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Well, we'll admit it, we're suckers for polls, and a recent one that our cousins at The Swamp tipped us to is interesting -- showing that Barack Obama is tapping a potentially rich vein in trying to tie John McCain to George Bush.
The Gallup/USA Today poll found that 68% of voters said they were concerned when asked whether they thought McCain would pursue "policies that are too similar to what G eorge W. Bush has pursued." Of those polled, 49% said they were "very concerned."
As the poll analysis points out: "It is clearly a delicate balancing act for McCain, as Bush remains relatively popular with the Republican base. While only 28% of Americans approve of the job Bush is doing as president, a majority of Republicans (60%) still do. Bush's approval rating among current McCain supporters is slightly lower, at 55%."
Dive deeper into the poll and something else interesting emerges -- people aren't all that keen on change, either. Some 49% said they were concerned when asked whether "Obama would go too far in changing the policies that George W. Bush pursued." Of those polled, 30% said they were "very concerned."
So the advantage for the moment goes to change -- in moderation. Which might help explain Obama's embrace Tuesday of the concept behind the Bush administration's faith-based initiative program.
-- Scott Martelle
So Mike Huckabee told the world the other day that if John McCain calls, he'd be happy to be his running mate, but that he doesn't expect McCain to call. Good thing Huckabee's not waiting by the phone. The folks over at Politico have a piece this morning saying the call could well go to Mitt Romney. But, of course, at this stage no one knows, as our colleague Doyle McManus points out with his own list of bandied-about names.
McCain doesn't need to rush. He doesn't need a r unning mate until the Republican National Convention, scheduled for Sept. 1-4, which comes after the Democratic National Convention, set for Aug. 25-28. Advantage goes to McCain, since he gets to see what the Democratic slate will look like before he makes his call. And yes, he can pick a running mate earlier to make himself look decisive and unconcerned about political ramifications (which ties into his Straight Talk theme) but, chances are, he'll keep his cards hidden until he has to play.
So why Romney? As Politico points out, he's gone through the media vetting process, has access to cash fountains through his business connections and fellow Mormons, and plays well in his birth state of Michigan, which could be crucial in picking the winner.
The downside? The chemistry between McCain and Romney isn't exactly "Let's spend the next eight years together, shall we?" It's more like: "Does he have to come to this meeting? Can't we just send him to a state funeral somewhere?"
The other top names on McCain's list, per Politico, are former Ohio congressman and White House budget director Rob Portman -- not exactly a household name -- and John Thune of South Dakota, who knocked minority leader Tom Daschle out of the Senate in 2004.
Now it's your turn. Who do you figure? And no, not Dick Cheney -- he's not in charge of the search committee. The comment section is open below.
-- Scott Martelle
Photo credit: Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times
"Star Wars" creator George Lucas was on Capitol Hill in Washington this week to testify on something or other and when there's no news to be heard, reporters start asking the silly questions.
They wanted him to liken modern politicians to his movie characters. Like, was Darth Vader based on Vice President Dick Cheney? Or something like that.
Anyway, Lucas, who's also responsible for harnessing the Force, played it cagey. Until he was asked if Sen. Barack Obama would be a Jedi knight.
Maybe the answer you think you know.
But over to Elizabeth Snead's Dish Rag blog you'll have to click to be sure.
-- Andrew Malcolm
Scott McClellan, author of "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception," didn't exactly get a warm hug of welcome from some members of the Ho use Judiciary Committee this morning as he began testifying about his White House days, as our colleagues over at the "Countdown to Crawford" blog report.
McClellan, the former press secretary, took a drubbing by Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, over his motives for writing the book. Not that Smith entered the hearing with an open mind: "While we may never know the answers, Scott McClellan alone will have to wrestle with whether it was worth selling out the president and his friends for a few pieces of silver."
Our other colleagues at The Swamp have some more details. But if you want to see for yourself, the hearing is being webcast when the committee is in session (it broke earlier so members could cast votes on the wiretap bill). Below is some video of McClellan's appearance.
-- Scott Martelle
Photo: Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images
Vice President Dick Cheney shed a little more light today on how he came to be vice president for George W. Bush.
It happened in the spring of 2000, to be exact, when the newly-victorious Bush campaign contacted Cheney, obviously desperate to ensure capture of Wyoming's three crucial electoral votes. (Come to pass, in fact, those 3 E.V.s did turn out to be crucial. Without them, Florida would not have mattered.)
"The way it actually worked was," Cheney recalls, "they talked to me about whether or not I was interested in the (vice president's) job originally, and I said, 'No, definitely not interested.'
"And then they came back and said, 'Would you help us find somebody?' and I said, "Sure, I'd be happy to do that.' We got through doing the search.
"It took a couple of months, and at the end of the day, the president, after we reviewed all the candidates, looked at me and said, 'You know, you're the solution to my problem.' I took that as a threat and redoubled my efforts... (But) it's been well worth the efforts.''
