September 13, 2006

September:   Sept. 29, 2006   Sept. 28, 2006   Sept. 27, 2006   Sept. 26, 2006   Sept. 21, 2006   Sept. 20, 2006   Sept. 19, 2006   Sept. 14, 2006   Sept. 13, 2006   Sept. 12, 2006   Sept. 07, 2006   Sept. 06, 2006 JULY:   Jul. 28, 2006   Jul. 27, 2006   Jul. 26, 2006   Jul. 25, 2006   Jul. 24, 2006   Jul. 20, 2006   Jul. 19, 2006   Jul. 18, 2006   Jul. 17, 2006   Jul. 13, 2006   Jul. 12, 2006   Jul. 11, 2006   Jul. 10, 2006 JUNE:   Jun. 29, 2006   Jun. 28, 2006   Jun. 27, 2006   Jun. 26, 2006   Jun. 22, 2006   Jun. 21, 2006   Jun. 20, 2006   Jun. 19, 2006   Jun. 16, 2006   Jun. 15, 2006   Jun. 14, 2006   Jun. 13, 2006   Jun. 12, 2006   Jun. 9, 2006   Jun. 8, 2006   Jun. 7, 2006   Jun. 6, 2006 MAY:   May 25, 2006   May 24, 2006   May 23, 2006   May 22, 2006   May 19, 2006   May 18, 2006   May 17, 2006   May 11, 2006   May 10, 2006   May 4, 2006   May 3, 2006   May 2, 2006 APRIL:   Apr. 27, 2006   Apr. 26, 2006   Apr. 25, 2006   Apr. 6, 2006   Apr. 5, 2006   Apr. 4, 2006 MARCH:   Mar. 30, 2006   Mar. 29, 2006   Mar. 28, 2006   Mar. 16, 2006   Mar. 15, 2006   Mar. 14, 2006   Mar. 9, 2006   Mar. 8, 2006   Mar. 7, 2006   Mar. 2, 2006   Mar. 1, 2006 FEBRUARY:   Feb. 28, 2006   Feb. 16, 2006   Feb. 15, 2006   Feb. 14, 2006   Feb. 8, 2006   Feb. 1, 2006 JANUARY:   Jan. 31, 2006 DECEMBER:   Dec. 16, 2005   Dec. 15, 2005   Dec. 14, 2005   Dec. 13, 2005   Dec. 8, 2005   Dec. 7, 2005   Dec. 6, 2005 Archives

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, September 13, 2006

1. GOP Moderate Chafee Wins R.I. Primary - Associated Press
The Rhode Island Senate primary was the most closely watched on the last big day of primaries before the November elections, with races also in Arizona, Delaware, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.

2. W's firm stand has foes shaky - New York Daily News Op-ed
The fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks produced two major developments that likely altered the dynamics of the midterm elections. If Dems have a plan B, now would be the time to start dusting it off.

3. Dow hits 4-month high as oil prices drop - Reuters
The Dow Jones industrial average hit a four-month high on Tuesday after the seventh straight decline in oil prices spread hopes that the slowdown in economic growth may not hit the wallets of consumers quite so hard.

4. Bush, 9/11 and the polls - Washington Times Op-ed
On the fifth anniversary of September 11, CNN reported what at first look appears to be very bad news for the president. "Poll: More Americans blame Bush for 9/11," read the headline. This was a gross exaggeration of the data. In fact, the president's poll numbers on September 11 blame haven't moved since 2004, the last time CNN conducted this poll.

5. At universities, little learned from 9/11 - Boston Globe Op-ed
What has Harvard learned from Sept. 11? Very little. The difference between our country and the terrorists dwarfs that between liberals and conservatives within our country. But conservatives are more aware of this fact than are liberals, and our universities are dominated by befuddled liberals.

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

FULL ARTICLES BELOW:

1. GOP Moderate Chafee Wins R.I. Primary - Associated Press

By ROBERT TANNER
AP National Writer

In the latest test of the country's politics of polarization, the middle ground held on.

Rhode Island Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee said his victory Tuesday against a conservative challenger sent a message across the nation that moderate Republicans remained "alive and kicking" after beating back a challenger that ran to his political right.

"Partisan politics must not prevail," he said.

The Rhode Island Senate primary was the most closely watched on the last big day of primaries before the November elections, with races also in Arizona, Delaware, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.

