November 1999

TeamGOP Home Daily News via Email Get TeamGOP.com news every day. Enter your email address in the field below. News Archive July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002 January 2002 December 2001 November 2001 October 2001 September 2001 August 2001 July 2001 June 2001 May 2001 April 2001 March 2001 February 2001 January 2001 December 2000 November 2000 October 2000 September 2000 August 2000 July 2000 June 2000 May 2000 April 2000 March 2000 February 2000 January 2000 December 1999 November 1999 October 1999 September 1999 August 1999 Questions? Feel free to email us with your questions, comments, and concerns.

Bush Plan Would Slash Income Taxes 11/30/1999 11:41 PM Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush is proposing a five-year, $483 billion economic package that would slash income tax rates at all levels – from the working poor to the very rich – and change the tax code to appeal to parents, the elderly and businesses. The plan would cut taxes a bit deeper than a similar Republican congressional package vetoed this year by President Clinton, but is not nearly as ambitious as the flat-tax overhaul championed by presidential rival Steve Forbes and other conservatives. Read the article Forbes Says Rescue Social Security 11/30/1999 8:37 PM Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes said Tuesday that he would rescue the Social Security system by letting workers set up their own retirement accounts with part of their paychecks that now go to pay Social Security taxes. This would enable younger workers to save toward their own retirement, he said, rather than counting on a Social Security check that may not be there. "We know the system is going to crash sometime in the next century, when my generation starts retiring," Forbes told a group of about 90 people at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Under his plan, "we'd have a stronger country because the money would be invested in America. ... It belongs to you." Read the article Millionaire drops out of Senate race 11/30/1999 8:34 PM Millionaire entrepreneur Ron Unz is abandoning his run for the U.S. Senate less than two months after it began, the Los Angeles Times reported Tueday. He told the Times that his candidacy would have hurt his efforts to pass a voter initiative limiting the financing of political campaigns. Unz also said that, given his pledge to act within the proposed limits of the initiative on the March ballot, he would have trouble raising enough money for a viable Senate campaign. Read the article GOP Aims to Boost Remap Position in Legislative Contests 11/30/1999 8:29 PM A leading GOP official said today that the national Republican Party will provide assistance to GOP state legislative candidates to boost the party's prospects in the upcoming round of congressional redistricting. Virginia Rep. Thomas M. Davis III said the National Republican Congressional Committee, which he chairs, can dish out huge "soft money" donations to state legislative candidates. "Clearly in states where the legislatures are on the bubble [closely divided between the parties], those are opportunities for us to unload some of the soft dollars," Davis said. Read the article Bush gets support from majority of Senate Republicans 11/30/1999 12:39 AM With a nod from the Senate's newest member, George W. Bush today secured endorsements from a majority of the chamber's Republicans in his bid for the presidency. Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island joined with Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania in announcing their support for the Texas governor, the front-runner for the Republican nomination. To date, 29 of the Senate's 55 Republican members have said they support Bush, according to the campaign. Read the article Missouri State Representative Gibbons dropping his bid for Congress 11/30/1999 12:37 AM State Rep. Michael Gibbons is dropping his bid for Congress so he can run instead for the state Senate. Gibbons is announcing today that he is seeking the seat to be vacated next year when state Sen. Walter Mueller retires. Both men are Republicans from Kirkwood. Read the article McCain Looks Beyond Early States 11/30/1999 12:28 AM GOP presidential hopeful John McCain, looking for support beyond early-voting states, said he hoped to energize Ohioans who know little about him. McCain has focused most of his attention on New Hampshire and South Carolina, where primaries are set for February. Read the article Republican Attorney General Candidate Sam Jones Blasts Jay Nixon over Tobacco Settlement 11/28/1999 10:39 PM Southeast Missourian: Taxpayers should get the biggest share of the $6.7 billion that Missouri stands to receive from the tobacco settlement, Republican attorney general candidate Sam Jones said Tuesday. Jones, who wants Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon's job, officially kicked off his campaign with press conferences around the state. Read the article Bush's GOP Rivals Must Win Early 11/28/1999 9:00 PM Every political candidate has his Waterloo, the state in which presidential dreams can rise or fall. It is Iowa for Steve Forbes, South Carolina for John McCain and Louisiana for Gary Bauer. These are the places where Republican presidential contenders must stake their claim to the nomination before front-runner George W. Bush marches off with it. Fought at warp-speed in a front-loaded election schedule, the GOP campaign could churn out a nominee in 52 days. Read the article Giuliani Facing NYC Mayor's Jinx 11/28/1999 8:59 PM Should he run for the U.S. Senate, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani would have to overcome upstate's historical distrust of city politicians. The Republican also would