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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 Saturday, October 25, 2003 "They [Dem party
officials] don't like him personally, and part of
why they don't like him personally is the way he
campaigns. But what is at bottom is they think
he's bad for the party. They think he's
unelectable and can bring the party down with
him." –
unaffiliated Democratic consultant, commenting on
Howard Dean. "It's a temperament
issue. Part of what makes him exciting is this
coiled tension. But you also get a sense that he
could snap your head off if you looked at him
cross-eyed." –
former senator Gary Hart, commenting on Howard
Dean. "Take one hour, sprinkle
it with nine candidates, throw in a dash of
opening and closing statements and the obligatory
Iraq question,"
said Jano Cabrera, a senior adviser to Senator
Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, "and
voilà, you have a guaranteed recipe that prevents
any single candidate from breaking out."
The quote is
regarding the upcoming Sunday debate. "He has not done his
homework and we’ve seen time and again over the
last month that General Clark is just not ready
for this assignment,"
said New
Hampshire GOP spokeswoman Julie Teer in response
to Clark’s being managing director of merchant
banking for the Stephens Group, when that company
bought more than 50,000 of Tyco stock. Tyco was a
New Hampshire company before it moved off shore. “You never can tell who’s
going to shine until the show starts, and the show
hasn’t started yet,”
Bill Clinton
responding to whether any of the current Democrats
can beat Bush. It's going to have a big
impact on this election cycle. And we're going to
help it become a front-burner issue at the state
and national level, if it doesn't become one on
its own," said
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research
Council, regarding the growing importance of gay
unions in the upcoming election. Demeaner Dean strikes
again Report from planet
Kucinich Closet Republican? Every state emergency
center She said, he said What is going on here Dean trucking on Gephardt in Iowa Gep’s Twentieth union
endorsement Des Moines Register
highlights Kerry’s education plan Wilson online for Kerry Speaking of the War Kerry is lucky too Edwards in Michigan Play of the week Gay issues Hillary for President Bill loves the field Bill comes through on
AIDS Marching on Washington Unions upset Demeaner Dean strikes again
Howard ‘The
Mouth’ Dean strikes again – this time he’s calling
Washington lobbyists ‘pigs,’ according to an
article in today’s
New York Times by reporter Jodi Wilgoren.
Excerpts: “As Howard Dean walked
over to pet the 600-pound hogs on a visit to a
family farm here [in Iowa] on Wednesday morning,
he blurted out his imaginary headline, "Governor
speaks with Washington lobbyists." … Last week,
even friends criticized him for seeming to compare
members of Congress to cockroaches. … He started
running negative advertisements this week, has
recently beefed up his opposition research team
and is supported by a group of Washington
lobbyists that meets biweekly to court Capitol
Hill. Still, many party regulars inside the
Beltway and in state party offices fear that his
liberal antiwar views and brash outspokenness
could be toxic. "It's a temperament issue," said
former Senator Gary Hart of Colorado, who ran for
president in 1984 and 1988. "Part of what makes
him exciting is this coiled tension. But you also
get a sense that he could snap your head off if
you looked at him cross-eyed." Many elected
officials are fascinated by Dr. Dean's
fund-raising prowess and impressed with the crowds
that greet him at each stop. Some officials
salivate at the prospect of tapping into his
Internet database if he wins. Others theorize that
a Dean candidacy would risk not just the White
House, but also a series of seats in Congress.
"They don't like him personally, and part of why
they don't like him personally is the way he
campaigns," said one Democratic consultant who is
unaffiliated in the race. "But what is at bottom
is they think he's bad for the party. They think
he's unelectable and can bring the party down with
him." Report from planet Kucinich Once again, Congressman Dennis
Kucinich is trying to prove he is not a fringe
candidate, but when you are at 1 percent or less
in the polls it is impossible. Alienated by rival
Howard Dean’s new television ads, Dennis is
proving once again that he is from another planet.
