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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: American Spirit who wrote (471026)	10/4/2003 10:25:30 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Respond to of 769670

A Struggling Graham Calls on Clinton and Daschle for Advice By RACHEL L. SWARNS ASHINGTON, Oct. 4 — Senator Bob Graham of Florida said Saturday that he had discussed his struggling presidential campaign with former President Bill Clinton and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle and planned to decide its future "in a few days." Mr. Graham said he was still committed to his bid for the White House, and he repeatedly refused to rule out the possibility that he might ultimately abandon the race given his poor showings in national polls and continuing struggles to raise money. "We have a number of options that we are considering," Mr. Graham told reporters after giving a speech at the Democratic National Committee meeting here. "I have had several conversations with President Clinton and I have talked with Senator Daschle and other leaders in the Senate about, to solicit their advice," he said. "None of them have encouraged me to not continue the pursuit for the presidency." Mr. Graham was speaking for the first time since the resignation of one of his campaign spokesman last week and an emergency meeting with aides that prompted questions about his intentions. Supporters said his advisers were divided over whether he should continue focusing his limited resources on the Iowa caucuses, shift money and attention to the South or leave the race entirely. Mr. Graham said Saturday that he planned to realign his team once he finalized his decision on the future of his campaign. He said he did not have any campaign events scheduled in Iowa or elsewhere in the next week or so but emphasized that he was still committed to beating President Bush in 2004. "We are looking at the ways to be the next president of the United States," he said. Hundreds of party loyalists were at the Democratic National Committee meeting to see and hear the 10 Democratic contenders for the party's presidential nomination.Some candidates spoke Friday. On Saturday, Mr. Graham, Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina and the Rev. Al Sharpton outlined their political platforms, criticized President Bush for the war in Iraq and took swipes at their rivals. Mr. Edwards asked how President Bush could justify spending $87 billion on Iraq while millions of Americans go without health care and live in poverty. He promised to widen access to health insurance and to provide free college education to students who commit to teaching in poor schools. But Mr. Edwards also was critical of Gen. Wesley K. Clark, who has publicly acknowledged voting for the Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and Richard M. Nixon. "For me, being a Democrat is a commitment of the heart, not a matter of convenience for the moment," Mr. Edwards said. Mr. Gephardt and Mr. Sharpton directed attacks at President Bush and former Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont. Mr. Gephardt called Mr. Bush "the vanishing president," saying he had made jobs, civil liberties and European allies vanish. He also criticized Dr. Dean for supporting Republican plans to cut the growth of Medicare in the 1990's. Mr. Sharpton called on Dr. Dean to reject Michigan's plan to allow Internet voting in its Feb. 7 caucus. He said online voting would favor affluent white voters over poor black voters who lack computers. "We cannot have a situation in February where some can vote in the living room and others have to go through the snow and feel impaired," Mr. Sharpton said. "Governor Dean, it's not enough to talk the talk. You got to walk the walk. Your coffers may be full but your talk is cheap. We must do something about the racial divide, and Michigan is a test point on that." nytimes.com

To: American Spirit who wrote (471026)	10/4/2003 10:41:31 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Win One for the Groper By MAUREEN DOWD ASHINGTON Well, there goes the Jewish women's vote. Twin revelations of Arnold Schwarzenegger's groping and goose-stepping are not going to play well with some Californians. The androgynous Gray spent the weekend hissing at Arnold's excess testosterone, as Arnold tried a rope-a-grope strategy. The governor had to be singing "Danke Schön" over tales of the Austrian's 70's foolery: playing Nazi marching songs; clicking his heels and pretending to be an SS officer; clowning as Hitler with comb as mustache; and praising the dictator's ambition and oratorical skills. A Davis aide slyly wondered if Mel Brooks was Arnold's campaign manager. When I was in California, Democrats said that as soon as Mr. Schwarzenegger went up in the polls, the Davis camp was prepared to blast him on women and "play it out in all its seamy glory," as one well-connected Hollywood Democrat said. When the star's female accusers were recycled in the L.A. Times, Democratic women's groups — already in full cry against Arnold for being boorish despite his un-Bushian moderate stances on women's issues — howled even louder. They rejected his apology and explanation that he was just being "playful" when he grabbed several left breasts out of left field over the decades. Even before the latest charges, Hillary Clinton, by phone, and Ann Richards and the lawyer Gloria Allred, in person, joined Governor Davis at a bristly rally in West Hollywood with 200 female activists, including contingents from NOW and Planned Parenthood, chanting about Arnold's sins. At the Davis rally, Senator Clinton chose not to defend the groper who was not her husband. Ms. Richards chose not to defend the groper who was not a Democrat; in 1998, the former Texas governor shrugged off Mr. Clinton's louche behavior: "If we try to retire every man from office who's done what he did, we wouldn't need affirmative action." Now Republicans who thundered against Bill — not Arnold, who scorned impeachment as a waste of time and money — argue that peccadilloes are not relevant to governing. And feminists who backed Bill are ushering Arnold gropees up to the Democratic microphones. Cheekbones jutting, Maria Shriver played the Tammy Wynette-Hillary role with nerve and verve, reassuring Republican women in Newport Beach: "You can listen to the people who have never met Arnold, or who met him for five seconds 30 years ago. Or you can listen to me." Certainly, the bodybuilder-turned-phenom has had moments of being, to use David Letterman's word, a lunkhead. But I find the selective outrage of feminists just as offensive. Feminism died in 1998 when Hillary allowed henchlings and Democrats to demonize Monica as an unbalanced stalker, and when Gloria Steinem defended Mr. Clinton against Kathleen Willey and Paula Jones by saying he had merely made clumsy passes, then accepted rejection, so there was no sexual harassment involved. As to his dallying with an emotionally immature 21-year-old, Ms. Steinem noted, "Welcome sexual behavior is about as relevant to sexual harassment as borrowing a car is to stealing one." Surely what's good for the Comeback Kid is good for the Terminator. It was no surprise on Friday that Mr. S was backing off his promise to release those "Springtime for Hitler" outtakes from George Butler's 1977 documentary "Pumping Iron." No dummy, he knew years ago his "Nazi stuff" could be trouble. He bought up the incriminating evidence, 100 hours of histrionic interviews, for a mil, and worked with the Simon Wiesenthal Center, giving it a mil in guilt gilt. I asked my friend Leon Wieseltier, who knows a lot about Judaism and politics and women, about Arnold. "Schwarzenegger is obviously not anti-Semitic or an admirer of genocide," he said. "Hitler does not appear to have been his moral ideal, but his business model. His old fondness for the Führer is just another expression of the animating principle of his life and movies: the worship and steady acquisition of power. Sacramento is simply the biggest Hummer he can buy." Or, if Maria is right, Arnold will be a "smart, innovative, disciplined, determined . . . can-do" leader, trying to give something back to the state where he arrived penniless. Besides, if we ever hear the "Horst Wessel Song" drifting from Governor Schwarzenegger's office in Sacramento, there's always the blitzkrieg option: the recall of the recall. nytimes.com