Tuesday, February 06, 2007
CNN Political Ticker AM
For the latest, breaking political news, check for updates throughout the day on the CNN Political Ticker. All politics, all the time.
Compiled by Stephen Bach CNN Washington Bureau Making news today... A motion to proceed with the debate and vote on a bipartisan compromise measure failed on a largely party-line vote of 49-47. (CNN.com) "A day of posturing, finger-pointing and backroom wrangling came to nothing... Republicans insisted that the impasse will soon be broken. But the leaders of the two parties appeared to be far from a compromise last night." (Washington Post) The move leaves "in doubt whether the Senate would render a judgment on what lawmakers of both parties described as the paramount issue of the day." (New York Times) President's Schedule: Also on the Political Radar: ================================================================= Political Hot Topics (Today's top political stories from news organizations across the country) SENATE IRAQ DEBATE "SHUT DOWN BEFORE IT EVEN STARTED": A long-awaited Senate showdown on the war in Iraq was shut down before it even started yesterday, when nearly all Republicans voted to stop the Senate from considering a resolution opposing President Bush's plan to send 21,500 additional combat troops into battle. A day of posturing, finger-pointing and backroom wrangling came to nothing when Democratic and Republican leaders could not reach agreement on which nonbinding resolutions would be debated and allowed to come to a vote. The Senate's 49 to 47 vote last night to proceed to debate on Bush's new war policy fell 11 votes short of the 60 needed to break the logjam. Washington Post: GOP Stalls Debate On Troop Increase "LINGUISTIC SHIFT" ON MALIKI OFFERS BUSH "RHETORICAL LOOPHOLES": Four times last year President Bush stood with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and four times he offered glowing appraisals. Now, though, the president's comments about the Iraqi leader are couched with conditions and caution - rhetorical loopholes Bush will need to defend himself if the man on whom he has pinned everything fails. The president has gone from holding up al-Maliki as unequivocally "the right guy for Iraq" to tersely declaring that "what matters is whether or not he performs." Bush's linguistic shift on al-Maliki began last month when he announced his revamped Iraq war strategy. The president said the success of his new plan, keyed around dispatching 21,500 more U.S. troops, depends on the prime minister doing his part. AP via Yahoo! News: Bush being more cautious now on Iraqi PM RECONSTRUCTION "DEADBEATS": Foreign countries are billions of dollars delinquent on their pledges to help Iraq rebuild, and four years after the war began, the international reconstruction effort is still mostly funded by the United States. Some of the biggest deadbeats are Iraq's oil-rich neighbors, such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, which are both about a half-billion dollars in arrears, and the United Arab Emirates, which has failed to make good on one penny of a $215 million promise, according to Iraqi government statistics. The poor fundraising is another blow to President Bush, who in June assigned a special team to try to get other nations to meet their pledges -- but eight months later has little to show for it. Of $15 billion in initial pledges at the Madrid donors' conference in 2003 and in follow-up conferences, foreign donors have made good on about $4 billion. Italy, Canada and the United Kingdom are all more than $100 million delinquent, as is Japan, which has finalized only $1.5 billion of its $5 billion pledge. Washington Times: Iraq allies dawdle on aid for rebuilding FY08 BUDGET MAKES "FEW CONCESSIONS TO THE POLITICAL REALITIES" FACING BUSH: President Bush unveiled a $2.9 trillion budget on Monday that he said would wipe out the deficit in five years without raising taxes, setting up a clash with the Democratic-run Congress and charting a course for Republicans to continue his policies long after he leaves office. The budget, in four volumes and 2,500 pages of text, charts and tables, made few concessions to the political realities facing Mr. Bush. For a president less than two years from the end of his second term, and with his poll numbers low, it was a defiant statement of the principles he has championed for years: the power of tax cuts to drive the economy, the need to spend what it takes to succeed in Iraq and in the broader struggle against terrorism and the necessity of reining in spending on much of the rest of what government does. New York Times: Bush Releases Budget Aimed to Erase Deficit BUDGET IS "DEAD ON ARRIVAL" SAY LOBBYISTS: The White House's annual budget request may have as much to do with what the government ends up spending as Punxsutawney Phil's shadow has with the arrival of spring. But while Congress will craft the budget, the document, released yesterday, always creates a stir among lobbyists whose clients are eager to learn how they have fared. "It's a dead-on-arrival document that gets everyone in a tizzy," one Democratic