February 2007 - Posts
From Elizabeth Wilner, Mark Murray, Huma Zaidi, and Andrew Merten
Everyone from economists to your average investor keeps their eyes on the market after yesterday’s big stock plunge; Senate Democrats have postponed debate over repealing the 2002 war authorization; their colleagues in the House continue to discuss how to proceed with Bush’s war-spending request; and the longest presidential campaign in memory keeps trucking along.
With the campaigns already skirmishing in public, rallies attracting thousands of attendees, numerous high-profile fundraisers raking in millions, and even one prominent candidate (Romney) already airing TV ads, it’s worth repeating that the presidential election is still more than 600 days away. Just how early has it started? Consider that your First Read team, who seemed to cover every minute of the 2004 presidential campaign for NBC, hadn't even begun working for the network at this point in the ’04 cycle.
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NBC’s Ken Strickland reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has decided to postpone any Iraq debate for a couple of weeks. On the one hand, Reid suggested that had the debate started this week, Iraq resolutions would have been attached to a bill designed to implement most of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission -- and he didn't want to inject a fierce partisan battle into it. But on the other hand, Strickland says, it appears some moderate Democrats are unwilling to support the latest Democratic effort to repeal Congress' 2002 war authorization. That proposal was being considered for floor action this week as part of the 9/11 bill.
"I don't like it," said Kent Conrad (D) who voted against the original authorization. "It strikes me as attempting to rewrite history." Conrad said other moderate Democrats shared his view (as did some non-moderates). And with no Republicans publicly throwing their support behind it yet, Democrats appeared not only short the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster, but probably short of the 51 votes within their own caucus.
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The New York Times says stock markets “fell sharply across most of Asia again today and continued declining in Europe as investors worried about weakness in the American economy. But share prices rebounded in Shanghai and Shenzhen, the mainland Chinese stock markets that had been the first to tumble during Tuesday’s global sell-off.”
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A Washington Post survey finds "a noticeable shift in sentiment among African American voters" toward Sen. Barack Obama's candidacy. That shift has helped Obama slice Clinton's overall lead in half. And on the GOP side, a shift among white evangelical Protestants in favor of Rudy Giuliani is behind Giuliani's "2 to 1 advantage over McCain among Republicans... Giuliani is doing well among this group of Americans despite his support of abortion rights and gay rights... McCain opposes abortion rights... Early national polls are not always good predictors for presidential campaigns, but the Post-ABC poll offers clues to the competition ahead."
As many as 23 states could hold their presidential nominating contests on February 5, The Hill reports, thanks to encouragement from the top presidential contenders who are looking to capitalize on their frontrunner status.
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Just when talk about Marc Rich was dying down… The Boston Globe reports that Hillary Clinton's brother, Tony Rodham, "is battling an order to repay more than $100,000 he received from a couple pardoned by President Clinton." A judge has ordered Rodham to respond by March 16 to allegations that he failed to repay that money as he was ordered to do so. "Clinton critics have been seeking to revive an array of controversies, from the Whitewater land deal to the Monica Lewinsky case. The Clinton campaign has sought to depict them as old or moot cases. But the Tony Rodham case could be different because it is in court just as Senator Clinton's campaign reaches full speed."
The Globe also lists the money both of Clinton's brothers received from people who received pardons by President Clinton.
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He's leading in many of the polls there, but Rudy Giuliani has yet to step foot in Iowa to campaign. But that's about to change, the Des Moines Register says. Giuliani has hired his first Iowa staffer and plans a visit to the state in the coming weeks.
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A day before departing for New Orleans the Gulf Coast, President Bush meets this afternoon with military service organizations in the White House.
The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation offers a "very preliminary" estimate that "Bush's plan to revamp the health-care system would increase taxes on Americans by $526.2 billion over the next decade."
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From Elizabeth Wilner, Mark Murray, and Huma Zaidi
The return of Congress means we're back to Iraq, with Democratic lawmakers in both chambers wrestling over whether and how to curtail President Bush's authority in pursuing military action there. Some Senate Democrats want to repeal the 2002 war resolution and replace it with one that's narrower in scope; some House Democrats want to tie funding for the war to troop readiness. A suicide bomber's attempted attack on Vice President Cheney earlier today also will direct Washington's attention to the situation in Afghanistan.
In the House, NBC's Mike Viqueira advises, Iraq is percolating mainly behind the scenes while members focus publicly this week on matters of concern to business and labor. The House will consider reforming the way the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States -- remember the Dubai Ports World controversy? -- conducts it reviews, and also a hotly contested bill that would facilitate union organizing. The war, by contrast, is causing more private hemming and hawing and Democrats ponder what to do about Rep. John Murtha's proposal to tie Bush's $100 billion supplemental funding request to US troop readiness.
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The New York Times says that the suicide bombing outside the US military base in Afghanistan “killed and wounded American soldiers and Afghan and Pakistani truck drivers and laborers waiting for access at the gate. The incident was at the first security gate of the base, far from where Mr. Cheney was staying.” More: “Mr. Cheney’s trip to the region had been shrouded in unusual secrecy… This appeared to reflect growing concern about the strength of Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in the region.”
President Bush today takes part in the swearing-in of his new Deputy Secretary of State, John Negroponte. Iraq and the war on terror will surface in several other venues in the Senate this week, Strick advises. Today, Iraq war costs and troop funding will likely come up when Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates testify about Bush's emergency funding request. And there will more talk about war costs on Thursday, when the Budget Committee hears from Pentagon officials about their annual funding request. The war in Afghanistan also goes under the microscope on Thursday when the Armed Services panel hears from mid-level military types.
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Add Rudy Giuliani to the list of Republican presidential candidates speaking at the Conservative Political Action Committee's annual conference next week. Also speaking: former Gov. Mitt Romney, former Gov. Mike Huckabee, and Sen. Sam Brownback, along with Vice President Cheney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
And add Romney to the list of Republican contenders whose campaign playbook appears to have leaked to the press. First a New York tabloid got hold of Giuliani's. Now the Boston Globe has gotten its hands on a 77-slide PowerPoint presentation that "offers a revealing look at Romney's pursuit of the White House, outlining a plan for branding himself, framing his competitors, and allaying voter concerns about his record, his Mormon faith, and his shifts on key issues like abortion." The document "is wide-ranging and analyzes in detail the strengths and weaknesses of Romney and his two main Republican rivals," McCain and Giuliani. "The plan… charts a course for Romney to emerge as the nominee, but acknowledges that the 'electorate is not where it needs to be for us to succeed.'" A Romney spokesman calls it "'a compilation of political conventional wisdom.'"
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Several news organizations -- including NBC's TODAY -- look at how his turn at the Oscars has buffed up Al Gore, if not whetted his appetite, for another run in 2008. and
Dueling speeches in Selma? The New York Daily News writes that Sen. Hillary Clinton will also speak in Selma, AL over the weekend to commemorate the infamous 1965 march across the bridge there -- joining Sen. Barack Obama, whose campaign had earlier announced that he would be there. “The two high-profile speeches - both at 11 a.m. and at virtually adjacent churches in Selma, Ala. - sent officials scrambling to figure out how to accommodate both senators without offending either.”
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In his luncheon speech at the National Press Club yesterday, GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger emphasized bipartisanship while still making it clear that he has not become an Independent, NBC's Lauren Appelbaum reports. "I am still a proud Republican," he said. "I support the guiding principles of the Republican Party." He continued, "Isn't the ultimate principle to serve the people, to do the things that are good for the people? We are elected as public servants, not party servants."
Schwarzenegger focused on the issues of health care and immigration, calling for mandatory medical insurance for everyone. And while he recognized that some consider it controversial, he also called for coverage of children of undocumented immigrants: "The fact is that we have no choice about paying the medical bills of people that are here illegally in California... So the question really is not, should we treat them or not or should we cover them or not, but the real question is do we treat them in an emergency room at three or four times the cost of a doctor's office or health clinic, or do we treat them more efficiently and more cost-effectively?"
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Down one, the jurors in the Libby trial will deliberate for a fourth day today.
The New York Times speculates why Libby’s defense team pushed to proceed with just 11 jurors -- instead of adding the alternate to make it 12 after the juror was dismissed. “In this case, the replacement juror would have been a middle-aged woman who identified herself as an insurance industry consultant. Some reporters at the trial observed her taking notes assiduously during the monthlong proceedings.”
From NBC's Carrie Dann
Speaking in Washington today at a luncheon hosted by the conservative Hoover Institute, presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani delighted his conservative audience, annoyed TV camera crews with his characteristic pacing, and exasperated reporters with a lack of news in his remarks. With the Q&A for audience members only, the press was hoping that one of the guests might pitch him a hardball -- perhaps about his plan for Iraq or his fairly liberal social views. But when the last question turned out to be about incentive pay for teachers, the journalists covering the event let out a collective sigh of disappointment.
One of Giuliani's comments, however, did prompt a flurry of scribbling. When an audience member expressed concern about his lack of foreign policy experience, Giuliani quipped, "What makes you think the mayor of New York City doesn't need a foreign policy?" He added, "It's something that I think I know as well as anybody else who's running for president, and probably better than a lot."
From Elizabeth Wilner, Mark Murray, and Huma Zaidi.
The nation's governors visit today with President Bush, who may well be the last member of their alumni association to occupy the White House before 2012 or even 2016. At least as of today, the public's habit of picking presidents with gubernatorial experience seems likely to be broken in 2008. None of the current top contenders for either party's nomination -- three senators and a mayor -- has held that job.
When he quit the race last Friday, Democrat Tom Vilsack became the third former governor to do so, after Sen. Evan Bayh and Mark Warner, the former governors of Indiana and Virginia. All three had counted on running on their credentials as centrist Democratic executives of red or swing states. Former New York Gov. George Pataki (R), after never quite getting in the race, now seems to be all but out of it.
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Vice President Cheney made unannounced stops in Pakistan and Afghanistan this morning. The pool reporter notes that Cheney "looks pretty chipper, near the end of a week-long odyssey." The New York Times front-pages that the White House is warning Pakistan’s prime minister that the Democratic-controlled Congress could cut off funding to his country unless he becomes more aggressive in hunting down al Qaeda operatives.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday on ABC called Hill Democrats' efforts to narrow Bush's authority in Iraq "'the worst of micromanagement' that would intrude on the president's power as commander in chief to manage the war."
Conservative columnist Bob Novak writes that very few Republican senators -- even those like Norm Coleman and Chuck Hagel, who backed the non-binding resolution opposing Bush’s troop increase -- are now behind the move to repeal the 2002 war authorization. “If Hagel is lost, Democrats might fall short of the 50 senators necessary for passage, much less the 60 senators necessary to close off debate. Bush may be an unpopular president fighting an unpopular war, but Democrats are finding it hard to make war policy from Capitol Hill.”
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The AP follows up on the New York Daily News report that the Rev. Al Sharpton, who occasionally still threatens to run for president, is descended from a slave who was once owned by the family of the late GOP Sen. Strom Thurmond.
Al Gore passed on repeated invitations to announce another run for president at the Oscars last night. "My fellow Americans," he said to laughter in the audience, "people all over the world, we need to solve the climate crisis. It's not a political issue, it's a moral issue. We have everything we need to get started, with the possible exception of the will to act, that's a renewable resource. Let's renew it."
The Des Moines Register ran a slew of stories over the weekend about Vilsack's withdrawal from the race -- one about his bid farewell, one about reaction from his supporters and one about the reasons why he dropped out.
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The New York Daily News notes that Rudy Giuliani and McCain plan to skip an upcoming debate in New Hampshire in early April. “McCain is expected to be in the Middle East on April 4 and Giuliani has an unspecified scheduling conflict, sources said.” The first GOP presidential primary debate including the two frontrunners will take place at the Reagan presidential library in California on May 3, brought to you by MSNBC and The Politico.
USA Today, covering GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel's criticisms of the Administration on Iraq, has Hagel saying in an interview "that if he ran" for president, "he would seek the Republican nomination. Yet he's also talking up Unity08," which is "a plan by a bipartisan group of political operatives to draft a bipartisan presidential ticket on the Internet and offer voters an alternative to the Democratic and Republican candidates next year."
Per The State, McCain is leading his GOP rivals in polls in South Carolina, but his numbers lag behind what he had in 2000. Since he has "almost universal name identification among S.C. Republican primary voters," it may be "more difficult to find voters who haven’t formed an opinion of him."
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The AP uses the governors' gathering to look at the presidential candidates' efforts to win their support.
The San Francisco Chronicle previews Schwarzenegger’s speech today at the National Press Club, in which he's expected to continue talking about moving away from partisanship. “‘I'm going to talk about how important it is to work together, which doesn't mean that you have to sell out your principles,’ Schwarzenegger said Sunday on CBS' ‘Face the Nation.’ ‘It just means that you ultimately want to serve the people rather than your party, because I think the elected officials are public servants and not party servants.’”
USA Today's former White House correspondent looks at the paper's latest Gallup polling and finds more Republicans standing by Bush than you might think based upon the news. As he writes, "despite bad news from Baghdad and carefully crafted hand-wringing by high-profile GOP war critics in Congress such as [Hagel], three of four Republicans in the country are hanging in there with the president... The poll also shows that rank-and-file Republicans have higher regard for the president than they do Republicans in Congress... And 72% of Republicans do not think Bush made a mistake sending U.S. troops to Iraq. So if congressional Republicans figure the key to re-election in 2008 is taking a hard line against Bush on Iraq,... [t]hey might lure some independents, but they risk alienating their GOP base."
"Lawmakers have continued to take trips paid for by outside groups since the House voted last month to restrict who can pay for such travel,"
USA Today reports. "House travel records show that 19 members since Jan. 5 have accepted airfare, meals and lodging from special interests, including groups that employ lobbyists. The records were compiled by the non-partisan PoliticalMoneyLine."
From NBC's Huma Zaidi and Lauren AppelbaumIn a conference call with reporters this afternoon, a somber Tom Vilsack (D) reiterated much of what he said in a news conference earlier today, which is that he's dropping out of the race because his campaign could simply not raise enough money to be competitive. "It is ultimately about money," Vilsack said while lamenting that he'd wished the race was more focused on the issues he cares most about, like Iraq and energy. While the former Iowa governor said he's confident that his campaign would have done well in his home state and New Hampshire, Vilsack added that a frontloaded primary calendar would complicate his fundraising efforts. "The premium on money became even more compelling," he said.
Vilsack said he does not have any plans on endorsing any candidate soon or and said he's not even thinking about whether he would accept an offer to be a vice presidential nominee. Vilsack said today he is thinking about his family, his staff and supporters who have devoted so much time into his presidential campaign.
From NBC's Mark Murray and Elizabeth Wilner
NBC News has learned that former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack (D) is dropping out of the presidential race. This announcement, which Vilsack will make outside his campaign headquarters at noon ET, comes as quite a surprise given that he was heading to campaign in New Hampshire on Monday and Tuesday
Vilsack, the first major Democrat to announce that he was running for president in 2008, made his decision after realizing he wouldn't have the money to compete against the likes of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. "This comes down to money," says a Democratic source close the campaign, noting that Vilsack had -- by far -- the strongest organization in Iowa, the site of the first Democratic nominating contest.
Vilsack, of course, isn't the first high-profile Democrat to announce he's not running. Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner and Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh also decided -- to the surprise of many -- that they would not run. Interestingly, all three of these Democrats are similar: They are considered centrists who hail from red states.
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From NBC's Chris Donovan Former Vice President Al Gore might be walking the red carpet come Oscar night on Sunday, but if "An Inconvenient Truth" wins the Oscar for best Documentary Feature, Gore won't be taking home an Oscar statuette. The Academy told NBC News recently that Davis Guggenheim, the film's director/executive producer, is the only person eligible to win an Oscar, something all the parties involved sign off on when the forms are submitted. So let's hope Gore doesn't want it as much as President Bill Clinton pretended he did in 2000 in that video spoof he made for the White House Correspondents' Dinner, in which he was holding an Oscar and giving an acceptance speech to the mirror before Kevin Spacey came in and took his award back.
