NEWS SUMMARY

Our condolences to the Reagan family and thanks for their sacrifices to public service.

As for the question we are increasingly asked (How will President Reagan's death influence this election year?), very few members of the media have weighed in publicly so far.

The New York Times -- coming off of its inexplicable Sunday paper performance in which its Reagan coverage was shockingly skimpy -- fronts above the fold Adam Nagourney's first draft of history looking at the possible implications for November 2004.

There are some nuggets there, but its wishy washy quality is probably owing to the fact that the only two rational positions to take on the question at this point are:

A. It probably won't affect the decisions of real voters (impervious to Beltway bloviating and theorizing) when it comes time to cast ballots on election day.

and/or

B. There's really no way to know how it could/will/might influence things with any certainty.

Still, drawing on Nagourney's work, plus our own reporting and the musings that can occur in the cracks of the NBA finals, the Sopranos finale, the Tonys, C-SPAN's "Road to the White House," and Tom Brokaw's hard-to-find interview with President Bush, we came up with this:

WAYS PRESIDENT REAGAN'S DEATH COULD HELP PRESIDENT BUSH:

1. Reminds Americans how much they like an optimistic Westerner as their president.

2. Overshadows for a week President Bush's troubles with world leaders and continued death and uncertainty in Iraq.

3. Bush Doctrine is a descendent of now uniformly celebrated Reagan foreign policy vision.

4. Prominence of 41 reburnishes the Bush Brand -- he did all the morning shows today and he's expected to be visible at the end of the week's events.

5. Gives the current President Bush a chance to make one of the best and most-watches speeches of his life on Friday.

6. National rallying around the President in the short term.

7. Politically popular stem cell position change might be possible now.

8. Kerry misses a week of campaigning in battleground states that still don't know him.

9. Possible Democratic loss of fundraising cash from two cancelled money events in New York and Los Angeles.

WAYS PRESIDENT REAGAN'S DEATH COULD HELP JOHN KERRY:

1. Overshadows President Bush's week on the world stage.

2. Doesn't happen closer to the election.

3. Makes Bush seem smaller and less unifying at home and abroad compared to Reagan.

4. Gives Democrats confidence that the candidate and the campaign aren't politically tone deaf -- illustrated by deft their statements and actions since Saturday.

5. No Bush ad traffic change could backfire.

6. A week of (mostly) positive campaigning atmospherics is just what the Kerry campaign has said it wants. (A negative RNC release that reporters got this morning by e-mail was, an RNC spokesperson says, "an unfortunate mistake," and both camps at this point pledge to go a full week without such things.)

7. Nancy Reagan might be unshackled to go after President Bush's position more openly on stem cell research.

But, seriously, we think those lists are silly.

Elections are about the future, and, in that sense, within the wave of Reagan coverage, don't overlook:

A. Ron Brownstein with yet another important Los Angeles Times story looking at the different foreign policy postures of Bush and Kerry. LINK

B. Warren Hoge's incredibly bullish New York Times account of how the nation's of the world -- even France!! -- are uniting at the United Nations around a new Iraq resolution. LINK

C. The Los Angeles Times (today) and the Boston Globe (yesterday) on John Kerry's important attempts to be optimistic and human-scaled.

Now, the schedule for the week, with Reagan events dominating, President Bush doing the G-8 thing, and Sen. John Kerry mostly behind the scenes:

MONDAY:
The Reagan family participates in a private ceremony Monday morning at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. Following the ceremony President Reagan's body lies in repose at the library. President Bush is at the G-8 Summit on Sea Island in Georgia. Sen. Kerry is down in Washington. Vice President Cheney presents the Gerald Ford Journalism awards in Washington and speaks at a Money Magazine Summit at in New York. Teresa Heinz Kerry is in Long Beach.

