ABC News' The Note: First Source for Political News
W A S H I N G T O N, Aug. 13, 2004—<br> -- NOTED NOW
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17 days until the Republican convention81 days until election day
NEWS SUMMARY
Your intense August Friday (the 13th!!!!) political menu:
1. Waiting for the next series of shoes to drop in the McGreevey matter. (Expect something in the form of an Israeli sandal … .)
2. Watching the press lack its Davenport-level excitement as Bush and Kerry face off in Pacific Time on a Friday in Portland, OR.
3. The new CBO study confirming Ron Brownstein's view that the Bush tax cuts have gone disproportionately to the wealthiest Americans. (And we wonder why today's newspaper stories focus more on the percentage of the tax burden than on the absolute micro and macro dollar figures, which are just as striking … )
4. The new Bush campaign ad, all morning-in-America-ish about the Olympics and actually containing the line "Freedom is spreading throughout the world like a sunrise."
5. New Gallup numbers showing a Bush job approval above 50 percent.
6. The tan, rested, and ready return of John Edwards to the campaign trail.
7. Continued confusion and unrest in Iraq.
8. The Googling monkeys spending the weekend doing finger paintings to decorate the Sheekey Bridge over 8th Avenue.
9. Elizabeth Edwards doing her first solo campaign tour as would-be Second Lady, and Jack and Emma Claire getting their first major profile.
10. Another taste of how weather, sports, and criminal trials can blot out politics in the news whenever they darn please.
We expect the Cipel suit against Gov. McGreevey to be filed in Mercer County this morning — unless it isn't. Gov. McGreevey and State Senate President Codey have no public events.
If there are national political implications to the McGreevey drama in the short term, we haven't located them yet.
No single news organization is out in front yet on fereting out the backstory, but the weekend papers will, we bet, explode with color and investigative nuggets.
Meanwhile, in presidential politics: Watch the banks!
President Bush and Sen. Kerry are both in Portland, OR, today, and the traveling press corps will be asking and thinking about this matter:
"Since 2001, President Bush's tax cuts have shifted federal tax payments from the richest Americans to a wide swath of middle-class families, the Congressional Budget Office has found, a conclusion likely to roil the presidential election campaign," writes the Washington Post's Jonathan Weisman. LINK
"The CBO study, due to be released today, found that the wealthiest 20 percent, whose incomes averaged $182,700 in 2001, saw their share of federal taxes drop from 64.4 percent of total tax payments in 2001 to 63.5 percent this year. The top 1 percent, earning $1.1 million, saw their share fall to 20.1 percent of the total, from 22.2 percent."
"Girding for the study's release, Bush campaign officials have already begun dismissing it as 'the Democrat-requested report.'"
"'The CBO answers the questions they are asked,' said Terry Holt, a Bush campaign spokesman. 'To the extent the questions are shaded to receive a certain response, that's often the response you get.'"
Sen. Kerry brings his 15-day, 21-state, 5,000+-mile (8,000+ with Edwards' solo jaunts) post-convention tour to a close today when he holds a 3:15 pm ET rally at Tom McCall Waterfront Park. Kerry begins his day in Springfield, OR, where he holds a front porch event at noon ET.
President Bush begins his day in Los Angeles and flies to Portland, OR, for a small business summit at 3:15 pm ET. He finishes the day in Washington state at a 10:20 pm ET RNC fundraiser in Medina.
That means that the two candidates, if on schedule, will overlap on the ground in Portland for a decent amount of time.
Sen. Edwards meanwhile returns from his four-day vacation in North Carolina for a 12:15 pm ET front porch event in Flint, MI, the hometown of Michael Moore, who has not been invited, shockingly. Edwards then rallies Flint's Mott Community College at 1:15 pm ET, then heads to Rosemount, MN for a 7:30 pm ET Olympics-watching party.
And Elizabeth Edwards kicks off her first solo campaign swing today, participating in a tour with working women at three local businesses in Columbus, OH at 2:15 pm ET and hosting and African-American women's meet and greet at the Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Cincinnati, OH at 6:30 pm ET.
