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

To: calgal who wrote (513374)	12/20/2003 12:25:23 AM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Soros Doubts Robert Novak (archive) December 20, 2003 \| Print \| Send WASHINGTON -- Left-wing billionaire investor George Soros, who appeared to support Howard Dean for president, now is privately expressing doubts about the Democratic Party's front-runner. In conversations with political friends, Soros confided he has become alarmed by Dean's recent performance and wonders whether the former Vermont governor is capable of defeating George W. Bush. In one such chat, Soros suggested he is interested in retired Gen. Wesley Clark. Soros has made clear his visceral opposition to President Bush and his passionate desire to find somebody who can defeat him for a second term. The financier has pledged $10 million to America Coming Together (ACT) and $2.5 million to MoveOn.org -- both anti-Bush organizations. LUGAR TO STATE? Well-placed sources say Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is the leading prospect to succeed Colin Powell as secretary of State in the second term of a Bush administration. Lugar, a 71-year-old, five-term senator, is close to Powell and shares his less hawkish views of the world. Powell is definitely leaving at the end of the first Bush term. His friend and colleague, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, will leave with him. The choice of Lugar would be enhanced if his former aide, Mitch Daniels, is elected governor of Indiana next year so that a Republican in Indianapolis would select Lugar's successor for the last two years of his term if he leaves the Senate. A footnote: Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, once thought to be in line for the top job at either State or Defense in the second term, is reported to have lost favor at the White House. KATHERINE, DON'T RUN Republican sources say that freshman Rep. Katherine Harris may soon be informed that President Bush prefers she not run in a crowded GOP primary for the Senate seat from Florida left open by the retirement of Democratic Sen. Bob Graham. Harris is running first in Florida Republican polls with former Rep. Bill McCollum second and former Housing Secretary Mel Martinez third. Bush strategists believe Harris is running on name identification created by her role as secretary of state during the 2000 presidential vote recount and that her candidacy could hurt the president's prospects of carrying Florida next year. A footnote: Martinez is the president's handpicked choice, but he may have waited too long to quit the Cabinet and go home to Florida. Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Mario Diaz-Balart have endorsed McCollum instead of Martinez, their fellow Cuban-American. BUSH'S TARGETS George W. Bush's re-election campaign has targeted two states in the upper Midwest -- Minnesota and Wisconsin -- as the most likely "Blue" states carried by Al Gore in 2000 that could turn "Red" in 2004. President Bush's analysts are less optimistic about three big industrial states -- Pennsylvania, Illinois and Michigan -- going Republican. They are viewed by the Bush camp as trending Democratic. The Bush camp is concerned about not only Florida but also Arizona and Nevada remaining Red in '04 because of the increased Hispanic population in those states. For the same reason, New Mexico does not seem a good prospect for Bush, even though Gore won there in '00 with a virtual tossup. POSTHUMOUS ENDORSEMENT Former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, claims that the posthumously announced endorsement of Howard Dean by her fellow Illinoisan, former Sen. Paul Simon, was limited in scope. Attending Simon's memorial service in Carbondale, Ill., Braun was stunned to hear former U.S. District Judge Abner Mikva in his eulogy say the late former senator before his death expressed support for Dean. She turned to Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and whispered, "That (endorsement) applied only to the Iowa caucuses." A footnote: Close associates of Daley say he is concerned about Dean as a general election candidate but has no plans to endorse anybody for president. ©2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc.

To: calgal who wrote (513374)	12/20/2003 1:17:02 AM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Poll: Dems lead Senate generic by 6 pts. WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- A mid-November Winston Group survey made public Friday gives the Democrats a 6 point lead on the generic ballot in next year's U.S. Senate races. Pollster David Winston asked 1,000 registered voters which party would have their vote in the November 2004 Senate contests: 47 percent picked Democrats, 41 percent picked Republicans. The survey, conducted in mid-November for Senate Republicans, showed 50 percent of respondents said the country was on the wrong track, an increase of 3 percent over an identical survey at the end of October. Voters said the economy was the most important issue in determining their vote for Congress. At 21 percent, it led the list, followed by national defense, 12 percent, and education and health care, which tied at 10 percent. As to Senate business, the country appears evenly split on the use of the filibuster to stop the progress of President George W. Bush's judicial nominations, something to which Senate Republicans have given a lot of attention. Asked if the filibuster was an acceptable way to keep Bush's judicial nominees from receiving confirmation, 45 percent it was not acceptable while 45 percent said it was. The survey has a margin of error of 3 percent.

