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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 Friday, October 17, 2003 “This is a credit card
president. This is insane what he's doing. I'm
not going to let him run a war on a credit
card." –
Howard Dean, on why he opposes the proposed $87
billion for Iraq. "We both married well.
Some accuse us both of not being able to speak
the language. We both have big biceps. Well, two
out of three isn't bad."
– President Bush, joking during his meeting
yesterday in California with governor-elect
Arnold Schwarzenegger. “The thing about
wild-eyed idealism is that it doesn't pay the
bills” –
Washington Posts’ Terry Neal, on the internal
struggles of the Clark campaign. “I’ve lost confidence
that he [Howard Dean] has any understanding of
the national security responsibilities of a
President.” –
Senator John McCain, on wannabe Howard Dean’s
opposition to the proposed $87 billion for Iraq
“I’m disappointed in
General Clark. Anyone who wants to be considered
a serious candidate is obliged to express an
opinion.” –
McCain, on wannabe Wesley Clark’s non-position
on the proposed $87 billion for Iraq. "When you run for
president you've got to show people that you're
ready to make decisions, that you know right
from wrong. He [Clark] said this was a matter
for Congress to decide, but it's a matter for a
president to take a clear position on and a
presidential candidate to take a clear position
on." – Joe
Lieberman, on rival Wesley Clark’s position-less
stance on the proposed $87 billion for Iraq. "The youth realized
that the American soldier was a paper tiger."
– Osama bin Laden, after Al Qaeda-trained Somali
fighters downed American helicopters in the
Black Hawk Down battle in 1993. Eighteen
Americans died, which was enough for a jumpy
Clinton to order a hasty retreat. [National
Review article] “He [Clinton] was,
fundamentally, the do-nothing president about
terrorism, although he knew — as he tells us now
— the grave nature of the threat. It was Bush
who could have told Clinton a few things about
how to respond to terror in their exit
interview, since his instincts were so much
sounder. After the al Qaeda attack on the USS
Cole in October 2000, Bush as a candidate
said that "there must be a consequence." Common
sense, right? Not for Clinton. He let the attack
go unanswered.”
– National Review’s Rich Lowary, on Bill
Clinton’s current ‘I told you so’ posturing. Dean’s
too mean McCain
scolds Dem candidates for opposing $87B Iraq
money
Lieberman cries ‘foul’ on position-less Clark
Clark
adds 200 pages to his resume 20
unions form Gephardt-backing alliance Dean
proposals raise hackles on both sides More
fundraising & spending numbers
Candidate Dean meets with media giant Gannet Co.
Dems’ TV
ads cost $6 million so far AP
report shows Bush losing numbers in Pennsylvania
poll Senate
defies Bush ‘no-loan’ position on Iraq $$ Bush &
Schwarzenegger meeting: building ties last bind? Draft
Clark supports: no room at the inn?
… Dr. ‘Cocky’ Howard Dean offered his apology
and regrets for his Congressional cockroach
statement, -- see
IPW report. IPW highlighted Dean’s comments in
a cartoon, titled “Dr. Cocky.” In a strange
twist of logic, Dean accounted for his statement
by saying, “”I was thinking of Tom DeLay.”
DeLay, Republican majority leader in the House of
Reps, is a former pest exterminator. Today’s
Des Moines Register carried the Dean apology.
