16 Days to Victory!!!
Broken Promises Calendar: No Results from Governor Granholm
PROMISE: “A Granholm-Cherry Administration will demand full public disclosure of the names of those paying for election-time ‘issue ads’” (Blueprint for Michigan, pg. 29, September 2002).
RESULT: As you read this, Granholm’s Democratic Party is spending millions of dollars to run issue ads on her behalf. The donors paying for these ads are secret and the public will never know where this money comes from. Granholm has been silent.
The newspaper editorial board endorsements are in. Dick DeVos has been endorsed by The Detroit News, Grand Rapids Press and the Oakland Press. Jennifer Granholm received the endorsements of the Detroit Free Press, Lansing State Journal and Saginaw News. Granholm’s endorsements seemed to be based on letting her “work her plan”…I guess four years hasn’t been enough, and they’re ready to be “blown away”?!?
Saturday was our biggest day yet making phone calls and knocking on doors. We started the day with Dick DeVos doing a conference call with volunteers at Victory Centers statewide. Yesterday was Dick’s 51st birthday and we wanted to deliver a record breaking 51,000 contact day as a fun birthday present…still too early to tell, but we’ve been averaging over 25,000 a day…so we’ll know later today.
Lawn signs and general campaign activity was in full swings. I drove by my church and noticed an “event” going on yesterday afternoon. So I dropped off some lawn signs at the side door and several folks did pick them up on the way out. I also got a friend to put a bumper sticker on his car. Every little bit helps, this is a cumulative effort…so get creative and join in the fun! OK, maybe not so fun, but it’s for the cause!!!
Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman will be joining us on our Monday evening conference call. I would just like to remind all State Committee members and County Chairs to join us on the call.
Despite the media hype, an examination of all the facts make it clear: the Republican base is active and engaged. No matter how your measure it – whether by record-breaking fundraising, unpercendented volunteerism, or scientific polling – the numbers show that Republicans understand the importance of the choice we all face on November 7.
We are having record volunteer activities across the state…making more phone calls, knocking on more doors and getting more signs out than any previous election.
And in Michigan…we are on the offense – planning and working towards victory!
Michigan PBS stations will re-broadcast the U.S. Senate debate this Sunday evening at 7:00 pm. Mike Bouchard did an awesome job taking Debbie Stabenow to task for her lack of results. Once you watch this debate, it’s clear why Stabenow doesn’t want to debate Bouchard….Mike “cleaned her clock”.
http://www.wgvu.org/decision06/
Absolutely a great ad. The Republican Governors Association started running this ad yesterday in Michigan. It’s funny, it’s different but it hits all the key points right on the head. Please watch it and then share it with you friends.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Ty6qe7bkA
Michigan Republicans last night became the FIRST state in the country to make over 2,000,000 voter contacts. As of last week’s RNC report to state chairman, only 5 states had broke the 1,000,000 mark. Thanks to your efforts and the thousands of volunteers statewide that are manning our 27 Victory Centers…Michigan Republicans will be better prepared than ever to implement our GOTV and 72 Hour program to insure a Republican victory.
We have Dick DeVos, Mike Bouchard, Terri Lynn Land and Mike Cox leading the ticket…you see them everywhere, working hard every day to take our Republican message to the voters of Michigan.
Thanks again for all you do!
Saul Anuzis
STATE STORIES
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061022/OPINION01/610220506/1068
FREE PRESS EDITORIAL: Our choice: Granholm
She offers the best hope for balanced long-term progress for Michigan on education, health care and the economy
October 22, 2006
Michigan government must strike a balance over the next several years between building a new economic model and helping the thousands of people hurt in the crumbling of the old one.
Gov. JENNIFER GRANHOLM is the best candidate to lead the state through this difficult transition. The Detroit Free Press endorses Democrat Granholm for a second four-year term. She is a dynamic leader who is pushing Michigan in all the right directions against formidable economic and political forces.
http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061022/OPINION01/610220608/1086/opinion
Published October 22, 2006
[ From Lansing State Journal ]
Governor: Granholm's positive approach beats DeVos' vague plans
A Lansing State Journal editorial
The last four years have not been kind to Michigan.
