W A S H I N G T O N, July 15
115 Days Until The Election....
—By the time you read this, you'll know a bit about what the markets are likely to do this morning — which is to say, you'll have some idea of the current political EKG of the Bush Administration and the Republican party.
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Having shackled his and the GOP's political health to the state of the markets, the president will make another attempt today to do what the punditocracy now views as his primary mission (a distant second to fighting the once-in-a-lifetime war against terrorism under this rubric): restoring consumer and business confidence.
President Bush will head to Birmingham, AL to give a speech on the economy and headline a fundraiser for Rep. Bob Riley, his party's nominee for governor.
Following on his press conference and Wall Street address from last week, Bush's remarks this afternoon could either be "third time's the charm" or "bad things come in three's" for 43. Or, as the other two performances were, somewhere in between, though listing toward the latter.
This may gall the White House, but Bill Clinton and Bob Rubin were models of discipline compared to this Administration when it came to the economy and the role of the Economic Cheerleader-in-Chief.
The rules for success in these efforts are simple: don't become captive to the vagaries of the day-to-day market ups and downs; stress the long-term fundamental health of the economy with reassuring specifics; be seen as having a plan to grow the economy from Washington, which includes fiscal discipline; and, don't stop thinking about tomorrow (which really is more of a pop song than a rule, but is still key in this).
Republicans mostly are still publicly saying that Democratic efforts to make the midterm elections about "this" — that is, the economy — won't work, but restiveness is beginning to show in some corners, and the administration is violating all those Clinton/Rubin rules.
To wit: the moment Ari Fleischer played the press' game by trying to convince them that the president's Wall Street speech actually buoyed the market for about 90 minutes, any attempts thereafter to disengage White House words from market performance became folly.
And Democrats, of course, are out there trying to tie the two even more closely together, a la Senator Joe Lieberman on "This Week" saying the economy "will suffer unless President Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney release more details of their actions as private-sector corporate executives," as the Washington Times sums it up.
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(These developments, not surprisingly, are firing up more aspiring Democratic presidential nominees than you can shake a stick at, as well as tripping up a few, and you can catch some of 'em trying to gauge their words carefully so as not to unnerve supporters in the business world.)
Stressing long-term fundamentals is tough when no one in the administration seems to be able to identify which sectors of the economy are going to lead a surge in growth.
The Bush/Cheney worldview for fostering economic growth involves: tax cuts (more of which are unaffordable in a world in which tax cuts are not scored dynamically by budgeteers); less business regulation (unlikely, given the rush to re-regulate business now); free trade (always tough to pass, but made harder given Congress' full plate); lower federal spending (tough with all the prescription drug, homeland security, Pentagon, and farm subsidy spending to which the president is now committed); and fiscal discipline (not credible, despite Mitch the Knife's best efforts, with deficits stretching as far as the eye can see).
As for thinking about tomorrow, well, that's tough to achieve, too, when we are all still bracing for more details on Bush and Cheney's yesterdays, with unanswered questions remaining, press inquiries, Judicial Watch and other lawsuits, and the SEC's Halliburton probe all still outstanding.
It is undoubtedly true that Secretaries O'Neill and Evans are good, honest men (and we don't mean that in anything but a genuine way), and that Harvey Pitt knows a lot about how businesses work. But are any of them positioned to help the president out of this?
And the dour (sometimes when he's not with the grandkids, he can seem that way, Mary Matalin), under-investigation Veep has been MIA, although he will surface in Connecticut today. Will cameras and inquiring journalists get anywhere near him?
Pitt continued his less-than-convincing-to-many Ralph Nader imitation on the Sunday shows, defending his agency, saying he has no intention of going anywhere, and insisting that Harken is all old news and that his agency is ready to get tough on Halliburton if necessary.
"Pitt said on NBC's 'Meet the Press' that the [Harken] matter had been thoroughly investigated and is now closed. But he said he would make the SEC file public at the president's request. Senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) urged Bush to do just that. 'This president ran on the idea that he was going to restore integrity to the White House, that he would be forthright with the American people,' Edwards told CNN's 'Late Edition.' 'He has an opportunity now to prove that.'"
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"House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) … suggested that Pitt remove himself from any involvement in the Halliburton probe."
Ought-four aside, is there a connection between the White House winning the news cycle these days and Republicans doing well in the 2002 midterm elections?
We think there probably is.
So if you are a Republican, you might be asking, what will it take for the president to start winning some?
The president (always aware of the Ghost of 41 and that supermarket scanner/Nick Brady/Georgette Mosbacher image from the 1992 campaign) doesn't want to appear out of touch with people who are hurting or worried about the current economy, but showing that he feels their pain can get in the way of sounding totally upbeat about the economy.
And now the words of this President are being questioned, personified by a weekend Broder/Dowd/Brownstein one-two-three punch.
Dean Broder might have well have headlined his CW-making Sunday piece "Bush IS Clinton!!!!"
