lieberman's plan, a
married couple earning $50,000 a year would save
about $1,000. Those earning $75,000 would save as
much as $1,500 dollars a year. In essence, Lieberman
would keep Bush's tax cut for the middle class while
repealing Bush's tax cuts for the rich. "I want to
restore integrity and fairness to the tax code with
a bold plan for middle-class tax reform," Lieberman
said. Thus far in the campaign, Lieberman had
tried to sell himself as the centrist candidate:
tough on terrorism, in favor of free trade and tax
cuts, a proponent of family values, while more
liberal on most social and environmental issues. But
Dean has clearly stolen his thunder. In recent
weeks, especially during televised debates,
Lieberman has more aggressively attacked his
opponents, seeking to change his image as the genial
senator from Connecticut. Lieberman did say Bush
was "a good guy" and refused to call him a liar.
Instead, he said the president was "at the best,
misleading" about his economic policies and the war
in Iraq. Lieberman said he thought his new strategy
would help him gather support among Democratic
voters who have yet to select a candidate: "This
race in undecided."
… It’s a Dr. Dean Blitz this week on Iowa’s
seniors – with more seniors coming. “More seniors
in Iowa,” you say? Yessir, more seniors in
Iowa. But these Vermont-import seniors come to speak
to Iowa’s seniors about then-Gov Dean’s Vermont
prescription drug plan (Dean’s Vermont initiative,
VScript, gave prescription drug coverage to low- and
moderate-income senior citizens in his home state
when he signed the measure into law in 1989. In
2000, Vermont expanded the state program to include
middle-income seniors, who now pay just $5 or $10
for each prescription. A third of Medicare
recipients in Vermont get help paying for their
prescriptions under the state program.).
Today’s Des Moines Register article, headlined “Dean
open to buying drugs from Canada,” says the
leading Dem candidate told seniors in Council Bluffs
that there is no proof that the cheaper medicines
are inferior or unsafe. According to the
article, eight of the nine Democrats vying for
their party’s nomination support legalizing
prescription drugs from Canada (and Europe). {IPW
NOTE: The ninth candidate, Wesley Clark, has yet to
take any position on the prescription drug issue.]
But there is extra clout that Howard Dean brings to
the issue – Howard Dean is also a doctor.
More excerpts from the article: “…The issue has
entered the political arena at a time when Americans
are spending an estimated $750 million on buying
prescription drugs from Canada, where prices are 30
percent to 80 percent cheaper. FDA officials have
expressed concerns about the practice, saying
Canadian drugs aren't as well regulated as those in
the United States, and sometimes include counterfeit
and outdated medications. Dean dismissed those
concerns on Monday. "I would direct the Food and
Drug Administration to facilitate this proven
strategy for achieving significant savings on
prescription drugs," he said. "These drugs are made
by the same companies and contain the same
ingredients as drugs sold in the U.S." Dean also
proposed closing loopholes to make generic drugs
more readily available; using "preferred drug lists"
to steer physicians to less-expensive medicines;
banning direct advertising of prescription drugs to
consumers; and allowing states latitude in
experimenting with ways to control drug costs. He
released a list of more than 450 Iowa seniors who
have endorsed him. In addition, his campaign
announced that leaders of Vermont's senior community
will visit Iowa this week to campaign for Dean and
talk about what he has done for prescription drug
benefits in his home state.” Candidate Dean also
spoke to seniors in Waterloo, Iowa, yesterday (QuadCityTimes.com)
and will be attending the AARP forum Wednesday in
Des Moines.
… Dennis Kucinich, the controversial former mayor
of Cleveland turned come-back politician, made his
intentions official yesterday in his hometown of
Cleveland, Ohio. An Associated Press article
online (Cleveland.com
– The Plain Dealer) covered the Kucinich’s
formal announcement. Kucinich is making a 3-day,
12-state campaign tour this week. Another
article – this one in the
New York Times – gives this news from Planet
Kucinich: “I am running for president of the
United States to enable the goddess of peace to
encircle within her arms all the children of this
country and all the children of the world," Mr.
