NEWS SUMMARY
Yesterday SEEMED like a good day for John Edwards.
He spoke to some Rotarians in Manchester; was goaded into speaking with a fetching faux New England accent; bought some new running shoes; learned first-hand how charming and energetic his New Hampshire campaign staff is; and held a SRO town hall meeting in Concord that drew both a shark and live C-SPAN coverage (for whatever that is worth on a July Monday).
But those pesky journalists decided that Monday (as written about for Tuesday) just wasn't going to be a good day for the Tar Heel.
Who else is having a bad day?
Gray Davis (still); Kerry Kennedy Cuomo (again); those adorable New Hampshire Democratic intra-party presidential campaign trackers (who were all over the place yesterday, but don't seem to have made the papers!).
Who is having a good day?
Shoeman Scott Sylvester (who told the national media yesterday that he gets to sleep with the boss); James Pindell (who has a MAJOR day as a Granite State Yepsenian figure in the North Carolina press); Ron Fournier (who is so much of a star that we are going to start a separate Fournier Note at some point this cycle); South Dakota television stations; and the Edwards advance staff.
People in our lives whose respective days seem mixed at this writing: Joe Lieberman: George Bush; and Howard Dean.
What should you read to understand all this?
The Note of course.
The president remains in Africa, and there is little else going on in the World of the Googling monkeys:
Senator Kerry has house parties in Concord and Manchester tonight. Congressman Gephardt attends a health care event in Michigan.
The Man from Robbins:
Senator Edwards' first in a series of New Hampshire town hall meetings went just swell last night, despite the sauna conditions in the room; the presence of former Republican state party chair Chuck McGee (who has an impressive ability to keep his hand raised); the aggressive efforts of the Citizens for a Sound Economy (whose shark-suited man behind Edwards at one point was about as good as it gets in political hijinks); and an inordinate focus on what The Note would call non-kitchen-table issues from the questioners.
Above and beyond all those kinks, the crowd was huge (The political press is horrid at crowd count, but there were somewhere between 100 and 180 people there.), and this format clearly plays to Mr. Edwards' strength.
But for whatever cosmic reason, the New York Times , the New Hampshire papers, and the North Carolina papers decided to use the Senator's speech on corporate responsibility and the town meeting as pegs to pound him.
Yesterday, the Edwards campaign put out a press release headlined "South Carolinians Continue to Line Up Behind John Edwards for President."
Today, the New York Times ' David Halfbinger has a story which could have been headlined "Senator Edwards Needs More North Carolinians to Line Up Behind Him."
Halbinger trotted aside Senator Edwards on Wrightsville Beach and came away with one of the first, extended blind quotes from a veritable "Democrat familiar with Mr. Bowles's thinking." LINK
That is, of course, Erskine Bowles, who very much wants Senator Edwards to make up his darned mind about running for the Senate or running for president.
"'As much as he is loyal to Edwards, every week that goes by that he's unable to engage fully in the campaign, he sees as a disadvantage,' said one Democrat familiar with Mr. Bowles's thinking. 'He's a former White House chief of staff, he's got a record of getting things done, and he wants to do this. He's not likely to sit around waiting for long for someone else to make a decision.'"
"The tension between the two, who are friends and have supported each other's campaigns, is likely only to grow: Mr. Edwards's loyalists say that Mr. Bowles received the lowest percentage of any Democratic Senate candidate in generations, while Mr. Bowles's note that he also got more votes than Mr. Edwards did."
Halfbinger concludes that the anxiety about Edwards's true intentions are hurting him in the state; many of constituents admire him as their Senator but are puzzled by his presidential run, which they appear to regard as a distraction.
"'He needs to decide,' said Brick McDermott, 26, a mortgage broker from Charlotte who was relaxing in the sand when Mr. Edwards walked by and said hello. "'Having it both ways right now — that isn't working.'"
"The senator clearly does not agree and is sticking to his own timetable for his decision. 'It's going to depend on what I think is best for North Carolina and what the dynamic is in the presidential campaign,' he told the reporters trailing him.'"
As that drama plays out, the coverage keying off of yesterday was — and there is no other way to describe it — negative.
Edwards could not have been happy when he saw this headline: "N.H. voters puzzled by Edwards' campaign."
Mark Johnson's story for the Charlotte Observer indicates that many believe the Senator from North Carolina is not living up to his potential as a presidential candidate. LINK
"Edwards already proved himself as a fund-raiser, siphoning up $12 million this year to put him second among the candidates' bank accounts. His numbers in name recognition and apparent public support in New Hampshire, however, remain anemic."
