The Note

ByABC News
March 31, 2004, 1:43 PM

W A S H I N G T O N, March 31&#151;<br> -- TODAY SCHEDULE (all times ET)

FUTURES CALENDAR

NEWS SUMMARY

The President deals with baseball and fundraising.

John Kerry deals with jobs and surgery.

The nation deals with horrible new civilian deaths in Iraq.

The RNC gets litigious about 527s.

The AFL-CIO catches the media bug.

As does Al Gore (maybe) and the new liberal radio network.

OPEC TIGHTENS supply!!

41 gets emotional.

The White House begins to cast Bob Barnett-caliber stand-ins for the POTUS/VPOTUS murder board in preparation for their extraordinary, unsworn, still-unscheduled joint appearance before the full 9/11 commission.

"Thank you for that excellent question, Mr. Ben-Veniste. I think Vice President Cheney should probably handle that one "

Note to Dan Bartlett: we know you are busy, so here are our ideas; we hope Karen Hughes doesn't object:

Ed Gillespie as Thomas H. Kean

Josh Bolten as Lee H. Hamilton

Ben Ginsberg as Richard Ben-Veniste

Vin Weber as Fred F. Fielding

Susan Molinari as Jamie S. Gorelick

Trent Duffy as Slade Gorton

Andy Card as John F. Lehman

Newt Gingrich as Timothy J. Roemer

Tom Ridge as James R. Thompson

And, of course, no one is qualified to play Bob Kerrey.

Never in the history of the Republic has an upcoming event been so obviously crafted to serve as the basis of a "Saturday Night Live" sketch.

Why the President and Vice President want to visit jointly with the 9/11 Commission is beyond us, but it should be quite a (private) spectacle.

Too busy to read the papers today? Here's all you need to know.

David Sanger of the New York Times finally figures things out at the very end of his spicy and crispy news analysis:

"Ms. Rice's testimony will pave the way for interviews the commission tried to seal for months, with Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney themselves. As part of the same deal, they will answer questions in private and not under oath, but will permit questioning from all the commissioners and have dropped limits on how long they will testify."

"They will appear together, and thus presumably be able to correct each other's memories. And in the end, it is their performance behind closed doors but likely to leak quickly that may prove the most politically crucial."

Sanger is also part of the journalistic pound-of-flesh harvesting group, participants in that Washington ritual whereby an administration that has done a 180 has to stand there for a news cycle (or two) and be flayed by the Gang of 500 usually via Owl Eyes blind quotes.

Sanger's:

" (T)he pressure grows. And grows. And now people know that if you keep it on long enough, these guys will give way ." (Note Note: Lynne Cheney will HATE that!!)

"'They wait until a gallon of blood has been shed,' one administration official said."

The Fanny Dooley dream byline of Allen and Eggen in the Washington Post have this: "'The president's aides finally realized that the most important element of this president retaining power was for him to remain president,' said the political adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because Bush's inner circle does not like to discuss deliberations."

Janet Hook of the Los Angeles Times has all this:

"You could make a case that one of Bush's greatest strengths, which is resolve in leadership, can also be a weakness at times: My way or the highway,' said a Republican strategist who works with the White House."

"A senior Senate Republican aide said lawmakers were puzzled by the administration's failure to grasp the mood of a public that has little patience for any perception of stonewalling on subjects related to Sept. 11."

"The administration 'thought it could tell the American public that 9/11 wasn't important enough to send an adviser up to talk?' the aide said. 'Are you kidding me?' .

"Restiveness among Republicans in Congress added to the pressure on the White House to reverse course. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) took soundings from his colleagues and sent a clear message to the White House, according to a senior aide: 'Principle be damned. Change your principles.'"

And lest any of you be tempted to take your eye off of the Iraq transition ball, make sure you check out Steven Weisman in his New York Times must-read: "Three months before sovereignty is restored in Iraq, the Bush administration is still looking for an ambassador to replace L. Paul Bremer III as the chief American political presence in Baghdad."

Now, don't go acting like John Kerry is having a good news cycle either.

We'd Note two items in particular.

Racing well ahead of our cautious stand that we wanted to see more polling data before declaring the broad-based success of BC04 in defining John Kerry, our polling buddy Dan Balz writes this in his Washington Post must-read: "Some Democrats . worry that Kerry's campaign has been ineffective in countering the Bush attacks. Privately, they have begun to question whether the Kerry team has been too slow in making the transition to the general election campaign."

And in a nice attempt to hold Kerry accountable and to a standard of consistency (When ARE we getting that budget?), the Wall Street Journal's Calmes and Fialka write:

"In his plan yesterday, Mr. Kerry promised energy independence in a decade, although incentives for hydrogen-based fuel, wind and solar power probably would take several decades to have effect, analysts say. Missing was a specific proposal, which he featured earlier in the campaign, to raise auto makers' fuel-efficiency standards for passenger-car fleets to an average 36 miles-per-gallon by 2015, from 27.5 mpg now, for an estimated savings of two million barrels of oil daily."

