President Bush is moving quickly to respond to the massive dislocation and humanitarian crisis caused by the California wildfires, visiting the area and declaring it a Federal disaster area. The AP reports President Bush "promised Wednesday that Washington 'will do everything it can' to help Southern Californians fearing the worst from wildfires blazing through canyons and neighborhoods for a fourth straight day." Officials "throughout the Bush administration talked in blunt terms about offering more in this disaster than the feeble reaction that followed Hurricane Katrina."
The Los Angeles Times says Bush "declared a major disaster today in California, which allows people affected by the fires to begin to receive federal grants for temporary housing, home repairs and low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses." The CBS Evening News said Bush "will tour the area and get a firsthand look at the damage from the air and the incredible plumes of smoke."
The Washington Post says for "federal and state emergency managers" the "two disasters can hardly be compared. Katrina's vast floods and winds wreaked havoc on a far larger scale; California's local responders lead the nation in training and coordination, while Louisiana's rank near the bottom."
Coverage of the government response to the wildfires in California is basically positive, with many stories comparing it favorably to the federal response to Hurricane Katrina. At the end of the lead report on NBC Nightly News, correspondent George Lewis said, "President Bush flies here to southern California tomorrow for a firsthand look at the situation, the Administration insisting that it has learned the lessons from Katrina, that aid will be on its way rapidly this time."
USA Today says "the contrast with the government response to Hurricane Katrina couldn't be starker." The Washington Times and the Christian Science Monitor also report the disaster response.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said on NPR's Day To Day, "We've done a lot of work over the last couple of years with California officials in terms of different kinds of disasters and what we might do. So we were poised to move into action very quickly."
ABC World News reported there was "a staggering, new estimate of the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan puts the price tag far higher than earlier projections. Today, the Congressional Budget Office said the total cost could reach $2.4 trillion ten years from now." NBC Nightly News also reported the story, and the Financial Times said the statistics "are based on an assumption that US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan will be reduced to a total of 75,000 by 2013 and stay at that level for a further four years." The AFP and AP also run stories on the "nonpartisan" CBO's forecast.
Bush Called Most Lavish Spender Since LBJ McClatchy Newspapers reports in an analysis critical of Bush that the President "is the biggest spending president since Lyndon B. Johnson. In fact, he's arguably an even bigger spender than LBJ. ... Take almost any yardstick and Bush generally exceeds the spending of his predecessors."
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The failure of the DREAM Act to clear a procedural threshold in the Senate is said to show the extent of the opposition to immigration policy reforms in the current Congress. The Washington Post says the bill, which "would have offered a path to citizenship for illegal-immigrant high school graduates who entered the United States as children," failed in a 52 to 44 procedural vote. Though the bill's sponsor, Sen. Richard J. Durbin, "argued that it was narrowly tailored to aid only young and ambitious immigrants," critics "denounced the bill as amnesty and argued that any legalization proposal must include enforcement measures."
USA Today characterized the vote as "a desire to steer clear of divisive immigration issues," while the Washington Times says it marked "the second major immigration bill to be stopped this year and a signal that this Congress is too stalemated to pass any bill that offers a path to citizenship for illegal aliens." The AFP says "the bill ran into the same complaints that derailed the wider immigration reform bill."
The New York Times reports, "The vote showed that Republican opposition remained resolute to any effort to give legal status to illegal immigrants. It also eroded the support of some Democrats for other immigration measures under discussion." The Los Angeles Times reports, "Republicans objected both to the timing of the bill and to its substance." The Wall Street Journal notes the vote in a brief AP article.
The Hill reports that in a "sharp rebuke to the Democratic base, the Senate on Wednesday confirmed Leslie Southwick to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit after 12 Democrats, together with one Independent, shrugged off the strong opposition of their party's leaders and joined a united Republican Conference." In a "62-35 vote, the Senate by a two-vote margin broke off a filibuster that threatened to derail the most contentious judicial nominee of the 110th Congress." The Senate "later confirmed the nominee by a 59-38 vote."
The AP reports Southwick's supporters, "who include Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said the controversy wasn't so much about Southwick as it was about the fact that he is a white man nominated to sit on a court that handles cases in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas." The Washington Times reports Feinstein "expressed hope that the vote would help end years of partisan paybacks over judges, including Republicans denying votes on dozens of President Clinton's nominations and Democrats repeatedly filibustering President Bush's picks."
