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July
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 – Tuesday, July 18,
20062, 2006
1. Israel signals its cease-fire demands - Washington Times
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert spelled out Israel's terms for ending its six-day
siege of Lebanon yesterday, demanding the return of two kidnapped soldiers,
an end to rocket attacks on Israel and the deployment of the Lebanese army
to keep Hezbollah away from the common border.
2. Lessons Learned - RealClear Politics
Calls for a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah assume first, that a
cease-fire would protect those worthy of protection, and second that
restoring the region's ante bellum "stability" would promote long-term
peace. Both assumptions are utterly false.
3. Nebraska court OKs gay marriage ban - Associated Press
Courts handed victories to gay-marriage opponents in two states Friday,
reinstating Nebraska's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage and throwing
out an attempt to keep a proposed ban off the ballot in Tennessee.
4. GOP Critics Tout Stem Cell Alternatives - Congress Daily AM
Leading up to a vote late this afternoon on a package of stem-cell bills,
Senate Republicans Monday strenuously sought to portray themselves as
pro-stem-cell research while arguing against expanding federal funding for
research using cells derived from embryos.
5. Dean's List - U.S. News & World Report
The Democratic chair plans
to fight in every one of the 50 states. Is this shrewd strategy or a recipe
for disaster?
For previous issues of the Morning Murmur, go to www.GOPsecretary.gov
FULL ARTICLES BELOW:
1. Israel signals its cease-fire demands -
Washington Times
By Joshua Mitnick
Published July 18, 2006
TEL AVIV -- Prime Minister Ehud Olmert spelled out Israel's terms for ending
its six-day siege of Lebanon yesterday, demanding the return of two
kidnapped soldiers, an end to rocket attacks on Israel and the deployment of
the Lebanese army to keep Hezbollah away from the common border.
The remarks were backed with Israeli air strikes on gas stations, factories
and the homes of Hezbollah members across Lebanon which left 48 dead,
according to a Reuters news agency count. The Iranian-backed guerrilla group
lobbed fresh volleys of Katyusha rockets into northern Israeli towns and
cities, including the port city of Haifa.
Blasts rocked Beirut through the day and smoke rose from a blazing fuel
depot. In Haifa, a Katyusha strike collapsed the facade of the top two
floors of a three-story building, leaving at least two injured. The death
toll after nearly a week of fighting stood at 210 Lebanese and 24 Israelis.
As the United States and European countries scrambled to evacuate their
nationals from Beirut, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin arrived
in the Lebanese capital hoping to spur cease-fire talks. But Israeli leaders
said they were determined to continue their offensive as long as necessary.
"There are moments in the life of any nation where it stares reality in the
face and says 'enough,' " said Mr. Olmert in his first address to parliament
since the fighting began. "So I say to everyone: 'Enough.' Israel will not
be held hostage to a terrorist gang, nor a terrorist authority."
The prime minister said he would operate with "all the force" against
Hezbollah, an Islamist militant group based in Lebanon, and Hamas, which is
holding an Israeli soldier captive in the Gaza Strip. He described the
groups as "subcontractors" for an Iranian-Syrian "axis of evil" that exports
state-sponsored terrorism.
At the same time, Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Israel wanted to
drive Hezbollah away from a narrow buffer zone in southern Lebanon, making
it impossible for the militia to stage cross-border raids like the one in
which two soldiers were seized last week.
Israel sustained its military offensive with air and artillery strikes
against at least 60 targets, with fresh explosions shaking Beirut's southern
suburbs last night. In one of the deadliest, nine civilians, including two
children, were killed in an attack on a bridge near the southern port city
of Sidon, according to Lebanese officials.
Israel briefly sent three tanks into Lebanon to destroy Hezbollah positions
near the border, a United Nations source told the Associated Press. Israeli
press reports have said that Israel is pursuing a four-stage plan and that
the final stage is expected to include the insertion of ground troops into
Lebanon.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said Israel's offensive had inflicted
billions of dollars of damage. "What Israel has been doing is cutting the
country to pieces," he told Reuters.
Hezbollah, for its part, penetrated ever deeper inside Israel with its
rockets, which Israel says are provided by Iran and Syria. One missile hit
the town of Afula, 30 miles inside Israel; another injured six persons when
it struck next to a hospital in Safed. At least 11 towns were hit, but no
Israelis were killed.
