The Note
W A S H I N G T O N August 4—<br> -- Today's Schedule (all times Eastern):
—11:00 am: Congressman Dick Gephardt delivers an economic policy address to business leaders, New York City—11:30 am: Congressman Dennis Kucinich meets with the board of the League of Conservation Voters, Los Angeles—12:30 pm: Reverend Al Sharpton holds press conference with the family of slain artisan Ousmane Zongo to announce a lawsuit against New York City immediately following a meeting with N.Y.C. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, One Police Plaza—12:30 pm: Senator John Edwards meets with supporters, Tulsa, Okla.—12:30 pm: Senator Joe Lieberman speaks at the National Press Club's Newsmakers Luncheon, D.C.—2:15 pm: Senator John Kerry meets with local AFSCME members to discuss overtime pay, Des Moines—2:35 pm: Vice President Cheney attends a Bush-Cheney 2004 fundraiser, Salt Lake City—3:30 pm: Congressman Dennis Kucinich holds an open forum at the Animal Rights 2003 Conference, Los Angeles—3:30 pm Senator John Edwards speaks to the Transport Workers Union of America, Tulsa, Okla.—4:15 pm: Senator John Kerry meets with Cass County Democrats, Atlantic, Iowa—5:30 pm: Vice President Cheney attends a Bush-Cheney 2004 fundraiser, Sun Valley, Idaho (CLOSED)—6:00 pm: Senator Joe Lieberman attends a fundraiser, Dearborn, Mich.—6:30 pm: Senator John Edwards holds a town hall meeting, Wilmington, N.C.
NEWS SUMMARY
Political reporters are like Arlington mothers: they like to plan every hour, every day, every week, just as definitively as they can.
With the President pretty fixed on the ranch, he's unlikely to dominate our week.
So who does that leave for us to focus on, plan around, obsess over?
Davis, Riordan, Feinstein, and some California judges/justices have a real shot at it.
As do Dean, Gephardt, and, if the speech today is super-boffo, Joe Lieberman.
Oh, and the CW (backed by a bit 'o reporting) is correct: if you are a betting type, bet on Joe Biden AND Wes Clark to get into this race before you see your first episode of "K Street."
So, get ready for what will be anything but a slow week (and month) despite what the wall calendar says.
In recall news:
-- Governor Davis is sending his legal eagles to California State Supreme Court today to file a suit aimed at postponing the recall election until March 2, 2004 (when, according to odds makers, his chances are much improved) and getting his name included as a replacement candidate on the ballot.
-- The governor's lawsuit is one of many before the state Supreme Court. See below for a listing of what other recall matters are before the court.
-- Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) has become the fourth Democratic member of the congressional delegation to express concern over Gray Davis being the only Democrat on the ballot.
-- Arnold Schwarzenegger will appear with Jay Leno on The Tonight Show this Wednesday to explain his decision (whatever that may be) concerning a candidacy.
-- But first, Jay Leno will host Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton this evening on The Tonight Show. All will be listening for supportive words of Gray Davis.
-- And one eye remains focused on Richard Riordan's assembling a campaign team, while the other eye is trained on Dianne Feinstein... at least until Saturday at 8:00 pm ET.
The President is ranchin' today.
Vice President Cheney is scheduled to attend a luncheon fundraiser in Salt Lake City, Utah at the Grand America Hotel -- open to press. He heads to another fundraiser later today, a dinner in Sun Valley, Idaho, which is closed.
The AFL-CIO Working Families Forum in Chicago takes place tomorrow and all nine Democrats are set to take part. And it appears they will be awfully busy before they get there.
Senator Kerry campaigns in Iowa today. He heads to Minneapolis tomorrow to campaign before heading to Chicago for the forum. He campaigns in New Hampshire Wednesday through Friday.
Senator Edwards campaigns in Tulsa, Oklahoma today, lunching with supporters and speaking to the Transport Workers Union of America. Tonight, he heads back home to the Tar Heel State for a town hall meeting in Wilmington.
