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Clinton Preaches, Then Runs

Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered a campaign sermon Sunday, but didn't stick around to hear the pastor do his preaching.

"We're still at church. We're still going to worship no matter what," the Rev. Lee Maxey said as the Democratic presidential candidate, her daughter, Chelsea, and their entourage left Corinthian Baptist Church, the media pack close behind.

Clinton stayed for about 20 minutes and, when she spoke, noted her support for children's rights.

The New York senator also highlighted a chapter in her book, "It Takes a Village," that talks about every child needing a champion. She said most children have someone in that role and she'd like to fulfill it for the whole country.

"I think the American people need a president who is their champion. And I've been running to be that champion _ to get up every single day and do all that I can to make sure I provide the tools that every single American is entitled to receive and make the most out of their own lives," Clinton said.

And with that, she hurried out.

The Rev. James Green took a poke at the just-departed Clinton as he began his sermon.

"When I first got here I was a little overwhelmed. All the dignitaries came in," he said. "I thought they were going to stay for service, but they're still campaigning."

Earlier this year, Democratic candidate Barack Obama also joined the mostly black congregation.

He, too, left early.

Bush Gives Pocket Veto to Defense Bill

CRAWFORD, Texas -- President Bush on Friday headed toward a constitutional confrontation with Congress over his effort to reject a sweeping defense bill.

Bush announced he would scuttle the bill with a "pocket veto" - essentially, letting the bill die without his signature 10 days after he received it, or the end of Dec. 31.

But that can happen only when Congress is not in session; otherwise, the bill becomes law without a formal veto in 10 days. And the Senate maintains it is in session because it has held brief - sometimes only seconds long - meetings every two or three days with only one senator present.

The White House's view is that Congress has adjourned.

It was unclear how the executive and legislative branches would determine whether, in fact, Bush's lack of signature would amount to vetoing the bill or turning it into law.

"My withholding of approval from the bill precludes its becoming law," Bush said in a statement of disapproval sent to Congress.

The president said he was sending the bill and his outline of objections to the House clerk "to avoid unnecessary litigation about the non-enactment of the bill that results from my withholding approval, and to leave no doubt that the bill is being vetoed."

Huckabee on Illegal Pakistanis

PELLA, Iowa -- Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said Friday there are more Pakistanis in the U.S. illegally than any other nationality except those from Latin America.

He told his audience at a campaign event here that 660 Pakistanis have come into the country illegally because of insecure borders.

Pressed by reporters where he got that figure, Huckabee said: "Those are numbers that I got today from a briefing and I believe they are CIA and or immigration numbers." Later, in a conference call with reporters, he identified the figure coming from the Homeland Security Department.

"I am making the observation that we have more Pakistani illegals coming across our border than all other nationalities except those immediately south of the border," he said, repeating the assertion he made to his audience earlier. "And in light of what is happening in Pakistan it ought to give us pause as to why are so many illegals coming across these borders."

THE SPIN:

Huckabee has vaulted to the front tier of the Republican field with his tough-on-immigration stance. The issue resonates with voters in practically every state, including first-to-vote Iowa. He has proposed sealing the Mexican border, hiring more agents to patrol it and to make illegal immigrants go home and apply for legal status. He's backed by the founder of the tough anti-immigrant group Minuteman Project.

THE FACTS:

Homeland Security officials say there are more people in the U.S. illegally from the Caribbean, China and Canada than from Pakistan. Officials deported 435 Pakistanis in the 2007 fiscal year, which ran from Oct. 1, 2006 to Sept. 30, 2007, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement statistics. During this time, 766 people from China were deported, as were 521 from the Philippines.

In a phone call Friday with reporters, Huckabee said he was referring to the number of people who are caught entering the country illegally, and he pointed to Homeland Security statistics and a 2006 Denver Post article. He also said more Pakistanis were caught illegally trying to enter the U.S. than people from Canada and China.

Homeland Security does not publicize the number of people from each country who are caught trying to enter illegally or are turned away at legal border crossings, said Customs and Border Protection spokesman Bill Anthony. But without providing specific details _ because they are considered sensitive for law enforcement _ Anthony said Pakistanis do not top the list after Latin American countries.

In fiscal 2007, about 600 Pakistanis were turned away at the border or arrested in between entry points.

Al Qaeda Top Suspect in Bhutto Murder

WASHINGTON -- Al Qaeda is the chief suspect in the murder of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, standing to gain by preserving its remote stronghold, undermining President Pervez Musharraf and destabilizing the country, U.S. government and private analysts said.

The militant group, which has rebuilt its command structure on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, was blamed for a previous attempt on Bhutto and it has denounced her as an instrument of U.S. policy in Pakistan.

Bush administration officials said it was too early to identify a clear suspect in Thursday's assassination.

But one U.S. official said: "There are a number of extremist groups within Pakistan that could have carried out the attack ... Al Qaeda has got to be one of the groups at the top of this list."

Al Qaeda's Taliban ally, which has publicly threatened Bhutto, was another potential suspect, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

One analyst said al Qaeda supporters in Pakistan's security services may have also played a role, but it was unlikely Musharraf himself was involved.

Killing Bhutto undermines Musharraf, viewed by the United States as an essential ally against terrorism, by eliminating the prospect of a power-sharing agreement between the two that could shore up his deteriorating political standing and stabilize the country, the analysts said.

That in turn reduces chances that Musharraf can revive efforts to drive al Qaeda and the Taliban out of the remote Waziristan tribal areas. It also fans popular suspicions against Musharraf and sows general confusion.

"Their (al Qaeda's) motivation for doing this is entirely clear," said David Gartenstein-Ross of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. "They have the most to gain."

Bhutto was assassinated by a suicide bomber after an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi, a two weeks before national elections meant to return Pakistan to a civilian-led democracy.

Her death follows a failed assassination attempt in October as she returned from exile to Pakistan. She blamed that attempt on four groups including al Qaeda and the Taliban.

AL QAEDA DENOUNCES

Al Qaeda's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahri, this month denounced Bhutto's return as a U.S.-orchestrated maneuver.

"Everything that is going on in Pakistan, from the arrangement for the return of Benazir to the declaration of the state of emergency ... to repressive measures, is a desperate American attempt to remedy the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan," Zawahri said in an interview with al Qaeda's media arm.

Shortly before Bhutto's return in October, Taliban commander Haji Omar had pledged to attack her.

Pakistan's investigation of the killing will be a major test of Musharraf's credibility, said P.J. Crowley, a former National Security Council official.

