Tuesday, January 11, 2005
"I feel a strange kinship with Michael. They're trying to pit us against each other in the press, but it's a hologram. They really have got nothing to do with one another. It's just some kind of device, some left-right. He makes some salient points. There was some very expert, elliptical editing going on. However, what the hell are we doing in Iraq? No one can explain to me in a reasonable manner that I can accept why we're there, why we went there, and why we're still there." – Mel Gibson, re press talk about he and "antagonist" Michael Moore
Armstrong Williams: Follow-up: David Corn (The Nation) interviewing Williams:
And then Williams violated a PR rule: he got off-point. "This happens all the time," he told me. "There are others." Really? I said. Other conservative commentators accept money from the Bush administration? I asked Williams for names. "I'm not going to defend myself that way," he said. The issue right now, he explained, was his own mistake. Well, I said, what if I call you up in a few weeks, after this blows over, and then ask you? No, he said. Does Williams really know something about other rightwing pundits? Or was he only trying to minimize his own screw-up with a momentary embrace of a trumped-up everybody-does-it defense? I could not tell. But if the IG at the Department of Education or any other official questions Williams, I suggest he or she ask what Williams meant by this comment. http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=2114
Inquiring Minds Want to Know:
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) just filed 23 Freedom of Information Act requests with government agencies in order to determine who else was on their payrolls. Fighting Liberals!From their press release:
CREW has now filed FOIAs with 23 agencies requesting copies of all contracts with public relation firms, including Ketchum and Fleishman-Hillard. Both firms have contracted with the government resulting in similar controversies, and in violation of the Publicity and Propaganda clause."This type of covert propaganda, has no place in a healthy democracy," Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW said today. "It is particularly outrageous that the government continues to engage in this sort of illegal activity despite the fact that the GAO has said that it is illegal." http://www.citizensforethics.org/activities/20050111/
Speaking of which: Allawi pays his journalists
The electoral group headed by Iyad Allawi, the interim Iraqi prime minister, on Monday handed out cash to journalists to ensure coverage of its press conferences in a throwback to Ba'athist-era patronage ahead of parliamentary elections on January 30.
After a meeting held by Mr Allawi's campaign alliance in west Baghdad, reporters, most of whom were from the Arabic-language press, were invited upstairs where each was offered a "gift" of a $100 bill contained in an envelope.
Many of the journalists accepted the cash - about equivalent to half the starting monthly salary for a reporter at an Iraqi newspaper - and one jokingly recalled how Saddam Hussein's regime had also lavished perks on favoured reporters. http://financialtimes.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=FT.com+%2F+World+%2F+Middle+East+%26+Africa+-+Allawi+group+slips+cash+to+reporters+&expire=&urlID=12831609&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2Fa3828a0c-6346-11d9-bec2-00000e2511c8%2Cft_acl%3D%2Cs01%3D1.html&partnerID=1704
Chertoff: Kerik without the scandal: New homeland guy. 2 takes:
Chertoff, whose resume includes stints as a federal prosecutor in New Jersey and the Senate Republicans' chief counsel for the Clinton-era Whitewater investigation, was one of the administration's key figures in the war on terror.
He took the lead in 2003 in successfully arguing the government's case in a potentially precedent-setting appeal involving terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui, the lone man charged as a conspirator in the Sept. 11 attacks and playing a significant role in development of the U.S. Patriot Act to combat terrorist attacks.
