Wednesday, August 11, 2004
"We can change America one soul at a time by encouraging people to spread something government cannot spread, which is love."- President Junior
No, they aren’t the “Liberal Media” Dan Rather, in a discussion with the other anchors, last month.
Bill Kristol, whom I don't think anybody would accuse of being liberal says, and I'm quoting here, I brought this so I could quote him directly, far be it if I missed one word. "I admit it, the liberal media were never that powerful and the whole thing was often used as an excuse by conservatives for conservative failures." Pat Buchanan, not exactly a bomb-throwing bolshevik, Pat Buchanan says; "The truth is I have gotten fairer, more comprehensive coverage of my ideas than I ever imagined I would receive." Another quote: "I've gotten balanced coverage and broad coverage, all we could have asked. We kid about the liberal media but every Republican on Earth does that.” http://209.208.176.243/bin/blogExcerpts.cfm?blogId=1&prg=3
The Liberal Media, II Fair.org notes a line stepped over
Note that one of the supporters thanked by Bush for appearing with him at his campaign rally is Joe Scarborough, formerly a Republican congressmember from Florida but currently an MSNBC talkshow host. (In a photograph of the rally, Scarborough can be seen standing behind Bush on the platform.) Does MSNBC think it's OK for its hosts to be campaigning for presidential candidates? If so, where is the pro-Kerry host on MSNBC's schedule that would balance out Scarborough's partisanship? http://www.fair.org/views.html
Who is Porter Goss, the CIA Designee? More than you want to know:
A true partisan, Goss will be a distraction from matters of state that should be addressed. CIA agency veteran Ray McGovern termed Bush’s designating Goss "the ultimate in politicization." As Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, he’s been Cheney’s boy and has been particularly appalling re former CIA head Tenet. Goss was a vocal supporter of Tenet until Tenet was heavily criticized in the June report on intelligence, Goss- smelling the chance to become the CIA chief- suddenly became one of Tenet’s fiercest critics. As the LA Times then noted, “Where was Mr. Intelligence Committee Chairman all those years?”
His past includes his having blocked efforts to investigate Abu Ghraib and Ahmed Chalabi. Arguably more disturbing was his opposition to a Plame investigation, which was a vivid demonstration about his priorities... (do note the last line)
Goss says CIA leak not worthy of committee actionRep. Porter Goss said Thursday that the uproar over allegations that White House officials purposely identified a covert CIA agent appears largely political and doesn't yet merit an investigation by the House Select Committee on Intelligence, which he chairs.Goss, who was a CIA agent himself from the early 1960s to 1971, said he takes such leaks seriously, but he distinguished between a willful violation of federal law and an inadvertent disclosure. Goss also said no one from the intelligence agencies has raised the issue with him since syndicated columnist Robert Novak identified the agent in a column July 14."I would say there's a much larger dose of partisan politics going on right now than there is worry about national security," said Goss, R-Sanibel. "But I would never take lightly a serious allegation backed up by evidence that there was a willful -- and I emphasize willful, inadvertent is something else -- willful disclosure, and I haven't seen any evidence." Goss said he would act if he did have evidence of that sort."Somebody sends me a blue dress and some DNA, I'll have an investigation," Goss said. http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2003310030460
Finally, there’s a passage from Gail Sheehy’s piece on the Jersey moms, as they sought info about the 9/11 attacks.
