The AP reports the Democratic National Committee "wants campaign finance regulators to investigate whether" Sen. John McCain "would violate money-in-politics laws by withdrawing from the primary election's public finance system." McCain, who "had been entitled to $5.8 million in federal funds for the primary, has decided to bypass the system so he can avoid spending limits between now and the GOP's national convention in September." However, Federal Election Commission Chairman David Mason said McCain can only withdraw if he receives approval from the FEC's six-member commission, which is not currently possible, as four of the seats are vacant and four members are needed for a binding vote.
The Wall Street Journal adds that McCain was approved for the public financing program in August, "when his campaign was in dismal financial health." The Journal adds, "Being locked in could be devastating to Mr. McCain's bid because it would limit his expenditures to about $54 million, a level he may have surpassed already." The Washington Times says the move, "if successful, would cripple his campaign for the next six months." DNC chair Howard Dean said, "John McCain cannot unilaterally withdraw from his spending agreement. What does this say about John McCain that he applied for the law, knowing he wasn't going to keep it?"
An editorial in the Wall Street Journal today lays part of the blame for the issue at the feet of Sen. Barack Obama. The WSJ says Obama is "promising to end partisanship in Washington, and here's a place to start: He could stop playing politics with the Federal Election Commission in a way that could hamper John McCain's campaign against, well, Mr. Obama." Obama is "blocking confirmation of one of President Bush's appointees to the FEC, which administers election laws. This has left the agency two commissioners short of the quorum it needs to make decisions -- with the potential for direct harm to Mr. McCain's campaign."
The North American Free Trade Agreement, and the degree to which the candidates oppose it, became the central issue in the Democratic contest over the weekend. As she campaigned in Ohio on Saturday, Sen. Hillary Clinton held an angry press conference at which she denounced a pair of mailers put out by Sen. Barack Obama's campaign, where ABC World News reported she "displayed the kind of anger and frustration toward Obama unlike anything seen yet on the trail." NBC Nightly News reported, "Anyone who heard Hillary Clinton sharp attack on Barack Obama today over what she called blatantly false campaign flyers also heard the unmistakable sound of gloves coming off."
However, it seems like a battle Obama is willing to fight. He hit back yesterday, the AP reports, accusing Clinton of "trying to walk away from a long record of support for NAFTA, the free trade agreement that he said has cost 50,000 jobs" in Ohio. Obama "was eager to rekindle the long-distance debate, using passages from the former first lady's book as well as her own words." ABC World News reported Obama "is trying to chip away at Senator Clinton's lead here in Ohio by attacking her for the NAFTA trade deal. A big part of her legacy that's very unpopular with union members. It's just one of the many ways Bill Clinton, who was supposed to be such an asset for his wife's campaign, into a liability."
The Chicago Tribune reports Clinton campaign spokesman Phil Singer "countered" later in the day "by citing a 2000 speech in which she described the trade agreement as 'flawed' and a 2004 speech Obama made to the Illinois Farm Bureau in which he said the United States 'benefited enormously' from exports under NAFTA." The Tribune also notes that Clinton "angrily denounced" the Obama campaign's fliers as having "distorted her record" on the issue.
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Sen. Hillary Clinton, campaigning in Rhode Island yesterday, tried a knew line of attack on Sen. Barack Obama openly mocking his calls for unity. NBC Nightly News says Clinton "went after" Obama with "sarcasm." Clinton said, "Now, I could stand up here and say let's just get everybody together. Let's get unified. The sky will open. The light will come down. Celestial choirs will be singing." The Washington Times reports Clinton "further upped her criticism" of Obama's "soaring rhetoric by accusing him yesterday of posing as a secular messiah who will bring about paradise on Earth." At an "arena rally at the Rhode Island College Recreation Center, Mrs. Clinton drew big laughs and thunderous applause with an impassioned criticism of Mr. Obama's 'misleading' campaign mailings, and she borrowed heavily from religious imagery and language." The Providence Journal says Clinton "mocked" Obama.
