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

To: LindyBill who wrote (19743)	12/14/2003 5:52:06 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793706

Gebhardt looks like the number two now. Another good piece on him. Tricky Dick’s Winning Hand By David Hogberg David Hogberg is a research analyst at the Public Interest Institute, an Iowa-based think tank. He also hosts his own website, Cornfield Commentary. Published 12/3/2003 12:04:01 AM IOWA -- Some observers refer to the eastern portion of the state that follows the Mississippi River as the blue-collar basin. It's a union heavy region, dotted with that great monument to lost jobs, the riverboat casino. It is here that Representative Dick Gephardt seems very at ease. At meetings in Davenport, Bellevue, and Dubuque, the union members respond warmly to Gephardt. Granted, he throws them a lot of red meat: NAFTA represents "a race to the bottom trade policy," and results in "human exploitation." None of the events look at all like the excitement of a Howard Dean event, yet there is a palpable, if quiet, enthusiasm that permeates all of the crowds (in most cases standing-room-only) that come to these events. These are Gephardt's people. Little wonder then that recent polls in Iowa show Gephardt has regained the lead from Howard Dean. However, the former minority leader is expected to win in this state, so a victory in the caucuses won't be any surprise. The question is whether the Gephardt campaign can command a large following beyond the ethanol state. Bill Burton, Gephardt's spokesman in Iowa, is optimistic that it can. "We’ve got some good union states coming up right after New Hampshire, including South Carolina, Oklahoma, and Michigan," he says. When asked about AFSCME's and SEIU's endorsement of Dean, Burton seems nonchalant: "We've got 21 union endorsements, far more than any other candidate. Among those we have the United Auto Workers and the Teamsters, which is very good for us in Michigan." And he has a point. If union members elsewhere respond as well to Gephardt as they do here, it will certainly give him a leg up in many of the states that follow New Hampshire in the primary season. But Gephardt's union appeal may not be enough to help him emerge as the serious challenge to Dean. A woman named Karen at the event in Davenport hit on some of the limitations of Gephardt's union support. Describing herself as a stay-at-home-mom Democrat, she said she was "shopping around for a candidate." Thus far, she was most impressed with Dean and John Kerry, although she criticized Dean's approach as "kitschy." Karen attended the Gephardt event because she wanted to see if he "could appeal outside the unions. You can't win with only union people. He has to generate a message that is broad enough." On Saturday Gephardt was definitely trying to broaden his appeal among primary Democrats. The Dean-style Bush bashing was on display. To wit: • "I've served with five presidents. He's by far the worst. I'm nostalgic for Ronald Reagan. It is that bad. I'm not exaggerating." • "The only way Leave-No-Child behind works is to leave George Bush behind." • Bush "is arrogant. He's a cowboy." • "If you'd been meeting with Bush every week since September 11, you'd be running for president too." Gephardt is at his best when talking about health-care and trade, but he seems increasingly comfortable with his anti-Bush shtick. If it gets even better (i.e., harsher and more shrill) than it was last Saturday, he could steal away some of Dean's hard-core anti-Bushites. That, combined with his union support, and he could easily give Dean heartburn. The CW among pundits is that if Gephardt could win in the primaries he would be a much better candidate than Dean for the general. But Saturday didn't do much to support this belief. It is likely at this point that Gephardt would hinge his general election campaign on his lavish health-care plan. "I've had business people come up to me and say this plan makes sense," Gephardt claimed. "It is an expensive plan," he concedes, "and we'd have to get rid of the Bush tax cut to pay for it." That the voters would be willing to endorse a tax hike for more health-care benefits seems dicey at best. Oregon -- not exactly a hotbed of right-wingers -- offered its voters this choice last November, and they defeated it by a near 3-to-1 margin. Gephardt will also have to offer a plan to combat terrorism, and it is here that he seems rather uncomfortable. In Davenport he only mentioned the war on terror in his stump speech at the end; in Dubuque and Bellevue it wasn't in the speeches at all, although he did talk about it in the question-and-answer period. He vacillates between supporting President Bush and sounding like a '60s-style liberal. On the one hand he said, "I think we've got to do everything in our power to prevent further acts of terrorism. That's why I voted to deal with Iraq; it's why I voted to deal with Afghanistan." On the other, "We need to go at the root causes of terrorism like bad governance and poverty." He faulted Bush for not getting U.N. and NATO support for the invasion of Iraq. How would Gephardt get their support? "You have to talk to them. You have to listen to them." Using sociological terms and proposing what sounds like a group-therapy session isn't likely to convince many voters that he's got what it takes to deal with the threat of terrorism. However, that's getting ahead of ourselves. Gephardt has to win the nomination before he can move on to the general election, and sounding a bit more like Dean on foreign policy is not a bad way to appeal to primary voters. Gephardt appears to be playing well the hand that was dealt to him after Dean came along and stole the deck. Bill Burton remarked, "After New Hampshire, it will probably be just Gephardt and Dean." Here's betting he's right. spectator.org

To: LindyBill who wrote (19743)	12/14/2003 5:57:27 AM
From: bela_ghoulashi	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793706

The French will insist on his release, I just know it.

