Edwards: Is Obama a "featherweight?"

by Matthew Hay Brown

It happened in the thick of the Great Depression, and again while Americans were held hostage in Iran. Next year, Sen. Charles E. Schumer says, America could see another "seminal election" – and one that he hopes will usher in a new era of Democratic dominance in Washington.

"They occur about once a generation," Schumer said today. "They change the tectonic plates of politics and they create a generation for one-party governance. Nineteen Thirty-Two, Roosevelt did it. In 1980, Ronald Reagan did it. And we’re about at the tail end of the Ronald Reagan era, where his ideas – fresh, and even as a Demcorat, I’d say many of them needed at the time – have just lost steam, lost resonance, and people are ready."

Schumer, who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, met with reporters today to talk about the 2008 elections for the Senate and House, a little more than a year before voters head to the polls.

by David Lerman

Virginia Sen. John Warner was admitted to Inova Fairfax Hospital today after a scheduled appointment revealed he had a ``low-grade infection" from surgery two weeks ago in his leg.

Warner, 80, ``is undergoing observation and such treatment as may be required," his office said in a statement. ``Doctors expect the senator to fully recover and return as early as next week to his regular work schedule in the United States Senate."

The veteran Republican lawmaker, who plans to retire at the end of his term next year, was hospitalized earlier this month after suffering from an irregular heartbeat. He underwent a non-surgical procedure known as ablation therapy.

by Naftali Bendavid

Halloween is here--that fun-filled time of adorable costumes, fanciful pumpin carvings, boatloads of candy--and juvenile Halloween references from political operatives.

Every year we're treated to comments like, "Halloween may be spooky, but what's really scary is Candidate X's position on Social Security." It's the political world at its most hackneyed.

This year is no different. Take a statement today from the Senate Democratic leadership. "As children across America go out trick or treating tonight for Halloween," it declares, "the Bush administration's policies should scare them more than ghosts and witches."

Yes, kids across America will no doubt be thinking not about how many Snickers bars and M&M bags they can score, but the merits of increasing the staffing of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus used the holiday to address the State Children's Health Insurance Program. "At 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, President Bush is having what he calls SCHIP Halloween--it's all trick, no treat," Emanuel said.

Republicans are seizing on Halloween references with equal zest. The Illinois GOP yesterday went after Sen. Dick Durbin's position on immigration with a tortured image. "Tomorrow American communities will decide who has the scariest costume for Halloween," it said. "Another that could easily be given amongst the scary ghosts and goblins is the award for the scariest position in America. Hands down, Dick Durbin should claim the prize." Yes, that's easy to imagine--a contest in small towns across the country for the scariest policy position. Sounds fun.

Then there's the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which attacked Democrat Andrew Rice, who is challenging Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) in the upcoming election. "When Andrew Rice dresses up as an extremist liberal, it isn't just for Halloween," the Republicans observed. That resonates, because "extremist liberal" costumes are flying off the shelves in stores across America.

D.C. residents Nell Schaffer and Joanna London in hippo costumes protest outside an office building Sen. John McCain visited, Oct. 31, 2007.

by Frank James

Because it's Halloween, you expect to see people dressed up in costumes.

But because it's Washington, a costume isn't necessarily a costume, but can be a political statement as well.

That was the case with the people who were dressed up as hippopotamuses outside the Kaiser Foundation offices several blocks from the White House today.

They were there with their signs protesting Sen. John McCain, (R-Ariz.,) the Republican presidential candidate, who was visiting the Kaiser building.

Shouting "Hippos follow hypocrites," they were members of DC Vote who were protesting McCain's opposition to Senate legislation that would give residents in the nation's capital voting representaion in Congress. Their position is that McCain is a hypocrite since he supports bringing democracy to Iraq but has helped to stall the DC voting rights bill in the Senate.

The DC Vote people have protested against McCain at other of his appearances. But today the costumes met their moment, Halloween, so the protesters kind of blended with the crowd more than they usually do, like with the bicycle courier wearing the cow outfit.

D.C. resident Eli Zigas in hippo outfit explains protest to a cow-clad bike courier.

(photos provided by DC Vote.)

by Mark Silva

"This is Ed.''

That's how Ed Schafer liked to answer the phone in the governor's office in North Dakota. It wasn't a very big office -- the staff photo fit on a page of the state Web-site.

It's not a very big state either -- with fewer people counted by the U.S. Census there in 2000 than were counted in 1900. We got a chance to know it, and to love it, during the aftermath of the Red River Flood in 1997, when the river overflowed the levees and deluged the city, followed by fire that decimated a good piece of downtown, including the newspaper -- the company formerly known as Knight Ridder summoned reinforcements to staff the stricken paper.

And it was there, dealing with the governor's office, that we first met "Ed.''

Schafer probably won't be answering his own phone at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where President Bush hopes to station him as secretary for the president's remaining year and then some in office. The far-flung agency counts more than 100,000 employees -- a little more than one-sixth the number of people who live in the state of North Dakota.

(Schafer and Bush. AP Photo b by Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

by William Neikirk
Video by Sabrina Fang

The Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a quarter of one percent today, its second straight reduction since a credit crunch threatened severe harm to the economy this summer.

The central bank's decision to reduce its benchmark interest rate to 4.5 percent met financial market expectations. But it came as a government report showed today that the economy posted a strong 3.9 percent growth rate in the third quarter.

The Fed said it acted to prevent a slowing of economic growth in the months head, "partly reflecting the intensification of the housing correction."

It was a strong pre-emptive strike against a future slowing of growth and a possible recession.

by Frank James

by Mark Silva

President Bush has promised to hold his analysis of the 2008 presidential campaign, but he waded straight into it today.

With a broadside against the Democratic Congress and its “incremental'' plans for “federalizing'' health insurance, Bush today reminded his audience that Congress rejected a national insurance plan in 1994 – that would be the plan that then-First Lady Hillary Clinton promoted, ultimately defeated by the insurance lobby.

“We've tried, by the way, here in Washington to have a... major effort, put the federal government square in the center of health care in 1994, and the legislation didn't pass,'' the president said in a speech today to the Grocery Manufacturers Association.

“I believe many of the Democrats in Congress who supported that legislation have learned from the experience,'' Bush said. “So instead of pushing to federalize health care all at once, they're pushing for the same goal through a series of incremental steps. With each step, they want to bring America closer to a nationalized system where the government dictates the medical coverage for every citizen.''

The target in question at the moment is the congressional attempt to expand eligibility for lower- and middle-income children under the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Bush has vetoed a $35 billion bill which Democrats maintained could offer coverage to an additional 3.8 million children beyond the 6.6 million covered.

But the bigger target is Clinton, the senator from New York and candidate for president whom Republicans are attempting to portray as a Democrat whom the nation cannot afford. It matters little that Clinton is not proposing nationalized health insurance in her campaign. Private enterprise is the way to go in medicine, the president maintains, saying: “We got good docs.''

Rep. Dennis Kucinich amuses Sen. Barack Obama during the presidential debate at Drexel University in Philadelphia (Photo by Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images)

by Mark Silva

A faithful reader of The Swamp found some irony and amusement in two headlines that appeared here yesterday: "Kucinich calls Bush's mental health into question'' and "Kucinich: 'I did' see a UFO.''

Kucinch, a congressman from Ohio, was asked during last night's debate of the Democratic candidates for president if he had seen a UFO.

The "serious" question was prompted by actress Shirley MacLaine's new book, in which she writes that Kucinich had spotted a UFO over her home in Washington state and "found the encounter extremely moving... It was a triangular craft silent and hovering,'' she wrote, and Kucinich "felt a connection'' in his heart and "heard direction'' in his mind.

"I did,''' Kucinich said to the question of whether he had seen a UFO.

As for "the rest of the account,'' he said, "I didn't.

"It's unidentified. I saw something,'' he said. "Also, you have to keep in mind that more -- that Jimmy Carter saw a UFO -- and also that more people in this country have seen UFOs than, I think, approve of George Bush's presidency.''

Moderator Tim Russert reminded the candidate that polls show just 14 percent of Americans say they have seen UFOs -- (about half the number that approve of the president's job approval in most recent polling.)

Earlier in the day, Kucinich had told the editors of the Philadelphia Inquirer that Bush's recent comments about World War III -- that those who are interested in averting it also should be interested in keeping nuclear weapons out of Iran -- call his mental health into question.

You cannot be a president of the United States who's wanton in his expression of violence," Kucinich said. "There's a lot of people who need care. He might be one of them. If there isn't something wrong with him, then there's something wrong with us. This, to me, is a very serious question."

Russert said the UFO question was serious, too. See the answer:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton at the presidential candidates debate in Philadelphia. Photo by Stan Honda//AFP/Getty Images)

By Mark Silva

A potentially dangerous new story-line could be developing in the campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York for the White House: Multiple-choice answers to the same difficult question.

Clinton already suffers from a certain “if I had known then what I know now'' syndrome over the war in Iraq – she voted along with an overwhelming majority of senators to authorize military force in Iraq, but now says she opposes the war. She promises to end it, if elected president, but will not commit to when all the U.S. troops deployed there will come home.

Clinton also has voted for a resolution on Iran supported by an overwhelming majority of senators which critics call a predicate to war, but she maintains that she is in no “rush to war'' in Iran. And last night, during a Democratic debate, she refused to pledge that Iran will not acquire nuclear weapons during her presidency – her leading rivals also demurred.

But it was a question about driver's licenses for “undocumented workers'' – the politically neutral terminology for “illegal aliens'' which she prefers – that created the most trouble for Clinton during last night's two-hour debate of the Democrats staged in Philadelphia. Her leading rivals pounced on Clinton for her conflicting answers – she supports New York's plan but says it's not the best idea -- and the GOP is pouncing today.

Clinton complained that she is a victim of the “gotcha'' on this controveral question. She may well be right – her rivals seized on a rare debate flub for the candidate who has proven toughest in Democratic encounters. And the GOP today is calling it “Hillary's Debate Dodgeball.''

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer has proposed giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, NBC moderator Tim Russert reminded Clinton. “You told the Nashua, N.H., editorial board it makes a lot of sense,'' he said. “Why does it make a lot of sense to give an illegal immigrant a driver's license? ''

“ Well, what Gov. Spitzer is trying to do is fill the vacuum left by the failure of this administration to bring about comprehensive immigration reform,'' she said. “We know in New York we have several million at any one time who are in New York illegally. They are undocumented workers.

“They are driving on our roads,'' she said. “The possibility of them having an accident that harms themselves or others is just a matter of the odds. It's probability. So what Gov. Spitzer is trying to do is to fill the vacuum.

by Doyle McManus

Between now and Jan. 3, 2008, when voters in Iowa hold their caucuses for the first real test of this presidential campaign, you will see dozens of public opinion polls purporting to say who’s winning the race. Ignore them.

More precisely, do your best to look beyond the part about who’s winning. That’s the part we all like to hear about, of course--the horse race. But one of the open secrets of political reporting is that the predictive value of opinion polls, even the well-crafted Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg Poll that we publish here, is weak at this stage of the game.

The poll we published last week, for example, had a sample of more than 1200, larger than most polls, so its findings should be pretty reliable. It showed Sen. Hillary Clinton way ahead in the Democratic field and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani leading among Republicans (with former Sen. Fred Thompson second). But there are three reasons not to take those findings too seriously.

by Christi Parsons
Video by Sabrina Fang

PHILADEPHIA--There was another presidential debate going on last night and, as is usually the case at these events, one full block near the site here was filled with supporters waving signs and chanting for several hours running up to the start.

Ordinarily, the audience for that scene is mainly made up of the other chanters, as well as the innocent passersby and the television cameras.

But at last night's pre-game pep rally before the Democratic debate, the listeners also included a Temple University professor who wandered through the crowds with a notebook.

"This one is very interesting," said Prof. Sue Wells, of the Temple English department. She stood behind a crowd of Barack Obama supporters shouting an ecstatic "Oh, oh, oh, Ohh-bama," and dispassionately diagrammed the chant in her spiral book.

"It's unique to their candidate," she said, "and it's also got a little extra rhythm that you don't hear in most group chanting."

Just up the way, Joe Biden's backers had chosen a more four square chant for, arguably, a more traditional candidate, and they were clapping as they yelled out "Let's go, Joe!" A simple football-style cheer, Wells noted on her page.

Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes, joined by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on Oct. 31, 2007 announcing she's leaving the administration. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

by Mark Silva

Karen Hughes, a longtime adviser and friend of President Bush from Texas, is leaving Washington -- again.

On her first tour, in the president's first term, Hughes worked at burnishing Bush's image. She had served the former Texas governor as communications director at home and during his first campaign -- she returned to Texas to spend more time with her family.

On her second tour, at the State Department, Hughes has worked at burnishing the image of the United States abroad. She will be leaving her post as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy at the end of the year, she has told the Associated Press today.

Her mission at State, she acknowledges, remains incomplete.

"This will take a number of years,'' Hughes said of the challenge of improving the world's view of the U.S., calling it a "long-term challenge'' in her exit-announcement through the AP.

The president had brought Hughes back to Washington two years ago. The former television reporter and media adviser was focusing on changing the way the U.S. presents itself and counters criticism in the Muslim world.

"Negative events never help,'' she allowed -- speaking of the shooting of several Iraqi civilians last week by the State Department's private security contractor, Blackwater

by Christi Parsons and Mike Dorning

PHILADELPHIA -- The competitors in the Democratic presidential race moved aggressively Tuesday to derail the inevitability express that has been the campaign of front-runner Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York.

Clinton kept her eyes on a general election opponent, suggesting the Republicans' "constant obsession with me" owes to the fact that she presents the greatest threat to their White House chances next year.

But rival John Edwards argued that could be because Republicans actually want to run against her, and went on to condemn a "rigged" and "corrupt" system that he suggested has helped to keep the Clinton operation in business.

"Will she be the person who brings about the change in this country?" Edwards said. "You know, I believe in Santa Claus. I believe in the tooth fairy. But I don't think that's going to happen. . . . And I think that if people want the status quo, Sen. Clinton's your candidate."

Barack Obama agreed with Edwards that GOP candidates may be focusing on Clinton's candidacy "because that's a fight they're comfortable having" and argued that the last thing the country needs is a throwback to the 1990s and "another eight years of bickering."

See the rest of the story in today's Tribune:

by Mark Silva

A “treat’’ for Rudy Giuliani today, and a “trick’’ for Hillary Clinton: That’s what the people at the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute are offering the presidential candidates for Halloween. And maybe a goblin for the Republican Party this time next year: George Bush.

Giuliani, riding a see-saw with Clinton in recent national surveys by the Connecticut-based pollsters, holds a slim lead – 45 to 43 percent – in the latest poll released today. This, for sure, is a statistical tie – much like the slim 46-43 advantage that Clinton held in the last Quinnipiac survey.

But Giuliani had held a 49-40 percentage point advantage over Clinton in May. And Clinton’s favorable ratings have slipped in the latest survey released today – with surveyed voters split. Clinton’s already troubled favorable ratings have slipped in this survey too – with American voters split 46-46 in their positive and negative views toward the senator from New York. It was 48 favorable, 43 unfavorable in August.

“Sen. Clinton’s success on the campaign trail and the perception that she is unstoppable has made her the prime target for all the other candidates, Republican and Democratic. And the wounds are showing,” says Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “The Clinton Express has hit a bump. Future polls will show if it’s been derailed.”

Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois holds much the same position in a theoretical match-up with Giuliani: Obama 43, Giuliani 42 – though he and other Democratic rivals lag far behind Clinton (Clinton 47, Obama 21 in this poll’s survey of Democrats)

The Democrats do have one thing going for them, according to this survey: George Bush. Voters surveyed say, by a wide margin, that the president’s own low approval ratings will make it difficult for a Republican to be elected next year. The judgment is 58-37 on that question. Even among Republicans, Quinnipiac notes, the judgment is 48-48 that Bush has made the upcoming election difficult for his own party.

“Very bad news for Republicans: Most Americans think President Bush’s poor standing in the polls will make it hard for any Republican to be elected President,’’ Carroll says. “Even Republicans split 48 – 48 percent on this one.’’

For more, see the poll.

by Frank James

A quick guided tour of some of the morning's most important or interesting, or both, Washington-related stories.

The Supreme Court stopped an execution in Mississippi, the strongest indication yet that the court intends to halt all such ultimate sanctions until it decides a lethal injection case which is scheduled to be argued in January.

The U.S. military will oversee private-security contractors in Iraq as it attempts to tighten control over firms like Blackwater USA in order to avoid further unwarranted violence against Iraqi civilians like the killings of at least 17 Iraqis in September.

Having already brutally driven out many Baghdad Sunnis and taken over their neighborhoods, businesses and municipal services, Shiites are seeking to hold onto their gains, moving the civil war in Iraq into a less outwardly violent phase.

Good morning.

Here are a handful of Washington events of note for Halloween, October 31.

President Bush is speaking to the Grocery Manufacturers Association/Food Products Association.

The Commerce Department is releasing the 3rd quarter Gross Domestic Product report.

The Federal Reserve is deciding whether to lower interest rates again.

by Mark Silva

Rep. Dennis Kucinch of Ohio was asked this during a debate of the Democratic candidates for president tonight: Has he ever seen a UFO?

"The godmother of your daughter, Shirley MacLaine, writes in her new book that you've sighted a UFO over her home in Washington state,'' the questioner asked, "that you found the encounter extremely moving, that it was a triangular craft silent and hovering, that you felt a connection to your heart and heard direction in your mind.

"Now,'' Kucininch was asked, "did you see a UFO?'''

"I did,'' Kucinich said.

"And the rest of the account -- I didn't -- I -- it was unidentified flying object, okay. It's like -- it's unidentified. I saw something.

"Now, to answer your question,'' Kucinich said, "'m moving my -- and I'm also going to move my campaign office to Roswell, New Mexico and another one, an extra, to New Hampshire, okay... And also, you have to keep in mind that more -- that Jimmy Carter saw a UFO, and also that more people in this country have seen UFOs than, I think, approve of George Bush's presidency.''

Questioner Tim Russert replied: "14 percent of Americans say they
have seen UFOs.''

In the post-debate interviews, Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico said he is happy to promote tourism in Roswell, but he has never seen a UFO.

by Mark Silva

Rudy Giuliani, the front-running Republican candidate for president, had questioned what credentials Hillary Clinton, the front-running Democrat, has to serve as president in the last debate of the Republican candidates.

Tonight, in a Democratic debate, it was not Clinton, but rather one of her rivals, arguing -- forcefully -- that Giuliani is the one who is "genuinely not qualified to be president.''

At a Fox News-sponsored debate earlier this month, Giuliani, the former mayor of New York (pictured right), had said: "I don't know Hillary's experience. She's never run a city. She's never run a state. She's never run a business. She's never met a payroll. She's never been responsible for the safety and security of millions of people, much less even hundreds of people.''

"The irony is Rudy,'' Democratic Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware (pictured below) said in tonight's debate. "Rudy Giuliani, probably the most underqualified man since George Bush to seek the presidency (and this stirred laughter and applause) is here talking about any of the people here.

"Rudy Giuliani. I mean, think about it. Rudy Giuliani,'' Biden said. "There's only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11.

"I mean, there's nothing else.

"There's nothing else,'' Biden said. "And I mean it sincerely. He is genuinely not qualified to be president.''

Easy for Biden to say, the Giuliani camp said tonight -- "Sen. Biden has never run anything but his mouth.''

Tonight, the debate's all about Hillary Clinton, Democratic front-runner, on stage for two hours with six Democratic rivals. AP photo by Frank Franklin

by Mark Silva, and updated with debate

It may not take a heat-seeking missile to raise a debate with the front-running Democratic candidate for president, but six of Sen. Hillary Clinton's rivals are on call tonight.

The televised debate, a two-hour face-off coming live from Philadelphia on MSNBC and starting at 9 pm EDT, arrives after many previous debates in which Democrats have failed to shake the apparent claim that Clinton holds on her party's nomination for president in 2008.

It comes just a little more than two months from the premier Iowa caucuses, in which Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina hope to start putting Clinton's nomination in some other perspective than that of a foregone conclusion.

With Obama on stage at Drexel University and pledging to take the fight to Clinton, and with Edwards, who found that playing the nice guy was no formula for success in 2004, also ready to raise the stakes, Clinton's own skills will be on high display tonight.

The stage will be a little lighter tonight, with NBC having finally set a cutoff for candidates who have no visible means of support, meaning former Sen. Mike Gravel of Alaska. Yet this will help provide some of the other single-digit scrappers in this contest a somewhat higher profile.

"Some of this stuff gets over-hyped,'' Obama said at the start of the debate. "This is the most -hyped fight since Rocky Apollo Creed,'' he said, somewhat nervously speaking a scripted line. "I’m Rocky in this situation.''

That said about the fight film for which Philadelphia is well-known, he and Edwards have engaged Clinton from the start and carried their criticism through to the end.

"If people want the status quo, then Sen. Clinton is your candidate,'' Edwards said.

And of course, the Spin Room is open for comments, here in the Swamp.

by Matthew Hay Brown

After a summer of toy recalls, the acting head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission is now the latest member of the Bush administration to stumble into the crosshairs of congressional Democrats.

A week after acting Chairwoman Nancy Nord told a Senate committee that a Democratic proposal to expand her agency "could have the unintended consequence of hampering, rather than furthering, consumer product safety," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called today for her resignation.

