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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 Monday, September 29, 2003
... QUOTABLE: morning quotes: "I think Clark can win… I don't think Dean can win.
I think Dean's going to be pegged as too liberal. He
doesn't have the kind of military background and
some of the strength that Clark seems to have "He [Clark] certainly presented himself in a very
diplomatic but forceful way that I would call
presidential "Clark puts a positive spin on things. Dean is very
forceful, he's very dramatic and I agree with what
he says. But sometimes he's trying to find a
negative too much. I think this gentleman thinks
more intently than Dean does. Dean tends to shoot
from the hip a bit much." "As a Democrat, I want someone who I think is going
to be electable, someone who can beat George Bush.
I'm going to be pragmatic when it comes down to
voting." "I'm looking for a security blanket for our
country, and I don't think any of them [the other
Democrats] represent it, but Wesley Clark does."
… Among the offerings in today’s update:
morning offering:
Democrats to grill Clark at Harkin’s Fort Dodge
“Hear it from the Heartland” Forum on Oct. 6 Carol Moseley Braun paves
way to White House for women in future, groups say
Western Iowans get Democrats’
attention
Bush is aced by Rumsfeld in controversial deck
of cards sold in France.
Bill Clinton Visits Florida Football Game
* CANDIDATES/CAUCUSES:
Morning
…
FoxNews online is carrying an
AP story, “Kucinich: The Lifelong Candidate”.
Excerpts: “It was October 1967 when a college
sophomore with an eye toward the presidency leaped
into the game: Dennis paid $42.50 and declared
himself a candidate for the Cleveland City Council.
He lost that race. Two
years later, he was back -- and he won. At
23, the 5-foot-7 man with a boyish face and shaggy
hair donned a trim black suit and ascended City
Hall's marble steps with a cause: Champion of the
underdogs. Now he's among nine other Democrats
hoping to get their party's nod to run against
President Bush in 2004. Kucinich started as a fiery
liberal, supported a Republican mayor for two years
and emerged a self-described "urban populist"
who could mobilize Cleveland's ethnic,
blue-collar vote. At 31, he became the
youngest mayor of a major American city. At
33, he earned the dubious distinction of being mayor
of the first city since the Great Depression to go
into default. Cleveland became late-night
comedy fodder and the young mayor tread
carefully -- even in his hometown. At the
Indians' 1978 season opener, Kucinich wore a
bulletproof vest when he threw out the first pitch
before thousands at Municipal Stadium. In a
recall election, he barely escaped. The next year,
Kucinich was out, losing to Republican George
Voinovich, now Ohio's junior senator. In one of
life's second acts, Kucinich won a House seat in
1996 and has been re-elected ever since. Friends
say Ohio's four-term congressman, now 56, has
mellowed since his mayoral days and selectively
picks his battles rather than making every issue "us
vs. them." "Dennis would probably be the first
one to tell you that as mayor, he made some
mistakes. He's grown and matured, and he's a totally
different politician today," said former Rep. Louis
Stokes, a Democrat who served in Congress with
Kucinich and whose brother, the late Carl Stokes,
was mayor of Cleveland when Kucinich was a
councilman. Kucinich's battle now is for the
Democratic presidential nomination, a long-shot bid
against nine hopefuls. He has received scant media
attention and raised just $1.7 million, but he has
attracted enthusiastic crowds and won some eclectic
endorsements, including country music singer Willie
Nelson and lifestyle guru Marianne Williamson.
Some political observers say Kucinich is running to
solidify himself as the national leader of the left.
Others say he's more interested in someday taking
over consumer group Public Citizen from longtime
friend and supporter Ralph Nader. Kucinich wants to
be a "people's president." He says he would
create a "workers' White House" that would offer
peace, universal health care and repeal the North
American Free Trade Agreement. Political insiders
who have seen Kucinich go from "boy mayor" to
"comeback kid" say anyone who doesn't take him
seriously doesn't know him. "He likes to do
things that people tell him that he can't do," said
Jerry Austin, a longtime Democratic political
consultant. "If you go back to the 1967 race for
city council, which he lost, I think his whole
intent was running for president someday." The
eldest of seven children born to a Croatian truck
driver and Slovenian homemaker, Kucinich was thrust
into a position of leadership early. He scrubbed
floors so he and his younger siblings could attend
Catholic school and taught his brothers and sisters
to read.Before he turned 18, the Kucinich family had
lived in 21 apartments, homes and cars. He says
their frequent moves were often for the same reason:
Too many kids, not enough money. Kucinich moved out
when he was 17. He rented a $50-a-month walk-up with
a view of nearby steel mills, enrolled at Cleveland
State University and worked as a copy boy at The
Plain Dealer. Kucinich was competitive in everything
from a gum ball catching contest to downing 10
martinis in 27 minutes on a dare. "He was always the
underdog," said Tom Andrzejewski, a former copy boy
who used to drive Kucinich home after work. "His
district has a lot of people who see themselves as
underdogs, and Dennis appeals to them." At the
paper one evening, Kucinich answered a phone call
from a drunk proclaiming that he was running for the
city council. Kucinich says that's when he realized
that anyone could run for public office, and he
decided to do just that.