To: LindyBill who wrote (19743)	12/14/2003 6:12:59 AM
From: Elsewhere	Respond to of 793706

Bremer confirms Saddam capture to Governing Council Yahoo! News Sun, Dec 14, 2003 news.yahoo.com DUBAI (AFP) - US overseer Paul Bremer has confirmed the capture of ousted president Saddam Hussein in Tikrit, Iraqi Governing Council member Nassir Chaderchi told BBC radio's Arabic service. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Iraqi National Congress said that Saddam Hussein has been captured, the Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera reported. "We are 100 percent sure that Saddam has been detained by American forces," said Intifadh Qanbar, spokesman for the INC, headed by Ahmad Chalabi, a member of Iraq's interim Governing Council. U.S. believes Saddam captured Sunday, December 14, 2003 Posted: 6:04 AM EST (1104 GMT) cnn.com (CNN) --Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is believed to have been captured in a raid near his hometown of Tikrit, U.S. military officials say. However, the officials in Washington told CNN on Sunday that the identity of the individual, who was one of a number of suspected insurgents caught, was still being confirmed. The person in U.S. custody was disguised in a fake beard when he was captured in the basement in a Tikrit building, Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress said. Hours after the word leaked out on the possible capture, there were volleys of what was perceived to be celebratory gunfire in Baghdad. A coalition news conference in Baghdad, scheduled for 3 p.m (1200 GMT), is expected to shed more light on the status of the Iraqi leader. A briefing in Madrid by the Iraqi Governing Council president and Spanish foreign minister was also expected shortly. The raid was based on intelligence that Saddam was at a particular location in the area, the officials said. Video following that raid -- exclusively shot by CNN's Alphonso Van Marsh -- showed a group of U.S.-led coalition soldiers patting each other on the back -- apparently in celebration -- and taking group photos in front of a military vehicle. The 66-year-old longtime Iraqi leader was number one on the coalition's 55 most wanted list, and his evasion has been a political sore spot for the U.S. administration. The Iraq war began on March 19 when U.S. forces launched a "decapitation attack" aimed at the Iraqi president and other top members of the country's leadership. Hours later, a defiant Saddam wearing a military uniform appeared on Iraqi television to denounce the U.S.-led military campaign as "criminal" and to say his countrymen would be victorious. At least a dozen audiotapes believed to have been recorded by Saddam, 66, have been released since he was forced out of power by the coalition forces during the Iraq war. The most recent was broadcast in November. His sons Uday and Qusay -- also on the coalition's most wanted list -- were killed in July, after U.S. forces stormed their hideout in Mosul. Initial hopes that their father would soon be found faded in the months following that raid. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq, has been dogged by reporters wanting to know the status of the search for Saddam. "It is difficult to find him," Sanchez said, at a press briefing earlier this month. "Given that I haven't found him killed him or captured him, and I need the Iraqi people's help, and together we will find him, we will capture him, we will kill him." The announcement comes on the same day that 20 people were killed and 32 wounded by a car bomb outside an Iraqi police station west of Baghdad, an Iraqi police officer told CNN. Sixteen policemen were among those killed in Sunday's explosion at Khaldiyah, 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the Iraqi capital, the officer added. CNN Senior Military Affairs Correspondent Jamie McIntyre and CNN Baghdad Bureau Chief Jane Arraf contributed to this report

To: LindyBill who wrote (19743)	12/14/2003 7:45:55 AM
From: gamesmistress	Respond to of 793706

Yess! and I read about it first on Iowahawk's new blog - iowahawk.typepad.com

To: LindyBill who wrote (19743)	12/14/2003 7:58:15 AM
From: Elsewhere	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 793706

Schröder congratulates Bush on Saddam capture Schröder gratuliert US-Präsident Bush Sonntag 14. Dezember 2003, 13:55 Uhr [three minutes old] de.news.yahoo.com Berlin (AP) Bundeskanzler Gerhard Schröder hat in einem Schreiben an US-Präsident George W. Bush seine Freude über die Festnahme von Saddam Hussein ausgedrückt. «Ich beglückwünsche Sie zu dieser erfolgreichen Aktion», hieß es in dem Schreiben vom Sonntag. Saddam habe unsägliches Leid über sein eigenes Volk und die ganze Region gebracht. «Ich hoffe, das seine Festnahme die Bemühungen der internationalen Gemeinschaft zum Wiederaufbau und zur Stabilisierung des Irak fördern wird.»