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To: LindyBill who wrote (34612)	3/15/2004 2:34:08 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793731

Kerry needs to raise enough to run ads and pay off his six million dollar mortgage. Democratic fund-raisers called to help Kerry By Jim Drinkard, USA TODAY WASHINGTON — John Kerry is rapidly enlisting the top fund-raisers for his vanquished Democratic rivals, giving him up to 500 new volunteers who can raise millions for his presidential campaign from their social and business circles. Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry talks to the audience during a rally at The University of Akron. Haraz Ghanbari, AP By telephone and in meetings, the likely Democratic nominee is courting the best money raisers for John Edwards, Dick Gephardt, Wesley Clark and Joe Lieberman. He also is seeking help from Howard Dean, the Democrat who raised the most last year. The effort is paying off. "Everyone within my sphere of influence will want to help John Kerry," says Mitchell Berger, a veteran Democratic fund-raiser who worked for Lieberman. It's a hopeful development for Kerry as he tries to compete financially with President Bush, who is on track to raise $200 million or more by summer. Kerry's opponents amassed $116 million through Jan. 31, a record for Democrats. Most of their donors haven't given to Kerry and are eligible to do so. The law lets an individual give up to $2,000 to each presidential candidate for the primaries. Fund raising experts say that puts Kerry well within reach of raising $80 million, his target, before the party's July 26 convention. The key is to expand his circle of "bundlers" — people with extensive contacts who are able to collect scores of $1,000 and $2,000 checks. Kerry's urgent need for money was underscored last week when the Bush campaign spent more than $8 million on TV ads criticizing him. The next day, Kerry bought $1.8 million in TV time to respond. The early salvos signaled an expensive pre-convention period that Democrats appear ready to subsidize. "I've been in politics for 25 years, and I've never seen this kind of cooperation," says Nancy Parrish, who was national vice chairman of Clark's campaign. Examples: •When Clark held a reception in New York last month to thank some top contributors, Kerry was invited to make a pitch. Clark had about 40 fund-raisers who collected at least $100,000 each, and 170 who raised $15,000 and up. •John Edwards invited more than 150 finance people to a reception last week at which Kerry made a similar appeal. Edwards "urged them to do everything they can to help elect John Kerry," said spokeswoman Jenni Engebretsen. •Richard Sullivan, a lobbyist and Gephardt fund-raiser, said most of his candidate's top money raisers plan to hit the telephones for Kerry. Gephardt had about 225 bundlers who averaged raising $40,000 each. Bush has 164 "Rangers," who have raised at least $200,000 each; 251 "Pioneers," who've raised $100,000 or more; and 46 "Mavericks" under age 40, who've raised at least $50,000. Contributing: Jill Lawrence Find this article at: usatoday.com

To: LindyBill who wrote (34612)	3/15/2004 3:52:35 PM
From: KLP	Respond to of 793731

Re: Senators' report faults CIA on Iraq Again, the regular employees of the CIA (not the ones living as 'boots on the ground') but the ones who have desk jobs and filter the info, and have for YEARS......need to be investigated. If the report actually shows everthing was faulty, it took more than 7 1/2 months of the current Administration to get faulty... How many employees does each of the FBI, CIA, Pentagon, etc have in desk jobs....Maybe Congress can spend some time with investigating what is happening (or not, as the case might be) within the walls.... The top people at the various agencies don't actually compile the work. They have to rely on others (nearly ALL of whom are career civil servants) to gather the info and report to them.