The Note: Another Seedy Attempt by the (Liberal) Media
— -- WASHINGTON, April 7
NEWS SUMMARY
Make no mistake: the papal funeral will justifiably dominate news coverage for the next several days, and we have stopped spending our free time trying to imagine what would have to happen for any (more obviously) political story to break through.
But for those who want a short break from reading about conclaves, cardinals, smoke signals, Latin American v. African papal candidates, Robert Mugabe, the Via Conciliazione, Polish pilgrims, security cordons, 16-hour waits, and television networks wrangling for satellite trucks, here are the four stories we highly recommend:
1. The Washington Post's Mike Allen has a story on the now-identified author of the Schiavo talking points memo and it reads with a hint of self-satisfaction: "The legal counsel to Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) admitted yesterday that he was the author of a memo citing the political advantage to Republicans of intervening in the case of Terri Schiavo, the senator said in an interview last night." LINK
"Brian H. Darling, 39, a former lobbyist for the Alexander Strategy Group on gun rights and other issues, offered his resignation and it was immediately accepted, Martinez said."
"Martinez, the GOP's Senate point man on the issue, said he earlier had been assured by aides that his office had nothing to do with producing the memo. 'I never did an investigation, as such,' he said. 'I just took it for granted that we wouldn't be that stupid. It was never my intention to in any way politicize this issue.'"
"Martinez, a freshman who was secretary of housing and urban development for most of President Bush's first term, said he had not read the one-page memo. He said he inadvertently passed it to Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who had worked with him on the issue. After that, officials gave the memo to reporters for ABC News and The Washington Post."
"Harkin said in an interview that Martinez handed him the memo on the Senate floor, in hopes of gaining his support for the bill giving federal courts jurisdiction in the Florida case in an effort to restore the brain-damaged Florida woman's feeding tube. "He said these were talking points -- something that we're working on here," Harkin said."
(See: we got through that whole thing without sounding like Sid Blumenthal.)
2. The Wall Street Journal's John Harwood, who writes up a new NBC News/WSJ poll demonstrating that a disturbingly high percentage of the Republican base is unhappy with the President's policies (although they still support the man.) We're not sure whether the numbers support Mr. Harwood's lede, which suggests that the base is "splintering," but that will be of little comfort to Barry Jackson and Sara Taylor.
"Divergent Republican opinions hardly preclude passage of Mr. Bush's initiatives, since he remains closely allied with his party's House and Senate leaders, who control the congressional agenda. Still, they help explain why the president has been unable to generate a groundswell of public pressure for issues such as Social Security overhaul, and why Republican lawmakers have struggled for consensus on taxes, spending and deficits in their budget debates."
"During Mr. Bush's first term and his 2004 re-election bid, a solid phalanx of Republican support was at the heart of the White House strategy, helping him pass tax cuts and other initiatives. The president relied on overwhelming support from his conservative political base combined with just enough independents and centrist Democrats to form a working majority."
"The latest poll shows that Mr. Bush retains huge Republican support in general. His overall approval rating remains at the middling levels he has registered for more than a year, slipping slightly to 48% from 50% in February. But fully 87% of Republicans approve of his job performance, and 88% express positive views about him personally."
3. There's a para-blockbuster from the New York Times today on the confirmation hearings of John Bolton, from Steven Weisman and Douglas Jehl:
"A former chief of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research is expected to testify in opposition to John R. Bolton's nomination as ambassador to the United Nations when the Senate Foreign Relations Committee holds hearings on Mr. Bolton next week. With one Republican member, Senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, reserving final judgment, the committee's approval of Mr. Bolton's nomination does not appear to be certain, senior Congressional officials said." LINK
"Carl W. Ford Jr., the former State Department official, and Mr. Bolton clashed while at the State Department over what Mr. Ford regarded as Mr. Bolton's intimidation of intelligence officials. The committee is also seeking testimony from two intelligence officials, one a top Central Intelligence Agency analyst, about what the officials have said they believed were Mr. Bolton's efforts to have them replaced for disagreeing with him over the weapons programs of Iraq, Cuba and other countries."
"Former government officials have accused Mr. Bolton of improperly circumventing State Department channels to gain access to confidential sensitive intelligence reports, the Congressional officials said."
"In addition, there have been accusations that Mr. Bolton has sought to remove dissenters from their posts or bar them from meetings called to discuss policies. A senior Central Intelligence Agency official has become the second government official to tell the Senate Intelligence Committee that he believes Mr. Bolton sought to remove him from his post after he complained that statements Mr. Bolton made in 2002 about a biological weapons program in Cuba did not reflect the views of intelligence agencies, Congressional officials said."