As a federal prosecutor in New Jersey from 1990 to 1994, Chertoff oversaw high-profile prosecutions of Jersey City Mayor Gerald McCann, New York chief judge Sol Wachtler and the kidnappers and killers of Exxon executive Sidney Reso. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2002147676&zsection_id=2002107549&slug=webhomeland11&date=20050111
In the days after 9/11, Chertoff -- as head of the criminal division under John Ashcroft -- was architect of some of the most regrettable policies of Bush I. It was Chertoff, as assistant atttorney general overseeing the initial 9/11 probe, who OK'ed and then defended the detention of hundreds of "material witnesses" of Arab descent -- even though it would later be determined that none -- that's right, none -- of the detainees had anything to do with the terrorist attacks of 2001.Chartoff's actions during this period would later be roundly criticized in a report from the Justice Department's own Inspector General. It found that immigrants were rounded up in an "indiscriminate and haphazard manner," held for months while denied access to attorneys and sometimes mistreated behind bars. http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/extra/archives/001326.html
Diverting Homeland Security $ to…the Inauguration! Our leader in the “war on terror” states his priorities:
D.C. officials said yesterday that the Bush administration is refusing to reimburse the District for most of the costs associated with next week's inauguration, breaking with precedent and forcing the city to divert $11.9 million from homeland security projects.
Federal officials have told the District that it should cover the expenses by using some of the $240 million in federal homeland security grants it has received in the past three years -- money awarded to the city because it is among the places at highest risk of a terrorist attack. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63896-2005Jan10.html
Useful Facts re Social Security: Facts: Its eventual (2042-52) shortfall is tiny compared to those of the prescription drug program and Bush’s tax cuts.
The Social Security and Medicare Trustees, a majority of whom are members of the President’s cabinet, project that the Social Security shortfall will amount to 0.7 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (the basic measure of the size of the U.S. economy) over the next 75 years. In dollar terms, the Trustees project the shortfall over the 75 year period at $3.7 trillion.
The Trustees also project the cost of the Medicare drug benefit at 1.4 percent of GDP — or $8.1 trillion — over the same period. This is at least double the size of the Social Security shortfall.
Furthermore, the cost of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, if made permanent, is 2 percent of GDP — or $11.6 trillion — over the same period, or triple the size of the Social Security shortfall. http://www.cbpp.org/1-4-05socsec.htm
Opposition- even from Republicans. No slam dunk this time.
Many Republicans are expressing reservations about the political wisdom of President Bush's vision for restructuring Social Security, as the White House today intensifies its campaign to restructure the entitlement program for the retired and disabled…
Most alarming to White House officials, some congressional Republicans are panning the president's plan -- even before it is unveiled. "Why stir up a political hornet's nest . . . when there is no urgency?" said Rep. Rob Simmons (Conn.), who represents a competitive district. "When does the program go belly up? 2042. I will be dead by then."
Simmons said there is no way he will support Bush's idea of allowing younger Americans to divert some of their payroll taxes into private accounts, especially when there are more pressing needs, such as shoring up Medicare and providing armor to U.S. troops in Iraq.
Rep. Jack Kingston (Ga.), a member of the GOP leadership, said 15 to 20 House Republicans agree with Simmons, although others say the number is closer to 40. "Just convincing our guys not to be timid is going to be a big struggle," he said. "It's going to take a lot of convincing," which he said can be done. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A64196-2005Jan10?language=printer
Krugman on Privatization: He doesn’t break new ground, but he says it well.
The administration expects us not to notice, however, that the supposed solution would do nothing to reduce that cost. Even with the most favorable assumptions, the benefits of privatization wouldn't kick in until most of the baby boomers were long gone. For the next 45 years, privatization would cost much more money than it saved.
Advocates of privatization almost always pretend that all we have to do is borrow a bit of money up front, and then the system will become self-sustaining. The Wehner memo talks of borrowing $1 trillion to $2 trillion "to cover transition costs." Similar numbers have been widely reported in the news media.
But that's just the borrowing over the next decade. Privatization would cost an additional $3 trillion in its second decade, $5 trillion in the decade after that and another $5 trillion in the decade after that. By the time privatization started to save money, if it ever did, the federal government would have run up around $15 trillion in extra debt. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/11/opinion/11krugman.html?oref=login&hp=&oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=
SS: NY Times Approaches the “Lie” word: “sow ignorance” is it for now
The editorial comment re Social Security: It appears that the president and his aides are trying to sow ignorance to gain support for their flawed privatization agenda. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/10/opinion/10mon1.html?oref=login
C’mon guys, you can do it!
