KC Buzz Blog

Morning buzz

In The Star:

   David Klepper has a full report on the Kansas Board of Education rescinding science standards that cast doubt on evolution.

   Matt Stearns details the infighting between Sen. Sam Brownback and Mitt Romney for the GOP conservative base.

   Kit Wagar reports that a Missouri state senator is trying to revive six projects stripped from a higher-ed bill because research in the buildings could somehow involve early stem cells.

   Lynn Horsley looks at the KC mayoral candidates' stands on smoking bans.

   Tim Hoover reports that safety advocates say this could be the year that a proposal passes allowing police to ticket Missouri motorists just for not wearing seat belts.

   Glenn Rice reports that a wall that has come to symbolize renewed political bickering between two Clay County officials may soon be coming down.

   Rice also reports that a Claycomo official offered some insight into why village leaders terminated three top officials late last year.

Elsewhere: Selections from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call," ABC's The Note and others.

   President Bush held his first news conference today since Dec. 20.

The Note lists Bush's press conferences by the year:

2001 — 4

2002 — 3

2003 — 4

2004 — 4

2005 — 7

2006 — 12

2007 — 1

   The Politico's John Bresnahan reports that top House Democrats, working with anti-war groups, have decided to pursue a "slow-bleed strategy" designed to gradually limit the administration's options. "Led by Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Pa., and supported by several well-funded anti-war groups, the coalition's goal is to limit or sharply reduce the number of U.S. troops available for the Iraq conflict, rather than to openly cut off funding for the war itself." 'There's a D-Day coming in here, and it's going to start with the supplemental and finish with the '08 [defense] budget,' said Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, who chairs the Air and Land Forces subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee."

   Under a "Clinton Camp Chides Obama for Distorting Her Iraq Position," ABC News' Teddy Davis explains that Sen. Hillary Clinton is in favor in favor of beginning a phased U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq — even though she does not share Sen. Barack Obama's support for specifying a date by which that withdrawal should be complete. But "the Obama campaign did not back down," writes the Chicago Sun Times' Lynn Sweet.

   Former first lady Nancy Reagan is inviting the leading GOP candidates to the first-ever debate at her husband's library in Simi Valley, Calif. "Ronnie always hoped the library would be a place where policymakers will debate the future," she said. "This presidential debate provides the opportunity to fulfill his wishes."

   The second controversial Edwards blogger, Melissa McEwan, has also decided to quit. 

   Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's daughter was arrested for DUI and "child endangerment," New York Daily News reports.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Morning buzz

In The Star:

• Mark Morris reports on the strong objections by federal prosecutors to Katheryn Shields' request to release the evidence in her mortgage fraud case.
• In his column, Steve Penn looks at the Freedom Inc. endorsements in the mayoral primary.
• David Klepper reports on the corporate tax cut moving through the Kansas Legslature.
• Tim Hoover covered a Missouri Senate committee hearing on a bill that would make it easier for homeowners to use deadly force.
• Brian Burnes sat down for a Q&A with Helen Thomas, who spoke yesterday in Independence.

Elsewhere: Selections from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call," ABC's The Note and others.

• Mitt Romney will officially announce his presidential bid today in Michigan. ABCNews has a preview. As for why he's announcing in Michigan, the Boston Globe says it "can be explained in two words: history and politics."
• A CBS News poll finds 44 percent believe Congress should pass a non-binding Iraq resolution but that 45 percent believe Congress should not pass it. In House debate today Minority Leader John Boehner will say: "Lincoln could have given up. ... But he didn't."
• The Boston Globe reports that some liberal congressional Democrats are disappointed to be voting on "a two-paragraph, non binding resolution disagreeing with Bush's decision to send additional troops to Iraq," rather than debating cutting off funding entirely.
• In an interview with C-SPAN, President Bush commented that the news on Iraq is taking a toll on his father, Bush 41. "I'm actually more concerned about him than I ever have been in my life because he's paying too much attention to the news" said Bush. ABC News' Teddy Davis has more.
• A couple of columnists offer thoughts on Sen. Hillary Clinton's war position: "I don't want to know how President Bush failed Hillary Clinton. I want to know how she failed her country," writes The Washington Post's Richard Cohen. In the Boston Globe, Peter Canellos writes: "When Hillary Rodham Clinton declared in New Hampshire last weekend that she had merely voted to give President Bush 'the authority to send inspectors back in to determine the truth' in Iraq, and not 'to authorize preemptive war,' she was putting her own generous spin on a resolution that was unambiguous in granting the power to go to war in Iraq."
• Amanda Marcotte, one of those controversial bloggers for John Edwards, announced her resignation last night. Here's the AP.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski 

Morning buzz

In The Star:

• Laura Bauer examines the reluctance in Kansas to impose residency restrictions on child molesters.
• In the "Kansas Capitol Notebook," David Klepper and Jim Sullinger look at the funeral picketing bill and why it may be headed to court.
• In the "Missouri Capitol Notebook," Kit Wagar details last week's stem-cell debate before a House committee.

