The Note
W A S H I N G T O N, Oct. 1 —<br> -- Today's Schedule (all times Eastern):
—9:30 am: Senate convenes for legislative business—9:45 am: Off-camera White House press gaggle with Scott McClellan —10:00 am: House convenes for morning business—10:40 am: President Bush meets with the president of Colombia, White House —10:45 am: Senator Joe Lieberman holds a media availability at Vanderbilt Caterers, Plainview, N.Y. —11:25 am: President Bush meets with the prime minister of Pakistan, White House—11:30 am: Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun participates in Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit, Scottsdale, Ariz.—12:15 pm: On-camera White House press briefing with Scott McClellan —1:30 pm: Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks at the Memorial Auditorium about his plans for the first 100 days of a Schwarzenegger administration, Sacramento —2:10 pm: President Bush signs the appropriations act for the Department of Homeland Security, D.C.—2:30 pm: Senate Intelligence Committee holds a closed meeting on pending intelligence matters, Capitol Hill—2:45 pm: Maria Shriver speaks to female business leaders, Eureka, Calif.—2:45 pm: Senator John Kerry holds an environmental press event, West Dallas, Texas—3:00 pm: Governor Gray Davis campaigns with General Wesley Clark at the Los Angeles Fire Department Museum, Los Angeles—3:25 pm: President Bush has a photo op with members of the International Space Station Expedition Crew Six, White House—5:30 pm: Governor Davis is joined by Arianna Huffington to announce California's acquisition of the 2,960-acre Ahmanson Ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains, Calabasas, Calif.—5:30 pm: Senator Bob Graham attends a private campaign fundraiser, Coral Gables, Fla. —6:00 pm: State Senator Tom McClintock holds a press conference about power contracts, Pasadena, Calif. —7:00 pm: Democratic campaign strategists participate in "What it Takes to Win NH" forum at St. Anslem College, Manchester, N.H.—7:30 pm: Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante campaigns with General Clark at the Century Plaza Hotel, Century City, Calif.
NEWS SUMMARY
Step off of Wilson Lane for long enough to:
-- Read the latest Los Angeles Times poll on the recall, which validates the Gallup trajectory, if not velocity. LINK
We like to let the voters decide, unaffected by end-game media coverage being dominated by the results of polling, but The Note can't hide from the reality that widely disseminated polling creates a reality of its own, and the Democrats better figure out how to deal with that.
Mike Finnegan's aggressive/understated lead: "A solid majority of likely voters favors removing Gov. Gray Davis from office in the recall election Tuesday, and Arnold Schwarzenegger has surged ahead of his rivals in the race to succeed him, according to a new Los Angeles Times poll."
-- Recognize that Howard Dean's fundraising is going to give him, at a minimum, a lot more flexibility than any other Democrat running (and, yes, we meant the double entendre there).
As USA Today points out (and at least one Web-based political tip sheet has been saying for months), the fact that all the other Democrats running believe that one of them will emerge as the Dean Alternative, and the fact that none of them is setting the world on fire in raising money, mean that none of them really "has to" get out of the race because of weak third-quarter numbers. LINK
Now: given Bob Novak's curious self-placement as absolving judge and jury; given Joe Wilson's Beersian ties to the Kerry campaign; given that Capitol Hill Republicans have great faith in John Ashcroft (there's that double entendre again); given the Gang of 500 CW that leak investigations never go anywhere; and given the president's commitment to get to the bottom of this, your view of where the Wilson story is going (and should go … ) is (or, at least, should be) based on your view of this passage from Sunday's Washington Post :
" … (A) senior administration official said that before Novak's column ran, two top White House officials called at least six Washington journalists and disclosed the identity and occupation of Wilson's wife."
Do you think the Post 's official was credible and knew what he/she was talking about?
If so, this story has legs, and the Justice Department investigation is going to make the search for some measly billing records look like patty cake.
If not — if you have a Brooklyn or National Review skepticism of anything that appears in the Washington Post — well, then it appears to be perhaps much ado about nothing.
It's pretty easy to put a pox on both major party houses — with Democrats relying on unconfirmed press reports to make the kind of over-heated claims they derided when made against President Clinton, and Republicans trotting out the Ed Gillespies and Cliff Mays of the world to throw everything including the kitchen sink out there to obscure the national security issue (and to get the Sean Hannitys of the world to term this a non-story).
We aren't going to get into all the minutiae of this one today — there is some other political news to deal with too — but we would like someone to explain to us, May, Novak, and anyone else who would care:
Given the CIA's request to news organizations not to repeat Wilson's wife's name; given the language of the e-mail from the White House counsel's office about her status; and given Wilson's concern, shouldn't we be able to put to rest the question of whether her current job assignment or her having been "widely" known to be in the CIA means that a government official putting out her name would be at least a potential crime?