In particular, he said, the probe must make a thorough effort to identify any elements in the government who may be complicit in the attack.

The United States offered FBI assistance in investigating Bhutto's assassination, but Pakistan has not yet made a request, FBI spokesman Stephen Kodak said.

Bhutto, in an October letter to an acquaintance read on CNN on Wednesday, said she would hold Musharraf responsible if she were killed, for a failure to authorize adequate security.

U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said: "We don't know who is responsible for this attack. ... But it is clear that whoever is responsible is someone who opposes peaceful, democratic development and change in Pakistan."

Iran To Get Missile System from Russia

Iran's defense minister said on Wednesday that Iran had agreed to buy an S-300 surface-to-air missile system from Russia, Iranian media reported.

"The S-300 system, under a contract signed in the past with Russia, will be delivered to Iran," Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar told Fars News Agency, without giving details.

"The timing of the delivery ... will be announced later," he said. The ISNA news agency carried a similar report.

In a deal criticized by the West, which fears Tehran may want to build atomic bombs, Russia said earlier this year that it had completed a contract to deliver TOR-M1 tactical surface-to-air missiles to Iran.

The United States is pushing for a third set of U.N. sanctions against Iran over its uranium enrichment work, even though a U.S. intelligence report said Tehran had halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003.

Iran says it has never had plans to build nuclear bombs, insisting its nuclear work is peaceful and aimed at generating electricity so that it can export more of its oil and gas.

Russia said on December 17 it had delivered the first shipment of nuclear fuel to the Bushehr power plant in southern Iran, a step Moscow and Washington said should persuade Tehran to shut down its own controversial uranium enrichment activities.

State Department Leftists Have Defeated Bush

By: Kenneth R. Timmerman

“I think we are very close to a decision point,” John Bolton says. “And if the choice is between nuclear Iran and use of force, I think we have to look at the use of force.”

Resistance by partisan ”shadow warriors” at the Department of State has limited the president’s options and is bringing us dangerously close to a military showdown with Iran, former Bush administration official John Bolton told Newsmax in an exclusive interview.

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice initially had planned to provide significant aid to the pro-democracy movement in Iran, as a means of giving the president more policy options, Bolton said. But resistance by the State Department bureaucracy crippled the programs and rendered them ineffective.

“The outcome has been no overt program of support for democracy and no clandestine program to overthrow the regime,” Bolton said.

“This is a classic case study why diplomacy is not cost-free. If we had been working on regime change effectively over the last four or more years, we would be in a lot different position today,” he added.

The State Department emphasis on European-led negotiations has allowed Iran to buy time and to perfect the technology it needs to make nuclear weapons, Bolton argued.

Even if President Bush decided to reinvigorate the pro-democracy programs tomorrow, Bolton believes we probably don’t have enough time for them to be effective before the Iranians get the bomb.

Bolton said that the CIA shared the State Department’s opposition to doing anything overtly or covertly to undermine the Iranian regime, and faulted Secretary of State Rice for getting “co-opted” by the bureaucracy.

“Secretary Rice has adopted the prevailing view within the bureaucracy, which have been reflected in our deference to the Europeans and the exclusively diplomatic approach for four years,” he said.

This approach is particularly dangerous because the U.S. intelligence community has almost always been wrong in its estimates of when Iran could acquire nuclear weapons capability, Bolton said.

One of reason for the inability to get Iran right is an unwillingness to talk to Iranian defectors. “Since World War II, the Intelligence community has disliked exiles and dissidents, claiming they are unreliable because they have a political agenda. This is just self-blindness,” he said.

As a result of such prejudices, “[o]ur lack of reliable intelligence inside Iran is substantial… Every day the military option is postponed makes it riskier that we will actually use force but fail to achieve our objectives.”

Bolton worries that bad intelligence, coupled to wishful thinking by bureaucrats who tend to downplay the threat, could lead to strategic surprise by Iran or North Korea.

“I personally do not believe in just-in-time non-proliferation,” he said.

Bolton has long been an advocate of muscular diplomacy.

When he served as Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and Nonproliferation during the early years of the Bush administration, he frequently crossed swords with arms control advocates who were viscerally opposed to imposing sanctions on proliferators.

Bush Makes Holiday Calls to Troops

WASHINGTON -- President Bush made Christmas Eve calls to 10 U.S. troops serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and other spots around the world, thanking them for their sacrifice and wishing them a happy holiday even though they'll be far away from their families and friends.

The president made his calls Monday from the Camp David presidential retreat in the Maryland mountains, where he is spending Christmas. He spoke with members of the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and U.S. Coast Guard, including seven serving in Iraq.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said Bush knows it is difficult for the children of U.S. servicemen and women to understand why their fathers and mothers cannot be home for the holidays. Bush said that when the children are older, he hopes they'll understand and appreciate their parents' sacrifice, Perino said.

"He said he couldn't thank them enough for their contribution to their country, hopes they are in high spirits, and that they are serving a cause that is very noble," Perino said. "He said, `I know that you miss your family.'"

"He asked them to pass on to their colleagues his appreciation and his wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year."

Bush also exchanged holiday greetings on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin and spoke with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said that Bush and Erdogan discussed their efforts to fight terrorism and the importance of the United States, Turkey and Iraq working together to confront the PKK.

The PKK, or Kurdistan Workers' Party, has fought for autonomy in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast since 1984. The group is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. Over the weekend, Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq in the third confirmed cross-border offensive by Turkish forces in less than a week.

Bush will leave Camp David the day after Christmas for his Texas ranch and will return to Washington on New Year's Day. A week later, on Jan. 8, he begins a trip to the Middle East with stops in Israel, the West Bank, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Among those joining the president at the wooded compound in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains are Mrs. Bush's mother, Jenna Welch; and the first couple's twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna; the president's sister, Doro Bush Koch and her family; and the president's brother, Marvin, and his family. For lunch on Christmas Day lunch, they will dine on roast turkey, cornbread dressing, green beans, sweet potato casserole, fruit salad, pumpkin and pecan pies and red velvet cake.

Bush called:

-Army Staff Sgt. Anthony R. Lewis, deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan, with the 428th Field Artillery Brigade from Fort Sill, Okla.

-Army Sgt. Cleveland W. Upton, deployed to Baghdad, Iraq, with the Attack Company, 1-28 Infantry, 4th Brigade, Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. No home town information was immediately available.

