WASHINGTON, April 4 (UPI) -- 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.
Shock and awe in New Hampshire ...
Anyone who thought political concerns would take a back seat to the war in Iraq once the shooting began was proven wrong when Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry opened up on President George W. Bush with both barrels.
Speaking at the Peterborough, N.H., town library on Wednesday, Kerry, a Democrat who would be president, accused Bush of committing "a breach of trust" with the international community, and launching the war without the backing of the United Nations.
In spite of a promise made several weeks ago to ratchet down his rhetoric once the war began, Kerry continued to hammer away at Bush. "What we need now is not just a regime change in Saddam Hussein and Iraq," Kerry said, "We need a regime change in the United States," The Boston Globe reported Thursday.
The GOP responded forcefully to Kerry's remarks, which House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, called "desperate and intemperate."
Former Montana Gov. Marc Racicot, now the chairman of the Republican National Committee, accused Kerry of crossing "a grave line" in his speech.
"Critical analysis offered in the best interests of the country is part of a healthy democracy," Racicot said, "but this use of self-serving rhetoric designed to further Senator Kerry's political ambitions at a time when the lives of America's sons and daughters are at stake reflects a complete lack of judgment."
"The men and women who are putting themselves in harm's way on the orders of our commander in chief deserve better from someone who aspires to that high office," Racicot said.
Recent polling in New Hampshire, an important early state in the presidential primary process, shows former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who is campaigning on an explicitly anti-war platform, to be closing on the front-running Kerry. Rich Killon, head of the Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communications at Franklin Pierce College, says Dean's surge "continues to be fueled by the deep anti-war sentiments of his party's base."
A Fitzwater Center survey of Democrats likely to vote in the state's presidential primary found Kerry and Dean in a virtual tie for first place. The survey had Kerry at 20.6 percent and Dean at 20.5 percent, a statistically insignificant difference. Overall the survey of 606 likely Democrat voters had a margin of error of +/- 4 percent.
Keystone keynote ...
In a speech whose subtext was just as much about politics as policy, U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao spoke in Philadelphia Thursday to more than 1,600 businesswomen from around the mid-Atlantic region. In her speech to the Conference on Women's Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century, Chao stressed the benefits the president's economic growth package would have on American small businesses, 9.1 million of which are woman-owned, according to figures from the U.S. Small Business Administration.
"You are leading a powerful revolution," the secretary told the conferees. "Once the workplace opened up to American women in the beginning of the last century, things have never been the same." Pennsylvania, with its 21 electoral votes, is a critical state, while economically affluent and upwardly mobile women are likely to be a critical swing voter bloc in the upcoming presidential election.
First up ...
Alex Penelas, the mayor of Miami-Dade County, Fla., officially opened a Democratic bid for U.S. Senate Wednesday. Penelas filed papers with the Federal Election Commission that allow him to begin raising money for a campaign to win the Senate seat held by Democrat Bob Graham, who is currently not seeking re-election and is, instead, running for president.
Penelas, popular among Hispanics in a state where their bloc of votes is increasingly important, is believed to be a formidable candidate, having a good chance to win both his party's nomination and the general election. Other Democrats rumored to be considering the race are U.S. Reps. Peter Deutch, Alcee Hastings and Allen Boyd and state Sen. Skip Campbell.
Lecture notes ...
Creative ways to restore notions of responsibility to the culture is the agenda item when U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., speaks at a Free Congress Research and Education Foundation forum on April 10. McConnell, who will be joined by a panel of experts from business, the academy and the legal and medical professions, is presiding over the panel Restoring Responsibility -- Litigation, Victimization and the Corruption of Culture. McConnell has long advocated major reforms in the U.S. civil justice code to combat what some have termed "legal terrorism" brought about by lawsuit abuse. The program, scheduled to begin at 1 p.m., will meet in room 628 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill.
Bring your own tomatoes ...
Hollywood's Tim Robbins, the life partner of Academy-Award winning actress Susan Sarandon, is stepping up his campaign against the war in Iraq. On April 15, Robbins, who will be joined by former U.S. Rep. Tom Andrews, D-Maine, will share his views on a range of Iraqi-related issues including the war, the anti-war movement and what he calls the "Bush First Strike Doctrine" in a speech to the National Press Club.
This is by no means the actor's first foray into politics, an institution for which he has little confidence if his box-office hit Bob Roberts is any indication.
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