Note Archives, updated weekly.

E-mail us: Tips, Compliments, Complaints.

We don't mean to make the nation's practical and psychological concerns over a possible terrorist attack into a purely political story. But a lot of decisions on how to govern on the economy and the budget, which the Bush Administration was allowed to defer because of September 11, are just now, during this week of Code Orange, duct tape, the Hans Blix report and now North Korea, coming acropper.

And these decisions can no longer be deferred, in part because Republicans gained control of both houses of Congress last November and are now accountable (as David Rogers notes this morning, the spending bill "ushers in an era of almost unchecked Republican power over the appropriations process that controls the nuts and bolts of government"), and in part because of the way in which the administration has long been leveraging off of the national security threat.

President Bush's campaign promises on entitlements, spending, and taxes were always going to be hard to make add up — even without trying to pay for Social Security personal account transition costs, a full fix of the alternative minimum tax, and a potentially expensive war.

The White House has never admitted, or been forced to admit, that the president would of course have to scale back some of his domestic agenda because of the costs and distractions of the Post -September 11 world.

Today, as we said, many of the dynamics that are playing out would likely have happened 17 months ago if the president hadn't been given an understandable pass on delaying and deferring.

Even though they've hammered out a budget agreement for last year's budget, the "perils of Pauline" process of moving forward on next year's budget is spilling out everywhere, in ways oddly reminiscent of the dorm-room, bull-session, chaotic modus operandi of the Clinton Administration.

Viewed in this context, President Bush's trip to Jacksonville, FL today to push his economic agenda in a friendly forum and then address US troops has more of an air of urgency than his pre-election day split travel.

(The Jacksonville Times Union profiles the sailor whom President Bush will honor today. LINK )

The McQuillan/Welch USA Today lead: "The White House is working to regain control of its domestic policy agenda" — particularly Medicare and tax cuts — "after key proposals in President Bush's State of the Union speech took hits from members of his own party." LINK

"This week, Republican leaders, among them House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, questioned Bush's proposals publicly. Both quickly received phone calls from the White House — and quickly qualified their remarks." The duo offers some details on Denny's wild ride.

"White House officials are telling Senate and House Republicans to be patient until details are clear and to keep any doubts to themselves. Senior aides are talking tough to straying GOP lawmakers. Bush has been inviting them to the White House for friendly chats."

Iowa Democrats questioned Grassley's "prized independence" after he appeared to change his mind on the viability and feasibility of a dividend tax cut. LINK

Getting much bigger play for what the Wall Street Journal editorial page calls his two-step is Fed chief Alan Greenspan, whose semantic shifts between his Tuesday and Wednesday testimonies on Capitol Hill, particularly his allowing yesterday before a House committee that the dividend tax cut does have some short-term stimulus properties, get totally picked apart (with slightly varying interpretations).

The Wall Street Journal editorial page says, "A friend of ours says that interpreting the comments of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is like reading the Bible: You can find a verse to support just about anything. So it goes with his semi-annual Congressional testimony this week on the economy."

"Opponents of President Bush's economic plan are spinning as definitive his allegedly 'tepid' support for tax cuts at the current moment, as if the Delphic and politically dexterous chairman is ever a ball of fire. As it happens, Mr. Greenspan did endorse the largest chunk of Mr. Bush's proposal, the part to eliminate the double tax on dividends … "

"The broader point is that Mr. Greenspan is doing some unwelcome political moonlighting here. He already has full-time work running monetary policy, a delicate enough task as the Fed negotiates the Post -bubble world. Much of the economy just now — housing, for example — remains especially sensitive to any rise in interest rates. He can better serve the economy by worrying about that, instead of trying to tell Congress and the White House how to run fiscal policy too."

The New York Times seems to notice that Ari Fleischer warmly embraces the parts of Greenspan I and Greenspan II that agree with the president, and play down those that don't. LINK

The paper also seems to notice that Greenspan changed his emphasis to be a bit more to Fleischer's liking from I to II.

The Wall Street Journal sees the same Jekyll and Hyde show and the same Fleischer posture: "Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan muted his initially chilly reception of President Bush's tax-cut plan, offering more praise for eliminating taxes on dividends and playing down the near-term consequences for the federal deficit."

