The Note: On the Table But Not Embraced

— -- WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 --

NEWS SUMMARY
Frankly, we are a little sick up and fed with Alan Greenspan's capacity to get away with saying whatever he wants in his venerable wispy and vague fashion.

It's one thing to be all things to all people -- quite another to be all things to all people at the same time and in the same sentence.

Although to our knowledge an online daily political digest has never been the chair of the Fed, we know Greenspan is about to step down, and The Note hereby applies for the job.

Since the main qualification seems to be to speak in Greenspanese, here is our review of the big political stories, thus rendered:

All eyes on the White House for the announcement onf the nomination of John Negroponte, the current U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, as the new Director of National Intelligence at 10:00 am ET.

The White House is calling it a "press conference." This might or might not have an impact on future interest rates. And Dick Cheney is awesome.

President Bush's effective "openness" to raising the cap on income subject to the payroll tax -- without embracing the idea -- reminds us that if something looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then in all likelihood it IS a duck, although we would like to see if the markets, over time, believe it is a duck.

Bob Novak might be too pessimistic about Howard Dean's chances to succeed as party chair, while Jim Jordan might be too optimistic. We see the merits on both sides. As Dean moves to make changes at the DNC, it is clear he should recognize that the existing structure was clearly not working, but he would be wise to move in a cautious, gradual way.

Otherwise, what's not dominated by Hill testimony on the FY2006 budget today is dominated by the opening day of the Conservative Political Action Conference.

With all due respect to all the participants, the highlight is unquestionably Vice President Cheney's 7:40 pm ET address.

The close second: the lunchtime (12:35 pm ET) address by Karl Rove.

Other CPAC speakers:

--8:45 am ET: Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) on "Leading from Principle: Expanding Freedom and Limiting Government."
--10:45 am ET: Senate Republican Conference Chairman Rick Santorum (R-PA)
--1:05 pm ET: Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) on "Thwarting the Liberal Drive to Govern Through Judicial Edict."
--2:15 p.m.: Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

On the Hill . . .

More from the Oracle of Clarity when Chairman Greenspan testifies before the House Financial Services Committee at 10:00 am ET.

Also at 10:00 am ET, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice testifies before the Senate Appropriations Committee about the FY2005 emergency supplemental request.

She testifies before the House International Relations Committee at 2:00 pm ET on the FY2006 international relations budget.

Also at 10:00 am ET, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Richard Myers testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee on the defense authorization for FY2006.

They testify before the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee at 2:00 pm ET.

At 10:00 am ET, the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee holds a hearing on the FY06 DHS budget.

And the House considers the class action overhaul -- possible vote.

At 10:30 am ET, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger meets with the Republican members of the California congressional delegation. He holds a media availability at 1:00 pm ET. He'll also meet privately with other members of Congress and the Bush Administration.

At 12:45 pm ET, Sens. Barbara Boxer, Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Kerry, Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, and other congressional leaders, hold a news conference to announce legislation to overhaul voting systems and practices. We're told that Sen. Kerry will announce 35,000 people called Sen. Frist and House Speaker Hastert's office in one day in response to an e-mail through johnkerry.com in January.

At 12:45 pm ET, Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Charles Schumer (D-NY) hold a news conference with Senate Minority Whip Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Senate Minority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) to unveil a new Social Security calculator on the Web to demonstrate "losses under Bush privatization plan at all levels."

At 1:30 pm ET, Sens. Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Reps. Phil English (R-PA), Jim Cooper (D-TN), Chris Chocola (R-IN), and Harold Ford (D-TN) hold a news conference to launch the Savings and Ownership Caucuses.

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence meets behind closed doors at 2:30 pm ET.

At 3:30 pm ET, Greg Mankiw, the outgoing chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisors, releases the 2005 Economic Report of the President.

At 3:30 pm ET. Sens. Jack Reed (D-RI) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE) hold a news conference to introduce legislation to expand the size of the U.S. Army and Marines.

National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley briefs on the President's trip to Belgium, Germany and the Slovak Republic at 4:00 pm ET.

At 6:30 pm ET, Douglas Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy, delivers remarks on the outlook for national defense during President Bush's second term at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC.

At 11:00 pm ET, Gov. Howard Dean debates Richard Perle on Iraq at Pacific University's 23rd annual Tom McCall Forum in Portland, OR.

Treasury Secretary John Snow is in New York on Wall Street and other financial hubs to talk up the President's Social Security overhaul today and tomorrow. Today he talks to the securities industry, and tomorrow to the bond market, making the case that overhauling the program is good for the country's long-term financial health. Also look for him on New York media and business cable television.

Social Security:
Take your time in borrowing the transition costs for the President's plan to create personal accounts using Social Security taxes, Fed chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress yesterday.

Personal accounts are well and good, Greenspan said, but the devil is in the details of how to create them -- and a slow, gradual method of borrowing is preferable.