"'Where's he from?' asked Dan Samodai, a Concord auto parts dealer, when asked about Edwards outside the state Capitol. Samodai paused from reading the Daniel Webster statue inscription to his 4-year-old son, Cameron, and said he has seen 'a ton' of advertising on the presidential bid of Senator John Kerry, from neighboring Massachusetts. 'I don't know if he's going for the saturation thing or what, but everywhere you turn it's "Kerry."'"
The seminal quote, though, comes from the Young Man of the Mountain Top: "'He hasn't been here a lot,' said James Pindell, who runs the politicsNH.com Web site. 'He needs the buzz in this state. It's really been a Kerry and (former Vermont Gov. Howard) Dean show.'"
John Wagner of the Raleigh News & Observer gets Pindell in a slightly more hopeful, reflective moment:
"'New Hampshire activists are saying it's now put-up or shut-up time for John Edwards,' said James Pindell, managing editor of PoliticsNH.com, a Web site that is closely tracking the state's Democratic primary process. 'Edwards has a lot riding on these next couple of months. It's a critical time for him.'" LINK
"Entering a new phase in his campaign, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards began a series of town hall meetings focusing on broader audiences than just those that turn out for house parties in activists homes," PoliticsNH.com's Pindell himself, switching from pundit to writer, reports:
"Up until today Edwards said his campaign mainly focused on fund-raising, but now, a week after the second quarter of the year has finished, he has embarked on a full-fledged campaign schedule starting with 11 town hall meetings in the Granite State and a number of downtown walks in Iowa."
"It's about time. Edwards has never received more than single-digit support in polls of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina Democrats. The same is true of Democrats nationwide."
"Rival campaigns saw the town hall meetings [as] risky for Edwards. Why, they would argue, would Edwards attempt to hold town hall meetings in the summer, when less than 10 percent of voters are paying attention, and when he seems to have such small support in polls? His campaign staff had spent the last two weeks non-stop on the initial town hall meeting with phone call reminders and dropping literature with the date and time in traditional Democratic neighborhoods in and around Concord, the site of the event."
"But it appears as though the Edwards campaign actually pulled it off. A crowd of 150 showed up to hear the North Carolina senator, although a number of them were activists or staff for various advocacy groups in the state. He was asked about everything from farm policy to software piracy to global warming to prescription drugs to stem cell research to gay marriage."
John DiStaso led with the foreign origin of the pair of shoes Senator Edwards purchased. LINK
The AP's Ramer kept her eyes off of Hunter long enough to focus on the lunch speech and write about Edwards's expense the stock options proposal: LINK
And Ramer beat us to the punch by Noting this: "Despite his weak numbers in New Hampshire polls, Edwards did pass one local test. A Rotary Club member asked him to repeat three words in a New England accent: park, garden and Nomar, as in Boston Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra."
"'Pahhhk. Gahhhden. Nomahhh,' Edwards enunciated dutifully."
The Boston Globe gave Edwards his own story, too. LINK
The Note may have caused some inadvertent shockwaves between North Carolina and Washington yesterday when we mistakenly Noted Tim Funk's Charlotte Observer story about Senator Edwards' 2003 Roll Call votes attendance record.
We said Mr. Funk reported that Senator Edwards had missed 47 percent of his votes. However, the Observer properly reported that the senior senator from North Carolina has missed 47 actual Roll Call votes … which is only 18% of the year's total.
The mistake was entirely ours, not Mr. Funk's. We apologize for any confusion caused and we promise to leave the harder mathematical reporting (i.e. percentages vs. actuals) to the Googling monkeys and remove all chance of human error.
Though, we have to say, we don't feel quite as bad after reading the first correction in The Paper of Record:
LINK
ABC 2004: The Invisible Primary:
Most people realize that the AP's Ron Fournier is really good with words, but does anyone ever give him his due credit for being so good with numbers too?
Fournier's lead today tells you right where he's going: "Despite a recent fund-raising surge, Howard Dean lags behind his top Democratic presidential rivals in a key category: Money in the bank." LINK
"The former Vermont governor cemented his standing as a top-tier candidate by raising $7.5 million between April and June, first among the nine Democratic candidates for the quarter. That gave him a total of $10.1 million raised since the beginning of the year."
"Dean is the only candidate airing TV ads — $300,000 worth in Iowa — and he invested thousands of dollars to build an Internet-driven grass-roots operation. Those expenses and others, including a growing campaign staff in Burlington, Vt., leave Dean with more than $6 million cash on hand and fourth overall, aides said Monday."
