The Note: "What Might Come Next"

— -- WASHINGTON, Sep. 27

NEWS SUMMARY
"To Conserve Gas, President Calls for Less Driving . . . Says 'We Can All Pitch In'. . . Fears That Energy Prices May Crimp Economy After Hurricanes"

-- dramatic headline over today's New York Times lead story

It is very rare to get leaked a copy of a presidential speech before it is delivered -- and especially rare to get such a leak from the Bush 43 White House.

So in part to show off that someone slipped us the President's major address for later today in Beaumont, Texas -- but also in part because we think it is a pretty interesting and newsy set of remarks -- we bring you the text, as written, of what President Bush plans to say.

Obviously, this speech pushes off in large measure from the President's dramatic call yesterday for energy conservation -- something Dick Cheney and Ari Fleischer have in the past suggested was nearly un-American (or, at least, a big waste of time).

The President's speech is likely to cause further ripples in Washington and, indeed, around the world.

So, without further ado: ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States:

Good morning. This is a special day for me. Exactly two days ago, on September 25, 2005, I went to the Gulf. LINK

I promised you a president who is not isolated from the people, who feels your pain, and who shares your dreams and who draws his strength and his wisdom from you.

During the past five years I've spoken to you on many occasions about national concerns, the energy crisis, reorganizing the government, our nation's economy, and issues of war and especially peace.

Why have we not been able to get together as a nation to resolve our serious energy problem?

It's clear that the true problems of our Nation are much deeper -- deeper than gasoline lines or energy shortages, deeper even than inflation or recession. And I realize more than ever that as president I need your help. So I decided to reach out and listen to the voices of America.

It has been an extraordinary several weeks, and I want to share with you what I've heard. First of all, I got a lot of personal advice. Let me quote a few of the typical comments that I wrote down.

This from a Southern governor: "Mr. President, you are not leading this nation -- you're just managing the government."

"You don't see the people enough any more."

"Some of your Cabinet members don't seem loyal. There is not enough discipline among your disciples."

"Don't talk to us about politics or the mechanics of government, but about an understanding of our common good."

"Mr. President, we're in trouble. Talk to us about blood and sweat and tears."

"If you lead, Mr. President, we will follow."

Many people talked about themselves and about the condition of our nation.

This from a young woman in Pennsylvania: "I feel so far from government. I feel like ordinary people are excluded from political power."

And this from a young Chicano: "Some of us have suffered from recession all our lives."

"Some people have wasted energy, but others haven't had anything to waste."

And this from a religious leader: "No material shortage can touch the important things like God's love for us or our love for one another."

And I like this one particularly from a black woman who happens to be the mayor of a small Mississippi town: "The big-shots are not the only ones who are important. Remember, you can't sell anything on Wall Street unless someone digs it up somewhere else first."

This kind of summarized a lot of other statements: "Mr. President, we are confronted with a moral and a spiritual crisis."

Several of our discussions were on energy, and I have a notebook full of comments and advice. I'll read just a few.

"We can't go on consuming 40 percent more energy than we produce. When we import oil we are also importing inflation plus unemployment."

"We've got to use what we have. The Middle East has only five percent of the world's energy, but the United States has 24 percent."

And this is one of the most vivid statements: "Our neck is stretched over the fence and OPEC has a knife."

"There will be other cartels and other shortages. American wisdom and courage right now can set a path to follow in the future."

This was a good one: "Be bold, Mr. President. We may make mistakes, but we are ready to experiment."

And this one from a labor leader got to the heart of it: "The real issue is freedom. We must deal with the energy problem on a war footing."

These several weeks confirmed my belief in the decency and the strength and the wisdom of the American people, but it also bore out some of my long-standing concerns about our nation's underlying problems.

I know, of course, being president, that government actions and legislation can be very important. That's why I've worked hard to put my campaign promises into law -- and I have to admit, with just mixed success. But after listening to the American people I have been reminded again that all the legislation in the world can't fix what's wrong with America. So, I want to speak to you first tonight about a subject even more serious than energy or inflation. I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy.