Elsewhere: Selections from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call, ABC's The Note and others.

• How many House Republicans will vote to disapprove the Iraq war this week. The Washington Post reports that GOP leaders realize some House Republicans are going to vote with the Democrats: "A senior Republican aide said the GOP leadership knows that Republicans from districts where the war is unpopular will have to vote with the Democrats to protect themselves. And that's okay, he said, adding that Republican leaders will not tell their members to stick with the party line."
• The New York Times looks at how Iraq played in both Sen. Barack Obama's weekend in Iowa and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's weekend in New Hampshire: "Mr. Obama's aides said they viewed Mrs. Clinton's vote on the war in 2002 and her refusal to explicitly disavow that vote as her single biggest vulnerability, and that Mr. Obama would point it out at every opportunity."
• The Quad City Times in Iowa reports that Obama delivered a stinging criticism of President Bush and his handling of Iraq, saying "we now have spent $400 billion and have seen over 3,000 lives of the bravest young Americans wasted." Obama later apologized for using the word "wasted."
• The New York Times previews the possible appearance of Vice President Dick Cheney as a witness in the Libby trial. Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reports that Cheney's support among conservatives and the general public has eroded.
• Newsweek's Jonathan Alter details some of Rudy Giuliani's more combative moments during his mayorship of New York City and wonders if his temperament will provide ammo for his rivals.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Sunday buzz

In The Star:

• Dave Helling looks at how Web video is affecting political campaigns.
• Sen. Barack Obama makes his presidential announcement.
• Mike Mansur reports on Jackson County employee bonuses and the lack of transparency thereof.
• In his Sunday column, Steve Kraske tries to ask Missouri AG Jay Nixon about getting Ameren contributions at the same time he's probing the company's role in the Taum Sauk reservoir collapse.
• In the KC mayoral primary race, The Star's editorial board endorses...Mark Funkhouser.

Elsewhere:

• The New York Times discovers that despite lobbying "reform," D.C. politicians are still at the trough.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Morning buzz

In The Star:

• Matt Stearns looks at how the early primary stampede in 2008 could affect Missouri's primary. Will it be an afterthought or the site of a showdown?
• Scott Canon interviews Ronen Sen, India's ambassador to the United States.
• Mara Rose Williams reports on the controversy over a Missouri Senate committee axing six projects from a higher-ed bill because they may have something to do with stem-cell research.
• Lynn Horsley has a full report on the proposed KC budget.
• Kit Wagar reports that the Missouri House passed the Medicaid fraud bill.
• Wagar also reports that brushing aside concerns about cost, a Senate panel on Wednesday discussed a huge expansion of a subsidy program that rewards businesses for creating jobs.
• In his column, Mike Hendricks takes a poke at KC mayoral candidate Stan Glazer's plan for a giant Ferris wheel on the bank of the Missouri River.

Elsewhere: Selections from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call," ABC's The Note and others.

• Sen. Barack Obama will announce his presidential run tomorrow. In a USA Today interview, Obama says, "I am absolutely convinced that . . . We've got a message that I think will appeal to the American people." 
• Hotsoup's Ron Fournier thinks that Congress' failure to make progress on Iraq this week is a "Katrina moment" which could remind Americans about Washington's "failure to lead." Newt Gingrich tells Fournier that "legislative fights over slavery and the Vietnam War were messy, but those debates 'weren't as childish or trivial' as what we saw this week."  More Gingrich: "What is particularly sad is that the public has a correct understanding that none of the maneuvers matter because it's all so petty and, basically, public relations."
• Here's a couple of stories about Sen. John Edwards' decision to keep a couple of chastised bloggers on the payroll. Before they joined his campaign, they had personal Web logs on which they posted highly critical and profane thoughts about topics including the Roman Catholic Church, The Washington Post reports. The Politico notes the Edwards is taking heat from the religious left over his bloggers.
• Sen. Sam Brownback is in Michigan today as he begins weekend meetings with Republican activists, donors, and elected officials at the annual Michigan GOP state convention in Grand Rapids.
• On his Political Punch blog, Jake Tapper tests your political smarts with an Air Pelosi Quiz.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Morning buzz

In The Star:

• Mark Morris has a full report on the denial of Katheryn Shields' request for a speedy trial.
• Brian Burnes reports that Sugar Creek is making progress in its bid to get a casino.
• David Klepper covered a Kansas House hearing on the plan to require that girls get a cervical cancer vaccine.
• Kit Wagar was at a Missouri Senate hearing where KC community leaders asked for a housing code court.

