Tuesday, September 26, 2006
CNN Political Ticker AM
CNN Washington Bureau Making news today... Meanwhile, VA political scientist Larry Sabato confirmed the report on MSNBC's "Hardball". Sabato: "the fact is that he did use the "N" word, whether he's denying it now or not. He did use it." President's schedule: The President signs S. 2590, the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, at 9:45 am ET this morning at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. At 10:20 am ET, Bush will meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in the Oval Office. The two leaders hold a joint presser in the East Room at 11:40 am ET. At 1:30 pm ET, President Bush signs H.R. 5684, the United States-Oman Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act, at EEOB. Tonight, at 6:05 pm ET, the President attends an Iowa, Arkansas, and Wisconsin Victory 2006 Dinner at a private residence in DC. Also on the Political Radar today: President Karzai will follow suit later this afternoon, appearing with Frist at 2:15 pm ET, and with Hastert at 2:30 pm ET. ***** Political Hot Topics (Today's top political stories from news organizations across the country) NEW CNN POLL SHOWS GOPS HAVE EDGE ON TERRORISM, BUT DEMS FAVORED FOR NOVEMBER: Asked which party in Congress would better handle specific issues, respondents backed Republicans on terrorism (47 percent to 41 percent), while Democrats were again seen as better able to handle the economy (51-39), health care (57-32), immigration (44-40) and moral issues such as same-sex marriage and stem cell research (47-40). By a margin of 47 percent to 42 percent, Democrats were seen as the party better able to handle the situation in Iraq -- another figure that is virtually unchanged since August. Among the 573 likely voters responding, 55 percent said they would vote for a Democrat if the election were held now, while 42 percent said they would vote for a Republican. The poll also showed President Bush's approval rating is holding steady, virtually unchanged since the start of August. Forty-two percent of the adults questioned approve of how the president is handling his job, while 55 percent disapprove. CNN: Poll: Terrorism, Iraq very important to midterm voters RICE TAKES ON CLINTON IN MEETING WITH NYPOST EDITORS: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday accused Bill Clinton of making "flatly false" claims that the Bush administration didn't lift a finger to stop terrorism before the 9/11 attacks. Rice hammered Clinton, who leveled his charges in a contentious weekend interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News Channel, for his claims that the Bush administration "did not try" to kill Osama bin Laden in the eight months they controlled the White House before the Sept. 11 attacks. "The notion somehow for eight months the Bush administration sat there and didn't do that is just flatly false - and I think the 9/11 commission understood that," Rice said during a wide-ranging meeting with Post editors and reporters. New York Post: Rice Boils Over at Bubba WH, ALLIES PUSH THROUGH A "LESS RESTRICTIVE" BILL ON DETAINEES: Republican lawmakers and the White House agreed over the weekend to alter new legislation on military commissions to allow the United States to detain and try a wider range of foreign nationals than an earlier version of the bill permitted, according to government sources. Lawmakers and administration officials announced last week that they had reached accord on the plan for the detention and military trials of suspected terrorists, and it is scheduled for a vote this week. But in recent days the Bush administration and its House allies successfully pressed for a less restrictive description of how the government could designate civilians as "unlawful enemy combatants," the sources said yesterday. Washington Post: Detainee Measure to Have Fewer Restrictions "TENTATIVE AGREEMENT" ON DOMESTIC SURVEILLANCE BILL: Republican leaders said Monday that they had reached a tentative agreement to garner political support for legislation on domestic surveillance, in part by sidestepping the question of whether the president has the constitutional authority to order wiretapping without a court order. There was wide disagreement about the plan's impact. Supporters billed the most recent version as a way of requiring a court order for most domestic wiretaps. But civil rights advocates and even some administration officials suggested that it would maintain the status quo in allowing the continuation of wiretapping without warrants under a program approved by President Bush. New York Times: G.O.P. Reaches Tentative Deal on Domestic Spying Legislation CALLS FOR RUMSFELD'S RESIGNATION AS IRAQ TOURS EXTENDED: The Army extended the Iraq tours of another 4,000 soldiers yesterday as Democrats and retired officers ripped the leadership