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Just to compare him to 41, 42, and the man who almost was, or he himself likes to say, "used to be" 43:

As president, George H. W. Bush's idea of how to understand and master the press corps consisted basically of three steps: asking Marlin Fitzwater and Ron Kaufman what he should do; inviting Maureen Dowd into the Maine house for lunch; and giving an all-access pass to Jamie Gangel. (Come to think of it, that is STILL his idea of how to understand and master the press corps.)

Bill Clinton, as smart as he is, and as good as the press advice from Sidney Blumenthal and Strobe has been over the years, understands less about how the White House press corps operates than he understands about just about anything else.

And former journalist Al Gore — well, let's just say that his own media instincts rank somewhere between Jim Traficant's and Susan Thomases'.

So if you were to convene a roundtable discussion, moderated by the Note, of Bush I, Bush II, Clinton, and Gore, and asked each of them a series of questions about how the press corps works, what it takes to get the outcomes you want, and how to minimize the discomfort in your personal and professional lives that they can cause, we guarantee you that (assuming no one holds back) 43, by far, would be the most insightful and sage.

Which makes this current, extended run of bad media coverage sorta unusual, and even more Noteworthy. (A run which may get new life today from Army Secretary Thomas White's testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee, and from further murky corporate practice news out of AOL.)

If the Note had been on the Bush 2000 campaign plane, we would have been given some groovy nickname (Notolo? Noties?), but more than that, we would have seen up close how Bush evinces a total understanding of how the press works, and generally leverages off that to gain good coverage.

What are the factors then, we ask, that are combining to render all of Bush's skills vis-à-vis the press ineffective now?

Clearly, Harken and Halliburton.

Clearly, the media's pent-up frustration with the way the Bush media operation runs (as in, runs roughshod over them).

Clearly, the DC press corps' pro-scandal bias, which the Clintonistas argue convincingly runs stronger in the media than the pro-Democrat bias.

Clearly, some policy failures and apparently unprincipled and politically motivated flip-flops that have annoyed some constituencies and the GOP base (on the Middle East, steel, the farm law, etc.).

But there's more going on here. One big factor is that the White House doesn't seem to be doing anything to get the economy moving again, and Republicans are getting publicly jittery.

Your first stop on the Must-Read Express today should be 15th and L, NW, where the Washington Post brilliantly and coincidently echoes Monday's Note by pointing out the no-way-is-out box the administration is in over trying to come up with something new to get things moving again.

The Post 's Allen and Weisman lead, "The Bush administration is resisting pleas for further actions to give the economy and markets an immediate boost, arguing it has already offered sufficient remedies." LINK

"Republicans and conservative economists are urging President Bush to back new tax cuts, reshuffle his advisers or scale back tariffs. Democrats and liberal economists recommend stimulus spending or the endorsement of more far-reaching corporate governance reforms. Wall Street is calling for a variation of those proposals and serious efforts to restore spending discipline."

"But White House officials dismissed these plans as unnecessary or counterproductive."

"Within the White House, there is strong pressure to resist such proposals … Several Bush advisers fear the political damage that could result if further economic stimulus worsens the deficit."

"Another limitation on the White House is that taking actions it might favor could be seen as coddling corporations."

And the Washington press corps bounces and pounces relentlessly all over a White House that sees to be lying flat on its back while chaos swirls around it. When you match up the leaks that Cheney thinks all this corporate lawmaking in Congress is hooey with the presidential body language (even in Alabama, and especially on Wall Street) that suggests, "I'm doing this because I have to politically, but jimmy-crack-corn I don't care," the press corps is going to continue to wail away until it seems some heart-felt, clever, successful movement.

And as the Post story makes clear, that isn't even in the offing.

As Mr. Allen and Dave Bossie and Phil Schiliro will tell you, knowing the right questions to ask is key.

We don't know the answer to this, so we ask: why WON'T the president get the SEC to release those Harken documents? Privacy? Principle? Potential embarrassment? Can't he/won't he articulate a reason?