According to
Associated Press story, "I am proud of my
record of opposition to the war on Iraq and the
occupation of Iraq, and I will not stand by while
a fellow Democrat [Howard Dean] distorts my record
and his own," Kucinich said Friday. Kucinich has
his lawyer sending letters to all the New
Hampshire stations to pull the new TV ads being
aired by Howard Dean. He also has the lawyer
sending letters of protest to the Federal
Communication Commission and the Federal Trade
Commission. Kucinich says he isn’t going to let it
drop, and I think we can all believe him. The fact
is that his action will benefit Dean and his
wanting to highlight the difference between Dean’s
campaign and the other real candidates in the
race. Kucinich wasn’t through. Not only has rival
Howard Dean alienated Kucinich, but so has Chris
Matthew of MSNBC’s Hardball. Again according to
the same Associated Press story: The Ohio
congressman is refusing to participate in a
candidate forum hosted by Harvard University and
aired live on MSNBC's "Hardball," arguing that
Matthews has tainted the show with a conservative
and corporate agenda. Kucinich, who voted against
the congressional resolution authorizing the Iraq
war, also complained that Matthews wrongly said
that only Howard Dean opposed the war. Matthews
has worked for former President Carter and former
House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill Jr., both
Democrats. While Kucinich must be frustrated and
confused about how anyone could say that Dean is
against the War in Iraq, he can rest assured that
he has permanently moved his political persona to
being a far left spokesperson. Closet Republican? Sen. Joe Lieberman knows how to
stand out in a crowd of Democrat candidates for
President. However, his latest statement that he
would pick Sen. John McCain to be his Secretary of
Defense may work for him in New Hampshire but not
in the long term. For those who do not remember,
McCain beat George W. in the New Hampshire primary
after skipping Iowa nearly four years ago.
Lieberman told Don Imus's syndicated radio
program, "If I were president — I'm going to get
him into trouble now — but, I'd ask John McCain to
be my secretary of defense," Lieberman said. "I
have total trust in him. He's strong, he's
independent and he's a hero." The
Associated Press reported that McCain heard
the exchange while driving his car and laughed.
"Sen. McCain appreciates his good friend's
tongue-in-cheek offer, but he plans to continue to
serve the people of Arizona in the U.S. Senate,
working with President Bush in the White House,"
said spokesman Marshall Wittmann. Every state emergency
center In a speech to the National
Latino Peace Officers Association today, Joe
Lieberman proposed the creation of 24-hour
emergency operations centers in every state and
territory, to serve as information links between
state and local first responders and federal
officials. She said, he said Veracity, not to mention honesty
and truth telling, became an issue for
Presidential candidate Wesley Clark when National
Co-Chair of the Lieberman campaign -- Katrina
Swett -- related that on Oct. 9, 2002, Clark was
campaigning with her when she was running for
Congress in New Hampshire. At that time, he told
an Associated Press reporter that day that
although he was concerned about the country's move
to war, he supported the resolution and would
advise Swett to vote for it if she were in
Congress. This is the second problem for Clark
concerning his stance on the War in Iraq since
becoming a candidate. Much of Clark’s appeal is
his opposition to the war and ability as a four
star general to have cover against President Bush
on the War on Terrorism. What is worse is the fact
this has been dragging out since Wednesday of this
week when a Boston Globe reporter asked him about
his advice to Swett. Today’s Associated Press
story reports the following: On Wednesday, Clark
pleaded ignorance when the Boston Globe asked why
he said a year ago that he would have voted for
the resolution and advised Swett to do the same.
"I wasn't following the resolution and I didn't
even know what was in the resolution," he told the
Globe, according to a report in Friday editions.
Swett said Friday that Clark was "extremely
intelligent and well-spoken" on the resolution
when discussing it with her. What is going on here If you visit the
Clark for President’s blog (‘web log’ -- that
is a place where Internet junkies go to converse
online), you have got to ask the question, what is
going on here? One person asks if it is true that
Clark is not going to Iowa. Mostly, the typed
missives cover how badly the site is being run,
and why can’t they get their act together and do
it like Dean? I don’t know, why can’t they? Dean trucking on The Dean
website is going strong. They are asking for
10,000 letters to the editors to be sent on Dean’s
behalf. The website is keeping a running total of
letters sent. It reports 830 for Iowa and 1706 for
New Hampshire when last checked late this morning.
Dean is also recruiting 5,000 “boots on the
ground” to come into Iowa and New Hampshire the
week before the caucuses and primary. It is still
a movement with enough passion to stir the troops.
