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| Florida Secretary of State Eyeing Washington |
| 4/27/2001 5:29 PM |
Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris rose to prominence during the disputed election recount that sent George W. Bush to Washington. Now, Republicans want the state's best-known female politician to run for Congress.
First, Harris would like to push through an election reform package to quiet critics of the state's antiquated system that was chronicled so thoroughly during the 2000 vote recount. Once that's out of the way, probably this spring, timing is perfect for Harris for a congressional run next year if Rep. Dan Miller decides to retire as expected.
Miller's heavily Republican district includes Harris' hometown, Sarasota. She can't run for re-election as secretary of state because voters decided to make the job an appointive office, rather than an elective office, starting when her current term ends in January 2003.
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| Bush Salutes Late Political Mentor |
| 4/27/2001 5:27 PM |
President Bush returned Friday to the state capital that launched him to the White House, paying homage to an old political mentor and talking of bipartisan bridges he built here.
Bush served as governor for six years, resigning in December after the recount deadlock in Florida ended. Bob Bullock, a Democrat, had tutored him after he first captured the governorship in 1994, and Bush has often touted their friendship as evidence that he can work with Democrats.
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| Cheney Makes Presence Felt in Washington |
| 4/27/2001 5:26 PM |
Dick Cheney's performance in his first 100 days as vice president might be measured in press interviews (57), energy task force meetings (eight), speeches (four), Senate tiebreakers (two), even pounds lost (20) as he keeps a wary eye on his heart trouble.
But it's no use measuring him by frequent-flier miles.
While President Bush has already been to 26 states to sell the administration's education and tax cut proposals, Cheney has ventured beyond the Washington Beltway just twice since taking office.
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| Bush Nets $1 Million for Hutchinson in Little Rock |
| 4/26/2001 10:34 AM |
George W. Bush chose to attend his first political fundraiser as president tonight on the old stomping ground of that other prodigious money raiser, Bill Clinton.
President Bush netted $1 million for Republican Sen. Tim Hutchinson, who is expected to have a tough reelection campaign next year. Nearly 1,000 people paid $1,000 apiece for dinner and a chance to hear the president speak at the Statehouse Convention Center here in the town that launched Clinton to national office.
"This is my first fundraising trip since I became the president. It's the first time I've really gotten what they call political, and it's for a good cause," Bush said. "This man needs to be returned back to the United States Senate."
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| DiFrancesco Quits Race For New Jersey Governor |
| 4/26/2001 10:34 AM |
Acting New Jersey Gov. Donald T. DiFrancesco (R), under fire for his business and real estate dealings, withdrew from the governor's race today.
DiFrancesco, 57, withdrew just three days after he entered the race on Sunday, and one day after he unleashed an attack, slamming his two opponents as tax profligates.
He told of his decision to quit as he sat on an ornate couch in the governor's mansion before a hand-picked group of print and television reporters. "This is the best decision for me and my family and frankly for the party," DiFrancesco said. "It's not a tragedy; it's just politics."
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| Florida House Votes to End Punch-Card Voting |
| 4/26/2001 10:33 AM |
The Florida House voted overwhelmingly today to do away with the state's punch-card voting system.
The measure to move to an electronic ballot system passed the House 114 to 3. The Senate is considering a similar bill.
The punch cards were at the center of Florida's disputed presidential election last year, and getting rid of them was part of an overall election reform package.
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| Bush: Military Force 'Certainly an Option' Over Taiwan |
| 4/26/2001 10:32 AM |
In an interview with Fox News' Brit Hume, President Bush said Wednesday that military force "certainly is an option" if China invades Taiwan, and that the Chinese government must understand that the United States will recognize the Taiwan Relations Law.
"All parties in the area have to understand that we will uphold the spirit of the Taiwan Relations Law," the president said, defending the Unites States' arms sale to Taiwan last week. The president said he hopes and expects any issues that arise would be resolved peacefully, but acknowledged that the U.S. position on Taiwan could further complicate its fragile relations with China.
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| Schwarzenegger Terminates Run for Governor |
| 4/26/2001 10:32 AM |
Muscle-bound Hollywood action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger has decided to opt out of the 2002 race to become California's governor.
Schwarzenegger, 53, told the Los Angeles Times in Wednesday's newspaper that his film career and family have taken precedence over politics.
"I have to be selfish at this point ... and take care of those things," the actor said. "The movie projects came together. ... I have to keep up my end of the deal. It's not like it could have gone this way or that."
