The Note
W A S H I N G T O N, April 19—<br> -- TODAY SCHEDULE (all times ET)
FUTURES CALENDAR
NEWS SUMMARY
Dynamics and developments to watch this week:
1. When does Powell speak? (And what does he say?)
2. What does tonight's ABC/Washington Post poll show? Lots of ground covered, from Iraq and pre-war intelligence to the issues and the campaign -- fasten your seatbelts.
3. When and how does the White House begin to trash in earnest a book for which the President did interviews?
4. As Congress returns, what strength and concern do Members take from their candidates' high-profile perfs (Bush presser and Kerry Meeter)?
5. Do we get that new Kerry ad?
6. Now the DNC has conceded that it hasn't figured out how to get contemporary footage of President Bush from public events like news conferences through channels it can use in spots, and the Kerry campaign has conceded that it wasn't able to get the vintage '70s "Meet the Press" footage itself, will somebody in the party take control and end the madness?
(Note how quickly BC04 got that Kerry $87 billion video in a usable form . . .)
7. Now the Dr. Rice showed up with oppo on Bob Kerrey, and General Ashcroft showed up with oppo on Jamie Gorelick, and Kerry showed up with oppo on Russert, will everyone in Washington assume that anyone they are facing off against in a televised appearance will be packing?
8. What time bombs (means testing, terrorism, the Heinz tax returns, the '70s?) exist in Kerry's otherwise-well-received "Meet" appearance?
9. What happens with everything on the ground in Iraq?
10. Does anyone else join the Spaniards in deciding against staying in Iraq?
11. Will the cable nets be swayed/pressured by today's Howie Kurtz piece to give John Kerry more "air" time?
12. Will Woodward stay in Kerry's stump speech, and for how long?
13. Will the blind quotes of one lobbyist in the Washington Post's Jonathan Weisman's piece on the record-breaking pork in a bill supposed to include modest tax breaks for exporters scuttle the bill? LINK
(New York-based media executives will be outraged!!)
President Bush speaks about the Patriot Act and attends a fundraiser for Sen. Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania today.
He speaks about the Patriot Act in Buffalo tomorrow morning before attending a New York City RNC Victory 2004 fundraiser tomorrow night.
He speaks to the teachers of the year, the national newspaper association and at a National Race for the Cure reception Wednesday at the White House in addition to meeting with Jordanian President King Abdullah. He speaks about Earth Day in Maine on Thursday morning before giving youth environmental awards at the White House.
He speaks about volunteering and attends an RNC fundraiser in Florida on Friday.
Sen. Kerry attends a fundraiser with Sen. Joe Lieberman this morning in Juno Beach, Fla., before holding a town hall with Lieberman in Lake Worth. He travels to Atlanta for another fundraiser this evening.
He campaigns in Tampa tomorrow morning and holds three separate Miami and Bal Harbor fundraisers tomorrow night. He is in New Orleans on Wednesday, Houston on Thursday, and Washington on Friday.
Vice President Cheney speaks at a fundraiser for a candidate for Congress in Roanoke, Va., today before attending an RNC fundraiser in Chattanooga, Tenn.
First Lady Laura Bush attends an RNC fundraiser in Kentucky on Tuesday afternoon. She is in Tennessee on Friday.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday hears arguments in cases involving detainees in the Administration's war on terrorism.
Tuesday is also the fifth anniversary of the Columbine massacre.
Woodward and the White House:
A Note challenge: keeping track of all the sentences today that begin with or somewhere contain the phrase, "According to the Woodward book . . . "
The right distrusts Woodward; the press quotes his accounts as gospel, as do some Democrats.