TUESDAY:
President Reagan's body lies in repose through the day. President Bush attends the G-8 summit, which officially begins on Tuesday. Sen. Kerry travels to Los Angeles for a screening of his daughter Alexandra Kerry's film. The U.N. is expected to pass a resolution recognizing the new Iraqi government. Impeachment proceedings against Connecticut Gov. John Rowland get underway. WEDNESDAY: In the morning a departure ceremony is held as Reagan's body is moved from the Reagan library to Andrew's Air Force Base. In the afternoon a formal procession accompanies the body from Andrew's to the Capitol for a state ceremony. Reagan's body lies in state until Friday. Sen. Kerry attends the graduation of his daughter in Los Angeles and returns to Washington.

THURSDAY:
President Reagan's body lies in state in the Capitol. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, and Vice-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Pace testify before a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the transition to sovereignty in Iraq.

FRIDAY:
A national funeral service is held for President Reagan at the National Cathedral. President Bush is expected to speak and Sen. Kerry is expected to attend. Late in the day the Reagan family holds a private ceremony at the Reagan Library.

President Reagan's political legacy:

The New York Times' Adam Nagourney sizes up some of the initial Reagan impact on the current presidential contest in a tailor-made Note must-read. Be sure to Note Gillespie's guilt trip for those of you that don't see the 40/43 parallels and Jim Jordan's toe dipping in those partisan waters. Nagourney goes on to get Republicans to provide some "on the one hand/on the other hand" observations about how President Bush might navigate this week politically. LINK

"Aides to Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry said they did not want to do anything that would make it appear that they were exploiting the news of Mr. Reagan's death. But in one sign of what may lie ahead, Republicans circulated old quotes from Mr. Kerry in which he criticized Mr. Reagan. Democrats promptly dug up instances of the first president Bush speaking unkindly about Mr. Reagan in 1980, as the two men competed for the Republican nomination."

The New York Times' Todd Purdum on Reagan's endless legacy. LINK

USA Today's Susan Page looks at how President Reagan altered the American political landscape by spawning a new group of voters, the "Reagan Democrats." LINK

"Republicans were able to attract blue-collar workers who had long been Democrats but had grown disenchanted with high taxes, opposition to the Vietnam War and liberal social policies on school busing and other issues."

The Wall Street Journal's Wessel and Seib Note "even in death&Mr. Reagan couldn't produce agreement on the virtues and vices of the economic revolution he wrought -- or on how much of it endures today."

The Washington Post's Dan Balz and Mike Allen on Sunday looked at the way Reagan reshaped the Republican Party, revived conservatism and drove changes in the Democratic Party as well, in addition to contributing long-term to the partisan atmosphere of politics today. LINK

"Reagan's presidency brought a new term to the political lexicon: Reagan Democrats. His social conservatism, his unapologetic appeals to patriotism, his challenge to the Soviets and his economic policies brought onetime Democrats streaming into the Republican column. He won reelection in a landslide in 1984 with his 'morning in America' message, carrying 49 states against former vice president Walter F. Mondale, leaving the Democratic Party a shambles and in need of reform."

Ron Brownstein wrote Sunday that "No one since Franklin D. Roosevelt reshaped American politics or restored the primacy of the presidency more than Ronald Reagan. . . . Reagan redefined the message of the Republican Party, expanded its reach to working-class voters who had rejected it for decades, and put in place the final pieces of a conservative alliance that has carried the GOP to unified control of Congress and the White House for the first time in half a century." LINK

Sunny Bob Novak calls Reagan a dreamer. LINK

The Chicago Tribune's Michael Tackett and Jeff Zeleny examine what the Reagan legacy means to conservatives -- economic, social and religious -- and grassroots political activists. LINK

Nick Anderson wisely looks at the Reagan influence in the current congressional make-up. LINK

"Nine current Republican senators won their seats during the 1980s, when Reagan dominated his party and the American political landscape. Thirty-seven current Republican representatives first came to the House in that decade."