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Whether you are a mixed-feeling Bill Clinton (who didn't like it when Broder took after him), or a pushing-back Tucker Eskew, the Broder column is a must-read, but here are the key parts:
"Presumably, at some point the stock market will recover, but the first returns on Bush's efforts to restore confidence in Wall Street were anything but encouraging. In the first two days after Bush journeyed to the heart of the financial world on a self-assigned mission to banish the world's worries about the integrity of corporate America, the Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 400 points and the Nasdaq market index hit its lowest mark since 1997."
"Whether this was just rhetoric or was meant to be taken seriously, Bush's words clearly linked confidence in him and his policies with trust in financial markets and the corporate culture from which he sprang."
"Bush's personal performance has added to the wobble in confidence. The last-minute news conference in which he returned to the public stage from his Independence Day holiday was the weakest, most inarticulate showing he has made since the early months of his presidency. Asked repeatedly about his sale of stock in Harken Energy Corp., where he was a director, shortly before it had to revise upward its reported losses for the year, he responded eight times with variations on the words, 'It has been looked at by the SEC,' the Securities and Exchange Commission, which found no reason to challenge the legality of his action."
As for the Divine Ms. Dowd, her last faux Bush line ("Where's Karen?") is simply the parting shot in what is a classic column that had even some Republicans laughing and shaking their heads.
And from Olympus, Ron Brownstein hurls down a catalogue of criticisms:
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With Greenspan poised to appear on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, here are some things we DON'T think the president will do to try to fix what is seen in some quarters as a jobless, profitless mini-recovery:
1) He won't fire any of his economic team or Harvey Pitt (not his style at all).
2) He won't recalibrate his Wall Street rhetoric (although don't think this former CEO likes high-flying Wall Street chieftains — he mostly disdains them as much as if they were Yale English department faculty members).
3) He won't propose any legislative fixes that out-flank Congress on the regulation side.
The Senate is expected to pass the Sarbanes bill today. "The … bill is expected to draw overwhelming bipartisan support, answering a crisis of public confidence in corporate America and sweeping aside competing proposals that the auditing industry and the Bush administration favor to toughen financial accountability," the Washington Post says in a look at how the "invisible Senator" has emerged in the spotlight on this legislation and how he has handled himself to the satisfaction of both sides. "White House aides credited Sarbanes for resisting opportunities to grandstand in public and hearing them out in private … Bush aides said they could see working with Sarbanes again."
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Before the bill gets approved, however, there's likely to be a floor debate on Senator Carl Levin's amendment to create an accepted accounting principle for stock options.
"In the stock-options debate," the Wall Street Journal reports, "Silicon Valley is the biggest source of heat. High-tech business leaders are warning Democrats that with their cash flows tight, they need stock options more than ever. 'They're giving even more options in the tech community, to attract top talent,' said Ralph Hellmann, lobbyist for the Information Technology Industry Council, which represents companies such as Dell Computer, Intel. Corp. and Apple Computer."
Alright, we've waited long enough for our "to-be-sure" paragraph. As much as the Democrats are onto something potentially helpful here, to be sure, they still could overplay their hands; they still do things like take corporate jets to tony Nantucket, arguably undermining their holier-than-thou rhetoric; and they still use parliamentary stratagems to kill measures that many of them think are good policy (such as requiring the expensing of options) after consultation with key donors, as Daschle did for the high-tech industry last week (if a GOP leader did that, he would be crucified).
On the Nantucket trip, the Boston Herald reported yesterday, albeit somewhat breathlessly, "Senate Democrats, after railing last week against the rising tide of corporate abuses, Friday hopped aboard a fleet of company jets for a secret Nantucket weekend retreat with top party donors."
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"Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a leading Senate health-care reformer who this week will launch a major fight on prescription drug coverage, flew aboard health insurance giant AFLAC's company jet, an aide confirmed." Senator John Kerry was there, as well, though the paper notes that he flew commercial.
"The timing of this year's Nantucket event could pose a public relations disaster for Democrats, who have sharply criticized the GOP's cozy ties to business as the wave of corporate scandals intensified recently."
"Some of America's largest corporations — Federal Express, Bell South Corp., Eli Lily and AFLAC — provided jets for the Nantucket getaway at a cost of nearly $50,000. Corporate executives and lobbyists were aboard."
But even so, Democratic problems are not the main issue right now.
Time Magazine, if they are right, confirms the suspicions that some of us had, with an item as interesting for where it might have come from source-wise as for the gist of it: "Bush had joked his way through a 30-minute prep session prior to last week's speech, as if to assure his aides, not to worry; he had this stuff under control. But he did not … "
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,320734,00.html
And the governors are fidgeting. State budgets are always the first to feel the pinch and the last to recover from it. This weekend saw a spate of stories from the National Governors Association meeting in Boise, Idaho. Though perennials like Medicaid and hot topics like telecom policy and homeland security are on the agenda, if you could map the mind of a governor, most of it would be devoted to a Don Evans-style analogy: the "in sack" has less money than the "out sack."
"Officials with the National Governors Association said that by their count 45 states reported revenue shortfalls over the last year, totaling $50 billion, caused by a drop in sales, capital gains and corporate and personal income taxes," the New York Times ' Nagourney writes.
