Huckabee Is Main Rival For Romney In GOP Race The CBS Evening News reported, "Just 51 days now until the first votes are cast in the presidential campaign in the Iowa caucuses. And as CBS News-New York Times poll [of 1273 likely Iowa caucus-goers] out tonight finds, Democrats Clinton, Obama and Edwards are neck and neck and neck. On the Republican side, the surprise is Huckabee, now in striking distance of Romney." CBS (Greenfield) added, "In the latest CBS-New York Times poll, more than half the Iowa caucus goers say they could change their minds. But that is no match for a conflict-hungry media." Chris Lehane, Gore's former press secretary: "There is absolutely no question that the press want to make sure that there is a race." Greenfield: "Chris Lehane was Al Gore's campaign press secretary." Lehane: "And every speed bump that you run into literally becomes known as a brick wall that you have to get around."
In Iowa, Clinton leads with 25%, followed by John Edwards, 23%; Barack Obama, 22%; and Bill Richardson, 12%; with the rest of the field at 4% or less. On the GOP side, Romney leads with 27%, followed by Huckabee, 21%; Rudy Giuliani, 15%; Fred Thompson, 9%, Ron Paul, 4%; John McCain, 4%; and the rest of the field at 3% or less.
CBS and New York Times also released a New Hampshire survey today, but its results are far less striking, and are treated that way by the two organizations' coverage. On the Democratic side, Clinton leads in the Granite State with 37%, followed by Obama, 22%; Edwards, 9%; Richardson, 6%; Dennis Kucinich, 5%; and the rest of the field at 2% or less. On the GOP side, Romney leads with 34%, followed by McCain, 16%; Giuliani, 16%; Paul, 8%; Huckabee, 5%; and Thompson, 5%.
The New York Times reports the new polls show Democratic voters in Iowa and New Hampshire say Obama and Edwards "are more likely than Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to say what they believe, rather than what they think voters what to hear, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Polls. But they also view Mrs. Clinton as the best prepared and most electable Democrat in the field, the polls found." Republican voters in the state "say that Mitt Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, shares their values and views on immigration, a red-hot issue for Republicans in Iowa especially. But they are divided over whether Mr. Romney or Rudolph W. Giuliani, who Republican voters say does not share their values, would be the party's strongest general-election candidate - and electability looms as a crucial factor for Republican voters in those states."
As expected, the National Right to Life Committee endorsed Fred Thompson yesterday. What wasn't expected was their head's outright statement that the move was an effort to thwart Rudy Giuliani. The AP reports Thompson "is the Republican most likely to beat abortion-rights supporter Rudy Giuliani, the National Right to Life Committee said Tuesday, announcing its endorsement of the former Tennessee senator for president." The group's executive director, David N. O'Steen, said at a news conference in Washington, "While there are various polls, and some are up-and-down, the overwhelming consensus has been that he is best-positioned to top pro-abortion candidate Rudy Giuliani for the Republican nomination." ABC World News reported, "The anti-abortion group's endorsement came despite the fact that...Thompson opposes a constitutional amendment to ban abortion." Asked "why they chose a candidate who feels this way, the National Right to Life Committee says there's no other choice:. Rudy Giuliani supports abortion rights. Mitt Romney used to. And John McCain supports embryonic stem cell research."
The move is seen as potentially a major boost for the Thompson campaign, which has struggled in its efforts to woo conservatives. The Hill, for example, reports that Thompson "received a major boost to his campaign" with the endorsement. With Thompson's "main rivals for the GOP nomination all receiving the endorsement of a prominent figure in Christian conservative circles, the backing of the prominent anti-abortion group is key for Thompson." MSNBC's Hardball reported, "The anti-abortion group usually gives a lot of money and organizational help to the presidential candidate it endorses, and this could be particularly helpful to Thompson, who needs a boost."
Fox News' Special Report reported the endorsement is "a blow to John McCain, who opposes abortion, but was passed over for backing embryonic stem cell research. Mike Huckabee is pro-life, but was deemed unelectable. It would have been a coup for Mitt Romney. He was written off as inconsistent."