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| The Seniority of Strom Thurmond |
| 4/26/2001 10:29 AM |
America's most enduring political figure now lives in slow motion. Hampered by bad hips, he walks at a glacial pace, usually gripping the arms of two aides who lead the way, his legs flopping around like a puppet's as he shuffles through the corridors of Capitol Hill.
Just watching Strom Thurmond at age 98 is instructive, for there is so little of consequence to see. At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing this week to consider three Defense Department nominees, he is the first senator to arrive, is helped into his leather chair and begins studying his notes. His military affairs aide, George Lauffer, briefs him and sits down. Then gets up. Then sits down. Then gets up. Then sits down. There is nothing controversial about these nominations and nothing complicated about this hearing, but Lauffer, camped just two feet over Thurmond's right shoulder, is busy. Up, down, up, down.
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| Rumsfeld's 'Defense Inc.' Reasserts Civilian Control |
| 4/24/2001 9:09 PM |
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is taking steps to run the Pentagon more like a corporation than a giant bureaucracy, planning a super committee of senior civilian leaders to put in place President Bush´s vision of a transformed military.
At the same time, Mr. Rumsfeld is sending signals that he wants to loosen Congress´ and the generals´ grip on Pentagon operations, say Capitol Hill and Pentagon sources.
"Rumsfeld has a mantra: 'We have to reassert civilian control of the Department of Defense,´" said a congressional defense staffer who has spoken with Rumsfeld aides. "He believes that under the administration of the last eight years that the civilian leadership was weak and ineffective. And when there is weak and ineffective leadership, the uniform officers will fill the vacuum."
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| GOP Looks To Attract Catholics |
| 4/24/2001 9:05 PM |
Republicans launched a nationwide effort Tuesday to enlarge their share of support among Catholics, a vital swing group that split their votes between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election.
Republican staffers will visit key battleground states like Pennsylvania and Michigan, establishing a network of Catholic "team leaders" to build the party from the grass-roots level.
"In order to maintain and build on our recent successes, we must continually reach out and develop new relationships to make our ranks grow," Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Gilmore said in a videotaped address to about 350 Catholics.
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| GOP Expects Tax Agreement by Weekend |
| 4/24/2001 9:02 PM |
President Bush huddled Tuesday with Republican congressional leaders who said they expect to seal a deal with Democrats on tax cuts and spending by week's end.
Bush instructed the House and Senate leadership to get as close as they can to his original 10-year plan for tax cuts.
"His message was the American people should get a tax cut that's as large as possible, as close to $1.6 trillion as is possible," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said.
The closed-door meeting stretched nearly an hour longer than was scheduled and lawmakers emerged refusing to talk numbers.
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| GOP Seeks to Weaken Democrats' Ability to Stop Nominees |
| 4/24/2001 9:01 PM |
Republicans are trying to make it easier for President Bush to fill the federal bench with conservatives by doing away with a practice that allows a single senator to kill a nominee's chances.
Democrats don't want to change the policy that allowed Republicans to block President Clinton's nominees.
"That would look very partisan to have one rule for the Democrats and one for the Republicans," said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
At issue is the so-called "blue slip" tradition, referring to the blue-colored approval papers that senators are asked to submit on nominees for filling vacant federal judgeships in their state.
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| Bush Meets Gorbachev at White House |
| 4/23/2001 10:20 PM |
Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev spoke with President Bush on Monday and left the White House assured that, despite a rocky start, Bush wanted "a good and friendly relationship" with Russia.
Gorbachev, at the White House for a meeting with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, spoke briefly with Bush in the West Wing.
"It is definitely my impression that President Bush would like to meet with (Russian) President Putin, that he would like that meeting to happen as soon as reasonably possible," Gorbachev told reporters, with the help of an interpreter.
Bush "wants to work for a good and friendly relationship of cooperation between Russia and the United States," he said.
"I am naturally an optimist," Gorbachev said with a smile. "Today, I am even more an optimist."
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| Bush Still Wants Drilling in Alaska |
| 4/23/2001 10:19 PM |
President Bush still plans to ask lawmakers to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling, his spokesman said Monday.
"The president's position on opening up a small portion of ANWR for oil development is unchanged," said White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer.
Fleischer made the comment after acknowledging "there was some confusion" Sunday when administration officials were asked on TV network shows about a Time magazine report quoting Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove.
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| Rumsfeld Said to Recommend Against Aegis System for Taiwan |
| 4/23/2001 10:19 PM |
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has recommended against the United States selling Taiwan high-tech destroyers equipped with the Aegis combat radar system, and President Bush is expected to accept the advice, officials said Monday.