have to make history: Voters have never sent a New York City mayor to the Senate and have not elected one to a major statewide office in more than a century. Read the article Political riches elusive for Forbes 11/28/1999 8:54 PM This is the glamour of running for president: Steve Forbes, richer than most Americans' dreams, sits by himself in a Dunkin' Donuts, dipping a plain doughnut in a cup of coffee while his traveling entourage of young men banter at the counter. It's a late afternoon caffeine pit stop. As he leaves the shop, the magazine publisher-turned-candidate makes an awkward, yet somehow touching, pitch for the vote of a store clerk. She hints she's not old enough to vote, and acts unsure of who he is. The latter seems hard to believe, given that Forbes' face has been plastered all over the state for much of the past four years. He has bought so much advertising on the dominant WMUR-TV in Manchester that there are jokes the station's new headquarters should be named after him. Read the article For McCain, No Place Like Home for Controversy 11/28/1999 8:50 PM The same John McCain who is known in Washington as a maverick independent and a bur under the saddle of the Senate Republican leadership has a very different reputation here at home in Arizona. In the last two decades, political figures here say, McCain has used his muscle in an attempt to make himself the man in charge of the Arizona GOP, exploiting the weight of his office, a penchant for personal tongue-lashing and the hardball tactics of his controversial political aides in an effort to control an unruly set of fellow Republicans. Read the article Polls: Tight race in New Hampshire; Bush well ahead in South Carolina 11/28/1999 8:49 PM Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) and Texas Gov. George W. Bush are running neck-and-neck among potential voters in the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire GOP primary, according to a new CNN/Time poll, but McCain fares less well among potential GOP primary voters in South Carolina -- likely to be the next big test after New Hampshire. In South Carolina, Bush currently holds a 62 percent-15 percent lead over McCain, although some of that lead may be due to familiarity with the two candidates. More than a third of the South Carolina GOP electorate is unfamiliar with McCain; only 7 percent are unfamiliar with Bush. Read the article Ashcroft, Carnahan cordial at KC dinner 11/24/1999 6:51 PM Sen. John Ashcroft and his likely 2000 challenger, Gov. Mel Carnahan, were cordial in a brief meeting at the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce's annual dinner. The two shook hands near a stage and chatted for about 10 seconds Tuesday night before returning to their tables. Neither man referred to the other in brief remarks to an audience of the city's business leaders. Read the article Forbes, Bauer, Gore Unveil TV Ads 11/24/1999 6:48 PM Challenging George W. Bush for the first time in a television advertisement, rival Steve Forbes demands the Republican presidential front-runner get his "liberal supporters" to stop attacking him. Forbes' new ad, which will begin airing on Wednesday, was released on a day in which two other campaigns launched new spots as part of a flurry of TV commercials filling the airwaves in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire. Read the article GOP Plans Anti-Gore Billboard 11/24/1999 12:26 PM An anti-Al Gore billboard ad is causing controversy and it isn't even posted yet. The Republican National Committee has leased space through November 2000 on a large sign about 500 feet from Gore's presidential campaign headquarters. The RNC announced Tuesday the first ad will go up next week and placed a version of it on the committee's Web site. Read the article McCain's Rise in Polls Pays Off 11/24/1999 12:22 PM The higher his polls rise, the wider the fund-raising doors open for Sen. John McCain, his campaign officials say. The Arizona Republican has raised more than $3 million since Oct. 1 – more money than he raised during the entire three-month period between July 1 and Sept. 30. He now has taken in more than $10 million for his campaign, plus an additional $2 million transferred from his Senate account. Read the article Bush Tries To Regain Lost Ground 11/23/1999 1:43 PM Forget holding babies. Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush fed a cow and grabbed a lobster as he continued his campaign to convince New Hampshire voters he has what it takes to lead the country. "Governor, you're a smash success," gushed Jeffrey Swartz, president and chief executive officer of Timberland Co., a footwear company where the Texas governor opened his latest campaign swing through the state on Monday. Read the article Ten conservatives activists back Forbes 11/23/1999 1:37 PM Ten conservative activists said Monday that Republican front-runner George W. Bush is too moderate to be elected president and pushed wealthy businessman Steve Forbes as the only true conservative with a chance to win. A Bush spokesman fired back that his record as governor of Texas proves Bush is a conservative with executive experience. Read the article On Hill, Long Friendships, Short Fuse Are Key for McCain 11/22/1999 11:56 PM Arizona Sen. John McCain, who has built his reputation on his willingness to battle for his beliefs, says the public can expect him to carry over that approach to his dealings with Congress if he should become president. But the Republican candidate insisted in a recent interview that – despite the criticism that he has a short fuse – "I have very close and warm relationships on both sides of the aisle" that would serve him well in overcoming what he called a dysfunctional relationship between the White