"Democrats search for gains as market sinks"  
By Donald Lambro

     House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt, Missouri Democrat, bets the steep decline in the stock 
market will help Democrats win back the House in November, but campaign analysts see no evidence of any 
election swing away from the Republicans - yet.

     Republican campaign officials cited an ABC News poll, released Thursday night, showing that the 
generic congressional vote was in a dead heat, with Democrats edging out the Republicans by 47 percent to 
46 percent.

     "Republicans typically go into Election Day with a generic deficit of three or four points, so that number 
shows we are in great shape," said a National Republican Congressional Committee official.

     But as the stock market descended deeper into its continuing nose dive Friday, the Democrats intensified 
their election offensive, blaming the financial debacle on President Bush and the Republicans, and their 
economic policies.
 
    "Democrats in the House want to restore investor confidence and get the economy back on track," said 
Kim Rubey, spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "We need tough 
measures to ensure that scandals like Enron and WorldCom don't happen again. Republicans have shown 
no leadership on this issue."

      Republicans struck back, accusing the Democrats of playing to investors' fears and attempting to talk 
down the economy for political gain.

     "It's clear that the Democrats are talking the market down," said NRCC spokesman Steve Schmidt. 
"Gephardt is playing politics with this issue in an unconscionable way. There are people who have been 
harmed by corporate thievery and malfeasance. He's exploiting these people's hardships and cheerleading 
for a stock market decline so he can score political points with it."

      But as the turmoil in the financial markets worsened, strategists in both parties were carefully studying 
polling data to see whom the voters blame for the corporate and accounting scandal that triggered the 
market's latest downturn. Democrats hope voters will decide to vent their anger over sizable stock losses by 
voting Democratic in November.

     Mr. Gephardt said earlier this week that the furor over the recent corporate scandals could help 
Democrats win in as many as 40 districts in November. "There are at least 40 seats in play that we have a 
chance to win," he told a gathering of Democrats.

     Elections analyst Stuart Rothenberg, who tracks congressional races, said he sensed that the chances of 
Democratic gains in the House and Senate "have improved in the past few weeks."

     But he added that "at this point we are still in the process of evaluating how the mood swing affects the 
races. There are no races where the mood swing has shown up right now."

      Still, he said, "in the current environment, it wouldn't be surprising if voters became nervous about the 
future, worried about what's going to happen next, and that could lead many people to say, let's look for 
something different."

     Matthew Dowd, who was Mr. Bush's campaign pollster in the 2000 election, sees no evidence as yet that 
"the president's numbers have been affected by this. The generic congressional ballot numbers have been 
basically dead even for the last six months."

     "Right now, the public is angry, but that anger is not aimed at a politician or a party but at business 
executives," said Mr. Dowd, who polls for the Republican National Committee. "Voters overwhelmingly, by 
70 percent, blame corporate executives and bad business practices. After that, [the remaining blame] is a 
three-way, single-digit tie between the president, Republicans and Democrats."

      However, Mr. Bush gets lower approval scores from pollster John Zogby, whose latest survey puts the 
president's positive job approval rating at 62 percent, down from 69 percent just two weeks ago.

      "Democratic voters are coming home," Mr. Zogby said. "They had supported Bush on the war, but they 
are coming back to their party as the election starts to heat up. The stock market and the economy are 
driving the president's numbers down.

     "The Democrats needed something to knock Bush off his high pedestal and, for the time being, they got 
it," he said.

     "I think, right now, the Democrats are in the drivers' seat. The issues are in their favor, and in hot, close 
races anything that gives them a slight edge could tip the balance," he said.

      But other factors have been at work as well. With just 3� months to go before the elections, the 
Democrats have not been able to develop a national issue with any political traction. Their party's base was 
deflated and needed to be energized, said Democratic strategists who worried about low Democratic turnout 
in the primaries this year.

      "In Democratic statewide primaries, 10 of the 18 primaries resulted in record low turnouts," including 
California, Iowa, New Jersey, New Mexico and Ohio, said Curtis Gans, a voter turnout specialist.

     "Gephardt is attempting to boost morale, to energize his party," Mr. Rothenberg said. "Finally, you may 
have something to get the Democrats angry and get them out to the polls."

     Republican strategists say the Democrats' attempt to exploit the stock market's slide may work for them, 
up to a point. But they say that it will be hard for the Democrats to blame Republicans if pending legislation 
to crack down on corporate auditing abuses passes Congress and the president signs it.

     "If the public sees the president and Congress doing something to solve this by passing a bill, then it will 
be difficult to lay the blame at the feet of the politicians on this," Mr. Dowd said.

      Mr. Bush has asked Congress to act on the bill before the August recess. But Mr. Gephardt said last 
week that action on the legislation could take two months to work out, signaling that he was in no hurry to 
help the president and the Republicans win quick action on a bill.

     "There is one other possibility that can rob the Democrats of this issue between now and the Labor Day 
kickoff point of the campaign," said a senior Republican official on the condition of anonymity - "a major 
rally in the stock market."

pussed over and...

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click scumbag for story

click cigar holder for story

"Bush's Popularity Remains Robust" -Washington Post (click nice image)

go go Ann!

Webmaster May Be Dead 
Wed Jul 17
By Forn Url Press

An unidentified source said Wednesday he believes Osama bin
Adam is dead.  The source quickly emphasized that he had no 
evidence that bin Adam was dead, but his comments suggest 
that no intelligence exists that proves the Webmaster is 
still alive.

"Is (bin Adam) alive or is he dead? I am not really sure of 
the answer....I personally think he is probably not with us 
anymore but I have no evidence to support that."

Since the February file truncation reports of bin Adam's 
whereabouts and well-being have been sporadic coming from 
different sources.

Earlier this month, a Maryland-based HTML craftsman 
speculated Osama bin Adam might have been terminated in a 
lay-off at Bangkok.com.  As evidence he pointed to the fact 
that Osama bin Adam had failed to return numerous inquiries 
issued via e-mail.

There was no way to verify the rumor, although sources 
acknowledge that it remains a possibility.

While a temporary webmaster has volunteered to carry out 
bin Adam's duties, some have privately acknowledged they 
believe he is alive although he may be hiding in a cave 
or perhaps sipping latte at some internet cafe.

FBI Boss Thinks Bin Laden Dead

LINK_TEXT_HERE

"My book is new and improved"