Here's Fournier's compilation of the numbers "in the bank," which he created from the generosity of campaign staffers "who spoke on condition of anonymity":
"- Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts has about $11 million in the bank, including $2.6 million he transferred from his Senate campaign account. Kerry raised about $6 million in the second fund-raising quarter, second to Dean."
"- Senator John Edwards of North Carolina has about $8.5 million on hand, none of it from his Senate account. He raised about $5 million this quarter, tied for third with Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut."
"- Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri has close to $7 million in ready money, including $2.4 million from his congressional campaign account. Gephardt raised just $4.5 million in the second quarter, at least $500,000 below his goal and a disappointing fifth-place finish."
"- Lieberman has about $4 million in the bank."
"- Senator Bob Graham of Florida, who got a late start in the campaign, has more than $1.5 million on hand."
Fournier Notes: "Said Robert Gibbs, spokesman for the Kerry campaign: 'Television stations in Iowa and New Hampshire don't take credit cards.'" (Note Note: We remember the days when this was a background quote.)
Fournier also runs through who is and who is not looking good financially overall, Noting that "Kerry may have the best combination: He has the most money in the bank while leading in New Hampshire polls and gaining ground on Gephardt in Iowa. Kerry also has raised the most money since Jan. 1 — $13 million — with Edwards a close second and Dean third."
The Boston Globe 's Glen Johnson writes about how the Dean campaign's good fortune (literally speaking) may speed up their plans and, according to Joe Trippi, "expand his campaign into at least three states beyond Iowa and New Hampshire at least a month ahead of schedule." LINK
"The $7.5 million that Dean raised in the past three months also will allow what has been a shoestring campaign to add more regional political operatives and a second aide to accompany the former Vermont governor as he hopscotch's across the country, campaign manager Joe Trippi said in a telephone interview in advance of a two-day meeting Dean and his staff are starting today in Burlington, Vt."
Under the same byline and headline, savvy Note readers should like the turn Johnson takes in the eighth paragraph: "Dean's strategy session overlapped with a similar meeting last night and today on Nantucket that one of his rivals for the nomination, Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, held with more than a dozen top political advisers."
"'It's really nothing,' Kerry said yesterday after he and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, returned from a post-lunch walk to their home overlooking the entrance to Nantucket Harbor. 'This is just the first chance I've had to get everyone together and talk about where we are, where we're going.'"
So, who was there? … ."Among those attending the session were Kerry campaign manager Jim Jordan, chief fund-raiser Peter Maroney, scheduler Karen Hinck, communications director Chris Lehane, media consultants Jim Margolis and Michael Donilon, Boston political consultants Chuck Campion, John Marttila, and Michael Whouley, and Cameron Kerry, a Boston lawyer who is the senator's brother."
It's always nice to see Whouley's name in the paper.
Déjà vu? The Washington Post 's Dan Balz looks at the dominance of the economy as a campaign issue in New Hampshire — once again, keying off the Lieberman and Edwards operations.
LINK
The Washington Senators hit Bush's handling of the economy hard, but, Balz says, they haven't found an alternative that voters will respond to.
Corporate accountability, accountability, accountability, preaches Edwards — and expense the stock options, particularly in Silicon Valley. Forget the stock options, Lieberman says. It's the loss of manufacturing jobs, stupid.
The Wall Street Journal 's Laurie McGinley looks at the efforts of the Democratic presidential hopefuls to counter-spin any potential gain President Bush might reap from the new Medicare drug benefit, and the balance that Senate Democrats running for reelection are trying to strike in order to keep their jobs.
"Of the four sitting Senate Democrats vying for the party's nomination next year, two — Florida's Bob Graham and North Carolina's John Edwards — voted against the bill," McGinley writes. "A third, John Kerry of Massachusetts, said he would have joined them if he hadn't been out of town at the time. Only Senator Joseph Lieberman, of Connecticut, who also missed the final vote, said he supported the Medicare legislation, despite its 'substantial weaknesses.'"
"Both House Democrats running for president — Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich — voted against their chamber's version. Mr. Gephardt said it would undermine Medicare and not provide meaningful help on medication costs."
Senator Edwards was strikingly unaware of how his competitors had voted on the measures when asked about it yesterday in Manchester.
While Bush may or may not get kudos for the prescription drug benefits and tax cuts in his plan, Democrats are fighting to broaden the conversation to what's wrong with the health care system overall.