To: calgal who wrote (513374)	12/20/2003 1:38:10 AM
From: calgal	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Qadhafi to give up WMD By Anwar Iqbal UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- The U.S. invasion of Iraq sent a clear message to the world: those who choose to defy America should be ready to pay the consequences. There will be no more secret talks and quiet persuasions to force an adversary to give up hostility. America is willing to use its military might, if and when it feels the need to do so. The message was heard loud and clear across the world. But one adversary was listening more closely than others, Libya's Mohammar Qadhafi. Col. Qadhafi had many reasons to pay attention to the change of mood in America that followed the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. He is seen as an enemy, not just by the Bush administration but also by many ordinary Americans. The acts of terror he stands accused of committing, such as the blowing up of a Pan-Am airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1989, still bring painful memories to many Americans. He enjoys almost the same reputation as the deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, a leader so overwhelmed by his own ego that he would do anything to impress himself. Besides, Qadhafi sits on huge oil reserves, which bring enough cash to make any weapon he wants and was secretly attempting to do so. But above all, Qadhafi knew that he is no longer living in the 1970s and 80s when his followers could engineer pro-Qadhafi protests anywhere in the Islamic world. So he acted promptly to protect himself from America's wrath. And he may not be disappointed. In his statement announcing Libya's decision to give up weapons of mass destruction, President Bush promised: "Should Libya pursue internal reform, America will be ready to help its people to build a more free and prosperous country. Great Britain shares this commitment." And it is not just Libya that needs this prosperity. There are others in other Arab countries too who need to pay more attention to social and economic development than acquiring weapons. Abandoning massive weaponization would help end exhibitionism in the Arab world and open the road to development. Whatever weapons such countries might have acquired are not meant to be used against an enemy, real or perceived. These pompous programs are meant basically to continue the subjugation of their own masses in two ways: by inundating them with false claims of greatness and by instilling the fear of their rulers' invincibility. Shorn of these two basic elements of their ruling strategies, Arab and Muslim rulers will have to look for other alternatives to prolong their stay in power, such as programs for human development, education, health and, above all, democracy, a concept many Arab rulers still fear. Libya's decision will increase pressure on Iran; a Middle Eastern country that America says is working secretly to develop nuclear weapons. On Friday, State Department's deputy spokesman Adam Ereli reminded Iran that it has "international obligations, which the international community expects it to live up to. And we'll be looking carefully over the next months to see that it does so." Iran has defends itself by saying that its program is meant to produce nuclear energy for civilian consumption. But Washington has already rejected this argument by saying that an oil-rich country like Iran does not need nuclear energy. Libya's decision will increase America's focus on Iran. In the next few months, if not weeks, the Iranian leaders will have to decide if they want to continue to defy America or, like Qadhafi save themselves from America's wrath. Iranian rulers still have many supporters both inside and outside Iran and would put up a greater fight than Iraq's Saddam. But there may be consequences if they decide to ignore America. Another country, which should be directly affected, is North Korea. But North Korea is situated in a region where an Iraq-like military action will be difficult to carry out. Such an action will be opposed by strong U.S. allies like Japan and South Korea and also by China, a country Washington may not want to annoy. The Libyan example, however, may strengthen America's quest for diplomatically ending the nuclear stalemate with North Korea as well. Qadhafi's decision will also have a major impact on another country thousands of miles away from Libya: Pakistan. Like Libya, Pakistan is also a Muslim country. It has a weak economy and suffers from political instability. Pakistan's nuclear program, however, is no secret. It conducted nuclear tests in 1998, days after similar tests by its archrival India. Recently, State Department officials have acknowledged that the U.S. administration has accepted India and Pakistan as nuclear powers and wants to work with them to prevent further proliferation. America's allies, particularly Israel, do not trust Pakistan and any mistake on Pakistan's side could make America support the Indian and Israeli demands that it should also be disarmed. Pakistan, of course, says that its program is only aimed at defending itself against India. This argument, however, will remain valid only as long as Pakistan does not share its nuclear know-how with others. If media allegations that Pakistan has shared nuclear technology with North Korea and Iran are ever proved, Pakistan will have no choice but to abandon the nuclear shield it has built to defend itself against India.