WASHINGTON, March 15 (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.
Two primaries? Nothing could be finer -- Now that the North Carolina courts have put a stop to the primary for state offices scheduled for May 7, Tarheel politics have been thrown into a tailspin.
First off, the court stopped the primary without ruling on the merits of the redistricting lawsuit that caused the problem. Sources say a ruling is expected sometime next week.
Second, only the state primaries were canceled; the primaries for federal elective office could still be decided. The problem is that the state is, effectively, broke. Having asked the legislature to approve a very large tax increase, Democrat Gov. Mike Easley is unlikely to want to take the heat for two costly primary elections when they all could be consolidated on some future date, probably June 18.
This, of course, thrills the campaign staff working for former U.S. Secretary of Labor Elizabeth Dole, whose nomination on the Republican line is almost assured. The longer the primary process drags on, the more time former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles, former State House Speaker Dan Blue, and current North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall have to spend money and beat each other up.
The final monkey wrench in all this is that the congressional primary isn't much safer as far as court action goes. Many legal scholars suggest that Utah's lawsuit over Census Bureau procedures that awarded an additional congressional seat to North Carolina instead of Utah may have more merit then previously thought.
North Carolina GOP political activists are confident the Supreme Court will rule for their state -- because a Utah victory might cost the GOP seats in other states that might then file suit. If Utah wins, however, the new North Carolina 13th Congressional District would become Utah's new 4th Congressional District and the North Carolina congressional map would have to be tossed, making all this very confusing indeed.
Oh-no, Bono -- That gaggle of hard-working White House pressies hanging around the West Wing driveway had good reason for being there. They all turned out to witness the appearance of Bono, lead singer of the Irish rock band U2, at the White House. The hipster expert on Third World debt relief, clad in his trademark dark sunglasses, stopped by the White House to talk about his favorite subject -- aid to developing countries. He even tagged along to President Bush's speech at the Inter-American Development Bank. And there is nothing like a rock star to increase the level at the White House. As one Fox News staffer remarked as dozens waited for Bono to emerge from the Oval Office, "There's more people out here than when the Dalai Lama visited."
A good meeting? You can bank on it -- The Heritage Foundation, a conservative public policy think tank based in Washington, is having its 25th annual Resource Bank meeting in Philadelphia on April 11-12. More than 400 think tank executives, public interest lawyers, policy experts, elected officials and activists are expected to attend.
Son of a ... -- Conservative supporters of Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, were shocked Tuesday when his son Scott, a former two-term Denton County commissioner, failed to win a majority of the vote in the GOP congressional primary. The heavy favorite, Armey finished first with 45.4 percent of the vote, which was insufficient to avoid a runoff. Armey faces off against second-place finisher Michael Burgess, a physician, on April 9. Burgess garnered 22.5 percent of the vote in the 6-way race.
Staying on the reservation -- Regarding our earlier contention that conservative groups were concerned that Sen. George Allen, R-Va., might be going off the reservation on the Brownback/Landrieu effort to ban all human cloning, a source tells Capital Comment that Senator Allen will be on board and support the ban.
In memoriam -- Elaine Crispen Sawyer, the highly regarded former press secretary to former first lady Nancy Reagan has succumbed to pancreatic cancer at age 62.
A protégé of former Reagan adviser Michael Deaver, Sawyer served the Reagans both in California, where he was governor for eight years, and in the White House.
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