Colin Powell has a cameo at the end.
4. "The special prosecutor investigating whether Bush administration officials illegally revealed the identity of a covert CIA operative says he finished his investigation months ago, except for questioning two reporters who have refused to testify," reports the Washington Post's Carol Leonnig. And the March 22 court filing suggests that Bob Novak has spoken to investigators. LINK
"Legal experts and sources close to the case also speculated yesterday that Fitzgerald is not likely to seek an indictment for the crime he originally set out to investigate: whether a government official knowingly exposed a covert officer. The sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is the subject of a grand jury investigation, said Fitzgerald may instead seek to charge a government official with committing perjury by giving conflicting information to prosecutors."
In Rome, Italy, the President today meets with U.S. cardinals at 11:05 am ET and dines with the Prime Minister of Italy at 1:05 pm ET. He has no public appearances.
At noon, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings makes what the department bills as a "major announcement" about No Child Left Behind.
(She writes in the Wall Street Journal: "If states are raising student achievement and closing the achievement gap -- which we will only be able to see if they regularly assess their students and report results by student subgroup -- then, in exchange, we will apply a more sensible, workable approach on the other aspects of the law. In other words, it is results that truly matter, not the bureaucratic way you get there. That's just common sense, often lost in the halls of Washington.")
The Energy Information Agency releases its summer outlook for gas prices.
49,000 child care workers in Illinois vote today on whether to join the SEIU. It'd be the largest victory for organized labor since the SEIU organized workers in Los Angeles years ago.
A spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert says his boss is recovering nicely from emergency kidney stone surgery and plans to leave the hospital today.
Correction: In some editions of The Note, President Jimmy Carter (39) was erroneously identified as President Ronald Reagan (40). We regret the confusion and admit we are no better at numbers than Elisabeth Bumiller.
The Schiavo memo:
By most accounts, the AP first ran with the story early in the evening. LINK
The Florida press will be all over this tomorrow -- the Orlando Sentientel has a pro forma version in today's paper. LINK
The Washington Times reporters who surveyed al 55 GOP Senate offices yesterday and received a denial from Martinez seem just, plain, hopping angry:
"Mr. Harkin had told reporters earlier in the day that he got the memo on the Senate floor from Mr. Martinez, contradicting previous statements to The Washington Times by the Florida Republican's office that neither the senator nor his staff had produced or distributed the memo. " LINK
"Mr. Martinez said in a statement last night, after repeated inquiries by The Washington Times, that unbeknownst to him, one of his staffers had produced the memo and it came into his possession. He said the staff member, whom he did not name, has resigned. A Senate aide identified the staffer as Brian Darling, legal counsel for Mr. Martinez's office. Mr. Martinez said Mr. Harkin told him about the memo yesterday. The Republican said he had meant to give Mr. Harkin a document describing Mr. Martinez's bill to prolong Mrs. Schiavo's life while federal courts reviewed her situation."
(We read the Washington Times story twice, however, and don't see an apology to Mike Allen. We are sure Rush will give him one on the air today, however.) (Note Note: THAT sounded a little like Sidney Blumenthal, we admit.)
The blogosphere is reacting dynamically. We saw:
--Several large tablespoons of posts still critical of how ABC News (on a Good Morning America weekend program and online) and Allen (in an early edition of the Post), in particular, phrased it. LINK and LINK
--From Malkin, some measured criticism of the blogosphere, too, and some reflections about both the "ups and downs" of being an influential blogger, as well as the following questions:
"Sen. Mel Martinez told the Washington Times he did not see the Schiavo memo until ABC News and the Post publicized it. But Sen. Tom Harkin told the Post that when Martinez handed him the memo, "[Martinez] said these were talking points -- something that we're working on here."
"How could Sen. Martinez describe the contents of the memo if he had not seen it? And who is 'we?'"
Some cautions for the blogosphere from (as Larry King would say -- one of da greats) Jonah Goldberg: "I think it's probably good news -- or at least there's a positive side to the fact -- that the memo turned out to be real. It will probably caution some bloggers that simply because something is politically inconvenient and doesn't have an obvious explanation, that doesn't mean there's a dishonest liberal/media conspiracy at work. Better to learn that sort of lesson on a minor episode like this than something that grabs more attention." LINK
-- "Some of us conservative bloggers were duped by Congressional sources who pointed to the Democrats" See: LINK more -- but then Notice that Mr. Claybourn, while seeking a correction from ABC News and the Post for insinuating, in some venues, that the GOP leadership passed the memo around, does not seem to recall having "broken" the story about how Harry Reid's crack press shop put the memo together.