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As Rudy Giuliani's campaign continues to fend off questions about his ties to Bernie Kerik, his police commissioner, a new issue has erupted this morning. The New York Times reports former book publisher Judith Regan "says in a lawsuit filed today protesting her dismissal by the News Corporation, the media conglomerate, that a senior executive there encouraged her to lie to federal investigators about her past affair with Bernard B. Kerik after he had been nominated to become homeland security secretary in late 2004." The lawsuit "asserts that the News Corporation executive wanted to protect the presidential aspirations of Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Kerik's mentor, who had appointed him New York City police commissioner and had recommended him for the federal post." Regan "makes the charge at the start of a 70-page filing that seeks $100 million in damages for what she says was a campaign to smear and discredit her by her bosses at HarperCollins and its parent company, News Corporation, after her project to publish a book with O.J. Simpson was abandoned amid a storm of protest."
The Washington Post says, "While head of her own imprint, ReganBooks, Regan became Kerik's lover and publisher, putting out his memoir, 'The Lost Son: A Life in Pursuit of Justice.' He was indicted Friday in New York on 16 counts of corruption, mail and tax fraud, obstruction of justice and lying to the government. Kerik has pleaded not guilty. Regan's firing last December followed the aborted publication of O.J. Simpson's 'If I Did It,' in which Simpson describes how he might have killed his ex-wife and her friend. Regan had brokered the book deal and an accompanying TV interview, which was also canceled."
A new poll out this morning shows Rudy Giuliani has closed sharply with Hillary Clinton in the key state of Ohio. A Quinnipiac University poll of 1,231 registered Ohio voters shows Clinton leading Giuliani 44%-43% in a general election trial heat. In a similar poll a month ago, Clinton led Giuliani 46%-40%. In other potential match ups, Giuliani trails John Edwards 46%-40% and is tied with Barack Obama at 41% apiece. John McCain outperforms Giuliani in Ohio, leading Clinton 46%-42%, but Fred Thompson trails the Democratic frontrunner 48%-38%. Clinton also holds a large lead over Mitt Romney, topping him 47%-38%.
Both Clinton and Giuliani hold wide leads in their respective primaries in the state. Clinton leads the Democrats with 42%, followed by Obama at 17% and Edwards at 14%. On the GOP side, Giuliani leads with 27%, followed by McCain, 14%; Thompson, 13%; and Romney, 11%.
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Media reports this morning cast President Bush's veto of the education, labor and health spending bill as the harbinger of a major battle between the White House and the Democratic-controlled Congress over budget priorities. While the story received no coverage from the network newscasts, Bush's veto is being treated as a major development in today's newspapers.
The New York Times says the veto "was announced as Bush was en route to Indiana to deliver an economics speech in which he chastised Congress for 'wasteful spending' and described it as acting 'like a teenager with a new credit card.'" The Washington Post says the clash had been "long-anticipated," and is one "both sides appear eager to wage heading into an election year."
In a similar report, USA Today says "both sides see the spending battle as politically beneficial, which is why it shows no sign of abating anytime soon." The AP reports the White House "said the $606 billion education and health was loaded with 2,000 earmarks" which Bush "wants stripped from the bill."
Similarly, the Financial Times says Bush "is attempting to use the confrontation to cast the Democrats as the party of tax-and-spend while restoring the Republicans' tarnished reputation for fiscal discipline ahead of next year's elections." The Wall Street Journal says Bush was "escalating the administration's battle with Congress over spending." The White House "complains that Democrats want to raise taxes and spend $22 billion more than necessary, while Democrats accuse the administration of cutting key domestic programs."
The Washington Times reports Bush "did not veto any appropriations bills from 2002 to 2006, while a Republican-controlled Congress increased spending at a record pace, drawing the ire of many conservatives." Under the headline "In Final Quarter, Bush Is No Reagan," the Christian Science Monitor reports that if Bush "wanted a role model, he needed look no further than President Ronald Reagan, who also faced a new Democratic majority in his final quarter, after the Democrats retook the Senate in 1986." Reagan "rebounded in his final year-plus in office in part by cutting deals with Congress (and the Soviet Union)." But Bush "has shown no such inclination to compromise with the Democrats lately, instead using or threatening to use the veto pen early and often, particularly on spending bills."