Two government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Rumsfeld has instead recommended that Taiwan get four Kidd-class destroyers. Those vessels have a much less potent ship-borne radar system but would still be a step forward for Taiwan's Navy.
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| Panel Wants to Cancel New Artillery |
| 4/23/2001 10:17 PM |
An advisory panel appointed by the Secretary of Defense has called for the cancellation of the Army's new mobile artillery system, the Crusader, along with other weapons programs designed for large-scale wars, according to a published report.
The recommendations, outlined in a briefing for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on Saturday, conclude that the Crusader is ill-suited for a new military strategy focused on projecting military power over long distances with air and naval forces, The New York Times reported in Monday's editions.
``The Crusader effectively got the ax from the panel because it didn't fit the agenda,'' an official told the Times. ``It's a wonderful system -- for a legacy world.''
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| Poll: Americans OK Bush Performance |
| 4/23/2001 10:16 PM |
President Bush is getting high marks for his job performance after three months in office, but Americans in a new poll disagree with his priorities and are split on whether he understands their problems.
Six in 10, or 63 percent, in the ABC-Washington Post poll approved of the job Bush is doing, while 32 percent disapproved. Some of the best news for him came in the easing fears of recession evident in this poll. People were about evenly split over prospect of a recession. A month ago, nearly six in 10 thought a recession was on the way.
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| Leaders Pledge Free-Trade Zone for Western Hemisphere by 2005 |
| 4/22/2001 10:20 PM |
The United States joined 33 other Western Hemisphere nations Sunday in pledging to establish a free-trade zone within four years and to limit membership in the agreement to democratic governments.
The agreement was the result of a three-day summit, held in Quebec City, Canada, that brought the leaders of 34 North and South American and Caribbean nations together to discuss The Free Trade Area of the Americas.
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| Serious 'Strategery' |
| 4/22/2001 10:17 PM |
They call it the Strategery Group.
Once a week, the dozen most senior White House staffers walk over to Room 208 of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building for a brainstorming session. Seeking inspiration in that storied room -- the place where Secretary of State Cordell Hull confronted the Japanese in 1941 with evidence of the Pearl Harbor bombing -- they think big thoughts about what should happen months, even years, from now.
The meeting is one piece of an elaborate and integrated strategic planning effort Rove has imposed on the White House. In addition to the Strategery Group, Rove and White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. have created a mid-level brainstorming group, dubbed the "Conspiracy of the Deputies," and an Office of Strategic Initiatives to oversee the whole process. Rove has also assembled an orbit of acolytes in half a dozen White House offices and at the Republican National Committee with instructions to work on long-term strategic planning for Bush's agenda.
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| Bush: 'No Intention' to Lift Sanctions |
| 4/19/2001 10:00 PM |
President Bush said Thursday he does not intend to lift sanctions against Libya or Iran, despite America's thirst for the oil that both countries could provide.
The president, in a brief question-and-answer session with reporters, played down a report that an energy task force headed by Vice President Dick Cheney is considering the possibility of lifting some economic sanctions against Libya, Iran and Iraq because of the importance of their oil production to meeting U.S. demands.
Though he did not rule out lifting sanctions in the future, Bush said he had no immediate plans to do so.
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| Cheney Calls for Permanent Internet Tax Ban |
| 4/19/2001 9:57 PM |
Vice President Dick Cheney said Wednesday the United States should make permanent current policies that ban Internet access taxes and encourage businesses to fund research and development.
Speaking before high-tech business leaders in suburban Virginia, Cheney said Bush administration policies would help the recovery of an industry facing uncertain economic prospects.
"When you've had some experience in the private sector and come from a business background, you realize that the government doesn't create prosperity. All it can do is help create conditions favorable to prosperity," he said.
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| Board Rebuffs Reagan Name Change |
| 4/19/2001 9:43 PM |
Ronald Reagan's name is still not on the subway stop at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, and some House Republicans don't like it.
The local transit board rebuffed their request for a name change Thursday - despite an implied threat to hit the commuter system in the pocketbook.
"The man's name is all over the place," said Christopher Zimmerman, a Virginia Democrat and board vice chairman. "It's not like you can't find the station."
The airport subway stop in Arlington, Va., just outside Washington, currently is labeled "National Airport," the name of the airport until Congress changed it to honor the former president.
Rep. Bob Barr Jr., R-Ga., who in March demanded that the Metro transit system rename the stop, called Thursday's refusal "disappointing and disturbing."