The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.

The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America. Simply put, there is a malaise afflicting America.

The confidence that we have always had as a people is not simply some romantic dream or a proverb in a dusty book that we read just on the Fourth of July.

It is the idea which founded our nation and has guided our development as a people. Confidence in the future has supported everything else -- public institutions and private enterprise, our own families, and the very Constitution of the United States. Confidence has defined our course and has served as a link between generations. We've always believed in something called progress. We've always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own.

Our people are losing that faith, not only in government itself but in the ability as citizens to serve as the ultimate rulers and shapers of our democracy. As a people we know our past and we are proud of it. Our progress has been part of the living history of America, even the world. We always believed that we were part of a great movement of humanity itself called democracy, involved in the search for freedom, and that belief has always strengthened us in our purpose. But just as we are losing our confidence in the future, we are also beginning to close the door on our past.

In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We've learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.

The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us. For the first time in the history of our country a majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years. Two-thirds of our people do not even vote. The willingness of Americans to save for the future has fallen below that of all other people in the Western world.

As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media, and other institutions. This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning.

These changes did not happen overnight. They've come upon us gradually over the last generation, years that were filled with shocks and tragedy.

These wounds are still very deep. They have never been healed. Looking for a way out of this crisis, our people have turned to the Federal government and found it isolated from the mainstream of our nation's life. Washington, D.C., has become an island. The gap between our citizens and our government has never been so wide. The people are looking for honest answers, not easy answers; clear leadership, not false claims and evasiveness and politics as usual.

What you see too often in Washington and elsewhere around the country is a system of government that seems incapable of action. You see a Congress twisted and pulled in every direction by hundreds of well-financed and powerful special interests. You often see a balanced and a fair approach that demands sacrifice, a little sacrifice from everyone, abandoned like an orphan without support and without friends.

Often you see paralysis and stagnation and drift. You don't like it, and neither do I. What can we do?

First of all, we must face the truth, and then we can change our course. We simply must have faith in each other, faith in our ability to govern ourselves, and faith in the future of this nation. Restoring that faith and that confidence to America is now the most important task we face. It is a true challenge of this generation of Americans.

We know the strength of America. We are strong. We can regain our unity. We can regain our confidence. We are the heirs of generations who survived threats much more powerful and awesome than those that challenge us now. Our fathers and mothers were strong men and women who shaped a new society during the Great Depression, who fought world wars, and who carved out a new charter of peace for the world.

We are at a turning point in our history. There are two paths to choose. One is a path I've warned about tonight, the path that leads to fragmentation and self-interest. Down that road lies a mistaken idea of freedom, the right to grasp for ourselves some advantage over others. That path would be one of constant conflict between narrow interests ending in chaos and immobility. It is a certain route to failure.

All the traditions of our past, all the lessons of our heritage, all the promises of our future point to another path, the path of common purpose and the restoration of American values. That path leads to true freedom for our nation and ourselves. We can take the first steps down that path as we begin to solve our energy problem.

Energy will be the immediate test of our ability to unite this nation, and it can also be the standard around which we rally. On the battlefield of energy we can win for our nation a new confidence, and we can seize control again of our common destiny.

Our excessive dependence on OPEC has already taken a tremendous toll on our economy and our people. This is the direct cause of the long lines which have made millions of you spend aggravating hours waiting for gasoline. This intolerable dependence on foreign oil threatens our economic independence and the very security of our nation. The energy crisis is real. It is worldwide. It is a clear and present danger to our nation. These are facts and we simply must face them.

What I have to say to you now about energy is simple and vitally important.

From now on, every new addition to our demand for energy will be met from our own production and our own conservation. The generation-long growth in our dependence on foreign oil will be stopped dead in its tracks right now and then reversed as we move through the 2000s, for I am today setting the further goal of cutting our dependence on foreign oil by one-half by the end of the next decade.

To give us energy security, I am asking for the most massive peacetime commitment of funds and resources in our nation's history to develop America's own alternative sources of fuel -- from coal, from oil shale, from plant products for gasohol, from unconventional gas, from the sun.