And why did he choose to break with apparent policy and defend Vice President Cheney on the Halliburton stuff, when POTUS pre-judging is bad form, indeed? Was that done with counsel and staff concurrence?

"President Bush predicted yesterday that the Securities and Exchange Commission will find that Vice President Cheney did nothing wrong when he was chairman of Halliburton Co.," Allen says. LINK

The Boston Globe 's Kornblut writes, "Democrats have sought to link questions about Cheney's role at Halliburton and Bush's role at Harken Energy Corp. with other recent corporate scandals nationwide and the shaky economy, a politically charged connection that, surprisingly, Bush himself drew yesterday." LINK

"Bush appeared peeved that, in the midst of a state visit by the Polish president, the first question he was asked concerned Harken," Kornblut adds. "Democrats immediately pounced on the remark, noting, in particular, that Cheney adviser Mary Matalin has declined to answer questions about the Halliburton case out of fear of influencing its outcome."

The president has a temper and it shows occasionally under such questioning, but even so, Bush knows he shouldn't get mad, knows what's happening here, and knows it's a mistake to get irritated because it emboldens the media. All of which is probably why he tried to make nicey-nice by the end of the press conference.

And the New York Daily News ' DeFrank burnishes his news-of-day piece with this:

"'Harken has thrown him off his game,'" a senior Bush adviser told the Daily News. "'It's made him more defensive. He's really annoyed the press is keeping this alive when there's nothing there.'" LINK

All of which leads, in an orderly X+Y= kind of way, to this Stuart Rothenberg point in Roll Call : "While polling has not yet recorded a dramatic turn in public opinion against President Bush or the GOP, events of the past few weeks have substantially increased the likelihood that the 2002 midterm elections will resemble other midterms, when the president's party is on the defensive and suffers losses." LINK

"Bush's overall strength in national polls has rested on public approval of his handling of international and security issues. His job approval numbers have generally tracked with public attitudes on his handling of the war on terrorism, not his handling of the economy."

"As attention draws inward, to domestic issues in general and the economy in particular, voters are likely to reassess their evaluation of Bush. Self-identified Democrats are likely to become more partisan and more critical of his performance."

"Still, the limited number of competitive House districts continues to cushion the GOP against major losses."

… but all of which probably doesn't lead, even in the most alternative of alternate universes, to this seeming "X+Y= the Note wins a Pulitzer" equation that Roll Call 's Wallison today attributes to the House Democratic Leader:

Dick Gephardt "has told senior Democrats that their party could pick up as many as 40 House seats if the continuing unfolding corporate scandals can be kept on the political radar screen till November, according to sources." LINK

"The figure far surpasses any that has been suggested previously — even privately — by Gephardt or any other top Democratic campaign officials, all of whom have consistently indicated the House will be won or lost by a slim margin."

A Gephardt spokesperson says Wallison's sources got it wrong — that Gephardt just said Democrats could win the House back, and that only about 40 districts are in play this year.

Even so, the story has flipped out a few party operatives who don't like to see numbers like that floated at all. One senior Democratic strategist tells the Note this morning: "irrational exuberance can be a problem in politics, too. There is NO chance that the Democrats will win 40 seats this November."

Democratic House campaign committee spokesperson Jenny Backus said, expressing skepticism that Gephardt would say such a thing, "We think things are going in our direction. Winning back the House will be tough, but definitely doable."

Still, it's clear that one of America's two leading political parties is currently on the offensive, and hint: it's the party of Gephardt and Daschle.

The Washington Post 's VandeHei follows up on yesterday's story about politically risky House GOP dissatisfaction with the corporate accountability bill with this: "Many Republicans, increasingly concerned that President Bush has been slow to address brewing controversies, are racing ahead of him on several fronts, most notably in efforts to rein in wayward corporations." LINK

"While still highly supportive of Bush in general, these Republicans believe he has failed to soothe public anxieties about the economy or to use the bully pulpit to protect their party from charges that it is soft on corporate wrongdoers who have contributed to the stock market's sharp fall. Several showed their anxiety this week by calling on Congress to embrace stiffer penalties for such executives than the president has proposed."