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| National Republicans Reaching Out |
| 4/18/2001 9:44 PM |
Republicans are expanding efforts to reach out to ethnic and religious groups by creating a new division of the Republican National Committee to work to build the party's base. The emphasis is on Hispanics and Roman Catholics.
Party chairman Jim Gilmore wrote a letter to groups affiliated with the national party that had the role of expanding its sweep to announce the party's increased ethnic and religious focus, party officials said Wednesday.
In the letter, Gilmore told the loosely affiliated groups they had to leave committee-supplied offices by mid-June, to be replaced by a dozen people in a new "grass-roots development team" controlled by party leaders.
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| Bush: Education Reform Progressing |
| 4/18/2001 5:25 PM |
President Bush said he and Congress are "making good progress" on a bipartisan education reform package that holds struggling schools accountable for student success while giving parents the means to get extra help.
Touring an elementary school and speaking before 1,700 people at Central Connecticut State University, Bush sought to push his education priorities back toward the center stage as Congress prepares to return from a spring recess next week.
"We're finding agreement that the accountability system has got to have some teeth in it," said Bush, who was presented with an honorary doctor of laws degree.
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| SMSU Professor J.D. Crouch Picked as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy |
| 4/18/2001 11:41 AM |
Southwest Missouri State University associate professor J.D. Crouch may return to Washington, D.C., as one of the Bush administration's top advisers on international security matters.
Crouch was officially appointed Tuesday by President George W. Bush to be the assistant secretary of defense for international security policy. The appointment will require confirmation by the U.S. Senate.
Crouch was formerly a principal deputy secretary of defense in the first Bush administration, two ranks below his new position. He has taught graduate students in the Department of Defense and Strategic Studies at SMS since 1992.
"Dr. Crouch certainly has the education, experience and leadership ability in foreign affairs, international relations, and defense issues to do an excellent job in this position," said U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.
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| Bush to Fight for Enhanced Trade Powers |
| 4/17/2001 8:48 PM |
Promoting a free-trade pact in advance of a hemispheric summit, President Bush said Tuesday that winning stronger trade-negotiating authority from Congress was "one of my top priorities."
But a White House official conceded that the political battle would be a difficult one, as it had been for former President Clinton, who saw such authority lapse.
"Trade has been an issue that has split both parties," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. "The split is deeper in the Democratic Party, but there, too, is a split in the Republican Party."
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| Reagan Staff Moves to Smaller Office Space |
| 4/17/2001 8:48 PM |
The staff of former President Ronald Reagan will be moving to a smaller office. A ten-year lease on a nearly 14-thousand-square foot penthouse office in the Century City area of Los Angeles -- will NOT be renewed.
In recent years Reagan halted his trips to the office from his nearby home in Bel Air. He also stopped making visits to the Reagain Library after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1994.
At the 34th-floor office overlooking the Los Angeles basin and coastline, Reagan had entertained heads of state and other visitors for several years.
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| Democrat Diva Wants Her Babs-TV |
| 4/17/2001 2:44 PM |
Songstress and movie star Barbra Streisand wants to create a Democrats-only cable television channel to get things back to the The Way We Were in the Clinton years.
The channel, according to US News & World Report, would ban Republican talking heads so Streisand and her fellow Dems wouldn't have to watch what they consider the right-leaning pundits who contribute to other channels.
A left-leaning channel would fit in nicely with the strategy to fight the Bush presidency the Funny Girl laid out in a highly publicized memo she recently sent out to the Democratic Party.
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| After Massachusetts, Could There be More 'Governor Moms' |
| 4/17/2001 2:40 PM |
Jane Swift, the nation's first female governor with a young child, may soon have company in the record books.
In Ohio and Minnesota, mothers of young children are thinking about becoming the nation's next "Gov. Moms" in 2002. And in Massachusetts, Swift could face competition from another new mom.
They'll be battling a largely unspoken bias against women candidates with small children, said Celinda Lake, a pollster who co-authored a recent study, the Barbara Lee Family Foundation's "Keys to the Governor's Office."
That bias gets even worse when women run for governor, mayor and other executive jobs, Lake said. People are more comfortable with women in collective leadership, such as legislatures, she said.
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| Report: Denise Rich Gets Immunity Deal |
| 4/15/2001 9:55 PM |
Democratic donor Denise Rich has struck an immunity deal with prosecutors investigating Bill Clinton's pardon of her ex-husband, fugitive financier Marc Rich, Time magazine reported on its Web site today.