The restructuring of the auto industry has stripped Michigan's Big 3 automakers and their suppliers of tens of thousands of jobs. The manufacturing-based, union-organized lifestyle that made Michigan so attractive to so many has downsized in concert with the auto industry.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm and her Republican challenger, businessman Dick DeVos, have built their campaigns around the central claim that they are best equipped to revive Michigan's economy. There are far more issues on the plate for the state's next chief executive, but jobs come before everything.
http://www.mlive.com/news/sanews/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1161512608168800.xml&coll=9
Jennifer Granholm for governor
Sunday, October 22, 2006
We openly concede that our choice for governor in 2006 is a provincial embrace. All politics are local, as the political dictum goes, and more than ever Saginaw requires a leader in Lansing who understands the needs of one of the most economically challenged areas in the most economically depressed state.
So when it comes to deciding Tuesday, Nov. 7, between Republican Dick DeVos and Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm, the choice for us is simple -- if not easy.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061022/NEWS06/610220592
Ballot hopefuls bank on Tigers
Candidates bet on the home team
October 22, 2006
Dick DeVos stood outside Comerica Park on Saturday with his wife, Betsy, and their four kids, greeting Tigers fans -- who also might be potential voters -- and handing out T-shirts bearing his name.
The shirts bear the candidate's name, but the D in DeVos had been transformed into the Old English D that also graces the uniforms of Detroit's newest heroes.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/politics/15816837.htm
Posted on Sat, Oct. 21, 2006
Betsy DeVos enjoys being candidate's supportive spouse
JAMES PRICHARD
Associated Press
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - There's little doubt that, before the 2006 gubernatorial campaign, more people in Michigan knew of Betsy DeVos than of her husband, Republican candidate Dick DeVos.
While he was busy running the family business, Amway Corp. and its parent company, her deep-rooted passion for politics led her to two high-profile stints as chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061022/OPINION01/610220509/1070/OPINION02
RON DZWONKOWSKI: Milliken model
Much admired, ex-governor is glad he's out of today's politics
October 22, 2006
In the same day, I heard both Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Dick DeVos -- who agree on very little -- each invoke the name of William Milliken as someone to be admired and emulated.
So I got hold of the former governor at his home in Traverse City and suggested he come out of retirement and run for something.
Undecided women being wooed in final weeks of governor's race
10/21/2006, 2:05 p.m. ET
By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN
The Associated Press
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — If you're a woman who hasn't made up your mind about whether to vote for Dick DeVos or Jennifer Granholm, you're causing a lot of headaches for strategists at campaign headquarters.
Female voters typically make up their minds late and are less likely to vote along party lines than male voters, so they're more open to campaign messages in the closing days of the election, pollster Ed Sarpolus of Lansing-based EPIC-MRA said Saturday.
Although both the Democratic governor and her GOP challenger have run ads and talked frequently about jobs and the economy, women want to hear about other issues, Sarpolus said.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061022/OPINION01/610220303/1008
Sunday, October 22, 2006
DECISION 2006: for U.S. Senate
Bouchard should be our next U.S. senator
Challenger would be effective voice in Washington
The Detroit News
Michigan needs a change in the U.S. Senate. It needs a dynamic yet practical lawmaker to make this state's case in the nation's capital. It needs Mike Bouchard.
Bouchard, the Oakland County sheriff, is running against the affable but ineffective Debbie Stabenow. She has not made much of an impression in Washington.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-0/11614977037270.xml&coll=6
Profile: Bouchard counts on practical experience
Sunday, October 22, 2006
By Sarah Kellogg
Press Washington Bureau
Once you meet Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Bouchard, his friends are pretty sure you'll be voting for him in November.
"The more people who talk to him, the more votes he'll get," said former state Sen. George McManus, a Traverse City Republican who served with him in the state Senate in the 1990s. "If he can get to the people and meet them, they'd be convinced. He's just that kind of guy."
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-0/11614987767270.xml&coll=6
Profile: Stabenow learned from difficult term
Sunday, October 22, 2006
By Sarah Kellogg
Press Washington Bureau
Much has changed since Democrat Debbie Stabenow was elected to the U.S. Senate in November 2000.