Gossip: Rummy and McCain Feud. Our culture is irredeemably locked into celebrity gossip, so indulge me…
The strong-willed defense secretary and the equally hard-nosed Republican senator from Arizona, both ex-Navy pilots and hawks on Iraq, were supposed to make peace over two nagging issues. Mr. McCain did not believe Mr. Rumsfeld was adequately paying attention to, or disclosing information about, the Boeing tanker lease scandal; Mr. Rumsfeld wanted Mr. McCain to lift his opposition to several Pentagon nominations bogged down in the Senate.
Rather than serving as a peacemaker, the meeting turned into a frank exchange of views that left both men bitter toward the other, according to two defense sources who were briefed later.
"It went very badly," said one source. "Rumsfeld brought over McCain to schmooze him. It didn't work." The sources differed on the exact wording, but they agreed that when Mr. Rumsfeld was unable to persuade the Arizona Republican to let the nominees go forward, he suggested the senator, a prisoner of war in Vietnam, was hurting the war effort.
"This is when McCain just about climbed over the table," one source said. http://insider.washingtontimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050110-122435-5478r
What’s Happening, Iraq: Talk of Pull-Out? Over the last several days this has become commonplace, often referring to Bush as the ‘last optimist’.
Three weeks before the election in Iraq, conversation has started bubbling up in Congress, in the Pentagon and some days even in the White House about when and how American forces might begin to disengage in Iraq.
So far it is mostly talk, not planning. The only thing resembling a formal map to the exit door is a series of Pentagon contingency plans for events after the Jan. 30 elections. But a senior administration official warned over the weekend against reading too much into that, saying "the Pentagon has plans for everything," from the outbreak of war in Korea to relief missions in Africa. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/10/politics/10policy.html?hp&ex=1105419600&en=e461bbde941d55d3&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Notable Republican calls for withdrawal
U.S. Rep. Howard Coble, dean of the state's congressional delegation and an avowedly strong supporter of President Bush, says it's time for the United States to consider withdrawing from war-ravaged Iraq.
Coble, a Republican from Greensboro, is one of the first members of Congress -- Republican or Democrat -- to say publicly that the United States should consider a pullout. http://www.news-record.com/news/local/cobleiraq_010905.htm
The Shrinking Coalition
President Leonid Kuchma on Monday ordered the foreign and defense ministries to develop a plan for withdrawing Ukraine's troops from Iraq within months, his office said.
Ukraine, whose 1,650 troops are the fourth-largest contingent in the U.S.-led operation in Iraq, previously expressed intentions to withdraw this year, but Kuchma's order speeds up the apparent timetable.
That order came a day after eight Ukrainian soldiers died in an explosion at an ammunition dump in Iraq, which was reported as an accident.
In all, 16 Ukrainian soldiers have died in Iraq.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/01/10/ukraine_orders_troops_removed_from_iraq?mode=PF
Tsunami Follow-up: The Earth is Rumbling
Two weeks on, the earth is still vibrating from the massive undersea earthquake off Indonesia that triggered the tsunami, Australian researchers said on Sunday. The Australian National University (ANU) said the reverberations were similar in form to the ringing of a bell, though without the sound, and were picked up by gravity monitoring instruments. “These are not things that are going to throw you off your chair, but they are things that the kinds of instruments that are in place around the world can now routinely measure,” said ANU Earth Sciences researcher Herb McQueen...
US scientists said just after the quake that it may have permanently accelerated the Earth's rotation — shortening days by a fraction of a second — and caused the planet to wobble on its axis. Richard Gross, a geophysicist with Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, theorised that a shift of mass towards the earth's centre during the quake caused the planet to spin three millionths of a second faster and tilt about 2.5 cm on its axis. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/985440.cms
The Fighting Dems?
As President Bush prepares for his second term, Democrats in Washington and around the country are organizing for a year of confrontation and resistance, saying they are determined to block Bush's major initiatives and thereby deny him the mandate he has claimed from his reelection victory last November.