Today's Wilson must-reads are:
Novak himself refines his position on who leaked to him and why, incurring the wrath of Democrats and head scratching from some colleagues. LINK
Author Todd Purdum and Timesman David Sanger Note the bad timing of the investigation for the White House given: LINK
1) The president's drooping/dropping approval numbers.
2) The throttle-up in criticism from Democratic rivals.
3) The president would rather be sewing up support for post-war Iraq than sewing up the loose lips of his staff.
One paragraph of the piece features the words: "Peter King," "White House" and "floundering."
Added King, "Something is missing. Maybe they miss Karen Hughes there, or they just weren't ready for something that started off below their radar screens and grew."
(It's nice to see that Karen Hughes is such a major figure that 43rd Street doesn't think she requires the normal New York Times appositional, such as: " … .Sting, a musician and composer who rose to fame with the band The Police" or "Bobby Orr, a mainstay defenseman of the Boston Bruins hockey team in the last century … ")
As for the investigation itself, let's say, hypothetically, that a certain senior White House official met with or talked to a certain columnist/CNN commentator during the period in which Novak was leaked the information, but that the certain senior official wasn't the one who leaked, but that there IS some sort of phone or visit record of their meeting(s).
THAT'S going to be an interesting situation, for investigators and reporters and the public.
President Bush meets separately with the president of Colombia and the prime minister of Pakistan, signs the appropriations act for the Department of Homeland Security, and meets with astronauts at the White House today.
General Clark campaigns separately with Governor Davis and Lieutenant Governor Bustamante today in Los Angeles. Clark will also attend at least one (at Norman Lear's house) and maybe two fundraisers in L.A. today.
Senator Kerry holds an environmental press event in West Dallas, Texas. He will also attend a private campaign fundraiser in Austin.
Governor Dean is in Burlington, Vermont, today with no public events scheduled, resting up from his star turn with Jay Leno.
Congressman Gephardt has private fundraisers in New York City and New Jersey today.
Senator Lieberman holds a media availability today in Plainview, New York.
Senator Graham attends a private campaign fundraiser tonight in Coral Gables, Florida.
Senator Edwards has no public events scheduled for today.
Congressman Kucinich has no public events scheduled for today.
Ambassador Moseley Braun is in Scottsdale, Arizona, where she will participate in Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit.
Reverend Sharpton is in New York City with no public events scheduled.
In the recall:
Governor Davis will meet with General Clark today at the Los Angeles Fire Department Museum. Davis will also join Arianna Huffington, Rob Reiner, Chris Albrecht, state officials, and environmental leaders to announce California's acquisition of the 2,960-acre Ahmanson Ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains.
Arnold Schwarzenegger will call into a block of radio shows today: Rick Roberts, Roger Hedgecock, John and Ken, and Stacy Taylor.
He'll also speak at the Memorial Auditorium in Sacramento about his plans for the first hundred days of a Schwarzenegger administration.
Maria Shriver speaks to female business leaders in Eureka today.
Lieutenant Governor Bustamante meets with General Clark in Century City at the Century Plaza Hotel today.
State Senator Tom McClintock holds a press conference today in Pasadena to discuss power contracts.
Secretary of State Kevin Shelley demonstrates early voting procedures with the Los Angeles County registrar of voters at Los Angeles Central Library.
Wilson, newsless daily stories:
Milbank and Schmidt of the Washington Post continue to back off the two-officials-six-reporters language in their daily story. LINK
The New York Times ' Lichtblau and Stevenson with the latest, most Notable for this near-kicker quote: LINK
"'The general view inside the White House among senior staff is that this is going to create a few rocky political days, that it's mainly the Democrats pushing it and that if all the Republicans stay on board, the story goes away,' a Republican worker with close ties to the White House said."
USA Today 's Benedetto, Keen, and Locy. LINK
Wilson, the Prince of Darkness profiled:
Howie Kurtz on Novak and Wilsongate. LINK
Wilson, Wilson profiled:
USA Today 's Bill Nichols and John Diamond profile Mr. and (sort of) Mrs. Wilson, with this interesting section: LINK
"Vice President Cheney and his chief of staff, Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, met with officials at the Non-Proliferation Center before the invasion of Iraq to discuss reports that Iraq was seeking to buy uranium in Africa. A U.S. official with knowledge of those meetings said [Wilson's wife] did not attend. But the former U.S. intelligence official said she was involved in preparing materials for those meetings."
The Washington Post 's Richard Leiby on Joe Wilson. LINK
The Wall Street Journal 's Hamburger, Hitt, and Fields focus on how Wilson is operating in the midst of the controversy. Wilson continues his media blitz as the FBI investigation into the leak launches, insisting that his criticism of the war in Iraq isn't partisan and taking some hits to his own credibility for pointing a finger at Karl Rove.
Wilson, thumb-sucking:
The Washington Post 's lead editorial makes a nod to its hypocrisy over suddenly being for a leak investigation, and pays homage to the paper's own reporting. LINK
The Philly Inquirer's Strobel sees a potential "chink in Bush's moral armor." LINK