"They are also advocating more money for the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Treasury Department to police corporations. Elsewhere, many congress ional Republicans are pushing for more funding to combat AIDS, fight fires and fund other popular programs, which could complicate the president's campaign to hold down spending."

"Republicans stressed that their strategy is not a repudiation of Bush. Rather, they said, it's a realization of the dangerous political environment around them."

The New York Times poll on Bush and corporate accountability doesn't approach the threshold of new news, but it does have a Timesean spin. Bush, and Republicans, say Mr. Stevenson and Ms. Elder, face "considerable peril" because the public believes they care more about helping their friends than they do about fixing the problem. LINK

At the Republican National Committee summer meeting, the Times ' Nagourney surveys the frustration among Republican state party chairs.

"They suggested that President Bush had at first been slow to respond to it. Some Republicans, hinting at an aggressiveness in the campaign ahead, said the party should set the problems at the feet of Democrats." " LINK

"'Take a look at this realistically; when did this corporate abuse start?' said Ronald Eibensteiner, the Minnesota Republican chairman. 'It didn't start when George Bush became president. If there ever was a decade of greed, it was the 1990's when Bill Clinton was president. There was this whole culture of, if you can get by, that was O.K. And if you got caught, just stonewall. When the president of the United States, Bill Clinton, did that, other people began to think, "Hey, we can do that."'"

The Washington Post 's DeYoung lumps into the disgruntled-with-Bush mix today's expected vote in Senator Joe Biden's Foreign Relations Committee, in "an almost unheard-of challenge to presidential prerogative," recommending "ratification an international treaty the White House has indicated it may not want approved." LINK

The treaty: the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, "a 23-year-old United Nations document that was signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1980 and has languished ever since."

Secretary of State Powell suggested last week that the treaty be reviewed by the Justice Department before any action is taken (or not).

While all of this swirls in Washington, President Bush and his Polish counterpart jet off to a politically key state, Michigan, to visit with a politically key voting bloc. The AP's Sobieraj reports, "On the itinerary: speeches to a Polish-American audience at Oakland University, then a traditional lunch of pierogi (dumplings) and golabki (stuffed cabbage) with ethnic community leaders at Troy's Polish Cultural Center." LINK

"The morning-after field trip has become a signature feature of state visits in the Bush White House."

"The trips, which have the potential to dazzle local communities with the novelty of not one president but two, serve Bush's political interests more than his foreign-policy goals."

"Nationwide, there are 9 million Polish-Americans. They live in greatest numbers in the same Midwest states that are predictable battlegrounds in presidential elections. Bush lost Michigan to Al Gore in 2000, for example, and White House political advisers have labeled the state of 'special concern' in any 2004 re-election campaign."

Here's some of the sparse local coverage: LINK

From the ABCNEWS London Bureau: Israel will freeze plans to lift some restrictions on Palestinians following yesterday's double suicide bomb attack in Tel Aviv that killed three bystanders and injured about 40 others. The unspecified plans, authorized hours before the attacks, were meant to free up trade and industry within occupied towns of the West Bank. Israel blamed Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority for the explosion, but aides to Arafat denied this, saying such operations put their people's national interests at risk.

Harken/Halliburton

The Vice President swooped into Atlanta for a "morale-boosting" trip to the Centers for Disease Control yesterday. The Atlanta press corps only managed to get a picture of his motorcade. LINK

Cheney will return to Georgia Friday for a fundraiser to benefit Rep. Saxby Chambliss' Senate campaign.

The Boston Globe 's Kranish, who just recently suggested that the Harken/Halliburton brouhaha might revive the image of Bush as a businessman who got by based on family and connections, now reports on Harvard Management Co.'s timely $30 million investment in Harken, "keeping it afloat and helping sustain Bush's career." LINK

"The investment in Harken by Harvard Management, an independent fund that manages the university's endowment, has received far less notice than the controversy about whether Bush used inside knowledge in 1990 to sell stock in the firm at a profit. But the money from Harvard, beginning in 1986, was crucial, at one point giving the fund one-third control of Harken. That was such a large stake that a key member of Harvard Management's investment team acquired stock in the firm on his own and was invited to join Bush on Harken's board of directors."

