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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: michael97123 who wrote (18067)	11/29/2003 10:11:58 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793681

He has got to be a huge embarrassment to the overwhelming majority of black folks but like the Palestinians, they just seem unable to express it. Mike They know he is a con man. But he is their con man. It's the OJ syndrome. They figure he is fighting Whitey, and that is all they care about.

To: michael97123 who wrote (18067)	11/29/2003 10:24:41 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793681

If you have ever watched "McLaughin" when he had Clift on, you know where the " Jane, you ignorant slut!" line came from. Bush in Baghdad The president said all the right things during his lightning visit to Iraq. Between that and the Medicare bill, we can learn a lot about his election strategy NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE Eleanor Clift Nov. 28 — George W. Bush’s daring secret trip into the heart of Baghdad was such a triumph of political choreography that it left Democratic strategists gasping for mercy. Senator John Kerry had just begun airing a television spot in Iowa mocking Bush’s swaggering “Mission Accomplished” photo op of May 1. Bush’s genuinely emotional thanking of the troops on Thanksgiving Day wipes away that earlier image, and makes it harder to belittle the president’s commitment to Iraq. BUSH’S TRIP TO the front had all the trappings of a James Bond movie as Air Force One, its windows shuttered and the press corps outfitted in bullet-proof vests, landed at the Baghdad airport under cover of darkness. Americans getting ready for a day of feasting and football were let in on the news only after the president was safely back in the air en route to Texas. The element of surprise gave the trip an added boost, and coming as it did on the heels of Congress passing prescription drug coverage for seniors, the outlines of Bush’s election strategy are coming into focus. After weeks of bad news from Iraq, culminating in the humiliation of rocket launchers fired at U.S. targets from a donkey cart, Bush reasserted himself as commander-in-chief. For good or ill, this is his war, and he seems to have concluded that he can’t run away from it. Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s “Hardball” and a former Capitol Hill staffer, advises politicians that, rather than duck controversy, they should “hang a lantern” on their problems. Bush has taken heat in recent weeks for not attending military funerals and for seeming to distance himself from Iraq as the security situation worsened. With this visit, Bush wrapped himself in the war, which may prove smart politically. The White House succeeded in spiriting Bush in and out of Iraq without incident, but that doesn’t make life any safer for the tens of thousands of U.S. troops stationed in the country. A footnote to Bush’s trip was the news that another young soldier died, the victim of enemy fire in Mosul, an area of Iraq that had until recently been thought relatively safe. A former ambassador to the Middle East region now working in reconstruction points out that the bulk of the $20 billion in reconstruction money that Congress authorized will be “on the streets” in Iraq in about a week. “How do we spend billions of dollars of reconstruction money in that security environment?” he asks. “All of a sudden, there will be a lot of targets—new pipelines, new oil plants, new construction. They are the ultimate soft targets.” Bush said all the right things about America standing behind the troops and not abandoning the Iraqis. But within the administration there are so many voices and conflicting views, says this former ambassador, ranging from “let’s get the hell out of here” to “we can’t leave this place for 10 or 12 years.” Bush talked in Baghdad about the Iraqis governing wisely and justly, but there is risk in turning over power too quickly to the Iraqis. “We’re not going to let the Iraqis oversee how $20 billion of taxpayer money is spent,” says the ambassador. “The troops are our insurance policy to keep the place from having a civil war or a coup.” Advertisement Madam President: Shattering the Last Glass Ceiling by Eleanor Clift Just as Bush cannot fully control what happens on the ground in Iraq, he can’t be certain how his legislative centerpiece of Medicare expansion will be received here at home as seniors learn more about what’s in the bill. It does nothing to make prescription drugs cheaper or more available, and it bans drug re-importation from Canada by requiring the Secretary of Health and Human Services to guarantee the drugs are safe, a standard everybody knows cannot be met. Missouri Rep. Joanne Emerson, who provided the one-vote margin of victory in the House for the original Medicare proposal, voted against the final version of the legislation. Emerson had been promised in exchange for her vote that the Republican leadership would seriously consider legalizing drug re-importation. Canadian prices are up to 80 percent cheaper. Bush’s top political aide, Karl Rove, decided Bush needed a domestic victory to burnish his credentials as a compassionate conservative. The bill as passed can’t stand the light of day because it so blatantly rewards the insurance industry and the pharmaceutical industry, handing them a monopoly on drug pricing. But Democrats weakened by internal feuds and their dwindling numbers were powerless to stop it. In an unprecedented delaying tactic, the GOP leadership kept the vote open in the House for almost three hours. The tally stood at 218 to 216 for much of that time, which meant a coalition of Democrats and GOP conservatives had defeated the bill. But the leadership refused to gavel the vote shut, using the time to cajole and threaten members to change votes they had already cast. Emerson left the House floor in disgust and turned off her cell phone to avoid the desperate entreaties, including phone calls from Bush. All seniors will get next year is a drug discount card. Bush’s challenge will be to convince them that more is on the way, just as democracy is around the corner in Iraq. Next year’s election is shaping up as Bush versus Bush, the promise of his presidency versus the grittier reality msnbc.com