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Dan Balz noted on Saturday how the fiscal crises are changing the political landscape, picking up the wisdom that, for example, Iowa's Tom Vilsack (D) isn't as safe as he once was.
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And today Balz writes from Boise, "The governors see the corporate governance issue as one that is more likely to affect House and Senate elections in November than the gubernatorial contests in the states, although there are signs the issue could affect some state races in which candidates come from the business community."
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"Oklahoma Gov. Frank A. Keating (R) said all incumbents could suffer because of the uncertainties the country faces economically and from threats of terrorism … Keating said the country is looking for leadership on the economy. 'The president has to focus on the issues,' he said. 'I think he is doing so. . . . But I hope he does a lot more. He needs to get far more aggressive in restoring confidence.'"
"[Keating] said what is needed is 'more visibility, more of the president speaking out on the issues, more of his team' speaking out. But Keating said the administration's economic team does not have the standing with people that Bush's national security team enjoys. 'I don't think too many people could answer who's responsible for the economy,' Keating said."
"Keating called Bush and Vice President Cheney men 'of full integrity' and expressed confidence that questions about the president's sale of Harken Energy Corp. stock more than a decade ago and the inquiry into Halliburton's accounting practices when Cheney was the chief executive will not turn up any wrongdoing. But he said the administration should be as open as possible in answering questions. 'The best policy is full disclosure and full transparency,' Keating said."
Other legislative business is humming along this week, however. After they get the corporate accountability bill off their plate, Senate Democrats intend to focus on prescription drugs. Today, as a group of Senators prepare to roll out their "tripartisan" bill (with Jim Jeffords taking a lead role), Senator Kennedy and other co-sponsors of his proposal will open a war room — called "the Medicine Cabinet" — in the Capitol to coordinate on message and rapid response for their bill.
On Tuesday, Kennedy et al will release a report with Public Citizen on the amount of money drug companies have funneled through PhRMA, their trade association, to the United Seniors Association for its ad campaign opposing Senate Democrats' bill. Wednesday, working with their own arguably like-minded interest group, they will release a Families USA report comparing the amount drug companies spend on marketing, advertising, and administration versus research and develop.m.ent, which will contradict the White House/GOP/drug companies' position that high drug prices and deregulation are needed to support R&D. And on Thursday, Kennedy et al will release a state-by-state report detailing the alleged impact on seniors of the various plans.
President Bush has no public events scheduled for Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Bush and the First Lady will welcome the president and First Lady of Poland, followed by a meeting and photo op for Bush and the Polish President, and a state dinner that evening.
On Thursday, Bush will make remarks to the Michigan Polish American Community in Rochester, MI, then attend a luncheon with Michigan Polish-American leaders in Troy, MI.
And on Friday, Bush will travel to Fort Drum, NY to make remarks to troops and their families.
From the ABCNEWS London Bureau: A special anti-terrorism court in Pakistan has sentenced British-born militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh to death for abducting and murdering American journalist Daniel Pearl. His three co-accused, Fahad Naseem, Salman Saqib and Sheikh Adil, were also found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment, which usually means 25 years in jail in Pakistan. Execution in Pakistan is usually by hanging, but Omar Sheikh's defense team says it will appeal against the ruling to the Sindh High Court and to Pakistan's Supreme Court if necessary before the sentence is carried out.
The French daily Liberation reports that a man who tried to kill French President Jacques Chirac at the annual Bastille Day parade stood as a local election candidate for a far-right party. According to the report, the man ran in last year's municipal elections as a candidate for the far-right National Republican Movement (MNR), an offshoot of Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front. Maxime Brunerie, 25, is now being held in a police psychiatric unit. He was said to be incoherent and suicidal at the time of his arrest on Sunday. Doctors are expected to rule whether he is fit to appear before a magistrate.
The consensus among accountants we've talked with and the common theme in news accounts about the Halliburton investigation seems to be that Vice President Cheney wasn't all that hands-on an executive, which, though it may help him avoid the taint of whatever — if anything — the SEC finds, might damage his political reputation as a sharp manager.
"But the more damning criticism of Cheney is that he was a lousy CEO," writes Time Magazine's Saporito. "He spent $7.7 billion to merge with rival Dresser in 1998, knowing that one of its former subsidiaries, Harbison-Walker, was the target of manifold legal claims from employees who worked making refractory bricks. Halliburton officials believed that Dresser was indemnified. But when Harbison filed for Chapter 11, tort lawyers came after Halliburton."
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Newsweek's must-read, which includes an interview with Halliburton CEO David Lesar, dredges up some Cheney campaign quotes: "At a campaign news conference in Oregon, Cheney said: 'By any measure you want to use, Halliburton has been a great success story.'"
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Now, of course, Cheney and his advisers are keeping mum, which annoys the heck out of Halliburton's press people. "Cheney's office has been referring questions to Halliburton, which doesn't appreciate the attention. 'At some point, [Cheney] is going to have to address these [accounting] questions,' says Wendy Hall, a Halliburton spokeswoman."