"Any commission chair who does not, in the face of the facts that are so clear, say we don’t need any more authority or any more resources to do our job, does not understand the gravity of the situation," Pelosi said.

Pelosi and other Democrats have criticized the administration’s response to the recalls last summer of Thomas the Tank Engine accessories and other toys tainted with lead paint.

"There is only one inspector charged with testing toys to make sure that they are safe for our children," Pelosi told reporters. "There are toys being sold in our stores now that are untested and unsafe."

by Mark Silva

President Bush complains about the "social spending'' contained in Democratic appropriations bills "as though these funds were being used for cocktail parties,'' a spokeswoman for the House Appropriations Committee said today.

"It's hard to imagine a more cynical political strategy than trying to hold hostage funding for our troops in combat and our wounded warriors in order to extract $11 billion in additional social spending,'' the president said today after meeting with Republican leaders at the White House. "I will veto such a three-bill pileup. Congress should pass each bill one at a time in a fiscally responsible manner.''

Yet, while criticizing the $11-billion increase in the Labor, Health and Education spending bill, the House committee says, the president's budget would cut this bill by $3.6 billion below last year's level of spending. The House proposes a 5 percent increase over last year.

by Mark Silva

Rudy Giuliani, the front-running Republican candidate for president, says one of his rivals "makes me laugh." And that same rival is saying nice things about Giuliani today.

That rival is Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, who does seem to have a good sense of humor but is being taken fairly seriously by religious right voters who don't seem to have much time for Giuliani. So could there be a ticket in the two?

Giuliani faces the question on Fox News Channel's Your World with Neil Cavuto today.

"I don't know about running mates,'' Giuliani says of Huckabee in reply, "but I sure like having him at the debates, because he makes me laugh.

"And he has got a nice approach to life,'' Giuliani tells Fox. "You know, he is a man that is -- he has got a happy approach and he has got an optimistic approach to life. And then I -- you know, I have great respect for him.”

And Huckabee, too, voices "appreciation'' for Giuliani today on CNN's The Situation Room, despite their stark differences over abortion. "I hope we can keep working on Rudy and get him to a full pro-life convert before it's over.''

by Mark Silva

Democrat Dennis Kucinich, girding for another debate of his party's presidential candidates tonight, is calling President Bush's mental health into question because of Bush's recent warning that people who don't want another World War III don't want nuclear arms in Iran.

"I seriously believe we have to start asking questions about his mental health," Kucinich said in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer's editorial board today. "There's something wrong. He does not seem to understand his words have real impact."

Kucinich, n Philadelphia for the debate at Drexel University at 9 pm EDT, is having trouble getting his own words heard at these crowded forums. Bush made his own statement at a recent press conference, at which he said: "I've told people that if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them (Iran) from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon."

Kucinich, an Ohio congressman, maintains there's nothing irresponsible about his own remarks.

"You cannot be a president of the United States who's wanton in his expression of violence," Kucinich told the newspaper. "There's a lot of people who need care. He might be one of them. If there isn't something wrong with him, then there's something wrong with us. This, to me, is a very serious question."

The Associated Press provided this report.

by Andrew Malcolm

Merrill Lynch is coming off a particularly bad fiscal quarter. In fact, it's writing down $8.4 billion, most of it related to mortgage-related investments that have gone sour. That's being described as the biggest loss on Wall Street in memory.

Now, according to The L.A. Times' campaign finance guru Dan Morain, Merrill's losses are trickling down to the presidential campaign in the form of smaller donations.

Merrill partners and employees have donated $947,500 to federal races this year. Of that, $679,000 has gone to presidential candidates, Federal Election Commission records show.

Sen. Barack Obama is the one candidate who received an individual donation from Merrill CEO Stanley O'Neal, $2,300 back in April. Earlier this morning, O'Neal stepped down as head of Merrill with the usual sweet departure deal, the first head of a major investment firm to fall victim to the subprime mortgage crunch.

by Matthew Hay Brown

It was 28 years ago this Sunday that Iranian university students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking several dozen Americans hostage and triggering the Iran Hostage Crisis.

With tensions between the United States and Iran again building, Ambassador L. Bruce Laingen – one of the 52 who were held for the duration of the 444-day ordeal – marked the anniversary Monday evening with a three-point plan for improving relations between the two nations.

"First, to both the United States and Iran: lower the rhetoric. We’ve gotten the picture," Laingen, who was chargé d’affaires at the U.S. mission in Tehran when the students took over on Nov. 4, 1979, told an auduience of a few hundred at the Washington National Cathedral.

"Secondly, to the Iranian side, on the nuclear issue, take the risk. Stop goading the West. … [Declare] a temporary suspension of the nuclear enrichment processes in return for extensive support for the professed intention to focus primarily on nuclear energy …

"How do we bring Iran to see something to be emulated, policy-wise, in the apparent readiness of North Korea to step back in the area of nuclear weapons?" asked Laingen, who is now president of the American Academy of Diplomacy. "How is Iran to be persuaded to emulate Brazil and South Africa? Or even Libya? …

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino answers at her daily briefing with reporters, Oct. 30, 2007. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)

by Mark Silva

Helen Thomas, the syndicated columnist and former wire service reporter who also served as a pioneer of White House reporting for women long excluded from the ranks, asks some pretty pointed questions. Today, Thomas' query of the White House press secretary, also a woman these days, extracted a fairly firm (short-term?) promise.

"Is the president aware that there is widespread fear and speculation around the country that he's going to attack Iran?'' Thomas asked this morning.

"Of course he doesn't want people to fear that, because what he is doing is pursuing a diplomatic track,'' Press Secretary Dana Perino replied. "He believes it's important for him to pursue every possible diplomatic means in order to persuade Iran to stop its pursuit of a nuclear weapon.

"The president has been working with his allies around the world, through the U.N. Security Council,'' Perino said. "And just think, next week President Sarkozy (of France) and Chancellor Merkel (of Germany) will be here for visits with the president -- President Sarkozy will be here at the White House and Chancellor Merkel will be down at Crawford, visiting the president, where he will talk to them about this issue, as well. But certainly the president believes it's very important to pursue every possible diplomatic means.

"But how can people be convinced that he's not going to attack Iran?'' Thomas asked.

by John McCormick

We don't know yet whether Sen. Barack Obama will be smiling or frowning following his performance in tonight's Democratic presidential primary debate in Philadelphia, where all eyes will be on him as he tries to cast himself as a more confrontational candidate.

No matter how the battle with Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York goes, we do know that he is expected to wear a mask the next day. It turns out that the Illinois Democrat is a big Halloween fan.

He is not expected to make any public appearances Wednesday while spending a rare day at home in Chicago. He may, however, be on the city's streets, going door to door with his two children and his Secret Service detail.

"I am, by the way, going to be home to do trick-or-treating, although I've got to wear a mask, so that I don't scare the children," Obama told an audience Saturday at a high school in Perry, Iowa. "'It's a presidential candidate, oh no.'"

Small children in Iowa are used to seeing presidential candidates. But for those in Illinois, it is a significantly less common experience.

Inset photo: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama at the July 23, 2007 Democratic presidential debate. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, file)

by Elizabeth Manresa

Andrew Zajac

We don't get one of these very often: A press release from the Yemeni Embassy.

This one, marked 'urgent', advised that contrary to earlier reports Jamal al-Badawi, one of the purported masterminds of the bombing of the USS Cole that killed 17 sailors in 2000, was not free and is, in fact, in Yemeni custody.

President Bush makes a statement, accompanied by members of the House Republican leadership, Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2007 (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

by Mark Silva

President Bush, who met with Republican House members this morning, is beating the budget drum in a campaign to get Democratic leaders to send him spending bills he can sign.

"The leadership that's on the Hill now cannot get that job done,'' the president said, framing the issue in a way that plays into the election year ahead.

"Congress is not getting its work done,'' Bush told reporters at the White House following the meeting. "We're near the end of the year, and there really isn't much to show for it.

"The House of Representatives has wasted valuable time on a constant stream of investigations, and the Senate has wasted valuable time on an endless series of failed votes to pull our troops out of Iraq,'' Bush said. "And yet there's important work to be done...

by Frank James

Rev. Al Sharpton's publicist sent out an e-mail yesterday taking Vice President Cheney to task for going pheasant shooting yesterday at a Clove Valley Gun and Rod Club in upstate New York which reputedly had a Confederate flag on display.

I couldn't confirm the flag's existence immediately so I didn't publish the e-mail in my posting yesterday about the vice president's hunting activities.

But it turns out the Daily News reported that yes, a Confederate flag was indeed on display at the club, though it appeared to be in a garage on the grounds. The Daily News has a photo of the flag.

The Daily News reports that its reporter was threatened with arrest after asking club officials for comment about the flag.

Meanwhile, Cheney's press secretary is reported in the Daily News as saying neither the vice president or his staff knew anything about the flag.

Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride said Cheney did not know anything about the controversy.

"The VP did not see the flag and neither did anyone on staff," said McBride.

The veep earlier left traffic snarled - but little ill will - as he rolled into the bucolic shooting club with a 15-car convoy.

by Mark Silva

Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign has signed up a new senior adviser: Joe Allbaugh, a Washington-based consultant who managed President Bush's first campaign and served as chief of staff for the Texas governor.

Allbaugh, pictured at right, also ran the Federal Emergency Management Agency until 2003, and brought his friend Mike Brown in as general counsel -- Brown succeeded Allbaugh as director and became renowned for his role in recovery efforts following Hurricane Katrina. Allbaugh maintains that Brown became a fall-guy for problems beyond his control.

Allbaugh plans to advise the Giuliani campaign on "general strategy and homeland security,'' according to the campaign. The emergency management part comes naturally, as will Allbaugh's experience in running a national campaign. They ought to have some fun talking about gun control too. Giuliani opposes it, and Allbaugh is an NRA board member.

“Rudy Giuliani is the only candidate who will keep America on offense in the 'Terrorists’ War on Us,''' Allbaugh said in a statement released by the campaign. "The leadership he showed after 9/11 was an inspiration not only to New Yorkers but to the country... He will ensure that our country never goes back on defense in this war.”

Giuliani, noting that he worked closely with Allbaugh in the afternath of 9/11, said: "He has significant experience in emergency management and I will look to him for sound advice and expertise."

Allbaugh is president and CEO of the Allbaugh Company, which helps corporate customers "create new opportunities and expand competitive advantage for private sector clients.'' He served as FEMA director until March 2003. He had been chief of staff to then-Gov. Bush in Texas and was national campaign manager for the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign.

Allbaugh also serves on the board of the National Rifle Association.

by William Neikirk

Even in death, the voice of Jerry Ford still reverberates in political circles. Bill Clinton was a sex addict in need of therapy. His former chief of staff, Dick Cheney, has not been the asset he could have been to George W. Bush. Ronald Reagan "had a helluva flair" but was "not up to the standards of either Democrat or Republican presidents."

As for Jimmy Carter, "I think he's the weakest president I've ever seen in my lifetime," he said in 1999. And George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq was made for the wrong reasons, since it turned out Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction.

"Write It When I'm Gone," journalist Tom DeFrank's book on his interviews with the former president--interviews held until after his death by agreement--gives the world some juicy, posthumous candor. DeFrank, a former Newsweek reporter now with the New York Daily News, developed a close relationship with Ford and signs off his book with these words, "Thank you, Mr. President."

by Mark Silva

There's another new ad airing in Iowa. It's 60 seconds long and makes a point about a difference among the Democratic candidates for president: "I will get every soldier out,'' the New Mexico governor promises of Iraq.

""I am Bill Richardson, and when I began this campaign for president, I was not sure what to expect," Richardson, wearing blue jeans and a work shirt and leaning on a board fence along a corn field, says in the ad. "I knew I would not have every answer, but I will always tell you what I really believe. And I will never mislead you. I know who I am, and I know how hard I will work for you.

"I knew there would be differences between the candidates, especially on Iraq," Richardson says in his ad. "I will get every soldier out. You cannot say you will end the war if you plan to leave thousands of troops behind; the Iraqis sure will not think the war is over. If you are wondering if anyone can really do all this, just look at what I have done in my life and how I have done it. Not by dividing people, but by earning their trust. And that is really where we need to begin in Iraq. There is a way out."

Campaign manager Dave Contarino notes that Richardson started his ad campaign with a dash of humor, with the so-called "Job Interview'' ads.

Now it's time to get serious, the campaign says. And running 60-second spots is a good way to get serious with the bank account. The clock is running for Richardson, a little more than two months from the premier Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3. There is precious little time left for any rivals to the front-running candidates beyond that, regardless of their differences.

See the ad.

by Mark Silva, and updated by Siobhan Gorman

Federal law requires Mike O'Connell, the director of national intelligence, to disclose the total amount of money appropriated by Congress for the National Intelligence Progam no more than 30 days after the fiscal year's end.

So McConnell, 30 days out from FY 2007, is reporting in:

$43.5 billion.

"Any and all subsidiary information concerning the intelligence budget, whether the information concerns particular intelligence agencies or particular intelligence programs, will not be disclosed,'' the Office of Director of National Intelligence reports this morning. "Beyond the disclosure of the top line figure, there will be no other disclosures of currently classified budget information because such disclosures could harm national security.''

If they told you, they'd have to -- you know... (DNI McConnell, above.)

by Frank James

A quick guided tour of some of the morning's most important or interesting, or both, Washington-related stories.

Wall Street is expecting the Federal Reserve Board to further cut the federal funds rate, the amount banks charge each other for overnight loans, by a quarter point at the board's meeting this week.

State Department investigators apparently exceeded their authority by offering limited immunity to Blackwater USA guards who were interviewed as part of the agency's probe into the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians by private security guards working as hired guns in Baghdad for the department.

Foreign fighters in Afghanistan are a growing problem for coalition forces in Afghanistan with the foreigners being more violent and extremist than the Taliban.

by Christi Parsons

Other Democratic candidates have been talking tough about Hillary Clinton from a distance in the past few days, but tonight they'll get their chance to do it in person.

MSNBC will broadcast a presidential debate on the campus of Drexel University, at 8 p.m. Chicago time, when Barack Obama and John Edwards can take up their beefs directly with Clinton, the frontrunner.

Edwards has been the leading Clinton critic among the Democratic candidates for weeks now, on Monday offering another shot at her relationship with corporate lobbyists.

And campaigning in Iowa yesterday, Obama said Clinton was sidestepping the question of how to fix the Social Security system.

By way of response, the Clinton campaign simply posted two side-by-side clips of Obama and Edwards on their Hillary Hub website.

In his clip, Edwards can be seen saying that he's not about tearing down the other Democratic candidates, but rather promoting the "politics of hope."

"The campaigns shouldn't be about making each other look bad," says Obama in his clip. "They should be about figuring out how we can all do some good for this precious country of ours."

Obama has made it clear lately that he's not going to be shy about pointing out distinctions between himself and Clinton, and it seems obvious that Edwards will do the same. Perhaps they'll do so to their own benefit, or maybe to each other's.

But it's not hard to guess how the Clinton camp plans to respond.

by Andrew Malcolm

Prepare yourselves. It's going to be very hard to avoid Mike Huckabee for a few days.

The former Arkansas governor, who may or may not be as conservative as he'd like you to think, according to some critics responding to his growing media profile, is going to be all over television for a while. One reason is it's a fresh media story. An underdog come from behind possibility, which the media loves after covering what's-her-name out front all this time.

Another reason is it's a necessity for Huckabee to get on TV because it's free exposure and he has very little money. In the third-quarter he raised barely $1 million, one-fifth as much as little-known libertarian Ron Paul. Another is Huckabee has as his chief communications hand Kirsten Fedewa, a longtime Republican Washington public relations specialist who deftly booked countless governors onto TV shows there for years for the Republican Governors Assn.

Huckabee started this morning shortly after 7 on Good Morning America. Later, he'll be on MSNBC with Norah O'Donnell and then CNN with that wispy-bearded guy and then a whole hour on C-SPAN radio and XM Satellite Radio's POTUS all-politics channel 130 and the same event will pop up on C-SPAN TV next Sunday.

On Wednesday, Huckabee might as well become an employee of Fox. He'll start off on the new Fox Business Channel, head later to Your World with Neal Cavuto, back to the Fox Business Channel in the evening, do a guest stint on The O'Reilly Factor and wrap it up with. a joint appearance with wife Janet on Hannity & Colmes.

Thursday morning Huckabee's up early for Fox & Friends and ends the day with a nice hour-long attempt at conversation with PBS's Charlie Rose, who's so good at interrupting guests. Not to mention the attention he received over the weekend in The Times' Louise Roug's story and even in this humble blog for his musical acumen.

by Andrew Malcolm

Well, the tension is mounting today as the world waits to see what scripted joke Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul will drop tonight during his negotiated dialogue with Jay Leno.

Paul, whose political passion can come across as strident and pushy on the TV debates, is not known for his comebacks, one-liners, quips or even smiles, although he's got a big grin on his website.

As we've noted before, NBC's Tonight Show with Jay Leno has become a required stop for candidates to show a more human side to potential American voters when the kids are tucked in and the adults are preparing for bed and have fewer distractions, though it's actually taped late afternoon California time.

Already this year Jay has hosted John Edwards twice (Jan. 10 and June 25 with Elizabeth), Tom Vilsack (Feb. 15), whose candidacy didn't last much longer than his program segment, Joe Biden (March 22), Mitt Romney (May 2), Bill Richardson (May 11), John McCain (June 28), Barack Obama (Oct. 17), Dennis Kucinich (Sept. 24) and Fred Thompson on June 12, when he announced he might announce, and Sept. 5, when he actually announced he would announce.

Paul, a former Libertarian Party candidate for president, has, as we've noted, a range of non-traditional ideas that have placed him on the flanks of the Republican Party debates. He's a strict Constitutionalist with outspoken views against the Iraq war and American interventionism. He's suggested that the U.S. caused the 9/11 attacks by its bombing of Iraq, which drew barbs from other Republicans, mainly national GOP front-runner Rudy Giuliani.

by Mark Silva

How long ago was it that Jimmy Carter confessed to Playboy magazine that he had lusted in his heart? Oh, about three decades ago. Long enough for presidential candidates to know better than to sit for an interview with that magazine that has, you know, the articles in it.

But Fred Thompson wasn't running for president when he sat for this interview. And Jeff Greenfield, the seasoned television political commentator, wasn't interviewing Thompson for the magazine when he conducted it. But now that Thompson, former senator from Tennessee and star of television's Law & Order, is seeking the Republican nomination for president, Playboy has found some value in running the interview that Greenfield had with Thompson back in 2005.

Thompson spoke at length about the verbal games that politicians play.

And he spoke of the knack that the president, whom he served in assisting Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts win confirmation by the Senate, has for making it look natural.

"If your primary goal in life is to balance competing constituents, it shows in your language and demeanor,'' Thompson said in the interview. "I think people like me because I raised a little hell every once in a while. The more I did it, the better. It wasn't in presidential politics, but somebody has to take the risk and give the people a chance to reward real candor.

"They need an attitude that doesn't scream, "I've gotta have this job,'' he also told his interviewer. "I think that's probably the best thing Bush had. He was as scripted as anybody else, but it didn't seem as though he was. He gave the impression that he could take it or leave it. He worked like hell to create that impression.''

The article is entitled Straight Talk Expressed. Govern yourselves accordingly.

Good morning.

Here are a few Washington events of note for Tuesday, October 30.

President Bush is meeting with President Yowei Kaguta Museveni of Uganda.

The National Women’s Law Center is releasing a new report showing high school dropout rates are nearly the same for girls as boys.

by John McCormick and Christi Parsons

IOWA CITY -- The epicenter of political activism in Iowa's largest college town is the retail level of a four-story brick apartment building at the corner of Gilbert and College Streets.

Tenants include the local presidential campaign offices for Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), Republican Rudolph Giuliani, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Gov. Bill Richardson (D-N.M.).

"When there was a tornado warning this summer and everyone had to go down to the parking ramp for shelter, people joked there was going to be a remake of 'West Side Story,' " said Tia Upchurch-Freelove, 19, a leader of Students for Obama at the University of Iowa.

For now, however, the street fighting for the college vote is only starting to simmer, as the campaigns seek to harness voters whose activism often stops short of actual voting.

With the first balloting just more than two months away, the Democratic campaigns in particular are intensifying their courtship, offering everything from training on how to participate in the Iowa caucuses to free housing in January when many dorms will be closed for winter break.

In trying to tap the campus vote across the state, the campaigns are going after a niche audience, just as they are with Latinos, veterans and farmers, all in an effort to build a winning coalition of voters.

With as few as 50,000 votes potentially yielding a win in Iowa, the state's tens of thousands of college students present a tantalizing target. Some will caucus near their schools, while others, at home on break, could have even greater influence by participating in small towns.

Read the rest of the story in Tuesday's Tribune.

by Frank James

David Paulison, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, apologized for last week's fake news conference and announced that changes have been made. It's essentially an acknowledgement that one of the most important emergencies he needs to manage is one of his agency's own making.

Fortunately, it won't require anyone having to live in a FEMA trailer.

Here's his statement:

On behalf of FEMA employees everywhere, I apologize for the inexcusable actions and remarkably bad judgment exhibited at a FEMA press conference last week. This was an avoidable incident that should not taint an otherwise strong response, in support of local officials, to the California wildfires. Individuals involved have been admonished and additional disciplinary actions are possible.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff shares in my frustration and view that these mistakes are not reflective of the development and maturity that FEMA has achieved over the past two years.

