The Note
W A S H I N G T O N, Jan. 3—
, 2004 -- Today's Schedule (all times Eastern):
—1:00 pm: Sen. John Kerry highlights his plan to strengthen Iowa's family farms at Care4Iowa Congress in Des Moines, Iowa.—2:30 pm: Sen. John Kerry makes remarks on homeland security and receives local endorsements at a police union hall in Pleasant Hill, Iowa. —3:00 pm: Sen. John Edwards delivers a major speech outlining why he is the candidate who can bring real change to America in Nashua, NH.
NEWS SUMMARY
The Note has made several New Year's resolutions, which we will unfurl throughout January, but there two you need to know about today.
First, we resolve to give you some pretty cool new stuff this month, including wildly expanded weekend coverage (As Paul Mason and John Roberts can tell you, the weekend is 2/7th of the week … .), and lots of Note-y streaming video delivered in all sorts of ways.
Second, we resolve to give you a more global perspective on American politics, turning this morning for our paradigmatic headline and this lead to Ben McConville of the Scotsman ("Scottish news direct from Scotland"):
"With 16 days to go before his first test at the polls, the question gripping Washington is: 'Who can stop Howard Dean from becoming the Democratic presidential candidate?'"
And that question seems right now to pivot NOT off of Dean's positions (Too left? Too right?) or his campaign organization (You won't really believe what he is building in Iowa, and the large crowds he drew in New Hampshire yesterday are sort of mind boggling … .).
No, what those auditioning to be the Dean Alternative have seized on for the home stretch are The Doctor's temperament and electability.
Will nomination voters care about these matters enough to deny Dean the Democratic Party nod?
And assuming that one or two challengers emerge as Dean Alternatives, will they be able to make the case better than the group gang-up is doing now?
If you know the answers to those questions, you possess the wisdom of Howard Fineman, the judgment of Matt Cooper, the experience of David Yepsen, the sagacity of Ron Brownstein, the puckishness of James Pindell, and the confidence of Chris Matthews.
Or, alternatively, your name is Ron Fournier.
Dean has a new policy: no responding personally to the attacks of his rivals, but that is going to be hard to sustain at tomorrow's Des Moines Register debate.
Indeed, after some campaign and journalistic weather delays, the road show has moved (mostly) from New Hampshire to Iowa, where today, Howard Dean holds four "Caucus for Change" events in Iowa including stops in Storm Lake, Emmetsburg, Fort Dodge and Boone.
Rep. Dick Gephardt holds seven "Countdown to Victory" events in Iowa including stops in Dubuque, Maquoketa, Clinton, Davenport, Marshalltown, Baxter and Des Moines.
Senator John Kerry highlights his plan to strengthen family farms at Care4Iowa Congress in Des Moines, Iowa.
Gen. Wesley Clark campaigns in New Hampshire. On Monday, Gen. Clark will lay out a major domestic policy proposal in Nashua, N.H.
Senator John Edwards delivers a speech explaining why he can bring real change to America from the steps of city hall in Nashua, N.H.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich campaigns in Austin, Tex.
Senator Joe Lieberman, Rev. Al Sharpton and Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun have no public events.
President Bush is in Crawford, Texas with no public events. He is scheduled to return to Washington, D.C. today.
Headlines:
The New York Times ' Rick Lyman explores Howard Dean's capacity for anger and determines "there is plenty of fodder for those hoping to turn Dr. Dean's temperament into a campaign issue … " About his temper, Dean tells Lyman, "it's not that I don't have one at all. It's just that, well, I don't think I yelled at a staff person in 12 years as governor, not once." According to the candidate's brother the same is not apparently true of his presidential campaign staff. And be sure to Note yet another skill added to Kate O'Connor's CV. LINK
The Washington Post 's Brian Faler and Dan Balz write Gephardt "lashed out" at Dean in Iowa yesterday claiming Dean has an "indefensible record" on healthcare "and a temperament that will leave him vulnerable if he becomes the party's nominee to challenge President Bush." LINK
Rachel Swarns of the New York Times heard a more aggressive Gephardt yesterday lambasting Dean and other rivals for not including a plan to cover all 43 million uninsured Americans in their health care proposals. Ms. Swarns also Noted Gephardt's questioning of Dean's character on such issues as slowing the growth of Medicare and providing assistance for the disabled. And please make sure you read this Doug Thornell pronouncement twice: "Dr. Dean's press secretary, Doug Thornell, said on Friday morning that the candidate would no longer respond personally to rivals' attacks." LINK
Tom Beaumont of the Des Moines Register also highlights the Gephardt et.al's lively attacks on Dean from the campaign trail yesterday. LINK
The AP writes up Dean's head-to-head intraparty leads in the crafty Time-CNN poll. LINK
The Los Angeles Times' Nick Anderson writes an in-depth piece on the importance of a Tom Harkin endorsement. The Senator told Anderson (from the Bahamas no less) that he is torn between Dean's appealing combativeness and his desire for a nominee from a "working-class background." Will he jump into the fray? Harkin says he expects to think it over until early next week and then announce a decision. LINK
The Los Angeles Times Notes how Dean's rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination began 2004 the same way they ended 2003: by attacking the Good Doctor all over the campaign trail yesterday. LINK
The Los Angeles Times explains that the issue of faith is reshaping itself in Dean's mind, though he has historically avoided the subject. LINK
Note that Ms. Gold plays and Old/New trick on Dr. Dean at the end. Andy Hiller — call your office!!!
