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Politics : THE 2004 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (1317)	2/17/2004 11:50:36 PM
From: calgal	Respond to of 2164

Kerry Edges Out Edwards in Wis. Primary Feb 17, 11:51 PM (ET) By RON FOURNIER (AP) Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., raises his arms as the takes the stage... Full Image John Kerry squeezed past hard-charging John Edwards on Tuesday to win Wisconsin's primary, gateway to a 10-state, two-man showdown March 2. Howard Dean, his candidacy doomed, considered endorsing one of his rivals. Clinging to a five-point lead, Kerry said, "A win is a win." Edwards, his dream of a head-to-head matchup now a reality, declared, "We'll go full-throttle to the next group of states." The North Carolina senator pledged to campaign in California, New York, Ohio and seven other states holding primaries or caucuses March 2. At stake will be 1,151 delegates, more than half the total needed to claim the nomination. (AP) A woman leaves the Frank P. Zeidler Municipal Building during voting Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2004, in... Full Image Edwards' breakout was fueled by the highest Republican turnout of the primary season and voters who made their decision in the last week. His deepest support was in the GOP suburbs of Milwaukee. "That's been happening in other primaries, too," Edwards told The Associated Press in an interview. "Republicans who would consider voting Democratic and independents are the people we have to win over to win the general election. That's why I'm the best candidate to take on George Bush." Kerry held a wide lead in pre-election polls, but the surveys did not fully reflect voter sentiments after a statewide debate Sunday, Edwards' criticism of Kerry's free-trade policies and two newspaper endorsements for Edwards. Nor did the polls take into account 11th-hour criticism of Kerry from President Bush's re-election team. "We underwent a lot of Republican attacks the last week. Notwithstanding those attacks, we showed we can fight back," Kerry told the AP. With Wisconsin, Kerry has won 15 of the 17 elections - seven by nearly half the vote - on the East and West coasts, in the Midwest, the Great Plains and the Southwest. He remains the undisputed front-runner, flush with money and momentum heading toward three contests Feb. 24 in Utah, Idaho and Hawaii and then the delegate-rich elections March 2. (AP) Tim McKeown, second left, waits in line as Precint Captain Raymund McCree, right, searches for his... Full Image But the Edwards surprise ended any hope for a quick conclusion to the race. A poor second-place showing would have crippled his campaign. Dean ignored pleas to give up the fight. "We are not done," he told his supporters, even as his own advisers were saying his campaign for the presidency was effectively over. He headed home to Vermont to regroup, in search of a way to convert his political network into a movement that helps elect Democrats. Senior advisers, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Dean was considering dramatically scaling back his campaign with no hope of winning the presidency. He was just as likely to cede the nomination and, with hopes of becoming a kingmaker, endorsing a rival. Dean called both Edwards and Kerry to discuss his next step, sources in all three campaigns said. The conversation with Edwards was said to be warm and friendly, aides to Dean and Edwards said, adding that it was inconclusive. Advisers said Dean believes his fund-raising prowess could help reshape the race if he throws his support behind Edwards. But they did not rule out Dean endorsing Kerry, a move they said could seal the nomination for the Massachusetts lawmaker. (AP) Registered Democrats form long lines to vote for the Democratic Party presidential primary in Ward... Full Image Counting Wisconsin, Kerry has pocketed 603 of the 2,161 delegates needed to secure the nomination, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. Dean had just 199, Edwards 186 and Al Sharpton 16. With 92 percent of the precincts reporting, Kerry had 40 percent, Edwards had 35 percent, Dean 18 percent, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio 3 percent and Al Sharpton 2 percent. Buoyed by his hot streak, Kerry took two days off last week and ignored his rivals in Wisconsin while focusing on Bush in hopes of persuading voters the nominating fight was over. "Not so fast, John Kerry," Edwards said in Sunday's debate, five words that may best sum up the impact of Tuesday's results. Exit polls showed that half of the voters made their selection in the last week, most in the last few days - and Edwards led among late-breakers. Taking advantage of Wisconsin's open primary rules, one in 10 voters were Republicans and about 30 percent were independents. Those voters broke for Edwards. (AP) Virginia Gov. Mark Warner receives his voting ticket at City Hall in Richmond, Va., Tuesday,... Full Image The strong GOP turnout was boosted by city government elections in Milwaukee and a controversial referendum on casino gambling by an Indian tribe. Primaries in Georgia, Ohio and Vermont on March 2 will be open to all voters as will the caucuses in Minnesota. Edwards called for a one-on-one debate with Kerry before next month's showdown. Kerry plans to compete in every March 2 state, airing ads where Edwards is faring well in polls or buying TV time. Edwards intends to target Ohio, New York and Georgia, airing ads in upstate New York and large sections of the other two states. First, he needs to raise money. Edward issued an e-mail appeal Tuesday, telling donors, "Every single contribution" counts. Aides say Edwards' populist message will resonate in Ohio and upstate New York, areas hard hit by job losses. The Southern-bred candidate also should do well in Georgia. California is by far the day's biggest prize, with 370 delegates, followed by New York with 236. "He's got a good heart," said Edwards voter Bill Lohr, 50, of Sun Prairie, Wis. "Kind of like Bill Clinton got us rocking." In the final days of the Wisconsin race, Edwards criticized Kerry's support for the North American Free Trade Agreement. The message found a receptive audience: In exit polls, three-fourths of voters said trade with other countries takes jobs from the United States. Edwards and Kerry split the vote among those voters, though the North Carolina senator did better than the front-runner among voters who cited the economy and jobs as top issues. The most important issues for voters in Wisconsin were the economy and jobs, chosen by almost four in 10 in exit polls conducted for the Associated Press and television networks by Edison Media Research/Mitofsky International.

