The Note

ByABC News
September 10, 2003, 10:26 AM

W A S H I N G T O N September 9&#151;<br> -- Today's Schedule (all times Eastern):

8:00 am: Senator John Edwards addresses a "Politics and Eggs" breakfast, Bedford, N.H. 8:00 am: Polls open in Alabama tax referendum9:30 am: Senate convenes for legislative business9:30 am: Senate Foreign Relations Committee receives closed briefing on North Korea from Secretary of State Colin Powell, Capitol Hill10:00 am: Reverend Al Sharpton addresses the AFSCME meeting, D.C. 10:00 am: Senator Edwards meets with voters at Marryanne's Diner, Derry, N.H. 10:00 am: Senate Armed Services Committee hears testimony from Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and General Richard Myers, Capitol Hill12:25 pm: President Bush attends a Bush-Cheney 2004 fundraiser, Jacksonville, Fla.12:30 pm: House convenes for morning business1:50 pm: President Bush makes remarks on education at Hyde Park Elementary School, Jacksonville, Fla.2:00 pm: Senator John Kerry visits and holds a media availability at the Downtown Baltimore Children's Center, Baltimore2:00 pm: House convenes for legislative business2:30 pm Senator Edwards addresses the AFSCME meeting, D.C.6:35 pm: President Bush attends a Bush-Cheney 2004 fundraiser, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.8:00 pm: Polls close in Alabama tax referendum 8:00 pm: Democratic presidential debate sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus at Morgan State University, Baltimore

NEWS SUMMARY

The most common human refrain one hears in a roomful of bickering Googling monkeys is, "Can't we all just get along?"

But in presidential politics, war-time budgeting, and recall madness, things tend to be more about conflict than cooperation.

There's that whole Winston Churchill thing about how democracy is the worst form of government except for everything else that has been tried, but sometimes, loving Kumbaya togetherness (Don't tell a soul, but The Note's theme song is the Partridge Family's "C'mon, Get Happy." LINK), we can't help but wish that the people we cover (and the consultants who advise them) would stop fighting and start working as one big happy American family.

We aren't cynical or overly idealistic, but as we survey the political landscape today, we see various dueling couples that are making things dynamic, interesting, and heavily conflict laden.

George Bush and people with green eye shades.

Joe Lieberman and Howard Dean.

The Guard/Reserve families and Pentagon planners.

Don Rumsfeld and all sorts of people.

John Kerry and himself.

Joe Trippi and his conscience.

Ed Gillespie and Joe McQuaid.

Maria Shriver and Wal-Mart shoppers.

The staff of The Note and the Boston Globe 's webmaster.

Bob Riley and tax haters.

Erin and Wade.

Hillary Clinton and her mouth.

Deborah DeShong and Deborah Desant.

With precisely four weeks to go until the California recall (which we heard Ann Curry mention a time or two this morning); with Administration officials up on the Hill beginning the long, painful process of justifying their multibillion-dollar request; and with a potentially crabby Baltimore Democratic presidential debate there is plenty of stuff leading inexorably to more conflict within the shining city on the hill that is the United States of America.

In Baltimore, the third major Democratic presidential debate of the 2004 cycle happens this very day.

The program lasts 90 minutes with two commercial breaks at 8:40 pm ET and 9:20 pm ET. Congressman Cummings will present a one-minute videotaped welcome at the top. There will be no opening statements by the candidates.

The topic areas are: health care, education, civil rights, homeland and "hometown" security, the economy, and foreign policy.

Brit Hume will moderate "to keep the debate moving," but he will not ask questions (We wonder why ).

Questions no longer than 30 seconds will be asked by journalists Juan Williams, Farai Chideya, and Ed Gordon. The candidates will have up to one minute to respond. There may be follow-up questions and responses at the moderator's discretion, but there will be no rebuttals unless they are incorporated into answering the question at hand in the same general topic area.

Senator Edwards campaigns more in New Hampshire today in Bedford and Derry before coming south to address the AFSCME meeting in D.C. and go to the debate in Baltimore.

Senator Kerry visits a child care center in Baltimore before attending the debate.

Reverend Sharpton addresses the AFSCME meeting today and goes to the debate in Baltimore.

Governor Dean, Ambassador Moseley Braun, Senator Lieberman, Senator Graham, Congressman Gephardt, and Congressman Kucinich are in Baltimore for the debate.

Today, the president attends a lunchtime Bush-Cheney 2004 fundraiser at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida and a dinner fundraiser at the Hyatt Regency Pier 66 in Fort Lauderdale. In between those fundraisers, he'll make remarks on education at a Jacksonville elementary school

Polls will be open in Alabama from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm ET today, where voters will decide the fate of Governor Bob Riley's $1.2 billion tax proposal. For the first time in the history of the state's elections, all of the polls will be open for the same hours and voters will be required to show identification-- two measures enacted in recent years to ensure more sound elections.