On Fox News' Special Report roundtable, Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard said, "I think the Bush administration and the Republicans in Congress are doing a pretty good job of defining this Democratic Congress as a pork-spending, tax-raising, Iraq defeat-embracing, no-terrorist-eavesdropping -- that will be next month when the debate on the terrorist eavesdropping bill comes up -- Congress. I think this Democratic Congress is a problem for the Democratic Party next year."
Bush Signs Pentagon Spending Bill The Los Angeles Times reports that as he vetoed the Education-HHS bill, Bush also "signed the $471-billion Pentagon appropriations bill. It is 'not a perfect bill -- it includes some unnecessary spending,'" said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.
The New York Times reports "the Defense Department measure signed by Mr. Bush includes a stopgap spending bill that will finance operations of most federal agencies at 2007 levels through Dec. 14."
Website Lists Earmarks The Washington Post reports, "Who put a million dollars for an 'Extended Cold Weather Clothing System' into the 2008 defense spending bill President Bush signed yesterday? The item is one of thousands that can be found on EarmarkWatch.org, a new Web site that enlists voters' help monitoring congressional spending." The site "supplies users with the tools they need to research earmarks and, creators say, 'a forum for lively debate over what constitutes a worthwhile expenditure of federal funds -- which earmarks meet pressing needs, which are political favors, and which are pure pork.'"
The Washington Times reports, "No one is declaring victory, but cautious optimists on the US-led war in Iraq suddenly find themselves armed with a growing number of indicators that the fighting has taken a new, more hopeful turn." Having been "burned repeatedly by past expressions of optimism in the 4½-year-old war, senior Bush administration officials and top military leaders are wary of any temptation to celebrate prematurely."
ABC World News reported, "In Iraq, the military has started to reverse the surge of 30,000 troops that President Bush sent to Iraq earlier this year. A brigade of 3,500 troops from the 1st Cavalry Division has begun to head home to Ft. Hood, Texas, the first test of whether recent security gains in Iraq will last."
Iraqis Hold Own In Clash With Al Qaeda On Tuesday, an al Qaeda force estimated between 35 and 40 gunmen attacked two checkpoints in the town of Adqaniyah southeast of Baghdad. The Los Angeles Times reports US and Iraqi army units "supported a citizen policing group in a daylong battle that repelled an al-Qaida in Iraq assault" on the town. The "untested residents, fighting with personal weapons and minimal combat gear, held their positions until help arrived first from the Iraqi army and then U.S. ground and aerial forces."
The Washington Post says it was "one of the biggest assaults so far on the U.S.-led effort to create neighborhood-based armed patrols," as five volunteers were killed in the attack along with the fifteen al Qaeda members. USA Today adds, "The al-Qaeda raid marked one of the biggest attacks on neighborhood patrols, many of which are paid by the U.S. military, since their numbers began increasing in and around Baghdad a few months ago." The AP noted that "it was unclear whether the 15 [al Qaeda] victims died in the gunbattle, or as a result of the U.S. bombing."
US Expands Cooperation With Tribes The Los Angeles Times says in an effort to "replicate Anbar province's decline in violence, the U.S. military has signed more than $5.2 million in contracts with local sheiks to protect roads and other infrastructure in Hussein's home province of Salahuddin. That cash has bought the loyalty of more than 2,700 men in a region where support for the executed dictator once ran deep." US commanders say "the strategy is yielding dividends."
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The AP reports Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday "that Democrats won't approve more money for the Iraq war this year unless President Bush agrees to begin bringing troops home." The House and Senate this week plan "to vote on a $50 billion measure for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan" that would "require Bush to initiate troop withdrawals immediately with the goal of ending combat by December 2008." If Bush vetoes the bill, Reid told reporters, "then the president won't get his $50 billion."
The Hill reports Senate Democrats "might force Republicans to wage a filibuster if the GOP wants to block the latest Iraq withdrawal bill, aides and senators said Tuesday." That "could set the stage for a dramatic end-of-the-year partisan showdown, which Democrats hope will help them turn voter frustration with Congress and the stalemate over Iraq into anger with the Republican Party."
Pro-Military Group Targets House Democrats The Washington Times reports a "pro-military group yesterday began an ad campaign targeting vulnerable House Democrats with a call to approve emergency funds for the war in Iraq." The "newspaper ad demanded that the Democrat-led Congress 'stop playing politics [and] fund the troops.'"