"But in his second day of congressional testimony, he didn't recant the most important critiques he delivered Tuesday: that tax cuts should be paid for elsewhere in the budget and that the economy doesn't need new fiscal stimulus now. Mr. Greenspan had said the economy would likely recover once the situation with Iraq is resolved."

"Wednesday, the Fed chief also strengthened his warning that deficits put dangerous upward pressure on long-term interest rates, another significant difference with the White House. Higher mortgage rates, he said, would damp housing construction and mortgage refinancing, which have been main supports for the economy."

"Administration officials, who are working furiously behind the scenes to drum up votes among even skeptical Republicans for Mr. Bush's tax-cut package, spent Wednesday dealing with the Fed chief's criticism, playing up areas where they agreed and politely citing a different viewpoint where they disagreed."

"Greenspan also acknowledged administration arguments that chronic high budget deficits present no immediate threat to economic growth. He said his main concern is the threat to fiscal solvency at the end of the decade, when baby boomers start retiring, if deficits are allowed to accumulate." LINK

The Los Angeles Times also covers the president's perspective: "Although he made no mention of Greenspan by name, the influential Fed chairman clearly was his target." LINK

On Wednesday, Greenspan "went out of his way to praise Bush's proposed dividend tax cut, even conceding that it might serve as a short-term stimulus for the economy, a benefit he discounted Tuesday."

The Washington Post 's Weisman leads, "President Bush launched an all-out offensive yesterday to counter Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan's critical comments on his economic growth package, telling an investors forum in Alexandria that he was optimistic Congress will still pass his plan." LINK

"If Democrats feared that Greenspan was backing down, the White House clearly was trying to overcome any damage the chairman might have created. Bush appeared with small investors at a media event in Alexandria designed to buttress the proposal to slash taxes on corporate dividends."

Weisman writes up the White House's 250-economists endorsement letter and White House Council of Economic Advisers Glenn Hubbard's mission "to challenge the one Greenspan point that has made the administration most nervous: that any tax cut now would be 'premature,' since the real problem with the economy lies with a freezing of business investment in anticipation of war."

But he also writes up House GOP moderate leader Mike Castle's skepticism about Bush's plan, and the new "umbrella" opposition group, Fair Taxes for All, made up of "liberal interest groups, labor unions, religious organizations and civil rights groups."

"In a show of unity, Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans will appear today with top House GOP leaders and a platoon of business groups at a Capitol Hill pep rally for the plan, as Bush jets off to Florida for a forum with small-business owners."

Even with Greenspan a little bit back on the reservation, the issues he has raised are going to be tough ones for the administration to deal with, because they give voice to concerns that even some Republicans have about what the president has proposed.

Of course, the road always looks bumpy when one is trying to do big things in Washington. But the fundamental questions remain: First, can the president get a budget passed that deals with some of these big issues like tax cuts and Medicare, and that he can claim reflects what he originally promised? (Ari Fleischer yesterday made reference to seeing everyone at the budget signing ceremony.)

And the bigger question: will the economy get better in time for the next election?

Moving to Medicare, "[w]ith just about everyone on Capitol Hill trying to figure out what the White House's Medicare reform proposal will be, Bush administration officials continued Wednesday to say only what it is not," writes the Los Angeles Times ' Kemper. LINK

" … [O]fficials' repeated denials of reports that President Bush planned to tie seniors' eligibility for a prescription drug benefit to participation in managed care only highlight what officials now concede was their mishandling of the issue. And their public statements about continuing consultations with Congress simply focus attention on the lack of such talks previously."

"Bush's proposal was '90% done' when the administration took it to some members of Congress, said one official who spoke on condition of anonymity. After seeing 'just one option' being considered — one that left beneficiaries in traditional fee-for-service Medicare without a drug benefit — Democrats pounced and Republican lawmakers 'panicked,' the official said."

And Kemper covers Tommy Thompson's assurances to the AARP yesterday that seniors would have "'at least three, four, five, six choices'" for coverage.

The Los Angeles Times looks ahead: "With passage of the spending measure, Congress can turn its attention to other issues, such as the president's economic stimulus plan and a prescription drug benefit for Medicare recipients. It also can begin work on the 2004 budget." LINK

By almost any objective standard, if it weren't for the war, Democrats would be able to pounce all over this stuff and gain traction in the press. Even with all that is happening on national security, Tom Daschle is going positively savage on the White House over the economy, with an aggressiveness that would make some in the White House, absent the current distractions, seethe.