USA Today reports in a front-page story sub-titled, "None of the top three contenders for president has ever run a government or a business. The question now: How much does that really matter?" Sens. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Republican John McCain "all boast about their preparation and credentials for the Oval Office - and their ability to, as Clinton has called it, be 'ready on Day One to solve our problems.'" But all there "have less executive grounding than anyone elected to the White House in nearly a half-century. Each candidate has scored impressive achievements in life, but none has run a city or state, a small business or large corporation - or any bureaucracy larger than their Senate staffs and campaign teams."
The AP reports Sen. Barack Obama's "refusal to wear an American flag lapel pin along with a photo of him not putting his hand over his heart during the National Anthem," as well as some of his wife's recent comments, has conservatives questioning his patriotism. Conservative consultants "say that combined, the cases could be an issue for Obama in the general election if he wins the nomination, especially as he runs against Vietnam war hero Sen. John McCain." ABC World News adds that Obama has "said he would push back against questions of his patriotism by arguing the Republicans were the ones that took the country to war without giving troops the proper equipment. He said, quote, 'We'll see what the American people think is the true definition of patriotism."
The AP reports Ralph Nader yesterday "announced a fresh bid for the White House, criticizing the top contenders as too close to big business and dismissing the possibility that his third-party candidacy could tip the election to Republicans." USA Today reports Nader told them that he's running "because 'American politics is saturated in taboos and self-censorship to a level where the greatest issues in the campaign are off the table.'" ABC World News showed Nader saying, "We have to take this opportunity to have a much broader debate on issues that relate to the American people."
The prospect is worrying some Democrats. For example, McClatchy reports Sen. Hillary Clinton "worried aloud Sunday about the consequences of another Nader quest. 'I can't think of anybody that would vote for...McCain who would vote for Ralph Nader,' she said. 'I remember when he ran before. It didn't turn out very well for anybody, especially our country.'" However, the Wall Street Journal reports that Nader's "impact may not be as great as it once was." He "drew fewer than 500,000 votes running as an independent in 2004, about one-sixth of his total when he ran as the Green Party candidate in 2000."
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The Wall Street Journal reports, "Asif Ali Zardari, widower of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and leader of the party that won the most seats in parliamentary elections last week, said his coalition will be unable to impeach President Pervez Musharraf, and that he would instead seek a working relationship with the embattled leader."
Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, on CNN's Late Edition, said, "The two parties that are going to form a coalition do not have enough members to impeach President Musharraf, although some are talking about that. So the question is, what happens when a coalition is formed in the new government and what is the position of the president? So we'll be very carefully monitoring that, engaging with the Pakistani government as this goes forward."
Meanwhile, the AP reports, "Two US senators on Sunday urged a 'graceful exit' from power for the unpopular president, but stopped short of supporting efforts to remove him from office." Sen. Joe Biden, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said, "I firmly believe if they do not focus on old grudges -- and there's plenty in Pakistan -- and give him a graceful way to move, then it could happen." Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison "echoed the sentiment."
Meanwhile, the Washington Times /AP reports, "Taliban-style militants battling government forces in northwest Pakistan said Sunday they wanted dialogue with the winners of parliamentary elections and urged the new leadership to abandon...Musharraf's war on terror."
The Miami Herald reports Raúl Castro "was elected as Cuba's new president Sunday, capping the island's first change of leadership in 50 years with a perfectly managed and carefully orchestrated succession of power that caused little stir in Havana or Miami." And "in a clear sign of what role the ailing Fidel Castro will play in the coming years, moments after taking office, Raúl asked the nation's assembly to allow him to consult his brother on key matters." Meanwhile, AFP reports Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday urged Cuba to move toward "peaceful, democratic change." In addition, she urged the international community "to work with the Cuban people to begin to build institutions necessary for democracy, and to support Cuban civil society."
