WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 (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.
Message, message, message -- White House staff and allies spent much of the first part of the week laying down a full-court press to keep the emergency spending package at or under the $40 billion that the president and congressional leaders agreed to in early October. According to insiders, the word is out that this battle may be another "defining moment" for the Bush presidency. The president is, they say, determined to hold the line because, as he sees it, a deal is a deal.
Insiders say that losing this fight would portend bad things for the future if Bush demonstrates he can get rolled in a pork barrel. But equally important, from a tactical standpoint, are the discipline and vigor with which markers are being set down, something heretofore lacking in this administration. Thursday night, Senate Republicans offered a compromise plan to keep the total tab under $40 billion and demonstrated they may have enough votes to keep anything higher than that from passing the Senate.
Out and in -- Georgia state Sen. Sonny Perdue gave up his post as president of the Senate when he left the Democrats and joined the GOP. Now he has left the Legislature altogether. On Tuesday, the veteran office-holder resigned his seat in order to devote himself, full time, to his campaign for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. Perdue's move harks all the way back to 1996, when Kansas Republican Sen. Bob Dole walked away from a lifetime in the U.S. Senate to run for president of the United States.
Up one -- South Carolina Republicans are celebrating their victory in a state Senate special election held earlier this week. The takeover of the Charleston-based district gives the GOP a 25-21 majority in the chamber, until recently the last bastion of permanent control left to the Democrats. Throughout the campaign, Republicans said a win for them in this seat, vacated by a 13-year veteran Democrat, would be a vote of no confidence in Gov. Jim Hodges, a Democrat up for re-election in 2002.
All in the family -- With a cast of political heavyweights in attendance, Illinois state Sen. Lisa Madigan, a Chicago Democrat, declared her candidacy for state attorney general in 2002. Madigan is something akin to royalty in state politics, her father being Mike Madigan, the all-powerful speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives. Incumbent AG Jim Ryan, a Republican, is giving up the post to run for governor.
War aid -- The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has established a $5 million fund for grants to organizations studying the ramifications of the Sept. 11 terror attack on the United States. Fourteen groups have been awarded grants totaling $3.2 million, including $500,000 to PBS's Frontline program and $400,000 to National Public Radio to help the network cover the costs of correspondents covering the war in Afghanistan.
And that's the way it is, Tovarich -- Public radio stations across America are airing two documentaries during December on the future of Russia, anchored by veteran journalist and former Unipresser Walter Cronkite. The first -- "Russia: Can This be a Democracy?" -- looks at issues like the impact of the rise of fanatical Islamic groups, potential nuclear disasters, and a discussion between Cronkite and former government media operative Vladimir Posner comparing press freedom in Russia and the United States.
The two documentaries are part of the Russia Project, a radio endeavor made possible by a grant from the Stanley Foundation, a philanthropic group based in Iowa.
Exodus -- A visit to the Florida Legislature by former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, now a candidate for the state's Democratic gubernatorial nomination, prompted a number of Cuban-American lawmakers, along with three non-Cuban-American Republicans, to exit the chamber in protest. The legislators said their exodus was a protest against the decision by the U.S. government, in which Reno played a critical role, to seize Elian Gonzales from the home of relatives in Miami and return him to his father in Cuba.
Taking it under advisement -- Reacting to efforts by the Justice Department to gather information on suspected terrorist activities from citizens of Middle Eastern countries living in the United States, the American Civil Liberties Union has released a pamphlet entitled "Know Your Rights: What to do if you're stopped by the police, the FBI, the INS or the Customs Service." Available in seven languages, the pamphlet is a response to what the ACLU calls an effort to put a dragnet in place "to pick up and interview at least 5,000 foreigners ... who entered the United States on non-immigrant visas from Jan. 1, 2000, to the present."
Return to sender -- Citizens Against Government Waste, a taxpayer watchdog group, says that contrary to published reports that peg the bonuses being paid out to executives at the U.S. Postal Service for 2001 at $124.5 million, the actual number is close to $164 million. "Considering how much the postal service has been losing and how much they have been asking for in congressional bailouts, bonuses seem kind of ridiculous, don't they?" asks Sean Rushton, CAGW's chief flack.
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