Elsewhere: Selections from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call," ABC's The Note and others.

• The New York Times' Jeff Zeleny examines the split among House Democrats on how strong their resolution on Iraq should be. Zeleny also looks at the the Senate stalemate. 
• Kate Zernike of The Times profiles Sen. Joe Lieberman, unshackled by the pressures of partisanship and strongly defending President Bush's plan for Iraq.
• The Washington Post ed board slams Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for not disclosing the names of her fund-raising bundlers as Bush did in both of his campaigns and as Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain have pledged to do.
• "AIR-OGANT NANCY," reads the New York Post headline on a story about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's request that she use a military plane for trips.
• Columnist James Lileks proposes Rudy Giuliani's campaign slogan should be, "He dealt with Brooklyn. He can handle Iraq."

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Morning buzz

In The Star:

• Kit Wagar reports on the Missouri House giving preliminary OK to a Medicaid fraud bill. Critics say the measure is largely toothless.
• Wagar also followed the House debate over stem-cell definitions.
• In his column, Mike Hendricks discovers that the Equal Rights Amendment is still alive.
• Mark Morris has a full account of Katheryn Shields' urging that her trial on mortgage fraud charges start soon.
• Russ Pulley reports on the votes yesterday in Blue Springs, which said no to a sales tax to fix streets; in Grain Valley, which approved a school bond issue, and Liberty, where a sales tax for the Liberty Triangle passed.
• Diane Carroll reports that the eight staffers fired by JoCo D.A. Phill Kline are now off the payroll.
• Mark Wiebe summarizes the state of the government address yesterday in WyCo. And here's the text.

Elsewhere: Top pickings from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call," ABC's The Note and others.

• According to a new Gallup poll, 37 percent of Americans approve of the way Congress is handling its job; 55 percent disapprove
• The Politico headlines a story: "GOP views Clinton as virtually unbeatable"
• And has Hillary Clinton locked up the big Democratic fund-raisers? The Washington Post reports that the guest list at the Clintons' home last night included "such major Democratic donors as Haim Saban, a Hollywood studio investor, Alan J. Patricof, a New York financier, and Kevin O'Keefe, a Chicago lawyer."
• Al Gore said the Bush administration "is now paying scientists to dispute global warming," CNN reports.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Morning buzz

In The Star:

• A must read: Steve Kraske profiles political consultant Jeff Roe.
• In his column, Steve Penn fears that KC city manager Wayne Cauthen is becoming a political punching bag during the mayoral race.
• Jim Sullinger and David Klepper report on efforts to bring a $451 million federal research facility to the state.
• Klepper examines a debate over a bill in the Kansas Legislature to define the terms in the stem cell debate.
• Kevin Collison reports that credit agencies are giving KC good ratings on an upcoming bond sale.

Elsewhere: Top pickings from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call,: ABC's The Note and others.

• The Chicago Tribune's Aamer Madhani reports on the filibuster on the Iraq resolution "underscores the political peril and gamesmanship on on both sides."
• By waging war to save the surge, Bush backers are saying one thing and doing another, columnizes E.J. Dionne Jr. of The Washington Post.
• Democrats, naturally, are rejecting the Bush budget. But William Neikirk of the Chicago Tribune points out they face the daunting task of drafting their own. By criticizing program cuts, he writes Democrats have created a situation where they now must deal with huge future costs and perhaps craft reductions of their own if they are to have any credibility with the public.
• The Note draws attenttion to an Atlantic Monthly article by Ross Douthat that looks at the form of politics that President Bush has created during his tenure known as Bushism. To some, it would seem that for any 2008 GOP presidential hopeful, it'd be near political suicide to run on the same platforms that Bush stands for now, but look at the candidates now. "Someone must have forgotten to tell the GOP presidential field. If you consider how the nation's most ambitious Republicans are positioning themselves for 2008, Bushism looks like it could have surprising staying power."
• In his New York Post column, John Podhoretz works to debunk the notion that Rudy Giuliani is too liberal on some social policies for the GOP faithful. (Podhoretz notes that Giuliani has the same position on same-sex civil unions as Dick Cheney.)
• John Edwards joined Hillary Clinton"in saying he will not use public money for the primary or the general election, USA Today reports. 
• In the wake of the disclosure that he had an affair with his friend and campaign manager's wife, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom "said he would seek treatment for alcohol abuse," the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Jay Leno, on Newsom's re-election chances: "Good luck trying to find another campaign manager."
• Barack Obama, who said he has never smoked more than 10 cigarettes a day, is now trying to quit: "I've been chewing Nicorette strenuously."

