WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Capital Comment -- News notes, political rumors, and important events that shape politics and public policy in Washington and the world from United Press International.
Tauzin-Dingell Bells -- Those annoying ads are apparently going to be with us for a while longer, ringing in the New Year with more income for ad agencies and TV stations. After a flurry of activity late last week, the Tauzin-Dingell communications reform bill failed to come to the House floor for a vote. Now Capitol Hill insiders suggest that it won't be seen again until sometime next spring, which means there is plenty of time for new television, radio and print ads in support of and in opposition to the bill -- already a miniature gold mine for the people who create, produce and sell ads intended to influence legislation before Congress.
It's all relative -- Mississippi Public Service Commissioner Nielsen Cochran, brother of the state's Republican Sen. Thad, may be considering a run for lieutenant governor. The state's public service commissioners are elected from seats based on state supreme court district and, if Cochran finds his district redrawn in such a way as to make re-election difficult, he may choose to run statewide. The current LG, Amy Tuck, is the subject of much speculation in political circles. Some believe she might change parties to run as a Republican for governor against incumbent Democrat Ronnie Musgrove.
Easy answers -- Public Opinion Strategies, a GOP-leaning survey firm, has a survey out that shows that 24 percent of American voters say the economy is "second only to terrorism and national security issues" as a problem facing the country. Other findings in the survey: Among respondents, 52 percent say the terrorist attack has forced the government to spend more money than expected; 45 percent say Congress was spending way too much of the surplus before the terrorist attack; 17 percent say the recent tax cut has reduced the amount of tax money the government is collecting.
The survey also finds that 57 percent of all voters, 72 percent of Bush voters and 38 percent of Gore voters in the survey believe that, because of both the recession and the terrorist attack, Congress and the president should not be blamed for the disappearance of the surplus.
Out in the Hall -- As previously reported in Capital Comment, the National Republican Congressional Committee may be targeting Rep. Ralph Hall, D-Texas, for defeat in 2002, but they are alone in this, at least as far as the White House is concerned. Hall is a reliable supporter of the president on key legislative issues, so much so that presidential counselor Karl Rove recently reassured conservative leaders that there is no White House involvement in the effort to oust Hall.
An unfortunate coincidence -- Monday marked the resumption of bus traffic at the Pentagon, a major nexus for northern Virginia commuters working in Washington. After the Sept. 11 terror attack, during which a commercial airline was crashed into the building, killing all aboard and many on the ground, service to the metro station was temporarily suspended and bus traffic was moved to the Pentagon City metro stop a mile away. During the period in which bus traffic was suspended, a long-planned renovation of the area -- designed to move the bus shelters farther away from the building -- was pushed forward. Commuters arriving at the Pentagon Monday morning were taken to the new area that includes shelter overhangs that, unfortunately, resemble giant airplane wings.
Gut check time -- The regents of Texas A&M have conditionally approved a pilot program to automatically admit the top 20 percent of students from 250 ''low performing" Texas state high schools. And, according to a piece by Ron Nissimov in the Houston Chronicle, conservative groups have asked Attorney General John Cornyn "to rule on the constitutionality of the proposal."
On Wednesday of last week, the Young Conservatives of Texas asked Cornyn to "reject this illegal, unfair, and academically indefensible preferential treatment scheme."
Cornyn is the leading contender for the GOP nomination to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Phil Gramm. With the Jan. 2 filing deadline looming, some Texas conservatives are watching the attorney general to see how he handles the issue, predicting that a failure to address it before the deadline or an acceptance of the proposal would signal that Cornyn would not be a reliable leader for conservative principles in the U.S. Senate.
Instant empathy -- In an interview with CNN's Larry King Monday night, First Lady Laura Bush shared her thoughts on her husband's performance after the Sept. 11 terror attack.
"I know how strong he is. I know how disciplined he is. He's very, very disciplined," Mrs. Bush said. "And the other thing that I see that I think Americans are also seeing: for instance, when he went to Ground Zero on that Friday after Sept. 11, when the firemen yelled 'We can't hear you,' and he yelled back 'Well, I can hear you, and America can hear you.' That really is the way my husband relates to people. He really likes people. He's very quick to empathize on the way people feel and that really impresses me."
Catching fire? -- For some time now, political observers assumed that Iowa Rep. Greg Ganske had a lock on the nomination to oppose incumbent Democrat Sen. Tom Harkin in the 2002 election. But something is causing a second look. That something is farmer Bill Salier, who is stumping the state and visiting Washington, looking for support for his effort to deny Ganske, a moderate Republican, the nomination. Salier is apparently amassing a following among grassroots activists, winning several straw polls including one in a county within Ganske's U.S. House district. Stranger things have happened.
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