In addition, U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White has subpoenaed the former president's brother, Roger Clinton, to appear before a grand jury this week to discuss his role in an alleged pardon swindle.
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| Bush Thanks Military for Service |
| 4/15/2001 9:54 PM |
President Bush sent Easter greetings to the armed forces Saturday, thanking those separated from their families for the holiday and paying special tribute to the crew of a downed U.S. spy plane.
"They have our sincere gratitude," he said of U.S. troops, more than 40 of whom have died in military crashes and bombings since Bush took office Jan. 20.
He also expressed appreciation for the Americans involved in a collision with a Chinese fighter jet. The crew was released last week after 11 days in Chinese custody.
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| Ashcroft Says he Relishes Efficiency of Justice Department |
| 4/12/2001 3:22 PM |
When Attorney General John Ashcroft heads for his farm near Springfield, Mo., this weekend, it will be only his third trip home to the state this year.
The senator who used to spend huge chunks of time raising campaign cash and pressing the flesh finds himself in a job that he describes as "almost completely nonpolitical."
He's also adjusting to the higher-order protection that comes with Cabinet rank. Short of running to the corner to pick up a newspaper, Ashcroft says, "if I go anyplace day or night, I'm attended by security."
But the legislator turned executive is reveling at the end of night votes and quorum calls and committee meetings that get canceled because not enough senators show up.
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| Ashcroft: McVeigh Execution Will Be Televised |
| 4/12/2001 3:16 PM |
Survivors and relatives of victims of the Oklahoma City bombing will be allowed to witness convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh's execution via closed-circuit television, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced Thursday.
Ashcroft outlined a series of provisions that will be made to meet survivors' requests.
"The Oklahoma City survivors may be the largest group of crime victims in our history," said Ashcroft. "The Department of Justice must make special provisions to assist the needs of the survivors and the victims' families."
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| Surveillance Plane Crew Lands in Hawaii |
| 4/12/2001 3:15 PM |
The crew of a Navy surveillance plane who were detained for 11 days in China arrived in Hawaii to much fanfare and celebration Thursday, as the crowd at Hickam Air Force Base greeted with a heroes' welcome.
People gathered on the tarmac cheered, clapped and cried as the 24 crew members emerged just after sunrise from a U.S. Air Force C-17, which had flown them, after a brief stopover in Guam, from Hainan Island, where they had been held, to Hawaii.
As a military band played "America the Beautiful," the 21 men and three women, clad in identical olive-drab flight suits, stepped single-file out of the plane and made their way down a receiving line of military and government officials, shaking hands and saluting.
"We are all very proud of you, for the way you've conducted yourself these past two weeks," said Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander of the Pacific Fleet, during the brief homecoming ceremony, "and for the high spirit of professionalism you demonstrate in the service of your country every day. We are lucky to have men and women like you protecting the interests of our nation."
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| Democrat and Republicans Praise Bush |
| 4/11/2001 1:23 PM |
Democratic and Republican lawmakers praised President Bush and his administration for the efforts that led to China's agreement to return 24 crew members of the spy plane that collided with a Chinese jet fighter.
"Patience pays off," Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Wednesday. "I think that the signals are pretty clear that mission one, which is to get the troops back, has been well handled by the administration."
Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, added his own praise for President Bush's handling of the matter.
"I've been saying all along that he and (Secretary of State) Colin Powell were doing a good job," Reid said.
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| Bush To Welcome Home Spy Plane Crew |
| 4/11/2001 1:22 PM |
President Bush said Wednesday he looks forward to welcoming home the crew of an American spy plane and said the 11-day standoff with China had been "a difficult situation for both our countries."
With plans under way for the crew's release, Bush said, "We are working on arrangements to pick them up and bring them home."
A senior administration official said the White House expected the crew to be released late Wednesday, noting that it would take several hours to get a U.S. plane to the island, the crew boarded and aircraft fueled.
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| U.S. Offers China Revised Wording |
| 4/10/2001 11:44 PM |
U.S. diplomats have offered China new language that stops short of a U.S. apology but might satisfy Beijing's demand that the United States take responsibility for the midair collision of a Navy surveillance plane and a Chinese jet fighter, administration officials said yesterday.
In the latest wording, officials said, President Bush would be willing to express regret that the U.S. aircraft landed on Chinese soil without requesting permission, although the Navy EP-3E Aries II had broadcast an international "Mayday."
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| In the Budget Show, Congress Is Watching Favorite Programs |
| 4/10/2001 11:44 PM |
Republican leaders in Congress strongly support President Bush's aim of limiting federal spending. But a day after the White House released its $2 trillion budget, some in the GOP said that should not extend to denying funds to the program that guarantees loans to buyers of U.S.-built ships.