"He persuaded me that what he wanted and what he needed in a Vice President, that I fit the bill. So I was willing to give up private life, which I was enjoying at that point, and join in.
"I don't regret it for a minute. It's been a tremendous experience. He's been absolutely true to his word in terms of letting me get actively involved in the whole range of activities. And it's been well worth the effort."
The rest of the revealing radio interview, including a partial transcript and details on Cheney's kindergarten expulsion, is available here. But wait!
As aficionados of politics, here's a V.P. trivia question for you. Do you know what other vice presidential candidate search Cheney led? Hint: It was a Republican campaign. For the answer, click on the Read more line below.
--Andrew Malcolm
Photo Credit: AP
Read more Dick Cheney: How I became vice president »
On this, the first anniversary of our Top of the Ticket blog, we are reminded of the mercurial, unpredictable nature of U.S. politics -- part of what makes what we do so fascinating.
Our goal -- one of us on the East Coast and the other on the far more important or at least less humid West Coast -- was to write about Campaign '08 virtually around the clock.
Our second-ever posting, 12 months ago today, previewed an upcoming L.A. Times/Bloomberg Poll; later in the day, we detailed the results of the nationwide survey. The findings were in line with other polls of the time.
In the Republican presidential race, which then seemed the most likely to last deep into the primary season, Rudy Giuliani was perched in first place. His lead wasn't overwhelming, but it was strong enough that he appeared certain to remain a major contender.
His liberal record on social issues loomed as an obvious liability within his party, but his tough-on-terrorism message was attracting substantial support from moderates and GOP-leaning independents.
His major headache among rivals last June was an as-yet-undeclared candidate who was riding a wave as the great conservative hope -- Fred Thompson. He ran a strong second in the poll.
Lagging far behind were John McCain and Mitt Romney, each barely with double-digit support. In our preview posting, we were especially scornful of McCain, noting sarcastically (and foolishly, as it turned out) that in the poll, he found himself "in heated competition with the 'Don't Know' category."
Meriting no mention from us was Mike Huckabee, one of several back-of-the-pack candidates barely earning any support across the country.
The Democratic race, at that point, seemed so much more cut-and-dried.
Hillary Clinton was the clear front-runner; Barack Obama was just as clearly ...
Read more Top of the Ticket, the start of Year Two »
Scott McClellan, the president's former chief spokesman who wrote a tell-all book about the White House's "culture of deception" and how it hung him out to dry, will testify next week before a House committee about the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity.
McClellan will testify under oath about what happened during the Plame affair and whether Vice President Dick Cheney told him to mislead the public about how Plame's identity was leaked to several journalists.
The hearing is scheduled for June 20 before the House Judiciary Committee.
"I'll tell them what I know," McClellan said Monday night on MSNBC's "Countdown" with Keith Olbermann, as they discussed McClellan's book, "What Happened."
For more on the story, click here. And watch the MSNBC video below.
-- Andrew Malcolm
Photo: Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan will testify next week before a House committee about the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity. Credit: Associated Press
Given that we live out here within smelling distance of the smoke from Universal Studios, we open this with the caveat that agents are always talking with someone about movie rights. That's what they do. Usually over lunch. A long lunch.
Still, given the reception for HBO's recent "Recount," about the Florida leg of the 2000 election, and the other projects already in the works on the Bush years (and there's still seven months to go), why not a film version of Scott McClellan's "What Happened" memoir of the George Bush White House?
Politico suggests Jonah Hill to play McClellan, which gets our speculation gene fired up. Who to play Bush? Who to play Dick Cheney?
That's why we have a comments section -- to let you answer such burning questions (hey, this is politics; it can't all be strategy and policy-wonk talk). Who would you cast?
-- Scott Martelle
Have you heard the one about the powerful vice president who got up in front of a bunch of people that he probably dislikes the most of any, other than maybe special prosecutors? And he told the most hilarious joke about incest in West Virginia.
Which couldn't possibly have been funnier unless it was about incest in Mississippi.
But this being an election year, even though not for this vice president, and West Virginians being as totally humorless as everyone knows they are, Dick Cheney had to quickly issue a statement apologizing to the people of the little state without whose five electoral votes in 2000 he would long since be a full-time fly-fisherman or dove killer.
Widely considered the most powerful No. 2 in the country's history, Cheney also absolutely loves the media. Can't get enough of them. Us. Which is why he agreed to present a bunch of awards at a Monday lunch at the National Press Club, the same institution where....
Read more Dick Cheney, the constant comedian, lets some good ones fly »
Election Day is still more than five months away, and Barack Obama has yet to obtain the "presumptive nominee" tag in the Democratic presidential race. But if the verbal brickbats John McCain hurled at him today are any indication, a prospective general election matchup between the two will bear little resemblance to the reasoned, civil campaign both have said they will strive for.
 It's been fairly obvious for some time that McCain not only has less respect for Obama than Hillary Clinton, but that it's easier for the senator from Illinois to get his goat. McCain's reaction today to a barb Obama directed at him removed all doubts on those fronts.
