Thursday, April 15, 2004 Volume 10, Number 34 Page 1 of 9 he Bush’s ‘Texified’ T nation building Howey ‘Stay the course,’ with few details By BRIAN A. HOWEY in Indianapolis This morning, visitors to Drudgereport.com found a photo of a military transport plane filled with a dozen Political American flag- draped coffins. The evening newscasts are filled with the seemingly haywire events in Iraq. The New York Times’ Jeffrey Gettleman, now on his second stint in Report Iraq, reported in Sunday’s editions, under a searing photo of insurgents rabidly celebrating an American military convoy The Howey Political Report is published by NewsLink in an inferno, “The atmosphere in Iraq has completely Inc. Founded in 1994, The Howey Political Report is changed. In just a week, a fading guerrilla war has exploded an independent, non-partisan newsletter analyzing the political process in Indiana. into a popular uprising.” On Tuesday night, a somber and resolute President Brian A. Howey, publisher Bush made his case to the nation on why Iraq is important. Mark Schoeff Jr., Washington writer “We're at war,” Bush said. “Iraq is a part of the war on ter- Jack E. Howey, editor ror. It is not the war on terror; it is a theater in the war on terror. And it's essential we win this battle in the war on ter- The Howey Political Report Office: 317-254-1533 PO Box 40265 Fax: 317-968-0487 ror. By winning this battle, it will make other victories more Indianapolis, IN 46240-0265 Mobile: 317-506-0883 certain in the war against the terrorists.” [email protected] Bush then made the case in virtually biblical terms. www.howeypolitics.com “It's important for us to spread freedom throughout the Middle East. Free societies are hopeful societies,” he Washington office: 202-775-3242; Business Office: 317-254-0535. explained. “A hopeful society is one more likely to be able to deal with the frustrations of those who are willing to com- Subscriptions: $350 annually via e-mail; mit suicide in order to represent a false ideology. A free soci- $550 annually including the HPR Daily ety is a society in which somebody is more likely to be able Wire. Call 317-254-1533 or 254-0535. to make a living.” © 2004, The Howey Political Report. All rights “Freedom is the Almighty's gift to every man and reserved. Photocopying, Internet forwarding, faxing or woman in this world. And as the greatest power on the face reproducing in any form, in whole or in part, is a viola- of the Earth, we have an obligation to help the spread of tion of federal law and is strictly prohibited without freedom,” said the embattled President. consent of the publisher. “Anybody’s welcome. The West Side will take Ticker Tape: Now Sen. Kruse p. 2 anybody’s money. It’s not just a bipartisan Horse Race: Kernan leads $ race p. 4 decision. It’s a business decision.” LG List: Hiler, Hulbert, Dane Miller p. 7 Tax Revolt: Lake & Marion counties p. 8 - Gov. Joe Kernan, after Mitch Daniels showed Columnists: Eisele, Gerard p. 9 up at the West Side Democratic Club in South Covering 10 years of Indiana politics Bend on Dyngus Day, to the Indianapolis Star Thursday, April 15, 2004 Page 2 of 9 Texification of War John Poindexter, John Negroponte (to be In Kevin Phillips’ book named the first ambassador to Iraq). He “American Dynasty,” the conservative explained, “The younger Bush also pro- columnist presents some fascinating con- moted the 1989-92 Bush warhawks most text to what Americans are witnessing eager to follow-up with Iraq -- Paul today and its nagging comparisons to Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith -- and like- KERRY LEADS BY 2 IN Vietnam. wise selected his father’s Gulf War RASMUSSEN TRACKING: A “From the Gulf of Tonkin defense secretary, Richard Cheney, as vice Rasmussen Reports poll president.” (4/14) of 1,500 likely voters Resolution in 1964 to the 2003 attack, all nationwide, conducted over three of the nation’s major offensive over- While Bush disdained the concept April 8-10 (+/- 3%) using an seas combats -- first in Indochina , the of “nation building” during the 2000 cam- automated polling system, second and third with Iraq -- were begun paign, Phillips notes that, “Planning for shows 47% would vote for or critically escalated by chief executives the second invasion of Iraq seems to have John Kerry; 45% would vote from the Lone Star State. Besides the begun well before election day in the for George Bush; 3% would Persian Gulf relevance of Texas’ oil and Washington meeting rooms of the Project vote for another candidate; gas preoccupation, the state’s large mili- for a New American Century, the neocon- 6% were not sure. On the tary presence, Alamo tradition, belief in servative think tank for which Cheney, generic congressional bal- Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Florida