-Army Spc. Joseph E. Sizemore, deployed to Baghdad, Iraq, with Multi-National Corps, C-3 Tactical Operations. Sizemore's daughter and son live in Snowshoe, W. Va.

-Marine Sgt. Joseph K. Jenkins, deployed to al-Anbar Province, Iraq, with Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 29. Jenkins' wife, Melissa, lives in Grand Prairie, Texas.

-Marine Cpl. Orlando P. Anaya, deployed to al-Asad Air Base, Iraq, with the Marine Wing Headquarters Squadron 2, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing Forward. Anaya's fiance, Carrie Martinez, lives in Roswell, N.M., according to the corporal's parents, who also live there.

-Navy Personnel Spc. 1st Class Claudine A. "Toni" Gayle, deployed aboard the USS Harry S. Truman in the Persian Gulf with Carrier Air Wing Three Naval Air Station Oceana from Virginia Beach, Va. Her husband, Telly Spruill, and daughter live in Virginia Beach.

-Navy Petty Officer Kelly Mumm, deployed to Fallujah, Iraq, with Naval Mobile Construction Battalion Fifteen from Belton, Mo. Mumm's wife, daughter and son, live in Neola, Iowa.

-Air Force Senior Airman LaTishia B. Hall, deployed to Balad Air Base, Iraq. No home town information was immediately available.

-Air Force Airman 1st Class Rachael R. Whitlow, deployed to Balad Air Base, Iraq, with 22nd Expeditionary Fighter Squadron. Her husband, Gregory Whitlow, is currently stationed at Kadena Air Force Base in Japan. No other residence information was immediately available.

-U.S. Coast Guard Boatswain Mate 1st Class Michael W. Tapp, deployed with the USCGC RUSH (WHEC-723) on patrol in the Bering Sea. Tapp's wife, Anne, and daughters live in Grand Haven, Mich.

Hillary: Oil Prices Will Drop if I Win

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton says voters are sure to see one immediate benefit if she is voted president: a drop in oil prices.

Speaking in Manchester, N.H., Clinton said oil-producing countries would lower prices in an attempt to foil her plans to reduce U.S. dependency on foreign oil.

"I predict to you, the oil-producing countries will drop the price of oil," Clinton said, according to the New York Daily News. "They will once again assume, once the cost pressure is off, Americans and our political process will recede."

She blamed President Reagan for "dismantling" the effort begun by President Carter to wean America from foreign oil.

"Because costs were low, people didn't care, didn't complain," she said.

Candidates Temper Campaigning for Christmas

With the presidential race tightening and little time before the first party nomination contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, candidates are trying to woo voters without trampling on their holidays.

The Iowa contest, which kicks off the state-by-state process to choose Republican and Democratic candidates for the November 2008 election, takes place on January 3, the earliest date it has been held.

Most campaigns said they considered how close to Christmas they could campaign without alienating voters. Top contenders like Democrats Barack Obama and John Edwards as well as Republicans Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani chose to take off Christmas Eve as well as December 25 itself.

But Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, a long-shot Democrat who temporarily moved to Iowa to boost his bid, decided Christmas Eve was the right time to wrap up his holiday-themed '12 Days' campaign.

"It's a good event to finish our '12 Days of Results' tour (in Iowa) focusing on national service," spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan said.

Political experts in the two states said they expected the campaigns to tone down their rhetoric during the holidays.

"You might see less of the mud-slinging and fighting over the issues and more the candidates trying to appeal to voters," said Dean Lacy, a government professor at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

But Iowa voters largely have shrugged off the barrage of campaigning this month, saying it was part of being an early voting state.

"We expect it in Iowa," said Neil Brewster, 34, a graphics designer at aerospace supplier Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids. "We here in Iowa have this privilege of being first in the nation and setting the tone for things."

The Iowa Republican Party said it expected toned down rhetoric to avoid spoiling the holiday spirit.

WHAT TONE?

Political experts said they expected most candidates to continue running television and radio ads. "My guess is that if the candidates can get some ads in during football games and parades that's fine as long as they're not angering voters with criticism of their opponents," Lacy said.

Former first lady and now New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and the other leading Democrats -- Obama, who is a senator from Illinois, and Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina -- see little loss from spending the holiday off the trail.

"It's a special time for the senator to spend with his daughters and with his wife, and we're confident that Iowans will get to see plenty of him in the days following," Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

But some political observers said the tightening race meant the contenders could not afford to take off very much time.

On the Republican side, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has seen his lead evaporate while former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee took the top spot in Iowa polls in the last two weeks. Arizona Sen. John McCain has received endorsements that could improve his chances.

Huckabee, who has eight events on Friday and Saturday plus a Sunday talk show interview before taking some time off, appeared to be taking a softer approach during the holiday season, a course others may not follow.

"Can you draw sharp contrasts, can you be negative during the holiday season?" said University of Iowa political professor David Redlawsk. "I don't think the risk is any larger than it is at any other time when you draw contrasts in order to take on your opponent."

Karl Rove Inks $1M-Plus Memoir Deal

GOP strategist Karl Rove has agreed to write about his years as an adviser to President Bush in a deal worth over $1.5 million with former colleague Mary Matalin's conservative imprint at Simon & Schuster, officials said Friday.

Rove, the architect of Bush's 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns and one of the most influential political advisers of his time, signed the deal with Threshold Editions, the imprint's publisher and executive vice president Louise Burke said.

"All of us at Threshold are thrilled to publish the book from the man who had the president's ear for two terms," Burke said.

Rove's agent, attorney Robert Barnett, said Threshold was chosen over eight other bidding publishers. Threshold didn't say how much Rove would be paid, but the bidding reached at least $1.5 million, two publishing officials familiar with the bidding told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, a standard industry practice.

Rove said in a statement that the memoir would offer "a candid, careful look" at Bush's presidency and his role in it.

"It will tackle and shed light on important events and big controversies, spell out their implications for America and set the record straight," he said.

Publishers earlier this year had expressed reservations after Rove announced he would write about his White House years, wondering how much he would reveal.

Rove and Bush have known each other for more than 30 years, including Bush's years as Texas governor. Bush nicknamed Rove "the architect" and "boy genius" for successfully plotting two national election strategies and helping strengthen Republican majorities in Congress in 2002 and 2004.

Rove came under scrutiny in a criminal investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's name. He testified five times before a federal grand jury, occasionally correcting misstatements made in earlier testimony, but he was never charged with any crime.

The trial of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on charges of lying and obstructing justice established that Rove was one of the administration officials who leaked the name of the CIA officer, Valerie Plame.