The Democrats' mood and posture represent a contrast to that of four years ago, after Bush's disputed victory over Al Gore. Then, despite anger and bitterness over how the 2000 election ended, Democrats were tentative and initially open to Bush's calls for bipartisan cooperation. Today, despite Bush's clear win over Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), Democrats across the ideological spectrum say they are united in their desire to fight. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61686-2005Jan9.html
-R
Armstrong Williams: Follow-up: David Corn (The Nation) interviewing Williams:
And then Williams violated a PR rule: he got off-point. "This happens all the time," he told me. "There are others." Really? I said. Other conservative commentators accept money from the Bush administration? I asked Williams for names. "I'm not going to defend myself that way," he said. The issue right now, he explained, was his own mistake. Well, I said, what if I call you up in a few weeks, after this blows over, and then ask you? No, he said. Does Williams really know something about other rightwing pundits? Or was he only trying to minimize his own screw-up with a momentary embrace of a trumped-up everybody-does-it defense? I could not tell. But if the IG at the Department of Education or any other official questions Williams, I suggest he or she ask what Williams meant by this comment. http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=2114
Inquiring Minds Want to Know:
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) just filed 23 Freedom of Information Act requests with government agencies in order to determine who else was on their payrolls. Fighting Liberals!From their press release:
CREW has now filed FOIAs with 23 agencies requesting copies of all contracts with public relation firms, including Ketchum and Fleishman-Hillard. Both firms have contracted with the government resulting in similar controversies, and in violation of the Publicity and Propaganda clause."This type of covert propaganda, has no place in a healthy democracy," Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW said today. "It is particularly outrageous that the government continues to engage in this sort of illegal activity despite the fact that the GAO has said that it is illegal." http://www.citizensforethics.org/activities/20050111/
Speaking of which: Allawi pays his journalists
The electoral group headed by Iyad Allawi, the interim Iraqi prime minister, on Monday handed out cash to journalists to ensure coverage of its press conferences in a throwback to Ba'athist-era patronage ahead of parliamentary elections on January 30.
After a meeting held by Mr Allawi's campaign alliance in west Baghdad, reporters, most of whom were from the Arabic-language press, were invited upstairs where each was offered a "gift" of a $100 bill contained in an envelope.
Many of the journalists accepted the cash - about equivalent to half the starting monthly salary for a reporter at an Iraqi newspaper - and one jokingly recalled how Saddam Hussein's regime had also lavished perks on favoured reporters. http://financialtimes.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=FT.com+%2F+World+%2F+Middle+East+%26+Africa+-+Allawi+group+slips+cash+to+reporters+&expire=&urlID=12831609&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2Fa3828a0c-6346-11d9-bec2-00000e2511c8%2Cft_acl%3D%2Cs01%3D1.html&partnerID=1704
Chertoff: Kerik without the scandal: New homeland guy. 2 takes:
Chertoff, whose resume includes stints as a federal prosecutor in New Jersey and the Senate Republicans' chief counsel for the Clinton-era Whitewater investigation, was one of the administration's key figures in the war on terror.
He took the lead in 2003 in successfully arguing the government's case in a potentially precedent-setting appeal involving terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui, the lone man charged as a conspirator in the Sept. 11 attacks and playing a significant role in development of the U.S. Patriot Act to combat terrorist attacks.
As a federal prosecutor in New Jersey from 1990 to 1994, Chertoff oversaw high-profile prosecutions of Jersey City Mayor Gerald McCann, New York chief judge Sol Wachtler and the kidnappers and killers of Exxon executive Sidney Reso. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2002147676&zsection_id=2002107549&slug=webhomeland11&date=20050111
In the days after 9/11, Chertoff -- as head of the criminal division under John Ashcroft -- was architect of some of the most regrettable policies of Bush I. It was Chertoff, as assistant atttorney general overseeing the initial 9/11 probe, who OK'ed and then defended the detention of hundreds of "material witnesses" of Arab descent -- even though it would later be determined that none -- that's right, none -- of the detainees had anything to do with the terrorist attacks of 2001.Chartoff's actions during this period would later be roundly criticized in a report from the Justice Department's own Inspector General. It found that immigrants were rounded up in an "indiscriminate and haphazard manner," held for months while denied access to attorneys and sometimes mistreated behind bars. http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/extra/archives/001326.html
Diverting Homeland Security $ to…the Inauguration! Our leader in the “war on terror” states his priorities:
D.C. officials said yesterday that the Bush administration is refusing to reimburse the District for most of the costs associated with next week's inauguration, breaking with precedent and forcing the city to divert $11.9 million from homeland security projects.
