Don’t get caught flat-footed in front of the press!  Below is a quick rundown of today’s “must reads.” – John T. Doolittle, House Republican Conference Secretary

The Morning Murmur - Thursday, March 16, 2006

1. Bush Sees Iran As Possibly Greatest Threat - Associated Press
In a 49-page report released Thursday, President Bush said Iran may pose the greatest challenge to the United States and diplomacy to thwart the Islamic nation's nuclear program must prevail to avoid confrontation. The President also reaffirmed the strike-first, or pre-emptive policy he first outlined in 2002.

2. GOP's Red Meat and Gravy Issues - Washington Times Op-ed
The U.S. economy is producing jobs ever-faster, reinforcing President Bush's arguments that tax cuts were needed to stoke the nation's engine of growth.

3. Democrats' New Strategy Helps GOP - Human Events
The essence of the Democratic election strategy vindicates perceptions that the party is out of touch with America. Democrats know that they can no longer win in the arena of ideas so they have resorted to the only mantra they have left, "George Bush and Republicans stink!"

4. Call for Censure Is Rallying Cry to Bush's Base - New York Times
Republicans, worried that their conservative base lacks motivation to turn out for the fall elections, have found a new rallying cry in the dreams of liberals about censuring or impeaching President Bush.

5. Jessica Simpson Snubs Bush - Reuters
Concerned about politicizing her favorite charity, singer-actress Jessica Simpson on Wednesday turned down a invitation to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush, a snub that left Republicans dismayed.

For previous issues of the Morning Murmur, go to www.GOPsecretary.gov

FULL ARTICLES BELOW:

1. Bush Sees Iran As Possibly Greatest Threat - Associated Press

Bush Security Strategy Reaffirms Strike-First Policy, Sees Iran As Possibly Greatest Threat

By DEB RIECHMANN

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Thursday Iran may pose the greatest challenge to the United States and diplomacy to thwart the Islamic nation's nuclear program must prevail to avoid confrontation.

In a 49-page national security report, the president reaffirmed the strike-first, or pre-emptive policy he first outlined in 2002. Diplomacy is the U.S. preference in halting the spread of nuclear and other heinous weapons, Bush said.

"If necessary, however, under long-standing principles of self-defense, we do not rule out the use of force before attacks occur even if uncertainty remains as to the time and place of the enemy's attack," Bush wrote.

"When the consequences of an attack with weapons of mass destruction are potentially so devastating, we cannot afford to stand idly by as grave dangers materialize. ... The place of pre-emption in our national security strategy remains the same."

The White House plans to release the National Security Strategy report in conjunction with a speech that Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, is delivering at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

The report, Bush's second since becoming president, summarizes his strategy to protect the United States and improve U.S. relations with other nations. When he sent his first report to Congress a year after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 Bush was struggling to persuade U.S. allies to join an offensive to topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Since then, the oppressive Taliban regime in Afghanistan was replaced by a freely elected government. Iraqis approved a constitution by referendum and nearly 12 million of them voted in an election for a permanent government.

Sectarian violence, however, threatens the fragile government in Iraq, where more than 2,300 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the war in March 2003.

"When the Iraqi government, supported by the coalition, defeats the terrorists, terrorism will be dealt a critical blow," Bush wrote in the report required by Congress.

In the report, Bush reproaches Russia and China and calls Syria a tyranny that harbors terrorists and sponsors terrorist activity.

On Russia, Bush said recent trends show a waning commitment to democratic freedoms and institutions. "Strengthening our relationship will depend on the policies, foreign and domestic that Russia adopts," he said.

The United States also is urging China to continue down a road of reform and openness.

"China's leaders must realize, however, that they cannot stay on this peaceful path while holding on to old ways of thinking and acting that exacerbate concerns throughout the region and the world."