We will protect our environment. But when this nation critically needs a refinery or a pipeline, we will build it.

I'm proposing a bold conservation program to involve every state, county, and city and every average American in our energy battle. This effort will permit you to build conservation into your homes and your lives at a cost you can afford.

I ask Congress to give me authority for mandatory conservation and for standby gasoline rationing. To further conserve energy, I'm proposing tonight an extra $10 billion over the next decade to strengthen our public transportation systems. And I'm asking you for your good and for your nation's security to take no unnecessary trips, to use carpools or public transportation whenever you can, to park your car one extra day per week, to obey the speed limit, and to set your thermostats to save fuel. Every act of energy conservation like this is more than just common sense -- I tell you it is an act of patriotism.

Our nation must be fair to the poorest among us, so we will increase aid to needy Americans to cope with rising energy prices. We often think of conservation only in terms of sacrifice. In fact, it is the most painless and immediate way of rebuilding our nation's strength. Every gallon of oil each one of us saves is a new form of production. It gives us more freedom, more confidence, that much more control over our own lives.

So, the solution of our energy crisis can also help us to conquer the crisis of the spirit in our country. It can rekindle our sense of unity, our confidence in the future, and give our nation and all of us individually a new sense of purpose.

You know we can do it. We have the natural resources. We have more oil in our shale alone than several Saudi Arabias. We have more coal than any nation on Earth. We have the world's highest level of technology. We have the most skilled work force, with innovative genius, and I firmly believe that we have the national will to win this war.

I do not promise you that this struggle for freedom will be easy. I do not promise a quick way out of our nation's problems, when the truth is that the only way out is an all-out effort. What I do promise you is that I will lead our fight, and I will enforce fairness in our struggle, and I will ensure honesty. And above all, I will act. We can manage the short-term shortages more effectively and we will, but there are no short-term solutions to our long-range problems. There is simply no way to avoid sacrifice.

I will continue to travel this country, to hear the people of America. You can help me to develop a national agenda for the 2000s. I will listen and I will act. We will act together.

Little by little we can and we must rebuild our confidence. We can spend until we empty our treasuries, and we may summon all the wonders of science. But we can succeed only if we tap our greatest resources -- America's people, America's values, and America's confidence.

I have seen the strength of America in the inexhaustible resources of our people. In the days to come, let us renew that strength in the struggle for an energy secure nation.

In closing, let me say this: I will do my best, but I will not do it alone. Let your voice be heard. Whenever you have a chance, say something good about our country. With God's help and for the sake of our nation, it is time for us to join hands in America. Let us commit ourselves together to a rebirth of the American spirit. Working together with our common faith we cannot fail.

Thank you and have a good day.

President Bush will give these remarks (or something like them) when he meets with Texas officials regarding hurricane damage at 10:50 am ET in Beaumont, TX before meeting with Louisiana officials at 1:10 pm ET in Lake Charles, LA. In between the two meetings, he will tour Texas and Louisiana hurricane damage by air.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Sen. Tom Harkin, Surgeon General Richard Carmona, and David Satcher, former surgeon general and founding chairman of Action for Healthy Kids (AFHK), deliver remarks at Loews L'Enfant Plaza in SW Washington, DC at 8:30 am ET to mark the opening session of AFHK.

We wonder if Sen. Frist's statement yesterday went far enough to avoid a stakeout scrum this morning.

The Senate party caucuses hold their weekly policy luncheons today at 12:15 pm ET.

The House Government Reform Committee investigates preparations for and response to Hurricane Katrina and questions former FEMA Director (and current FEMA consultant) Mike Brown at 10:00 am ET.

The Senate continues debating John Roberts' nomination to be Chief Justice of the United States today. The Roberts vote is scheduled to be held at 11:30 am ET on Thursday.

Mrs. Laura Bush heads to Biloxi, MS today where she will participate in a noon ET taping of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." Later in the day, she plans to visit a Salvation Army recovery center.