The immediate protest -- including from such powerhouses as Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Rep. W. J. "Billy" Tauzin (R-La.), who represent Gulf Coast shipbuilders -- is a signal that Congress will fight for its spending prerogatives, even if it takes more money.
Such revolts even among the party faithful suggest the fight ahead as the administration seeks to limit spending to provide savings for other Bush priorities, such as a tax cut.
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| Condoleezza Rice Enjoying Security Post |
| 4/10/2001 11:42 PM |
It was 5 a.m., but the phone didn't awaken Condoleezza Rice. Fresh off the treadmill, sweaty in a Stanford University T-shirt, she sat down to talk to President Bush, who was calling about the standoff with China.
Rice's workout, a morning ritual, was wedged in between a few hours' sleep and a phone call from Bush the previous night, just after he talked with Secretary of State Colin Powell about efforts to secure the release of the 24 Navy plane crew members.
America's first female national security adviser clearly has the president's ear.
"My job, really, is to help make sure the government is speaking with one voice," Rice said last week during a brief telephone interview aboard Air Force One as it nosed toward Milwaukee, where Bush was throwing out the first pitch of the Brewers' home opener. By midnight, Rice was being whisked away on Marine One for a weekend at Camp David.
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| FCC: Erroneous Election Night Call Complaint Dismissed |
| 4/10/2001 11:39 PM |
The Federal Communications Commission has dismissed a complaint asking it to investigate erroneous election-night projections in Florida by some major news organizations.
"The mere fact that the networks incorrectly projected that Al Gore would receive Florida's electoral votes is not a sufficient basis to initiate such an investigation," wrote David H. Solomon, who heads the FCC's enforcement bureau. The dismissal was issued on April 3 and made public this week.
A District of Columbia law firm, Smithwick & Belendiuk, had urged the commission to begin the inquiry into network broadcasts giving Florida to Al Gore on the evening of Nov. 7.
NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox, ABC and The Associated Press all called Florida for Gore. Some two hours later, the networks and the AP began pulling back that projection as actual voter counts revealed how close the race was.
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| The Quiet American |
| 4/9/2001 10:49 PM |
All right, somebody has to ask the question: Is Bush boring?
Even some of the president's supporters say he is -- and that this may be a political plus. For the media, though, it's a major-league minus.
Most journalists understood that the Bush administration was unlikely to produce the fireworks of the scandal-scarred Clinton years. But they are surprised at the way George Bush, unlike Bill Clinton, refrains from inserting himself into each passing controversy -- not making a feel-your-pain speech after the California school shootings or wading into the campaign finance reform debate.
This, it turns out, is no accident. Says media man Mark McKinnon, an informal Bush adviser: "When you speak out on everything, you don't stand for anything. When people see President Bush on television, they know the issue's important. Less exposure equals more impact."
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| Vice President Cheney Says He's 'Behaving,' Eschews Steak |
| 4/9/2001 10:46 PM |
Vice President Cheney, whose heart troubles have raised concerns about his health and the stress of his office, said yesterday he was "behaving himself" and had bid farewell to his favorite steaks.
Cheney told ABC's "This Week" that his health was "very good" after an angioplasty last month to clear narrowing in an artery. He has had four heart attacks since 1978, the most recent one last November.
"I feel good," he repeated on NBC's "Meet the Press." "I'm behaving myself. I'm eating appropriately. I have lost weight. I'm eating a lot of greens."
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| Bush Cautions China Over Standoff |
| 4/9/2001 10:43 PM |
President Bush cautioned on Monday that the spy plane standoff may not end soon %u2013 "diplomacy takes time" -- and warned China that relations with the United States could suffer.
As the 9-day showdown threatened to become a political problem for Bush, U.S. diplomats met for a fourth time with the crew of a crippled EP-3E surveillance plane. The 21 men and three women were doing fine, the president reported, and administration officials said negotiations for their release were progressing.
Nonetheless, Beijing insisted anew Monday that Washington apologize and take responsibility for the spy plane's collision with a Chinese fighter jet before dawn April 1 Chinese time. The White House said neither demand was warranted, as frustration grew over the slow pace of talks.
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| Issuing Apology Now Could Put U.S. in Difficult Position Later |
| 4/5/2001 11:00 PM |
The collision of a U.S. Navy surveillance plane and a Chinese fighter jet has landed the Bush administration in the middle of one of Asia's touchiest subjects %u2013 the diplomacy of apology.