But the question still remains whether they can
play well with others. Gephardt in Iowa Todd Dorman covered Congressman
Richard Gephardt for the
Quad City Times while he campaigned in Des
Moines. Gephardt punched up his health care plan
as the theme of the day. Gephardt told Iowans
crowding a coffee house Friday that the expense of
his sweeping health-care plan pales in comparison
to the cost the nation is bearing to treat the
uninsured. The Missouri congressman called the
nation’s current health-care system “insane” and
“irrational” during a panel discussion on women’s
health issues. He has proposed a broad series of
tax credits to help businesses, the unemployed,
retirees and local governments pay for coverage,
with a price tag topping $250 billion annually. Gep’s Twentieth union
endorsement It’s official. The 60,000 member
International Longshoremen's Association, AFL-CIO,
today became the twentieth international union to
endorse Dick Gephardt's candidacy for President:
"The ILA is proud to support Dick Gephardt for
President," said Mr. Bowers. "Dick Gephardt is a
loyal friend of longshore workers and a staunch
ally of American labor. He deserves the backing of
ILA members and their families for many reasons,
most notably his support of workers' right to
strike, his opposition to the economically
crippling North American Free Trade Agreement, his
advancement of civil rights and a strong national
defense and his genuine concern for health care
and Social Security," said John Bowers, the
international president of the nation's largest
longshore union, made the announcement in New
York. See Gephardt’s
website for more details. Des Moines Register
highlights Kerry’s education plan
IPW recently reported on Kerry’s visit to Iowa
City where he announced his plan to allow
grandparents to volunteer for 2 years so their
grandchildren could get 4 years of in-state
tuition. Now, Kerry’s education plan is spelled
out in more detail in the
Register. If you want to know more detail
about his plan you can visit his
website. However, don’t expect to find
anything about grandparents volunteering there.
His proposal includes:
·
"I Have a Dream Scholarships," which
would provide an additional $1,000 for students to
participate in early intervention programs that
help prepare students for college.
·
A "College Opportunity Tax Credit"
on the first $4,000 paid in tuition for each year
of college. The credit would provide 100 percent
of the first $1,000 of tuition and 50 percent of
the rest. It also would make the credit refundable
for those who receive other credits.
·
Fiscal relief to states to help stop
rising tuitions, encourage colleges and
universities to streamline services and reduce
duplication, and keep students in college.
·
A "Service for College" plan that
would provide the cost of four years at a public
college to young people in exchange for community
and national service. Wilson online for Kerry Former Ambassador Joe Wilson is
not only endorsing Kerry. He is also going online
Oct. 29, at 11 a.m. EST. So if you want to discuss
the leaking of his wife’s identity as an agent for
the C. I. A., or his trip to Africa to find out
about nukes, go to Kerry’s
website and sign up. Speaking of the War
David M.
Halbinger of the
New York Times offers up a story titled,
Kerry Still Dogged by Questions on Vote to
Authorize War. While it is not a snappy title,
it is a good snapshot of Kerry’s difficulty with
the issue in his campaign swing through Iowa.
Halbinger writes:
In the interview, Mr. Kerry said that he was
frustrated at the way the debate about Iraq was
playing out and that he believed that Dr. Dean had
escaped scrutiny. He said Dr. Dean had criticized
him and others who accepted the administration's
assertions that Iraq had unconventional weapons,
although Dr. Dean himself had previously said he
believed Iraq had such weapons. And he said Dr.
Dean had expressed support for the same alternate
Iraq resolution that Mr. Kerry and many other
Democrats had preferred. It would have allowed Mr.
Bush to go to war without further United Nations
or Congressional approval, though it would have
given him somewhat less latitude. That proposal
never came up for a vote. "Nobody has paid
attention to his duplicity," Mr. Kerry said of Dr.
Dean. "We're going to have to point it out more,
but he was allowed a complete free ride." Kerry is lucky too John Kerry is holding a campaign
event outside of Tyco in Exeter, N.H. on Friday
where, originally, he was supposed to talk about
corporate greed. Now we can also expect Kerry to
add words like tax loopholes, Washington lobbyists
and Clark together in reference to Tyco’s moving
off shore for tax loopholes. Edwards in Michigan
Edwards is picking up an endorsement before
Sunday’s Motor City debate. Edwards has been
spending a lot of time in New Hampshire and Iowa
in hopes that he can get a kick into the Feb. 3
round of the road to the nomination. However, this
endorsement in Michigan will mean nothing if he
doesn’t win South Carolina on Feb. 3. The Michigan
Primary is Feb. 7. The following comes from the
Edwards website:
“The Edwards for President campaign announced
today that Derek Albert, State Chairman of the
Michigan Democratic Party Black Caucus, will serve
as State Director for North Carolina Senator John
Edwards' Michigan campaign. "I'm excited to join
the Edwards team and lead the senator's Michigan
effort," Albert said. "Senator Edwards has the
best policies in this campaign, and he represents
our Party's best chance at defeating President
Bush."