"All these years later, the question remains: What did the investment arm of the nation's most prestigious university see in a troubled little oil company from Texas that justified such attention and a $30 million investment?"

"Harvard Management officials, citing confidentiality and the difficulty of retrieving old documents, refused to release records about the investment or discuss it in any detail."

The Politics of Corporate Responsibility

For the second day in a row, New York Daily News ace Tim Burger has a scoop: a source overheard ex-WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers complain about his predicament.

"Ebbers railed against the Federal Communications Commission, claiming it helped cause WorldCom's downfall by killing his attempt in 2000 to merge his company with Sprint, according to a source who overheard him at a Morton's steakhouse." LINK

The Wall Street Journal says black politicians wonder why the administration hasn't cracked down on so-called "predatory" loans that offer quick cash to struggling homeowners in exchange for exorbitant interest rates and high fees. Bush and his advisers believe that the key to African-American economic self-sufficiency is to increase home ownership, the benefits of which multiply through generations of families.

"But critics say the administration isn't making much effort to change the business practices of firms that issue mortgages to low-income borrowers. Predatory lending was a hot topic at last week's convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, where Mr. Bush faced harsh criticism on a range of domestic policies, as well as over his failure to travel to Houston to attend the gathering."

The Journal also has a nice, broad, Page One piece about the death of the do-or-die stock options culture of Silicon Valley.

Ralph Nader rages against the machine in a Washington Post op-ed. LINK

The Washington Times , which yesterday ran a story allegedly linking former Goldman Sachs CEO-turned-Senator Jon Corzine (D) to charges that the firm inflated stock prices in the 1990s, takes after Corzine in an editorial. LINK

Enron et.al. has arguably ensnared, in different ways, even the New York Times Co., the Washington Post , and other news organizations. LINK

Homeland Security

The Los Angeles Times ' Anderson writes, "President Bush's attempt to design a Department of Homeland Security unfettered by the usual constraints of Washington bureaucracy is drawing sharp criticism in Congress from lawmakers leery of an executive power grab." LINK

The Post 's Eilperin and Miller focus on the turf concerns of House Transportation Committee chairman Don Young.

"GOP leaders were working vigorously yesterday to peel off rank-and-file members who may be opposed to the president's plan. House Majority Leader Richard K. Armey (R-Tex.) will try to settle the matter tomorrow when he unveils his version of Bush's proposal before the select panel he chairs." LINK

Budget Politics

It may seem dull and procedural, but the deal conservative House Republicans struck yesterday with Speaker Hastert over the schedule by which some spending bills get considered is worth noting for anyone keeping an eye on Big Casino.

"Under the agreement … , members of the Republican Study Committee agreed not to pursue hundreds of amendments to the interior appropriations bill, which could have delayed House proceedings indefinitely. In return, Mr. Hastert agreed to finish the interior plan and take up two other spending bills this week, but postpone further action until after the August recess, when the chamber will consider the appropriations bill for labor, health and human services, and education. LINK

"The timing of future spending bills was critical to House conservatives. The original schedule had the energy and agriculture spending bills taken up before the labor and health and human services bill. But many conservatives said the labor and health and human services bill can become bloated with spending — especially if it is taken up at the end of the process when members are more likely to agree to higher spending in order to get home to their districts and campaign for November's elections."

Legislative Agenda

White House budget director Mitch Daniels is once again speaking his heart and mind, reaffirming to reporters yesterday that the president will veto loaded spending bills. LINK

The New York Post 's Orin says it's abortion politics and homestead exemption laws that are holding up bankruptcy reform. LINK

ABC 2004: The Invisible Primary

Now an ABCNEWS and Washington Post website near you: the first realistic Democratic horse-race numbers of the 2004 cycle — that is, trial heats that include Gore but not Lieberman, and Lieberman but not Gore (as well as one including both), and only those other Democrats actively considering a run for the presidency: Tom Daschle, Howard Dean, John Edwards, Dick Gephardt, and John Kerry. No Hillary Clinton, who has said she will not run for president (and we take her at her word), no Bill Bradley.
Click here for the poll

In short: Gore takes 50 percent, whereas the other possibles linger in single digits. Without Gore, the field is quite wide open with Lieberman getting 21 percent and second-placer Daschle 14, with Gephardt and Kerry close behind. Check out the cross-tabs to see who likes Gore and who doesn't.