Kucinich said. "As president I will work with
leaders of the world to make war a thing of the
past, to abolish nuclear weapons." He said he
would return to bilateral trade by revoking United
States participation in Nafta and the World Trade
Organization, repeal the antiterrorism legislation
called the USA Patriot Act, create a universal
health care system, establish universal
pre-kindergarten schooling and create a
cabinet-level Department of Peace that would bring
the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s principles of
nonviolence into government. …The Cleveland event
had a tailored multicultural appeal, starting out
with prayers from a rabbi, an imam and a Baptist
preacher. The speakers were racially diverse, and
Mr. Kucinich took a moment to acknowledge the
American Indian communities on Columbus Day. He also
called for a study into whether reparations should
be paid for slavery, noting that he has co-sponsored
legislation to this effect with Representative John
Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan.
* ON THE
BUSH BEAT:
… President Bush made sure the nation, and the
world, understood one thing veeeery well yesterday –
he in charge. The
Washington Times reports on Bush’s strong stance
today in an article by Bill Sammon, titled “Bush
vows he’s in charge.” Excerpts: “President
Bush yesterday asserted his authority as the chief
decision maker on postwar Iraq and lashed out at
critics for portraying his advisers as paralyzed by
political infighting. "The person who is in charge
is me," Mr. Bush said in an interview with Turner
Broadcasting. "In all due respect to politicians
here in Washington, D.C., who make comments, they're
just wrong about our strategy. We've had a strategy
from the beginning." Mr. Bush was referring to
Democrats as well as fellow Republicans like Sen.
Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, chairman of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee. The senator suggested
on Sunday that Mr. Bush was losing control of Iraq
policy to squabbling subordinates. Defense Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld said last week he had not been
informed that Miss Rice was being put in charge of a
new task force to cut red tape in the reconstruction
and democratization of postwar Iraq. Democrats and
journalists pounced on the revelation as evidence of
disarray within the administration. Mr. Bush
insisted he was making the decisions about Iraq,
based largely on advice from envoy L. Paul Bremer.
"Jerry Bremer is running the strategy and we are
making very good progress about the establishment of
a free Iraq," the president said. He also gave a
speech praising Americans who "are willing to
sacrifice for the country they love." Sen. John
Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, had accused the
president Sunday of failing to protect U.S. troops
in Iraq. Mr. Bush said GIs and other Americans
"remember the lessons of September the 11th, 2001.
And so do I. It's something we should never forget."
His remarks came 24 hours after Mr. Kerry, a
presidential candidate, accused the White House of
treating the Iraq war like a political "product,"
not a matter of life and death. "It's not a
product," Mr. Kerry said on ABC's "This Week." "It's
the lives of young Americans in uniform." He said
Mr. Bush had created a "mess" in which "young
Americans are dying by the day in Iraq." … "He ought
to be apologizing to the people of this country,
because what they've done now is launch a PR
campaign instead of a real policy," Mr. Kerry said.
"They rushed the war without a plan for the peace,
and we are paying an enormous price for that now,"
he added. "This is haphazard, shotgun,
shoot-from-the-hip diplomacy, and I think it's
causing us great risk." But it was Mr. Kerry who was
accused of shooting from the hip yesterday by rival
Democrat Howard Dean, a former Vermont governor,
whose presidential campaign released numerous
conflicting quotes by Mr. Kerry on the subject of
Iraq. For example, last month Mr. Kerry said: "It
was wrong to rush to war without building a true
international coalition — and with no plan to win
the peace." The campaign for Mr. Dean said in a
statement: "Perhaps the Senator should re-read the
resolution that he voted for." It then cited the
congressional authorization for Mr. Bush to wage
war: "The president is authorized to use the Armed
Forces of the United States as he determines to be
necessary and appropriate in order to defend the
national security of the United States against the
continuing threat posed by Iraq."
* CLINTON
COMEDIES:
… A new book is out, “Legacy: Paying the Price
for the Clinton Years – Ex-Clinton aides on
Clinton,” written by National Review editor Rich
Lowry. And as Mr. Lowry so aptly states in his
column (today’s NRO.com) this book is about when the
spinning… stops. Excerpts: “Sometimes the
spinning stops. That's what I learned in the course
of writing
Legacy: Paying the Price for the Clinton Years.
I talked to a couple dozen former Clinton officials.
I talked to as many as would talk, in any way that
would win their cooperation; I talked to them
on-the-record, off-the-record, and on-background
with the agreement they could look over any quotes
I'd use. I talked to spinners and wonks and
speechwriters and friends. And there were flashes of
real forthrightness. If you think Clinton is a weak
person, who made excuses for himself, and defeated
Al Gore, and couldn't make a decision, and brought
out-of-their-depth rank amateurs to the making of
foreign policy, and had a pointless second term, and
fundamentally misunderstood how to respond to the
terror threat — and so on: You get the idea — you
might be surprised that former Clinton officials
agree with you. What appears below is hardly the sum
total of all that I was told, but it is telling.
