White House Gaggle

By Ellen Ratner
November 8, 2004

President's Schedule:

The President talked to several world leaders this morning. He also had his weekly meeting with the Secretary of Defense. Scott McClellan will brief at 12:15 this afternoon and the State Department will have a briefing at 12:30.



Senator Specter and the Judiciary Committee:

Scott McClellan said that Carl Rove addressed that on Sunday.

Fallujah:

Asked about urban warfare and the casualty rates, McClellan said, "It is best for me to let you talk to the Defense Department". He also said that it was important to have a free and stable Iraq which would transform the Middle East. He said that there would be an integrated military strategy with Prime Minister Allawi. The President had a video-conference by secure video from Camp David. He said it was the priority of the interim government to make sure there are secure elections. He also said that some countries are extending their troop commitments through the election and beyond. He said that we are continuing to train forces and, "we will remain there until the mission is complete and then our troops will return with honor". Scott McClellan said that the President met over the weekend to discuss this at Camp David. He said there was a two-way discussion between our forces and Iraqi forces and that our troops would have all of the resources they need to complete the mission.

Yasser Arafat:

The White House continues to monitor the situation.

Cabinet:

The President will not require his Cabinet to submit letters of
resignation. McClellan would not speculate on plans. The White House Chief of Staff is staying on. The President announced this to the senior staff.

Iran:

McClellan said that President is in contact with our European friends. He said that the board of the IAEA called on Iran in five resolutions to suspend any reprocessing activities. The IAEA put a November deadline on this and the international community is resolved not to allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons.

Marriage Amendment:

The President has a "comprehensive agenda focused on big priorities", including Social Security and the tax code. He also intends to protect the sanctity of marriage. He said that Congress is retuning next week and that they will focus on moving forward on the spending bills but would also move forward on the Constitutional Amendment for the sanctity of marriage. He said fifty nine million people voted for the President's agenda. He said that the marriage amendment is a, "process that takes some time to complete". Asked about the idea of Civil Unions, he said this is up to the States and that the President, "had expressed his view".

Chief Justice Rehnquist:

McClellan said it was up to the Court to discuss and that they wished him a speedy recovery.

White House Gaggle

By Ellen Ratner and Heather Buchheim
Schedule

The President attended his usual briefings, and then spoke about the opening of the Museum of the American Indian in the East Room. He will be meeting with Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and General Abizaid today. This afternoon he will meet with Prime Minister Iyad Allawi of Iraq and will have press availability in the Rose Garden. Scott McClellan joked that it would consist of more than two questions and he did not think that there would be two questions from the Iraqi side. Later this afternoon, the President goes back on the campaign trail.



Request from Oil Companies

The Department of Energy is reviewing requests from oil companies to borrow small quantities from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. McClellan pointed out that this was not for price controls and that in 2002 there was a short term loan associated with the hurricane.

Iraq

In regard to the quantity of troops present around the Iraq elections, McClellan said troop levels were set from military leaders and commanders in the field and that "all resources needed to complete the mission" would be provided. In questions about whether the President said that the insurgents in Iraq consisted of a "handful of people," McClellan said that the press was mischaracterizing the President's remarks; he pointed out that 9/11 only took 19 people. He continued by saying that we are approaching a critical time, that Saddam loyalists fled the battlefield when we achieved a quick victory, and that Iraq is a central front on war on terror. He also pointed out that victory in Iraq will be a "decisive blow." According to Prime Minister Allawi, progress has been made towards achieving the five point plan to success. NATO will expand trainees in Iraq, and the Iraqi security force of 100,000 will be fully trained and updated. McClellan said that the administration would meet the timetable set forth for Iraq and that there would be free and fair elections by the end of January 2005. McClellan said that Iraqis have been able to meet their goals despite challenges to security.

527's

McClellan said that the President's position on soft money is well known, and that he will work with Senator McCain to coordinate legal strategies. Both share a commitment to getting rid of soft money and leveling the playing field.

Flags at Half Mast to Honor Soldiers

A proposal to lower the flag to half mast in recognition of 1,000 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq was sent to the White House. McClellan said he was unaware of it, though he would look into the request.

Taxes

According to one reporter, tax cuts totaling roughly 900 billion dollars, combined with the Social Security savings account deficit, amount to upwards of 2.4 trillion dollar deficit due to Bush administration spending. McClellan said he was not familiar with the origin of these numbers, and he charged that Kerry has proposed trillions of dollars in new spending without saying how he plans to pay for it, and that there will be increases in taxes, while the president plans to cut the deficit in half over the next ten years. The
President says he has a plan to save social security because the "cost of inaction is greater."

Reality Check

By Ellen Ratner
As I listen to President Bush's campaign stump speech, I can't help but think he, not Ronald Reagan, is the actor. The president is as slow on his feet than any president in recent memory, but when it comes to delivering a rousing speech, there have been few better.



After listening to him, you would think that we are actually making progress on the issues that plague our nation to include the war in Iraq, unemployed workers, wage deflation, health-care coverage, pensions and a general sense of anxiety born out of the notion that the next shoe could drop tomorrow.

Take the president's domestic agenda, or lack thereof. One might think his presidency has had a bold vision for reshaping America. He talks about health-care credits for small business, job training and tax reform. Yet his administration's budget through 2006, which was recently released by the Office of Management and Budget, indicates that money for programs benefitting our workforce has actually been cut. Tax reform is a figment of the president's imagination.

Dick Cheney told a group of voters, when pressed for the details of the president's tax reform plan, said there was nothing on paper, but these were good ideas. Meanwhile, corporate America took over $1.5 billion in profits offshore last year thanks to a shell game that benefits the president's favorite donors.

Health care? The only thing the Bush administration has done on this front is guarantee that the taxpayers will keep his pals in the pharmaceutical industry in private jets with a Medicare prescription-drug benefit that costs hundreds of millions of dollars more than he told Congress it would when they passed it. I call this Bush math.

It also works for troops projections needed for going to war and the costs of war. Just move the zeros a few places and – voila! – it all sounds great when you are selling something. Once Congress buys it, then move the zeros back the other way. Perhaps the president can get a job with Enron's new accounting firm next year.

Bush's foreign policy is even worse. Make no mistake, the crown jewel of this presidency is the war in Iraq. This is the one and only alternative policy initiative this administration has taken on with total commitment. Despite the president's campaign speeches to the contrary, there is no link – I will say it again, NO LINK – between Saddam Hussein and Sept. 11, 2001. There are no weapons of mass destruction. Now the president's chief weapons inspector tells us Saddam had ideas to acquire and create weapons of mass destruction. Yes, these are perhaps like President Bush's ideas for health care coverage or job training, or tax reform.

We are losing the war in Iraq. President Bush infers that Sen. Kerry is a traitor for saying this. What is the president's plan for Iraq? President Bush says we need to stay the course. To stay the course is to continue to lose a thousand or more troops next year and permanently disable another 7,000. To stay the course is to have 100 more foreign kidnappings next year, and to lose another 26,000 Iraqi civilians. To stay the course is to have 36 more towns and cities in Iraq fall to insurgents. The president has had a report on his desk since July that clearly outlines the mess that is Iraq, his crown jewel. It states, at best, Iraq will enjoy a marginal state of security and, at worst, it will fall into total civil war. Staying the course, Mr. President, is not an option.

Meanwhile, intelligence reports indicate that al-Qaida is morphing itself into a giant network that spans the globe. We knew where they were and we sent in less troops to crush them than there were on the actual streets during the Republican National Convention in New York. Al-Qaida's Taliban friends have resurged to the extent that our man Karzai has his own little green zone in Kabul for fear of being assassinated. He can't even trust his own people to guard him. His security is provided courtesy of the good ol' USA.

So if the state of Bush's union is so dismal, why is it that not one poll indicates John Kerry will beat him? This is a great question. We have a president who hid in Texas and Alabama during the war of his generation and now he has started a war for this generation. He talks tough to a nation that still wants to kick someone's backside in the wake of Sept. 11, while his opponent, a man who actually fought and was wounded and decorated for valor in war, is characterized as a waffling sissy. It's politics in the 21st century. Go figure.

White House Gaggle

By Ellen Ratner
September 15, 2004

President's Schedule:

The President had his usual briefings and then spoke to individual
Governors whose states are in the path of Hurricane Ivan. He did this, "to keep lines of communications open." FEMA is preparing ice and water and other emergency provisions. They are basing most preparations out of Atlanta and will be going to the hardest hit areas first. Hurricane Ivan is expected to make landfall in the next twenty-four hours. The President also had an NSC meeting on Iraq and will be meeting with the Secretary of State. He has a campaign lunch at the Decatur House, will welcome new Ambassadors, will meet with the new head of the National Science Foundation and will celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month in the East Room this afternoon. On Friday the 17th, the President has added a campaign stop in Charlotte, North Carolina on women's issues. Secretary Evans will be on "Ask The White House" about his experience following the Hurricane.