Israel eased a naval blockade of Beirut to permit ships to evacuate foreign
nationals. The Orient Queen, a cruise ship chartered by the Pentagon, was to
dock today escorted by a warship to remove some of the estimated 25,000 U.S.
citizens in the country.
At least 100 members of the North Carolina-based 24th Marine Expeditionary
Unit are in the region aboard amphibious landing ships, the AP said, but
only 64 Americans so far have been evacuated. Others have left overland
through Syria, which has offered to facilitate them.
France yesterday removed about 700 people aboard a chartered cruise ship,
and Italy evacuated 350, most of them Europeans.
The Lebanese buffer zone proposed by Israel would extend for less than a
mile and be enforced from the air and by armored divisions at the border
rather than ground forces stationed inside Lebanon, a Defense Ministry
spokeswoman said.
She described the zone as an "initial" measure and said Israel wouldn't
force an evacuation of Lebanese civilians from the region.
"No one on the Israeli side wants to return to the status quo ante, where
you go to the northern border and you see Hezbollah flags instead of
Lebanese flags and Hezbollah soldiers instead of Lebanese soldiers," said
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev.
Israel used infantry units to maintain a 13-mile-wide buffer strip in
southern Lebanon in the 1980s and 1990s to protect its cities from Hezbollah
rocket and mortar attacks. The zone was dismantled when Israel unilaterally
withdrew its forces from southern Lebanon in May 2000.
http://washingtontimes.com/world/20060718-121325-5565r.htm
2. Lessons Learned - RealClear Politics
By Jed Babbin
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and British Prime Minister Tony Blair want
to send an international force to separate Israel from Hizballah terrorists
in Lebanon. Mr. Blair said a UN force should be sent to, "...stop the
bombardment coming over into Israel and therefore gives Israel a reason to
stop its attacks on Hezbollah." Kofi Annan said such a force could,
"...pursue the idea of stabilization." But their idea assumes first, that a
cease-fire would protect those worthy of protection, and second that
restoring the region's ante bellum "stability" would promote long-term
peace. Both assumptions are utterly false.
Hizballah is not some small, ragged band scattered around Lebanon. It is a
huge terrorist structure, built over decades, that includes thousands of
men, weapons, positions, offices and everything that enables it to control
southern Lebanon. Israel is now destroying that infrastructure. A cease-fire
would benefit Hizballah and threaten Israel. It would protect both Hizballah
and the nations that support it - Syria and Iran - as well as the Lebanese
that have accepted the terrorist organization as a legitimate part of their
government. A cease-fire would allow Hizballah to rebuild its power base and
enable it to resume its attacks whenever Damascus and Tehran desired. For
Israel, a UN force would create no security whatever against future attacks.
The UN's years-long record on the Israel-Lebanon border makes mockery of the
term "peacekeeping." On page 155 of my book, "Inside the Asylum," is a
picture of a UN outpost on that border. The UN flag and the Hizballah flag
fly side-by-side.
Observers told me the UN and Hizballah personnel share water, telephones and
that the UN presence serves as a shield against Israeli strikes against the
terrorists.
The Israeli response to the attack by Lebanon-based Hizballah terrorists was
much more violent and effective than Hizballah, Iran or Syria expected. The
Olmert government failed to make any significant response to previous raids
from Gaza and Lebanon, which encouraged both terrorist regimes. The Syrian
and Iranian regimes practice brinksmanship as their foreign policy. They
attack as often as they can in as aggressive manner as they believe will not
trigger a decisive response. Iran wanted to distract the G-8 summit from
agreeing to do anything about its nuclear weapons program, so it apparently
told its Hizballah surrogates in Lebanon that the time was ripe to begin a
major offensive.
The Hizballah attacks began about two weeks after Israel suffered the usual
international condemnations for its response to the Gaza-based Hamas
kidnapping of an Israeli soldier. Even after the Gaza incursion - emboldened
by international condemnation of Israel's "disproportionate" response --
Iran and Syria were convinced that Israel would do no more than make token
raids into Lebanon. For the first time, Israel has acted in accordance with
what used to be George Bush's theory: that a government which contains,
supports or harbors terrorists is responsible for their actions. Israel is
now demonstrating that there is a price to be exacted from nations who
collaborate with terrorists. The reason Israel must not agree to a
cease-fire now, and why a UN force must be rejected is the fact that the
Arab nations may be starting to open their eyes.
