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Sunday, February 12, 2012
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Democratic leaders in Congress and the White House may be negotiating a compromise to fund US military operations in Iraq, but that didn't keep Speaker Nancy Pelosi from candidly stating her ultimate intentions. In an interview with USA Today, Pelosi said: "I know one thing for certain: This war is wrong. ... I will do anything to stop it." Pelosi would appear to be involved in an effort to reassure anti-war activists: The Hill reports this morning Pelosi is also "threatening to take President Bush to court if he issues a signing statement as a way of sidestepping a carefully crafted compromise Iraq war spending bill." She "recently told a group of liberal bloggers, 'We can take the president to court' if he issues a signing statement, according to Kid Oakland, a blogger who covered Pelosi's remarks for the liberal website dailykos.com."
As Pelosi steps up the rhetoric, House Democrats appear close to crafting a new version of the Iraq funding bill. It will be Congress' second attempt, following President Bush's veto. Does the new House plan have a chance of becoming law? The Los Angeles Times says its is being "referred to by some Democrats as the 'short-leash' plan" because, as USA Today notes, it would fund the war for three months. That fact "drew immediate criticism from Republican leaders. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said there was 'minimal to no enthusiasm' in his caucus. House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, accused Democrats of treating troops like 'children who are getting a monthly allowance.'" White House spokesman Tony Snow said it "denies commanders and forces the kind of predictability they need to be able to plan effectively." McClatchy, notes, however, that the White House "stopped short of threatening a veto."
There may not have been a veto threat, but the Washington Post quotes a "State Department official" calling the plan "dangerous," and "even worse" than the previous bill containing a pullout deadline. Said the official, "Now we're in Excedrin headache No. 1. ... How do you fight a war two months at a time?" This official also called "the Democrats' action a 'moral hazard.'"
Moreover, the plan appears not to have enough backing to pass the Senate. Roll Call says "Senate Democrats remain highly dubious about the House plan, even though they acknowledge that it serves as a useful step to ensuring they can pass a second supplemental before leaving for the Memorial Day recess." Sen. Ben Nelson, "who provided the crucial 51st vote on the original war supplemental and is likely to be a conferee on the second version, poured cold water all over the House proposal, saying he sensed that it 'would be dead on arrival over here.'" In fact, according to Roll Call, "House Democratic sources" say Pelosi "is teeing up the short-term measure in order to mollify Democratic liberals, even though she expects to have to ask those Members to vote for a conference report less to their liking."
As the Wall Street Journal reports, the Senate is moving in a different direction one that is also unlikely to meet with White House approval. Senate Majority Leader Reid "is expected to move a bill next week" that would maintain the pullout deadline, "albeit with a waiver that Mr. Bush could invoke. ... Under one scenario, the president could waive the withdrawal date, but only for 90-day periods. He would have to report back every 90 days, explaining why the withdrawal should be delayed again."
The Pork Issue The new House plan, says the Los Angeles Times, no longer includes "billions of dollars for programs and aid unrelated to the war." The New York Times explains Rep. Obey "said he was putting together a separate measure with emergency agricultural aid and other spending of more than $4 billion." However, Patrick O'Connor writes in his blog in The Politico that the bill "contains a minimum-wage increase and money for a popular children's health care program, low-income heating assistance and Katrina recovery, as well as additional funds to improve the conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the base closure commission. The second part of this package provides $4.5 billion for agricultural programs, rural schools and money to combat wildfires in California."The Hill reports that "the House war bill includes the minimum wage legislation."
Polls Show Little Support For Bush Position CNN's Situation Room reported that in a "new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, 57% want Congress to pass another bill with funding and timetables. Another proposal is to replace timetables with benchmarks that the Iraqi government must meet to show progress toward a political resolution. That proposal gets slightly more support, 61%." USA Today, meanwhile, says according to the latest Gallup poll "most Americans don't believe that the continued presence of U.S. troops in Iraq is the key to preventing a full-scale civil war there or protecting the United States from new terrorist attacks." Most Americans "expect things to get worse in Iraq and the region in any case. If U.S. troops withdraw next year, 68% predict a civil war in Iraq, 66% the use of Iraq as an al-Qaeda base and 55% new terror attacks on the United States. If US troops remain, 47% predict a civil war in Iraq, 47% the use of Iraq as an al-Qaeda base and 51% new terror attacks on the United States."
