Political Bulletin

WASHINGTON NEWS

Democrats Escalate Battle Over "Surge"

President Bush's expected call for an Iraq troop "surge" dominated Sunday political talk shows. The White House is digging in its heels as emboldened Democrats threaten to thwart his efforts to "escalate the war," in new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's words. ABC World News said Pelosi "flexed some new political muscle" by hinting that her party could withhold funding for the new deployment. On CBS's Face the Nation, she said, "If the President wants to add to this mission, he is going to have to justify it." Like Pelosi, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, on Fox News Sunday, called the proposal "an escalation, and not a change."

But Democrats are realistic about their ability to block the surge. The Los Angeles Times says Democratic leaders "acknowledged that they had a limited ability to prevent the White House from adding forces." On NBC's Meet the Press, Senate Foreign Services Chairman Joe Biden, a Democratic presidential hopeful, said, "There's not much I can do about it. Not much anybody can do about it. He's commander in chief. If he surges another 20, 30, or whatever number he's going to, into Baghdad, it'll be a tragic mistake, in my view, but, as a practical matter, there's no way to say, 'Mr. President, stop.'" This week's U.S. News and World Report quotes a "Republican insider with close ties to the White House" who said, "The Democrats are going to be in a real bind. The President will come out with a strong plan to get order in Baghdad, and if the Democrats do anything to undermine or block it, it will look to Americans as though they wouldn't give his plan a chance."

The White House is pointing out that there's more to the President's new strategy than just the surge, however. The New York Times says Bush will require the Iraqi government to meet "benchmarks" on issues like government inclusion and oil revenue. In exchange, Iraq will get "up to $1 billion in economic assistance, such as job creation and reconstruction projects," USA Today adds. NBC Nightly News reports the White House says when Bush "does speak about his plan, he will offer a balanced approach, one that clearly defines the future role for American forces in Iraq." That speech will not come before Wednesday, according to Administration sources.

Whatever the details of the plan, it is sure to be the focus of a high-stakes fight between the lame duck president and the new adversarial Congress, and both Democrats and Republicans have a lot on the line. As was made clear by last week's Cindy Sheehan-led protests, "antiwar activists in the Democratic Party are stepping up demands that their party's leaders cut off funding for the war," the Boston Globe reports. A key antiwar Democrat, presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich, said on CNN's Late Edition Sunday that "the American people want a process to begin that will bring our troops home."

Republicans also face possible dissent. Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott said on CNN's Late Edition, "I want to see what the [President's] plan is. ... I think a lot of people are anticipating everything the President may propose. They may be surprised." Lott said last week that it was possible he would oppose the troop increase. And on Fox News Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, asked if his GOP colleagues will "go along," said, "There will be some who will and some who won't." However, as the Washington Post reports, Republicans "voiced general support for the Bush plan as outlined." Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, whose home-state newspaper The State notes "has broken with Bush on key national security issues in the last two years," offered public backing on NBC's Meet the Press, where he said, "Even though it may not be politically popular for the moment, I think it is in our best interests long term."

Dems' Iraq Investigation Starts Thursday The Washington Post reports House Democrats have decided "Iraq will share top billing" with their domestic agenda in the first weeks of the session, and they will start this week by "aggressively confronting administration officials" in a series of hearings. Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with the chairs of several key committees last week to craft the strategy. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Peter Pace are all due on the Hill Thursday. The Christian Science Monitor calls it "an escalation in congressional opposition to the war."

U.S. News and World Report says "scrutiny in a range of committees" is "expected to turn on contractor oversight, force readiness, and the president's forthcoming plan in Iraq." House Government Reform Chairman Henry Waxman, who will be one of the inquisitors, said on ABC's This Week that his "top priority" is to "make sure that taxpayers' funds are no being wasted, that there's no fraud and abuse. ... Only a small part of the money spent in Iraq has been audited, but what we've seen is very, very frightening."

Operations Chief Defends Bush Plan Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, "the newly installed day-to-day commander of military operations in Iraq," said success "would depend on a multi-pronged strategy including economic aid and political negotiations in addition to increased military actions" targeting militants, the Los Angeles Times reports. He said more soldiers "would speed the training of the Iraqi force and help quell sectarian fighting in the capital." NBC Nightly News reported Odierno suggested a lack of sufficient troop strength was to blame for past failures to stop violence, because, in Odierno's words, "we couldn't hold what we had cleared, and you have to go after both Sunnis and Shiites." ABC World News said Odierno "reckoned that US troops could come into Baghdad and in three or four months, restore relative peace and security and then start withdrawing and let the Iraqis take over."