of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and renewed calls for his resignation. I'm not quitting, said Rumsfeld, who outlined a new policy of keeping Army brigades in Iraq longer and shipping stateside troops back there sooner to stop the slide toward civil war in Iraq... At a Democrats-only Senate hearing yesterday, two retired Army generals and a Marine colonel cited the strain on the troops as proof of Rumsfeld's poor planning and conduct of the war. Rumsfeld "is not a competent wartime leader. He knows everything except how to win," said retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste, former commander of the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq. "He has no comprehension of the human dimension of warfare," Batiste said of Rumsfeld. Retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton called Rumsfeld "incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically." New York Daily News: Rummy skewered over extended tours LOTT UPSET ABOUT LOCATION OF THESE DPC HEARINGS: Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) is threatening to punish Democrats for using an Appropriations Committee room for an unofficial hearing on Iraq oversight if it happens again. "They better stop this," the Mississippi Republican said. "This will be the last one or there will be retribution." Lott suggested that Republicans could hold GOP-only hearings or seek other forms of payback. But if he is looking for a culprit in abetting the Democratic Policy Committee's (DPC) hearing yesterday, he need look no further than fellow Mississippi Republican Thad Cochran, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, who controls the Dirksen Building room that Democrats used yesterday and have used for past hearings. The Hill: Lott threatens the Dems EU PANEL WANTS CHANGES TO SWIFT PROGRAM: A European Union panel has serious doubts about the legality of a Bush administration program that monitors international financial transactions, the group's leader said Monday, and plans to recommend tighter controls to prevent privacy abuses. "We don't see the legal basis under the European law, and we see the need for some changes," said Peter Schaar, a German official who leads the panel, in a telephone interview. The group is to deliver a final report this week in Brussels, and Mr. Schaar said he expected it to conclude that the program might violate European law restricting government access to confidential banking records... The European Union panel will not call for the program to be stopped, officials said. But it is expected to recommend that additional safeguards be put in place to check how financial records are shared with American intelligence officials. New York Times: Europe Panel Faults Sifting of Bank Data FRIST HAS "MODEST EXPECTATIONS" ABOUT PROGRESS THIS WEEK: Lawmakers will spend the bulk of the week debating the Homeland Security spending bill and Defense-related legislation and shaping a continuing resolution to fund the government until Congress returns for a lame-duck session in mid-November. A senior GOP aide said Monday that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has modest expectations for the week, with conference reports on Defense and Homeland Security spending joining a compromise terrorist detainee bill as the only must-pass items on the agenda. According to this aide, Frist also will include a continuing resolution funding the government through Nov. 17 in the Defense bill, which likely will be passed late Friday or Saturday. Roll Call: Frist Scales Back Scope of Final Week in Session A "PALPABLE SHIFT" IN MOOD... GOP NOW OPTIMISTIC ABOUT NOVEMBER: There has been a palpable shift in the mood in Washington in recent weeks. No longer are insiders in both parties sharing predictions of a Democratic rout of Republicans. Some on both sides had expected an election debacle for the Republicans, driven by the Iraq war, high gas prices and the perception that a Republican-led Washington can neither shoot nor spend straight. Now those perceptions have changed. A 58 percent majority of Democratic insiders polled by National Journal, as well as an overwhelming 94 percent of Republican insiders, say the Republican National Committee is doing a better job for November than the Democratic National Committee. Three weeks past the traditional Labor Day kickoff of campaign season, many Republicans are expressing greater optimism for their party's prospects on Election Day, now just six weeks away. Washington Times: GOP's uptick just in time for Election Day THE "DARK ART" OF "MICROTARGETING": There is no sexier topic in politics these days than "microtargeting." That's the new science (some say dark art) by which candidates use the latest data-mining technology to vacuum every last scrap of information about voters, then churn out custom-tailored messages designed to herd