The Washington Post's Nell Henderson and Jim VandeHei write all that up, plus they also include parts of the President's regional newspaper interviews, where he signaled for the first time (sort of) that he might be open to raising the ceiling on wages subject to Social Security payroll tax. LINK

The New York Times' Andrews and Stevenson try their hand at Greenspan interpretation but they also quickly switch to the news of the day: the President's apparent openness to "raising or eliminating the cap on earnings that are subject to the payroll tax that pays for Social Security benefits." LINK

Democrats called it a "ruse," the White House appeared to play down the comments, and Andrews and Stevenson thus return to Greenspan: "Administration officials contend the extra borrowing for these transition costs would not increase the national debt because it would simply be replacing 'implicit' debt in the form of unfunded future benefit obligations with regular treasury bonds."

"But Mr. Greenspan was skeptical, noting (sic) that many investors may have never believed those benefits would be paid and may not believe that any savings envisioned by Congress today would actually materialize in the future."

The Wall Street Journal's Calmes and Harwood view Greenspan's comments as "welcome" news for the White House but quote Bill McInturff as saying the president "has his work cut out for him" as outlined by a new NBC/WSJ poll. LINK

More on Greenspan from USA Today's Barbara Hagenbaugh. LINK

More day two coverage of the President's regional interviews -- along with comments from Greenspan and Grover Norquist -- from the Los Angeles Times' Peter Wallsten and Joel Havemann. LINK

Fairly good local coverage for President Bush: the Union-Leader sticks to his remarks: LINK and LINK

USA Today's Oren Dorell says the New Hampshire reaction was mixed. LINK

John DiStaso Notes the pressure on Rep. Jeb Bradley to make up his mind. LINK

The Journal's David Wessel plows through scenarios about how private accounts might work.

"The examples -- which the White House says are 'premature' -- underscore how far Mr. Bush would move Social Security away from a system that offers monthly payments regardless of the financial market's ups and downs to one in which retiree benefits depend heavily on stock and bond market performance," he writes.

The New York Times' Glen Justice details CoMPASS' plans to rally support for President Bush. They're launching new, locally-targeted ads today. LINK

Roll Call's Chris Cillizza explains how Americans United to Protect Social Security, a coalition of liberal interest groups including AFSCME, the AFL-CIO, and the Campaign for America's Future and USAction and another 200 organizations, are banding together to fight the Social Security plan at the grassroots level with a fundraising goal of more than $40 million.

Hello, Steve Hildebrand and Paul Tewes! And Brad Woodhouse, Kim Kauffman, and Harold Ickes!

USA Today's Susan Page takes a good look at how voters' age, at least to some extent, determines not only how they regard the President's Social Security overhaul proposal, but also how he frames it. LINK

Big Casino budget politics:
The Washington Post's Mike Allen and Josh White look at the cuts congressional Republicans are mulling over to President Bush's $82 billion supplemental budget request, arguing that some requests for Iraq (in particular, the embassy) and anti-terror efforts aren't emergencies. Read every word -- the DeLay and Rumsfeld quotes are especially amazing.LINK

Mark McClellan was back on the defensive yesterday over the Medicare prescription drug costs, reports the Washington Post's Ceci Connolly. LINK

Bush agenda:
The Los Angeles Times' Warren Vieth reports that the President's task force on the tax code is open to all ideas, including a national sales tax, but in the end, the options for radical overhaul are limited.LINK

In the Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones' Bob Wells Notes former Sen. John Breaux's preference for a tax system that mixes levies on income and consumption and Noted testimony to the tax panel about the need to solve the AMT crisis.

Medicaid:
Mark Warner and Tom Vilsack make cameos in Robert Pear's write-up of negotiations between governors and HHS about Medicaid. LINK

Stem cell politics:
The Washington Post's Rick Weiss looks at the new effort in Congress over expanding funding for stem cell research. LINK

The issue took center stage in Massachusetts' state legislature yesterday. LINK

Congress:
AP's Genaro Armas lays out the indecency bill that passed the House yesterday by a whopping 389 to 38 vote. LINK

The Hill's Geoff Earle writes that Frist and Reid appear to be trying to find ways to back down from the "nuclear" option. LINK

Writes the Wall Street Journal editorial board: "Republicans swept to power in Congress 10 years ago championing state prerogatives, and one of their first acts was to repeal federal speed-limit requirements. Another was aimed at ending unfunded state mandates. So last week's House vote to require costly and intrusive federal standards for state drivers' licenses is a measure of how far the party has strayed from these federalist principles."

Sen. Arlen Specter:
Our best wishes to you for a fast recovery, Sen. Specter.

The Washington Post's Chuck Babington has details of Specter's diagnosis. LINK

As does the Los Angeles Times' Richard Simon. LINK

Gov./Chairman Howard Dean:
As Howard Dean rested comfortably on a flight to Portland, OR, the first segment on Hannity and Colmes featured Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele representing the voice of "black conservatives" complaining about Dean's off-handed remark that the only way Republicans could fill a hotel conference room is to usher in the hotel staff.

