Sunday, September 05, 2004

Kerry Enlisting Clinton Aides in Effort to Refocus Campaign.  Former President Bill Clinton offered John Kerry advice on how to reinvigorate his candidacy, and Mr. Kerry enlisted more Clinton advisers for his campaign. By By ADAM NAGOURNEY and DAVID M. HALBFINGER. The conversation and the recruitment of old Clinton hands came amid rising concern among Democrats about the state of Mr. Kerry's campaign and criticism that he had been too slow to respond to attacks on his military record or to engage Mr. Bush on domestic policy. Among the better-known former Clinton aides who are expected to play an increasingly prominent role are James Carville, Paul Begala and Stanley Greenberg, campaign aides said. "It's very simple," Mr. Johnson said in an interview yesterday, describing what he said would be the template for Mr. Kerry's speeches and advertisements in the weeks ahead. "It's: 'Bush has taken us in the wrong direction. If you want more of the same for the next four years, vote for President Bush. If you want a new direction, John Kerry and John Edwards.' It's not complicated. Failed policies, jobs and the economy, health care." Mr. Begala, who said he would remain a CNN commentator, said he was delighted with the changes. He added that Mr. Bush had succeeded over the past month in transforming the race from a referendum on an incumbent president to a referendum on Mr. Kerry. "It was an enormous shift," Mr. Begala said last night. Then, referring to Karl Rove, a top Bush strategist, he added: "And it required the cooperation of the candidate. And you know what? The Kerry campaign is no longer cooperating. Sorry, Karl." 11:16:40 PM    comment []

A note on polls: as of the day after the convention I'm told by what I believe to be reliable sources that the internal polls of both campaigns had President Bush up roughly four points on John Kerry. Getting straight-up info on what each campaigns' own polls are telling them is inherently difficult. And I want to make clear that I have not seen the data with my own eyes. But I have heard this from sources (for each side) which I believe to be reliable. And I'm passing the information on on that caveat-ed basis. -- Josh Marshall   Presidential Tracking Poll: Bush-Kerry The Rasmussen Reports Presidential Tracking Poll shows President George W. Bush with 48% of the vote and Senator John Kerry with 46%. The Tracking Poll is updated daily by noon Eastern. Two-thirds of the interview for today's report were completed after the President's speech on Thursday night. Updated Daily by Noon Eastern Election 2004 Date Bush Kerry Today 47.6 46.4 Sept 4 49.1 44.7 Sept 3 49 45 Sept 2 49 45 Sept 1 47 47 Aug 31 47 46 Aug 30 47 46 Aug 29 48 45 Aug 28 47 46 Aug 27 46 46 Aug 26 47 46 Earlier Results for RR Premium Members Dates are release dates  Surveys conducted on preceding three nights RasmussenReports.com 7:58:32 PM    comment []

Amnesia in the Garden By MAUREEN DOWD Full article he Manichaean Candidate sees the world only in terms of good and evil, black and white. He scorns gray, nuance, complexity, context, changing circumstances and inconvenient facts. Real men make their own reality. Trying to match John Kerry, who roused the base at his convention with a line bashing the House of Bush-House of Saud coziness, George W. Bush roused the base at his convention with a liberal-media-elite-bashing line. W. took a page from Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Total Recall," a futuristic movie about inserting fully formed memories into the minds of unsuspecting victims. The president and vice president ignored all the expert evidence now compiled indicating no link between 9/11 and Saddam, and no Saddam threat to U.S. security. After talking about "the fanatics who killed some 3,000 of our fellow Americans," Dick Cheney boasted: "In Iraq, we dealt with a gathering threat, and removed the regime of Saddam Hussein." W. suddenly proclaimed himself a compassionate conservative again, even though extra-chromosome conservatives, as Lee Atwater called them, were in closed meetings calling for a culture war to curb the rights of women and gays. Mr. Bush even tried to implant in our heads that he is the son of Reagan. He didn't give his dad a speaking slot, though the last two Democratic presidents spoke in Boston, and he spent more time in his speech lionizing Gip than Pop. Inside Madison Square Garden, W. kept insisting he'd made the world safer. Outside, the exploding world didn't seem safe at all. 4:12:25 PM    comment []