He said these "old ways" include enlarging China's military in a nontransparent way, expanding trade, yet seeking to direct markets rather than opening them up, and supporting energy-rich nations without regard to their misrule or misbehavior at home or abroad.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1731842


2. GOP's Red Meat and Gravy Issues - Washington Times Op-ed

By Donald Lambro
Published March 16, 2006

The U.S. economy is producing jobs ever-faster, reinforcing President Bush's arguments that tax cuts were needed to stoke the nation's engine of growth.

After weeks of frustratingly weak job-approval numbers, followed by the Dubai ports fiasco that threatened to drive Mr. Bush's numbers deeper into the hole, the spectacular jobs report came out just at the moment when he and the country needed a dose of good news.

The Labor Department data showed businesses created 243,000 new jobs in February, beating all the consensus estimates by more than 40,000 jobs and giving the stock market something to cheer about. It also gives the president a reprieve from the bad news that has plagued his second term.

Though it draws very little news interest these days, Mr. Bush's job record is actually quite good. Some 2.1 million new jobs have been created in the last 12 months, nearly 5 million since August 2003. We've had 30 consecutive months of job growth. Nationally, the jobless rate was little changed at 4.8 percent, as more people return to the job market due to increasing demand for workers.

"These employment gains indicate strong first-quarter economic growth, in the range of 4 percent," said economist Peter Morici at the University of Maryland's School of Business.

The stunning jobs data is the latest evidence that, despite public doubts about the economic health of the country, the U.S. economy is not only getting stronger but showing remarkable staying power. All last year's gloom-and-doom stories about the economy slowing in 2006 look rather silly now, and few economists flatly predict a near-future slowdown.

The professional punditry in this town can't be happy about this turn of events. The Dubai story, after the Arab-owned company divested itself from the ports deal, has all but evaporated from debate, shifting attention back to the issues Republicans want to run on this year. As the midterm-elections cycle gets under way, 4 percent growth and an expanding job market is exactly what Mr. Bush and the Republicans need most. If this economic trend continues through 2006, it will be difficult for Democrats to paint a dreary picture of America heading into the abyss.

Indeed, the jobs story struck hard at the Democrats' biggest domestic-policy weakness -- their love affair with higher taxes that would grind the American jobs machine to a halt.

The conventional wisdom in Washington states that the Democrats are headed for an election sweep in the fall. But I think such predictions are overblown right now.

Here are a few reasons why things may not work out as Democrats hope:

(1) Not only will the economy pick up a head of steam this year, but the stock market could be entering a long bull market -- helped later this year by the expected extension of the tax cuts on dividends and capital gains -- that will push worker and retiree 401(k) plans into a higher orbit.

(2) With increasing reports of stronger Iraqi security forces taking over more responsibility -- and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sending signals that's exactly what he wants -- some U.S. troop withdrawals are in the cards this year.

That will likely improve Mr. Bush's polls and maybe boost support for the GOP Congress, changing the political equation dramatically.

(3) The old rule of politics is: You can't beat something with nothing. And nothing is what the Democrats have right now in terms of an agenda.
Unless you think higher taxes is a great issue to run on.

(4) Republicans have begun to kick their political offensive up a notch. A preview of their campaign strategy was on view last weekend in Memphis at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, where Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman tore into the Democrats with a vengeance.

Following White House political guru Karl Rove's election game plan to play to the GOP's strong suit on national security, Mr. Mehlman went on the attack: "Do you want the speaker of the House... to be [Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi] who said, less than a year after September 11, [2001], 'I don't really consider ourselves at war?' Was [Senate Democratic leader] Harry Reid really proud when he announced last year, 'We killed the [anti-terrorist] Patriot Act?' "

If the Democrats take control of Congress in November, they will raise taxes and put liberal judges on the Supreme Court who will "strike 'Under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance" and "deny parents the right to know if their minor daughter is having an abortion," he said.

These are the kind of red-meat attacks we can expect from Republicans this year, tailored to energize and reunite the GOP's divided base, and Mr. Bush will lead the charge. Don't underestimate them. They defied the historical odds and won in 2002 and in 2004. Their prospects are looking better in 2006.