An emergency Cairo meeting of the 18 Arab League nations' foreign ministers
last weekend produced the most significant event in the region since Saddam
fell from power. These meetings are routine, held in crises or for political
posturing and on every occasion before last weekend have resulted in
condemnation of Israel and (or) the United States. This meeting began with
the Lebanese foreign minister Fawzi Salloukh proposing a resolution
condemning Israel's military action, supporting Lebanon's "right to resist
occupation by all legitimate means" (which even the AP report characterized
as "language frequently used by Hizballah to justify its guerillas' presence
in south Lebanon.") The Lebanese draft also called on Israel to release all
Lebanese prisoners and supported Lebanon's right to "liberate them by all
legitimate means." The "Lebanese prisoners" are virtually all Hizballah
members and "legitimate means" translates to terrorism. The Syrian foreign
minister, Walid Moallem, strongly supported Lebanon and Hizballah. But an
historic obstacle was raised that blocked the Lebanese endorsement of
terrorism.
The Saudi foreign minister, al-Faisal, led a triumvirate including Egypt and
Jordan that, according to the AP report, was "...criticizing the guerilla
group's actions, calling them 'unexpected, inappropriate and irresponsible
acts.'" Faisal said, "These acts will pull the whole region back to years
ago, and we simply cannot accept them." These are the rumblings that precede
a political earthquake. The Arab leaders are frightened that the acts of the
terrorists they have coddled for decades might have consequences for them.
And they are very frightened of what Iran may do next. We must reinforce
those fears because they provide the first big lever with which those
nations can be moved.
The Arab foreign ministers apparently have the glimmerings of a lesson
dawning in their minds. The US veto of a UN resolution condemning Israeli
action makes clear that if Israel imposes consequences for support of
terror, the US will not stand in the way. Punishing Lebanon for its
government's acceptance of Hizballah is one step. The next logical step
would be punishing Syria and then Iran. If President Bush means to implement
the policy he has pronounced, he wouldn't merely get out of Israel's way. He
would lead. Instead of criticizing Kofi Annan and asking him to call Bashar
Assad to pressure Syria to "cut this s*#t out," he should find a more
reliable messenger. The name of Peter Pace comes to mind.
The Iranians and Syrians are apparently urging Hizballah to intensify this
battle in the coming days. Many more missiles and suicide bombers will be
used against Israel. And the Israelis will continue their attacks in Lebanon
and Gaza. If we pressure the Israelis to call a halt to action prematurely,
the hope that rose from the Arab ministers' meeting will be dashed and the
lesson taught that there is still no penalty for supporting, succoring and
ordering terrorists to do their work. If we continue to reject a ceasefire,
and openly encourage Israel to deal a decisive blow to Hizballah, then
Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan will understand the lesson is quite
the opposite. For Syria and Iran, the lesson will have to be applied
directly.
Jed Babbin was a deputy undersecretary of defense in the George H.W. Bush
administration. He is a contributing editor to The American Spectator and
author of Showdown: Why China Wants War with the United States (with Edward
Timperlake, Regnery 2006) and Inside the Asylum: Why the UN and Old Europe
are Worse than You Think (Regnery 2004).
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/07/lessons_learned.html
3. Nebraska court OKs gay marriage ban -
Associated Press
July 16, 2006
BY KEVIN O'HANLON
LINCOLN, Neb. -- Courts handed victories to gay-marriage opponents in two
states Friday, reinstating Nebraska's voter-approved ban on same-sex
marriage and throwing out an attempt to keep a proposed ban off the ballot
in Tennessee.
In the Nebraska case, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a
judge's ruling last year that the ban was too broad and deprived gays and
lesbians of participation in the political process, among other things.
Seventy percent of voters approved the ban as a constitutional amendment in
2000.
It went further than similar bans in many states in that it also barred
same-sex couples from many legal protections afforded to heterosexual
couples. For example, the partners of gays and lesbians who work for the
state are not entitled to share their health insurance and other benefits.