The four moms—Kristen Breitweiser, Patty Casazza, Mindy Kleinberg and Lorie van Auken—use tactics more like those of a leaderless cell. They have learned how to deposit their assorted seven children with select grandmothers before dawn and rocket down the Garden State Parkway to Washington. They have become experts at changing out of pedal-pushers and into proper pantsuits while their S.U.V. is stopped in traffic, so they can hit the Capitol rotunda running. They have talked strategy with Senator John McCain and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle. They once caught Congressman Porter Goss hiding behind his office door to avoid them. (my emphasis.) http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Just_Four_Moms_from_New_Jersey
Sanity from Abroad: What’s With these Terror Alerts? Jeffrey Fleishman reports on Europeans wondering what’s up
Heightened terror alerts and high-profile arrests of suspected Islamic extremists have international security experts and officials concerned that the Bush administration's actions could jeopardize investigations into the Al Qaeda network. European terrorism analysts acknowledge that the U.S. and its allies are under threat by Al Qaeda, but some suggest that the White House is unnecessarily adding to public anxiety with vague and dated intelligence about possible attacks. Some in Western Europe suspect the administration is using fear to improve its chances in the November election.Terrorism experts say too much publicity about possible plots and raids of Islamic extremist networks, including the arrest of 13 suspects in Britain last week, could hurt wider investigations. American politicians have called for an examination of that contention. Officials in Pakistan reportedly said Tuesday that Washington's recent disclosure of the arrest of a suspected Al Qaeda operative, Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, allowed other extremists under surveillance to disappear."It causes a problem. There's no doubt about that," said Charles Heyman, editor of Jane's World Armies. "The moment you make any announcement, you tell the other side what you know. As a rule of thumb, you should keep quiet about what you know." http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-terror11aug11.story
Iran: We know that the focus on the invasion of Iraq was a massive distraction from more important issues and threats. Fareed Zakaria notes that Iran is one of those, that it won’t be easy to deal with, regardless of who wins on November 2.
The threat to the United States from Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, if they ever existed, is in the past. Iran, on the other hand, is the problem of the future. Over the past two years, thanks to tips from Iranian opposition groups and investigations by the International Atomic Energy Agency, it has become clear that Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons. In the words of the agency, Iran has "a practically complete front-end of a nuclear fuel cycle," which leads most experts to believe it is two to three years away from having a nuclear bomb.
European countries were as worried by this development as Washington, and because the United States has no relations with Iran, Europe stepped in last fall and negotiated a deal with Tehran. It was an excellent agreement, under which Iran pledged to stop developing fissile material (the core ingredient of a nuclear bomb) and to keep its nuclear program transparent. The only problem is, Iran has recently announced that it isn't going to abide by the deal. As the IAEA's investigation became more serious, Tehran became more secretive. One month ago the agency condemned Iran for its failure to cooperate. Tehran responded by announcing that it would resume work in prohibited areas.
http://65.54.186.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=a463f5c0d3aeda989c68ef63d2a0e42b&lat=1092236018&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fletters%2ewashingtonpost%2ecom%2fW7RH045E3292FEBA439543FBA38830
Oh yes, and North Korea: Mike Allen and Walter Pincus of the Washington Post have a tidbit about North Korea…and Goss
On June 1, Goss took part in a Bush-Cheney conference call with reporters to critique Kerry's first national security speech. He described one of Kerry's nonproliferation proposals as "naive," and answered "clearly yes," to a question about whether Bush's policy toward North Korea was producing results. North Korea, he said, is "no longer making the progress they were making at Yongbyon [their key nuclear production site] and other places because we have called their bluff."
In fact, since the Bush administration confronted the Pyongyang government, North Korea has thrown out inspectors, removed nuclear fuel from internationally monitored storage, and may have increased the size of its nuclear arsenal, according to U.S. intelligence. http://65.54.186.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=8fb100f1513d12bad5f540d8460062d0&lat=1092236068&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fletters%2ewashingtonpost%2ecom%2fW7RH045D87056EBA439543FBB48120
Single Payer Health in Massachusetts. The long road continues…[brief posting on boston.com]:
Gov. Mitt Romney's administration has rejected a study that would assess the cost of providing health care coverage to all Massachusetts residents.
Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, acting on behalf of an out-of-state Romney, sent the bill back to the Legislature unsigned, which is the equivalent to a veto. The Legislature can only overturn vetoes during formal sessions, which have ended for the year.
The bill called for a study of the feasibility of establishing a health care trust fund, which would cover the cost of health care provided to Massachusetts residents. The Legislature passed the bill during the last week of the session.
Romney said the study would duplicate the effort of a study just completed two years ago, which analyzed the cost implications of three different models of reform. He said the new study would impose a ''costly and unrealistic administrative burden.''
Sen. Steven Tolman, D-Boston, who sponsored the bill, said that the final language was the result of a compromise between the House and Senate. He said it would answer questions that the two-year-old study did not address.
He said it would also give the Legislature more answers when it returns next year to consider a constitutional amendment that would guarantee health coverage to all Massachusetts residents. The Legislature gave the amendment the first round of approval this year, but must reaffirm its support during the 2005-2006 session before it goes to the ballot for the voters' consideration.