… A stinging editorial about free-trade and the
Democratic presidential candidates is online at
the
OpinionJournal titled “Trading Places --
Dems ditch Bill Clinton's legacy for Herbert
Hoover's.” Excerpts: “Howard Dean recently
told the Washington Post that former Democratic
Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin had advised him he
couldn't "sell" Dr. Dean to Wall Street if he didn't
become more of a free-trader. Dr. Dean declared this
almost as a badge of honor, which illustrates a
dangerous economic turn in the race for the
Democratic Presidential nomination. We had our
differences with Bill Clinton, but there's no
doubt one of his achievements was leading his
party away from protectionism. Open trade was
a pillar of his New Democrat philosophy. He and
Al Gore routed the AFL-CIO and Ross Perot to pass
Nafta in 1993, followed by bills to create the
World Trade Organization and allow
most-favored-nation trading status for China. A
decade later all three have contributed to American
prosperity. But without a Democrat looking out
for the national interest from the Oval Office, the
party is now slipping back toward trade parochialism.
On Capitol Hill, the party's regional and union
interests have become dominant; most Democrats
opposed giving President Bush new trade negotiating
authority last year. More ominous still is the
rhetoric coming from the Presidential candidates.
In demanding that Nafta be renegotiated, Dr. Dean
is hardly alone. With the exception of Senator Joe
Lieberman, we can't find any of the other candidates
who still supports it. It may be that some
of this is due to the free-for-all that the
Democratic race has become. The candidates are
looking for any edge, and in particular they covet
the early endorsement of the AFL-CIO that helped Al
Gore beat Bill Bradley in 2000. Union members
are a huge share of the nominating electorate,
especially in Iowa, where Dr. Dean hopes to knock
Mr. Gephardt out of the race. And yet promises made
during a campaign are hard to break. Mr. Bush's
trade record is less than sterling, with its steel
tariffs and the recent collapse of global talks in
Cancun. So trade would be one issue where the
Democratic nominee could campaign as the more
pro-growth candidate who supports American global
economic leadership. Instead, the Democrats are
falling for the fool's gold of protectionist
politics. The polls always look at first
glance as if bashing foreigners on trade is popular.
But campaign history is littered with politicians
who have tried it and been rejected. No major
American political party has nominated an avowed
protectionist since Herbert Hoover in 1928--and we
know how that turned out.
…
FoxNews online AP story, “Clark:
Military Man Turned Businessman”. Excerpts: “When
two Russian immigrants and their American financial
backer needed marketing help for their innovative
electric motor, they turned to a merchant banker at
one of the nation's largest investment houses --
retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark.
The meeting at the
Washington office of Stephens Inc. in late 2001
proved fortuitous for both Clark, the former supreme
commander of NATO, and the principals in
WaveCrest Laboratories, at the time a small
research and development company in Dulles, Va.
"They hit it off pretty much right away," said
WaveCrest spokesman Tom McMahon. Clark signed on
as a consultant to the company. In little more
than a year, he was chairman of the company's newly
created board of directors, a position he intends to
keep as he campaigns for the Democratic nomination
for president. The company's first product -- a
bicycle powered by the new electric propulsion
system -- will begin rolling off the assembly lines
in November, and the Pentagon's Special
Operations Command already has purchased
prototypes. Clark "has been helpful to our
company in putting them in touch with the right
people both inside the military and in the
commercial sector and in promoting our technology to
them," he said. "He knew the military structure so
well he would counsel them who to contact."