The New York Times looks at Mrs. Reagan's advocacy for a cure to Alzheimer's disease and her split with the current Administration on stem-cell research. LINK

"Though Mrs. Reagan never publicly criticized President Bush on the issue, several friends of hers said Sunday that Mrs. Reagan had been especially disappointed that Mr. Bush, and the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, were not as supportive on stem-cell research as she had hoped. 'It angered her,' Mrs. Ribicoff said. 'And I think when Nancy gets her body and heart back together, she's going to work feverishly for stem-cell research and the Ronald Reagan library.'"

William Safire helps the former first lady make her case. LINK

Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times writes of the overshadowing (on television) of President Bush's D-Day speech by the one Ronald Reagan delivered 20 years ago. LINK

The AP writes, "Former President Ronald Reagan's influence on Florida's political landscape was long-lasting, sowing the seeds for a Republican revolution resulting in the party's control of state government." LINK

Howard Kurtz writes that the press' remembrances of President Reagan overlook the fact that his relationship with the media was contentious. LINK

"There is a natural tendency in the media to say nice things after someone has died. But more important, a president's legacy looks very different 15 years after he leaves the White House, and following a long illness that took him out of the political wars. No one knew when Reagan stepped down that his military buildup would ultimately play a role in the demise of the "evil empire" he railed against. Critics denounced his legacy of record-shattering budget deficits, but in the resulting economic boom such shortfalls came to be viewed as less dramatic, another sign of how Reagan redefined the political debate."

The AP reports that President Bush issued an Executive Order designating Friday as a federal government holiday out of respect for former President Reagan. LINK

President Reagan's political legacy: the Kerry challenge:

How does a Democratic presidential contender running against a Republican incumbent deal with the death of an iconic GOP legend? Move quickly to respond, summon message discipline like never before, and invoke the former President's disdain for bitter partisanship as often as possible.

Sen. Kerry delivered his first response to the news of Ronald Reagan's death via paper statement a little more than an hour after the news was first reported. Kerry's statement made clear that he was going to do his best to preempt any political impact Reagan's death might have on the campaign. In that statement the Senator quickly invoked the former President's warm relationship with Tip O'Neill and Reagan's "noble ideal" that after the workday was done party labels disappeared. Kerry also pointed to Reagan's "love of country" as a shared and common theme.

It was not quite three hours after the release of the paper statement when Kerry announced the cancellation of plans to campaign in Colorado Sunday evening.

But, as we all know, reaction doesn't fully count in today's world unless there is picture and sound to go with it. When Kerry emerged from church Sunday morning he gave his first on-camera reaction to Reagan's death which touched on similar themes as the paper statement. He again asserted Reagan's love of country and avoidance of bitter partisanship. "He always disagreed with a smile, without partisanship," said Kerry. Kerry also seized this on camera moment to announce a suspension of all "overtly political" campaign activity through Friday.

The final touch of Kerry's weekend reaction to Reagan's death came as he inserted some remarks to those already prepared for his Bedford High School commencement speech. He once again invoked Reagan's optimism and his ability to separate "differences between strong beliefs" and "bitter partisanship." Kerry highlighted such grand moments as the 40th anniversary D-Day speech, the Berlin Wall speech, and Reagan's response to the Challenger explosion. Kerry then asked for a moment of prayer.

ABC News Vote 2004: Bush-Cheney re-elect:

The national political writers look at the President's D-Day speech in the context of the death of President Reagan:

Richard Stevenson of the New York Times included these two key graphs in his D-Day write-up: LINK

"Like Mr. Reagan in 1984, Mr. Bush came here as a candidate for re-election. His appearance provided him the kind of platform that gives incumbents an advantage. Representing the country before the world and celebrating one of the most pivotal moments of the 20th century, Mr. Bush on one level transcended domestic politics."

"But the very act of taking on that statesmanlike role gave him a political opportunity. In the heat of a presidential campaign that seems likely to hinge in large part on voters' judgments of his role as commander in chief at a time when American troops are dying in Iraq, it allowed him to associate himself with the same ideals invoked by Mr. Reagan: using military might for liberation, not conquest, and working with allies to ensure freedom and prosperity, not to impose ideology."