To all this we can add a little: Cheney's private lawyer is a man named Terry O'Donnell. He's served the Vice President for years. On Friday, Cheney was at the CIA all day, getting briefed on a whole number of things. And one of us saw his motorcade in Washington this weekend.
So where IS Karen, anyway?
You have to hand it to Elisabeth Bumiller of the Times for showing restraint. She did enough reporting to write with gusto that the president clearly misses Hughes' influence and presence, noting that he called her not 12 hours after she left, and spoke to her twice has she ambled back to Texas in her Mazda.
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"But it may have been a sign of things to come that it was [Communications Director Dan] Bartlett who took a call early last Monday from Mr. Bush, who was at that point undecided about whether to have a news conference later that day to face reporters clamoring for answers about his stock dealings."
"'What's the thinking down there?' Mr. Bartlett said Mr. Bush asked from his parents' summer home in Kennebunkport, Me., where the president had just come in from a dawn golf game with his father.'"
"'I think we ought to go ahead with it,' Mr. Bartlett had replied."
"By Monday, even though they knew that the press would focus on Harken, they decided that it was better for Mr. Bush to absorb one day of heat rather than a week of news reports about his refusal to answer questions."
"'It gave us an opportunity for the press to take its best whack at it,' Mr. Bartlett said. Although Mr. Bush's performance — including his statement that accounting is not 'black and white' — may have ignited more questions than it extinguished, Mr. Bartlett asserted that he was pleased, as was the president."
"'That was actually fun,' Mr. Bartlett quoted the president as saying after the news conference. Mr. Bartlett asked Mr. Bush if he was being sarcastic, but Mr. Bush insisted not."
Whomever gave the newsweeklies their background briefing appeared to disagree.
"Bush's top political and communications aides prepped him for the press conference. Only a handful of their questions covered his dealings at Harken Energy Corporation. And Bush, as is his wont, didn't take the exercise too seriously. When Communications Director Dan Bartlett or Press Secretary Ari Fleischer would try to pin him down on a tough question, Bush would shoot them a glance and deliver a playful response — his way of telling his advisers that he was prepared." LINK
"But he wasn't."
"Nearly half of the questions asked by reporters concerned Harken, and when the press conference was over, Bush's answers — that accounting rules weren't always 'black and white', that he still didn't know what happened to that second filing with the SEC, and that, on a separate matter, his record on civil rights should be judged by the fact that two African-Americans served as top foreign policy advisers — left his aides grimacing. In the Oval Office post-mortem, Bush asked Bartlett and Fleischer what they thought the 'headline' would be. 'Black and white,' they said, gently suggesting that it wasn't the ideal response. Bush understood. That's why he 'double-backed' at the end of the press conference, he told them, referring to his explanation that Harken represented a 'difference of opinion' on accounting rules, whereas Enron and Worldcom involved deliberate fraud."
The Wall Street Journal 's David Rogers slyly twists the White House line that what's past is past, and what's been vetted by the SEC is, well, irrelevant. What of the president's current stewardship of the budget?
"Two forces are converging. One is the deteriorating budget picture, seen again in new White House projections of a $165 billion deficit for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30. The second is a determined campaign by the administration to weaken the appropriations panels and expand its own power to shift money among agency budget accounts and to curtail congressional audits."
"The State Department was surprised to find that $400 million of its budget had been put on the block, including $80 million for embassy security. But the most controversial provision was a $1.1 billion paper savings — promoted by the White House — that would come from rescinding federal loan guarantees for airlines, which can't be used in any case since the application period expired last month."
"The administration insists it only is going along with the ploy to help lawmakers afford more spending."
The Los Angeles Times ' Brownstein beats the increasingly loud Social Security drum: "betting on Wall Street to fund Social Security may appear less attractive now that stock prices are sinking and the markets are looking like a casino rigged for the house."
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Senator John McCain told Tim Russert "NO," he would not run for president as a Democrat. And, after a tiny hedge, "NO," he would not run as an independent, either.
And Lieberman told George Stephanopoulos, who asked whether Al Gore had promised him the vice-presidential nod again, "That's an easy one: No."
Today marks the deadline for the wannabes to file their second-quarter fundraising reports with the FEC — both for their leadership PACS, which are not transferable to presidential campaign accounts, and for Senate and House campaign committees, which are. Meaning: don't lose sight of those campaign accounts, and don't automatically and fully take hefty leadership PAC showings as a sign of what these guys could raise on the '04 trail. Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's and the Rev. Al Sharpton' presidential fundraising committees must also file with the FEC today.
The Boston Globe 's Glen Johnson has the Kerry numbers: "$2.6 million in the first half of the year, including $1.4 million in the past three months, according to figures obtained by the Globe. After expenses, he has $3.4 million. Any money he does not spend on his reelection campaign can be rolled over into a presidential contest." LINK
Lieberman's leadership PAC had about $800,000 on hand as of June 30. For the year, it's taken in just over $1 million. Key donations: $10,000 to Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack's re-election campaign and $5,000 each to the New Hampshire House Democratic Caucus and the Iowa Democratic Party. In May, the PAC gave $5000 to the New Hampshire Senate Democratic Caucus. It also gave $2,500 to the group that is pushing a politically controversial class size reduction initiative in Florida — a very important issue to Florida Democrats.
