Category: Fall 2002 Newswire
Maine Favors President’s Words
WASHINGTON, Sept. 12, 2002–Members of Maine’s congressional delegation were pleased that President Bush sought support from the international community in his Thursday address to the United Nations. Members of both parties found his willingness to work with both the world body and Congress a step in the right direction toward reform.
“Today, President Bush forcefully and definitively framed how (Iraqi leader) Saddam Hussein’s regime has systematically flouted 16 separate U.N. Security Council Resolutions and international law over the past decade,” said Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe in a statement following the address.
Snowe said the President’s speech to the U.N. General Assembly begins a “vital dialogue” between the United Nations and Congress that will help shape future action.
“It is important he [Bush] continue consulting with our allies, Congress and the American people as he develops a case for a possible strike against Iraq,” Republican Sen. Susan Collins said in a statement. “The President needs to make a compelling case, and this was another important step in that process.”
Democratic Rep. Tom Allen said in a press release, “It’s a positive development rightly reiterating that Saddam is a brutal dictator who has defied U.N. resolutions and desires weapons of mass destruction.”
Allen, who is on the House Armed Services Committee, said he has been in recent classified meetings where he’s raised questions about what might happen after Hussein is removed as well as about evidence of direct and urgent threats to the United States.
“We have time to consider all the policy options and to work in concert with the international community,” he said.
Democratic Rep. John Baldacci agreed with Allen, saying in a press release, “This work needs to move forward in a timely manner, but it must be given an opportunity to succeed. Congressional backing, public support and multilateral cooperation will strengthen our efforts to deal with Saddam Hussein.”
Overall, members of the delegation praised President Bush in his efforts to bring the United Nations together to bring down Hussein.
“I applaud the President for calling on the Security Council to enforce all of its resolutions and demand that Saddam Hussein comply,” Snowe said. “As U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan himself said, ‘there is no substitute for the unique legitimacy of the U.N. in international matters.”
Published in The Bangor Daily News, in Maine.
Senators say Iraq Resolution Should Wait
By Marty Toohey
WASHINGTON, Sept. 11, 2002--In separate conference calls with reporters Wednesday, Senators Joe Lieberman and Christopher Dodd urged the Bush administration to delay asking Congress for a resolution on Iraq unless there is an overwhelming case for immediate action.
Dodd advocated waiting for international support, and while Lieberman agreed, he said his main concern was that a resolution would be "more thoughtful and less charged with partisanship after the elections."
The administration has yet to make a strong case for immediate action, the two Democratic senators said.
Bush will speak today at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City and was expected to lay out his goal of ousting Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. He was also expected to tell the world leaders that if Baghdad does not agree to allow U.N. weapons inspectors in, the United States might strike unilaterally against Iraq, even without the consent of the U.N. Security Council.
This might estrange the United States from the international community, Lieberman and Dodd said, and if Bush shows the "Clint Eastwood attitude of taking care of all the bad guys in town" he won't win the international support that could pass a resolution through Congress, Dodd, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, warned.
"This ought not be a burden we bear alone," Dodd said. "To go into the Middle East alone … is a very precarious road to follow."
Lieberman, who sits on the Armed Services Committee, said he's felt since the Gulf War that Hussein should be removed from power, and said that everything he's heard "validates that (Hussein) is building weapons of mass destruction" that can reach targets like Israel.
Lieberman also pointed out that in the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 Congress declared it American policy to remove Saddam Hussein from power and establish a democracy in his place.
Published in The New Britain Herald, in Connecticut.
Washington Media Sound Off on Sununu Primary Win
By Max Heuer
WASHINGTON, Sept. 11, 2002--National and insider Washington media outlets wrote Wednesday about Rep. John Sununu's historic New Hampshire Republican primary victory over two-term Sen. Bob Smith (R-NH) as if it were a decision that probably had been made three years ago.
A New York Times headline read "Senator Loses Nomination After Changing Party Twice" while a Washington Post article called Smith an "idiosyncratic conservative" whose "decision to quit the (Republican) party planted the seeds of his defeat."