From Elizabeth Wilner, Mark Murray, and Huma Zaidi
Have things finally calmed down? The candidates at the center of this week's political brouhaha, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, appear today in two different liberal strongholds. Clinton headlines a “Make History With Hillary” luncheon fundraiser in San Francisco, which is open to the press. Meanwhile, Obama holds a rally this afternoon in Austin, TX, for which 16,000 tickets had been requested online as of midweek, the Austin American-Statesman reports. Per Obama’s campaign, his remarks will focus on Iraq, especially Britain’s announcement that it will begin withdrawing some of its troops there.
Obama has tried to reclaim the high ground after the tussle over David Geffen’s less-than-flattering comments regarding the Clintons. NBC’s Carrie Dann says that on an unscheduled stop en route to Houston yesterday, Obama told reporters in St. Louis that "pundits in Washington" are responsible for fueling the entire controversy, adding: "This should be a campaign about the issues and not about personalities or what supporters say." He also said this about Clinton: "She and I have a good relationship, and I expect that will continue." And Obama told today’s New York Times he had not been aware that his staff released a counterpunch against the Clinton camp. “I told my staff that I don’t want us to be a party to these kinds of distractions because I want to make sure that we’re spending time talking about issues,” he said. “My preference going forward is that we have to be careful not to slip into playing the game as it customarily is played.”
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The New York Daily News notes that this week’s Clinton-Obama feud will likely be a “blip in a campaign with 620 tortured days left to play out. But Clinton and Obama both emerge as losers from this skirmish, with potentially unsavory implications for the party in November 2008. Historically, Democrats seldom miss an opportunity to blow elections by indulging in fratricidal warfare that ruptures their party and gladdens Republican hearts.
The Los Angeles Times editorial page, calling the Geffen brouhaha "amusingly overwrought," weighs in on his behalf on this point: "Regardless of what you think of Bill Clinton's presidency, or his wife's talent, the dynastic aspect of Hillary Clinton's candidacy is an issue that will increasingly come to occupy center stage in this campaign. Is the country prepared to be governed, potentially, for 28 years by two families who alternate turns in the White House?"
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The Washington Post front-pages former President Bill Clinton's haul from speaking fees since he left the White House: "nearly $40 million," including $9 million to $10 million just last year, all per his wife's financial disclosure and other records. "Two-thirds" of the fees have come from foreign sources. The former President directs many of his fees to his various non-profit groups. The Clintons are "worth an estimated $10 million to $50 million," some of which they could use for the Senator's presidential bid.
The New York Times covers the FEC’s draft advisory on Obama’s proposal that “would allow the nominees, if both agreed, to return contributions they had solicited for the general election campaign and limit themselves to public financing for it instead.” But: “The plausibility of such an agreement is not clear. One nominee is likely to have a financial edge on the other at the outset of the campaign,
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The New York Times reports that unlike other presidential contenders, Rudy Giuliani “has limited himself to events with narrowly defined, friendly audiences, avoiding the kind of uncomfortable interrogations his rivals have occasionally faced. Aside from a couple of brief swings through diners, including one yesterday in Delray Beach, Fla., he has done little of the politicking that exposes candidates to random sets of people — at shopping malls or train stations — who might be of any political stripe, and can raise any issue.”
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In his latest National Journal column, NBC political analyst Charlie Cook notes that the new Cook Political Report/RT Strategies poll has Clinton in the Democratic lead with 42% (up 8 points from November), followed by Obama at 20% (unchanged), Edwards at 16% (up 7), and Richardson at 5%. In the GOP field, Giuliani is at 32%, followed by McCain at 23%, Gingrich at 13%, and Romney at 10%. "For Democrats, the bottom line is whether Clinton can be stopped. For Republicans it’s that this remains a very open contest and the GOP nomination is unquestionably up for grabs."
Meanwhile, National Journal’s latest poll of Democratic insiders asks who would be the party’s strongest general election candidate. Clinton leads with pack on that question with 31%, up 6 points since December. Among GOP insiders, McCain leads with 39% -- but that’s down significantly from 55% in December.
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Senate Democrats are planning to repeal the 2002 Iraq war resolution and replace it with a measure granting Bush and the military a narrower role, while House Democrats have "pulled back from efforts" to tie more funding for the war to troop readiness, but are looking for other ways to limit Bush's authority. The Washington Post says Senate Democrats, led by presidential candidate and Sen. Joe Biden, are likely to face procedural roadblocks again in seeking to repeal the 2002 resolution and pass a narrower measure. Rep. John Murtha "doomed his own plan" to tie funding to troop readiness "in part by unveiling it on a left-wing website."
The AP: “Officials said Thursday the precise wording of the [Senate] measure remains unsettled. One version would restrict American troops in Iraq to fighting al-Qaeda, training Iraqi army and police forces, maintaining Iraq's territorial integrity and otherwise proceeding with the withdrawal of combat forces.”
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This morning in DC, President Bush meets with transportation fuel experts and researchers, and then he views a demonstration of alternative-fuel automobiles. Per the New York Times, Bush yesterday “put on a white coat and visited a laboratory [in North Carolina] to promote his goals for making alternative fuels from switch grass, woodchips and other plant waste.” The paper adds that the trip was “the latest event this week in which Mr. Bush has stepped away from grim questions about the war in Iraq to focus on domestic themes like energy and health care.”
Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, says he will hold hearings next week to push the Bush Administration "to confirm publicly that it wants 'comprehensive immigration reform' this year," the Washington Times notes. "With Democrats now controlling both chambers and Mr. Bush sharing their views on immigration, conservatives worry about what will come of legislation this year. But Democrats have been adamant that Mr. Bush take an active role in the immigration debate so that he will share equally any criticism over the legislation."
When the jury returns with its verdict, "its decision also will intensify the debate over whether Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald should have brought the case in the first place," says the
Washington Post in a look at the stakes for the prosecutor's reputation.
From NBC's Lauren AppelbaumWill we see the Clinton campaign ask for Mitt Romney to apologize? In South Carolina today, Romney told voters, "If I'm lucky enough to be your president, I will not embarrass you in the White House. This sweetheart [wife Ann] and I have been in love far too long for that to be issue." Romney didn't mention anyone by name, but he seemed to be referring to Bill Clinton's infidelity in the Monica Lewinsky affair. Or maybe it was a subtle jab at the thrice-married Rudy Giuliani. Or the twice-married John McCain.
In his remarks, Romney went on to make his stance on family values extremely clear. "It will be our mission to strengthen the American family, to make sure that kids understand once again that babies come after marriage, and that having a mom and a dad in a home helps build stronger kids."
From Elizabeth Wilner, Mark Murray, and Huma Zaidi.
After a week of big apologies from Jet Blue, Tim Hardaway, and Mayor Mike Bloomberg for actions that angered or inconvenienced countless numbers of Americans comes a series of hollow-sounding, politically motivated demands that so-called offenses be repudiated.
Vice President Cheney suggested that Sen. John McCain (R) apologize to his friend Donald Rumsfeld for calling Rumsfeld possibly the worst defense secretary ever. McCain has refused to.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants President Bush to "repudiate and distance himself" from Cheney's remarks that her opposition to the troop increase validates al Qaeda's strategy. We're guessing that Bush won't.
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The White House and Democratic lawmakers continue to dispute the meaning of Britain's withdrawal of 1,600 troops from Iraq. Vice President Cheney told ABC that it's "an affirmation of the fact that there are parts of Iraq where things are going pretty well." Democrats argue that it's a sign of recognition from a key ally that things are going pretty poorly.
The Washington Post says that while National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley called it "'basically a good-news story'… for an already besieged White House, the decision was doing a good job masquerading as a bad-news story… No matter the military merits, the British move, followed by a similar announcement by Denmark, roiled the political debate in Washington at perhaps the worst moment for the White House… Republicans were put back on their heels, just as they were beginning to feel more confident that the fight over war strategy was shifting their way."
"The Bush administration maintained yesterday that its Iraq coalition was still in good shape despite announcements by Britain," Denmark, and Lithuania "that they would withdraw all or some of their troops by the end of the year," says the Washington Times.
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Geffen yesterday "said his remarks reflect 'my personal beliefs regarding the Clintons' and he has 'no formal role' in Obama's campaign." Clinton herself, asked whether Obama should renounce Geffen's support, said, "I'm going to leave that up to the other campaign," and that she wants to run "a very positive campaign. I sure don't want Democrats or supporters of Democrats to be engaging in the politics of personal destruction."
The Politico points out this morning that comments from fans on the Clinton campaign's own blog suggest that their complaint about Geffen is getting mixed reviews.
"Aides argued all day over who started the exchange," the Wall Street Journal says. "Unaffiliated strategists in both parties suggested the Clinton campaign had overreacted, thus telegraphing concern over Mr. Obama's fresh-faced appeal and risking the ire of Hollywood backers and black voters. But they also said the Obama camp shouldn't have taken the bait and muddied its candidate's call for a new, positive politics."
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During a press conference on global warming yesterday with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), McCain commented on British Prime Minister Tony Blair's plan to withdraw 1,600 troops from Iraq over the coming months, saying he wishes they would stay longer, but adding that he respects the decision and appreciates the "incredible service and sacrifice" they've given over the past four years, NBC's Andrew Merten reports. McCain also made a point of saying that he's had "no cooperation" from the Bush Administration for hearings on global warming until now, adding that he is happy to see a renewed commitment from the Administration, but calling it "long overdue."
The Washington Times notes that neither McCain nor former Mayor Rudy Giuliani have signed "an anti-tax-increase pledge that has been embraced by several of their rivals." The reluctance of the two GOP frontrunners "to sign the pledge, which has been signed by every Republican presidential nominee since 1988, raised concerns among conservative tax cutters about Mr. McCain's and Mr. Giuliani's commitment to reduce tax rates at a time when all of the Democratic presidential contenders have vowed to raise income taxes if they are elected."
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President Bush's domestic issue of the day is alternative fuels, with events in Franklinton, NC. The pool report from yesterday's trip to Chattanooga notes that Bush "was in full campaign mode" during an unscheduled stop at a barbecue joint. "POTUS was said to eat ribs, and emerged about 25 minutes later to a cheering crowd." The New York Times on Bush's scheduled event: “The participants had been carefully selected, the tone was confessional, and the president, describing himself as the ‘educator in chief,’ sounded more like talk-show host in chief.”
Tennessee's Democratic governor, who was in attendance yesterday, "said it was the first time he had been invited to appear with Bush in such a setting," the Washington Post notes. "Democrats in Washington are showing little enthusiasm for the Bush health agenda, but the president is plugging away, insisting he sees hope for compromise before his term ends in less than two years."
Laura Bush makes stops in Mississippi to review Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts.
The Wall Street Journal looks at how the Libby case "has added fuel to calls for a broader examination of how intelligence was used in political arguments in the past six years. Moreover, some current and former administration officials say, the trial's airing of the use of intelligence -- especially over the Iraq war -- threatens to further undermine confidence in American claims on other sensitive matters. That could be a particular problem in the U.S. campaign to convince the world to curb Iran's nuclear program."
USA Today, continuing its scrutiny of the ties between lobbyists and lawmakers, reports that five of the 39 former members of Congress who were "rejected by voters three months ago landed jobs at firms that seek to influence Congress. The hires include two Republicans — Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania and Conrad Burns of Montana — who lost in part because of allegations of ethical lapses. Federal law requires lawmakers to wait a year after leaving office to lobby Congress, but lets former Congress members advise lobbyists and clients."
From NBC's Andrew Merten
Responding to Vice President Dick Cheney's comments today, Sen. John McCain said that he stands by his prior comments about former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and added that he has voiced concerns over the conduct of the Iraq war over the past three years. During a press conference in California today with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, McCain also commented on the recent news of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's plan to withdraw 1,600 troops from Iraq over the coming months, saying he wishes they would stay longer, but adding that he respects the decision and appreciates the "incredible service and sacrifice" they've given over the past four years.
McCain appeared with Schwarzenegger earlier this afternoon to discuss the governor's current global warming strategy, which aims to reduce the state's emissions by 13 million tons by 2020. In sharp contrast with his recent support of President Bush's Iraq policies, McCain made it a point to say that he has had "no cooperation" from the administration for hearings on global warming until now, adding that he is happy to see a renewed commitment from the administration, but called it "long overdue."
From NBC's Huma Zaidi
In an interview this afternoon, Vice President Dick Cheney responded to Sen. John McCain's criticism of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. McCain, who is considered a top Republican presidential contender, said over the weekend that Rumsfeld would "go down in history as one of the worst secretaries of Defense in history." When asked about that statement, Cheney said: "I just fundamentally disagree with John. John said some nasty things about me the other day, and then next time he saw me, ran over to me and apologized. Maybe he'll apologize to Rumsfeld."
Those "nasty" remarks Cheney's referring is when McCain said Cheney has not served President Bush well during the Iraq war. "He and John McCain had a number of dust-ups over policy, didn't have anything to do with Iraq -- other issues that were involved," Cheney said of Rumsfeld. "John's entitled to his opinion. I just think he's wrong," he added.
From NBC's Mark Murray
Obama communications director Robert Gibbs just released this statement regarding the Clinton campaign's demand that Obama denounce the comments that supporter David Geffen made to Maureen Dowd of the New York Times:
“We aren’t going to get in the middle of a disagreement between the Clintons and someone who was once one of their biggest supporters," Gibbs said. "It is ironic that the Clintons had no problem with David Geffen when was raising them $18 million and sleeping at their invitation in the Lincoln bedroom. It is also ironic that Senator Clinton lavished praise on Monday and is fully willing to accept today the support of South Carolina State Sen. Robert Ford, who said if Barack Obama were to win the nomination, he would drag down the rest of the Democratic Party because 'he's black.'"
From NBC's Mark Murray
Further proving that the Democratic presidential candidates are already pulling out their swords -- even over the most minor of matters -- the Clinton campaign is up in arms over comments that Hollywood mogul and Obama supporter David Geffen made to the New York Times' Maureen Dowd. In a statement, Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said, "While Sen. Obama was denouncing slash-and-burn politics yesterday, his campaign's finance chair was viciously and personally attacking Sen. Clinton and her husband. If Sen. Obama is indeed sincere about his repeated claims to change the tone of our politics, he should immediately denounce these remarks, remove Mr. Geffen from his campaign, and return this money."
So what exactly did Geffen -- who holds no formal role in Obama's campaign -- say to get the Clinton camp so wound up? It was apparently this in Dowd's column today: "'It's not a very big thing to say "I made a mistake" on the war, and typical of Hillary Clinton that she can't,' Mr. Geffen says. 'She's so advised by so many smart advisers who are covering every base. I think that America was better served when the candidates were chosen in smoke-filled rooms.'" More from Dowd: "Did Mr. Spielberg get in trouble with the Clintons for helping Senator Obama? 'Yes,' Mr. Geffen replies, slyly. Can Obambi stand up to Clinton Inc.? 'I hope so," he says, 'because that machine is going to be very unpleasant and unattractive and effective."
Of course, you could argue that the Clinton camp's response to those comments by Geffen actually proves his last point. Last week, when First Read published some recent, ill-judged comments made by Clinton campaign chair Terry McAuliffe about immigration, Clinton aides registered their unhappiness at being tied to those remarks.
From Elizabeth Wilner, Mark Murray, and Huma Zaidi
All of the Democratic presidential candidates save Sen. Barack Obama troop one by one before an audience of government employee union members and national reporters today in the unlikely political hotspot of Carson City, NV. Although the contenders have paraded before a big crowd before, at the Democratic National Committee meeting earlier this month, this is the first such event at which they will take questions posed by a moderator, ABC's George Stephanopoulos, and will have to adhere to time limits (the DNC's utterly ignored time limit notwithstanding). Yet the event technically is not a debate, since the candidates will appear one at a time and won't have a chance to engage each other.
The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees' forum is the first of several candidate gatherings organized to help highlight Nevada's new place on the Democratic nominating calendar. The state will host a second-in-the-nation caucus on January 19, 2008, although details like the timing of the caucuses are up in the air because of concerns about the number of casino workers who pull night shifts. AFSCME and home state Sen. Harry Reid are calling today's event an opportunity to lay groundwork for Democrats to "win the West," something New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson emphasized in making the case for his candidacy to the DNC earlier this month.