Roll Call 's Preston writes up Senator Daschle's newly aggressive message-setting tactics: "senior Senate Democratic staffers are meeting every Monday with representatives from powerful liberal interest groups and lobbyists to seek advice on how to counter the White House bully pulpit … "

Daschle also "has formed an internal rapid-response team that meets each morning to evaluate the current news cycle and decide what issues Democrats need to highlight that day."

"The Minority Leader has also tasked Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) to work with left-leaning radio personalities to help them compete with conservative talk-show hosts … "

"This is the first time the Democratic leadership has held regularly scheduled, formal meetings with outside groups, which has long been a regular practice of the GOP."

"In the coming months, Daschle is also expected to lean heavily on Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the Democratic Steering and Coordination Committee, to help with grassroots activists."

Meanwhile, some the Democratic presidential wannabes are taking after the president on the war and homeland security today and tomorrow.

Per an aide to Senator John Edwards, today he will introduce his homeland intelligence agency proposal, which would take domestic intelligence gathering away from the FBI and hand it to a separate agency. The aide advises that Edwards plans to go after Bush not only on the funding issue but for a lack of leadership. "Duct tape is not enough," the aide said (but Edwards probably won't say.)

Senator Joe Lieberman will give a speech on homeland security tomorrow at George Washington University's Marvin Center Amphitheater at 12 noon.

And Lieberman today will introduce a resolution calling on the Bush Administration to work up a plan for a post-war Iraq. Lieberman has backed the administration's efforts to deal with Saddam, but is concerned that they haven't done enough to plan for what comes next in a post-Saddam Iraq. He gave a major speech to this effect last October at the Woodrow Wilson Center.

Along with the resolution, he will send a letter to President Bush inquiring about key post-war planning needs.

Senator John Kerry is recuperating at Johns Hopkins from a successful operation to remove his prostate. Dr. Patrick "Walsh said he expected Kerry to resume walking today, to be discharged from the hospital Saturday, and to be able to attend three fund-raisers scheduled in two weeks in California." LINK

One last summary Note: the The Wall Street Journal 's Greg Hitt gathers up the evidence and reports, "The Bush administration is opening a new front in the conflict over Iraq: it is confronting the widening religious opposition to war."

"As Pope John Paul II inveighed against impending military action by a U.S.-led force, a prominent Catholic intellectual flew to Rome at the behest of administration officials to make the case for a 'just war.'"

"This week Mr. Bush's speechwriter, Michael Gerson, an evangelical Christian, met privately with Catholic activists rallying in the capital against the looming hostilities, among other things."

However, "[i]mportant elements of the religious community remain unconvinced."

"Mr. Bush, who has made faith a defining characteristic of his presidency, can't easily ignore such opposition. Religiously observant voters are a cornerstone of his political base and his strategist Karl Rove has sought to expand that base by courting Catholics. While emphasizing faith-based solutions to domestic social problems, he has cited religious imperatives on other issues such as Iraq."

"White House aides say Mr. Bush doesn't plan to meet with religious leaders about Iraq anytime soon."

Big Casino/budget politics

Remember Paul Krugman's warning that Chairman Greenspan should be held accountable for the tone and substance of what he says?

This stuff from Journal is gonna make old Krugman nuts: "Mr. Greenspan also did his part to minimize differences with the administration … "

"The change in tone surprised some Democrats, who had heralded his Tuesday remarks as the death knell for the Bush plan, which faced obstacles in the closely divided Senate. 'I'm disappointed,' the House committee's ranking Democrat Barney Frank of Massachusetts told Mr. Greenspan. 'My strong impression today is that you are seeking now to find the maximum points of agreement to diminish the impression created that your long-standing positions would be somewhat negative of the tax cut.'"

On the spending bill, "GOP leaders said they were confident that the 1,100-page spending package — which most members of Congress have not seen — would go to the House floor for a vote today. The Senate would quickly follow suit." LINK

"At the White House, Cheney plunged into details of drought aid for farmers and, at one point, was on the phone with a House Appropriations Committee staffer, offering suggestions. GOP aides also credited Cheney with stepping in last week to end an impasse between Congress and the White House budget office that stemmed from the administration's rigid ceiling on spending."