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The Des Moines Register previews the wannabes' fundraising totals, which will be released in trickles throughout the day:
"U.S. Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, whose political action committee in the first quarter of 2002 raised the most of any Democrat with an eye on the nomination — $650,000, is expected to be near the top today when second-quarter figures are released."
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Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle is expected to report a $1.5 million second quarter, most of which the South Dakota senator raised during a Washington, D.C., event he hosted in May."
"Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts managed to raise $250,000 for his political action committee while running for re-election to the Senate this year and pulling in $1.4 million for that effort."
The Boston Herald Sunday story on the DSCC weekend retreat includes a mention that Senator John "Kerry hosted a Friday night dinner with his wife, Teresa Heinz, at their Brant Point mansion."
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From Dan Balz's Washington Post story on the governors confab: "Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (D), who is running for president in 2004 instead of seeking reelection this November, said he has no doubt that Democrats benefit politically from corporate misdeeds."
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"'Just as the Democrats are associated with things like health care and education, Republicans are associated with business,' he said. 'When business goes bad, you've got a big problem if you're a Republican. There's not one person in America who believes that the business community and the president aren't joined at the hip.'"
"Dean dismissed questions about whether Democrats might be as vulnerable as Republicans because they, too, have received political contributions from corporations in the past decade. 'Most of these corporations will give $1,000 to the Democrats and $50,000 to the Republicans, so there's not much comparison,' Dean said."
The Washington Post 's VandeHei reports, "Democrats who are concerned that Gephardt is crusading against corporations to raise his profile for the 2004 Democratic primary may have reason to worry."
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"Several of Gephardt's backers have been quick to note that Gephardt, unlike some other presidential contenders for 2004, has supported virtually every effort in recent years to crack down on corporations and voted against the securities litigation reforms of 1995. Among those who voted with Republicans in 1995 to make it harder for shareholders to file suits against chief executives were presidential hopefuls Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) and John F. Kerry (D-Mass.)."
"Gephardt backers believe a populist campaign against corporate scandals will play well in the Democratic primary for 2004. Even if Democrats win back the House this fall, Gephardt is a virtual lock to run for president, his advisers say."
"In the meantime, several Democrats are worried that Gephardt's strategy could hurt moderate Democrats."
The New York Times ' Rosenbaum wrote yesterday, "More than most other Democrats in Congress — and far more than the others with presidential ambitions — Senator Joseph I. Lieberman has been a champion of business interests in general and generous stock options in particular. Now those positions may come back to haunt him.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/14/politics/14TALK.html
"[W]ith corporate scandals at the top of the news and Democrats hoping enough of the tarnish rubs off on Republicans to help Democrats in this fall's Congressional elections, Mr. Lieberman, who is seriously considering running for president in 2004, finds himself in an awkward and somewhat defensive position, and he is rethinking some long-held views."
Still, Lieberman "went to great lengths to dispel any notion that he was an apologist for corporate misconduct. He expressed outrage at 'greedy individuals' who 'did things that were illegal and unethical.' He emphasized his advocacy of legislation moving through the Senate that would impose stiffer criminal penalties for corporate wrongdoing."
"He also promised that in the fall, the Governmental Affairs Committee, of which he is chairman, would investigate the Enron collapse, an inquiry that has been sidetracked because the committee is dealing with President Bush's proposal for a Department of Homeland Security."
Mr. Balz also looks at the potential problems for the wannabes in stepping up their critiques of the president for his handling of the war. He gets Al Gore foreign policy/national security adviser Leon Fuerth on the record.
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Here's a straight-from-the-ossifying-CW item from the New Hampshire Business Review: "HE CAN DREAM CAN'T HE?: Considering the fight Al Gore had in New Hampshire in 2000 against one candidate — and with a well-oiled political machine with just about every member if the Granite State Democratic establishment behind him — where does he get the idea that he'll be able to win in '04 against at least two (John Edwards and John Kerry) formidable candidates who have already glommed on to a number of those very same Dems?"
Dean's charmed presidential campaign continues. The combination of the Broder profile of last week (which drove heavy buzz at the NGA meeting) and the Q&A in the New York Times Magazine gives Dean some good fundraising clips, without any Edwardsian danger of peaking too early.
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Dean has a series of events in Omaha and Sioux City, IA today; followed by more events in Sioux City and in Council Bluffs, IA tomorrow.
We're not sure what to make of this one. Knight Ridder reports, "Two lawyers with ties to Attorney General John Ashcroft and House minority leader Richard Gephardt are recruiting victims of the Oklahoma City bombing who want money from a Sept. 11 compensation fund."
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"Critics say that the two lawyers recruited the Oklahoma City victims by touting their friendships with Ashcroft and Gephardt. Republican Senator Don Nickles of Oklahoma and others said no one should need a lawyer to get a share of a fund set up with tax dollars."
David Lightman has a colorful look at Senator Lieberman on the bayou.