Halliburton: More bad news for Cheney’s company.
Pentagon auditors have concluded that Halliburton Co. hasn't adequately accounted for more than $1.8 billion of work in Iraq and Kuwait, a finding that is likely to increase pressure on the government to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to the company.
The amount, disclosed in a Pentagon report, represents 43% of the $4.18 billion that Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root has so far billed the Pentagon for its work feeding and housing troops in the region. A move to withhold substantial payments to KBR could create new headaches for Halliburton, whose KBR unit filed for bankruptcy-court protection under the weight of billions of dollars of asbestos claims. http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109217890916788112,00.html?mod=home%5Fpage%5Fone%5Fus
Election Fraud: Dry Run in Venezuela?
Greg Palast, who has covered the Florida ‘problem’ since November, 2000 raises the question of whether American ‘interference’ will be decisive in this weekend’s vote.
… Chavez is expected to win this coming Sunday's recall vote. That is, if the elections are free and fair. They won't be. Some months ago, a little birdie faxed to me what appeared to be confidential pages from a contract between John Ashcroft's Justice Department and a company called ChoicePoint, Inc., of Atlanta. The deal is part of the War on Terror.
Justice offered up to $67 million, of our taxpayer money, to ChoicePoint in a no-bid deal, for computer profiles with private information on every citizen of half a dozen nations. The choice of which nation's citizens to spy on caught my eye. While the September 11th highjackers came from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon and the Arab Emirates, ChoicePoint's menu offered records on Venezuelans, Brazilians, Nicaraguans, Mexicans and Argentines. How odd. Had the CIA uncovered a Latin plot to sneak suicide tango dancers across the border with exploding enchiladas?" http://www.gregpalast.com/
Election Fraud, II: Republicans Collecting Their Lawyers
With the Democrats threatening to file lawsuits in anticipation of post-presidential election fallout, Republicans are amassing their own team of legal eagles, headed in Florida by Gov. Jeb Bush's former deputy general counsel.
Hayden Dempsey, who left Bush's office to join the prominent Greenberg Traurig firm last year, confirmed Monday he has been tapped as the statewide chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign's legal defense team, Lawyers for Bush.
While the Democrats have made no secret about their cadre of lawyers — Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry reportedly has 2,000 lawyers ready to defend him — Republicans, including Dempsey, remain tight-lipped about their legal brigade. http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/news/epaper/2004/08/10/a4a_gopvote_0810.html
Kerry re authorizing the Iraq invasion
I’m not supportive of his vote then or his ‘Knowing then what I know now I would still vote as I did.’ But it did broach still another media misrepresentation. The resolution of October, 2002 was NOT a vote for war. It didn’t demand the use of force. It “authorized the use of the United States Armed Forces against Iraq” under the specific condition that they were found to be a threat to our security. And, the resolution supported diplomatic efforts. So, while Kerry certainly wasn’t naïve in voting as he did, he’s not being inconsistent or a ‘flip-flopper’.
Confidence: Overconfidence?
"Everybody knows it's going to be tight ... but I think the odds are high -- 60-40 -- that Kerry will prevail," said Convention Permanent Chairman Bill Richardson, governor of New Mexico. "We realize there is a lot of anti-Bush sentiment. It's out there and you take advantage of it.""Absent a mistake by us, Kerry's the next president, declared Bob Mulholland, a Democratic national committeeman and delegate from California."I'm pretty conservative, but I think the rest of the party thinks Kerry has it won," said Lawrence Gates, the Democratic state chairman from Kansas. "I think Bush caused it. It's black and white. Bush has polarized the country, and become more arrogant when he should have taken a humble pill.""Bush blew it in a myriad of ways," said Kentucky Democratic State Chairman Bill Garmer, listing job losses, the budget surplus swallowed by new deficits, and "a war that won't work because all the reasons put forth turned out not to be true.""It's more like it's ours to lose than to win now," said Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Firefighters, as he arrived at a convention party at Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's family compound in Hyannis. "Everybody in the party is now optimistic. I've never seen the party as energized, united and enthused."It's not unusual for political leaders to boast about their prospects at their party's national convention, but this year many Democrats appear to be believe their own hype.The Democrats' cockiness is evident to independent observers and could be their downfall. http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/benson072704.html
-R
No, they aren’t the “Liberal Media” Dan Rather, in a discussion with the other anchors, last month.