For the Chinese government, extracting an apology from the United States represents an important diplomatic goal and a matter of "face" or respect. For the Bush administration, making an apology would be admitting guilt, humbling the White House in the eyes of Asian countries and among conservative Republicans who want the United States to stand up to China.
An apology would also carry legal weight, administration officials fear, with possible implications if China wanted to try the U.S. plane's pilot, or press for compensation, or wrangle an agreement that the United States would cease flying surveillance planes close to China's shores.
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| Bush Names Assistant Defense Secretary |
| 4/5/2001 10:56 PM |
President Bush said Thursday he will name Torie Clarke, a one-time spokeswoman for his father, as assistant secretary of defense.
Clarke worked on former President Bush's 1992 campaign and was the spokeswoman for U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hills.
She also worked for Arizona lawmaker John McCain in his House and Senate offices from 1983-89.
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| Cellucci Nomination Sent to Senate |
| 4/5/2001 10:55 PM |
Despite a dissenting vote from its chairman, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday approved the nomination of Massachusetts Gov. Paul Cellucci to be ambassador to Canada.
Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., indicated he would not block President Bush's choice, but had misgivings about Cellucci's positions on social issues. Cellucci is a pro-choice Republican.
"I have at hand reports regarding Mr. Cellucci's tenure as governor of Massachusetts -- reports that, quite frankly, have raised my eyebrows -- as have his positions on the sanctity of human life, parental rights and the defense of traditional family values," Helms said in a statement after the vote.
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| Bush Discusses Justice Nominees |
| 4/5/2001 10:55 PM |
President Bush suggested Thursday that he will seek the middle of the road on nominations to the federal bench. "I don't particularly want a big fight in the Senate," he said.
Taking questions from newspaper editors, Bush also discussed his personal e-mail habits and indicated that environmental regulations might be eased to alleviate flight delays at the nation's largest airports.
"One thing we need to do is expand the number of runways all around America. And as you know, there's a lot of environmental regulations -- some of them meaningful, some of them not -- that prohibit the expansion of runways," the president said.
Soon after taking office, Bush weathered a Senate battle over the confirmation of conservative former Sen. John Ashcroft as attorney general. But he wasn't promising more nominees that controversial on Thursday.
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| Senator Jeffords Comfortable in Center |
| 4/5/2001 10:53 PM |
Sen. James Jeffords, an aw-shucks type most comfortable chopping wood at his rural Vermont home, finds himself this week in the glare of the national spotlight.
Jeffords is acknowledged by both sides as the senator who will determine whether President Bush's $1.6 trillion tax cut passes or goes down to defeat.
In a Senate divided 50-50 between the parties, Jeffords' defection would tip the balance toward Democrats because the only other senators likely to cross party lines are Sens. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., and Zell Miller, D-Ga.
It's not an unusual situation for the Vermont Republican, who has made a career of being the man in the middle -- and bucking his party.
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| GOP Hopes Fade for Full Tax Plan |
| 4/5/2001 10:52 PM |
Still struggling for votes, Republicans conceded Thursday that the budget they plan to push through the Senate may fall short of President Bush's full $1.6 trillion, 10-year tax cut proposal.
GOP hopes for fully restoring Bush's plan began to fade after their effort to win support from maverick Sen. James Jeffords, R-Vt., seemed to flag. Jeffords' vote had been considered pivotal in the Republican effort to erase the blow that the Senate dealt Bush on Wednesday in voting to slice the tax reduction to $1.15 trillion.
"I've about run that string out," Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said of efforts to satisfy Jeffords. Jeffords has threatened to vote against Bush's budget because he says it would shortchange special education to make room for an oversized tax cut.
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| Another Media Review of 'Undervote' Ballots Concludes Bush Won Election |
| 4/4/2001 2:34 PM |
A newspaper review of Florida's "undervote" ballots concludes that President Bush would almost certainly still have won the state had the U.S. Supreme Court allowed a hand recount to be completed.
The Miami Herald and USA Today reported in Wednesday's editions that Bush would have expanded his 537-vote victory to a 1,665 margin if the recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court had gone ahead under the most inclusive standards, where even partial punches and dimples are counted as votes.
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| Dan Rather Serves as Keynote Speaker at Democratic Fund-Raiser |
| 4/4/2001 2:34 PM |
CBS News anchor Dan Rather was the keynote speaker at a Democratic Party fund-raiser in Austin, Texas, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
Donors paid as much as $1,000 for a private evening with Rather, according to an invitation obtained by the Post. Rather's appearance at the March 21 gathering generated about $20,000 for the Travis County Democratic Party.