Transparency and credibility have been and will be tenets of everything we do. Today, we will begin making reforms in the Office of External Affairs to restore our integrity and to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.

In concurrence with Secretary Chertoff, Russ Knocke will serve in a temporary capacity as Acting Director of the Office of External Affairs. Russ has been serving the department as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs.

By John McCormick

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – There were no boxer vs. briefs moments.

But Sen. Barack Obama told a college audience here Monday that if he were filming a movie about himself, he might struggle to decide who would play the leading role.

"I suppose Denzel [Washington] is already taken," he said. "Will Smith is a possibility because his ears match mine."

Then, he gave a safe answer for someone to play his wife, Michelle. "There is nobody that good looking, so she would have to play herself," he said.

In a usual appearance as part of a candidate series sponsored by MTV and MySpace.com, Obama generally played it pretty cool, appearing more like a college professor, than a college rock star.

But the hour-long appearance at Coe College, to be broadcast nationally on MTV and online, offered a few tidbits about Obama's views and personality not commonly found at his more mainstream appearances. A live blog report was offered earlier in the Swamp.

Obama said he has a plan to counter the possible presence of comedian Stephen Colbert, who is toying with a primary run from his home state of South Carolina.

by Frank James

Former President Gerald Ford took a shot, so to speak, from beyond the grave at Vice President Cheney as reported in the new book "Write it When I'm Gone" by New York Daily News journalist Tom DeFrank.

DeFrank reports that Ford said Cheney, his old White House chief of staff, wouldn't be an asset to President Bush's 2004 reelection and thought he should be dropped from the ticket.

CNN's Wolf Blitzer reported on the Situation Room that Cheney's office had no comment about his old boss's vote of no-confidence. Ford died the day after Christmas 2006.

What CNN didn't report is that if the vice president felt angry about Ford's comments, he had an opportunity to work it off today. He was in upstate New York with a shotgun in his hands. Yes, he was hunting.

The Poughkeepsie Journal reports that he was hunting at the Clove Valley Rod & Gun Club all day today, leaving its grounds at 3:45 pm this afternoon.

There were no reports of lawyers or anyone else being shot by the vice president though it was probably a difficult day for a number of pheasants and similar fowl.

Of course, if the past is any guide, we in the Washington press corps are probably the last ones the vice president's office would inform of any mishaps.

by Frank James

We reported earlier that Sen. Barack Obama, in his effort to more aggressively take on Sen. Hillary Clinton and to slow down what appears to many to be her growing momentum towards the Democratic presidential nomination, is taking her on over the issue of Social Security.

Obama argues that the retirement program needs fixing in order to save it and that he, as a newcomer to Washington, is not afraid to touch the third rail of American politics, the implication being that Clinton is.

In response, Clinton has a new, very evocative ad that's going up in Iowa and New Hampshire which shows her with senior citizens and that all but says that while she's been working on protecting seniors for years, Obama is a relative Johnny-come-lately. For instance, the ad says:

"When George Bush threatened to privatize social security, Hillary was there fighting every step of the way to stop him."

The ad doesn't mention Obama by name but we know who it's referring to with this line:

"These days, it seems like every candidate on earth is coming here for You.

But which candidate has been there for you all along?"

The ad features black and white photos that give the images higher impact since we're so unused to seeing them anymore except in artbooks.

Black and white photos probably resonate on some deep psychic level with many of the older Iowa voters Clinton is reaching out to since that's the way photos looked in the good old days.

by Frank James

The White House named this year's recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. They include Brian Lamb, C-Span's founder; University of Chicago economist Gary Becker; Harper Lee, the author of "To Kill a Mockingbird" and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia's president. President Bush will present the awared on Nov. 5.

Here's the announcement:

President George W. Bush today announced recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nation’s highest civil award. Established by Executive Order 11085 in 1963, the Medal may be awarded by the President “to any person who has made an especially meritorious contribution to (1) the security or national interests of the United States, or (2) world peace, or (3) cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.” President Bush will honor these recipients at a White House ceremony on Monday, November 5, 2007.

by Matthew Hay Brown

The Rockies were swept out of the World Series, and now Rep. Tom Tancredo says he won’t seek re-election to his Colorado seat.

Coincidence? Apparently not.

"Several weeks ago I made the decision but decided to wait until the Rockies played their last game for a reason that is certainly a bit hoaky [sic]," the five-term Republican congressman and longshot (his word) presidential candidate told his staff Sunday night in a note posted online today by the Rocky Mountain News.

by John McCormick

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- David Axelrod, Sen. Barack Obama's top advisor, is making a relatively rare appearance on the campaign trail today, as he seeks to ready his candidate for Tuesday evening's Democratic presidential primary debate in Philadelphia.

Axelrod, who almost always looks like he is brimming with anxiety, just got in the SUV with Obama following an MTV/MySpace.com appearance here at Coe College. They were off to the Cedar Rapids airport and a flight to Virginia, following a morning of campaigning here.

by Frank James

The FEMA public-relations official who staged the by-now infamous fake press conference during the California fires apparently was fired from a new job before he could even start it, a position as the top spokesman for National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell.

John Philbin was supposed to start that new job today, according to the Associated Press. But the offer went up in smoke following the outrage that ensued after Philbin's blunder became public knowledge.

It didn't take much time at all for McConnell to decide that the last thing the intelligence community needed was a guy who staged a fake press conference. The spooks are is still trying to live down their own credibility problems related to that "slam dunk" intelligence they provided in the run up to the Iraq War.

Maybe Philbin should be forgiven however for what he did. This is the same Bush Administration, after all, that produced the phony "video news segments" which it then distributed to small-market television news programs.

Remember this New York Times story from a couple of years ago?

It is the kind of TV news coverage every president covets.

"Thank you, Bush. Thank you, U.S.A.," a jubilant Iraqi-American told a camera crew in Kansas City for a segment about reaction to the fall of Baghdad. A second report told of "another success" in the Bush administration's "drive to strengthen aviation security"; the reporter called it "one of the most remarkable campaigns in aviation history." A third segment, broadcast in January, described the administration's determination to open markets for American farmers.

To a viewer, each report looked like any other 90-second segment on the local news. In fact, the federal government produced all three. The report from Kansas City was made by the State Department. The "reporter" covering airport safety was actually a public relations professional working under a false name for the Transportation Security Administration. The farming segment was done by the Agriculture Department's office of communications.

by John McCormick, updated

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- Repeating an answer he has given before, Sen. Barack Obama said Sen. Hillary Clinton should not bother to ask him to be her running mate, should she win the Democratic presidential nomination.

"No, as I said, I'm not running for vice president," Obama said, when asked whether he would consider such an offer.

The senator is appearing inside a tiny auditorium at Coe College, lit with red and blue lights, as part of a presidential candidate series sponsored by MTV and MySpace.com.

The room, with about 200 students, is a configured like a theater in the round. The crowd of students seems pretty friendly, including several who are wearing his campaign T-shirts.

"The senator is in the building," an MTV reporter breathlessly announced as he was on his way inside.

"I'm battle ready, battle tested," Obama, dressed hip for the kids with a suit and no tie, told the camera crew outside the building.

Obama had earlier been asked about the controversy surrounding gospel singer Rev. Donnie McClurkin, who sang in South Carolina on his behalf over the weekend.

"He had some views that are anti-gay," Obama said. "I said publicly that I disagreed with them."

You can watch the show at this link.

The show inside is now over, as Obama heads outside for a rally with students under a gorgeous fall sun.

by Frank James

Good news for Sen. Barack Obama in the latest University of Iowa Hawkeye poll. Not so good news for John Edwards and so-so news for Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Obama (D-Ill.) has risen in the latest poll to the point where he's now in a statistical dead heat with Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), who has a slight lead. Obama has 26.6 percent support among likely Iowa caucus participants, while Clinton has 28.9 percent support.

In March and August, Obama was at 19.3 percent while Clinton was at 24.8 percent in August and 28.5 percent support in March.

The poll has ambivalent news for Clinton since, while she's in the lead, she is essentially back to where she was last March.

Edwards had 20 percent support, which was down from 26 percent in August and 34.2 percent in March.

It appears that Edwards is hemorrhaging supporters to Obama. But he may have also lost them to New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) Biden has gone from negligible support in March and August to 5.3 percent, which is a huge increase for him but still finds him lagging far behind the Big Three.

On the Republican side, Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, has a commanding 36.2 percent support, which puts him 23 points ahead of Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor.

It demonstrates that Romney's carpetbombing of the state with broadcast ads has paid off handsomely.

Giuliani has lost some support since March, when he was at 20.3 percent.

Meanwhile, Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, has picked up some momentum in Iowa, standing at 12.8 percent, just behind Giuliani and well within the margin of error of 5.8 percentage points. The pollsters believe that may be because Huckabee is connecting with more religious voters.

Sen. John McCain, who in March had 20.9 percent of likely caucus goers supporting him, is now down to a paltry six percent.

by John McCormick

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa –Sen. Barack Obama repeated his attacks this morning against the Democratic presidential primary front-runner, claiming Sen. Hillary Clinton has dodged questions about Social Security funding.

"I don't think you are ready to lead, if you can't tell us where you are going," the Illinois Democrat told about 200 people at a public library, mocking a phrase Clinton (D-N.Y.) often uses on the campaign trail.

The Social Security attacks started Saturday in Iowa and mark a new, more aggressive approach for Obama, whose supporters have called for him to more directly confront the former first lady.

Obama and Clinton will likely get to discuss the matter in person Tuesday, when the Democrats convene for a debate in Philadelphia.

The campaign stop here came as a new poll shows Obama is in a statistical tie in Iowa with Clinton among Democrats likely to attend the state's caucuses.

by Sonja Deaner

by Frank James

Those who haven't watched them yet really ought to take some time to view the one-on-one interviews the Des Moines Register conducted with the presidential candidates.

The Register asked each of 16 candidates 10 thoughtful questions in 10 minutes, questions like "How do you go about educating yourself on an important topic that you don't know much about?" and "Other than running for president, what's the biggest risk you've ever taken and what have you learned from it?" They're the kind of questions job interviewers love to ask.

The candidates didn't know beforehand what they were going to be hit with, and they didn't have the benefit of hearing another candidate's answer first, as they do during the debates.

So it was a chance to see the candidates in a setting we really haven't had an opportunity to watch them in before.

The interviews have made some news and blogging fodder. For instance, there've been stories about Rudy Giuliani's answer to the question: What comtemporary person other than himself would make a good president? Sen. John McCain, he answered.

Also grabbing some attention was Sen. Hillary Clinton's answer to the question: What country would she live in if not the U.S. She wouldn't play along, saying she was too "obsessed with America" to even hazard a guess. Why couldn't she just go along and give the safe response of England the way several candidates did? Geesh.

Again, I highly recommend watching the interviews. Thanks to the Register staff for all the hard work that went into the finished product. It was well worth the effort.

President Bush and Prime Minister Singh announced their agreement in New Delhi in early March 2006. But Singh is having trouble selling it at home. Photo by Mark Silva

by Mark Silva

As the United States attempts to salvage an historic but endangered agreement to share nuclear technology and material with India, once an adversary in the ranks of Cold War nuclear alliances, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has traveled to India to assure the government that “the United States remains committed to this agreement.’’

Indian leaders aren’t so sure, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh facing intense opposition to the deal within his own Parliament. Singh has signaled to President Bush, who capped negotiations over a tentative agreement with the prime minister in New Delhi in March 2006, that “certain difficulties have arisen.’’

Difficulties that threaten his own government.

After decades in which New Delhi stood in alliance with the Soviet Union and developed its own formidable civilian nuclear power program and nuclear weaponry as well, the U.S. is offering to share technology and material for the expansion of India’s civilian power program. In the deal struck between Bush and Singh, India would submit most of its existing civilian reactors and any additional ones to international regulation, but would retain sole control over several reactors that comprise the heart of its nuclear weapons program.

Within the U.S. as well, the deal runs counter to decades of nuclear policy – with administrations barred from sharing technology with nations such as India, which had not joined an international Non Proliferation Treaty.

“The historic agreement on civilian nuclear cooperation is an important part of the U.S. -- India relationship, and it is beneficial to both countries,’’ Paulson said in a speech in Mumbai today. “India is one of the world's largest and most peaceful states with advanced nuclear technologies, and has been isolated from the rest of the world on nuclear issues. This agreement will provide India access to the technology which can help it reach its economic and environmental objectives.’’

by Rick Pearson

DES MOINES - It looks like the nation's Democratic presidential contenders will be joining their Republican rivals in celebrating the new year in Iowa.

Iowa Democratic leaders voted Sunday night to adopt Jan. 3 as their presidential caucus date, a date previously settled on by the state's Republicans, in trying to establish Iowa's traditional first-in-the-nation caucus status.

The move puts greater focus on New Hampshire, where Secretary of State Bill Gardner will decide the date for the Granite State's first-in-the-nation primary.

Gardner has said he would announce the New Hampshire date in early November and has left open the possibility of casting primary ballots in December. Iowa's Democratic leaders, including Gov. Chet Culver, had firmly rejected any efforts to move Iowa's caucuses into 2007.

"It's a lot about retaining the tradition and maintaining our first-in-the-nation caucuses," said Scott Brennan, the Iowa Democratic chairman, after Sunday's vote. "The campaigns have invested so much in having Iowa as the first in the nation."

See the rest of the story in today's Tribune:

by Frank James

A quick guided tour of some of the morning's most important or interesting, or both, Washington-related stories.

The Bush Administration's actions on Darfur have fallen short of its promises to act aggressively to help end what it has called a genocide and haven't mirrored the passion President Bush has expressed on the issue.

Iran has responded to economic and financial sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the West by turning to China and elsewhere in Asia, using its oil to strike deals, all of which takes the sting out of American attempts to punish the country for seeking nuclear weapons.

In a bid to slow the increase in cable rates, the Federal Communications Commission was poised to end the practice of allowing any single cable company from monopolizing service provided to an individual apartment building.

That's Honeyboy, a year ago last night, second from right. Photo by Silva

by Mark Silva

It was a year ago today, a Sunday on the past year's calendar, that a certain Swampster logged in here to record his night with a legendary bluesman, David "Honeyboy'' Edwards, born June 28, 1915, in Mississippi.

Honeyboy had played the night before for only a handful of afficionadoes of the blues on the autumn-cool campus of the University of Chicago.

That makes Honeyboy 92 today.

And it makes "Sweet Home Chicago," the posting in his honor, one year old.

And for those who are counting, the comments logged in at Sweet Home Chicago passed 1,200 over the weekend. That is far and away more than any other number logged on any other posting. And that is somewhat more than one in 100 of the nearly 110,000 comments that have been posted on the Swamp in its nearly two years of existence.

As for the title of today's posting, it belongs to Robert Johnson, and it was immortalized on the guitar by Elmore James. It was a hit in 1952. It still is, in this old boy's book.

Now, it's a relatively small community that has found a home at Sweet Home Chicago. But that's OK. Folks, you're basically one in a million in this guy's eyes. It's been a great year. Rock on.

by John McCormick

It may seem like a formality, but supporters for Sen. Barack Obama will be up early Monday morning to file petition papers to get him on the ballot for the Feb. 5 primary in Illinois.

The Illinois Democrat's presidential campaign says the group, including former colleagues from his state Senate days, will start waiting in line at 6 a.m. in Springfield, Ill.

The supporters expected to be there include state senators Kwame Raoul and Terry Link, Champaign city council member Gina Jackson, and Steve Preckwinkle of the Illinois Federation of Teachers.

Obama will not be on hand for the photo op, instead resting up in Chicago for a busy day of campaigning in Iowa and Virginia later in the day Monday.

by John McCormick

DES MOINES -- As predicted in the Swamp Saturday, Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign unveiled a new ad on Social Security today in Iowa.

Called "Wind," the ad arrives a day after the Illinois Democrat charged that Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, the Democratic primary front-runner, has dodged tough questions on her beliefs about the long-term funding of Social Security.

To see the ad's script, as provided by the campaign, click on the jump below.

by Mark Silva

Seldom does anyone in government come as clean as Michael Chertoff, secretary of Homeland Security, has come with his disdain for his own agency’s stunt.

“"I think it was one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things I've seen since I've been in government," Chertoff said yesterday.

It, was the phony press conference that an assistant administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency staged last week in California. With short-notice for its press conference about the Southern California wildfires, and no news reporters in attendance, FEMA pressed its own workers into service as stand-in "reporters.''

They asked questions of Vice Adm. Harvey Johnson, deputy director, about FEMA’s handling of the crisis. “I’m very happy with FEMA’s response,'' Johnson replied at one point.

Chertoff wasn’t too happy. Neither was the White House. With both the homeland security secretary and the White House press secretary saying no one had known in advance that FEMA was planning this event, they both vowed this won’t happen again.

This is sensitive territory for an administration that already had been caught manufacturing its own news. A few years back, Armstrong Williams, a prominent conservative commentator, admitted that he had been paid $240,000 by the Department of Education to promote some of its initiatives on his syndicated program and in media interviews.

So Chertoff was quick to say, as he did yesterday, that someone will be paying for FEMA’s stunt as well.

“"I have made unambiguously clear, in Anglo-Saxon prose, that it is not to ever happen again and there will be appropriate disciplinary action taken against those people who exhibited what I regard as extraordinarily poor judgment,’’ Chertoff said. “There will be appropriate discipline.’’

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

"America's Mayor:" Rudy Giuliani after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. As he campaigns for president, the story of the mayor's tenure in New York is contained in records that Giuliani kept private after he left office. AP photo.

by Andrew Zajac

Shortly before Rudy Giuliani left the New York mayor's office in 2001, close associates worked out an unprecedented and controversial deal to transfer his mayoral papers from city hall to a private, tax-exempt foundation, the Rudolph W. Giuliani Center for Urban Affairs.

Billed as a leadership think tank, the center served as a conduit for Giuliani to copy and archive 2,100 boxes of documents from his time as mayor before returning the originals to the city.

That record, which includes the months after the Sept. 11 attacks when he was anointed as "America's mayor," serves as the foundation of Giuliani's presidential campaign today. Because he moved his papers through a private organization led by his political supporters, however, the integrity of that record has been called into question.

It followed a pattern of tight control over information that the often combative Giuliani practiced as mayor, a pattern that included more than 100 legal challenges from one New York newspaper alone.

While no evidence has surfaced that the record was compromised, the city of New York nonetheless changed its laws to prevent another mayor from doing what Giuliani did. A coalition of archivists, historians and other city officials also raised questions about whether the documents would be sanitized, but the Giuliani Center was allowed to finish archiving the records.

See the rest of the story in today's Tribune:

by Rick Pearson

DES MOINES, Iowa -- At the Iowa GOP's fundraising Reagan dinner tonight, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas said Republicans must be strong on national defense, but criticized "entangling alliances" and seeking the imposition of sanctions on foreign governments.

"We should have a strong national defense but not be so frightened that we're afraid to talk to people," Paul said, contending that a traditional Republican position is advocating "non-internvention."

Paul lauded Ronald Reagan for challenging then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down" the Berlin Wall in 1987. Paul said during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis "we again talked to Gorbachev and worked something out. We removed missiles from Turkey and we avoided a nuclear holocaust."

But the Soviet leader at the time was Nikita Khrushchev (pictured right).

Meanwhile, Chicago businessman John Cox, a little-regarded long-shot candidate who has run but failed in bids for local office, used his time before the audience to concede defeat in the contest.

Blaming the national media for giving him scant attention, Cox said, "I've been doubting my own existence in the last few months" and he assessed his chances as being "about as strong as the Cubs chances of winning the World Series." He said he would soon return home and start a political action committee to promote non-career politicians.

by Rick Pearson

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says he's seeing a recent uptick in his fundraising after a slow third quarter and says it didn't hurt that action star Chuck Norris's endorsement last Monday has given him a new idea to attract Iowa caucus goers.

Of course, Huckabee's narrow second place finish in last weekend's "values-voter" forum straw poll in Washington held by the conservative Family Research Council may have helped do more to elevate the former governor's name since his second place finish in the Iowa Straw Poll in Ames in August.

Still, said Huckabee (pictured above), don't underestimate the Norris (pictured at right) factor.

"I think now people are afraid not to vote for me," Huckabee said before he appeared at the Iowa Republican Party's seventh annual Reagan fundraising dinner.

"We're going to put Chuck on their doorstep and he's going to put his right heel on the right side of their faces if they don't help us in the caucuses. That's our new strategy."

Huckabee said he "never met or talked to" Norris but said his choice of a candidate was "obviously indicative of the fact that Chuck Norris is an incredibly intellectual-superior human being as well as a physical specimen of great renown."

By John McCormick, updated

DES MOINES – John Edwards held a rally this evening at Drake University to celebrate his accomplishment of being the first presidential candidate this election cycle to visit all of Iowa's 99 counties.

"Are we going to win all 99 of those counties?" the former North Carolina senator asked, as an audience his campaign said totaled more than 800 cheered wildly.

Hitting all 99 counties is a task Edwards also completed in his 2004 presidential bid, when he finished second in the Democratic version of the Iowa caucuses behind Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

The final stop Edwards needed was Franklin County, a rural county in north central Iowa that he visited today.