House and Capitol Hill that has "more poison than I've seen in 17 years here." Read the article Debate: Candidates fixate on Bush 11/22/1999 11:47 PM George W. Bush didn't make it to Arizona's first presidential debate, but he certainly was the center of attention. Throughout the night Sunday, the four Republican candidates who did attend - Arizona Sen. John McCain, magazine publisher Steve Forbes, former diplomat Alan Keyes and Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch - took turns trying to distinguish themselves from the front-running Texas governor and encourage Bush to debate. Read the article Texas governor confident of securing GOP nomination 11/22/1999 11:44 PM A relaxed and composed George W. Bush offered few policy breakthroughs but plenty of confidence in his ability to win the presidency during a television interview in which he promised to work to end a climate of partisan hostility in Washington. Read the article Presidential primary filing begins Tuesday in Missouri 11/21/1999 1:44 PM Candidates seeking Missourians' support for their presidential bids can begin filing at 8 a.m. Tuesday for the March 7 presidential primary election. Filings will be done in Room 208 of the Capitol, and will continue until 5 p.m. Dec. 21. Members of all five parties established in Missouri -- Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Reform and U.S. Taxpayers -- can file for the primary. The 2000 presidential preference primary is only the second in Missouri's modern history. Read the article McCain Wants Better Care for Vets 11/21/1999 1:38 PM Senator John McCain fears the dying generation of World War II veterans is being shortchanged in health care at an age when the old soldiers' medical needs are more expensive than ever. "Our World War II veterans, the greatest generation, they're dying at 30,000 a month. Thirty-thousand of these brave Americans are dying a month, and they're not getting the care they've been promised," the Republican presidential candidate told members of his South Carolina steering committee Saturday. "They need long-term and geriatric care. If you've got a flat budget, and you've got millions of Americans who need long-term and geriatric care, the most expensive kind of care there is, it doesn't match up." Read the article Oklahoma Governor: GOP Aids American Dream 11/21/1999 12:35 AM By teaching Americans that "dreams don't come from an office full of bureaucrats," Republicans are moving the nation closer to a time when all its citizens can share in the American dream, Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating said Saturday. In the 1990s, GOP governors in New Jersey, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Pennsylvania and other states undertook initiatives "to help Americans achieve their dreams," Keating said in the GOP's weekly radio address. "In a lot of cases, that meant getting government out of the way." The governors "know dreams don't come from an office full of bureaucrats," said Keating, who just ended a year as chairman of the Republican Governors Association. "They aren't handed out like 'one-size-fits-all' off-the-rack suits." Read the article GOP Governors Draw Line: Contain McCain in New Hampshire 11/21/1999 12:28 AM Texas Gov. George W. Bush's allies among the GOP governors say they are prepared to help try to prevent Arizona Sen. John McCain from exporting his rise in New Hampshire to other early primary states and see Bill Bradley as the Democrats' stronger general election candidate in 2000. All but a few of the GOP's 31 governors have endorsed Bush's candidacy in the Republican nomination fight, but for good measure, the Republican Governors' Association (RGA) offered an institutional endorsement of the Texas governor during a three-day meeting here this week. Read the article California Dreamin’ 11/21/1999 12:27 AM Declaring that “California will be the place,” George W. Bush continued his push through the Golden State today, raising nearly a million dollars and more forcefully addressing foreign affairs in his stump speeches. Generating $900,000 only a day after raising $2.2 million for the California Republican Party, the Texas governor and Republican presidential front-runner had breakfast with some 500 supporters at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, where comers paid anywhere from $250 to $1,000 a plate. The Bush juggernaut then headed to Thousand Oaks for a “Fiesta at the Farm” event at the vacation home of David Murdock, chairman of Dole Foods. Read the article Heavyweights Help Bush Forge a Foreign Policy 11/19/1999 10:35 AM Today in Simi Valley, Calif., at the Ronald Reagan Library, Texas Gov. George W. Bush is scheduled to give his first major address on foreign policy. The Vulcans will be watching. Inspired by the Roman god of fire and metalworking, "Vulcans" is the campaign's nickname for Bush's foreign policy team, whose eight core members include leading lights of his father's presidency and the Reagan administration, led by former National Security Council aide Condoleeza Rice and former undersecretary of defense Paul D. Wolfowitz. Read the article Bush promises active international leadership; offers tearful sympathy to accident victims 11/18/1999 9:53 PM In a preview of his first major foreign policy speech, scheduled for Friday, Texas Gov. George W. Bush told CNN's Candy Crowley on Thursday that he will argue the United States must "lead the world of peace" and reject isolationism. During a wide-ranging exclusive interview broadcast live Thursday morning on CNN, Bush also wiped away a tear as he said "my heart goes out to the families" of victims of an accident early Thursday at Texas A&M University. At least four students were killed and some 25 were injured