Clark's relationship with WaveCrest is just one
example of how he has parlayed his 35 years of
military experience into a budding business career
in the three years since retiring from the Army as a
four-star general. He serves on the boards of at
least four other companies, worked as a military
consultant for Cable News Network and started his
own consulting firm in his hometown of Little Rock,
Ark. Mark Fabiani, a spokesman for Clark's
presidential campaign, declined to answer questions
about Clark's business activities. He said
campaign officials are working to compile detailed
information that will document the candidate's
business dealings. Clark's entry into the
business world was facilitated by the Stephens
Group, the parent company of a privately held family
financial giant in Little Rock that operates one of
the largest investment banks off Wall Street. The
influential company has been on the periphery of
several Washington political scandals in the past
three decades, from the resignation of former
President Jimmy Carter's budget director in 1977 to
the campaign fund-raising investigations of the
mid-1990s. Clark joined the Stephens Group as
a managing director for merchant banking in
mid-2001. That December, Acxiom Inc., a
Little Rock data analysis company, signed a $300,000
contract with Stephens to obtain Clark's help in
lobbying the government for homeland security
business. Clark joined Acxiom's board at the same
time, and after leaving Stephens earlier this year,
he signed another $150,000 consulting agreement with
the company. That contract was terminated
when he announced for president, according to Acxiom,
but he remains a paid board member. A privacy
group filed a complaint with the Federal Trade
Commission against Acxiom and JetBlue
Airways Corp., which has acknowledged that, in
violation of its own privacy policy, it had given
information from about 5 million passenger records
to a Defense Department contractor. Acxiom provided
additional demographic information to the
contractor, which produced a study, "Homeland
Security: Airline Passenger Risk Assessment," that
was purported to help the government improve
military base security. One of Clark's Democratic
rivals, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, said
Sunday that Clark should explain his service on
Acxiom's board given the privacy concerns he has
raised about some post-Sept. 11 anti-terrorism laws.
At the Stephens Group, Clark's role "was primarily
that of evaluating and looking for investment
opportunities in the technology and defense areas,"
said Frank Thomas, a spokesman for the investment
house, In that capacity, Clark worked directly for
Jackson Stephens, the billionaire chairman of the
company; his son, Warren Stephens, the company's
president; and other Stephens family members and
senior company executives, according to Thomas. It
was Jackson Stephens who helped Bert Lance dispose
of his stock in the National Bank of Georgia after
Lance was forced to resign as Carter's budget
director in 1977. Stephens also was a business
partner with Indonesian tycoon Mochtar Riady and his
son, James Riady. The Riadys owned The Lippo Group,
which was a key player in the investigation into
allegations of illegal foreign campaign
contributions during the 1996 election. It was the
Washington office of the Stephens Group that John
Huang, a former Lippo executive, used in 1996 to
make numerous phone calls while working at the
Commerce Department, where he had access to U.S.
intelligence. Huang, the Democratic Party's chief
Asian-American fund-raiser, pleaded guilty in 1999
to violating campaign finance laws. Stephens
officials will not say what companies or investment
opportunities Clark identified or evaluated for the
Stephens family. But Thomas said Clark joined the
company after the family became interested in
exploring investment opportunities in the defense,
aerospace and technology sectors. Not long after
Clark joined the Stephens Group, the founders of
WaveCrest -- Alexander Pyntikov, Boris Maslov and
Allen Andersson -- learned of his new assignment and
came calling to pitch their transportation
technology. "The word had gotten around town that he
was there and people started knocking on his door,
which is what our founders did," said McMahon. "He
immediately saw the technological promise for both
inside and outside the military."
…
Des Moines Register article by staff writer
Lynn Okamoto, “Braun paves way to White House for
women in future, groups say”. Excerpts:
“Carol Moseley Braun's introduction to racism came
when she was born in a segregated hospital in
Chicago. It was Aug. 16, 1947, and she was mistaken
for white because her mother was fair-skinned. The
hospital staff was shocked when they saw her father
and realized the family was black. The Moseleys
were moved to the "colored" section of the hospital,
but the paperwork had been processed. As a result,
Braun's birth certificate said she was white
until she was 40, when she became a legislator and
was able to change it. "I'm old enough to have
spanned from times when we had legalized segregation
in this country," said Braun, 56, one of 10
Democratic candidates for president. "It reflects
very nicely on the progress we've made. The American
dream has been expanded." From that upbringing as a
second-class citizen came a woman who went to law
school and became an assistant U.S. attorney in
Chicago, an Illinois state lawmaker for 10 years, a
U.S. senator, and an ambassador to New Zealand and
Samoa. For a time, she was the darling of the media
and a symbol of progress. She fought for education
and civil rights, and she was especially known in
Congress for her efforts to secure federal money for
school construction and repair. She also spoke
sharply against the Confederate flag, saying it
symbolizes divisiveness. "I think there are very
few politicians more gifted than Carol Moseley
Braun," said Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, a Democrat
who is a civil-rights attorney, University of
Chicago law professor and candidate for U.S. Senate.
