Montana's public universities must provide their gay employees with insurance coverage for their domestic partners, the state's Supreme Court ruled yesterday.

The majority in the 4-to-3 decision said the decision had nothing to do with the rights of gay couples to marry. But a dissenting judge criticized his colleagues as "radically altering common law marriage in Montana."

Gay rights advocates said the decision was an important victory on the narrower point.

"It is the first time that any state high court has ruled that a state has a constitutional obligation to provide domestic partner health care benefits," said James D. Esseks, the litigation director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Lesbian and Gay Rights and AIDS Projects, which represented the two lesbian couples who brought the suit challenging the state's policy. "It's a recognition by the Montana Supreme Court that the government can't treat gay people differently on economic issues."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:27 PM | | Basie! Home

As the death toll mounts in the areas hit by Sunday's tsunami in southern Asia, private organizations and individuals are scrambling to send out money and goods to help the victims. Such help may be entirely proper, especially considering that most of those affected by this tragedy are suffering through no fault of their own.

The United States government, however, should not give any money to help the tsunami victims. Why? Because the money is not the government's to give.

[...]

The question no one asks about our politicians' "generosity" towards the world's needy is: By what right? By what right do they take our hard-earned money and give it away?

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:22 AM | | Basie! Home

Sudanese government and southern rebel officials signed landmark deals Friday on how to implement a series of agreements on ending a 21-year civil war in southern Sudan.

The adversaries signed deals on how to implement protocols sharing power and natural wealth, what to do with their armed forces during a six-year transition period and on how to administer three disputed areas in central Sudan.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:02 AM | | Basie! Home

House Republican leaders are urging members to alter one of the chamber's fundamental ethics rules, which would make it harder for lawmakers to discipline a colleague.

The proposed change would essentially negate a general rule of conduct that the ethics committee has often cited in admonishing lawmakers -- including Majority Leader Tom DeLay -- for bringing discredit on the House even if their behavior was not covered by a specific regulation. Backers of the rule, adopted three decades ago, say it is important because the House's conduct code cannot anticipate every instance of questionable behavior that might reflect poorly on the chamber.

Republicans, returning to the Capitol on Tuesday after increasing their House majority by three seats in the Nov. 2 election, also want to relax a restriction on relatives of lawmakers accepting foreign and domestic trips from groups interested in legislation before the House.

A third proposed rule change would allow either party to stop the House ethics committee from investigating a complaint against a member.

Ethics and government accountability groups say these events are a sign of weakening ethical restrictions. "We're seeing an easing of ethical standards and disclosure standards," said Charles Lewis, who runs the nonprofit Center for Public Integrity. "They can dress it up any way they want, but they're trying to increase the employment opportunities for their officials."

For example, the Office of Government Ethics has proposed, and Bush supports, legislation to ease financial disclosure requirements for government officials, reducing the amount of conflict-of-interest information that candidates and their families must report. The House recently passed a version of the legislation.

In addition, the ethics office last month issued a new rule, without giving notice or allowing public comment, that would make it easier for retiring administration officials to lobby former subordinates. The OGE says that Cabinet secretaries would still be blocked by other rules and that its changes were routine. But numerous nongovernmental analysts say the changes were a significant loosening of restrictions, a change championed by business interests.

After a summary of the Republican plans became public on Thursday, officials of the organizations said the changes appeared to represent a step backward and could cripple the ethics panel in efforts to hold lawmakers accountable for suspect conduct.

"We think this sends a message that there are no consequences for unethical behavior," said Mary Boyle, a spokeswoman for Common Cause, part of a coalition fighting the proposals.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:48 AM | | Basie! Home

Prosecutors agreed to drop an illegal campaign contribution charge against Sears, Roebuck and Co. in exchange for its cooperation in an investigation of contributions to a political action committee associated with House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

A Travis County judge signed off on the agreement Thursday. It calls for the retailer to enact additional internal policies, and to strengthen its policy against making illegal contributions in any state.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:16 PM | | Basie! Home

Key measures of the level of insurgent violence against American forces in Iraq, numbers of dead, wounded and insurgent attacks, show the situation has gotten worse since the summer.

While those numbers don't tell the full story of the conflict in Iraq, they suggest insurgents are growing more proficient, even as the size of the U.S. force increases and U.S. commanders succeed in soliciting more help from ordinary Iraqis.

For example:

• The U.S. military suffered at least 348 deaths in Iraq over the final four months of the year, more than in any other similar period since the invasion in March 2003.
  
  
• The number of wounded surpassed 10,000, with more than a quarter injured in the last four months as direct combat, roadside bombs and suicide attacks escalated. When President Bush (news - web sites) declared May 1, 2003, that major combat operations were over, the number wounded stood at just 542.
  
  
• The number of attacks on U.S. and allied troops grew from an estimated 1,400 attacks in September to 1,600 in October and 1,950 in November. A year earlier, the attacks numbered 649 in September, 896 in October and 864 in November.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:03 PM | | Basie! Home

Artie Shaw, the clarinetist and bandleader whose recording of "Begin the Beguine" epitomized the Big Band era, died Thursday at his home. He was 94.

Shaw had been in declining health for some time and apparently died of natural causes, his attorney and longtime friend Eddie Ezor said. Shaw's caregiver was with him when he died, Ezor said.

At his peak in the 1930s and '40s, Shaw pulled in a five-figure salary per week and ranked with Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller as the bandleaders who made music swing. But he left the music world largely behind in the mid-'50s and spent much of the second half of his life devoted to writing and other pursuits.


Image from Downbeat.com

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:26 PM | | Basie! Home

California's hybrid car owners who'd hoped to drive solo in the carpool lanes come Jan. 1 have to put the brakes on those dreams because of a legislative stalemate in Washington, D.C.

Although Assembly Bill 2628 is set to become law with the New Year, it cannot be implemented without approval by Congress, where the measure is stalled indefinitely.

The proposed federal law faces still a tough fight on Capitol Hill, where the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers has mounted opposition.

The group says there are a host of new hybrids coming to the market that don't quite achieve the 45 mph fuel-efficiency requirement from the Ford Escape SUV that debuted this year to the Lexus RX400H coming in 2005 and the perk shouldn't be limited to only those three cars that do.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:23 PM | | Basie! Home

An Arkansas circuit judge on Wednesday threw out the state's ban against foster parenthood by gay couples or by households that include a gay adult.

The judge, Tim Fox of Little Rock, side-stepped the issue of whether the ban unconstitutionally discriminated against gay couples. Instead he ruled that the state administrative board, which imposed the ban, was not authorized to do so.

"That's good enough. We'll take it," said Rita Sklar, director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Arkansas, which challenged the ban.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 11:00 AM | | Basie! Home

After three vote tallies and 58 days of waiting, Democrat Christine Gregoire was declared Washington's governor-elect on Thursday. But her Republican rival did not concede and wants a new election.

Secretary of State Sam Reed, a Republican, certified Gregoire, the three-term attorney general, as the winner of the closest governor's race in state history. She won a statewide hand recount by a scant 129 votes out of more than 2.8 million cast.

But Republican candidate Dino Rossi, a former state legislative leader and real-estate investor, said the election was hopelessly flawed and that the Legislature should authorize a new election. He won both of the earlier counts. [emphasis added]

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:46 AM | | Basie! Home

In the wake of back-to-back ethics slaps at the House majority leader, Tom DeLay, House Republicans are preparing to make it more difficult to initiate ethics investigations and could remove the Republican chairman who presided over the admonishments of Mr. DeLay last fall.

A House leadership aide said a package of rules changes to be presented to the House when Congress convenes on Tuesday could include a plan that would require a majority vote of the ethics panel to pursue a formal investigation. Now, a deadlock on the panel, which is evenly split between parties, keeps a case pending. The possible change, the aide said, would mean that a tie vote would effectively dismiss the case.

The aide said the change would instill more bipartisanship in ethics cases. But Democrats and outside groups said the proposal would dilute an already weak ethics process.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:21 PM | | Basie! Home

AARP, the influential lobby for older Americans, signaled Wednesday for the first time how fervently it would fight President Bush's proposal for private Social Security accounts, saying it would begin a $5 million two-week advertising campaign timed to coincide with the start of the new Congress.

The organization, which played a huge role in the passage of Medicare drug legislation last year, said it was prepared to spend much more in the next two years to block the creation of private accounts financed with payroll tax revenues.

"This is our signature issue," said Christine M. Donohoo, chief communications officer for AARP, which represents 36 million Americans 50 and older. "We will do what it takes." [emhpasis added]

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:42 PM | | Basie! Home

In the most expensive presidential contest in the nation's history, John F. Kerry and his Democratic supporters nearly matched President Bush and the Republicans, who outspent them by just $60 million, $1.14 billion to $1.08 billion.

But despite their fundraising success, Democrats simply did not spend their money as effectively as Bush. That is the conclusion of an extensive examination of campaign fundraising and spending data provided by the Federal Election Commission, the Internal Revenue Service and interviews with officials of the two campaigns and the independent groups allied with them.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:26 PM | | Basie! Home

• The key to winning the White House might not be in the middle.
  
• Wartime pessimism may not doom public support.
  
• Twenty-first century Democrats can compete financially with Republicans.
  
• For a Democratic resurgence, look Southwest.
  
• Pop culture has become big politics -- advantage Republican.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:05 PM | | Basie! Home

The top ten lobbyists are shown above. Three of them (GE, Freddie Mac, and Philip Morris) appear to be garden variety corporate lobbyists. Among the other seven, though, you'll note the dead absence of anything resembling a liberal cause. In fact, unless I miss my guess, five of the seven are united in whole or part by a single topic: tort reform. No wonder it's at the top of George Bush's agenda this year.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:29 PM | | Basie! Home

Insurgents lured police to a house in west Baghdad with an anonymous tip about a rebel hideout, then set off explosives, killing at least 29 people and wounding 18 in the latest in a series of deadly strikes against Iraqi security forces, police said Wednesday.

The explosion late Tuesday erupted from inside the house in the capital's Ghazaliya district as officers were about to enter, a local police official said. Ten neighboring houses collapsed from the blast and several residents were believed trapped under the rubble. Seven policemen were among the 29 dead.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 11:09 AM | | Basie! Home

From Yahoo! News

Actor Jerry Orbach, who played a sardonic, seen-it-all cop on TV's "Law & Order" and scored on Broadway as a song-and-dance man, has died of prostate cancer at 69, a representative of the show said Wednesday.

Orbach died Tuesday night in Manhattan after several weeks of treatment, Audrey Davis of the public relations agency Lippin Group said.

When his illness was diagnosed, he had begun production on NBC's upcoming spinoff "Law & Order: Trial By Jury," after 12 seasons playing Detective Lennie Briscoe in the original series. His return to the new show had been expected early next year.

On Broadway, Orbach starred in hit musicals including "Carnival," "Promises, Promises" (for which he won a Tony Award), "Chicago" and "42nd Street."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 11:06 AM | | Basie! Home

My father and me overlooking Hong Kong,
December 23, 2004


My father, a man from one of Beijing's Hutong
villages and me, December 23, 2004


My father, rickshaw drivers and me,
December 24, 2004


My father and me in front of the Forbidden City
in Beijing, December 25, 2004


Me halfway up a section of the Great
Wall of China, December 26, 2004


Me at end of section of the Great Wall of China
(2700 feet, 1543 steps up, 20 degrees Fahrenheit),
December 26, 2004

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:47 PM | | Basie! Home

Rumsfeld made a passing reference to United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to stop al Qaeda hijackers.

But in his remarks, Rumsfeld referred to the "the people who attacked the United States in New York, shot down the plane over Pennsylvania."

A Pentagon spokesman insisted that Rumsfeld simply misspoke, but Internet conspiracy theorists seized on the reference to the plane having been shot down.

"Was it a slip of the tongue? Was it an error? Or was it the truth, finally being dropped on the public more than three years after the tragedy" asked a posting on the Web site WorldNetDaily.com.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:02 PM | | Basie! Home

The Montana Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned a decision that determined a disputed legislative race was tied, likely giving Democrats control of the state House of Representatives.

The 6-1 decision threw out a lower court ruling from earlier this month that seven contested ballots had properly been counted for Constitution Party candidate Rick Jore.

The high court declared "one or more" contested ballots in the tied race invalid. Throwing out even one of those ballots means the vote tally swings to Democrat Jeanne Windham, the Supreme Court said.

That, in turn, creates a 50-50 tie between Republicans and Democrats in the House and means the next House speaker likely will be from the party of Democratic Gov.-elect Brian Schweitzer. The party that controls the governor's office in Montana breaks ties in electing House speakers.

The legislative race was declared a tie after a recount earlier this month.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:49 PM | | Basie! Home

The Pentagon has told the White House and Congress that it plans sharp cuts in the Air Force's program for the F/A-22, the most expensive fighter jet in history, in an effort that budget analysts said was intended to offset mounting deficits and the growing costs of the war in Iraq.

[...]

At the moment, the fighter, known as the Raptor, costs about $258 million a plane. That is based on an overall cost of $71.8 billion, and the Air Force's plans to buy 277 Raptors.

Senior Pentagon and Air Force officials were still discussing details of the cutbacks. One leading industry analyst, Loren Thompson, said the program could be ended after producing about 160 aircraft, possibly saving more than $15 billion over time but significantly raising the cost per plane. The Pentagon has already spent nearly $40 billion to develop the aircraft, which is just now coming into full production, Air Force officials said.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:38 PM | | Basie! Home

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert is leaning toward removing the House ethics committee chairman, who admonished House Majority Leader Tom DeLay this fall and has said he will treat DeLay like any other member, several Republican aides said yesterday.

Although Hastert (Ill.) has not made a decision, the expectation among leadership aides is that the chairman, Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.), long at odds with party leaders because of his independence, will be replaced when Congress convenes next week.

The aides said a likely replacement is Rep. Lamar S. Smith, one of DeLay's fellow Texans, who held the job from 1999 to 2001. Smith wrote a check this year to DeLay's defense fund. An aide said Smith was favored for his knowledge of committee procedure.

Republicans are bracing for the possibility that DeLay, who is the chamber's second-ranking Republican and holds enormous sway over lawmakers, could be indicted by a Texas grand jury conducting a campaign finance investigation that the party contends is politically motivated.

Government accountability and fiscal responsibility

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:19 PM | | Basie! Home

This month, in a little-noted administrative decision, the Food and Drug Administration gave the green light to a Harvard proposal to test the benefits of the illegal street drug Ecstasy in patients diagnosed with severe anxiety related to advanced cancer. The study will look at whether the drug can help terminally ill patients lessen their fears, quell thoughts of suicide and make it easier for them to deal with loved ones.