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One minor convention note. Last Friday, DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe and Senator Ted Kennedy met to discuss Boston's convention bid; no news out of the meeting, as best we can tell, aside from Kennedy's "reaffirming his commitment to guaranteeing a very successful convention should the Democrats come to Boston," per one source.
As the Vice President heads her way today to help her raise even more money, Roll Call reports that GOP Rep. Nancy Johnson of Connecticut outraised her November opponent, Rep. Jim Maloney (D), by 2 to 1 in the second quarter.
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Despite the widely expected outcome of the House Ethics Committee hearing (read: expulsion), Roll Call 's Chappie still finds some suspense in Traficant's hearing today. "Traficant remains certified on the ballot for the November elections as an independent, despite his sentence hearing scheduled for July 30 that is expected to mete out prison time. And the question of whether Traficant can remain on the ballot would rest not in the hands of the judge, but rather, as Traficant might say, 'the out-of-control bureaucrats' at the Justice Department's Bureau of Prisons."
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"If Traficant is sent to a prison outside of Ohio, he would be constitutionally barred from election. But if he remains within the state borders, he can run."
Knight-Ridder's Steve Thomma writes that GOP control of governorships might slip below half for the first time since 1994. LINK
Those of you who cover the Democratic National Committee as minutely as we try to will want to take note of a key personnel change, with chief operating officer Minyon Moore departing for the Dewey Square Group (where else?), and DNC chief of staff Josh Wachs taking over Moore's post. Wachs, a New York native and protégé of Messrs Ickes and Whouley, started working at the DNC five years ago as the Northeast political director. He boasts strong ties to the Democratic state chairs and state parties, who are expected to play a greater role in the party's organizational and fundraising efforts with the advent of McCain-Feingold, as well as good — and neutral — relations with all the camps of the potential 2004 candidates.
Ms. Julie Eddy will take over Wachs' responsibilities for running Chairman McAuliffe's office.
Meanwhile, the Washington Times profiles former federal prosecutor turned Republican National Committee research director and communications deputy Tim Griffin. "Outlining his new RNC role, Mr. Griffin said he will: Tell his staff of more than 20 researchers — he won't say precisely how many — what kind of information to pursue about Democratic candidates. Consider that information worthwhile only if it dovetails with the political campaign message coordinated in advance by the White House, the RNC and the party's House and Senate campaign committees … Pass the information directly to reporters, on a background basis, instead of having the research department, housed on the first floor of the RNC, give it to the communications office, on the third floor, where RNC press aides then would be expected to get the word out to the press."
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Everything about Jeff Zeleny, we like. Not the least of which is that he learned some journalism at the knee of Iowa's greatest political writer, and brings that perspective to everything he writes. But for all his ego-enlarging traits, he's unassuming and sober in his role as the roving political reporter for the Chicago Tribune. This week, ABCNEWS' Mark Halperin asks Zeleny about domestic politics, the Midwest, etc.
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Retiring Rep. JC Watts, the only black Republican in the House, "is imploring the GOP not to revert to the conservative rhetoric it used to win control of the House in the 1994 elections and urged Republicans to elevate women and minorities to positions of power," the Washington Post 's VandeHei reports. "If nothing else, Watts said the GOP should showcase minorities and women at events to show that the party includes more than middle-aged, white males. Watts said he often goes to news conferences because Republicans simply want an African American in the shot, which he, too, believes is important."
Larry Klayman may be switching gears with his Judicial Watch lawsuit, but the publicity he's gaining doesn't appear to be matched by respect, the Washington Post notes.
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Palm Beach County election officials tested new touch-screen voting machines on Saturday and pronounced them successful.
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Meanwhile, Democratic Reps. Hoyer and Conyers bemoan the stalled election reform legislation, lingering on the vine away in conference committee, in a Washington Post op-ed. "Fortunately, there is ample justification for believing that conferees will find common ground on this important issue and that we will send legislation to President Bush before the end of the month."
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The growing political influence Latinos voters seem to be wielding still isn't being reflected in their congressional representation, post 2000 redistricting, for which Democrats blame Republicans, and vice versa.
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The Independence Party endorsed former Rep. Tim Penny for its gubernatorial nomination this past weekend. You will hear Penny's name again and again, and he will have a significant impact on this race.
LINK
The San Francisco Chronicle's Wildermuth doesn't think it's a good idea for gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon (R) to say "trust me" when it comes to questions about his personal finances.
LINK
Joel Siegel breaks the curve with a piece about Gov. George Pataki (R) is not only getting union endorsements, he's also getting interest group money that traditionally went to Democrats.
LINK
The Los Angeles Times consoles itself that there are other secessionist movements out there — like Staten Island's.
LINK
Peter Wallsten updates Janet Reno's "different campaign" — the difference being that most campaigns require lots of money to run, and she can't seem to raise it. Perhaps the free media generated by her dance party in South Beach will gin things up. LINK
Senator Tom Harkin has raised nearly $7 million to date and has a healthy chunk of money in the bank. GOP Rep. Greg Ganske has taken in $3.3 million, most of it from out of state donors, according to an analysis of FEC records. Ganske has only $630,000 cash on hand.
