The Note
W A S H I N G T O N July 24—<br> -- Today's Schedule (all times Eastern):
—10:45 am: President Bush makes remarks on jobs and growth plan, Philadelphia—12:00 pm: Palestinian Prime Minister Abbas meets with House International Relations Committee—12:15 pm: Vice President Cheney addresses the American Enterprise Institute, Washington, DC—1:00 pm: California Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante's press conference to announce the date of the recall, Sacramento—1:00 pm: Reverend Al Sharpton visits the Liberian Mission to the UN—2:00 pm: Press conference on 9/11 Commission Report—2:00 pm: Senator Joe Lieberman unveils a jobs-and-taxes plan in Stratford, Connecticut—4:15 pm: President Bush makes remarks on the economy, Livonia, Michigan—7:30 pm: Congressman Dick Gephardt attends a meet and greet in Greenville, South Carolina—8:05 pm: President Bush attends Bush-Cheney 2004 fundraiser, Dearborn, Michigan
NEWS SUMMARY
From Alexandra Pelosi's "Journey's with George," to HBO's upcoming "K Street," to "The Real World Paris," the public seems to have an insatiable desire to see "behind the scenes" of political life.
Or, at least, that is what the producers and editors of political journalism and entertainment believe.
On the surface, The Note has enough to cover that is right out there in the open today — Bush's critical Pennsylvania swing; the Gray "Bengal Tiger" Davis recall; Vice President Cheney's big AEI speech on security*; the 9/11 report; the FCC gurgle; everything Iraq; everything Niger; the child tax credit fight; Thomas' English Muffin; today's mixed lay-offs number.
But, as we have suggested before, we face constant competitive pressure to follow the fads and trends, and so we offer you this matching quiz.
Match each real-life event in Column A with its fictional analogue in Column B:
Anyway:
MOST IMPORTANT POLITICAL EVENTS OF THE DAY
1. Vice President Cheney's underpromoted — but key — Washington speech on terrorism.
2. The president's economics trip to Pennsylvania and Michigan.
3. California Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante's press conference.
4. The release of the 9/11 report.
5. The monitoring of the growing size of Ed Gillespie's entourage.
MOST IMPORTANT NEWSPAPER STORIES OF THE DAY
1. Dick Stevenson of the New York Times on the political health of the POTUS. LINK
2. The person who will (deservedly) become most famous via the recall, Michael Finnegan of the Los Angeles Times, describes what comes next. LINK
3. The Detroit News on the Wolverine State economy. LINK
4. Dan Balz and Walter Pincus in the Washington Post news analyzing how the president lost the Niger PR war. LINK
5. John Broder and Dean Murphy of the New York Times explore the history and ramifications of governing by voter initiatives. LINK
MOST IMPORTANT POLITICAL DYNAMICS TO WATCH
1. Does the Pennsylvania and Michigan press give positive coverage of the president's trip, and how much do they focus on the economy?
2. How quickly do the major recall variables (including date and format) get resolved, and how?
3. Is the Senate Intelligence Niger investigation going to be a bipartisan search-for-the-truth, or something else?
4. How much money will be spent, and by whom, on the recall fight?
5. How big will Howard Dean's Iowa crowds be?
In California recall news today:
-- Secretary of State Kevin Shelley certifies the first recall measure of a statewide elected official in California history.
-- Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante will hold a press conference at 1:00 PM EDT to announce a date for a special election. It could take place on 9/23/03, 9/30/03, or 10/7/03.
-- The question as to whether the replacement candidates would be listed on the same ballot as the recall is still unresolved and being investigated by lawyers on all sides of the recall issue.
Senators Bob Graham (D-Fla.) and Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), and Representatives Porter Goss (R-Fla.) and Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) present findings from the 9/11 Commission report on the Hill this afternoon.
Vice President Cheney speaks to the American Enterprise Institute in Washington this afternoon. (Will this be the big Cheney push-back event?)