"She can light up a room. She's extraordinarily
intelligent, a very clear and analytical thinker."
But some critics said Braun's distinction of being
the only African-American woman elected to the U.S.
Senate has been tainted by ill-advised trips, poor
judgment, and accusations of campaign and personal
misspending that led to her political defeat in
1998. "I used to be a great supporter of hers," said
Hermene Hartman, publisher and founder of N'Digo, a
black weekly newspaper in Chicago. "I thought she
held great promise. She energized women as a base,
she energized blacks as a base, and she won her
historical seat. She disappointed us in the seat.
She made terrible decisions." Today when
reporters ask for an interview with Braun, her
campaign staff in Chicago immediately mails out a
thick packet of materials defending Braun's record.
The documents - many disclosed during Braun's
confirmation as ambassador - show allegations
from the 1990s of campaign misspending, a five-year
investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, and
trips to Nigeria taken against the wishes of the
State Department because the African nation was
ruled by dictator Sani Abacha, who had an egregious
human-rights record. Braun said the Federal Election
Commission audit found only $311.28 in
unaccounted-for campaign contributions. The IRS
investigation, which involved her personal and
campaign records, was closed for a lack of
substance, she said, and her trips to Nigeria were
privately financed, personal in nature and meant no
harm. "I'm not defensive about it at all," Braun
said of her record. "The truth is my friend. There
was nothing untoward in any aspect of my public
service. I've been vindicated on every front for all
of this nasty stuff." But Hartman, the newspaper
publisher, said Braun simply didn't appreciate her
responsibilities as U.S. senator and shouldn't be
running for president. Hartman cited an example from
the 1990s, when President Bill Clinton flew to
Chicago for a $2,000-a-plate fund-raiser. The event
was to benefit Braun, but she didn't show up.
"Things like that have not sat well with the public
here," Hartman said in an interview from Chicago.
"With a consistency, she has shown poor judgment.
She has shown basically a disrespect, if not a
downright insult, to her constituency." Braun, who
said after her failed 1998 Senate re-election that
she would never run for public office again, decided
in February to explore a bid for the presidency. She
confirmed her decision last week by formally
announcing her candidacy. Obama, the Illinois state
lawmaker, said history is replete with second acts
in politics, and Braun deserves a fresh look.
National women's advocates are also looking to Braun
as a ray of hope. "We want to see a woman in the
White House," said Mosemarie Boyd, president of
American Women Presidents, a California group that
urges women politicians to seek the White House.
"Carol is doing more for women in the presidency
than anyone else in the country at this point." Kim
Gandy, president of the National Organization for
Women, said Braun is a longtime advocate of women's
rights, working as a state legislator in the late
1970s and early 1980s on issues such as the Equal
Rights Amendment campaign. "She has an ability to
speak to women who have not felt they've been part
of the process," said Gandy, whose group endorsed
Braun in August. "Not only does it advance the
cause of beating George W. Bush, but it also
advances the goal of daughters and granddaughters to
see this as a possibility for themselves." But
Hartman said with so many Democrats running, Braun
is coming off as just a "polite lady" and "token
candidate" because she is failing to attract
attention to issues - such as race, diversity and
empowerment - that wouldn't otherwise be raised.
"We've got critical issues before us," Hartman said.
"I want to support a person for president not
because she's a woman. I want to support them
because they can do something. We're talking about
the presidency of the United States here, not the
PTA."
…
Des Moines Register article by Thomas
Beaumont, “Democrats to grill Clark at Fort
Dodge forum” Excerpts: “Democratic presidential
candidate Wesley Clark's fledgling candidacy, long
on resume and short on policy positions, will face
its first grilling from issue-hungry Iowans next
month. Iowa Democratic activists, known for their
probing inquiry of candidates on the full range of
issues, will have a chance to quiz the former NATO
commander when Clark attends an issue forum in Fort
Dodge on Oct. 6. Clark has impressed some Iowa
Democrats on the strength of his resume: first in
his class at the U.S. Military Academy at West
Point, Rhodes scholar, four-star general and
commander who led NATO forces in Kosovo in 1998. But
Marion Democrat John Miller said he needs to know a
lot more about Clark before he considers backing him
in the lead-off precinct caucuses Jan. 19. "Just
because he was a general doesn't buy it for me. I
mean, I'm interested in a lot of things besides
that," said Miller, a 60-year-old retired salesman.