New York-based Lambda and the ACLU's Lesbian and Gay Project sued, arguing
it violated gay rights. The court ruled that amendment ''and other laws
limiting the state-recognized institution of marriage to heterosexual
couples are rationally related to legitimate state interests and therefore
do not violate the Constitution of the United States.''
Justices dismiss ACLU suit
In Tennessee, the state Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit by the American
Civil Liberties Union that contended the state failed to meet its own
notification requirements for a ballot measure asking voters to ban gay
marriage. The high court ruled unanimously Friday that the ACLU didn't have
standing to file the suit.
Tennessee already has a law banning gay marriage, but lawmakers who
supported the proposed amendment said they wanted a backup in case the law
was overturned. Similar steps have been taken in many of the other 44 states
that have specifically barred same-sex marriage through statute or
constitutional amendment.
Only Massachusetts allows gay marriage, which was allowed through a ruling
by the state's high court. Vermont and Connecticut allow same-sex civil
unions that confer the same legal rights as heterosexual married couples.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-gaymarr16.html#
4. GOP Critics Tout Stem Cell
Alternatives - Congress Daily AM
Leading up to a vote late this afternoon on a package of
stem-cell bills, Senate Republicans Monday strenuously sought to portray
themselves as pro-stem-cell research while arguing against expanding federal
funding for research using cells derived from embryos.
The Senate is expected to pass three stem-cell bills, one of them a
House-approved measure, and the House will clear the other two in a
GOP-choreographed plan that is expected to lead to President Bush's first
veto.
That veto is expected on the House bill introduced by Reps. Michael Castle,
R-Del., and Diana DeGette, D-Colo., which would undo the president's 2001
policy restricting research on embryonic stem cell lines. Senate Judiciary
Chairman Specter and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, introduced the Senate version.
Republicans opposed to the embryonic stem-cell bill have been touting the
advances resulting from cells derived from other sources, including adults
and cord-blood.
On Monday, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., said that if the United States had
spent the research money it used to fund embryonic stem cell research on
other research methods, scientists would be closer to cures than they are
now. "We would have many more treatments and many more people alive today,"
he said.
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., a physician, noted that privately funded embryonic
stem-cell research is not barred under law. "The fact is there is not one
cure from embryonic stem cells," he said.
In a White House's Statement of Administration Policy issued Monday, the
administration took a similar tack, noting that other avenues of research do
not pose the ethical dilemmas that embryonic stem-cell research does, while
producing better results. "Embryonic stem cell research is at an early stage
of basic science and has never yielded a therapeutic application in humans,"
the SAP states.
"While no treatments or cures have been developed from embryonic stem cell
research, there are therapies and promising treatments from adult stem cells
and other forms of non-embryonic stem cells," it added. "The ...
availability of alternative sources of stem cells further counters the case
for compelling the American taxpayer to encourage the ongoing destruction of
human embryos for research."
But backers of the Castle-DeGette bill -- whose ranks include Republicans --
insisted that scientists must be able to pursue embryonic stem cell
research. Such research has been hobbled by the dearth of federal funding
and by technical complications that have rendered unusable many of the
stem-cell lines currently eligible for federal funding under the president's
policy, they said.
"We should leave no stone unturned in the search for cures," said Health,
Education, Labor and Pensions ranking member Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. "But
there is no sense in closing the door on one of the most promising areas of
medical research discovered in decades, while we wait for other less hopeful
methods to show success or failure."
The two other bills the Senate will pass tonight include one steering
funding toward stem-cell research that does not involve embryonic cells and
another banning the practice of "fetal farming," the development of embryos
for the sole purpose of research.
All three bills are expected to win comfortable margins in the Senate, even
under a consent agreement that will require 60 votes for approval.
If Bush does veto the embryo bill, the House is unlikely to override it.
The chamber would need 290 votes and the House passed the bill last summer
with just 238 votes in favor.
By Emily Heil
http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/congressdaily/
5. Dean's List - U.S. News & World Report
The Democratic chair plans to fight in every one of the 50 states. Is this
shrewd strategy or a recipe for disaster?