The story also notes, "Language in the report accompanying the bill would open the way to preliminary studies of the feasibility of oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, sources said."

Estrada

Apparently someone was doing some reminding about a radio ad run by Senator Mary Landrieu (D) during her run-off battle in which she expressed support for Estrada. Landrieu's senior home-state colleague, John Breaux, has made known his opposition to filibustering Estrada's nomination.

"Senator Mary L. Landrieu, who is now opposing the nomination of Miguel Estrada to a federal appeals court judgeship, ran Spanish-language radio ads during her campaign for a December runoff election saying she supported his nomination," reports the Washington Times . "The ads, which ran on a New Orleans radio station for almost two weeks, praised Mrs. Landrieu's outreach to Hispanics and specifically noted Mr. Estrada. 'Mary Landrieu also supported the candidacy of the Honduran Miguel Estrada for the federal court of appeals,' the ad said, according to an English translation provided by the Republican National Committee." LINK

"In a statement, Mrs. Landrieu acknowledged the ads ran. She said does not take a position on nominations until they come before the Senate, but said she should respond to Republican attacks that she didn't support Mr. Estrada. She said she was neutral on the nomination, since it was not yet pending in the full Senate, but the radio station that produced the ad misinterpreted that as support."

Apparently the same information came over the Wall Street Journal editorial page's transom: "Ms. Landrieu doesn't come up for re-election until 2008, by which time she no doubt hopes her act of political cynicism will have been forgotten."

ABC 2004: The Invisible Primary:

With Moseley-Braun, Clark, Kucinich and Graham all inching toward the track today (and, just maybe, don't forget Chris Dodd), the Six Pack is edging toward double digits, with all sorts of implications for crowded debates (impossible to get to 10 people in even 90 minutes), fundraising, etc.

This on Kerry, from the Washington Post 's Balz: "'This is one of those issues where we came down on the side of trying to put out as much information as possible,' campaign spokesman Chris Lehane said. 'We recognize that when you're running for president, health is an issue that the press and public want to know about.'" LINK

"If there was any misstep for Kerry, it came at the end of January. When a Boston Globe reporter asked if he had a medical problem, Kerry said no, as did campaign aides who were asked similar questions."

"The candidate said Tuesday he chose not to answer truthfully because he had not told some family members and did not want them to learn about his condition in the media. Several political strategists who have been through presidential campaigns said yesterday they doubted that Kerry's lack of candor would prove to be a serious problem."

Also from the story: "Campaign manager Jim Jordan said it is unlikely that Kerry will join the other Democratic candidates in speaking at next week's Democratic National Committee meeting. He said Kerry hopes to have private talks with DNC members."

In his latest column, Roger Simon compares Kerry's deferral of the nebulous issues surrounding his cancer diagnosis and treatment to Bill Clinton's mastery of the same skill, but Roger's tone is much more descriptive than negative. In fact, it really is downright positive.

Candidates can be "good" at taking a hit, like Clinton, and still have "shrugged, lied and slogged forward all the way to the White House." Or they can be bad, like "Michael Dukakis' response to Bernard Shaw's question about whether he would favor the death penalty for the imaginary rapist and murderer of Dukakis' wife." (Principled, but it played poorly, Roger writes.) LINK

He commends the Kerry campaign for adhering to the "reveal, not conceal" advice and suggests that it gave them cover for their candidate's essentially admitting he lied to a reporter.

"The Kerry campaign did not know how the press would take this — - would reporters say Kerry's credibility had been irreparably damaged? — - but judging by the first 24-hour news cycle, Kerry has skated through unscathed."

For example: "The Boston Globe , which might have been expected to harshly criticize Kerry in its editorial, instead praised him for 'dealing forthrightly with the diagnosis and impending surgery.' No mention was made of lying to the Globe reporter."

"Kerry is now recovering from successful surgery. And though his aides fully expect some of the other Democrats to launch a 'whispering campaign' about Kerry's cancer, Kerry's staff believes it will be a non-issue."

"After all, even though Kerry today is lying down in a hospital bed, in another sense he has taken a punch and is still standing."