Pelosi Targets Bush Tax Cuts

The AP reports House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says Democrats "are not ruling out raising taxes for the wealthiest people to help pay for tax cuts for middle-income families." On CBS' Face the Nation, Pelosi "spoke of pursuing an estimated $300 billion that people owe in back taxes, eliminating deficit spending and reducing wasteful federal spending." Pelosi said, "It may be that (repealing) tax cuts for those making over a certain amount of money, $500,000 a year, might be more important to the American people than ignoring the educational and health needs of America's children. However, the New York Times profiles Rep. Charles Rangel, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, who "brushes off speculation about his party's plans for the Bush tax cuts, many of which have been criticized by Democrats for years as a giveaway to the richest Americans; it is simply premature, he argues, since their expiration date is three years off."

Bush Has "Given Up" On Future Tax Cuts U.S. News and World Report's "White House Week" feature reports this week that White House insiders "said the president had hoped to push for deeper tax cuts in the next and future budgets, but the election of Democratic majorities in the House and Senate killed those plans. Now, they said, the president will submit a budget for fiscal 2008 that will leave little room for new Democratic add-ons without deeply cutting into defense spending or raising taxes."

CBO: Rich Got Most From Bush Cuts The New York Times reports a Congressional Budget Office study found "families earning more than $1 million a year saw their federal tax rates drop more sharply than any group in the country as a result of President Bush's tax cuts." The CBO study "reinforced the sense that while Mr. Bush's tax cuts reduced rates for people at every income level, they offered the biggest benefits by far to people at the very top - especially the top 1 percent of income earners."

Sign up here to get the US News Political Bulletin emailed to you each morning at 8 a.m.

Conservative Democrats Flex Muscles

U.S. News and World Report reports that while "veteran liberals" hold the Democratic Party's "reins," their "power is likely to be tested by a group far removed from the party establishment -- conservative Democrats who are flexing newfound muscle. Eighteen of 41 incoming House freshmen joined the New Democrat Coalition and/or the Blue Dog Coalition, caucuses of pro-business and fiscally conservative Democrats, respectively." Showdowns are "possible over some key Democratic initiatives, such as halving interest rates on student loans and reforming the alternative minimum tax." U.S. News and World Report also reports this week, "Elected with a mandate to clean up Washington by a deeply disgruntled public, Democrats have a mighty task ahead and a plan to move quickly in the first few weeks." How Democrats "fare in the next few months -- before the presidential election begins to overwhelm Washington -- will help determine whether the party maintains control in 2008 and beyond."

Breakthrough May Change Stem Cell Debate

Harvard and Wake Forest University researchers have discovered stem cells in the amniotic fluid and placenta of pregnant women, a breakthrough that could change the political debate over the issue. The Los Angeles Times says "the finding points to a promising avenue of research that sidesteps the hurdles facing embryonic stem cell research, which has been stymied by moral objections to the destruction of embryos that occurs when the cells are harvested." USA Today reports, "Though much research into the safety and effectiveness of these potential embryonic stem cell substitutes still needs to be done, the huge advantage would be that they can be easily harvested from both amniotic fluid as well as placental tissue after a baby is born." The Washington Post and Washington Times, among other newspapers, also report on the stem cell discovery this morning.

Rove Not Headed For The Door

U.S. News and World Report says Karl Rove "is showing no signs of leaving" the White House as some had predicted, and is instead "as aggressive as ever in making policy arguments -- his main theme being that Republicans lost the congressional elections because they didn't sufficiently live up to their core conservative ideals." Sources say Rove's "influence is still pervasive."

Bush, Reid Said To Be Voracious Readers

The Washington Times says this morning that Michael Gerson, former chief speechwriter to President Bush from 2001 to 2006, discussed "the president's 'voracious' reading habits and related perceptions during a guest appearance on C-SPAN's 'Q&A' with Brian Lamb last night." And the Las Vegas Sun reports Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's "is a hungry reader, downing The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today and a handful of Nevada papers each day. He reads Time, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated and, yes, People. And he devours books -- big, hardback history books."

Sign up here to get the US News Political Bulletin emailed to you each morning at 8 a.m.

