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Sunday, November 8, 2009
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Democrats, spurred by their core base to try and derail President Bush's Iraq plans, are having trouble coming up with a plan. Both in the House and Senate, growing divisions within the caucus continue to paralyze any legislative action. The AP reports Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid "said Monday he wanted to delay votes on a measure that would repeal the 2002 war authorization and narrow the mission in Iraq. ... The war reauthorization legislation also appears to lack the 60 votes it would need to pass the Senate." The AP portrays Reid's move as "the latest sign of divisions within their ranks over how to proceed," and said it "reflected a new level of disarray in Democratic ranks on Iraq." Meanwhile, Fox News' Special Report said Democrats, "more visibly divided than ever," haven't attracted any GOP support, not even from "harsh war critic" Sen. Chuck Hagel. Right now, it appears Democrats "might not be able to generate a simple majority to 'de- authorize' the war." Roll Call, likewise, says it is "unclear whether Reid could even muster a majority of support within his own party."
Making the situation even more difficult for Senate Democrats is Sen. Joseph Lieberman, whose defection to the GOP side would flip the chamber's control. During an appearance on Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto yesterday, the Connecticut senator said that "on the battlefield in Baghdad, the new plan for success in Iraq is beginning to be implemented. And some of the first signs, I think, are quite positive. But, beyond that, doesn't it make sense to give this general, David Petraeus, who the Senate just confirmed unanimously, the time, with his troops, to see whether this plan can succeed, rather than sniping at their heels and trying to squeeze them with 1,000 different cuts and conditions and resolutions and amendments?"
In the House, meanwhile, the AP reports House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "said she doesn't support tying war funding to strict training and readiness targets for U.S. troops. The comments distanced her from Rep. John Murtha, who has said he wants to use Congress' spending power to force a change in policy in Iraq, by setting strict conditions on war funding." The Wall Street Journal says Murtha "has been pummeled by Republicans and fellow Democrats eager to bring him down a peg or two. ... Fearing the entire bill could collapse, House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey has sanctioned the drafting of waivers to the Murtha-backed provisions that would restore more flexibility to the administration." Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the Democratic caucus chairman, is cautious about crossing this line and argues any conditions on funding should focus on the Iraq government, not U.S. forces."
Poll Finds Opposition To "Surge," Support For Timetables The Washington Post, in a front-page story titled, "Majority In Poll Favor Deadline For Iraq Pullout," reports this morning that "a majority of Americans now support setting a deadline for withdrawing U.S. forces from" Iraq, and "support putting new conditions on the military that could limit the number of personnel available for duty there, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Opposition to Bush's plan to send an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq remained strong. Two in three Americans registered their disapproval, with 56 percent saying they strongly object." The Post-ABC poll "found that 53 percent of Americans favored setting a deadline for troop withdrawals." The poll also found Bush's "overall approval rating stood at 36 percent, up slightly from 33 percent last month. Sixty-two percent disapproved of the way he is handling his job, with 49 percent of those indicating they strongly disapproved."
The AP reports this morning an explosion "outside the main US military base in Afghanistan killed 19 people and wounded 11 on Tuesday during a visit by" Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday, although he "was apparently not in danger, US and Afghan officials said." The blast "happened near the first security gate outside the base at Bagram, killing 19 people, said Khoja Mohammad Qasim Sayedi, chief of the province's public health department." AFP says one US soldier "was said to be among the dead but there was confusion about the total death toll after an Afghan interior ministry spokesman said that 18 people, three of them foreign soldiers, had been killed."
The Los Angeles Times reports "the blast was seen as a brazen effort on the part of insurgents to show they could cause disruption during Cheney's visit, and strike close to a heavily fortified area." And Bloomberg notes "the Taliban said it was responsible for the assault, Sky News reported. Cheney stayed at the base after bad weather delayed his talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai."
Cheney Sends Warning To Musharraf Cheney's unannounced visit to Afghanistan was generating extensive coverage even before this morning's attack. ABC World News reported Cheney "came to deliver a blunt message" to Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, as US officials "are increasingly alarmed by terrorist activities in the tribal areas along the border" with Afghanistan." Similarly, NBC Nightly News said Cheney delivered "an unusually tough message," while ABC World News reported, "US officials tell ABC News that also in the room with Vice President Cheney was the number two man in the CIA, Deputy Director Steve Kappes, who flew in separately to personally present to Musharraf with what is described to us as compelling evidence of Al Qaeda's resurgent operations."
