*R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Was the Rev. Al Sharpton making a threat to run as a third party candidate? Speaking in Georgia last week, Sharpton said Democrats treat black voters like "mistresses," deriving benefits from them but not "taking us home to mom and dad." "Either we get married," said Sharpton, "or we're going break up and find someone who will respect us."
*NO ENVIRONMENTALIST: Campaigning for President in New Hampshire, Sen. Joe Lieberman (D.-Conn.) paid President Bush an accidental compliment. Bush's environmental record, he said, is "the worst since the modern environmental movement began."
*EDWARDS CONTRIBUTIONS SUSPECT: Though the Justice Department would not confirm it, the Washington Post reported last week the Criminal Division has "initiated an investigation into contributions made by employees of a prominent Little Rock law firm to the presidential campaign of Sen. John Edwards (D.-N.C.)." Michelle Abu-Halmeh, an employee of the firm, told the Post that her boss, Tab Turner of Turner & Associates, told her he would reimburse her for her contribution of $2,000. Reimbursements for political contributions are illegal. The Edwards campaign has returned $10,000 from employees of the firm. An Edwards spokeswoman told the New York Times April 24: "[O]nce we learned of the allegations of wrongdoing by the firm, we returned all the donations we received from employees of the firm."
*NOT A LITMUS TEST? Sen. John Kerry (D.-Mass.) is driving hard to the left on social issues to outflank his rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination as they seek the support of the pro-abortion lobby, a major force in the Democratic base. In a speech in Des Moines, Iowa, Kerry said he would nominate to the Supreme Court only those who support Roe v. Wade.
"Let me just say to you," said Kerry, "that is not a litmus test." Later, according to the Boston Globe, he said: "Litmus tests are politically motivated; this is a constitutional right." The Des Moines Register reported that he said: "I don't want to get into an argument about litmus tests. The focus is on the constitutional right that Roe established in America [sic.]. I want jurists to agree, who swear to uphold the Constitution. . . . If some people want to call that a litmus test, they can call it a litmus test."
*DOUBLE TAKE: Like Lieberman, Kerry attacked Bush on the environment last week, bashing him for refusing to sign the Kyoto global warming agreement. What Kerry conveniently forgot was that in 1997 he himself voted for a unanimous Senate resolution urging President Clinton to reject the agreement.
*HARI KERRY: Hoping to shed the reputation that he has all the charisma of a mortician, Kerry has been repeating over and over a joke about his recent prostate-removal surgery. "If anybody here is asking the big question, can a man be President of the United States without a prostate, I say to you why not? We've had a number of Republicans who have been President without a heart, without a brain." Responded one Capital Hill veteran, the last Democrat in the Oval Office had a perfectly functioning prostate, and no conscience.
*BOB BOWS OUT: Conservatives hoping for the political resurrection of Rep. Bob Barr (R.-Ga.) were disappointed last week when the impeachment pioneer reversed his earlier decision to seek the seat currently held by Rep. Johnny Isakson (R.-Ga.). "The fact there were doubts in my mind and desires to do some other things, both professionally and family-wise, were telling me this was not the right time right now," Barr said at an April 23 press conference. State Sen. Robert Lamutt (R.), a solid conservative, is now the only announced candidate in this safely Republican district. Roll Call newspaper has reported that he is prepared to spend $1 million of his own money on the campaign. The moderate Isakson is running for the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Zell Miller.
*A 'GO' FOR DANIELS? With the successful conclusion to the Iraq War and the President's popularity riding high, sources close to Mitch Daniels say that the Office of Management and Budget director now seems "all but certain" to seek the Republican nomination for governor of Indiana next year. Friends of Daniels had said he wanted to see how long the war would take before making a decision. Now he will reportedly resign once the budget battle is over. He is considered a sure thing for the GOP nomination. Daniels will probably face another figure with national ties: former Democratic National Chairman Joe Andrew.
*NO BAGHDAD BOB: The latest to join the U.S. team overseeing the reconstruction of Iraq is a familiar fixture on Capitol Hill: Mark Corallo, press secretary to former House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston (R.-La.). Corallo, a U.S. Army veteran, also worked as spokesman for the House Government Affairs Committee under Chairman Dan Burton (R.-Ind.). He will now be spokesman for the Iraq rebuilding under Gen. Jay Garner.
*AFTER WHITMAN: Embassy Row is abuzz about whether Christine Todd Whitman will soon be tapped as ambassador to Spain or Hungary, where there will be vacancies. Meanwhile, observers on Capitol Hill are speculating about who would replace Whitman as head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Among those mentioned: lobbyist Jill Cooper, former Wyoming Director of Environmetal Quality Dennis Hemmer, and North Carolina State Republican Chairman Bill Cobey, a former state secretary of the environment.
*CASTRO'S CAUCUS: After Fidel Castro's regime sentenced more than 70 dissidents to 28 years in prison, the House passed a resolution 414 to 0 condemning "the brutal crackdown of the Cuban Government on the island's peaceful pro-democracy movement." Ten members of the Black Caucus, however, refused to take a stand against Castro's tyranny, voting "present" instead. They are: Frank Ballance (D.-N.C.), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D.-Tex.), Bobby Rush (D.-Ill.), John Conyers (D.-Mich.), Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick (D.-Mich.), Maxine Waters (D.-Calif.), Jesse Jackson Jr. (D.-Ill.), Barbara Lee (D.-Calif.), Sheila Jackson-Lee (D.-Tex.), and Albert Wynn (D.-Md.).