Chafee's primary win over Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey was notable in a year that saw moderates from each party lose primaries to hard-line candidates. He thanked Democratic-leaning independents for supporting him while he got backing from the Bush administration - with his seat critical to Republicans trying to hold a Senate majority - even after he bucked them on Iraq, taxes and the environment.

White House press secretary Tony Snow congratulated Chafee, saying on ABC's "Good Morning America" Wednesday that while Chafee and President Bush disagree on some policies, "so do conservatives from time to time."

"The most important thing is he's a loyal Republican. We're glad to have him aboard," Snow said.

Another test of conservatives versus moderates for an Arizona House seat brought a different outcome, with the potential to play a part in the larger fight for control of Congress.

Conservative former lawmaker Randy Graf, who ran hard against illegal immigration in the district that stretches from Tucson to the Mexican border, beat moderate state Rep. Steve Huffman 43 percent to 37 percent.

National GOP leaders had angered local Republicans when they jumped into the race to support Huffman for the seat left open by retiring GOP Rep. Jim Kolbe, worried that Graf might be too conservative to beat Democratic candidate Gabrielle Giffords, a former state legislator.

"We stayed on the issue, kept our campaign on the up-and-up and talked about the issues we've talked about for years, and the voters appreciated that," Graf said.

Each party has struggled this year with intra-party challenges. Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman lost the Democratic primary to anti-war candidate Ned Lamont, though the incumbent is still running as an independent. Michigan Rep. Joe Schwarz, a moderate Republican targeted by the anti-tax Club for Growth, was defeated.

Two other incumbents lost primaries, though both had grown unpopular for their personal behavior - Alaska GOP Gov. Frank Murkowski and Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia.

In Rhode Island, the importance of holding onto a GOP Senate seat brought Laura Bush and the GOP establishment to campaign for Chafee - even though he was the only Republican to vote against the resolution to use force against Iraq and he opposed the president's tax cuts. Chafee did not even vote for Bush in 2004 - instead writing in the name of Bush's father, former President George H.W. Bush.

Chafee said he didn't expect the current president to campaign on his behalf. "His current approval ratings would not be helpful in this Democratic state," Chafee said.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Chafee had 34,042 votes, or 54 percent, to Laffey's 29,431 votes, or 46 percent.

Polls show Chafee will still face a tough contest against Democratic nominee Sheldon Whitehouse, a former attorney general. But if Chafee had lost, polls showed Whitehouse was almost assured a victory. Democrats hope to build on national dismay with Bush and Congress to capture majorities in Congress, and they need six Senate seats.

Chafee, 53, was appointed to the Senate in 1999 after his father, Sen. John Chafee, a governor and senator, died in office. It was the younger Chafee's opposition to Bush's tax cuts that spurred the anti-tax Club for Growth to back Laffey.

In New York, frontrunning Democrats swept aside primary challengers - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton trounced an anti-war candidate in her re-election bid, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer crushed his opposition for the Democratic nod for governor, and Andrew Cuomo easily won the party nomination for attorney general.

In Minnesota, state Rep. Keith Ellison won the Democratic nomination for an open House seat that could make him the first Muslim in Congress. In a reliably Democratic district that's voted close to 70 percent for the Democrat for nearly 30 years, he's likely the fall winner, too.

In Maryland, the race for the Democratic nomination for the Senate seat left open by Paul Sarbanes' retirement was too close to call early Wednesday. Rep. Ben Cardin was leading Kweisi Mfume, former head of the NAACP, 46 percent to 38 percent - or 225,439 votes to 185,580 votes - with 93 percent of precincts reporting. The winner will face GOP Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, who would be the lone black Republican in the Senate if he wins in November.

Judges extended voting hours in Baltimore and nearby Montgomery County by one hour because of problems that delayed the opening of some polling places. Officials said some election judges did not show up on time and others had trouble getting into the facilities.

In New York, Clinton beat challenger Jonathan Tasini with more than 80 percent of the vote. She will face former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer.

Spitzer defeated Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi with more than 80 percent of the vote. He will face GOP candidate John Faso, a former legislative leader, in the fall.

Former federal Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo - son of former Gov. Mario Cuomo - defeated Mark Green, the former New York City Public Advocate, to win the Democratic nomination for attorney general.

And City Council member Yvette Clarke, who is black, prevailed in a racially charged congressional primary in the heart of Brooklyn, beating white City Councilman David Yassky in an area that has seen an influx of wealthy Manhattan residents and been gripped by debate over a development that would include a new arena for the NBA's New Jersey Nets.