OPEC news, per the AP "[O]il producers on Wednesday agreed to endorse tighter oil supply curbs, ignoring consumer country concerns about crude prices near 13-year highs, the Libyan Oil Minister Fethi bin Chetwane said."

Today, the Republican National Committee (in concert with the Bush campaign) will a discuss a complaint they're filing with the Federal Election Commission that accuses the major Democratic 527s of using non-federal funds (soft money) to illegally finance a war to defeat George Bush (a federal candidate) and elect to office Sen. John Kerry.

The actual complaint will be filed tomorrow.

Also today, the AFL-CIO caps its eight-day, 18-city "Show Us The Jobs" your with a rally in Washington featuring unemployed workers.

Tomorrow, expect the AFL to announce a major, nationwide ad buy on the subject, we are told, of "the nation's job crisis under the Bush Administration."

Today marks the end of the first quarter of fundraising for congressional candidates. The presidentials and party committees are filing monthly, so expect their March numbers 'round about the 20th or so of April.

Today, President Bush is in Washington, D.C. attending a luncheon with members of the Baseball Hall of Fame and a fundraiser at the Marriott Wardman Park.

The President will be shifting to doing more events for the Republican Party and candidates, but this will not be his last BC04 event, press secretary Scott Stanzel said. this morning.

The event tonight is the second major public fundraiser the president has attended in Washington. The last was on June 17 and brought in $3.5 million for the re-election campaign. The Vice President has attended one fundraiser in Washington, at the Mayflower Hotel on Oct. 29, that raised $500,000. Cheney is not expected to attend tonight's event.

Expect protests a-plenty by the AF of L C of IO and MoveOn.

Sen. Kerry receives shoulder surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston after doing an economic event.

Eyewitness to history: an occasional Note series:

ABC News' Ed O'Keefe, he of little sleep but hearty soul, provides this exclusive glimpse of life aboard the redeye back to Boston from the Left Coast:

"Kerry looked fairly good this morning wearing the same suit and tie as last night but he may be headed home to change before the satellite speech and roundtable. Still no word on whether third year Harvard Medical student daughter Vanessa will scrub in for the procedure. When asked if he would mind if she did, Kerry replied yesterday on his campaign plane, 'That's cool.'"

"Everybody was out cold the Secret Service moved the non-poolers an hour early, forcing them to wait on the plane for the candidate and pool. The luxury 727, with all brown leather, near fully reclinable first-class seats, was much more comfortable than the plane which crushed Kerry and the corps overnight from Seattle to Boston after Feb. 3. Teresa Heinz Kerry toured the press cabin, browsing at digital memories of the trail and desperately searching for her favorite New York Times reporter. Heinz Kerry attempted to wake Boston Globe reporter Pat Healy, poking him, with no success. The plane arrived an hour and 15 minutes late, to rain and cold, having left a sunny, star-filled evening in southern California On board for the Kerry cabin sleepover: Kerry, Teresa Heinz Kerry, Vanessa Kerry, Bob Shrum, Morehouse, Wade, and Warren."

Rice, Clarke, and the politics of the 9/11 Commission:

Philip Shenon and Elisabeth Bumiller drew the main story duty for the New York Times, writing, "President Bush bowed to growing political pressure " The duo also refer to the delight of the 9/11 Commission members at the White House's "sweeping concessions." LINK

David Sanger's New York Times news analysis is an absolute must-read, in which he demonstrates his understanding of this White House in these three key graphs: LINK

"His decision to reverse course, dropping his claim of executive privilege preventing public, sworn testimony by his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, was part of a distinct pattern that has emerged inside this highly secretive White House."

"The first reaction to most demands for outside inquiries, or for details about energy policy decisions or intelligence concerning Iraqi weapons or Nigerian uranium, has been to build walls: Mr. Bush, or more often Mr. Cheney in his stead, asserts a clear, inviolate principle that the president and his advisers need the freedom to gather information, develop policy and exchange ideas in private."

"But eventually other forces come into play. Gradually pressure builds until Mr. Bush's advisers including Ms. Rice herself in this case, several officials said determine that the cost is too high."

For the Chattering Class, there's little doubt about the reason for the shift in the White House's view.

The Washington Post's Mike Allen and Dan Eggen report that "Bush allies on Capitol Hill and elsewhere in Washington said Rice had undercut her position by repeatedly granting high-profile television interviews to rebut Clarke, and in the process discussing at length the very subjects that were of interest to the commission." LINK

The Los Angeles Times' Reynolds and Miller lead their paper's coverage thusly: "Caving in to pressure from both parties " LINK

Janet Hook provides the Los Angeles Times analysis piece with (positive) reaction from the Hill. LINK

The Los Angeles Times edit board: LINK

"Rice's appearance should have been an easy call. That it wasn't illustrates this administration's disregard for the public's right to know."

BC04 seems optimistic about the public's reception of Rice's public testimony.

"'Condi knocks it out of the park,' said a Bush-Cheney campaign official who requested anonymity. 'This person is knowledgeable and credible and has been on top of the global war on terror from the beginning. She is one of the administration's best assets.'" LINK