"End-of-life issues are very important and are getting more and more attention, and yet there are very few options for patients who are facing death," Dr. John Halpern, the Harvard research psychiatrist in charge of the study, said yesterday.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:36 PM | | Basie! Home

• 20s: 1919-1929 (League of Nations vote to stock market crash)
  
• 30s: 1929-1941 (Great Depression)
  
• 40s: 1941-1946 (WWII)
  
• 50s: 1946-1963 (Churchill "Iron Curtain" speech to JFK assassination)
  
• 60s: 1964-1973 (Civil Rights Act to end of Vietnam War)
  
• 70s: 1973-1980 (1st oil shock/Watergate to 2nd oil shock/Iran hostage crisis)
  
• 80s: 1981-1989 (Reagan election to fall of Berlin Wall)
  
• 90s: 1990-2001 (Berlin Wall to 9/11)
  
• 00s: 2001-

• 1946-1954: Partisan balance (control of Congress changed in 1946, 1948, 1952 and 1954)
  
• 1955-1963: The emergence of a permanent Democratic majority

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:20 PM | | Basie! Home

Oregon's members of Congress will confront a difficult balancing act next year when they vote on the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

The state is home to Cafta backers such as Intel and Nike. However, the agreement faces opposition from sugar producers in Eastern Oregon and area human rights groups. As a result, Oregon's five representatives and two senators will have to consider the competing business interests as well as labor and environmental concerns.

• Senator Ron Wyden (D): "Reviewing the agreement"
  
• Senator Gordon Smith (R): In favor
  
• Rep. David Wu (D): In opposition
  
• Rep. Greg Walden (R): No stance
  
• Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D): "Weighing all the arguments"
  
• Rep. Peter DeFazio (D): In opposition
  
• Rep. Darlene Hooley (D): Opposes agreement as "currently drafted"

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 1:50 PM | | Basie! Home

The House ethics committee will investigate Rep. Jim McDermott, to determine whether he violated standards of conduct when an illegally recorded telephone conversation was leaked to reporters during a committee investigation.

Committee Chairman Joel Hefley, R-Colo., and ranking Democrat Alan Mollohan of West Virginia formed a four-member investigative subcommittee Tuesday to investigate the 1997 incident. McDermott was ranking Democrat on the ethics committee at the time, and the panel was investigating the conduct of then-Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 1:30 PM | | Basie! Home

Q: The (Bush) administration has been focusing on Social Security, which faces a $3.7 trillion long-term liability. Medicare is looking at $27.7 trillion in unfunded promises in the next 75 years. Do you plan on using this new committee to bring the administration's attention to the larger problem, the more immediate problem of Medicare?

A: Yes, very much so. Social Security is a very actuarially determinative problem (that is; the problems could be improved by actuaries who calculate statistical risks). Medicare, on the other hand, is very, very difficult to get your hands around, to fully understand how best to proceed.

Q: As I understand it, the Hospital Trust Fund, the largest part of Medicare, will exhaust its surplus by about 2019. I can think of only two fixes: increase the payroll tax or cut hospitalization benefits. Is there a third thing I'm not thinking of? Neither of those would be very popular.

A: Part of the benefit to the Medicare modification in the last Congress -- adding a prescription-drug benefit -- was that there were a number of reforms in it that we hope will shine a light on what are the best ways to proceed. And certainly Oregon, with its experience in health-care reform, has some very valuable experiences that can benefit the whole country.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 11:17 PM | | Basie! Home

The secretary of state, who declared President Bush the official winner in Ohio, is seeking a court order to keep himself from being interviewed as part of a court challenge of the Nov. 2 vote.

Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell claims his deposition is not required, and accused 37 voters challenging the election of "frivolous conduct."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:55 PM | | Basie! Home

Iraq's top Sunni Muslim party is withdrawing from Jan. 30 elections, saying persistent violence would keep people from voting in the Sunni north and west.

"We are withdrawing," Mohsen Abdel Hamid, head of the Iraqi Islamic Party, told a news conference on Monday.

"We are not calling for a boycott but we said we would take part only if certain conditions had been met and they have not."

The Bush administration is talking to Iraqi leaders about guaranteeing Sunni Arabs a certain number of ministries or high-level jobs in the future Iraqi government if, as is widely predicted, Sunni candidates fail to do well in Iraq's elections.

An even more radical step, one that a Western diplomat said was raised already with an aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most revered Shiite cleric, is the possibility of adding some of the top vote-getters among the Sunni candidates to the 275-member legislature, even if they lose to non-Sunni candidates.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 4:56 AM | | Basie! Home

A suicide bomber detonated his car Monday at the gate of the home of the leader of Iraq's biggest political party, killing nine people and injuring 39, police said. The cleric was unharmed.

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq — the country's most powerful Shiite political group — was in his residence in Baghdad's Jadiriyah district when the attack occurred, said his spokesman, Haitham al-Husseini.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:18 AM | | Basie! Home

1. US Election
   
2. Iraq
   
3. Florida hurricanes
   
4. Abu Ghraib scandal
   
5. Sept. 11 report
   
6. Gay marriage
   
7. Arafat dies
   
8. Reagan dies
   
9. Russian school seizure
   
10. Madrid bombings

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:10 AM | | Basie! Home

Exit polls projected an easy victory Sunday for opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko in a bitter campaign that required an unprecedented three ballots and Supreme Court intervention to pick a new Ukrainian leader. Early official returns showed him leading by just over 18 percentage points.

Elated opposition supporters flooded Kiev's Independence Square, the center of protests after the Nov. 21 election that was beset with fraud allegations and eventually annulled. Music blared from loudspeakers and fireworks lit up the sky. In Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's home base of Donetsk, the streets were largely empty, with only a few people stumbling home from the bars.

Three exit polls had projected Yushchenko winning by at least 15 percentage points, and with ballots from just more than 30 percent of precincts counted he was leading with 57.43 percent to 38.89 percent for Yanukovych, election officials said. Final official results were not expected until Monday.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:54 PM | | Basie! Home

Bonds posted by companies with federal oil and gas leases cover only a small fraction of the projected costs of plugging wells and restoring land once the fuel is extracted, leaving taxpayers with the potential for huge cleanup bills, an Associated Press analysis of federal records shows.

The Bureau of Land Management has collected just $132 million in bonds from oil and gas companies responsible for more than 100,000 wells on federal lands. The government estimates it costs between $2,500 and $75,000 to cap each well and restore the surface area.

In the past five years, the BLM has spent $2.2 million to clean up 187 wells where operators defaulted on their bonds.

At that average rate of $13,066 per well, the shortfall between the bonds and the actual cleanup costs could leave taxpayers with as much as a $1 billion potential liability if companies reneged on their cleanup responsibilities, the AP analysis found.

The Bush administration this fall quietly shelved an eight-year effort to increase the minimum bond requirements for oil and gas drilling on federal lands.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:44 PM | | Basie! Home

Voted into being just five months apart 32 years ago, the 1972 Downtown Plan and Oregon Senate Bill 100 gave Oregon two of the most far-reaching visions in the history of American urban planning.

At least until the nearsightedness of 2004.

Much as they rose together, they fell in November. The Downtown Plan's brilliant framework of tightly focused partnerships between business and government cracked with November's pitiful deal to revitalize the transit mall. Senate Bill 100's design for a mutually beneficial urban/rural divide was shattered by Measure 37.

In the local world of architecture and planning for 2004, nothing measures in profundity to those two events.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:09 AM | | Basie! Home

For most politicians, fundraising is a dreaded chore. But until recently, Rep. John T. Doolittle of California and other members of the House Republican leadership had adopted a painless solution: fundraising events in luxury sports boxes leased largely with the money of Indian gaming tribes, where supporters snacked on catered fare in plush surroundings as they watched the Wizards, Caps, Redskins or Orioles.

Doolittle, a Mormon, is an ardent opponent of casino gambling, so it is somewhat ironic that he would invite supporters to watch the Wizards play the Sacramento Kings from an MCI Center suite paid for by casino-rich Indian tribes. But the plaque at the door to Suite 204 did not say Chitimacha or Choctaw. It said "Jack Abramoff," a name synonymous with largesse and influence in the GOP-controlled Congress.

A list of skybox fundraising events maintained by Abramoff at his former law firm, Greenberg Traurig, lists 72 events for members of Congress between 1999 and 2003. All but eight were put on for Republicans, many of them members of the House leadership. Some of the fundraising events, including Doolittle's, were not reported as required under federal election laws.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:51 AM | | Basie! Home

FOX NEWS SUNDAY: Lynne Cheney and Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington.

THIS WEEK (ABC): Sens. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) and Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.).

FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sens.-elect John Thune (R-S.D.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Ken Salazar (D-Colo.).

MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.), Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.), psychologist and author Phil McGraw, and the U.S. Navy Band Brass Quartet.

LATE EDITION (CNN): Reps. David Dreier (R-Calif.) and Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.); former secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger; former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski; Jesse L. Jackson; Jerry Falwell; retired Army Gen. George A. Joulwan, former NATO supreme commander; retired Army Maj. Gen. David Grange and retired Marine Lt. Gen. Michael DeLong.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:33 AM | | Basie! Home

Reid may not be the most colorful figure in Washington, but his career is far more interesting than that of the average senator. In politics, Nevada is the next best thing to Louisiana. To take just one example, is there another U.S. senator who has been part of the inspiration for a character in a Martin Scorsese film? (A character played by Dick Smothers, no less.) In Casino, Robert DeNiro's character melts down in front of the Nevada Gaming Commission after the commission denies him a license to operate a casino. The scene is loosely based on a December 1978 hearing when Reid was the commission's chairman, and some of the dialogue spoken by Smothers is taken directly from Reid's words during the hearing. (The rest of the scenes involving Smothers, who plays a composite politician known only as "Senator," have nothing to do with Reid.) OK, it's lackluster Scorsese, but at least it's not Gangs of New York. And there are other Reid echoes in Casino: Joe Pesci's character refers to a "Mr. Cleanface," which gangster Joe Agosto said was his nickname for an in-his-pocket Reid, but a five-month investigation of Agosto's claims cleared Reid of wrongdoing.

I'll concede. Harry Reid is no Tom Daschle. Whether that will be good for the Democrats remains to be seen. But it won't be boring.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:05 AM | | Basie! Home

College students in virtually every state will be required to shoulder more of the cost of their education under new federal rules that govern most of the nation's financial aid.

Because of the changes, which take effect next fall and are expected to save the government $300 million in the 2005-6 academic year, at least 1.3 million students will receive smaller Pell Grants, the nation's primary scholarship for those of low income, according to two analyses of the new rules.

In addition, 89,000 students or so who would otherwise be getting some Pell Grant money will get none, the analyses found.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:26 PM | | Basie! Home

Washington state's Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that more than 700 belatedly discovered ballots from Seattle's King County should be counted in the extraordinarily close governor's race — potentially enough to tip the balance in favor of Democrat Christine Gregoire.

King County is a Democratic stronghold, the biggest county in the state and the last to report results from the statewide hand recount that began Dec. 8.

The ruling was a boost to the Democrats, who even before the decision were claiming victory, saying their own analysis showed that even without the belated ballots, Gregoire had erased Republican Dino Rossi's slim lead and won the race by just eight votes out of 2.9 million cast.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:34 PM | | Basie! Home

The pharmaceutical industry has issued an urgent warning to its work force: Be on the lookout for a scruffy-looking fat guy in a baseball cap. The Los Angeles Times reports that at least six of the nation's biggest drugmakers have alerted employees to steer clear of filmmaker Michael Moore, whose previous targets have included General Motors ("Roger & Me"), the gun lobby (the Oscar-winning "Bowling for Columbine") and President Bush ("Fahrenheit 9/11"). Moore, it seems, is taking aim at the health-care industry, including drug companies. The companies told employees to refer all questions to "corporate communications," the Times reported. The Moore epic is tentatively titled "Sicko," and will probably be released in the first half of 2006. The movie, Moore said, is only in its early stages "and already people are freaky-deaky."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 1:28 PM | | Basie! Home

For the first time, a major U.S. contractor has dropped out of the multibillion-dollar effort to rebuild Iraq, raising new worries about the country's growing violence and its effect on reconstruction.

Contrack International Inc., the leader of a partnership that won one of 12 major reconstruction contracts awarded this year, cited skyrocketing security costs in reaching a decision with the U.S. government last month to terminate work in Iraq.

"We reached a point where our costs were getting to be prohibitive," said Karim Camel-Toueg, president of Arlington, Va.-based Contrack, which had won a $325-million award to rebuild Iraq's shattered transportation system. "We felt we were not serving the government, and that the dollars were not being spent smartly."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:29 AM | | Basie! Home

The number of people who think we have a Social Security "crisis" is down considerably, and the number of people who think it has "minor problems" — which is probably the most accurate choice here — is up. That huge tranche of people who continue to think Social Security has major problems is still worrisome, of course, but hardly unexpected after years of doom-mongering from both parties. Obviously we still have a lot of work cut out for us in the public education department, but at least the trends are in the right direction.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:21 AM | | Basie! Home

The Bush administration is facing a wave of new allegations that the abuse of foreign detainees in U.S. military custody was more widespread, varied and grave in the past three years than the Defense Department has long maintained.

New documents released yesterday detail a series of probes by Army criminal investigators into multiple cases of threatened executions of Iraqi detainees by U.S. soldiers, as well as of thefts of currency and other private property, physical assaults, and deadly shootings of detainees at detention camps in Iraq.

In many of the newly disclosed cases, Army commanders chose noncriminal punishments for those involved in the abuse, or the investigations were so flawed that prosecutions could not go forward, the documents show. Human rights groups said yesterday that, as a result, the penalties imposed were too light to suit the offenses.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 7:03 AM | | Basie! Home

The Knoxville NEWS SENTINEL reports that state Sen. Rosalind Kurita yesterday said she would seek the 2006 Democratic nomination for the seat of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who is not expected to seek re-election. Kurita, a Clarksville nurse, won a new four-year term last month. Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr. of Memphis is also weighing a Senate race, but Kurita "said she is running regardless of Ford's decision," the paper reported. At least three Republicans say they will seek the GOP nomination: former Rep. Ed Bryant, Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker and outgoing state Republican Chairwoman Beth Harwell.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 6:47 AM | | Basie! Home

Democrats have claimed victory in the race for Washington governor by a razor-thin margin of eight votes, citing preliminary results of a hand recount they say puts Christine Gregoire in front for the first time. Republicans maintained the race was still too close to call.

The stunning turnaround was reported late Tuesday by the head of the state Democratic Party, who said party officials' analysis of hand-counted returns from King County — the last county to finish the grueling process — showed that Gregoire had eclipsed the dwindling margin that Republican Dino Rossi has held since Election Day.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 6:37 AM | | Basie! Home

The Washington Post Co. said today it is buying Slate in an effort to boost the newspaper company's online traffic but does not plan any editorial changes at the eight-year-old Web magazine.

In announcing a deal to buy Slate from Microsoft Corp. for an undisclosed sum, said to be in the millions of dollars, Post executives said they would keep Jacob Weisberg as editor and most of the 30-person staff. Cliff Sloan, general counsel of Washington Post Newsweek Interactive, will also become publisher of the money-losing magazine when the deal takes effect next month.

Weisberg pronounced himself "delighted" with the move. "Microsoft has been a great place for us for the last 8-1/2 years," he said, but "it was a tough place to develop our business because it wasn't a media company and doesn't want to be a media company. They're really big and we're really small. The joke was always that we're almost a rounding error, but a rounding error probably exaggerated our status."