Glen Johnson of the Boston Globe Notes the significance of the week's event honoring Reagan for the current President's re-election campaign: "Remembrance and mourning for Reagan not only emphasizes the links between Bush and Reagan, but it also creates a firebreak in a campaign that has seen Bush's popularity plummeting, the public questioning his war in Iraq, and criticism spring up from his fellow conservatives."LINK

The Houston Chronicle's R.G. Ratcliffe on Reagan's political influence: "For the presidencies of George H.W. and George W. Bush, success and failure will always be measured against the precedent of Ronald Reagan."LINK

Ken Bazinet of the New York Daily News highlights President Bush's comments to Tom Brokaw about a possible terror strike aimed at influencing the November election. LINK

US News & World Report's Washington Whispers Notes that Jenna and Barbara Bush could be aiding the re-election campaign through the Rock the Vote program aimed at reaching younger voters. LINK

ABC News Vote 2004: Sen. John Kerry:

The Wall Street Journal's free link of the day is a good one so make sure to read it. David Rogers chats up Howard Dean and finds that the former candidate is studying the ways of Newt Gingrich and Ralph Reed to better organize his wing of the Democratic Party. LINK

"Like no one else, perhaps, Mr. Dean is crucial if Mr. Kerry is to achieve his goal of greatly expanding the turnout among younger voters, who have swung against the Iraq war and remain worried by the lack of economic opportunity at home."

"It won't be easy. 'My constituency is divided on John Kerry,' Mr. Dean acknowledges in an interview. Among young people, he says, the task is harder now that he no longer is a candidate, and the challenge is to keep alive that sense of community and civic involvement his campaign bred among otherwise disaffected voters."

The Washington Post's Lois Romano looks at Sen. Kerry's decision to suspend campaign events in deference to President Reagan's death this week, and his speech at a Toledo high school graduation on Sunday, during which he called Reagan "one of our great optimists." LINK

The AP's Pickler Notes the "unanimous decision" -- according to campaign Communications Director Stephanie Cutter -- for Sen. John Kerry to suspend campaign activities this week out of respect for the former president. LINK

On the postponement of the DNC concert fundraisers, Jodi Wilgoren of the New York Times Notes, "Reuniting the performers and rebooking those locations will be difficult." LINK

Look for the correction on the Reagan state funeral/AFI commencement conflict in future editions.

Pat Healy of the Boston Globe reports on the Kerry campaign's week of cancelled events, including two huge fundraising concerts. "Tickets for the two events cost $150 to $25,000, with the proceeds to be split between the Kerry campaign and the Democratic National Committee -- the first $2,000 from each ticket would have gone to the Kerry campaign. Several million dollars were expected to be netted at each event."LINK

The Los Angeles Times' Matea Gold reports, "Lara Bergthold, national deputy political director and Kerry's liaison with Hollywood, said the campaign hoped to announce new dates for the concerts within a few days." LINK

The Los Angeles Times' Gold and La Ganga on Kerry's search for his "morning in America" or "man from Hope" touch of optimism. LINK

" . . . the Massachusetts senator must overcome what is widely perceived as a dour image, political experts said, as well as find the right balance between critiquing the Bush administration and projecting hope."

The Boston Globe's Pat Healy on Sunday had a must-read look at the education of Sen. John Kerry about running for President, and his transformation from being a candidate with "bags under his eyes, the rambling asides in his speeches, the crummy hotels of a cash-strapped campaign, the occasional utterances of annoyance" to one who is (at least for now) more confident, energetic and focused, playing to local media, and raising money. LINK

ABC News Vote 2004: Bush v. Kerry:

Ron Brownstein of the Los Angeles Times explores Kerry's attempts to paint himself the pragmatist and Bush the idealist on foreign policy. LINK

"Inverting the usual debate between the parties, Kerry is increasingly arguing that Bush has committed America to unrealistic goals and unsustainable costs through his crusade to democratize the Middle East."