Bill Kristol, whom I don't think anybody would accuse of being liberal says, and I'm quoting here, I brought this so I could quote him directly, far be it if I missed one word. "I admit it, the liberal media were never that powerful and the whole thing was often used as an excuse by conservatives for conservative failures." Pat Buchanan, not exactly a bomb-throwing bolshevik, Pat Buchanan says; "The truth is I have gotten fairer, more comprehensive coverage of my ideas than I ever imagined I would receive." Another quote: "I've gotten balanced coverage and broad coverage, all we could have asked. We kid about the liberal media but every Republican on Earth does that.” http://209.208.176.243/bin/blogExcerpts.cfm?blogId=1&prg=3
The Liberal Media, II Fair.org notes a line stepped over
Note that one of the supporters thanked by Bush for appearing with him at his campaign rally is Joe Scarborough, formerly a Republican congressmember from Florida but currently an MSNBC talkshow host. (In a photograph of the rally, Scarborough can be seen standing behind Bush on the platform.) Does MSNBC think it's OK for its hosts to be campaigning for presidential candidates? If so, where is the pro-Kerry host on MSNBC's schedule that would balance out Scarborough's partisanship? http://www.fair.org/views.html
Who is Porter Goss, the CIA Designee? More than you want to know:
A true partisan, Goss will be a distraction from matters of state that should be addressed. CIA agency veteran Ray McGovern termed Bush’s designating Goss "the ultimate in politicization." As Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, he’s been Cheney’s boy and has been particularly appalling re former CIA head Tenet. Goss was a vocal supporter of Tenet until Tenet was heavily criticized in the June report on intelligence, Goss- smelling the chance to become the CIA chief- suddenly became one of Tenet’s fiercest critics. As the LA Times then noted, “Where was Mr. Intelligence Committee Chairman all those years?”
His past includes his having blocked efforts to investigate Abu Ghraib and Ahmed Chalabi. Arguably more disturbing was his opposition to a Plame investigation, which was a vivid demonstration about his priorities... (do note the last line)
Goss says CIA leak not worthy of committee actionRep. Porter Goss said Thursday that the uproar over allegations that White House officials purposely identified a covert CIA agent appears largely political and doesn't yet merit an investigation by the House Select Committee on Intelligence, which he chairs.Goss, who was a CIA agent himself from the early 1960s to 1971, said he takes such leaks seriously, but he distinguished between a willful violation of federal law and an inadvertent disclosure. Goss also said no one from the intelligence agencies has raised the issue with him since syndicated columnist Robert Novak identified the agent in a column July 14."I would say there's a much larger dose of partisan politics going on right now than there is worry about national security," said Goss, R-Sanibel. "But I would never take lightly a serious allegation backed up by evidence that there was a willful -- and I emphasize willful, inadvertent is something else -- willful disclosure, and I haven't seen any evidence." Goss said he would act if he did have evidence of that sort."Somebody sends me a blue dress and some DNA, I'll have an investigation," Goss said. http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2003310030460
Finally, there’s a passage from Gail Sheehy’s piece on the Jersey moms, as they sought info about the 9/11 attacks.