In a more recent controversy, Rove refused to testify before Congress about the firing of U.S. attorneys, citing executive privilege.

Said Matalin, a former adviser to Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney and Threshold's editor in chief: "Karl was always in a league of his own in the world of electoral politics and he now will literally create a unique genre for historians, policy makers, political junkies and serious readers."

'Consensus Busters' Bust Global Warming

Claims that there is a consensus among scientists on man-made global warming have been denied by over 400 prominent members of the scientific community and published in a report issued by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee under Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla.

This new “consensus busters” report, Inhofe’s office says, “ is poised to redefine the debate.”

Many of the scientists questioning the consensus are from the very U.N. panel making the claims.

The report states, “The voices of many of these hundreds of scientists serve as a direct challenge to the often media-hyped ‘consensus’ that the debate is settled.”

The report comes on the heels of U.N. IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Chairman Rajendra Pachauri's implication that there were only “about a dozen" skeptical scientists left in the world, echoing former Vice President Al Gore who has claimed that scientists skeptical of climate change are akin to “flat-Earth-society members” and similar in number to those who “believe the moon landing was actually staged in a movie lot in Arizona.”

Among others insisting that there is a consensus and that few skeptics exist and who are now discredited by the report:

CNN’s Miles O’Brien (July 23, 2007): "The scientific debate is over. We're done." O’Brien also declared on CNN on Feb. 9, 2006 that scientific skeptics of man-made catastrophic global warming “are bought and paid for by the fossil fuel industry, usually.”

On July 27, 2006, Associated Press reporter Seth Borenstein described a scientist as “one of the few remaining scientists skeptical of the global warming harm caused by industries that burn fossil fuels.”

Andrew Dessler in the eco-publication Grist Magazine (Nov. 21, 2007): “While some people claim there are lots of skeptical climate scientists out there, if you actually try to find one, you keep turning up the same two dozen or so (e.g., Singer, Lindzen, Michaels, Christy, etc.). These skeptics are endlessly recycled by the denial machine, so someone not paying close attention might think there are lots of them out there — but that's not the case.

The Washington Post asserted on May 23, 2006 that there were only “a handful of skeptics” of man-made climate fears.

UN special climate envoy Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland on May 10, 2007 declared the climate debate "over" and added “it's completely immoral, even, to question” the U.N.’s scientific “consensus."

ABC News Global Warming Reporter Bill Blakemore reported on Aug. 30, 2006: “After extensive searches, ABC News has found no such [scientific] debate” on global warming.

The distinguished scientists featured in this new report are described as experts in diverse fields, including climatology, oceanography, geology, biology, glaciology, and paleoclimatology.

Moreover, some of those profiled have won Nobel Prizes for their outstanding contribution to their field of expertise and many shared a portion of the U.N. IPCC Nobel Peace Prize with Gore.

Additionally, these scientists come from prestigious institutions worldwide, including Harvard University, NASA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the UN IPCC, and the University of London.

The report lists the scientists by name, country of residence, and their academic/institutional affiliations. It also features their own words, biographies, and Web links to their peer reviewed studies and original source materials as gathered from public statements, various news outlets, and Web sites in 2007.

The report notes that skepticism is also beginning to be seen in the usually pro-IPCC media, citing an October story in the Washington Post by Staff Writer Juliet Eilperin who wrote that climate skeptics "appear to be expanding rather than shrinking."

Moreover, the report says, many scientists from around the world have dubbed 2007 as the year man-made global warming fears “bite the dust.” The scientists cited consistently stated that numerous colleagues shared their views, but they will not speak out publicly for fear of retribution.

Atmospheric scientist Dr. Nathan Paldor, professor of dynamical meteorology and physical oceanography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, author of almost 70 peer-reviewed studies, explained how many of his fellow scientists have been intimidated: “Many of my colleagues with whom I spoke share these views and report on their inability to publish their skepticism in the scientific or public media."

The report gives a voice to the rank-and-file scientists who were shut out of the process, along with teams of international scientists dissenting from the U.N. IPCC’s view of climate science, citing such nations as Germany, Brazil, the Netherlands, Russia and France, nations where scientists banded together in 2007 to oppose climate alarmism. In addition, the report notes, over 100 prominent international scientists sent an open letter in December 2007 to the U.N. stating attempts to control climate were “futile.”

The report reveals that paleoclimatologist Dr. Tim Patterson, professor in the department of earth sciences at Carleton University in Ottawa, was recently converted from a believer in man-made climate change to a skeptic. Patterson is quoted as saying that the notion of a “consensus” of scientists aligned with the U.N. IPCC or former Vice President Al Gore is false.

“I was at the Geological Society of America meeting in Philadelphia in the fall and I would say that people with my opinion were probably in the majority,” Patterson said.

The Report notes that the over 400 skeptical scientists featured outnumber by nearly eight times the number of scientists (52) who participated in the 2007 U.N. IPCC Summary for Policymakers.

It charges that the notion of "hundreds" or "thousands" of U.N. scientists agreeing to a scientific statement does not hold up to scrutiny and cites recent research by Australian climate data analyst Dr. John McLean who revealed that the IPCC’s peer-review process for the Summary for Policymakers leaves much to be desired.

The report takes issue with those proponents of man-made global warming who it says “like to note how the National Academy of Sciences and the American Meteorological Society have issued statements endorsing the so-called ‘consensus’ view that man is driving global warming."

It points out, however, that but both the NAS and AMS never allowed member scientists to directly vote on these climate statements. Essentially, only two dozen or so members on the governing boards of these institutions produced the "consensus" statements.

The report concludes, “The most recent attempt to imply there was an overwhelming scientific ‘consensus’ in favor of man-made global warming fears came in December 2007 during the UN climate conference in Bali. A letter signed by only 215 scientists urged the U.N. to mandate deep cuts in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. But absent from the letter were the signatures of these alleged 'thousands' of scientists.”

The full report can be read at http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.SenateReport.

Petraeus as Person of the Year

Time magazine named Russian President Vladimir Putin its “Person of the Year” on Wednesday, but if Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly had his way, the nod would have gone to Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq

In O’Reilly’s Talking Points Memo on Tuesday night’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” he told viewers:

“‘The Factor’ person of the year is General David Petraeus, who has turned a disastrous military situation in Iraq into a possible victory in less than a year.

“You will remember how the general got worked over by some Congress people, how many folks said publicly the so-called ‘surge’ in Iraq would not work.