I am confident that we have found the right buyer for Slate. The Washington Post Co. is known for supporting high-quality publications, for taking editorial integrity seriously, and for being as good as its word. Don G., as we shall now call him, recognized early on the journalistic potential of the Web, making a significant long-term investment in Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive (WPNI), the Post's online wing. Don wants Slate to become consistently profitable, but he is a patient man and prepared for this to take a while. Like the other people we've met at the Post Co., Don is almost suspiciously nice and appears to have some kind of personal relationship with each of the approximately 30,000 employees at his company. Another of these disturbingly nice Posties, Cliff Sloan, has agreed to become Slate's new publisher.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:29 AM | | Basie! Home

Multiple rounds hit a dining hall at a U.S. military base near Mosul on Tuesday, killing 22 people, including U.S. troops, members of the Iraqi national guard, and Iraqi civilians, Pentagon officials said.

Fifty-one people were wounded in the incident -- which occurred at noon (4 a.m. ET) as people ate lunch at the Camp Marez base, the officials said.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 7:24 AM | | Basie! Home

Until now, Bush has seemed either too dumb or too stubborn to recognize that Social Security privatization will necessitate either hitting up taxpayers or reducing Social Security benefits. But watching Bush in today's press conference, I realized that there was another possibility: Bush is simply too cynical to acknowledge practical realities of which he is well aware. Maybe he figures that accommodating those realities simply isn't his job. Maybe he's thinking: Let Congress get the blame for insisting that two plus two equals four!

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:24 AM | | Basie! Home

An Alzheimer's disease prevention trial was suspended after researchers said there were more heart attacks and strokes among patients taking naproxen, an over-the-counter pain reliever in use for 28 years and commonly known under the brand name Aleve.

The study, involving some 2,500 patients, was to test whether naproxen or Celebrex, both pain relievers, could reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease among healthy elderly patients who were at an increased risk of the disease.

Officials at the National Institutes of Health said the study was suspended after three years when it was found that patients taking naproxen had a 50 percent greater incidence of cardiovascular events — heart attack or stroke — than patients taking placebo.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:11 AM | | Basie! Home

The Department of Homeland Security appears likely to lose its No. 2 official within weeks of the departure of its No. 1.

James M. Loy, the department's deputy secretary, plans to stay until March 1 or until a successor is confirmed, the agency said yesterday. Secretary Tom Ridge, who announced his resignation from the Cabinet late last month, plans to leave by Feb. 1 if his replacement has been lined up. [emphasis original]

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 11:44 PM | | Basie! Home

Fresh from their role in overhauling the nation's intelligence agencies, members of the independent Sept. 11 commission say they will now lobby to restructure Congress and what the commission described in its final report as the lawmakers' "dysfunctional" oversight of the C.I.A., other spy agencies and the Department of Homeland Security.

The commissioners, who have formed a private group known as the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, say their lobbying effort will begin in earnest next month, when Congress returns from its holiday recess. The lobbying campaign appears to have the support of the White House, which has called for the sort of Congressional restructuring recommended by the commission.

The panel's chairman, Thomas H. Kean, a Republican and former governor of New Jersey, said the commission's 10 members were delighted by the passage this month of a sweeping intelligence overhaul bill that enacted the commission's central recommendation: creation of the job of national intelligence director to oversee the Central Intelligence Agency and other spy agencies.

"But we've still got a ways to go; there are still some things that are very important in our report that have not been implemented," Mr. Kean said, referring to a host of recommendations by the panel for streamlining Congressional oversight of intelligence agencies and the Homeland Security Department. "There has to be more power given to those intelligence committees."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:26 PM | | Basie! Home

Senate Republican leaders yesterday appointed two of Congress's most outspoken antiabortion members to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is bracing for potentially bruising hearings on nominations to the Supreme Court.

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and Sen.-elect Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) will join the panel's eight returning Republicans next month, assuming the Republican Conference follows tradition and approves the leadership's committee assignments for all 55 GOP senators. The breakdown of Judiciary will be 10 Republicans and eight Democrats.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:02 PM | | Basie! Home

The Fort Worth STAR-TELEGRAM reports that the gloves "are clearly off now in the Republican family feud between U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Gov. Rick Perry. On abortion, transportation, fund raising and even internal polling tactics, both sides are increasingly taking public shots at each other as Perry prepares for a re-election campaign and Hutchison considers challenging him." The paper said it appears that "Hutchison will attempt to tag Perry as a failed leader who's too cozy with big contributors, and the governor will paint Hutchison as too liberal for conservative Republican primary voters."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 6:41 PM | | Basie! Home

Most Americans now believe the war with Iraq was not worth fighting and more than half want to fire embattled Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the chief architect of that conflict, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The survey found that 56 percent of the country now believes that the cost of the conflict in Iraq outweighs the benefits, while 42 percent disagreed. It marked the first time since the war began that a clear majority of Americans have judged the war to have been a mistake.

Barely a third of the country approves of the job that Rumsfeld is doing as defense secretary, and 52 percent said President Bush should sack Rumsfeld, a view shared by a big majority of Democrats and political independents.

Still, nearly six in 10 -- 58 percent -- said the United States should keep its military forces in Iraq rather than withdraw them, a proportion that has not changed in seven months.

As for Bush, 49 percent of respondents said they approved of the job the president is doing. That number is down from his November approval rating of 55 percent. Bush is the first incumbent president to have an approval rating below 50 percent one month after winning re-election. The question had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:49 PM | | Basie! Home

The Bush administration on Monday upheld the imposition of penalty tariffs on shrimp imports from Brazil, Ecuador, India and Thailand.

The move won praise from U.S. shrimp producers but drew criticism from importers, who said the penalty tariffs would drive up food costs for consumers.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 1:34 PM | | Basie! Home

Ukraine's two presidential candidates faced off Monday in a televised debate less than a week before a rerun of their disputed election, with opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko accusing his rival of trying to steal the Nov. 21 runoff vote.

As they traded accusations amid a campaign filled with tension and fears of unrest, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych appeared to call for a government of national unity and tried to be more reconciliatory throughout the debate.

[...]

The debate was marked by several sharp exchanges, including finger-pointing, but both shook hands when it ended, maintaining a controlled tone for most of the 100-minute session.


The clash between the contenders in the Dec. 26 rerun of the vote is the first since the Supreme Court annulled the Nov. 21 runoff and came amid tensions fueled by massive street protests and revelations that Yushchenko was poisoned by dioxin in September.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 11:10 AM | | Basie! Home

Moving Milbank off the front lines is part of the Post’s strategy for covering the second Bush term. The Post is changing its entire team of White House reporters. Milbank, Mike Allen, and Amy Goldstein are out; Mike Fletcher, Jim VandeHei, and Peter Baker are in.

[...]

The Post will be competing with a New York Times trio that will stay from the first term: Elisabeth Bumiller, David Sanger, and Richard Stevenson. At the Los Angeles Times, Warren Vieth and Peter Wallsten will join Ed Chen to cover the White House. The Wall Street Journal assigned John McKinnon and Christopher Cooper to handle the new term.

But as Times Washington bureau chief Phil Taubman says, there’s more than the Post and other big dailies out there.

“The old days when you could count your competitors on one hand is long gone,” says Taubman. “If there’s a good story on a blog site, that’s competition.” [emphasis added]

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:16 AM | | Basie! Home

Racial animosity and revenge are among the possible motives in the arson fires in a subdivision in southern Maryland on Dec. 6, a spokesman for federal investigators said Sunday.

Four men have been charged with arson in the fires, which destroyed 10 houses and partly burned 16 others, causing $10 million in damage. No one was hurt; many of the houses were still under construction.

A federal law enforcement official speaking on the condition of anonymity said two of the four men in custody made racial statements to investigators during questioning. The men are white, and many of the families moving into the development are black.

[...]

Initially, there was speculation the fires had been set by environmental extremists, because some environmental groups had complained that the houses threatened a nearby bog. But no evidence has been found to support that theory, the police said.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:47 AM | | Basie! Home

1. Dan Rather’s Forgery Fiasco
   
2. Ignoring, then Attacking, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth
   
3. Pounding the Bush National Guard Story
   
4. Spinning a Good Economy into Bad News
   
5. The Networks’ Outrageous Convention Double-Standard
   
6. Swooning Over Edwards’ Image, Ignoring His Liberalism
   
7. CBS’s Byron Pitts Promotional Kerry Coverage
   
8. CBS Promotes Fears of a New Military Draft
   
9. Misrepresenting the 9/11 Commission on Iraq/al-Qaeda Links
   
10. Equating New Terrorism Warning to LBJ’s “Gulf of Tonkin”

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:41 AM | | Basie! Home

Ballots mysteriously appeared or disappeared. Vote totals didn't add up. Regional officials barred a controversial candidate from the ballot. And hundreds of thousands of residents registered complaints.

In a developing democracy, such incidents would spark international condemnation and insistence on electoral reforms.

Americans and their leaders should join that chorus, even though those problems happened in Hometown, U.S.A.

The system worked. However, it has too many cracks, especially for a country that considers itself the world's leading democracy.

[...]

Oregon's and America's election systems are pretty good, but we shouldn't settle for "pretty good" when it comes to the foundation of our democracy: elections.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:29 AM | | Basie! Home

It was the mildest of criticism, offered in the most opaque terms.

Sen. Ron Wyden, during this month's debate on intelligence reform, said a "major acquisition program" was "too expensive" and "unnecessary."

But in the arcane world of intelligence spending, where billions are doled out with no public discussion, it was the equivalent of shouting fire in a crowded theater. Wyden is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which typically meets in top-secret, closed sessions.

Now, Wyden and two fellow Democrats who also vaguely attacked an unnamed intelligence program are facing criticism that they alluded to classified committee information.

A few days after Wyden's statement, The Washington Post reported that the program at issue was a $9.5 billion spy satellite system. For years, such programs have been debated and approved in secret.

"Anonymous defenders of a program that Senator Wyden believes to be a boondoggle are using the news media in an attempt to intimidate him and stifle appropriate debate in the United States Senate," Kardon said.

Kardon said that before Wyden submitted his statement, every word was approved for national security purposes by the Intelligence Committee staff of Sen. Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who is chairman of the committee.

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., has another theory about why some large projects are kept secret.

"They're classified because they're hugely wasteful, unnecessary projects that are incredibly expensive, and they just want to keep that from the public," DeFazio said.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:22 AM | | Basie! Home

The Social Security Administration is rejecting marriage documents issued for heterosexual couples in four communities that performed weddings for same-sex couples earlier this year.

The agency is rejecting marriage certificates issued in New Paltz; Asbury Park, N.J.; Multnomah County, Ore.; and Sandoval County, N.M., during the brief periods when those localities recognized same-sex marriages.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:03 AM | | Basie! Home

The Bush administration and some of its critics squared off yesterday over whether the Food and Drug Administration is doing an adequate job overseeing drug safety, and whether the agency needs major reforms.

In a preview of the debate to come, White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. said the agency is doing a "spectacular" job and should "continue to do the job they do."

But Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.), ranking Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, shot back that the FDA's "record on protecting us from harmful prescription drugs is a catastrophic failure."

"Early action on bipartisan FDA reforms is possible in Congress, and I hope that the White House and congressional leadership will not stand in the way," Kennedy said.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 7:27 PM | | Basie! Home

Oregon Republican Chairman Kevin Mannix has laid out an ambitious to-do list for 2005:

Run for re-election as party chairman. Eliminate virtually all of the $587,000 debt left from his 2002 race for governor. Launch a new race for governor.

Although many politicians might regard that as an overly ambitious, or even contradictory, set of goals, Mannix said he's confident he can simultaneously build up the party, retire campaign debt and put together a new gubernatorial effort.

[...]

After his losses, Mannix faces considerable skepticism from Democrats and some Republicans about his ability to win a governor's race in 2006. And he has taken some heat for the poor showing of Republicans in state races this year and for persuading the party to help retire $37,000 of his old campaign debt.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:21 PM | | Basie! Home

Acknowledging mistakes in Iraq by the Bush administration, leading Republicans expressed reluctance Sunday that the White House replace Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who has lost the confidence of some GOP lawmakers over the conduct of the war.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:05 PM | | Basie! Home

Car bombs rocked Iraq's two holiest Shiite cities Sunday, killing at least 62 people and wounding more than 120, while in downtown Baghdad dozens of gunmen carried out a brazen ambush on car, pulling out three election officials and executing them on the pavement in the middle of morning traffic.

The bombs exploded an hour apart. First, a suicide blast ripped through parked minibuses at the entrance to the Karbala bus station. Then a car bomb shattered a central square in Najaf, crowded with residents watching a funeral procession. The city police chief and provincial governor were among the group but were not hurt.

Also Sunday, a militant group claimed to have kidnapped 10 Iraqis working for an American security contractor, threatening to kill them unless the company pulls out of Iraq.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 11:58 AM | | Basie! Home

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said he will sign each letter written to family members of service members killed in military action.

Stars and Stripes, the newspaper devoted to military news, published a statement it said Rumsfeld provided to them on the matter.

"I wrote and approved the now more than 1,000 letters sent to family members and next of kin of each of the servicemen and women killed in military action.

"While I have not individually signed each one, in the interest of ensuring expeditious contact with grieving family members, I have directed that in the future I sign each letter," Rumsfeld said in the statement, published in Friday's edition of the paper.

[...]

The secretary had been criticized for not personally signing all such letters and using mechanical signatures. Stars and Stripes quotes family members who have disliked the practice. [emphasis added]

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 11:33 PM | | Basie! Home

Nearly three-fourths of Americans middle age and older support legalizing marijuana for medical use, according to a poll taken for AARP.

More than half of those questioned said they believed marijuana has medical benefits, while a larger majority agreed the drug is addictive.

AARP, whose 35 million members are all at least 50 years old, says it has no political position on medical marijuana and that its local branches have not chosen sides in the scores of state ballot initiatives on the issue in recent elections.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:28 PM | | Basie! Home

Brooks is one of a small group of frustrated Democrats who met while commiserating online after President Bush defeated Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.). Disenchanted and desperate for a voice, they started BuyBlue.org. The two-week-old Web site lists the political contributions of major companies to encourage people to shop at stores and buy products from businesses that supported Democratic candidates.

"If you are a progressive or a liberal, you won't be represented adequately by this administration, or this Congress," Martha Ture, a co-founder of BuyBlue.org, said. As for what Democrats do have, she said, "We have our wallets."

[...]

Mega-retailer Wal-Mart is a "red" store, channeling 80 percent of its more than $2 million in contributions to GOP candidates, according to BuyBlue.org. Other "red" firms include Circuit City, Outback Steakhouse and Safeway. But bulk retailer Costco is "blue." The corporation funneled more than $200,000 to Democratic candidates. Barnes & Noble, Starbucks and J.Crew are also listed as Democratic supporters by BuyBlue.org.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 7:29 PM | | Basie! Home

Al-Manar, the television station of Lebanon's Hezbollah militants that has glorified suicide bombers, lost its satellite feed to the United States on Saturday after Washington put it on a list of terror organizations.