Edwards will return to Michigan this weekend and
campaign in Lansing and Detroit. On Sunday,
October 26, he will take part in the Congressional
Black Caucus debate in Detroit. "I think over time
it's sinking in. I think I was prescient. I think
I showed leadership," said Sen. John Kerry about
poll results in Iowa and New Hampshire saying they
prefer someone who voted for war and then opposed
it. Play of the week Bill Schneider of the CNN
Political Unit gave President Bush the play of the
week for his taking to task of Malaysia, Mahathir
for his remarks about Jews. "The Europeans killed
six million Jews out of twelve million, but today
these Jews rule the world by proxy, "Mahathir
said. "They get others to fight and die for them."
Gay issues Bush is finding himself in a
tough spot with Republicans over the use of gay
issues in the upcoming campaign. The issues is
explored in a
Wahignton Post article. Here is some of what
the article covers: Recent polls have shown that a
majority of Americans oppose same-sex marriage,
and activists on both sides predicted that the
prospective Massachusetts ruling could reignite
the nation's culture wars at an intensity not seen
since the Clinton administration. The
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is
considering a case that could lead to a ruling
this fall calling for the legislature to set up a
system for same-sex unions such as that in Vermont
or Canada. If Massachusetts recognizes such
unions, a blizzard of lawsuits could be expected
to force other states to recognize the
Massachusetts ceremonies. The Defense of Marriage
Act, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996,
denies federal recognition of same-sex marriages.
But some leading Republican lawmakers say they
worry the federal law could be struck down as
unconstitutional, and the Senate Judiciary
Committee held hearings on the act in September.
GOP sources said the purpose was to build a case
for additional "safeguards." The most-conservative
members of the Republican party have expressed
dismay about Bush's reticence on the issue so far,
fearing a rerun of his low-decibel approach to
abortion during his campaigns. Hillary for President In CBS’s
Washington Wrap there is the continuing saga
of Hillary’s fans not understanding ‘no.’ Is this
a case of stalking? She keeps saying no, no, no …
but Bob Kunst, president of Hillarynow.com,
just won’t take that for an answer. Armed with
signs, flyers, bumper stickers and buttons, Kunst
showed up at the Jefferson-Jackson dinner in New
Hampshire on Thursday to spread his message. And
he’s not stopping there. On Friday, Kunst is
taking his "Run, Hillary Run" table to the Big
Apple and plans to park himself in Times Square to
spread the word. He’s convinced his message is
working and so, with or without Hillary, he plans
to soldier on. Bill loves the field Bill Clinton, according to an
Associated Press report, said the current
Democratic presidential candidates make up the
most experienced field he’s seen since 1960.
That’s when John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson,
Hubert Humphrey, and Stuart Symington ran. Clinton
said, “I feel good about this field” and “five or
six” of them would make good presidents — but he
wouldn’t name whom. And can any of them beat
President Bush? Clinton said, “You never can tell
who’s going to shine until the show starts, and
the show hasn’t started yet.” Bill comes through on AIDS Former President Bill Clinton
announced yesterday that he has persuaded four
foreign generic-drug companies to provide low-cost
drugs to AIDS patients in Africa and the
Caribbean.
*NATIONAL POLITICS: Marching on Washington
A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War & Racism) is
holding their march on Washington. It is reported
that 30,000 people will be in attendance for old
fashioned bashing of our nation and its
prosperity. The following comes from their web
page regarding the reason for the march. It goes
on a lot longer. If you want to know more use the
above hyperlink. The people in Iraq want the U.S.
occupation to end. The U.S. soldiers in Iraq want
to come home. On Saturday, October 25, tens of
thousands of people in the U.S., joined by
delegations from countries around the world, will
go back into the streets to demand End the
Occupation, Bring the Troops Home Now! Under the
banner, "The World Unites Against U.S.
Militarism," the demonstration, marching from the
Justice Department to the White House to the
Pentagon, will also demand an end to the looting
and destruction of social programs by the Bush
Administration. Unions upset Democrats missed a good chance
to try to defeat President Bush's
competitive-sourcing initiative, which would
privatize some government jobs, and unions are
blaming presidential candidates Sens. John Edwards
and John Kerry for missing the vote.
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