Donald Lambro, chief political correspondent of The Washington Times, is a nationally syndicated columnist.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/commentary/20060315-091744-9652r.htm


3. Democrats' New Strategy Helps GOP - Human Events
by Michael Lewis
Posted Mar 15, 2006

Dubai Ports World announced it has dropped the ports deal, so the one thing Democrats were banking on for an election strategy has gone out the window. Never mind the suspicious look that their jumping on the national security bandwagon in the seventh inning had; it is now back to the drawing board.

Democrats have come up with a new plan for its fantasy midterm coup d'état, which is three-fold. The plan includes patronizing practicing Catholics, censuring the President for preventing terrorist attacks, and attacking 2008 presidential hopeful John McCain.

Recently, a team of 55 Democratic "Catholics" in the U.S. House, led by Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro issued a "Catholic Statement of Principles." This "statement" was an attempt to affirm their "Catholic" faith, while preserving "the right to obey (their) conscience rather than church teachings."

Isn't it cute that liberals think that they can believe abortion-on-demand is fine regardless of the reason and be "Catholic" at the same time? While as a Catholic I appreciate their efforts to patronize me and my Church, I am not the least bit amused. Of course, National Public Radio hailed the effort as a bucking of the party by Catholic Democrats, failing to mention that DeLauro was formerly the executive director of Emily's List, a pro-abortion group whose self-proclaimed purpose is to elect pro-choice Democrats to congress. I'm sure NPR had no political motive whatsoever behind their biased report. Regardless of their efforts, Catholicism and the Democratic parties are about as synonymous as a banana and prime rib. You'd have better luck trying to run MacOs on a PC. The purpose behind this grotesque attempt to pull the wool over our eyes is to try to win back the Catholic vote, which the Democrats have lost to the party that welcomes Catholics, in time for the midterm elections.

The second part of their grand election strategy is to censure President Bush for preventing terrorist attacks by conducting wiretaps on suspected terrorist without notifying Muhammad ahead of time. A bill introduced by Sen. Russ Feingold (D.-Wis.) would censure the president for keeping us safe and "breaking the law," which has been done by every president since Carter, who enacted FISA. One must question whether Feingold is really standing on principle or trying to stick it to Bush. The Democrats myopic obsession with bringing down the President is indicative of the latter. Democrats are simply angry that they don't have the national security record Bush does. I keep trying to find my violin, but I'm afraid it's in storage.

Thus far, their attempts to bring down the Bush Administration have failed. Therefore, the Democrats have ordered their puppet, Paul Krugman to start trying to bring McCain down before he gets elected. In his March 13 New York Times column, Krugman blasts McCain for his fiscal conservatism and his unwavering support for the war in Iraq, painting him as another right-wing nut. Of course, liberals like Krugman have their heads buried so deep in the sand that they fail to comprehend that in their efforts to smear Republicans, they actually help them. Like Howard Dean, Krugman has become a gift that keeps on giving.

The essence of the Democratic election strategy vindicates perceptions that the party is out of touch with America. Democrats know that they can no longer win in the arena of ideas; abortion ceased to be an election-winner in the 1980s. In light of this, they have resorted to the only mantra they have left, "George Bush and Republicans stink!" The sad (maybe ironic, or interesting?) part is that every time Rosa DeLauro, Paul Krugman, and Russ Feingold open their mouths, I thank God for George W. Bush.

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=13241


4. Call for Censure Is Rallying Cry to Bush's Base - New York Times
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

WASHINGTON, March 15 - Republicans, worried that their conservative base lacks motivation to turn out for the fall elections, have found a new rallying cry in the dreams of liberals about censuring or impeaching President Bush.

The proposal this week by Senator Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, to censure Mr. Bush over his domestic eavesdropping program cheered the left. But it also dovetailed with conservatives' plans to harness such attacks to their own ends.

With the Republican base demoralized by continued growth in government spending, undiminished violence in Iraq and intramural disputes over immigration, some conservative leaders had already begun rallying their supporters with speculation about a Democratic rebuke to the president even before Mr. Feingold made his proposal.