The New York Times reports that "just hours after" Cheney delivered "a stiff private message" to Musharraf, the Pakistani government "lashed out" with a series of statements insisting that "Pakistan does not accept dictation from any side or any source." On its front page, the Washington Post says Cheney's visit was "perhaps the strongest indication of Administration concern." The Financial Times reports analysts say Cheney is "in a good position to gain leverage for stronger military co-operation by using threats by Democrats in the US Congress to cut assistance to Pakistan." The Los Angeles Times and USA Today also report on Cheney's trip.
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The AP reports that in a speech to the National Governors Association, President Bush "encouraged" the governors to support his call for changing the tax code to help more people buy private health care insurance." However, Bush did not address mounting criticism he has faced recently for allegedly failing to provide states with adequate funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program. According to the New York Times, governors from both parties contended the CHIP funding issue is "as important as money for the Iraq war." Several governors urged the president "to provide more money so they could guarantee health insurance for children. In response, administration officials said states should make better use of the money they already had." Another AP article notes that 14 states "are expected to run out of money for the program before the next budget year begins in October; in Georgia, it could happen as soon as March." USA Today runs a brief report on Bush's remarks, also focusing on the healthcare issue, while the Washington Times notes the President also vowed "he would take on congressional Democrats who hope to hamstring his use of war funds."
The Baltimore Sun, meanwhile, reports Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley "sat tight-lipped" during the White House meeting and "later criticized the president, saying he spent more time defending the administration's Iraq policy than addressing concerns about health care and immigration raised by the nation's governors."
Bush Nets $10.4 Million For GOP Govs The AP reports that later in the day the President attended a Republican Governors Association fundraiser that netted $10.4 million.
The CBS Evening News reported last night that "the judge at Scooter Libby's CIA leak trial sent one of the jurors home today after she admitted seeing or reading coverage of the case over the weekend. A fourth day of deliberations ended today with just 11 jurors. The judge rejected a prosecution request that the dismissed juror be replaced by an alternate. That would have required deliberations to start over from scratch." In a widely-distributed story, the AP reports that in allowing the 11 jurors to proceed, US District Judge Reggie B. Walton "said he didn't want to 'throw away two and a half days' of discussions the jury has had since getting the case at midday last Wednesday. If an alternate had been seated, the jury would have been required to begin its deliberations over from the beginning." The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Washington Post, among other media outlets, also report on the juror's dismissal.
President Bush yesterday honored retired Army helicopter pilot Bruce Crandall with the Medal of Honor for his heroic performance during the 1965 battle of Ia Drang Valley during the Vietnam War. The events were portrayed in the book, We Were Soldiers Once...And Young, which also inspired the 2002 movie. USA Today and the New York Times run stories on the White House ceremony, which was also covered by the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News.
The Hill reports "business and labor lobbies square off this week over a House measure that would make it easier for workers to form unions, which have struggled for years with declining membership." The House is "expected to pass the Employee Free Choice Act on Thursday," but House Democrats "and their labor allies face the same problem House Republicans and their big-business friends faced: the Senate filibuster," and President Bush has promised to veto the measure. But business interests "are still nervous as they face the new political reality on Capitol Hill." Roll Call says that with the "backing of the business community's lobbying juggernaut on K Street, House Republicans say they may not be able to prevent the Employee Free Choice Act from passing that chamber this week, but that their public relations offensive will set the stage for its ultimate demise in the Senate."
The upcoming debate was featured this morning in the Washington Post's opinion pages. In an op-ed, Lance Compa of Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations says the Employee Free Choice Act "has provoked a torrent of crocodile tears from corporate executives," but "what companies really prize is management's power to exploit the election procedure to mount aggressive, one-sided attacks on workers' freedom of association." Meanwhile, columnist George Will says, "The Employee Free Choice Act would short-circuit the process of persuading workers through a public debate between unions and employers, the winner of which would be determined by workers casting secret ballots. Welcome to the political culture that the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law is shaping."
The Washington Post reports five Western governors "agreed yesterday on a plan to cut their states' emissions of gases linked to global warming and to establish a regional carbon-trading system, though they stopped short of saying how drastically they will seek to reduce greenhouse gases." The "governors -- including Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and Democrats from Arizona, Oregon, New Mexico and Washington -- said that within six months they will set a regional target for lower emissions. A year after that, they pledged, they will devise a regional cap-and-trade system allowing polluters to buy and sell greenhouse gas pollution credits."
The Wall Street Journal reports, "Seeking to shape legislation before Congress, three major energy trade associations have shifted their stances and decided to back mandatory federal curbs on carbon dioxide and other man-made emissions that could accelerate climate change. Joined by the AFL-CIO, the groups say they now plan to use their lobbying clout to stake out positions that favor modest, economy-wide regulations, in hopes of minimizing anticipated energy-price increases and pre-empting state efforts that could result in a patchwork of differing state and regional regulations."