He's set to hold two more town hall meetings in North Carolina this week: he'll be in Charlotte on Tuesday and in Greensboro on Wednesday. He also campaigns in New Hampshire on Wednesday.
In advance of Tuesday's AFL-CIO forum, Congressman Gephardt is scheduled today to deliver a speech pitched by the campaign as a major address on the economy, complete with proposals to spur economic growth. The address will be at a gathering of the metro New York Chambers of Commerce in Greenwich Village.
Senator Joe Lieberman is set to lay out a vision for the future of both the Democratic Party and the country at the National Press Club this afternoon. Tomorrow, he'll tour a steel factory in Aurora, Illinois with Representative Bill Lipinski before heading to the AFL-CIO forum in Chicago. "Joe's Jobs Tour" touches down in Iowa on Wednesday and Thursday.
Congressman Kucinich campaigns in southern California today, meeting with the League of Conservation Voters, a women's group, and animal rights activists. He holds a lunch fundraiser in Aurora, Illinois tomorrow before heading to the AFL-CIO forum.
Governor Dean has no public events scheduled for today, but he'll be campaigning in Chicago tomorrow and in Iowa on Wednesday and Thursday.
Senator Graham has no public events scheduled for today, but he'll also be in Chicago tomorrow. He kicks of the "Family Vacation" bus trip in Iowa on Wednesday at the Iowa State Fair. The Note hopes the campaign will behave itself in the backseat and not force the Senator to pull over.
Reverend Sharpton will meet with New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly at noon today. Afterwards, he will hold a press conference at One Police Plaza with the family of slain artisan Ousmane Zongo to announce the filing of a lawsuit against New York City.
Sharpton will be at the AFL-CIO forum tomorrow and he takes his turn on Senator Harkin's "Hear it from the Heartland" forum Wednesday night in Sioux City.
Ambassador Braun will be at the AFL-CIO forum on Tuesday, and she has no other announced public events for the week.
The SEIU plans to start a series of television ads today in Iowa and New Hampshire focusing on health care.
Guess who's in California today? Senator Hillary Clinton has a book signing in San Diego today. Later on, she'll appear on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and The Note is pretty sure she will not declare her candidacy for the governor's office in the Golden State.
The Mississippi gubernatorial primaries take place Tuesday.
On Wednesday, there will be too big announcements about potential candidacies: Jerry Springer's in Columbus, Ohio, and Arnold Schwarzenegger's in Burbank, California.
MOST IMPORTANT WEEKEND STORIES:
1. Pegged to absolutely nothing (and containing next to no news), this weekend brought the fourth wave of the Dean press boom (after Wave 1 -- Broder's prescient column; Wave 2 -- the Iraq war surge; and Wave 3 -- the second-quarter fundraising realization), and Wave 4 included:
Cover packages in Time LINK and The Man LINK (Who IS that cute guy drinking coffee?) and Newsweek LINK and the interview LINK and the spouse profile LINK ; a Roger Simon profile LINK (Make sure you read to the end to find some actual news regarding Dean's current pledge to keep his delegates all the way to Boston…) and interview LINK ; and a glowing front-page story about his Vermont gubernatorial days in Sunday's Washington Post LINK.
The only way in which all of these stories differed from how they would have been written if Trish Enright and Kate O'Connor had been asked to ghost write them is that the ladies would have felt obliged to show SOME restraint.
Suffice to say, the other campaigns will surely be asking the FEC to rule on the AOL/Zuckerman/Graham in-kind contribution question.
And the litigious side of The Note wonders if Newsweek will sue Time for the blatant ripoff of the Spy-magazine-style "Dean is like Bush" graphic. And WE might sue Time for malpractice for claiming in another graphic that Dean's success is good for Gephardt.
And the Des Moines Register poll showing Dean leading in Iowa only confirmed what all the holders of private polls have been whispering for weeks. LINK
Pity the Register story didn't mention Dean being the only one with paid TV, but, hey, a lead's a lead.
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