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Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush's closest ally on Iraq, announced the upcoming withdrawal of 1,600 British troops from Iraq earlier this morning. "After being dogged by the debacle in Iraq for nearly four years, Wednesday’s statement allows [Blair] to leave office conveying the impression - albeit a limited one - that the UK intervention has had some success," says the Financial Times. "However, the announcement will be watched with anxiety by politicians across the political divide in the US. Britain’s troop reduction comes as [Bush] has started to commit the US to a 'surge' of US troop numbers in Iraq."
“‘The actual reduction in forces will be from the present 7,100 -- itself down from over 9,000 two years ago and 40,000 at the time of the conflict -- to roughly 5,500,’ Blair told parliament. ‘The UK military presence will continue into 2008, for as long as we are wanted and have a job to do,’ he said.”
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Pool reporter Carla Marinucci of the San Francisco Chronicle provides an account of Obama's $1.3 million Dreamworks fundraiser last night. Obama told the crowd of 300 stars and power brokers that they have “enormous power” that comes with “enormous responsibility” because of their impact on American culture. “Don’t sell yourselves short,’’ he said in a 25-minute address. “You are the storytellers of our age.’’ Michelle Obama won raves for her introduction of her husband. “I actually thought his wife was amazing,’’ said Natalie Mains, five-time Grammy Award-winning lead singer for the Dixie Chicks. Obama's speech was mostly derived from his campaign stump but tailored to the entertainment audience. Keying off of one of the guests, “An Inconvenient Truth” producer Lawrence Bender, Obama said that what had been for years,“an obscure debate’’ about climate change “suddenly is in everyone’s living room… and suddenly transforming the conversation.’’
The Los Angeles Times says the "huge crowd" at Obama's rally yesterday "reflected the extraordinary interest that Obama has generated... It is highly unusual for a presidential candidate to draw thousands of supporters to a Los Angeles rally nearly a year before California's primary - or even to try." The paper also reports that Clinton "plans to meet privately with potential donors later this week at Creative Artists Agency in Century City... She also plans fundraising events at the office of Hollywood film mogul Haim Saban and the Pacific Palisades home of investor Sim Farar, as well as an event sponsored by Iranian immigrants."
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McCain made an unscheduled campaign stop at the Georgia state capitol yesterday, where he met with state legislators and faced rapid-fire questions from a hoard of local reporters sent scrambling by his surprise visit, NBC's Carrie Dann reports. Asked to follow up on his much-publicized criticism over the weekend of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the Bush Administration's "mismanagement" of Iraq, McCain was quick to say he's not casting the first stone: "I am being critical of everybody, including all of us who are responsible for mistakes that we’ve made in the war, including myself.” But he also acknowledged that US intervention in Iraq will extend into the next presidency, saying "we're there for a long, long time."
Why did McCain have Georgia on his mind enough to warrant a detour there? Maybe because he'll snag headlines from Romney, who's hoping to court the Southern vote at an Atlanta fundraiser tonight.
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President Bush heads to Chattanooga today to continue his focus on health care. He'll present Debbie Chadwick with the President's Volunteer Service Award "in recognition of her 10 years as a volunteer at the Life Care Center of Missionary Ridge." Chadwick has Down syndrome. The Chattanooga paper also says, "There were mixed reactions this week to the news of President Bush's visit. Area Democrats planned a protest, and a nonprofit research group issued a report that said the president's health care proposals are unlikely to help many people in Hamilton County."
The New York Times profiles the Texans who followed Bush into the White House and who remain in positions of power around his Administration. “No matter how grim the polls or dire the news in Iraq, they have stood by Mr. Bush - and been rewarded with plum jobs - as their lives have grown increasingly intertwined with one another’s and with his.”
Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson's office announced yesterday that Johnson has been discharged from the hospital to a private rehab facility and is onto the next phase of his therapy. Roll Call says Johnson now appears likelier than not to run for re-election in 2008, which would help Democrats hang onto his seat.
The Washington Post front-pages a look at "how the Democratic takeover has energized and emboldened the party's liberal base, ratcheting up the pressure on the party's moderates... Democratic leaders want their activists to focus on beating Republicans. But the grass roots and Net roots believe the political tide is shifting their way, and they can provide the money, ground troops and buzz to challenge Democratic incumbents they don't like."
Jurors begin deliberating today. Slate's Dickerson notes that while the defense declined to call Cheney to testify, the prosecution in its closing arguments "brought him in anyway," figuratively speaking.
Defense attorney Ted Wells "may yet win an acquittal from the jury," says the Washington Post's Milbank. "But it won't be because of the cohesion of his closing arguments. Libby was alternately portrayed as a man who told the truth, a man who inadvertently misspoke, and the victim of conspiracies involving everybody from President Bush to Tim Russert."
From Elizabeth Wilner, Mark Murray, and Huma Zaidi.
Vice President Cheney is off to Tokyo and Australia as closing arguments begin in the trial of his former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. As NBC's Joel Seidman notes, special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has presented a detailed case to support charges of perjury and obstruction of justice by presenting several witnesses whose testimony conflicts with Libby's sworn statements to FBI investigators and a grand jury. Libby's attorneys put on a truncated defense last week. The bulk of their strategy was based on discrediting Fitzgerald's witnesses during cross-examination, and neither Cheney nor Libby were called to testify. The prosecution has the burden of convincing the jurors, beyond a reasonable doubt, of Libby's guilt.
Peter Zeidenberg, a Justice Department prosecutor, will begin the summation case for the government this morning, followed by Theodore Wells for the defense, Seidman reports. As is customary in federal criminal trials, the prosecutors will have the last word; the prosecution's rebuttal will be presented by Fitzgerald. Each side will have three hours total.
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The Washington Times covers Bush's Presidents Day remarks in which he linked the current war on terror to the nation's battle for independence. "As he nears the end of his own two terms as president and his Iraq policy faces heavy criticism, Mr. Bush, the 43rd president, seems to take solace in the fact that historians are still digesting the first president's legacy."
Pegged to today's closing arguments, the Washington Post looks at Cheney's "shifting status." "There is no evidence that Cheney's close relationship with Bush has been lessened. But there is also little doubt that the causes he has championed -- a tough skepticism of negotiations with dictatorships such as North Korea and the forceful exercise of presidential authority -- are being rethought within the Bush administration." The story notes that "some conservatives close to the administration see Libby's resignation... as part of the unraveling of a Cheney network, leaving a void that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice... has exploited."
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A day before a government employees' union candidate forum in Carson City, NV, Sen. Joe Biden campaigns in Nevada. Sen. Hillary Clinton meets with community leaders in Miami. Sen. Chris Dodd campaigns in Iowa. Sen. Barack Obama, as mentioned above, is in California. Obama is the only Democrat who will not attend the labor forum tomorrow.
Clinton followed close behind Obama's zig-zag across South Carolina yesterday, countering his weekend's heavy dose of civil rights imagery by announcing a flurry of endorsements from local black leaders, NBC's Carrie Dann reports. An overture to minority voters was the clear subtext of her campaign stop at historically black Allen University in Columbia, where she was rewarded with whoops of approval at the mention of her husband, whose staggering popularity with black voters clearly isn't lost on her. Although the Clinton camp touted a slew of endorsements yesterday, perhaps the most telling words of support came at a tribute to House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, the highest ranking African-American on Capitol Hill. After Clinton spoke, South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus member J. Seth Whipper joked that she is "almost a homegirl too."
Clyburn himself did not offer explicit support for Clinton in his remarks, but granted a nod to both Clinton's groundbreaking run and Obama's in saying, "I don't know whether or not a woman can get elected. I don't know whether or not a black can get elected... but I know this: nobody gets elected who does not run."
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Sen. Sam Brownback is in Arizona. A slew of Republican contenders will make their way through South Carolina this week: McCain visits today, Giuliani stops in tomorrow, Romney pops by on Thursday, and Rep. Duncan Hunter finishes off the week on Friday.
In the state yesterday, McCain called for Roe v. Wade to be overturned and promoted abstinence.
Former Sen. Phil Gramm writes in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that he believes McCain "might not be the right president for all times, but he is the right president for these times" because of McCain's position on fiscal issues. McCain, Gramm writes, "trusts our people enough to tell them the truth about the festering domestic problems that have been swept under the rug for a quarter-century."
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The Boston Globe looks at how many presidential contenders on both sides are making health care a top campaign priority -- similar to the 1992 campaign. "But unlike in previous campaigns when candidates have focused almost entirely on the uninsured, the early presidential candidates are talking about promoting wellness as a way to avoid the high costs of treating cancers, heart disease, and other ailments."
The Washington Post looks at the tangled web in which top presidential campaign strategists of both parties are all related through their corporate ties to PR/advertising giant WPP Group.
USA Today says investors have reason to think the markets will fare well this year because it's "hard to ignore just how well stocks have fared in the third year of the four-year presidential cycle. The last time the Dow Jones industrial average posted a negative return in a pre-presidential election year was 1939."
The Washington Post looks at how net neutrality is becoming an issue for Democrats this year, "largely because its most fervid advocates are liberal bloggers and other Internet activists who play a big role in the early stages of choosing a Democratic presidential nominee. Unlike their Republican counterparts, every major Democratic presidential candidate has endorsed net neutrality. The move keeps them in good standing with powerful grass-roots groups, such as MoveOn.org, and costs them little in return."
The Los Angeles Times says JetBlue's problem increase the likelihood that Congress will take up a passengers' bill of rights.
The New York Times profiles freshman Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand (D), who finds herself in a precarious political situation as a Democrat representing a GOP-leaning district. “Now, even as the congratulatory letters continue to trickle in, she often looks like a candidate who is still on the run… That frenetic pace reflects her uncomfortable reality: that her victory last fall, like the success of Democrats nationwide, may have been an aberration that could be undone with a swing in the mood of the electorate or by formidable opposition.”
From NBC's Lauren Appelbaum and Carrie Dann
Thanks to scrambling by their campaign schedulers, almost all of the '08 hopefuls in the Senate managed to make appearances in key primary states despite Saturday's Iraq vote. Barack Obama managed a short morning rally with students in Orangeburg, SC, before returning to the Capitol, and Hillary Clinton held a town hall in Dover, NH. Joe Biden worked it into his address to a crowd in Iowa on Sunday: "When I flew back to Washington yesterday, we were precluded by four votes to be able to debate the issue and vote on it. There were still 56 senators who voted to condemn the President's escalation."
The only candidate conspicuously absent from the chamber on Saturday was McCain, who stuck with his planned trip to Iowa rather than go on record against what he called a "meaningless" resolution. In Chicago on Friday, McCain told reporters he's not afraid of skepticism for not voting: "It is a meaningless exercise on a meaningless situation, which is fraught with partisanship, and unfortunately deprives the Republican Party of their ability to have their views voted on this issue. I'm not only not worried, I'm glad to be spending time in Iowa, and discussing this important issue with the citizens of the great state of Iowa." At a campaign stop in Des Moines Saturday, he scoffed at "the issue being bloviated on the Senate floor."
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From Elizabeth Wilner, Mark Murray, and Huma Zaidi
For the first time, those members of the Senate who have designs on the presidency must consider changing their campaign schedules in order to be in Washington for a symbolically important vote -- in this case, a Saturday afternoon vote on whether or not to end the Republican filibuster of the debate over a US troop increase in Iraq. (Frustrated lawmaker/candidates can't complain, though, since it's not like Democratic leaders have rigidly adhered to their pledged five-day work week.)
Democrats failed to get 60 votes last week when their leadership tried to move ahead with the debate and don't necessarily have 60 lined up now, so it probably wouldn't be cool for some of their ranks to be missing at 1:45 pm tomorrow because they're off running for the White House. Sen. Joe Biden has changed his travel plans and will zig-zag between Iowa and Washington. Sen. Hillary Clinton will fly to and from New Hampshire. Sens. Chris Dodd and Barack Obama are slated to be in South Carolina tomorrow and have not announced any schedule changes at this writing.
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President Bush meets with his incoming CENTCOM commander today. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday “that the United States had no intention of attacking Iran and that any American military efforts against it would be confined to Iraq to disrupt the smuggling of bomb-making materials over the border,” the New York Times says. “‘For the umpteenth time, we are not looking for an excuse to go to war with Iran,’ he said.’”
"House Republican opponents of [Bush's] latest Iraq war plan cut across the GOP's ideological and regional spectrum," notes the Washington Post of today's anticipated vote -- also pointing out that "the lion's share of GOP opponents of the Bush plan come from comfortable to very safe congressional districts," not from marginal districts.
Rep. John Murtha (D) yesterday laid out his proposal for how to stop the troop increase before it's completed, while still maintaining Speaker Nancy Pelosi's pledge not to cut off funding for "troops in the field," NBC's Mike Viqueira reports. Murtha plans to attach strings to Bush's $100 billion war funding bill that will effectively force the Administration to stall the surge. The provisions he proposes include: prohibiting the Pentagon from sending troops back into battle until they've had a year at home after being deployed; prohibiting the Pentagon from extending tours; ending the Pentagon's "stop-loss" policy; and prohibiting the establishment of permanent US military bases in Iraq.
If his measures are enacted, Murtha says, "they won't be able to continue, they won't be able to do the deployment." His defense appropriations subcommittee is the first stop in Congress for Bush's $100 billion request for the remainder of this fiscal year, Viq notes. Murtha says it will be reported out of committee on March 15 and will taken up by the House shortly thereafter.
Republicans went on the attack, claiming that Murtha's plan flies in the face of Democratic leadership's pledge not to cut off funding for troops "in the field," even though the provisions that Murtha laid out would seem to meet the "in the field" criteria. An outpouring of statements from Republican members have decried Democrats' alleged "slow bleed" strategy, a term Democrats have used to refer to how they would seek to narrow the Administration's options on Iraq, but which Republicans are trying to suggest applies to the US troops there.
USA Today says the votes in Congress today and tomorrow will show the limits of the resistance Democrats are willing to put up against Bush's Iraq policy. Both Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi "were cool to [Murtha's] proposal to require soldiers to receive more time at home between deployments and more training before being shipped out... 'The answer is no,' Reid said when asked whether there are any legally binding measures he's prepared to support. Pelosi was non-committal."
The New York Daily News on tomorrow's Senate vote: “Senate Democratic leaders threw a monkey wrench into the campaign plans of a half-dozen presidential candidates yesterday, setting a litmus test vote on Iraq for tomorrow… The campaigns didn't complain out loud, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said not all caucus members were pleased. ‘Not everyone,’ he said. ‘It's hard to get everyone to agree.’”
The Democratic Senate campaign committee plans to start running print ads today in New Hampshire and Oregon attacking GOP Sens. John Sununu and Gordon Smith for their procedural votes against the resolution opposing Bush's troop increase.
Senate Foreign Relations chair Joe Biden announced yesterday that he will "seek to repeal the 2002 congressional authorization for Bush to wage war in Iraq and substitute legislation that would narrow the mission of troops there and begin to bring some home."
The Los Angeles Times takes its turn looking at Democrats' internal struggle to tamp down calls for cutting off funding for the troops.
The New York Times notes that three state legislatures (in California, Iowa, and Vermont) have passed resolutions opposing Bush’s policies in Iraq, and another general assembly (in Maryland) sent a letter to its congressional delegation urging them to vote against Bush’s troop increase. “Letters or resolutions are being drafted in at least 19 other states. The goal is to embarrass Congress into passing its own resolution and to provide cover for Democrats and Republicans looking for concrete evidence back home that anti-Iraq resolutions enjoy popular support.”
"About $10 billion has been squandered by the U.S. government on Iraq reconstruction aid because of contractor overcharges and unsupported expenses, and federal investigators warned Thursday that significantly more taxpayer money is at risk," reports the AP. "The three top auditors overseeing work in Iraq told a House committee their review of $57 billion in Iraq contracts found that Defense and State department officials condoned or allowed repeated work delays, bloated expenses and payments for shoddy work or work never done."
Among those presidential contenders not serving in the Senate, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani headlines a fundraiser in Richmond, VA tomorrow, and former Gov. Mitt Romney is in Florida.
CQ Politics reports, "Even though Giuliani stated, 'Yes, I’m running, sure,' in response to a question by [Larry] King about his candidacy status, that does not mean he is officially in the race to succeed President Bush, said Giuliani exploratory campaign spokeswoman Maria Comella. She told CQPolitics.com Thursday that a formal announcement 'is still coming.'"
