IGNORANT AS USUAL
Senate Democrats who’ve spent the week attacking Rush
Limbaugh received much of their information about the
controversy from David Brock’s Media Matters as
well as from MoveOn.org, which jumped on the attack-Rush bandwagon
when it saw some potential for fundraising. That Democrats had not
done their homework became clear on Wednesday, when Sen. Majority
Leader Harry Reid had his staff call over
demanding that the Pentagon put liberal radio hosts on Armed Forces
Radio. The problem: Armed Forces Radio already broadcasts extensive
shows from National Public Radio, as well as the Ed
Schulz radio show.
“They didn’t believe us,” says a Pentagon staffer based in the
media affairs office.
Retired Gen. Wesley Clark was also unaware that
Schulz and NPR were staples of the military’s entertainment and
information broadcasts. And Clark headed the NATO command.
Reid and other Democrats in the Senate are now planning to start
trouble for Limbaugh and other conservative broadcasters at the
Federal Communications Commission, where current chairman
Kevin Martin has been looking for issues to hold
hearings on that would assuage Democrats on Capitol Hill.
WAITING FOR INSPIRATION
Further to the report by Robert Novak about former Massachusetts Gov.
Mitt Romney’s “Mormonism problem,” which Romney’s
spokesman has been disputing, longtime campaign aides say that
Romney in fact has had a speech addressing his faith and American
values in the can for months, but never felt comfortable giving the
speech.
“He didn’t see the need, and neither have many of us,” says a
longtime campaign aide. “The speech was written months ago for him,
but my thinking has always been that he wanted to do something from
the heart, not written by a professional, as good as the speech may
be.”
SETTING A TRAP FOR SUNUNU
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has signed off
on a legislative plan that he thinks will both lead to his party
winning an additional seat in the Senate, and new tax revenue for
his party to spend in the coming years.
With the clock literally ticking on the Internet Tax
Moratorium’s expiration, Republicans, led by Sens. John
McCain, John Sununu, and Mitch
McConnell, have been pressing for permanent extension of
the moratorium that would bar states and localities from taxing
peoples’ use of the Internet.
“It would essentially make the Internet a toll road, with
taxpayers paying as much five to six dollars extra a month on their
bills just for the use of the Internet,” says a GOP Senate
leadership aide.
Last week Sununu had pulled together enough votes — including
two Democrats — to push a permanent extension of the moratorium to
a vote by the full Senate. But Senate Commerce Committee chairman,
Sen. Daniel Inouye pulled consideration of the
bill Sununu and others wanted amended.
Inouye has been supportive of a temporary extension, telling
some advisers that he’d go as long as six years.
But many Republicans want the permanent extension, and Sununu is
willing to fight, which is why Reid’s eyes perhaps got a bit
brighter earlier this week. “Reid thinks there is enough friction
on this issue that there will be no consensus on the moratorium, it
will expire, and Sununu can take the fall for no extension. He
wants Sununu down and out going into 2008,” says a Democrat
leadership aide. “We’re looking at building a filibuster proof
majority of 60 for 2008. That’s the goal and Sununu has to go.”