Obama, taking to the Senate floor in the morning before returning to the campaign trail later in the afternoon, personalized an impending vote on a veterans benefits bill by noting McCain was against it. After making a nod -- as he almost always does when mentioning him -- to McCain's military record, Obama said, "I can't understand why he would line up behind" President Bush in opposing the measure.
A release from McCain, who was campaigning in California, followed quickly, notable for the unconcealed contempt expressed toward Obama.
It begins with a bold-faced quote from McCain: "Perhaps, if Senator Obama would take the time and trouble to understand this issue he would learn to debate an honest disagreement respectfully. But, as he always does, he prefers impugning the motives of his opponent, and exploiting a thoughtful difference of opinion to advance his own ambitions. If that is how he would behave as President, the country would regret his election."
So much for the Senate's tradition of collegiality.
Then, in the longer statement that follows, McCain has this to say about his potential White House rival: "And I will not accept from Senator Obama, who did not feel it was his responsibility to serve our country in uniform, any lectures on my regard for those who did."
In the past...
Read more Barack Obama gets under John McCain's skin »
Forget West Virginia. The election that pros in both parties were watching tonight was a special House faceoff in Mississippi -- and the results could not be worse for the GOP.
For the third time during the last few months, a Democrat triumphed in a House district that long had been solidly Republican.
In this case -- Mississippi's 1st congressional district -- Travis Childers bucked last-minute intervention by Vice President Dick Cheney to win a seat the GOP had held, easily, since 1994.
Cheney personally stumped on behalf of the Republican candidate, Greg Davis, on Monday. Davis and his allies also sought, in television ads, to undercut Childers by tying him to Barack Obama. But with most of the vote counted, Childers led, 52% to 48%, and was declared the victor.
Earlier this month, a Democrat won a Louisiana House seat that had been occupied by Republicans for more than 30 years. And in early March, in an especially sweet win for the Democrats, they took over the district that retired former House Speaker Dennis Hastert had represented since the mid-1980s.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi quickly trumpeted ...
Read more BREAKING NEWS: Democrats win again in a Republican stronghold »
The vice president's job -- until the reign of Dick Cheney -- was largely a matter of holding a mirror under the nose of the president to see if he was still breathing.
But now, in the aftermath of the most powerful vice president in the history of the republic, the question arises: Who might like an invitation to be a running mate this year?
The Capitol Hill newspaper, appropriately called The Hill, asked a lot of sitting senators the question and got some responses, some serious, some not so.
Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), who was arrested in a Minneapolis airport bathroom sex sting and has since been ostracized by his party, replied: "I would say 'No, Hillary.'"
"Republican prospects John Thune of South Dakota and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina dismissed the possibility, while conservative Sam Brownback (Kan.) expressed concern about how independent voters would react to him,'' the Hill reports.
"On the Democratic side of the aisle, Sen. Jim Webb (Va.) also dismissed the idea -- but with a grin. Sen. Evan Bayh (Ind.), another Democrat whose name has surfaced in vice presidential speculation, was more candid: "I suspect that's not the sort of thing you say no to."
Others joined Craig in treating the question as the sort of thing ...
Read more Joe Lieberman has his veep T-shirt, and doesn't want another »
The Ticket* has been tipped off by a secret source that we cannot reveal that an unnamed ex-diplomat and his wife, who has a name but we're n ot saying she used to be a CIA operative, are about to endorse a certain female Democratic candidate for president. But we can't say who.
That's because the unidentified couple, who were so secretive they drove around Washington in a convertible sports car and posed for photographs in fashion magazines, seem prepared to sue anybody who ever identifies them doing anything except the publicity they want.
So watch out, K.R.!
Not that this will give anything away but the husband was all egedly involved in tracking down some no-longer-with-us Middle Eastern dictator's non-existent but credible plans to acquire yellowcake uranium in some very hot place in Africa, which could be used in constructing nuclear weapons. (The yellowcake, not the hot place.) Although The Ticket can't really talk about that a lot right now.
So, anyway, the ex-diplomat thought that some other unidentified people in the unnamed blandly-colored office/house where the president of the United States works when his unidentified daughter is not getting married was trying, in fact, to discredit him by identifying his still unnamed wife as a secret agent, although a lot of....
Read more ALERT: This item contains secrets of an unidentified female presidential candidate named Clinton and 2 new backers who can't be ID'd but you might guess if you read this »
It is a measure of how concerned Republicans are about the recent House special election losses in Illinois and Louisiana that Dick Cheney will be traveling to Mississippi next week to participate in the get-out-the-vote effort for Greg Davis.
Davis, the Republican mayor of Southaven, Miss., is in a tough fight against Democrat Travis Childers, the Prentiss County chancery clerk, in the Tuesday special-election runoff vote to succeed former Rep. Roger Wicker in the state's 1st Congressional District.
