The Note
W A S H I N G T O N, April 12—
, 2004 -- TODAY SCHEDULE (all times ET)
FUTURES CALENDAR
NEWS SUMMARY
If you thought last week was busy, just get a look at what is coming up this week:
Today: President Bush holds Crawford presser with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak; Kerry releases new economic critique of the Bush years, rallies students in New Hampshire; Vice President and Lynne Cheney are in Tokyo; the Energy Department releases its weekly gasoline price report.
Tuesday: Former FBI Directors Louis Freeh and Thomas Pickard and former Attorneys General Janet Reno and John Ashcroft testify before the 9/11 commission; Kerry holds a roundtable about college tuition and rallies students at the University of Rhode Island and raises money in Providence and Boston; President Bush is down at the White House; the Cheneys are in China; HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson attends a Bush-Cheney 04 event in Cliffside, N.J.; and March retail sale numbers are released.
Wednesday: CIA Director George Tenet and FBI Director Robert Mueller testify before the 9/11 commission; President Bush holds White House presser with Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon; Kerry breaks fundraising records in New York City and rallies students at CCNY; FEC hears 527 rule-making pleas; the March Consumer Price Index and the February trade deficit are released.
Thursday: President Bush speaks about the economy in the battleground state of Iowa; Kerry rallies students at the University of Pittsburgh and raises money in East Rutherford, N.J.; the Cheneys are in South Korea; RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie attends the Southern Leadership Conference in Miami.
Friday: President Bush holds White House presser with British Prime Minister Tony Blair; Kerry is in Philadelphia; RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie attends the Southern Leadership Conference in Miami; March housing starts and industrial production reports are released.
Sunday: Bob Woodward appears on "60 Minutes" to discuss his new book, "Plan of Attack."
For the White House, the balancing act between saying the president and his team were right on top of that subject matter LINK pre-9/11 and saying that they didn't get enough warning to do anything to stop the attacks will continue — maybe through election day.
As will Democrats' frustration that the press isn't declaring "game over" on that straddle alone.
And you can go all the way back to the long ago days of the Ari Fleischer briefings to hear the boilerplate rhetoric of if we had had SPECIFIC information about the 9/11 attacks, OF COURSE we would have done everything possible to prevent them.
And Democrats (and the press) are now saying in unison: well, that language construction is and has always been about the Aug. 6 PDB.
Ditto the White House effort to bring the ball down on Dick Clarke's head well before midnight.
But the BC04 high command agrees with (and takes gobs of solace from) what Ron Brownstein's source told him for his Los Angeles Times column today (and stand back, because this is going to pop right off the screen):
"One leading Democratic interest group recently asked a focus group in Florida to respond to a potential television ad accusing Bush of negligence in failing to stop the attacks. The result was volcanic — against the ad." LINK
"'They were so angry I thought they were going to turn the tables over,' said a Democratic operative who watched the session. 'It was a very polarizing ad, and it pushed people who were on the fence decidedly away from us.'"
Still, national security shall remain front and center in the free media this week, with less predictability (and more impact) than the script of a 30-second spot.
Within the insular world of the Sunday talk shows, the Bush and Kerry campaigns, and Note readers and writers, everyone knows that Robin Wright says mistakes were made LINK; that Thomas Ricks says that an Iraqi battalion refused to fight LINK; and that Dan Balz and Jim VandeHei say some Republicans think the president has been too absent from the public stage. LINK
But the clear-thinkers among us know that most Americans don't read the Washington Post over the weekend, so the question on all this Iraq/9/11 stuff is, is it filtering out to real Americans in a way that will affect what people think about President Bush and the direction of the nation?
Right now, we have just a few ways to find out — by looking at polling data or hearing about (mostly) second-hand focus groups.
Which makes the Newsweek numbers at least semi-frightening if you are a Bushie.
They show Kerry leading Bush, 50 percent to 43 percent (that's outside the +/- 3 percent margin of error). Putting Nader into the mix narrows the gap, with Kerry taking 46 percent, Bush taking 42 percent, and Nader garnering 4 percent. Fifty-nine percent of those surveyed said they're dissatisfied with the direction of the country, and Bush's approval rating fell from 52 percent to 48 percent. Kerry's approval rating held steady at 51 percent.