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The Oscar win for Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" on Sunday night has set off a barrage of 2008 speculation, including big segments on two network news programs last night. The CBS Evening News covered it as their second story, reporting, "Now that Al Gore's documentary on global warming won an Oscar, a lot of people are wondering if he'll use it as a springboard for another presidential run." CBS (Borger) added Gore is "clearly playing it for all its worth because now he's not just another defeated presidential candidate. He's an Oscar-winning environmental evangelist." However, CBS adds that "an adviser says Gore isn't thinking about it now." ABC World News, which ran the story fourth, said Gore's "global warming slide show has made $45 million and counting at the box office. Live versions sell out red state arenas faster than rock stars. And he is up for the Nobel Peace Prize. Which leads to the question, will he run again?" Gore: "You know, I don't have plans to do that. Don't have any intention of doing that. I am involved in trying to campaign in a different way to get people to see the reality of this crisis."
USA Today adds that if Gore "should decide to run, he'd be in a strong starting position. In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll of Democratic voters taken Feb. 9-11, Gore trailed only Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois." One group thinks they know the key to determining if Gore is planning to run. Long Island Newsday reports that "some members" of Sen. Hillary Clinton's team "have been monitoring the former vice president's girth. A svelte Gore is a presidential Gore, they reason. But they might not have much to worry about, judging from the stressed seams on Gore's Ralph Lauren tuxedo Oscar night. 'If he's running, he'll start losing weight fast,' said a Clinton insider, who didn't want to be identified. 'Judging from where he is now, I'd say he's not running. ... But that could change fast.'"
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's rock star-like tour hit the key presidential swing state of Ohio yesterday for a series of speeches and fundraisers. Obama "raised more than $450,000 at fundraisers in Cincinnati and Columbus on Monday before collecting even more at an appearance in suburban Cleveland," the AP reports. The Cincinnati Enquirer reports far more people showed up at the Cincinnati fundraiser than had been expected and "there weren't enough seats at the tables to go around." The Enquirer adds that the event, which had been expected to bring in about $350,000, may actually have brought in as much as $500,000. Another AP report said the event in suburban Cleveland "had the energy of an election eve. ... More than 1,700 people filled a community college gymnasium in suburban Cleveland with chants of 'O-bama!' and a large banner overhead read 'Obama Rocks!' ... Thousands more watched his 30-minute speech from several overflow rooms. The campaign estimated the entire crowd at 7,000. 'The turnout exceeded all expectations, and I've got to say this is how we roll these days,' Obama said of his strongly embraced early campaign stops."
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The AP reports Rudy Giuliani "addressed his Democratic past on Monday and offered one reason for his political conversion - taxes." Speaking at an event at the fiscally-conservative Hoover Institution, Giuliani said, "I don't think anything separates us more right now between Republicans and Democrats than how we look at taxes. What we understand as Republicans is that, sure, the government is an important player in this, but we are essentially a private economy. What Democrats really believe...is that it is essentially a government economy."
The Washington Post gives A1 treatment to a story that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and former president Bill Clinton "have operated a family charity since 2001, but she failed to list it on annual Senate financial disclosure reports on five occasions." The Ethics in Government Act "requires members of Congress to disclose positions they hold with any outside entity, including nonprofit foundations. Hillary Clinton has served her family foundation as treasurer and secretary since it was established in December 2001, but none of her ethics reports since then have disclosed that fact." The foundation has "enabled the Clintons to write off more than $5 million from their taxable personal income since 2001, while dispensing $1.25 million in charitable contributions over that period." Clinton's spokesman "said her failure to report the existence of the family foundation and the senator's position as an officer was an oversight. Her office immediately amended her Senate ethics reports to add that information late yesterday after receiving inquiries from The Washington Post."
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Jay Leno: "Congratulations, of course, to Al Gore. His movie won an Oscar. Yeah, yeah. Today, it got reversed by the Supreme Court."
David Letterman: "I was listening to the news backstage before I came out here. This just in, President Bush has now promised that we will be out of the Academy Awards by 2010."
Conan O'Brien: "Actress Angelina Jolie is in the news. Angelina Jolie is joining the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations. That's right. In a related story, Kofi Annan will be playing the part of Lara Croft in 'Tomb Raider 3.'"
Conan O'Brien: "U.S. Government -- this is weird, but it's true, apparently. The US government has hired several psychics to help find Osama bin Laden. They've hired psychics to help find Osama bin Laden, yeah. So far, the psychics haven't been able to locate bin Laden, but they do predict that soon, he'll find true love."
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