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Morning buzz

In The Star:

• Dave Helling points out critics of President Bush's health care plan saying that it could force some to accept lower Social Security payments.
• Helling also reports that JoCo, which spent millions installing touch-screen voting machines, now may have to spend millions more if Congress requires that voting machines have a paper trail.
• In his Sunday column, Steve Kraske reports that internal polling shows Al Brooks in the lead in the KC mayoral race.
• Jeffrey Spivak examines what the KC mayoral candidates want to do about city repairs.
• Spivak and Lynn Horsley kick off a parade of KC mayoral candidate profiles. Brooks is first up.
• In his column, Mike Hendricks tells Clay Chastain to be patient.
• In the "Kansas Capitol Notebook," David Klepper and Jim Sullinger write that Kansas legislators are taking another run at passing a bill to limit protests at funerals.
• In the "Missouri Capitol Notebook," Kit Wagar examines Sen. Chris Koster's bill to penalize utilities for outages.

Elsewhere: Top pickings from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call," ABC's The Note and others.

• The Senate votes at 5:30 p.m. EST today on a motion to invoke cloture to limit debate on Sen. Carl Levin's non-binding resolution,
• Democratic presidential hopeful Tom Vilsack said "Congress has the constitutional responsibility and a moral duty to cut off funding." That makes him the first major candidate to say so, says ABCNews.com. More: "Real change is saying, We want our troops out of harm's way now. . . Not a cap — an end. Not eventually — immediately."
• Mark Leibovich of The New York Times pens an obit to Sen. John Kerry's presidential aspirations. From the story:  "Friends say that Kerry feels betrayed by (John) Edwards, whom he defeated easily in the 2004 Democratic primaries and faults for being too quick to second-guess their campaign, distance himself from it and embark on his own 2008 effort."
• Edwards is talking up his new health care proposal, claiming that it would cover the 47 million Americans who don't currently have insurance, bring down costs for most Americans, and assist them with payments. He would also "ask employers to do more," while the government helps to subsidize. But his failure to endorse a single payer health care system drew the ire of some proponents of such a plan, the New York Sun's Josh Gerstein reports.  And, Time's Joe Kein writes he's "not sure" he likes the sound of Edwards' plan: "Expanding Medicaid and putting more responsibility on the employers is exactly the wrong way to go."
• The Wall Street Journal's Deborah Solomon looks at President Bush's secret for spending heavily on guns and butter without triggering huge inflation: "What's Mr. Bush's secret? Ingredient one: strong revenue growth driven by an economy distinguished by surging profits and rising incomes at the top, which are taxed more heavily than incomes at the bottom. Ingredient two: tax cuts and spending increases, which arrived when the U.S. economy needed a boost. Ingredient three, and perhaps the most significant: the willingness of foreigners to lend to the U.S., which finances the budget deficit without pushing up interest rates at a time when Americans don't save very much."
• In a Bob Novak column, Sen. John McCain says: "I will never vote for a tax increase, nor support a tax increase." The Note points out that Novak explores the effect that this has had on McCain's support among liberal journalists and other non-Republicans.
• Former Majority Leader Dick Armey says of Tom DeLay: "I don't like sneaky, conniving people."

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Morning buzz

In The Star:

• Julius A. Karash and Jason Gertzen have the divided reactions to the KU Med Center's alliance with KC hospitals.
• Matt Stearns was at the National Prayer Breakfast led by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver.
• Kit Wagar examines proposals to make utilities pay if they repeatedly leave customers in the dark.
• Diane Carroll and Finn Bullers file a full report on the judge's decision that JoCo D.A. does not have to participate in grievance hearings for fired staffers.

Elsewhere: Top pickings from The Hotline's "Wake-Up Call," ABC's The Note and others.

• The Note says Robert Pear's Medicare/Medicaid story in The New York Times is the latest proof that next week's Bush budget will be deader on arrival than, say, a vintage 1980s Reagan budget.
• Four years after Howard Dean ignited his presidential campaign by forcefully identifying himself as representing "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party," ABC News' Teddy Davis looks at the ways in which the 2008 presidential campaigns of Clinton, Obama, and Edwards have each, in their own way, paid homage to Dean's anti-Iraq war, pro-universal health care, and Internet friendly campaign. "The American people have granted us power for two years," Dean told ABC News. "This is an audition period."
• Sen. Tim Johnson is now reading, The Caucus reports. One of his doctors described his progress "as miraculous."
• Donna Brazile "strongly implied" Al Gore could "be waiting to make a dramatic" WH '08 entrance, noting: "Wait till Oscar night."  Allentown Morning Call reports.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski