The Note
W A S H I N G T O N, April 9—<br> -- TODAY SCHEDULE (all times ET)
FUTURES CALENDAR
NEWS SUMMARY
Political dynamics to watch from now through Monday:
1. Violence, troop levels, civilian targets, and hostages in Iraq.
2. Will Vice President Cheney on his Asian trip be drawn into the Japanese hostage situation?
3. When does that PDB get declassified and who wins the spin war over it for the general public?
4. Where does the White House stand on "organizing" the pro-Bush 9/11 families?
5. What will the weekend polls show about the effects of Iraq violence on the President's standing? (The new AP numbers show mostly status quo. LINK)
6. Will pressure mount on Sen. Kerry to be more specific about Iraq? (Look for him to maybe talk about the topic again today, which he did on Imus, where he made no news on anything.)
7. When will the political community wake up to the staggering implications of Kerry's fish-in-a-barrel fundraising, and when will the campaign start to spend that money on TV spots big time?
8. Will Kerry make it through Easter without any Church controversy?
9. Which reporter next goes to a dinner party with Bill Clinton and gets the skinny? (And does Al Gore do his 9/11 visit today?)
10. Kerry new ad shoot. Shrum, Shrum, Shrum, Shrum, Shrum, Shrum, Shrum . . . .
11. Which Note readers will join the Noted Now bandwagon -- realizing that it is the best place for them to get breaking political news all the time at a glance? LINK
President Bush is at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. He will remain at the ranch throughout the weekend with no public events, doing lots of national security business. He meets with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Monday.
Sen. Kerry is campaigning in Chicago, Ill. He will be in Boston through the weekend, meeting with Democratic National Convention officials, filming new commercials, and celebrating Easter with his family. He will travel to Durham, N.H. on Monday.
In Alaska, Vice President Cheney and Mrs. Cheney participate in a rally with troops at Elmendorf Air Force Base (no relation to a certain Kerry aide), and attend a reception for Sen. Lisa Murkowski at the Alaska Native Heritage Center. The Cheneys then head off on their Asian trip.
The Senate is not in session because of the Easter holiday.
Tune in Sunday on "This Week," when ABC News' George Stephanopoulos be joined by former Pentagon adviser Richard Perle and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) for a discussion on the Bush Administration's foreign policy and the week that was on the Hill and in Iraq. Check your local listings.
The politics of the 9/11 Commission:
In his New York Times analysis, David Sanger writes Dr. Rice's testimony will not likely stem the debate over what the Bush Administration did and didn't do in the months leading up to 9/11. LINK
"As expected, Ms. Rice was polite, brisk and precise, if a bit apprehensive-sounding at the start. But by the end of the three hours, her tone was so emphatic and unemotional that she may have created as many new debates about the administration's reaction as she settled old ones."
"'This isn't over,' one senior administration official said after watching her. 'But we may have turned a corner.'"
The Washington Post's David Von Drehle examines Rice's testimony, which he suggests "did not end the scouring of the Bush administration, it helped to narrow the focus to this: What did President Bush and his senior advisers know in the summer of 2001 about a flurry of terrorist threats picked up by intelligence services, and what did they do about it?" LINK
George Will suggests in the Washington Post that Rice's testimony over the backdrop of the insurgency in Iraq has "increased public skepticism about an administration that radically underestimated postwar challenges." LINK
The Washington Post's E.J. Dionne posits "the degree to which Republicans are worried over what the commission will conclude can be measured with some precision. The more Republicans pick up (Senator) McConnell's line of attack, the more certain you can be that the administration has something to worry about." LINK
The Los Angeles Times' Maura Reynolds praises Rice's "powerful rebuttal" in deflecting criticism that the Administration brushed off warnings, before getting to her "on the other hand" analysis. LINK
"But on the critical question of what the Bush White House did in response to those warnings, Rice's performance was markedly less effective."
The New York Times' Shenon. LINK
The Washington Post's Eggen and Pincus. LINK
Greg Miller for the Los Angeles Times. LINK
USA Today's Walter Shapiro writes, "For all the not-since-Watergate hubbub that surrounded Rice's nearly three hours of sworn testimony, Thursday morning's hearing on the roots of the terrorist attacks was merely a single memorable scene in a drama that is far from completed." LINK
The Chicago Tribune's Bob Kemper and Jeff Zeleny: LINK
The Washington Times' James Lakely. LINK
And as Americans once became well versed in rule (6)(e) regarding grand jury secrecy so will they be able to converse at the dinner table about PDB's. LINK
The New York Post's Deborah Orin writes, "The most valuable thing Rice did was to try to take some of the poison out of the debate and explain that no one could magically change policies against al Qaeda overnight, instead of trying to shift blame elsewhere." LINK
USA Today's Judy Keen. LINK
The New York Post: "The Lady is a Champ" LINK
The New York Daily News leads its Rice coverage with some none too pleased family members of 9/11 victims. LINK
The Washington Post's Tom Shales writes, "if it were to be viewed as a battle, or a sporting event, or a contest -- and of course that would be wrong -- then Condoleezza Rice won it. Indeed, the national security adviser did so well and seemed so firmly in command of the situation yesterday, when she testified under oath before the 9/11 commission, that one had to wonder why the White House spent so much time and energy trying to keep her from having to appear." LINK
The New York Times' Alessandra Stanley looks at how it played on television while Noting the race and gender factors at play. LINK
"It was Mr. Kerrey who brought a touch of the extraordinary to a mostly tepid, inconclusive televised hearing. His wild-card questioning and difficulty remembering Ms. Rice's name gave the starchy national security adviser a chance to show, live on every network and cable news show, a flash of personality so often missing from her public persona."
USA Today's Peter Johnson reports on the three broadcast networks' decision to go live with Dr. Rice's full testimony. LINK
The Wall Street Journal ed board takes Bob Kerrey to task for his opening remarks. "We thought the former Senator had more class than to preface his remarks with a condescending allusion to the fact that Ms. Rice is a black woman."
The Boston Globe's Mark Jurkowitz reports on Sen. Kerrey's name mix-up and the other moments that Dr. Rice dealt with. LINK
Todd Purdum and Ray Hernandez report on President Clinton's secret discussions before the 9/11 Commission yesterday afternoon after the theater of Capitol Hill. LINK
"True to form, Mr. Clinton stayed an hour longer than planned, and sometimes answered questions that had not been asked, commissioners reported. He took time off from finishing his memoirs and "battened down the hatches to prepare for this very methodically," reviewing relevant documents and discussing the issues with former aides, one longtime associate said."
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