lobbyist said. Dead on arrival because Democrats are eager to distinguish their priorities from the president's, and the Constitution grants Congress the power of the purse. The Hill: Lobbyists in a 'tizzy' over a 'dead' budget PROSECUTORS PLAY 90 MINUTES OF LIBBY GRAND JURY TAPES AT TRIAL: Prosecutors in the perjury trial of I. Lewis Libby Jr. on Monday played audio tapes in which Mr. Libby was heard testifying under oath before a grand jury that he had not discussed the identity of a Central Intelligence Agency operative with fellow administration officials in the summer of 2003. The sound of Mr. Libby's disembodied voice coursing through the courtroom vividly underlined the contrast between his sworn account and the testimony of the parade of prosecution witnesses presented to the jury in the last two weeks. Mr. Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, is charged with lying to that grand jury and to F.B.I. agents who were investigating the leak to reporters of the identity of the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson. New York Times: Libby's Grand Jury Tapes Are Heard in Court OFFICER WAXMAN PROMISES MORE POLICING: Halliburton? Tobacco executives? Vice President Dick Cheney? You've been warned. Representative Henry A. Waxman, the California Democrat who is the new chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is promising the sort of oversight that the Bush administration has not experienced before. "There has been no cop on the beat," said Mr. Waxman, who accuses Congressional Republicans of having abdicated their responsibility for oversight in recent years. "And when there is no cop on the beat, criminals are more willing to engage in crimes." Without constant policing by Congress, he said, "the bad actors feel they can get away with anything." New York Times: As New 'Cop on the Beat,' Congressman Starts Patrol WA BALLOT INIATIVE WOULD REQUIRE STRAIGHT COUPLES TO HAVE CHILDREN: A group of gay-marriage supporters could begin collecting signatures today for a November ballot initiative that would limit marriage in Washington to couples willing and able to have children. The measure would also dissolve the union of those who remain childless three years after marrying. Are they serious? Gregory Gadow, of the Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance, said the group hopes to make a point by parodying a state Supreme Court ruling last year that denied gays the right to marry because, among other reasons, such unions don't further the purpose of procreation. Gadow, a computer programmer who lives on Capitol Hill, said that premise "has never been subject to public examination." Seattle Times: Initiative ties marriage, procreation NEWSOM WILL GET TREATMENT FOR ALCOHOL ABUSE: Just days after disclosing his affair with a staff member married to one of his top political aides, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom admitted Monday he has a drinking problem and said he would seek treatment for alcohol abuse. During a regularly scheduled weekly meeting with department leaders in City Hall, Newsom said he has stopped drinking and that he is seeking professional help for his dependency. In a statement issued by his press office after the meeting, the mayor said he has no plans to step down from his job while he undergoes treatment. "Upon reflection with friends and family this weekend, I have come to the conclusion that I will be a better person without alcohol in my life," he said in the three-paragraph statement. "I take full responsibility for my personal mistakes, and my problems with alcohol are not an excuse for my personal lapses in judgment." San Francisco Chronicle: NEWSOM TO SEEK HELP FOR ALCOHOL ABUSE GIULIANI "IN THIS TO WIN": Hoping to squelch whispers that he isn't a serious presidential contender, Rudy Giuliani filed a "statement of candidacy" yesterday and hours later declared, "I'm in this to win." The former mayor suggested the only thing left to do was order the balloons and confetti. "I would bet that we are going ahead," he said while campaigning for Republican state Senate candidate Maureen O'Connell on Long Island. "We still have to think about a formal announcement and how to do it, but this is a pretty strong step." The filing put Giuliani in the same category as his chief rivals on the Republican side, Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, as well as Democratic front-runner Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and a dozen other presidential wanna-bes. New York Daily News: Rudy's Prez-ing luck OBAMA AND CLINTON "MAY JUST SAY NO" TO EARLY DEBATES: What if they gave a debate and nobody came? What if the media-political complex announced a presidential debate, hired a hall, sent out invitations, lined up 200 folding chairs for the press, and then the major candidates said: "Stick it in your ear. We're not coming." That could happen this year for one good reason: Major candidates are complaining that too many states are planning too many debates too early. Nevada has two forums and three debates scheduled already... Other states have already announced