The Guard Controversy:

The White House said the President's personnel and medical records
have been made available in their entirety and the military was continuing to do a comprehensive search. Asked about Mrs. Bush's comments as to the credibility of the records released by CBS (and later the White House) Scott McClellan stated that Mrs. Bush expressed her own view. He said that there were serious questions that had been raised and that they had been looked into. But he said when the White House released the documents, they had every reason to believe that they were authentic. McClellan said that there had been no question about a coordinated effort of John Kerry and his surrogates to bring down the President and that John Kerry cannot win when the discussion was on the issues. He also said that "Operation Fortunate Son" (the DNC's new video and ad campaign) was the name of a book written by a convicted felon. He said the President believes that this race should be focused on the future. He also said that the President had praised Senator Kerry's service in Vietnam. He then said that these attacks are due to Senator Kerry's recent fall in the polls.

McClellan also brought up Secretary of State Powell's support of Russia in their fight against terror. He also mentioned Powell's concerns regarding the steps Russia will take to combat terror, but that the United States will work with Russia to take the appropriate steps.

Economic Plan:

The White House then pointed out Democratic Presidential candidate John
Kerry's speech today in Detroit. He talked about the pessimism and tired plans that Kerry has and that even Kerry's campaign believes the economic plans Kerry has set out are too idealistic and worn out. He juxtaposed Kerry's economic plans with President Bush's positive plans for the future. McClellan highlighted some of the recent growth in the economy such as 1.7 million new jobs. A question was asked about Michigan where there is a 6.8% unemployment rate and a 913,000 net loss of jobs. Despite these figures, the White House remains optimistic about its economic policies. The White House is also talking to Senator McCain about measures against unregulated soft money and 527 organizations. The campaign is attempting to limit the influence of these organizations by pursuing legal action.

Other economic issues raised were the question of Social Security and domestic affairs. The White House stated that the President had outlined the budget, including making tax cuts permanent, which would have a total cost of $74 billion. This $74 billion figure was questioned by the press. McClellan said the budget being taken against Social Security was not complete but that the cost of inaction, which could total at $10 trillion, would be more expensive than action. Part of the plan, as written now, provides the opportunity for younger workers to have a nest egg when it becomes an issue. McClellan said the White House continues to look confidently toward the future in spite of war records, hurricanes and the upcoming election.

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also

By Ellen Ratner
President Bush is oft touted as the commander in chief supreme of the "War on Terror." His loyal followers and converts call him consistent and determined. They consider him the best man able to protect America from the "evildoers." I have one question for the president's fan club.



If this is true, why is he letting the assault weapons ban die after 10 years and despite pleas from every living former president, (with the exception of his father), to pressure Congress to extend the ban? Why – as Sen. John Kerry pointed out last week – would we allow weapons to go on the street that are specifically listed on the al-Qaida shopping list?

I found it ironic that the front page of USA Today's 9-11 anniversary edition this past Friday showed a picture of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian doctor who is believed to be the second in command of al-Qaida, with an assault weapon as the backdrop.

Aside from the fact that al-Qaida tells its members to purchase assault weapons in the USA, there's another reason these weapons pose a threat to winning the war on terror. Namely, guns have already been used to "terrorize" innocent people. Does anyone remember the shooting at Los Angeles International Airport on the Fourth of July weekend, 2002? A gunman opened fire on the El Al ticket counter. Imagine if he had an assault rifle? Or what if El Al didn't have undercover security agents on duty to stop the assailant?

The Republicans' determination to let the ban expire, coupled with the president's lack of leadership to pressure them to renew it, is a complete course reversal on what the president describes as his most solemn duty, to protect the nation. The only way to describe this gross inconsistency in the war on terror is to concede that ultimately the president's heart is where his treasure is, in the pocket of what he euphemistically calls his "base" and what I call one of his pet special-interest groups. As goes the National Rifle Association, so goes the nation.

The Bush campaign's response to John Kerry's plea for President Bush to pressure the Republican Congress to renew the ban was equally puzzling in the context of homeland security. There was no mention of homeland security or any specific response to John Kerry's claim that these weapons are known to be used by terrorists and that no gun owner can honestly say that his-her rights have been impeded during the 10-year-old ban. Instead the Bush-Cheney campaign said that John Kerry had spent a career in the Senate voting against hunters. Huh? The Bush campaign shifts the argument to enhance its political base and away from the issue of making our nation more safe.

The War on Terror has been an enormously effective campaign issue for President Bush. His convention should have been advertised as, "The 9-11 Show, Live from Madison Square Garden!" The president has taken over this national tragedy as though it was a family business that he has exclusive franchising rights to.

But the president's failure to renew the assault-weapons ban takes the shine right off the president's War on Terror medals. When forced to choose between America and his base, the president is going to choose his base every time.