Congressional Democrats on Tuesday released a report that claims the true cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is much higher than the money appropriated by Congress for the conflicts. ABC World News reported, "$804 billion has been appropriated. Democrats said the true cost is $1.6 trillion, once higher oil prices and long-term care for wounded veterans and other expenses are factored in." The CBS Evening News noted the report "says that by 2017," the cost "could grow to $3.5 trillion. Under that scenario, the economic impact on the average American family would come to more than $46,000."
The AP says the report "was not vetted with Republican members" of the committee. But Democratic leaders in Congress, "including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., seized on the report to criticize Bush's war strategy."
CNN's The Situation Room reported White House spokeswoman Dana Perino "fired back at this Democratic report...saying that this was an attempt to muddy the waters in Iraq at a time when there have been positive developments on the ground." The Los Angeles Times reports, "Aside from the obvious costs of direct appropriations and the interest on borrowed funds," the report said the war "takes money from such 'productive investments' as education, law enforcement and healthcare."
CBO Found "Significantly Lower Number" CNN's The Situation Room reported Republicans "maintain that these numbers are grossly inflated. And, in fact, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office did a similar study factoring similar measures of the Democrats and came up with a significantly lower number."
In what is reported on network news and in newspapers across the country as a great embarrassment to the FBI and CIA, former FBI special agent and CIA operations officer Nada Prouty pleaded guilty on Tuesday to faking US citizenship to obtain employment at the FBI and then improperly accessing classified material on her Hezbollah-linked relatives.
ABC World News reported the government "is scrambling to find out if a former FBI special agent and CIA officer was a mole for the terrorist organization Hezbollah. ... Prouty's brother-in-law, Tahil Chahine, is a wanted fugitive, thought to have close ties to the leader of Hezbollah, who the government has labeled a specially designated global terrorist." The CBS Evening News says Prouty "wasn't charged with spying, but the case raises serious questions about the security of top-secret files in the war on terror."
NBC Nightly News reported, "After working as a waitress at this Detroit restaurant, Prouty managed to pass an FBI background check and became an FBI special agent. Four years later, she was hired as a CIA case officer." The AP notes Prouty "was not subjected to the more rigorous security screening that the FBI adopted after its 2001 arrest of turncoat Robert Hanssen, who spied for the Soviet Union and Russia over a 20-year period."
Under the headline "Ex-FBI Employee's Case Raises New Security Concerns," the Washington Post says that "Prouty's ability to conceal her past from two of the nation's top anti-terrorism agencies raised new concerns about their vulnerability to infiltration." The New York Times reports that the case "appeared to expose grave flaws in the methods used by the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to conduct background checks on its investigators." The Washington Times /UPI reports Prouty "will serve a period of probation under the supervision of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement but will not be deported, as is usual in such cases."
The New York Times reports on Tuesday, "hundreds of riot policemen blocked the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and her supporters from setting out today on a planned march." From her home, Bhutto called for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to step down in a telephone interview with CNN. In addition, Bhutto said she and "her party will pursue an alliance with other opposition groups, including its main rival, the Pakistan Muslim League of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, to restore democracy."
On its front page, the Washington Post focuses on the Sharif offer, reporting that while Bhutto has for months "been engaged in quiet power-sharing negotiations with Musharraf," on Tuesday she shifted strategies, instead reaching out to Sharif, "paving the way for a common front among anti-government forces that so far have been divided by mistrust and ambition."
Musharraf Defends State Of Emergency In an interview with the New York Times, President Musharraf on Tuesday rejected an appeal by Secretary Rice to lift his state of emergency, maintaining that "it was the best way to ensure free and fair elections." In the interview, Musharraf "vigorously defended the emergency decree" saying, "I totally disagree with [Secretary Rice]" and insisted that "the emergency is to ensure elections go in an undisturbed manner."
ABC World News reported that "a visibly angry Musharraf lashed out at Bhutto personally." Musharraf: "She distorts facts and reality. In the West, unfortunately, in your media and the West, you were impressed if instead of a gent, there's a lady, very good. If she speaks very good English, very good. If she happens also to be good looking, well, even better." The Wall Street Journal reports, "A worsening split between" Musharraf and Bhutto "is exposing how ill-prepared the Bush administration is for the political crisis now convulsing Islamabad."
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The late night shows were in reruns last night because of the writers strike.
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