Mickey Kaus takes the Note to task for, in his words, [missing] a key point about Kerry's campaign, which is precisely that it's entirely too artificial and stage managed." LINK

"That means Kerry's prostate cancer operation 'helps' him, in the unsentimental political sense, in a way it might not 'help' another candidate — namely by emphasizing to voters that he's in fact a living, breathing human being and not a continually trimmed and positioned semi-holographic self-creation."

Deborah Orin's analysts are having second thoughts about whether Kerry mastered his first bump in the road. And Deborah herself is taking on the Boston Globe .

"But after first pooh-poohing any political fallout that might hurt his chances, some analysts had second thoughts after watching TV coverage of Kerry — looking gaunt and drawn — as he spoke about the medical issues." LINK

"A so-far uncommitted Democratic activist said, 'People are going to want to see how he looks, if he looks ill. Campaigning is hard work, and any time he looks tired, people will ask questions.'"

"There is also the delicate question of the fact that Kerry initially was, er, economical with the truth, falsely denying he was sick when a Boston Globe reporter asked him a few weeks ago if he was ill."

"Luckily for Kerry, his false answer got gentle treatment from the Globe, which is almost as important as it thinks it is in the key primary state of next-door New Hampshire. The problem is, this isn't the first time Kerry has been less than candid." The Concord Monitor reports that Kerry will address the Franklin Pierce Law Center's graduating class in May. LINK

When Steve Forbes ran for president, his traveling press guy was the nicest guy you'd ever want to meet. His name was/is KB Forbes, and you can imagine how many times KB was forced to explain to people that he is no relation.

We tell you this because during yesterday's live cable coverage of Senator Kerry's doctor's press conference, many cable viewers were "meeting" Kerry press adviser David Wade for the first time (despite at least one previous high-profile cable appearance in his pre-Kerry days … ).

By putting his hand on Kerry's wife's back, and LOOKING MORE FRIGGIN' LIKE JOHN KERRY THAN ANY OTHER HUMAN ALIVE, Mr. Wade surely left the impression that he is the Senator's son.

Also: Note to CNN graphics PAs: listen to your former colleague Chris Black, and super the Senator's wife "Teresa Heinz Kerry," please, going forward.

And, modern journalists take their hats off to Johns Hopkins and the Kerry campaign for quickly streaming the audio of the press conference on the web, and pointing us to it.

PS: We don't mean to be selfish, but would video be too much to ask?

The New Republic's Lizza debuts his Campaign Journal with plenty of blind anti-Kerry quotes from other presidential campaigns, a peril of being the top dog at the kennel club.

"Fair or not, the combination of his front-runnerdom and reputation means that, like Gore in 2000, Kerry will be able to get away with a lot less than the other candidates when it comes to issues of accuracy and consistency. Edwards, for instance, has largely been given a pass on the rather ludicrous claim that he personally will abide by the naacp's economic boycott of South Carolina while his campaign will not. Kerry would have been skewered if he'd done this. (Instead, he was one of the first candidates to make the argument that it was ridiculous to try to abide by the boycott while simultaneously trying to win the state's primary.) Similarly, Dean has been able to fudge his view on the war with Iraq—attacking his congressional rivals on the narrow question of whether they should have voted for the war resolution last year but largely failing to tell the antiwar activists he courts that he favors a multilateral attack on Iraq if Saddam Hussein doesn't disarm. During the months in which Kerry bobbed and weaved on Iraq, by contrast, he was clobbered by the media (including this magazine) on a regular basis. Lieberman has reversed himself on affirmative action, and Gephardt has flipped his position on the Bush tax cut, but the media has still treated Kerry's Jewish-heritage pander to the American Israel Political Affairs Committee as the crassest political stunt of the campaign." LINK

Moseley-Braun

As suggested in this space previously, former Senator Carol Moseley-Braun is indeed is planning to file papers to create a presidential campaign committee — "exploratory" being her chosen figure of speech, but as you know, a committee is a committee — with the FEC on Tuesday. The Senator currently is NOT expected to file her papers in person. She has no campaign travel planned beyond a trip to DC on Wednesday to attend and, she hopes, address the DNC's winter meeting. She is talking with the DNC about that now.