The exclusion from U.S. TV screens came less than a week after France banned its broadcasts, but al-Manar's troubles airing its anti-Israel message abroad don't seem to hurt its popularity in the Arab world. The station till enjoys the support of the Lebanese and Syrian governments and a broad and sympathetic Arab audience.

The station, which ranks fourth or fifth among Lebanon's nine stations, has drawn protests from across the globe for airing anti-Israel programs that include videos glorifying Hezbollah and other Arab suicide bombers who target Israelis, describing the attacks as "heroic martyrdom operations." Its presenters refer to Israel as "the enemy."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 7:22 PM | | Basie! Home

With more than 500 web logs or so-called blogs in Oregon, we examine why blogs are so popular and what sparked their phenomenal growth over the past year.

Host: Christy George

Panelists: Barbara O'Brien, blogger and author of 'Blogging America'; Jack Bogdanski, Jack Bog's Blog; Gordie Dickinson, Roquepundit blogger; Christopher Frankonis, Portland Communique blogger.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 7:17 PM | | Basie! Home

A Leavenworth woman's vote for Dino Rossi - which almost didn't count - shows why King County should be allowed to tally several hundred mistakenly rejected ballots in the race for governor, a Wenatchee lawyer has argued.

Attorney Russ Speidel, in a brief opposing the Republicans' bid to keep King County from counting several hundred previously disqualified ballots, outlined the saga of Nancy Johnson's ballot.

Her ballot was initially rejected because Chelan County officials thought she had voted twice. It turns out there were two Nancy Johnsons with Leavenworth post office boxes who mailed in absentee ballots, causing a mix-up, The Wenatchee World reported Saturday.

Johnson's ballot was finally counted Wednesday after the county canvassing board ruled that the county's error led to the earlier rejection, the newspaper said.

Speidel says that illustrates why King County should be able to count 723 ballots that weren't originally tallied because of mistakes by election staff.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 6:29 PM | | Basie! Home

World War II-era jeeps and trucks rumbled through this town Saturday in ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the deadliest battle in American history, the Battle of the Bulge.

Veterans from across the United States returned to find Bastogne covered in snow, just as it was that bitter cold December of 1944. The town of 14,000 took the brunt of the six-week battle that raged across the Ardennes hills of southern Belgium and Luxembourg.

"The American veterans who have returned 60 years later to the battle site represent those who gave their lives on our soil, so that today we can live free," Bastogne Mayor Philippe Collard said in French at a memorial honoring U.S. General George S. Patton.

Then he added in English, "We will never forget. You are home here."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:05 AM | | Basie! Home

The incoming deputy leader of Senate Democrats demanded answers Saturday from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as to why U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan lack protective equipment for themselves and their vehicles.

We can, and we should, armor every Humvee and every truck our troops use in Iraq and Afghanistan," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said in his party's weekly radio address. "No more excuses, no more delays. We can save hundreds of lives and prevent thousands of serious injuries."

Congress has given the Bush administration all the defense spending it has requested, yet there are still 3,500 Humvees without protective armor and about 44,000 soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan without adequate body armor, Durbin said.

"The Pentagon says the lack of protective equipment is a matter of 'logistics,'" Durbin said. "No, it's not. It's a matter of leadership."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:35 AM | | Basie! Home

FOX NEWS SUNDAY: Treasury Secretary John W. Snow and Washington Mayor Anthony A. Williams.

THIS WEEK (ABC): White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr.; David J. Graham, associate director of the Office of Drug Safety, and Time managing editor Jim Kelly.

FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sens. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.).

MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sens. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), John W. Warner (R-Va.), Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) and Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.).

LATE EDITION (CNN): Sens. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) and John Cornyn (R-Tex.); Reps. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.); Sept. 11 commission members Thomas H. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton; Javad Zarif, Iran's permanent representative to the United Nations, and Snow.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:00 PM | | Basie! Home

Ousted Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore said Friday he is considering running for governor in 2006.

"I'll be praying about it and considering it," told reporters.

Moore was ousted in November 2003 for defying a federal judge's order to remove his 5,280-pound Ten Commandments monument from public display in the state judicial building. He appealed his ouster to the U.S. Supreme Court, but lost.

If Moore were to run as a Republican, he could face a GOP primary battle with Gov. Bob Riley, who has not yet said whether he will seek a second term.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 7:03 PM | | Basie! Home

A judge Friday granted a state Republican Party request to block the counting of hundreds of recently discovered King County ballots in Washington's extremely close governor's race.

Even if the election workers wrongly rejected the ballots — 150 of which were discovered Friday — it is too late for King County to reconsider them now, Pierce County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Arend said.

The decision of whether to count the ballots could prove to be a pivotal issue in the governor's race. With all but two counties finished with a hand recount, Republican Dino Rossi was leading Democrat Christine Gregoire by 43 votes.

[...]

State Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt said the party will appeal the decision.

"We're going to fight for every vote to count in the state of Washington," he said. "I guess we're headed to the (state) Supreme Court."

King County Elections Director Dean Logan said the county also planned to appeal.

"These are legitimate voters who cast legitimate ballots," he said. "It's just a travesty if we do not include these ballots."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:21 PM | | Basie! Home

John McCain counted 3,000 earmarks in the final year of Democratic control. Last year, there were nearly 14,000.

This corruption of the high-minded conservative approach to governance offers Democrats their main chance. But they don't have it all that easy. It won't be enough to point fingers and express disgust with GOP malfeasance.

It won't be enough because the American people are not stupid. They can add. And no matter how you add it up, Democrats always want to spend more government money than Republicans do — except on defense, which gets us right back to the Democrats' terrible bind.

Can the Democratic Party break its addiction to big-government remedies for American social ills? It will be difficult, to put it mildly. Right now, it seems impossible. Democrats are now lining up against a Social Security reform proposal that leading party lights once championed, simply because it features a Bush-supported non-governmental solution to an intractable problem.

Still, a future Democratic leader who can find a way to talk about big-government Republican corruption without promising more of the same could bring his party out of the wilderness into which it has wandered.

Government accountability and fiscal responsibility

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:18 PM | | Basie! Home

Christie Whitman, the former New Jersey governor and Bush environmental official, says in an upcoming book that Republican moderates must speak up or the party could move so far to the right that it will lose its influence and strength.

Whitman, who led the Environmental Protection Agency for President Bush from 2001 until May 2003, also says in the book that she was often at odds with the White House on issues such as setting limits on air pollutants and power plant emissions and in the debate over global warming. Her tenure was marked by complaints from conservatives that she was too moderate.

The main focus of Whitman's book "It's My Party Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America," is on her desire for moderate Republicans to regain control of the party. The more conservative wing of the party has claimed much credit for Bush's re-election.

"A clear and present danger Republicans face today is that the party will now move so far to the right that it ends up alienating centrist voters and marginalizing itself," Whitman writes in the book, obtained Friday by The Associated Press. The book is to be released by The Penguin Press in late January.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:30 PM | | Basie! Home

George W. Bush ends the year with more Americans, on average, approving than disapproving of the job he's doing as president, although his average job rating for 2004 is the lowest annual average of the four years of his first term.

Currently almost half (48 percent) of Americans approve of his job performance, down 5 percentage points from mid-November, and 45 percent disapprove, up 5 points.

Hillary Clinton: 40
Bill Frist: 33
Other (vol.)/Unsure: 27

Hillary Clinton: 41
George Pataki: 35
Other (vol.)/Unsure: 24

Hillary Clinton: 46
Jeb Bush: 35
Other (vol.)/Unsure: 19

John Kerry: 45
Jeb Bush: 37
Other (vol.)/Unsure: 18

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 1:12 PM | | Basie! Home

The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday ruled that state's death penalty unconstitutional, handing another victory to opponents of capital punishment.

Kansas is one of 38 states with the death penalty, though it has not executed anyone since capital punishment was restored in the United States in 1976.

The state court ruled 4-3 that the Kansas law violates the U.S. Constitution because it requires juries to opt for the death penalty if the evidence for and against the defendant is otherwise equal.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:49 PM | | Basie! Home

“I’m very confident that in the next two years, we’ll see 30,000 new jobs produced by the Portland economy,” says Don Mazziotti, executive director of the Portland Development Commission, who considers redevelopment of the Meier & Frank Co.’s flagship store vital to the city’s economic recovery.

[...]

With hundreds of jobs at stake, the PDC also is awaiting Siltronic Corp.’s decision on whether it will build a new 300-millimeter silicon wafer manufacturing plant.

Job growth falls far behind the metro area’s population influx. From December 2000 to November 2003, the Portland metro area lost 47,000 jobs. This past year, 9,000 jobs returned and the unemployment rate dipped to 6.4 percent from a high of 8.1 percent.

“Portland hasn’t had as much of a recovery as the state as a whole,” says local economist Bill Conerly, who believes 2005 will bring recovery of the high-tech and health care sectors. And, while rising interest rates could slow down home building, commercial projects shouldn’t be affected.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:34 PM | | Basie! Home

With Washington state in the middle of a recount of its amazingly close governor's race, election officials in Seattle's King County entered a warehouse Friday and found a plastic tray containing 150 misplaced ballots.

The discovery brings the number of belatedly discovered ballots to 723 in the heavily Democratic county potentially enough to swing the election to Democrat Christine Gregoire.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:14 PM | | Basie! Home

One of every 210 Oregon Guard soldiers in Iraq has been killed since deployments began last year, while the National Guard's death rate is one in about 606. As of this week, about one of every 379 active-duty Army soldiers in Iraq has died.

The disparity between the death rates would have been more pronounced before the soldiers of Oregon's 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry reached Iraq this week. Removing those 560 soldiers from the equation, the casualty rate of the Oregon Guard would be about one in 148.

Col. J. Michael Caldwell, deputy director of the Oregon Military Department, said Thursday that the death toll -- all but one coming from the Guard's 2nd Battalion, 162nd Infantry -- is grim confirmation that the Army's 1st Cavalry Division, to which the battalion is attached, places a great deal of trust in the Oregon soldiers.

"Hurrah for that reputation," he said. But, he noted, "it puts you in the breach."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 7:25 AM | | Basie! Home

Pfizer Inc. said Friday it has found an increased risk of heart problems with patients taking its painkiller Celebrex, a drug that is in the same class as the Vioxx, which was pulled from the market in September because of safety concerns.

[...]

Both Celebrex and Vioxx, which is made by Merck & Co., are a type of drug called cox-2 inhibitors, which have become popular because of their effectiveness in treating the pain of arthritis and other ailments.

Earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration said it was adding a warning to the labels of another Pfizer drug, Bextra, warning of potential heart problems associated with the use of Bextra in people who have recently had heart bypass surgery. Bextra is also a cox-2 inhibitor type of drug.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 7:13 AM | | Basie! Home

While Syria's repeated offers to reopen peace talks with Jerusalem are triggering a fierce debate within the Israeli military and political establishment, the Bush administration appears united in its opposition to launching such negotiations.

The administration is not officially advising Israel against such talks, Israeli and American sources said. But Washington has refrained from publicly endorsing the resumption of Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations, and has quietly told Israeli leaders that this would be a bad time to resume talks with Syria, according to knowledgeable American and Israeli sources.

[...]

"It really wouldn't look good if Israel legitimizes Syria's regime by resuming peace talks when there is talk in Washington about striking Syria militarily," said one Israeli diplomat. It is a point, he added, not lost on Sharon.

1. President Bush doesn't actually care that much about Israel; if he did, he would support peace negotiations.
   
2. President Bush does not want Syria to look good in the international community. Both Iran and Syria are supporting Iraqi insurgents, but Syria would be much easier to bully than Iran. If Syria were to make peace with Israel, however, American would be put in a very difficult situation.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 1:53 AM | | Basie! Home

Bill Moyers, a preacher turned journalist who accrued 30 Emmys, has veered back to the pulpit in announcing his retirement from "Now With Bill Moyers," a PBS weekly newsmagazine for which he has been the host for three years. His final broadcast tonight marks a 33-year run on public television that has brought awards, attacks and almost uncountable stories.

The gospel of Mr. Moyers - an unreconstructed progressive - warns against the danger of media consolidation, the growing links between conservative government and conservative media and the threat of information control by government.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:16 PM | | Basie! Home

About two-thirds of Food and Drug Administration scientists are less than fully confident in the agency's monitoring of the safety of prescription drugs now being sold, according to an internal survey.

Also, more than one-third of those scientists have some doubts about the process for approving new drugs, the survey found.

Complete results of the survey, conducted by the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, were released only after an advocacy group filed a Freedom of Information Act request. The release comes in the wake of safety concerns forcing removal from the market of Vioxx, an arthritis drug, and Congressional testimony by an agency scientist that the F.D.A. mishandled safety concerns about other drugs.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:15 PM | | Basie! Home

Throughout a two-day conference on the economy, President Bush and his allies extolled the virtues of his tax cuts and "pro-growth" policies, which they said have lifted the nation from recession and propelled it well above its international economic competitors. If Washington adheres to the path of fiscal restraint while following the president's tax prescriptions, it was suggested, policymakers could secure powerful economic growth far into the future.

Yet when the subject turned to the nation's legal or Social Security systems, the picture grew suddenly dark. Frivolous lawsuits have hobbled America's businesses and have put them at the mercy of their enlightened overseas competition, administration officials said. As for federal entitlements, a rising tide of retiring baby boomers will inevitably slow economic growth and bankrupt Social Security.

"The crisis is now," Bush warned in his closing speech.

Such contradictions emerged repeatedly, pointing up the delicate balancing act that Bush faces as he tries to sell his economic proposals.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 7:32 PM | | Basie! Home

Image from CNN.com

"It is not enough anymore to be against everything," Ford said. "To win, it takes ideas. It takes a vision. We have to do a lot more with that vision thing to win nationally and win statewide."

"I make no bones about planning a Senate run," Ford said after speaking at the Sheraton Read House.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:13 PM | | Basie! Home

President Bush remains intent on deploying a multibillion-dollar shield as an "important deterrent" against ballistic missile attack, the White House said on Thursday, a day after the system's first flight test in two years ended in failure.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:29 PM | | Basie! Home

On Tuesday night, the Sci Fi Channel aired its final installment of Legend of Earthsea, the miniseries based—loosely, as it turns out—on my Earthsea books. The books, A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan, which were published more than 30 years ago, are about two young people finding out what their power, their freedom, and their responsibilities are. I don't know what the film is about. It's full of scenes from the story, arranged differently, in an entirely different plot, so that they make no sense. My protagonist is Ged, a boy with red-brown skin. In the film, he's a petulant white kid. Readers who've been wondering why I "let them change the story" may find some answers here.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:16 PM | | Basie! Home

Oregon's state population grew at a rate of 1.2 percent in 2004, according to new estimates done by the Population Research Center at Portland State University.
According to the center, the state's population grew to 3,582,600 for the year ending July 1, 2004, an increase of 41,100 people from the year ending July 1, 2003.

Growth from 2002 to 2003 was 1.1 percent.

[...]

Central Oregon remains the state's fastest-growing region, researchers said, with Deschutes County growing 17 percent from April 2000 to July 2004.

[...]