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PRIMARY_ELECTIONS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
 

2. W's firm stand has foes shaky - New York Daily News Op-ed

In theory, the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks should have been a solemn day of remembrance devoid of politics. In fact, the day produced two major developments that likely altered the dynamics of the midterm elections.

The result is that Democratic plans for taking one or both houses of Congress by arguing that Iraq has nothing to do with the war on Islamic terror now look like a political mistake as well as misguided policy. The change came because President Bush confounded expectations by staying bullish on the war and because Osama Bin Laden's deputy seconded Bush's view that Iraq is key to the global conflict.

If Dems have a plan B, now would be the time to start dusting it off.

Let's begin with Bush. Most political insiders thought he would try to dance around Iraq in a bid to save congressional Republicans and his own policies. With the war increasingly unpopular, some even predicted Bush would declare victory and start withdrawing troops before November.

But the President apparently didn't get that memo. In a series of speeches that culminated in a prime-time address from the Oval Office on Monday night, Bush forcefully embraced Iraq and the controversial policies that accompany it. On Monday, he cited warrantless wiretaps, data mining of bank transactions and his plan for trials of top terror suspects as important tools in the fight to keep Americans safe.

Having already bet his presidency and his legacy on the war, he passed up a final chance to hedge.

"Whatever mistakes have been made in Iraq, the worst mistake would be to think that if we pulled out, the terrorists would leave us alone. They will not leave us alone. They will follow us. The safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad," he said.

If that wasn't clear enough, he added: "This struggle has been called a clash of civilizations. In truth, it is a struggle for civilization."

That's a great line and, coming after a day of commemorative events that still pack a powerful emotional punch, it had to give Dem strategists second thoughts. And then along came Al Qaeda.

Even as Bush was quoting Bin Laden as calling Iraq "the Third World War," Bin Laden's deputy released a video promising attacks against the U.S. and Israel. "The days are pregnant and giving birth to new events," Ayman al-Zawahiri vowed. He said our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are "doomed to defeat" and that we would be driven out of the Middle East.

His threats are like a sharp stick in the eye, especially for Democrats. Look at the scrambled dynamics this way: If Bush and Bin Laden agree that Iraq is a key front, can Democrats really argue it's not? Can their candidates for Congress still tell voters it's okay to pull out of Iraq? Do they even believe it themselves?

None of this is to minimize the difficulties in Iraq or the mistakes Bush has made there. And his giving good speeches will not alter the results on the ground. America needs either a far better performance from Iraqi and Afghan troops or an increase in allied forces to create a stable, secure Iraq and Afghanistan. Otherwise, both are going to become failed states and havens for Al Qaeda and other terror groups.

But Bush at least sees the stakes for what they are. Before Monday, Democrats didn't. We can now add that illusion to the list of things Sept. 11 has changed forever.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/451787p-380229c.html

3. Dow hits 4-month high as oil prices drop - Reuters

Tue Sep 12, 2006 11:30 PM BST

By Kevin Plumberg

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average hit a four-month high on Tuesday after the seventh straight decline in oil prices spread hopes that the slowdown in economic growth may not hit the wallets of consumers quite so hard.

The dollar jumped to five-month highs against the yen on technical factors despite a report showing a record U.S. trade deficit in July, leading gold prices to sag for the fifth straight session.

Shares of retailers led gains, with Home Depot Inc. <HD.N> , the top U.S. home improvement chain, driving the Dow industrials higher and ranking among the major contributors to the S&P 500's biggest advance in nearly a month.

"The oil drop is a positive impetus. Instead of spending $70 to fill up their cars, consumers will go, say, to JC Penney, so that does help," said Jon Brorson, managing director of growth equities at Neuberger Berman in Chicago.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> shot up 101.25 points, or 0.89 percent, to end at 11,498.09. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> jumped 13.57 points, or 1.04 percent, to finish at 1,313.11. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> climbed 42.57 points, or 1.96 percent, to close at 2,215.82.

In overseas trading, the FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> index gained 1.3 percent, or 17.31 points, to end at 1,366.82 as investors bought automotive and chipmakers' shares.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei average <.N225> slipped 0.5 percent, or 75.04 points, to close at a one-month low of 15,719.34 as weak commodity prices stoked worries about global demand and weighed on stocks such as steel makers.

OIL AND GOLD HEAD SOUTH

Commodity prices continued a week-long slump. Some analysts said the prices of raw materials will have to fall further after a 4-1/2-year bull run, especially if global economic growth slows much more.