"Impeachment, coming your way if there are changes in who controls the House eight months from now," Paul Weyrich, a veteran conservative organizer, declared last month in an e-mail newsletter.

The threat of impeachment, Mr. Weyrich suggested, was one of the only factors that could inspire the Republican Party's demoralized base to go to the polls. With "impeachment on the horizon," he wrote, "maybe, just maybe, conservatives would not stay at home after all."

For weeks, Republicans have taken to conservative Web sites and talk radio shows to inveigh against the possibility, however remote, that Democrats could impeach Mr. Bush if they gained control of Congress. Mr. Feingold's censure proposal fell far short of a demand for impeachment. Most Democrats in the Senate distanced themselves from it, concerned that they would be tagged by Republicans as soft on terrorism. But the censure proposal provided Republicans an opening.

"This is such a gift," the conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh told listeners on his syndicated radio program on Monday, saying the Democrats were fulfilling his predictions. "They have to go back to this impeachment thing," he said.

The Wall Street Journal's editorial board, a conservative standard-bearer, echoed the thought. "We'd like to congratulate the Wisconsin Democrat on his candor," its editors wrote Wednesday in a column headlined "The Impeachment Agenda." The Republican National Committee sent the editorial out to its e-mail list of 15 million supporters.

Brian Jones, a Republican spokesman, said the e-mail messages generated a higher response than anything the party had sent in several months, including bulletins about the Supreme Court confirmations.

"Clearly on our side it is something that is energizing our base a little bit," Mr. Jones said.

"This is not about getting things done," he added. "This is raw partisan politics."

In an interview on Wednesday, Mr. Feingold declined to rule out supporting impeachment in the future, saying that the wiretapping "probably is the kind of thing the founding fathers thought of as high crimes and misdemeanors."

But Mr. Feingold also said he proposed the milder rebuke of censure instead of impeachment in part because of the context of the war and in part to avoid a political backlash from Mr. Bush's supporters.

"They can try to turn this into their fantasy, but that is not how this comes off," Mr. Feingold said, noting that his proposal addressed only the narrow subject of the wiretapping program. "I didn't throw in Iraq or a lot of other things that frankly are pretty bad."

Still, conservatives said they welcomed the debate over censure or impeachment. Some said they were especially pleased with the timing of Mr. Feingold's proposal because it came just after the Democrats had upstaged the Republicans on national security during the outcry over an Arab company's takeover of several port terminals in the United States.

"They finally found the issue where they could convince the American people that they, too, see an enemy," Mr. Limbaugh said on his radio program.

"In less than two days they are back to the N.S.A. scandal as though we don't have a national security problem," he said, referring to the domestic eavesdropping program run by the National Security Agency.

In playing up the impeachment threat, conservatives have forged an alliance of sorts with the most liberal wing of the Democratic Party, where the idea has bounced around since the invasion of Iraq failed to find the banned weapons that the administration had described before the war.

Last year, Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee and a member of the panel when it weighed proceedings against President Richard M. Nixon in 1974, proposed an initial inquiry into a censure or impeachment of Mr. Bush over the war. So far, the Conyers proposal has attracted support from about two dozen of the chamber's 201 Democrats.

ImpeachPAC, a grass-roots group based in New York City that grew out of the last election, is agitating for the idea. In the last few months, local governments in San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Arcata, Calif., and in several towns in Vermont have passed resolutions calling for impeachment. Harper's Magazine, the writer Garrison Keillor, the former Watergate figure John Dean, Barbra Streisand and the actor Richard Dreyfuss have expressed their support as well.

But other Democrats, mindful of the drubbing Republicans took over the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, have stepped carefully to avoid irking their most ardent supporters without endorsing the call for charges against Mr. Bush.

Asked recently about whether she would support a call for impeachment by her city, San Francisco, Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the House, demurred.