Back then, the United States was in its pre-9/11 mode, when terrorism was somebody else's problem.
http://www.arabamericannews.com/newsarticle.php?articleid=6574
Why I'm not voting for Debbie Stabenow this election
By: Jon C. Swanson
Until this year I had always supported Debbie Stabenow. After all she is a social worker just as I am and I thought we shared many of the same values. When she ran against Chrysler in 1998 I supported her - even sent her money and when she was the underdog against Spence Abraham in 2000 I supported her and once again contributed to her campaign. But this year, sadly, I just can't bring myself to help her or even vote for her, mainly because of her votes against civil liberties and human rights.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-0/11614990897270.xml&coll=6
Profile: Land drives service upgrades at polls, border
Sunday, October 22, 2006
By Judy Putnam
Press Bureau
Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land wants to keep lines short, not just at the 154 Secretary of State offices across the state, but at the U.S.-Canadian border, too.
Land, a Republican who is running for a second term, pitched her idea for a "dual purpose" driver's license that doubles as a passport, at a recent meeting of Canadian and U.S. business officials. She said the license will help keep traffic flowing smoothly across the border.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-0/11614988587270.xml&coll=6
Profile: Sabaugh aims to put convenience in civics
Sunday, October 22, 2006
By Judy Putnam
Press Bureau
Carmella Sabaugh, the Democratic challenger for secretary of state, says if she had waited until she had enough money to run for office, she would never have had a three-decades-long political career.
It's a lesson the Macomb County clerk is keeping in mind as she goes up against incumbent GOP Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land on Nov. 7.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-0/11614995497270.xml&coll=6
Profile: Cox boasts big money for race
Sunday, October 22, 2006
By Judy Putnam
Press Lansing Bureau
Attorney General Mike Cox is running for re-election as if he had a well-known, well-financed opponent nipping at his heels.
He doesn't.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-2/11614992697270.xml&coll=6
MSU Board: Porteous, Cook
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Voters in this region have an extra incentive on Nov. 7 to pay attention to the choices for the Board of Trustees at Michigan State University. The decisions will affect the course of West Michigan as well as Michigan State.
A new and major link between West Michigan and MSU may hang in the balance. Still nascent is the proposed transfer of MSU's medical school to a Grand Rapids site along Michigan Street, a $70 million project that would include significant expansions of the school's teaching and research components.
http://www.mlive.com/news/jacitpat/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1161511552123630.xml&coll=3
Baxter, Griffin battle for state House seat in 64th Dist.
Sunday, October 22, 2006
By Susan J. Demas
sdemas@citpat.com -- 768-4927
State Rep. Rick Baxter has already cultivated his conservative calling card, castigating Gov. Jennifer Granholm's tax policy in the nation's second-largest newspaper.
"Maybe you've seen an article in the Wall Street Journal," the Concord Republican said with a grin at a recent campaign forum.
Baxter and a Hillsdale College professor last year took on the now-departing Single Business Tax, an action Granholm blasted as "treasonous" to the state's job-growth efforts.
http://www.mlive.com/news/jacitpat/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1161511544123630.xml&coll=3
Baxter-Griffin race: An incumbent's edge
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Two years ago, the Citizen Patriot recommended Mayor Martin Griffin, a Democrat, for election as 64th District state representative. Today we recommend the re-election of the candidate who won that race -- state Rep. Rick Baxter, R-Concord. Our readers deserve to know why our preference has shifted in this second round of the Griffin-Baxter clash.
First, this is a race in which voters have two relative equal choices. Both men are young, intelligent, intense, hard-working, dedicated, experienced and enthusiastic about serving the public. Elect either of them, and voters will be well served. These are not slackers. In that sense, we affirm both. The 64th District cannot lose in this race.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-32/11614982667270.xml&coll=6
Ads praising state may benefit Dems
Sunday, October 22, 2006
By Ted Roelofs
The Grand Rapids Press
If you own a TV or radio, the ads are hard to miss: Actor Jeff Daniels extolling Michigan as a place to do business. Actor Tim Allen pushing Michigan tourist destinations. State of Michigan ads that promote emergency preparedness.
Democrats say the ads are good government. Republicans consider them clever politics and questionable use of public funds.