Portland's population reached 550,560 the year ending July 1, 2004, an increase of 21,439 people since the 2000 Census.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:55 PM | | Basie! Home

Ah, the omnibus -- the gift that keeps on giving. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that Rep. Martin Olav Sabo, D-Minn., slipped a provision into the 2,900-page spending bill directing $1 million to the Norwegian American Foundation to honor the 100th anniversary of Norway's peaceful independence from Sweden in 1905. The head of the Seattle-based foundation didn't know the funding had been secured until Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., complained publicly about it, the paper said. Sabo said it is "common for nations to commemorate the anniversaries of their friends and historic allies." Norwegian Ambassador Knut Vollebaek first learned of the money from an e-mail about McCain's protest, the Star Tribune said. "The embassy has not lobbied for this, by no means," Vollebaek said. "We do not interfere with the budget processes of other countries. But we are very grateful to Congressman Sabo."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:39 PM | | Basie! Home

Imagine a parallel universe where, instead of crying in their beer as the election results rolled in on November 2, Democrats were raising microbrews in toasts to their unprecedented success. Now, stop imagining and focus on the Rocky Mountain West, a region that trended so Republican in the 1990s that a popular joke suggested gays and lesbians were afraid to come out of the closet for fear of being thought to be Democrats. This year the Democrats got the last laugh. While those so-simplistic-as-to-be-useless maps of partisan breakdowns in the presidential race paint the region as hopelessly Republican--feeding the sense that wide expanses of America are lost forever to the Democratic Party--Dan Petegorsky of the Western States Center invites a closer look, which reveals that "the 'red' label on the presidential map contrasts sharply with the state-level results."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 11:48 AM | | Basie! Home

U.S. Sen. Trent Lott doesn't believe Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld should resign immediately, but he does think Rumsfeld should be replaced sometime in the next year.

"I'm not a fan of Secretary Rumsfeld," Lott, R-Mississippi, told the Biloxi Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday morning. "I don't think he listens enough to his uniformed officers."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:34 AM | | Basie! Home

Daschle will hit the speaking circuit, write another book, become a television commentator or even star in his own television show, join several corporate boards and ultimately land a job at a Wall Street investment-banking firm, according to a person privy to his thinking.

“The world is his oyster,” a Washington lobbyist who is close to Daschle said Tuesday. “The only option he’s ruled out is that he’s not going to be a lobbyist because Linda [his lobbyist wife] has a big, thriving practice of her own.”

The Daschle confidant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Daschle will join a speakers bureau — where he probably could command fees in the $15,000-to-$25,000 range, and join several corporate boards. “A few, not a lot,” because of the increased liability faced by board members as a result of the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:06 AM | | Basie! Home

“This election proved the triumph of redistricting. The districts have been so gerrymandered for both Republicans and Democrats that it becomes difficult to unseat the entrenched party.”

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 7:59 AM | | Basie! Home

The campaign manager for Sen. John Kerry's failed presidential bid said Wednesday she regrets underestimating the impact of an attack advertisement that questioned Kerry's Vietnam War record.

Mary Beth Cahill, who spoke at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government with Ken Mehlman, President Bush's campaign manager, said the Massachusetts senator's campaign initially thought there would be "no reach" to the ad from Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Instead, the ad, which initially aired in just three states, became a central issue of the campaign, eventually forcing Kerry to personally deny the group's allegations that he did not deserve his combat medals.

"This is the best $40,000 investment made by any political group, but it was only because of the news coverage that it got where it did," she said.

"In hindsight, maybe we should have put Senator Kerry out earlier, perhaps we could have cut it off earlier." [emphasis added]

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 11:18 PM | | Basie! Home

Iraqi insurgents are growing more effective and it will take time to get U.S. troops the $4 billion in armor they need for protection, defense officials said Wednesday. "This is not Wal-Mart," one general said.

Officials rejected growing criticism that armor shortages in Iraq reflect poor war planning, and they said they've been working as fast as possible to give troops what they need.

At a Pentagon news conference, Army officials declined to say how much has already been spent armoring vehicles for the campaign. But they said that by the end of the next six to eight months, they will have spent $4.1 billion to try to make sure vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan have full armor — either manufactured that way or with armor added.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 11:11 PM | | Basie! Home

The City Council overwhelmingly overrode a mayoral veto Wednesday on a bill that grants extra public money to people facing wealthy self-financed candidates like Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who spent $74 million of his money to win election in 2001.

The legislation increases the matching funds for office seekers running against wealthy candidates who opt out of the campaign finance system from $5 for every $1 privately raised to $6 for every $1.

Also, the total amount in public funds available to a candidate under the campaign finance system would increase from $3.8 million to $7.2 million.

Absent lengthy legal battles, the legislation could become law in time for next November's mayoral election, when Bloomberg plans to seek a second term.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:09 PM | | Basie! Home

November 2, 2004 appeared to be a bleak day for the Democratic Party. Presidential nominee John Kerry was defeated by three percent in the popular vote, though the Electoral College tally was closer, the party lost a net of five seats in the Senate, its worst showing in a decade. Even in the House of Representatives, in which the Democrats were favored to pick up a handful of seats, the party lost a net of four seats (though much of the loss came from the Texas re-redistricting).

Federal elections were not the only contests on November 2, however. In what political analyst Tim Storey calls a “hidden election,” voters across the nation selected new governors and state legislatures, often sending a conflicting message from their Presidential and Congressional votes. As Storey notes, “the oddity was that the most successful party in local races was beaten so thoroughly at the top of the ticket.”

Voters have split their tickets since they were able to with the introduction of the Australian ballot in the late 19th century, but the significance of such voting patterns has not always been clear. Often, however, realignments in voting begin below the federal level and do not become apparent nationally until subsequent cycles. If this is indeed true, 2004 could be a prime example of local-level elections foreshadowing a future realignment of the electorate on the national level.

Paul R. Abramson, John H. Aldridge, and David W. Rohde write in Change and Continuity in the 2000 and 2002 Elections of a number of basic characteristics shared by partisan realignments in the United States. Two of these include: changes in the regional bases of the parties and the emergence of new issues which create new cleavages within the electorate. Although it is clearly too early to tell, preliminary signs indicate that these two characteristics of realignment may indeed have begun to occur during the 2004 election cycle.

Two states, in particular, split their tickets and exhibited the two aforementioned attributes of realignment: Colorado and Montana. Both states went for President Bush; both states rejected Republican-dominated state legislatures in favor of the Democratic Party. Specifically, in Colorado Bush won by a comfortable five point margin, while at the same time Democrats picked up a Senate seat, a Congressional seat, and both houses of the state legislature. Additionally, Democratic-backed initiatives – with the exception of the Electoral College reform – were passed overwhelmingly over GOP opposition [link]. In Montana, where Bush won even more handily, Democrats took the Governorship, the state Senate (and possibly the state House) and four of five statewide elective offices [link].

Although Colorado, Montana and other Mountain West states had been Democratic states as late as the 1970s and early 1980s, for the past two decades they had been trending strongly to the GOP. In the past two Presidential elections, for example, only one state in the region voted for the Democrats, New Mexico in 2000, and only by 366 votes. The GOP accordingly viewed it as a solid section of its base.

One reason why the GOP might have to fear that 2004 was not merely an aberration is the emergence of an issue with newly increased salience: conservation. Although hunters and fishermen have often been aligned with the Republican Party in the past as a result of issues of gun control and environmental regulations, with the GOP moving to complete deregulation through the restriction of laws such as Montana’s Stream Access Law, these two groups have increasingly found themselves isolated from the rest of the GOP base. In a state like Montana in which 723,000 of the 971,000 residents hunted, fished or watched wildlife in 2001, such a shift could prove disastrous for the Republican Party [link].

Brian Schweitzer, the successful Democratic gubernatorial nominee, alleged the Republican Party was attempting sell off public lands to the highest bidder; this theme became a central part of his campaign. As David Sirota writes in the December issue of Washington Monthly,

First, it helped Schweitzer make inroads with the constituency of outdoorsmen that is normally Democrat-averse.

Second, it let us speak to both left-leaning environmentalists, who wanted public lands and wildlife herds maintained, and right-leaning outdoorsmen, who wanted a place to recreate and a steady population of game to hunt.

Check Denowh, the executive director of the Montana Republican Party, echoed this sentiment, saying that “people who normally vote Republican on the gun issue are straying. Whenever we’re allied with the extractive industries, timber and mining, we have a hard time defining the issue to show we also support conservation” [link]. By being unable to effectively address one of the region’s most salient issues – conservation – the Republican Party risks losing a number of voters; furthermore, it provides the Democrats with an opening to a new base of support on the federal level.

In a December 7 interview, former Colorado Democratic Senator and two-time Presidential candidate Gary Hart let me know that he felt one of the keys to Democratic resurgence on the national level was a focus on the West. In the interview, he stated,

In the east coast corridor, all the analysts and the commentators and pundits talk about what the Democrats have to do to recapture the South and "NASCAR Dads" and all this kind of nonsense. I've argued for an East-West strategy for the Democratic party in which the Democratic states east of the Mississippi combine with potential Democratic states in the west, and I think Colorado is a prime example of what can be done out here. Now we win California and often win Washington and Oregon, but you can combine with that New Mexico, Colorado, possibly Arizona--which is a winnable state for Democrats--and then recapture Montana, which we used to win, and make gains in other parts of the Midwest and the West.

In the interview, Hart also indicated that one of the major keys for Democratic Party success in the region is to address the issues of the environment and land usage in a progressive way to distinguish itself from the development-minded Republicans.

If the Democrats can indeed reframe the issue of conservation and ensure that it maintains the same level of salience that brought success to Schweitzer, Ken Salazar and others, they can win in the Mountain West. Abramson, Aldridge and Rohde note that “in both 1992 and 1996 Clinton won some southern electoral votes, but in both elections he could have won with no southern support. As long as Democrats continue to do well in the Northeast, the Pacific Coast, and the Midwest, they can win.” If they can add on the Mountain West to these three regions using the methods laid out by Schweitzer, Hart and others, realignment might only be a presidential election away.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:46 PM | | Basie! Home

Iraqi insurgents are using roadside bombs with increasing effectiveness to disrupt American military operations in Iraq, the deputy commander of American forces in the Middle East said Wednesday.

The officer, Lt. Gen. Lance Smith of the Air Force, also said that one of the most important militant leaders driven out of Falluja was now probably operating in Baghdad. Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, General Smith said the Jordanian insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was still orchestrating attacks against American and Iraqi forces and communicating with confederates, despite having lost many of his top lieutenants and his base of operations during the offensive in Falluja last month.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:25 PM | | Basie! Home

Charter school students across the country are performing no better in math and reading than their peers at regular public schools and by some measures are doing worse, according to a report released yesterday by an independent, congressionally mandated research group.

The survey by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which describes itself as "the nation's report card," showed that 58 percent of fourth-grade students in charter schools performed at a basic level in reading, compared with 62 percent in traditional public schools. When the results were adjusted for race, students at the traditional public schools in the survey still did slightly better, but the margin was deemed "statistically insignificant." Low-income students at regular public schools generally outperformed their charter school counterparts.

The study is perhaps the most authoritative evaluation of charter schools to date. It is politically controversial because the charter school movement was established to provide poor and minority students an alternative to low-performing public schools. Public school advocates pointed to the results as evidence that many charter schools have not lived up to their promise of significantly raising academic achievement.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 7:58 PM | | Basie! Home

A House committee chairman who has been connected to lobbyists accused of bilking Indian tribes out of millions of dollars said Wednesday that he has been asked to meet with members of the House ethics committee.

Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, told The Associated Press that the ethics panel has not notified him of an official investigation or asked him to turn over any documents.

"I had a conversation with them and told them that I'd schedule a time to talk," Ney said. "Anything they'd like to see, they are more than welcome to have it."

Ney, who chairs the House Administration Committee, said he spoke with a member of Rep. Joel Hefley's staff. Hefley, R-Colo., chairs the ethics panel, formally known as the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 4:36 PM | | Basie! Home

Rep. David Vitter, R-La., said he was unhappy with the questionable reputation of Louisiana politics, and he decided to try to do something about it. In 1991 he won the state House seat vacated by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, who ran for governor.

Fans: Gephardt! Gephardt! Gephardt!

Carvey: Well hold on. Now if you want to talk about shambles, let's talk about the US House of Representatives, of which I am the Majority Leader. The real enemy facing this country isn't the Soviets, it isn't the Japanese, it's people like me. The American people know it.

The fact is, I couldn't beat David Duke in Harlem.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:18 PM | | Basie! Home

Retiring U.S. Rep. Billy Tauzin, who left his post as head of the House committee that regulates the pharmaceutical industry earlier this year, will become head of the industry's top lobbying group next month.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America made the announcement of Tauzin's hiring on Wednesday. Tauzin's spokesman, Ken Johnson, confirmed the hiring, but said he had no immediate comment.

Earlier this year, Tauzin had been talking with the trade group about a post-Congress job, but his negotiations were widely criticized by Democrats and government watchdog groups.

Tauzin had been chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which regulates the pharmaceutical industry.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:31 AM | | Basie! Home

"When you believe you are invulnerable, you will always take a step too far, and this was it. The most cursory checking would have shown this guy has more skeletons than a haunted house. This choice was political from the beginning to the end."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:01 AM | | Basie! Home

Democrats had great success in state legislative races this year, even as they performed poorly in the presidential race and campaigns for Congress. Many Democratic gains came in the heart of Republican territory.

Colorado Democrats took control of both the House and Senate for the first time since 1974. Montana Democrats won the state Senate and could control the state House, depending on the outcome of a legislative race that finished in a tie and is the subject of a court battle.

Overall, Democrats took power in seven legislatures and earned a tie in the Iowa Senate. Republicans won control in four chambers and added legislators in southern states that have been shifting to the party for 20 years.

Nationwide, Democrats added more than 60 legislative seats, reversing the 2002 results that gave Republicans more state legislators than Democrats for the first time in a half century.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:42 AM | | Basie! Home

Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman has twice in recent days said "no" when approached about the possibility of a major job in the second Bush administration, CNN has learned.

The Cabinet vacancy at the Department of Homeland Security was the subject of the latest overture, according to congressional and other government sources. Those sources said the earlier overture was to see whether Lieberman might be interested in becoming the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:01 AM | | Basie! Home

The first test in nearly two years of a multibillion-dollar U.S. anti-missile shield failed on Wednesday when the interceptor missile shut down as it prepared to launch in the central Pacific, the Pentagon said.

About 16 minutes earlier, a target missile carrying a mock warhead had been successfully fired from Kodiak Island, Alaska, according to a statement from the Missile Defense Agency.

The aborted $85 million test appeared likely to set back plans for activation of a rudimentary bulwark against long-range ballistic missiles that could be fired by countries like North Korea.

The last test, in December 2002, misfired when the warhead -- a 120-pound "kill vehicle" of sensors, chips and thrusters designed to pulverize its target on collision -- failed to separate from its booster rocket.

Boeing Co., as prime contractor, put together the ground-based shield, which is to be folded into a system involving airborne, sea- and space-based elements. All told, the Pentagon is spending $10 billion a year on the project [emphasis added].