Secretary Rumsfeld and Chairman Myers will brief the Pentagon press corps at 1:00 pm ET. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi joins the four other top House Democratic leaders this morning to outline what they see as flaws in the 11-year old GOP Contract with America and "failed" Republican promises to make fiscal discipline and ethics cornerstones of the government.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), the chair of the Senate's Homeland Security Committee, attends a "Monitor" breakfast in Washington, DC.

Anna Burger, chair of Change to Win, and Edgard Romney, the group's secretary-treasurer, will share their vision for the AFL-CIO offshoot and answer questions on the founding convention at a 1:45 pm ET press conference in St. Louis, MO.

New York mayoral candidate Fernando Ferrer appears with DNC Chairman Howard Dean in Manhattan at 4:30 pm ET at Louis D. Brandeis High School on the Upper West Side. The two will do a little photo-friendly subway stop handshaking after that event.

Hurricanes: Bush strategy/response:
The New York Times trio of Leonhardt, Mouawad, and Sanger deliver this contextual graph on the President's call for conservation: LINK

"Mr. Bush, speaking yesterday after he was briefed at the Energy Department, did not use the dour tone or cardigan-wearing imagery that proved politically deadly for Jimmy Carter during the oil crisis of the 1970's. Nor did Mr. Bush propose new policies to encourage conservation. But he was more explicit than in the past that Americans should cut back."

On "Good Morning America," Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly took a tough line with President Bush while chatting with ABC's Charlie Gibson, saying, "Because of Katrina, people stopped giving the President the benefit of the doubt." O'Reilly said that the President cannot recover from the political damage he has suffered in the wake of Katrina with rhetoric.

The conservative talk show host also chastised the President for not talking about energy conservation sooner. "Why didn't he say this five years ago?" asked O'Reilly. "We're being held hostage. . . For 20 years, we haven't heard about any self-sacrifice."

In spite of the hype about a remade agency, FEMA's response to Rita is starting to accumulate criticism, reports USA Today. LINK

While at the Department of Energy yesterday, President Bush continued to talk up the idea of revisiting and perhaps revising Posse Comitatus. The New York Times' David Sanger has the details. LINK

After weeks of prodding by Republican lawmakers and the American Red Cross, FEMA announced yesterday that it will use taxpayer money to reimburse churches and other religious organizations that have opened their doors to provide shelter, food and supplies to survivors, the Washington Post reports. LINK

The Los Angeles Times' Fiore brilliantly curtain raises Mrs. Bush's upcoming "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," with her spokesgal Susan Whitson questioning whether it is a reality show, and spokesguy-to-the-stars Chris Lehane praising FLOTUS effectiveness. LINK

Hurricanes: Big Casino budget politics:
Republican leaders will try to assuage conservatives this week with appearances on the syndicated radio talk shows of conservatives Sean Hannity, Tony Snow, Mike Gallagher, and Lars Larson. But no one outside of the GOP leadership expects any substantive changes from the GOP on offsets, the Washington Post's Jonathan Weisman reports. One Republican, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said, "This leadership group is so out of touch, it's unbelievable." LINK

The Wall Street Journal's editorial board says Leader Nancy Pelosi is outflanking GOP Hill leaders by calling for highway earmark spending cut off-sets and urges the President to take a hardline on spending cuts to take "a step toward restoring his badly tarnished credentials as a budget steward."

Note to Sen. John McCain: Baton Rouge is asking Washington for lots and lots of money, but New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin hints that some of his northerly neighbor's requests may be pork. LINK

USA Today's ed board encourages Congress to "revisit recent tax cuts" to address the costs of rebuilding the Gulf Coast, while printing a sidebar box with off-sets. LINK

Hurricanes: Congress reacts:
While sketching a "chastened" Congressman Mike Pence following his "closed-door auto-da-fe" with House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, the Washington Post's Dana Milbank writes that "ideology and party loyalty are clashing among congressional Republicans these days, and the smart money is on party loyalty." LINK

Hurricanes: blame game:
The Wall Street Journal unfurls its "recent" interview with Michael Brown, in which he "shifted his earlier blame on local officials to the Department of Homeland Security. . ."