Sununu won 53 percent of the vote in Tuesday's Senate primary to Smith's 45 percent.
The Washington Times reported that "Mr. Smith lost last night after his strongholds in the northern part of the state did not give him enough votes to close the gap." But most major newspapers said the key to his defeat was his departure from the GOP in 1999 to run as an independent for president after he delivered a speech on the Senate floor harshly criticizing the party only to rejoin it three months later.
The Washington take focused on the national GOP support that Smith's decision to run for president may have swung to Sununu, the son of former Granite State governor and White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu.
"The White House and the National Republican Senatorial Committee had watched the Sununu-Smith race closely - even playing a behind-the-scenes role in persuading Mr. Sununu to give up his House seat and make the Senate run," The Washington Times reported.
In what will be a tight race with Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen for a key seat in the narrowly divided Democratic-controlled Senate, several Washington insiders see Sununu's appeal to centrist Republicans and independents as important.
"Shaheen's got her work cut out for her, as she must convince quite a few independents who backed Sununu" in the primary "to vote Democratic in just a few short weeks. It's not an easy sell," Hotline's Editor-in-Chief Chuck Todd wrote on the political publication's website Wednesday.
"Mr. Sununu is a soft-spoken conservative House member whom many New
Hampshirites perceive as slightly more centrist than" Smith, wrote The Washington Times.
However, others say Sununu's "soft-spoken" tactics may need to change.
"Sununu's low-key campaign has been getting a lot of criticism inside the Beltway," Jennifer Duffy, senior Senate editor at the Cook Political Report, said in an interview, referring to insider Washington opinion.
But Duffy also said that she thought the "national Republicans will make sure there will be a better-run campaign" against Shaheen.
"Polls have consistently showed that Sununu runs stronger against Shaheen than Smith," Todd wrote. "The primary battle between the two Republicans was not nearly as divisive as it could have been (or Democrats had hoped for)."
Moreover, Duffy said, Shaheen has failed to gain ground despite running unopposed in the Democratic primary and serving as governor.
"Her numbers have not moved," Duffy said. "The hardest place in American politics to be right now" is as a governor. She added that this is because history has shown that - at least at the state level - difficult financial times reflect on governors more than on other officials.
Todd, and others in Washington, certainly appreciated the race's historic significance, which he said "shouldn't get lost in all the hype surrounding" the general election campaign.
"Smith is just the third incumbent senator to lose a primary since 1980 and just the second elected senator to lose a primary since that time," he said.
The Hill, a weekly newspaper covering Congress, also noted the historic meaning. "In the Granite State, a politician's candidacy is never a sure thing - even if he is a 12-year incumbent senator who hasn't always walked the party line," the paper wrote on its website Wednesday.
The unusual result was fueled by the fact that "many prominent Republicans, including close advisers to President Bush," supported Sununu in the primary, said a report in The New York Times.
The paper added that Sununu also benefited from the backing of many "party leaders in New Hampshire "because of his family ties in the state and because of discomfort with Mr. Smith."
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
Central Maine Newspapers Team Up With BU
WASHINGTON, Sept. 10, 2002--Central Maine Newspapers has teamed up with the Boston University Washington News Service this fall, in a program designed to give students a real world experience as working reporters in the nation's capital. Crystal Bozek and Michelle Kohanloo have joined the Kennebec Journal and the Morning Sentinel staff from Washington, D.C., along with photographer Jennifer Lawinski.
"The goal of the program is to bring young journalists to Washington, expose them to national news organizations, and give them a chance to cover Congress and national issues for New England newspapers that might not otherwise have this coverage," said Linda Killian, director of Boston University's Washington Journalism Center.
The program, now beginning its third year, is three-fold: students spend a semester taking classes, reporting for various news clients around New England, and interning at the D.C. bureaus of national news organizations.
"Once students leave here, they're ready to launch their journalism careers, and a lot of them have at papers all over New England and here in Washington, at places like NPR (National Public Radio) and Congressional Quarterly," said Killian.