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:26 AM | | Basie! Home

Months earlier, in January, Access Cardiosystems' former chief executive, who had just been forced out, wrote the F.D.A. and accused Access of shipping potentially defective units. When F.D.A. inspectors visited the factory days later, they found no major defects and cleared the company of serious problems.

But as complaints about the device, and deaths possibly associated with it, began to increase over the summer, the inspectors never returned to learn what they might have missed.

Already under scrutiny for what some critics say is lax oversight of prescription drugs, the F.D.A. may have similar fault lines in its medical devices unit. Each year, the agency approves hundreds of devices, including dozens of so-called high-risk products. That category includes defibrillators, whose failure almost by definition is life-threatening.

With the sales of high-risk medical devices soaring, some experts say that the F.D.A may soon have an even bigger problem on its hands: The growing use of such devices in settings like offices, schools and homes puts them outside the agency's problem-reporting system.

[...]

A recent study in the October issue of The American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that the number of device-related deaths and injuries might be four times as great as reported to the F.D.A.

Serious complaints were forwarded to the F.D.A. [about Access Cardiosystems, which makes the defibrillators] and officials there contacted the company for more information. But despite being put on notice about potential problems at the plant, inspectors never returned.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:55 PM | | Basie! Home

The ranking Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee, Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, plans to ask the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a county prosecutor in Ohio today to explore "inappropriate and likely illegal election tampering" in at least one and perhaps several Ohio counties.

The request for an investigation, made in a letter that was also provided to The New York Times, includes accounts from at least two county employees, but is based largely on a sworn affidavit provided by the Hocking County deputy director of elections, Sherole Eaton.

Among other things, Ms. Eaton says in her affidavit that a representative of Triad Governmental Systems, the Ohio firm that created and maintains the vote-counting software in dozens of Ohio counties, made several adjustments to the Hocking County tabulator last Friday, in advance of the state's recount, which is taking place this week.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:23 PM | | Basie! Home

The AARP bulletined its 35 million members last week that President Bush's plan to make personal investment accounts part of Social Security was the "wrong direction" and would "make the problem worse." The National Retail Federation has cautioned lawmakers that a national sales tax would hurt the economy. And health lobbyists have begged the White House to retain tax breaks for health insurance.

As the White House opens a two-day conference today to promote its second-term fiscal priorities, powerful interest groups that once supported Bush are either actively working to undercut him or are wary of his proposals. The result, experts say, is that the president will likely have a hard time passing his ambitious plans, which include cracking down on medical malpractice lawsuits and overhauling both the federal tax code and Social Security.

Some traditional backers of Bush are also withholding support until the administration's proposals are more fleshed out. The Tax Relief Coalition, which was instrumental in pushing three Bush tax cuts in the first term, has been silent so far about tax overhaul. A senior official of the coalition, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized by the group to speak publicly, said that Bush's plan could hurt some businesses while helping others, depending on how extensive it is. Given the low level at which corporations currently pay federal income taxes, the official added, a thorough revamping of the code could increase taxes for individual industries, potentially transforming some Bush friends into enemies.

Other organizations that often move in tandem with Republicans have been pushing in their own directions. The National Retail Federation has been meeting with lawmakers and executive branch officials to warn about what they see as the dangers of imposing a national sales tax, a levy that could dampen store sales. Separately, the Association for Manufacturing Technology has been talking up the idea of accelerating tax write-offs for equipment, while the National Association of Realtors has been urging lawmakers to reject measures that would hinder homeownership.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 7:34 PM | | Basie! Home

Former Indiana Rep. Tim Roemer said Tuesday that he is considering whether to join the race for Democratic National Committee chairman.

At least eight other potential candidates have been exploring the job, which becomes available in February when Chairman Terry McAuliffe leaves. The decision will be made by a vote of the nearly 450 DNC members.

Roemer, president of the nonprofit Center for National Policy, served in Congress from 1990 to 2002. He also served on the Sept. 11 commission that investigated the 2001 terror attacks.

In a statement, Roemer said several prominent Democrats have asked him to consider leading the party. He said he is consulting with family and friends and will make a decision soon.

Roemer, president of the nonprofit Center for National Policy, served in Congress from 1991 through 2002.

elected as a Democrat to the One Hundred Second and to the five succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1991-January 3, 2003)

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:36 PM | | Basie! Home

Emanuel is the clear favorite among consultants - and the potential chairman feared most by House Republicans.

The second-term Member developed a reputation as a bare-knuckled strategist during his time as senior adviser in the Clinton White House, an image reinforced during his successful primary campaign in 2002 to claim the north Chicago seat vacated by Rod Blagojevich (D), who went on to win the governor's seat.

Emanuel also is considered the best fundraiser of the three candidates mentioned, with connections in both his native Chicago and nationally, due to his time spent in the White House. As a freshman in the 2004 cycle, Emanuel served as a vice chairman of the DCCC and gave the organization $175,000.

One Democratic consultant said Emanuel "brings a lot to the table. He is politically very savvy; he showed in his first term he understands the nexus of politics and policy; he obviously is a good fundraiser; and not the least of which, as a former DCCC staffer, he knows what works," the consultant added.

Emanuel served as DCCC political director under then-Rep. Beryl Anthony (Ark.).

The Illinois Member also is the most reluctant to take the post, however. Those close to him note that Emanuel has three young daughters and may not be willing to take on the time-consuming job.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:25 PM | | Basie! Home

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said his people should drop their weapons in the struggle for a state, marking out a clear change of strategy for peace with Israel after Yasser Arafat's death last month.

Abbas, near certain to win a Jan. 9 election to succeed Arafat, made the comments in an interview published on Tuesday, two days after militants showed their muscle with the deadliest attack on Israeli troops since May. Fresh violence killed a Palestinian policeman and a Thai farmer at a Jewish settlement.

Abbas, a U.S.-favored veteran leader had previously shown his opposition to armed attacks in a 4-year-old uprising, but not in such strong terms since Arafat's death on Nov. 11.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:23 PM | | Basie! Home

And so it was, in a ceremony that was as historic as it was obscure, that the state of Oregon officially cast its seven allotted electoral votes for president of the United States.

They were tallied, certified and bestowed upon a man who will not reside in the White House during the next four years.

The voters had spoken -- sort of.

[...]

"So, we have seven votes for John Kerry for president of the United States," Bradbury said. "And I have to say, these paper ballots are really easy to read."

Oregon has favored the Democratic Party nominee for president in every contest since 1988.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:41 AM | | Basie! Home

Wow. I didn't know Oregon Representative Darlene Hooley was a "knee-jerk liberal." But Media Matters quotes Robert Novak in a story today:

Novak wrong on Rep. Hooley's record, wrongly accused her of hypocrisy

Syndicated columnist and CNN host Robert D. Novak accused Representative Darlene Hooley (D-OR) of hypocrisy for expressing concern about the lack of armor for U.S. troops in Iraq after -- as he claimed falsely -- she voted against funding the war. On the December 11 edition of CNN's The Capital Gang, regular panel member Novak called Hooley "a knee-jerk liberal and professional politician" and stated: "It's a definition of hypocrisy to complain about lack of armor on trucks after voting against giving the troops any trucks at all." But Novak was wrong on Hooley's record.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:26 AM | | Basie! Home

An unknown Minnesota Democrat earned a footnote in history Monday by casting one of the state's 10 Electoral College votes for John Edwards, the Democratic vice presidential running mate for John Kerry.

The Edwards vote gives Minnesota its first "faithless elector," the dubious name for Electoral College members who snub the candidate who won the state's popular vote in the general election. Kerry, who beat President Bush in Minnesota but lost overall, wound up with nine of the state's electoral votes.

No one claimed credit for the Edwards vote. Several electors said they suspected that someone unconsciously mixed up the two Johns on the ticket rather than purposefully made a political statement.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:28 AM | | Basie! Home

Conversations with French foreign policy experts serve as a good reminder that, in many ways, the United States is comparatively new to any meaningful exercise of foreign policy. While Washington wasn't a particularly big player much before World War II, the French have been doing this for centuries, and once had colonies on every corner of the globe. When the United States was entering into the mess in Vietnam, France had already been there. It had been a disaster, and they tried to warn us away from it.

Even today, some top French government officials were young political and military leaders when France was embroiled in Algerian conflict, and the painful memories of that disaster shape their reactions to the prospect of going into Baghdad. It seemed that the war in Iraq smelled both bad and familiar to French. The Germans and Canadians were similarly skeptical. All are now eternally grateful they took a pass.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:23 AM | | Basie! Home

This poll contained an update on a basic question asking Americans about the progress of U.S. involvement in Iraq: "In general, how would you say things are going for the U.S. in Iraq?"

There has been little change in the public's answer to this question. Forty percent of Americans say things are going either very or moderately well for the United States in Iraq, while a majority -- 59% -- says things are going either moderately or very badly in that country.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:35 PM | | Basie! Home

As President Bush gears up for a major public push to overhaul Social Security, he has focused almost all his rhetorical energy on the need to let people divert some of their taxes to private retirement accounts.

But nearly every leading Republican proposal on Capitol Hill acknowledges that private accounts by themselves do little to solve the system's projected shortfall of at least $3.5 trillion. Instead, those proposals rely on deep cuts in benefits to future retirees.

That uncomfortable political truth was driven home on Monday by the head of the investigative arm of Congress.

"The creation of private accounts for Social Security will not deal with the solvency and sustainability of the Social Security fund," that official, David M. Walker, comptroller general of the Government Accountability Office, said in a speech on Monday.

Or, as Thomas Saving, a Republican-appointed trustee to the Social Security trust fund put it last week: "Fundamentally, if you don't reduce the benefits, you don't reduce the debt."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:34 PM | | Basie! Home

Come back, Bernie Kerik. We need you. We want you. We love you.

We don't care if your nanny was an illegal immigrant. We don't care if you didn't pay income taxes for her. We forgive you, Bernie, because you allegedly have what Washington desperately needs in this era of tepid, tedious bureaucrats -- multiple mistresses, mob ties, $6 million in dubious stock profits on stun guns, an arrest warrant that was never served and, best of all, a "secret love nest" that the New York Daily News reports you used for "passionate liaisons."

Come back, Bernie, come back. We need some "passionate liaisons" in this town. We haven't had one since Bill broke up with Monica.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 7:29 PM | | Basie! Home

The private companies that process health claims for Medicare made nearly $20 billion in erroneous or questionable payments last year, an error rate of 9.3 percent, the government said Monday. The performance was a slight improvement over last year [emphasis added].

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:33 PM | | Basie! Home

The former New England chairman of President Bush’s re-election campaign pleaded innocent in federal court Monday to charges he helped jam Democrats’ get-out-the-vote phone lines on Election Day 2002.

James Tobin, 44, of Bangor, Maine, faces two criminal counts each of conspiring to make harassing telephone calls and aiding and abetting telephone harassment. The operation also involved a ride-to-the-polls phone line set up by the nonpartisan Manchester firefighters’ union.

Tobin, who was northeast political director of the Republican Senatorial Committee at the time, was indicted Dec. 1 after an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. He faces up to five years in federal prison if convicted.

[...]

"He’s no different than a street hooker in Manchester," [U.S. Magistrate Judge James] Muirhead said. "If he’s guilty, then I find his crime as offensive as any other crime." [emphasis added]

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:27 PM | | Basie! Home

U.S. Sen. John McCain said Monday that he has "no confidence" in Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, citing Rumsfeld's handling of the war in Iraq and the failure to send more troops.

McCain, speaking to The Associated Press in an hourlong interview, said his comments were not a call for Rumsfeld's resignation, explaining that President Bush "can have the team that he wants around him."

"I have strenuously argued for larger troop numbers in Iraq, including the right kind of troops — linguists, special forces, civil affairs, etc.," said McCain, R-Ariz. "There are very strong differences of opinion between myself and Secretary Rumsfeld on that issue."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 1:14 PM | | Basie! Home

But despite the feel-good sentiments, Schwarzenegger, who came into office promising to balance the state's books, has yet to implement any major financial reforms, and the bills for past borrowings are coming due. He has tried to use his popularity to go around the Democrat-controlled legislature, but governing through ballot initiatives has its limits.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:48 PM | | Basie! Home

In another signal that Democrats and Republicans are gearing up for a contentious start to the 109th Congress, Sen. Byron L. Dorgan, D-N.D., this afternoon plans to announce an initiative for Democrats to hold unofficial oversight hearings on the executive branch. Dorgan, chairman of the Democratic Policy Committee, presided over eight such meetings in the 108th Congress, with subjects ranging from U.S. contracting practices in Iraq to the impact of long-term budget deficits. The hearings typically featured a few Democratic senators and representatives, but without subpoena power, no witnesses from the Bush administration. Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will join Dorgan to announce the program, which Dorgan spokesman Barry Piatt said is necessary because Republicans -- in the view of the minority -- are unwilling to fulfill their "constitutional duty of oversight."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:02 PM | | Basie! Home

President Bush's re-election was viewed negatively by a majority of people in several European countries — including those in Britain, America's strongest ally in the war in Iraq, Associated Press polling found.

The president was not the only one viewed unfavorably. Americans generally were seen in an unfavorable light by many in France, Germany and Spain, countries not supportive of U.S. Iraq policies.

[...]

Polling in the United States as well as Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Spain was done for the AP by Ipsos, an international polling company.

As reflected by his re-election, a majority in the United States viewed Bush favorably. Just over half in this country said they were hopeful and were not disappointed after Bush's re-election.

At least seven in 10 in France, Germany and Spain said they have an unfavorable view of President Bush. Just over half of the French and Germans said they have an unfavorable view of Americans in general, and about half of Spaniards felt that way.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:27 AM | | Basie! Home

When Congress gave final approval to an overhaul of the nation’s intelligence system the week of Dec. 6, it was a good illustration of the George W. Bush method of legislative politics.

Bush maintained a narrow legislative agenda throughout 2004, and stayed at the periphery of House-Senate negotiations on the intelligence bill (S 2845) for months. Only in the final weeks did he take a firm stance and intervene with recalcitrant lawmakers — and then only after success looked attainable and Republican leaders, who normally handle such matters, told him it was necessary.

The victory on the most significant bill Congress passed during the year contributed to Bush’s 72.6 percent success rate on congressional votes where he took an unambiguous stand in 2004. Though the lowest score of his presidency, it was the highest success rate for an incumbent seeking re-election since Jimmy Carter achieved a 75.1 percent success score in 1980.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:04 AM | | Basie! Home

Sen. Ron Wyden's toughest and longest campaign came to a successful close.

It wasn't his waltz to re-election last month against a poorly funded opponent. It was his eight-year behind-the-scenes effort to persuade Democratic colleagues to name him to a key Senate committee.

In Washington, where you sit says a lot about your power and influence. And Wyden aimed for the top prize: a seat on the Senate Finance Committee, which shapes the most important policy issues confronting the nation's businesses.

Last Monday, incoming Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid announced that Wyden will be named to the committee. Sens. Hillary Clinton, Evan Bayh, Charles Schumer and Ben Nelson were among the heavy hitters mentioned as top candidates for the two open Democratic seats on the committee. Schumer emerged as the other choice.

