Political Bulletin

WASHINGTON NEWS

Reid Forced To Delay Immigration Debate

Roll Call reports that "infighting within the Senate Democratic Caucus has stalled work on the chamber's energy bill," forcing Majority Leader Harry Reid "to delay resumption of the immigration debate until the beginning of next week, Reid said Wednesday." In addition to "a vote on a motion to proceed to immigration," Reid also "was expected to delay a vote to take up legislation that would change the way workers vote on whether to form a union."

The Christian Science Monitor says "many...Republicans say they have been shut out of a process. Sen. John Cornyn (R) of Texas, once a supporter of comprehensive immigration reform, filed 30 amendments to the bill, and narrowed them to five after Democrats pulled the bill." Even some Republicans "who did make the list of those allowed amendments are concerned. The secrecy and rush to a final bill will undermine public confidence in the outcome, says Senator Thune."

Bush Opposes Grassley-Obama Amendment The AP reports the Bush Administration "came out strongly against a bipartisan effort by Sens. Charles Grassley and Barack Obama to make the immigration bill easier on employers." Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff "told senators in a letter late Tuesday that the amendment, which makes a new program to stop businesses from hiring illegal workers less burdensome, 'would be a serious step backwards in our enforcement effort.'"

After "Surge," Troops Hunt Al Qaeda In Iraq

US troops continued to press ahead with an offensive in Baghdad and surrounding areas aimed at al Qaeda in Iraq. The CBS Evening News reported, "The US military says it's the start of a summer of hard fighting. ... The goal: Trap the enemy so they can't redeploy in another location." The AP reports, "US forces fighting al-Qaida and allied militants intensified operations Wednesday." An AP reporter "in Baqouba, the capital of Diyala province to the north and east of Baghdad, reported intense gunbattles in the streets and around the main market district as American and Iraqi forces sought to clear the city of al-Qaida fighters." USA Today says "Iraqi forces will have to hold areas once they are cleared. In the past, some Iraqi forces have performed poorly and lost control in their areas of responsibility."

The New York Times says "fighting was heavy in parts of Baquba on Wednesday as American troops continued to squeeze a large section of the city in an effort to rid it of insurgents believed to be part of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia." On the CBS Evening News, chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan said, "It's really too early to say" how successful the offensive has been, "especially given how successful Al Qaeda have been in the past at adapting quickly to US tactics and also melting away from the battlefield only to reappear somewhere else."

The Washington Post notes "about 10,000 US and Iraqi troops are participating in the new offensive, called Arrowhead Ripper." Forty-one insurgents and one American soldier "were killed in two days of fighting, the US military said Wednesday." The Los Angeles Times says "Islamic militants hid their guns and blended with locals here Wednesday, many evading capture on the second day of" the "major US offensive, residents said. Some forced truckers to cart their weapons and ammunition out of the area ahead of the dragnet."

Senior Iraqi Officials May Resign The Washington Post reports in a front page story that Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi, "a senior Shiite politician often mentioned as a potential prime minister, tendered his resignation last week in a move that reflects deepening frustration inside the Iraqi government with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Other senior Iraqi officials have considered resigning in recent weeks over the failures of their government to make progress after more than a year in power."

Success Of The "Surge" In The Eye Of The Beholder McClatchy reports, "Inside a fortified conference room and through the prism of US and Iraqi military officials, a security plan to pacify the country was working on Wednesday. Outside, extremists blew up mosques, lobbed mortars into Baghdad's heavily protected Green Zone and generated a steady drumbeat of violence."

Levin Makes The Case For Withdrawal Timetables In a Washington Post op-ed, Democratic Sen. Carl Levin notes that that while an Illinois congressman, Abraham Lincoln "was an ardent opponent of the Mexican War" and he "voted for an amendment stating that the war was 'unnecessarily and unconstitutionally begun by" President Polk. But "when the question of funding for the troops fighting that war came, Lincoln voted their supplies without hesitation. Sound familiar?" By "setting a policy that begins with putting into law a timetable for starting a troop reduction, rather than trying to stop funding, we offer the best chance for stabilizing a country that we invaded while also sending the message to our troops that, even though we oppose the president's policy, we are united behind them."