A recent analysis by The Des Moines Register showed New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was the Democrat closest to Edwards in total counties visited, with 80 logged so far.

by John McCormick, updated at 4:19 p.m. Eastern

DES MOINES – Sen. Barack Obama today charged that Sen. Hillary Clinton has dodged tough questions about the future of Social Security, a program of great importance to many Iowa caucus participants.

The attack marked a new, more aggressive approach for Obama, whose supporters have called for him to more directly confront the former first lady.

By going on the offense, Obama (D-Ill.) is seeking to shake up polls that show Clinton (D-N.Y.) with a large lead nationally and also in some early voting states.

As he focused on Social Security, Obama pointed to recent moments where Clinton has been less than straightforward in her responses to how she would alter long-term funding for the massive federal program.

“You might remember that this came up in the last presidential debate,” Obama said at a senior center in Iowa's capital. “When Senator Clinton was asked about it, she wouldn’t say what she thought needed to be done. The other day, here in Iowa, she skipped another chance to give a direct answer on this.”

He also poked at Clinton by using a phase, "ready to lead," that she often uses on the campaign trail. "You're not ready to lead if you can't tell us where you're going," he said.

Clinton's campaign responded by charging that Obama is not sticking to one of the central themes of his campaign.

"It’s unfortunate that Senator Obama has abandoned the politics of hope as his campaign has stalled," her campaign said in a statement. "Maybe he should focus on explaining why a few months ago he said everything was on the table, including raising the retirement age, but today says he opposes it."

by John McCormick

ANKENY, Iowa – Sen. Barack Obama continues to use one of his distant relatives as a punchline on the presidential campaign trail.

Talking about the nation's addiction to oil, the Illinois Democrat told several hundred gathered at a community college this morning that part of the blame falls on Vice President Dick Cheney.

"It doesn't help when you put my cousin, Dick Cheney, in charge of energy policy," Obama said. "We've been trying to hide this for a long time, by the way. Everybody's got a black sheep in the family."

Earlier this month, Lynne Cheney, the vice president's wife, made news when she talked about the relationship with Obama, who is an eighth or ninth cousin of Cheney's.

And in an interview with CNBC this week, Cheney called the senator "Cousin Barack.''

Obama first discussed the distant relationship at length during an appearance on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno.

by Mark Silva

It was near the eve of the 2004 election, almost precisely three years ago today, when President Bush climbed on a stage with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in Columbus, Ohio.

“Today I am here to pump you up," Schwarzenegger told 20,000 people filling a sports arena with ear-splitting cheers for the California governor who had made his name in action films. Schwarzenegger, as I reported then, noted that: “George Bush is a man of action.''

“If you flex your muscles next Nov. 2," Schwarzenegger said at that Oct. 30 appearance. “I guarantee you President Bush will be back."

Ohio did flex, and, with the help of some precision “micro-targeting’’ by a Bush campaign that raised telephone canvassing and rallying of friendly voters to an art form, Bush won a second term as president.

Schwarzenegger “and I share some things in common,’’ Bush said in Ohio. “We both married well. We both have trouble speaking the English language. We've both got big biceps – well, two out of three ain't bad."

The Bush and Schwarzenegger act went on the road again this week, called into “action’’ by the wildfires of Southern California – were people still calling the governor “The Terminator?’’ Bush asked. Yes, the governor replied, “Especially my wife.”

The president flew in and out for a one-day tour of the disaster and consolation of victims and a public statement – though he fielded no questions. The governor trudged from scene to scene, day after day. “Good afternoon, everybody,’’ Schwarzenegger said wearily at another press conference on Friday. “ I always have to check my watch to make it's the afternoon or the morning.’’

And what questions Schwarzenegger faced at this conferences – unlike the staged questions that a Federal Emergency Management Agency official had fielded at a phony press conference earlier in the week – for which FEMA has apologized, with a scolding from the White House. Real questions, like this one for Schwarzenegger: “The aerial response has been under a lot of criticism lately; cargo planes that sat idly, helicopters sat idly because of government bureaucracy and government rules. In fact, Congressman Rohrabacher called it disgusting, inexcusable foot dragging. Your response? And what could we have done differently?’’

“Well, first of all, let me just say there is a difference between a federal issue and a state issue,’’ Schwarzenegger said. “We have no control over federal issues. But one thing I can tell you, that we deployed all of our resources that we safely could deploy, at all times… And I think that it was really our people have done an extraordinary job.’’

Federal issues and state issues – all reminiscent of another natural disaster which had tested the government’s ability to respond to catastrophe – Hurricane Katrina.

As fire-fighters gain control over the conflagration, Bush and Schwarzenegger are together again today, on the radio – with respective radio addresses to the public. In his today, Bush said: “I went to Southern California with a message: We want you to know the country cares for you. We're concerned about you, your neighborhoods, and your homes. Things may look dismal now, but there is a better day ahead. And we will not forget you in Washington, D.C.’’

Schwarzenegger, with punctuation like a Hollywood script, said this:

by Frank James

Reports this morning indicate the State Department will order hundreds of its diplomats to Iraq or they face being asked for their resignations. That's diplo-speak for they will be fired.

The same reports say this is the first time mandatory assignments of such size have been made since the Vietnam War.

This isn't a surprising development. Ever since it became apparent that the U.S. had opened a Pandora's Box of violence after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, there's been a debate inside State that push might come literally to shove, that the agency might have to force its diplomats to abide by the agreement they made on entering the foreign service that they would be "worldwide available," even to serve in a war zone.

Until now, those within State who wanted to rely on volunteers doing one-year tours, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, have won out.

But State has simply run out of qualified volunteers to work alongside the U.S. military to assist the Iraqis in making the kind of political progress the Bush Administration says is needed for the U.S. to significantly reduce troop levels to below pre-surge levels.

The decision to begin ordering foreign service officers to Iraq vindicates the sentiments expressed last year by Henry S. Ensher, a long-time Foreign Service officer who as director for political affairs in State's Office of Iraq within the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs wrote this in the March 2006 issue of the Foreign Service Journal:

The Foreign Service is becoming increasingly irrelevant to the highest priority foreign-policy issue — winning in Iraq — because it has refused to take the one step that would guarantee it a key role, demonstrate seriousness of purpose to the military, and develop a cadre of true area specialists with extreme diplomacy skills. Specifically, the Foreign Service has refused to recognize that service in wartime necessitates a complete commitment by all its personnel.

Such a commitment requires, at minimum, the unambiguous authority to order Foreign Service personnel to serve in Iraq through directed assignments. While some Middle East specialists and Arabists have served with distinction and courage in Iraq, others have not shown up at all. They should be told clearly that they are needed by their Service and their country now in Iraq, or their services are not required at all. The Foreign Service, State Department and U.S. taxpayers did not spend the money to teach Arabic and develop area expertise to enable the
beneficiaries of that training to avoid using their skills where they are most needed.

You get the sense Ensher keeps a list of names in his computer of people he'd like to see shipped out immediately.

by Josh Drobnyk

If there's one thing that must really irk a former Philadelphia district attorney, it's forking over $58,000 in legal fees to the plush Blank Rome law firm.

But that's exactly what Sen. Arlen Specter did in August, paying the Philly firm to deal with an ongoing Federal Election Commission audit of the senator's 2004 campaign, his office has told The Morning Call .

If there's any consolation for Specter, the five-term Republican from Pennsylvania, it's that he's not paying the fee from his own pocket. It's from those of all his contributors. But for a lawmaker considered a stickler for detail and known to be a tough boss, it must still get the temperature boiling.

The audit stems from his 2004 reelection campaign, Specter's office said.

"The audit focuses on some recordkeeping errors in the campaign's allocation or designation of funds between the general and primary accounts and the inadvertently late reporting of contributions received in the last 20 days before the 2004 primary election," Specter chief of staff Scott Hoeflich said in an e-mail Friday. "We have cooperated fully with the FEC and will continue to work with them to resolve the issues. Additionally, we have taken comprehensive steps to implement procedures to prevent any recurrences of the issues identified in the audit."

by William Neikirk

Jennifer Coldren of Rome, N.Y., summoned her courage and traveled to the nation's capital in July to tell Congress about the rape of her now 91-year-old grandmother in a nursing home a year ago.

Coldren had a reason: She thought the story would help press Congress to pass legislation designed to protect elderly people from such abuse. "It was the most horrible thing in the world. A nightmare," she said.

But Coldren would go away feeling somewhat disappointed. She found Congress obsessed with Iraq. Her testimony before the Senate Special Committee on Aging did not receive wide media coverage. Despite her efforts, the Elder Justice Act, designed to combat abuse, neglect and exploitation of older Americans, still gathers dust in Congress. It has been doing that for five years, odd for a bill with few visible opponents.

Coldren said her grandmother became depressed and had a stroke after the rape in May 2006. She decided to care for her at home, no longer trusting the nursing home. A nursing home aide, who had been hired before a background check was completed, was convicted of the crime in March. It turned out he had a criminal record and would not have been hired if the nursing home had waited for the background check.

"Every time I pick up the paper, it seems you hear more and more of [abuse] going on," Coldren said. "I had never really noticed it before this happened."

Paul Greenwood, head of the elder abuse prosecution unit in San Diego, prosecutes about 200 cases of elderly abuse a year.

"It's an absolute disgrace," he said. "If this bill doesn't get passed this year, I think the elders of our country need to start getting a little more vocal and telling legislators what they think of them."

But passage this year is a long shot. The bill appears to be a victim of Congress' partisan divisions, competing priorities, the draining nature of the Iraq war, constant fights over money, the difficulty of passing a stand-alone bill and too little time.

See the rest of the story in today's Tribune:

By Jim Tankersley

Illinois' congressional television wars are set to start early this year -- and with them, the usual questions of truth in advertising.

A Democratic primary election challenger to Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) will hit the airwaves next week with an ad slamming Lipinski over the Iraq war. The challenger, Western Springs attorney Mark Pera, says the ad is the first of its kind in this year's election. (The spot will start airing more than a year before the 2008 general election; Illinois' primary is scheduled for Feb. 5.)

In the ad, which will run on cable stations across the south suburban district, Pera calls for American troops to leave Iraq within a year. The "real people" who precede him on screen link Lipinski with President Bush -- a Pera staple so far this campaign -- and claim Lipinski "opposes any timetable to bring troops home."

Lipinski, it should be noted, voted in favor of a bill earlier this year that Democratic leaders said would have linked war funding to a withdrawal timeline. Bush vetoed it. (Pera's camp says the bill would have left the timeline up to Bush and, therefore, doesn't constitute a real timeline.)

Lipinski has since begun pushing a bipartisan plan, which he calls a first step to changing course in Iraq, that would write the Iraq Study Group's recommendations into law. Those recommendations include a goal of troop redeployment, but no binding timelines for doing it.

Pera, who has made the war a central theme in his primary challenge, ends the ad by saying "Congress should stand up to this President. Dan Lipinski hasn’t done that, but I will."

Read on for the full script of the ad:

by Christi Parsons

Barack Obama's sister thinks his upbringing in Indonesia is one of his important qualifications for president, because it makes him "a world citizen" at a time when the country needs to work on its relationship with the rest of the world.

"I think the United States needs to work to earn the respect of the rest of the world," Maya Soetoro-Ng said in an interview today. "It needs to be seen as a true partner in solving global problems . . . I think we need to make sure people understand that the U.S. is not necessarily a bully and that, given the vast resources the U.S. possesses, it can be a real powerful and thoughtful and benevolent agent of change."

Soetoro-Ng helped to kick off the Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders National Leadership Council, a panel that will reach out to those communities on behalf of the Obama campaign. Obama was born in Hawaii, where Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders make up a significant portion of the population, and also lived in abroad as a child after his mother married a man from Indonesia and moved there with him.

His childhood in the world's most populous Muslim nation has lead to some confusion about Obama's education, notably following inaccurate reports several months ago that he attended an Islamic madrassa. Soetoro-Ng said she thinks that perception owes in part to "a poor understanding of civil Islam as it has existed in Indonesia, where it's not a Muslim state," and that her brother needs to tell voters the truth about himself.

"He is himself a Christian, and that's the truth," she said. "His sympathies overall reside with his nation, the United States. And he certainly would use that understanding of other nations to try to try to improve life for people in the United States and to make the U.S. safer."

There have been a lot of real press conferences in California this week. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has appeared at many. Photo by Annie Wells-Pool/Getty Images

by Mark Silva

Hurricanes? Wildfires?

They aren’t half the disaster that a FEMA press conference has become.

Earlier this week, in an attempt to get the word out about relief efforts in the Southern California wind-fanned wildfires, the Federal Emergency Management Agency staged a press conference. And we mean staged: Lacking actual reporters, the agency planted FEMA workers to ask the questions that FEMA wanted answered.

And FEMA today stood ready with a mea culpa for the “stunt’’ – suggesting that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was none too happy about this agency-made disaster in the wake of natural disasters that have tested the agency's mettle.

“It is simply inexcusable and offensive to Secretary Chertoff that such a mistake could be made,’’ Laura Keehner, deputy press secretary for Homeland Security, said in a call with actual reporters today. “ We have made it clear that such a stunt will never be tolerated or repeated."

Real reporters had been invited, she said, “but clearly (were) not given enough time to be able to attend… As I understand, a few camera crews were able to arrive in time take B-roll toward the end.’’

B-roll is footage that television stations use – footage that captured the actual questions of the fake reporters at the FEMA press conference.

Today, the day after President Bush's actual trip to Southern California, the White House maintained that it knew nothing about the phony FEMA presser until after it had occurred.

“It is not a practice that we would employ here at the White House… We certainly don't condone it,’’ White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said.

by Frank James

Sen. John Kerry is raising the heat on Blackwater USA, which is already under fire for the unwarranted shootings of Iraqi civilians.

The Massachusetts Democrat and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee wants a probe into whether Blackwater USA’s private security guards, like those riding shotgun for the State Department in Baghdad, are really independent contractors, as the company insists, which would mean it wouldn’t have to pay employment and other taxes for them.

Or are they really employees, which would strengthen the allegations of congressional Democrats that the company has evaded taxes?

Kerry wrote to the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Internal Revenue Service, calling for an investigation of Blackwater’s tax situation.

Kerry chairs the Senate Small Business Committee. So it piqued his interest when he learned that Blackwater was relying on a letter it received from the Small Business Agency that said for SBA purposes, the agency determined that Blackwater had independent contractors, not employees.

Andrew Zajac

Attention dog lovers, especially aficionados of the maligned aggregate of breeds collectively known as pit bulls.

The court-appointed special master overseeing the fate of roughly 49 of the former denizens of Bad Newz Kennels has just issued an application for animal rescue organizations to adopt one or more of the canines.

Dogs have been divided into 4 categories depending on level of aggression and adoption is open to non-profit animal rescue operations with a minimum of three years experience handling animals, according to guidelines established by Rebecca Huss, the Valparaiso University law prof serving as special master.

by Matthew Hay Brown

The Capitol is quiet today, with the Senate winding down its work for the week and the House already gone. But the parties’ communications operations never take a day off, which means Democratic leaders have lost little time firing back at President Bush and the congressional Republicans who spent the morning criticizing the congressional majority.

House Republican Leader John A. Boehner wished his Democratic friends a happy weekend this morning with a release noting that the current Congress was the first in two decades to have failed to send a single appropriations bill to the White House this late in the year. He blamed a majority that had "increasingly put politics before accomplishment."

"Instead of working with Republicans to strengthen our economic and national security, the majority has pursued a ‘go-it-alone’ approach that put the interests of our country last, not first," said Boehner, whose own party was not noted for its bipartisanship during its dozen-year run in the House majority before last year’s elections.''

Democrats, who accuse the president of intransigence on spending, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and the war in Iraq, are now taking exception.

"President Bush’s speech was an announcement of his intent to continue turning his back on the priorities of the American people: giving police officers the resources they need to protect our communities, ensuring children can see doctors when they are sick, improving education and changing course in Iraq," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said.

by James Oliphant

Ever since the Supreme Court decided to rule on the legality of the method that most states used to execute prisoners, the question has been whether states would halt their scheduled executions to await the court’s decision.

An increasing number of federal and state judges appear to be doing just that, although it hasn’t been uniform. This week, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta stopped the execution of an Alabama man so the entire complement of judges on the court can take up the issue of whether to allow it to proceed.

In September, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a Kentucky action that argues the three-drug cocktail used in lethal injection is unconstitutional because it causes unnecessary pain and suffering before death, in violation of the Eighth Amendment. Since then, several judges have interpreted the move as imposing a de facto moratorium on executions, although the court never issued such an order. However, the court did block the scheduled execution of a Virginia man, Christopher Scott Emmett, Oct. 17, pending disposition of his lethal injection challenge in the federal appeals court in Richmond.

Vice President Dick Cheney sounded far more animated in an interview with CNBC today than he appeared at a Cabinet meeting this week, pictured here with President Bush and Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne. Photo by Chuck Kennedy/MCT

by Mark Silva

Vice President Dick Cheney, who once predicted the last recession, is refraining from any prediction on the next recession.

“I'm one for one,’’ Cheney said, “and I'll stay with a perfect record as long as I don't do it again.’’

And Cheney said the boss – President Bush – is “enjoying’’ launching his attacks at Congress. “He's doing it, and he's enjoying it,’ he said. Noting that the president already has vetoed one $35 billion children’s health insurance bill, the vice president said, “The House yesterday passed another one that is veto-bait as well.’’

As for “Cousin Barack,’’ as Cheney called Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois today, they haven’t had a chance to compare notes about their distant relationship. “We haven't had the opportunity to talk about it,’’ said Cheney, noting that “apparently we do have a common ancestor about eight or nine generations back.’’

Cheney hasn’t called the Democratic presidential hopeful to say, ‘well, heck, there’s a family tree?’’ CNBC’s Larry Kudlow asked Cheney.

“I didn't know whether that would help him or hurt him,’’ Cheney said. “So I thought I'd probably stay away from it.’’

All this came up in an interview for CNBC’s Kudlow and Company.

“You’ve got to go back 20 years to find a time when the Congress was as inefficient as it is today,’’ said Cheney, a former congressman. “They're not doing their business.''

By Mark Silva

They named a federal courthouse for Rush Limbaugh Sr., and they named a post office for the late President Gerald Ford. They named the education building for Lyndon Baines Johnson.

They named a post office for Buck Owens, the departed country crooner. And they named part of an interstate highway for Cal Ripken, the retired and hardest-working Oriole ever.

Indeed, by the GOP's count, nearly half the bills passed by Congress and signed into law this year have named post offices, buildings and roads. It's fall, the peak of Congress-bashing season at the White House, and Republicans are joining with the president's complaints of a do-nothing Congress by counting all the bills passed this year.

The Republicans point to only two, the supplemental war-spending bill enacted after the president vetoed the first one for its timelines for troop withdrawals, and the Protect America Act, with any sort of pride in a release from House Republican Leader John Boehner today.

The Democrats, of course, point with some pride to bills they have passed and the president has vetoed -- including that first war bill with timelines for troop withdrawals from Iraq, and the children's health insurance bill.

But the Republicans, playing chorus for the complaints which the president is making, maintained today that of the 106 bills signed into law this year, 46 named something.

Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards meets the press today after delivering a policy address on corporate responsibility in Iowa, where the only Maytag made any more is blue cheese. AP Photo by Charlie Neibergall

by John McCormick, updated

DES MOINES – Doug Bishop is a big, burly man who once worked on a factory assembly line. He's not the sort you would expect to be on the brink of tears when speaking in front of a room full of people.

But there he was this morning, on stage at a small, downtown theater, choking back his emotions. Bishop is not alone.

For many, this is an emotional week in Iowa, as one of the state's trademark companies, Maytag Corp., closed its last production line Thursday in nearby Newton, sending home 550 workers for the last time.

The closing means that for the first time in 114 years Maytag products will no longer be produced in the company's longtime home. Whirlpool Corp., which purchased the company for $2.6 billion last year, closed the plant.

Bishop, now the treasurer of Jasper County, Iowa, introduced former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards for a smartly timed economic policy speech.

The plant's closing gave Edwards yet another chance to hammer home his populist message, reaching back to his roots as the son of a mill worker.

Bishop, dressed in black to mourn the plant's closing, spoke about when he first met Edwards in 2004, when he was Sen. John Kerry's running mate. He said he would never forget what Edwards said to his young son that day.

"'I'm going to keep fighting for your daddy's job,'" Bishop recalled Edwards saying, as he knelt on his knee to talk to the boy. "'I promise you that.'"

With that warm-up act, Edwards launched into a policy speech that criticized executive pay and the loss of worker benefits.

He called for universal retirement savings accounts that would follow workers from job to job, universal health care, stronger corporate responsibility laws and greater consumer protections.

by Aamer Madhani

In his first public address last night, the newly-minted chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff offered a sobering assessment of the future of the U.S. military—cautioning that American forces are in a “generational” war and that the military’s needs will only grow over the coming years.

With Democrats and Republicans on the hill sparring over the costs and lengths of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, Adm. Michael Mullen said that the current levels on defense spending—about 4 percent of the GNP—will not likely be enough to meet the U.S. military’s future needs.