This happened last Friday, at a meeting of the DNC's black caucus. Here's exactly what Dean said: "You think the Republican National Committee could get this many people of color in a single room? . . . Only if they had the hotel staff in here."

The mostly African-American audience laughed appreciably. The got the context; Dean was saying that Republicans couldn't fill a room with sympathetic people of color unless they imported members of the hotel staff there. From what we gather, the implied premise was that Republican policies consign African Americans to service jobs. Or something.

Anyway, it sounded fine to the liberal Democrats in the room, but it's hard to untangle for those who weren't there, and although the heckles raised by the likes of Steele are obviously intended to discredit Dean, add a chalk mark to the list of Reasons Why Democrats Fear Dean. Or maybe: the broadcast and repetition of that theme convinces the elites that indeed, Democrats Fear Dean's Mouth.

The most amusing part of last's night broadcast was watching Tony Coehlo try to defend Dean.

Speaking of Portland, the AP says Dean's debate with Richard Perle was very nearly closed press. LINK

Quick: have you ever seen Dean debate a Republican?

Bob Novak takes Joe Biden to task for claiming a DNC chair has never influenced policy, when Bob Strauss and others might disagree; Novak cites unnamed Dems who worry about Dean's joint appearances with Ken Mehlman. LINK

A must-read for Democrats obsessing about Dean's capacity to do damage to the party.

David Broder calls Howard Dean "calm and soothing" at his first appearance as DNC chairman, with his diffidence toward lawmakers on policy proclamations. And with such a big job ahead of him, it's a wise strategy -- for the time being. But it won't give the party direction and perspective from the ground up, Broder writes.LINK

And there is a new face as part of the Dean transition -- Democratic strategist Jim Jordan (who got to "know" Dean when he was running John Kerry's presidential campaign) has set up shop at the DNC to work through communications and strategy organization.

Democrats regroup:
Roll Call's Erin Billings and Mark Preston look at Democratic congressional leaders' project to "brand" the party and make it more accessible to voters. On the consultant list: Richard Yanowitch, George Lakoff, David Brock, and Rob Stein.

Former DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe has given the House and Senate political committees access to the Democratic Party database, says The Hill. LINK

Sen. John Kerry:
Expect a statement from Sen. Kerry today on his call for troop increases, and working with Sens. Hagel and Reed to push for it. Kerry's using his johnkerry.com e-mail list to target veterans with a message on the Military Family Bill of Rights, saying that health care, penalty-free IRA withdrawals during deployments and expanded programs to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is as important as supplemental budget requests.

2008:
Frist, Hagel, McCain and Clinton all met with the New Hampshire Chamber of Commerce on the Hill, courtesy of an invite from Sen. Sununu. LINK

Weirdly, Bayh and Kerry declined similar invites, and Biden did not respond to his, the AP reports.

Biden did, however, find time to sit down with Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz last night at Washington's fashionable I Ricchi restaurant. According to our meta-spies, the two stayed for quite some time, with one of the two men seeming to do the bulk of the talking.

Roll Call's Paul Kane curtain-raises Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's six-city trip next week to the Midwest: Memphis, Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, and Detroit -- along with a Granite State stop.

"Frist dismissed the significance of the fund-raising portion of next week's trip," but Kane Notes that the Senator has raised so much money for VolPAC that he can make the maximum donations to nearly all major House and Senate races last cycle.

"Indeed, Frist had already taken care of 13 of the 14 Senate incumbents up for re-election in 2006 last year, giving them $10,000 each more than two years before they faced voters. . . . He ended 2004, after raising $4.6 million over the two-year cycle, with nearly $950,000 leftover in VolPAC."

Moments after the Department of Justice announced it would fight a ruling in favor of a company who allegedly peddled obscenity, Sen. Sam Brownback sent out a statement congratulating the White House on their good judgment. LINK

Politics:
Do read Michael Cooper's look at New York political parties' so-called housekeeping committees in the New York Times. They've become the vehicle for soft money contributions, he writes. LINK

Page Six says the Learning Annex is mad at former President Clinton for allegedly reneging on an agreement to teach a class; they paid more than $150,000 for the privilege, it seems. LINK

Congratulations to the Bradley Prize winners. LINK

Free Matt Cooper and Judith Miller:
The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz looks at the journalists rallying behind Judith Miller, even among her critics, and puzzlingly manages to sprinkle a few quotes in there from Matt Cooper almost as an afterthought. LINK

Media:
Anne Kornblut caught up with Armstrong Williams, who is struggling to make ends meet. LINK

And whither PBS? The New York Times' Tierney and Steinberg on the future of public broadcasting -- now that PBS President and CEO Pat Mitchell has announced that she's stepping down -- including calls for an independent endowment, executives fear of being perceived as liberally biased, and Norm Ornstein, playing the role of a conservative. LINK