There will be a recount if the vote is very close, and the official results won't be certified until September 24. Governor Riley will fly home to Ashland, Alabama, today to vote, and later he will attend a returns party in Montgomery with supporters. Riley will make a statement tonight at the party on the outcome whether the plan passes or fails.

Based on all of the recent polls and media coverage in the state, it looks as though the governor's proposal will not pass, possibly by as much as 30 percent margin, but The Note likes to let the voters decide.

The Huntsville Times' John Anderson says that the Governor is putting his hopes in undecided voters. LINK

In the California recall:

-- Field Poll has 55% of California voters in favor of recalling Governor Davis while 40% are opposed. Question 2 results have Bustamante at 30% and Arnold Schwarzenegger at 25%.

-- Governor Davis unveils a new campaign ad today.

-- Both Governor Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger lay low today with no public events planned.

-- Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante will take part in a debate with Peter Camejo and Arianna Huffington today at 1:30 pm ET at Bob Hope Patriotic Hall in Los Angeles.

-- Peter Ueberroth will make a couple of radio appearances today on the "Armstrong and Getty" show in Sacramento and on "Good Morning Monterey Bay." (We LOVE "Good Morning Monterey Bay.")

-- The California Labor Federation's Art Pulaski will lead a conference call today at 12:30 pm ET to make an announcement about Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Big Casino budget politics meets the politics of national security:With National Referee David Rogers quoting anonymous Republicans feeling "sticker shock" over the president's Iraq/Afghanistan number; a certain senior Administration official taking his lumps by admitting Iraq is going to be expensive; with Rumsfeld making some provacative remarks on the plane; and with Democrats (and some Republicans not named "McCain" or "Hagel") promising to support the $87 billion request (but only after 17 trips to the dentist for the administration), we find ourselves simply in the midst of Day 2 of what is now the defining dynamic of our politics for the foreseeable future.

The economy might get better or it might not before the president stands for re-election, but the Chattering Class is invoking one of Washington's favorite phrases ("Everything has to be on the table.") and that rhetorically puts in play taxes, prescription drugs, Administration personnel, and somber, weighty columns about presidential character.

Congressional Democrats say the are going to support the president's request for military and reconstruction funds, but there will be hearings, gimmicks, communcations stratagems, and lots of waiting and seeing before the checks get written, with Congressional Republicans (beyond the lock-step leadership) worried about the substantive costs and the political politics of all this.

The Washington Post 's Jonathan Weisman turns in a blockbuster on the manage a trois strange bedfellows congressional Democrats, budget hawks, and conservative defense analysts who aren't taking kindly to the economic implications of President Bush's budget requests for Iraq and Afghanistan. LINK

The perspectives on spending alone make this story one of many of today's must-reads on this topic.

"'We can't do it all,' said Lee Hamilton, director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a former Democratic member of the House. 'From the president's speech, I haven't seen the hard recognition of the economic costs of this decision. I don't think he gave us a picture of how he intends to pay for his foreign policy.'"

While the Bush administration argues that there's no contradiction between the temporary spending boom and tax cuts meant to help the sagging job market, Democrats are jumping on the plan to shore up their priorities, even though they're expected to OK all this in the end.

And Democratic interest groups (including some of those splashy new, well-funded ones) are churning out the stats for eager reporters (many of whom want the president to cry "uncle" on taxes).

"To put it in perspective, Bush hopes to spend more in Iraq and Afghanistan than all 50 states say they need $78 billion to finance the budget shortfalls they anticipate for 2004."

"The request is higher than the $74 billion the Defense Department plans to spend on all new weapons purchases next year, and higher than the $29.5 billion the Education Department hopes to spend on elementary and secondary education plus the $41.3 billion the administration plans to spend to defend the homeland."

"With $166 billion spent or requested, Bush's war spending in 2003 and 2004 already exceeds the inflation-adjusted costs of the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Spanish American War and the Persian Gulf War combined, according to a study by Yale University economist William D. Nordhaus. The Iraq war approaches the $191 billion inflation-adjusted cost of World War I."

The Wall Street Journal 's McKinnon and Ip have a must-read as well, looking at the about the only thing worse on the economic front than the housing bubble bursting or manufacturing jobs hemmorhaging a possible rise in interest rates from all this deficit spending.

Thank goodness for the president that Al Gore isn't around to talk lockbox, because the numbers would look even worse.

The Baltimore Sun gets this Jon Kyl quote regarding the White House funding request:

"Republicans and Democrats signaled that the administration might face a tougher sell than it has with any defense-related funding request since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. 'I think they'll have to be more specific this time,' said Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, the chairman of the Republican Policy Committee. 'Members are a little more skeptical.'" LINK

The Los Angeles Times' Janet Hook and Richard Simon report on the difficulty some members of Congress will have voting for the president's request. LINK

"Members of Congress are preparing to swallow hard and pass President Bush's new funding request for U.S. operations in Iraq, but it will be a more bitter pill for many of them than earlier votes on the issue, lawmakers and political analysts say."