Gephardt, Lieberman, Kerry, Dean, Edwards, and Kucinich all attack the issue from different angles, from tax breaks to employers to expansion of Medicaid and children's programs to going after drug companies. And while they're looking to exploit Bush's record on the uninsured, Republicans are focused more on coverage for the elderly as an election issue.
Non-seniors have too many competing interests to form a coherent voting bloc, according to Republican pollster Linda DiVall. "'This is not as homogenous a group as seniors,'" she told McGinley.
Lawrence Kaplan of the New Republic has an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal about the dangers the Democrats face if they become the Wimp Party.
Jake Schlesinger of the Wall Street Journal got Senator Edwards on the phone to write about the split in the Democratic party over expensing of options.
Complete with handsome dot drawing, the Wall Street Journal writes up Bill Bradley's latest big adventure: "Seagate Technology, Scotts Valley, Calif., a computer disc-drive maker, named former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley as a director. His appointment puts board membership at 11. Mr. Bradley represented New Jersey in the U.S. Senate from 1979 to 1997, and contested Al Gore for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2000. Mr. Bradley is now a managing director of investment-banking company Allen & Co. LLC, and a director of coffee-shop chain Starbucks Coffee Co., a seat he took in June. The 59-year-old was a senior adviser and vice chairman of the international council of J.P. Morgan & Co. from 1997 to 1999."
KERRY
The Boston Herald's Andrew Miga reports, "Teresa Heinz Kerry, an ardent and often outspoken environmentalist, yesterday refused to wade into the controversy over a proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm — a potential land mine for her husband's presidential campaign." LINK
DEAN
Alan Murray has a "soft spot" for Howard Dean, he writes in the Wall Street Journal , because, well, Murray is from the Peterson-Russert wing of the Establishment Party.
Featuring a shot of Howard Dean shooting hoops, the Washington Times ' James G. Lakely writes that the Democrats' race for president is a "full-court" game. LINK
Dick Harpootlian, the former chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party, goes on the record to say that Dean's "got the Big Mo right now. He's got it nationally and you're starting to see it in South Carolina right now."
The piece also Notes that Dean has begun to reach out to New Mexico where he hopes to tap into the state's "substantial and politically active homosexual population."
The piece also Notes that Senator Lieberman is "bragging that he is the first candidate to open shop in Arizona."
A big, sloppy kiss from Roger Simon: " Just outside this city, in a place they call America, most people go about their daily lives without giving politics a second thought."
"Take Ashland, Oregon, which I visited recently on vacation. Ashland, a town of about 20,000 located approximately 15 miles north of the California border, is home to a famous Shakespeare festival, lots of B&Bs, a hundred-acre park and people who spend entire afternoons without ever saying things like 'electability' or 'momentum' or 'political viability.'"
LINK
"Which is why I was surprised one morning to come down to the lobby of the inn I was staying at to find two women wearing large "Howard Dean for President" buttons. This was a shocker for two reasons: First, campaigns don't really do political buttons any more. They are too expensive and have been replaced by peel-off stickers. (Which is a shame. What kid is going to start a peel-off sticker collection?)"
"Second, how many people are walking around wearing political buttons in the summer of 2003? Most people don't even realize there is a presidential campaign going on."
"Unless, of course, they support Howard Dean. People who support Howard Dean are excited by Howard Dean."
GEPHARDT
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Bill Lambrecht and Deirdre Shesgreen continue what The Note considers to be a very-un-hyped-up-when-it-should-be series of articles on Congressman Gephardt. Today's headline: "Gephardt has spent career at center of tax, budget battles." LINK
The duo writes: "During 26 years in Congress, Gephardt has not been shy about raising taxes on the wealthy. He has been less consistent on another signature theme, tax simplification, where his career-long efforts to simplify the tax codes run counter to a new health care plan in which he relies on tax credits to engineer social policy."
GRAHAM
Senator "Electable Wing" campaigned in Oklahoma yesterday. LINK
The Norman Transcript's Sean Murphy writes, "Monday's visit wasn't the first Graham has made to the Sooner State. In addition to visiting Oklahoma to purchase cattle, Graham recalled a wager he made with former Oklahoma Gov. George Nigh on the outcome of a game between the University of Oklahoma and one of the Florida schools. The Sooners won, and Graham agreed to work on an oil rig in Elk City." LINK
LIEBERMAN
The Nashua Telegraph 's Kevin Landrigan writes that Senator Lieberman did a lot of listening in Salem yesterday. LINK
Senator Lieberman's sluggish fundraising among Jewish donors makes it onto A1 of the Washington Times .