Here are the political dynamics we told you on Friday to watch through today, and what happened on 'em:
1. Violence, troop levels, civilian targets, and hostages in Iraq. Mostly status quo -- but leaning to worse.
2. Will Vice President Cheney on his Asian trip be drawn into the Japanese hostage situation? Pretty much.
3. When does that PDB get declassified and who wins the spin war over it for the general public? Saturday night, with everyone on deadline, and, so far, given the language of the public debate, the White House is mostly holding its own — if only because the Sunday-into-Monday news cycle has almost nothing about Dr. Rice's under-oath characterization.
4. Where does the White House stand on "organizing" the pro-Bush 9/11 families? Still very much a work in progress.
5. What will the weekend polls show about the effects of Iraq violence on the president's standing? See the Newsweek poll.
6. Will pressure mount on Sen. Kerry to be more specific about Iraq? Prime Minister Brownstein cut him a big break over the weekend.
7. When will the political community wake up to the staggering implications of Kerry's fish-in-a-barrel fundraising, and when will the campaign start to spend that money on TV spots big time? Our gal Deb Orin figures out the raising side, but the spending side remains a mystery. LINK
8. Will Kerry make it through Easter without any church controversy? He did indeed.
And since today is a time to plant, a time to reap, and, we think, a time for every purpose, under Heaven, let us look at who is turning on whom:
Rand Beers turns on Dr. Rice.
David Sanger turns on Dr. Rice (more ominous).
The FBI and the White House turn on each other. (Brutally so, for close readers of Saturday's papers, and with a threat to reignite and involve AG Ashcroft this week.)
Deborah Orin turns on the FBI. LINK
Ron Brownstein turns on the media.
David Broder turns on the president's work habits.
Newsweek's poll turns on the Kerry campaign (a different kind of turn on … ).
Politics and the 9/11 Commission:
Adam Nagourney and Philip Shenon team up to dramatically lead the New York Times with a look at President Bush's Easter Sunday comments regarding the August 6, 2001 PDB and his belief that no specific "indication of a terrorist attack" was included in the document. LINK
"His comments were part of a White House effort to quell the storm about the briefing he received on Aug. 6, 2001."
"Democrats and Republicans said on Sunday that the release of the document — combined with images of American bloodshed and the disorder in Iraq — was threatening the central pillar of the president's re-election campaign, his record on managing national security."
The duo go on to give Rand Beers' aggressive Sunday talk a lot of play before declaring this upcoming week a critical one for President Bush.
The New York Times provides a preview of questions to come for FBI and law enforcement officials this week. LINK
The New York Times editorial board writes, "No reasonable American blames Mr. Bush for the terrorist attacks, but that's a long way from thinking there was no other conceivable action he could have taken to prevent them." LINK
Looking ahead, "Failures of agencies within the U.S. intelligence community to process information that each had on Osama bin Laden's network before Sept. 11, 2001 — and particularly intelligence going back to 1999 dealing with two al Qaeda terrorists who were on the plane that hit the Pentagon — will be one focus of hearings this week by the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks," reports the Washington Post 's Walter Pincus. LINK
James Gordon Meek wraps up the "strained, almost hoarse" presidential press avail and includes this little nugget from Bill Clinton's recent visit with the 9/11 Commission. LINK
"Sources told the Daily News that former President Bill Clinton told the 9/11 commission that he was reluctant to give FBI Director Louis Freeh marching orders because past Presidents were faulted for abusing the bureau's authority."
On the Wall Street Journal op-ed page, Louis Freeh writes, "Endless and ultimately useless speculation about 'various threads and pieces of information,' which are certainly 'relevant and significant,' at least in retrospect, will not take us very far in answering this central question."
Top Secret: The President's Daily Brief:
Just wondering: does the White House's reported no mas attitude toward other PDBs apply to Clinton-era ones?
