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Politics : WHO IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT IN 2004 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: PROLIFE who wrote (5630)	10/21/2003 1:42:56 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10965

'Divers' Dedicated to Dig Dirt on Dean customwire.ap.org By ROSS SNEYD Associated Press Writer MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- For hours on end, "Dean Divers" camp out at the state archives housed in an 1890 mansion, scouring public records, documents and correspondences in a search of crucial details about former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, the Democratic presidential front-runner. With Dean's surge in the presidential race, an increasing number of representatives from rival campaigns, the news media and even Dean aides have descended upon the archives, wading through thousands of pages of material from the former governor's nearly 12 years in office. "We've gotten requests for everything, every piece of paper," Vermont Secretary of State Deborah Markowitz said. This effort to compile a dossier on Dean - either to use against him or to boost his candidacy - extends beyond the archives in the secretary of state's office. Some searchers have spent hours at Chittenden Community Television, watching public access television tapes of Dean's news conferences and debates. Jess Wilson, channel director at the station, said one woman from rival Dick Gephardt's campaign spent the better part of a summer day watching tapes of news conferences in the 1990s, when Dean discussed budget cuts and Medicare. Since then, Gephardt has accused Dean of changing positions on some issues. "Some of the flip-flop stuff Gephardt's been talking about sounds awfully familiar," Wilson said. Those combing for material in Vermont can get copies of tapes from the television station. The Gephardt campaign searched the database and came up with 230 tapes on Dean, Wilson said. The archives are a little tougher to look through. Located in the basement of the Redstone building, a brick home modeled after a Bavarian hunting lodge, the papers from Dean's governorship add up to 600,000 pages and fill 190 boxes, archivist Gregory Sanford said. They are stored among papers on the state constitutions and scattered correspondences from 18th century and 19th century governors. Searching is not easy. The Dean documents were never catalogued and some have just recently been indexed. The staff monitors researchers as they scour the material to ensure the information isn't tampered with or taken from the file. The archives have not necessarily been overwhelmed with people, although there have been many more visitors. "It's not like there's a lot of requests every day," Markowitz said. "It's that the (researchers) that come in spend a lot of time and request a lot of assistance. One spent 12 days." Some researchers have asked to open records kept in 145 crates at a state warehouse in Middlesex, Vt., but Markowitz said she reached an agreement with Dean to keep those private for 10 years after the governor left office. Two of Dean's predecessors made similar arrangements, although the records were cracked open after just six years. "What was new was the political aspirations of the person being negotiated with," Markowitz said of the length of time records will remain private. Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

To: PROLIFE who wrote (5630)	10/21/2003 8:30:09 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10965

Abortion vote: Whither Democrats? Party activists suggest Senate vote clearly draws battle lines for 2004 msnbc.com Party activists suggest Senate vote clearly draws battle lines for 2004 ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 — Congressional passage of the first federal restrictions on a woman’s legal right to abortion is certain to be an issue in the 2004 election, especially for two Democratic presidential candidates who have opposed abortion rights. DICK GEPHARDT, the former House minority leader, voted with the Republican majority last year for legislation that would ban what critics call partial birth abortion. In 1996, the Missouri congressman voted to overturn then-President Clinton’s veto of a similar bill. Gephardt missed the vote earlier this month on the ban, and his campaign said Tuesday he would not support it without a provision addressing the health of the mother. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio has voted to impose restrictions on abortion rights during his four terms in the House, but earlier this year said his position has changed and he’s a strong advocate. Kucinich voted present when the House considered a ban in July 2002; he voted against the legislation earlier this month. The Senate cleared the bill Tuesday on a vote of 64-34, sending it to President Bush for his expected signature. The three Senate Democrats pursuing the party nomination — Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, John Kerry of Massachusetts and John Edwards of North Carolina — have voted against the ban. On Tuesday, Lieberman and Kerry cast votes against it; Edwards missed the vote but issued a statement saying he opposed it. LIKELY TO STAY WITH DEMOCRATIC VOTERS The legislation, the first limitations on a constitutional right since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, will resonate with Democratic primary voters, especially women. It remains to be seen how they view the individual candidates on the issue. “When people see Roe v. Wade at risk, they vote for the pro-choice position,” said Ellen Malcolm, president of the pro-choice group EMILY’s List. “If they think everything is fine, then it’s not in the top three. But the minute they think the right of choice is under threat, then the issue rises to the top tier.” Some Democratic activists say the actions of Congress will do more to energize voters to oppose President Bush and the Republicans in the general election. Abortion rights advocates agreed. “In general, we’re confident we’ve got nine pro-choice candidates, any one of whom would do a far better job than the incumbent,” said David Seldin, communications director for NARAL-Pro-Choice America. The campaigns of Wesley Clark, Howard Dean and Al Sharpton said their candidates oppose the ban. Former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun voted against it in 1996. © 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.