The four moms—Kristen Breitweiser, Patty Casazza, Mindy Kleinberg and Lorie van Auken—use tactics more like those of a leaderless cell. They have learned how to deposit their assorted seven children with select grandmothers before dawn and rocket down the Garden State Parkway to Washington. They have become experts at changing out of pedal-pushers and into proper pantsuits while their S.U.V. is stopped in traffic, so they can hit the Capitol rotunda running. They have talked strategy with Senator John McCain and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle. They once caught Congressman Porter Goss hiding behind his office door to avoid them. (my emphasis.) http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Just_Four_Moms_from_New_Jersey
Sanity from Abroad: What’s With these Terror Alerts? Jeffrey Fleishman reports on Europeans wondering what’s up
Heightened terror alerts and high-profile arrests of suspected Islamic extremists have international security experts and officials concerned that the Bush administration's actions could jeopardize investigations into the Al Qaeda network. European terrorism analysts acknowledge that the U.S. and its allies are under threat by Al Qaeda, but some suggest that the White House is unnecessarily adding to public anxiety with vague and dated intelligence about possible attacks. Some in Western Europe suspect the administration is using fear to improve its chances in the November election.Terrorism experts say too much publicity about possible plots and raids of Islamic extremist networks, including the arrest of 13 suspects in Britain last week, could hurt wider investigations. American politicians have called for an examination of that contention. Officials in Pakistan reportedly said Tuesday that Washington's recent disclosure of the arrest of a suspected Al Qaeda operative, Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, allowed other extremists under surveillance to disappear."It causes a problem. There's no doubt about that," said Charles Heyman, editor of Jane's World Armies. "The moment you make any announcement, you tell the other side what you know. As a rule of thumb, you should keep quiet about what you know." http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-terror11aug11.story
Iran: We know that the focus on the invasion of Iraq was a massive distraction from more important issues and threats. Fareed Zakaria notes that Iran is one of those, that it won’t be easy to deal with, regardless of who wins on November 2.
The threat to the United States from Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, if they ever existed, is in the past. Iran, on the other hand, is the problem of the future. Over the past two years, thanks to tips from Iranian opposition groups and investigations by the International Atomic Energy Agency, it has become clear that Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons. In the words of the agency, Iran has "a practically complete front-end of a nuclear fuel cycle," which leads most experts to believe it is two to three years away from having a nuclear bomb.
European countries were as worried by this development as Washington, and because the United States has no relations with Iran, Europe stepped in last fall and negotiated a deal with Tehran. It was an excellent agreement, under which Iran pledged to stop developing fissile material (the core ingredient of a nuclear bomb) and to keep its nuclear program transparent. The only problem is, Iran has recently announced that it isn't going to abide by the deal. As the IAEA's investigation became more serious, Tehran became more secretive. One month ago the agency condemned Iran for its failure to cooperate. Tehran responded by announcing that it would resume work in prohibited areas.
http://65.54.186.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=a463f5c0d3aeda989c68ef63d2a0e42b&lat=1092236018&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fletters%2ewashingtonpost%2ecom%2fW7RH045E3292FEBA439543FBA38830
Oh yes, and North Korea: Mike Allen and Walter Pincus of the Washington Post have a tidbit about North Korea…and Goss
On June 1, Goss took part in a Bush-Cheney conference call with reporters to critique Kerry's first national security speech. He described one of Kerry's nonproliferation proposals as "naive," and answered "clearly yes," to a question about whether Bush's policy toward North Korea was producing results. North Korea, he said, is "no longer making the progress they were making at Yongbyon [their key nuclear production site] and other places because we have called their bluff."
In fact, since the Bush administration confronted the Pyongyang government, North Korea has thrown out inspectors, removed nuclear fuel from internationally monitored storage, and may have increased the size of its nuclear arsenal, according to U.S. intelligence. http://65.54.186.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=8fb100f1513d12bad5f540d8460062d0&lat=1092236068&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fletters%2ewashingtonpost%2ecom%2fW7RH045D87056EBA439543FBB48120
Single Payer Health in Massachusetts. The long road continues…[brief posting on boston.com]:
Gov. Mitt Romney's administration has rejected a study that would assess the cost of providing health care coverage to all Massachusetts residents.
Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, acting on behalf of an out-of-state Romney, sent the bill back to the Legislature unsigned, which is the equivalent to a veto. The Legislature can only overturn vetoes during formal sessions, which have ended for the year.
The bill called for a study of the feasibility of establishing a health care trust fund, which would cover the cost of health care provided to Massachusetts residents. The Legislature passed the bill during the last week of the session.
Romney said the study would duplicate the effort of a study just completed two years ago, which analyzed the cost implications of three different models of reform. He said the new study would impose a ''costly and unrealistic administrative burden.''
Sen. Steven Tolman, D-Boston, who sponsored the bill, said that the final language was the result of a compromise between the House and Senate. He said it would answer questions that the two-year-old study did not address.
He said it would also give the Legislature more answers when it returns next year to consider a constitutional amendment that would guarantee health coverage to all Massachusetts residents. The Legislature gave the amendment the first round of approval this year, but must reaffirm its support during the 2005-2006 session before it goes to the ballot for the voters' consideration.
