The Note: Big Country, Big Apartment
WASHINGTON, Nov. 29, 2004 — -- 52 Days Until Inauguration Day
Returning from the holidays with big questions hanging over our collective heads is never easy or pleasant, but sometimes you have to look a roomful of Googling monkeys in their beady little eyes and ask:
1. Will Speaker Hastert demand a majority of House Republicans support the Social Security reform plan that is eventually voted on?
2. Will reporters and editors realize that the President ran to achieve specific things, and the "to do" list (beyond the GWOT) is pretty finite and tough-but-achievable?
3. Who will be on the President's economic team come July 4, 2005?
4. Is the DNC chair field set, or are their some big players about to run on the field?
5. Where will Chief Justice Rehnquist be on Dec. 17, Jan. 1, Jan. 7, and Jan. 20?
6. Who is staying on the White House beat for major news organizations? (And who isn't . . . ?)
7. Is John Kerry going to be in New Hampshire on Dec. 4 at the Center of the Universe Holiday Inn???
We have more questions, but we are saving them.
Go digest those, while you read these:
The best sentence in Mike Allen's Washington Post must-read about some possibles for the second-term economic team: "One senior administration official said Treasury Secretary John W. Snow can stay as long as he wants, provided it is not very long." LINK
In must-read fashion, the New York Times' Elisabeth Bumiller takes a White House Letter-look at Brad Freeman, "the presidential chum and the most talkative in the triumvirate of Bush fund-raisers tasked with calling people up and asking for $100,000 each to help with the swearing-in festivities" with a profile about his views of cats and, uhm, women in her Letter that is sort of about fundraising for the inauguration.
She writes: "You say, 'Is there donor fatigue?' " Mr. Freeman said in a series of disjointed cell phone interviews last week from Los Angeles and its freeways. "During the fund-raising process, we would continue to go back to the same people, as one normally does. I'm sure there was fatigue that set in. Now that we've won, they're all rested up." LINK
Ron Brownstein's Los Angeles Times column deals with the Hastert Rule issue and gets farther along the curve than anyone else to date in terms of the Rule's symbolic and, potentially, practical implications. A must-read, says Owl Eyes. LINK
Sunday on ABC's "This Week," Sen. Joseph Lieberman said President Bush should exert more political pressure on Republican if Intel overhaul legislation is to pass this year. "If the president of the United States wants this bill, as commander in chief in the middle of a war, I cannot believe Republicans in the House are going to stop him from getting it," Lieberman said. LINK
USA Today's John Diamond looks at command and control issues of national security as the "debate has shifted from how best to manage the open-ended war on terrorism to how to meet the day-to-day needs of frontline troops." LINK
The New York Times' Steven Weisman reports on a "fresh wave of doubts" about if/how/whether the violent Iraqi insurgency will interfere with plans for a Jan. 30 election. "It's going to be very hard to hold elections by the end of January, and we would be foolish to guarantee that we'll make it," a senior administration official told the Times. "Some developments are working against us. But a lot of them are also working in our favor, and there is no reason to give up on our timetable right now." LINK
Hearings to confirm Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State will not begin until January, according to SFRC chairman Sen. Richard Lugar. LINK
Over the weekend, Janet Hook of the Los Angeles Times and Dick Stevenson of the New York Times did very lovely Social Security overhaul pieces that were very fair-minded about personal accounts and the prospect of borrowing to pay for transition costs. LINK
The Ohio counting of 2004 ballots continues; we'll let you know when you need to focus on that.
Dear Ken Mehlman: please read the Union Leader Guest Commentary from the weekend about the (weak?) GOP ground game in the Granite State and let us know what you think. LINK
Dear Howard Fineman (regarding your tour de force on Imus this morning): (a) you are wrong about Peter Jennings; (b) you are right about Brokaw often being the best political reporter in the room; (c) you are right about Brian Williams; (d) you are right about your capacity to suck up.
Speaking of Fineman (as we do with a frequency that is alarming to some), check out his cover-flagged Newsweek piece on Karl C. Rove. It is a lovely overview, and it contains Rove's pullback of his "never gonna do another campaign" blurt-out from before the holiday. LINK
It is a must-read, naturally, because Fineman knows Rove like Bo knows baseball (Of course we mean "football.").
Dear Landon Thomas Jr. of the New York Times: in profiling someone (like, say, would-be Treasury Secretary Stephen Schwarzman, in your must-read Sunday New York Times Business piece), is it unambiguously proper to quote them being snippy with their hired help? We ask rhetorically. LINK
Bob Novak spends some quality time in Paris, and decides to replace the age-old cab driver with the nouveau newsstand guy, in order to convey definitively what Les Frenchpersons think about the U.S. of A. LINK
Bill Safire's New York Times column on the U.N. controversy and Annan's son will open your eyes. LINK
It looks like Mike Finnegan is going to cover the hometown mayoral race for the Los Angeles Times, and today's scorecard brings you up to date. LINK
Finnegan's colleague Patrick McGreevey sets up the mayoral contest as a battle of the consultants: Bill Carrick vs. Ace Smith vs. John Shallman/Joe Trippi vs. Richie Ross vs. Carol Butler. We particularly enjoyed the Notation accompanying the insightful comments from Dan Schnur that he's not involved in the race -- which means we look forward to seeing many, many more quotes from you over the next year, Dan. We'll be calling you shortly. LINK
On Sunday, Tom Beaumont of the Des Moines Register took a look at the Republicans eyeing the Iowa gubernatorial race in 2006. LINK
The AP kindly Notes to readers that Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan is in his 18th year in the job and speculates on who could succeed him. LINK
The Washington Post's Chuck Lane turns in a point-by-point analysis of the case made by Matt Cooper (excellent photo) and Judith Miller in the case involving the leak of a CIA officer's identity. LINK