His appointment is the result of a long-term effort to impress the Democratic leaders who appoint committee members. He lobbied key senators, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for other Democratic Senate candidates and gradually shifted his image among colleagues from obstinately liberal to moderate and effective, particularly on Finance Committee issues.

Wyden's experience illustrates the two political atmospheres in which senators operate: their home states and the clubby Senate. Once they persuade voters to send them to the Senate, they must exert tremendous effort on secretive, internal politics to ensure they have the power to be effective within the institution.

[...]

Republicans historically have assigned committee seats based on seniority. Democrats consider a variety of factors, requiring a highly complex strategy of winning favor with key leaders.

Wyden's campaign needed to target a few key Democratic senators: Max Baucus of Montana, the ranking Democrat on the Finance Committee; Tom Daschle, the outgoing Senate minority leader; and Reid, who is replacing Daschle as Democratic leader.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:22 AM | | Basie! Home

President Bush chose Environmental Protection Agency chief Michael Leavitt on Monday to be secretary of Health and Human Services, filling one of the last two openings in his second-term Cabinet.

Bush praised Leavitt as a "fine executive" and "a man of great compassion." "He's an ideal choice to lead one of the largest departments of the United States government."

Leavitt, Utah's governor before joining the Bush administration in late 2003, would succeed Tommy Thompson, who recently resigned.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:00 AM | | Basie! Home

Seven U.S. Marines were killed in two separate incidents in Iraq's Anbar province, a vast region encompassing the battleground cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, the military said Monday.

It was unknown whether the deaths Sunday were connected to heavy fighting in Fallujah. American warplanes pounded the city with missiles as insurgents fought running battles with coalition forces.

On Sunday, the military reported the death of another U.S. Marine in Anbar.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:40 PM | | Basie! Home

The Pentagon is engaged in bitter, high-level debate over how far it can and should go in managing or manipulating information to influence opinion abroad, senior Defense Department civilians and military officers say.

Such missions, if approved, could take the deceptive techniques endorsed for use on the battlefield to confuse an adversary and adopt them for covert propaganda campaigns aimed at neutral and even allied nations.

Critics of the proposals say such deceptive missions could shatter the Pentagon's credibility, leaving the American public and a world audience skeptical of anything the Defense Department and military say - a repeat of the credibility gap that roiled America during the Vietnam War.

The efforts under consideration risk blurring the traditional lines between public affairs programs in the Pentagon and military branches - whose charters call for giving truthful information to the media and the public - and the world of combat information campaigns or psychological operations.

The question is whether the Pentagon and military should undertake an official program that uses disinformation to shape perceptions abroad. But in a modern world wired by satellite television and the Internet, any misleading information and falsehoods could easily be repeated by American news outlets.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:06 PM | | Basie! Home

As speculation mounts that Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist will step down soon because of thyroid cancer, Senate Republican leaders are preparing for a showdown to keep Democrats from blocking President Bush's judicial nominations, including a replacement for Rehnquist.

Republicans claim that Democrats have abused the filibuster by blocking 10 of the president's 229 judicial nominees in his first term -- although confirmation of Bush nominees exceeds in most cases the first-term experience of presidents dating to Ronald Reagan. Describing the filibusters as intolerable, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has hinted he may resort to an unusual parliamentary maneuver, dubbed the "nuclear option," to thwart such filibusters.

"If they, for whatever reason, decide to do this, it's not only wrong, they will rue the day they did it, because we will do whatever we can do to strike back," Senate Democratic leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) said last week. "I know procedures around here. And I know that there will still be Senate business conducted. But I will, for lack of a better word, screw things up."

In 1968, Republicans filibustered President Lyndon B. Johnson's choice of Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas to be chief justice, but Johnson withdrew the nomination in the face of Fortas's likely rejection by the Senate.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 7:11 PM | | Basie! Home

Dr. John Caulfield thought it had to be a mistake when the Army asked him to return to active duty. After all, he's 70 years old and had already retired - twice. He left the Army in 1980 and private practice two years ago.

"My first reaction was disbelief," Caulfield said. "It never occurred to me that they would call a 70-year-old."

In fact, he was so sure it was an error that he ignored the postcards and telephone messages asking if he would be willing to volunteer for active duty to "backfill" somewhere on the East Coast, Europe or Hawaii. That would be OK, he thought. It would release active duty oral surgeons from those areas to go to combat zones in Iraq or Afghanistan.

But then the orders came for him to go to Afghanistan.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:09 PM | | Basie! Home

A Republican congressional proponent of Social Security reform warned President Bush on Sunday not to rely on a sharp increase in government borrowing to overhaul the federal retirement program.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said reliance on borrowing to finance an estimated $1 trillion to $2 trillion in transition costs would be irresponsible and could undermine Bush's tax- and deficit-cutting goals.

"What I'm asking of the president, when it comes to the transition costs, be flexible," said Graham, who has proposed a temporary rise in payroll tax contributions to finance Social Security's shift to partial privatization.

"I think it's irresponsible to borrow the whole trillion dollars," he told "Fox News Sunday."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:07 PM | | Basie! Home

Oregon's seven electoral votes for president will be cast at a ceremony at noon Monday in the House chambers of the Capitol in Salem.

Democrat John Kerry won the popular vote statewide, so he will gain Oregon's electoral votes, even though he lost nationally to President Bush, 286 to 252. A majority of 270 is required.

By Democratic Party bylaws, Oregon's electors are the party chairman, vice chairman and the five congressional district chairmen. They are Jim Edmunson, Eugene; Meredith Wood Smith, Portland; Michael Bohan, Beaverton; Paul Zastrow, Hood River; Moshe Lenske, Portland; Shirley Cairns, Oakland; and Judy Sugnet, Salem.

Secretary of State Bill Bradbury will explain the Electoral College -- which never meets as a group -- and Chief Justice Wallace Carson will swear in the seven electors nominated by Democrats. They will vote for president and vice president separately.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:02 PM | | Basie! Home

Dioxin poisoning caused the mysterious illness of Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko, a doctor said Saturday, adding that the poison could have been put in his soup.

Yushchenko is now in satisfactory condition and dioxin levels in his liver have returned to normal, Dr. Michael Zimpfer, director of Vienna's private Rudolfinerhaus clinic, said at a news conference.

A series of tests run over the past 24 hours provided conclusive evidence of the poisoning, Zimpfer said.

"There is no doubt about the fact that Mr. Yushchenko's disease — especially following the results of the blood work — has been caused by a case of poisoning by dioxin," Zimpfer said.

The 50-year-old opposition leader first fell ill in September and was rushed to the Vienna hospital. He resumed campaigning later in the month but his mysterious illness had left his face pockmarked and ashen.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:56 AM | | Basie! Home

There is also now a celestial voice in energy policy. Conservative religious groups are increasingly concerned about the issue. Christianity Today, the magazine of Billy Graham's evangelical movement, has just run an editorial arguing the moral case for action on climate change. As Mr Lieberman says with a smile, “The earth is, after all, a faith-based initiative.”

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:39 PM | | Basie! Home

In a surprise move, former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik abruptly withdrew his nomination as President Bush (news - web sites)'s choice to be homeland security secretary Friday night, saying questions have arisen about the immigration status of a housekeeper and nanny he employed.

The decision caught the White House off guard and sent Bush in search of a new candidate to run the sprawling bureaucracy of more than 180,000 employees melded together from 22 disparate federal agencies in 2003 to guard the nation against terrorist attacks.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:25 PM | | Basie! Home

Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, has lost only one election --his first, in 1972. His opponent, freshman Democratic Rep. Nick Begich, disappeared without a trace along with House Majority Leader Hale Boggs
during an October airplane flight from Anchorage to Juneau. Begich still beat Young by almost 12,000 votes. In 1973 Young won a special election for the seat.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:20 PM | | Basie! Home

Oregon employers shed jobs for a second consecutive month while the state's unemployment rate fell one-tenth of one percentage point for the third month in a row, state employment economists say.

Oregon employers typically cut 2,500 jobs in November. This year, they trimmed 3,200, leading to a seasonally adjusted loss of 700 jobs, according to the Oregon Employment Department's monthly jobs reports.

At the same time, the unemployment rate dropped from 7.2 percent to 7.1 percent, somewhat mirroring the decline in the nation's unemployment rate from 5.5 percent to 5.4 percent.

The figures underscore a flattening of the state's economic recovery in the last half of 2004 after comparably blistering employment growth in the first half.

Since June, Oregon employers have added 2,900 seasonally adjusted jobs after adding 36,600 in the first six months. Since February, Oregon's unemployment rate has ranged from a low of 6.7 percent in April to a high of 7.4 percent in August.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:28 AM | | Basie! Home

A company accused in the campaign-finance investigation that has implicated associates of U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay agreed to aid prosecutors in exchange for having charges against it dropped, court papers showed.

Under the deal, Diversified Collection Services will also develop internal policies to prevent any future violations of the Texas law against using corporate money for political purposes, according to a motion approved Thursday by a state judge.

The California-based company was accused of giving $50,000 to Texans for a Republican Majority, a GOP political action committee associated with DeLay, during the 2002 campaign. The election gave the party its first legislative majority since Reconstruction.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:24 AM | | Basie! Home

Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., was a childhood friend and later college roommate of Bud Selig, the commissioner of Major League Baseball.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:20 AM | | Basie! Home

You can never be too rich or too quick off the mark to express interest in the White House.

Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., on Wednesday became the first to declare his 2008 intentions, if not his candidacy, in what may well turn into a stampede of hopefuls in both parties.

"Are you going to run this time?" Don Imus asked him on MSNBC's Imus in the Morning.

"Well, I'm going to proceed as if I'm going to run," Biden said. He said he would make a "hard" decision in two years, based on whether he thinks the country is ready for him and his ideas. "I don't want to do this for the exercise," he said.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:39 PM | | Basie! Home

President Bush on Thursday ruled out raising taxes to finance the centerpiece of his second-term domestic agenda: a Social Security overhaul to help the system survive an impending wave of retiring baby boomers.

Three years after his Social Security commission issued recommendations on how to repair the system, Bush remained noncommittal Thursday on how he would pay for the estimated $2 trillion cost of revamping Social Security. But vast new borrowing seemed increasingly likely.

"I will not prejudge any solution," Bush said in the Oval Office after meeting with the Social Security trustees who submit an annual report on the state of the program's funding. But he went on to say, "We will not raise payroll taxes to solve this problem."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:32 PM | | Basie! Home

Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday he won't seek political office, dismissing suggestions that he run for governor or senator in New York.

Asked about a poll that shows him favored in a hypothetical matchup for the governor's race, Powell said, "I'm not going to be running for office even in my beloved home state of New York, as flattering as that poll might be."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 1:44 PM | | Basie! Home

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld came here Wednesday to lead a morale-lifting town hall discussion with Iraq-bound troops. Instead, he found himself on the defensive, fielding pointed questions from soldiers complaining about aging vehicles that lacked armor for protection against roadside bombs.

Mr. Rumsfeld, seemingly caught off guard by the sharp questioning, responded that the military was producing extra armor for Humvees and trucks as fast as possible, but that the soldiers would have to cope with equipment shortages. "You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time," he said.

[...]

He said adding more armor to trucks and battle equipment did not make them impervious to enemy attack. "You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can be blown up," he said. "And you can have an up-armored Humvee and it can be blown up."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:26 AM | | Basie! Home

As Bush moved swiftly to overhaul his Cabinet for a second term, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony Principi on Wednesday became the ninth of 15 Cabinet secretaries to submit a resignation.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 6:34 PM | | Basie! Home

President Bush asked Treasury Secretary John Snow on Wednesday to stay in his administration, and Snow agreed, keeping a key member of Bush's economic team in place.

Snow walked to the White House to have lunch with other members of the team, and met with Bush, said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

"The president is pleased Secretary Snow agreed to continue to serve," McClellan said.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 1:08 PM | | Basie! Home

Redding resident Richard "Dick" Morris, who was former President Clinton's chief campaign adviser, is one of the state's top income tax delinquents.

Morris, of Beeholm Road, West Redding, owes the state $289,200, making him seventh on the list of the state's worst 100 tax delinquents. That amount includes interest and penalties.

The list of the top 100 is on the state Department of Revenue Services Web site, www.ct.gov/drs. It is updated monthly.

[...]

Morris resigned from his job as Clinton's adviser in 1996 amid an alleged sex scandal. The tabloid The Star broke the story, saying he had a year-long affair with a call girl, with whom he discussed White House business. The woman, who sold her story to The Star, said she met Morris weekly at a Washington hotel located directly across from the White House.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:21 PM | | Basie! Home

Republican Billy Tauzin III conceded a narrow loss to succeed his retiring father in the House after a runoff election in Cajun country.

After an examination of parish (county) vote totals throughout the district, Tauzin lost by 569 votes to Democrat Charles Melancon in Saturday's runoff, according to the secretary of state's office. The final tally was 57,611 for Melancon to 57,042 for Tauzin.

Tauzin's campaign issued a statement Tuesday in which he congratulated Melancon and offered his assistance. Tauzin said he would remain active in his Thibodaux community in the 3rd Congressional District along Louisiana's swampy southern coast.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:42 AM | | Basie! Home

Five Indiana Pacers players were charged Wednesday with assault and battery in a brawl that broke out on the court last month and spilled into the stands at The Palace of Auburn Hills.

Five fans also were charged, according to a news report.

All charges were misdemeanor assault and battery — except for one count of felony assault against a fan accused of throwing a chair — according to WXYZ-TV in Detroit.

Auburn Hills police Detective Brian Martin on Wednesday morning requested arrest warrants against the five Pacers players in 52nd District Court in Rochester Hills. Martin said Ron Artest, Stephen Jackson, David Harrison and Anthony Johnson each were being charged with one count of assault and battery, a 93-day misdemeanor. Jermaine O'Neal was charged with two counts of assault and battery, he said.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:34 AM | | Basie! Home

One day after announcing he was running for governor, a statewide poll released Wednesday showed Democrat Eliot Spitzer with a double-digit lead over Republican Gov. George Pataki.

The poll was conducted even before the state attorney general made the announcement Tuesday that he would run for governor in 2006, a move that generally gives a candidate at least a temporary boost in the polls.

The poll, from the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, had Spitzer leading Pataki, 50 percent to 38 percent. An April poll from the Hamden, Conn.-based institute had Spitzer only slightly ahead of Pataki, 47 percent to 42 percent.

Pataki has not yet said if he will seek a fourth, four-year term.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:49 AM | | Basie! Home

Until November 2, Virginia governor Mark Warner was hoping to challenge Virginia senator George Allen in 2006.

But friends of Warner’s are urging him to think bigger because of two political facts of life. The only two Democrats to win the White House since Lyndon Johnson have been Southern governors. And Warner is the only Southern governor thought to have the skills, smarts, and money to follow the Carter-Clinton model.

Don’t be surprised, Warner associates say, if Warner starts accepting early speaking engagements in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 7:10 AM | | Basie! Home

Undersecretary of Homeland Security Asa Hutchinson plans to resign and run for governor of Arkansas in 2006 after being passed over by President Bush for secretary of the Department of Homeland Security last week, The Hill has learned.