The Washington Post's Dan Eggen Notes that the president "stood firm" in his comments yesterday defending his Administration's response to the memo, but also "referred several times in his brief remarks to the responsibility of the FBI and the CIA to investigate any threats."LINK
The New York Times ' Jehl writes that the short memo given to the president on August 6, 2001 "provides a rare glimpse of how the C.I.A. musters its evidence in the digests it drafts for the president" and "represented what intelligence officials described on Sunday as a boiled-down version of all the C.I.A. had learned, guessed or been told since 1997 about Osama bin Laden's intentions for an American strike."LINK
"In a hodgepodge not unusual in the intelligence world, the Aug. 6 item about Al Qaeda's plans cited facts and unverifiable claims as evidence. But the 11 dispassionate paragraphs represented what intelligence officials described on Sunday as a boiled-down version of all the C.I.A. had learned, guessed or been told since 1997 about Osama bin Laden's intentions for an American strike."
The Los Angeles Times' Gosselin and Meyer look at where the PDB goes now, as the 9/11 commission makes the memo a "prime focus" in its hearings this week, and "the spotlight shifted to a pair of new questions: How did the president respond? And what did the FBI do?"LINK
The politics of reservists and the military:
Military families across the country will listen to lead local news stories like the one WMUR broadcast last night, which revealed to viewers that the 94th Military Police Company, a reserve unit, would not be coming home as soon as expected.
New Hampshire is, uhm, a key battleground state.
It's not unusual for the military to delay a unit's return, but the economic repercussions can be excessively painful, especially if these reservists are the ones who run gas stations, operate in emergency rooms, police the streets, and fight fires.
A cascade of stories like these is bound to have some political effect, perhaps not directly: most military families vote Republican and they support President Bush. But perhaps a small cut of those voters stay home, or people in their community personalize the reservist issue. The media is sure to assist with the latter effort.
Headlines like this: "[Wisconsin] Family appeals to prevent surviving sisters from being sent back to Iraq after funeral," which also got big play on CBS News' marquee 8:00 am ET radio newscast. LINK
Elisabeth Rosenthal of the New York Times wrote on Sunday after she traveled to Fort Campbell, Kentucky and took the political pulse of military personnel directly affected by the situation in Iraq. LINK
"As the conflict in Iraq deepens beyond some prior predictions, the military voting block could become a serious domestic casualty for the Bush administration."
Other recent reserve-related stories from battleground states:
Oregon: LINK
New Hampshire: LINK
New Mexico: LINK
Wisconsin: LINK
Ohio/Florida: LINK
Florida: LINK
ABC News Vote 2004: Bush-Cheney re-elect:
The New York Times ' Joel Brinkley wraps up President Bush's spring recess at the ranch with his Easter Sunday press availability and his awarding of purple hearts. LINK
"This is Mr. Bush's 33rd visit to his ranch since he became president; all told he has spent almost eight months of his presidency here."
The Washington Post's Dana Milbank reports that while on a Sunday visit to Fort Hood, Bush said it is difficult to know when the violence will subside in Iraq.
The visit was the President's first departure from his ranch in five days, Milbank Notes. LINK
Vice President Cheney is in Japan today, where he expressed support for Minister Junichiro Koizumi regarding the Japanese hostages in Iraq, Washington Post's Kessler reports this morning. Cheney also told Koizumi that the Bush Administration remains committed to the June 30 deadline for handing over control to the Iraqis.LINK
Tyler Crotty may be on to something, Notes AP's Jennifer Loven, writing for two. The 12-year-old Florida boy made national news for his yawning and stretching during the president's speech a few weeks ago in Orlando but it may be because Bush's speeches have greatly increased in length, prompting one academic to call him "Clinton-esque." LINK
David Cay Johnston writes, "an independent analysis of new Internal Revenue Service data released today shows that tax enforcement has fallen steadily under President Bush, with fewer audits, fewer penalties, fewer prosecutions and virtually no effort to prosecute corporate tax crimes." LINK
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) gets his letter to the editor published in the New York Times in which he hammers the president for an alleged lack of solid job creation no matter which survey you look at. LINK
Tom DeFrank of the New York Daily News explores the Abizaid/Rumsfeld election year debate over whether or not more troops are needed in Iraq. LINK
Bobby Novak this weekend headlined: "President Bush will go to Pittsburgh April 19 on a rescue mission attempting to save four-term Senator Arlen Specter, who faces an increasingly serious conservative challenge from Rep. Pat Toomey in the April 27 Pennsylvania Republican primary." LINK
ABC News Vote 2004: Sen. John Kerry:
Per ABC News' Dan Harris, Sen. Kerry will teach a class in Foreign Policy at UNH today. If he's going to make news today, that's likely where it will happen. The campaign has an answer prepared, too, on the PDB. An aide says: "This is something we don't want to touch with a 10-foot pole in terms of making it look political." The aide insists there is much more of the story yet to be told — a lot more unanswered questions. The aide looks at Ashcroft's upcoming testimony, in particular … .