Top

CAMPAIGN NEWS

Romney Makes Play For Right

The Boston Globe reported that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R), "speaking to a gathering of influential Christian conservatives and GOP donors" Saturday night, "addressed head-on the moderate social views he once held, a record that has complicated his appeals to conservative voters in the 2008 Republican primary contest." One attendee at the event, held at Sea Island, Georgia, said Romney came off as "extremely articulate" and "Reaganesque." In a piece in the Washington Times today, columnist Donald Lambro writes that Romney has been "the most successful" of the leading GOP contenders "in personally reaching out to the conservative base at private, closed-door meetings."

McCain Said To Struggle With Social Issues While Romney appears to be making gains with conservatives, a new piece on Sen. John McCain in February's Vanity Fair by Todd Purdum presents questions about McCain's commitment to conservative causes, particularly social issues. The piece which exceeds 10,000 words portrays McCain as conflicted over many key social issues, including gay marriage and immigration. Purdum writes that "one minute he's toeing the conservative line (on gay marriage, say, or immigration) and the next he's telling someone what he really thinks." Purdum recounts an appearance on MSNBC's Hardball where McCain commented "I think that gay marriage should be allowed. ... I don't have any problem with that," but then retracted his statement minutes later after conferring with his advisers.

Brownback To Enter Race This Month

The AP reported over the weekend that Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback (R), a "favorite son of the religious right," will officially enter the presidential race later this month. The Kansas City Star reported Brownback's announcement on Jan. 20 "will come about six weeks after the formation of his presidential exploratory committee. His campaign headquarters is expected to be in the Kansas City area. Brownback's speech, still being written, will 'be much more inclusive than just a conservative set of issues' and will address the main themes of Brownback's campaign, said Rob Wasinger, the campaign manager."

Barbour To Skip Prez Race

The AP reported that Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R), a former head of the Republican National Committee, says he intends to run for reelection in 2007, and will not run for president in 2008. Asked about the prospect of a national campaign, Barbour said, "I'm on hurricane duty. My obligation is to the people of Mississippi and that means there's no way I could even consider running for president in 2008. When you run for your party's nomination in 2008, you actually have to run in 2007. And I'm going to be running for governor in 2007, or that's my intention."

Sign up here to get the US News Political Bulletin emailed to you each morning at 8 a.m.

Biden To Form '08 Committee This Month

Delaware Sen. Joe Biden (D) said on NBC's "Meet The Press" this weekend that he expects to form a presidential exploratory committee by the end of this month. Despite the fact that Biden spent much of last year saying he would run, his statement generated a fair degree of press coverage, including brief mentions on Saturday's ABC World News and NBC Nightly News. The AP reports that Biden has "about $3.5 million" in his campaign account and "has campaigned extensively in early voting states such as New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina and Nevada." The New York Times adds that Biden "also sought the presidential nomination in 1988. But he dropped out of the race after admitting that he had used speeches by other politicians without attribution, and after reports that he had plagiarized while in law school."

Schumer Targets Allard, Sununu, Coleman

The New York Daily News reports that Sen. Charles Schumer, head of the Democrats' Senate campaign arm, said he sees the three most vulnerable Republican Senators as Colorado's Wayne Allard, New Hampshire's John Sununu, and Minnesota's Norm Coleman.

Arnold Said To Be Considering 2010 Senate Run

U.S. News and World Report's "Washington Whispers" column reports that there is a "growing buzz" in Washington and California that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) "likes this government stuff so much that he's got his eye on the Senate. Specifically, the seat held by Sen. Barbara Boxer, who's up for re-election in 2010."

Sign up here to get the US News Political Bulletin emailed to you each morning at 8 a.m.

Top

POLITICAL HUMOR

The Latest From Late Night Comedians

Jay Leno: "Seventy-mile-an-hour winds here in Los Angeles last night. We never get that. This morning, 5,000 people without power. Now they know how the House Republicans feel."

Jay Leno: "Well, there's some talk in Democratic circles that with Barack Obama becoming so popular that Hillary Clinton is considering him for her vice presidential running mate. Yeah. To give you an idea how popular Obama is now, he's considering Hillary as his vice presidential running mate."

David Letterman: "How about that Saddam Hussein? Hoo! You know what I mean? It just goes to show you, you start killing people by the hundreds of thousands, pretty soon it's going to catch up with you."

Conan O'Brien: "Bush announced that his nominee for US ambassador to the United Nations is a State Department official named Zalmay Khalilzad. Yeah. Or as President Bush calls him, 'Hey, buddy.'"

Sign up here to get the US News Political Bulletin emailed to you each morning at 8 a.m.

Top