February 18, 2006
Inside Report
By Robert
Novak
ANNAN AND U.S. TROOPS
WASHINGTON
-- Administration sources say UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
misspoke in suggesting to reporters that he asked President Bush,
when they met at the White House last Monday, to send U.S. troops
to Darfur in the Sudan.
The meeting
with Bush had been requested by Annan, but he did not have much
of an agenda. That led to speculation at the White House that
the secretary-general merely wanted "face time" with
the president to boost his sagging prestige.
A footnote:
Vice President Dick Cheney sat in on the Bush-Annan meeting but
ducked out before reporters and cameras were let in at the end.
Cheney at that point did not want to face questions about the
Texas shooting incident.
MCCAIN'S
BUSHIES
Major political
contributors to George W. Bush who have never given a dime to
prospective 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain
received letters, dated Feb. 8, asking for donations to the senator's
Straight Talk America political action committee.
Obviously
using President Bush's direct mail list, the letter signed by
McCain asks for $1,000 or $1,500 to support candidates agreeing
with McCain on "key issues." It specifically lists "limiting
federal spending, immigration reform, military readiness, global
climate change, Social Security reform, reining-in lobbyists,
reducing the power of the special interests and putting an end
to wasteful pork barrel spending by Congress."
Each recipient
received a card to be filled in for McCain's files. "I'm
asking you to update your file card," requests the letter,
though the Bush contributors had no previous card in the senator's
files.
NON-HILLARY
CANDIDATE
Although
Sen. Hillary Clinton is not absolutely certain to run for president
in 2008, former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner is well on his way in
preparing his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination
as the non-Hillary candidate.
He has signed
Monica Dixon, who was deputy chief of staff to Vice President
Al Gore, to run his Forward Together political action committee.
After ending his single term as governor at the beginning of the
year, Warner has been traveling the country and recruiting staffers.
Warner has
been overwhelmed with offers of support from Democrats since he
left office. Friends say he realizes he is a hot article and must
be careful not to say or do anything now that will come back to
haunt him.
MEDICARE
POLITICS
Democratic
activists James Carville and Stan Greenberg, complaining that
Democrats "have yet to capitalize" on public discontent
with President Bush's Medicare prescription drug subsidy, are
calling on them to "create an uproar over" the plan.
A national
survey conducted by the Democracy Corps, headed by Carville and
Greenberg, showed two-to-one opposition to the drug plans by all
voters. The Feb. 8 letter by Carville and Greenberg said Democrats
can "create a tidal wave of opposition" by "creating
new opponents" out of the 28 percent of voters shown by the
poll to be undecided.
A footnote:
A new Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fund-raising letter,
signed by Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, deals with a single
issue: the prescription drug program. "Only a Democratic
Senate," it says, "will immediately enact the common
sense reforms that will clean up George Bush's Medicare mess."
UNION DISCLOSURES
The first
documents received from unions in the Labor Department's demand
for detailed financial disclosures, for the first time strictly
enforcing the 1959 Landrum-Griffin labor reform act, suggest embarrassment
by organized labor when the information is made public next month.
Early reports
show the AFL-CIO spent $49 million (27 percent of its total annual
budget) on political and lobbying activities but only $30 million
(or 16.5 percent) to represent its members. That gap contributed
to the breakaway from the AFL-CIO of the Teamsters, the Service
Employees and other unions.
Another
document reveals that the International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers spent $791 million, constituting 85 percent of its 2005
budget, purchasing fixed assets and investments.
Copyright
2006 Creators Syndicate