LINK
David Lightman of the Hartford Courant reports an amusing tidbit on the Lieberman campaign:
"Joe Lieberman has been accused of being too much like a Republican, but this seemed ridiculous." LINK
"His new Senate communications director will be Matt Gobush."
As in … "Go Bush" …
The New York Post 's Page Six finds the same item irresistible, and writes it up in an absurd manner. LINK
KUCINICH
The Associated Press reports, "Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich said Monday he'll probably run for Congress again even as he seeks the Democratic nomination. 'At present, that's my plan,' he said." LINK
Eight feminists, including author Barbara Ehrenreich and anthropologist Angela Gilliam, have signed a statement of support for Congressman Kucinich.
John Mangels, science writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, reports that Kucinich is urging consideration to revoke a local nuclear power plant's operating license. LINK
GREENS
The Green Party of the United States' National Planning Meeting begins this weekend at the Mayflower Hotel.
Bush-Cheney re-elect:
We are completely baffled by the tick tock on why the Washington Post and New York Times got the Niger/nuclear story (while others didn't).
Read 'em yourself, and e-mail us your theories: LINK
The AP's George Gedda reports President Bush began his five-day trip through Africa "without announcing a decision on whether he will send U.S. troops to Liberia." LINK
The Washington Post 's Dana Milbank compares the all-business five-day Bush swing through Africa with the longer trip by President Clinton in 1998 — and laments the lack of down-time. LINK
Legislative Agenda:
The only agreement on medical liability/medical malpractice reform is probably that no new legislation will escape the Senate. LINK
The administration has some girst for the pension reform mill.
LINK
California recall:
The convention wisdom is now set: this thing is happening, and it is happening in November. The key missing piece (besides who will run) is what strategy will Governor Davis use to beat it.
The San Francisco Chronicle's John Wildermuth writes, "California Democrats, from Gov. Gray Davis on down, are gearing up for a historic recall battle they now admit is inevitable." LINK
"'If the people want me to present my credentials one more time, I have no fear of the electorate,' Davis said Monday in Los Angeles. 'Obviously, I'd prefer there not be another election.'"
The Los Angeles Times' Gregg Jones and Evan Halper report, "Leaders of a campaign to oust Gov. Gray Davis ended their signature drive Monday, saying they had gathered more than enough to put the Democratic governor's fate in the hands of voters in what would be California's first statewide recall election." LINK
More: "That could set off a chain of legal and political contests, as candidates consider their options and opponents of the recall debate whether to challenge it in court. Already, some officials said, the recall threat is having a damaging impact on state finances."
And: "Recall strategists said they were confident they had more than 1.2 million signatures, enough to force the election. But the decision to stop collecting more was seen as a risky move by some political analysts, because of the legal vagaries of signature-gathering for ballot initiatives and recall efforts."
The AP's Erica Werner writes, "Democrats sought Monday to cast the Republican-led campaign to recall Democratic Gov. Gray Davis as a threat to the state and national economies, but recall backers dismissed the warnings as 'scare tactics.'" LINK
More from Werner: "The state's controller, treasurer and the leader of the California Federation of Labor on Monday "said the recall threatens the economy by making the state look unstable to investors and by worsening budget deadlock in Sacramento. Democrats have complained that Republicans are refusing to compromise on the $38.2 billion budget deficit in part because the stalemate could fuel the recall."
The Washington Post 's Rene Sanchez offers the latest chapter in "California's surreal summer": a state in huge financial trouble, a long-shot gubernatorial recall drive that looks more and more like it's going all the way, and a controversial, ambitious congressman angling to step in.
LINK
Weeks ago, Sanchez writes, the recall drive looked like a dead letter from Republican activists with an ax to grind. Then in stepped Darrell Issa, with a big bankroll, fire in the belly and a past — and now it's increasingly likely that the recall effort will get enough signatures. And it looks like Davis is in trouble.
"There's nothing new about a rich man trying to be a political king in California," Sanchez writes. "But Issa, 49, is not simply running in an election. He is on the verge of creating one."
GOP strategists are weighing the possible risk of a bigger, better (dare we say Terminator-like?) Democrat stepping onto the scene. But they give Issa credit.
"'Darrell's got guts,' said Michael Capaldi, chairman of the Lincoln Club of Orange County, a prominent Republican group. 'This is not a time to stand by and watch the state sink.'"