LINK
It's just amazing how anti-Bob Smith the Manchester Union Leader is. We'd provide "the" link, but there are too many to include here, even within the limitless World Wide Web.
Meanwhile, the Jeanne Shaheen for Senate campaign reports $1.02 million raised this quarter, $1.49 million on hand, and $2.85 million raised, total.
Slowly but inexorably, two of the Democratic candidates for governor are pulling away from the pack — or rather, the rest of the pack is falling behind — at least as far as match-ups against GOP contender Mitt Romney are concerned, the latest Boston Herald poll shows.
LINK
Who gets the credit for the Louis and Clark water pipeline? Both Rep. John Thune (R) and Senator Tim Johnson (D) want it. "Sorting out who gets credit for delivering much-needed water to voter-rich southeast South Dakota is complicated by the vagaries of the congressional process," the Sioux Falls Argus Leader's Kranz writes.
LINK
For those who love the Big Casino game of Trifecta, in which President Bush claims that during the campaign he carved out deficit exceptions for war, national emergency, or recession, the Chicago Tribune's Jeff Zeleny (the aforementioned "Here's the Point" guest) looks at it from the local angle and breaks new ground on two fronts. LINK
First, Zeleny gets White House spokesperson Scott McLellan to claim that he was there at the creation, that he remembers Bush saying this in Chicago, although he can offer no evidence.
"'Those of use who traveled with the president on the campaign trail recall the president saying it,'" said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. He did not elaborate."
And, Zeleny gets an anonymous Bush aide to make this startling admission: "So in recent days, some senior advisers have asked Bush to eliminate the Chicago line from the stump speech. They hope the move will quash the talk among Washington critics that Bush may be telling tall tales. One White House adviser said privately that the administration wants the label of exaggerated storyteller to remain precisely where it was in the last campaign — with Gore."
Knight Ridder looks at some of the plum Administration posts landed by key players in the Florida recount. "Just how many Bush appointees actually served the Bush-Cheney campaign in Florida is unclear. The White House declined to provide a list of administration officials who worked for the Florida campaign … To identify the appointees, the Miami Herald conducted dozens of interviews and studied White House nominations and government staff directories — then matched names to news accounts, photo captions, and several books about the episode. In addition, some appointees included their recount roles in news releases, or accounts in university and law journals."
LINK
Defense Secretary Rumsfeld wants a lot less congressional oversight of defense.
LINK
The interest groups will have a field day with this one: the administration will reject the advice of its State Department and some other advisers and deny the United Nations population fund millions of dollars. LINK
The Bush Administration still lacks an FDA Administrator.
LINK
— 9:00 am, Attorney General Ashcroft keynotes Justice Department homeland security conference, JW Marriott, DC
— 9:30 am, Senate Minority Leader Lott briefs
— 10:00 am, House ethics committee begins hearings on Rep. Jim Traficant
— 10:00 am, John Walker Lindh case hearing on defendant's motions to suppress, US District Court, Alexandria, VA
— 10:25 am, President Bush takes part in roundtable discussion on the economy, followed by remarks, Alys Stephens Center, Birmingham, AL
—12 noon, Senate meets for morning business, followed by work on corporate responsibility
— 12:30 pm, House meets for morning business, followed by work on appropriations bills
—12:35 pm, Vice President Cheney makes remarks at a luncheon for Rep. Nancy Johnson, Goodwin Hotel, Hartford, CT
— 1:00 pm, President Bush headlines a fundraiser for GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob Riley, Birmingham, AL
— 1:00 pm, special homeland security committee hearing with Tom Ridge
— 3:30 pm, Senators Jeffords, Grassley, Snowe, Hatch and Breaux introduce "tripartisan" prescription drug bill
—3:55 pm, President Bush arrives back at the White House
Newly listed events are italicized.
— July 15: Sen. Joe Lieberman visits Ft. Jackson with Rep. John Spratt, SC
— July 15: Vermont Governor Howard Dean visits Iowa.