… Targeting three of the Dem presidential
candidates, -- Senator John Kerry, Senator John
Edwards and former governor Howard Dean -- and
blunting a fourth (Wesley Clark), U.S. Senator
John McCain took the Democratic presidential
candidates to task yesterday for not supporting
the $87B Iraq reconstruction funding. The
Union Leader’s senior political reports, John
DeStaso, reports today that McCain had ‘harsh
words’ for Dean, Kerry and Edwards. Here are some
excerpts from today’s article: “…I’m not surprised
that Governor Dean would oppose this,” McCain told
The Union Leader. “I’ve lost confidence that he
has any understanding of the national security
responsibilities of a President.” Dean has
said he would support the expenditure only if it
was paid for with a repeal of $87 billion in Bush
tax cuts — an unlikely scenario. McCain, a
member of the Senate Armed Services Committee,
accused Kerry and Edwards of “pandering” to Dean
and the liberal base of the Democratic Party by
opposing the package after voting a year ago to
authorize force in Iraq. “I’m very
disappointed in my friends John Kerry and John
Edwards,” he said, “because they know better than
that. McCain also targeted the newest Democratic
contender, Gen. Wesley Clark, who has taken no
position on the package. “It’s very
unfortunate, and I’m disappointed in General
Clark,” McCain said. He said that “anyone who
wants to be considered a serious candidate is
obliged to express an opinion.” McCain,
however, said he was “impressed with and grateful
to” Rep. Richard Gephardt and fellow armed
services committee member Sen. Joseph Lieberman,
who voted last year to authorize the use of force
in Iraq. McCain said they are now acting
consistently in supporting the $87 billion
package. “I’m sure this will cost them with the
far left,” McCain said, “but I also believe they
are acting correctly in placing America’s national
security interests first.” … Joe Lieberman cries ‘foul’
on position-less Wesley Clark. According to
today’s
Union Leader AP story, Lieberman cited Clark’s
lack of position on the proposed $87 billion for
Iraq reconstruction, and said, “When you run
for president you've got to show people that
you're ready to make decisions, that you know
right from wrong," the Connecticut senator told
reporters. "He said this was a matter for Congress
to decide, but it's a matter for a president to
take a clear position on and a presidential
candidate to take a clear position on."…
Clark, when asked about supporting the package
Tuesday, told The Associated Press - "not without
lots and lots and lots of work." When pressed to
clarify his position, Clark said, "I'm not ready
to say I support that. Absolutely not."
… Retired General Wesley Clark has added some
200 pages to his resume. The pages, sent to the
New York Times this week, are expected to be
released publicly as well, according to an
article in yesterday’s
New York Times. Excerpts: “The campaign of
Gen. Wesley K. Clark, who has based his Democratic
presidential bid on his career in the United
States Army, this week released 200 pages of
internal military evaluations from his commanding
officers, who repeatedly used only superlatives to
describe his skills, energy and leadership
abilities….The release comes at a time of
increasing interest in General Clark's biography
and several weeks after officials who had served
with him said his career revealed both strengths
and shortcomings. In one incident in 1994, General
Clark posed with Gen. Ratko Mladic, the
Bosnian-Serb general accused of slaughtering
hundreds of civilians. General Clark had been
advised by the State Department not to meet with
him, but he did anyway, swapping caps and posing
for pictures. At a forum last month in California,
Gen. Henry H. Shelton, former chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff and who is retired, spoke of
a decision by William S. Cohen, then defense
secretary, to end General Clark's command of the
NATO alliance early, replacing him in 2000. "I
will tell you the reason he came out of Europe
early had to do with integrity and character
issues, things that are very near and dear to my
heart," General Shelton said, adding that he would
not vote for General Clark. … Television ads for the
Democratic presidential contenders have cost $6
million so far. And it’s still three months before
the first votes are tallied in the battle for the
Democratic presidential nomination,
FoxNews.com reports today. The Associated
Press report on FoxNews.com detailed spending.
Excerpts: “Howard Dean leads the Democratic
field in fund raising and ad buys, about $2
million. He is trailed by John Edwards and
John Kerry, two senators struggling to show
much for their investment. Dick Gephardt has
spent less than $800,000, most of it in Iowa, and
yet Dean has erased his lead in the Jan. 19 caucus
state.” … Are the supporters who
drafted Wesley Clark into the 2004 presidential
race now finding there’s ‘no room at the inn’ for
them?
