Today's Nuze: March 13, 2006 

THE PRESIDENT'S RENOVATION STRATEGY

Renovation strategy?  That's one word you could use.  Today George Bush begins a series of speeches trying to turn more public support for the war on terror in general and the war in Iraq in particular.  It's an effort to rebuild his approval numbers.  We've seen this before.  The public becomes restless, and George Bush launches a series of speeches about the war in Iraq.  Today Bush will talk about the global war on terror at George Washington University.

I'm still a supporter of the Iraqi war.  I still believe that Saddam Hussein had to be removed from power.  U.N Resolutions 687, 786 and 1441 clearly set forth the legal basis for the removal of Saddam Hussein, and no other country seemed willing to bear the responsibility.  I firmly believe that had the United States backed off, Hussein would have seen it as a sign of weakness, and he would have quickly resurrected his weapons programs.  In the long term, the United States would have suffered.  In spite of the bleatings of the left and the failure of our mainstream media to report the facts objectively, there most definitely was a connection between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, and that connection might well have blossomed into a full-scale collaboration had we not interceded.   I know that there are many who disagree, but I don't feel that there are many out there who have put any real research into the matter who would express a differing viewpoint.  [Just read "The Connection, How al Qaeda's Collaboration with Saddam Hussein has Endangered America" by Stephen F. Hayes. published by Harper Collins]

OK ... here's the "but."  Right now if some pollster asked me whether I approve or disapprove of the way George Bush is handling his second term in office, my only honest answer would be in the negative.  At this point there are other things that I would like to see George Bush address; other things I would like for him to explain.  A sampling:

• Why did he sign the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform act?  He clearly stated that he thought the law was unconstitutional, but he signed it anyway.  Now our right to political free speech is clearly under assault.
   
• Why has non-defense related government spending risen so fast during his Administration?  Why did he set all-time records for government spending increases during the first three years of his presidency? 
   
• Why has he been silent on the issue of school choice?
   
• Why did he team up with Ted Kennedy to double spending on the Department of Education, a Department Republicans had pledged to eliminate six years before he was elected. The spending hasn't helped.  The quality of education has steadily decreased during the past six years.
   
• Forget the Arab aspects of the port deal, why would George Bush support turning over essential operations of six American ports to any foreign government, let alone an Arab one?
   
• Why hasn't he spoken out forcefully against the Kelo v. New London decision from the Supreme Court and the wholesale assault on the concept of private property rights that is ongoing in this country today?
   
• How could it possibly be that he hasn't found one single bill worthy of a presidential veto during the past five years?  Is this an indication that over the past five years the Congress of the United States hasn't passed one single solitary piece of legislation that George Bush considered to be contrary to the principles of our Constitution, or excessive in any way?
   
• How in the wide, wide world of sports did he get talked into this obscene prescription drug program for wizened citizens?  Didn't he realize that the average senior citizen spends about $600 a year on prescription drugs?  That amounts to $1.64 a day.  Every major pharmaceutical company out there has "lifeline" programs that insure that no American would go without a needed prescription drug.  Yet he creates one of the biggest spending programs in our history; one that is destined to exceed all cost estimates.  Why?
   
• What's the deal with tax reform?  The president appoints a fancy panel to study our tax system, proposals for reform, and come up with a plan for a complete overhaul.  What does the panel come up with?  A virtual repeat of the 1986 tax reform act.  Eliminate deductions and establish a few flat rates.  The 1986 law has been amended over 9000 times since 1986.  Now that's reform.  The American people want some real reform.  Where is the president?
   
• Why hasn't he spoken out more forcefully for real reform in medical care?  Why hasn't he spoken out for more competition?  How about a demand that congress give every private individual in this country the same tax breaks that businesses get when they buy health insurance policies?
   
• Why has he absolutely failed to do anything at all about the invasion of illegal immigrants flooding into our country across our border with Mexico?  Why hasn't he called for a full federal investigation of charges that armed and uniformed Mexicans are firing on Border Patrol agents?  Why hasn't he called for stricter penalties against employers who enable this flood of illegal immigration?
   