“Well, they were wrong. Violence is now at the lowest levels since the conflict began in 2003 — obviously, a stunning turnaround in less than a year…

“The cost has been great. We all know that. In suffering and cash. And the Iraqi government is still a mess. But General Petraeus, backed by a brave and professional U.S. military, has restored much order, largely defeated the Iraqi al-Qaida thugs, and at least given the good people of that country a chance to prosper. General David Petraeus is ‘The Factor’ person of the year by a wide margin.”

Senate OKs $70 Billion for Iraq, Afghanistan

WASHINGTON -- The Senate gave President Bush a big win on Iraq Tuesday night as it passed a massive $555 billion spending bill combining funding for 14 Cabinet departments with $70 billion for U.S. military operations there and in Afghanistan.

But Bush's GOP allies were divided over whether the omnibus appropriations bill represented a win for the party in a monthslong battle with Democrats over domestic agency budgets.

In rapid succession, the Senate cast two votes to approve the hybrid spending bill. By a 70-25 vote, the Senate approved the Iraq and Afghanistan war funds — without restrictions that Democrats had insisted on for weeks.

Senators followed with a 76-17 vote to agree to a bundle of 11 annual appropriations bills funding domestic agencies and the foreign aid budget for the budget year that began Oct. 1.

The House is slated Wednesday to ready the entire package for Bush, though the vote will be only on the Iraq portion of the measure. That vote would cap a parliamentary dance choreographed to ease the overall package through a chamber split between Democratic opponents of the Iraq war and GOP foes of the domestic spending portion of the bill.

The result on domestic spending created a divide between Republicans who thought it was a good deal, such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and those who said it was too expensive and larded with pork-barrel spending.

"We've held the line, achieved what everyone thought was the unachievable," McConnell said. "We are very proud of this bill."

House Republicans and a few Senate GOP conservatives felt otherwise and were disappointed that Bush hadn't taken a harder line in end-stage negotiations. The omnibus measure held to Bush's "top line" for the one-third of the federal budget passed by Congress each year, but only through a combination of budget maneuvers that allowed Democrats to restore funding to budget accounts targeted by Bush and finance billions of dollars worth of lawmakers' home-state projects.

"Congress refuses to rein in its wasteful spending or curb its corruption," said Rep. John Shadegg, R-Ariz.

Conservatives estimated the measure contained at least $28 billion in domestic spending above Bush's budget, funded by a combination of "emergency" spending, transfers from the defense budget, budget gimmicks and phantom savings.

Twenty-one Democrats and Connecticut independent Joe Lieberman — who stood with Republicans at a post-vote news conference — voted with every Republican but Gordon Smith of Oregon to approve the Iraq funding.

Democrats again failed to win votes to force removal of U.S. troops or set a nonbinding target to remove most troops by the end of next year.

With Bush winning the $70 billion infusion of troop funding, other Republicans muted their criticism.

"I do think the president has a victory here," said House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo.

Still, the win was hardly clear-cut for Republicans hoping the president would emerge from the battle with Democrats over the budget with a result that would more clearly demonstrate to core GOP voters the party's commitment to fiscal discipline.

While disappointed by ceding Iraq funding to Bush, Democrats hailed the pending appropriations bill for smoothing the rough edges of Bush's February budget plan, which sought below-inflation increases for most domestic programs and contained numerous cutbacks and program eliminations.

"The omnibus bill largely yields to the president's top-line budget numbers, but it also addresses some of the bottom-line priorities of the American people," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. "The Grinch tried to steal Christmas, but we didn't let him get all of it."

Democrats were able to fill in most of the cuts by using the very budgetary sleight of hand lambasted by conservative groups such as the Club for Growth and Citizens Against Government Waste.

The White House, which maintained a hard line for months, has been far more forgiving in recent days, accepting $11 billion in "emergency" spending for veterans, drought relief, border security and firefighting accounts, among others. Other budget moves added billions more.

"Congress did come down to the president's overall top line," White House press secretary Dana Perino said. "And in regards of the emergency spending, most of that spending would have passed on an emergency basis anyway. It's not added into the baseline of the budget."

The bill passed the House late Monday. Under an unusual legislative two-step, the Iraq portion of the bill would be returned to the House on Wednesday, with Republicans supplying the winning margin. That vote, if successful, would send the entire omnibus bill to Bush for his signature.

Democrats succeeded in reversing cuts sought by Bush to heating subsidies, local law enforcement, Amtrak and housing as well as Bush's plan to eliminate the $654 million budget for grants to community action agencies that help the poor.

Democrats also reversed Bush-sought cuts to state and local law enforcement grants, aid to community action groups and airport modernization grants.

Democrats also added funding for food programs, subsidies to community development banks and Homeland Security Department grants to first responders.

Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington-based watchdog group that opposes so-called pork barrel projects, counted 8,983 such "earmarks" worth $7.4 billion. These hometown pet projects include economic development grants, aid to local transit and police departments and clean water projects, among many others.

Bush Will Veto Budget Without Iraq Money

President George W. Bush would veto a broad budget bill under consideration by the U.S. Congress if it does not contain money for the Iraq war, his spokeswoman said.

"Because it does not have any money for our troops in Iraq, the president would veto the bill -- the House bill -- as presented," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters but she noted the bill also has to go through the Senate.

The U.S. Congress is rushing to try to pass a catch-all spending bill, known as omnibus budget legislation, before it leaves for Christmas recess.

Early this week, the House is expected to pass a version that does not include funding for the unpopular Iraq war, but later in the week the Senate is expected to add possibly $70 billion in unconditional money to continue fighting the war for the next several months.

The House would then have to sign off on that plan before it goes to the president.

U.S. Experts Insist Global Warming Not Man-Made

WASHINGTON -- A small group of US experts stubbornly insist that, contrary to what the vast majority of their colleagues believe, humans may not be responsible for the warming of the planet Earth.

These experts believe that global warming is a natural phenomenon, and they point to reams of data they say supports their assertions.

These conclusions are in sharp contradiction to those of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which reached its conclusions using largely similar data.

The UN body of about 3,000 experts, including several renown US scientists, jointly won the award with former US vice president Al Gore for their work to raise awareness about the disastrous consequences of global warming.

In mid-November the IPCC adopted a landmark report stating that the evidence of a human role in the warming of the planet was now "unequivocal."

Retreating glaciers and loss of snow in Alpine regions, thinning Arctic summer sea ice and thawing permafrost shows that climate change is already on the march, the report said.