Deborah Caldwell analyzes the importance of the Catholic vote as BC '04 sets its sites on the "centrist" Catholics who voted for Gore in 2002. Caldwell chronicles a sophisticated strategy to woo Catholics with moderate to conservative philosophies that has been in play since shortly after Bush took office. Note: Catholic support for the Democratic Party shifted to Republicans in 1980, with President Reagan's election, and back again with Bill Clinton, who took 53% of the Catholic vote. LINK

Morning show wrap:

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/TheNote/Morning_Show_Wrap.html

The economy:

"Rapid payrolls growth gives President Bush a shot at wiping out his jobs deficit while strengthening the Federal Reserve's case for raising U.S. interest rates at its meeting later this month," reports the Wall Street Journal's Greg Ip.

On the Hill:

The Wall Street Journal's Shailagh Murray reports this week House leaders "will try to push forward a corporate-tax bill laden with perquisites, as Congress seeks to end a costly trade dispute with Europe."

The land of 5-plus-2-equals-7:

"Republicans are getting a cold shoulder from some of their traditional corporate benefactors, putting them at a fund-raising disadvantage against new, well-financed political organizations touting the Democratic message," writes the Wall Street Journal's Jeanne Cummings.

Nader:

The AP's Peter Jackson reports state officials are taking measures to prepare for the Nader factor to come into play in Pennsylvania. With polls predicting a tight race, Gov. Ed Rendell is spearheading election reform measures to prevent Florida-style deja vu all over again. LINK

Time magazine retrospectively blurbs (though not on the Web) on independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader's December 12 cover -- 35 years ago -- when the then-35 year old had become to represent to many "something of a folk hero, a symbol of constructive protest . . ."

The AP reports Minnesota's Green Party does not plan to endorse Nader as their presidential candidate.

Kucinich:

The Washington Post's Evelyn Nieves reports that Rep. Dennis Kucinich has accumulated 70 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. LINK

The conventions:

The New York Police Department will begin issuing protest permits on June 15, reports the Associated Press. LINK

ABC News Vote 2004: the battlegrounds:

The Cleveland Plain Dealer's Diane Solov Notes Ohioans are taking their role as a "purple state" very seriously in a state where a "victory will be won in the margins, and voters, for the first time in decades, feel their participation can make a difference." LINK

In Missouri, the volume of political ads is crowding out more traditional advertisers, with rates already up a whopping 58 percent. "This situation is unique to the really competitive states and Missouri is among the top two or three of these states." LINK

It's a familiar story line in the Seattle Times: Bush, not Kerry, is unifying the state's Democratic Party, with Democrats only "lukewarm" about their presumptive nominee. "The real energy in the party is based on an anti-Bush sentiment," says the state's Democratic Party chairman. LINK

The Democrats' new "firebrand" -- that's Al Gore, for those of you keeping score at home -- spoke in Tacoma, Wash., on Friday night. Among other criticisms of the Bush Administration came these lines about Abu Ghraib: "Those policies came out of the White House and no matter the wrongdoing of individual troops, they were ordered to wade into a moral cesspool and given ambiguous, conflicting instructions and then praised for doing things they shouldn't have been doing. I believe the abuse of those prisoners came directly from the abuse of the truth in the run-up to the war." LINK

and LINK

"The awful human cost of the war in Iraq is hitting home" in Oregon as more soldiers with connections to the state fall, writes the Oregonian. LINK

The Des Moines Register's Jane Norman writes that Iowa Rep. Jim Nussle is "everywhere" in Iowa these days, already looking ahead to supplant Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack. LINK

The recently introduced House tax cut bill is winning rave reviews in Washington state, where members of the state's congressional delegation are falling all over themselves to claim credit for getting language into the bill that benefits citizens of states -- like Washington -- that have a sales tax but no income tax. The bill also includes generous benefits for The Boeing Co. and Microsoft Corp., each a large Washington employer. LINK

Tomorrow is election day in Maine. With 35 state legislature seats being contested in the primary, and a statewide school funding ballot issue, turnout is expected to be . . . low. LINK and LINK