• Why hasn't he told Hillary Clinton to sit down and shut the hell up until she comes up with a reasonable explanation for those billing records?
   
• Why hasn't he told FEMA to set aside their asinine regulations and get every vehicle with a trailer hitch in Arkansas to hook up to one of those trailers and yank the damned things down to New Orleans to provide housing for police, firefighters and any American citizen who wants to work to rebuild that city?
   
• After the Cheney hunting incident, why didn't he go to the White House press room and say "OK, so you didn't get the story first.  So it was broken by a small newspaper in Corpus Christi.  You got scooped.  Deal with it.  Suck it up.  You aren't the only studs with press cards.  The American people are rather enjoying seeing you so put out over this.  Why don't you run over to Capitol Hill and ask Ted Kennedy why he went to sleep while Mary Jo's body was still in the back seat of his car?  Henry Whittington is alive.  Mary Jo is still dead."  Couldn't you just see his approval ratings soar after a presidential slap-down like that? 
   
• Why hasn't he spoken out against the leftist inspired war against the individual?  Ted Kennedy (there's that name again) spoke in favor of it?  Who is championing for the individual out there? 

OK --- that's just a start.  Suffice it to say that George Bush needs to talk about much more than the global war on terror to float my boat.

FIRST IMPEACHMENT SHOT FIRED

The last 15 months or so have been an absolute disaster for the Democratic party.  Despite all of their howling and jumping up and down, they have yet to:

• Capitalize on an increasingly unpopular war.  Why? They don't have any better ideas.


• Do anything about the NSA wiretapping without warrants. Just not much outrage in the heartland over eavesdropping on potential Islamic terrorists.


• Make any political hay over the slow Katrina response.  People have moved on.


• Get any mileage out of the blown Dubai Ports deal. The company pulled out and the Democrats are back to square one.


• Dick Cheney's hunting incident. It made for good comedy,  but no points scored for the Democrats.

Add on top of all that, George W. Bush nominated and got confirmed to the bench two conservative Supreme Court justices and the Democrats couldn't stop that .  The left is literally so incompetent, the can get to the red zone, but can't seem to really score.  They just have no ideas of what to do differently. They also have no unified, coherent message.  So what's the next political move down at DNC headquarters?

Well, we found out yesterday on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold has decided that it's time to get either the impeachment  or the censure ball rolling.  You knew this was coming, by the way.  Feingold has his boxers in a knot over the NSA wiretapping without a warrant.  In an attempt to revise history, he said Bush's actions were "much more serious, clearly, than anything Bill Clinton ever did."  Uh-huh.  Remember, to the Democrats, lying to a grand jury is okay.......unless you're Scooter Libby.  Then it's a problem.  Feingold, by the way, is rumored to be eyeing the Democratic presidential nomination.  Hmmmmm.

At the end of the day, this will go nowhere.  But that won't stop the Democrats from trying. And if they're able to take back the House or the Senate this fall and the subpoena power that goes with it, the White House had better look out.

SADDAM'S WMD PLANS

One thing the White House has done an exceptionally poor job of doing is rebutting the claim by the left that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction.  Not only did he have the weapons, he used them.  But we're starting to get more information that proves Saddam was pursuing WMD.

It would seem Saddam and his cronies liked to make audiotapes of their meetings.  Those tapes have been acquired by the U.S. government.  According to media reports, the tapes show that Saddam was ready to fire up his WMD program the minute the inspectors went away.  The tapes speak of WMD factories being ready.  There's also quite a few documents that are being analyzed.

Those documents talk about burying missiles. That would explain where they all went.  Lots of desert in Iraq...they could be anywhere.  And you know what else we're learning?  It would seem Saddam was trying in the mid-90's to buy uranium from Africa.  But wait...Saddam never tried to buy uranium in Africa...the left says so!