Bush's National Guard File Missing Records WASHINGTON - Documents that should have been written to explain gaps in President Bush (news - web sites)'s Texas Air National Guard service are missing from the military records released about his service in 1972 and 1973, according to regulations and outside experts.  For example, Air National Guard regulations at the time required commanders to write an investigative report for the Air Force when Bush missed his annual medical exam in 1972. The regulations also required commanders to confirm in writing that Bush received counseling after missing five months of drills. No such records have been made public and the government told The Associated Press in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that it has released all records it can find. 4:07:09 PM    comment []

Speaker Dennis Hastert, on Soros: "I also believe that 527 political organizations set a dangerous precedent for political discourse because we don't know where the money comes from. For all we know, funding for some of the 527s might come from foreign sources or worse." Back by popular demand, it's the handy Soros vs. Moon chart: Which sugar daddy is right for you? A consumer's guide George Soros Reverend Moon Claim to fame Investor Cult leader (Unification Church), businessman, owns The Washington Times and UPI Agenda Liberal democracy Moon-centered theocracy Net worth $5-7 billion $10 billion in assets Big gifts $35 million to the liberal groups MoveOn.org, Americans Coming Together, and the Center for American Progress His Times loses $100 million every year promoting the Republican cause. Pays lavish speaking fees to George H.W. Bush, William Bennett, and others. Has spotted Jerry Falwell and other hard-up Christian evangelicals for millions of dollars. Grassroots promotion of the Faith-Based Initiative, more. Cut a check for the "Contra" part of Iran-Contra. Maze of crypto-Moonist conservative foundations (like the American Family Coalition) Controversial idea Wants to legalize drugs. Has been called a "left-wing crank" by Tony Blankley Claims to be the Messiah and True Father of humanity. Has urged deacons to "tear down the cross." ("My enemies are America and Christianity. How am I going to win over those enemies?" he mused in 1993.) Shocking quote Compares War on Terror talk to Nazi slogans heard in his boyhood: "When I hear Bush say, 'You're either with us or against us,' it reminds me of the Germans." Calls the Holocaust payback for killing Christ: "Jewish people, you have to repent. Jesus was the King of Israel. Through the principle of indemnity Hitler killed six million Jews. That is why." Pet causes Anti-Communism in the old East Bloc (i.e. Polish Solidarity). Fostering "open societies" throughout the world. Funding study of the root causes of crime. Campaign finance reform Anti-Communism in Asia, South America. Reconciliation of Korean "Fatherland." Amending the U.S. Constitution to enforce sexual purity. Abstinence. Ensuring that newlyweds make love in white robes, with his photo nearby Thoughts "I propose replacing the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive military action with preventive action of a constructive and affirmative nature. Increased foreign aid or better and fairer trade rules, for example..." "Individualism is what God hates most"..."The separation between religion and politics is what Satan likes most." Deprogrammers hired to rescue teenagers from his remote compound? No Does business with North Korea? No Buying influence Vows he'll buy a Bush defeat "I influenced America through the Washington Times and so many different activities," he says. Claim: "Republicans' only hope is to unite with Father." Trouble in court Convicted of insider trading in France, fined $2 million Landed in federal prison in the early '80s for tax crimes and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Also, a group of lawyers in Japan attacked his "spiritual sales": aggressive missionaries scamming widows out of $622 million, by telling them their husbands would burn in hell unless they bought certain objects. Coronated the Messiah in a bizarre Congressional ceremony at the Dirksen Senate Office building? No Claims to be endorsed by former president William Howard Taft (1909-1913)? Unknown (Click check boxes for more information. Note: For purposes of accuracy, the simple description of Moon as a "Republican" has been removed, in mind of the uptick in Democrats drawn to his recent events. Moon's politics, however, remain conservative and he's been rewarded with $450,000 in your tax dollars for some...er..."faith-based programs" 8:16:01 AM    comment []