To: calgal who wrote (1317)	2/17/2004 11:55:31 PM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2164

Despite Week in Wis., Dean Suffers Loss Feb 17, 11:03 PM (ET) By ROSS SNEYD (AP) Democratic presidential hopeful former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean shakes hands with supporters at an... Full Image MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Howard Dean suffered another loss Tuesday night in Wisconsin and was headed home to Vermont to figure out whether there was a future for the movement his candidacy once was. Campaign aides offered conflicting reports about whether the former Vermont governor had decided to drop out of the race, would continue to the next big round of contests on March 2, or would suspend active campaigning without formally pulling out. Dean didn't clarify his intentions Tuesday, and no formal word was expected before Thursday. "We are not done," he told supporters in a Madison ballroom. Dean suggested that he wasn't persuaded that the party had changed for anything other than winning the current election. "The transformation we have wrought is a transformation of convenience, not conviction," he said. "Let's fight on. Never give up." (AP) This is an April 2001, file photo showing former Democratic National Committee chairman Steve... Full Image Regardless of what decision ultimately is made, Dean's distant third-place finish Tuesday was a remarkable turnaround for a candidate who at the start of the year was thought poised to wrap up the nomination in the first handful of contests. He is winless in the 17 caucuses and primaries to date. Dean accepted credit for himself and his supporters for charting a new course for this election season. "You have already changed the Democratic Party and we will not stop," he declared to cheering supporters. "You have already written the platform of the Democratic Party for the convention." Spending the past nine days in Wisconsin did not seem to help. An exit poll found his voters were likely to have decided before last month, and just one-fifth said they decided on Tuesday. Dean's strongest performance was among young adults, and he tied Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and slightly bested North Carolina Sen. John Edwards with that group. The exit poll was conducted for The Associated Press and television networks by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International. While he struggled to remain in the Democratic presidential race, Dean also lost a court skirmish at home Tuesday. A judge ruled in a lawsuit that he could not claim executive privilege and seal for 10 years a broad swath of his gubernatorial records. It seemed unlikely that Dean would have much of a campaign organization left to accommodate a continuing campaign. Staff members were making plans to leave their jobs and even his campaign chairman defected to Kerry this week. He also appeared on the verge of losing his remaining organized labor support. The Service Employees International Union, which had pledged to stay with Dean through Wisconsin, planned a conference call Wednesday so leaders could assess support. He already lost the backing of another prominent union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, more than a week ago. Officials said the union was aware of the need to show labor solidarity headed into the general election - a nod toward Thursday's planned endorsement of Kerry by the AFL-CIO. The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, which backs Dean, also appeared to be nearing a decision about withdrawing its support.