Imagine what it would be like...if tomorrow Saddam's entire stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction were found buried in the desert.  What would the Democrats say then?  That day just may come.

THE 2008 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

The 2008 presidential election may be 2 1/2 years away, but things are already underway.  There is news today of Senate Majority Leader Bill First winning a straw poll in Tennessee.  (Gosh...his home state...imagine that!)  Maybe if he runs, he could carry his home state, unlike Gore in 2000.    (John McCain, by the way, really stepped in it preparing for this straw poll.  More on that in the show today.)

So what does this straw poll mean?  Absolutely nothing. The odds of whoever is considered the front-runner this far out actually being the nominee are slim and none.  The media headlines always talk about the Senators that are supposedly running (Frist, McCain, Hillary Clinton, etc.)  But perhaps it's time to crack the history book and see where presidents come from in the modern era.

The last sitting senator to be elected president of the United States was John F. Kennedy.  Americans do not elect their presidents from Congress.  Of the last 10 presidents, there have been 4 governors, 4 vice presidents, 1 senator and one general.  4 of the last 6 presidents have been governors.  So the statehouse is where you're more likely to find our next chief executive.

Maybe in 2008 it will be the mayor's office with Giuliani.  Or perhaps Mitt Romney will get the nod. But Washington politicians are probably going to be in for a lot of disappointment,  if history is any guide.

YAWN ... HERE COMES THE "RACIST" CHARGE IN THE PORTS FLAP

Here we go. Some in Dubai are suggesting that the whole ports deal flap was due to racism .... it's all because the citizens of the United Arab Emirates are Arabs!  Wow!  Who woulda thunk it?  These whiners would have us believe that the fact that Dubai had some rather close connections to those who attacked our country on 9/11 had nothing to do with our opposition to the ports deal; that our opposition was all based on race.  Look for the media to play this one up a bit.  It's hard for the media to ignore a good "racism" story, even when the definitions don't fit. 

HOW ABOUT SOME GOOD AND BAD EMAIL?

The bad first ... we'll leave the spelling where we found it:

And now for the good! ....

REDNECK SCRAP BOOK

Who says rednecks don't have class? They sure know how to travelinstyle. More in the Redneck Scrap Book.

READING ASSIGNMENTS

Slobodan Milosevic is dead...and along with many other people, Martin Bell says good riddance. By the way, who cares if he was poisoned?  If he was, that was one slick operation.  Maybe we could hire the same guy to off Saddam.

What are the odds that Democrats will take back control of the House of Representatives this fall?  Michael Barone, who was the first to call the Republican takeover in 1994, takes a look at the odds.

What are the odds that Rudy Giuliani will be the Republican nominee in 2008?  Peter Brown goes inside the poll numbers...and says Giuliani may be too much of a social liberal to win the nomination.

With a recent poll showing a majority of people having a negative view of Islam, Mark Steyn says the media is still doing its best to shelter Islamic terrorists.  He also takes on the notion that the American people are intolerant.

Professor Mike Adams has been getting some hate mail from conservatives that don't like it when he espouses his religious views in his column.  Today he responds the the criticism.

Is there such a thing as a thrifty Republican these days? With federal spending at record levels and the House and Senate spending like never before, Robert Novak says that's not likely to change.

The left loves to talk about how women vote for Democrats.  Jeff Jacoby points out that of the last 7 presidential elections, Republicans have won 3 times with more women's votes than the Democrats.  There goes that theory.

It seems like everybody is getting into the 2008 election game.  Now former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle says he might run.  Something about the GOP scaring people.  Sounds like a successful platform to me.

Dubai Ports World may be pricing their deal to take over their ports so high that no American buyer could be found.  Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist says in that case, DPW might be allowed to run the ports after all. Huh?

What exactly is the point of Al Gore going around the country criticizing George Bush?  Isn't he out of politics?  Perhaps he has his sights set on 2008. That would be something, wouldn't it. Al vs. Hillary.

18 die in Daytona Bike Week related accidents, more than double the fatalities from last year.

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