"Our economy here at home is the most important
thing. Without a strong economy, we'll destroy
ourselves." By agreeing to participate in "Hear
it from the Heartland," the series of Democratic
candidate forums hosted by Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin,
Clark can expect more than an hour of questions on a
range of topics when he takes the stage at Iowa
Central Community College on Oct. 6. Although
Democratic activists in Iowa, like Miller, say a
candidate's positions will determine whom they will
eventually support, some political observers say
Democrats may be willing to sacrifice absolute
clarity on issues for a candidate who can beat
President Bush. "At the end of the day, it's
oftentimes who you like and who you think has the
best chance of winning," Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack [D]said.
"And that may be driven by personality. It may be
driven by policy. It may be driven by a combination
of those two” … “He had an economic plan that
calls for eliminating tax cuts for wealthy Americans
and re-funneling that resource into job creation,"
said Vilsack, who has been neutral in the campaign
to date. "I don't know the details, but that's a
fairly politically astute move." Democrats drawn
to Clark are supporting him because of his career
hallmarks and public personality, with hopes they
will be enough to topple Bush, Princeton University
political science professor Fred Greenstein said.
"He's come in without seeming to do a lot of issue
homework," Greenstein said. "I would guess that what
you're seeing is someone who has said, 'I can do
this,' a little bit like Ross Perot, but presumably
with much higher credentials." Perot, a Texas
billionaire with no political pedigree, ran
third-party presidential campaigns in 1992 and 1996.
…
Boston Globe article by staff writer
Patrick Healy, “Kennedy gives Kerry campaign
a lift in Iowa”. Excerpts: “WATERLOO, Iowa.
Twenty-three years after Iowans helped derail his
presidential ambitions, Senator Edward M. Kennedy
roared back into the state yesterday to add a little
liberal fire to John F. Kerry's campaign for the
White House. And with Kennedy standing by his
side, Kerry delivered tough attacks on President
Bush, charging that the war in Iraq has become a
"quagmire" and calling on Bush to reimburse the
federal treasury for his cinematic visit to an
aircraft carrier in May. The Kennedy-Kerry star
turn sent Democratic audiences into a fever pitch
and reinforced a belief among some Kerry
strategists that Kennedy may be their best hope for
shoring up Kerry's left flank against former Vermont
governor Howard Dean, one of Kerry's nine rivals
for the Democratic nomination. Dean is quickly
becoming the burr in Kennedy's side that Kerry
himself was in the 1980s and '90s, when the
junior Massachusetts senator challenged Democratic
priorities on public education and health care that
were close to Kennedy's heart. Now Dean is the
skeptic, attacking Medicare, the Patients' Bill of
Rights, and education reform, all issues closely
identified with Kennedy, while Kerry seems to
have reconciled with Kennedy. "The hard slogging
on issues that make a difference -- I've seen John
there. Howard has his own experience," Kennedy said
in an interview, quickly turning the subject back to
policy. "HMO reform, Patients' Bill of Rights --
these are big important issues. . . . I've worked
with John over a long period of time, and I can
relate my experiences with him as a leader." Kerry
aides say the senior senator was eager to campaign
in Iowa, earlier than the Kerry campaign had
planned, because he felt the case for traditional
Democratic values needed to be made. Yesterday,
recalling his debilitating loss to President Carter
in the 1980 Iowa caucuses, Kennedy joked that Iowans
owed him a vote for his kinsman Kerry: "Are you
going to make it up? Are you going to make up with
me?"… The Kennedy-Kerry tensions are a thing of
the past, both men say, but that doesn't mean the
senior senator is quietly stepping offstage to give
Kerry the spotlight. Kennedy was in
full-throated, liberal lion mode yesterday, and
he made Kerry look a little like a cub.
Attending rallies in Des Moines, Waterloo, and Iowa
City, Kerry stood frozen as Kennedy punched the air
and roared and cajoled. By contrast, when it was
Kerry's turn to speak, Kennedy sat a few feet away
and looked into the distance, rising only five times
to applaud the candidate, who called for broader
health insurance and energy independence from the
Middle East
…
Washington Post writer Dan Balz for
OnPolitics article: “Clark's Bid Prompts Some
Dean Supporters to Reconsider” Excerpts: “DOVER,
N.H., Sept. 27 -- New Hampshire Democrat Larry
Taylor was leaning toward supporting former Vermont
governor Howard Dean for president until he turned
out on a damp Friday night at New England College in
Henniker, N.H., to see retired Army Gen. Wesley K.