By Dan Gilgoff
Posted Sunday, July 16, 2006
DIAMONDHEAD, MISS.--Here's what the front line of Howard Dean's revolution
looks like: two dozen senior citizens seated inside this gated community's
clubhouse listening intently as operatives from the state Democratic Party
pitch them on becoming precinct captains. A rep named Jay Parmley approaches
an oversize easel and flips to a page showing John Kerry's share of the 2004
presidential vote here in Hancock County. "28%" is scrawled in magic marker.
"Kind of scary," Parmley says.
But he flips the page to show former Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove's share
of the vote here in his unsuccessful 2003 re-election bid: "43%." The
discrepancy, Parmley explains, shows that the better Mississippians know a
Democrat, the more likely they are to vote for him. Which is why he's here
recruiting precinct captains. If Democrats can define themselves on a
"neighbor to neighbor" basis, Parmley says, their candidates can win again,
even here, in a red county in a red state.
If that doesn't sound revolutionary, consider this: Mississippi's Democratic
Party hasn't trained precinct captains for more than a decade. Until
recently, the state party consisted of a single full-time staffer. In 2004,
the Democratic National Committee invested so little here that activists
shelled out thousands of their own dollars to print up Kerry yard signs.
That all changed last summer, when newly elected DNC Chairman Howard Dean
began rolling out his "50-State Strategy," a multimillion-dollar program to
rebuild the Democratic Party from the ground up. Over the past year, the DNC
has hired and trained four staffers for virtually every state party in the
nation--nearly 200 workers in all--to be field organizers, press
secretaries, and technology specialists, even in places where the party
hasn't been competitive for decades. "It's a huge shift," Dean tells U.S.
News. "Since 1968, campaigns have been about TV and candidates, which works
for 10 months out of the four-year cycle. With party structure on the
ground, you campaign for four years."
The strategy is also a reaction to the past two presidential cycles, when
the shrinking number of battleground states the Democratic nominee was
competing in left no room for error. Both elections were arguably determined
by a single state: Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004. Says Dean: "We've
gotten to the point where we're almost not a national party."
But Dean's plan has helped feed a fierce intraparty battle between the DNC
and the committees tasked with electing Democrats to Congress: the
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senatorial
Campaign Committee. DCCC Chair Rahm Emanuel has been especially vocal to
Dean over concerns that the DNC is misallocating resources in a year when
the Democrats are poised to take back the House. Grousing about insufficient
funds from the DNC, Emanuel recently told Roll Call "there is no cavalry
financially for us." Emanuel declined interview requests, but DCCC sources
say more money should go to Democratic candidates in tight races, not to
field organizers in long-shot red states.
A big bet. With the future of the Democratic Party at stake, Republicans are
watching closely, too. "Dean could wind up looking like a genius
eventually," says a top GOP strategist. "Or this could be the election that
could have been."
The promise and peril of Dean's plan come into sharp relief in the Magnolia
State, where neither this year's U.S. Senate race nor the four House races
are considered competitive. And while Democrats enjoyed more-or-less
single-party status here for the hundred years following the Civil War,
Republicans now hold the state's two Senate seats, the governor's mansion,
and most other statewide offices. The last Democratic presidential nominee
to win the state was Jimmy Carter, in 1976. But Dean argues that such
failures are the result of the national party's having packed up and left
red states. "Nobody stands up and says, 'Here's why I'm a Democrat,'" he
says. "That's why right-wingers have managed to brand us in unattractive
ways. To be branded right, you need real people on the ground."
The gambit has remade the Mississippi party with four full-time, DNC-paid
staffers and a fundraiser. In four months, finance director Wendi Hooks has
tripled the number of $1,000-plus donors to 24 and expects to more than
double the party's budget this year, to $400,000. Two field representatives
have recruited captains in more than 500 precincts so far, along with
volunteers for phone banks and canvassing. "I've been trying to contact the
party since I moved back here in 1992," says Harold Terry, 43, a Jackson
native who volunteered last week at a phone bank. "Someone finally got back
to me three weeks ago."
The new DNC hires tell similar stories. Rita Royals is a 57-year-old former
rape crisis counselor who paid to print her own Kerry signs in 2004. That
same year, DeMiktric Biggs, a student at Jackson State University, sent a
county-by-county voter analysis to almost everyone on the state Democratic
committee--and never got a reply. Now, the party is using his work to plan
its ground game.