-- Says Malkin of Claybourn: "Will he continue to play nicely-nice with his sources now that they have been shown to be manipulative, lying smear merchants? The story's not over. Sen. Martinez and his former legal counsel may still have plenty of 'splainin' to do."
-- Lots of liberal blog triumphalism LINK
By the way: remember, from the '04 campaign, when Martinez's Senate campaign put out a nasty mailer on primary opponent Bill McCollum, alleging that McCollum catered to the "radical homosexual lobby?" Martinez said he hadn't seen the flier and disavowed its contents, even though it was sent out with the usual "paid for by Martinez for Senate" line.
The Pope and politics:
The Boston Globe's Susan Milligan writes about the politics of the Pope. " . . . despite their policy differences with the pontiff, Democrats and Republicans alike are eager to claim John Paul's legacy as their own, appealing to a divided Catholic constituency that can swing elections." LINK
'''If you're a liberal Democrat who wants Catholic votes or a conservative Republican who wants Catholic votes, going to the funeral is a good thing,' said John C. Green, a University of Akron professor specializing in religion and politics. He noted that Catholics are largely split in their political affiliations, a traditionally Democratic voting bloc that nonetheless went for Bush over Democratic nominee John F. Kerry in last year's exit polls."
"This country is patriotic. It's religious. It is family-oriented. Republicans have been very effective at taking away the issues" says Sen. Ted Kennedy.
"Some 26 House members and 14 US senators will also be attending the service tomorrow, a startling display by lawmakers in a country that has not always had such a warm relationship with the Vatican. The White House says President Jimmy Carter declined an invitation to join the delegation, although Carter allies explain his absence as the result of either a miscommunication or a White House snub, and President Gerald Ford, 91, is not up to travel."
Bill Richardson gives federal New Mexico workers the day off to mourn the Pope!?! Critics charge Richardson is violating the separation of church and state. LINK
Pope John Paul II's will, his "Spiritual Testament," will be released today, and the Cardinals have decided to begin their conclave on April 18. LINK
The Washington Post's Jim VandeHei writes nicely and knowingly about the "culture of life" that united the Pope and President Bush. LINK
Bush agenda:
The Wall Street Journal's editorial board ably defends Mr. Bolton's nomination. The President's EPA nominee grilled over pesticides: LINK
And the FDA nominee blocked over contraception pills. LINK
On the other hand, everyone seems to like Alberto Gonzales. LINK
Funny this: Elias Zerhouni, the director of the National Institutes of Health, tells the New York Times that he is not advocating a policy change, no, not that, but he wants to suggest that if the Bush Administration relaxed its rules on stem cell research, it would benefit science. LINK
The Washington Post's Michael Dobbs looks at the new guidelines on No Child Left Behind to be announced today by Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, giving more flexibility to school systems that already have accountability systems. LINK
The Senate voted to trim a bit from President Bush's budget requests for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan on Wednesday. LINK
The Times runs DeLay's denouncement of Phil Shenon's article on his family's campaign payments. LINK
Carl Hulse and Shenon also report: "At a closed meeting of House Republicans in the morning, the majority leader, who is the subject of a campaign fund-raising inquiry in Texas and faces questions in Washington about overseas travel sponsored by outside groups, received a 'thunderous ovation,' lawmakers and senior party officials said. They were reacting in part to the article in The Times and another, focusing on a trip to Russia, that appeared on Wednesday in The Washington Post. They were the latest in a number of published accounts about Mr. DeLay's conduct and political operations."
If you are headed to a foxhole, take Dan Allen with you.
Reports Roll Call: "A top House Republican, Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), hinted on Wednesday that GOP lawmakers may seek to retaliate against Democrats over the DeLay travel scandal, suggesting that similar scrutiny should be given to comparable trips taken by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), her staff and other Democrats."