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

Stem Cell Veto Gets Bad Press

For the second time in his presidency, George W. Bush vetoed legislation easing restrictions on the use of Federal funds for stem cell research. In a statement explaining his veto, Bush said, "I made it clear to Congress and to the American people that I will not allow our nation to cross this moral line." NBC Nightly News said "supporters of the bill argue...the embryos from fertility clinics would be discarded anyway and the research could lead to treatments for diabetes, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's among others." The President also announced an executive order which, according to the Los Angeles Times, directs the Department of Health and Human Services "to promote research into 'pluripotent' stem cells that have the potential to regenerate cell types and body tissues without use of embryonic stem cells, making them prime weapons in the war against diseases." The move sparked generally negative media coverage and outrage from Democratic officials.

Bush's veto and new executive order received generally negative coverage. ABC World News reported "there were plenty of voices in the medical community today, in disagreement with the President." ABC also showed Sen. Hillary Clinton saying, "This is just one example of how the President puts ideology before science. Politics before the needs of our families." That Clinton quote was also featured in numerous local TV reports across the nation.

CNN's The Situation Room said yesterday, "The veto pen is one of the last weapons" Bush has "left," and "he's going to wield it often, kicking out what may be a flurry of vetoes in his final days." The New York Times says the veto "puts him at odds not only with the majority of voters, according to polls, but also with many members of his own political party." And the Baltimore Sun reports that after Bush's announcement "officials at Maryland research institutions [were prompted] to issue warnings that restrictions on the science are slowing medical progress. Some scientists in Maryland have patched together state grants and private donations to keep embryonic stem cell work going, but others have shied away for lack of federal support, officials said." That "has blunted Maryland's competitive edge in medical research, they said, and in the long run could prevent scientists from turning their theories into treatments for disease."

The New York Times, in an editorial, urges Congress to override Bush's veto, but as the CBS Evening News said last night, "so far, the votes for an override are not there."

On the issue of Bush's executive order, the AP reports it contained "no new federal dollars for stem cell research, which supporters say holds the promise of disease cures, and his order would not allow researchers to do anything they couldn't do under existing restrictions." USA Today notes Sean Tipton, president of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, "a group that supports embryonic stem cell research," said "the Bush order is 'nothing new,'" adding "the National Institutes of Health 'has already been conducting the research for the past 20 years.'" And the Washington Post, also noting Tipton's comments, reports "some advocacy groups dismissed the president's executive order as meaningless because nothing previously barred researchers from receiving federal money for alternative stem cell research."

Bush "Muddling Through" Tough Times

In his Washington Post column, David Ignatius asks, "How do Bush and his senior aides hope to keep momentum going for the ship of state in such a difficult period? I put that question to several senior administration officials during the past week, and their answers surprised me -- not because they have a clear plan of action, but because they don't see the Bush presidency in as dire straits as many outsiders do." A senior official "who sees Bush almost every day" said, "I don't think the president believes we are on the cusp of failure." Ignatius adds one way "to describe the current White House mind-set might be 'muddling through.' Certainly, that seems a fair description of Iraq policy."

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

Top

CAMPAIGN NEWS

Bloomberg Speculation Rampant

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday said that he's not planning on running for president in 2008, yet few analysts or reporters appeared to believe him. Contributing to the media's skepticism were the open doors Bloomberg left himself in denying that he is running. ABC World News reported, "Everybody in America knows that if you want the cameras to go away -- which I am not sure Mayor Bloomberg does -- all you have to do is say 'I'm not a candidate. I will not be a candidate. If drafted, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve.' That's not the language Mayor Bloomberg used. He said 'I am not currently a candidate.' 'I have every intention of serving out the mayoral term.' That's the kind of language that leaves a door open. A door and several windows open to the possibility."

The AP reports the mayor "did little on Wednesday to quiet the fierce speculation about a possible independent presidential bid," and "continued to send mixed signals about his intentions, discussing both his mayoral term and vowing to address the major issues facing the country." Likewise, the New York Times says "the coy mayor toyed with reporters who had thronged a news conference called to mark the 50 millionth call to his beloved 311 system. The mayor wanted to talk about the success of the city's telephone line for residents to call to report problems with city services or to seek information about city government that was set up in 2003." The Washington Post also reports Bloomberg "toyed with the press corps," and offered "not a clue about his intentions. So goes the long tease." The New York Sun reports, "Feeding into the already fever-pitch speculation about whether he's going to become the third New York candidate to enter the presidential race, Mr. Bloomberg refused to pledge that he would serve out the remainder of his term at City Hall. Instead, he left himself wiggle room, saying: 'My intention is to be mayor for the next 925 days and probably about 10 hours.'"