The New York Times reports that in the "wake of the vote, in which nine Democrats joined Republicans to back Mr. Southwick, some civil rights advocates accused the majority's leadership of cynical deal-making in which they gained Republican support on spending bills."
The Washington Post reports that just "one week after failing to override President Bush's veto, House Democrats will put a new version of their $35 billion expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program to a vote today, hoping that minor changes will win enough Republicans to beat Bush this round." The move "took Republican leaders by surprise."
The New York Times reports Democrats sensed "a political advantage" as they "rushed Wednesday to move a health care bill for children back to the House floor, having made minor changes to win over more Republicans." The Hill reports House Democrats "believe they have made the necessary concessions to attract a veto-proof majority" on the SCHIP bill. But "at press time it was unclear if Democrats had the votes." Roll Call reports Republican leaders "objected to the planned vote, criticizing Democrats for forcing through a new version of the legislation."
Dow Jones reports corporations would "see their top tax rate cut to 30.5% from 35% under a tax plan unveiled Wednesday by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., to fellow committee members." Middle and "upper-middle income families would benefit under the plan from a repeal of the alternative minimum tax starting Jan. 1, 2008. Upper-income families, however, would pay for that repeal with a 4% surtax on incomes above $150,000 for a single earner or incomes above $200,000 for a married couple."
The New York Times says Rangel has "acknowledged that he does not expect to enact such a bill this year, and President Bush would almost certainly veto legislation that raises taxes on the wealthy." The Wall Street Journal reports as House Democrats "move to keep the alternative-minimum tax from hitting more people this year, private-equity and hedge-fund managers may be back in their sights for a tax increase."
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ABC World News reported there are "charges, tonight, that the Bush Administration has once again watered down a government official's testimony on climate change. This time, it was the presentation of Dr. Judy Gerberding, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." Dr. Gerberding's "written testimony was a shell of what she had originally prepared. Six pages cut down from 14, after heavy editing by the Bush Administration. In her original draft, Gerberding states, CDC considers climate change a serious public health concern. That was left out."
The Washington Post reports Senate Democrats "say they want to investigate the circumstances involved in the editing" Gerberding's "written testimony to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on 'climate change and public health.'" The OMB "removed several sections of the testimony that detailed how global warming would affect Americans, according to White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, because John H. Marburger III, who directs the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and his staff questioned whether Gerberding's statements matched those released this year by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change."
The New York Times says the "shift in tone" in Gerberding's testimony "prompted criticisms of the administration by some Democratic lawmakers, including Senator Barbara Boxer of California, the committee's chairwoman."
The Washington Post reports in a front page story that House Government Reform and Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman has "become the Bush administration's worst nightmare: A Democrat in the majority with subpoena power and the inclination to overturn rocks. But in Waxman the White House also faces an indefatigable capital veteran -- with a staff renowned for its depth and experience -- who has been waiting for this for 14 years."
The Washington Times reports it "doesn't matter how many Oscar winners are in front of or behind the camera -- audiences are proving to be conscientious objectors when it comes to this fall's surge of antiwar and anti-Bush films. Both 'In the Valley of Elah' and, more recently, 'Rendition' drew minuscule crowds upon their release, which doesn't bode well for the ongoing stream of films critical of the Iraq war and the Bush administration's wider war on terror."
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The AP reports that Sen. John McCain "contrasts images of Woodstock and his years as a Vietnam prisoner of war in a new television ad that pokes fun at" Sen. Hillary Clinton. The ad, set to air in New Hampshire today, "decries a proposal, since scrapped, to spend $1 million for a museum in Bethel, N.Y., site of the August 1969 rock festival" that was earmarked by Clinton and fellow New York Sen. Chuck Schumer. In the ad, McCain is shown saying at a recent GOP debate, "A few days ago, Senator Clinton tried to spend $1 million on the Woodstock concert museum. Now my friends, I wasn't there. I'm sure it was a cultural and pharmaceutical event." Shifting to footage of McCain as a POW in Vietnam, McCain says, "I was tied up at the time." The New York Times noting that the spot shows Rudy Giuliani "at the debate, laughing appreciatively at what Mr. McCain is saying," adds, "And no Republican candidate trying to appeal to the more conservative activists who so reliably vote in primaries can go wrong going after Mrs. Clinton. In sum, it is the sort of attention-grabbing commercial Mr. McCain needs at a time when his bank accounts are bare -- and when some conservatives have seemed extremely reluctant to embrace him as one of their own."