"Underscoring the pitfalls of the huge fund-raising machine he is building for a possible presidential run, Senator John F. Kerry yesterday pledged to give up a $1,000 contribution from disgraced former WorldCom CEO Bernard J. Ebbers," the Boston Herald somewhat breathlessly reports. LINK

"Ebbers, embroiled in the nation's largest corporate accounting scandal, wrote the check to Kerry April 25, shortly after attending a D.C. fund-raiser for the junior senator, a Commerce Committee member."

"Responding to a Herald inquiry, Kerry said he will donate the $1,000 to displaced WorldCom workers."

"Kerry, who has raised $1.4 million during the past three months and has a $3.4 million campaign account balance, has courted some of America's highest-flying execs — particularly in New York, Florida and California's Silicon Valley."

"As the wave of corporate scandal intensifies and the roster of rogue CEOs seems to grow by the day, Kerry finds himself on the defensive, demanding reforms while scrambling to justify his money ties … "

Al Gore will help Democrats kick-off Colorado's primary campaign season in Denver on July 26. LINK

Karenna Gore-Schiff tags along with Democratic Senate candidate Tom Strickland in Denver tonight.

The Republican National Committee convention site selection committee has announced it will visit three potential host cities: New Orleans, New York, and Tampa/St. Petersburg. "The Committee will continue to review the bids from Boston and Miami before making further decisions about travel to additional cities," the release says.

"The other two cities up for consideration, Boston and Miami, need to provide further details about the logistics of their proposals for hosting the convention before the committee will visit their sites," the Boston Globe elaborates. LINK

We're hearing more buzz about the possibility of the Republican quadrennial political fest being in the Bayou than we have in the past. Which doesn't mean New Orleans is now the leading option, but it does seem very much in play.

Politics

Republicans in the House have agreed to increase the budgets of the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. LINK

The Wall Street Journal notices that politicians are increasingly using e-mail for fundraising, but doesn't really point out that most Internet based appeals aren't successful — yet.

California

As GOP gubernatorial nominee Bill Simon campaigned with Jack Kemp in Los Angeles yesterday, "Simon's message was interrupted by persistent questions about his finances, as protesters organized by the Democratic Party shadowed him throughout the afternoon, waving signs that said 'Tax Evader' and chanting 'What is Simon hiding?'" LINK

The Washington Times editorial page leads with this: "What can we say about Bill Simon, the Republican gubernatorial candidate in California? He makes every mistake, and then some. In November, we can write a postmortem on why Mr. Simon lost to Gov. Gray Davis. Or we can go public now, hoping someone will fix the mess." LINK

"The White House raised $5 million for Mr. Simon. Now, it promises another $15 million if Mr. Simon's campaign shapes up. What does that mean? That could be money down the drain unless Mr. Simon really cleans house. Who is in charge?"

The House of Representatives passed an amendment yesterday to prevent oil companies from drilling off the California coast. The one-year ban has Californians hoping that the White House will intervene to make it permanent, just like it did for Gov. Jeb Bush's Florida. LINK

A Field Poll on pending ballot initiatives finds that Californians are in the mood to spend more, even as their state government has much, much less. LINK

Florida

The New Republic's Ryan Lizza can't quite put his finger on whether the president's family and political ties to Florida are giving the state and its governor an unhealthily large slice of pie.

"The beauty of it for Jeb is that all Florida Democrats can do is grit their teeth and express grudging support for the money flowing into their state. After all, they want to protect their state's environment, secure education dollars, win homeland security funds, and help out its small businesses, too; they can hardly argue that federal dollars should go somewhere else. The real surprise is that thus far national Democrats and the media have given so little scrutiny to the president's efforts to aid his brother's campaign-the kind of scrutiny, for example, that accompanied Bill and Hillary in 2000. If that changes, who knows what intimate treasures they'll find."