Federal officials have told the District that it should cover the expenses by using some of the $240 million in federal homeland security grants it has received in the past three years -- money awarded to the city because it is among the places at highest risk of a terrorist attack. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63896-2005Jan10.html
Useful Facts re Social Security: Facts: Its eventual (2042-52) shortfall is tiny compared to those of the prescription drug program and Bush’s tax cuts.
The Social Security and Medicare Trustees, a majority of whom are members of the President’s cabinet, project that the Social Security shortfall will amount to 0.7 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (the basic measure of the size of the U.S. economy) over the next 75 years. In dollar terms, the Trustees project the shortfall over the 75 year period at $3.7 trillion.
The Trustees also project the cost of the Medicare drug benefit at 1.4 percent of GDP — or $8.1 trillion — over the same period. This is at least double the size of the Social Security shortfall.
Furthermore, the cost of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, if made permanent, is 2 percent of GDP — or $11.6 trillion — over the same period, or triple the size of the Social Security shortfall. http://www.cbpp.org/1-4-05socsec.htm
Opposition- even from Republicans. No slam dunk this time.
Many Republicans are expressing reservations about the political wisdom of President Bush's vision for restructuring Social Security, as the White House today intensifies its campaign to restructure the entitlement program for the retired and disabled…
Most alarming to White House officials, some congressional Republicans are panning the president's plan -- even before it is unveiled. "Why stir up a political hornet's nest . . . when there is no urgency?" said Rep. Rob Simmons (Conn.), who represents a competitive district. "When does the program go belly up? 2042. I will be dead by then."
Simmons said there is no way he will support Bush's idea of allowing younger Americans to divert some of their payroll taxes into private accounts, especially when there are more pressing needs, such as shoring up Medicare and providing armor to U.S. troops in Iraq.
Rep. Jack Kingston (Ga.), a member of the GOP leadership, said 15 to 20 House Republicans agree with Simmons, although others say the number is closer to 40. "Just convincing our guys not to be timid is going to be a big struggle," he said. "It's going to take a lot of convincing," which he said can be done. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A64196-2005Jan10?language=printer
Krugman on Privatization: He doesn’t break new ground, but he says it well.
The administration expects us not to notice, however, that the supposed solution would do nothing to reduce that cost. Even with the most favorable assumptions, the benefits of privatization wouldn't kick in until most of the baby boomers were long gone. For the next 45 years, privatization would cost much more money than it saved.
Advocates of privatization almost always pretend that all we have to do is borrow a bit of money up front, and then the system will become self-sustaining. The Wehner memo talks of borrowing $1 trillion to $2 trillion "to cover transition costs." Similar numbers have been widely reported in the news media.
But that's just the borrowing over the next decade. Privatization would cost an additional $3 trillion in its second decade, $5 trillion in the decade after that and another $5 trillion in the decade after that. By the time privatization started to save money, if it ever did, the federal government would have run up around $15 trillion in extra debt. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/11/opinion/11krugman.html?oref=login&hp=&oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=
SS: NY Times Approaches the “Lie” word: “sow ignorance” is it for now
The editorial comment re Social Security: It appears that the president and his aides are trying to sow ignorance to gain support for their flawed privatization agenda. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/10/opinion/10mon1.html?oref=login
C’mon guys, you can do it!
Gossip: Rummy and McCain Feud. Our culture is irredeemably locked into celebrity gossip, so indulge me…
The strong-willed defense secretary and the equally hard-nosed Republican senator from Arizona, both ex-Navy pilots and hawks on Iraq, were supposed to make peace over two nagging issues. Mr. McCain did not believe Mr. Rumsfeld was adequately paying attention to, or disclosing information about, the Boeing tanker lease scandal; Mr. Rumsfeld wanted Mr. McCain to lift his opposition to several Pentagon nominations bogged down in the Senate.