Crystal Bozek, a senior at Boston University, started her reporting career at her high school paper, serving as editor for three years. She also interned for The (Lawrence, Mass.) Eagle-Tribune, The Improper Bostonian, WFNX radio in Lynn, Mass., and B.U.'s radio station, WTBU. Bozek, hailing from Lawrence, Mass., recently worked in the press office of Gov. Jane Swift, R-Mass. Her internship assignment this semester is at The Hill, a weekly newspaper that covers Congress.
Michelle Kohanloo is a graduate student at Boston University studying print journalism. A native of Needham, Mass., she graduated in May 2002 as a broadcasting major from B.U. Kohanloo recently interned at the Boston Metro. She also interned at New England Cable News after returning from a semester in London, where she worked at Camron Public Relations, a lifestyle public relations agency in the United Kingdom. She is interning at the Belo Broadcasting Capital Bureau.
Staff photographer Jennifer Lawinski also is a graduate student in journalism at Boston University. She spent last summer working as a freelance photographer and is interning at Washingtonpost.com and Newsweek Interactive. Lawinski graduated from Dartmouth College in 1999. In addition to photography, Lawinski enjoys tennis, skiing, and playing her guitar.
Bozek and Kohanloo will be covering the Maine congressional delegation for the Kennebec Journal and the Morning Sentinel. They also will be writing about issues of interest to the region including the dairy industry and farming, financial protection for farmers and fishermen, healthcare, education, and the impact of the federal budget on Maine and its citizens.
Published in The Kennebec Journal and The Morning Sentinel, in Maine.
Bush Aide Nixes Importing Drugs From Canada
By Max Heuer
WASHINGTON, Sept. 10, 2002--The top health care advisor to President Bush Tuesday criticized importing cheaper prescription drugs from Canada, saying the idea is neither safe nor practical and touting the administration's own plan to lower the cost of prescription drugs.
"What seniors really need is a prescription drug bill. (Bush administration officials) don't see logistically how (importing drugs from Canada) is going to end up working," said Dr. Mark McClellan, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
But New Hampshire residents-the number is unknown-already have found a way to make it work through privately organized bus trips across the border.
"These are prescription drugs that are manufactured in the U.S. and approved by the FDA (the Food and Drug Administration). It makes perfect sense for seniors, and it makes perfect sense for state governments," said Pamela Walsh, press secretary for Gov. Jeanne Shaheen. Shaheen, a Democrat, is running for U.S. Senate this year.
New Hampshire prescription drug expenditures increased 17 percent in fiscal year 2001, costing the state's residents $88 million, according to a study by the Business for Affordable Medicine coalition.
About 147,796 residents of New Hampshire 65 or older, and none of them receive prescription drug coverage through Medicare, according to the New Hampshire Medication Bridge Program.
McClellan, however, dangled the Medicare+Choice plan - a program that fuses Medicare managed care plans with Medicare private fee-for-service plans - as the cornerstone to the administration's health plan for 2003 and an answer to low-income seniors' prescription drug questions.
According to McClellan, 90 percent of Medicare+Choice plan members have access to an "affordable" premium on prescription drugs or no premium at all.
HMOs have been dropping the program because of its cost. But the House Medicare bill, H.R. 4954, passed in July, would allot $3 billion to HMOs offering Medicare+Choice plans to seniors, according to Congress Daily, a publication that covers legislation on Capitol Hill.
The Senate failed to pass four Medicare bills before the August recess - including a tri-partisan effort co-sponsored by Sen. James M. Jeffords (I-VT). But McClellan expressed optimism that the Senate would take bipartisan action on Medicare in the coming weeks.
"I believe and hope there is a real chance for action," he said. "The administration is fully engaged in working with the Senate."
But McClellan put the final responsibility for passage on Senate leaders.
"We need the leadership in the Senate to enact improvements in
Medicare benefits," he said in a speech at the American Association of Health Plans conference.
"Seniors need access to what everyone else has in the private sector," he said.