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Among those presidential contenders not serving in the Senate, former Sen. John Edwards will be in Iowa and Las Vegas tomorrow talking about his universal health care plan. Former Gov. Bill Richardson is in New Hampshire today and tomorrow, keynoting a Concord, NH Democratic dinner tomorrow.
The New York Daily News writes that Clinton yesterday charged that a nuclear power company -- a client of Giuliani’s firm -- needs a safety review. “Following some recent scares at Entergy's Indian Point nuclear power plant in Westchester County, Clinton has reintroduced a bill that would force a stepped-up review of the plant by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission… Left unsaid was that Entergy is a major client of Giuliani Partners, which for years has worked as a consultant to develop Indian Point's evacuation and safety plans.” The article adds that the news “immediately put Team Giuliani on the defensive and underscored how the former mayor's private-sector client list could cause him a series of small headaches.”
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The White House communications office is e-mailing around David Broder's Washington Post column suggesting that Bush may be "poised for a political comeback... Like President Bill Clinton after the Democrats lost control of Congress in 1994, Bush has gone through a period of wrenching adjustment to his reduced status. But just as Clinton did in the winter of 1995, Bush now shows signs of renewed energy and is regaining the initiative on several fronts... More important, he is demonstrating political smarts that even his critics have to acknowledge."
In his weekly National Journal column, NBC political analyst Charlie Cook writes about the potential "vicious cycle" Republicans face in this hostile political climate. "Simply put, if a sizable number of GOP incumbents become pessimistic about their party's chances of reclaiming its majorities or if they conclude that getting beaten at the polls next year is a real possibility, we might see a disproportionate number of Republican retirements. If the GOP is forced to defend a large number of open seats, its chances of making a successful comeback in 2008 will get even worse."
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The Wall Street Journal looks at the looming possible compromise between the Democrat-run Congress and President Bush on fixing the Alternative Minimum Tax. "Congressional Democrats are eager to keep the AMT from ensnaring millions more middle-class taxpayers. They also must find a way to cover the estimated $50 billion cost of scaling back the tax this year. In recent days, Bush administration officials have signaled they may not oppose a likely method of covering those costs: raising taxes on the nation's wealthiest citizens... The Bush tax cuts have accelerated the AMT's reach into the middle class."
One Gulf Coast Democrat in the House has vented to the press about his frustration with how slowly House Democratic leaders are moving to boost hurricane recovery efforts.
House Financial Services chair Barney Frank doesn't have direct oversight over trade, but his comments yesterday that Democratic lawmakers are too concerned about globalization to support major trade legislation "show how difficult it will be to reach a compromise satisfying rank-and-file members while keeping open the possibility of further trade deals," says the Financial Times.
The
Los Angeles Times explores the extent of the risk taken by Libby's defense in not putting him on the stand. In his opening statement, Libby's attorney had "declared that Libby had been the victim of a White House conspiracy to make Libby the fall guy for the CIA leak scandal. But when the jury begins deliberating the fate of the former vice presidential aide next week, it will have seen virtually no evidence to back up the provocative claim."
From NBC's Mike Viqueira
Rep. Jack Murtha (D) says that he has figured out a way to stop Bush's so-called troop "surge" before it is completed, while still maintaining Speaker Nancy Pelosi's pledge not to cut off funding for "troops in the field." He tells MoveCongress.org in a Web cast this morning that he plans to attach strings to the president's $100 billion war funding bill that will effectively force the Administration to stall the troop increase.
The provisions he proposes include:
-- prohibiting the Pentagon from sending people back into battle until they have had a year at home after being deployed. He says he has figured out that in order to fulfill the surge requirements, the Defense Department would have to send people back after seven months at home;
-- prohibiting the Pentagon from extending tours;
-- ending the Pentagon's "stop loss" policy;
-- and prohibiting the establishment of permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq.
He says that the Pentagon would have to "certify" that any units deployed in the future were "combat ready." In addition, Murtha says that he is "considering" adding provisions to close Guantanamo and "bulldoze" Abu Ghraib. If his measures are enacted, he says, "they won't be able to continue, they won't be able to do the deployment." Murtha's defense appropriations subcommittee is the first stop in Congress for the president's $100 billion request for the remainder of this fiscal year. He says that it will be reported out of committee on March 15 and taken up by the House shortly thereafter.
From Elizabeth Wilner, Mark Murray, and Huma Zaidi.
Even as the House moves closer to handing President Bush a symbolic thumping on his planned troop increase in Iraq, it shares the spotlight today with Bush himself, some posturing Democratic presidential candidates, and a few of the Senate Republicans who were for their chamber's version of the resolution opposing an increase, then voted against it. They're now trying to kill the Senate's upcoming week-long President's Day recess to secure a vote on the measure.
Bush delivers a speech on the global war on terror which, if yesterday's press conference was any indication, will be an effort to give his allies in the House a boost and won't contain any olive branches for opponents of a troop increase. Bush also will talk about Afghanistan, NBC's Kelly O'Donnell reports -- specifically, about why some troops will have their tours extended to deal with the Taliban threat this spring. And he'll discuss "successes in the war on terror" around the world, including the killing of the leader of al Qaeda-linked group in the Philippines.
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The Washington Post covers the White House's credibility problem when it comes to intelligence about Iran: "The administration, conscious of its low credibility, believes it has gone out of its way to convince doubters that Iran is not Iraq all over again... Much as the Vietnam Syndrome dogged the foreign and military policies of a generation of U.S. presidents, the Iraq Syndrome has become an ever-present undercurrent in Washington."
The New York Times says Bush’s statement yesterday that certain factions inside the Iranian government are supplying Shiite militants with roadside bombs that have killed US troops "amounted to his most specific accusation to date that Iran was undermining security in Iraq. They appeared to be part of a concerted effort by the White House to present a clearer, more direct case that Iran was supplying the potent weapons - and to push back against criticism that the intelligence used in reaching the conclusions was not credible.”
For the House debate over the non-binding resolution opposing a troop increase, "The extent of the Republican opposition to Bush's plan is the only suspense left," says USA Today.
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Someone please just let us know when Rudy Giuliani plans to make his actual announcement speech, because he's already announced his candidacy a handful of times. On CNN last night: "Yes, I'm running, sure." In California earlier this week: "Sure, I'm running." Etc.
The New York Times focuses on Giuliani's remarks on CNN concerning Iraq, which included criticism of Bush’s handling of the war. “He said that the United States went to war with far too few forces and was wrong to dismantle Saddam Hussein’s military and government, and he conceded that if more information had been available about Iraq’s weapons, Congress never would have approved the war.”
Giuliani is now checking with the Federal Election Commission about how to handle his $100,000 fees for the remaining speeches on his schedule. "Giuliani's aides said he will not accept any more requests for paid speeches."
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Edwards yesterday "called on his former colleagues to go further than their non-binding criticism of President Bush’s 'surge' plan, recommended a lower troop ceiling than other Democrats have" -- of 100,000 -- "and charged that the original congressional authorization no longer applies to the war." Edwards "also said he would not support such a cut-off for existing operations."
The New York Daily News observes how Bill Clinton has so far been absent from the campaign trial. “But the Daily News has learned that will soon change, with plans to haul out the Bubba gun for a mega-fund-raiser next month where top backers will be asked to raise $250,000 apiece.”
Ebony's Barack-and-Michelle issue is selling noticeably better than most issues of the magazine.
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The Washington Post's Milbank observes of Bush's press conference yesterday, "The president seemed petulant in his refusal to answer questions; he was, after all, the one who summoned reporters to the White House for the purpose of questioning him. Probably, it was the tone of the questions that set him off: While Bush freely voiced his beliefs, the reporters seemed disinclined to accept his statements of faith."
Fed chief Ben Bernanke wasn't exactly bullish on making Bush's tax cuts permanent in his testimony before a Senate committee yesterday. He "urged action... to balance the budget and curb income inequality through better education, saying such goals should take priority." However, he also "said the benefits from raising revenues by letting [Bush's] tax cuts expire in 2010 must be weighed against the growth impact from higher taxes. He strongly urged Congress to strive to improve the government's balance sheet and said his biggest worry is the government is not prepared to finance baby boomers' retirement starting in 2011."
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Presidential contenders aren't the only ones announcing via the web: Al Franken (D) jumped into the Minnesota Senate race yesterday via a web video in which he "acknowledged that voters may have doubts about electing a former Saturday Night Live performer."
Franken tackled the question of whether his candidacy should be taken seriously: "'Minnesotans have a right to be skeptical,' Franken said in a video message on his campaign website… 'I want you to know: Nothing means more to me than making government work better for the working families of this state,' [he] said. 'And over the next 20 months I look forward to proving to you that I take these issues seriously.'"
The defense has rested in the Libby trial. Closing arguments are scheduled for Tuesday.
The New York Times front-pages the liberal blog that has been covering the trial, Firedoglake.com, which “has offered intensive trial coverage, using some six contributors in rotation. They include a former prosecutor, a current defense lawyer, a Ph.D. business consultant and a movie producer, all of whom lodge at a Washington apartment rented for the duration of the trial.”
And the FBI is investigating whether Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons (R) "accepted unreported gifts or payments from a company that was awarded secret military contracts when Mr. Gibbons served in Congress," the Wall Street Journal reports, updating a story it broke late last year. A spokesperson says that Gibbons "'held no special power in awarding defense contracts, which go through a multilevel approval process.'" The Journal notes that the Duke Cunningham case and "claims made against Mr. Gibbons have drawn attention to alleged congressional abuse of the classified or 'black' portion of the federal budget, which covers CIA, NSA and other secret government activities and has grown to at least $30 billion."
From NBC's Ken Strickland
In a speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Hillary Clinton says if President Bush has any plans for military action against Iran, he must first get new authorization from Congress. Her speech responded to all the recent developments with Iran, including evidence presented by the Administration last weekend suggesting that the Iranian government is supplying insurgents with bomb-making materials.
She said the evidence was "by no means conclusive," and later added that Congress needs "a steady stream of real verifiable" intelligence, while recalling the ramp-up to the war four years ago was based on "faulty" intel. "It appears the Bush Administration still doesn't "understand the facts on the ground," she said.
Clinton's language was strong, but echoed remarks made by others on Iran. She called for direct talks with Iran, but insisted "no option be taken off the table." She added that the Administration needed to "deliver a strong message ... and not tolerate this behavior" from Iran.
From NBC's Mark Murray
As we discussed earlier, President Bush's decision to hold a news conference today at 11:00 am ET is a way to thrust himself back onto center stage. But the news conference's timing (intentionally or not) will also end up overshadowing the House Republicans who are opposing his troop increase. Rep. Walter Jones (R), who is backing the non-binding resolution opposing the president's plan, is scheduled -- along with other GOP critics -- to speak this morning on the House floor at the same time as Bush begins his newser.
Timing, as they say, is everything in politics.
From Elizabeth Wilner, Mark Murray, and Huma Zaidi
The White House may cast President Bush's schedule of late as that of a chief executive who has many other responsibilities to attend to beyond watching the House vote on a non-binding resolution he doesn't plan to heed. But what the President's recent schedule has looked like is that of a lame duck. While the House debates and ultimately is expected to reject his new Iraq war policy, Bush is attending events on volunteerism and meeting with the leaders of Lithuania, Liberia and Panama. Tomorrow, this president who so likes to hit the road will give a speech on the war on terror in a Washington hotel ballroom.
Maybe this occurred to the White House, as well, since they just added a news conference to Bush's schedule for later this morning. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell reports that Bush will talk in his opening statement about his first conversation with his newly confirmed commander of US forces in Iraq, David Petraeus, and about the accord just reached over North Korea. He'll also talk about the House debate.
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"Top House Democrats, working in concert with anti-war groups, have decided against using congressional power to force a quick end to U.S. involvement in Iraq, and instead will pursue a slow-bleed strategy designed to gradually limit the administration's options," Politico reports. The effort will seek to "limit or sharply reduce the number of U.S. troops available for the Iraq conflict," and will "be supplemented by a multimillion-dollar TV ad campaign designed to pressure vulnerable GOP incumbents into breaking with President Bush and forcing the administration to admit that the war is politically unsustainable." Democratic lawmakers hope the strategy will help "circumvent the biggest political vulnerability of the anti-war movement -- the accusation that it is willing to abandon troops in the field."
The Chicago Tribune looks at how the White House has "downplayed the significance of the (House) resolution, although historians say congressional admonition of a president during wartime may be unprecedented.”
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Former Gov. Mitt Romney campaigns in South Carolina and New Hampshire. Romney's optimistic announcement speech yesterday contained "50 references to 'America,'" the Financial Times notes. "Romney referred to his faith in God and the 'sanctity of human life' but made no mention of his biggest political challenge, his Mormon religion."
NBC's Carrie Dann notes that Romney's speech also was noticeably light on the top issue on voters' minds: In his 18-minute address, he devoted less than 90 seconds to Iraq. Romney spoke for over 10 minutes before bringing up the war, and in his first mention of the conflict, he mistakenly said "Iran." Counting that instance, the tally in his prepared remarks for mentions of the word "Iraq" was a mere five, while he uttered his thematic word "innovation" a whopping 10 times.
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The New York Post reports that former President Bill Clinton helped his wife snag an endorsement from a key African-American official in South Carolina whom Obama had been courting.
The second Edwards blogger has resigned; the other blogger resigned on Monday.
The Des Moines Register writes up former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack's speech in San Francisco yesterday, in which he said "that corn-based ethanol will fail to meet the nation's renewable-fuel needs," and "proposed tax incentives to promote other sources as part of a long-term national energy plan.
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House Democrats are postponing the rollout of their domestic agenda until after the President's Day recess so as to focus more closely on the debate over the non-binding resolution opposing a troop increase in Iraq.
"Congress is poised to send President Bush a $463.5 billion spending bill that bears the imprint of the new Democratic majority and presages budget battles over defense and domestic priorities," says the Wall Street Journal. "Veterans' medical services, education and health care will see spending increases even as $3.1 billion is cut from Mr. Bush's 2007 request for military-construction funds to accommodate base closings overseas. Senate Republicans had protested the cut, but 23 of them joined Democrats on a... vote that sealed passage of the bill."
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The Washington Post also picks up on Bush's light schedule these days.
Here's something Cheney may address today in his speech to the National Association of Manufacturers: "business and labor interests are poised for a multimillion-dollar clash over a measure to make it easier for workers to unionize," says Roll Call. "Deep-pocketed corporate lobbying groups have joined together to defeat the proposal, today announcing the launch of a new coalition to coordinate their activities... Facing them is an informal alliance of labor groups... working across a divide in the labor movement to advance the measure... At issue in the fight is the Employee Free Choice Act. A top priority for labor unions and Democratic leadership, the bill would allow employees at a workplace to organize once a majority sign cards indicating they want to join a union."
The passing of GOP Rep. Charlie Norwood of Georgia has state officials quickly preparing for a special election to replace him. His Augusta-based district leans Republican.
Closing arguments in the Lewis "Scooter" Libby trial are expected to take place next Tuesday. Neither Libby nor Vice President Cheney is expected to testify. The Los Angeles Times calls that decision by the defense "a high-wire maneuver that drastically reduces the opportunity for presenting defense evidence... The move apparently reflects a decision by Libby's legal team that exposing Cheney and his former chief of staff to crossexamination could do more harm than good."
Rep. William Jefferson (D) is now being sued by a former shareholder of the bankrupt tech company whose ex-president already has pleaded guilty to trying to bribe Jefferson. "The lawsuit alleges that Jefferson, his wife, Andrea, and the former president of iGate, Vernon Jackson, 'acted in concert and conspired to use the funds of iGate' to solicit and deliver bribes from individuals and businesses in Africa and the United States. The suit charges Jefferson with soliciting and accepting nearly $400,000 in bribes from Jackson to promote iGate’s services in the U.S. and abroad. It further alleges that Jackson transferred 30,775,000 shares of iGate stock to Jefferson from 2001 to 2005." Jefferson is waiting word from federal law enforcement about whether or not he'll be indicted.
From NBC's Huma Zaidi
Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are debating via email today over whether they both support a phased redeployment from Iraq. On the campaign trail yesterday, Obama said the most "substantial" difference between his plan and Clinton's was that he supports a phased withdrawal while Clinton does not.