Clark. By the time Clark had finished his town hall
meeting, Taylor was ready to change his allegiance.
"I think Clark can win," Taylor said. "I don't
think Dean can win. I think Dean's going to be
pegged as too liberal. He doesn't have the kind of
military background and some of the strength that
Clark seems to have." Whatever else Clark's late
entry into the battle for the Democratic
presidential nomination has done, it has forced the
issue of electability back to the top of the
agenda for many Democratic and independent voters.
Peter Lehmen and his wife, Theresa, of Keene, N.H.,
attended Clark's town hall meeting late Friday.
Lehmen has given money to Dean and credits the
scrappy Vermonter with having the courage to take on
Bush and start a dialogue among the Democrats that
has shaped both the tone and the substance of the
debate. "He was talking about things that other
people were afraid to talk about," Lehmen said.
Lately, however, both Lehmens have begun to question
whether Dean is the best Democrat to beat Bush.
Peter said he finds Dean inconsistent in some of
his views. Theresa said Dean is "coming
across as a little more abrasive" and appears to let
his ego get in his way. Clark, she said,
impressed her as someone who could successfully
negotiate with foreign leaders. "He certainly
presented himself in a very diplomatic but forceful
way that I would call presidential," she said.
"Clark puts a positive spin on things. Dean is
very forceful, he's very dramatic and I agree with
what he says. But sometimes he's trying to find a
negative too much. I think this gentleman thinks
more intently than Dean does. Dean tends to shoot
from the hip a bit much,” said another now Clark
supporter. A registered independent who usually
votes Democratic, said, "I'm looking for a
security blanket for our country, and I don't think
any of them [the other Democrats] represent it, but
Wesley Clark does." Ann Milne of Auburn, N.H.,
supported Republican Sen. John McCain (Ariz.)
against Bush in the 2000 GOP primary here, but she
is looking at Clark and a vote in the Democratic
primary. Asked about Dean and Kerry, she said, "I
agree with everything they say. However, I just
don't think they can prevail in the general
election." …"I'm still sorting it out, quite
frankly," said Mary-Chris Duncan of Bradford, N.H.,
who said she has been leaning toward Dean but is
undecided. "As a Democrat, I want someone who I
think is going to be electable, someone who can beat
George Bush. I'm going to be pragmatic when it comes
down to voting."
… Democrat
candidates for president are spending time in Iowa’s
5th congressional district, which is Iowa’s most
Republican district. This was obvious when
Senator John Kerry was on CBS’s “Face the
Nation” from the deck of State Senator Jack
Kibbie’s home in Emmetsberg, Iowa. Iowa’s
freshman Congressman Steve King, Republican,
won this district by 62 percent in the last
election. The district is Iowa’s safest while Iowa’s
2nd District, represented by Republican Jim Leach,
is the most Democrat rich district in the state.
Here is a listing of where the candidates have gone
in western Iowa:
While Democrats in
Western Iowa are no longer feeling like orphans for
now, this will probably all change as the timeline
crunch moves toward the deadline of Jan. 19
caucuses. For further information visit the
Iowa Scene section of Iowa Presidential Watch
under
Western Iowa Impact on Caucuses.
* ON THE BUSH BEAT:
... AFP story carried on
YahooNews, "Bush is aced by Rumsfeld in
controversial deck of cards sold in France.
Excerpts: "PARIS -- a deck of cards featuring US
President George W. Bush is on sale in France,
mocking the US gimmick used in the hunt for Iraq's
Saddam Hussein and his entourage. The
controversial pack is being sold on the Internet by
Thierry Meyssan, a French polemicist who enraged
many Americans for claiming in a book that September
11, 2001 was organised by US leaders. The deck
of 52 cards -- called "The 52 Most Dangerous
American Dignitaries" -- doesn't place Bush
at the top. That position goes to Osama bin Laden,
who is one of the two jokers in the pack, and
who Meyssan claimed in his best-selling book,
"9/11: The Big Lie", was a US instrument. The
other joker in the deck features US Secretary of
State Colin Powell holding a vial meant to
represent the danger of Saddam's supposed chemical
weapons. The card carries the heading: "Weapons of
Mass Deception". The Ace of Spades -- which
was reserved for Saddam in the US deck -- goes to
Rumsfeld in Meyssan's collection and features
the inscription "Definitive Domination on the
Earth", a reference to his alleged thirst for
conquest. The Ace of Diamonds is Vice-President
Dick Cheney alluding to the fact that he
profited from the Iraqi war through contracts
awarded to an oil services company he once headed.