Brown, in a briefing yesterday to a bipartisan group of congressional aides, repeatedly blamed state and local officials of infighting and incompetence, according to a memo obtained by the Associated Press. LINK

Hurricanes: politics:
Liberals are ecstatic about Bush's problems but they've still got problems of their own -- namely that there are many more conservatives than liberals in the United States -- writes the Washington Post's E.J. Dionne, who says the party's apparent failure to stand for anything could last a good long while. LINK

A must read.

Frist and HCA:
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist went before cameras yesterday and made a statement regarding his sale of HCA stock shortly before its price fell sharply.

Rejecting the insinuation that he may have benefited from inside information, Frist said in the Capitol on Monday: "I had no information about HCA or its performance that was not publicly available when I directed the trustees to sell the stock."

The DNC's Karen Finney isn't satisfied": "It's time for Republican Leader Frist to stop stonewalling and answer the legitimate questions raised by his ethically-questionable, multi-million dollar stock transaction. With Karl Rove, Tom DeLay and now Bill First all under investigation, the Republicans' culture of corruption is alive and well in Washington, DC."

The overall tone of the post-statement coverage is quite restrained, suggesting good story management by Team Frist on Week Two, Day One. By leaning into his presidential ambitions with the artful phrase "what might come next," without actually spelling things out, Frist seems to have threaded a key needle.

But facts -- and those e-mails -- are still to come. And he still has some explaining to do regarding past statements. And the cable TV coverage is still gruesome.

"In April, the beginning of the company's second quarter, it would have been difficult for even the company's financial managers to foresee the slowdown in hospital admissions and the surge in uninsured patients that caused HCA to miss its second-quarter projections," writes the New York Times' David Kirkpatrick in his straightforward account of Sen. Frist's timeline-centric statement. LINK

The Tennessean's Madden has this about Frist's clever chronology-driven defense:

"That account would mean Frist started the process that led to the sale nearly three months before the stock price fell. It could help him avoid legal troubles, but he still faces a potential political crisis from the inquiry, and his staff handled the issue cautiously yesterday." LINK

"Frist didn't take questions after his remarks, in a news conference scheduled with little notice in the Capitol Crypt, the large circular area on the first floor of the Capitol beneath the Rotunda. When he finished speaking, Frist left in an elevator that is off limits to the public and ordinarily used to take lawmakers to classified intelligence briefings."

"Aides said Frist was complying with requests from the SEC and from the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, but declined to provide copies of documents that could corroborate Frist's account."

The Hill's Allen and Schor caution: "Even if SEC investigators determine that a case against Frist is worth pursuing, taking action on the allegations would require a majority of the commissioners. Cox's recusal leaves two Republican and two Democratic commissioners remaining on the traditionally partisan panel, and a 2-2 deadlock vote would permanently stall any further action against Frist." LINK

Congress Daily AM reports that the consumer activist demanding that the Senate appoint an independent investigator to look into Frist and HCA is Harvey Rosenfield, whose nonprofits are "closely tied to the trial lawyer industry, which adamantly oppose Frist's entire legal overhaul agenda." LINK

Bear in mind: while there is a lot of concern about letters to Frist from trustees, such behavior appears to be within the ethics rules that govern blind trusts in the Senate.

It's also worth remembering that some members of Congress buy and sell stock independently without using the blind trust mechanism that Frist employs.

The Washington Post's Babington and Johnson Note that Frist has hired as his lawyers former SEC enforcement official William R. McLucas and his law firm partner, Harry J. Weiss. LINK

Bloomberg's Catherine Dodge Notes that McLucas, 55, conducted internal investigations for the boards of Enron Corp. and World Com Inc. Stephen Cutler, 44, who let the SEC in May after four years as enforcement chief, is slated to start work as a co-chair of Wilmer Cutler's securities practice next month. LINK

Note to the Los Angeles Times editor who ran the newspaper's Frist story under a "Frist Addresses Sale of Stock in Family's Healthcare Company" headline: HCA is a publicly-traded company and has not been a "family company" for decades. LINK

Matson's "Frist Stock" cartoon in Roll Call comes in two parts: The first panel of the cartoon reads: "The bad news is this could scuttle your presidential run." The second frame reads: "The good news is you're lined up to replace Martha Stewart on Wednesday nights!"