More from Harris: "Once again issues of Iraq and terror will trample all over the designated messages of the week for the Kerry campaign. This is supposed to be 'tax week.' Today, team Kerry releases its own version of the 'Misery Index' — arguing that middle-class misery has hit a record under Bush. It's a state-by-state analysis that purports to show how families are paying more for gas, education and health care while wages and salaries 'stagnate.' Kerry himself will be speaking today at a UNH rally about a 'Compact with the Next Generation.' This is a precursor, I'm told, to new policy proposals that will be rolled out starting tomorrow aimed at getting young people involved in the community and in government."
Incidentally, it didn't take Kerry very long to do away with Rev. Jackson's advice. The misery index message seems to us to a bit at odds with what the Reverend and the Senator discussed on Friday.
According to the New York Times : "Mr. Jackson said in a telephone interview after the meeting that he and Mr. Kerry shared the belief that black voters needed to be convinced to 'vote their hopes, not their despair,' and that white voters needed to 'vote their economic needs, not their fears.'" LINK
"The [Kerry economic] team analyzed data on median household incomes, college tuition, healthcare, gasoline and other factors, and concluded that, under President Bush, the middle-class misery index has worsened by 13 points," reports the Los Angeles Times' Matea Gold on the Kerry campaign's Monday message. LINK
Glen Johnson of the Boston Globe observes signs of Democratic unity sweeping Sen. Kerry along with donations, volunteers, large crowds, and strong surrogates and is something not practiced by the Democratic Party for quite some time. LINK
"If one thing is different about the current campaign compared with its recent predecessors, it is that the famously fractious Democrats are showing an almost-Republican unity of purpose. The singular goal: to defeat George W. Bush."
Johnson also sums up Sen. Kerry's observance of Christianity's holiest day amidst speculation that he would be denied communion. LINK
The New York Times ' Kit Seelye spent the Easter holiday with Sen. Kerry and reports the presumptive Democratic nominee received communion without incident. Seelye Notes Cardinal McCarrick's Sunday show appearance and his apparent apprehension to refuse communion to such pro-choice Catholic pols. LINK
The Boston Globe 's Susan Milligan Notes the French connection with Sen. Kerry, the efforts by Republicans to exploit it in order to paint him as aloof, and the less-than-flattered French who do not enjoy seeing their nationality used as an insult. LINK
"The French — having watched House officials last year rename the Belgian-created french fries 'freedom fries' and even remove the small containers of French vanilla nondairy creamers from the House restaurant to protest the French government's opposition to the Iraq war — are displeased to see their country again under rhetorical attack."
Mark Memmott of USA Today reports that those Internet pranksters are at it again. Some anti-Kerry internet whizzes are working to make Kerry's campaign Web site the first response when one types "waffles" in a search engine such as Yahoo, MSN, or Google. LINK
The Los Angeles Times' Vartabedian writes from a Pittsburgh dateline about Mrs. Heinz Kerry's determination to continue her philanthropic work as First Lady. LINK
"If Heinz Kerry finds herself living in the White House next year and continues to set the agenda for the foundations, it would set a precedent not only for the role of a first lady, but potentially in the public influence exerted by increasingly powerful nonprofit organizations."
Kerry's plan to rollback President Bush's tax cut for the wealthiest Americans gets assailed as no way to create jobs by Amity Shlaes on the op-ed page of the Los Angeles Times. LINK
The New York Post's Deborah Orin Sunday raised the curtain on John Kerry's Big Apple money grab with special attention paid to the potential for Kerry to break George W. Bush's record setting Gotham haul of a year ago. LINK
ABC News Vote 2004: Bush v. Kerry:
Ryan Lizza does a little moonlighting for New York Magazine this week and explores Madison Avenue's relationship (both historic and current) with presidential campaign advertising. The package includes some must-read excellent sidebars for all you political ad junkies. LINK
The New York Times looks at how the presidential candidates are playing in Silicon Valley. LINK
AP's Liz Sidoti responds to the difference between Kerry campaign ads and those by the liberal interest groups. "Commercials by such liberal interest groups are meant to hurt Bush and, in effect, help Kerry's presidential bid. But some media strategists acknowledge that such efforts could backfire by muddying Kerry's message of the moment." LINK
The morning shows:
The situation in Iraq garnered the first news piece on all three network morning shows with American hostages, Bush's 9/11 memo and the week ahead at the 9/11 Commission following closely behind.