their supporters to the polls... The more information a campaign has on who lives at a particular address, the more tailored the pitch that will follow. A suburban mom? Make sure she receives material highlighting the candidate's strong stands on homeland security. An out-of-work pipefitter? Let him know that the candidate supports penalties on businesses that hire undocumented workers. Washington Post: In Ohio, a Battle of Databases "MUDSLINGING IS CRUCIAL TO THE REPUBLICAN PLAN" FOR MIDTERMS: While President Bush and national GOP leaders are attacking Democrats on such big issues as national security and America's role in the world, individual Republicans are hitting their opponents hard - below the belt, some critics say - on personal and local issues. Negative campaigning is hardly new, and Democrats are dishing dirt against Republicans too. But mudslinging is crucial to the Republican plan for this year's midterm elections, because the party's hold on power will probably hinge on shifting attention from the unpopular war in Iraq and other national issues that cut against them. Los Angeles Times: Negative Ads a Positive in GOP Strategy DEMS USING STEM CELLS AS A WEDGE: Traditionally, Republicans have enjoyed considerable success using so-called wedge issues -- stands on highly charged topics such as gay marriage, school prayer, abortion and flag-burning -- to splinter the Democratic coalition. This year, it's Democrats who are trying to make Republican candidates "look out of the mainstream," said Amy Walter, of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report in Washington. It helps that Republicans are split over stem-cell research. Some prominent party politicians -- among them California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tennessee Senator Bill Frist and Utah Senator Orrin Hatch -- back stem-cell research. Those Republicans who oppose research initiatives are coming under heavy fire from Democrats. Bloomberg: Bush Stem-Cell Stance Gives Democrats `Wedge' Issue in Campaign ALLEN CALLS SALON REPORT ABOUT SLUR "COMPLETELY FALSE": U.S. Sen. George Allen yesterday forcefully denied allegations that he used the n-word to describe black people while a football player at the University of Virginia more than 30 years ago. The Republican denounced as "completely false" a report published Sunday in the online magazine Salon.com, which quotes three U.Va. teammates as saying Allen frequently used the inflammatory racial slur. "This story and these allegations are false," Allen told reporters after a news conference yesterday morning with mostly black pastors in support of the proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in Virginia. "I don't ever remember ever using that word. That word was not a part of my vocabulary as was asserted in this article. It wasn't then, it hasn't been since then and it is not now. It is not who I was, and it is not who I am. It is contrary to every fiber of my being." Richmond Times-Dispatch: Allen denies using racial epithet SALON'S STORY: Teammates: Allen used "N-word" in college SABATO BACKS ACCOUNT: A noted political scientist joined one of Sen. George Allen's former college football teammates in claiming the senator used a racial slur to refer to blacks in the early 1970s, a claim Allen dismisses as "ludicrously false." Larry J. Sabato, one of Virginia's most-quoted political science professors and a classmate of Allen's in the early 1970s, said in a televised interview Monday that Allen used the epithet. Sabato's assertion came on the heels of accusations by Dr. Ken Shelton, a radiologist who was a tight end and wide receiver for the University of Virginia in the early 1970s when Allen was quarterback. He said Allen not only used the n-word frequently but also once stuffed a severed deer head into a black family's mailbox. AP via Yahoo! News: Professor says senator used racial slur BUSH RAISES $$$ FOR GOP IN CT, BUT NOT FOR SCHLESINGER: The president stopped first at a luncheon at a palatial Greenwich, Conn., home overlooking Long Island Sound. The event, hosted by investment banker Scott Franz, was attended by 65 people and raised almost $800,000 for the state GOP's coffers, according to White House press secretary Tony Snow. Most of the money is expected to help Republican Reps. Nancy L. Johnson, Rob Simmons and Christopher Shays, all of whom are locked in tough races with Democratic challengers. The White House is not supporting the candidacy of Republican Senate candidate Alan Schlesinger. He is running against antiwar Democrat Ned Lamont and incumbent Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, who lost the Democratic primary and is now running for reelection as an independent. Washington Post: President Speaks to Donors in 2 States LIEBERMAN TAKES A "TOUGHER TONE" ON IRAQ, BUT OFFERS "NO SPECIFICS": In his long-awaited speech on