Gov. Jeb lot, 43% would vote for the U.S. manifest destiny, barely uninhibited Bush, and Lewis Libby, Cheney’s chief of Democratic candidate in gun culture, and male bravado all served their district; 36% would up related encouragement.” staff, completed a detailed Pax Americana vote for the Republican can- Phillips notes the historical ties in blueprint in September 2000.” didate; 5% would vote for the current administration to Vietnam and That blueprint stated, “The United another candidate; and 16% the first Gulf War. When Saigon fell in States has for decades sought to play a were not sure. In addition, April 1975, Donald Rumsfeld was more permanent role in Gulf regional 51% approve of Bush's job President Ford’s chief of staff, Dick security. While the unresolved conflict performance, while 48% dis- Cheney was deputy chief of staff, George with Iraq provides the immediate justifica- approve. Meanwhile, a H.W. Bush was posted in China. “The tion, the need for a substantial American Rasmussen poll of 500 like- force presence in the Gulf transcends the ly Florida voters, conducted neoconservatives ... were equally stamped on April 13 (+/- 4.5%), by failure in Vietnam and the vulnerability issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein.” shows 47% would vote for they believed the mid-1970s foreign poli- This despite that fact that notable Kerry; 46% would vote for cy implosion created for Israel and the generals such as Charles de Gaulle, George W. Bush; 2% would United States. Douglas MacArthur, and Dwight vote for another candidate; After the first President Bush Eisenhower, “had opposed or been leery 5% were not sure. ousted Saddam Hussein and Iraq from of U.S. military commitment to an Asian Kuwait in 1991, the end result a little land war in the 1960s.” With President KRUSE ELECTED TO SEN- more than a year later was a politically Johnson and Vietnam, Phillips observed, ATE: Republican delegates defeated president while Saddam “He did not just escalate the war, he from Allen, DeKalb and Steuben Counties elected remained in power. Phillips notes, “With Texified it - applying a coat of good-ole- State Representative Dennis Saddam Hussein free to thumb his nose boy rhetoric that whetted loathing on cam- Kruse as the new State again, the Bushes, Rumsfeld, Cheney, puses from New England through the Senator for District 14. together with their neoconservative Great Lakes and west to the Pacific.” Senator-Elect Kruse will fill acolytes, would have to confront the aging The underlying reason was oil. In the remainder of the late ghosts of 1960s ineptness, fumbled bomb- 2000, two-thirds of Persian Gulf oil went Senator Charles “Bud” ing halts, a cruel April 1975 in Saigon, to Western industrialized nations. By Meeks term in office (HPR). and the muddled Mayaguez rescue on 2015, the CIA estimates that 75 percent of “Tonight’s election repre- another set of Middle East battlefields a that oil will go to Asia, chiefly to China. sents another small step in decade later.” Phillips writes, “American hands would the healing process follow- ing the passing of Sen. And, Phillips notes, the presiden- have to be on the pumps,” led by a presi- cy of George W. Bush included controver- dent whose family has four generations of Continued on page 3 sial first Bush appointees: Elliott Abrams, ties going to royal oil families in the Page 3 of 9 Thursday, April 15, 2004 Persian Gulf nation's interest.” The terror attacks on Sept. 11, Asked about the lack of WMD, 2001 provided the pretext to implement Bush explained, “The people know where the neocon blueprint. Thus we have I stand. I mean, in terms of Iraq, I was Richard Clarke’s assertions in “Against very clear about what I believed. And, of All Enemies” of President Bush seeking a course, I want to know why we haven't connection between Saddam and Al found a weapon yet. But I still know Meeks,” said Indiana Qaeda. While such a link was never Saddam Hussein was a threat, and the Republican Party Chairman exposed, the Bush administration promot- world is better off without Saddam Jim Kittle, Jr. “I know ed that tie, and by April 2003 a CBS Hussein.” Senator-Elect Kruse will News poll revealed 53 percent of the Ron Brownstein of the Los work tirelessly to represent Northeast Indiana, bring American public believed in such a tie. In Angeles Times commented afterward, “For all the attention President Bush change to our state, and ful- March 2003, as President Bush prepared fill the legacy of a great devoted to the war in Iraq at his news the nation for war in Iraq in a nationally- Hoosier leader.” Said televised news conference, the Christian conference Tuesday night, his message Senate Pro Tempore Robert Science Monitor counted eight references boiled down to three words: Stay the Garton, “Sen.