— July 15: New York periodic disclosure forms due
— July 15: second-quarter FEC reports due
— July 15: New York campaign finance reports due
— July 15: Vice President Cheney fundraises for Rep. Nancy Johnson, CT
— July 15: Memorial service for Lew Wasserman, with Gore, Clinton and others in attendence
— July 16: GOPAC announces Latino political initiative, DC
— July 16-18: DNC 2004 convention site selection committee visits Miami
— July 17-20; Republican National Committee summer meeting, San Francisco
— July 18-21: Green Party annual convention, Philadelphia
— July 18: Karenna Gore Schiff fundraises for Colorado Senate candidate Tom Strickland, Denver
— July 18: Vice President Cheney fundraises for Rep. Jim Leach, IA
— July 19: Janet Reno's Dance Party, South Beach, Florida
— July 19: Former President Clinton campaigns for Oregon Senate candidate Bill Bradbury, Portland
— July 20: House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt keynotes Florida Democrats Jefferson-Jackson dinner
— July 20: Oregon campaign finance reports due
— July 20: Nebraska Republican convention
— July 20: Al Gore campaigns for House candidate Lincoln Davis, Nashville
— July 20-24: National Council of La Raza annual convention, Miami; House Minority Leader Gephardt speaks on July 22
— July 20-24: Rainbow/PUSH coalition annual conference, with Bill Clinton keynote address, Chicago
— July 21: Former attorney general and Fla. gubernatorial candidate Janet Reno's birthday
— July 22: Wisconsin campaign finance reports due
— July 23: Al Gore holds annual campaign training school, Nashville
— July 22-24: DNC 2004 convention site selection committee visits Detroit
— July 20-24: American Trial Lawyers Association annual meeting, Atlanta
— July 23-27: National Conference of State Legislatures annual meeting, Denver
— July 26-30: National Association of Secretaries of State annual meeting, Providence, RI
— July 28: Bill Bradley's birthday
— July 28-30: Democratic Leadership Council "National Conversation," NYC
— July 29-31: DNC 2004 convention site selection committee visits New York
— July 31: California campaign finance reports due
— Aug. 1: Tennessee primary
— Aug. 1: New York Stock Exchange vote on new corporate governance rules
— Aug. 3: 5th Annual Iowa antique tractor hunt, Pomeroy, Iowa
— Aug. 3: 13th Chowderfest, Waterville Valley, New Hampshire
— Aug. 6: Michigan primary; Kansas primary; Missouri primary
— Aug. 7: last day for Ohio ballot measures to be presented
— Aug. 8-11: Democratic National Committee meets, Las Vegas
— Aug. 8-18: Iowa State Fair, Des Moines, Iowa
— Aug. 10: Sen. John Edwards keynotes Magnuson Dinner, Washington state
— Aug 13: Colorado primary
— Aug. 14: Lynne Cheney's birthday.
— Aug. 14: SEC deadline for company heads to certify financial statements for 2002
— Aug. 19: Bill Clinton's birthday
— Aug 19: Tipper Gore's birthday
— Aug. 20: Georgia primary
— Aug. 21: New Hampshire campaign finance reports due — Aug. 25-27: Southern Governors Association's 68th Annual Meeting, New Orleans
— Aug 26: Jury selection begins in John Walker Lindh trial
— Aug 27: Alaska primary; Oklahoma primary
— Aug 28. Saint Anselm college hosts American Political Science Association short course on the 2004 New Hampshire primary and The Invisible Primary
— Aug. 29-Sept. 1: American Political Science Association annual conference, Boston
— Aug. 29-Sept. 2: 13th Annual Midwest Polka Fest, Humboldt, Iowa
— Sept. 2: 6th Annual Rubber Ducky Regatta, North Woodstock, New Hampshire
— Sept. 3: Nevada primary
— Sept. 6: Congress meets for special session in New York City
— Sept. 7: Delaware primary
— Sept. 10: Florida, New Hampshire, and New York primaries (Florida: Democratic primary for governor; New Hampshire: Republican primary for Senate and primaries on both sides for governor; New York: Democratic primary for governor);Arizona primary; Connecticut primary; District of Columbia primary; Maryland primary; Minnesota primary; Rhode Island primary;
Vermont primary; Wisconsin primary
— Sept. 11-14: Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's 32nd Annual Legislative Conference, DC
— Sept. 22: 4th Annual Great North Woods Lumberjack Championships, Berlin, New Hampshire
— Sept. 17: Massachusetts primary (Democratic primary for governor)
— Sept. 27-29: California Republican Party convention
— Sept. 30: Jury selection begins for trial of Zacarias Moussaoui
— Sept. 30: Discovery ends in McCain-Feingold lawsuit (tentative).
— Oct. 4: Al Sharpton's birthday
— Oct. 5: Tri-state's Largest Chili Cook-Off, Dubuque, Iowa
— Oct. 13: Iowa State Hand-Cornhusking contest, Kimballton, Iowa
— Oct. 15 (tentative): Zacarias Moussaoui trial begins
— October 26: New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's birthday
— Nov. 4: Laura Bush's birthday
— Nov. 4: Deadline for opening briefs, McCain-Feingold lawsuit (tentative).
— Nov. 5: Election Day
— New SEC disclosure rules go into effect
— Nov. 17: Vermont Governor Howard Dean's birthday.
— Nov. 18: Deadline for opposition briefs, McCain-Feingold lawsuit (tentative).
— Nov. 20: Delaware Senator. Joseph Biden's birthday
— Dec. 4: Oral arguments begun in McCain-Feingold lawsuit. (tentative)
— Dec. 9: South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle's birthday
— Dec. 11: Massachusetts Senator John Kerry's birthday
— Dec. 13: Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack's birthday
— Dec. 26: California Governor. Gray Davis's birthday
— Jan. 30, 2003: Vice President Dick Cheney's birthday
— Jan. 31, 2003: Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt's birthday
— Feb. 24, 2003: Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman's birthday
— March 11, 2003: Georgia Governor Roy Barnes's birthday
— March 31, 2003: Al Gore's birthday
— June 15, 2003: Senate/House/key adviser personal financial disclosure forms due
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