Capital Comment -- Daily news notes, political rumors, and important events that shape politics and public policy in Washington and the world from United Press International.
Number one with a bullet -- As stated in an earlier column, Katie Couric's interview with Ann Coulter, author of "Scandal: Liberal Lies About the American Right" was "predictably testy." Moments into their chat, Couric brought up where Coulter had called her "the affable Eva Braun of morning television" -- Braun being the longtime companion of Adolf Hitler. Couric, perky smile not withstanding, was clearly unamused by the comparison.
Many of the Coulter-hating, left-leaning Web sites declared a knockout victory for Couric. The marketplace, which may reflect public opinion more accurately than network newspeople and vanity Web sites, reached a different conclusion: By the end of the day that the interview aired the book had jumped to No. 1 on Amazon.com's list of best-sellers.
In -- As rumored, former U.S. Rep. Tim Penny will run for governor of Minnesota. Penny, who served in Congress as a Democrat, is abandoning the party and will run on the Independence Party line controlled by retiring Gov. Jesse Ventura. Initial polls show Penny drawing support equally from Republicans and Democrats.
A Minneapolis Star-Tribune poll of 812 likely voters found Penny -- and Democrat nominee Roger Moe -- the choice of 25 percent of respondents. GOP nominee Tim Pawlenty led the field at 26 percent. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percent, making the difference between the candidates statistically insignificant.
Penny's entry into the race has revived talk that Ventura may now join the race for two-term Democrat incumbent Paul Wellstone's Senate seat. Interestingly, the Democrats and the Republicans -- who have tapped former St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman as their candidate against Wellstone -- both fear Ventura's presence in the race would hand the election to the other party.
Meet the new boss, not the same as the old boss -- Media tycoon Conrad Black, whose Hollinger news chain owns The Chicago Sun-Times, The Jerusalem Post, and The London Daily Telegraph among other properties -- is about to gain his long-desired beachhead in the Washington media market. According to the New York Post, Hollinger has agreed to acquire ownership of The Hill, a weekly newspaper covering politics and public policy.
Standing by -- Rep. Chris Cox, R-Calif., chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, is leading more that 145 of his colleagues in a show of support for a presidential veto of what some are calling the "budget-busting" supplemental spending bill.
In a letter to President Bush, Cox and company commit to vote to sustain a veto of any supplemental appropriation legislation that: "Requires that you spend in excess of $27.1 billion, the amount of emergency 2002 supplemental spending you requested" or "Provides less than you requested to win the War on Terrorism, or to rebuild New York."
"The Senate's failure to pass a budget has left it to the House and to the president to take more responsibility to control spending," Cox said. "Our pledge lets President Bush and our conferees know that they have full authority to save taxpayers billions of dollars. It creates a House-White House alliance in support of the bipartisan House bill, approved 280-138 on May 24." A House-Senate conference on the supplemental spending bill is expected the week of July 8, after Congress returns from the July 4 recess.
Well, at least the lights are on -- More bad news for California Gov. Gray Davis. A new poll by the Public Policy Institute of California has only 39 percent of the 2,029 adults surveyed saying they approve of the job Davis is doing. And 52 percent of those participating in the weeklong survey, which had a margin of error of +/- 2 percent, said they disapproved.
Islamists need not apply -- The tension in conservative circles over efforts to reach out to Muslims living in America continues to escalate. The effort is a high priority for the Bush administration and some of their allies as part of the war against terrorism.
While he has been fiercely criticized in certain circles for his decision, FBI Director Robert Mueller is standing by his promise to address the American Muslim Council's annual meeting currently underway in Alexandria, Va. Several prominent conservatives have alleged the group has ties to terrorist organizations and have asked Mueller to cancel the speech.
Others say the AMC is an umbrella organization representing Muslims living in America and should be entitled to the same consideration and respect accorded Christian and Jewish cultural and political organizations as well as those of other faiths. They are linking the anti-religion bias of the recent federal court decision on the Pledge of Allegiance to the intolerance exhibited by some of their so-called ideological brethren toward Muslims.
"Everyone is up in arms because two judges in California said having the words 'Under God' in the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional," Kerri Houston, the national field director of the American Conservative Union told Capital Comment. "There is nothing unconstitutional about recognizing the existence of a creator, a supreme being. It has been done since the country was founded. We are a pluralistic nation and we must show respect for people of all faiths, because in spite of what those judges might say, there is only one God. ... It is completely wrong to suggest that just because someone is a member of a particular race or faith, then they or their organizations must be tied to terrorist groups." The rift over the place of Muslims in America is, nevertheless, expected to grow as both sides dig in deeper.
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