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

To: LindyBill who wrote (51115)	6/21/2004 4:06:05 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 794001

The Plot Thickens By The Prowler American Spectator TAPE JOBS In an attempt to draw a truce with Jesse Jackson, presumptive so-and-so Sen. John Kerry will speak at Jackson's Rainbow Coalition/PUSH national conference on June 29. Last week, while Al Sharpton was traveling with Kerry on campaign stops, the candidate dropped the Jackson bombshell on Rev. Al. "He wasn't happy," says an adviser to Sharpton. "Obviously Reverend Sharpton doesn't believe there is a place for Jackson on the Kerry team." Sharpton has made that clear enough. But Kerry and some of his advisers have been feeling pressure of late to reach out to Jackson, particularly after Jackson and some of Kerry's AFL-CIO buddies spent quality time together two weeks ago rallying local labor in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. "Doing Jackson a favor on behalf of our labor friends is easy enough to do," says a Kerry adviser in Washington. "Maybe it gives us some breathing room in other decisions, like veep." Not likely. Organized labor continues to press its case to Kerry campaign advisers and veep vetter Jim Johnson, that Rep. Dick Gephardt is by far the most acceptable running mate, at least to them. But signs continue to point away from Gephardt, and increasingly toward Sen. John Edwards or perhaps a surprise. On Wednesday, after someone in Kerry's campaign had leaked news of a meeting between Kerry and Gephardt in Kerry's Capitol hideaway, some tea-leaf readers were guessing that the leak was an indication that the meeting was for Kerry to inform Gephardt that he was out of the running. "It's the guys who you hear about that you usually can start ruling out. But it's probably still too early for that," says the Kerry adviser. "No one knows what John is thinking right now. No one except maybe Johnson and [campaign manager Mary Beth] Cahill knows where we are in the process. Maybe they know who is really on the shortlist, but I'd be surprised if they have that good an idea. This has been a frustrating process because so many people know so little." According to an adviser to Edwards, Edwards has been aware that the Kerry campaign has had someone shadowing him over the past month as he travels around the country to fundraisers. Sometimes the Kerry aide has even videotaped Edwards' appearances. "We're assuming that Kerry is doing this too with some of the other folks he is considering," says the adviser. In fact Kerry's camp has been examining tape of some of the potential veep selections, including Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, Sen. Bob Graham, former Sen. Max Cleland and Gephardt. TALKING TEDDY The Kerry campaign is looking for a way to ease Sen. Edward Kennedy out of their regular rotation of officially sanctioned surrogates after a series of embarrassing incidents involving the senior Massachusetts senator. First, Kennedy was caught by Boston reporters mocking Kerry at a private, supposedly closed-to-the-press fundraiser in Boston, where Kennedy was doing a poor imitation of Kerry begging Kennedy for help and support. Then Kennedy and his Senate staff leaked word that Kennedy was being asked by Boston officials to help bail out the troubled Democratic convention in Boston, where local unions are protesting their lack of financial gain from the convention. "That leak was clearly intended to put Senator Kerry in his place. It didn't have to get out," says a Kerry adviser. Finally, Kennedy gave an interview to a Boston magazine where he criticized the Pope for giving communion to former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet while American Catholic bishops threatened to withhold communion from Kerry. "Kennedy is just getting a little too comfortable with talking on our behalf," says the Kerry adviser. "It's our fault for giving him so much leeway. Now we're paying the price. There is probably no way that we can take him completely off the surrogate list. It's not like we can really control him, but he's not going to be on our list of reliable surrogates down the road, that's for sure."

To: LindyBill who wrote (51115)	6/21/2004 4:29:31 AM
From: Michelino	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 794001

Right! In that same alternate universe, Dubya's been busy making proclamations... FLAG DAY 2004: PRESIDENTIAL PROCLAMATION ON THE SUPERIOR PATRIOTISM OF CONSERVATIVE PERSONS FLAUNTING GILDED AMERICAN FLAG LAPEL PINS By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation THE PRESIDENT: For more than 200 years, the American flag has served as a symbol of our country's enduring FREEDOM® and unsurpassed affinity for loud color combinations and gaudy design. Indeed, whether streaming gallantly atop the electrified razorwire ramparts of a 1940's Japanese internment camp, or emblazoned on the business end of a guided missile plunging majestically through the roof of a suspicious Arabiac preschool, Old Glory represents all that is infallible about our exquisite Christian nation. Each year on June 14, we honor the American flag and recall the adoption of our first official national flag by the Continental Congress in 1777. And though prior to 9/11TM, no Republican would ever be caught dead feminizing his Brooks Brothers suit with a faggy brooch, it can no longer be denied that the sassy American flag lapel pin has joined the venerable wedding band as the only jewelry any WASP can get away with wearing before his golf buddies start whistling at him in the country club showers. Verily, these patriotic baubles have in short order become so integral to the gratuitous broadcasting of one's self-serving jingoism, they have assumed a proud and prominent place in the wardrobes of all worthwhile Americans. NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim June 14, 2004, to be renamed Flag Pin Day, and the week beginning June 13, 2004, as National Buy a U.S. Flag Lapel Pin Week. I direct the appropriate officials to flaunt flag pins on all jackets, coats, and blazers during that week, and I urge all Americans to observe Flag Pin Day and National Buy a U.S. Flag Lapel Pin Week by spending lavishly to acquire vast stockpiles of pins for adorning their garments with non-superficial, semi-precious proof of their unctuous pride in just happening to have been born in these magnificent United States. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twelfth day of June, in the year of America's Lord Jesus H. Christ two thousand four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-eighth. GEORGE W. BUSH whitehouse.org

To: LindyBill who wrote (51115)	6/21/2004 1:08:28 PM
From: KLP	Respond to of 794001

The Father's Day note is a total hoot! Especially the earphones and the WSJ ..... Naughty! <g>