The move by Cuba's legislature is not expected to significantly change the island's political situation or US policy. Under the headline "Raúl Castro Signals Little Will Change In Cuba," the Wall Street Journal says, "Most of the political signals from Havana yesterday were aimed at playing down expectations among ordinary Cubans and the outside world that Raúl Castro...would pry open the country's closed political system or carry out a major overhaul to its tattered economy." The Washington Post meanwhile, says the "unanimous decision" naming Raul president "dealt a blow to Cubans who had hoped Sunday would mark a dramatic change of direction" for the country.
The Washington Times notes that "in a surprise move, officials bypassed younger candidates to name a 77-year-old revolutionary leader, Jose Ramon Machado, to Cuba's No. 2 spot -- apparently assuring the old guard that no significant political changes will be made soon." The New York Times reports the "trappings of Cuban leadership...changed, even if the message did not." The Financial Times, Los Angeles Times and Christian Science Monitor, which says that with Raul's selection "Cuba's power structure chose continuity and consistency," run similar reports this morning.
In one of the few upbeat assessments, ABC World News said the move "was, quite frankly, not a surprise," but "many are now asking: Could this be the start of a new relationship between the US and Cuba?" Observers in "both places believe Raul quietly favors the kind of economic and social reform that could lift the struggling Cuban economy and bring an end to the US economic embargo."
USA Today, meanwhile, notes "Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, a close friend of Fidel Castro, said the leadership change was 'occurring without any type of trauma.' 'Transition in Cuba?' asked Chavez, whose country is a major economic ally of Cuba. 'The transition occurred 49 years ago. ... The transition will continue marching forward, always with Fidel at the forefront.'"
U.S. News and World Report reports this week Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen "said this week that it is a Pentagon priority to provide two years of rest time for troops who serve in combat zones for one year or 15 months. 'But I don't see that happening in the next year or so,' he added." Last week, at a town hall meeting Iraq veterans "asked the chairman pointed questions about equipment in the combat zone and about their vacation time, too. One marine wondered why the officers above him were receiving new M-4 rifles but many enlisted grunts doing regular patrolling in Iraq were not (they have the older M-16s)."
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Roll Call reports, "K Street's top firms cashed in on the legislative energy unleashed by new Democratic majorities to post solid overall growth of about 9 percent in 2007." But "the power switch and a Democratic-led revamp of lobbying rules -- as well as a harsher earmark environment -- spawned uncertainty that produced widely varying individual performances among the 25 largest shops."
The Washington Times reports Montana officials "are warning that if the Supreme Court rules in the DC gun ban case that the right to keep and bear arms protects only state-run militias like the National Guard, then the federal government will have breached Montana's statehood contract." Nobody is "raising flags for the Republic of Montana, but nobody is kidding, either. So far, 39 elected Montana officials have signed a resolution declaring that a court ruling of the Second Amendment is a right of states and not of individuals would violate Montana's compact."
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Jay Leno: "Now that he is the Republican frontrunner, it looks like John McCain has changed his position on torture. He's now in favor of waterboarding, but only in very limited cases -- like if you're editor of 'The New York Times.'"
Jay Leno: "I guess you heard this story by now. 'The New York Times' 'alleging' that John McCain had an inappropriate relationship with a young female lobbyist. I haven't seen McCain this angry since 'Matlock' was canceled."
Jay Leno: "Well, a lot of people are questioning the source of this 'New York Times' story. See, it's never good when an article begins, 'Dude, guess what I heard.'"
David Letterman: "Big news, of course this week, President George Bush was in Africa," where "he's wildly popular." That is like David Hasselhoff" being wildly popular "in Germany. Nobody knows why."
Conan O'Brien: "This week, footage surfaced of Senator Ted Kennedy singing in Spanish to a Latino group. ... Yeah, there was an awkward moment when someone in the crowd pointed at Kennedy's head and said, 'Look, the piñata is singing.'"
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