Political analyst Bill Ballenger calls them business as usual.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061022/OPINION01/610220504/1069
Get smart about the Nov. 7 ballot
October 22, 2006
Candidates aplenty fill the Nov. 7 ballot, but so do fundamental issues about the state's character and finances. There are five statewide proposals, and they're all important.
http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/news-20/116140627744810.xml&coll=7
Prop 5 foes predict `chaos'
Saturday, October 21, 2006
By Judy Putnam
Gazette Lansing Bureau
LANSING -- Proposal 5, the Nov. 7 ballot issue that requires inflationary increases for schools and colleges, would soak up an additional $770 million in state funds this fiscal year -- about as much as the total budgets for State Police, the Attorney General and Secretary of State offices, opponents said in releasing a new economic analysis.
By the 2015-16 fiscal year, additional education costs to the state would grow to $3.5 billion annually, according to the analysis by the East Lansing-based Anderson Economic Group.
It was commissioned by the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and the Michigan Association of Realtors, both Proposal 5 opponents.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061022/NEWS06/610220671/1008/NEWS
What happens if Proposal 5 passes?
October 22, 2006
Proposal 5 is on the statewide Nov. 7 ballot. Here's a list of the potential winners and losers.
Winners:
K-12 public schools: Though schools got a $210 per-pupil increase in state funding this year and a $175 per-pupil increase the previous year, they had two years with no increases. They say the extra cash has not kept pace with quickly rising costs for health care and pensions.
http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1161491081133180.xml&coll=7
Voters sound off on `going negative'
Sunday, October 22, 2006
By Emily Monacelli
emonacelli@kalamazoogazette.com 388-7777
With the Nov. 7 election approaching , some Kalamazoo residents say they are getting tired of negative advertising that slams a political candidate's opponent in order to gain votes.
Sometimes candidates, but more often their parties or groups independent of the campaigns, use television commercials, mass mailings and even automated phone messages -- known as ``robocalling'' -- to grab voters' attention.
``We get (mailings) for every resident of the household, so we get, like, five of them,'' Nicole Church, a junior studying international studies at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, said. ``I guess each of us needs one.''
http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/columns-2/1161491202133180.xml&coll=7
Here's how to derail a dirty campaign
Sunday, October 22, 2006
We suspect that for many Michigan voters, Election Day can't come quickly enough.
But we worry that many will be so sick of mean-spirited campaign ads on their televisions and in their mailboxes, and intensely annoying robocalls on their telephones, that many will be so turned off that they won't vote at all.
We know there is a high degree of interest in this year's election.
http://www.thetimesherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061020/NEWS01/610200301
Young voters sit on sidelines
Despite active campaigns, most don't vote
DANIELLE QUISENBERRY
Times Herald
"I think voting is the single most important thing a person can do to make a change, to voice your opinion," said Hunter of Port Huron, who spends a lot of time volunteering for local Democratic candidates.
Many people between 18 and 30 have a different view of voting. Several said they feel indifferent, removed from the political scene and reluctant to believe their votes count.
http://www.livingstondaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061020/NEWS01/610200322
Abortion controversy swells
By Lon Medd
Dave Knoch doesn't see it as a pro-life or pro-choice issue.
The Genoa Township resident is concerned that the planned protest for Tuesday at Howell High School and Hutchings Elementary School against abortion will interrupt the education of his 10-year-old child, who is a fifth-grader.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061022/NEWS06/610220672/1001/NEWS
Michigan may take hit to aid schools
Advocates, opponents feud over the cost of Proposal 5
October 22, 2006
Phone calls to the Michigan Parent Teacher Student Association often have a familiar refrain: Parents, watching as programs are cut, want to know whether they can help pay for textbooks, building repairs and teacher salaries.
The usual answer: not a good idea.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061022/NEWS06/610220699/1008/NEWS
Activists upset over dump plan near shore
October 22, 2006
TRAVERSE CITY -- A Canadian energy company's proposal to bury waste from nuclear power plants near the Lake Huron shore in Ontario is drawing protests from a member of the U.S. Congress and environmental activists on both sides of the border.
Ontario Power Generation Inc. wants to develop an underground storage facility at the Bruce Nuclear Site in Kincardine, about 140 miles northwest of Toronto and about 50 miles east of the tip of Michigan's Thumb area.
The waste wouldn't be the most potent, or high-level variety -- spent nuclear fuel.