The O'Connor seat:
Carl Hulse (with an Elisabeth Bumiller contribution) of the New York Times leads his "first day of Roberts floor debate" story with the lead: The O'Connor seat, of course. Note President Bush's two pieces of stringy tea leaves from yesterday: LINK

1. Perhaps little more leaning to the "white men need not apply" side.

2. Perhaps a hint that he has not yet interviewed some candidates this round.

The Washington Post takes Bush's statement that diversity is a great strength of our country to mean that the President will name a woman or minority to replace O'Connor. LINK

"The Bush Administration is asking the Supreme Court to reinstate a national ban on a type of late-term abortion, a case that could thrust the President's first Court picks into an early tie-breaking role on a divisive and emotional issue," the Washington Post (along with all other papers) reports. LINK

John Roberts for Chief Justice:
The Hill's Alexander Bolton reports that Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary panel, felt blindsided by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's announcement that he would oppose Roberts for Chief Justice. LINK

Through the lens of his critique of the 1964 case New York Times v. Sullivan and his recent response to a question about the case, The Gray Lady's Liptak looks at John Roberts' approach to libel law. LINK

George Will dresses down Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) for her alleged "preening" and "moral exhibitionism" while questioning Roberts. LINK

The economy:
Warming Tom Reynolds' heart, the Wall Street Journal on A2 says, "The U.S. economy is likely to continue its "solid expansion" into 2006, even as price spikes in oil and natural gas cause ripple effects in coming months, a new National Association of Business Economists survey of 43 forecasters says."

President Bush is partly to blame for the poor consumer confidence in the economy, according to John Podhoretz's New York Post column. LINK

Social Security:
Roll Call's Emily Pierce has a GOP source with knowledge of the Administration's thinking beginning the pushback against Sen. Rick Santorum's (R-PA) recent heresy on Social Security reform: "The President did essentially what (Santorum) was talking about. I don't know why he's pinging the White House."

The politics of Iraq:
The Los Angeles Times says that Sen. Feinstein avoided meeting with some anti-war protesters. LINK

USA Today plays up outgoing Joint Chiefs Chair Richard Myers' remark yesterday that the stakes in Iraq rival those in World War II. LINK

Ethics:
Dear Bill Burton and Devorah Adler:

Philip Shenon of the New York Times breaks some Abramoff related news today with his reporting that the FBI and Justice Department's inspector general are conducting ongoing investigations into the November 2002 demotion of Fred Black, the acting US Attorney in Guam, at just about the time he informed superiors in Washington that he had opened an investigation into some of Abramoff's lobbying activities on Guam. LINK

?pagewanted=allWe see no evidence here that the reassignment was in any way connected to the Abramoff investigation, but it clearly, in effect, ended that investigation.

2008: Republicans:
National Review's Rich Lowry offers up a powerful must-read look at John McCain's appeal to some (fiscal) conservatives in the aftermath of Katrina and appealing to conservatives is exactly, Lowry writes, what John McCain needs to do. LINK

Lowry writes McCain is a "front-runner whose campaign is almost certainly doomed unless he handles conservatives better than he did in 2000. McCain will come out of the gate with formidable assets, among them near-universal name recognition, media adulation and credibility as a serious candidate. But if he again lets another major candidate get to his right on nearly everything -- as he let President Bush in 2000 -- his campaign will again attract independents, but not the Republicans who are by definition necessary to win the Republican nomination."

"So McCain is in a different game from other potential candidates. They need money, media attention, and insider buzz. McCain needs the right to stop loathing him, and he seems to realize it."