A group of senators have reached agreement on the framework of an immigration bill that would enhance enforcement and provide opportunities for illegal immigrants to gain legal status. The New York Times reports the bill would "toughen border enforcement and provide a path to legal status for illegal immigrants," but senators "remain deeply divided on many details," and it "remains unclear whether a deal can be reached by Monday, the deadline set by" Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
The Hill says the "fate of the compromise remained uncertain amid political pressure from interest groups and a potential filibuster." Sen. Arlen Specter, "the Judiciary Committee's ranking Republican and leader of recent negotiations on immigration reform, took the floor to announce the progress and ask...Reid...for more time before the next week's floor deadline."
The Washington Times, under the headline "White House Counts On Kyl," reports, "While the White House was working with Sen. John McCain, Arizona's other senator, Jon Kyl, emerged this year as the most important player in the immigration debate, showing that even as the Congress has grown more liberal with Democrats in control, the immigration debate has shifted to the right." It's also a recognition that as Mr. Kyl goes, so go a number of Republicans."
Roll Call, meanwhile, says immigration reform "is in danger of becoming the highest-profile victim of the ongoing Congressional stalemate over Iraq and the heightened political tensions that have gripped the narrowly divided Senate this year."
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The Washington Post reports a former aide to Missouri Republican Sen. Christopher S. Bond, counsel Jack Bartling, "urged the White House to replace the U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Mo., months before Todd P. Graves's name was included on a Justice Department list of federal prosecutors the Bush administration was thinking of pushing out of their jobs." Graves is the "second U.S. attorney whose ouster is known to have been encouraged by the office of a Republican senator."
Also this morning, the Christian Science Monitor reports the "clamor over the firings of eight US attorneys may yet force" Attorney General Alberto Gonzales "out. Members of Congress will have another chance to publicly press for his ouster at his scheduled appearance Thursday before the House Judiciary Committee." But even if Gonzales "leaves, uproar about management at the Department of Justice is unlikely to subside. A steady stream of revelations from allegations about partisan hiring in the Civil Rights Division to possible White House involvement in the US attorney dismissals has seen to that."
Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson yesterday backed embattled World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz's call for additional time to respond to a panel's finding that he broke conflict of interest rules. Meanwhile, media reports suggest that behind the scenes, the conflict has become a proxy battle between Administration figures such as Karl Rove and Bush opponents such as wealthy financier George Soros. The New York Times reports, "European officials, asking not to be quoted by name because of the delicacy of the matter, say they believe that Mr. Paulson is sympathetic to their concern that Mr. Wolfowitz has been so wounded by the furor over charges of favoritism that he can no longer lead the bank or work with its board of directors." But "Administration officials say Mr. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Karl Rove, the president's top political adviser are, for now, adamant that Mr. Wolfowitz not be ousted. A Republican close to the White House said Mr. Rove telephoned Mr. Wolfowitz late last month to urge him to keep fighting for his job."
Under the headline "Axis Of Soros," the Wall Street Journal editorializes, "Mark Malloch Brown spoke Monday to a crowded auditorium at the World Bank's headquarters, warning that the bank's mission was 'hugely at risk' as long as Paul Wolfowitz remained its president. Only hours earlier, news leaked that a special committee investigating Mr. Wolfowitz had accused him of violating conflict-of-interest rules. A coincidence? We doubt it." Malloch Brown, a one-time aide to former Secretary General Kofi Annan, last week "was named vice president of the Quantum Fund, the hedge fund run by his billionaire friend George Soros."
The Financial Times and Washington Post also report on Paulson's comments and the growing pressure on Wolfowitz to go. Even more ominous for him, the Wall Street Journal says "the World Bank's board is leaning toward taking stern disciplinary action against...Wolfowitz, with some bank officials saying there could be majority support in favor of calling for Mr. Wolfowitz's removal as early as this week." The Washington Times goes so far as to name possible successors: US Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick, Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert M. Kimmitt, "a former US ambassador to Germany, undersecretary of state for political affairs and general counsel to the Treasury Department," Robert D. Hormats, Martin Feldstein, Stanley Fischer and "Kemal Dervis, a former Turkish minister for economic affairs and the treasury who has held various World Bank positions."
The Washington Post's Al Kamen writes in his "In the Loop" column this morning that President Bush is learning that "finding fine speaking venues at graduation is never easy for late-second-termers" as he's now "left with Florida community colleges or small schools in rural areas that are run by former aides." On Friday, Bush will speak at Pennsylvania's Saint Vincent College run by Jim Towey, former head of the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives. However, thirty current and former faculty members, in an open letter to Bush last week, said "in the spirit of Benedictine hospitality" they would "welcome" him to the campus "as we would any visitor," but they will also "welcome those who protest your visit." Meanwhile, Kamen says "there are unconfirmed reports that Benedictine nuns from Erie may be going down to Latrobe to take part in some sort of protest."