NATIONAL STORIES
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061021/OPINION03/610210407/1008/OPINION01
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Clarence Page
2008 presidential head game starts
F ormer Virginia Gov. Mark Warner's surprising decision to drop out of the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination marathon disappointed the party's moderates. But, his reasons revealed a weakness that dooms most presidential hopefuls: He showed a concern for something besides winning.
Concern for kids and kin is a fine quality in most human beings, but professional political handlers will tell you that it only gets in the way of a presidential campaign.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/10/20/BL2006102000309.html
Hillary, Johnny Mac and Mo
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 20, 2006; 8:16 AM
The '08 shadowboxing between the junior senator from New York and the senior senator from Arizona has taken a nasty turn.
Hillary Clinton and John McCain, the (ridiculously) early front-runners in their parties, seemed to have a cordial relationship, and why not? She's been working overtime to forge alliances with Republican lawmakers, and he's long been known for teaming up with the likes of Joe Lieberman and defending his friend John Kerry.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/21/AR2006102101047.html
Democrats Strengthen Chances For Senate
Va., Mo. and Tenn. May Tip the Balance
By Charles Babington and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, October 22, 2006; Page A01
Democrats in the past two weeks have significantly improved their chances of taking control of the Senate, according to polls and independent analysts, with the battle now focused intensely on three states in the Midwest and upper South: Missouri, Tennessee and Virginia.
Democratic challengers are in strong positions against GOP incumbents in four states -- Pennsylvania, Montana, Ohio and Rhode Island -- a trend that leaves the party looking for just two more seats to reclaim the majority. The main targets are states where Republicans in recent years have dominated but this year find themselves in hotly competitive races.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/
Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 10/20/2006
In Governors Races, Dems Hold Edge in Final Stretch
Less than three weeks away from the 2006 midterm elections, Democrats appear well positioned to add to their collection of governors' mansions across the country. Four seats -- New York, Ohio, Colorado and Massachusetts -- are looking increasingly like sure things. Arkansas has the look of a pick-up for Democrats as well.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/21/AR2006102100852.html
Rove Road-Tests Tougher Attack on Democrats
By Michael Abramowitz and Zachary A. Goldfarb
Sunday, October 22, 2006; Page A05
BUFFALO, Oct. 21 -- Republicans have been promising they would ratchet up the rhetoric against Democrats in the final two weeks of the fall campaign, and the man President Bush called "The Architect" of his political campaigns offered a preview of what they have in mind on Friday night.
Appearing in support of embattled GOP Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds (R-N.Y.), Karl Rove offered biting jibes against House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), took a shot at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and asserted that Democratic policies would leave the country weaker.
Scalia rips judges on abortion, suicide
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Deeply controversial issues like abortion and suicide rights have nothing to do with the Constitution, and unelected judges too often choose to find new rights at the expense of the democratic process, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Saturday.
Scalia, during a talk on the judiciary sponsored by the National Italian American Foundation, dismissed the idea of judicial independence as an absolute virtue. He noted that dozens of states, since the mid-1800s, have chosen to let citizens elect their judges.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KENNEDYS_COURT?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Justice Kennedy holds key to high court
WASHINGTON (AP) -- When Anthony Kennedy takes his seat, third from the left, among the black-robed justices of the Supreme Court, his presence behind the raised mahogany bench is remarkably unremarkable.
There is nothing of the buttoned-down manner of Chief Justice John Roberts, the professorial mien of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the biting wit of Antonin Scalia.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/21/AR2006102100960.html
Unbowed Jefferson Keeps Up the Fight
By Allan Lengel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 22, 2006; Page A05
NEW ORLEANS -- At a barbershop in the Third Ward, in an area still woozy from Hurricane Katrina's knockout punch, the chatter was about what to do with Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.).
"He's got my vote. I like Jefferson," shop owner Charles Harris said as he finished up a haircut. "They haven't indicted him, number one. Whenever they come up with some concrete evidence, that might change things."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/21/AR2006102101050.html
How Foley Skirted Rules To Pursue Relationships
Former Pages Describe Lawmaker's Advances
By Amy Goldstein and Elizabeth Williamson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, October 22, 2006; Page A01
They met on the House floor. He was a 16-year-old political junkie, dressed in the drab navy blazer and gray slacks of a congressional page, rushing phone messages to the members he served. Rep. Mark Foley was tanned and charismatic, a successful politician in his mid-40s willing to joke with him between votes.