The Washington Post prints its second installment of excerpts from Bob Woodward's book, "Plan of Attack," this time focusing on the push to war by CIA Director George Tenet. LINK
In case you missed the first excerpt yesterday: LINK
And stolen from the weekend must-reads, Woodward continued his portrayal of Bush as the master of his own political destiny and of Karl Rove as the builder and co-architect, rather than the all-knowing manipulator. In Sunday's Post, a Woodward excerpt shows Rove beginning to make the case against Sen. Kerry on the war. LINK
"The record was that Kerry had been all over the map. Sounding like a method actor who believes his lines, Rove offered some readings from the Kerry record."
The New York Times' Steven Weisman writes the story that all of Washington will be reading and re-reading, about the notion that Secretary of State Colin Powell's "apparent decision to lay out his misgivings even more explicitly to the journalist Bob Woodward for a book has jolted the White House and aggravated long-festering tensions in the Bush cabinet. Moreover, some officials said, the book has created problems for the secretary inside the administration just as the situation in Iraq is deteriorating and President Bush is plunging into his re-election drive." LINK
LOTS of blind quotes here -- the suppliers of which are all apparent to Woodward, Lynne Cheney, and Bill Casey.
USA Today's Judy Keen gets the most detailed White House response to the Woodward book yet, writing that "a high-ranking Bush adviser" thinks the book "debunks the idea that Cheney and Pentagon officials concocted and exaggerated intelligence" before the war, instead making "it clear those conclusions came from the CIA." Keen details the instances in which Administration officials have refuted portions of Woodward's book. LINK
USA Today's Mark Memmott writes that while the AP's scooping the Washington Post on Friday printing leaked information may have ruined the meticulously planned public relations blitz, it could have also driven up sales. LINK
The Los Angeles Times' Schrader covers Condoleezza Rice's statement that contrary to what the book says, the President did not decide to go to war until March. LINK
AP's William Mann also writes up Rice's denial. LINK
The New York Times' Michiko Kakutani reviews Woodward's "engrossing" book, whose "harrowing narrative" shows the administration's mix of policy and politics, and "also underscores the role that fuzzy intelligence, Pentagon timetables and aggressive ideas about military and foreign policy had in creating momentum for war." LINK
The Wall Street Journal's Greenberger and Rogers write that the "issues raised in Mr. Woodward's 467-page book are significant because stalwart leadership in the war against terrorism has been Mr. Bush's strongest suit, as he heads toward the November election" and Note John Kerry's charge that Mr. Bush "misleads his secretary of state about his own planning for a war."
The morning shows:
The morning shows led with a combination of Bob Woodward's "Plan of Attack" and the situation in Iraq.
Woodward sat down with NBC's Matt Lauer on the "Today Show" to discuss his new book, telling Lauer that a top White House official defended the $700 million diversion of funds from Afghanistan to Iraq by saying the White House didn't want to disrupt "the karma of Congress." Asked if Gen. Tommy Franks' public denial that he was not planning war was a lie, Woodward said: "Well, it wasn't the truth." Woodruff will be on "Today" again tomorrow.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" to promote the paperback release of her memoir. Sen. Clinton seized on some of the revelations in Woodward's book and aggressively challenged President Bush. "It goes back to credibility and competence and this President has neither," she said.
In particular, Sen. Clinton repeated Woodward's charge that the Bush Administration "diverted resources" to Iraq away from "the war in Afghanistan against our primary enemy, Al Qaeda and their allies." Sen. Clinton deftly worked in a reference to her husband's Administration being "obsessed with Al Qaeda" and that they "passed it on to the Bush Administration."
On the subject of her husband's forthcoming book, Sen. Clinton said she doesn't vet his book but that every now and then he will show her a passage and she'll tell him: "That's interesting. But that's now how I remember it (laughter)."
Asked if she regrets her vote authorizing the use of force in Iraq, Sen. Clinton sounded very Kerry-esque and said: "I regret the way the President has used the authority that I and others gave him." She once again denied interest in being Sen. Kerry's running mate and disputed the notion that a successful Kerry candidacy would disrupt her own presidential ambitions for 2008. "I don't care about that. I'm very happy that somebody else has taken on the responsibility of running for president," she said.