Washington Post’s Terry Neal writes an
interesting analysis in yesterday’s Post. Here are
some excerpts: “The thing about wild-eyed
idealism is that it doesn't pay the bills.
When it came time to turn the movement to draft
retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark to run for
president into a nuts-and-bolts campaign, the
usual dramas surfaced over power and money …
after Clark announced, the Internet activists had
trouble melding with each other or with the
professional campaign people, many of whom were
veterans of the Clinton and Gore presidential
campaigns. Initially, some of the Internet
folks said they felt as though they were being
shunted aside by people who understood the value
of their product but not their value as human
capital. The leaders of DraftWesleyClark.com,
John Hlinko and Josh Margulies, had
said before Clark entered the race, that they
would only take a salary if anything were left
over after paying for expenses. This week, they
said they were asking the Clark campaign for
reimbursement for their work, and they
acknowledged that the amount of their request --
which they would not reveal -- had generated a
fair amount of dissension in the campaign. They
said their lawyers were in negotiations with the
campaign over "fair market value" for the e-mail
list. Problems such as these aside, the campaign
was happy to report Wednesday that
DraftWesleyClark.com had come through, converting
about half of the $1.9 million in pledges into
actual dollar contributions in the third quarter.
In addition, Margulies, who has been hired by the
campaign as a deputy spokesman, predicted that
about 70 percent of the total $3.5 million raised
by the campaign in the previous quarter came from
Internet contributions. … Not all of the
Internet activists who worked on the draft Clark
movement are so happy. Stirling Newberry, a
Lowell, Mass., activist who helped start or run a
number of pro-Clark Web sites, including
DraftClark.com, has been the most vocal. In a
blunt (his critics say bitter)
"Open Letter to the Clark Movement",
Newberry predicted that the dual failures of the
Internet-based movement and the professional
campaign leadership will lead to the candidate's
political demise. … Howard Dean outlined
proposals yesterday that have raised hackles on
both sides of the political arena. A
FoxNews.com AP story today shows wannabe
Dean catching it all the way around the political
block. Excerpts: “Democratic presidential
candidate Howard Dean offered several new
proposals to help the economy during a speech at
Georgetown University but it was his renewed
pledge to repeal all of President Bush's tax cuts
that grabbed the most attention. The pledge to
roll back all of the tax cuts brought immediate
criticism from the GOP national chairman and
Democratic rivals John Edwards and John Kerry.
Dean's pledge to balance the federal budget was
at odds with another rival — Dick Gephardt — who
said this week that improving the economy was a
more pressing concern than the deficit. …
"Governor Dean misses the point," said Edwards, a
North Carolina senator. "He is right to note that
this president is shifting the burden from wealth
to work. Unfortunately, instead of addressing the
problem he makes it worse by raising taxes on the
middle class families that work." … Kerry, a
Massachusetts senator, said Dean is repeating his
pledge to repeal the tax cuts for middle-class
families "at a time when middle-class families are
taking too many hits already." … "I think their
[Republicans] principal motivation is to undo the
pillars of the New Deal, particularly Medicare and
Social Security, by making the budget deficit so
big that those programs can't be sustained," Dean
said. A GOP spokeswoman, Christine Iverson, called
Dean's remarks "disturbing." She said fighting
terrorism has fueled the deficit. … More figures are available
on fundraising efforts – and spending – by the
2004 presidential candidates, according to today’s
Des Moines Register: … Howard Dean met Thursday
in Washington, D.C. with editors and reporters
from the Gannett Company – the nation’s
largest newspaper group in terms of circulation.
The company's 100 daily newspapers in the USA have
a combined daily paid circulation of 7.7 million
and include the Des Moines Register and USA TODAY,
the nation's largest-selling daily newspaper.
Dean told the Gannet people he opposes the
$87billion Iraq reconstruction proposal by the
Bush Administration, saying Bush had not shown how
he would pay for it. The article, in today’s
Register, quotes Dean as saying, “Harry
Truman increased taxes 26 percent when we were in
Korea - he paid for it. This is a credit card
president. This is insane what he's doing. I'm not
going to let him run a war on a credit card."