"This seat is a very important one," Cheney told Mississippi radio host Paul Gallow this morning ahead of next week's trip. "It's been in conservative hands for a long time, and we'd hate to see the liberals gain control."
Note that Cheney didn't say "Republican hands" and "Democrats."
After losing the House majority in 2006, Republicans have been spooked by continued losses this year in Illinois, where Bill Foster won the seat long held by former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert, and in Louisiana, where Don Cazayoux took a seat that had been Republican since 1975.
As a pro-life, pro-gun Democrat, Childers has a profile similar to Cazayoux, who won last week despite Republican efforts to tie him to Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi. Republicans are trying to paint Childers, who came within several hundred votes of an outright majority in the six-candidate special election last month, with the same brush.
-- Matthew Hay Brown
Matthew Hay Brown writes for the Swamp of the Chicago Tribune's Washington bureau.
For those wondering whether an eminence grise such as Warren Christopher or Dick Cheney will soon head John McCain's vice presidential selection committee, the answer is yes and no, depending upon whether you think of McCain as a wise old Washington hand.
"He's the chairman of the selection committee," said Charlie Black, referring to the candidate himself, during a lunch with reporters h osted by the Christian Science Monitor. Black said no timetables have been set and the staff is uninvolved. "He is thinking about names," Black said. "He's not talking to any of us about that."
McCain has referred to this as being in the "embryonic stage." Said Black: "He'll talk to a great variety of people, as he does on all issues and matters of importance."
Yet Black acknowledged that the choice of a running mate is fraught with meaning for a 71-year-old candidate looking to reassure voters that they will be in good hands if anything should happen to him. "Every nominee wants to make the best possible selection," he said, adding that they all "want to make sure they were picking somebody who could succeed and handle the job."
McCain is no different in wanting to pick the best person.
"There's always a lot of focus on it,'' Black said. "It's the first big decision a nominee makes.''
And remember, George Bush left that committee in the hands of Cheney, who after an exhaustive search, decided he would be Bush's best choice for a running mate.
-- Jill Zuckman
Jill Zuckman writes for the Swamp of the Chicago Tribune's Washington bureau.
AP Photo by Mary Altaffer.
The annual Radio and Television Correspondents Assn. Dinner doesn’t attract the same kind of star power as the other black-tie gala held in Washington later this month. (As comedian Mo Rocca put it, the RTCA dinner is the Nicky to the White House Correspondent Dinner’s Paris.)
But corralling the political establishment in a ballroom with hundreds of reporters never fails to produce news-worthy, and sometimes cringe-inducing, moments. (MC Rove, anyone?)
Wednesday’s dinner kicked off with a surprise guest not necessarily known for his comedy chops.
As CBS News political director and dinner chair Steve Chaggaris welcomed the black-tie crowd packed into the ballroom of the Hilton Washington, one-time presidential candidate Mitt Romney strolled onto stage.
“I’m wondering why there is a cardboard cut-out of Mitt Romney behind me,” Chaggaris deadpanned as laughter spread through the room.
“I see I’m getting the same kind of coverage on CBS I used to get,” Romney replied, prompting guffaws.
In fact, the former candidate said he was there to offer a Top Ten List of why he decided ...
Read more Dick Cheney, and his sunglasses, steal the show at a Washington fete »
The power of suggestion combined with the power of the Internet is an awesome phenomenon to behold, as illustrated most vividly over the last couple of days by the saga of the reflection in Dick Cheney's sunglasses.
The Ticket, foolishly preoccupied with other matters, comes late to this, but as virtually every Web-surfer knows, a photo that had been posted on the White House Web of the vice president fly-fishing on the Snake River in Idaho, apparently a few years ago, has become a sensation. And it's not because we've become a nation of avid anglers.
No, the reason is that a blog posting earlier this week postulated that upon intense inspection, the reflection in Cheney's trademark sunglasses revealed (pardon us) a NAKED LADY. And that was all it took to generate an extraordinary buzz.
As of a few minutes ago, a Google search of "Dick Cheney" and "sunglasses" came back with more than 87,000 hits. The 100,000 mark is sure to be breached soon.
Times reporter James Hohmann this afternoon tracked down Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride, traveling with the vice president on fundraising stops he's making in Colorado and California. She reiterated what other White House staffers have had to spend time explaining -- upon close examination, it's clear the reflection simply caught the vice president in the act of casting a rod.
"He’s fly fishing," she said, understandably a bit exasperated. "That’s what he’s doing."
And no, she added, there were no naked ladies in the vicinity.
Readers, as always, are invited to comment -- give us your reflections on the reflection.
-- Don Frederick
Photo: David Bohrer / The White House via Associated Press
Vice President Dick Cheney -- remember him? -- finds some of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's remarks "absolutely appa lling." But Barack Obama's cousin is holding back his view of how the senator has "dealt with" his retired pastor’s inflammatory words.
"I've watched what's going on on the Democratic side with great interest, and sort of blowing hot and cold in terms of who is going to win -- whether it is going to be Sen. Clinton or Sen. Obama," Cheney noted in a telephone interview with conservative talk show host Sean Hannity last night.