To: calgal who wrote (1317)	2/17/2004 11:56:59 PM
From: calgal	Respond to of 2164

John Edwards Cares about YOU! The candidate feels your pain, even if you don't. By the time he reaches the end of his now-famous "Two Americas" stump speech, Sen. John Edwards has told crowds about an America in which a small group of rich people enjoy lives of untold luxury while everybody else can't get health care, can't pay the rent, can't buy a house, and in many cases, can't get enough to eat. It's an ugly picture. But Edwards, who left his $3.8 million Georgetown home to chase the Democratic nomination for president, offers people hope. And the hope is this: "I can't change this country alone, but I know that you and I can change this country together. The reason I know that you and I can change America together is I believe in you, and you deserve a president who actually believes in YOU!" As Edwards speaks, members of the audience might reasonably be expected to turn to one another and say, "What the hell does that mean?" But they don't. In fact, Edwards' crowds, from Iowa to New Hampshire to South Carolina to those voting for him in today's primary in Wisconsin, love it. "I believe in you" is one of the candidate's biggest applause lines. The point is not to make sense, but to show audiences that John Edwards cares deeply about them. In the same way that television consultants advise local news departments to put the words "you" or "your" in every promotion — "Working 4 You!", "Seven On Your Side!" — so Edwards wants you to know that he is working for you. At one event in South Carolina, after a TV anchorman asked whether Edwards had become so rich and successful as a trial lawyer that he might find it difficult to relate to poor people, Edwards turned to the audience — made up of, among others, poverty activists from around the country — and said, "I grew up the way you grew up. I come from the same place. I spent 20 years in courtrooms fighting for YOU!" He fought against big corporations, Edwards said, against big insurance companies, against the powerful — all for YOU! The audience, which had earlier been wary of Edwards' wealth, ate it up. Now, in Wisconsin, Edwards is blasting NAFTA and free trade — for YOU! As phony as it sounds, Edwards "Working 4 YOU!" appeal is undeniably effective with a large number of Democratic voters. Last week, exit pollsters asked voters in Virginia, "Which one candidate quality mattered most in deciding how you voted today?" The most important quality, cited by 26 percent of those polled, was "He can defeat George W. Bush." Among those people, Kerry destroyed Edwards, 63 percent to 22 percent. But the second-most important quality, cited by 20 percent of those polled, was "He cares about people like me." Among those people, Edwards handily defeated Kerry, 42 percent to 30 percent. Democratic voters in Tennessee also ranked "he cares" as the second-most important candidate quality. Among them, Edwards beat Kerry 40 percent to 29 percent. And in South Carolina, where Democratic voters ranked "he cares" as the most important candidate quality, Edwards trounced Kerry 57 percent to 19 percent. It's not a trivial issue. In each of those southern states, "he cares" was chosen as the most important candidate quality by one-fifth to one quarter of the Democratic electorate. In other states, the number was smaller but still significant. The "I care about you" strategy explains some of the otherwise curious omissions in Edwards' "Two Americas" speech. Edwards says nothing, for example, about what is surely one of the most pressing issues facing America today, which is whether the war in Iraq will end in success or failure. He also says nothing about his record in the Senate. If Edwards thinks anything he has done in government has qualified him to be president, he doesn't say so. In the place of such details, Edwards tells audiences he believes in them. Now, clearly that isn't enough to win the Democratic nomination. So far, Edwards has lost all but one of the Democratic primaries and caucuses, including three of four southern primaries. His campaign is dead, and he's still acting as if he's got John Kerry right where he wants him. But Edwards' "I care" appeal is the real secret of his value as a possible running mate for the presumptive nominee Kerry. Of course Edwards would give the ticket some regional balance. But the most important thing he would give Kerry is emotional balance. Kerry could tell you until he is blue in the face that he cares about you, and you'd still find it hard to believe him. Do a Nexis database search for "John Kerry" and "aloof" and you'll get hundreds of hits. That's where Edwards comes in. While Kerry handles the actual issues — his stump speech is more detailed, more specific, and more boring than Edwards' — Edwards could take care of the audience's emotions. Edwards could tell crowds, in a way that Kerry could not, that "John Kerry believes in you, and you deserve a president who actually believes in YOU!" Who wouldn't believe that? — Byron York is also a columnist for The Hill, where a version of this first appeared.

