*ST. LOUIS BLUES: Democrat political types in Washington have been figuring that either Sen. John Kerry (Mass.) or Rep. Dick Gephardt (Mo.) will emerge as their party’s presidential nominee next year, and that of these two Gephardt would have the better chance against President Bush in the fall of 2004 because of his superior ability to win votes in the South. For that reason, a poll last week for KOMU-TV in Columbia, Mo., was very bad news for the Democrats. It showed Bush beating Gephardt 52% to 38% among voters in Gephardt’s home state. Remarkably, among women in Missouri, Bush leads Gephardt 49% to 40%. Perhaps even more remarkably, Bush leads Gephardt by 48% to 41% in Gephardt’s home town of St. Louis.
*LOST IN SPACE: Speaking to the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group last week, Gephardt proposed an expansive "alternative energy" plan he calls "Apollo 21." "Forty-two years ago," said Gephardt, "President Kennedy announced the Apollo Project to achieve the then-unfathomable goal of sending an American to the moon. I propose an aggressive new Apollo Project to use the power of innovation to achieve true energy independence within a decade." This can be achieved, he argued, by forcing Americans to use alternative technologies such as hybrid cars and by using the tax code to thwart "urban sprawl."
* ‘MALIGN NEGLECT’: Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D.-Conn.), challenging Gephardt and Kerry for the Democratic presidential nomination as a "moderate," accused President Bush last week of advancing a policy of "malign neglect" toward the poor. To counter this, Lieberman proposed a series of new and expanded welfare programs. They include new child-care subsidies, new benefits for immigrants, new job training programs, expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, and raising the minimum wage. Thus, presumably, he anchored himself even more firmly as the rightward-most candidate in the Democratic field.
*ROE V. ROE: Attorneys for Norma McCorvey, the "Roe" in the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case that legalized abortion on demand, have filed a motion seeking to overturn the decision. McCorvey’s argument is that the case was built on premises now proven to be false: that human life does not begin at conception and that abortion does not harm women. Since pushing her case to legalize abortion, McCorvey has converted to the pro-life cause and the Christian faith. "I long for the day that justice will be done and the burden from all of these deaths will be removed from my shoulders," said McCorvey in a June 17 statement. "I want to do everything in my power to help women and their children. The issue is justice for women, justice for the unborn, and justice for what is right." Allan Parker of the Texas Justice Foundation is assisting McCorvey with the case.
*CHERTOFF CONFIRMED: While Senate Democrats are still filibustering the federal appeals court nominations of Miguel Estrada and Priscilla Owen, and may be preparing to filibuster the appeals court nomination of Bill Pryor, the full Senate last week confirmed with ease Deputy Atty. Gen. Michael Chertoff to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. The vote was 88 to 1. To no one’s surprise, the lone "nay" came from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D.-N.Y.), who along with husband Bill was the focus of the Senate Whitewater investigation in which Chertoff served as majority counsel.
*A GOOD CHOICE: With the exit of Defense Department spokeswoman Torie Clarke last week, the early favorite to succeed her as official mouthpiece for Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is Jim Wilkinson. Wilkinson, who formerly worked with conservatives on the Hill and as deputy communications director in the Bush White House, won high marks as press secretary to Gen. Tommy Franks during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
*LIMBAUGH TO COURT? Sen. Kit Bond (R.-Mo.) last week sent the White House a list of six prospective candidates for the two vacancies on the Missouri-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuirt. Among them was a name fond and familiar to conservatives everywhere: Limbaugh. Not Rush, but Steven. Steven Limbaugh, the 51-year-old chief judge of the Missouri Supreme Court, is Rush’s first cousin. He is also a solid conservative, the son of a federal judge, and a good bet to be nominated by President Bush.
*TWO FOR TWO: The office of deputy Treasury secretary, the department’s No. 2 position, has been vacant for months. A Treasury source tells HUMAN EVENTS Political Editor John Gizzi that the White House is determined to tap a woman for the job and that so far two good candidates have been passed over because "they had nanny problems." Now, the No. 1 name for the No. 2 slot is University of Chicago Vice President Patricia Woodward, who has served as budget chief for Republican governors in Florida, Michigan, and New York.
*TRAITOR’S CAUSE: To almost no one’s surprise, Army Sgt. Hassan Akbar has reportedly revealed to Army investigators his motive for murdering two and injuring 15 of his fellow U.S. servicemen in Kuwait March 23. Reuters cited an investigator’s testimony that Akbar, a Muslim, "acted out of sympathy for Muslims whom he reportedly said Americans had come to "kill and rape."
*ROVING IN TEXAS: With a push from the White House and Gov. Rick Perry (R.), Texas redistricting has been revived. Perry has called a special session of the state legislature primarily to consider a congressional redistricting plan. According to a Texas GOP leadership source, presidential advisor Karl Rove has phoned at least one undecided Republican state senator to push for a new map. If Republicans succeed in redistricting, they could gain five to seven seats in the U.S. House from Texas alone, virtually guaranteeing a GOP majority in the next Congress. Democrats in the Texas House avoided a redistricting vote last month when 53 of them fled across state lines to Oklahoma to prevent a quorum.
*READ HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE: Don’t forget to check out our all-new website at www.humanevents.com. If you had logged on there last week you could have read the scoop above and many other excellent features, including columns by Ann Coulter, Terence Jeffrey, Bob Novak and John Gizzi.