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| With Cheney Tipping Scales, GOP Protects Bush Tax Cut in Senate Vote |
| 4/4/2001 2:33 PM |
With Vice President Dick Cheney casting a pivotal tie-breaking vote, Senate Republicans fought off the first Democratic effort Tuesday to trim the size of President Bush's prized $1.6 trillion, 10-year tax cut.
In the Senate's initial showdown over a GOP-written $1.94 trillion budget for next year, senators voted 51-50 - with Cheney making the difference - for GOP language permitting a doubling of the $153 billion Bush wants for the coming decade to create prescription drug coverage. The additional money, if provided, would come from projected budget surpluses.
Having demonstrated their support for enlarging Bush's drug benefits plan, Republicans then voted against a Democratic alternative that would have also doubled prescription drug spending, but would have taken the money from Bush's tax cut. The amendment by Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Bob Graham, D-Fla., was defeated 50-50 without Cheney voting. Ties lose under Senate rules.
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| Chinese President Demands U.S. Apology; American Officials Rule That Out |
| 4/4/2001 2:32 PM |
Neither side appears willing to give way, although U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell apparently tried to soften the rhetoric.
"The U.S. side should apologize to the Chinese people," President Jiang Zemin said Wednesday before leaving Beijing on a tour of Latin America. He said Washington "should bear all responsibilities for the collision incident," according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
In the afternoon, Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed "regret" for the loss of a Chinese airman.
"We regret the loss of life of that Chinese pilot, but now we need to move on," Powell said. "We need to bring this to a resolution and we're using every avenue available to us to talk to the Chinese side to exchange explanations."
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| Drive to Put Reagan's Name Everywhere Gains Momentum |
| 4/2/2001 5:19 PM |
Poor Alexander Hamilton.
His resume shouts "founding father." But for some, it's not enough that he had a hand in writing the Constitution, was the country's first treasury secretary and was author of most of the Federalist papers.
Now Hamilton's most accessible claim to immortality -- the $10 bill -- could be in peril.
Some prominent Republicans think it is time Ronald Reagan had some money to call his own. So they want to shove aside Hamilton, whose portrait adorns the sawbuck, and who is an icon himself to many conservatives, and replace him with the Gipper.
"There are lots of good reasons," said Grover Norquist, leader of the effort. "Hamilton wasn't a president."
Conservatives have lionized Reagan as the president who ended the Cold War, cut taxes and cheerfully pushed patriotism, family values and "morning in America." Now they want to enshrine him from coast to coast.
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| Senate Democrats Hope for GOP Defections on Tax Cuts |
| 4/2/2001 4:11 PM |
Senate Democrats are hoping a few last-minute Republican defections will derail President Bush's blueprint for tax cuts and curtailed spending.
Republicans have said they think the budget measure will squeak by in the evenly divided Senate with the 50 votes needed plus Vice President Dick Cheney's tiebreaker. GOP lawmakers succeeded last week in pushing the $1.94 trillion budget for 2002 through the House.
For his part, Bush picked up support for his budget and tax cut proposal Monday from the National Restaurant Association. He urged the restaurateurs to press senators before the vote and to emphasize that it would help small, family-owned businesses.
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| Black Group Seeks Repeal of Estate Tax |
| 4/2/2001 4:09 PM |
Opening a new front in the battle over the estate tax, more than three dozen African American business leaders this week plan to support repeal of the tax because they say it helps widen the wealth gap between whites and blacks.
President Bush has made repeal of the tax levied on the assets of wealthy Americans when they die a key part of his $1.6 trillion, 10-year tax plan. The House is scheduled to vote Wednesday on a bill that would repeal the estate tax by 2011, and that day the group will run full-page advertisements in major newspapers to make clear its support for repeal. Bush fared poorly among African American voters in the presidential election.
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| President Demands China Allow Contact With Plane Crew |
| 4/2/2001 4:04 PM |
President Bush demanded Monday that China arrange the "prompt and safe return" of the crew of a U.S. Navy surveillance plane that made an emergency landing on the Chinese island of Hainan after colliding with a Chinese jet.
China has prevented U.S. diplomats from communicating with the crew or having access to the plane, an EP-3 loaded with high-tech spying equipment, since the emergency landing Saturday night.
Despite U.S. demands for immediate access to the crew and aircraft, China indicated that access would not be granted before Tuesday night, China time, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
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