They talked perhaps a dozen times. Then at his page graduation ceremony that June, in 2002, he was excited when Foley appeared, uninvited, and dictated his personal e-mail address for the boy to jot in his memory book. "I started contacting him right away," the young man recalled. "I knew a congressman that I . . . talked to online. That was pretty cool."
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CONGRESSMAN_E_MAILS?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Fla. church probes priest tied to Foley
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- The Archdiocese of Miami has asked priests at eight Florida churches to speak with parishioners about whether a retired Catholic priest accused of molesting former Rep. Mark Foley may have molested anyone else.
The archdiocese on Friday also barred the Rev. Anthony Mercieca from all church work while it investigates the allegations.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/20/AR2006102001572.html
Foley Case a Test for Ethics Panel
Prompt Completion Is Unlikely By Long-Dormant Committee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 21, 2006; Page A08
Despite an uncharacteristic spurt of activity, the House ethics committee is unlikely to complete its investigation of the Mark Foley page scandal before the election, but it may issue an interim report on Foley's activities and how the GOP leadership responded to warnings, according to sources.
A committee panel has spent two weeks hearing from an array of witnesses. These included former House clerk Jeff Trandahl, who helped supervise the pages, and House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), who said he warned House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) this spring about Foley's inappropriate e-mails to a former page from Louisiana.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061022/POLITICS/610220337/1022
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Bush family company capitalizes on Education Act
Walter F. Roche Jr. / Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON -- A company headed by President Bush's brother and partly owned by his parents is benefiting from Republican connections and federal dollars targeted for economically disadvantaged students under the No Child Left Behind Act.
With investments from his parents, George H.W. and Barbara Bush, and other backers, Neil Bush's company, Ignite! Learning, has placed its products in 40 U.S. school districts and plans to market internationally.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061021/OPINION03/610210405/1008/OPINION01
Saturday, October 21, 2006
George Will
Bill Clinton dispenses dubious economic analysis
R ecently Bill Clinton, at the British Labour Party's annual conference, delivered what the Times of London described as a "relaxed, almost rambling" and "easy anecdotal" speech to an enthralled audience of leftists eager for evidence of American disappointments. Never a connoisseur of understatement, Clinton said America is "now outsourcing college-education jobs to India."
But Clinton-as-Cassandra should not persuade college students to abandon their quest for diplomas: The unemployment rate among college graduates is 2 percent.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/20/AR2006102000174.html
Suspecting Leak, Chairman Suspends Panel Staffer
Democratic Aide to House Intelligence Committee Was Flagged by GOP Member Based on 'Coincidence'
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 21, 2006; Page A04
The Republican chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence suspended a mid-level Democratic staffer Tuesday based on a suspicion that he may have been connected to the leak of a politically damaging intelligence report almost a month ago, according to Republican and Democratic congressional sources.
The action by Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), which has drawn sharp criticism from Democratic panel members, was described by legislators of both parties as another example of the increased partisan infighting that has damaged the workings of the intelligence panel during this election year.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TERROR_DETAINEES?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
U.S. jailed man once tortured by Taliban
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Abdul Rahim insists he's an apolitical student who fled a strict father. But he's fallen into a black hole in the war on terror in which first the Taliban and then the United States imprisoned him as an enemy of the state.
Arrested by the Taliban in Afghanistan in January 2000, Rahim says al-Qaida leaders burned him with cigarettes, smashed his right hand, deprived him of sleep, nearly drowned him and hanged him from the ceiling until he "confessed" to spying for the United States.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061022/OPINION03/610220304/1271
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Nolan Finley
Ex-jihadist seeks Islam's Martin Luther
A former jihadist stopped by my office last week with a solution to the threat from radical Islam: more baseball and more sex.
Dr. Tawfik Hamid is not being flip. The physician and author believes the repressed passions of young Muslims, particularly Sunnis, make them susceptible to the promise of a heaven filled with pleasures of the flesh, and eager to blow up themselves and others to get there.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_IRAQ?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Bush holds strategy session on Iraq
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush on Saturday reviewed Iraq strategy with top war commanders and national security advisers, but indicated little inclination for major changes to an increasingly divisive policy.