Because of term limits, Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) is not eligible to run for office again. Republican Lt. Gov. Win Rockefeller, son of the late Winthrop Rockefeller, who served as governor from 1967 to 1971, and the grandson of the late John D. Rockefeller Jr., also is expected to announce his candidacy.

Attorney General Mike Beebe and Rep. Mike Ross have been named as potential Democratic gubernatorial candidates.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 11:41 PM | | Basie! Home

The Republicans want control over two-thirds of each committee’s resources, but Democrats have called that unacceptable. They want a 50-50 split in the 109th Congress or, at worst, a division reflecting the 55-44 GOP advantage.

[...]

A Democratic aide said a 60-40 division of committee resources in favor of Republicans may be the eventual compromise.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 11:31 PM | | Basie! Home

Bobby Shriver took office Tuesday as a Santa Monica city councilman, carrying on his famous family's political legacy.

Shriver, the nephew of President John F. Kennedy and brother of Maria Shriver, wife of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said during a swearing in ceremony he would focus on helping the homeless during his term.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:36 PM | | Basie! Home

The magic number for 2004 is 18. If 18 Bush electors betray both their party and the popular vote and cast their votes for John Kerry on Dec. 13—when, as we Electoral College bores like to point out, the real presidential election takes place in state capitals around the country—then John Kerry will become president. It isn't remotely likely, and it would violate the principle of democratic government (just as the Electoral College itself does). But it remains in the realm of the possible.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:12 PM | | Basie! Home

J. Steven Griles, the controversial former timber and energy lobbyist who managed the country's vast mineral and land holdings as the Interior Department's No. 2 official, resigned yesterday and said he would return to the private sector.

Griles, a vocal advocate for drilling and logging on public lands as Interior's deputy secretary, won praise from industry but came under intense scrutiny for maintaining close ties to his former lobbying firm and its clients. An 18-month investigation by the department's inspector general found that he had dealings with energy and mining industry clients of National Environmental Strategies Inc. even as he continued to receive payments from his former firm. The report did not accuse Griles of violating any laws or federal ethics rules.

In an interview yesterday, Griles defended his record, saying those who "came after me with a political agenda opposed this president at the very beginning."

"In 22 years of service, I have assured that the environment is healthier, the air is clearer, the water is safer and the land is being reclaimed," said Griles, 56, adding that he planned to go someplace warm and work on his golf game before choosing his next job. "At the same time, there is a tremendous need for energy in this county."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:59 PM | | Basie! Home

F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., R-Wis., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, added to his already substantial personal wealth in 1997 when he won $250,000 in the D.C. Lottery. He donated some of it to charity and invested the rest.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:56 PM | | Basie! Home

The U.S. economic outlook dimmed somewhat on Tuesday after reports said business productivity grew more slowly in the third quarter than first estimated, labor costs rose and other indicators signaled softening activity.

Chain store sales fell in the crucial shopping period after Thanksgiving, planned job cuts climbed during November and a survey of consumer confidence waned in possible pointers that the economy tempered its pace in the final months of the year.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:00 PM | | Basie! Home

Jonathan Singer: Senator Hart, thank you so much for joining me today.

Gary Hart: Sure.

Singer: In 1972 you ran the Presidential campaign for George McGovern, the insurgent South Dakota Senator. One of the things that aided you in your campaign garnering the Democratic nomination were the changes brought on by the so-called "McGovern Commission," which helped reform the primaries. With Senator Kerry garnering the Democratic nomination effectively after the first caucus in Iowa this year, is it time to think about changing the nomination process for the Democrats for 2012?

Hart: No. I don't think the nomination process should be changed just for change sake. Why it was necessary in '72 was the chaos brought on at the '68 Democratic Convention by protests against the Vietnam War, Civil Rights, equal rights for women, environmentalists and others who were shut out of the nomination process who had been activated by movements and causes of the 60s and could not find any room for participation or outlet within the Democratic party.

The party leaders understood that changes had to be made before '72 or it would blow the party wide open. So the commission was created with Senator McGovern as the Chair, but it was a broadly-based commission and it did seek to open up the process to those who wanted to participate and wanted support one of the Democratic candidates.

The very fact that Senator Kerry won what seemed to be fairly easily, but what was not, is not itself a cause for totally rearranging the rules. People did have a right of participation, there was a field of seven or eight candidates, all the candidates got a fair chance at the nomination and they simply did not succeed. So it wasn't a product of rules that shut anyone out.

Singer: Very good. As a Senator, you were very reform-minded and you accepted a number of unorthodox positions for Democrats, such as your position in forming the Military Reform Caucus. Do you think the Democrats need to reclaim the mantle of the "reform agenda"?

Hart: I do very much. What happened after the 60s and into the 70s was that Democrats fell into a more or less reactionary position of trying to protect the programs that had been achieved in the period between the New Deal and the Great Society: social progressive legislation in job creation, protection of the rights of workers, urban redevelopment and so forth. When the country began to rightward in the 70s in the pre-Reagan age, the Democrats increasingly found themselves in a position of fighting against change to protect the programs they had achieved in that 30-35 year period in the middle of the century.

What I trying to suggest was that we could use the forces of change--globalization, increased international trade, the information revolution, and other changes that were going on in society--to reform our political institutions and the programs and policies that had been successful in the middle part of the century. That is to say, we had to continue to adapt to change, and we could use that change to our benefit and the country's benefit. I think to a large degree, people in the party--particularly younger people--understood that message, and that's why I was able to challenge Vice President Mondale right into the Democratic Convention that year.

I think we find ourselves in pretty much the same position in the early part of the 21st century.

Singer: Now speaking about that 1984 run, again you were progressive on the idea of reform, in this case Campaign Finance Reform, not accepting PAC money. With vastly more money spent on campaigns this year, in the range of 3 billion dollars despite the changes brought on by McCain-Feingold, what more needs to be done?

Hart: McCain-Feingold was really a successor to the legislation I introduced in the early and mid-eighties, and it took twenty years to get even that passed, and it was half a loaf of what needed to be done.

The two major changes that have to be made are a certain amount of free media time to qualified candidates, both television and radio. That would substantially reduce the cost of campaigns because that's the bulk of where the money goes. And then an overall limit on expenditures for each campaign in exchange for the free media time.

If those two reforms were enacted, we'd be well down the road. But I think it's going to be very difficult because the television and radio stations and conglomerates fight against these reforms because they make an enormous amount of money on political campaigns.

Singer: How true.

Moving forward to the 1988 campaign, in your speech announcing your campaign you said, in effect, that the nation [did] not need to move either to the left or the right, but rather to recapture its basic principles, beliefs and values. With Democrats across the nation being attacked as "liberal" today, just as when you were running, how important is such inclusive language?

Hart: Well, I have always resisted the categorization, if you will, on a horizontal plain. This is Washington-speak and it's a journalistic conceit which says politics operated on a horizontal plain--left, center and right--when in fact life is lived on a vertical plain of the past and the future. If you diagram this, you would have a horizontal line that would be conventional political wisdom and then that would be bisected by a vertical line that would represent the future and the past.

What I've always argued is that the Democratic party has to be the liberal party or the party of the left, if you will, but it also has to be the party of the future. And in fact how you achieve the progressive agenda of the liberals is to be a party of change, and if you stagnate and do not become a party of change--that is at the top of the vertical line--then you begin to lose, and that is what's happened to the party in the past 25 or 30 years.

Organizations like the DLC buy into the vertical argument and they say you have to move from the left to the center. What I say is that you have move from the past to the future in order to achieve progressive and liberal goals.

Singer: Now one state that really embodied the successes of the Democrats this year, kind of bucking a national trend, was your home state of Colorado. There was great article in The Washington Post about two weeks ago by T.R. Reid in which he talked about the fact that despite the fact that the Republicans have a large advantage in registered voters and President Bush carried the state, your seat was in fact reclaimed this year by Ken Salazar, Salazar's brother John Salazar won a House seat, and the Democrats picked up both houses of the legislature. What do you see in Colorado that maybe bodes well for the Democrats nationally?

Hart: Well, I have also been unorthodox in the sense of challenging the conventional wisdom about the North and the South. In the east coast corridor, all the analysts and the commentators and pundits talk about what the Democrats have to do to recapture the South and "NASCAR Dads" and all this kind of nonsense.

I've argued for an East-West strategy for the Democratic party in which the Democratic states east of the Mississippi combine with potential Democratic states in the west, and I think Colorado is a prime example of what can be done out here. Now we win California and often win Washington and Oregon, but you can combine with that New Mexico, Colorado, possibly Arizona--which is a winnable state for Democrats--and then recapture Montana, which we used to win, and make gains in other parts of the Midwest and the West.

I think in the contest of '84 in the Democratic party, I carried every Western state, and it was because I was from this region. The issues here are different from those of the North and the South, particularly the South, which often have a hidden racial agenda behind them. Race is not the issue it is in the South. We're more concerned about energy, about environment, about issues of growth, about how you accommodate growth and opportunity with protection of the environment and the outdoors and conservation of resources. It's a whole different set of issues which Democrats can address in a progressive way.

Republican attitudes towards the West have always been pro-military and development resources--plundering of the nation's heritage. I think the Democrats can offer different security ideas--ideas for securing America in the 21st century--and a balance between growth and protection of the environment and resources. I think that's what is happening again in Colorado as it did in the 70s and 80s, and Colorado can offer a kind of prototype for the Democratic party, if people in the East will pay attention.

Singer: I know you have to run. Can I ask you one more question? Do you have time for that?

Hart: Sure.

Singer: Thanks. You just brought up the idea of Democratic strength on defending America. Throughout your career you've always been a proponent of strongly defending America; you co-chaired the so-called "Hart-Rudman" Commission, the U.S. Commission on National Security in the 21st Century. What can the Democrats do to reclaim the mantle of being stronger on defense? The Democratic party was the anti-Communist from Truman through Humphrey, and some viewed it later on as not as strong on defense. This year John Kerry was attacked by 527 groups as not being strong on defense. What do the Democrats need to do to reclaim this mantle?

Hart: I think first of all redefine what security means in the 21st century. It doesn't mean what it did in the 20th, in the age of ideology and the contest between Democracy and Communism. It means a much different thing now, and we have to redefine the nature of security and then address how to achieve it.

Part of that agenda includes:

• Military reform--changing the structure of our forces, the personnel policies, officer training and advancement, unit cohesion--and then address our strategies, tactics and doctrines in the conflicts of the 21st century.
  
• Recognize that the conflicts of the future are probably going to be urban warfare--low intensity urban warfare such as Fallujah and Mogadishu--then armies meeting in the field, and train and equip our forces for that kind of conflict.
  
• Greatly increase Homeland Security against the terrorist threat by training and equipping the National Guard and Reserves for that mission.

And a whole host of other things the Bush administration is not doing in the area of Homeland Security, and then there's a long list of other initiatives we can take.

Singer: Terrific. Words can't express my gratitude. I really appreciate you taking your time.

Hart: It was my pleasure.

Singer: Have a great day.

Hart: Good luck to you.

Singer: Thank you very much.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:52 AM | | Basie! Home

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, whose investigations of white-collar crime have shaken the nation's financial institutions, said Tuesday he will run for governor in 2006.

Long known to be interested in the job, it was the first time the high-profile attorney general has said he will definitely run.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 7:36 AM | | Basie! Home

With this past Saturday's conclusion of two House runoff elections in Louisiana, the 2004 campaign is officially over, with Republicans now having picked up a net gain of three seats in the House for a 232-203 majority, counting independent Rep. Bernard Sanders of Vermont as a Democrat.

Before the Nov. 2 general election, the expectations were that there would be little change in the House, that either side might pick up one to three seats, and that Republicans were seen as more likely to gain than lose seats. The lack of competitive races in the House limited the ability of either party to score significant gains in the absence of some kind of tidal wave movement.

The National Republican Congressional Committee was successful in raising and spending more money than its counterpart, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

The most recent FEC filing showed that the NRCC outraised the DCCC for the cycle by $175 million to $91 million. According to the Campaign Finance Institute, the NRCC spent $48.2 million to $34.2 million for the DCCC in the period between Sept. 1 and Oct. 28.

This spending gap most certainly helped Republican Rep.-elect Dave Reichert prevail over Democrat Dave Ross in the pricey Seattle market in Washington's 8th District. Despite the influence of 527 groups in the presidential election, there was very little outside money spent in House races. A notable exception was the League of Conservation Voters, which spent heavily in the open Colorado 3rd District race, helping Democratic Rep.-elect John Salazar win the seat.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 7:32 AM | | Basie! Home

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld indicated Monday that he expected American troops to withdraw from Iraq within four years, but he cautioned that any final decision hinged on the progress that Iraq's civilian government and security forces made by then.

Asked by reporters traveling with him whether United States forces would be out of Iraq by the end of his second four-year term, Mr. Rumsfeld said, "I would certainly expect that to be the case and hope that to be the case."

Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, the commander of U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf region, raised the possibility Monday that U.S. forces in Iraq could start to be reshaped as early as next year to reduce the number of combat troops and concentrate on the development of Iraqi security forces.

Abizaid declined in an interview to set a timetable for the shift, saying it would depend on the outcome of national elections in January and evidence that Iraqi forces could assume a greater share of combat operations against the country's entrenched insurgency. Other senior U.S. officers who elaborated on the plan said the change would not necessarily lead initially to an overall decrease in the number of U.S. troops in Iraq but could eventually facilitate a lower troop level.

This outlook comes in the face of a series of brazen attacks by insurgents intent on disrupting the elections and terrorizing Iraq's fledgling security services. The violence, together with a campaign of intimidation aimed at those associated with the new governing structures or with the Americans, has deepened perceptions of insecurity, particularly in areas heavily populated by Sunni Arabs. It also contributed to a Pentagon decision last week to boost the U.S. force to 150,000 troops.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:34 PM | | Basie! Home

Jonathan Singer: In recent years, we have seen Generals Al Haig and Wes Clark run for their party's nominations with varying levels of success, and in 1996 there were rumors that General Colin Powell would run for President. Do you see politics in your future? And in general, what are your feelings on military men running for elective office?

General Eric Shinseki: I don't see politics in my future, so let's put that aside.

I'm not sure that we necessarily have the skills to be good politicians. It's a different world. Al Haig, Wes Clark, and Colin Powell all ran for their own personal reasons with varying degrees of success. John Glenn was more successful, Glenn coming from the Marine Corps.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 7:27 PM | | Basie! Home

A moderate Republican senator who recently returned from Iraq said conditions are worse than last year and the American public needs to hear "the cold, hard facts."

Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island said the situation he encountered was "frightening at times."

"It's a very tenuous security situation," Chafee told CNN. "I'd been there a year ago -- what a change."

Chafee and three other U.S. senators recently returned from a fact-finding mission to Iraq. Republican Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, and Democrats Joe Biden of Delaware and Dianne Feinstein of California, also made the trip.

Chafee said the senators were unable to travel through Baghdad's neighborhoods, visit the northern city of Mosul or take the road from the airport -- all things visitors could do last year.

"Also, in the Green Zone a year ago we felt very secure," he said