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
Sununu Looks to New Opponent
WASHINGTON, Sept. 01--After narrowly defeating incumbent Senator Bob Smith Tuesday in one of the more heated Republican primaries in recent memory, U.S. Rep. John Sununu now must dramatically shift the focus of his Senate campaign to the Democratic candidate, Gov. Jeanne Shaheen.
Because Sununu shared many political views with his primary opponent, his campaign focused on Smith's alleged lack of loyalty to the GOP and generational differences between the 38-year-old Sununu and the 61-year-old Smith.
The Sununu campaign now is likely to draw attention to perceived weaknesses in Shaheen's six-year tenure as governor.
The New Hampshire Republican Party has given Sununu a head start.
"The GOP was active all summer running ads against Shaheen while Sununu was busy with Smith," said Linda Fowler, director of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center at Dartmouth College.
The ads have been attacking the governor for failing to find a permanent school-funding fix, for failing to deal with high property taxes and for previously endorsing a state sales tax. The state House rejected the idea.
State GOP leaders say Shaheen's inability to resolve such problems speak to her ineffectiveness as a governor "Her failure to solve those problems or to be effective is definitely going to be an issue in the campaign," said Julie Teer, communications director for the state Republican Party. "This is a governor who's shown nothing but a lack of leadership in the six years she's been in office."
But Democratic supporters say it's exactly Shaheen's leadership that most sets her apart from three-term Rep. Sununu, who has been criticized as being a "yes-man" for Republican Congressional leaders and for the Bush administration.
"I do think there's a question of [Sununu's] priorities," said Colin Van Ostern, communications director for Shaheen. "For the last six months he's said over and over again he hasn't done anything that's not in the best interest of the Republican Party."
Van Ostern said Shaheen's record has shown that she is a leader, willing to ignore party lines to pursue the best interests of New Hampshire's people.
Fowler of the Rockefeller Center said Sununu's ties to the Republican Party at the national level would probably bring plenty of financial support, something Sununu badly needs, as his most recently reported fundraising levels were far lower than Shaheen's.
The Center for Responsive Politics reports that Shaheen raised over $3.2 million for her campaign, doubling Sununu's total of $1.6 million. As of Aug. 21, Sununu had spent $1.1 million, leaving over $480,000 in cash on hand, while Shaheen spent $1.8 million, leaving over $1.4 million, according to the center.
Despite the current numbers, few expect Sununu to have any problems raising more money. "I have no doubt he'll get all the support he'll need from Washington," Van Ostern said. "We expect [Shaheen] to be outspent."
Fowler said Sununu's father's national influence as a former New Hampshire governor and White House chief of staff will help his cause. "His name will certainly ensure that he's going to have a lot of money," she said.
But she added that Republican incumbents across the country are generally facing more difficult re-election campaigns than Democrats, meaning popular Republicans may not be able to travel to the state to help Sununu.
But Republican leaders say they are committed to helping the GOP retain the New Hampshire seat in any way they can. "Being 50 to 49 in the Senate, we can't afford not to pay attention," said Dan Allen, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. "We're going to ensure that Sununu has the resources he needs to get his the message out."
Critics say that Sununu, a newcomer to politics in 1996, has yet to prove himself in a difficult election.
He defeated a weak Democratic challenger, Peter Flood, in 1998. Two years later, he narrowly defeated Democratic newcomer Martha Fuller Clark with 53 percent of the vote.
Fowler said that after analyzing those races, she had some questions about Sununu. "I just thought, 'Does this guy really know how to run a tight race?'" Tuesday's primary was clearly the most difficult battle in Sununu's young political life, and Fowler said the heated race might have given him the experience he needed to be an effective candidate.
"Now he seems to be much more effective," she said. "I think he just learned."
Recent polls have indicated that Sununu holds a slight edge over Shaheen, something that may have encouraged Republican voters to back Sununu in the primary.
However, Democrats say polls can be misleading. "Polls in late August have her down one point, so there's no question it's a dead heat," Van Ostern said. "But there's really only one poll that matters, and that's in November."
Published in Foster's Daily Democrat, in New Hampshire.