To: calgal who wrote (1317)	2/17/2004 11:57:09 PM
From: calgal	Respond to of 2164

Conservatives Vent Memos still beg for more scrutiny. By Quin Hillyer A group of some 20 conservative activists gave two Republican senators an earful last Thursday evening, demanding that the Senate spend less time criticizing now-departed staffers and more time blasting Senate Democrats for the sleazy content of the Democratic memoranda that the departed staffers perused. But the activists came away unsatisfied. And one activist who did not attend, Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation, is firing some verbal bazookas at Senate Republicans. According to several sources, conservative Sens. John Kyl of Arizona and Jeff Sessions of Alabama spent an hour and a half with conservative activists representing groups such as such as the American Conservative Union, the Committee for Justice, and the American Center for Law and Justice. The senators firmly, and repeatedly, emphasized that they could not condone the staffers' snooping through the Democratic memoranda, and asked the outside groups to hold off their criticism at least until the Senate Sergeant at Arms issued his report on the subject. And while Sessions went on record in Saturday's Mobile Register (in comments actually made on Wednesday, before meeting with the activists) with harsh words for the Judiciary Committee Democrats, no other Republican senators have yet taken up much of a cudgel to attack the memos' content. What Sessions had said Wednesday is the kind of thing conservatives want to hear more of: "These memos are a smoking gun that demonstrates the [Democrats'] connection with, this slavish following of, these groups" of left-wing activists. "I'm a steadfast critic of the actions of the Democratic Senate members. They are not making independent analyses of the merits of the nominees. They just follow the directives of the outside groups. Whatever the outside groups asked for is what they did." Sessions said the result is a series of "inaccuracies and distortions of [judicial nominees'] records, and hearings turn into theater directed by Ralph Neas of People for the American Way." For longtime activist Paul Weyrich, the failure of other Senate Republicans to echo those remarks is an outrage. He particularly was critical of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, who ordered the investigation that so far has resulted in two staffers' leaving the Senate. "Orrin Hatch is driving this vehicle," Weyrich said, "Everybody is afraid to cross him.... Everybody dutifully falls in line when he goes out on a limb." Weyrich said Hatch has "a congenital need to be loved by his opposition. He thinks that by being nice to people who don't like him, they'll cooperate." But he said the other senators are just as feckless. "It's absolutely symptomatic. They don't seem to believe in what they say, by and large. So when there is a challenge to it, they don't defend their position." Weyrich said that if the situation had been reversed and the Democrats had found memos highly embarrassing to Republicans, "a special prosecutor would be hired by now. You'd have hearings... a media circus. And if Republicans had said one reason to oppose a nominee was because 'he is Latino' [as one Democratic memo said about former nominee Miguel Estrada], can you imagine what would have happened by now?" Weyrich was one of some two dozen activists who signed a Feb. 10 letter to the chief of the Public Integrity Section, Criminal Division, of the U.S. Department of Justice, asking for an investigation into allegations of ethics violations by Senate Democrats that are evidenced in memos contained in computer hard drives now controlled by the Sergeant at Arms. Departed staffer Manuel Miranda has charged that the unreleased filed show "evidence of the direct influencing of the Senate's advice and consent role by the promise of campaign funding and election support in the last mid-term election." Fox News reported last week what for days had been the word among interested conservatives, namely that one memo allegedly recounts how Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina urged Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, then the Judiciary Committee chairman, to delay a vote on a nominee because if the vote took place, Edwards supposedly said, trial lawyers would curtail campaign donations for Democratic candidates in North Carolina. An already-released memo does indeed show how much weight the plaintiffs' bar carries. Amidst example after example of how other leftist groups called the shots for Senate Democrats, one incident stands out because it is virtually the only one where the other groups clearly lost a battle for the Democrats' allegiance. "The [leftist] groups have strong concerns about [Judge Dennis] Shedd," said one memo. "The groups are opposed to having a hearing on him this month." But Leahy, the memo said, was inclined to ignore the groups this one time because he was "under pressure from Senator Hollings — who apparently is backing Shedd because the trial lawyers want him off the district court bench." How rich! The pressure group with the most money, the trial lawyers, wanted Shedd moved off to a district court, where most of their cases take place, to a higher court where he could do them less damage but where he would presumably be more of a thorn in the side of the other leftist groups. Faced with a clash of puppeteers, Chairman Leahy originally was inclined to be pulled by the big-money ones. Eventually, Leahy reached a clever compromise: Shedd's confirmation was moved back until after November's election, thus giving at least part of a bone to all the Democratic constituencies. Republican senators ought to gird up their loins. They should remember that the reason Democrats gave for blocking Estrada's nomination was that the White House would not release memos Estrada wrote while working for both Republican and Democratic solicitors general. Those memos, unlike the Senate ones in question, are legally protected from disclosure, and every living solicitor, of both parties, condemned the Democrats' request. Moreover, no Democrat alleged that the Estrada memos contained any evidence of criminal or ethical transgressions. Now, Republican staffer Miranda demands an investigation of Democratic memos that are not legally protected, and in which he says there are legally actionable transgressions. Miranda's snooping aside, why should those Democrat documents be immune from investigation by an outside, nonpartisan official, whether the Sergeant at Arms or the Justice Department? And either way, why should Republican senators refrain from criticizing the Democrats for the awful contents of the 14 memos already made public? Serious transgressions are serious transgressions, no matter how they come to light. — Quin Hillyer is an editorial writer for the Mobile Register.