Wow. Even Susan Estrich, who usually seems to have forgotten she was ever a liberal (which I'm guessing has something to do with her token liberal post at Fox), wants blood: Thanks Suburban Guerilla:  The mask came off at the Republican convention on Wednesday night. After the video tribute to Ronald Reagan, the man whom his son described as a conservative without anger, the angry men took over. The angriest of all was Zig Zag Zell. It was stunt casting gone wrong. Sen. Zell Miller calls himself a Democrat, but he has no friends left in the Democratic Party, and after last night, some Republicans must be shaking their heads and wondering whether they want to claim him as one of their own. The substance of his speech was dubious at best. He attacked John Kerry for voting against the very weapons systems that Dick Cheney, as secretary of defense, had himself questioned. How could he justify this, Wolf Blitzer asked him after the speech. He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket. It's all here, he mumbled, seemingly unable to understand the question, much less answer it, even though it was repeated over and over. Why did you praise John Kerry when you came to the Senate, he was asked. Couldn't answer that one, either. He attacked John Kerry for describing the United States force in Iraq as occupiers, a term George W. Bush himself has used. Why? He couldn't explain that, either. Earlier in the week, in an interview with Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday," Zell Miller found himself making the case for change, as he did when he nominated Bill Clinton for president to run against George H.W. Bush. He stopped mid-sentence, clearly confused. Change? That was 12 years ago. Confused? Clearly. He quickly switched gears, and began to argue for stability. Could it be true, as those who have known Zell longest are suggesting, that he may not be all there, that a minor stroke or early onset Alzheimer's has clouded his judgment? That's the word among Democrats in Georgia, and if you watched his performance on Fox, you had to wonder if they could be right. But Wednesday night was worse. In the hall, partisan Republicans called it an old-fashioned stemwinder. On television, it came across as the tirade of a bitter old man. Who could forget that Zell Miller got his start in politics working for the angry segregationist Gov. Lester Maddox, who used to give out pick handles to his white customers at the Pickrick restaurant to use against blacks who might seek service? Zig Zag is not a new nickname for Miller, but one he earned years ago, for the ease with which he switched positions to suit his ambitions. Dick Cheney was not so angry. Or happy. Or engaged. Or anything. Passion was almost altogether missing from his performance. So was one of his daughters, who supposedly did not join the family on stage afterward for personal reasons. Even though she works full-time for her father, apparently there was no place on the podium for the vice president's openly gay daughter. Too bad. It might have brought some energy to what was the flattest moments of the week. Was the vice president that bored? That uninterested, patronizing or contemptuous? Hard to tell. What he certainly wasn't was engaged with his audience, or interested in anything other than attacking John Kerry or addressing the war on terror. No Ronald Reagan he. No Arnold Schwarzenegger, either. Rich Lowry, the editor of The National Review and as partisan a Republican as you can find, called it the worst night of the convention. It was one of the worst nights of any convention I can remember. It was enough to make you yearn for the much-criticized Bush twins and their "Sex in the City" jokes. But it's not simply a problem of style. In three days, no one has said a word about jobs, health care, education, children, seniors, prescription drugs, the environment, the cost of health insurance, clean air, clean water, urban sprawl, housing, poverty, cancer, the loss of manufacturing jobs, the working poor, the price of oil, etc., etc., etc. This has been a convention about fear and terror, about anger and hate, not about America's families sitting around their kitchen tables. Every poll says swing voters care most about the economy. They ain't heard nothing yet. To find out more about Susan Estrich, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2004 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC. Originally Published on Friday September 3, 2004   Archive: To See Earlier Columns Friday September 3, 2004 Wednesday September 1, 2004       about creators  |  contact us  |  site index  |  privacy policy       8:07:44 AM    comment []

9/11 hijackers tied to Saudi government, Graham says in book. WASHINGTON -- Two of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers had a support network in the United States that included agents of the Saudi government, and the Bush administration and FBI blocked a congressional investigation into that relationship, Senator Bob Graham wrote in a book to be released Tuesday. The discovery of the financial backing of the two hijackers "would draw a direct line between the terrorists and the government of Saudi Arabia, and trigger an attempted coverup by the Bush administration," the Florida Democrat wrote. And in Graham's book, "Intelligence Matters," obtained by The Miami Herald yesterday, he makes clear that some details of that financial support from Saudi Arabia were in the 27 pages of the congressional inquiry's final report that were blocked from release by the administration, despite the pleas of leaders of both parties on the House and Senate intelligence committees 7:57:39 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2004 John Amato.