Bush himself is given the second-tier position of
King of Diamonds because, Meyssan said, he
"certainly is not the most important person in his
own administration." His card highlights the
president's links to the bin Laden family and
suggests his father helped him get his current job.
Behind the obvious mockery, Meyssan told AFP he had
the new deck printed to draw attention to the Bush
administration's campaign in Iraq and its policies
in the United States, which he considers
undemocratic. "It's a response to what America's
command did during the war in Iraq, where I found it
indecent that they made a game out of what was
really a manhunt," Meyssan said. "The Bush
administration is totally different to other
administrations. It's a threat to world peace," he
said. Meyssan said that, despite the "ironic"
idea behind the cards, "the team around Bush is made
up of people who represent very narrow interests
that make them very dangerous." Originally offered
as French playing cards two weeks ago, decks in
English will be made available on the website of
Meyssan's group, the Reseau Voltaire, next week,
"and in a dozen other languages with a month," he
said
* THE CLINTON COMEDIES:
…Yahoo.com
is carrying an AP story by Ron Work,
“Ex-President Clinton Visits Florida Game”.
Excerpts: “JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The football
players at Edward Waters College and Shaw University
on Saturday night were overshadowed by a speech at
halftime by President Bill Clinton.
As Clinton walked across
the football field to begin his speech about
education at historically black schools, a roar went
up from the 17,410 fans.
After Clinton was introduced by the namesake of the
Willie E. Gary Football Classic played, the crowd
gave him a standing ovation. "We want kids and their
parents and other people like Willie to support the
historically black colleges and universities,"
Clinton said. "Every young man and woman ought to
have the chance and ought to take it to go to
college." When Clinton finished his 4 minute
speech, the crowd began chanting, "Four more years!
Four more years!" Clinton said he attended the
game at the invitation of Gary, a South Florida
lawyer and a benefactor of both schools. Kimberlye
Simmons, office manager for Institutional
Advancement at Edward Waters, said the former
president's visit energized the staff and students.
She said $100,000 was raised this week at a
scholarship banquet. "His visit will help the
morale of Jacksonville and Edward Waters College,"
she said. Clinton arrived about 10 minutes before
kickoff under heavy security and was whisked into a
private suite.
* NATIONAL POLITICS: …
The Boston Globe online shows an article
written by Thomas B. Edsall of the
Washington Post: “Success of '527' committees
could aid Democrats, analysts say”. Excerpts:
“The widely heralded fund-raising advantage enjoyed
by Republicans could be significantly mitigated by
the success of Democratic-leaning "527" committees,
according to a study by the Center for Public
Integrity. Known by the section of the tax code
under which they fall, 527 committees can accept
unlimited donations from corporations, unions, and
the rich -- just the kind of "soft money"
federal candidates and the national parties have
been barred from collecting under the 2002
McCain-Feingold bill. The center's study, which
covered the period from August 2000 to August 2003,
found that money going to Democratic-leaning
groups -- such as unions and environmental
and abortion-rights organizations -- was more
than double that going to Republican-affiliated
groups, $185 million to $81.6 million. In terms
of "hard money" fund-raising that remains
legal for the parties and candidates, the
Republican advantage is clear based on the
results from the first six months of this year. In
that period, the three major GOP committees -- the
Republican National, Senatorial, and Congressional
committees -- raised $115 million, some 2 1/2 times
the $43.5 million raised by their Democratic
counterparts. Hard money can be given only by
individuals, not corporations or unions, and is
limited to $2,000 to federal candidates and $25,000
to a party. These figures, along with the
announced plans of the Bush reelection campaign to
raise at least $160 million, have provoked
widespread fears among Democrats and liberals that
Republicans will swamp the opposition with a tidal
wave of cash. But if the Center for Public Integrity
data are accurate, the $228 million advantage the
GOP committees had over their Democratic
counterparts in 2001-02 could be reduced by as much
as $103.4 million, to $124.6 million. Not
surprisingly, the Republican National Committee has
been closely tracking the 527 groups.
* WAR/TERRORISM: …
VOA article by Michael Drudge, “US
Lawmakers Tour Baghdad”. Excerpts: “A group of
U.S. lawmakers toured badly damaged facilities in
Baghdad Sunday. The trip gave them a first-hand
look at the country's battered infrastructure ahead
of a vote expected in Congress next month on
President Bush's request for $87 billion, mostly
for security and reconstruction aid for Iraq. The
delegation from the House of Representatives
visited a rundown Baghdad hospital and a
power plant struggling to meet the electricity
demands of a city with five million residents. At a
news conference, the lawmakers said they are
appealing to the American public to help Iraq get
back on its feet, after 23 years of dictatorship.