when a 40-foot-tall log pyramid -- constructed for a homecoming bonfire -- collapsed. Read the article Giuliani Unveils Tailored TV Ads 11/18/1999 9:51 PM In an unusual move for a Senate election almost a year away, Republican New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani unveiled television advertisements Thursday tailored to individual markets in upstate New York. The new ads, which were to begin airing Thursday and run for at least a week in Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse, stress local landmarks. In the Buffalo ad, viewers see a shot of Ralph Wilson Stadium, home of the National Football League Buffalo Bills. That could be viewed as a strange choice for a candidate given that the Bills are perhaps best known for losing four straight Super Bowls. Read the article Bush Talks Foreign Policy 11/18/1999 9:49 PM Quite clearly, something has come over Texas Gov. George W. Bush. Everywhere he turns, he's suddenly talking about foreign policy. He's all over the morning shows. He's on ABC's "20/20." On Sunday he'll appear on NBC's "Meet the Press." This week campaigning in Iowa, the typically tightly disciplined Bush campaign several times veered into uncharted waters – the impromptu news gaggle. It seems that every time a reporter comes within a breath of Bush, he wants to talk about foreign policy. "New internationalism," he calls his vision. Yesterday, he signed copies of his new book, "A Charge to Keep," at the North Park Mall here and eagerly answered questions about the big picture view of the world. Read the article Bush: Send Surplus To Hungry Nations 11/17/1999 8:44 PM Texas Gov. George W. Bush urged the Clinton administration Wednesday to move quickly on an $800 million program designed to send surplus farm commodities to hungry nations. "This administration and the Department of Agriculture must move quickly and expeditiously to spend that money and move our food to people who need it all across the world," Bush said. That step would aid nations in need, and be welcomed by farmers who are almost done gathering this year's crops. A heavy harvest again this year has left the country awash in surplus grain and driven commodity prices to historic lows. Opening his latest campaign visit to Iowa, Bush said the federal government can help, and he noted Congress' approval of the $800 million program to pay for efforts such as Food for Peace. Read the article Des Moines Register: McCain formalizes decision to skip Iowa caucuses 11/17/1999 4:54 PM U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, said Tuesday that he will bypass the Iowa caucuses and will skip campaigning in the state. McCain, in a letter to Iowa GOP chairman Kayne Robinson, said he will be in the state for two debates. His aides had held open the possibility that he would stage a last-minute campaign blitz in Iowa. McCain nixed that talk Tuesday. "My decision not to establish a campaign organization in Iowa is based solely on the compressed nature of the primary schedule and the increasing influence of big money on the nominating process," McCain said. He said he won't buy ads or hire staff in Iowa. Read the article Bush Says He's Focused on Texas 11/16/1999 4:30 PM Acknowledging that he's spending a lot of time in other states these days, Republican presidential front-runner George W. Bush said Tuesday that he's still minding the store as governor of Texas. Speaking to a group of his new appointees to governing boards of various state agencies, Bush urged them to pay attention to both their regular jobs and their volunteer state service. "As you know, I'm spending a fair amount of time out of state these days," Bush said, drawing laughter from the audience. "I'm focused on Texas, though," he quickly added. "And I mean, I am still the governor, and I've got a lot of work to do as the governor, which I do." Bush told his appointees to "take your responsibility as seriously as I take mine. It's a big deal to serve Texas." Read the article Conservative Party Snubs Guiliani 11/16/1999 4:29 PM In a sign of the unsettled nature of next year's Senate race in New York, Republican Rudolph Giuliani was not invited to a state Conservative Party fund-raising event Tuesday night. In fact, the chairman of the politically influential third party said he has not talked to the New York City mayor in three months about a possible endorsement for the race that is expected to pit Giuliani against Hillary Rodham Clinton. "If I invited him and he showed up, it would send the wrong message," party Chairman Michael Long said Tuesday. Read the article New Forbes campaign ads mention everything but Bush 11/16/1999 4:27 PM The 2000 presidential television advertising season has kicked into high gear this week, just a shade under a year from next November's pivotal national election day. But out of the gate, the first wave of candidate television spots are sporting new looks and new sentiments as party hopefuls seek to disseminate their messages, rather than attack their opponents. Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes is launching this week a number of campaign advertisements that do not follow the advertising playbook employed by his 1996 campaign, when he unleashed a slew of negative ads attacking the eventual GOP nominee, Bob Dole. Read the article Age gap could help McCain among Republicans 11/15/1999 5:38 PM Sen. John McCain is drawing much of his support in New Hampshire from older voters, according to two recent polls of people who plan to vote in the nation's earliest presidential primary. That could spell trouble for his chief rival in the Republican contest, Texas Gov. George W. Bush. Bush is more popular with those under 45, but older people are far more likely to vote. An American Research Group poll of 600 likely Republican primary voters last week showed McCain in a statistical tie with Bush for the first time, with Bush at 41 percent and McCain at 38 percent. The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points. Read the article Bush tries to 'show people my heart' in book 11/15/1999 5:32 PM Texas Gov. George W. Bush offers insights into his approach to politics and governing and just a peek into his personal life in an autobiography due in bookstores Wednesday. A Charge to Keep, named after a hymn by Charles Wesley and a painting by W.H.D. Koerner that hangs in Bush's office in the Texas Capitol, doesn't include blockbuster revelations from the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination. Read the article Candidates' spiritual lives are drawing unusual interest 11/14/1999 11:33 AM Presidential hopefuls have long spent Sundays canvassing churches to share their faith and shake hands with pious voters. But when it comes to their own religion, the candidates are a bit more circumspect; most want to talk about faith and morality without getting too personal. "Candidates see this (election) as an opportunity to address religious and spiritual and moral questions. As long as the economy keeps doing well, this will stay on the public concern list," said James Guth, political science professor at Furman University. Read the article McCain's Bid Takes a Serious Turn in New Hampshire 11/14/1999 11:30 AM As he campaigns for president, Sen. John McCain often tells an old joke about another Arizona politician who sought the White House more than 20 years ago. As the story goes, then-Rep. Morris Udall popped into a Manchester, N.H., barbershop one day in 1976. "I'm Morris Udall of Arizona and I'm running for president of the United States," he said. "Yeah," one of the barbers replied. "We were just laughing about that this morning." McCain has told that story again and again, but on Thursday night it included a new ending that punctuated the challenge he now poses to Texas Gov. George W. Bush in the state that holds the nation's first presidential primary. Read the article Missouri Republican State Committee ousts controversial constituent 11/14/1999 11:28 AM Tim Dreste, a controversial anti-abortion activist, was ousted on Saturday from the Missouri Republican State Committee. The state GOP panel, meeting in Jefferson City, voted 58-9 with one absence to remove Dreste. Forty-six votes were needed for his removal. The action is effective immediately. The state party's action comes after Dreste and 11 co-defendants lost a high-profile $107 million federal lawsuit in Oregon last winter. Planned Parenthood has alleged that Dreste and the other defendants in the Oregon lawsuit made illegal threats of violence against abortion providers and had distributed wanted posters with the pictures of abortion doctors. Read the article McCain Registers for N.H. Primary 11/13/1999 1:46 PM Arizona Sen. John McCain took a lunch break from his campaign bus tour Friday to register for the state's Republican presidential primary. McCain filed his paperwork and $1,000 fee two days after George W. Bush handed in his own check, and one day after a poll of New Hampshire voters showed him tied with the Texas governor for the first time. Read the article GOP Nomination Not a Bush Slam Dunk An AP New Analysis 11/13/1999 1:45 PM A funny thing happened on the way to the presidential election: A campaign broke out. Republican Gov. George W. Bush of Texas and Democratic Vice President Al Gore were the pick of every pundit, pol and poll to win the nominations. They had money, momentum and ready-made political organizations; it was going to be so easy. Instead, both front-runners were surprised by potent rivals, jarred by their own gaffes and stripped bare of any hope that victory was inevitable. Read the article Forbes Reveals Little but His Ideas 11/12/1999 5:21 PM The sense of melancholy is unavoidable as you leaf through the 25th reunion essays for the Princeton class of 1970. The brightest of baby boomers assaying a mid-life reckoning, their submissions revelatory of divorce and death, of lives that have brought intense happiness, and more than a few that haven't. There is humor and self-justification, and quotes from Yeats and Tai Chi Chuan and Jerry Garcia. Then there's Malcolm Stevenson "Steve" Forbes Jr., who submits a resume. "He is a widely respected economic prognosticator ... he is the only writer to have won the highly prestigious Crystal Owl award four times.." No hopes. No fears. No crack in his exterior wall. Read the article McCain's Bus Rides Are Never Boring 11/12/1999 5:18 PM The longest-running press conference in the history of presidential politics was into its umpteenth hour this morning when an aide to Arizona Sen. John McCain wandered to the back of the bus to interrupt. The bus had come to a stop outside a high school in Manchester, but the senator was in mid-sentence on yet another question tossed his way from the knot of reporters squeezed into the benches and seats of the nicely appointed bus. "Senator," the aide said with a mixture of hesitancy and urgency. "We have an event." There is no predicting what will happen in the back of the McCain bus – other than the non-stop question-and-answer session that ranges from the serious to the ludicrous and back again. McCain plants himself amid an ever-changing cast of reporters, puts on a pair of sunglasses that make him look rakish or roguish or just plain strange, depending on your point of view, and lets the conversation start to roll. Read the article Bush refrains from attacking 'good guy' McCain 11/11/1999 10:30 PM This was a day for Republican presidential front-runner George W. Bush to praise – not try to bury – his closest GOP competitor, U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona. The Texas governor officially filed Wednesday to place his name on the Feb. 1 first-in-the-nation primary ballot. Choosing to arrive on the eve of Veterans Day, Bush went out of his way to salute the service of McCain, a decorated prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. "I can understand why people would be for Senator John McCain, why they would choose a man of his caliber. He served with distinction in the military, he’s a noble man, he’s a good guy,’’ Bush told New Hampshire reporters during a news conference. Read the article Trenton Mayor Tim Whitaker drops out of Missouri Governor's race 11/11/1999 10:24 PM Trenton Mayor Tim Whitaker today ended his bid for the GOP nomination for governor and pledged to support fellow Republican Jim Talent. Whitaker told about 100 supporters that Talent, who represents a St. Louis-area district in the U.S. House, had an understanding of rural issues. "I'm going to withdraw to back a man that has become my friend in the past few months," Whitaker said. "He's very much with us in the rural sector because he understands us." Talent said he and Whitaker believed "the same things and we're running for the same reasons." Read the article South Carolina primary could be critical for George W. Bush 11/10/1999 11:02 PM With the Republican presidential race tightening, this state's presidential primary is shaping up to be a critical test for front-runner George W. Bush. Nestled high on the election calendar, South Carolina is the traditional gateway to the South for presidential hopefuls. It will become even more important if Steve Forbes or Arizona Sen. John McCain undercut Bush's lead in Iowa and New Hampshire. Though the polls are mixed, conservative millionaire Forbes is drawing large crowds in his bid to win the Jan. 24 Iowa caucuses. His new advertising campaign will begin any day as he attempts to draw contrasts between himself and Bush. Read the article Fleischer joins Bush campaign as communications adviser 11/10/1999 11:00 PM Ari Fleischer, a longtime GOP activist who served briefly as communications director of Elizabeth Dole's now-defunct presidential campaign, will join Texas Gov. George W. Bush's presidential effort as senior communications adviser and spokesman. Bush's campaign announced late Monday that Fleischer would join the campaign. Fleischer left Dole's campaign in mid-September after only a few months on the job, saying he wanted to pursue lucrative opportunities in the private sector. Read the article Virginia Senator to Remain a Republican 11/9/1999 8:14 PM As Gov. James S. Gilmore III (R) stood stiffly by, state Sen. Warren E. Barry, of Fairfax, announced he would remain a part of the GOP's fragile majority in the Senate, but Barry offered no apologies for the defiant behavior that has infuriated Republicans. "I have no plans nor desire to leave the Republican Party," Barry said. But he did not rule out doing so if Republicans try to remove him as chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee as a punishment for directing $75,000 in campaign money to his son, Stan Barry, a Democrat who won election as Fairfax County sheriff last week. "Should this Republican hierarchy show up and penalize me by stripping me of the chairmanship, I certainly would open the door again," Barry said in a news conference this morning on the top floor of the state Capitol. Read the article Senator Chafee Faces Tough Call 11/9/1999 8:11 PM On his first tough call as a newly minted Republican senator, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island sided with Senate Democrats and organized labor Tuesday on a minimum wage increase, then backed a competing GOP proposal moments later. "I'm learning there are going to be some difficult choices," he said afterward, treading the path his father, the late John H. Chafee, walked so often between the Capitol and his Senate office across the street. Sworn in last week ago to fill out his father's unexpired term, the 46-year-old Chafee is living two lives at once. He remains mayor of Warwick, Rhode Island's second-largest city, until the middle of November. His wife and family live there; while in Washington, he stays at his parents' house in the Virginia suburbs outside Washington. Read the article Bush: Repay 'debt of honor' to vets 11/9/1999 8:08 PM Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush demanded Tuesday that the U.S. government repay its "debt of honor" to veterans, and tangled with rival John McCain's campaign over who is best-suited to be commander-in-chief. Bush praised the Arizona's senator's war-hero past, but predicted that his two terms as Texas governor make for a more attractive presidential candidate. "I can understand" why some voters are drawn to McCain's biography, Bush said between stops in this early GOP primary state. "But I think voters are going to say I'd be a better commander-in-chief because I've had chief executive experience. I know how to set goals. I know how to make decisions. I know how to rally people." Read the article Bush Defends His Ability 11/8/1999 11:38 PM George W. Bush said Monday that he doesn't think his inability to name leaders of some of the world's hot spots will hurt him with voters. "The voters know I'll have a strong foreign policy that promotes peace," Bush, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, said during a campaign swing through Florida that included a visit to a juvenile detention center. Asked by a television reporter last week to name the leaders of Chechnya, Taiwan, India and Pakistan, Bush was able to give a partial response for just one – Taiwan. He said Monday that he wasn't