Here are more excerpts from the Dean interview,
carried in today’s
Register: “…Dean said he would eliminate all
the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts approved by Congress
and signed into law by Bush, freeing up $3
trillion. … has not yet decided whether to forgo
public financing … asked what sustains him in
times of crisis, he said, "My family and prayer."
… has received advice on his campaign from two
former Democratic presidents, Jimmy Carter and
Bill Clinton … said his image as an angry anti-war
candidate is incorrect and mostly spin from other
candidates.” …
FoxNews.com is carrying an AP report that
cites the formation of an alliance between 20
labor unions supporting Dick Gephardt for
President in 2004 – called the “Alliance for
Economic Justice.” It reportedly will provide
crucial foot soldiers and money to mobilize voters
in early voting states. It was created after the
unions backing Gephardt lost an internecine battle
to try to secure an endorsement this month for the
Missouri congressman from the entire AFL-CIO.
Excerpts from the story: “Organized labor is
basically split into two camps: Unions that want
Gephardt to be the Democratic nominee and those
that don't. Gephardt's supporters include the
Teamsters, the United Food and Commercial Workers
and the Laborers International Union of North
America…On Friday, the 65,000-member International
Longshoremen's Association will become the 20th
union to endorse Gephardt, spokesman James
McNamara said.” … An Associated Press report
in today’s
Des Moines Register shows President Bush
has lost ground to Democrats in Pennsylvania. The
Pennsylvania poll numbers were released on
Wednesday by Quinnipiac University. Pennsylvania
is considered a ‘swing state’ for elections.
Here are the highlights: “Bush's job approval in
Pennsylvania has slipped to 51 percent, down from
60 percent in August and 67 percent in April. In
the survey, 44 percent of registered voters
disapproved of the president. In head-to-head
matchups, Democratic candidates run much stronger
against Bush than they did in August. Bush led
Wesley Clark, 48-43 percent; Connectict Sen. Joe
Lieberman, 50-44 percent; and Massachusetts Sen.
John Kerry, 50-43 percent. The president
outdistanced Howard Dean, 51-41 percent, and
Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt, 50-42 percent. The
poll of 1,116 registered voters was taken Oct.
9-13 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3
percentage points … President Bush met with
California governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger
yesterday in a meeting that gave no specifics and
much hope to both men. In the end, the two
political giants kept specific issues at an
acceptable social distance, but both clearly hope
to build on a binding friendship. Here are
some excerpts from today’s article in the
WashingtonPost: “The mood was light and
friendly when they were on stage. Schwarzenegger
said California has "no greater ally" in
Washington than the president. Bush joked about
how much they had in common. To laughter in the
audience, the president said: "We both married
well. Some accuse us both of not being able to
speak the language. We both have big biceps. Well,
two out of three isn't bad."… The stakes are
huge for Bush and his party. California has not
voted for a Republican for president since George
H.W. Bush won the state in 1988. … Some GOP
activists say Schwarzenegger's election gives Bush
fresh hope to compete for the state's 55 electoral
votes next year. At the very least, they say, the
Democratic nominee might have to spend precious
money and time in a state that he or she should be
able to take for granted…. Dan Schnur, a
Republican consultant in the state, said women and
Hispanics, especially, were likely to be more
receptive to Bush after turning out for
Schwarzenegger … But there are any number of
reasons Schwarzenegger's election may not provide
Bush with easier access to the California
electorate. Schwarzenegger must close a budget
deficit estimated at a minimum of $8 billion, but
likely to be much larger. If he fails to fulfill
his promises to put the state's fiscal house in
order, any possible voter backlash could be aimed
directly at the Republicans rather than the
Democrats.” … Tall Tale Bill Clinton
strikes again… Today’s
National Review Online (written by Rich
Lowary) reports that former President Bill Clinton
is now saying ‘I told you so’ regarding President
George (W.) Bush and Osama bin Laden. Here are
some excerpts from the Rich Lawry article: “If
only President Bush had listened to Bill Clinton.