their own Democratic and Republican debates, but there are two developments that might alter things considerably. First, the Democratic National Committee is soon going to call the campaigns together to try to limit the debates. But that may not work. "It will not stop other organizations from holding debates," a DNC source admitted. More importantly, however, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton may just say no. They might do the unthinkable and just refuse to show up. The Politico: Obama, Clinton May Skip Early Debates TENETS OF OBAMA'S CHURCH CREATE "BUZZ ON THE INTERNET": [C]onservative critics already have begun a buzz on the Internet about a far less known part of his biography: his 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. "Commitment to God, black community, commitment to the black family, the black work ethic, self-discipline and self-respect," he said. "Those are values that the conservative movement in particular has suggested are necessary for black advancement. "So I would be puzzled that they would object or quibble with the bulk of a document that basically espouses profoundly conservative values of self-reliance and self-help." Chicago Tribune: Race is sensitive subtext in campaign CAN HE KICK THE HABIT FOR THE CAMPAIGN? After struggling to quit smoking in the past, Sen. Barack Obama is trying a cessation aid not available over the counter: public attention. Obama (D-Ill.) resolved to quit his cigarette habit over the winter holidays, just weeks before his expected presidential campaign would make photographers and reporters an even more regular part of his life. He said in a Monday interview that, although he has never been a heavy smoker, he has quit for periods over the last several years but then slipped back into the habit. On the cusp of a potential presidential bid seemed the right time to quit for good, he said. "I've never been a heavy smoker," Obama said. "I've quit periodically over the last several years. I've got an ironclad demand from my wife that in the stresses of the campaign I don't succumb. I've been chewing Nicorette strenuously." Chicago Tribune: Obama trying to quit smoking - again EDWARDS WILL REJECT PUBLIC FUNDS: Democrat John Edwards on Monday joined New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in saying he will not use public money for the presidential primary campaign or, if he wins his party's nomination, for the general election. The move by the former North Carolina senator is the latest sign of trouble for the public campaign funding system, created after the Watergate scandal to set limits and disclosure rules on contributions to presidential campaigns. Edwards said in an interview that he expects major candidates in both parties to raise unlimited private dollars rather than participate in the public system. He said he needs to do the same "to have the funds to be competitive." Edwards plans to start soliciting contributions for the general election soon, spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri said. USA Today: Edwards latest to decline public funds for presidential campaign ROMNEY TO ANNOUNCE HOUSE "WHIP TEAM": House Republicans supporting former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) will hold a Capitol Hill press event today to unveil new additions to their team - additions that move him ahead of Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) in public Congressional endorsements as the battle for Member support continues at a torrid pace between two of the leading GOP presidential hopefuls. McCain, viewed as the frontrunner for the GOP nod next year, named his six-person House whip team last week and also announced the support of three Cuban-American Members. Members of Romney's team will appear at an afternoon news conference at the Republican National Committee. About half of Romney's Capitol Hill supporters previously have been announced. Rep. Jim McCrery (R-La.), who is Romney's liaison in the House chamber, said the Republicans now on board constitute the former governor's initial whip team. "We'll be utilizing these 22 Members to bolster support for Romney here on Capitol Hill," he said. Roll Call: Romney to Add Names |
About the CNN Political Ticker
The CNN Political Ticker provides the latest political news.To sign up for our twice daily Ticker emails, visit CNN.com member services page. If you do not have a CNN.com account, you can register here. If you have any feedback, suggestions or news tips, drop us a line here. NEW IN THE TICKER
• Republicans stymie measure opposing Bush Iraq plan...• Lamont not done with politics • Streisand donates to Clinton, Edwards, and Obama • Ten protesters arrested in McCain's office • Giuliani to take next step to run for president • McCain recruits social conservative operative • Reid says budget full of 'wrong choices and wrong ... • Edwards unveils universal healthcare plan • Senate Budget chairman calls Bush's budget "discon... • Military officials: Newly confirmed commander en r... SUBSCRIBE
|
External sites open in new window; not endorsed by CNN.com
Pay service with live and archived video. 