Rather than serving as a peacemaker, the meeting turned into a frank exchange of views that left both men bitter toward the other, according to two defense sources who were briefed later.
"It went very badly," said one source. "Rumsfeld brought over McCain to schmooze him. It didn't work." The sources differed on the exact wording, but they agreed that when Mr. Rumsfeld was unable to persuade the Arizona Republican to let the nominees go forward, he suggested the senator, a prisoner of war in Vietnam, was hurting the war effort.
"This is when McCain just about climbed over the table," one source said. http://insider.washingtontimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050110-122435-5478r
What’s Happening, Iraq: Talk of Pull-Out? Over the last several days this has become commonplace, often referring to Bush as the ‘last optimist’.
Three weeks before the election in Iraq, conversation has started bubbling up in Congress, in the Pentagon and some days even in the White House about when and how American forces might begin to disengage in Iraq.
So far it is mostly talk, not planning. The only thing resembling a formal map to the exit door is a series of Pentagon contingency plans for events after the Jan. 30 elections. But a senior administration official warned over the weekend against reading too much into that, saying "the Pentagon has plans for everything," from the outbreak of war in Korea to relief missions in Africa. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/10/politics/10policy.html?hp&ex=1105419600&en=e461bbde941d55d3&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Notable Republican calls for withdrawal
U.S. Rep. Howard Coble, dean of the state's congressional delegation and an avowedly strong supporter of President Bush, says it's time for the United States to consider withdrawing from war-ravaged Iraq.
Coble, a Republican from Greensboro, is one of the first members of Congress -- Republican or Democrat -- to say publicly that the United States should consider a pullout. http://www.news-record.com/news/local/cobleiraq_010905.htm
The Shrinking Coalition
President Leonid Kuchma on Monday ordered the foreign and defense ministries to develop a plan for withdrawing Ukraine's troops from Iraq within months, his office said.
Ukraine, whose 1,650 troops are the fourth-largest contingent in the U.S.-led operation in Iraq, previously expressed intentions to withdraw this year, but Kuchma's order speeds up the apparent timetable.
That order came a day after eight Ukrainian soldiers died in an explosion at an ammunition dump in Iraq, which was reported as an accident.
In all, 16 Ukrainian soldiers have died in Iraq.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/01/10/ukraine_orders_troops_removed_from_iraq?mode=PF
Tsunami Follow-up: The Earth is Rumbling
Two weeks on, the earth is still vibrating from the massive undersea earthquake off Indonesia that triggered the tsunami, Australian researchers said on Sunday. The Australian National University (ANU) said the reverberations were similar in form to the ringing of a bell, though without the sound, and were picked up by gravity monitoring instruments. “These are not things that are going to throw you off your chair, but they are things that the kinds of instruments that are in place around the world can now routinely measure,” said ANU Earth Sciences researcher Herb McQueen...
US scientists said just after the quake that it may have permanently accelerated the Earth's rotation — shortening days by a fraction of a second — and caused the planet to wobble on its axis. Richard Gross, a geophysicist with Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, theorised that a shift of mass towards the earth's centre during the quake caused the planet to spin three millionths of a second faster and tilt about 2.5 cm on its axis. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/985440.cms
The Fighting Dems?
As President Bush prepares for his second term, Democrats in Washington and around the country are organizing for a year of confrontation and resistance, saying they are determined to block Bush's major initiatives and thereby deny him the mandate he has claimed from his reelection victory last November.
The Democrats' mood and posture represent a contrast to that of four years ago, after Bush's disputed victory over Al Gore. Then, despite anger and bitterness over how the 2000 election ended, Democrats were tentative and initially open to Bush's calls for bipartisan cooperation. Today, despite Bush's clear win over Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), Democrats across the ideological spectrum say they are united in their desire to fight. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61686-2005Jan9.html
-R