The Boston Globe reports that "in a neat rhetorical trick, McCain managed to remind viewers that he is the only leading Republican candidate who served in the military, and at the same time tar Clinton as a purported tax-and-spend Democrat." The Washington Post reports that "the real point of the ad" is "to show what happened at the debate when McCain referenced being a prisoner of war in Hanoi during Woodstock. The audience jumped to its feet. 'No one can be president of the United States that supports projects such as these,' he concludes after showing the standing ovation."
The Hill reports that Sen. Sam Brownback (R), a "champion of social conservative causes" who ended his presidential bid last week, is considering endorsing Rudy Giuliani. Brownback will meet with Giuliani today, and says, "I'm going to meet with him and I'm going to talk to him and hear what he is specifically saying now because he's changed on a number of the abortion issues. He's changed on partial-birth [abortion] and he...has said he would appoint strict constructionists." However, the AP quotes Brownback spokesman Brian Hart as saying, "Mayor Giuliani asked to meet with Senator Brownback, and Senator Brownback is happy to sit down with him. Senator Brownback is talking to a few people but doesn't intend to endorse anyone right away."
The AP reports this morning that the mob bosses of New York's five Mafia families "discussed killing Rudy Giuliani in 1986 when he was a mob-busting federal prosecutor, according to testimony Wednesday in the murder trial of a former FBI agent. The details about the plot -- which never took shape -- were given to ex-FBI agent Roy Lindley DeVecchio by the late Gregory Scarpa Sr., a capo-turned-informant, according to the testimony of FBI agent William Bolinder. ... Before Giuliani became New York mayor, he had a track record of high-profile mob prosecutions. In 1986, Giuliani indicted the heads of the five families. That same year, the mobsters purportedly discussed the hit." The New York Post reports, "Before cooler heads prevailed -- the mob bosses decided by a razor-thin 3-to-2 margin not to try to whack the future mayor and presidential candidate -- at least two of the dons argued fervently that the mob-busting U.S. attorney should sleep with the fishes"
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The New Hampshire Union Leader reports this morning that a new St. Anselm College poll of 1,514 likely New Hampshire voters shows both Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton holding comfortable leads in this key early state. Clinton leads the Democrats with 43%, followed by Barack Obama at 22% and John Edwards at 14%. On the GOP side, Romney leads with 32%, followed by Rudy Giuliani, 22%; John McCain, 15%, and Ron Paul, 7%. One potential wild card in the race 40% "of self-identified independents say they were still not sure if they would vote in the Democratic or Republican primary."
Fred Thompson may be losing momentum in national polls, but he's the runaway favorite in one big southern state. A new Strategic Vision poll of 800 likely Georgia voters taken October 19-21 shows Thompson leading the GOP field with 39%, followed distantly by Rudy Giuliani, 19%; John McCain, 9%; Mike Huckabee, 7%; and Mitt Romney, 6%. The rest of the field is at 3% or less. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton holds a double-digit lead, taking 40%, followed by Barack Obama, 27%; John Edwards, 11%; and Bill Richardson, 5%. The rest of the field is at 3% or less.
McCain Best GOP Performer Republicans have expended a lot of effort during the last two presidential elections to win Wisconsin but have come up short. A new poll out this morning suggests that the Democrats will likely go into the 2008 contest with an edge again. A SurveyUSA poll of 558 registered Wisconsin voters taken October 12-14 for several TV stations shows Hillary Clinton leading the top GOP candidates. Clinton tops Rudy Giuliani 48%-41% and Fred Thompson 53%-41%. However, one Republican appears to give the GOP a shot Clinton leads John McCain only 46%-45%, bolstering McCain's recent arguments that he is the strongest GOP performer in a general election.
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Jimmy Kimmel: "President Bush is in a tough spot, because on one hand he wants to be sympathetic to all the people who have lost their homes [in the CA fires], but on the other, he doesn't want to appear to be more sympathetic to the wealthy, mostly white people who live in Malibu than he was to the people who lived in New Orleans." So tomorrow "he's making an official visit to LL Cool J's house."
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