Congressman Jim Walsh, of the House Appropriations
Committee, said most of the damage they saw was
caused by Saddam Hussein's neglect, not the U.S.-led
invasion. "Ninety-nine percent of the damage that
we've seen was inflicted by the leader of this
country, not by our military, the coalition's
military," he said. Another congressman, Rick
Larson of Washington state, said he will stress
to his constituents the high stakes at risk if the
United States does not give Iraq the financial aid.
"What I'm going to tell the taxpayers who live in my
district is that we cannot cut and run," he said.
"We need to maintain the commitment in Iraq and to
make the peace as successful as the military
victory." Congressman Walsh said he expects a vote
on President Bush's request by the middle of
October. Most analysts predict the president will
get most of what he wants from the
Republican-controlled Congress. However, some
lawmakers have criticized the request at a time of
growing U.S. government budget deficits and
infrastructure needs in the United States that have
not gotten adequate funding.
* FEDERAL ISSUES: …
Washington Post article by staff writer
Helen Dewar, “War Tab Jeopardizes Parties'
Domestic Agendas. $87 Billion Request May
Hurt Medicare, Other Priorities.” Excerpts: “The
shock effect of President Bush's $87 billion war
request and the likelihood of a budget deficit
topping $500 billion are threatening both parties'
election-year domestic priorities in Congress,
according to lawmakers and budget experts.
Republicans concede Bush will be hard-pressed to win
more tax cuts -- or to make permanent those already
approved on a temporary basis -- so long as
war-related expenditures continue to rise and
contribute to soaring deficits. Democrats are
just as worried about the impact of war spending and
rising deficits on their efforts to pump more money
into education, health care, homeland security and
an array of other domestic programs. Less clear is
the impact on both parties' leading domestic
priority for this year: a major expansion of
Medicare to include coverage for prescription drugs,
at an estimated cost of $400 billion over the next
decade. … angst over deficits could thwart
Republican efforts to include big tax breaks or
Democratic efforts to expand the drug benefit,
lawmakers and others say. Approval of the $87
billion for U.S. security and reconstruction
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan is a foregone
conclusion, lawmakers say, despite likely
controversy over Bush's overall policy on Iraq and
his reluctance to increase spending at home to match
his proposed spending in Iraq. Democrats say they
will try for separate votes on military and
reconstruction funds, but the Republicans, who run
both houses, are adamant about keeping the package
intact to ensure passage of all major elements.
"It will go through, but there will be a huge fight"
over the reconstruction funds, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)
said. The biggest question is what toll the rising
war tab will take on the broader congressional
agenda. Some believe both parties are likely losers.
"… As recently as early September, Bush listed
more tax cuts as a top legislative priority. But
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E.
Grassley (R-Iowa) said he understands the
administration is "off the kick for tax cuts"
through next year. There are, however, proposed
tax breaks scattered over an array of bills dealing
with energy, religious groups that administer social
services and other areas. The House-passed Medicare
bill includes tax breaks for people to set up
medical savings accounts, and it may be difficult to
drop them without alienating conservatives who are
not overly enthusiastic about the legislation in the
first place. According to the Center on Budget and
Policy Priorities, the House has approved or is
considering tax cuts that would cost $600 billion
over the next decade. The Senate appears less
enthusiastic about additional cuts, and Grassley
said any new tax reductions will have to be offset
by savings in other areas. Even a rollback of tax
cuts for the richest Americans is possible to help
finance the war effort, said Sen. Chuck Hagel
(R-Neb.), speaking of legislation introduced
recently by Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.). "I
wouldn't predict it would pass, but I wouldn't rule
it out either," Hagel said. On the spending side,
Democrats failed this year to force major increases
in spending for priorities such as education and
homeland security, and are likely to face even more
difficulties next year. Expensive health care
initiatives championed by Democratic presidential
candidates are unlikely to go anywhere, at least so
long as the deficits remain high. Even military
spending that is not directly related to war
efforts, such as funds for procurement and research
and development, could be squeezed, Spratt said.
Moreover, there could be another big spending
request for Iraq just down the road, raising the
prospects of even higher deficits, some lawmakers
believe. "I have no doubt they'll be back for more
next year," McCain said.
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