"Our goal in Iraq is clear and unchanging: Our goal is victory," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "What is changing are the tactics we use to achieve that goal."
Under bipartisan, pre-election pressure for a significant re-examination of the president's war plan, the White House is walking a fine line.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/21/AR2006102100360.html
At White House Meeting, No Big Changes on Iraq
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 22, 2006; Page A08
President Bush met with his top advisers and military commanders on Iraq yesterday in a White House session that, senior officials said, weighed options for forging a way forward amid the surging violence but did not contemplate any major shifts in strategy.
The participants in the 90-minute video conference -- who included Vice President Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad and Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the military commander in Iraq -- talked about tactical changes that could overcome the severe challenges posed by the war, officials said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/21/AR2006102100315.html
Bush: Tactics in Iraq May Change but Not Goal
Reuters
Saturday, October 21, 2006; 10:24 AM
By Caren Bohan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush said Saturday he would make "every necessary change" in tactics to respond to spiraling violence in Iraq, and he acknowledged a drive to stabilize Baghdad had not gone as planned.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/20/AR2006102000867.html
Bush, Rumsfeld Defend Strategy
They Say Surge In Violence Won't Change Iraq Goals
By Ann Scott Tyson and Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, October 21, 2006; Page A01
President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld yesterday defended the U.S. strategy in Iraq, saying the ultimate goals remain unchanged despite escalating violence and increasingly somber assessments from military leaders on the ground.
Speaking at a Washington fundraiser, Bush said the U.S. goal in Iraq "is clear and unchanging": creating a country that can govern and defend itself and "that will be an ally in the war against these extremists."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/21/AR2006102100832.html
Change Course in Iraq
President Bush must revise the U.S. strategy for stabilizing the country.
Sunday, October 22, 2006; Page B06
PRESIDENT BUSH said this month that he was willing to "change tactics" in Iraq if U.S strategy was not working. We believe the time has come for such a change. The Iraqi coalition government that Mr. Bush has been counting on to forge political compromises and disarm sectarian militias doesn't seem to have the strength to carry out either mission. A U.S.-led attempt to pacify Baghdad by concentrating forces in the capital has failed, while contributing to a grievous spike in American casualties. Support for the war is rapidly slipping, in the country and in Congress; a congressionally mandated commission is likely to recommend a new course sometime after next month's election. Mr. Bush would be wise to act sooner than that: The rapidly deteriorating situation in Iraq needs to be addressed urgently.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SURVEYING_IRAQ?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Poll: Iraqi youth want U.S. to leave
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Majorities of Iraqi youth in Arab regions of the country believe security would improve and violence decrease if the U.S.-led forces left immediately, according to a State Department poll that provides a window into the grim warnings provided to policymakers.
The survey - unclassified, but marked "For Official Government Use Only" - also finds that Iraqi leaders may face particular difficulty recruiting young Sunni Arabs to join the stumbling security forces. Strong majorities of 15- to 29-year-olds in two Arab Sunni areas - Mosul and Tikrit-Baquba - would oppose joining the Iraqi army or police.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_KOREA_DEFENSE?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
U.S. reaffirms promise to defend S.Korea
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. is pledging "immediate support" of South Korea as part of a "firm" commitment to defend its ally under America's nuclear umbrella, stronger language than in last year's version of their long-standing policy statement.
Noting North Korea's nuclear test Oct. 9, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and South Korean Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung "demanded that North Korea refrain from any further action that might aggravate tensions," according to the joint communique made public Saturday.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061021/OPINION03/610210404/1008/OPINION01
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Charles Krauthammer
Let Japan consider going nuclear
T he first stop on Condoleezza Rice's post-detonation, nuclear reassurance tour was Tokyo. There, she dutifully unfurled the American nuclear umbrella, pledging in person that the United States would meet any North Korean attack on Japan with massive American retaliation, nuclear if necessary.
An important message, to be sure, for the short run, lest Kim Jong Il imbibe a little too much cognac and be teased by one of his "pleasure squad" lovelies into launching a missile or two into Japan.
