The Note

ByABC News
December 9, 2003, 9:24 AM

W A S H I N G T O N, Dec. 8&#151;<br> -- Today's Schedule (all times Eastern):

7:05 am: Rev. Al Sharpton appears on CBS's "The Early Show"9:00 am: National Commission on Terrorist Attacks (9/11 Commission) holds its sixth public hearing, Capitol Hill. 9:15 am: Off-camera White House press gaggle with Scott McClellan9:30 am: House convenes for legislative business9:35 am: Rev. Sharpton appears live on Fox News Channel10:00 am: Supreme Court convenes, Capitol Hill11:10 am: President Bush signs the Medicare bill at the Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Hall, D.C. 12:00 pm: Gov. Howard Dean attends a campaign fundraiser at The Foundry, Queens, N.Y.12:30 pm: On-camera White House press briefing with Scott McClellan1:00 pm: Gen. Wesley Clark speaks about leadership and his plan to increase family income levels, Contoocook, N.H.1:00 pm: League of Conservation Voters holds press conference to unveil 2004 presidential candidate profiles, Concord, N.H2:00 pm: President Bush and Mrs. Bush attend a children's Christmas reception, White House 2:00 pm: Gov. Dean receives endorsements from New York City Council Speaker Gifford Miller and other local Democrats, New York City3:00 pm: Sen. John Kerry unveils a job creation and technological investment plan, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.4:30 pm: Rev. Sharpton appears live on CNN's "Crossfire"5:30 pm: Rep. Dennis Kucinich receives the endorsement of Dr. Patch Adams, D.C. 6:45 pm: Sen. John Edwards hosts a town hall meeting to discuss education at Oklahoma City University, Oklahoma City, Okla.7:00 pm: Gen. Clark appears MSNBC's "Hardball: Battle for the White House"7:00 pm: Ambassador Moseley Braun attends a campaign fundraiser, Chicago7:45 pm: Rob Reiner hosts a roast of Howard Dean at Metropolitan Pavilion, New York City8:00 pm: Sen. Lieberman attends a private campaign fundraiser, New York City9:00 pm: Gov. Dean attends a reception with celebrity comedians, including Janeane Garofalo, at Metropolitan Pavilion North, New York City9:00 pm: Sen. Lieberman attends a fundraiser at private residence, New York City10:00 pm: Downtown Dean Fundraiser at the Roseland Ballroom, New York City 10:20 pm: Rev. Sharpton appears on FNC's "On the Record with Greta Van-Susteren"

NEWS SUMMARY

The dirtiest little secret of the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination is that the pros running Dean's campaign know full well that the criticisms of The Doctor being made by the press and his opponents are often spot on.

They know he is regularly careless, volcanic, dismissive, self-important, mercurial, hypocritical, patronizing, and politically tone deaf.

(Even Bad Santa Joe Trippi wouldn't object to that. Neither would Trish, we bet.)

George Will turns in a must-read look at what he sees as Dean's maddening intellectual inconsistency. LINK

Tomorrow night's ABC News/WMUR debate in Durham, New Hampshire (featured on an hour-long Nightline and shown live on WMUR and on C-SPAN at 7:00 pm ET) is the last big-time 2003 chance for Dean's rivals to try to convince Democratic voters that they have a better vision for America, that they can beat George Bush, and, well, that Dean is careless, volcanic, dismissive, self-important, mercurial, hypocritical, patronizing, and politically tone deaf.

But, as yet another 72 hours of Dean coverage makes clear, nothing continues to succeed like success, and Dean's rapid-response TV ad strategy, fundraising, anti-Bush message, endorsements, and overall aggressiveness continue to bear fruit and get lots of press.

All those things are catnip to the Dean base, and they also impress political reporters, who are suckers for campaigns that are doing well magnifying every victory and minimizing setbacks (and flashes of unattractive candidate traits).

Time has a classic of the genre, mentioning Dean's past and future speed bumps, but mostly being blown away by how agile the campaign continues to be.

And now, ABC News' George Stephanopoulos has learned that the New Hampshire NEA, a major force in Granite State Democratic politics, will give their nod to The Doctor on the very day of the Dust-up.

And the Daily News welcomes Dean to a monster day of fundraising in New York with a piece about how deft his money machine has been. LINK

Greg Sargent of New York magazine got a hold of an e-mail sent by Howard Dean New York fundraiser Linsay Lewis about today's Big Apple day. LINK

"'As many of you know, December 8th is a very important fund-raising day for this campaign,' Lewis wrote last week in a private e-mail to big-money supporters. 'We are poised to raise more money than any Democratic primary candidate ever has in a single day a truly historic day that only New York can do!'"