DeLay's legal defense fund sees contributions slowing: LINK
ABC News Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross has details of a third trip, this one to the Mariana Islands in the South Pacific, where the owner of a factory was eager to brag about DeLay's promise to him that the U.S. Government wouldn't touch its allegedly controversial labor practices. LINK
Maureen Dowd's column contains this smart paragraph: "No matter how much Democrats may be caviling over the House Republicans' attempts to squelch the Ethics Committee before it goes after Mr. DeLay (the former exterminator who pushed to impeach Bill Clinton), privately they're rooting for Mr. DeLay to thrive. They're hoping to do in 2006 what the Republicans did in 1994, when Mr. Gingrich and his acolytes used Democratic arrogance and ethical lapses to seize the House." LINK
Congress: the judicial nominations:
The Hill's Alexander Bolton has Sen. Rick Santorum assuring conservatives that the GOP leadership was committed to using the nuclear/constitutional option, though it's unclear from the article whether the bomb will be dropped soon, and when and if Sen./Dr./Leader Frist will share his compromise with Leader Reid. LINK
Sen. John Cornyn says he won't use hypotheticals or "wonder" anymore on the Senate floor. < LINK
The Washington Post's Chuck Babington writes that the Terri Schiavo case has revved up congressional Republicans intent on reining in federal judges, while their colleagues on the Senate side are trying to defuse criticism by Democrats that they're going too far in their approach to the judiciary -- and it isn't exactly helping party unity. Babington also Notes that "[w]ell more than half of the nation's 266 U.S. appellate court judges and approximately 1,000 district court judges were appointed by Republican presidents." LINK
AP reports that federal judges yesterday asked Congress to provide more protection for them, including $12 million for security systems for their homes, in light of the February murders of the family of a federal judge in Chicago, and tough criticism after the Schiavo case. LINK
Social Security:
The Chicago Tribune's Mark Silva hung out with Des Moines radio host Jan Mickelson -- who the President talked with last week during his Iowa visit -- yesterday at the Treasury Department, and it seems the host was less than impressed. LINK
"I am not just a flak sitting out here serving up softballs. I try to ask tough questions," Mickelson said after interviews with several members of the administration. "Half the time, these people are just serving up talking points and if you get them off the talking points, they are clueless. . . . And my listeners sniff it out right away."
The New York Times Edmund Andrews on the Treasury's Social Security media push. LINK
David Broder finds he agrees with two analysts from the Center for Economic and Policy Research -- not that the push to overhaul Social Security relies on a "phony crisis," but that demographics and costs show that other priorities -- namely health care -- need to be dealt with first. LINK
The Washington Post's Jonathan Weisman has details about lawmakers questioning how much President Bush's "60 Stops in 60 Days" Social Security campaign blitz is costing. LINK
But as far as we know, the Department's Public Affairs intern, Becky Herman, is free. Her blog certainly is LINK
CoMPASS publicizes its membership list today, the Washington Post's Judy Sarasohn reports. LINK
Sen. Salazar (D-CO) wants more investigating of the three citizens pulled out of last month's POTUS forum on Social Security. We wonder if all this is being coordinated or not. LINK
Dean and his Democrats:
The Washington Post's Dan Balz looks at the new survey by the Pew Research Center that concludes that the political activists who supported Howard Dean's presidential bid are the new liberal Democratic base, and they believe the party needs to move left in reaction to the 2004 loss. Those activists tend to be white, secular, and wealthier than most rank-and-file Democrats, the poll found, and Dean's appeal is strong among voters age 40 to 59. LINK
And no, we can't tell you what Dean and Karl Rove talked about last night at an ABC News table at the Radio and TV dinner. LINK
2008: Democrats:
The Washington Post's Michael Shear looks at the bipartisan approach by Gov. Mark Warner (D-VA) in working with Virginia's Republican-majority state legislature, at least partly via "junior and maverick GOP leaders" to help him get things done. Some of his opponents in state government are less impressed. LINK
A cynic (Deb Orin) would say that the Junior Senator from New York is only interested in the awarding of the next presidential helicopter contract because she's thinking about those scenic flights returning home from Andrews AFB. But a wise man (Ray Hernandez), reveals this high stakes competition for what it really is: a bare-knuckles political fight for jobs. LINK
Either New York or Connecticut stood to gain hundreds of new ones, and the White House, the Pentagon and the Navy decided it would be New York, by picking Lockheed Martin's US 101 bid. More than 40 states will be involved in building the 101, but rival Sikorksky -- and now Chris Dodd channeling Lou Dobbs -- has tried to focus attention on the overseas work of Lockheed's partner Augusta-Westland.
Dodd tried a "sneak attack," as New York's Senior Sen. Schumer called it, but Schumer and Clinton immediately raced to the Senate floor, and figuratively brought it to a screeching halt through shrewd legislative maneuvering, to thwart Dodd's attempt to revisit the award.
