WASHINGTON, June 24 (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.
Caught between Iraq and a hard place -- A new poll of 900 registered voters by Fox News shows the president's job approval rating holding steady at 73 percent. The same poll shows that the job approval rating accorded Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein by Americans is not as high. According to the figures, 75 percent of those surveyed would approve if President Bush authorized the CIA to use deadly force to bring down the Iraqi leader and that 55 percent of those surveyed think the United States should just go ahead and assassinate him. The survey also indicates there is division as to who presents a greater threat to the United States. Among respondents, 36 percent said Hussein poses a greater danger than Osama bin Laden while 21 percent think bin Laden is more dangerous. The poll was conducted June 18 and 19 and had a margin of error of +/- 3 percent.
On the fence? -- At least one person attending the Annual Black/Jewish Congressional Awards ceremony and reception hosted by the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and co-sponsored by the NAACP and The World Jewish Congress thought honoree Rep. Shelley Berkley's, D-Nev., remarks were rather curious.
Berkley made a point of saying kind things about Rep. Earl Hilliard, D-Ala., without who's help -- she said -- she would not be in Congress. Hilliard, the first black elected to Congress from Alabama since reconstruction, is currently engaged in a bitter runoff against fellow black Democrat Artur Davis. The principle issue in the race is Israel. Hilliard is receiving active support from the American Muslim community while Davis, some of his opponents charged, is being largely funded by supporters of Israel living in New York City.
Her comments about Hilliard, while supportive, conspicuously stopped short of an endorsement, according to a person at the event. Berkley's congressional press secretary did not, as promised, call to confirm whether or not she had endorsed Hilliard for re-election over Davis. As she is running for re-election, in a newly redrawn congressional district with a large minority population, against a black Republican woman, some people speculate Berkely's coyness may reflect her local political concerns. In any case, people still want to know which side of the Hilliard/Davis fence Berkley is on.
That's why the lady is a stamp -- On Tuesday the U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to take up legislation to rename the U.S. Postal Service facility, located at 89 River Street in Hoboken, N.J., as the "Frank Sinatra Post Office Building."
The legendary singer was raised in Hoboken, where he lived at the time he first came to the attention of the larger public through an appearance on Major Bowes amateur hour. The legislation, which is offered by Rep. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., will be on the House suspension calendar.
In the clear -- The political fringe will likely discount a new General Accounting Office report that dispels the idea that the AIDS and the HIV virus result from a U.S. government experiment gone horribly wrong. In a letter from GAO -- the investigative arm of Congress -- to Rep. James Traficant, D-Ohio, who requested the report, GAO Director for Health/Public Health Issues Janet Heinrich says GAO "did not find evidence to support the allegation that (the National Cancer Institute's Special Virus Cancer Program) created the AIDS virus." The investigation was requested by Traficant on behalf of an Ohio resident who alleged that SVCP experiments on "the visna virus, which caused illness and death in Icelandic sheep" was used by the SVCP to develop a strain of the HIV, thus causing the global AIDS crisis.
Muslims respond to attacks -- Mahdi Bray, the executive director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, is punching back at conservatives Daniel Pipes and Frank Gaffney and self-identified terrorism expert Steve Emerson over their attacks on the American Muslim Council.
In an open editorial Bray writes, "The ugly, bigoted attack on Muslims, our institutions, and religion, continues in our country unabated. The most recent is the attempt by anti-Islamic forces to sabotage the AMC Conference through a systematic, orchestrated, terrorism smear campaign, consisting of the usual suspects: Emerson, Pipes, and Gaffney. Their tactics come straight out of 'The McCarthy National Bigot Playbook.'"
"As American Muslims we have never asked this government or any government for special favors or endowments. We want merely to participate in the 'Free Market Place of Ideas,' and let the chips fall where they may." Bray added, "We will not be banned, marginalized, or silenced by forces whose myopic views of Israeli-Muslim relationships abroad, force them to support an agenda at home that betrays the basic principles of freedom, tolerance and liberty. No amount of terrorist-baiting will stop the American Muslim community from taking its rightful place in this society."
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