2008: Democrats:
Ron Brownstein's Los Angeles Times look at how Democratic presidential aspirants are weighing in on John Roberts says that Mark Warner and Wes Clark "have avoided clear positions on Roberts." LINK

The Boston Herald reports that at his speech yesterday, Sen. John Kerry shooed away questions on a 2008 run and admitted to "progress" in Iraq. LINK

Keying off of Sen. Kerry's Brown University speech last week, Peter Canellos uses his Boston Globe column to look at some Democratic efforts to find more appealing language on abortion. LINK

The Washington Times picks up the Indianapolis Star editorial from yesterday lambasting Sen. Bayh for his "no" vote on Roberts. LINK

The Kentucky Democratic Party is bringing Sen. Biden to the Bluegrass State for a party fundraiser and not afraid to publicize it, reports the Cincinnati Enquirer's Crowley. LINK

2005:
Pat Healy and Diane Cardwell team up in the Metro pages of the New York Times to write up the heated back and forth between Hispanic surrogates for the mayoral candidates. LINK

New York mayoral candidate Fernando Ferrer just received an endorsement from the big guy – God -- reports the New York Post. LINK

Note to New Jersey political reporters: When trying to stir up some controversial to and fro, it is always best to quote Candidate A accurately to Candidate B. LINK

Gov. Warner (D-VA) sends a fundraising letter on behalf of Tim Kaine and gets some Richmond Times-Dispatch ink for his critical words of Jerry Kilgore. LINK

2006:
Charlie Cook delivers a must-read "Off to the Races" column for National Journal on the not-quite-yet-present tidal wave required to sweep Republicans out of control on the Hill. Cook Notes that a less intense wave may be all that is necessary for Democrats to regain the Senate, while the House is farther out of reach. LINK

Stephen Dinan of the Washington Times reports Sen. Santorum (R-PA) and Rep. Davis (R-VA) have decided to "return" campaign contributions from David Safavian. LINK

Roll Call's Erin Billings has details on the DCCC's plans to kick off its "campaign for change" with a Tuesday presser, Wednesday night gala fundraiser, and new "campaignforchange" Web site.

Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) plans to announce today that he will seek a ninth term, ending months of speculation that the 87-year-old lawmaker was considering retiring next year to avoid a grueling re-election fight, Roll Call's Mark Preston reports.

Fun fact: As of June 2006 Sen. Robert Byrd will surpass Sen. Strom Thurmond as longest serving U.S. Senator. LINK

Iowa:
The Des Moines Register's Thomas Beaumont writes that Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Nussle -- call him the corn-friendly candidate -- is all for ensuring (read: requiring) that ethanol become a regular additive of gasoline sold in Iowa. LINK

New Hampshire:
John DiStaso of the Manchester Union Leader reports that New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch and prominent state Republicans are insisting that Executive Councilor Raymond Burton resign after it came to light that a convicted child sex offender was on his election campaign payroll.LINK

The Schwarzenegger Era:
Roll Call's David Drucker writes that union officials are looking to their campaign against Schwarzenegger's initiatives in California's Nov. 8 special election to "serve as a model for future cooperation."

House of Labor:
In a Maranissian profile of Anna Burger, the new head of "Change to Win," the Washington Post's Tom Edsall writes that the "fracturing" of the AFL-CIO in July and the creation of the coalition appeared likely to set off competition for members between unions in the two federations, but in recent weeks, there has been "growing evidence of both cooperation and of more intense organizing on both sides." LINK

Politics:
You know something a bit out of the ordinary has occurred when days after abruptly quitting his job, former FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford's wife is chatting up the New York Times in his defense. Here's the New York Times' Robert Pear with the interview, which raises as many questions as it answers, which Robert knows full well. LINK

According to the GAO, two-thirds of the benefits of a law designed to bolster U.S. companies against unfair foreign trade have gone to just three industries, raising questions about the program's effectiveness, AP reports. (Note Note: The largest recipient of aid was Canton, Ohio's Timken Co. of 2004 fame.) LINK

The Washington Post's spanking new Reliable Source column toys with the idea that actor Ben Affleck, who is shopping for property in Charlottesville, might run against Sen. George Allen (R-VA) in Virginia. LINK

The Washington Post's Tom Shales on the "bountiful, beautiful, believable" Geena Davis. LINK