The CBS Evening News said Bloomberg was "the talk of the town and a lot of the country." CBS (Axelrod) added the mayor "made front page news when he said he's no longer a Republican. Today he tried to cool the flames. Sort of." Bloomberg: "I'm not running for President and I'm going to be mayor for the next 925 days. But there's a reason why my picture was there." CBS continued, "The reason, he says, is widespread dissatisfaction with the highly partisan political landscape." The New York Post reports, "Yesterday, further fueling speculation about his interest in the White House, Bloomberg said he will use his new independent status to speak out on national issues ranging from Iraq to immigration. 'The big issues of the time keep getting pushed to the back, and we keep focusing on small things,' he said. 'Nobody's willing to talk about those things, and I think that's exactly what the candidates [now running for president] should do.' 'I'm going to speak out on those issues, and by not being affiliated with a party, I think I'm going to have a better opportunity to do that."

Presidential Prep 2 Years In The Making. Also out today a New York Times story titled "For 2 Years, Bloomberg Aides Prepared For Bid," reporting members of the mayor's staff have "collected technical data on the requirements to put Mr. Bloomberg on the ballot in 50 states either as a third party or an independent candidate." Over the last two years, "Bloomberg went to Washington for a round of meetings with opinion leaders and traveled the country giving political speeches, including two this week in California." And "Bloomberg told associates that he was closely studying the 1992 presidential campaign of H. Ross Perot, the wealthy Texan and friend who drew 19 percent of the vote as an independent, to figure out how much a race in 2008 would cost. For all that, Mr. Bloomberg told a packed news conference on Wednesday that he did not plan to run for president and intended to serve out his second term as mayor."

Poll Shows Bloomberg Would Struggle In Home State Bloomberg's potential presidential candidacy would face a major hurdle in his home state, a Quinnipiac poll out yesterday shows. In a 2008 trial heat, 43 percent of New Yorker staters said they would back Sen. Hillary Clinton, 29 percent said Rudy Giuliani, and just 16 percent would back Bloomberg. Without Bloomberg in the race, Clinton tops Giuliani 52 percent to 37 percent.

Not surprisingly, the poll also shows the two home-state favorites leading in the major party primaries. Clinton tops Gore 44 percent to 18 percent, with Obama in 3rd at 14 percent. Giuliani tops the GOP field with 46 percent, followed by Fred Thompson with 14 percent. John McCain is in a distant 3rd with 8 percent.

Anti-War Left Goes Easier On Clinton

Sen. Hillary Clinton, speaking at the liberal "Take Back America" conference yesterday, was booed some for her Iraq stance while speaking, but significantly less so than last year. The Los Angeles Times titles its report, "Clinton Greeted By Fewer Boos On Iraq War," noting it "wasn't the derisive reception she got a year ago, but Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton still endured a gust of boos Wednesday when explaining her position on the Iraq war before an audience of liberal activists eager for a quick end to the conflict." Clinton was "largely applauded as she denounced the Bush administration for its opposition to stem cell research, inaction during Hurricane Katrina and the practice of wiretapping phone calls without warrants." But the "trouble came when she turned to Iraq. A year ago, the group had heckled Clinton when she said she did not want to set timetables for withdrawing American forces from Iraq." Her stance "seemed more in step with her listeners, though not sufficiently antiwar for some."

In a similar report, the Washington Post reports Clinton "drew only modest boos at a gathering of liberal activists yesterday, a sign of how well her changing position on Iraq is playing in the antiwar wing of her party." Last year, "speaking at the Campaign for America's Future conference, Clinton was loudly hissed when she said it is not 'smart strategy' to set a timetable for withdrawing from Iraq. This year, the same group applauded Clinton as she described a bill she introduced to deauthorize the war and the recent vote she cast against funding it, both positions she has adopted since becoming a candidate for president in January."

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: "New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has quit the Republican Party" and "become an independent." He "says he has no plans to be president. Now, don't confuse that with President Bush, who has no plans as president."

Jay Leno: "Bloomberg says he's not running for president. He plans to finish his term as mayor. You know, like Hillary running for president, so she could finish her term as senator. Same thing, same sort of deal."

Conan O'Brien: "A new comic book has come out that features Latino superheroes. Yeah. ... Apparently, the Latino superheroes can leap over the border in a single bound."

Craig Ferguson: "New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg left the Republican Party. He is now an independent. He used to be a Democrat. Then he was a Republican. Now he is an independent. This guy is going to run for president. I can smell it. Who is going to accuse him of flip-flopping?"

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

Top