As the 2006 election nears, the precinct captains whom Royals and Biggs are
training will be put to work leveraging the DNC's updated voter
file--improved since technical glitches stymied many state parties'
get-out-the-vote efforts in 2004. Of course, with President Bush winning
Mississippi with nearly 60 percent of the vote, the Democratic Party isn't
expecting dramatic results anytime soon. "The Republicans had 30 years to
put themselves in the position they're in," says Dean. "To think we're going
to turn the party around in four is wrong."
That timetable makes operatives at the other Democratic committees even more
uneasy. But the 50-State Strategy, for the time being, is focused more on
keeping or regaining control of state legislatures, which have taken on more
national political value because they draw the lines for U.S. House seats.
In Mississippi, Democrats control the Legislature but have lost dozens of
seats recently. In Arizona, Republicans are three seats away from veto proof
majorities in the state House and Senate. The state Democratic Party there
has used its DNC field organizers to do aggressive outreach to American
Indians and Hispanics, particularly during the huge immigrant rights
protests earlier this year. "The DNC has enabled us to become part of the
fabric of these communities," says Arizona party chair David Waid. "There
used to be this sense of coming around only when we wanted your vote."
Waid and other state-level operatives say their beefed-up parties have also
helped in candidate recruiting. "If you can show a candidate you have the
support infrastructure to get them elected, he'll run," says Jerry Goldman,
party chair in McCormick County, S.C., who now works closely with his state
party. "You have to show a candidate that he's not out there by himself." In
Arizona, Democrats have candidates in every legislative district for the
first time in a decade. "Successful candidates for Congress come from
winning offices at the county or municipal level," says Arizona's Waid. "We
build that farm team, and it enhances our chances for taking back Congress."
Cultural chasm. At least that's the theory. But in many red states, even
some Democrats say their failures have as much to do with the national
party's positions on cultural issues like gay rights and school
prayer--which have become politically potent only in the past 25 years--as
they do with ground organization. Discussing his national party's stance on
hot-button issues, Mississippi state Rep. Dirk Dedeaux says, "They don't
have to tinker; they have to disavow it. I'm opposed to gun control, opposed
to abortion on demand."
Dedeaux says top-of-ticket Democrats can win on economic issues,
particularly in poor states like his, but only by narrowing the GOP
advantage on social issues. "Democrats believe government is responsible for
the needs of average people, not just Big Oil and Big Tobacco," he says.
"These aren't sensational issues. They're meat and potatoes."
According to that view, if liberals like John Kerry win the nomination for
president, all the precinct captains in the world couldn't muster enough
Mississippi votes to put them over the top. Joel Ingram, chairman of the
Lamar County Democratic Party, has struck out in trying to organize precinct
captains because there's no strong national Democratic candidate at the
moment to motivate people. "I believe the solution is top-down," he says.
"To get people off the sofa, you need a strong candidate at the top." Howard
Dean probably wouldn't make the cut, either. "It would be our fondest dream
to have Dean be the nominee," says Mississippi Republican Party Chair Jim
Herring. "Or Hillary Clinton."
In the meantime, Dean's bigger challenge may be fending off attacks from his
own party. The DCCC's Emanuel reportedly stormed out of a meeting with Dean
recently, and the two are said not to have talked since. DCCC sources say
Emanuel is steamed that Dean has burned through tens of millions of dollars
by hiring direct-mail firms and other vendors, leaving the DNC with $10
million on hand, less than a quarter of the Republican's war chest. The
fight now, say DCCC sources, is for the money that's left.
But Dean tells U.S. News that he has pledged $12 million to so-called
coordinated campaigns: state-level plans that include Senate and House
races, along with lesser offices. "I'm an outsider, and people in Washington
don't like advice from outsiders," says Dean. But he says that he works well
with the leaders in the House and Senate and that "eventually I'll work well
with the DCCC and DSCC."
For now, he seems to be working well with the grass roots. After the
presentation in Diamondhead, Lisa Boughton, 40, signs up to be a precinct
captain. "In small towns like this," she says, "you vote how your neighbor
tells you to."
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060716/24dems.htm
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