President Bush talks about the economy in Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Congressman Gephardt campaigns in South Carolina — Greenville today, Charleston tomorrow.
Governor Dean campaigns in Iowa today and tomorrow. He visits a food bank today in Iowa City, talks to undecided caucus goers in Sigourney and Ottumwa, and talks job creation with unemployed Iowans in Oskaloosa. Former Connecticut Governor Lowell Weicker, Jr. will endorse him in a conference call today.
Senator Lieberman tours Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation in Stratford, Connecticut and unveils a jobs-and-taxes plan.
Reverend Sharpton will talk to reporters outside the Liberian Mission to the UN, where he will talk about his trip to Africa.
Senators Kerry and Edwards have no public events today.
Nor do Congressman Kucinich or Ambassador Braun.
Politics of national security, Niger:
Rather than do investigative, the Washington Post 's Balz and Pincus do a news analysis on why the White House has stayed on the defensive over Niger. LINK
They say the main two reasons are the White House's normal "protect the president at any cost" (major backfire there) and the "accidental" decision to pick a fight with the bureaucratic battlers at the CIA.
They have a lot of chronological stuff, some mea culpaing, and a bit about the pending Senate request for documents and testimony.
And oddly failing to identify Mary Matalin as involved in the current pushback (as reported in their own paper!), they have this:
"Mary Matalin, a former Bush White House adviser, said, 'It's impossible to have a consistent message when the facts keep changing. We forsook consistency for honesty, in an effort to be as forthcoming as possible in putting out new facts as they became available.'"
ABC News' Linda Douglass points out that a hastily called press conference on this matter by Senators Carl Levin and Ted Kennedy got nearly no coverage yesterday, but they did seem to have something.
The pair released a copy of the formal report that President Bush sent to Congress on January 20, 2003, justifying his reasons for going to war. The report was required by Congress as part of the resolution it passed in September authorizing the president to use force in Iraq if he deemed it necessary.
Mr. Bush was legally required to submit the report prior to using force in Iraq.
The president's signed report cites Iraq's "failure to deal with issues which have arisen since 1998, including … .attempts to acquire uranium and the means to enrich it."
The report was sent 8 days before the State of the Union and several weeks after the CIA had warned the White House against making that claim.
Levin and Kennedy sent a letter to Bush last night which said: "We would like to have copies of all memos from the CIA and other intelligence agencies on this matter, as well as a full explanation of how this statement was included in the January 20 report to Congress and the State of the Union address. We look forward to hearing from you about this important matter".
At the press conference, Levin said "Questions keep piling on top of questions."
One possible response from the administration: The 1/20 report cites Iraq's attempts to purchase uranium but does not mention Africa. Were they talking about some other continent from which Iraq was trying to acquire uranium?
And what does Senator Roberts think of all this today?
Columnist Richard Cohen sees a lot of "sword-passing" and calls for Tenet to go. LINK
Politics of national security:
The Washington Post 's Slevin and Priest took Secretary Wolfowitz's news-of-day admissions of mistakes in planning for the aftermath and used them to top an enterprising look at the same topic. LINK
Writing on the op-ed page of the Washington Post , Bill Kristol writes a piece that the White House communications shop will love, about what he sees as the craven and weak and Dean-driven foreign policy attacks of Dick Gephardt and other Democrats running for president. LINK
California recall:
"All of us are very aware that we are making history," said California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley as he certified the first recall measure of a statewide elected official in the Golden State.
Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante is set to have a 1:00 PM EDT press conference in Sacramento to announce the election date.
Potential GOP candidate update:
Arnold is still discussing a possible candidacy with his family, but sources say he may be leaning more towards not running than running at this point. This may cause Richard Riordan to look more seriously at a run, which could be Davis' worst nightmare.
2002 GOP gubernatorial nominee Bill Simon is expected to make an announcement about his intentions on Saturday. And Republican State Senator Tom McClintock created an exploratory committee yesterday.