U.S. crude oil for October delivery <CLc1> slid $1.85 (1 pound), or almost 3 percent, to settle at $63.76 a barrel, the lowest settlement price since March 22, and the longest losing streak in nearly three years. London Brent crude <LCOc1> fell $1.56 to $62.99.

"There is potential that this could go a long way, since pure supply and demand would dictate a price in the low $50s," said Mike Fitzpatrick, vice president for risk management of Fimat USA in New York.

Oil has fallen about 20 percent in two months, raising questions within OPEC about whether it should make the first formal output cut in 2-1/2 years.

Meanwhile, gold gave up earlier gains after the rising dollar showed no signs of letting up. Because of gold's use as a hedge against inflation, bullion prices normally have an inverse relationship with the greenback.

Prices failed to rise convincingly above the psychological $600-an-ounce mark by midmorning as selling continued to offset interest from bargain hunters.

COMEX gold for December delivery <GCZ6> fell $3.00, or 0.5 percent, to close at $594.30 an ounce.

DOLLAR RISES DESPITE RECORD US TRADE GAP

Technical factors such as new supply and chart levels ruled prices in the fixed-income and foreign-exchange markets, which have yet to find direction after the summer lull.

The dollar ran up to a five-month high against the yen and climbed against the euro on Tuesday as technical factors helped it reverse losses posted after data showed a record U.S. trade deficit in July.

The dollar was up 0.3 percent at 117.92 yen, after hitting a session high at 118.15 yen.

The euro was down 0.1 percent at $1.2692 <EUR=> from $1.2702 late Monday in New York.

Trading was volatile, with the euro touching a session peak at $1.2733, according to Reuters data, after the government said the July U.S. trade gap hit a record $68.04 billion. But the currency subsequently tumbled and reversed direction several times. It tested a session low at $1.2672.

"Technicals have been a far stronger factor than fundamentals for the U.S. dollar since Labour Day," said Michael Woolfolk, senior currency strategist with the Bank of New York.

U.S. government debt prices, which move inversely to yields, shot up after better-than-expected demand for a Treasury 10-year note auction, outweighing the impact of a glut of fresh corporate debt issuance.

The 10-year Treasury note <US10YT=RR> rose 8/32 in price to 100-25/32 for a yield of 4.78 percent, compared with Monday's closing yield of 4.80 percent.

Some $20 billion of corporate bond supply this week, led by Anadarko Petroleum Corp.'s <APC.N> planned $5 billion issue later in the week, has been weighing on

Treasuries as underwriters sell government bonds for hedging purposes until the corporate bond sales are completed.

Euro zone government bond yields rose to the highest since late August on a combination of stronger-than-expected economic data in Europe and the UK, hawkish remarks from European policy-makers and a slew of new issuance.

(Additional reporting by Ellis Mnyandu, Caroline Valetkevitch, Amanda Cooper, Ellen Freilich, Gene Ramos and Zach Howard in New York, Ulf Laessing in Frankfurt and Risa Maeda in Tokyo)

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlebusiness.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2006-09-12T222953Z_01_N12352998_RTRUKOC_0_UK-MARKETS-GLOBAL.xml&archived=False

4. Bush, 9/11 and the polls - Washington Times Op-ed
 

September 13, 2006

On the fifth anniversary of September 11, CNN reported what at first look appears to be very bad news for the president. "Poll: More Americans blame Bush for 9/11," read the headline. "The percentage of Americans who blame the Bush administration for the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington has risen from almost a third to almost half over the past four years."

In fact, as Media Research Center blogger Dan Riehl found, Mr. Bush can rest easy. The president's poll numbers on September 11 blame haven't moved since 2004, the last time CNN conducted this poll. At that time, the percentage of respondents who blamed the Bush administration a "great deal" or a "moderate amount" was 42 percent. In the Aug. 30 to Sept. 2 poll, the percentage was 45 percent, or well within the poll's 3 percentage point margin of error. By comparison, those who blamed the Clinton administration in 2004 stood at 43 percent and in the 2006 poll at 41 percent, which are also within the margin of error. So much for CNN's big story. A better headline would have been "Poll: Americans place equal blame on both administrations for 9/11."

It's true that in a 2002 poll only 32 percent blamed the Bush administration, seemingly giving credence to CNN's misleading headline. However, in a 2001 poll, it was almost the same at 34 percent. (There are no 2002 numbers for the Clinton administration, but in 2001, 45 percent blamed the former president.) What could account for the marked difference from the 2001-02 numbers, which hovered around 30 percent, to the 2004-06 numbers, which are in the 40s?