Republican consultant Mary Matalin called into "Imus in the Morning" and made some Noteworthy concessions about Iraq. Matalin conceded that Iraqis "do want us out of there" and that the Bush Administration "probably did underestimate the level of disrepair" in Iraqi society. But she quickly added that "it is in our security interest to have them reform."
"It's not just Iraq," she added. "It's a regional reform effort … . Their failed societies have become our problem." Matalin wrapped up her interview by saying: "You cannot on the one hand say he did too little before 9/11 and say he did too much after."
On CNN's "American Morning," Jack Cafferty drew unfavorable comparisons between Kerry's "misery index" and the "malaise" policies of President Jimmy Carter. He then introduced the question of the day: "Is John Kerry making a mistake by focusing on a 'Misery Index'?" In its news segment, NBC's "Today Show" included a short tell on Kerry's New Hampshire speech that was more positive than Cafferty's take.
While appearing on the CBS "Early Show," Harry Smith asked Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana to comment on speculation on the part of political odds-makers that he might be under consideration to be Kerry's running mate. "The oddsmakers are often wrong," Sen. Bayh said. "But it's always flattering to be under consideration."
While on CBS, Bayh sounded two hawkish notes: He suggested the U.S. is "paying a price" in Iraq for not having enough troops on the ground in Iraq. He also suggested that it might be time for the US to create a domestic agency dedicated to counterterrorism instead of relying on the FBI.
Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas voiced support for sticking with the June 30 deadline. "Heaven knows if we moved it we would be having more of this and that would be detrimental," she said.
On NBC's "Today Show," Democratic 9/11 Commissioner Jamie Gorelick said it was "an astonishing fact" that more of the FBI's reporting of domestic threats wasn't in the Aug. 6 PDB.
Jim Thompson, a Republican member of the 9/11 Commission, said the Aug. 6, 2001 brief "can help people see that the intelligence community has not really done its job." Lehman made it clear, however, that he did not hold President Bush responsible for this shortcoming.
"There is no reason to the president responsible for the attacks," Thompson said on ABC's "Good Morning America." "The president is not an FBI agent."
The weekend must reads:
In his Sunday column, the Washington Post's David Broder took a semi-scathing look at the president's businesslike approach to governing, and criticizes the Commander in Chief for not seeking answers, opinion, or even more information about possible terrorist threats in 2001. LINK
"What is missing from the story, as it has emerged so far, is any sense that Bush himself was reaching down below the top levels of the White House staff or the intelligence agencies, trying to inform himself of what was happening down in the trenches. It is an open secret in Washington that he is indifferent to much of the daily work of the domestic departments. But it is striking that he seems equally passive on matters of national security, letting information filter up to him through the White House bureaucracy."