The former president, who is now the
second-guesser in chief, told an audience the
other day that he had warned President Bush about
Osama bin Laden in an "exit interview" as he left
office in early 2001. … Bin Laden was a big
security threat, who became steadily bigger during
Clinton's years in office. … Al Qaeda-trained
Somali fighters downed American helicopters in the
Black Hawk Down battle in 1993. Eighteen Americans
died, which was enough for a jumpy Clinton to
order a hasty retreat. Bin Laden took notes.
"The youth realized," he later explained, "that
the American soldier was a paper tiger." By
way of explaining the bug-out, a former top
Clinton official told me in my new book,
Legacy: Paying the Price for the Clinton Years,
"We didn't know we were at war with those guys at
the time." … The next attack against U.S.
interests came in the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing
in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 U.S. servicemen. In
the midst of the investigation that focused on
Iran, which was clearly implicated, Clinton made a
quasi-apology to Tehran. … After al Qaeda nearly
leveled two American embassies in Africa in 1998,
Clinton responded militarily, but with two
inconsequential cruise-missile attacks. "We used
kid gloves after the embassy bombings," retired
Gen. Wayne Downing, former commander of U.S.
special forces, told me. "Cruise missiles — that's
the coward's way out." … He [Clinton] was,
fundamentally, the do-nothing president about
terrorism, although he knew — as he tells us now —
the grave nature of the threat. It was Bush who
could have told Clinton a few things about how to
respond to terror in their exit interview, since
his instincts were so much sounder. After the al
Qaeda attack on the USS Cole in October
2000, Bush as a candidate said that "there must be
a consequence." Common sense, right? Not for
Clinton. He let the attack go unanswered.” … The
Drudge Report is carrying an article about a
ticked off Tinsletown producer Peter Paul is suing
Bill and Hillary Clinton for not reporting his $2
million – yes M-I-L-L-I-O-N – ‘in kind’ campaign
contributions to Hillary’s 2000 senatorial run.
According to the
article, producer Peter Paul says the
Clintons’ failure to report it has gotten him in
hot water with the Feds. Here are some
highlights: “Judicial Watch, which has sued the
Clintons several times over alleged campaign
finance violations, filed the lawsuit on Tuesday
in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of Paul,
who is in a federal detention facility in New York
after being extradited from Brazil last month to
face federal fraud charges. In December 2001, a
Los Angeles judge dismissed a similar lawsuit in
which Paul sought damages and the return of stocks
and cash he had pledged to Hillary Clinton's
campaign. A federal grand jury indicted Paul in
2001 on charges he manipulated the price of stock
in his company, Stan Lee Media Inc., before
dumping it and bilking investors out of $25
million. If he is convicted, he faces up to 15
years in prison and millions of dollars in fines.
Paul, 52, believes he owes his federal troubles at
least in part to the Clintons, who pressured him
to commit $2 million in cash and Stan Lee stock to
produce a lavish Hollywood fund-raiser in 2000,
Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said.
According to his lawsuit, Paul gained access to
President Clinton by promising to contribute to
his wife's Senate campaign. At one point, the
lawsuit said, he promised Bill Clinton a
compensation package worth $16 million to sit on
Stan Lee's board and act as a worldwide emissary
for the company.” …
Washington Post headline: “Senate Defied
Bush On Iraq Assistance – Loan Provision Approved
in 51 to 47 Vote.” According to the Post
article, President Bush has maintained that a loan
would confirm Mid East suspicions of the United
State’s motives in Iraq. The article also pointed
out that the vote in the Senate was ‘a rare defeat
for Bush in the GOP-led Congress.’
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