troubled by the reporter's questioning. "The voters know that I intend to rebuild the military power of the United States so we can keep the peace," said Bush, who also is the governor of Texas. "The voters know I intend to use our technological brain power to bring certainty to an uncertain world." Read the article RNC Plans To Sell Internet Access 11/8/1999 11:34 PM The Republican National Committee is expected to announce Tuesday that it will begin selling access to the Internet early next year. The service would cost $19.95 a month for most people, but would be free for the party's big donors. Subscribers will get an e-mail address with the extension GOPnet.com. "Our goal over the next decade is to create the most active, inclusive electronic party possible to communicate online with the emerging cyber-citizenry," RNC chairman Jim Nicholson said in remarks prepared for delivery at a news conference Tuesday. Read the article Forbes, Bauer court social conservatives 11/8/1999 11:33 PM Republican presidential candidates Steve Forbes and Gary Bauer are waging a spirited battle for support among GOP social conservatives in Iowa. The two men, who spent the weekend campaigning in the state, are seeking to emerge from the Jan. 24 caucuses as the leading alternative to the front-runner, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, in the contest for the GOP nomination. Read the article Bush Kept Promise to Get Tough on Young Criminals 11/8/1999 11:25 PM After Texas began overhauling its juvenile justice system in 1995, boosting spending by hundreds of millions of dollars to ensure tougher treatment of teenage lawbreakers, a 16-year-old delinquent in a detention center mailed a letter of warning to his younger brother in Dallas County. In a state where strict new laws and policies have "wiped the smirks off the faces" of juvenile court defendants, as one judge put it, the boy cautioned his brother not to follow in his footsteps. "They've got this new governor in the state of Texas, name's George Bush jr. [sic]," the youth wrote in a November 1995 letter that his mother later gave to the Texas Youth Commission (TYC), the agency that runs the state's hugely expanded juvenile detention system. Read the article McCain's Arlington Ad Questioned 11/7/1999 5:06 PM John McCain's presidential campaign said Sunday it sees nothing wrong with airing an advertisement filmed in part at Arlington National Cemetery. An Army spokesman is quoted in the upcoming edition of Newsweek magazine as saying that federal regulations bar partisan activities at the national shrine. The ad shows McCain walking solemnly through the cemetery and recalls the GOP presidential candidate's military career as a pilot shot down in the Vietnam War, imprisoned and tortured. Campaign spokesman Howard Opinsky said the Arizona senator was on one of his periodic visits to the graves of his father and grandfather at the cemetery. Read the article GOP Takes Bow for Balanced Budget 11/6/1999 5:02 PM In a report on "promises Republicans have made and kept," the party credited its "fiscal restraint ... and the productivity of the American people" for three years of balanced federal budgets. As budget negotiations with President Clinton near an end, said Rep. Bill Young, R-Fla., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, the GOP-controlled Congress will stick to its word to hold the line on spending, cut bureaucracy, protect Social Security. "We are doing all this without raising your taxes," Young said Saturday in the weekly Republican radio address. "These are the promises we have made, and the record shows these are the promises we have kept." Read the article McCain's Rise Alters Dynamics of Race 11/6/1999 4:51 PM The first nine months of the Republican nomination fight were mostly about a political phenomenon called George W. Bush: his money, his endorsements, his big lead in the polls. The last five weeks have belonged more to Arizona Sen. John McCain. Suddenly the Texas governor appears to have a race on his hands. The campaign of 2000 continues to surprise. Operating on a timetable never before seen, the Republican race already has taken on the shape of a contest that usually occurs after the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. In a race in which the voters have yet to be heard from, the once-large field has been cut in half and McCain has emerged as the principal alternative to Bush. Read the article Virginia Democrats to Explore Bipartisanship 11/5/1999 5:33 PM Tuesday's losses in the state legislative elections have left Virginia's Democratic Party smaller and weaker but not ready to abandon its core issues or its opposition role to the growing power of Republican Gov. James S. Gilmore III, Democratic lawmakers said today. Democrats are still smarting, digesting the defeat in dozens of phone calls across the state. The party had been losing ground to the Republicans in the General Assembly for more than two decades, even before Tuesday's voting cost Democrats their majority in the House of Delegates. Read the article Bush agrees to December debate 11/4/1999 5:28 PM Republican presidential front-runner George W. Bush has agreed to participate in a live, televised Iowa debate Dec. 13. Publisher Steve Forbes also signed on, and it was expected that other candidates would as well. "I would expect we'll have some company," said Bush spokesman Eric Woolson. Bush, who has been criticized by rivals for not participating in campaign debates thus far, initially said he wouldn't participate in debates until January. Aides said last week he would debate in December and was sorting through the many offers that had been made. Read the article Bush Aims to Be Education Candidate in 2000 11/3/1999 11:34 PM For