To: calgal who wrote (1317)	2/17/2004 11:57:22 PM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2164

February 17, 2004, 8:56 a.m. Washington's Spendaholism The president gets a cheer and a half for his budget. President Bush's 2005 budget (see PDF fact sheets: summary, fuller version) — featuring a $2.4 trillion price tag atop 2004's $521 billion deficit — deserves one and a half cheers. It generously funds government's fundamental duties and courageously terminates a variety of others. However, it leaves unchallenged the endlessly expanding entitlements that are scheduled to asphyxiate this economy. Bush's budget increases defense by 7 percent and homeland security by 10 percent. Despite inevitable inefficiencies, much of this is vital, at least until the president plants Osama bin Laden's head on a spike and sends his Islamofascist pals the way of the Barbary Pirates. Remarkably, domestic discretionary spending inches ahead only 0.5 percent after barreling forward an inflation-adjusted average of 5 percent each of the last three years. Better yet, 65 federal programs are slated for elimination. While these deletions trim just $4.9 billion, they point expenditures the right way: down. As one White House aide told me, these "are programs in search of work rather than programs that finish their work and go out of business." These savings include: $9 million from the Education Department's Exchanges with Historic Whaling and Trading Partners plan to unite "Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and children and families of Massachusetts." $18 million from Health and Human Service's National Youth Sports program. $171 million from the Commerce Department's Advanced Technology Program to support high-risk industrial innovations. $247 million from Education's Even Start family literacy effort. A White House budget document explains: "Children and adults participating in Even Start generally did not make literacy gains that were greater than those of non-participants." $297 million from Justice's State Criminal Alien Assistance Program "because it cannot demonstrate any impact on crime." Unfortunately, these programs have beneficiaries, lobbyists, and congressmen who adore them. Can President Bush withstand the ear-ripping howls these folks will aim his way? He can foil them by proving that he has felt the heat from fiscal conservatives and sees the light on federal profligacy. John Berthoud of the National Taxpayers Union applauds the manicure the president has arranged for the Leviathan, but he prescribes major surgery. The administration, he says, is "only talking to conservatives about holding non-entitlement, non-defense, non-Homeland Security spending to 0.5 percent growth. That's fine. But it's only 18 percent of the budget. Unfortunately, taxpayers are on the hook for 100 percent of what Washington spends, so fiscal conservatives can't ignore the other 82 percent of the budget that the Administration wants to ignore." To this end, President Bush should do at least three things: First, whip out his favorite pen, wave it at the White House press corps, and wield it repeatedly to veto every excess perpetrated by the fiscally incontinent GOP Congress. Alas, like a movie star giving autographs, President Bush has signed everything Congress has handed him so far. Second, the extravagant Medicare drug benefit has exploded 33.5 percent since Bush approved it December 8, from $400 billion to $534 billion. (Whether leading Republicans concealed this bill's true cost from Congress to secure its adoption urgently merits investigation.) This $134 billion snafu presents Bush a golden opportunity to ask Congress to limit this program to needy seniors without prescription coverage rather than extend it to anyone over 65, regardless of income or insurance. Third, President Bush should urge Congress to adopt a constitutional amendment to prevent non-defense spending from outrunning inflation plus population growth. Such a legal chastity belt has left Colorado taxpayers relatively unmolested and could offer Americans some relief from grabby Washington politicians. Absent such major savings initiatives, Democrats and Republicans alike will consume tax dollars and crowd out necessary reforms such as personal Social Security accounts and permanent status for President Bush's tax cuts. By 2014, some 23 million Americans (up from 2 million today), can expect to suffer the costly and complex Alternative Minimum Tax. Overheated spending has pushed this problem's solution off the stove. "Two to three years ago, lots of folks were saying we would shortly fix AMT," NTU's John Berthoud recalls. "Nobody's saying that now." President Bush's core supporters want him to practice fiscal restraint. They love it when he cuts taxes and kills terrorists, but hate it when he plays trusty bartender to the spendaholics of Capitol Hill.