Assuming Moseley-Braun does file, the Democratic presidential field would grow to seven candidates, including two African-Americans. She would be the only woman in the race so far.

The Chicago Tribune's Zeleny apparently spoke at length with the former Senator yesterday: "'As the only women candidate, I hope to have a voice that this war is counterproductive and not consistent with protecting our security here or abroad. I feel very strongly about that,' Moseley-Braun said. 'The Congress abdicated their responsibility in regards to this.'" LINK

"The national political career of Moseley-Braun began in 1992, when she emerged from a divisive three-way Democratic primary and won a seat in the Senate. Six years later," Jeff reminds us (as others have and will), "dogged by questions of ethical impropriety and a federal investigation, she lost to Fitzgerald and was appointed by then-President Bill Clinton to serve as the U.S. ambassador to New Zealand."

"While several Illinois Democrats say the prospect of a Moseley-Braun presidential candidacy seems far-fetched, several party leaders in Washington and women's political groups say she offers a fresh, attractive alternative to Democrats across the country."

"Moseley-Braun said she is prepared to face questions about the controversies in her past as she prepares to launch a second act in her political life."

"'There are second chances in politics,' she said. 'That's what is so good about this country.'"

The New York Daily News adds that Moseley-Braun called former comptroller H. Carl McCall seeking advice about donors. LINK

Edwards

Senator John Edwards was the target of two North Carolina GOP press releases yesterday, one attacking his floor speech on Miguel Estrada and accusing him of "judicial backflips," based on an earlier Edwards call (attributed to the Congressional Record) for having the nomination process be nonpartisan; and one charging that while Edwards claims to support the tobacco industry, he's raising money from trial lawyers, including one, they allege, who worked on a tobacco lawsuit and gave money to Senators Kennedy and Torricelli. (There's two "r's" in that … )

Dean

Former Gov. Howard Dean is in Spartanburg, SC today, where he will attend a box lunch for the Mt. Moriah Senior Citizens Bible Study, appear at a meet-and-greet at the Beacon Inn Restaurant, tour the Regensis Health Facility, and attend a reception hosted by state Reps. Brenda Lee and David Mack.

New Hampshire

DiStaso's column notes several Gephardt and Lieberman endorsements, and says that White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card will speak to the Belknap and Strafford County GOP committees' joint Lincoln Day dinner on February 21. LINK The state legislature may soon vote to make phone-jamming a felony. LINK

"Out-of-state college students who register to vote in New Hampshire would get a tuition break, under a bill sponsored by a Rochester lawmaker," the AP reports. LINK

Iowa

A majority of Iowans favor war but not, apparently, a majority of Democratic caucus-goers. LINK

Florida

Stu Rothenberg considers the importance of Florida in the general election: "if there are numbers proving that Florida is very much in play in 2004, there are other numbers that make the case that, in spite of the tight race in 2000, Bush has a real partisan advantage in the state when he runs for re-election."

Although registered Democrats still outnumber registered Republicans by a few hundred thousand, "the state's party registration numbers actually show growing Republican strength over the past decade, not good news for Democrats … Second, and possibly more important, recent Florida elections don't paint a picture of an increasingly competitive state."

Clark

Retired Gen. Wesley Clark will return to New Hampshire next week. LINK

Sharpton

Bob Novak catalogues the "brooding" of Democratic "deep thinkers" about Al Sharpton. LINK

Politics

As expected, Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) took the first step yesterday toward allowing Georgia voters the choice of whether or not to return the image of the Confederate flag to the state's banner. The legislature has to approve the referendum and set the timetable. Perdue wants the vote held on March 2, 2004; Democrats want to hold the vote on general election day in November 2004, possibly to draw national attention to the flag issue on the day that President Bush seeks re-election.

The referendum would contain two questions: "The first would be a yes or no vote on the current state flag with its blue field and large state seal." LINK

"Then voters would be asked to select, as a second choice, one of two flags: the state flag that flew before 1956, with its horizontal red-and-white bars; or the state flag that flew until 2001, with its Confederate battle emblem — also known as the St. Andrew's Cross." LINK

And even then, the legislature would have the final say about which flag flies.

Perdue explained his decision to the Journal Constitution. LINK

Leaders of the Recall Gray Davis outfit say they'll hold a major rally on February 22 at the state capitol in Sacramento.