"I thought the controversy over Rev. Wright was remarkable,'' Cheney said. "I thought some of the things he said were absolutely appalling. And, you know, I haven't gotten into the business of trying to judge how Sen. Obama dealt with it, or didn't deal with it. But I really,...
Read more 6-0 in his elections, VP Cheney watches from the sidelines this time »
President Bush effectively ceded his potential role as kingmaker within the Republican Party -- first by picking Dick Cheney as his running mate eight years ago (even before Cheney became an intensely polarizing figure, he made clear he had no top-spot aspirations), and then by playing no overt role in the GOP's '08 nomination race.
But, as the Washington Post's Dana Milbank posits today, Bush could well be remembered for unintentionally proving a key figure in determining the course of internal politics in several other nations.
Milbank offers up a typically caustic column on Bush's tete-a-tete Monday with new Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who gained his office after his voters late last year soundly rejected his pro-Bush predecessor, John Howard.
Opined Milbank: "Bush may be a loathed figure in much of the world, but one group owes him a debt of gratitude: the many opposition leaders who came to power after Bush-friendly ruling parties were voted out. Howard took his place alongside Jose Maria Aznar of Spain (whose party was dumped in 2004), Italy's Silvio Berlusconi (tossed out in 2006), and Britain's Tony Blair (stepped aside in favor of a Bush-skeptical understudy in 2007). Ruling parties in Poland and Japan also paid for their leaders' friendships with Bush with big defeats."
The entire column, headlined "The Coalition of the Unwilling," can be read here.
-- Don Frederick
OK, here's what's going to happen in the messy Democratic presidential race: Neither one of your favorites is going to win. They're gonna tear each other apart to no successful end.
It'll stay stalled into the convention in late August, while John McCain and Condi Rice raise money  and get the Republicans united and organized.
In Denver, the Democratic superdelegates, like the unelected elites they are, will gather in great worry, maybe after an inconclusive first round of general balloting.
And these big names will pick not the best candidate nor the one with the most delegates or, actually, any delegates or any popular votes.
To solve this self-destructive stalemate, they'll pick someone who denies even being a candidate, the least-worst candidate, somebody hardly anyone can really object to, except the Clintons.
They'll pick one of their own superdelegates, Al Gore, Mr. Party Elder, Mr. Nobel Prize, Mr. I-Got-Screwed-Out-of-Victory-Last-Time and Mr. Trust-Me-the-Globe-Really-Is-Round-and-Warming and I'm finally gonna get a chance to do something about it from the White House. The Draft Gore folks will be ecstatic and the Democratic blogosphere is already excited.
To keep the Obama zealots in the tent, Gore in turn will pick Barack Obama as his vice presidential running mate with the silent understanding that Big Al will ....
Read more It's solved! Democratic race prediction: Neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama will win »
It must be kinda crowded in Baghdad's Green Zone these days, what with lines of senators like John McCain and, unexpectedly today, Vice President Dick Cheney dropping in for a quick visit and, of course, a media availability.
At a news conference today, Cheney said: “I come away with a sense that there's been significant progress in the 10 months since I was last here, that we've made progress not only on the security front, but that they've made progress in governing, as well."
Marking the fifth anniversary of the U.S. led invasion of Iraq, President Bush will deliver a "war on terror" speech Wednesday at the Pentagon.
That, of course, was one of the targets of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, in a war with terrorism that the Bush administration maintains is playing out in Iraq today and almost certainly will play a key role in the upcoming general election campaign.
The vice president visited with military and embassy leaders in Baghdad, where he also met with leaders of the new Iraqi government -- and the traveling press.
"It's clear that there's still a number of major issues that need to be addressed that they are focused on as a government," Cheney said. "You can't help when you come here, after you've been here a few times over the years, and watched these events unfold, and focus on the fact this is the -- this week marks the fifth anniversary since we launched into Iraq in March of '03 – all that has transpired, not only in the last, what, 14 or 15 months since the surge decision by the president and Gen. Petraeus' arrival with his counterinsurgency strategy.
"It's been a remarkable turnaround in the overall security situation and the level of violence, both in terms of military and civilian casualties," Cheney said.
With barely 10 months left in office, does the Bush administration have a weaker hand in Baghdad than it did when Cheney last visited in May? "I don’t feel any loss of influence," Cheney responded. "if anything, the successes that we've demonstrated here have given us greater credibility than would have been the case if we hadn't had the surge and the progress of the last 12, 15 months."
--Mark Silva
Mark Silva writes for the Swamp of the Chicago Tribune's Washington Bureau.
Vice President Dick Cheney appeared in Atlanta last night. Just like, that out of the blue. You don't see him for weeks and, poof, the jolly guy pops up down there.
The occasion was the Georgia Jefferson Day Dinner. No, just kidding. It was the Republican President's Day Dinner. And Sen. Saxby Chambliss, who's up for reelection this fall in a tough political year for Republicans, wasn't at the dinner. Hmmm.