Tomorrow President Bush speaks at a rally in Sioux City, IA. The President returns to Washington on Sunday. Sen. Kerry is on vacation in Ketchum, ID, all weekend. Sen. Edwards is in Belle Plaine, MN and Fargo, ND, on Saturday and in Waterloo and Des Moines, IA and Springfield MO, on Sunday.
Vice President Cheney, who has no events today, speaks tomorrow at a campaign rally at Elko High School in Elko, NV. He is down on Sunday.
This weekend, America Coming Together bigwigs will convene in Cleveland, OH for a final, pre-election planning session. More than 500 top organizers will attend for what spokesman Jim Jordan calls a weekend of "inspiration, instruction, exhortation and canvassing." Guests include Ann Richards, Barack Obama, and Howard Dean.
On "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," George is on the campaign trail with Obama and Alan Keyes.
Later Sunday, C-SPAN's "Road to the White House" will air the entire 1971 Dick Cavett debate between John O'Neill and John Kerry on Vietnam.
McGreevey comes out:
McGreevey's speech was one of the single most memorable announcements in our news lifetimes.
As for political speeches, it was perhaps the most consequential since Bill Clinton denied having a relationship with "that woman."
The most important political question just might be what effect this all has on other prominent closeted gay Americans.
By engaging in some risky business, McGreevey loses his position as the top gun of New Jersey politics, and risks doing collateral damage to a party that has been far and away dominant in the Garden State by making all the right moves but now risks losing it.
The central figure here by all accounts is Golan Cipel. Cipel, an Israeli citizen, a published poet and former naval officer, met McGreevey while he visited Israel as the mayor of Woodbridge four years ago.
When McGreevey took office he was named the Governor's special assistant on homeland security, without so much as a routine background check in 2002.
At the time questions arose about Cipel and the Governor was asked by a reporter about rumors that he and the man were involved in a sexual relationship. McGreevey denied the allegations saying, "Don't be ridiculous!" "
Cipel has said McGreevey was impressed by his political knowledge, telling an Israeli paper in 2001 that McGreevey 'liked the way I thought.'" LINK
After much controversy, Cipel resigned from state government in August 2002. The relationship between Cipel with McGreevey soured after he left the state payroll, several sources close to the governor report. Those sources believe that Cipel thought that the Governor should continue to help him find a job.
In recent weeks, it has been reported that Cipel said that unless he was paid ''millions of dollars," he would file a sexual harassment lawsuit against the Governor.
McGreevey adviser Jim Margolis (no longer mired in a presidential race and available to offer advice to his Garden State client) tells the Los Angeles Times that Cipel threatened the lawsuit for weeks and added this about the governor's decision to resign. LINK
"He knew that once the word had gotten out about the lawsuit, regardless if the charges were false, that all that would be left would be a circus out there … "
Cipel has been in the United States under a work visa granted to foreigners with special skills not readily available among Americans. In dealing with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Cipel has been represented by the powerful Newark law firm of Sills Cummis Radin Tischman Epstein & Gross, another of McGreevey's top donors.
The papers on McGreevey's announcement: LINK; LINK; LINK; LINK; LINK; LINK; LINK; and LINK
McGreevey's speech. (Text) LINK(Overview) LINK
N.J. papers profile the career of Gov. McGreevey: LINK and LINK
The final day: LINK
Dina Matos McGreevey, the Governor's wife, and how is she dealing with the dramatic news: LINK and LINK
New Jersey Democrats react to the news of the once bright star of their party: LINK; LINK; LINK; and LINK
New Jersey reacts: LINK; LINK; LINK; and LINK
Reaction from the gay community in New Jersey: LINK and LINK
McGreevey: unanswered questions:So … what is in the lawsuit?
If the lawsuit isn't as, shall we say, "bad" as some think it might be, will Republicans in New Jersey hold their fire for fear of being mean to McGreevey?
Who tried to convince McGreevey not to resign?
Who ultimately convinced him he had to resign?
Was the Nov. 15 date a way to allow him to move the date up if demands that he resign sooner ring louder?
If he resigns before Sept. 3, necessitating a Nov. 2, 2004 election, who would run? (The parties would choose their nominees, but it only takes 800 signatures to run as an independent …)
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