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

To: American Spirit who wrote (9931)	2/5/2004 10:26:54 AM
From: PROLIFE	Respond to of 10965

Kerry and the 'influence peddlers' Considering his fund-raising past, Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry —- the self-styled populist — has been displaying an extraordinary amount of chutzpah on the campaign trail since his surge in Iowa. "I'm running to free our government from the grip of lobbyists," he declared in his Iowa victory speech. In his New Hampshire victory speech, he delivered a message to the "influence peddlers" and other "special interests" who, he asserted, now call the White House home: "We're coming. You're going. And don't let the door hit you on the way out." As it turns out, the senator who has raised the most money from lobbyists over the past 15 years is none other than Mr. Kerry, according to a study by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics (CRP). In fact, he's the only senator to break the $600,000 barrier in individual campaign donations from those he calls "influence peddlers." Mr. Kerry makes much of the fact that he refuses campaign contributions from political action committees (PACs). Another CRP study found that among the $69.2 million in hard-money contributions from the lobbying industry to federal candidates since 1990, 95 percent have been in the form of individual donations by lobbyists and only 5 percent have come from their PACs. And Mr. Kerry has been the biggest recipient of lobbyists' individual donations. Mr. Kerry's presidential campaign alone has been the beneficiary of nearly a quarter-million dollars in contributions from lobbyists. In 1996, Mr. Kerry pocketed an illegal contribution from the notorious Johnny Chung, who was beseeched by a Kerry fund-raiser to "host an event in L.A." Chung later did so at a Beverly Hills hotel. Chung's largesse (he donated $366,000 in soft money to the Democratic Party) was largely financed by a $300,000 infusion from Chinese military intelligence through Liu Chaoying. Miss Liu, who accompanied Chung to Mr. Kerry's Capitol Hill office, was a lieutenant colonel in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and an aerospace executive for a firm sanctioned by the United States in 1991 and 1993 for providing missile technology to Pakistan. She was also the daughter of China's then-highest-ranking general, Liu Huaqing, whose responsibilities included obtaining Western technology to modernize the PLA. Newsweek has reported that Mr. Kerry's aides, after being told Miss Liu was interested in listing one of her companies on a U.S. stock exchange, "immediately faxed over a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The next day, Liu and Chung" — neither of whom, obviously, was a constituent of Mr. Kerry's — "were ushered into a private briefing with a senior SEC official." In a future editorial, this page will review the sources and uses of hard and soft money collected and dispensed by Mr. Kerry's very own leadership PAC, the Citizen Soldier Fund, which apparently possessed none of the dubious qualities of PAC's whose contributions he so self-righteously declined. washtimes.com

To: American Spirit who wrote (9931)	2/5/2004 1:02:59 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10965

The 'Real' Real Deal == INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY investors.com Media: Politics, they say, is a blood sport. So it isn't surprising when some pretty big lies get told. Like the one about President Bush being a deserter. What isn't surprising is that the charge came from Michael Moore, the writer/filmmaker whose relationship to the truth in the products he himself turns out is open to challenge. Moore made the charge at a New Hampshire rally in support of Gen. Wesley Clark. And Clark, failing one of the key tests to be president — honesty — didn't correct him, though he certainly knew the charge was wrong. Not that finding the truth was hard to do. In fact, a number of media outlets, hoping for a juicy anti-Bush story, leapt at Moore's charge. What they found was disappointing for the Bush bashers. As The Boston Globe noted, Bush was honorably discharged from the Air National Guard with a sterling reputation: "Those who trained and flew with Bush . . . said he was among the best pilots in the 111th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron. In the 22-month period between the end of his flight training and his move to Alabama, Bush logged numerous hours of duty, well above the minimum requirements for so-called 'weekend warriors.' " Bush ultimately served long enough to be granted an early discharge from the military so that he could attend the Harvard School of Business. That's it. End of story. Or so one might think. In recent weeks, this old canard has resurfaced. John Kerry, the Democratic front-runner and decorated Vietnam War veteran — a fact he lets anyone within earshot know — has hinted there are questions about Bush's service the media should look into. It's already been done. There's nothing there. If there are questions about anyone's service, it's Kerry's. We're not talking about his military record, for which he deserves respect and admiration. It's his other service — in the Senate. From the time he entered the Senate 19 years ago, Kerry often has tried to have it both ways. The man who calls himself "the real deal" on the campaign trail also portrays himself as a centrist. But his lifetime rating from Americans for Democratic Action, the liberal group that rates lawmakers on their voting patterns, is 93%. That, as GOP National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie recently pointed out, is five percentage points higher than Ted Kennedy's lifetime rating. Kerry likes to pound Bush for his ties to "powerful interests" and "big oil." In fact, the Center for Responsive Politics notes Kerry has raised twice as much from lobbyists as any Democratic rival. Kerry voted for the No Child Left Behind Act, the Patriot Act and the resolution supporting war in Iraq — all Bush initiatives. And why not? Those conservative bills were popular when proposed. And, though he's a liberal, Kerry went with the flow. But today, you'll have trouble hearing him defend, or even admit to, those votes on the stump. Just as you'd have trouble knowing he once supported taking Saddam out — but changed his mind as polls shifted. Kerry's record of flip-flops on key issues, his history of cozy ties to lobbyists and his dissembling about his 19-year record in the Senate all deserve closer scrutiny by the media. Let's find out the real deal — before the primaries are done.