"I know Saxby is going to win another term this November," Cheney told the crowd. "Saxby, of course, is a very courageous man. I know that because he's one of my hunting buddies."
Cheney, who can tell the joke on himself now that some time has passed since he accidentally wounded a hunting companion in the face in Texas, enjoyed ...
Read more Remember Dick Cheney? He's been in Atlanta all this time »
If this is March and people are traveling willingly TO Wyoming, then there must be an election going on.
Sure enough, the nation's least populated state is the destination today for just about everybody who's left competing for a presidential nomination, both of them. And the spouse of one of them was there yesterday.
In fact, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will both visit Vice President Dick Cheney's hometown of Casper today, not so much to honor him as to honor themselves and to seek support in this weekend's Wyoming caucuses. The windchill in Casper this morning was 12 degrees, which is...
Read more Yee hah, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton hit Wyoming »
Rep. Ron Paul, the 72-year-old libertarian-like, 10-term Texas congressman who's also running for the Republican presidential nomination, easily won his 14th District primary Tuesday and is set for easy re-election in November.
With about half the precincts counted (what's the rush -- it's Texas) Paul was thumping Friendswood City Councilman Chris Peden by two-to-one.
Now, Paul can set his sights on this other old-timer, 71-year-old Sen. John McCain, who claims to have won more than the 1,191 GOP delegates for the Republican presidential nomination this September at the National Convention in St. Paul (no relation to the congressman).
Actually, Paul hasn't really won any Republican primaries in the current political season, though he did take some fourths and fifths and a couple of second place caucus finishes. And he controls somewhere between 12 and 42 delegates, depending on who's counting as if that matters anymore.
But just Paul's powerful presence, eloquence and outspoken defense of the Constitution has forced every other Republican party luminary out of the 2007-08 race, including Rudy Giuliani, who's now reduced to doing bit parts on "Saturday Night Live," Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, Sam who's-its from Kansas and that grumpy guy from Virginia. Tuesday night, faced with the prospect of a hard-charging Paul on his tail, even former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee gave up, although he directed his concession speech at McCain to save face.
Paul, the only Republican presidential candidate to oppose the Iraq war, is no longer the oldest presidential candidate since the 74-year-old Ralph Nader began his quadrennial quest for 3% of the vote. Paul has declined to endorse McCain, which pretty much dooms the Arizonan's candidacy in the eyes of thousands of Ron Paul Revolutionaries.
Although they have been largely ignored by a media that thought the race involved ...
Read more Ron Paul lives! So does Elizabeth Kucinich's husband! »
With the candidates -- and a multitude of their surrogates -- scurrying hither and yon today, perhaps this crack from Robert De Niro will get topped. But that will be a challenge.
De Niro, in what he billed as his first speech at a political event, was on hand to help whip up support for Barack Obama at a rally in East Rutherford, N.J. The famed actor's role was to introduce Sen. Ted Kennedy, who in turn introduced Obama.
The Times' Maria La Ganga also was there, and she reports that De Niro weighed in with his own thoughts about the "I've got more seasoning" argument Hillary Clinton presses against her rival.
Said De Niro: “If this election were to be decided just on the quantity of experience, Dick Cheney would be our next president.”
Although De Niro delivered the line, it may have been inspired by this column a few weeks back by Nicholas Kristof.
-- Don Frederick
Vice President Dick Cheney was speaking to a North Carolina crowd in Charlotte the other day when he noted that his job isn't given much respect in U.S. history.
"Before the Constitution was written," Cheney recalled, "some, including Benjamin Franklin, believed the vice presidency was entirely unnecessary. He said that if the office were to be created, anyone who served as vice president should be addressed as 'Your Superfluous Excellency.' "
"That," said Cheney, "is a lot better than some of the things I've been called."
-- Andrew Malcolm
You can tell a lot by a politician's schedule, which may be why Hillary Clinton's first lady schedule and documents are still locked in the Clinton presidential library. It's probably why Vice President Cheney never got around to releasing his meeting schedule on those long-ago energy consultations.
When you're a candidate, a daily schedule can reveal your whereabouts, goals and political intentions, which can attract protesters, tip off opponents on what you're up to or provide insight on how hard you're working some days. Which is why most presidential campaigns release schedules only a few days in advance, largely to obtain media coverage. And they intentionally leave time gaps, which usually means they're secretly wooing someone for money or support in person or by phone.
Mike Huckabee's schedule this year, for instance, has consistently revealed a reliance on free media appearances, which typically reach a broad audience, allow him to project his genial on-air personality (honed, not accidentally, by his long radio experience) and, did we mention, such free appearances don't cost him any money.
Sunday, for instance, by sitting in a Des Moines chair for 30 minutes, Huckabee reached an influential national television audience on "Meet the Press," allowing him to charge his main Iowa opponent, Mitt Romney, with "running a very desperate and, frankly, dishonest campaign," which on a slow news day allowed Huckabee to generate gobs of further free news stories across the nation. Then he went to church and, out of sight, taped some last-minute campaign ads.