"Democratic National Committee officials believe that the current record may be $2 million raised on one day in 1996 by Bill Clinton. Associates of Lewis say he has privately said the campaign is on track to beat that sum on December 8. But Dean spokesman Eric Schmeltzer perhaps dampening expectations denies Lewis made the prediction."

As for the other Democrats, Wes Clark is enjoying some good clips, while John Kerry continues to take some hits. Joe Lieberman is getting quantities of coverage, mostly mixed.

So even as Dean says arguably silly things about the president and 9/11, about the Soviet Union (sic), and about his sealed records (and check out Newsweek's exclusive about some stuff that is allegedly in there), he keeps flying high, all the way into Durham tomorrow.

Of course, it's hard to overstate the confidence of a campaign that takes refuge in a Judicial Watch suit as the path to justice.

Speaking of Dean and confidence, the campaign is turning the latest TV attack on him in Iowa by some anonymous wily Brothers in Arms on guns into a brilliant "you've got the power" response ad.

But we are shocked and horrified at the lack of outrage by Democrats outside of Burlington to a Demo-on-Dem attack ad by a group whose leaders have Harkin and Gephardt ties and unclear backers (We'll hold off on our guess ..).

And we are shocked and disappointed that Fournier et al didn't seem to advance this "whodunnit?" over the weekend.

Ron Brownstein watched the beginning of the ad wars last week, and concludes that fierce anger on both ends of the spectrum is what's feeding the fire and filling the coffers of the parties and the independent groups. And forget about a mandate in 2004. LINK

"In this environment, subtlety isn't likely to be a big winner next year. More likely, the next 11 months will look a lot like the last seven days, with polarization providing the resources and the rationale for unrestrained political warfare that divides the country even further."

And our final bit of self-flagellating press criticism for today:

Having given up trying to convince our colleagues in the political press to stop creating "must-win" states for the candidates, we are on the precipice of giving up trying to stop all coverage from being framed by the latest horserace polling data, regardless of the quality of the poll's methodology or, well, anything else.

As President Bush signs Medicare today, more conservative restiveness (in Washington, at least) about increased federal spending driven by the man who beat Al Gore.

Dana Milbank had a clear-eyed view of it over the weekend, although he didn't break the tie between the two spinning sides. LINK

President Bush does indeed sign the Medicare bill this morning and attends a children's reception this afternoon. His portrait will be unveiled tonight at the Yale Club in New York City.

Gov. Dean receives New York City Council endorsements this morning and holds those fundraisers tonight.

Senator Kerry unveils a job creation and technological investment plan at Stanford.

Gen. Clark speaks about family income levels this morning and appears on "Hardball with Chris Matthews" tonight.

Senator Edwards discusses education at a town hall meeting in Oklahoma City today.

Senator Lieberman attends New York City fundraisers tonight.

Rep. Gephardt has no public events today.

Rev. Sharpton has four TV appearances today.

Rep. Kucinich receives an endorsement from activist and Dr. Patch Adams in Washington, D.C. today.

Ambassador Moseley Braun hosts a fundraiser in Chicago tonight.

The Dust-up in Durham:

Two key debate Notes:

In a freakish coincidence that The Note can't explain, Tuesday is also the 25th birthday of politicsnh.com's James "Jimmy" Pindell, making him eligible to run for Congress. He logs on to washingtonpost.com today at 1:00 pm ET to talk about all things politics in New Hampshire be sure to quiz him about the Dust-up in Durham. LINK

Rumor has it that Tuesday night will mark a rare joint appearance in Durham of what the politico-media cognoscenti call "the two JZ's," who are, of course, Jill Zuckman and Jeff "Rhymes with Felony" Zeleny, both of the Chicago Tribune.

The AP's Holly Ramer writes up a UNH poll done for WMUR stating, "54 percent of likely voters in the Jan. 27 Democratic primary consider debates either somewhat or very important to their decisions. More than a third said they have watched at least one of the several debates that have brought the nine Democratic candidates together." LINK

More Food For Thought:

If you're anything like The Note, you adhere closely to the nutritional guidelines put out by our friends at USDA. And if you, like The Note, pay close attention to the billions in farm subsidies passed by Congress each year, you've probably noticed there is no correlation.

Our colleague Peter Jennings is taking this issue head-on in a one-hour primetime special on America's obesity epidemic. His report examines why if some notables in Washington are so concerned about Americans getting fat, they don't get together with other notables in Washington to ensure the money's going to healthy places.