as long as politicians can remember, Democrats have dominated the education issue in national elections, but Texas Gov. George W. Bush is out to change that. As his campaign advisers put it, Bush wants to own the issue for the Republicans in 2000. Over the past two months, Bush has given three major speeches on education that together offer a new direction for the GOP by marrying conservative ideas with something unusual for a Republican: the assertion of a strong federal role in education. Read the article California GOP Fund Raising Head Named 11/3/1999 11:32 PM The California Republican Party, seeking to climb out of debt, has appointed millionaire developer George L. Argyros to oversee a special fund-raising effort to get out the GOP vote next year. Argyros will be chairman of Victory 2000, which is dedicated to registering Republicans and ensuring they turn out to vote, party officials said Wednesday. In last year's election, Republican turnout slumped to 57.6 percent, the lowest rate for a gubernatorial contest in at least 84 years. Argyros has strong ties to the Republican political donor community. Read the article GOP wins control of Virginia General Assembly 11/3/1999 11:30 PM Republicans completed their historic takeover of state government, seizing control of the House of Delegates for the first time in history and holding their narrow majority in the Senate. With the GOP victory in Tuesday's elections, Virginia joined Florida as the only Southern states with Republicans in control of both legislative chambers and the governorship. Read the article Giuliani To Begin Campaign TV Ads 11/2/1999 6:03 PM New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who is expected to compete against Hillary Rodham Clinton for a Senate seat next year, will begin airing campaign ads later this week, television executives said Tuesday. There was no immediate comment from the Giuliani camp. Dan Straub, national sales manager for WRGB-TV in Schenectady, said the Republican mayor's ads would begin running in the Schenectady-Albany market on Thursday and continue for about a week. "It's a pretty heavy schedule," he said. "It should be big." Read the article Chafee Son to Succeed Late Senator 11/2/1999 5:56 PM Rhode Island Republican Lincoln Chafee was appointed today to the Senate seat left vacant by the Oct. 24 death of his father, four-term Republican Sen. John H. Chafee. Republican Gov. Lincoln C. Almond announced his widely anticipated decision to pick the younger Chafee -- the four-term mayor of Warwick, Rhode Island's second most-populous city -- at a news conference this afternoon in Providence. Read the article Bush: Teach Morals, Character in School 11/2/1999 5:55 PM Texas Gov. George W. Bush today called for the teaching of morals and values in schools and said that, as president, he would tie federal school dollars to improving safety standards in public schools as well as allow teachers to permanently remove unruly students from classrooms. Read the article Goodbye Payne 11/1/1999 6:40 PM A light rain fell on Springfield's streets this morning as cars rolled quietly along with their lights on. But the mood of the tightknit city may have been put best by a marquee that read simply: "Goodbye Payne." Last Friday, the rest of the world said goodbye to Payne Stewart. Today, it is his hometown's turn. Friends and some family members are among those participating in a memorial service for Stewart at the Second Baptist Church. The city's public golf courses also were closed for the day to honor Stewart's memory. Read the article Bush Bruised Diving To Avoid Truck 11/1/1999 6:33 PM Gov. George W. Bush, the Republican presidential front-runner, sustained minor injuries to his right leg and hip Monday when he dived to avoid a truck trailer that overturned near his jogging path. Bush was treated at the scene and later traveled to New Hampshire for a scheduled campaign swing, said Linda Edwards, Bush's press secretary. Staff Sgt. Roscoe Hughey, a 39-year-old Texas Department of Public Safety agent who was accompanying Bush on a bicycle, received bruises to his left side, DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange said. He was treated at the Brackenridge Hospital emergency room and released about four hours later, said hospital spokeswoman Stephanie Elsea. Read the article Ex-GOP Senator Smith Returns to Party 11/1/1999 2:41 PM New Hampshire Sen. Bob Smith returned to the Republican Party today after a 111-day career as a political independent, and immediately staked a claim to a vacant Senate committee chairmanship. "It became obvious that the most effective way for me to have a conservative impact on public policy as a senator was as a member of the Republican Party," Smith said at a news conference. He was joined by Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and Jim Nicholson, chairman of the party. Smith left the GOP in July with a withering Senate floor speech in which he accused the GOP of having abandoned its conservative principles. Read the article GOP Plans an Internet Service To Better Connect Supporters 11/1/1999 9:13 AM The next time your e-mail crashes and you're hopping mad, maybe you'll want to skip a call to technical support and just tell it to the Republicans. In a move with potentially big ramifications for the practice of U.S. politics, the Republican Party in November plans to launch a nationwide Internet-access service called GOPnet. At a time when technology giants such as Microsoft Corp. and America Online Inc. are battling for control of computer screens, the GOP's new service would drive subscribers to a party-controlled Internet portal and give it a ready-made e-mail directory of the party faithful. (As reported by the WALL STREET JOURNAL)