Carbon pollution, emitted especially by the burning of oil, gas and coal, traps heat from the Sun, thus warming the Earth's surface and inflicting changes to weather systems.

A group of US scientists however disagree, and have written an article on their views that is published in The International Journal of Climatology, a publication of Britain's Royal Meteorological Society.

"The observed pattern of warming, comparing surface and atmospheric temperature trends, doesn't show the characteristic fingerprint associated with greenhouse warming," wrote lead author David Douglas, a climate expert from the University of Rochester, in New York state.

"The inescapable conclusion is that human contribution is not significant and that observed increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases make only a negligible contribution to climate warming," Douglas wrote.

According to co-author John Christi from the University of Alabama, satellite data "and independent balloon data agree that the atmospheric warming trends do not exceed those of the surface," while greenhouse models "demand that atmospheric trend values be two to three times greater."

Data from satellite observations "suggest that greenhouse models ignore negative feedback produced by clouds and by water vapor, that diminish the warming effects" of human carbon dioxide emissions.

The journal authors "have good reason, therefore, to believe that current climate models greatly overestimate the effects of greenhouse gases."

For Fred Singer, a climatologist at the University of Virginia and another co-author, the current warming "trend is simply part of a natural cycle of climate warming and cooling that has been seen in ice cores, deep sea sediments and stalagmites . . . and published in hundreds of papers in peer reviewed journals."

How these cyclical climate take place is still unknown, but they "are most likely caused by variations in the solar wind and associated magnetic fields that affect the flux of cosmic rays incident on cloudiness, and thereby control the amount of sunlight reaching the earth's surface and thus the climate."

Singer said at a recent National Press Club meeting in Washington that there is still no definite proof that humans can produce climate change.

The available data is ambiguous, Singer said: global temperatures, for example, rose between 1900 and 1940, well before humans began to burn the enormous quantities of hydrocarbons they do today. Then they dropped between 1940 and 1975, when the use of oil and coal increased, he said.

Singer believes that other factors -- like variations of solar winds and terrestrial magnetic field that impact cloud formations and the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth's surface, and thus determining the temperature -- are much more influential than human-generated greenhouse gas emissions.

Blacks Move from Hillary to Obama

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama previously suffered from a surprising lack of support from black voters, but he has now surged into a virtual tie with fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton among African-Americans.

Two months ago Clinton held a 12-point lead over Obama in a Pew Research national poll. But a more recent Pew survey has Hillary and Obama in a dead heat.

In South Carolina, the first state where black voters will have a significant impact on the primary outcome, four polls show Obama leading among African-Americans, the Wall Street Journal reports.

A Rasmussen poll has Obama getting 51 percent of the black vote compared to Hillary’s 27 percent. A month ago, the two were tied among South Carolina blacks — who make up nearly half of the Democratic primary voters in the state.

As a result of Obama’s surge among African-Americans, some polls are now calling the race in South Carolina a dead heat.

“We’re in a better position today than ever before, and a significant amount is due to the movement of African-American voters,” Steve Hildebrand, Obama’s deputy campaign chairman, told the Journal.

Clinton built her lead among black voters partly on the basis of her husband’s popularity, and from dozens of endorsements from black ministers. But Obama has now won the endorsement of more than 100 black ministers.

An even bigger factor behind Obama’s rising popularity among black voters is his surge among voters overall, which has led many African-Americans to believe he can win the general election, according to the Journal.

“A lot of African-Americans in the South have questions about whether a black candidate can be elected president,” said David Bositis of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, which focuses on black issues.

“Picking someone who is going to have a good chance to win is very much on their minds. If Obama shows he can win and that white voters can vote for him, there will be a lot of African-Americans who will be lining up to support him.”

McCain Calls For a Stop to Push Polling

White House hopeful John McCain on Saturday called on Republican rival Mike Huckabee to end push polling in New Hampshire tied to his presidential campaign's supporters, but Huckabee denied any involvement.

McCain said he learned Saturday afternoon of calls made Friday on Huckabee's behalf in New Hampshire.

If an ally of his was doing that, "I would ask him to stop it immediately and take those things down. And I hope that Mike Huckabee will do the same," McCain said by phone as he traveled between campaign stops in South Carolina.

McCain said his campaign had told him Common Sense Issues had been making calls on behalf of the former Arkansas governor. He described it as nonprofit "supporter of Huckabee's for soft money."

"I don't have that hard information, but that's what I've been told it is," McCain said. It "is one of those organizations funded by Huckabee supporters and I would ask him to have them take it down just as if somebody was doing those things on my behalf I would have them take them down."

Huckabee said Saturday he has had no involvement with push polling and deplores the practice.

"Anybody who's doing this probably must doing this for another campaign, not for mine, and trying to blame me for it," he said.

At an event in Littleton, N.H., Huckabee said he had great respect for McCain and found such criticisms despicable. "I would never be party to any kind of attack upon him," he said.

McCain's New Hampshire campaign vice chairman Chuck Douglas said Saturday the campaign heard about the calls Friday night and that they were paid for by a pro-Huckabee group. In a prepared statement, Douglas said the calls were "designed to disparage John McCain in an effort to advance Governor Huckabee's campaign."

McCain supporter Bernie Campbell said he got a call from a Virginia number Friday night and was asked about his positions on gay marriage and abortion through an automated voice response system.

When he said he supported McCain, "they continued to ask me a number of questions regarding negative aspects of my candidate and asked if they changed my opinion," Campbell said. "Things like, 'You know, Senator McCain's campaign finance reform limits the ability of right to life groups to get their message out. Does that change your opinion about Senator McCain?"

Campbell said he was also asked whether he knew McCain didn't support a federal amendment to the Constitution banning same-sex marriages.

At the end, Campbell said the message said it was paid for by "Common Sense something."

McCain's campaign said Common Sense Issues is a nonprofit group that is financed and run by Huckabee supporters and is waging a pro-Huckabee campaign in Iowa.

A month ago, McCain asked the New Hampshire attorney general to investigate calls to voters that raised questions about rival Mitt Romney's Mormon faith but sounded favorable for McCain.

In push polling, people get calls that sound like an objective poll trying to measure public opinion. However, the questions end up casting candidates in harsh light in an attempt to persuade voters to support other candidates. In Romney's case, the callers were asked if they knew Romney was a Mormon; that he received military deferments when he served as a Mormon missionary in France; that his five sons did not serve in the military; that Romney's faith did not accept blacks as bishops into the 1970s and that Mormons believe the Book of Mormon is superior to the Bible.