Newsweek's Evan Thomas asks the "Vietnam question" of the war in Iraq — and finds ghosts, if not absolute parallels. He also includes data from the Newsweek poll, showing that 57 percent of Americans think the war in Iraq was the right thing to do, but 46 percent say they aren't confident that U.S. involvement will bring peace and stability to Iraq. LINK
Newsweek's Brian Braiker looks at the magazine's new poll.LINK
On Sunday, the Washington Post's Dana Milbank and Walter Pincus analyzed the declassified Aug. 6, 2001 PDB, declaring that the president was warned about an al Qaeda presence in the United States. LINK
The Boston Globe's Anne Kornblut on Sunday called the Aug. 6, 2001 PDB a gift for Democrats. LINK
Dana Milbank and Mike Allen reconstructed August 2001 in Sunday's Washington Post, creating a snapshot of the president, his vacation, and his priorities and agenda during the first summer of his Administration. LINK
In Sunday's Washington Post, Helen Dewar looked at the divisions among Republicans, who even with control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, still don't have "unified" government. LINK
On Saturday, the Los Angeles Times' Ron Brownstein took explicit issue with those journalists who have posited that Sen. Kerry doesn't have an Iraq alternative. LINK
On Sunday, Brownstein took a must-not-miss look at the ongoing evolution of Kerry's foreign policy, describing his advisers as "hawkish than most Democrats but more skeptical of military solutions in the struggle against terrorism than the team surrounding President Bush" — and says Kerry's strategy of inclusion is leading some to criticize the presumptive Democratic nominee for not having a clear vision of what American foreign policy should be. Then Ron moved to a fun round of let's-guess-who'd-be-in-a-Kerry-Cabinet, and Noted that former Clinton State Dept. official and Wesley Clark adviser Jamie Rubin's moving over to the Kerry camp. LINK
Brownstein also handicapped the contenders for Secretary of State in a Kerry Administration. Nearly as much fun as the veepstakes!!! LINK
Sunday, the Boston Globe's Michael Paulson considered Kerry and the Church — and how his relationship with Catholicism has become a political issue for both. LINK
Hanna Rosin profiled Karen Hughes in Saturday's Washington Post. LINK
(The Los Angeles Times does it today. LINK)
On Sunday, Susan Milligan of the Boston Globe declared the fight for control of the Senate a toss-up, with Democrats leading in seven states where there's been polling — and could leave Dems gaining seats in Oklahoma, Colorado, and Alaska. LINK
Carl Hulse weighed the pros and cons of the Kerry/Kennedy relationship for both Democrats and Republicans. LINK
ABC News Vote 2004: the battlegrounds:
The Arizona Republic's Chip Scutari covers the first volley in the ad war for the East Valley congressional race between Stan Barnes and incumbent Rep. Jeff Flake. Barnes accuses Flake of being soft on illegal immigration and also targets the guest-worker bill. Also, is this the first time a clip from The O'Reilly Factor has been used in a campaign ad? LINK
The Cincinnati Enquirer's Maggie Downs Notes that dozens of Cincinnati women will be traveling to Washington this week in order to participate in the March for Women's Lives on April 25. Organizers say over a million people are expected to attend. LINK
The Des Moines Register's Lynn Okamoto reports that the Iowa state legislature and Gov. Tom Vilsack have yet to reach agreement on key items including state aid to schools and casino taxes, preventing adjournment for 2004. LINK
The Cleveland Plain Dealer's Angela D. Chatman reports that President Bush's plan to cut rental aid will affect more than 300 Cleveland families adversely. LINK
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran Tom Oliphant's column on the new AFL-CIO ads and the lesson he gets from them: politicians ought to focus on people-victims and kitchen tables, not numbers. LINK
The Florida Times-Union's Decamp looks at Kerry's campaign in Florida so far. Lots of ads, and the occasional visit, but not much else. LINK
The Seattle Post Intelligencer's Castro reports that today the Seattle City Council "will consider measures that would allow those benefits to cover the same-sex partners of city workers when they are married." LINK
Veepstakes:
David Greenberg explained in a Sunday week-in-review piece why running mates should be/are selected not on regional strength, but on what he or she adds to the image of the ticket. LINK
"Recent history suggests that it would be anachronistic for Mr. Kerry to try to capture a single state or find an ideological opposite in a vice president. His choice, rather, will have to give a corporeal reality to the themes and vision that he plans to advance."
The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz reviews the McCain veepstakes trial balloon and their popping. LINK
Which is still alive in the battleground states … LINK
We felt McCain's "Meet the Press" interview statement on this was so Shermanesque that we are now done with the matter.