The Orlando Sentinel's story on Noelle Bush has good detail. LINK

Hundreds of elderly men and women are being cut from Medicaid programs because the state legislature took away more than $63 million from its budget. LINK

Florida GOP chair Al Cardenas has indicated that the Republicans won't field anyone to take on state Senator Kendrick Meek as he tries to succeed his mother, Rep. Carrie Meek, in the House. LINK

New York

"A group of unemployed workers who distributed fliers critical of Gov. George E. Pataki were ejected from the Dominican Day Parade in the Bronx on Sunday, after the governor's re-election campaign questioned the workers' presence," the New York Times reports. LINK

In some of his strongest criticism to date, Comptroller Carl McCall (D) said the campaign of his Democratic rival, Andrew Cuomo, is in "decline." LINK

Washington, D.C.

DC Mayor Anthony Williams' petition problems are growing. "Campaign officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that only 3,300 of the 10,240 signatures they filed appear to be the names of legitimate registered Democrats in the city." But as the story notes, "legitimate signatures from registered city Democrats could be ruled invalid by elections officials if the signature of the person who oversaw the petition is tainted by forgery or some other irregularity. In such a case, entire petition sheets, containing as many as 20 signatures each, could be thrown out." LINK

"Williams made clear in a news conference at his campaign headquarters yesterday that he wants to run as a Democrat … He also left open the possibility of running as an independent or mounting a write-in campaign as a Democrat if he can't get on the primary ballot."

Texas

Texas Monthly's profile of Democratic Senate candidate Ron Kirk, self-dubbed "Mr. Happy Man," goes online Friday. The gist of the profile: the looming question of race — how Kirk talks about it, how the two parties talk about it — and what the author seems to believe, rightly or wrongly, that Kirk still has to address about it.

"To the media, he is the first African American to seek a major statewide office in Texas. To his own party, he is … part of a Dream Team that will energize the party's dormant core constituency of ethnic minorities. To Republicans, he is part of a cynical Democratic effort to assemble a ticket based on race instead of leadership and qualifications … "

Is it as much Democrats' fault as anyone else's that race is viewed as a/the dominant factor here? As long as they're using the phrase "Dream Team," it arguably is. But the story seems to set up Kirk as being uncomfortable with himself, and having met with him several times, well, we're not sure. He seemed pretty at ease to us.

"More than a quarter century after wrestling with his racial identity as a college student, Ron Kirk again finds himself struggling to explain who he is … [A]s for what he believes and how he would vote on the great issues of the day-including all the civil rights issues, from affirmative action and reparations to redlining-he has had little to say. Sometime in the next few weeks" — meaning before, we guess, the start of the fall campaign — "Ron Kirk is going to have to decide: Is his best chance to win the Senate race by running as a black politician or as a politician who, among other things, is black?"

The author also sets up money as a problem for Kirk. Even though Kirk just reported a strong second quarter, raising $100,000 more than GOP nominee John Cornyn, this is one of the few Senate races in the country in which the financial advantage enjoyed by the Republicans could well make a difference. The Bush fundraising machine surely will give Cornyn an edge in that department.

We'll provide the link here tomorrow.

Kirk gave reporters a story in New York City last night, explaining why former President Clinton was helping him raise money. LINK

Texas car dealers are showing more and more support for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tony Sanchez. They're angry over a "flurry" of auto-related vetoes by Gov. Rick Perry. LINK

New Hampshire

John DiStaso writes about how Bill Clinton's 1993 tax hike is becoming an issue in the gubernatorial race. Then-CEO Craig Benson appeared to tell a Wall Street Journal interviewer he supported it. And now, his opponents are using his comments as a wedge to suggest he wouldn't veto tax increases as governor. LINK

DiStaso is getting as skeptical of the notion the White House is sticking by its endorsement of Senator Bob Smith (R) as we are. "Secretary of Housing and Urban Develop.m.ent Mel Martinez will be in New Hampshire with Sununu on Monday to view federally funded housing sites, or proposed sites, in Portsmouth, Manchester and Nashua. It's billed as an official, non-campaign event."

