From: Todd Lockwood
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2003 1:51 PM
Subject: FW: Center for American Progress

Subject: Center for American Progress

Folks, while I am not sending you digests, I hope you are staying in the loop, with daily e-news deliveries, and visits to Alternet, Buzzflash, Tom Paine, and others. Here's another great resource to add to your lists:

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If you haven't signed up to receive the reports of the Center for American Progress, Podesta's new thinktank, do yourself a favor and go to their site [LINK] to get the Progress Report. Very good topline information and embedded links to all the background data. I've selected a few items from their latest report. These particularly show a cheering trend: the cracking of the facade of GOP cohesion. More and more leaders in their own party are starting to reject the radicalism.

ON THE HEALTHCARE BILL:
The WP reports that "GOP Conference Chairman Rick Santorum (Pa.) said outlook for passage was 'uncertain,' adding, 'No one is waving the banner.'" And Sen. John E. Sununu (R-NH) said there is "'pretty strong' disappointment among Senate conservatives." Among those expressing hesitation is Rep. Patrick J. Toomey (R-PA), who wrote a letter stating, "I will be unable to support the current conference agreement as it has been described to me." That letter was also signed by Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL), saying, "I feel no obligation to vote for the bill at this point," and Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), who also said, "I'm a 'no' at this point." Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), announced his opposition to the bill on the House floor yesterday, "despite pressure from GOP leaders to keep his stance quiet."

CONSERVATIVE ACTIVISTS NOT ON BOARD: According to Congress Daily, "Stephen Moore, president of the Club for Growth, plans to announce today that he will recommend conservatives oppose the legislation." Also, the director of health and welfare studies at the conservative CATO Institute, Michael Tanner, "said in a statement that the legislation 'is a terrible mistake that will dearly cost our children and grandchildren.'" And Stuart Butler, a health policy specialist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, came out and called the bill "a terrible package."
Since the war started, President Bush has attended a total of 36 fundraisers for his political campaign - and not one funeral for fallen soldiers in Iraq. Author John B. Roberts, who served in the Reagan Administration, writes in the NYT "Skipping memorial services makes the president look weak. It creates the impression that he values his own political standing above the lost lives of servicemen and women." He adds that the tactic leaves a bad impression because "so many of our professional soldiers come from the middle and lower classes of American society, and not the president's own privileged social class. With an election approaching, presenting the picture of a president who has time for fundraisers but not for military funerals would be an egregious mistake."

JUDICIARY - GOP BLOCKS OWN NOMINEE: Another of President Bush's judicial nominees is being blocked...but this time by his own party. The Hill reports that Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) noticed Republicans had allowed the nomination of  Leon Holmes for a seat on the U.S. District Court in Arkansas had been "languishing" on the Senate's calendar for more than six months and has called for a vote. It turns out the conservative nominee - who said the rape exception for a constitutional amendment banning abortion was a "red herring" because "conceptions from rape occur with approximately the same frequency as snowfall in Miami" - is opposed by at least four Republicans: Arlen Specter (Pa.), Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins (Maine), and Kay Bailey Hutchison (Texas).