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

To: American Spirit who wrote (5949)	10/29/2003 8:08:36 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	Respond to of 10965

Miranda's comments are not that far removed from the comments that you have made in the past as to why the U.S. is not ready to elect a Jewish president. Kerry Severs Ties in Religion Flap story.news.yahoo.com By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites) broke ties with an Arizona legislator who had endorsed his presidential campaign amid allegations that the lawmaker was trying to use religion to win over supporters of rival Joe Lieberman (news - web sites). The Arizona Republic reported Wednesday that state Democratic Rep. Ben Miranda was trying to persuade backers of Lieberman to switch allegiance because the Connecticut senator, who is Jewish, does not campaign on Friday nights and Saturdays in observance of the sabbath. Lieberman campaign manager Craig Smith issued a statement Wednesday morning calling on Kerry to "take swift action to rebuke these statements and disassociate himself from these individuals who have used these tactics on his behalf." That's just what Kerry did. Kerry spokesman Robert Gibbs issued a statement that said the campaign investigated the matter and found that no campaign staffers were responsible, but the campaign "severed its association" with Miranda. "We have expressed our deepest regrets to Senator Lieberman, a friend of Senator Kerry's for many years, and made it clear that, of course, Senator Kerry deplores and will not tolerate the injection of religion into this race in any manner whatsoever," Gibbs said. Miranda did not immediately return a call for comment. ___ Unlike other Democrats, conservative Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia doesn't have to pick and choose among the nine White House hopefuls. Miller says he's voting for President Bush (news - web sites) and will "help him in any way I can." The former Georgia governor issued a statement saying he couldn't trust the current Democratic field to direct the country where his grandchildren and great-grandchildren would grow up. In the statement, which he also made during a taped interview for Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" show, he said, "I think that George Bush is the right man in the right place in the right time." Although Miller is the first Senate Democrat to endorse the Republican president, his alignment with Bush is nothing new. In his brief Senate career, Miller has sided with the president on tax cuts, education and judicial nominations, among other things. Miller announced in January he wouldn't seek re-election in 2004. He also said he wouldn't endorse anyone in the race to succeed him or make the sort of televised endorsement ads that he filmed last year for former Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., and others. It's unclear whether he has ruled out making such ads for Bush. Often a subject of party switch rumors, Miller cautioned not to read too much into the endorsement. "This does not mean I am going to become a Republican," he said. "It simply means that in the year 2004, this Democrat will vote for George Bush." __ John Kerry received endorsements Wednesday from two New York Democrats, Reps. Tim Bishop and Carolyn McCarthy. He now has the support of 19 House members and two Senators. McCarthy, who ran for office after her husband was killed by a gunman on the Long Island Railroad, said Kerry's support for gun safety laws is a key reason she supports his campaign. Bishop said his endorsement was based in large part on Kerry's environmental record. ___ Americans say they have more confidence in Democrats handling the economy than the Bush administration, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday. More than half of those questioned, 54 percent, say they think a new Democratic administration would do a better job than the Bush administration. Those questioned were closely divided on who would do a better job of handling Iraq (news - web sites), with 46 percent saying the administration and 42 percent favoring a Democrat. The poll found leading Democrats in the presidential race running from 4 to 6 percentage points behind Bush in head-to-head matchups, compared to a lead of 8 to 15 percentage points for the president in mid-September. The poll of 1,262 registered voters was taken Oct. 23-27 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. ___ Associated Press Writers Will Lester, Jeffrey McMurray and Sam Hananel in Washington contributed to this report.

To: American Spirit who wrote (5949)	10/29/2003 11:50:58 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10965

<<...A former Pentagon officer turned whistleblower says a group of hawks in the Bush Administration, including the Vice-President, Dick Cheney, is running a shadow foreign policy, contravening Washington's official line...>> ---------------------------------------------------------- Cheney's Hawks 'Hijacking Policy' By Ritt Goldstein Sydney Morning Herald Thursday 30 October 2003 A former Pentagon officer turned whistleblower says a group of hawks in the Bush Administration, including the Vice-President, Dick Cheney, is running a shadow foreign policy, contravening Washington's official line. "What these people are doing now makes Iran-Contra [a Reagan administration national security scandal] look like amateur hour. . . it's worse than Iran-Contra, worse than what happened in Vietnam," said Karen Kwiatkowski, a former air force lieutenant-colonel. "[President] George Bush isn't in control . . . the country's been hijacked," she said, describing how "key [governmental] areas of neoconservative concern were politically staffed". Ms Kwiatkowski, who retired this year after 20 years service, was a Middle East specialist in the office of the Undersecretary of Defence for Policy, headed by Douglas Feith. She described "a subversion of constitutional limits on executive power and a co-optation through deceit of a large segment of the Congress", adding that "in order to take that first step - Iraq - lies had to be told to Congress to bring them on board". Ms Kwiatkowski said the pursuit of national security decisions often bypassed "civil service and active-duty military professionals", and was handled instead by political appointees who shared common ideological ties. There was speculation earlier this year that such an ideologue group had emerged, and that it was behind the US attack on an Iraqi convoy in Syria in June. The New York Times quoted Patrick Lang, a former senior Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) official, as saying that many in the Government believed the incursion was an effort by ideologues to disrupt co-operation between the US and Syria. Ms Kwiatkowski said there was an extra-governmental network operating outside normal structures and practices, "a network of political appointees in key positions who felt they needed to take some action, to make things happen in a foreign affairs, national security way". She said Pentagon personnel and the DIA were pressured to favourably alter assessments and reports. In a separate interview, Chalmers Johnson, an authority on US policy, said that the Administration's neo-conservatives had in effect seized power from Mr Bush. Dr Johnson said the neo-conservatives had pursued an agenda outlined in the controversial 1992 Defence Planning Guidance. That document, drawn up at the direction of Mr Cheney when he was defence secretary, said the world's only superpower should not be cautious about asserting its power. ------- truthout.org