There is only so much that can be said on behalf of
a failed president; eventually reality intrudes and
the obvious cannot be denied. Here, then, is some of
what former Clinton officials say about Clinton:
·
Bernie Nussbaum, former Clinton
White House counsel, on Clinton's weakness: "The
problem was Clinton's weakness in response to all
that criticism. His mother, in her autobiography,
talks of how, if there's a room of 100 people, and
99 of them like him, he'll spend all his time with
that one person, trying to win him over. It's a
dangerous prescription for leadership. But trying
to get everyone to like him is an essential part
of his personality."
·
Mickey Kantor, former Clinton
secretary of commerce and trade representative, on
the Monica scandal: "It's his own fault. No one
did this to him. He did it to himself. No one
brought this on him except himself."
·
Elaine Kamarck, former Clinton
domestic-policy adviser and Gore aide, on the 2000
election: "Clinton sort of softened up the
environment for Gore to be cast as someone who
wasn't genuine. Nobody ever thought that Gore had
Clinton's exact problems; but they were willing to
think that since Clinton was a sleazy guy, there
was probably something sleazy with Gore, too."
·
Don Baer, former Clinton
communications secretary, on Clinton's lax
decision-making: "I think he wanted to understand
the various sides of issues before he came down
hard on them.... It may be that the process of
doing that, at the end of the day, required too
much time and too much lack of discipline to
really focus himself and his administration."
·
Richard Holbrooke, former top
Clinton diplomat, on how Clinton and the
administration were intimidated by then-Joint
Chief of Staff Colin Powell: "Powell overwhelmed
most of the new administration. They were children
in his eyes, and he was an awesome world figure in
theirs."
·
Dick Morris, former Clinton
pollster, on Clinton's wasted second term: "I
believe that Bill Clinton totally and completely
wasted his second term. Partially due to his
laziness in 1997, in 1998 he was totally tanked up
by Monica, and in 1999 and 2000 his entire
presidency was devoted to the single goal of
getting his wife elected to the Senate."
·
Robert Reich, former Clinton labor
secretary, on Clinton's wasted second term: "[T]here
wasn't very much political capital left in the
second administration — the second term — for new
initiatives."
·
Jim Woolsey, former Clinton CIA
director, on Clinton's 1993 cruise-missile attack
in response to an Iraqi assassination attempt
against former President Bush: "After a while,
they fired a couple dozen cruise missiles into an
empty building in the middle of the night, which
is a sufficiently weak response to be almost
laughable."
·
Eric Holder, former Clinton deputy
attorney general, on the flaccid, law-enforcement
response to terrorism: "Ultimately the mistake was
the response. We put it in the hands of the FBI
and the Justice Department, when it should have
been in the hands of the Defense Department,
because Bin Laden was more than the equivalent of
a Muslim mob guy."
·
Alice Rivlin, former Clinton budget
director, on Clinton abandoning deficit reduction
after his 1994 congressional defeat: "The
president lost his nerve a bit on deficit
reduction...and that was a very discouraging
period for those of us who thought it was really
important."
·
Donna Shalala, former Clinton Health
and Human Services director, on the folly of the
Hillary health-care plan: "The program that was
developed was too complex...you really had to go
to the Hill with principles and start working your
way through to get more coverage. A few minutes
into it, we knew that. [But] the commitments had
been made. Commitments to the First Lady, and to
Ira Magaziner, and to a whole organizational
scheme for doing it. It wasn't like the president
wasn't told that's [a go-slow approach] what he
should do."
·
Lanny Davis, former Clinton scandal
lawyer, on how the Democrats first created "the
politics of personal destruction" in the 1980s:
"We used the scandal machinery. We abused it. And
we set the precedent."
·
Howard Paster, former Clinton
congressional lobbyist, on Clinton's lack of a
guiding philosophy in decision-making: "I don't
think the decisions were consistently ideological,
because there were different players in every
decision."
·
Tony Lake, former Clinton
national-security adviser, on Somalia: "In
Somalia, we inherited a bad mission and made it
worse.... In truth, we were sloppy in how we
adopted that [nation-building] as the mission."
·
Mickey Kantor on the 1990's economy:
"No one should claim that what we did, what
President Clinton did, created the eight most
productive years in the history of the United
States. No one should claim that."
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