Today, the Clinton campaign fired back. "Senator Obama is mistaken," writes Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson in a statement issued earlier today. "Senator Clinton has long been on record in favor of a phased redeployment of our troops. In fact both she and Senator Obama voted in 2005 to begin such a withdrawal."
But the Obama camp is sticking to their position. In their own press release, Obama's press secretary Bill Burton says that only "Obama opposed the war in Iraq from the start and only Barack Obama has legislation that would, by force of law, begin a redeployment by May 1, 2007 and have all combat forces out of Iraq by March 31, 2008."
The email wars have begun ...
From NBC's Joel Seidman
Lewis "Scooter" Libby's attorney Ted Wells told presiding U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton that the vice president's office was informed over today's lunch break that the Cheney would not be called to appear as a witness. Wells said that the Cheney made himself available to appear in court on Thursday.
The defense indicated that it would rest its case by the end of the week.
From NBC's Mike Viqueira
House Minority Leader John Boehner got emotional this morning as he spoke about the "solemn" debate that the House is set to begin today over the non-binding resolution opposing Bush's troop increase. Boehner appeared at a stake out of House GOP leaders that featured an appearance by Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas, who recounted his experience as a POW for seven years in North Vietnam, and how it was 34 years ago today that he was released from prison and had his first full day of freedom. Johnson talked about how his captors would play audio of antiwar protesters back in the United States over the loudspeakers at the prison. He drew a comparison with the message that he believes Congress is sending with this debate.
Boehner, standing by off Johnson's right shoulder, began to shed tears. A moment later he took the microphone and -- referring to Johnson's remarks while speaking about the "solemn" nature of the debate this week -- got misty all over again.
From NBC's Mark Murray
Standing inside the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) officially announced for president this morning. Pointing to the innovations in the museum, he said, per his prepared remarks: "Innovation and transformation have been at the heart of America's success. If there ever was a time when innovation and transformation were needed in government, it is now."
And Romney came out swinging, it seems, at GOP presidential front-runner John McCain and even Venezuela president Hugo Chavez, although he didn't mention either name. "I do not believe Washington can be transformed from within by a lifelong politician. There have been too many deals, too many favors, too many entanglements… I do not believe Washington can be transformed by someone … who has never even managed a corner store, let alone the largest enterprise in the world." McCain has served in Congress since 1983 and has no business experience.
Seeming to refer to Chavez, he added: "We must campaign for freedom and democracy in our own hemisphere, now threatened by a second aspiring strongman."
CONTINUED >>
From Elizabeth Wilner, Mark Murray, and Huma Zaidi.
The House takes up Democrats' two-graph, non-binding resolution opposing President Bush's planned troop increase in Iraq. The measure is expected to draw as many as 60 Republican votes. Although the White House lobbied hard to try to head off a damaging vote on a similar resolution in the Senate, they don't appear to have waged such an effort in the House, where rules and sheer numbers give Democrats a firmer grip on the agenda. Bush told C-SPAN yesterday that he doesn't plan to watch the debate.
Democrats are billing this as a straight up-or-down vote, and as we reported yesterday, Republicans will not be permitted to offer an alternative resolution. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected say in her floor speech, "At the end of the debate, we will vote on a straightforward proposition: whether we support the President's plan or oppose it." Minority Leader John Boehner is expected to say that the "fundamental" question of the debate is whether Americans "have the resolve that will be necessary to defeat our terrorist enemies? Will we stand and fight for the future of our kids and theirs?"
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A new Gallup/USA Today poll finds that "Americans overwhelmingly support congressional action to cap the number of U.S. troops in Iraq and set a timetable to bring them home by the end of next year... - tougher action than the non-binding resolution the House of Representatives is to begin debating today." The poll also finds "majority support for congressional action on Iraq: 51% back a non-binding resolution, 57% a cap on troop levels and 63% a timetable to withdraw all U.S. troops by the end of 2008. However, 58% oppose denying funding for the additional troops." And Republicans get more blame for the scuttled debate in the Senate.
The Los Angeles Times focuses on the White House's decision not to try to lobby House members to oppose the resolution. "With Democrats in firm control of the House, Bush has little chance of derailing the resolution, which he has said he will ignore. But the White House also appears increasingly unable to unite Republicans behind its Iraq strategy."
The Hill reports that problems between Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer have flared up over Hoyer's refusal to allow Republicans to offer an alternative resolution. "This episode suggests that old tensions from previous disputes have not been laid to rest - tensions seen most recently in Pelosi's unsuccessful effort in December to push John Murtha (D-Pa.) as majority leader."
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Hot on Clinton's heels, Obama wrapped up his announcement tour in the Granite State yesterday, taking questions from a young audience that filled a university field house. NBC's Carrie Dann reports that Obama compared the obstacles faced by gay couples to those faced by his own parents, whose biracial marriage was considered illegal in the eyes of some state legislatures at the time of their marriage in 1960. (He clarified, though, that he supports civil unions but not gay marriage, noting that "it's going to be very hard to build consensus" around the latter.) When asked about his chief vulnerability, a perceived lack of experience, he pointed to his pre-Washington years as a state legislator, professor, and community organizer. "I think that people believe that me being a constitutional law professor for ten years is relevant experience because we've been ignoring our Constitution for the last six," he said, earning an approving roar from the crowd.
"Obama's advisers expressed general satisfaction with the initial campaign swing," the Washington Post reports. "Still, they do not underestimate the difficulties ahead... Their hope is that the judgment of Obama's readiness will not be reached only through the customary measures of experience on the national stage or as a governor, the route taken by most successful presidential candidates."
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The Washington Post front-pages the battle among the GOP frontrunners for the support of social conservative activists, which is complicated by the fact that conservatives aren't crazy about any of them. Romney, for example, will "host a private reception for Christian radio and television hosts during the National Religious Broadcasters' annual meeting next week in Orlando, and he is expected to be the commencement speaker at the Rev. Pat Robertson's Regent University in May. Not to be outdone, McCain will be feted by [the Rev. Jerry] Falwell at a reception at the religious broadcasters' convention, the latest sign of detente between onetime adversaries."
The Los Angeles Times covers Romney's progress in winning the Washington Establishment primary. "Romney's Washington endorsements, coming from lawmakers and lobbyists whose own political clout depends on backing a winning candidate, may help confer legitimacy on his campaign." Also, the House of Representatives "is a target-rich environment for Romney because it is a conservative bastion home to many Republicans who dislike McCain."
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Bush focuses on volunteerism today with a White House briefing and a visit to a local YMCA.
Following Obama’s presidential announcement in Springfield, Rove spoke in the Illinois capital on Monday, telling local Republican leaders “that it was essential for the GOP to accept and work with the new Democratic majority in Congress but said the party should not become timid or surrender its conservative ideals… ‘The president and our [GOP] leaders in Congress can act in principle, and yet we can work across the aisle to accomplish big things,’ said Rove… ‘Over the last 20 years, some of the biggest things that have happened in America have happened because Republicans and Democrats have worked together.’” (That’s quite a change in tone, isn’t it?)
"The Bush administration is close to a deal with Congress to pass pending trade agreements and form a common international economic agenda for the president’s last two years in office," the Financial Times reports. "The negotiations are designed to reach an agreement that would leave the administration six weeks to submit agreements with Peru, Colombia, Panama and possibly South Korea to Congress for ratification. The talks are complicated by mutual distrust and internal divisions but are edging close to a breakthrough, according to participants."
The New York Times covers yesterday’s developments, which featured a parade of prominent Washington journalists who testified that Libby never discussed Valerie Plame’s identity with them in July 2003. “It was unclear if or how the cumulative impact of those reporters saying Mr. Libby had not discussed Ms. Wilson with them would lead jurors to discount the testimony of the two reporters who said earlier that he had, in fact, discussed her with them.”
The Washington Post's Milbank finds the lighter side of the journalists' testimony, noting how Libby's team tried to build up the witnesses' credibility by pointing out how many Pulitzers they'd won.
From NBC's Mark Murray
So far, most of the presidential maneuvering, events, and attention have been coming from the Democratic side. But that's about to change tomorrow, when Mitt Romney -- from Michigan -- makes his presidential candidacy official. Yet proving that John McCain is not going to cede the entire stage to Romney, McCain's exploratory committee has announced it's holding a press conference tomorrow -- also in Michigan -- to unveil endorsements from the elected officials in that state who are backing McCain.
From NBC's Mike Viqueira
Below is the text of the House resolution on Iraq that will be the subject of a week long debate in the House:
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Disapproving of the decision of the President announced on January 10, 2007, to deploy more than 20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq.
(1) Congress and the American people will continue to support and protect the members of the United States Armed Forces who are serving or who have served bravely and honorably in Iraq, and;
(2) Congress disapproves of the decision of President George W. Bush announced on January 19, 2007, to deploy more than 20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq.
From Elizabeth Wilner, Mark Murray, and Huma Zaidi.
The Senate having forfeited its big chance to debate Bush's planned troop increase in Iraq (denying the handful of aspiring presidents in its ranks the chance to cast votes for or against it), the House takes up the issue and will occupy the spotlight this week. As NBC's Mike Viqueira notes, House Democrats had promised Republicans a vote on an alternative resolution of their choice, but that's not going to happen. Unlike the Senate, the majority in the House can do virtually anything it wants, procedurally speaking. Republicans are protesting angrily, but this is how the House works, prior Democratic pledges of procedural fairness notwithstanding.
The resolution itself will be simply worded; will express a sense of the House that Bush's policy is not the correct course; and will contain an expression of support for US troops, Viq reports. There will be no mention of funding the troop increase, pro or con. The resolution is being billed by Democrats as "a straight up-or-down vote" on the increase.
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The Los Angeles Times has one senior Republican member predicting "that 30 to 60 of his colleagues will back the nonbinding resolution, which would be the strongest repudiation of Bush's Iraq policy from Republicans since the war began... The resolution will have at least one GOP co-sponsor, North Carolina Rep. Walter B. Jones, a conservative who publicly broke with his party over the war in 2005."
Roll Call has more details on how the debate is expected to proceed: "While the Democratic leadership is expected to spotlight several freshman lawmakers who also are military veterans, other internal factions are seeking blocks of time as well, including the fiscally conservative Blue Dogs and the Progressive Caucus, which has endorsed funding a six-month redeployment plan." And on the GOP side, "Boehner will open debate for the Republicans... Ranking GOP lawmakers on the Intelligence, Armed Services, Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs committees will share control of the party’s debate time."
The Hartford Courant focuses on Rep. Chris Shays, the last GOP House member left standing in New England, and anticipates the hostility Shays will face back home if he votes against the resolution, as expected.
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NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports from the campaign trail in New Hampshire that Clinton drew large crowds but little passion. Attendees didn't seem emotionally committed to her. Mitchell also interviewed Roger Tilton, the audience member in Berlin who challenged Clinton to renounce her Iraq war vote, and Tilton said he still wants an admission from Clinton that her war vote was a mistake.
Mitchell also reports that Debora Pignatelli, who introduced Clinton at her home in Nashua yesterday, is going to meet with Obama today. Even though Pignatelli and her husband are longtime Clinton supporters, she says she wants to see what Obama is all about and isn't committed to Clinton. Four state senators Mitchell spoke with who attended Clinton's events also told Mitchell that they're uncommitted and want to see what Obama and former Sen. John Edwards are about. All agreed that the war is the most important issue, and that Clinton's answers on it so far are problematic.
The Washington Post notes how Clinton "veered away from drawing simple conclusions on issues such as the war in Iraq and health care, insisting that each is a complex problem that does not lend itself to a simple solution." In addition to refusing to say her vote for the Iraq war was wrong, she "pointedly refused to offer a comprehensive proposal" on health care "over the weekend, instead theorizing on how the current system is failing and criticizing those who she said believe that throwing more money at the problem will solve it."
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Rudy Giuliani toyed with the audience and the press attending his well-received California GOP convention speech on Saturday by fudging whether or not he was announcing his run for president.
Covering his remarks this weekend, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Giuliani telling California Republicans "that he wants to be a president who will ‘win the world for a set of ideas... that I believe come from God.’” More: “Giuliani lavished praise on President Bush, insisting Bush will have ‘a very strong place in history,’ in part because of his ‘very brave and very wise’ decision to go after al Qaeda in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.”
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A National Association of Secretaries of State meeting about the nominating calendar last Friday was pretty short. Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin, who moderated the debate, expressed frustration over the way the calendar is shaping up. He said the process has been "hijacked" by states, political strategists and the like, and is of no service to voters. California Secretary of State Debra Bowen said it's a "pretty safe" bet that California will hold its primary on February 5. Bottom line, nothing was decided -- they just passed a motion to meet with national party committee officials to try to sort this out. They want party "decision-makers" at the table and not just representatives from both sides there to "take notes." The meeting date is TBD but will probably take place in March or April.
In an interview with the Manchester Union Leader on Friday night, Clinton said "she will ignore her own national party's rules and campaign in New Hampshire even if the first-in-the-nation primary is set for a date that does not comply the party's predetermined calendar."
The Los Angeles Times' Skelton writes that for an early California primary, serious contenders "should discard any notion of competing only where people think as they do" in the state, "because a party's primary voters think pretty much the same everywhere... There'll be no particularly productive pools of ideologically based voters. Candidates will need to fish for convention delegates all over." Skelton adds, "One issue that voters of both parties and independents basically agree on everywhere is abortion. They don't want the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn" Roe v. Wade. He notes that Giuliani "seems to have the currently correct profile for California Republicans: backs the war, projects strong leadership, preaches the low-tax gospel and favors abortion rights. He should be able to sell that to Republicans all over the state."
The Wall Street Journal previews the report from the White House economic team that's coming out today. The CEA is predicting that "rapid gains in U.S. productivity can continue for the foreseeable future, as long as rising protectionist sentiment and higher taxes don't get in the way." Also: "Administration officials are optimistic they will see more productivity-driven earnings growth in the years ahead. That could help them score some political points with lower-wage workers, who have been falling further behind the well-to-do for years. It could help blunt attacks by Democrats that Bush policies have exacerbated differences between the haves and have-nots."
The Washington Times reviews the suddenly heavy bidding on Congress on legislation to address climate change, while the Los Angeles Times focuses on a sudden shift among key Republicans in favor of stricter fuel economy standards
The
AP reports that Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson is starting to do some work from his hospital bed.
Libby's attorneys begin their defense today. NBC's Joel Seidman says it will likely begin with a parade of witnesses, including prominent journalists, but whether or not the lawyers will call Libby himself and/or Vice President Cheney to testify remains a mystery. As Seidman notes, Cheney is in Washington this week and travels overseas next week on a trip to Japan and Australia, so the speculation is that if he's called to appear, Cheney would show up at the courthouse sometime this week.
The New York Times says that if Cheney testifies, as expected, it could carry risks for him. “If Mr. Cheney makes a statement that conflicts with the public record - and nearly every witness so far has done so at least once - it could prove embarrassing for him and for the administration.” More: “[T]he trial has chipped away at the public image of Mr. Cheney as a sober-minded policy architect and tough political combatant, never rattled by the sniping of critics or the fickle commentary of the press.”
USA Today anticipates that Libby's lawyers will try to "pit journalists from the same newspapers or networks against each other."
From NBC's Mark Murray
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- With the temperature here in the teens, and in front of thousands of bitterly cold yet enthusiastic supporters, Barack Obama (D) made his presidential candidacy official. "I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for President of the United States," he said.
In his speech, Obama touched on one of what will be the central themes of his campaign: that he can change Washington. "I recognize there is a certain presumptuousness -- a certain audacity -- to this announcement. I know I haven't spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington. But I've been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change."
That anti-Washington message appears to be aimed at the Democrat leading him in the national polls, Hillary Clinton, who spent eight years in Washington as First Lady and has spent another six-plus years in the US Senate. And perhaps the biggest political story in the next year will be whether Obama, John Edwards, or anyone else can defeat her for the Democratic nomination.
From WHO's Dave Price in Iowa
Don't get your panties in a wad, but Gov. Chet Culver is not a big fan of bringing Britney Spears to town. Local organizers (including Blank Park Zoo head honcho Terry Rich) are trying to put together a Kennedy Center Honors-type show filmed in the metro to kick off next year's caucuses.