McCain, who said his campaign had nothing to do with that round of calls, said it was disgraceful and broke New Hampshire law.

An investigation by the New Hampshire attorney general's office is continuing, but the agency said earlier this week it was not ready to release findings.

Meanwhile, in New Hampshire, McCain's campaign sent a mailer, in response to a previous mailing from the Romney campaign, that asks voters if they agree that Romney has flip-flopped on immigration, taxes and abortion rights.

"Like so many times before, Mitt Romney advocates totally inconsistent policy positions," the ad reads. "That's why voters don't trust Mitt Romney. No wonder Mitt Romney is trying to cover up his own mixed-up record by smearing straight talker John McCain."

Romney's campaign, which already is running an ad criticizing Huckabee in Iowa, denounced the negative mailer from McCain.

"Senator McCain's weak approach to illegal immigration should be the last issue that he tries to use when attacking and distorting the strong record of Governor Romney," Romney's New Hampshire director Jim Merrill said.

Bill to Hill: Turn Up the Heat

With presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers sinking, campaign staffers are increasingly questioning the cautious approach taken by her top political aide, Mark Penn.

Sources say Penn has counseled moderation in the belief that an aggressive attack on Barack Obama would alienate voters and drive Hillary too far to the left to win the general election, Newsday reports.

But now Hillary’s husband Bill is advising her to take a far more aggressive approach now that Obama has climbed into a virtual dead heat in the polls in three early primary and caucus states.

As Newsmax reported Wednesday, Bill has been “yelling at Mark Penn a lot.”

One sign that Bill’s approach might be trumping Penn’s is the remark on Wednesday by a top Clinton adviser, who said Democrats should give more thought to Obama’s admission of illegal drug use in his younger days — although Hillary’s camp officially distanced itself from the comment.

One criticism of Penn’s approach is that it is too poll-driven, and that he has essentially tried to run Hillary as an incumbent.

“Mark wanted to run her, basically, for re-election, and we are seeing what happened,” a top Clinton staffer told Newsday.

Said another: “The heat’s on Mark … He’s got a lot of enemies.”

Debate that didn't live up to its potential

The bland tone was the consequence of sober questions focused on the economy and the like, as well as a format, and moderator, that didn't encourage direct confrontation. The candidates also were aware of the lesson learned in the 2004 Democratic race _ Iowans don't like political attacks.

The result: a debate that didn't live up to its potential to be a defining point in the race.

"This is going to be forgotten," said Scott Reed, a Republican who managed Bob Dole's 1996 campaign. "For the guys in the front, Huckabee and Romney, it was a good day. It didn't do anything to shatter their standing."

Added Ed Rogers, a GOP strategist unaligned in this race: "It was the last game of the season, so you would have thought it would be exciting and some people would make some big, trick plays. But no. I'm surprised."

The subject of education produced the only semblance of sparks.

Moments after Huckabee said schools should provide all students with music and art instruction at all grade levels, Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo took him to task. "That's not the job of a president. It's the job of a governor," he said. "That's what you should run for if you want to dictate curriculum."

Huckabee responded by saying that in his decade as governor he had the "most impressive education record."

That brought a polite disagreement from Romney. "I just wanted a small adjustment to what Governor Huckabee had to say. And I don't believe you had the finest record of any governor in American on education," he said, eliciting laughter from the debate audience.

Indeed, Arkansas public school students scored at or below the national average in four federal education test categories in 2007; Massachusetts public school students scored first in all areas, math and reading for both 4th graders and 8th graders.

A couple of candidates did manage to throw some elbows.

Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson used his answer on taxes to poke a rival worth between $190 million and $250 million: "My goal is to get into Mitt Romney's situation, where I don't have to worry about taxes anymore." When Romney took issue with the comment, Thompson, a TV and film actor, shot back: "Well, you know, you're getting to be a pretty good actor."

McCain, assailed in corn-growing Iowa for his opposition to ethanol subsides, all but called his rivals fakes, saying: "I don't believe that anybody can stand here and say that they're a fiscal conservative and yet support subsidies" that hurt the U.S. economy.

Carolyn Washburn, editor of The Des Moines Register and the debate moderator, brought about a mini-revolt at one point when she asked all the candidates to raise their hands if they thought global warming was a serious threat caused by human behavior. "I'm not doing hand shows today," said Thompson. "You want to give me a minute to answer that?"

"No, I don't," Washburn said.

"Well, then I'm not going to answer it," Thompson said as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, McCain and others talked over one another.

Ultimately, no one disputed global warming was a problem or that humans at least contribute to it.

For a change, conservative commentator Alan Keyes was included in the debate. Virtually absent from the campaign trail, he kept pleading for equal time.

At one point, Giuliani defended himself over security expenses being charged to obscure city offices as he began his extramarital affair with his now-wife Judith.

"My government in New York City was so transparent that they knew every single thing I did almost every time I did," the former mayor said. "I can't think of a public figure that's had a more transparent life than I've had."

That comment provided an opening for any one of his rivals, yet none seized it.

In short, nobody wanted to be the Grinch _ at least not in a televised debate in Iowa, the land of nice, just weeks before the caucuses and in the midst of the holiday season.

Gore: U.S. Blocking Climate Talks Progress

Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore on Wednesday accused the U.S. of blocking progress at U.N. climate talks in Bali but said a breakthrough was possible in the final days of the conference.

"Some of the reports are worrisome, but I know from experience ... that when breakthroughs do occur, they usually happen in the last 48 hours," Gore told reporters in Sweden. "I hope there will be a change on the part of some countries, including most importantly my own, the United States."

The European Union and developing nations strongly favor specific target ranges for emissions, but the U.S. has argued strenuously at Bali that including such language in the final document would prejudice negotiations over the next two years.

"The position of the administration in the U.S. right now appears to be to try to block any progress in Bali. I hope that will change," Gore said.

The former U.S. vice president and the U.N.'s chief climate scientist, Rajendra Pachauri, were set to travel later Wednesday to Bali, where the two-week conference ends Friday.

They were in Sweden to speak to lawmakers after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize on Monday in neighboring Norway for spreading awareness about global warming and how to counteract it.

Pachauri also voiced concern that the talks had stalled.

"It seems to me in the last few days we've been stuck," Pachauri told reporters. "We really haven't made new progress. I wish very much that in the next two or three days we get a real breakthrough."

Gore said governments should aim to complete negotiations on a new climate treaty in two years.