Roll Call 's Crabtree says Tom DeLay and ROMP, his effort to raise hard money for House Republicans, are at it again.

Democratic Senate campaign committee chair Jon Corzine has nearly filled out the top ranks at the committee, Roll Call 's Cillizza reports, with Paul Tewes as political director and Ben Jones as research director joining executive director Andy Grossman.

Lloyd Grove glides from a Tuesday night dinner for 42 and his senatorial spouse at Nora — "the ex-president had curry, New York's junior senator had grilled shrimp and a glass of white wine" — to Nora's fears about life under code orange. LINK

Page Six mentions all three Clintons, and separately notes that Emily Pataki actually did show up at a Fashion Week event. LINK

Rush and Molloy aren't stunned to learn that supermodel Lauren Bush, niece of the POTUS, apparently flirted with Joe Millionaire. LINK

Fred Dicker looks at Governor Pataki's declining poll numbers. LINK

The Raleigh News & Observer has a story on the home-state junior Senator's spouse's new law firm gig: Bob "Dole said he doesn't know whether he'll work for his new firm's clients with North Carolina ties. One is NASCAR. 'Oh, I like that, yeah,' he said. 'I've been to a few. It's amazing that they get 150,000, 160,000 people at a race. That's bigger than half of my state of Kansas.'" LINK

If only it were so easy to get into Mordor. DCCC staffer and happy Mount Pleasant resident Jay Vincent gets props in Roll Call 's Heard on the Hill for helping actor Sean Astin find the relocated Democratic National Committee.

Ed Matricardi pleaded not guilty; his trial is set for April 9. The former executive director of the Virginia and South Carolina Republican parties is charged with violating "the U.S. Wiretap Act when he listened in on two Democratic conference calls last March" in Virginia. LINK

Bush Administration Strategy/personality

"Because of an editing error, a front-page article yesterday about diplomatic developments in the Iraq crisis misidentified the Bush administration official who said about the weapons inspectors in Iraq, 'At some point it will become obvious that it's time for them to go.' It was an administration official speaking on condition of anonymity, not Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security adviser." LINK

A made-for-Lloyd Bush foreign policy event: Yesterday, 41 and the missus, also known as the First Parents, "helped Washington hairstylist Zahira Zahir raise almost $200,000 for schools in her native Afghanistan, where she taught English four decades ago at the Zarghona High School in Kabul." Zahir was once "director of hair-care issues for the Bushes." LINK

"The 78-year-old former president regaled the crowd with Zahira stories — 'As the stylist to the politically powerful, she knows too many secrets' — and stoutly defended his son's foreign policy."

"Inveighing against that 'ruthless dictator' in Iraq as well as 'the selfish voices of isolationism that want the United States to pull back from our global responsibilities,' Bush confided: 'I get a little annoyed when I hear people say we're not making progress in the war against terrorism. . . . We've made dramatic progress. If that weren't true, Zahira wouldn't be able to help these schools … '"

Andy Card and Don Evans had time to show, too. LINK

In a cover story (the Rove family will just love the photo), the Texas Monthly's SC Gwynne doesn't quite explain how Karl Rove operates, though Gwynne succeeds in humanizing him as deftly as anyone who has tried. Recounting the usual history of hijinks, Gwynne concludes: "All of this suggested a ubiquitous, prodigiously powerful political presence, a combination Machiavelli, medieval pope, and Rasputin, with a well-developed mean streak-someone truly, if you swallowed the myth, to be afraid of." LINK

"Contrary to what his enemies believe, Karl Rove does have a personal life. This is one area where the collective legend, which describes him as a one-dimensional, work-obsessed grind, is wrong. Rove's second wife, Darby, whom he married in 1986 and with whom he has a fourteen-year-old son named Andrew, once described him in an interview as a 'combination of in-your-face and sensitive.' That is very much as his friends see him too. Rove is a tough political player, takes his politics personally, and is a formidable adversary. But he has a long and happy marriage, and those close to him say he also has a talent for friendship." LINK

Ed Chen gets West Wing staffers on the record suggesting that problem with the White House e-mail system lately, which has really been dogging the press office, could be because of the security firewall. And, surprise, he gets lots of White House insistence that normal day-to-day operations have not been disrupted because of it. LINK