Iraq, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman borrowed liberally from Senate colleagues and retired military officers Monday, saying that the U.S. should "get tough" with an Iraqi political leadership unable to function without American troops. Lieberman lashed out at his main campaign rival, Ned Lamont, for suggesting that the U.S. pressure the Iraqis by setting a deadline for withdrawing American troops. "The truth is Lamont's plan is not a plan for changing course," Lieberman said. "It is a plan for giving up in Iraq." But Lieberman, in a 38-minute speech before a supportive audience at a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in this eastern Connecticut town, offered no specifics on how the U.S. might exhibit a tougher attitude or how the Iraqis might be pushed toward self-sufficiency. Hartford Courant: A Tougher Tone DeWINE GETS A MILLION-DOLLAR BOOST FROM BUSH: President Bush wanted to make the point in Cincinnati Monday afternoon: He wants part of his legacy as president to be that he cut taxes permanently. To do it, he will need to have Republican senators such as Ohio's Mike DeWine re-elected this fall. And that explains why Bush came to Cincinnati Monday afternoon to help DeWine tap into Indian Hill's almost bottomless well of Republican campaign money. So, once again, Air Force One touched down at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, and the presidential motorcade snaked its way through late-afternoon traffic to the Indian Hill home of John Barrett, CEO of Western & Southern Financial Group. The DeWine fundraising event was expected to raise at least $1 million for DeWine's tough re-election campaign against Democrat Sherrod Brown. Cincinatti Enquirer: Bush pushes tax cuts, DeWine BIG DIG A BIG ISSUE IN MA GOV DEBATE: The four candidates for governor sparred yesterday over the Romney administration's handling of the Big Dig, forcing Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey to defend the administration's role in the project. They also drew sharp lines on issues of immigration, education, and taxes. In the first debate of the general-election campaign, Healey targeted the Legislature, controlled by the Democrats, for refusing to approve Governor Mitt Romney's plan to merge the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority with the state's Highway Department so he could take over the project sooner. "Why did the Legislature stand in our way?" she asked. Deval L. Patrick, Healey's chief rival in the four-candidate race, said the administration should have persuaded the Legislature to approve the merger and to let Romney take control of the troubled project before a Jamaica Plain woman was killed in July. "It's your job to build those bridges," he said. "And it took a tragedy... and that is a shocking shame," Patrick said. Boston Globe: The barbs fly on Big Dig, taxes CLOONEY ON POLITICAL RUN - "THAT'S A BAD IDEA": Oscar winner George Clooney shrugged off suggestions Monday that he might run for political office - but he sure sounded like a politician doing it. The actor-director skillfully deflected a barrage of questions from reporters about a potential Clooney candidacy, after appearing at an event where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation aimed at helping stop genocidal violence in the Darfur region of Sudan. Told that fans are clamoring for the "Syriana" star to run for office, he said with a subtle head shake, "Believe me, you don't want me in politics." When asked what he thought about people wearing T-shirts urging Clooney to seek the presidency in 2008, he added, "I think they're probably kidding." Asked again if he would try to get his name on a ballot, Clooney said, "That's a bad idea." AP via Yahoo! News: Clooney shrugs off talk of candidacy OPRAH UNINTERESTED IN PRESIDENTIAL RUN FOR HERSELF, BUT OBAMA? Oprah Winfrey says her lawyers shouldn't have gone after the man who is trying to promote her as a candidate for president--and thinks she has a better option for the office. "I feel flattered by it," the talk-show host told The Associated Press on Monday. "My lawyers overreacted, I think, by sending him a cease-and-desist order because it really is a flattering thing." Well, who would Winfrey want to see in the Oval Office, if not herself? She let Larry King know on his CNN show Monday. "Any comment on this movement to make you president?" King asked her. "Is there a movement?" Winfrey asked, to which King replied, "[Crowe's] got a movement." After a little banter, Winfrey told King: "You know what I would say to [Crowe]? I would say, take your energy and put it in [Illinois Sen.] Barack Obama. That's what I would say." King: "Is that your favorite?" Winfrey: "That would be my favorite guy." Chicago Tribune: Winfrey's favorite guy: Barack Obama |
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