Oregon Republicans are hoping a same-sex marriage ban will make its way onto the ballot in November and tip the contested state towards Bush, according to the AP's Brad Cain. LINK

Weekend must-reads:

The Washington Post's Dan Balz on Sunday looked at Kerry's foreign policy plans, Noting that "In Kerry's framing, it is a choice between realism and romanticism, competence and ineffectiveness." LINK

On Saturday, Brownstein ended his story about John Kerry's push to mobilize 1 million veterans in support of his campaign with a quote from "one senior GOP strategist familiar with White House planning" saying that Kerry's shift-by-degrees approach to foreign policy is "Dukakis with a twist." LINK

The New York Times' Jodi Wilgoren also wrote about Kerry's appeal to veterans on Saturday, and how the brothers in arms who voted for Sen. John McCain's presidential bid in 2000, are showing signs of support for the Massachusetts Senator this time around. LINK

"Mr. Kerry's aides see this crossover constituency as a sign that veterans may, during this wartime campaign, vote together for one of their own in a way they have not in recent elections. They are trying to enlist a million of the nation's 26.5 million veterans in the campaign, not just to build this voting bloc but also as a signal of patriotism to even nonveterans who may be reluctant to oust an incumbent commander in chief."

On Sunday, the Chicago Tribune's Jeff Zeleny described the shifting demographics of the battleground states that are demanding the attention of the presidential candidates now -- even if they may not by fall. LINK

On Sunday, David Halbfinger of the New York Times took a look at the hopefuls jockeying for position to be Kerry's running mate, and the complications of wanting the job, but not looking too eager in public. LINK

On Saturday, Halbfinger looked at the circle of Kerry advisers who allegedly threw themselves in front of the possibility that he might not accept the nomination at the convention, and helped along the campaign's decision to go through with the convention and nomination as planned. LINK

The Los Angeles Times' Lisa Getter took her turn at writing about the Republican 527 groups on Sunday. LINK

"'The Republicans miscalculated' in their legal war against 527s, said a GOP strategist who asked not to be named. 'It was a gamble. They went with a legal course of action as opposed to a political course of action. We essentially ceded three months of time to [the Democrat-allied] groups . . . '"

On Sunday, the Boston Globe's Tatsha Robertson reported that protesters who want to stage demonstrations during the Republican National Convention in New York are likely to have a tougher time than their counterparts who want to protest in Boston, Noting that "Not a single permit has been issued for a demonstration during the Republican convention; Boston has already approved a handful." LINK

On Sunday, the Washington Post's Tom Ricks reported that between duty in Iraq and domestic emergencies, the National Guard is showing signs of strain. LINK

On Sunday, the Washington Post's Susan Schmidt and Mike Allen read the tea leaves of the probe into the leak of a covert CIA officer's name, and reported that the "grand jury probe is in a highly active phase." LINK

The politics of Iraq:

Robin Wright of the Washington Post reports that the U.S. and Iraq have come to a formal agreement over the U.S.-led military forces to remain in Iraq. However, France, Germany, China, and Algeria have called for changes before the agreement comes to a vote in the United Nations. LINK

The Wall Street Journal's Jackie Calmes reports "despite continued tensions, France and the U.S. expect to join this week on a United Nations resolution intended to reconcile the promise of full sovereignty for Iraq with the continued presence there of U.S.-led troops."

The Washington Post's Rajiv Chandrasekaran reports that Iraq's new interim president, Ghazi Yawar, said on Sunday his government to retain its authority over U.S. and other countries' forces LINK

AP reports that Iraq's new prime minister, Iyad Allawi, sent a letter to the U.N. Security Council that the Iraqi government will be the only authority over the country's military, and will work in conjunction with the U.S.-led troops on the ground. LINK

The Wall Street Journal's Jess Bravin turns in a page-one humdinger with this lead: "Bush administration lawyers contended last year that the president wasn't bound by laws prohibiting torture and that government agents who might torture prisoners at his direction couldn't be prosecuted by the Justice Department."

