Entries for March 01, 2007

This comes to us from U.S. News White House correspondent Kenneth T. Walsh:

The White House press corps is buzzing about Vice President Dick Cheney's latest fuss with the media. As we reported here yesterday, the White House posted a transcript from a "senior adminsitration official" that was very clearly Cheney. And there is no small amount of glee among reporters that the secretive veep was identified as the source of some not-for-attribution comments -- by himself.

On a flight on Air Force Two from Afghanistan to Oman yesterday, Cheney gave reporters on his plane an interview, but insisted that they identify him as a "senior administration official." The reporters felt they had no choice but to go along. Up to then, they had gotten only about 20 minutes' access to Cheney on the very expensive nine-day trip and wanted something from him directly. (To be fair, he talked at length on the record to a TV network during the jaunt, but basically stiffed the rest of his media entourage.)

Two readers wrote in recently to ask us the question that reporters and editors dread: Why doesn't every candidate for president get equal coverage?

Ronald Ramo in New York asked: "What are the chances a Dark Horse candidate like Ron Paul can win the Republican nomination? In my opinion, if the media paid some attention Ron Paul and other dark horses the Republican nomination would REALLY be up for grabs."

And Glen Linsley in Michigan asked, "Why doesn't the media discuss the other candidates? Mike Huckabee of Arkansas is an extremely charismatic leader who would do well in any primary and would out perform any Democratic candidate."

We went to media reporter Liz Halloran and Nation/World editor Gordon Witkin for answers. Here's their response:

The top stories this afternoon:

• The psychodrama in the Senate continues as Democrats grapple for a unified stance on the war. Earlier today, Sen. Kent Conrad, chair of the Budget Committee, floated the idea of cutting the president's $142 billion military spending request by $20 billion. Hours later, Majority Leader Harry Reid publicly nixed the idea.
• The U.S. stock market is showing signs of life again, erasing a 209-point drop at the start of trading today.
• A particularly nasty strain of tornadoes and heavy rain ripped across the Plains into the Southeast.
• The famous theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who suffers from Lou Gehrig's disease, will briefly experience weightlessness for himself when he takes a ride with Zero Gravity Corp. at the Kennedy Space Center.

Etc.: Bush Unconcerned about Congressional Action on Iraq on USNews.com

U.S. News Whispers editor Paul Bedard reports that, in light of John McCain's announcement of candidacy last night on The Late Show With David Letterman (video below), the Rudy Giuliani camp intends to keep pace.

McCain said he is likely to officially declare his bid--last night he just announced that he would declare--sometime in April. Giuliani, Bedard reports, could announce as soon as March 14.

Etc.: McCain Wants to Look Like the Inevitable Candidate, on USNews.com

This item comes from USNews.com editor Kent Allen:

Hillary Clinton, the on-the-political-rise half of the most powerful power couple, was in hot water this week for not being public enough. In fact, though, she was more public than she had to be.

As the Washington Post reported on the front page on Tuesday, Clinton hadn't disclosed on her Senate ethics form that she is an officer of the Clinton Family Foundation, which is funded and run by her, her husband, and daughter Chelsea. Under Senate ethics rules, all senators are supposed to disclose their affiliations with any institution, whether corporate or nonprofit.

In fact, the foundation's activities were already very public. Both the senator's position with the foundation and where the money is distributed are public knowledge, available -- as mandated by law -- to anyone with an internet connection. See the disclosure documents here (pdf).

Follow the jump for how Clinton could have kept the foundation's activities out of the spotlight if she had so desired.

The New York Times leads today with news that U.S. intelligence officials, once confident in their claims that North Korea was secretly pursuing the technologies for a plutonium-based nuclear bomb, are retreating somewhat from those claims as they reexamine the intelligence.

As U.S. News Senior Writer Thomas Omestad reported in this week's magazine, diplomat Christopher Hill, the chief U.S. negotiator with North Korea, stated that the country had acquired aluminum tubes "entirely consistent" with those needed for a uranium-enrichment program. Sound familiar? It should: This is very similar to the claim that then-Secretary of State Colin Powell made before the United Nations in 2003--except that the perpetrator was Iraq. Later, it came out that those tubes were most likely intended for rockets.

Just last week, the Institute for Science and International Study's David Albright penned a report casting doubt on those claims, writing, "a large centrifuge plant likely does not exist; perhaps it never did."

Etc.: Can Iran and North Korea be Stopped? on USNews.com

News From the Campaign Trail:

Who's hitting the stump:

• John Edwards is in Denver today for a campus rally at the Metropolitan State College Of Denver.
• John McCain is fundraising today in Salt Lake City.
• Mitt Romney is the "special guest" at the Lincoln Day Dinner in New Hampshire, co-hosted by the Derry, Hampton, and Portsmouth Republican committees.
• A GOP straw poll is scheduled for tonight in Spartanburg County, S.C.

From the U.S. News Political Bulletin: Shocking no one, John McCain "preannounced" his candidacy for president on The Late Show With David Letterman last night. He says he'll make the official declaration in April.

Also from the Bulletin: After trailing McCain by four percentage points in a Time January poll, Rudy Giuliani now leads McCain by 14 points in a more recent survey.

A new Gallup poll found that 70 percent of Americans think Bill Clinton would be "mostly helpful" to Hillary Clinton's presidency, were she elected.