The San Jose Mercury News' Dion Nissenbaum writes, "Rescue California told its paid teams stationed outside supermarkets, county fairs, strip malls and home-improvement stores across California to pack it in." LINK
More: "Giddy recall groups have begun mocking the Davis allies by comparing them on one Web site to the former Iraqi minister of information who famously scoffed at notions that U.S. tanks were in Baghdad even as television images showed soldiers seizing the city."
"The recall campaign will now focus on getting the signatures in to elections officials in an effort to force a vote on the Democratic governor's future this fall."
"Anti-Davis forces have until Sept. 2 to turn in 897,158 valid names to force a vote."
Today at 2:30 pm ET, members of the California Legislative LGBT Caucus (i.e, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) will announce their opposition to the recall and affirm their support for Governor Davis on the steps of the Capitol in Sacramento.
The Los Angeles Times takes another look at the options for getting the budget to balance.
LINK
The Associated Press presents some historical and legal recall stats that should give USA Today graphics folks at least three or four days worth of material. LINK
Schwarzenegger: Notorious GOP? Or so Snoop Dogg has christened the potential California gubernatorial candidate, The Washington Post 's Mark Leibovich reports. LINK
"Cynics might say — and God save cynics in Dreamland — that Arnold Schwarzenegger, 55, is attempting to exploit interest in his potential candidacy to promote his movie. Or exploit his 'T-3' promotional efforts to promote his campaign. Either way, by coincidence or calculation, Schwarzenegger is starring in this summer's biggest cross-promotional blockbuster."
"'Arnold is staying on message, and the message is T-3,' says George Gorton, a Republican consultant who is advising Schwarzenegger on matters that are, right now, not on message."
While it's a safe bet that most potential voters don't have a clue about Schwarzenegger's positions on the issues, there's no denying that the touch of Hollywood is going to the heads of pundits.
"'He clearly has to run as Kindergarten Cop, not as the Terminator,' says Phil Trounstine, director of the Survey and Policy Research Institute at San Jose State University."
Politics:
He may not have an opponent yet, but Senator Tom Daschle is already taking to the airwaves. On Wednesday, the Daschle campaign expected to broadcast its first television ad in the Sioux Falls market.
The ad touts Senator Daschle's role in fighting oil companies and building a "robust ethanol indsutry" where South Dakota now grows "one out of every three rows of corn for ethanol production."
The ad also claims that Senator Daschle is close to passing new legislation that would "triple ethanol production in South Dakota" and could create as many as "10,000 new jobs."
The ad closes by asking viewers to become "citizen co-sponsors" of Senator Dachle's energy legislation. A Daschle source tells The Note: "given the popularity of the issue in Iowa, we expect a lot of calls from 802, 919, 314, 617 and other '04 area codes:"
A media savvy source tells us that the Daschle campaign has bought 400 points worth of 60 seconds each week for two weeks of this Struble creative.
"The president of the National Education Association acknowledges that the union is left-wing politically and 90 percent pro-Democrat but says he wants to reach out more to Republicans," the Washington Times reports. LINK
"'I think many [Republican leaders in the Bush administration and Congress] feel as though we may not support as many Republicans as Democrats. That has been true in the past,' NEA President Reg Weaver told the Washington Times in an exclusive interview at the conclusion of the union's annual convention here."
Representatives Blumenauer (D) and Leach (R) call for redistricting reform in today's New York Times . LINK
In Roll Call , Norm Ornstein bemoans the lack of deliberation in Congress today:
"The crazy-quilt tax legislation and jerry-rigged prescription drug plans show what happens when Congress sacrifices deliberation for partisan efficiency."
Max Lamont writes in the Hill's lead story that Congressional Black Caucus members are displeased. (It seems that the Hill leads with this general theme every single chance they get.). This time, Bush has drawn their displeasure, because CBC members were "excluded" from providing advice on or joining the president's trip to Africa. LINK
Former Alaska Governor Tony Knowles (D) is expected to announce his Senate candidacy today.
LINK
Kennedy-Cuomo:
The New York Post 's Cindy Adams has a secret, and, after (apparently) caucusing with the paper's libel lawyers, she decides to keep it to herself for now. LINK
A must-read for habitués of this tale.
The alleged other man's ex-father-in-law, who seems to L-O-V-E talking to the tabs, turns a bit on the (alleged) cad. LINK
Judicial confirmation battles:
The Washington Times ' Charles Hurt reports that the Senate Republican leadership plans to file a discharge petition to bypass the Judiciary committee and take four judicial nominees from Michigan directly to the Senate floor for a vote.
LINK