David Brooks opines about the next GOP governing philosophy since shrinking the federal government doesn't seem to play anymore. Brooks looks toward the State of the Union and suggests the president launch a series of reform-minded domestic policies full of, "idealism, ambition, and shape." He writes, "It's looking increasingly as if Democrats will be the party of anger in 2004. Republicans may as well be the party of reform and hope." LINK
The Associated Press has the Ralph Hall switch and Tom DeLay's reference to Dean's angry Democratic Party. LINK
Luckily Hall had not endorsed a Democratic presidential candidate, so no one loses a superdelegate. LINK
Mike Allen follows up on the reports about White House staffers being asked to sign a form relinquishing any journalist from a pledge of confidentiality regarding the CIA leak investigation. A senior Administration official tells Allen there will be "tremendous pressure" on staffers to sign the form, although some investigators don't expect the waivers to prompt journalists into revealing their sources. LINK
The New York Times writes up the waiver forms too. LINK
Brian Blomquist of the New York Post has Dean pointing toward the latest round of terror threats as proof that America is not safer since Saddam Hussein's capture, which is what Dean had said last month before the country was put back at code orange. LINK
The AP's Holly Ramer writes up Dean's move to defend his assertion that capturing Saddam does not make America safer. LINK
Lawrence Kaplan offers a must-read Sunday Washington Post Outlook piece tomorrow (but here for you today!) stating that Dean is as much a McGovern as was McGovern a McGovern, which is a lot of McGovern. LINK
John Kerry AND Karl Rove will LOVE this one.
About 150 Dean supporters showed up in Lansing to turn in 900 applications for ballots to vote in the Feb. 7 caucuses, according to the AP. LINK
The Union-Leader Notes Dean's plan to take over the House of Representatives for the Democrats. LINK
Tom Beaumont of the Des Moines Register writes up Gephardt and his health care plan for the uninsured. LINK
Senator Lieberman is undoubtedly well aware that in recent elections New Hampshire women have made up a solid majority of the total voters. The New York Times looks at Lieberman's plan to combat domestic violence, which he unveiled yesterday with wife Coolhand Hadassah at his side. LINK
Tim Ryan of the Union-Leader writes up Lieberman's domestic violence plan. LINK
The Union-Leader reports that John Kerry alleged yesterday that his Democratic opponents would raise taxes if elected. LINK
It's Senator Kerry's turn in the Washington Post 's "defining issues" series and Ed Walsh explores the Senator's relationship with the Vietnam War. LINK
The Union-Leader reports on the Edwards campaign's aura of positive thinking in the face of lagging numbers in the Granite State.LINK
It appears Carol Moseley Braun will not be appearing on either the New York LINK or Ohio LINK March 2 presidential primary ballots.
Muriel Dobbin quotes a whole new crop of New Hampshire political observers in looking at Dean's Granite-hard lead, including a young man named David Carney, and some cat named Tom Rath, who says Dean just might outperform his poll standing. LINK
The legendary David Broder has a lovely homage to the legendary Mary McGrory in tomorrow's Washington Post LINK
The piece comes complete with a reminder/notification for younger reporters that if you never got to carry Mary's bags on the campaign trail, you have missed out on a professional rite of passage.
Yawn - E.J. Dionne takes precious column inches in tomorrow's Washington Post Outlook section to announce - wow!! - governors do better on the presidential hustings than Senators. LINK
The best part: Steve Elmendorf gets to be quoted in the Washington Post again.
Scott Gold of the Los Angeles Times writes up the political fundraising controversy facing House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. LINK
Senator Daschle is comfortable with his decision to not seek the presidency. He also thinks Democrats need to soon adopt Reagan's 11th Commandment before the nomination fight becomes too negative. LINK
David Von Drehle of the Washington Post produces a history of the leaked memo by Democratic staffers on the Senate Judiciary Committee and the seemingly never ending feud between Democrats and Republicans over federal judgeships. LINK
The New York Times editorial board offers a pre-buttal to President Bush's expected immigration reform proposal. LINK
Pat Robertson believes he has heard it from the highest authority (a providential predictor, if you will) that George W. Bush will be reelected in a "blowout election." LINK
A New York Post exclusive reports the FEC is asking Rudy Giuliani for some further information about how he has spent some campaign cash left over from his short lived 2000 race for the Senate. It appears to the FEC that some money may have been used for "personal" purposes. LINK
Veepstakes Special:
From ABC News' Deborah Apton and Teddy Davis:
It's the subplot to Campaign 2004 that just won't die …
Gen. Wesley Clark said Friday he would not be "Howard Dean's Dick Cheney."
But even with his "Cheney" comment, Clark will not close the door completely on the possibility of taking the number-two spot. During a New Year's Eve cruise around Portsmouth Harbor, Clark told Garrett Scholes of Kittery, Maine that not only had Dean asked him to be vice president but also that the retired general hadn't "ruled it out."
In public, however, Clark is more circumspect.
Clark's standard response, which he repeated at a press availability in Concord, N.H. on Friday, is that "there was only one decision and that was to run for the presidency or not run for the presidency."
Clark explained his "Cheney" comment by saying: "We've already tried that model of government. That's what's misled America thus far."
Clark cited "our presence in Iraq, the alienation of people around the world, and the way neo-conservatives have seized control of the national security debate" as evidence that "competent" advisers are not a substitute for first-hand foreign-policy experience.
Ironically, the Dick Cheney model might not be the worst choice for Dean.
In July 2002, in one of his first interviews as a presidential candidate, The New York Times Magazine asked the Vermont governor: "Who would be your model as a vice president?"
Dean's answer?
"Dick Cheney."
The New York Times and the Washington Post were sure to include the latest installment in the Clark/Dean veepstakes too. LINK and LINK