This likely reflects the former governor's weak fundraising. The fourth quarter doesn't end until midnight tonight, so it'll be a couple of weeks before each campaign's official figures...
Read more What Mike Huckabee's schedule really reveals »
It seemed a surprise for all concerned to learn earlier this year that Barack Obama is related to Dick Cheney (as well, it turns out, to George W. Bush). Now, Obama's unusual genetic mix (black father from Kenya; white mother from Kansas), has garnered him a chance to join the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.
The head of the society's Iowa branch, Mike Rowley, extended the invite in a letter he sent to Obama's Senate office last week, noting that ancestral research had determined that the Democratic presidential contender -- through his mother's side of the family -- shares a blood line with Revolutionary War veteran John Miles Duvall.
In urging Obama to sign up, Rowley said that if he acted quickly, another honor would follow. He invited Obama to join him and other members of the society's state chapter later this month at a cemetery in Montrose, Iowa. There, Obama's induction would be celebrated and homage paid to Cato Mead, the one black Revolutionary War soldier known to have settled -- and died -- in the Hawkeye State, according to Rowley.
Rowley invoked Mead's name in part to call attention to legislation in Congress -- whose sponsors include Chris Dodd, Obama's rival in the Democratic presidential race -- to build a new monument in Washington commemorating, as the effort's website spells out, the more than 5,000 blacks who volunteered to fight in the American Revolution.
We tracked down Rowley, 50, at his home in a Des Moines suburb and, in elaborating on his letter, he displayed the political savvy we've come to expect from Iowans. He said that even though time is growing short, he hoped to organize the event at Mead's grave site while Iowa is awash with presidential wannabees (Dodd also has been invited). Once the state's Jan. 3 caucuses are over, he agreed, candidate visits to Iowa will be few and far between.
Rowley said Obama's office acknowledged receipt of his letter and said it would get back to him, if matters could be arranged. As of Tuesday night, he said, there'd been no further word.
-- Don Frederick
And it's not just the war.
The daily Poll Track column at the National Journal collates a few disparate surveys this morning and finds that, to quote another politician in another time, we're in something of a national malaise. As Poll Track points out: "A full two-thirds of respondents to a new Marist/WNBC poll said they believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, a 9-point increase from fall 2006. Harris' 'Alienation Index' has also risen slightly since last year, as more Americans told pollsters this month that they feel the nation's leaders don't care about them and are out of touch with the country at large.
"Considering such widespread dissatisfaction with the status quo, it's no wonder 58 percent of registered voters responding to a new Gallup/USA Today poll said the outcome of the 2008 presidential race matters more to them than previous elections. For many months the conventional wisdom had placed the blame for the public's angst squarely on President Bush and the Iraq war. But recent polls suggest that Americans are increasingly worried about traditional bread-and-butter issues, too."
And the butter has been melting. So it's a "pox on both their houses" mood out there, though other polls show that more people think the Democrats are better suited to straighten the mess out than the Republicans. Those sentiments won't mean much in the primaries and caucuses, but they will come next November. And of course anything can happen between now and then to change the current mood.
But you have to wonder what might have happened had the national elections been this week instead of next year, and how many babies would have gone out with the bathwater.
-- Scott Martelle
Campaigning is a lot like foraging. Candidates meet someone, hear a story or see something along the way and they grab it and work it into their regular speaking routine.
Barack Obama is having fun all over with the news that he's a distant relation to Vice President Dick Cheney. It was actually Lynne Cheney, who put that out in public during an MSNBC TV interview when she was trying to change the subject away from Hillary Clinton and back to her new book on her families and genealogical research. She announced last month that she'd found out Dick and Barack are eighth cousins. She called it "an amazing thing."
Tonight, speaking to a fairly raucous crowd of more than 500 at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, The Times' Aaron Zitner reports that Obama was going along on a familiar subject, stagnation in the nation's capital on some very important issues, such as energy independence.
"It doesn't help," the Illinois senator said, "that you put my cousin, Dick Cheney, in charge of energy policy."
Then, pausing for the oddity of the line to sink in, he added: "I've been trying to hide this for a long time. Everyone has a black sheep in the family."
--Andrew Malcolm
After all these years, just when you thought politics couldn't get any stranger, they do.
Lynne Cheney was on television today, the place where every author of a new book goes to try to say the title of their book as often as possible. (Her new book is called "Blue Sky, No Fences: A Memoir of Childhood and Family," and it traces both her and her husband's ancestry back to pioneer days, offering tips on genealogical research along the way.)
The wife of the Republican vice president was informed by the MSNBC interviewer that Hillary Clinton was likely going to be the Democratic presidential nominee; did Mrs. Cheney think America was ready for a female president?
Cheney, both an interview and political veteran, said she was certain Americans would make their presidential choice based on qualifications and for her what matters most is national security. And you'll never guess which party she thinks is best-qualified to address that issue.