He noted that the current level of defense spending--in percentage of the GNP-- is less than even during the Gulf War. The Bush administration has requested $481.7 billion for the defense budget in fiscal 2008 and over $190 billion more to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I just don't see us meeting the needs that we have globally in the world we're living in with less resources than we have right now in our overall baseline budget," Mullen ( pictured above) said in a speech before the Center for a New American Security in Washington.

Mullen, who earlier this week visited with troops at three Army installations in the Midwest, said that morale among soldiers and officers remains high, but that the Army—which has carried of much of the weight of the fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq—is taxed. In his visits with the soldiers, he said that the common theme was that the Army was stretched.

“The troops and their families all sacrifice much to support the pace of operations, but their resilience does have limits, and we need to be mindful of that,” Mullen said. “Are the ground forces broken? Absolutely not. Are they breakable? They are.”

At the same time, he said that Americans are in “a long, generational decades kind of conflict against the radical, extremist jihadists,” and that the Army and Marine Corps, are unlikely to return to a peacetime posture in the near future.

"In this era of persistent engagement and conflict, I don't see our global responsibilities diminishing anytime soon," he said. "In fact, given the potential for regional instability throughout the world, I see our military missions expanding not contracting.”

by Mark Silva

Run this scenario, for the sake of argument:

Mitt Romney wins the Iowa Republican Party's caucuses in far-too-early January, and Romney wins the New Hampshire GOP's primary election. Someone else -- Sen. John McCain perhaps? -- wins the South Carolina Republican primary. Rudy Giuliani wins the Florida Republican primary on Jan. 29. And the party's leading contenders head into a perfect storm of primaries throughout the nation on Feb. 5 that favor a cash-rich, TV-driven candidate.

With Romney already writing his own campaign checks, it's possible, too, that he could enter that Feb. 5 spree in even better shape than he appears today. Taking Florida perhaps?

The newest Quinnipiac University Poll portrays Giuliani with a strong lead in Florida, but then, that's a survey of registered voters -- not necessarily likely voters. The Florida Chamber has run another poll that screens for likely voters. The Oct. 17-19 survey conducted by Insider Advantage/Majority Opinion Research shows Giuliani favored among 33 percent of Florida Republicans surveyed, Romney 17. Fred Thompson rolls in at 13 percent, McCain at 9.

With a little -- or in Romney's case, a lot -- of well-placed TV in a state where concentrated ad-time in a few major media markets can make a big difference -- it's not impossible to close that 17-33 gap. And Florida's Republican primaries are a decidedly conservative affair -- with Giuliani facing serious questions about his appeal to an influential Christian right.

On the Democratic side, that Chamber poll reveals what others have found about a Democratic contest that has been muted by the DNC's refusal to count any delegates from Florida because of the early primary in violation of party rules. It shows Hillary Clinton favored among 53 percent of the likely Democratic voters surveyed, Barack Obama 19 percent, John Edwards 9 percent.

And this poll, like Quinnipiac's, portrays a horse-race in general election matchups in Florida: Clinton 37, Giuliani 34 -- or Clinton 39, Romney 32. With nearly 30 percent undecided, that makes Florida a state in play.

Former President Bill Clinton and comedian Billy Crystal at the 60th birthday party for Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) at the Beacon Theater in New York. Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images

by Glenn Thrush

After their big Beacon Theater fundraiser, Bill and Hill retired, with 100 -plus of their closest pals, for cocktails and thank-yous at the bordello-red Russian Tea Room on 57th Street in New York.

The gathering for the Clintons in the second-floor private dining room was more sober than the $1.5 million public event, however, with guests telling Newsday there was considerable fretting about Hillary's tough time ahead in Iowa.

Attendees celebrating the former first lady's 60h birthday included Billy Crystal, Ron "Opie" Howard, the campaign's financial godfather Alan Patricof -- and Miramax founder Harvey Weinstein, who left the party early with a leggy lady friend to order a bucket of Tea Room caviar -- to go.

There was also continued chatter about the fallout over the Norman Hsu scandal. Michael Lang, one of the creators of the '69 Woodstock festival, popped out of the party to shrug his shoulders over John McCain's jihad against Clinton's & Schumer's attempt to steer $1 million for an upstate museum honoring the festival.

Lang and other partygoers were still puzzling about Hsu, who allegedly bilked an investment group led by Lang's Woodstock co-creator Joel Rosenman out of $40 million.

"Where did all that money go? Where did it go?" he asked.

Glenn Thrush reports for Newsday, a Tribune Co. newspaper.

by Sabrina Fang

Following his tongue-lashing of Congress today, President Bush turned and left the Roosevelt Room without acknowledging a question called out. AP photo by Pablo Martinez Monsivais

by Mark Silva

President Bush today chided Congress for “wasting time.’’

It’s congressional spending that has put the president in a particularly foul mood on this gray Washington morning, apparent in the stern and public tongue-lashing he gave Democratic leaders from a perch in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.

Bush returned from a tour of the wildfire destruction in California last night to find the House having passed another children’s health insurance bill that he promises to veto, and he already had received another “fiscally irresponsible’’ bill earlier the week in which he said House and Senate negotiators haggling over $14 billion and $15 billion spending bills had driven their compromise up to $23 billion.

“In Washington, that’s called splitting the difference,’’ Bush said with some visible disgust.

This display of disappointment with Democratic leaders, to be sure, is part of a month-long drum that the president has been beating over the budget – having found one good issue on which he can confront congressional leaders heading into the political season of the winter presidential election primaries. The Republican president is painting the party in control of Congress as fiscally out of control.

And the children’s health insurance debate fits the bill.

Michael Mukasey, the White House's nominee for attorney general (left), has testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee but is caught in a struggle between Judiciary Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and the White House over information that Leahy is demanding. AP Photo by Susan Walsh

by James Oliphant

As surprises go, this might match Boston being up 2-0 in the World Series: Patrick Leahy isn’t satisfied with the White House.

Fred Fielding, the White House counsel, came across a bit with Leahy’s Senate Judiciary Committee this week, handing it some previously classified documents about the administration’s terrorist interrogation tactics.

But apparently, at least one of those documents was fairly useless. Leahy (D-Vt.) wants the full, unredacted version of a March 2003 memo sent to Pentagon general counsel William J. Haynes from John Yoo, a then-Justice Department lawyer who was an architect of some of the government’s more aggressive antiterror policies.

Leahy also wants more information about the administration’s stance toward abusive interrogation procedures after former Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales took office in 2005. Earlier this month, the New York Times reported that after the Justice Department publicly denounced using torture in interrogating detainees, it secretly reversed itself under Gonzales. Leahy says that the committee has been given no information on that assertion.

“I remain deeply troubled by the Administration’s attempts to justify the use of harsh interrogation techniques and even torture, and I intend to get to the bottom of what this Administration’s legal policy has been on this issue, and what it is today,” Leahy wrote Friday in a letter to Fielding.

This is just one front in an escalating series of firefights between the Judiciary Committee and the administration. Leahy has been pressing for documents relating to the National Security Agency’s domestic wiretapping program, as well information about alleged politically-motivated hiring and firing practices at the Justice Department under Gonzales.

The White House has conditioned the release of wiretapping documents on providing the telecom companies that cooperated with the NSA with blanket immunity from civil liability.

A matter of principle -- or principals? Rep. Rahm Emanuel with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after the House failed to override President Bush's veto of the children's health insurance bill. AP Photo by Charles Dharapak

by David Nitkin, updated by Mark Silva

The White House took a claws-out swipe at House Democrats today -- and Rep. Rahm Emanuel in particular -- over their insistence on sending President Bush a second child health care bill that is only slightly revised from a version vetoed by the president earlier this month.

Telling reporters that Congress has "not made the changes the president talked about" to refocus the expiring State Children's Health Insurance Program on lower income children, White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto accused Emanuel, the Illinois Democrat and aggressive chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, of playing politics with the issue rather than trying to get things done.

"The last principle Rahm Emanuel knew was in high school," Fratto said during a morning session with reporters, eliciting whistles, groans and gasps from the press corps.

Emanuel had his own words for the White House:

“I’ll gladly see my high school principal, if President Bush will allow 10 million kids to see a pediatrician,'' he replied. "And by the way, after I helped negotiate the bill to create SCHIP, Governor Bush was second to last in enrolling kids in SCHIP, but I do appreciate the lecture.”

Bush, a former governor of Texas, has pledged to veto the revised initiative that was passed by the House on Thursday.

by Frank James

For all those who like to read about the minutiae of Washington policy proposals the way others like to read about Lindsay Lohan's latest doings, we offer the "paper" on the new tax proposal from House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel.

"Paper" is what we reporters call the handouts policymakers give out to help us understand the ins and outs of often complex proposals. You'll often hear reporters at Washington press conferences ask, "Got any paper?" the same question people asked at Grateful Dead concerts, but with a different meaning.

This copy actually contains the scribblings a real-live reporter who was obviously doing some quick calculations. Warning: you'll need a tax accountant to understand some of what is discussed here.

by Frank James

A quick guided tour of some of the morning's most important, most interesting, or both, Washington-related stories.

The Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Rep. Charles Rangel unveiled a tax-reform package that would cost $1.3 trillion and which he said would be more equitable by lowering taxes for 90 million Americans while increasing them on the wealthiest. Republicans responded by labeling it the largest tax increase ever.

The Bush Administration introduced financial sanctions against Iran's military which it said supported terrorism, a reflection of American frustrations with other nations' reluctance to crack down on alleged Iranian ambitions for nuclear weapons and meddling throughout the Middle East.

Wild fires continued to burn in Southern California but firefighters got an assist from weakening winds as President Bush visited the affected region promising continued federal support as he tried to put to rest the specter of his administration's Hurricane Katrina response.

by Frank James

Boston Globe columnist Scot Lehigh says Mitt Romney owes Sen. Barack Obama an apology for his recent Obama-Osama slip-up:

Mitt Romney owes Barack Obama an apology. It's as simple as that.

And if you don't believe me, why, just ask our last governor.

Let me explain.

Perhaps you've followed the latest campaign kerfuffle, which began Tuesday when Romney was discussing the new call to jihad from terrorist Osama bin Laden.

"Just look at what Osam - Barack Obama - said just yesterday. Barack Obama, calling on radicals, jihadists of all the different types, to come together in Iraq," Romney said.

A simple slip of the tongue, his campaign insists. And who knows? In normal circumstances, one would be inclined to agree. It is, after all, relatively easy to say Osama when you mean Obama.

See the rest of Scot Lehigh's column in the Boston Globe:

Hillary Clinton's 60th birthday party hauls $1.5 million for presidential campaign. Singer Elvis Costello, entertaining: "I always throught it was impolite to talk about a lady's age.'' Photo by Newsday.

by Glenn Thrush

The key numbers from Hillary Rodham Clinton's birthday extravaganza Thursday night were 60 -- her age -- and $1.5 million, the approximate amount of cash she raked in thanks to Elvis Costello and Billy Crystal.

The Clintons have always blurred the lines between personal, political and financial, and Thursday night's party at Manhattan's Beacon Theatre, with 3,000 paying guests, was perhaps the crowning example.

"Happy Birthday, Mrs. President," crooned Costello, echoing Marilyn Monroe's serenade of President Kennedy.

Clinton, standing under three giant pictures of herself, took the stage with a dig at Rudy Giuliani, the Yankees fan who said last week that he's rooting for the Red Sox in the World Series.

"I have been a fan -- and I remain a fan -- of the Yankees, no changes, no looking to curry favor with anybody else," said Clinton, turning the tables on the mayor, who has derided her loyalty to the team as political pandering.

Crystal made repeated references to Giuliani's baseball flip-flop, saying it was like Ann Coulter declaring she's kosher.

For more, see the story in Newsday:

by Mark Silva and Frank James

President Bush promised to be a "uniter,'' not a "divider.''

So now, with Bush heading into his final year in a Washington divided perhaps more than at any other time in modern memory, it's worth asking whether anyone can bridge that divide.

This is certainly no scientific answer, yet the National Journal, which convenes a panel of Washington "insiders'' to answer questions such as these, asked them: Who among the cast of presidential candidates would be easiest to work with, from the other party's point of view?

"When asked “Which presidential candidate of the other party could your party most easily work with if he or she were elected?" 34 percent of Democratic Insiders responded that John McCain would be the easiest for their party to work with, citing his record in the Senate of successfully working across party lines,'' the journal reports. (McCain pictured above.)

"Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney tied for second place among Democratic Insiders with each receiving 22 percent, and Mike Huckabee got 12 percent.

"Republican Insiders named Bill Richardson as the candidate their party could most easily work with if elected, with 27 percent of GOP Insiders naming the governor. Interestingly, 23 percent of Republican Insiders responded that Hillary Clinton would be the easiest to work with. Joe Biden was third with 16 percent and Barack Obama fourth with 14 percent.''

So does this mean that Democrats are rooting for McCain to win, and Republicans are rooting for Richardson -- or, dare they say it, Clinton?

No, but there's more on all this at the National Journal. abd a sampler of what those insiders said here:

by William Neikirk

The Democrats' top tax writer in the House unveiled a $1.3 trillion plan Thursday that would cut taxes for millions of middle-income Americans, raise them on the wealthy, and do away with the alternative minimum tax, which is increasingly hitting taxpayers of modest means.

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, called his proposal "the mother of all tax reforms." Republicans called it the "mother of all tax hikes" and vowed to fight it.

Even if his proposal faces an uphill battle, it is likely to produce the mother of all lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill and become a controversial issue in the presidential race. Rangel said he did not expect passage this year and wanted to see how it would fly in 2008. (Rangel, pictured above.)

Both parties are trying to seize the advantage on taxes, with Democrats accusing Republicans of favoring the wealthy with their tax cuts and the GOP accusing Democrats of raising taxes and harming the economy. Many analysts say that true tax reform will ultimately have to be bipartisan.

"I'm willing to work with any president, no matter who she is," Rangel told reporters in an obvious reference to his favorite candidate, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.). But he said he had not consulted her or any other presidential candidate in writing the bill.

For more, see the rest of the story in today's Tribune:

by Mike Dorning

COLUMBIA, S.C.—Barack Obama's presidential campaign today begins a tour of gospel singers around this Bible Belt state to praise the Lord and offer testimonials on behalf of the candidate, a modern twist on a style of old-time politicking right out of the film "O Brother Where Art Thou."

The gospel music tour stirred controversy this week because one of the featured performers, Grammy Award-winning singer Donnie McClurkin, has offended gay activists with his view that homosexuality is a choice and that gays can "overcome" their orientation by turning to God. The campaign sought to tamp down criticism from gay rights groups by adding an openly gay minister to deliver an invocation.

But the three-day gospel concert series—at which Obama is not scheduled to appear—is just the most visible element of the Obama campaign's efforts to target religious voters, especially churchgoing African-Americans.

The Illinois senator's campaign is in the midst of a "Forty Days of Faith and Family" initiative in South Carolina. The program also has included several high-profile appearances by Obama at prominent churches, interviews by the candidate and campaign officials on gospel and Christian radio stations, and so far at least 17 campaign-sponsored "faith forums" that highlight connections between Obama's political stands and the values of the faithful.

For more, see the rest of the story in today's Tribune:

Good morning.

Here are a few Washington events of note for Friday, October 26.

President Bush is meeting with Joseph Kabila, president of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Commerce Scretary Carlos Gutierrez is speaking at the Council on Competitiveness on creating a "new path" for U.S. business competitiveness.

The National White Collar Crime Center is hosting the first Global Conference on Economic and High Tech Crime.

by Mark Silva, and updated

President Bush has vetoed one bill expanding a government-financed program of health care for children, and he is ready to veto another one.

"Today, the House of Representatives passed another State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) reauthorization bill that fails to cover poor children firstt,'' White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said in a statement this evening.

"This bill does not address in a meaningful way the concerns the president raised, and so he will veto it if it reaches his desk,'' she said.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said tonight that "the Congress is preparing to send legislation back to the President to provide health insurance coverage for 10 million American children. A bipartisan coalition worked diligently to address concerns raised by many Republicans around the issues of providing coverage for illegal immigrants, adults and higher income families. The legislation was carefully clarified to address those concerns.

"Unfortunately, House Republicans could not take ‘yes’ for an answer,'' Clyburn said.

by Andrew Malcolm, and updated

The presidential campaign of Barack Obama is gearing up for the big official opening of its Los Angeles campaign headquarters Sunday on Wilshire Boulevard.

From 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., the campaign is planning a block party with music, food, games for all ages and speakers. It's another effort to expand its base of campaign supporters, of course, maybe raise a little money, get some media attention.

It's just that the e-mail announcing the big do had some unfortunate wording for smoky Southern California these days: "We're getting 'Fired up, ready to go' for the 100-day countdown to election day" (the state's Feb. 5 primary).

Debbie Mesloh, spokesperson for Obama's California campaign, contacted us with word that the e-mail was composed before the catastrophic wildfires started.

Once it was clear a disaster was unfolding, the wording was changed and the block party plans dropped, she says. Instead, those attending the office opening are being asked to bring clothing and non-perishable food to donate to fire victims.

The same request has been made to those attending house parties elsewhere in the state marking the 100-day countdown to the primary

Andrew Malcolm writes for Top of the Ticket, the L.A. Times political blog.

by John McCormick

The often-under-fire Iowa caucuses are taking some heat again as a new report by The Century Foundation alleges the voting procedure is antiquated and violates fundamental rights such as equal opportunity to participate and fair access to the ballot.

“While it is absolutely good for democracy for citizens to engage in group deliberation about elections, this no longer makes sense as a mechanism for actually picking the two presidential candidates,” the report states.

The report suggests the main problem with the caucus system is the associated low participation rates, which are even lower than for primaries. In 2004, for example, the report says that turnout for the first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire was 29.9 percent, compared to about 6 percent for the Iowa caucuses.

Participation in Democratic caucuses after Iowa, the report says, were even lower. For example: North Dakota (2.3 percent), Washington (2.5 percent), Michigan (2.3 percent).

Despite the low turnout, Iowa Democratic and Republican leaders often argue in response to such challenges that party activists in their state take their role of winnowing the candidate field very serious and that massive amounts of money are not needed to win the state.

Same-day registration is also allowed for the caucuses, meaning that just about anyone who is a resident of voting age and can spend a couple hours at a meeting on a cold night can participate.

The study can be found at this link.

by Andrew Malcolm

One of the more striking results of this week's newest L.A. Times/Bloomberg poll is the extent to which Hillary Clinton has overcome the negative fallout from so many episodes of difficulty, disappointment and scandal during her husband's eight years in the White House.

As laid out by The Times' Peter Wallsten and Janet Hook, Clinton has so successfully escaped the shadow of her husband's infidelity and other rancorous chapters, that she has opened a national poll lead of 31 points over her closest challenger, Barack Obama, 48-17, and defeats the top four potential Republican challengers in head-to-head matchups today.

More than 70 percent of Democrats and about half of all voters say they would welcome an Oval Office advisory role for the once-polarizing former president.

One of the little-known reasons for the successful reshaping of Hillary Clinton's image from the cold, conniving spouse to the convivial candidate who laughs at aggressive questions and talks often about becoming the first female president is actually something Clinton has not done.

Despite previous promises of openness and transparency and even while denouncing the secrecy of the Bush administration, she and her husband have not authorized the release of millions of pages of documents, letters, calendars, appointment logs, e-mails and memos from her years as first lady.

It is the years covered by these documents that Clinton constantly cites as proof that she has the necessary experience required to become president. And it is those documents that could reveal much about her true White House role in many events, controversial and not.

Yet, all these documents remain locked up in the William J. Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock overlooking the Arkansas River, as detailed in a lengthy August story by The Times' Peter Nicholas. And officials indicate none of them will be released before November 2008, which happens to be presidential election time. What a coincidence!

By Jim Tankersley

The House is still debating a revised children's health insurance bill - and Republicans are crying foul at Democrats' refusal to postpone a vote to allow California representatives to tend to their constituents displaced by a devastating round of wildfires this week.

GOP leaders dubbed the move "heartless" and politically calculated in a release today. And by the way - they don't care much for the revised bill, which Democrats touted as a compromise that could pick up the necessary Republican support to overturn a threatened presidential veto. (President Bush vetoed the first version of the bill, and the House failed to override it earlier this month.)

The revised bill "contradicts principle after Republican SCHIP principle," the House Republican Conference said in a press release earlier today. "Despite claims by Democrats to address Republican concerns, the new bill does not ensure poor kids are covered by SCHIP first before adults, illegal immigrants, wealthier families or kids who already have private health insurance."

We brought you a Democratic "fact sheet" earlier today on the bill. Read on for the Republican response.

President Bush with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Republican Rep.Brian Bilbray and Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

by Mark Silva

Was there a little dig for the Democrats in Louisiana in President Bush’s words of commendation for Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at the scene of wildfire recovery today?

“There is no hill he’s not willing to charge, no problem he’s not willing to solve,’’ Bush said of the California governor. “It makes a significant difference when you have somebody in the statehouse willing to take the lead.''

Unlike, say, Louisana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, who was faulted perhaps as much as the Federal Emergency Management Agency was for inadequate preparation and response for Hurricane Katrina’s assault on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast?

Shaking hands with rows of dusty fire crews at the Witch Creek Fire command post at Kit Carson city park in Escondido, Bush, with Sen. Dianne Feinstein and the governor, said, " I'm proud to be here with the senator, the Terminator -- do you still get called the Terminator?''