Rich floated Britney's name a few months ago as a possibility to headline the event that would be taped about a month before the Caucuses and then aired nationwide the night before the Caucuses begin. National press wasn't all that kind to the idea of bringing in the pantiless pop star.
Gov. Culver told me he does like the idea of a national show. He thinks it adds to the excitement of the event, could hopefully get more people involved and could show off Iowa to a national audience at a time when other states are really working to steal the state's first-in-the-nation honor of starting the prez picking process.
But the Gov says he'd like organizers to focus their efforts on Iowa talent. He mentioned Superman (Brandon Routh, the man who's now playing him in the movies, is a Norwalk native) as a possibility. What about Tom Arnold? He's a friend of the Gov. Terry Rich says he hopes to know more about who's in, if there's an event at all, by June or July.
But the Gov says he'd like organizers to focus their efforts on Iowa talent. He mentioned Superman (Brandon Routh, the man who's now playing him in the movies, is a Norwalk native) as a possibility. What about Tom Arnold? He's a friend of the Gov. Terry Rich says he hopes to know more about who's in, if there's an event at all, by June or July.
From Elizabeth Wilner and Mark Murray.
This weekend brings an exceptional series of events in the presidential race, with Barack Obama giving his announcement speech and Hillary Clinton making her first foray to New Hampshire as a candidate. But the crowds and attention certain to be drawn by these two reinforces that all the energy at this early stage of the race is with the Democrats, and that the Republican field is failing to enthuse the party base, inspire the press, or -- with the exception of Rudy Giuliani -- capture the public's imagination.
Conservatives lack a favorite among the party's top tier of candidates. The media's love affair with John McCain's underdog, shoestring effort of 2000 dissipated as the 2008 version grew into McCain, Inc. The press corps is also skeptical of Giuliani's ability to go the distance and win the nomination. Former Gov. Mitt Romney is too little known. And overall, the party is still contending with the cold front of public opinion that froze them out of the majority last November and continues today because of President Bush's unpopular policies on Iraq. All three of the top candidates support a US troop increase.
The weekend's main event on the GOP side is Giuliani's address to the California GOP convention tomorrow.
CONTINUED >>
Now that the debate over non-binding resolutions in opposition to/support of a troop increase in Iraq has shifted to the House, the media is once again anticipating the White House's "most significant confrontation with Congress so far over its handling of the Iraq war," as the Financial Times puts it. House Democrats' version of the non-binding resolution "would oppose the escalation of the war but express support for funding the troops already on the ground."
"Democrats will allow Republicans to offer alternative language, and House GOP leaders said they are considering two possible approaches," says the Washington Post. "One is a resolution declaring that Congress will not cut off funding for U.S. troops. The other would establish a bipartisan panel to monitor Bush's new strategy in Iraq, including the troop increase. It would also offer benchmarks for Iraqis to meet, to show they are fulfilling their commitments to assuming greater responsibility for the war."
CONTINUED >>
Congressional leaders never seem to learn that PR flaps happen because of appearances and that arguments based on process often fall on deaf public ears. Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell made his party look obstructionist the other day when he had his ranks vote to effectively stall debate over a US troop increase in Iraq. Now Speaker Nancy Pelosi is struggling to get ahead of the fiasco over what size plane the military will supply for her to travel to and from San Francisco.
Republicans were quick to seize upon the request for a larger plane than former Speaker Dennis Hastert used, charging without basis that she wanted to fly her supporters around and host parties on board, casting it as a sign of Democratic arrogance. Pelosi's office was slow to note that they themselves had not actually requested the larger plane, but that the House Sergeant-at-Arms, a Republican appointee and former Secret Service agent, had recommended it. Bill Livingood issued a statement yesterday afternoon affirming that he had requested for Pelosi "an aircraft that is capable of making non-stop flights for security purposes, unless such an aircraft is unavailable."
CONTINUED >>
In his latest National Journal column, NBC political analyst Charlie Cook wonders whether Obama will become one of a small handful of possible alternatives to Clinton, battling with former Sen. John Edwards and perhaps others for that title, or whether Obama will break the race open somehow.
Obama tells USA Today in an interview that "the brevity of his political résumé is his 'greatest strength.'"
At his book party last night, Clinton campaign chair Terry McAuliffe was asked about Clinton's decision to reject federal matching funds -- and thus spending and fundraising limits -- for both the primaries and general election. NBC's Lauren Appelbaum and Andrew Merten report that McAuliffe replied that it's wrong for candidates to take taxpayer money: "We shouldn't take taxes to run our campaign," he said. "We can raise our own money and run our own campaign." McAuliffe also said he's proud of Clinton for being the first candidate to opt out of the public financing system, because she's a leader.
CONTINUED >>
The Hill points out that McCain’s vote against Gen. George Casey's nomination to become Army chief of staff "is a departure from a policy he outlined two years ago on the president’s prerogative to appoint advisers," and that critics "view McCain’s vote as an effort to distance himself from President Bush’s Iraq war policy while he lays the groundwork for his own presidential campaign." Still, "a McCain spokeswoman said that his earlier statement should not be taken out of context. She said it referred to filibusters of presidential appointments, not final confirmation votes."
The Wall Street Journal notes that during his fundraising tour of California, "Giuliani will huddle with [Gov. Arnold] Schwarzenegger, whose success as a Republican maverick offers a model for the former New York City mayor. Schwarzenegger has highlighted health and environmental issues."
Romney is heading to South Carolina before New Hampshire after he announces his candidacy next week. Romney's campaign says it's because of logistics "and the state party chief in New Hampshire said he is not concerned."
CONTINUED >>
The Manchester Union Leader has New Hampshire party leaders crowing that efforts by larger states to move up their primaries will only make the New Hampshire contests more critical. “‘Everything like this that happens is just making New Hampshire more important,’ Democratic Chairman Kathy Sullivan said yesterday. ‘The more states that move up, the more important we become and, ironically, the less important they become because there will be so many of them.’”
The Hill points out that campaign ads will start running earlier than ever, perhaps especially in the big states where retail politicking is impossible and where primaries are held earlier than ever.
The Washington Post notes that "[w]ith neither a president seeking reelection nor a vice president positioned as the heir presumptive, the Bush team will increasingly turn into a spectator in the nation's political debate." Although this means that "the contest will spare the White House the trials of a campaign,… at the same time, it means that no one will be making the case for the Bush legacy as 2008 nears." Also: "With no campaign at stake, Cheney's influence within the White House, though still potent, has clearly diminished."
The AP interviews one of the US attorneys fired by the Bush Administration, who said “his resignation was ordered… without explanation seven months after he received a favorable job evaluation. “‘I was ordered to resign as U.S. attorney on Dec. 7 by the Justice Department,’ [John] McKay said Wednesday… ‘I was given no explanation. I certainly was told of no performance issues.’” More: “His comments came one day after Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty acknowledged to the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Justice Department had fired seven U.S. attorneys in the West in the past year, most of them for ‘performance-related’ reasons he would not divulge.”
House Energy and Commerce chair John Dingell tells Bloomberg in an interview that he will start work on global warming legislation next week while striving to preserve auto industry jobs in his home state of Michigan," and that "[e]verything from requiring service stations to have pumps for E-85, an ethanol based fuel, to scrapping fuel economy standards in favor of measuring vehicle carbon emissions will be considered."
"Powerful House Democrats are pressing the Bush administration to persuade Tokyo to strengthen the yen, claiming the currency’s weakness is bolstering Japanese imports at the expense of US manufacturers," says the Financial Times. "The Democrats want Mr Paulson to distance himself from Tokyo at the Group of Seven finance ministers meeting starting in Germany today. But he is likely to resist pressure from Congress and European leaders to single out Japan."
From NBC's Mark Murray
In a speech this morning at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in DC, Democratic presidential hopeful Bill Richardson laid out his foreign policy vision, calling for a "new realism" to restore America's leadership in the world. He began by criticizing what he said is the Bush Administration's dogmatic approach to international affairs -- which he said has squandered America's military power, depleted its financial resources, emboldened its enemies, and isolated its friends. "So America needs to take a different path… We must work with our friends, our enemies, and everyone in between." Playing off of Bush's memorable "axis of evil" line, Richardson also called for "an axis of reason" to confront urgent global problems.
Demonstrating the breadth of his foreign policy experience -- as a former UN ambassador, international negotiator, and Energy Secretary -- Richardson identified six global trends the US currently confronts: 1) fanatical jihadism; 2) nonstate- and state-sponsored terrorist enterprises; 3) Asia's economic and military power; 4) Russia's re-emergence; 5) global economic interdependence; and 6) world health and environmental problems.
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From Elizabeth Wilner, Mark Murray, and Huma Zaidi
The political terrain on Iraq grows even less favorable for the White House and their congressional allies as intraparty opposition to a troop increase flares up again in the Senate and House Democrats weigh how to use the military spending request to curb Administration war policy. President Bush seeks a boost from a visit to the Department of Homeland Security, where he'll get a briefing on "priorities and efforts to guard against the threat of terrorism and keep America safe," per a White House e-mail.
House Democratic leaders say they'll use the power of purse to "change the direction of the war" and possibly close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, NBC's Mike Viqueira reports. At a press conference yesterday, Rep. John Murtha said his defense appropriations panel will pass a version of Bush's $100 billion war spending request for this year on March 15. Since March 15 comes well before May, when the last brigades will be deployed as part of the increase, Murtha says that would leave time for Congress to act. He also said he may use the war spending measure to close Guantanamo: "I would like to close it." Speaker Nancy Pelosi also called the forthcoming House Democratic resolution opposing a troop increase in Iraq "a first step."
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"The Defense Department's top civilian and its top military officer, undercutting the White House and other senior Republicans yesterday, said Congress doesn't endanger troop morale by voting on nonbinding resolutions opposing President Bush's Iraq reinforcement plan," the Washington Times says. "The two men's comments are in stark contrast to arguments made by Republicans, including the president's spokesman, Tony Snow, that a debate on resolutions could have an effect on the troops."
Bush's proposed war budget is prompting questions from the Congressional Budget Office and analysts over how much money Bush is requesting for the war and how much for future projects that could have no effect on troops and soldiers in the field now. The Boston Globe says "independent budget analysts expressed concern that the Pentagon is seeking extra dollars for non-Iraq-specific projects that have either spiraled in cost or are facing constraints in the regular defense budget."
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The days-long simmering spat over the size of the Air Force jet that will carry Pelosi between Washington and San Francisco has burst into the open. NBC's Mike Viqueira reports that the Pentagon sent Pelosi a letter last night informing her that they will offer her the same plane that was offered to her predecessor, Dennis Hastert. This plane is said to only be capable of reaching San Francisco non-stop under optimal wind conditions. The Speaker's office responded: "We appreciate Defense Department's continuing concern for the Speaker's security. We are reviewing their letter."
Republicans in the House have been raising questions about what they characterize as demands by Pelosi to the military for a plane large enough to carry "supporters" and Pelosi staff non-stop cross-country. Rep. Adam Putnam (R) yesterday called it evidence of Democratic "arrogance of office," while Rep. Roy Blunt (R) said he hears Pelosi wants a plane large enough for a sleeping chamber, or "Lincoln bedroom" aboard her "Air Force III," Viq reports. A Pelosi aide told Viq that she has never asked for a plane or space on a plane to accommodate "supporters." The aide called this "right-wing spin."
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The Los Angeles Times previews Rudy Giuliani's imminent prospecting tour of California -- New York, New Jersey and Connecticut "account for three-fourths of the money he has raised" so far -- and covers speculation among Republicans that he could do very well in the state.
Former Gov. Mitt Romney travels to Iowa for three stops, including a tour of the bio-renewable energy research facility at Iowa State University in Ames. In a front-page article, the New York Times examines Romney’s Mormon faith, which could alienate some of the conservative evangelical Christians he’s trying to court. “Mr. Romney’s candidacy has stirred discussion about faith and the White House unlike any since [John F.] Kennedy.” The article adds that he has set up a meeting later this month in Florida with 100 ministers and religious broadcasters, and he is considering making a public address about his faith, like Kennedy did in 1960 when he was confronted with questions about being a Catholic.
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Former Sen. John Edwards has a town hall on his health care plan in Charleston, SC. Per a spokesperson, he will discuss his plan's impact on the uninsured. Edwards carried South Carolina in 2004.
Gov. Bill Richardson will lay out his "foreign policy vision" and "his detailed philosophy to confront world challenges" at a speech this morning at the Center for Strategic & International Studies in DC. He'll probably reference his meeting yesterday with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to discuss Darfur and North Korea.
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The Boston Globe looks at how global warming has suddenly become a popular issue in Congress. "Since the current session began last month, lawmakers have introduced more than 10 bills addressing global warming."
The Wall Street Journal updates House Democrats' efforts to smooth the road in the Senate for a minimum wage increase. They're "preparing a $1 billion package of small-business tax breaks to be paired with an increase in the federal minimum wage, hoping to break a stalemate with the Senate... In doing so, the House is likely to avoid many of the revenue increases passed by the Senate in its small-business tax package, increases that have caused heartburn for business groups and lawmakers in both parties… Passage of a tax bill in the House would solve a major procedural issue that had been holding up progress on the minimum-wage increase."
The Washington Post says Bush's proposal to increase funding for national parks by $258 million next year strikes critics as "a sharp turn for a president whose previous budgets did not address maintenance and staffing problems at parks across the country," and "targets one of the few domestic areas where he has called for funding significant new initiatives in his fiscal 2008 spending plan."
The New York Times says Bush “may have found his inner Teddy Roosevelt.” But: “Most environmentalists would not say George W. Bush and Theodore Roosevelt in the same sentence, unless making an invidious comparison.”
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The New York Times covers yesterday’s testimony by, and cross-examination of NBC’s Tim Russert. “Mr. Russert, whose signature technique in interrogating officials on his television program includes confronting them with documents and texts of previous quotes, found the technique used on him.”
The New York Daily News notes that Russert’s testimony was “devastating” for Libby’s defense team.
The Washington Post's Kurtz says Russert's appearance was, "at bottom, a case study in the importance of controlling the microphone. On the air, NBC's Washington bureau chief asks the questions, frames the issues or serves up political insight. On the witness stand, by contrast, even the cockiest pundit is by definition on the defensive. Russert, a lawyer, measured his words and frequently answered the question he wished he had been asked rather than the query posed by Libby attorney Ted Wells."
From NBC's Mike Viqueira
An aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says that it is up to the Air Force to decide what type and size of plane will be required to ferry her back and forth to her San Francisco district. Republicans in the House have been raising questions about what they characterize as demands by Pelosi to the military for a plane large enough to carry Democratic "supporters" and Pelosi staff non-stop cross country. Rep. Adam Putnam (R), for one, says its evidence of "arrogance of office," while House Minority Whip Roy Blunt says that he hears she wants a plane large enough for a sleeping chamber, or "Lincoln bedroom" aboard her "Air Force III."
But here is what we know for a fact:
-- After September 11, Pelosi's predecessor, Dennis Hastert, was afforded the use of an Air Force passenger plane to go back and forth to his Chicago-area district. The speaker is, of course, after the vice president in the presidential line of succession.
-- At the recommendation of House Sergeant At Arms Bill Livingood -- a former Secret Service agent who was appointed to his current job by Republicans -- Pelosi has asked the Pentagon for a plane that can carry her non-stop to her home in California. Such a plane would probably end up being larger than the one used by Hastert.
-- The C-32, a modified 757, is one type of plane that would fit the bill.
-- Pelosi's aide says that she has never asked for a plane or space on a plane to accommodate "supporters." The aide calls this "right wing spin."
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From Elizabeth Wilner, Mark Murray, and Huma Zaidi.
President Bush heads to Virginia for the second day in a row, this time venturing into Shenandoah National Park. His back-to-back visits to the state may simply have to do with its proximity to Washington. But since Bush has shown no compunction about traveling halfway across the country on a day trip in the past, the repeat stops may have as much to do with boosting his standing in Virginia as with the snowy backdrop of Skyline Drive. Bush has lost a lot of ground on Iraq in this once trusty red state, first by the replacement of war supporter George Allen (R) with war critic Jim Webb (D), and more recently through GOP Sen. John Warner's prominent defection on a troop increase in Iraq.