But just to get back to the book for a minute, she said, she found out something very interesting in her genealogical research into the amazing tales of her and Dick's families as they made their way west across America. It seems that her husband, Dick, is related to somebody else prominent in politics. It seems he's a cousin of Barack Obama's.
No, really! Cheney said if you go back eight generations, Dick and Barack have a common ancestor. (Last month the Chicago Sun-Times reported Obama is also an 11th cousin to George W. Bush.)
So does that mean Cheney supports Obama's candidacy?
Uh, no.
-- Andrew Malcolm
Well, you can be sure this isn't the kind of access you'd see the Nation's Number Two giving to Al Gore's favorite network. Vice President Dick Cheney is the focus tonight of a Fox News special, in which the "We Report, You Decide" folks enjoyed what they hype as "unprecedented access into the vice president's world."
And apparently correspondent Bret Baier got some face time with the boss, President George Bush, who talks "about his relationship with the man who has become one of the most controversial figures in American politics." The program airs at 9 p.m. Eastern today and 3 p.m. Eastern Sunday.
So go ahead, draft your own list of questions you'd like to ask Cheney and Bush, keep 'em handy, tune in and see how many you can check off by the time the show ends.
-- Scott Martelle
Earlier today we wrote about the surprisingly blunt critiques of the Republican presidential field made by Dan Bartlett, who was President Bush's counselor until July.
Well, the Washington Post's Al Kamen has published a little bit more of Bartlett's critique, which came in a September speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. These Bartlett remarks were about Vice President Dick Cheney and, frankly, how much trouble it is to work with the taciturn, determined Washington veteran. "Team player" is not the term that comes to mind. Indeed, Cheney was a wrestler (as, interestingly enough, was his longtime Washington buddy and colleague, Donald Rumsfeld).
Bartlett, one of Bush's most-trusted loyalists from the early days of his Texas governorship, was for years in charge of political rapid response, which translates into damage control when something unexpected and usually bad happens. Bartlett, like most such professionals, is a believer in the really rapid response approach, meaning assemble all the bad news and your reaction as quickly as possible and get it all out at once and over with. Leave no lingering loose ends.
So as the 2000 Republican National Convention got underway and the vice presidential nominee-designate was en route to Philadelphia, Bartlett learned that Cheney's lesbian daughter, Mary, intended to travel with her father's campaign. Bartlett smartly anticipated considerable press interest in this and wanted to discuss the Bush-Cheney campaign response.
So during an awkwardly quiet limo ride, Bartlett described the upcoming itinerary and said he'd...
Read more Bush confidant's brutal critique II »
What is it with the kids of political figures that drives them to the keyboard? As  writers, we understand the impulse, of course -- it is by far the most honorable and noble profession available to humankind, after all -- but why do so many political daughters pick up the proverbial pen?
The latest into the fold is Meghan McCain, daughter of Sen. John McCain from Arizona, who is about to join the blogosphere, according to a Women's Wear Daily brief on the announcement party. We weren't able to find an active page for the blog, but you all know about unexpected production delays.  According to McCain, the idea is to create something of a Hunter S. Thompson "Fear and Loathing" approach to politics, which could be interesting given the conservative outlook of her father, and the even more conservative outlooks of the Republican voters he's soliciting these days.
Thompson, of course, was an American iconoclast, as erratic in his writing as he was in his drug intake. But he also inspired a generation of journalists with his sharp eye and even sharper pen (he once described Hubert Humphrey  as "a treacherous, gutless old ward-healer who should be put in a ... bottle and sent off on the Japanese current." Now that's political poetry.). As to his thoughts on former President Richard M. Nixon, well, you'll just have to use your imagination.
McCain, although her writing will be blog-only (for the time being, anyway), joins the ranks of First Daughter Jenna Bush, Al Gore's daughters Kristin Gore and Karenna Gore Schiff, and Mary Cheney. Of course, Margaret Truman, who apparently writes better than she sings, beat them all to the punch.
If we missed any -- smart money would say we did -- feel free to add them in the Comments section.
-- Scott Martelle
One of the major concerns of historians and academics, as society moved into the electronic age, was that many of the written documents -- like letters, diaries, messages and memos -- so important in reconstructing history later would simply be deleted over time and not left as paper documents for archivists to pore over as in previous centuries.
Well, historians need not worry about memo deletions as far as Vice President Dick Cheney's files are concerned.
The reason: He doesn't write memos. He leaves no paper trail. On purpose.
Speaking last week in Grand Rapids, Mich., at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum, Ford's one-time White House chief of staff said, "Researchers like to come and dig through my files, to see if anything interesting turns up."
"I want to wish them luck," the vice president said to a laughing audience. "But the files are pretty thin. I learned early on that if you don't want your memos to get you in trouble someday, just don't write any."
--Andrew Malcolm
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eorge W. Bush has pursued." Of those polled, 49% said they were "very concerned."