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The tempest over Rudy Giuliani's position on abortion that has been growing since the GOP debate last week continues today. The Washington Post says the other GOP candidates "pounced" on him this week "after fumbling explanations of his support for abortion rights again exposed his biggest vulnerability in the quest for the Republican presidential nomination. Giuliani's rambling and sometimes contradictory responses on abortion during last week's Republican" debate "provided an opening for the other GOP hopefuls."
The Los Angeles Times reports that Sen. McCain's campaign strategist John Weaver, commenting Tuesday on Giuliani's stance on abortion, said, "He's well outside the mainstream of rank-and-file Republicans on this issue, not only as someone who is pro-abortion, but someone who has supported one of the most radical pro-abortion groups in the country." The Times adds, "Giuliani's major rivals, all of whom oppose abortion rights, see wider knowledge of his breach with party orthodoxy on abortion as crucial to their own advancement."
Responding to the criticism, Giuliani yesterday sought to portray his and his wife's contributions to Planned Parenthood in the 1990s as an attempt to promote adoption. The Washington Post says that yesterday, in a "lengthy, uncomfortable appearance on Laura Ingraham's radio program," Giuliani "said his financial support for Planned Parenthood -- he gave about $900 in the mid-1990s -- was driven by a desire to increase adoptions in New York City. ... 'My idea of a choice is that it should be a real choice and that ultimately, then, you have to respect a woman's consciousness,' Giuliani told Ingraham and listeners on 340 radio stations nationwide. 'I think life is enormously important, but so is personal liberty.'" Long Island Newsday adds that Giuliani said, "I just as strongly support the idea that a woman should have information about adoption at that time."
At least one political observer thinks that the focus on abortion may play into Giuliani's hand. Emory University political scientist Merle Black said he "thinks that Giuliani's campaign is tacking toward big early primary states, including California, Florida, New York and New Jersey -- where many voters favor legalized abortion. 'Giuliani's strategy is a big-state, February strategy,' said Black," although, "His [abortion] position puts a ceiling on the conservative support he can win."
Others, however, see the abortion issue damaging his wider appeal. The AP (5/9, Sidoti) reports Greg Strimple, "a New York-based Republican consultant who is neutral in the race, said the GOP race right now is more about leadership than about issues. 'As Republican voters weigh Rudy Giuliani's pro-choice position on abortion against his leadership during 9/11, they're picking leadership,' Strimple said. 'But Giuliani needs to be careful. If he doesn't state his pro-choice position concisely, it could evolve into a character issue that affects voter perceptions of his leadership skills.'"
Two Democratic governors elected in the watershed 2006 elections are set to endorse Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. The AP reports that New York's Eliot Spitzer will endorse Clinton on Monday at an event in Albany, at an event that will likely also draw a number of other prominent state Democrats. The Baltimore Sun says Maryland's Martin O'Malley will endorse her "at a campaign rally in Annapolis Wednesday and has begun encouraging his supporters to back her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, sources familiar with his plans said." O'Malley's endorsement "is hardly a surprise -- when speaking in the abstract about the next president, O'Malley has been known to use the pronoun 'she' -- but it would solidify Clinton's position in the race for Maryland's delegates to the Democratic National Convention in 2008." The Washington Post also reports the story.
The Politico reports former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson "acknowledges his coming-out speech in California last weekend didn't live up to expectations, advisers say, and he is planning a tighter and sharper message dubbed 'Stump Speech 2.0' for a Saturday night event to be attended by key conservative leaders." Friends "working on the speech say it will include more of a call to arms than the entertaining but unfocused after-dinner address Thompson gave to an eagerly expectant audience Friday night at the Balboa Bay Club and Resort in Newport Beach, Calif." Saturday's event will "be a crucial audition in Northern Virginia, where Thompson will be the keynote speaker at a dinner of the Council for National Policy, an organization of conservative leaders. Organizers say he will be introduced by Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, who is among the most important voices of evangelical Christians." Associates helping craft the speech say a major focus will be the importance of putting in place conservative judges.
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Jay Leno: "At a commencement speech over the weekend, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told students they should all get married. But he said, unlike Giuliani, don't go overboard."
David Letterman: "How much you folks paying for gas? Huh? Get ready -- $4 a gallon. This summer it could be $4 a gallon. Thank you. It's all part of President Bush's 'No Oil Company Left Behind' program."
Conan O'Brien: "The British press is angry. They're claiming that President Bush disrespected the Queen because he accidentally suggested she was over 200 years old and then winked at her. ... Yeah...when President Bush noticed the Queen was annoyed, he said, 'Shake it off' and slapped her ass."
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