"I have a full-time job here," Ms. Pelosi said. "But I will say this: Elections have ramifications. If they don't like the policies of our country, I encourage everyone to mobilize to change who is in power in Washington."

Few lawmakers in either party think there is much chance of impeachment even if the Democrats do take the House. Carl Forti, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, called the idea "not realistic" but nonetheless useful. "It shows people how extreme the leaders of the Democrat Party actually are," Mr. Forti said.

With that in mind, Republicans have done what they can to amplify the liberals' talk. Three days after Mr. Weyrich warned that the possibility of impeachment was one of the few reasons for conservatives to go to the polls, the Cybercast News Service, a part of the conservative Media Research Center that provides material for talk radio hosts, reported that Mr. Dreyfuss had said in a speech at the National Press Club that impeaching Mr. Bush was a "cause worth fighting for."

Conservative Web sites and talk radio programs have lavished attention on the impeachment resolutions in California and Vermont for weeks, and for three days the Republican Party has sent radio hosts news bulletins suggesting Mr. Feingold's unpopular censure proposal actually revealed the true intent of his party. "Dem leaders support Feingold's folly," one headline read.

Mr. Weyrich, for his part, acknowledged that the prospect of impeachment seemed far-fetched at the moment. "It looked bizarre, too, when Father Robert F. Drinan and a handful of others, such as John Conyers Jr. in 1972 similarly were planning for the impeachment of President Nixon," he wrote in his newsletter. "When the moment of truth came, they were ready."

http://nytimes.com/2006/03/16/politics/16impeach.html?hp&ex=1142571600&en=c0fe339030f1f4ad&ei=5094&partner=homepage

5. Jessica Simpson Snubs Bush - Reuters

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Concerned about politicizing her favorite charity, singer-actress Jessica Simpson on Wednesday turned down a invitation to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush, a snub that left Republicans dismayed.

The apparent final word that Simpson would be a no-show at a major Republican fund-raiser with Bush and congressional leaders on Thursday night came after a day of conflicting reports from her camp and organizers of the event.

The blond star of the film "The Dukes of Hazzard" still plans to visit Washington on Thursday to lobby members of Congress on behalf of Operation Smile, a non-profit venture offering free plastic surgery for disadvantaged children overseas with facial deformities.

People close to Simpson said she declined a request to appear that same evening at the gala fund-raiser of the National Republican Congressional Committee -- even after she was offered some private face time with Bush -- because Operation Smile is a non-partisan group.

"It just feels wrong," one Simpson insider told Reuters on Wednesday, adding that the actress keeps her political views private. "She would love to meet the president and talk about Operation Smile ... but she can't do it at a fund-raiser for the Republican Party."

NRCC spokesman Carl Forti said he was surprised at Simpson's position.

"It's never been a problem for Bono," he said, referring to the U2 rock star who has met regularly with political leaders of all stripes to promote various causes, including Third World debt relief. "I find it hard to believe she would pass up an opportunity to lobby the president on behalf of Operation Smile."

Although Simpson's publicists insisted she never had planned to attend the fund-raiser, Forti said the actress initially accepted the NRCC invitation when it was extended on Tuesday night, only to change her mind the next evening.

Forti said the Republican group had even arranged for Simpson to dine at one of the head tables with U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican. The NRCC hopes the $2,500-per-plate dinner event will raise $7.5 million for Republican candidates in the congressional midterm elections in November.

Simpson, 25, a Texas native who started out singing in her church choir, became a star on the Christian music circuit as a teenager and crossed over to the pop mainstream with her major-label debut album "Sweet Kisses" in 1999.

She became an overnight MTV sensation in 2003 as co-star of a reality show chronicling her first year of wedlock with fellow pop vocalist Nick Lachey, but she filed for divorce in December after three stormy years of marriage. Simpson is currently featured wearing cowboy boots and hot pants in a TV pizza ad.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyid=2006-03-16T034954Z_01_N15411204_RTRUKOC_0_US-SIMPSON.xml&rpc=22


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