One likely explanation is that the September 11 Commission was established by Congress in late 2002. Starting in 2003 and going into the spring of 2004, the commission held public questioning sessions of Clinton and Bush administration officials, shedding more light on what went wrong in the lead-up to September 11. A lot of information was well known to the public months before the commission released its final report on July 22, 2004 -- one month after CNN's 2004 poll. It's little surprise then that Americans came to view the attacks as the congruence of a failure of governments going back many years and the determination of terrorists to strike on U.S. soil. As CNN's own polls show, this view hasn't changed much in two years.

But that sort of lengthy explanation doesn't fit well into CNN's narrative, which is that Mr. Bush's popularity has been dropping since his 2004 re-election. But if so, then it's remarkable that, despite 43 percent of Americans in 2004 blaming him for September 11, Mr. Bush still won re-election. Actually, it's about as remarkable as CNN's poll.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20060912-091419-7750r.htm

5. At universities, little learned from 9/11 - Boston Globe Op-ed

By Harvey Mansfield | September 13, 2006

FIVE YEARS have now passed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and what have our universities been doing? I can tell you about Harvard, and the answer is not reassuring.

Harvard has just welcomed the former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami to give a little talk. Harvard thinks this is free speech, but in fact the university has allowed itself to be used as a platform for sweet-talk in the service of a regime that hates, and wants to bamboozle, America. Note, too, that Harvard professor Stephen Walt and a Chicago professor have just written an exposé of the Israeli lobby's influence on American politics. They encourage the belief that Israel is the main problem we face .

Nor has Harvard relaxed its hostility to ROTC on the campus. The pretext is the military's policy discriminating against gays by requiring them to keep silent about being gay. Never mind what would happen to gays or defenders of gays if the Islamic fascists took over.

These are not isolated incidents but signs of the prevailing attitude at Harvard and other elite universities. There is lots of griping against the Bush administration but little activist dissent of the kind seen in protest against the Vietnam War. Cindy Sheehan's movement has not caught on.

All to the good, one might say. A university is not a political actor and should not be drawn away from its own business by too much concern for current events.

Yes, agreed. A university is an institution of learning, and as such takes a broad view of things. But this means it should learn from events if not try to control them. What has Harvard learned from Sept. 11? Very little.

Sept. 11 was a stunning blow to multiculturalism. The attacks showed that we have enemies who hate us because they hate both our principles and our practices. They despise the way we live not because we do not live up to our principles of freedom, democracy, and toleration, but because we do. They do not think we are multicultural; they believe we have one culture, and they mean to do away with it.

The feminists at Harvard seek to remove every vestige of patriarchy in America, but they have said almost nothing about the complete dismissal of women's rights by radical Islam. To do so would be to attack Islamic culture, and according to multiculturalism, every culture is equal and none is evil. They forsake women in societies that repudiate women's rights and direct their complaints to societies that believe in women's rights. Of course it's easier to complain to someone who listens to you and doesn't immediately proceed to slit your throat. No sign of any rethinking of feminism has appeared in the universities where it flourishes.

Civil liberties should be another topic of reconsideration. Civil libertarians on the left and the right assume that government is the object of their vigilance and minorities need special care. In time of peace that may be true, but in a war the government is your main friend, and the majority must be protected. The preaching of radical Islam is in fact ``a clear and present danger," and we need to suppress it. This sort of speech is not just blowing off steam or keeping us honest or puncturing our complacency. Here is a new task to occupy the anxious minds of civil libertarians in universities: how to distinguish truly dangerous speech and how to defeat it?

The jihadists say they will triumph because they believe in death while we believe in life. That is not quite so. We do believe in life -- but not at any cost. We too value sacrifice and honor for a decent cause. But we let our soldiers speak for us. The professors, who should be our spokesmen, have learned nothing from our soldiers and have nothing to say on why they volunteer to risk their lives.

The difference between our country and the terrorists dwarfs that between liberals and conservatives within our country. But conservatives are more aware of this fact than are liberals, and our universities are dominated by befuddled liberals. Better that they be befuddled than determined to rebel, as during the late 1960s. Better still that they heed the requirements of their own doctrines in the new circumstances of terrorist war.

Harvey Mansfield is a professor of government at Harvard University and author of the book ``Manliness."

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/09/13/at_universities_little_learned_from_911/