We'll excerpt some of DiStaso's details about the Democratic Senate campaign committee's fundraising arrangements with Shaheen, if only because these money conduits are rarely remarked upon and often overlooked.

"According to Robert Gibbs, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in Washington, Shaheen is involved in three 'joint fundraising agreements': N.H. Senate 2002, administered by the DSCC, which transferred $150,000 to Shaheen in the quarter and $241,000 overall. — Carnahan Shaheen Landrieu 2002, set up for Shaheen and female Democratic candidates in Missouri and Louisiana, which transferred $12,649 for the quarter and $39,697 overall. — The Daschle Victory Fund, set up by Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle as a conduit for dollars to himself and for Shaheen and Senate candidates in Arkansas and Colorado, which has transferred $11,000."

"How do these agreements work? Gibbs said a donor can give N.H. Senate 2002 both hard and unlimited soft money. But federal election law allows only the hard money, $1,000 for the primary and $1,000 for the general election, to be transferred to Shaheen for Senate. The rest is sent to the big DSCC pot for use in elections across the nation. Gibbs said one use will be so-called 'issue advertising' and some of those ads may be bought and aired in New Hampshire, aiding Shaheen. But Gibbs said that no soft money sent to the DSCC can be earmarked for any particular candidate. 'Donors should not think that any money they contribute to N.H. Senate 2002 in excess of $1,000 per election will go to Jeanne Shaheen's campaign,' Gibbs clarified."

Iowa

David Yepsen complains that Iowans are too focused on what the state quarter (as in, the coin) will look like, rather than what the state's future will look like. LINK

Massachusetts

Nineteen journalists have contributed money to candidates for governor, 15 of them to Robert Reich (D). LINK

"Reich's donations from members of the media total just $2,530, a fraction of the $1 million he's collected so far. But the contributors include some influential media figures: a freelance health care columnist for the Globe; a profiler of gubernatorial candidates for the suburban Community Newspaper Co.; a writer for a Boston gay newspaper; and a columnist for The New Yorker."

A ban on gay marriage won't be on the November ballot, after state legislators refused to give it the go-ahead yesterday. LINK

Michigan

The three Democrats running for governor will debate this morning. LINK

Minnesota

"Even in this hard-hitting election year, Republicans say what Sam Garst did Tuesday simply is not cricket," the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports. "Garst, an avowed Democrat who supports Democratic 2nd Congressional District candidate Rep. Bill Luther, also filed as a candidate in that district. But that's not what bothers Republicans. What's got them crying foul is that Garst is running under the banner of the No New Taxes Party, and that he says he is doing it to take votes away from Republican candidate John Kline." LINK

South Carolina

A story about the state GOP's latest problems — missing "the deadline for filing its quarterly financial statement with the Federal Election Commission just five months after an FEC audit found problems in the party's bookkeeping" — notes this: "President Bush will speak at a fund-raiser for the party and gubernatorial nominee Mark Sanford in North Charleston on July 29. The event is expected to raise $1 million, more than enough to erase the party's debt." LINK

Bush Administration Strategy/Personality

New Postie Jonathan Weisman profiles Treasury Secretary O'Neill, leading with O'Neill's assertion that he "'never sold a single share'" of Alcoa stock while working at the company, when in fact he arguably did. The gist: in part, that "O'Neill's very public and disputable claim about the stock sale reinforces concerns about what critics say is the secretary's propensity to speak first and think about the consequences later;" and in part, that the White House lacks a figure who exudes economic leadership. LINK

A few news cycles later, Bob Novak nevertheless chimes in with a standard defense of Harvey Pitt. LINK

Pitt has stopped playing defense, telling the New York Times and other news outlets that he might stop recusing himself from cases involving former clients, insisting that his background as a top securities lawyer helpfully informs his views. LINK

Always a must-read after a White House state dinner: the Washington Post 's Style-section treatment. LINK