So is Karl: "It's a sign of the Kerry campaign's tactical weakness and shortsightedness if they keep talking about McCain, because it raises expectations that they are serious about him — and what happens when it turns out that it wasn't serious at all? He (McCain) would never accept it in a million years, anyway." LINK
Big Casino budget politics: Medicare:
Robert Pear of the New York Times is giddy with excitement at the prospect of doing some comparative prescription drug shopping on a government Web site. LINK
Nader:
On the New York Times op-ed page, Howard Dean urges voters to reject Ralph Nader's candidacy. He writes, "I don't believe that the best way to do justice to Ralph Nader's legacy is to vote for him for president. Re-electing George Bush would undo everything Ralph Nader has worked for through his entire career and, in fact, could lead to the dismantling of many of his accomplishments." LINK
A Salon interview with Nader on why he is running: Nader, sounding as defiant and passionate as ever, discusses the "spoiler" accusation, his imminent meeting with John Kerry, in which they will "talk about how we can collaborate to beat George W. Bush while we remain competitors of sorts", and his ballot access challenges (while he'll get another chance in the state, Nader failed in his most recent effort to get on the ballot in Oregon). LINK
A Miami Herald Sunday column on the liberal backlash against Nader: LINK
ABC News Vote 2004: the Senate:
Republican Peter Coors will officially announce his Senate bid on Tuesday. LINK
If you won't know why Democrats are excited about the possibility of capturing an open GOP Senate seat in Oklahoma, (yes, you heard that right), pay attention to some of the coverage Rep. Brad Carson gets during his 30-county "Prairie Fire Tour" of Western Oklahoma, which begins today. (He's touring the actual prairie lands, not fires).
Rep. Peter Deutch says that Bill Clinton predicts a Deutch in the Florida Senate primary. LINK
Clout's an issue in South Dakota: LINK
But what of this conundrum: if Stephanie Herseth wins the special election, would South Dakotans want their entire congressional delegation to be Democratic?
The Wall Street Journal's Murray keys off the Democratic hopes in the Colorado senate race and declares a "Democratic Senate majority suddenly is a genuine possibility."
The Republican National Convention:
The New York Times' Slackman wondered over the weekend how calling President Bush's national security credentials into question could possibly affect the perception of his New York backdrop for the convention. And Note how Roger Stone returns to Republican status with no mention of Al Sharpton. LINK
"But while some Republican leaders still express confidence about staging the convention in New York, a few very tough weeks in which the president's former counterterrorism adviser has questioned the administration's handling of the Qaeda threat and dozens of Americans have died in Iraq have made other strategists nervous. They say they fear it could underscore any second-guessing of the president on national security issues."
The Democratic National Convention:
The Boston Herald road tests the alternative routes for commuters for when the Democratic Convention comes to town and proves that it may not be as much of a nightmare as people are making it out to be. LINK
The Clintons of Chappaqua:
Lloyd Grove has the lowdown on the TV booking war underway for the former president's book rollout. LINK
Politics:
Postie (!) Jeff Birnbaum looks at the nexus between lobbying and campaign consulting, with mention of Dewey Square a-plenty. LINK
CAFTA pits rice farmers against sugar farmers down in the Bayou. LINK
Leslie Wayne of the New York Times took a look at the Club for Growth as Santa Claus for conservatives. LINK
Kristen Gore's Bridget-Jones-goes-to-Washington novel got the Sunday Styles treatment courtesy of Alex Kuczynski. LINK
Sunday's New York Times Week-in-Review corrections were too good to pass up: LINK
The New York Daily News provided a Sunday look at which candidates and political committees benefit from sports professionals. To see whom A-Rod and Al Leiter are supporting, click here: LINK
TODAY SCHEDULE (all times ET):
—3:20 am: Lynne Cheney visits the Meiji Shrine, Tokyo, Japan —8:30 am: The Urban Institute hosts its second annual State of the Tax System Forum, Washington, D.C. —9:15 am: Education Secretary Rod Paige hosts the annual Easter Egg Roll, the White House —10 am: Open Debates announces the filing of a complaint with the IRS against the Commission on Presidential Debates, Washington, D.C.—10:00 am: The Brookings Institution hosts a briefing on the latest developments in Iraq and previews President Bush's meetings with foreign leaders this week, Washington, D.C.—10:00 am: The American Civil Liberties Union's legal director Steven Shapiro reviews upcoming Supreme Court cases on enemy combatants and Guantanamo detainees, Washington, D.C.—12:45 pm: President Bush and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak speak to the press at the Bush Ranch, Crawford, Texas —3:45 pm: Sen. John Kerry kicks off his "Change starts with U" campus tour at the University of New Hampshire, Durham, N.H.—4:00 pm: The Energy Department releases its weekly gasoline price report —9:00 pm: President Bush returns to the White House