If the Senate is at the back of Bush's mind today, it also takes a back seat, at least temporarily, in the debate over Bush's planned troop increase. Having taken an issue of great concern for the public and politicized it so much as to reduce it to a hollow procedural argument, the Senate yields the debate to the House. Democrats there, more firmly in control of their legislative agenda, are drafting a resolution opposing a troop increase and will bring it up for as much as three days' consideration next week. The House GOP leadership is expected to draft a resolution supporting the plan.
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Defense Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday that he expects the plan involving a US troop increase in Iraq to "take months, not 18 months to two years," and predicted that if the plan succeeds, troops could start withdrawing by the end of 2007, NBC's Scott Foster reports. Gates made these remarks yesterday while testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee about the Pentagon's $625 billion budget request, which includes $142 billion for war costs for fiscal year 2008. Gates also said the so-called "surge" strategy "is not the last chance," and that he would be "irresponsible" if he didn't consider possible alternatives in case the plan fails. One of those possible options, he indicated, would be to reposition US troops in Iraq "out of harm's way as much as possible and then see where we go from there."
The Los Angeles Times says the shift from the Senate to the House in the debate over the troop increase "may further isolate the White House and its Senate allies."
A New York Times analysis notes that Senate Republicans spent yesterday trying to counter the perception that they obstructed the debate. “It was a label they had successfully hung on Democrats for years, and they did not appreciate the role reversal.”
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Bloomberg previews Romney's speech today by noting how Romney "initially cast himself as a traditional-values Republican," but is now "styling himself as the heir to President Ronald Reagan's legacy of tax cuts... He is weighing a cut in the top individual tax rate from the current 35 percent; a reduction in the corporate income tax; and deep cuts in automatic-benefit programs such as Medicare and Social Security."
Following his announcement speech in Michigan on February 13, Romney will visit Iowa, South Carolina, and New Hampshire over a three-day period before returning to Boston. "Romney's decision to hold the campaign kickoff event in Michigan sends a clear signal of how important he believes his native state will be to his 2008 efforts."
The Detroit Free Press notes that "Romney had just 8% of the support among people who expect to vote in next year's Republican presidential primary, according to a recent The Detroit Free Press-Local 4 Michigan Poll."
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Sen. Barack Obama gave more from his PAC to 2006 candidates than any other presidential contender, but Sen. Hillary Clinton raised more than $15 million for candidates by headlining fundraisers for them, The Hill reports, adding that former Sen. John Edwards didn't give PAC contributions to any candidates last year.
Clinton is in the midst of her first series of Bush Pioneer-like (but bigger) fundraisers. "Clinton insiders said the senator hopes to demonstrate her preeminence in the growing field of Democratic contenders by raising $10 million or more in the first quarter and at least $60 million this year. Both of those numbers, if attained, would represent a record-breaking take for a presidential contest. The gathering last night was the first major step in collecting those totals," the Washington Post notes.
The Wall Street Journal focuses on the power of strong early fundraising to drive lesser-funded candidates from the field.
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McClatchy reports that while the Bush Administration adamantly opposes tax increases, “its proposed fiscal 2008 budget seeks to raise almost $81 billion in new revenue over the next five years by hiking user fees and other charges on taxpayers and businesses. Technically, changes to these fees aren't taxes. But for anyone who must pay them - everyone from recreational hikers to war veterans - it's a question of semantics.”
The Justice Department admitted yesterday to firing the US attorney in Little Rock "to replace him with a lawyer who had been an aide to Karl Rove" and a top aide at the Republican National Committee, reports USA Today. A Justice Department official told a Senate committee that the new hire was not inspired by politics and was based on his prosecutorial experience, including "a stint in Iraq as a military prosecutor."
The Chicago Tribune adds, “The current round of removals" of US attorneys "has attracted Democratic attention because of a little-noticed measure that was slipped into the Patriot Act Reauthorization last year allowing the White House to circumvent the Senate approval process for U.S. attorneys by making open-ended interim appointments.”
The Washington Times looks at the quandary facing Democrats as they contemplate how to deal with Bush's budget without proposing tax increases themselves. "Democrats said Mr. Bush makes wrong assumptions on future tax revenue, such as the Alternative Minimum Tax, but admitted they will probably make the same choices when they pass their own budget so they can also show a balance by 2012, and so they can compare 'apples to apples' with Mr. Bush. Democrats also will have to decide whether to show continued costs for the war past 2008... and whether to plan on having Mr. Bush's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts expire in later years, which would help government revenue but would put them on a collision course with the president."
House Democrats are offering hints of their longer-term domestic agenda, which they plan to roll out next week.
Fed chief Ben Bernanke warns that Democrats' protectionist reaction to increasing globalization, in an effort to sympathize with "middle-class economic angst," is the wrong way to address the growing income gap. Bernanke says "trends in technology were more important in widening the income divide," per the Financial Times.
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NBC's Tim Russert is expected to testify today. The
New York Times covers yesterday’s developments, which included four hours of audiotapes featuring Libby’s 2004 grand jury appearance “in which he repeatedly testified under oath that he had no recollection of several conversations about Valerie Wilson… His denials were in sharp contrast to the testimony over the last two weeks of reporters and government officials who were colleagues of Mr. Libby.”
From NBC's Mark Murray
Per a campaign source, NBC News has learned that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) will officially announce he's running for president on Tuesday, Feb. 13, in his native Michigan. After this announcement in Dearborn, first reported by The Politico, Romney will then travel to Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina over the next two days. And then on Feb. 15, he'll return to Boston, where he'll hold another major fundraiser at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.
Michigan, of course, is not only the site of a key early GOP nominating contest, but it's also the state where Romney's father served as governor.
From NBC's Mark Murray
At a breakfast meeting with Washington reporters today, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R), who formed a presidential exploratory committee last week, discussed his path towards winning the Republican nomination, answered questions about his foreign policy experience (or lack thereof), and emphasized the importance of domestic issues (education, transportation, and health care). Yet perhaps most interestingly, Huckabee -- who is trying to position himself as the true conservative in the field -- freely admitted his differences with President Bush, something that the GOP presidential front-runners have been reluctant to do recently.
For starters, he took issue with Bush's budget proposal that cuts Medicaid by lowering payments to providers, calling it "short-sighted." As he did on Meet the Press, Huckabee said it's "a huge problem" that most of his state's National Guard has been deployed to Iraq, saying it has taken an enormous toll on their families, communities, and employers. He also noted that, if elected president, he would try to speak to countries like Iran and Syria to help bring stability to Iraq -- something that Bush has been loathe to do. "I would not leave anything off the table," he said. "I don't think that talking to someone is a sign of weakness." Regarding the war itself, he added that the Bush Administration had a clear plan to topple Saddam Hussein, but didn't have one to bring stability to Iraq.
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From Elizabeth Wilner, Mark Murray, and Huma Zaidi
Senate Republicans have indefinitely stalled debate on the non-binding resolution opposing a US troop increase in Iraq, putting them at risk of appearing to favor procedure over policy on the public's top concern. Senate GOP leaders say they're concerned about fairness; Democrats are charging obstructionism. Of course, since the resolution is non-binding, some argue that this is all really a matter of procedure versus policy. Regardless, the party-line votes by John Warner, the lead sponsor of the resolution, and Chuck Hagel, the most vocal Republican opponent of a troop increase, put them in the position of having to explain why they were for the resolution before they voted against it.
It's now unclear when or if votes on the resolution will occur, NBC's Ken Strickland reports. Tomorrow, the Senate is expected to shift its focus to a must-pass government funding bill that expires next week.
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The Los Angeles Times says of the GOP's move to block debate over the Warner resolution that the "gambit dealt a setback to the nascent campaign to take on the Bush administration's management of the war. It also may mean that leadership in challenging Bush may shift to House Democrats... Senate Republicans, meanwhile, could be taking a major political risk in casting themselves as the barrier to a war debate that American voters have indicated they want Congress to engage in."
"Democrats said they would eventually find a way to put each senator on record," per the AP.
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"The heat flared up immediately Monday as Republicans lined up squarely behind Bush's budget... while Democrats castigated it as both heartless and fiscally irresponsible," says the Los Angeles Times. "The sharp divide seemed to shatter the spirit of bipartisanship that both parties had cultivated since the Democrats captured control of Congress in November's elections."
USA Today on Democrats' charge that Bush's budget is "disconnected from reality:" "Bush eliminates the $248 billion budget deficit by leaving out three critical factors: The budget doesn't project war costs beyond 2009. It underestimates future domestic spending. And it assumes that the alternative minimum tax will raise taxes on tens of millions of middle-income taxpayers after this year, even though both parties have said they won't let that happen. The AMT is intended to ensure that wealthy Americans cannot avoid all taxes."
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Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's just-filed statement of candidacy prompts even more speculation about whether or not someone with his personal history and moderate positions on social issues can win the Republican nomination. The Washington Post: "Giuliani's challenge, aides believe, will be to convince Republican primary voters that, despite his disagreements with conservatives, he will not overturn what has been party orthodoxy on many social issues... Giuliani also believes that, in a time of global terrorism, personal attributes such as leadership, decisiveness and strength of character can win over conservative voters who may differ with him on social issues."
The New York Daily News says his move yesterday "seemed mostly aimed at quieting persistent rumors that Giuliani isn't serious about running for President and might eventually pull out - just as he did in his Senate run against Clinton in 2000.”
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Politico's Simon reports that Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton may bail out on early debates because they require too much prep time and involve too much risk for the frontrunning candidates.
Per the Chicago Tribune, conservative critics are latching onto Obama's "adherence to the creed of the prominent South Side church he attends, Trinity United Church of Christ. The congregation posits what it terms a Black Value System, including calls to be ‘soldiers for black freedom’ and a ‘disavowal of the pursuit of middleclassness.’ In an interview late Monday, Obama said it was important to understand the document as a whole rather than highlight individual tenets.”
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From NBC's Mark Murray
Back in November 2006, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani placed his toes in the presidential waters when he formed an exploratory committee (that allows him to raise money for a possible presidential bid). Next, he lowered his legs knee-deep into the waters by hiring some key Republican operatives for a run. And now, he appears poised to jump right in.
NBC News has learned that Giuliani has filed a statement of candidacy today with the Federal Election Commission, a move that fellow Republicans John McCain and Mitt Romney have already made, but not Giuliani -- until now. This statement of candidacy doesn't guarantee that Giuliani will run, but it certainly moves him one step closer toward taking the plunge.
From NBC's Mark Murray
By now, there has been plenty of coverage of the speeches by the Democratic presidential hopefuls at last weekend's DNC winter meeting. But here are two other observations that haven't received as much ink:
1) Dean and the 50-state strategy
Howard Dean's 50-state strategy -- investing the party's financial resources across the country, even in the reddest of states -- has been a subject of controversy among Establishment Democrats since he became DNC chair two years ago. But on Friday, the speakers seemed to be united in support of Dean's vision. Chris Dodd declared, "The Democratic wing of the Democratic Party is being felt in 50 states across the country." Wesley Clark, whose own presidential campaign in 2004 was fueled in part to opposing Dean's bid, said: "The 50-state strategy is working." And even Hillary Clinton, who has been rumored not to be on the same page as Dean, credited the chairman for "helping to lead the charge for the victories we had in '06."
2) Criticizing Clinton
Many of the presidential hopefuls not named Clinton implicitly criticized the senator from New York (or some of her positions) in their speeches -- hardly surprising given her front-runner status. For starters, Dodd took aim at the non-binding resolution that she supports. "Frankly, I am disappointed that we can't find a way to do more than send a meaningless message to the White House." Obama railed against the current climate that has caused politics to become "small and calculating" -- which some have criticized Clinton for being. Edwards made the same point. "This is not the time for political calculation," he said. "It is the time for political courage."
From Elizabeth Wilner, Mark Murray, and Huma Zaidi.
The battle over funding for the war breaks out into the open today with President Bush's presentation of a $2.9 trillion budget that includes $245 billion in new funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, while the Senate debate over Bush's planned US troop increase in Iraq may get derailed.
The highly anticipated vote on a non-binding resolution opposing a troop increase is on the verge of not happening at all, unless a deal is reached quickly between Senate leaders Harry Reid (D) and Mitch McConnell (R), NBC's Ken Strickland reports. Reid has scheduled a 5:30 pm procedural vote that would allow the process to begin. But McConnell announced late Friday that all 49 Senate Republicans, including those who are chief sponsors and supporters of the resolution, will vote against the "motion to proceed," thereby keeping Democrats from obtaining the 60 votes needed to move forward toward a vote.
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The New York Times reports that Iraqis are saying Bush’s controversial troop increase set the stage for the single-worst suicide bombing of the war. “The critics said the new plan, which the Americans have started to execute, had emasculated the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia that is considered responsible for many attacks on Sunnis, but that many Shiites say had been the only effective deterrent against sectarian reprisal attacks in Baghdad’s Shiite neighborhoods.”
The Los Angeles Times says that even though passage of the non-binding resolution wouldn't directly affect the course of the war in any tangible way, "the immense symbolism of what may be the first formal rebuke of Bush's war strategy has produced the most passionate war debate on Capitol Hill since the invasion of Iraq... At its core is a furious argument over what the challenge really means - not just to the president, but to the military, to the Iraqi government and to America's enemies and allies in the Middle East and elsewhere."
The San Francisco Chronicle calls the debate over the non-binding resolution "a case study in how difficult it is for Congress to challenge even a weak president on a deeply unpopular war.”
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The Wall Street Journal puts Bush's new budget in the context of how, up until now, he has been able to spend on both guns and butter. "Ingredient one: strong revenue growth driven by an economy distinguished by surging profits and rising incomes at the top, which are taxed more heavily than incomes at the bottom. Ingredient two: tax cuts and spending increases, which arrived when the U.S. economy needed a boost. Ingredient three, and perhaps the most significant: the willingness of foreigners to lend to the U.S., which finances the budget deficit without pushing up interest rates at a time when Americans don't save very much."
The Chicago Tribune says that Bush, who has paid scant attention to deficit reduction, is sounding much more like a deficit hawk these days. “Bush's problem, as well as that of future presidents, is that it is easier to sell giving than taking away. So far, he has lowered taxes and raised military spending, and pushed through a Medicare prescription drug benefit for seniors.”
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The New York Daily News says that Sen. Hillary Clinton will launch her first big fundraisers this Friday. “First, Clinton is holding a closed-door powwow at a Manhattan law office, where would-be "HillRaisers" in Clinton's New York/New Jersey/Connecticut finance committee will be asked to commit to raising a minimum of $25,000 each. After that, the New York senator will host a ‘conversation’ at tony Cipriani for the ‘under-45 effort.’”
Bloomberg looks at how Clinton has won some fans in the health care industry and other corporate sectors since her Harry and Louise days. She tells Bloomberg in an interview that "there was no master plan to change her image as the bogeyman of the business world."
The Daily News also reports that "consumer advocate Ralph Nader said yesterday he'd be sorely tempted to mount his own 2008 presidential campaign if she wins the Democratic nod.”
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The New York Post notes how McCain and Hagel traded volleys on Sunday shows yesterday over the troop increase. “McCain (Ariz.) slammed a resolution Hagel (Neb.) co-sponsored with Democrats which critiques President Bush's proposed troop surge. ‘This is a vote of no confidence in both the mission and the troops,’ McCain charged on ABC's ‘This Week'… Hagel shot back, blasting McCain's resolution to set benchmarks for Iraq's government while not threatening to cut off funding. Hagel called it ‘intellectually dishonest’ - a phrase McCain uses against his critics.”
Columnist Robert Novak says that McCain, who sounded like Ted Kennedy on taxes in 2000, now sounds like Jack Kemp. "He wants to make the Bush tax cuts permanent... He supports radically scaling back the estate tax and does not now favor upper-income increases in the Social Security tax... It is difficult to measure how much the transformation of McCain from taxer to tax-cutter has contributed to his fading popularity among Washington's media elite, but the romance is gone. The change, however, has not boosted McCain's stock in Congress, particularly the House."
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One month into the new Democratic majority, Roll Call examines Lieberman's seemingly perpetual front-and-center role in the 51-49 Senate and his relations with the Democratic caucus.
