The Note

W A S H I N G T O N August 26&#151;<br> -- Today's Schedule (all times Eastern):

—9:00 am: CBO releases budget and deficit outlook, D.C.—9:00 am: Congressman Dennis Kucinich addresses the United Electrical Workers Union convention, Pittsburgh —11:00 am: House Democrats react to budget numbers, D.C.—11:00 am: Senator John Kerry attends an event with veterans at the Iowa Vietnam War Memorial, Des Moines —11:00 am: Governor Howard Dean addresses the Communications Workers of America convention, Chicago —11:30 am: Arnold Schwarzenegger appears on Eric Hogue's radio show, Sacramento—12:00 pm: Governor Dean attends a rally with supporters at Navy Pier, Chicago —12:00 pm: First Lady Sharon Davis attends press conference commemorating Women's Equality Day, Beverly Hills—12:30 pm: NOW's political action committee holds a press conference to announce their endorsement of Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun for president, D.C. —12:30 pm: Congressman Dick Gephardt holds conference call on the President's visit to Missouri—12:30 pm: Senator John Edwards holds a town hall meeting, Columbia, S.C. —12:30 pm: Senator Joe Lieberman addresses the Communications Workers of America convention, Chicago —1:10 pm: President Bush addresses Bush-Cheney 2004 fundraiser luncheon, St. Paul, Minn. —1:00 pm: California Federation of Labor begins convention on the recall, Manhattan Beach —1:00 pm: Sharon Davis attends press conference denouncing recall and Prop. 54, Los Angeles—2:00 pm: State Senator Tom McClintock holds a press conference to unveil his new television ad, Sacramento —3:00 pm: Tom McClintock appears on CNN with Judy Woodruff —4:15 pm: President Bush makes remarks to the American Legion Convention, St. Louis —5:00 pm: Senator Edwards holds a town hall meeting, Greenville, S.C. —5:00 pm: Sharon Davis joins leaders of women's groups to discuss recall, Sacramento—7:30 pm: Senator Lieberman attends a fundraising reception with supporters, Glencoe, Ill. —9:00 pm: Governor Dean holds the "Dean on 42nd Street" rally in Bryant Park, New York City —10:00 pm: Governor Davis holds the second of his "Conversations with Californians," San Francisco

NEWS SUMMARY

Those who run or cover campaigns who live exclusively by the maxim "all politics is local" and forget "the political IS the personal" are, frankly, nutso.

In a "normal" year, the last week of August is indeed time for the "personal," but that is not why this will be your last Note until next Tuesday.

With the California recall in its sprint; with Howard Dean appearing at his own Bryant Park fashion show tonight; with the president out on the road in what the Eastern press lives to call "the heartland"; with September riddled with Democratic presidential candidate debates and the announcements of two hopefuls; with Bill Clinton going to both Cali AND Iowa next month; with the third-quarter fundraising deadline looming; with the SEIU's cattle call upon us; with the opposition/left-leaning press lining up "against" the White House and the president's re-elect (just the way 41, 43, and their advisers always have known would happen) and with so, so much more, this is hardly a slow end-of-summer time.

And that's before we confront the fact that Big Casino politics rise to a whole new symbolic level today with the new CBO deficit estimate in the $500 billion neighborhood, and somewhere Everett Dirksen isn't smiling. LINKWhat Cruz Bustamante's political brain, Richie Ross, in the Los Angeles Times today calls (in a slightly different context) — "enjoyable speculation for the smarty-pants and the professional observers" — is not EXACTLY the mission of The Note, but it gets much closer than those who call us a "political blog" ever find themselves.

Amongst the things we will be doing over the next week as we don't write even the mini-Notes you have been getting is working on that "personal" stuff, including psychological analysis of the following political pairs:

1. Gray Davis and Cruz Bustamante.

2. Mark Barabak and Ron Brownstein.

3. Jim Jordan and Joe Trippi.

4. Jim Jordan and the person who writes the Kerry blog under the name "Jim Jordan."

5. Karl Rove and the Republican Leadership Council.

6. Senator Grassley and Congressman Thomas.

7. Cathy Decker and her giant reporting team.

8. Mary Hart and Josh Mankiewicz.

9. Sean Walsh and K.B. Forbes.

10. Terry McAuliffe and Gray Davis.

As you can imagine, writing those up is going to take a heck of a lot of time.

Plus, we have had numerous requests to make sure the Redskins-Jets game LINK

is available in the press and green rooms at the Albuquerque debate, and getting monkeys to shift from Googling to laying cable turns out not to be as easy as it would seem (and not just because it involves getting them into a new union).