That advice was part of a classified report on the way prisoners at Guantanamo Bay were being treated that was prepared for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Bravin reports.

Edward Cody of the Washington Post reports that the Shiite Muslim establishment in Iraq is trying to enlist the militia of Moqtada Sadr to be a political movement and to convince Sadr and his followers to join the process leading to elections nationwide next January. LINK

Roll Call's Preston and Bresnahan report, "A bipartisan fact-finding mission to Iraq slated to include the Senate's top two party leaders was scrapped this past weekend after Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) was unable to receive a commitment to meet with senior Iraqi officials."

CIA Director George Tenet's resignation:

The Washington Post's Dana Priest and Mike Allen write that in the midst of the balancing act he'll have to do with the varying needs of both the CIA and the intelligence community, one of the toughest challenges for John McLaughlin, the incoming acting director of the agency, is to protect the its reputation at the White House and among leaders worldwide. LINK

No Child Left Behind:

The Washington Post's Michael Dobbs writes about the class-action lawsuits seeking more funding for poorer school districts in South Carolina and elsewhere. LINK

ABC New Vote 2004: the Senate:

Coors drinkers nationwide are being asked to belly back from the bar in protest of Republican Colorado Senate contender Pete Coors' support for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, reviving a 1995 boycott. LINK

U.S. Rep. Bob Schaffer (R-Colo.) takes top billing (over Coors) on the party's primary ticket. LINK

Politics:

The New York Times looks at superlawyer Robert Barnett's "unusual side business." LINK

The Washington Post's Charles Lane Notes "the book business is turning into a lucrative sideline for some members of the Supreme Court -- especially Justice Clarence Thomas." LINK

The prison abuse scandal in Iraq and the transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqi people have overshadowed Janet Jackson's Super Bowl display and, the New York Times reports, the rush for new decency standards from Congress has slowed. LINK

Sunday's Miami Herald, in what should have been placed under a banner reading "Weird, but True," wrote up attacks made by former Vice President Al Gore on Democratic Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas (who is running for Sen. Bob Graham's Senate seat), calling him "the single most treacherous and dishonest person I dealt with during the campaign anywhere in America." Ouch! LINK

And today, Florida Democrats, including Sen. Bob Graham, are fighting back on Penelas' behalf, reports the Miami Herald. LINK

TODAY'S SCHEDULE (all times ET):
—9:30 am: Moment of silence on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to observe the death of former President Ronald Reagan, New York, N.Y.
—9:45 am: National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice holds an on-camera briefing at the International Media Center, Savannah, Ga.
—10:00 am: The Supreme Courts meets to issue orders and hand down decisions
—10:00 am: Gov. Howard Dean and SEIU 1199 participate in a rally launching a home health aides strike, New York, N.Y.
—1:00 pm: President Reagan's family departs Gates Kingsley Gates Mortuary, Santa Monica, Calif.
—1:10 pm: Vice President Cheney presents the Gerald Ford Journalism awards at a National Press Club luncheon, Washington, D.C.
—2:00 pm: President Reagan's family arrives at the Reagan Library for a private ceremony, Simi Valley, Calif.
—2:00 pm: Teresa Heinz Kerry and Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald tour Miller Children's Hospital and hold a discussion on children's health care, Long Beach, Calif.
—2:30 pm: The Hudson Institute hosts the New Republic panel discussion titled "Iraq and its Impact on the U.S. Elections," Washington, D.C.
—3:30 pm: Mrs. Kerry holds a media availability at the Miller Children's Hospital, Long Beach, Calif.
—3:00 pm: President Reagan's body lies in repose in the main lobby of the Reagan Library, Simi Valley, Calif.
—3:00 pm: The Federal Reserve releases the consumer credit report for April
—6:30 pm: Vice President Cheney speaks at a Money Magazine Summit at the St. Regis Hotel, New York, N.Y.
—8:00 pm: Participants of the G-8 summit attend a social dinner, Sea Island, Ga.