Halliburton: More bad news for Cheney’s company.
Pentagon auditors have concluded that Halliburton Co. hasn't adequately accounted for more than $1.8 billion of work in Iraq and Kuwait, a finding that is likely to increase pressure on the government to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to the company.
The amount, disclosed in a Pentagon report, represents 43% of the $4.18 billion that Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root has so far billed the Pentagon for its work feeding and housing troops in the region. A move to withhold substantial payments to KBR could create new headaches for Halliburton, whose KBR unit filed for bankruptcy-court protection under the weight of billions of dollars of asbestos claims. http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109217890916788112,00.html?mod=home%5Fpage%5Fone%5Fus
Election Fraud: Dry Run in Venezuela?
Greg Palast, who has covered the Florida ‘problem’ since November, 2000 raises the question of whether American ‘interference’ will be decisive in this weekend’s vote.
… Chavez is expected to win this coming Sunday's recall vote. That is, if the elections are free and fair. They won't be. Some months ago, a little birdie faxed to me what appeared to be confidential pages from a contract between John Ashcroft's Justice Department and a company called ChoicePoint, Inc., of Atlanta. The deal is part of the War on Terror.
Justice offered up to $67 million, of our taxpayer money, to ChoicePoint in a no-bid deal, for computer profiles with private information on every citizen of half a dozen nations. The choice of which nation's citizens to spy on caught my eye. While the September 11th highjackers came from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon and the Arab Emirates, ChoicePoint's menu offered records on Venezuelans, Brazilians, Nicaraguans, Mexicans and Argentines. How odd. Had the CIA uncovered a Latin plot to sneak suicide tango dancers across the border with exploding enchiladas?" http://www.gregpalast.com/
Election Fraud, II: Republicans Collecting Their Lawyers
With the Democrats threatening to file lawsuits in anticipation of post-presidential election fallout, Republicans are amassing their own team of legal eagles, headed in Florida by Gov. Jeb Bush's former deputy general counsel.
Hayden Dempsey, who left Bush's office to join the prominent Greenberg Traurig firm last year, confirmed Monday he has been tapped as the statewide chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign's legal defense team, Lawyers for Bush.
While the Democrats have made no secret about their cadre of lawyers — Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry reportedly has 2,000 lawyers ready to defend him — Republicans, including Dempsey, remain tight-lipped about their legal brigade. http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/news/epaper/2004/08/10/a4a_gopvote_0810.html
Kerry re authorizing the Iraq invasion
I’m not supportive of his vote then or his ‘Knowing then what I know now I would still vote as I did.’ But it did broach still another media misrepresentation. The resolution of October, 2002 was NOT a vote for war. It didn’t demand the use of force. It “authorized the use of the United States Armed Forces against Iraq” under the specific condition that they were found to be a threat to our security. And, the resolution supported diplomatic efforts. So, while Kerry certainly wasn’t naïve in voting as he did, he’s not being inconsistent or a ‘flip-flopper’.
Confidence: Overconfidence?
"Everybody knows it's going to be tight ... but I think the odds are high -- 60-40 -- that Kerry will prevail," said Convention Permanent Chairman Bill Richardson, governor of New Mexico. "We realize there is a lot of anti-Bush sentiment. It's out there and you take advantage of it.""Absent a mistake by us, Kerry's the next president, declared Bob Mulholland, a Democratic national committeeman and delegate from California."I'm pretty conservative, but I think the rest of the party thinks Kerry has it won," said Lawrence Gates, the Democratic state chairman from Kansas. "I think Bush caused it. It's black and white. Bush has polarized the country, and become more arrogant when he should have taken a humble pill.""Bush blew it in a myriad of ways," said Kentucky Democratic State Chairman Bill Garmer, listing job losses, the budget surplus swallowed by new deficits, and "a war that won't work because all the reasons put forth turned out not to be true.""It's more like it's ours to lose than to win now," said Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Firefighters, as he arrived at a convention party at Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's family compound in Hyannis. "Everybody in the party is now optimistic. I've never seen the party as energized, united and enthused."It's not unusual for political leaders to boast about their prospects at their party's national convention, but this year many Democrats appear to be believe their own hype.The Democrats' cockiness is evident to independent observers and could be their downfall. http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/benson072704.html
-R
