Morning buzz

In The Star:

• David Klepper examines the Kansas plan requiring that girls get a vaccine for a disease that causes cervical cancer.
• John Shultz and Brad Cooper look at KC's problem with broken water mains.
• Kit Wagar reports on a meeting of the Missouri House Special Committee on Tax Reform considering tax cuts on various forms of retirement income.
• Lynn Horsley and Dave Helling find KC mayoral candidates trading accusations over the delayed release of a TIF audit.
• Horsley also has more on Clay Chastain warning of legal action if the city sidetracks his light rail plan.
• Tim Hoover reports on a Missouri proposal that would increase child-care subsidies.
• Matt Stearns reports that several U.S. senators are demanding that the Food and Drug Administration suspend plans to close several regional laboratories.

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

• The Note calls attention to an interview by the New York Observer's Jason Horowitz with Sen. Joe Biden, who's officially announcing his presidential run today. Biden didn't mince words about Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, and John Edwards. On Clinton, Biden calls the likely results of her position on Iraq, "nothing but disaster." (Biden favors partition.) Biden goes on in inimitable fashion to talk about Clinton's political standing: "Are they going to turn to Hillary Clinton?" he asked, lowering his voice to a hush to explain why Mrs. Clinton won't win the election. "Everyone in the world knows her. Her husband has used every single legitimate tool in his behalf to lock people in, shut people down. Legitimate. And she can't break out of 30 percent for a choice for Democrats? Where do you want to be? Do you want to be in a place where 100 percent of the Democrats know you? They've looked at you for the last three years. And four out of 10 is the max you can get?"
• The Washington Post reports that after initially aiming to rally around a single Iraq resolution that would allow the GOP senators to express doubts about the plan without stating their outright opposition, Republicans appear to be "balkinizing," with at least five Republican drafts now in play and more GOPers stating their reservations.
• The Post also reports that for the first time, Obama proposed setting a deadline for withdrawing troops from Iraq: "Obama's legislation . . . would remove all combat brigades from Iraq by March 31, 2008."
• In Iowa yesterday, Sen. Sam Brownback told the Des Moines Register he wants to focus on issues like human trafficking, climate change and poverty that are consensus builders. When asked how he will overcome his current dark horse status, he invoked Obama: "Did you know who Barack Obama was at this time a year ago? I think I will be in that spot once the voter contact is made."
• Brownback is in Michigan today where he plans to deliver a speech entitled "The Proper Role of the Judiciary."
• Alaska GOP Sen. Ted Stevens is pushing a bill that aims to make online porn harder to "stumble upon," the Anchorage Daily News reports.
• Ex-Donald Trump wife Marla Maples has sent a mass e-mail in support of Hillary Clinton.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Comments

[Protractor]

I may be in a select minority, but I for one think Joe Biden might be worth a look based purely on the limited times I have heard him speak.

That may have more to do with not being overly enthused by any of the 20 or more who have declared thus far from both sides of the party aisle.

Any thoughts about this guy??

[Old Drum]

On Biden and Obama.

Biden knows foreign affairs, but he did vote for the authorization and he is beholden to credit card companies. If he plagarized the following on Obama, he needs to find some new sources:
http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/jan/31/biden_unloads_on_clinton_obama_edwards
“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

****
Onto more pleasant news. Apparently, Obama has decided he doesn't need to talk to a "news" network that slimed him. Bravo!

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2007/01/obama.html

Sources tell The Sleuth that the Obama camp has "frozen out" Fox News reporters and producers in the wake of the network's major screw-up in running with the erroneous Obama-the-jihadist story reported by Insight magazine.

"I'm still in the freezer," one Fox journalist said, noting that the people at Fox "suffering the most did nothing wrong." (It was "Fox and Friends" host Steve Doocy who aired the Insight magazine piece, which reported that operatives connected to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) found out that Obama, as a child, was educated at a Muslim madrassah in Indonesia.)

. . . .

Since the madrassah incident, Obama has given interviews to ABC, CNN, CBS and NBC -- pretty much every other network except Fox.

************
Bravo! Now if only more Democrats would realize that Fox News is essentially about being "fair and balanced" to anything Republican!

The only "Democrat" who needs Fox is Joe Lieberman.

[jenniferm]

Actually limiting the times you hear Biden speak is actually a pretty good idea. He seem to get a lot of air time when discussing foreign policy but that is about it. He is very outspoken and honest in his assessment of his potential rivals--of which I am in agreement on.

[jenniferm]

This column from Hearne Christopher today I guess is supposed to enlighten us on Becky Nace: http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/living/16581335.htm

Its a shame Nace gets the free PR. But I'm a voter (but not in the KC mayor's race) who could care less about the upbringing, working since she was 12, picture with the dogs, snoozefest. Do the other candidates get the same puff piece?

And another thing, what exactly does Christopher bring to the Star, if they didn't bold the names I wouldn't give it a look at all.

[JMart]

Jenniferm is right -- about the only thing missing from Hearne's valentine to Becky Nace is the part about her being born in a log cabin and doing her homework by firelight.

Are the 11 other mayoral candidates going to get 10-12 column inches of uncritical fluff like Nace got? Or does the Christopher column exist in some kind of parallel universe, exempt from fair and balanced journalistic standards? (Yeah, I know, he's a columnist -- but would the Star print something so one-sided about the mayor's race if it was penned by Kraske or Hendricks? I don't think so.)

[arewethereyet]

Regarding the delayed TIF audit. What a baby Chucky turns out to be. And Fairfield. Hmm.. a roughneck like Fairfield would be a change from the genteel lying and obfuscating that we currently get from Barnes. Alas, not a change for the better. And what's with the carping about Christopher Hearnes- Hearnes Christopher? I had to retrieve my Star from the recycle bin because I generally give that column a miss. As does most of KC. I always assume that his father pays the Star to employ his son.

[Political Moderate]

Gosh, I'm wondering who helped write that piece on Becky Nace? Was it really Hearne alone or did Jeff Roe provide the creativity?
I'm certain Hearne penned the words, but did Jeff provide the guidance?
Then again, Matt Bartle is a pretty good writer...His imagination is robust enough to provide the material for that article.
Sam Graves is still not talking to constituents...so he's out.
Certainly amazing to see the Star print such a biased piece.

[dickeylee]

Looks like Sen Ted Stevens has been looking in one of those tubes again! Nekid women! Nekid women!