"Yes,'' Schwarzenegger said. "Especially by my wife. ''

Schwarzenegger, who toured the fire-disaster area with the president today, thanked the president for “coming to Cal-i-FOH-nia.’’

The governor, noting that 1,400 homes had been destroyed and a half-million acres burned, called the response inspirational.

Bush consoles Jay Jeffcoate and his wife Kendra after visiting the remains of their home damaged by California wildfires. AP Photo by Pablo Martinez Monsivais

by Frank James

In his column today, syndicated columnist David Broder, the dean of Washington reporters, tried to buck up Sen. Barack Obama’s supporters, especially those in Chicago, who may be growing gloomy because of his failure to close the gap in national polls between himself and Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Broder’s point is that despite such polls, there’s still time for Obama to rebound, although the Clinton people will do everything they can to foil him. Broder gives as an example how the Clinton campaign drowned out Obama’s message on the anniversary of the day in 2002 he spoke out, presciently in his supporters’ view, against the then impending war.

The Obama campaign, therefore, announced that the fifth anniversary would be a special day for them, the date of a major foreign policy address. After some debate, the campaign decided not to stage a repetition of the outdoor rally but rather to have him speak in a college auditorium, a better setting for a thoughtful address.

by Mark Silva

The threat of another terrorist attack inside the United States is, in a word, "overblown,'' according to John Mueller, a professor of political science at Ohio State University.

Politicians and bureaucrats -- and the media -- have vastly overstated the threat that al Qaeda in particular poses to the homeland, Mueller says, and few have questioned them.

"We've seen the enemy,'' he says, "and the enemy is us.''

"What basically has happened is a massive, official over-exaggeration,'' Mueller said over lunch today at a forum sponsored by George Washington University. Citing numerous high-level leaders of the intelligence, crime-fighting and homeland security agencies who have spoken of their "intuition'' and "gut'' feelings about another attack coming, he contends the true risk in this situation has been overlooked. "We're now down to instincts and 'gut.'

"It seems to me... we've had this going on now for five or six years... and no one has called this into question,'' said Mueller, Woody Hayes chair of national security at Ohio State and author of Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them. "It seems to me it's time for someone to examine it more fully.''

A man plays poker on an Internet gaming site. (Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images)

by Gabrielle Russon

In a room full of suit-wearing, tailored-looking politicians on Capitol Hill, Barry Greenstein stood out, wearing a sweater decorated in bright rectangles. He may not have exactly looked the part, but Greenstein is a professional poker player, winning $5 million in the last four years at tournaments in such far-away places as Vienna and Barcelona.

This week, Greenstein met with legislators during the Poker Players Alliance’s “fly-in” to lobby against a law that tightens federal restrictions for online gambling. According to the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, banks must monitor and stop their customers’cash transfers to unlawful online gaming sites.

“The Internet gives people an easier way to play,” said Greenstein, who plays in online poker tournaments once or twice a week. “They don’t have to get six or seven buddies to come over to their house. They can play with people, not only from around the country, but around the world. You sit down at the poker table on the Internet, you’re playing with someone who lives in Lebanon or somewhere else…It’s really an international game.”

by John McCormick

The ground game numbers war continues to escalate in Iowa, with the campaign for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama announcing today that it has opened its 32nd and 33rd field office in the state.

The new offices are in Fairfield and Perry, both regional towns with strong Democratic bases. The Illinois Democrat is expected to campaign in Perry on Saturday.

According to an analysis this week by The Des Moines Register, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York has the next-highest number of offices in the state, at 22. Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson follow at 15.

On Wednesday, meanwhile, NBC reported that Clinton plans to add 100 more paid staff members to Iowa by Nov. 1.

That would push her past Obama in total Iowa paid staff. The Register's report showed Obama with 145, Edwards with 130, Clinton with 117 and 78 for Richardson.

by John McCormick

It looks like a decision could come as early as this weekend on a date for the Democratic version of the Iowa caucuses.

Radio Iowa's O. Kay Henderson is reporting this hour that the Iowa Democratic Party's State Central Committee will meet Sunday evening to discuss scheduling of the Iowa caucuses.

Iowa Republicans have already settled on Jan. 3 for their date.

Henderson reports: "In conversations with Democratic party officials and those connected to or participating in the discussions, it appears highly likely Iowa Democrats will hold their precinct-level meetings on January 3 as well."

New Year's Eve reservations at the 801 Steak & Chop House in Des Moines are going to be a hot ticket.

by Mark Silva

The United States, in annoucing new economic sanctions against Iran today because of Tehran’s unabated development of nuclear technology, is calling on allies to tighten their ring around a regime that threatens regional security with its amibtions.

“We have been working closely and intensely with our international partners to prevent one of the world's most dangerous regimes from developing the world's most dangerous weapons,’’ Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said today. “Part of that strategy involves denying supporters of Iran's illicit conduct access to the international financial system. These actors should find no safe haven in the reputable world of finance and commerce. ‘’

Yet some question the ability of the U.S. to rally support for sanctions in the midst of the view that many in the world now hold of the U.S. as a result of its own unilateral foreign policy acts.

“The U.S. does need to do more than talk,’’ says Anthony Cordesman, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “It needs to show Iran that it can deter and contain hostile Iranian military action, whether nuclear, conventional, or asymmetric

“That said,’’ Cordesman writes today, “the U.S. also needs to understand that its credibility is limited and that the last thing its friends and allies need is unilateral action that is not tied to other U.S. negotiating efforts and fully justified to the world. The Bush Administration has already done immense damage to U.S. credibility throughout the region and much of the world.’’

The administration “is viewed as threatening to drag the Gulf into another war - this time with Iran, as failing to consult and explain, and as indifferent to the views of its friends and allies,’’ Cordesman argues. “In short, the Bush administration needs to stop acting as if it could simply announce measures and the world will follow. It needs to use its waning months to reestablish U.S. credibility in every sense of the term.’’

President Bush calls predictions of a U.S. attack against Iran “baseless gossip.’’ Yet Vice President Dick Cheney has reiterated the administration’s warning that: “We will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon…. Our country and the entire international community cannot stand by as a terror-supporting state fulfills its most aggressive ambitions.’’

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is confronted by CODEPINK member Desiree Fairooz, her hands painted red, as Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., House Foreign Relations Committee Chairman tries to separate them on Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2007. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

by Frank James

CODEPINK, the anti-war protest group, literally got in Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's face yesterday, with protester Desiree Fairooz screaming: "You've got the blood of millions of Iraqis on your hands," at the official during a hearing of the House Foreign Relations Committee.

It's arresting to see how close Fairooz was allowed to get to Rice. Fairooz actually had her red-painted hands on either side of Rice's head at one point. It's clear that if the woman had wanted to hurt Rice by throttling her, she could've easily done so right there in a congressional hearing room.

I'm no security expert, but perhaps Rice's security detail needs to rethink its approach to protecting such a high-profile member of the president's cabinet when a member of the public is able to get her hands around the Secretary of State's head and neck.

CODEPINK, one of the most ardent practitioners of political theater in the nation's capital, counts the confrontation as a victory since its immediate goal is to gain publicity and yesterday's protest most assuredly did that.

by Mark Silva

“No matter what you might read in the newspaper,’’ First Lady Laura Bush told American troops stationed in Kuwait today, Americans back home appreciate their work and “the gift of freedom.’’

On a weeklong tour of the Middle East, the president’s wife stopped at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, transfer point for some 700,000 American ssing in and out of Iran and Afghanistan through the year. These soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines typically spend less than 24 hours on the ground at the so-called Theater Gateway, or Rock.

“I'm thrilled to be with the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines here at ‘The Rock,’ Laura Bush said there today, “especially since it's a nice, refreshing 95 degrees outside…. I think this a cold front.

“I know it's difficult to be away from home and family -- to miss those birthdays and holidays, to miss the first day of school. But through Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, you're keeping your loved ones – and millons of Americans – safe at home.''

by Christi Parsons

Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton dominate the New Hampshire primary if it were held today, according to a new poll out from the Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College.

Romney took a nearly 11-point lead over Rudy Giuliani, with the rest of the Republican field behind him. The newest entrant to the race, Fred Thompson, scored 5 percent.

Meanwhile, Clinton showed a 21-point lead over Barack Obama, her closest rival in the Democratic primary. Obama garnered 22 percent while John Edwards took 14 percent.

The poll is one of the more valuable to surface lately, since it narrowly focused on voters who say they're likely to vote in the nation's first primary. The winner in that state will likely pick up steam heading into the other early caucuses and primaries.

One finding of the poll indicates significant indecisiveness on the part of likely votes. More than 40 percent of those who described themselves as uncommitted to any candidate also said they were not even sure which party primary they would vote in.

By Jim Tankersley

The House is set to restart its fight over children's health care today, after Democrats failed to muster the votes earlier this month to override a presidential veto of their bill expanding a kids' insurance program.

Democratic leaders say they're more optimistic about winning a veto-proof majority this time for the SCHIP program, because, they say, they've tweaked the bill to respond to GOP concerns -- namely, by denying benefits for childless adults, illegal immigrants and higher-income families.

But will it be enough? One bellwether lawmaker could be Rep. Judy Biggert (R-Ill.), who voted against the veto override but who has sent letters to the Speaker of the House and to President Bush outlining what she -- and other Republican House colleagues -- would like to see from an SCHIP bill.

Biggert's office didn't immediately return a phone message this morning -- an admittedly busy one on Capitol Hill -- but Democrats have already ramped up the pressure. "Now, as the House prepares to consider revised SCHIP legislation, the American people will have the opportunity to see if House Republicans’ complaints were serious reasons for voting against the bill or just political excuses," Democratic caucus spokesman Nick Papas wrote in a press release today.

Judge for yourself. Here are Biggert's letters to the president and Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Read on for the Democratic "fact sheet" on the new bill.

by Jill Zuckman, and updated

Tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of the day Sen. John McCain was shot down over Hanoi and imprisoned for five-and-a-half long years, a biography that has helped propel both of his campaigns for president.

It is a powerful story, and one he has used to underscore his knowledge of the military and foreign affairs. But it’s not something he dwells on personally.

During a conversation this week, I asked him if he knew what day Friday was and McCain said he did not. Asked if he was going to do anything special to mark the day, McCain said “no, no, no.”

Turns out, his campaign has arranged for him to revisit the occasion with Bud Day, the retired Marine colonel and Medal of Honor winner who was McCain’s first roommate in prison. They will be in Sioux City Friday morning, and Day will travel with McCain throughout the day to Sheldon and Rock Rapids.

McCain said he does not spend much time thinking about what happened that day. He was shot down, breaking his right knee and both his arms while ejecting from his A-4E Skyhawk, before crashing into a lake in the center of Hanoi during broad daylight.

“I kind of think about it when I’m reminded about it,’’ he said. “I remember the Forrestal fire more because it was such a horrendous tragedy.”

by Frank James

When I first saw this CNN footage of Vice President Cheney nodding off during yesterday's White House Cabinet meeting where the California wildfires were Topic A, I thought it was a bit of a cheap shot.

I mean, who hasn't dozed off when the leader of the free world was talking about a massive conflagration that had sent more than half a million people in the nation's most populous state running for their lives?

And he probably wasn't the only one in the room who felt that way.

It wasn't like Cheney was snoring or did some serious head snapping as he tried to push himself back into wakefulness. He was very smooth, very quiet about it. In short, he was very Cheney.

The vice president is a heart patient and, if he's on medication, that could be what made him drowsy. But it wouldn't take that. White House days start notoriously early and take their toll even on relatively young staffers.

So it really isn't much of a story that he took a little snooze. Still, it's not everyday that you see the vice president nod off during a discussion of a huge calamity. That makes it worth noting.

by Frank James

A quick guided tour of some of the morning's most important or interesting, or both, Washington-related stories.

As the Santa Ana winds began to slow, firefighters began to gain control of some of the fires in the southern California with estimates of the insurance costs of the destruction place at over $ 1 billion.

Thousands since 2000 have moved into areas of California at the highest risk of wildfires, raising questions about development.

In an unprecedented move, the U.S. plans to introduce a package of unilateral financial sanctions against Iran's military organizations as state-sponsors of terror, marking the first time the U.S. has so designated another nation's military.

by Mark Silva

Republican Rudy Giuliani and Democrat Hillary Clinton could face a real fight for Florida, the fourth-largest state and an electoral-vote treasure, should they become their parties’ nominees for president in 2008.

A new poll shows a narrow lead for Giuliani over Clinton in the Sunshine State – a 46-43 percentage point advantage – which really is a statistical tie. And it’s a clean reversal of the 46-43 lead that Clinton held over Giuliani in Quinnipiac University’s polling two weeks ago – also a statistical tie.

The Sunshine State hasn’t voted for many Democrats for president in the past five decades, but when it has – Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton for reelection only – it has voted for a winner.

On the theoretical Clinton-Giuliani matchup, Quinnipiac University Polling Institute’s Peter Brown: “ This has gone back and forth since the campaign began this year and reflects just how up for grabs Florida’s Electoral votes will be in November of 2008.’’

In the primary contests, Clinton, the senator from New York, also holds a strong advantage over her rivals in Florida – though candidates essentially have suspended their primary campaigns there at the insistence of the Democratic National Committee, which plans to deny Florida its delegates at the nominating convention in Denver for holding its primary on Jan. 29. The poll also finds that many independent voters, who are key in Florida’s contests, disapprove of the DNC’s punishment – with 22 percent saying they won’t vote for a Democrat because of it.

In that early Jan. 29 primary in Florida, Guiliani, the former mayor of New York, also holds a strong advantage over his rivals.

For more, see the poll.

by Frank James

Who said our counterterrorism officials at the Central Intelligence Agency don't have a sense of humor?

As others have reported, the CIA has a terrorist-busters logo inspired by the Ghostbusters logo from the 1980s movie. The main differences? The malefactor in the CIA's logo is carrying an automatic weapon and has a vague jack-o-lantern face. The ghost in the Ghostbusters logo looked more benign.

Look upon this, Osama bin Laden, and be afraid. Be very afraid.

by Mike Dorning

The nation's largest gay rights group joined in criticism of Barack Obama for a campaign concert series that will include a gospel singer who has made controversial statements about homosexuality.

Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement that he spoke with Obama on Wednesday to ask Obama to drop the Rev. Donnie McClurkin from the concert tour and express "our community's disappointment for his decision to continue to remain associated with" the singer, who argues that homosexuality is a choice.

The Obama campaign sought to defuse the controversy by announcing late Wednesday that it had added an openly gay pastor, the Rev. Andy Sidden, to the lineup on Sunday, the same concert that features McClurkin.

McClurkin, a Pentecostal minister, has said he has "overcome" a homosexual orientation by turning to God. He has attributed his orientation to sexual abuse by two male relatives during his childhood.

Good morning.

Here are a few Washington events of note for Thursday, October 25.

President Bush is flying to Southern California to see the fire destruction.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is testifying about Iraq before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

by James Oliphant

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are getting a few last licks in before they vote on the confirmation of Atty. Gen, nominee Michael Mukasey.

The ranking member, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), today sent a batch of questions to the retired federal judge, who testified before the committee last week.

Specter is primarily concerned with Mukasey's answers concerning the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires a warrant for secret wiretaps. Mukasey indicated he believed that the president may have powers beyond the scope of the act to put in place an alternative program for eavesdropping, perhaps similar to the now defunct National Security Agency effort that sparked turmoil when it was revealed in 2005.

"If you believe the President can act outside the law," Specter wrote, "how do you square that belief with your statement at the hearing that “The President doesn't stand above the law[?]” How do you deal with the public concern that the rule of law is supreme and the President at times appears to put himself above the law?"

by Frank James

Sen. John McCain got a funny attack line off at the recent Republican presidential debate in which he mocked Sen. Hillary Clinton's support of an earmark of $1.2 million in taxpayer money for an upstate New York museum to tell the story of the 1969 Woodstock concert.

But why waste a great joke when you can put together a TV ad and try to sear the anti-Clinton jibe at into voters' minds?

What made the joke so strong was that while he swatted at Clinton, McCain also obliquely reminded the debate's viewers of his Vietnam War sacrifice, his time as a prisoner of war. McCain did that by saying he was "tied up" during Woodstock.

That's the name the McCain campaign gave the ad it's produced. It even fast cuts to the famous grainy, black and white footage of an injured McCain, the downed naval aviator and POW, being interviewed by his North Vietnamese captors, in case you missed the point he was making during the debate.

by Frank James

Sen. Richard Durbin’s legislation called the DREAM Act failed to gain the needed 60 votes in the Senate to move forward today and thus gets shelved.

The legislation, which failed on a 52–44 vote, would have granted legal status to young undocumented immigrants so long as they came to the U.S. before age 16, lived here for at least five years and finished two years in of college or served the same amount of time in the military.

The legislation’s opponents called it amnesty and, as members of Congress have learned the hard way over the past two years, any legislation that can be so branded ignites the ire of millions of voters and thus is doomed to death on Capitol Hill.

The bill’s supporters were concerned before the vote that they might not reach the magic 60 votes because some senators who are also presidential candidates might be away campaigning. Sen. Barbara Boxer was also in California to be with her wildfire-harried constituents during their moment of need.

But only four senators missed the vote, not enough to matter. Besides Boxer fellow Democratic Senators Edward Kennedy and Chris Dodd, a presidential candidate, missed it as did Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

by James Oliphant

It passed for the hottest judicial nomination controversy going, even if it paled in comparison to congressional wars over previous nominees.

But regardless, it's all over now. The Senate confirmed Judge Leslie Southwick this morning to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, by a 59-38 count. Nine Democrats joined a unanimous Republican bloc in approving Southwick.

The vote is a setback for African-American interest groups and other civil rights advocates, which urged Democrats to bounce Southwick, saying he was pro-business and hostile to gay rights. They contended that a federal appeals judge in the Deep South should have an unblemished record on civil rights. But once his nomination cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee (thanks largely to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.), Southwick's confirmation seemed assured.

The White House hailed the vote. "The confirmation of Judge Leslie Southwick to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is a victory for America's judicial system and for the citizens of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas," President Bush said in a statement. "Today's bipartisan vote resolves a long-standing judicial emergency and will help ensure that the Fifth Circuit can operate more effectively."

Bush urged the Senate to approve more nominees, saying its inaction had created "unnecessary vacancies" in the federal courts.

Democratic presidential candidates Sens. Joseph Biden (Del.), Hillary Clinton (N.Y.), and Barack Obama (Ill.), all voted against Southwick, as did the other Illinois senator, Dick Durbin

by Frank James

It's a variation of the old proverbial question about whether a tree falling in forest makes a sound if there's no one to hear it.

Congressional Democrats are struggling to overcome the perception they haven't accomplished much of anything in their first ten months of controlling Congress.

They say they have, it's just that voters haven't heard enough about what they've done to give them the deserved credit.

The narrative by this point is pretty well known, at least inside the Beltway. Democrats won narrow legislative majorities in the House and Senate largely because of voter unhappiness with the Iraq War. But they have been unable to end the war because of their lack of enough votes to override President Bush's veto.

This has made Democrats seem ineffective in the eyes of many voters who generalize that impression onto all the Democratic-led Congress's efforts even though they have had some significant accomplishments.

Oversight of the executive-branch, which under Republican control had atrophied, has been revived. Congress's exercise of its oversight authority may not be as popular as a tax cut but it's how many problems in the federal government come to light.

by Sabrina Fang

by Mark Silva

With a half-million people evacuated from fire-threatend homes in Southern California, President Bush said today that he has pledged all the federal assistance possible to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in a fight against nature itself. Bush will head to California tomorrow.

"I had a conversation with Gov. Schwarzenegger,'' Bush said following a Cabinet meeting at the White House today. "My question to him was, 'Are you getting what you need; are the people there in California getting the help they need from the federal agencies to help the good folks in California deal with these devastating fires?' His answer was, yes. I assured him that if he needs anything, then, great, we'll provide it, we'll do so.

"I've been meeting with my Cabinet secretaries that are responsible for helping the state and local authorities fight these fires,'' the president said. "I believe the effort is well coordinated. I know we're getting the manpower and assets on the ground that have been requested by the state and local authorities.

"I wish we could control the wind, because one of the things that's hampering our joint capability of fighting these fires is the strong westerly winds,'' he said. "I'm told the winds may be dying down soon, in which case it will make it -- make this equipment we've got in place a lot more effective at helping fight the fires. ''

The president this week declared an emergency in seven southern California counties and today signed a "major disaster declaration,'' enabling federal funds to be released to families who have been disrupted by the wildfires.

"Looking forward to going out to California tomorrow,'' he said. "We'll continue to make sure that our efforts are coordinated, that we are responsive to the needs and people.

"And most importantly, I want the people in Southern California to know that Americans all across this land care deeply about them, we're concerned about their safety, we're concerned about their property, and we offer our prayers and hopes that all will turn out fine in the end,'' the president said. "In the meantime, they can rest assured that the federal government will do everything we can to help put out these fires.''

President Bush speaks about Cuban policy today at the State Department in Washington, D.C. He was joined by dissidents (l to r) Damaris Garcia, Mirta Pernet (center), and Olga Alonso. Photo by Chuck Kennedy/MCT

by Mark Silva

President Bush – today calling the transition of power in Cuba from one dictator, the aging Fidel Castro, to another, his brother Raul, unacceptable – also will call on the Cuban people to rally for a democratic state after five decades of dictatorship.

“The president is not calling for armed rebellion,’’ a senior administration official says, but the president nevertheless is calling for action among activists on the island and promising to support them with new U.S. assistance. U.S. policy toward Cuba, the administration says, is “based on freedom… not stability.’’

Bush will say “that now is the time to stand with the democratic movements and the people of Cuba,’’ in a speech that he delivers at the State Department early this afternoon, the official says. “And we need to be focused on how we're prepared -- we, the international community, are prepared for Cuba's transition.’’

Since August of 2006, the Bush administration has been laying a claim to expectations for a democratic transition in Cuba following the passing of Fidel Castro. Bush was vocal about it then. Now, another U.S. election is rolling around -- and any sign of stepped up U.S interest in freeing Cuba could be a strong hand for the president's party to play in South Florida.

Nevertheless, as the Cuban dictator of nearly 50 years faced serious illness that summer, the Bush administration has conceded in the past that it expected nothing but a transition of power from Castro to his equally dictatorial brother Raul. Today, Bush is making a direct appeal to Cubans to rise to the cause of their own democracy.

“The president will make the point that life will not improve for Cubans under the current system,’’ said the administration official, adhering to a policy of speaking on background before the president’s speech. “It will not improve by exchanging one dictator for another, and it will not improve in any way by seeking accommodation with a new tyranny for the sake of stability.

“Our policy is based on freedom for Cuba,’’ this official said. “Our policy is not stability for Cuba, it is freedom, and that the way to get to a stable Cuba is through the Cuban people being given their freedom and fundamental rights.’’

by Frank James

The Hill newspaper had a small story today about House Democrats' plans to meet next month at a half-day conference to discuss policy issues and strategy.

The story had this attention-grabbing line. "To get away from the distractions of the House, members are going to discuss their agenda on the Senate side in a meeting room in the Dirksen Building."

Since many of the "distractions of the House" are caused by the members themselves (like Rep. Pete Stark) I don't give this approach much of a chance.

Perhaps the distractions they're concerned about are lobbyists? Since a lot of those lobbyists know the Dirksen Senate Office Building better than House members, the lawmakers aren't likely to evade them by crossing the Capitol grounds.

Couldn't they all chip in to rent one of those large Potomac River cruise boats for a few hours?

Norma "Duffy" Lyon works on a Harley-Davidson V-Rod motorcycle made of butter, Aug. 6, 2003. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

by John McCormick, updated

Norma Duffield Stong Lyon does some of her best work in 40-degree temperatures, so she is certainly hardy enough to deal with January's Iowa caucus weather.

Lyon, who goes by "Duffy," is something of an Iowa icon, where she is known as the "Butter Cow Lady" for her work on such art forms as butter cows, a butter Elvis Presley, a butter Garth Brooks and a butter Smokey the Bear.

Yes, Ms. Lyon is a butter sculptor. She is also a new public voice for Sen. Barack Obama, whose campaign announced this morning that she is speaking in a new radio ad airing in the first-in-the-nation-caucus state.

“You know, you see a lot of manure in our line of work,” Lyon says in the ad. “It’s a lot like politics. You got to know what’s bull and what’s for real.”

Obama, however, did not visit her work during a lengthy tour of the Iowa State Fair in August. He visited an animal building, rode the bumper cars and competed in a midway game, but no visit to the butter sculpture, as is typical for most visiting candidates.

Tommy Vietor, Obama's Iowa spokesman, said the candidate did on another trip get a private viewing of a butter Obama logo Lyon made her him.

During the 60-second ad, called "For Us," Lyon praises Obama’s commitment to standing up to Washington special interests and for supporting rural America.

by Mark Silva

President Bush, who likes to tout the tight reins he has placed on discretionary spending of late, actually has run up the biggest budget tab since Lyndon B. Johnson, according to a study by the Cato Institute which our good friend David Lightman has found.

When adjusted for inflation, discretionary spending -- meaning the budget which Congress and the president can control, including defense and domestic programs, but not entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare -- shot up at an average annual rate of 5.3 percent during Bush's first six years, the Cato Institute's Stephen Slivinski calculates.

That tops the 4.6 percent annual rate Johnson logged during his 1963-69 presidency.

Lightman, who has contributed to the Swamp many times, now reports for McClatchy Newspapers in Washington. And the Swamp finds his report on the Cato numbers truly Swamp-worthy. See the report here or read on:

by Frank James

A quick guided tour of some of the morning's most important, most interesting, or both, Washington-related stories.

Nearly a million people were evacuated and more than a thousand homes destroyed by the southern California wildfires as the White House ordered federal officials and assets to the area and announced that President Bush would visit the stricken area Thursday, in an effort to not repeat the mistakes that followed Hurricane Katrina. Meanwhile, there were questions about the region's preparedness.

The Iraq and Afghanistan wars may cost taxpayers as much as $2.4 trillion by the end of the decade or $8,000 for each person in the country, according to estimates by the Congressional Budget Office.

The State Department announced additional oversight for private security firms in Iraq, including the establishment of an agency "go team" to immediately visit the site of any shooting incident to establish the facts and an incident review board.

Despite recent efforts to portray himself as a fiscal conservative, President Bush is the second-biggest spender in the White House since Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s, and under some measures, an even bigger spender, according to fiscal experts.

by Michael Tackett

There’s a lot of pent up demand on the campus here, with candidates, consultants, staff and reporters all wondering when this presidential campaign will end, even though it really hasn’t begun.

That has led to several cases of premature prognostication and some odd instances of Republicans and Democrats seeming to wear the other party’s clothes.

It is, after all, the Republican Party that has a tradition of anointing the candidate who has stood in line the longest to be the party nominee. Democrats prefer the messy process in which they train fire on each other. Now it is the Democrats, with Sen. Hillary Clinton playing the role of quasi incumbent, seen as invincible, while the Republicans are spending a lot of time violating Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment.

But the election of 2008 also presents another question: Will it be 1968 again, or 2004?

by Mark Silva

There is a reason why the European Union is pressing for a global climate agreement, something more binding than voluntary goals which the Bush administration proposes, according to the E.U. ambassador in Washington.

"The European Union wants to show that humanity can govern itself, and can determine its own future, rather than be prey to blind forces of nature – whether these be forces of greedy human nature, or the unpredictable forces of a natural world whose balance we have carelessly disturbed,'' says John Bruton, the E.U.'s ambassador to the United States.

"Today the citizens of the European Union constitute 7.5 percent of the world’s population, enjoy 35 percent of the world’s income, and consume 18 percent of the world’s energy,'' Bruton notes.

"The citizens of the United States constitute 4.6 percent of the world’s population, enjoy 27 percent of the world’s income and consume 23 percent of the world’s energy.

"In contrast, the people of China constitute 20 percent of the world’s population, enjoy 5.4 percent of the world’s income and consume 16 percent of the world’s energy.

"The people of Africa, with 14.2 percent of the world’s population, receive only 1.2 percent of global income and consume only 4 percent of global energy.

"The story is similar for India,'' Bruton adds. "These imbalances are a profound factor for instability in the world. They lie behind the immigration pressure experienced in Europe and the US, and the upward pressure on oil prices, and they greatly complicate our efforts to deal with climate change.''

by Don Frederick

The new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll, which you can peruse here, provides welcome news for Democrat Hillary Clinton and, to a lesser extent, Republican Rudy Giuliani.

But a closer look at the results also identifies the hurdles that could keep either out of the White House.

The poll reveals a substantial number of Republicans who will not, under any circumstances, back Giuliani because of his past stands on key social issues such as abortion

Clinton is favored for her party's presidential nomination by almost half -- 48 percent-- of Democratic-leaning voters nationwide. That gives her a formidable lead in the contest.

Her number is right on track with the average of her support -- 48.5 percent-- in several other recent national surveys, as aggregated on the RealClearPolitics Website. And trend lines could hardly be more favorable for her -- as Clinton's backing has grown, Barack Obama's has not. He came in this time with only 17 percent

The poll also found Clinton doing significantly better in potential general election matchups with the top Republican presidential contenders, compared with the results in a Times/Bloomberg poll conducted in June. Back then, she lost each of these faceoffs; now, she's ahead.

Still, there's that little matter of her favorability rating.

By Jim Tankersley

Update, 10:30 a.m. -- The latest Los Angeles Times / Bloomberg poll supports the Edwards-aggressive strategy in the "21" game (see below). The poll shows the former North Carolina senator moving 10 percentage points closer to Obama since June -- a five-point gain for Edwards added to a five-point slide for Obama. The two candidates both trail Clinton, who has nearly half the support in the national poll. But now Edwards is statistically tied -- which is to say, within the poll's margin of error -- with Obama.

John Edwards and Barack Obama both love to hoop, so it seems fitting to explain their current presidential-primary conundrum through a basketball metaphor.

When only three players show for a pick-up game – not enough for even some half-court two-on-two – they often pass the time with a game called “21”. The rules are simple: One player has the ball and tries to score. The other two play defense. When someone scores, they shoot free throws and, if they make three in a row, get the ball back to try to score another basket. First to 21 points wins.

The strategy comes when you don’t have the ball. Do you aggressively guard the player trying to score, in hopes of forcing a bad shot? Or do you hang out around the basket, hoping the other defender will guard the player on offense, and position yourself to rebound a missed shot?

Play aggressively and you risk missing the rebound – but play back and you risk letting the offensive player score (in the event that the other defender does a poor job or, worst of all, hangs back for the rebound, too).

Right now, the Democratic nomination fight is a big game of 21. Hillary Clinton has the ball. Edwards is pressuring her aggressively. And Obama, for the most part, has looked content to wait for the rebound.

by Christi Parsons

Political analysts maintain that, if Barack Obama hopes to remain competitive with Hillary Clinton, he'll have to start going after her more aggressively in their race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

But Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, whose career bears some parallels to Obama's, argues otherwise.

"There's no point bloodying each other up," Patrick tells his hometown newspaper, the Boston Globe. "Part of the appeal of his campaign and his candidacy is that he is a different kind of candidate and not making all the conventional moves and following all the conventional advice."

A rising African American star in Democratic politics, Patrick's endorsement was considered a big score by the Obama campaign. Clinton also pursued Patrick, who served in her husband's Justice Department. But Patrick held a large rally for Obama last night in Boston.

by Mark Silva

Quick, pick a name of someone running for president.

Got it?

If you said Hillary Clinton, you're like 78 percent of all people who can name the senator from New York without prompting when asked about the 2008 presidential field.

If you said Barack Obama, you're like 62 percent of the people who can name the Illinois senator without prompting.

But if you said Rudy Giuliani, you're like just 45 percent of the public who can name the former mayor of New York as a candidate for president without prompting.

The '08 campaign may have started much earlier than contests normally begin, "but public interest in the campaign is at most only modestly higher than in previous campaigns,'' the Pew Research Center reports. "While Democrats are following the campaign more closely than at the same stage in previous primary contests,'' Pew finds, "Republicans are no more engaged than in the past, resulting in a sizable partisan gap in campaign interest.

"The Republicans’ disengagement, if not disillusionment, with the campaign is borne out by the fact that many more Republicans are able to recall unprompted the names of Democratic frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama than can name Rudy Giuliani and other leading GOP candidates,'' Pew reports.

Good morning.

Here are a few Washington events of note for Wednesday, October 24.

President Bush is making a policy speech on Cuba.

With the housing market in a distinct slump, the National Association of Realtors is releasing the existing home sales report for September

By Mike Dorning

Barack Obama began airing radio ads in South Carolina today featuring Chicago Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., son of the prominent civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

The senior Jackson won the South Carolina Democratic primary during his 1988 campaign for president, a victory the younger Jackson recalled in the ad, which is airing on gospel and R&B stations with a predominantly African-American audience.

“Once, South Carolina voted for my father, and sent a strong message to the nation,” the younger Jackson said. “Next year, you can send more than a message. You can launch a President.”

The advertising campaign comes a month after Jackson's father criticized Obama for "acting like he's white" because the Illinois senator did not speak more aggressively in the racially charged "Jena 6" case. The elder Jackson, who is supporting Obama, later said the remark was taken out of context.

African-Americans are a crucial demographic group in the South Carolina primary, a key early contest in the presidential nomination. They comprised about half the electorate in the Democratic presidential primary in 2004.

by Kelley L. Carter

Gospel music superstar Donnie McClurkin says he was surprised to wake up Tuesday morning to a media firestorm.

The 47-year-old Grammy-award winning and best-selling musician is scheduled to perform this weekend at Senator Barack Obama’s three-day concert series in South Carolina. Bloggers, for the most part, are calling for the senator to cancel the singer’s Sunday night appearance, saying that his views are anti-gay and incite hate. His ideals and most importantly his ministry, he says, were severely misconstrued.

“Most of the things that were said were totally out of context and then other things weren’t true,” says McClurkin in an exclusive interview with the Tribune. “My only concern is to be in place with Senator Obama in unity and bring all the factors together for the sake of change. That’s my only thing. Of course some agents have twisted it as though he [Obama] were embracing a racist or a Nazi, and that is anything but true.”

by Matthew Hay Brown

It may have gone down in a failed veto override last week. But it looks as if the plan to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program is coming back sooner rather than later---and in a form that will be familiar to all who have followed the debate.

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer said today that Democrats could bring the bill back to the floor as early as this week. And while Republican opponents have called for compromise on who would be covered and how much would it would cost, Hoyer suggested that the main difference this time would be better salesmanship.

"Some of the comments that have been made by members of the other side about their concerns ... we are prepared to try to address some of those concerns," Hoyer said today during his weekly pen-and-pad session with the Capitol press corps. "We don't think they were concerns that were legitimate. And we are prepared to address them to ensure the fact that everybody understands what the bill means."

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney shares a laugh with unidentified Greenville Rotarian in Greenville, S.C. Oct. 23, 2007. (AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain)

by Frank James

So that was a real moment of brain fade experienced by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney who today accused Sen. Barack Obama instead of Osama bin Ladin of trying to rally jihadists in Iraq.

This is how the Associated Press reports the story.

By GLEN JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer

GREENWOOD, S.C. (AP) — In a slip of the tongue, Republican Mitt Romney accused Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama of urging terrorists to congregate in Iraq.

In the midst of criticizing Obama and other Democrats on foreign and economic policy Tuesday, the GOP presidential hopeful said:

"Actually, just look at what Osam — Barack Obama — said just yesterday. Barack Obama, calling on radicals, jihadists of all different types, to come together in Iraq. That is the battlefield. ... It's almost as if the Democratic contenders for president are living in fantasyland. Their idea for jihad is to retreat, and their idea for the economy is to also retreat. And in my view, both efforts are wrongheaded."

Romney apparently was referring to an audiotape aired Monday in which a speaker believed to be terrorist Osama bin Laden called for insurgents in Iraq to unite and avoid divisions. The authenticity of the tape aired on Al-Jazeera television could not be immediately confirmed.

Romney also said: "It's my personal belief that having someone like John Edwards, a senator, who goes out and communicates that there is no global war on terror — that it's just a Bush bumper sticker — I think that is a position that is not consistent with the facts."

Romney was addressing a Chamber of Commerce meeting. Spokesman Kevin Madden said: "He misspoke. He was referring to the audiotape of Osama bin Laden and misspoke. It was just a mix-up."

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said, "Apparently, Mitt Romney can switch names just as casually as he switches positions, but what's wrongheaded is continuing a misguided war in Iraq that has left America less safe."

Ouch. Very smart smackdown by the Obama aide.

by Aamer Madhani

As Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that he may send troops into Iraq “at any time” to crack down on the Kurdish rebel group PKK, a senior State Department official expressed displeasure today over Iraqi Kurdish leaders failure to clamp down on the terrorist organization.

David Satterfield, the State Department’s Iraq coordinator, put the onus on the Kurdistan Regional Government in heading off a Turkish incursion against the guerilla fighters in northern Kurdistan.

“In the first instance, responsibility for dealing with this threat lies with the Kurdish Regional Government leadership,” Satterfield told Defense Writers in Washington this morning. “This organization is based in and operates from the KRG territory. We look to the Kurdish leadership to take steps in their own interest against this group.”

“And I must tell you, this is not anything which the Kurdish leadership is not aware of from our own voice. We are not pleased with the lack of action undertaken against PKK…..They [KRG] should act and they should act now in meaningful fashion against the PKK in order to prevent an action the consequences of which could be harmful to them, to Iraqi interests and certainly to our broader interests.”

Satterfield’s comments came as Erdogan ratcheted up the rhetoric about a possible incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan. At a news conference in London today, Erdogan said that he was prepared to halt exports into Iraq and was prepared to launch a military strike into Iraqi Kurdistan.

by Jill Zuckman

When Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) suggested that Mississippi is the lowest of the low when it comes to state-by-state comparisons, she may have bruised some feelings there.

In an interview with the Des Moines Register’s David Yepsen today, she said she was surprised that Iowa, like Mississippi, had never elected a woman governor, senator or member of Congress.

"I was shocked when I learned Iowa and Mississippi have never elected a woman governor, senator or member of Congress. There has got to be something at work here," she said.

“How can Iowa be ranked with Mississippi?" she asked, suggesting that Iowa is too good for that. "That's not the quality. That's not the communitarianism, that's not the openness I see in Iowa."

by Christi Parsons

Barack Obama is asking supporters to join the drive to get rid of John Tanner, the Justice Department official whose recent statements about minority voters have stirred up controversy in some circles.

Tanner set it off in remarks to a national Latino group earlier this month, when he said that rules requiring photo identification for people to vote don't especially disenfranchise minority voters.
They may affect older voters, Tanner said, but they wouldn't have a disproportionate impact on minorities.

"Our society is such that minorities don't become elderly the way white people do; they die first," he said.

Obama sent a letter last week to the acting attorney general, demanding that Tanner be removed from his job as the top-ranking voting rights official in the agency. Today, his campaign sent a letter to supporters asking them to visit Obama's website and send a message of their own to the Department of Justice.

"Numerous studies show that photo ID requirements have a discriminatory impact on African American and other minority voters," campaign manager David Plouffe wrote in today's letter. "Yet, in public statements like his October 5th remarks, Tanner continues to justify them with faulty logic. And it adds insult to injury to use tragic discrepancies in life expectancies for African Americans as justification for policies that would further disenfranchise them."

Obama in recent weeks has been criticized by some activists for not speaking out more forcefully on minority-related issues. Some black leaders thought he didn't raise his voice loudly enough in the outcry against the treatment of African American teens by prosecutors in Jena, Louisiana. Obama made public statements about the case, but he still drew criticism for missing a recent demonstration in Jena.

This week, Obama is under fire from some gay rights activists for planning a campaign-related gospel tour that includes a singer who publicly preaches the idea that people can be "cured" of homosexuality. Obama said yesterday that he strongly disagrees with those views, pointing out that he has "spoken directly to African-American religious leaders about the need to overcome the homophobia that persists in some parts our community so that we can confront issues like HIV/AIDS and broaden the reach of equal rights in this country."

His campaign said yesterday it would not drop gospel artist Donnie McClurkin from its event.

by Matthew Hay Brown

Rep. Pete Stark would like now to remove himself from the debates on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and the war in Iraq.

Last week, as the House was debating the SCHIP veto override attempt, the California Democrat said that opponents of the legislation were sending Americans to Iraq "to get their heads blown off for the president’s amusement."

Then, as Repulicans demanded he retract the charge, Stark clarified that while he had "nothing but respect for our brave men and women in uniform," he respected "neither the commander-in-chief who keeps them in harm’s way nor the chickenhawks in Congress who vote to deny children health care."

President Bush speaks at at the National Defense University in Washington, October 23, 2007. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

by Mark Silva, and updated

The missile defense network that the U.S. wants to build in Eastern Europe is designed for such threats as the one which could be posed by Iran and its nuclear ambitions, President Bush said today.

The president previously has spoken of the need to guard against "rogue'' threats, but with the debate over Iran's weaponry heating up, he is getting quite specific now.

In a speech at the National Defense University in Washington today, Bush said that the threat of an attack from Iran makes the missile defenses imperative: "If (Iran) chooses to do so, and the international community does not take steps to prevent it, it is possible Iran could have this capability," Bush said. "And we need to take it seriously — now."

by Sabrina Fang

by Mark Silva

Sen. Hillary Clinton, who hopes to be the next president, says her husband, the former president, often brings her romantic gifts -- a giant wooden giraffe from an African trip, and a Chanel watch that reminded him of teeth.

"Oh, he's so romantic," the former first lady says in an interview appearing in the November issue of Essence magazine. "He's always bringing me back things from his trips."

The watch had a bracelet made of white cubes.

"I had dental surgery, and he said it reminded him of teeth," she explained.

by Mark Silva

Here's a cheerful note from the White House:

"Over half the families in America are not poor.''

That's a good glass half-full way of looking at the debate over health insurance for children. With the president having vetoed -- and having sustained that veto -- a bill offering health care to the children of families living at three times the federal poverty level, the White House maintains it is willing to find more money for health care for lower-income children.

Just not the middle class.

by Jim Tankersley

Insert your own joke here: an Ohio newspaper is reporting that a new book claims Rep. Dennis Kucinich - the vegan, Department of Peace-promoting Democratic presidential candidate - once had a 10-minute brush with a visiting spacecraft.

Mark Naymik of the Plain Dealer in Cleveland reports that actress Shirley MacLaine details Kucinich's alleged UFO sighting in a book due out next month. To quote Naymik quoting MacLaine:

"Kucinich, she writes on page143-144 of the book, 'had a close sighting over my home in Graham, Washington, when I lived there. Dennis found his encounter extremely moving. The smell of roses drew him out to my balcony where, when he looked up, he saw a gigantic triangular craft, silent, and observing him. It hovered, soundless, for ten minutes or so, and sped away with a speed he couldn't comprehend. He said he felt a connection in his heart and heard directions in his mind.'"

You can read Naymik's full story here. Kucinich didn't respond to the Plain Dealer's requests to talk about the UFO claims.

by Mark Silva

Expectations for or a better life in Iraq are diminishing, according to the results of ABC polling and an analysis by Tony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

In 2004 and 2005 alike, he reports, three-quarters of Iraqis surveyed “expected improvements in the coming year in their security, schools, availability of jobs, medical care, crime protection, clean water and power supply.’’

Today only about 23 percent still expect better -- down from 40 percent in March.

Forty-seven percent of all Iraqis surveyed say U.S. forces should leave Iraqi immediately. “This percentage has been steadily rising, from 35 percent in March and 26 percent in November 2005, he reports. Just 34 percent of Iraqis say U.S. and Coalition forces should “stay until security is restored.’’ Indeed 19 percent of Iraqis surveyed blame either U.S. or coalition forces for the current violence in Iraq.

“And 8 percent blamed George W. Bush personally,’’ the report notes.

The report showing “the state of Iraq hearts and minds’’ was prepared with the help of Gary Langer and the ABC polling unit.

“The results should be reviewed in detail,’’ Cordesman notes, delivering a 70-page report (find a link to that below). “Polls do not provide some simply punch line insights. They rather provide a mosaic of the various attitudes Iraqis have towards key issues. Unless they are reviewed in detail, picking out one trend or result can be more misleading than helpful.’’

Sen. Hillary Clinton greets Kerry Bowen at the Polk County Fall Dinner, Friday, Oct. 19, 2007, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Steve Pope)

Glenn Thrush

In an odd, surprisingly candid and perilous interview with the Des Moines Register's David Yepsen Hillary Clinton implies that voters in Iowa and Mississippi are sexist because they haven't elected women as governors, reps or senators. Iowa "poses a special burden to me" she said.

Ouch.

We’re sure there are couple of people who’d like to relieve her of that burden.

"I was shocked when I learned Iowa and Mississippi have never elected a woman governor, senator or member of Congress. There has got to be something at work here," she told Yepsen, theorizing it may be the risk-averse nature of a state built around agriculture.

"I think not only do I have to bring people to me, I have to maybe reassure people here maybe more than I do in New Hampshire, which has had a woman governor."

Then she takes a gratuitous shot at Ole Miss, which will provide the GOPers in the South with bulletin board material and will cause her nothing but problems in her quest to win over the upper south.

"How can Iowa be ranked with Mississippi?" she asked, siding with the Hawkeye State. "That's not the quality. That's not the communitarianism, that's not the openness I see in Iowa."

Homes go up in flames at the Valley Oaks mobile home park near Fallbrook, California, Monday, 2007. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

by Mark Silva, updated

It is a scene eerily reminiscent of the floods that overwhelmed the Gulf Coast: Tens of thousands of people evacuated from their homes, and many huddled in a stadium.

President Bush declared seven counties of Southern California disaster areas today, which unleashes the resources of the Federal Emergency Management Agency -- now "mobilized.''

This is an overhauled FEMA, not the same one that responded -- or failed to respond -- to the flooding that Hurricane Katrina unleashed on New Orleans and the coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi. And the leader of FEMA today is a firefighter by profession, David Paulison, the former fire chief in Miami.

Southern California will need FEMA's help and more to overcome waves of flame, fanned by furious Santa Anna winds, which are overcoming the hills spanning a wide region spanning from San Diego to Santa Barbara.

"All of us across this nation are concerned for the families who have lost their homes and the many families who have been evacuated from their homes," the president said today, during a speech at the National Defense University. "We send the help of the federal government."

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at the fires. Photo by his office.

See the president's emergency declaration:

Sen. Barack Obama is applauded by supporters at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, Monday, Oct. 22, 2007. (AP Photo/Mike Derer)

by John McCormick

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama is going on the offensive in Iowa on Iran.

The Illinois Democrat's campaign is sending out a color mailing today in the early voting state that includes the headline, "While others went along, Obama opposed Bush’s war plans."

The mailing highlights a recent Senate vote, typically referred to as the "Kyl-Lieberman Amendment," that labeled the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization as part of a "Sense of the Senate" measure that was passed by a wide margin.

Democratic front-runner Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York voted for the amendment, as did Sen. Dick Durbin, the senior senator from Illinois.

Obama missed the vote, but has said he would have voted against the provision, had he not been campaigning in New Hampshire.

The mailing states: "Barack Obama is the ONLY major candidate for president to oppose both the Iraq War from the very start and the Senate amendment that raises the risk of war with Iran."

by Frank James

A quick guided tour of some of the morning's most important or interesting, or both, Washington-related stories.

More than half a million people were ordered to evacuate their homes as wildfires swept through many parts of southern California, destroying hundreds of homes and businesses, leading President Bush to declare a state of emergency, allowing federal assistance to be added to state and local firefighting and related efforts.

President Bush asked for $46 billion in additional emergency spending to fund the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, bringing the total spent in both theaters since 9/11 to more than $600 billion as Democratic critics lambasted the president for his willingness to spend in Iraq and at the expense of domestic priorities.

A government audit to be released Tuesday indicated that the documentation is so bad the State Department can't account for $1.2 billion in taxpayer money paid to DynCorp International to train Iraqi police. Meanwhile another report criticized the State Department's oversight of Blackwater USA, the private-security contractor.

By Don Frederick

Savvy Internet surfers know that when a good chuckle is needed to brighten a ho-hum day, one reliable source is "Chuck Norris Facts." As Wikipedia puts it, in an understatement, the site documents "fictional, often absurdly heroic feats and characteristics" about the martial arts master who parlayed that skill into starring parts in movies and on television.*

The political world now has learned an actual Chuck Norris fact: His favorite in the fight for the Republican presidential nomination is Mike Huckabee, the one-time longshot who seems to be gaining momentum with each passing week. (The latest boost to Huckabee's candidacy came this weekend at the Values Voter Summit.)

Norris revealed his pick and explained it in a lengthy column posted late Sunday on WorldNetDaily, a conservative website for which he regularly writes. After giving quick nods to the other major contenders in the GOP race, he describes Huckabee as "the only one who has all of the characteristics to lead America forward into the future."

Norris, an evangelical Christian who now spends much of his time and money promoting his religious values, is effusive in his praise of Huckabee. So much so that we imagine the former governor of Arkansas will do all he can to make the endorsement required reading in Iowa, where social conservatives hold great sway within the Republican Party.

For the uninitiated (which, frankly, we were until a few minutes ago), here's a sampling from "Chuck Norris Facts:''

--

By Andrew Malcolm

As often seems to happen in the public chaos of major political campaigns, it turns out there's much more to that apparent Fred Thompson memory loss story from a couple of weeks ago.

You may remember that the closely watched newest Republican candidate was asked about that highly controversial Terri Schiavo right-to-die case in which the husband of a Florida woman in a persistent vegetative state wanted to remove her chemical feeding tube, but her parents went to court and then politicians from Gov. Jeb Bush and Congress got into the struggle two years ago.

When Thompson was asked about it recently, he said he didn't really recall much, and some people clucked and said, how could he not? Well, Thompson was talking with some reporters today and, it turns out, he remembers it too well. He just didn't want to talk about it because, like a growing number of Americans, he'd gone through a similar end-of-life decision regarding his daughter several years ago.

It probably should not be surprising that a society that cannot agree on when life begins also has yet to fully agree on when life can end. Very few cases reach the courts like Schiavo's and become political cause celebres. Most are handled quietly among family members and doctors.

“I know this is bandied about as a political issue," Thompson said to the Associated Press on Monday, "and people want to make it such and talk about it in the public marketplace a lot. I am a little bit uncomfortable about that because it’s an intensely personal thing. These things need to be decided by the family, and I was at that bedside, and I had to make those decisions with the rest of my family.”

Thompson's 38-year-old daughter, Elizabeth Betsy Thompson, who had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, died in 2002 of an accidental drug overdose six days after being admitted to the hospital unconscious. Thompson's remarks indicated she had been put on life support systems. His campaign declined to discuss the case further, saying it was too person and painful.

Good morning.

Here are a few Washington items of note for Tuesday, October 23.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is holding a hearing on the results of the 2001 anthrax scare.

President Bush is speaking at the National Defense University’s Distinguished Lecture Program.

The Poker Players Alliance is hosting a Washington lobbying effort to try to win legislative approval of the game as one of skill rather than chance.

by Mike Dorning, and updated

A Gospel concert tour that the Barack Obama campaign has organized for this weekend is stirring controversy among some gay activists.

Grammy Award-winning gospel artist Donnie McClurkin, who has offended gay rights groups by promoting the view that homosexuality is a choice and that gays can be "cured," is among several gospel singers scheduled to campaign on behalf of Obama in South Carolina. McClurkin is one of the singers featured in the tour's finale on Sunday.

McClurkin, who is also a Pentecostal minister, has said he struggled with homosexual "demons" for 20 years--which he attributes to molestation as a child by male relatives--but is now straight.

McClurkin's involvement in the tour has stirred a flurry of heated commentary on the web from gay activists and liberal bloggers.

Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt said Monday evening that the campaign has no plans to drop McClurkin from the concert series, though Obama did issue a written statement late Monday distancing himself from McClurkin's views on homosexuality.

“I have clearly stated my belief that gays and lesbians are our brothers and sisters and should be provided the respect, dignity, and rights of all other citizens. I have consistently spoken directly to African-American religious leaders about the need to overcome the homophobia that persists in some parts our community so that we can confront issues like HIV/AIDS and broaden the reach of equal rights in this country," Obama said in the written statement.

"I strongly believe that African Americans and the LGBT community must stand together in the fight for equal rights. And so I strongly disagree with Reverend McClurkin’s views and will continue to fight for these rights as President of the United States to ensure that America is a country that spreads tolerance instead of division," the statement added.

(Tribune file photo)

by Siobhan Gorman

The nation’s spy chief will soon divulge one of the government’s most tightly-held secrets: the size of the national intelligence budget.

After decades of wrangling between the White House and Congress, lawmakers forced President Bush to approve the disclosure by including the requirement in a security bill he signed earlier this year.

So, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell will reveal the total intelligence spending for 2007 at the end of this month, said his spokesman Ross Feinstein.

President Bush, flanked by representatives of military support organizations and military family members, urges Congress to approve additional Iraq and Afghanistan war spending at a White House event, October 22, 2007 Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

by Frank James

Another day, another chance for both President Bush and the Democratic-controlled Congress to try and score points with their respective political bases over Iraq.

Bush came to the White House’s Roosevelt Room to announce he had asked Congress for $46 billion more in emergency funding for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars for fiscal 2008. Congressional Quarterly reports that would come on top of the $196.4 billion in fiscal 2008 spending he had asked for earlier in the year.

The president sought to raise the pressure on the Democrats by saying that the money is largely for the troops’ daily needs, to help protect them from improvised explosive devices, for instance, as well the continued training of those Iraqi troops who will eventually replace Americans.

Bush said:

I know some in Congress are against the war, and are seeking ways to demonstrate that opposition. I recognize their position, and they should make their views heard. But they ought to make sure our troops have what it takes to succeed. Our men and women on the front lines should not be caught in the middle of partisan disagreements in Washington, D.C. I often hear that war critics oppose my decisions, but still support the troops. Well, I'll take them at their word -- and this is the chance to show it, that they support the troops.

by Frank James, revised and updated at 5:40 pm with Obama campaign response.

Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign is continuing to make a virtue out of necessity following what many still view as a gaffe he committed during July’s YouTube debate when he said that as president that he’d meet without preconditions, with leaders of rogue states hostile to the U.S.

Obama’s comment underscored what many analysts and voters perceive as the senator’s greatest weakness, his relative lack of national and foreign policy experience. Sen. Hillary Clinton has hit Obama relentlessly on this.

The candidate and his campaign have argued however that Obama’s statement showed him to be an innovative leader not locked into traditional Washington thinking.

To that end, the campaign has a new ad called “Conventional” that has gone up in New Hampshire where Obama trails Clinton by at least 20 points in all the major polls. Here's the ad's script:

We are a beacon of light around the world. At least that's what we can be again. That's what we should be again.

When we break out of the conventional thinking and we start reaching out to friend and foe alike, then I am absolutely confident that we can restore America's leadership in the world.

We're going to lead with our values and our ideals by deed and by example. I want to go before the world and say America's back. America is back.

The fact that his campaign feels it necessary to go up with this commercial, indicates its continuing concern that Obama is having trouble closing the deal with a lot of voters because of that July comment and what it symbolized, again, for many, his newness to global affairs.

This interpretation of the ad's import was disputed by Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt who said, politely, that I had missed the point.

LaBolt wrote saying this:

The spot has a broader focus than the diplomatic discussion, though that is important. Conventional thinking in Washington led many to support the war in Iraq.

But the spot has a broader focus – to show the hopefulness and possibilities of rethinking U.S. foreign policy and restoring America’s standing in the world

The ad clearly seeks to convey that broad inspiring vision thing that Obama is so many of Obama's supporters, and even many who aren't supporting him, find attractive.

And in fairness to Obama, while many people who get paid to watch and think about presidential campaigns thought Obama had misstepped, there's evidence that many Americans thought differently.

A Rasmussen poll conducted in July found that 42 percent of respondents agreed with Obama's position while 34 percent didn't and 11 percent didn't know enough to say one way or another.

Among Democrats, 55 percent shared Obama's view while 22 percent didn't.

Andrew Zajac

Drug Enforcement Administration administrator Karen Tandy announced her retirement today to take a senior position with Motorola.

As DEA head, Tandy was a key chieftain in the war on drugs (remember that?). Post-9-11, her agency was shoved out of the headlines by the war on terror, despite strong efforts to highlight linkage between the two.

In 2003, the DEA assembled a traveling exhibit titled Target America: Traffickers, Terrorists, and You -- funded in part by Motorola.

In a press release announcing the opening of the exhibit, Tandy declared that,"Drug money is the slush fund of mass murder."

DEA has boasted of racking up big numbers in drug eradication in Afghanistan, though recent UN reports indicate the trade in opium and heroin is thriving.

by Frank James

Now for the latest blow in the war between the states and national party organizations.

Mike Duncan, chairman of the Republican National Committee, just held a teleconference to tell reporters the RNC has sent letters to five states telling them that they will lose 50 percent of their delegates to the national convention in Minneapolis because they are violating party rules by holding their primaries too early.

The fives states are New Hampshire, Florida, South Carolina, Michigan and Wyoming.

Duncan said:

“We spent a lot of time over past year educating our states as to what the rules were. This will come as no surprise to any of the states involved.”

The letters were issued following the RNC's approval this morning of its preliminary "call," essentially a document that outlines the acceptable method for how state Republican Party organizations should select delegates to the nominating convention.

by Sabrina Fang

by Christi Parsons

Of all the statistics Barack Obama is using to promote his "tax fairness policy," the one that seems most infomercial-ready is this: millions of Americans would be able to complete their tax returns "in less than five minutes."

The Democratic presidential candidate proposes a universal homeowners' tax credit for people who don't itemize their deductions, and says he'd work to do away with the income tax for seniors making less than $50,000 a year.

Things should get simpler for businesses, too. Obama says there ought to be fewer corporate loopholes for them to spend their time searching out.

One sign of the idea's potential appeal is that Democrat John Edwards proposed something similar last spring. He suggests a simplified tax form that people can simply sign and return -- no muss, no fuss, no fee to H&R Block.

Obama is taking his version on tour in New Hampshire this week, kicking it off with a roundtable discussion in Nashua this morning. So far, the target audience likes it, according to a testimonial offered up by the campaign in this morning's mail.

“It used to be that if you worked hard enough, you could always make ends meet,” said roundtable participant John Tourgee. “These days, it seems like you can't even find the string."

Now, if they could just get Kevin Trudeau to write a book about it.

by Frank James

A quick guided tour of some of the morning's most important or interesting, or both, Washington-related stories.

Tensions rose between Turkey and Iraq after Kurdish guerillas ambushed Turkish soldiers, killing at least 12 Turkish troops and mounting domestic pressure on the Turkish government to strike back.

The Republican presidential candidates attacked each other with particular fercocity, focusing their barbs on GOP frontrunner Rudy Giuliani and the candidate they view as the likely Democratic nominee, Sen. Hillary Clinton.

High demand for ships to transport commodities across the world's oceans are increasing the costs of numerous commodities like grains and iron ore, raising inflationary fears.

By Jim Tankersley

Dan Lipinski and George W. Bush have at least two things in common: They both oppose legalized abortion, and they both hold jobs that used to belong to their fathers.

Lipinski, a Democratic congressman who replaced his long-serving father in 2005, is drawing more comparisons to the Republican president these days. His primary opponent, attorney and former school board president Mark Pera, says every time Bush needs a vote "he turns to Dan Lipinski and gets it." Liberal bloggers call Lipinski a "Bush Dog," over votes on the Iraq war and warrantless wiretapping.

The slams irk Lipinski, a self-styled centrist who spent his summer trying to forge a cross-party compromise that could change course in Iraq even a little bit - and who says his foes are trying to drive bipartisanship off Capitol Hill.

But his opponents are serious - they're prodding Lipinski to stand up for Democratic principles, several say - and they've got money to go with their message. As a result, Lipinski is locked in the first serious primary campaign for a so-called "Bush Dog" under the new Democratic majority in Congress.

Read the full story in today's Tribune.

Rudy Giuliani's leading rivals have started warning Republicans that the front-runner is little different than Hillary Clinton -- "You have got to be kidding,'' Giuliani replied. Photo by Fox News

by Mark Silva

The Republican candidates for president fired at front-runner Rudolph Giuliani on Sunday, as they challenged each other in a televised debate over who is the more conservative.

Giuliani, former New York mayor, supporter of abortion rights and opponent of gun control, came in for stiff attacks as his leading rivals—former Sen. Fred Thompson, former Gov. Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain—questioned their opponents' credentials.

"Gov. Romney," McCain said in the debate in Florida sponsored by Fox News Channel, "you've been spending the last year trying to fool people about your record. I don't want you to start fooling them about mine. ... I stand on my record as a conservative."

For all of them, the question remains who is best suited to face the Democratic Party's nominee in 2008. And, in questions and replies during this 90-minute faceoff, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York was cast as the likely opponent.

Giuliani, who arrived at the debate after Christian conservatives at a conference had named Romney and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as their favorites, was asked to confront criticism that there is little difference between him and Clinton.

"You have got to be kidding," Giuliani replied indignantly, pivoting quickly to humor. "There are two things I agree with Hillary Clinton on. First of all, we're both Yankee fans. I became a Yankee fan growing up in New York. She became a Yankee fan growing up in Chicago. … Do you believe that?"

The second thing: "She made a statement last week... Quote, Hillary Clinton, I have a million ideas; America cannot afford them all... No kidding, Hillary. America can’t afford you.''

See the rest of the story in today's Tribune:

by Jill Zuckman

If there is one thing New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson can point to that his rivals for the Democratic nomination for president cannot, it's his international life of danger, negotiating with dictators and other "bad guys" to release Americans held captive overseas.

Today, the Richardson campaign goes up on the air in Iowa and New Hampshire with a television ad touting that experience. The ad recounts one of his solo diplomatic missions to Iraq in 1995, trying to free Iowa native Bill Barloon and his colleague David Daliberti, both mechanics for McDonnell Douglas in Kuwait at the time.

Barloon and Daliberti were driving to visit a friend at a U.N. observation post near the border of Iraq when they accidentally crossed into the country - controlled then by Saddam Hussein. They were arrested for entering Iraq illegally, found guilty, and sentenced to eight years in prison.

"He was the only one willing to, to leave his family, his wife behind, travel to a dangerous section of the world, for two men he didn't even know,'' said Kathy Daliberti, David's wife, in footage originally shot for Richardson's 2002 campaign for governor. (David Daliberti has since died, according to a spokesman for Richardson.)

Barloon's eyes well with tears as he remembers Richardson saying "you guys are going home.''

by John McCormick

Although not as coveted as Marriott Rewards points or United Airlines frequent flier miles, the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama is trying to establish its own loyalty program with "My Points."

Started several weeks ago, the initiative is designed to reward those who take actions that help the campaign, such as hosting an event for supporters or making calls from home as part of a do-it-yourself phone bank program.

For now, however, there is no reward routinely offered, even as thousands of online supporters rack up points.

"There is no pot at the end of the rainbow," said Chris Hughes, a co-founder of the hot social networking site Facebook and the campaign's online organizer. "We probably will at some point run a special initiative...where they get to have some type of reward."

Hughes said the points system is primarily meant as a way for supporters to measure in a daily way the impact they are having on the campaign for the Illinois Democrat.

A few of the ways supporters can earn points: march in a parade (25), sign a supporter card or convince another voter to do so (50), or help with a phone bank (50 points).