We wonder where Dodd's partner Joe Lieberman is since we know it's not Rome. No, this is not a parody of a Deb Orin/HRC story: LINK
Sen. John Kerry, back home, points the finger at the Administration for not letting veterans know they qualify for disability assistances. LINK
John DiStaso of the Manchester Union Leader writes that Sen. Edwards may be circumspect about 2008, he remains chummy with New Hampshire and will headline two Democratic Senate fundraisers this summer and then one for the fall. LINK
(They aren't saying "boo"; they are saying "Louuuuuuu.")
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Montana writer Thomas Goltz jumps into the "Brian Schweitzer in 08" bandwagon. With David Sirota as policy director, no doubt.
2008 Republicans:
"Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) will host a private tour of the Capitol next week led by a controversial Republican religious operative who advocates the impeachment of 'activist' federal judges," David Barton, the vice chairman of the Texas Republican Party, reports Roll Call's Mark Preston.
The Clintons of Chappaqua:
Read Roger Simon's online column about speech coach Michael Shaheen, if only to get the context for this awesome quote: "working with (Bill) Clinton is like Kazan getting to work with Brando." LINK
2006:
Eliot Spitzer's comments on the New York state budget (made during a Fred Dicker radio show drop by!!!) get straight and prominent play in the New York Times and the New York Post. LINK and LINK
But a "mistake" by the campaign gets him some Dicker love. "State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's campaign for governor has been using his high-profile investigation of insurance giant American International Group to raise funds and build political support via the Internet, a Web search showed yesterday." LINK
"Despite Democratic efforts over the past several election cycles to expand the House playing field, the results of the 2004 presidential election suggest that Republicans actually have more fertile ground for gains between now and the next round of redistricting," write Chris Cillizza and Erin Billings of Roll Call.
2005:
Page Six gives lots of love to Al Sharpton, with a poll purporting to demonstrate his influence with black and Hispanic voters in New York City, a preview of his National Action Network convention, and a friend's assertion that he will, indeed, sit out the election because he thinks Mayor Mike Bloomberg is doing a good job. LINK
Politics:
Deb Orin's column, featuring an interview with a top DOJ prosecutor, says this: "The prosecutor disputed reports that there were potentially revealing notations handwritten by Sandy Berger in the margins of the memos, saying, 'There were no notations -- none.'" LINK
"He said the originals had been scanned into an Archives' computer and Berger only got copies printed from it."
"Asked if he's sure Berger didn't take originals, too, he said there's no evidence of that."
"Meanwhile, the probe seems to have shifted to whether Clinton appointees at the Archives tried to cover for Berger. Archives chief John Carlin, a Clinton appointee, was bounced soon after the incident."
But Orin's real focus: Berger lied to the media.
Feel better, Mr. Speaker. LINK
Rev. Falwell left the hospital yesterday. LINK
House of Labor:
Jeff Zack, Assistant to the General President of the International Association of Fire Fighters, sent us this e-mail:
"In what we hope will become more than just a one night stand for the rest of labor, last night, IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger and IUPAT President Jimmy Williams co-hosted an event on the Hill for Republican freshman and union presidents. Over 20 members of Congress attended along with eight union presidents and representatives from over 25 other unions."
"While the IAFF has a long record of bipartisanship and many Republican friends, this type of event -reps from a number labor unions and Republicans in the same room voluntarily -- hasn't occurred in D.C. in decades. There have been smaller get togethers or failed attempts to bring that many GOP MOCs and labor together. But, it had never been pulled off successfully until last night."
"Even if it ends up not being a lasting relationship for many of the unions there, it is a beginning. Either way, Schaitberger will continue his commitment to working with both sides of the political aisle and will be the driving force for bipartisanship within the overall debate on AFL-CIO reform."
Wal-Mart:
Wal-Mart is saying that the Maryland bill that would require it to provide more health care for its employees could cost jobs in the state. LINK
Same-sex marriage:
Connecticut's state Senate approved the bill to recognize civil unions on Wednesday. It's expected to go to the House next week. LINK
Schwarzenegger era:
George Skelton curtain-raises a new poll that shows California's citizens are increasingly less impressed by the methods and the accomplishments of Gov. Schwarzenegger -- 49 percent approve of the job he's doing, 43 percent say he's doing well working with the legislature, and just 38 percent agree he's right to take his initiatives straight to voters. And Ken Khachigian says it's time to get some new language. LINK