The Pentagon has agreed to supply Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a jet big enough to fly her coast-to-coast non-stop, even though some Republicans in the Administration and on the Hill call it a "strain on a system that is charged with providing military transport for Cabinet officials and top generals and commanders. A permanent large plane for Pelosi... would mean less availability for other high-ranking officials."
Tape recordings of some of GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's private conversations in early 2006, made by his staff and obtained by the
Los Angeles Times, threaten to undo a lot of the bipartisan image and spirit he has cultivated in his second term. The recordings quote Schwarzenegger complaining about lawmakers of both parties, discussing "American resentment of illegal immigrants,... his taste for gas-hungry Hummers and... his wife's habit of tinkering with his speeches."
From NBC's Huma Zaidi
Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, former senator Mike Gravel of Alaska and former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack all had their turn to address the DNC winter meeting yesterday. While it might have been Biden's speech most were waiting to hear, it was Richardon's address that was perhaps the most worth hearing.
Richardson covered all the bases by touting his foreign relations and policy experience (typically not a strong suit for a governor) and reeled off a list of domestic issues that he has successfully addressed in his home state. Turning to Iraq, Richardson said "It's time for our troops to leave with honor." Unforgiving of Bush, Richardson accused the president of being blind to the anger gripping the country over the war -- which he called a symptom of arrogance -- and said emboldening terrorists was one mission the president had accomplished. He also called on the DNC to encourage all candidate to run "clean" campaigns. Richardson was a crowd favorite as we lost count of the number of standing ovations he received and managed to inject just enough humor into his speech so that we didn't notice it ran almost twenty minutes. (The DNC asked candidates to keep their speeches to about seven minutes.)
The usually loquacious Biden kept his address short and began by offering another apology for his remarks about Sen. Barack Obama. "I want to say that I truly regret that the words I spoke offended people that I admire very much," Biden said. Vilsack touted himself as an "outsider" who could bring real change to Washington while Gravel chided Democrats for not opposing the war when it mattered and said the Democrats' "mealy-mouthed" nonbiding resolution was not resolute enough.
From NBC's Carrie Dann
Political junkies generally track the progress of presidential campaigns by counting fundraising dollars, power-player endorsements, and big-name hires. But for a big picture of how the candidates rank in terms of campaign organizations, you can just watch the signs.
At the Democratic National Committee meeting in Washington today, eager supporters brandished the red, white, and blue signage of their preferred candidates. Watching the throngs of mostly student-aged campaigners waving signs painted a telling picture of how some presidential candidates run tighter ships than others. Sen. Chris Dodd's supporters, for example, cut an enthusiastic but narrow swathe across three rows of seats, while those sporting posters of Sen. Barack Obama and his megawatt smile fanned out throughout the crowded ballroom. But the ocean of blue "Hillary" signs that surged as the New York senator took the stage demonstrated how her army had orchestrated an effort to turn the meeting into a Clinton campaign event.
Even more remarkable was the almost military precision with which the poster-bearers shifted their stances in order to surround a small crowd of anti-war protestors who momentarily disrupted Clinton's speech with cries of "bring them home!" Within moments, Team Hillary visually eclipsed the dissenters in the back corner of the room. (A few police officers quickly silenced the protestors' verbal objections, as well.)
The DNC meeting, of course, will look like a high-school pep rally in comparison to the Super Bowl-like conventions in August 2008. But if you're looking to put your money on which of the candidates will come out on top, keep your eye on the signs.
From NBC's Ken Strickland
Senate Republican leaders are now saying they will block next week's Iraq debate with a procedural vote on Monday afternoon. Unless an agreement is reached between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell before Monday at 5:30 pm, it's unlikely that there will be any votes on any resolutions.
Republican leaders say Democrats have yet to give them assurances that they'll be able to have votes on resolutions they prefer which support the President's Iraq strategy. Democratic leaders say they've made various offers. Obviously the two sides can't reach an agreement.
The Monday vote, called the "motion to proceed to the bill," will require 60 votes to pass. And McConnell's declaration that all 49 Republicans will vote AGAINST it would kill any votes on the measures. McConnell made a point of saying that even Sen. John Warner (R), who opposes the troop increase, will vote with his party.
Democrats quickly accused Republicans of filibustering. "They have already rejected three compromises that would permit the Senate to vote on the President's plan," Reid said today in a written statement. "This obstruction is an abdication of their responsibility to the American people on the most important issue facing our nation today." But McConnell said today at a news conference that his caucus is "using procedure to ensure a fair process."
Stay tuned, as negotiations will continue into the weekend.
From Elizabeth Wilner, Mark Murray, Huma Zaidi, and Andrew Merten
Right about this time four years ago, Gov. Howard Dean appeared before the Democratic National Committee's winter meeting and said, "What I want to know is why in the world the Democratic party leadership is supporting the President's unilateral attack on Iraq." And then, famously: "I'm Howard Dean and I'm here to represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic party."
That speech -- and Dean's candidacy -- arguably transformed the race for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, the general election campaign, and the party itself. Not only is Dean now DNC chair, but all 10 declared and prospective presidential candidates who will speak today and tomorrow at its winter meeting have adopted his views or tone on Iraq. There isn't a Joe Lieberman in the field: All of them are critical of the war's conduct; all oppose Bush's call for more troops; and all are stressing their anti-war credentials. Even Sen. Hillary Clinton now says she has been "one of the most consistent and persistent critics [of the war]."
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A new problematic National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq surfaces. The Washington Post reports that this NIE, "presented to [Bush] by the intelligence community yesterday, outlines an increasingly perilous situation in which the United States has little control and there is a strong possibility of further deterioration… The document emphasizes that although al-Qaeda activities in Iraq remain a problem, they have been surpassed by Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence as the primary source of conflict."
NBC's Kelly O'Donnell reports that per a senior Administration official, "The underlying intel that went into the development of the NIE was also used to make decisions for the President's new strategy. It paints a picture of a very serious and complex situation on the ground and says that if action is not taken or there is rapid withdrawal, Iraq would deteriorate faster. And that's why the President changed strategy." Another senior Administration official tells O'Donnell, "We've been clear the situation in Iraq is very serious, and the President concluded after an exhaustive review that the best way to improve the situation is to help the Iraqis secure Baghdad so that the political situation can get resolved as well."
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A raft of positive economic data and comments from the Fed continues to buoy Bush's argument that the US economy is strong and his tax cuts should be extended. The latest: today's jobs report for January, which shows that businesses added 111,000 new jobs. Unemployment rose one-tenth of one percent to 4.6%.
The New York Times writes that Bush will ask Congress in his budget next week to cut more than $70 billion in savings from Medicaid and Medicare over the next five years. “The proposals, part of a White House plan to balance the budget by 2012, set the stage for a battle with Congress over entitlement spending. Even some administration officials say they cannot imagine approval of such large cutbacks in a Congress now controlled by Democrats.”
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Bush addresses House Democrats' retreat tomorrow and does a limited Q+A session.
Despite today's big report on the causes of climate change being man-made, tea-leaf readers see few signs of Bush Administration policy changing when it comes to global warming.
Paulson also tells Bloomberg that "Republicans and Democrats aren't as far apart on overhauling Social Security as their public posturing might suggest, and insisted all options are on the table."
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The Senate voted 94-3 yesterday "to boost the federal minimum wage by $2.10 to $7.25 an hour over two years, but packaged the increase with small business tax cuts and limits on corporate pay that could complicate its path to become law." A hike "would be one of the first major legislative successes of the new Democratic-controlled Congress." Still: "The measure presents a challenge to Democrats who must navigate between the demands of labor and other interest groups and the realities of the Senate, where Republicans hold 49 of 100 votes."
The San Francisco Chronicle suggests the news that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom had an affair with his campaign manager’s wife could possibly damage Speaker Nancy Pelosi because it’s an indictment of “San Francisco values.” “‘The only person who gets hurt more than Gavin Newsom is… Pelosi,’ says Dan Schnur, a GOP strategist… As Fox News and other national cable outlets seized on the scandal Thursday, Schnur said the story will resonate among conservative talk outlets precisely because Pelosi ‘spent the last 30 days surrounding herself with every child on the Eastern seaboard to put to rest the discussion of “San Francisco values.”
As promised above, here are the candidates' and prospective candidates' positions on the war:
BIDEN: Voted for the war resolution, but has since consistently opposed the management of the war. Supports the decentralization of Iraq (giving Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds equal stakes) and thinks the United States should involve neighboring countries in rebuilding the country. Supports a phased redeployment by the end of this year. Opposes Bush's troop increase, but doesn't support cutting the funding to stop it.
CLARK: Part of his appeal during his 2004 presidential bid was that he opposed the war -- but he strangely told press during the first days of his campaign that he would have voted for the resolution authorizing it. Opposes Bush's call for sending more troops to Iraq, but also opposes a timetable for withdrawal, saying that it could result in an emboldened Iran and weaken stability in the Middle East. Wants a dialogue with other countries in the region, especially Iran and Syria.
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In his latest National Journal column, NBC political analyst Charlie Cook looks at the frontrunners in the GOP field, noting that they all have obstacles to overcome in order to win their party's nomination. "For both McCain and Romney, the biggest hurdle may be convincing their party's conservative base that nothing disqualifies them. Giuliani ought to realize that's one hurdle he could never clear."
Seemingly on cue, The Politico reports that the co-host of an upcoming fundraiser for Giuliani is a former top aide of his with whom Giuliani's first wife publicly accused him of having an affair. Giuliani and the aide consistently denied the charge. "The decision to involve her in the Giuliani campaign is consistent with an apparent decision not to make much effort (which would probably be fruitless anyway) to conceal a personal life that some Republicans think will damage him."
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From NBC's Ken Strickland
The original non-binding resolution opposing President Bush's new Iraq strategy -- crafted by Sens. Biden, Hagel and Levin, and passed by the Foreign Relations Committee -- is now essentially off the table. Today, all three original sponsors have thrown their support behind a revised, less controversial resolution offered last night by Republican Sen. John Warner.
This melds the two bipartisan camps opposing the troop increase into one, thereby increasing the likelihood that the resolution will have majority bipartisan support when it comes to a vote. But it's still unclear if it can drawn the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster from White House republicans (and Joe Lieberman.)
On the Senate floor this morning, Biden says the "bottom line" of the two measures was the same: don't put US troops in the middle of a civil war. And he left open the possibility of stronger action later. "If the president does not listen to a majority of Congress... we'll have to look to other ways to change his policy."
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From NBC's Courtney Kube
In an extremely rare public reprimand of a four-star U.S. general, Sen. John McCain expressed "serious concerns" in his opening statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee about Gen. George Casey's nomination to be Army chief of staff.
"And while I do not in any way question your honor, your patriotism or your service to our country, I do question some of the decisions and judgments you have made over the past two and a half years as commander of Multi-National Forces in Iraq," McCain said. "And you'll need to explain why your assessment of the situation in Iraq has differed so radically from that of most observers and why your predictions of future success have been so unrealistically rosy," he later added.
From Elizabeth Wilner, Mark Murray, and Huma Zaidi
Sen. Joe Biden (D) certainly practiced his presidential campaign announcement enough, repeating his intention to run so often that his actual filing appeared likely to be anticlimactic. At least at first.
Despite all the trial runs, Biden still stumbled upon leaving the gate. His comments to the New York Observer about primary rival and fellow Sen. Barack Obama -- that Obama is "articulate and bright and clean" -- sparked a firestorm on behalf of the Illinois senator, who didn't appear to feel all that slighted yesterday. "He called me," Obama told reporters when asked about Biden's remarks. "I told him it wasn't necessary... I have no problems with Joe Biden." His shots at Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton for being latecomers to the Iraq war debate also got notice, though not as much.
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Gen. George Casey, Bush's nominee for Army chief of staff, has his confirmation hearing, in which he's expected to take heavy bipartisan fire over his performance in Iraq.
Yesterday in First Read, we reported that "the Administration has failed to adequately supply [Sen. John McCain] with information critical to Bush's new strategy." We further reported that in a joint statement with Sen. Carl Levin (D), McCain suggested that the Administration "does not intend to attach meaningful consequences for the Iraqis' continuing to fail to meet their commitments." Well, if McCain's criticism of the Administration sounded too good to be true, it was.
After questioning McCain about it yesterday, he made it explicitly clear that he does not feel that way, NBC's Ken Strickland reports. He later sought out reporters who questioned him about the joint statement to inform them that he never signed off on the press release written as a "Levin and McCain statement." Levin's office reissued the statement, taking McCain's name off of it. A Levin spokesperson says McCain's staffer signed off on the joint statement, but didn't run it by McCain first. Oops.
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The Fed gave Bush a boost yesterday in his effort to convince Americans that the economy is strong.
The Washington Post notes that Bush's comments about growing income inequality in the United States marked the first time he has addressed "a subject that has long concerned Democrats and liberal economists... They appeared to be another presidential nod to the evolving political landscape on Capitol Hill, now controlled by Democrats after a campaign that focused in part on their complaints of corporate greed and growing middle-class insecurity."
The Washington Times: "The markedly populist message, a divergence from the past, in which Mr. Bush has accused critics of practicing class warfare, was all the more noteworthy given his venue -- a speech at Federal Hall in New York, in the middle of Wall Street, the capital of capitalism."
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The Politico reports that "Rep. Loretta Sanchez has quit the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, accusing the chairman, Rep. Joe Baca, of telling people she's a 'whore.' Baca denied the charge." Sanchez "also cited concerns about whether Baca was properly elected Hispanic Caucus chairman in November and about his general attitude toward female lawmakers." She said "Baca had made the disparaging personal comment about her to California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and other legislators last year," adding that Nunez told her about it.
The Washington Times reports that Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office "is pressing the Bush administration for routine access to military aircraft for domestic flights, such as trips back to her San Francisco district... The sources, who include those in Congress and in the administration, said the Democrat is seeking regular military flights not only for herself and her staff, but also for relatives and for other members of the California delegation... Mrs. Pelosi's request is not new for a speaker, who is second-in-line in presidential succession."
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Interviewed at his Operation PUSH office in Chicago yesterday, Jackson said he had just gotten off the phone with Biden, NBC's Patrice Fletcher reporters. "...[I]t really was a gaffe," Jackson said. "I know Joe Biden to be a decent guy who overstepped his, who overstepped in his speech, and I hope that we can now early on get on to what he has to offer in such a good way." More Jackson: "The big issues upon us now is (sic) end the war and end poverty. But in a campaign, a misstep such as this can be fatal unless you correct it real soon." Asked if Biden offered an apology or a clarification: "Really more of a clarification. He need not, this is not …you cannot compare what Joe Biden did in this misstatement with, say, Trent Lott and his embrace of Strom Thurmond... You cannot compare this gaffe with a statement embracing that kind of philosophy and ideology."
Although overshadowed by the questions on the Observer article, Biden spent the remainder of his conference call with reporters yesterday arguing that his experience is needed to fix the problems the Bush Administration has caused around the world. "I can stem the tide of this slide and restore America's leadership in the world." Asked about what he has learned since his last presidential bid, in 1988, he replied: "I've learned to how to take a punch" -- a quality that will come in handy after yesterday.
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USA Today tackles the question of whether Rudy Giuliani -- "the thrice-married New Yorker," who's "a supporter of abortion rights, gay rights and gun control" -- can win the GOP nomination. "Republicans tend to stick with front-runners. In each of the last nine presidential elections, the GOP contender who led the field the year before the election has won the nomination. Despite Giuliani's edge at the starting line, however, there is widespread skepticism among insiders... whether he'll be there at the finish."
The Los Angeles Times is the latest to examine Mitt Romney’s recent reversals on abortion and gay rights. “For Romney, 59, the rightward shift on abortion and gay rights poses one of the main challenges of his candidacy: Can he convince social conservatives that he is one of their own and capture his party's nomination? Or will his late-in-life ideological swerve raise too many doubts about whether he shares their core principles?”
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The AP reports that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald "appears to be saving NBC newsman Tim Russert as his last witness." Previous witnesses "witnesses undercut Libby's claim that he didn't remember learning about [Valerie] Plame through official channels and was surprised to hear about her during a much later conversation with Russert. Any conversations he had about Plame, Libby said, were just recollections of what he heard from Russert... Russert says he did not discuss Plame with Libby."
The New York Times notes that Libby’s defense team sparred yesterday with former Times reporter Judy Miller over her “credibility and memory.”