"I believe that the treaty should be completed in Copenhagen," Gore said, referring to the U.N. climate summit set to be held in the Danish capital in December 2009.

Waterboarding Is Not Torture

By: Jim Meyers

While much is being made of the CIA’s destruction of videotapes depicting the use of waterboarding during the interrogation of terrorists, the technique has actually been little used as a means of extracting information.

Only three terrorists have been subjected to waterboarding, and the technique has not been employed since 2003.

Furthermore, waterboarding should not be considered torture, as some are claiming. Torture is normally defined as the infliction of severe pain, and while waterboarding induces fear because it simulates drowning, it does not inflict pain.

In fact, U.S. special forces are subjected to waterboarding as part of their training in case they are captured and experience the procedure.

Waterboarding was used only when the CIA believed a second wave of terrorist attacks was imminent. But once the media began disclosing that the CIA was using the technique, it became useless, because if terrorists know they will be subjected to fake “drowning,” they will not respond to it.

And when it comes to outright torture, the CIA does not believe it produces reliable results and has never used it, reports Ronald Kessler, chief Washington correspondent of Newsmax.com.

The three terrorists who were subjected too waterboarding are Abu Zubaydah, Osama bin Laden’s chief of operations; Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the mastermind of the bombing of the USS Cole; and Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

In these cases waterboarding and other coercive techniques, such as forcing prisoners to stand for hours, succeeded in extracting intelligence that led to the capture of key al-Qaida operative planning terrorist attack against Americans.

Despite the media’s focus on waterboarding, it is in reality a “non issue,” said Kessler, author of the book “The Terrorist Watch: Inside the Desperate Race to Stop the Next Attack.”

“It hasn’t been used since 2003 and won’t be used again. The media is using it as an excuse to bash the president.

“Waterboarding was employed on only three terrorists who were not cooperating, and the information they ultimately provided helped stave off attacks that could have resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people.”

Republicans Talk Immigration at Spanish Language Debate

CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- Republican presidential hopeful John McCain told a Spanish language television audience that harsh immigration rhetoric voiced by some Republicans have driven Hispanics away from the party at a primary debate Sunday.

McCain has stood apart from most of his Republican rivals because he supported changing immigration laws and creating a path for citizenship for illegal immigrants.

''I think some of the rhetoric that many Hispanics hear about illegal immigration makes some of them believe that we are not in favor of or seek the support of Hispanic citizens in this country,'' he said after the moderator noted that the percentage of the Hispanic vote for the GOP has dropped from President Bush's win in 2004 to last year's congressional elections.

McCain's remark occurred in an unusual Spanish language debate aimed at an increasingly significant Hispanic voting bloc. But with less than four weeks before the Iowa caucuses, the candidates also knew they were speaking to a broader audience whose views may not always overlap with those of their immediate television audience.

Even McCain, however, joined his rivals in calling for strong border security before attempting to overhaul immigration laws.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said he would impose a real and a virtual, technical fence at the U.S.-Mexican border using a ''tamper proof'' identity card.

That prompted a retort from Ron Paul, who said that would lead to a national identification card for all Americans ''which I absolutely oppose.''

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said some anger aimed at immigrants is fueled by the influx of illegal immigrants.

''When we make the border secure, a lot of the sentiment goes away. It's a terrible thing when a person who is here legally, but speaks with an accent, is racially profiled by the public,'' he said.

The debate unfolded with immigration high on the minds of Republican voters and with the race in a topsy-turvy state. Polls show Huckabee bolting from the back of the pack into a lead in Iowa.

Univision, the Spanish language television network, and the University of Miami hosted the debate. The questions were posed in Spanish by Univision anchors Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas and simultaneously translated into English for the candidates. Their responses were then simultaneously translated into Spanish for broadcast.

Initially scheduled for September, the debate had to be rescheduled because only Sen. John McCain had agreed to appear. This time, the only candidate who refused to attend was Tom Tancredo, a long-shot candidate who has made a tough immigration stance the centerpiece of his campaign.

White House Hopefuls Crack Best Jokes

Presidential candidates have a hog, a pair of drunks and a true story to rival the tale of the Jamaican bobsled team in their bag of jokes.

The Associated Press asked them to tell a favorite joke, most on the spot, in a series of interviews about their personal side. Or, if not a joke, then a story that loosens people up.

DEMOCRATS:

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (smiling): "I'm not going to tell you."

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards (gesturing, Southern accent in full fly): "This guy's driving down a country road and he looks over and there's this farmer holding his hog, holding his hog up to an apple tree. And the guy pulls over _ he's a city guy _ he pulls over and walks over and he says, 'What are you doing?' And the guy's straining. He's holding the hog. His face is red and he said, 'Feeding my hog.' And he said, 'Feeding your hog?' He said, 'Now dunnit take a lot of time? Holding the hog up to an apple tree to feed him, dunnit take a lot of time?' He says, 'Time don't mean nothing to a damned old hog.'"

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama: He's "the black sheep of the family." Obama's reaction to word that he and Vice President Dick Cheney might be distant relatives.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson: "My wife told me I'm doing well in a recent poll in New Mexico. I asked her how, since I'm never there. I'm always out of the state campaigning for president. And she told me that's exactly why I'm doing well."

REPUBLICANS:

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani: Campaign says his favorite joke is "the most recent one that made him laugh."

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee: "Probably the one, and it's a true story, telling about riding a bobsled at the Olympic track at Salt Lake City in February of 2001, one year before the Olympics. ... It's pretty funny because I had never seen a bobsled until I was in one. It was the most horrifying moment I think I ever had in my entire life. But I think when I tell the story, people can imagine themselves in a similar situation and I usually I get a pretty good laugh out of it."

Arizona Sen. John McCain: "Long story about a guy walking into a bar and noticing another guy at the end. They strike up a conversation and notice many similarities. Another guy walks in later and asks the bartender about the commotion. 'Oh, that's just the O'Reilly brothers getting drunk again.'"

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, referring to his wife: "Well, the best one, of course, is the, 'Ann, did you in your wildest dreams see me running for president?' And then I say that she says, 'You weren't in my wildest dreams.' That gets the best response."

Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson: Favorite joke is "presidential debates," campaign says.

New Book Explodes Swift Boat Ads

FALLS CHURCH, Va. -- Last week former President Bill Clinton, John Kerry and various members of the media once again used "Swift boating" as a shorthand reference for misrepresenting a candidate's record. In "To Set the Record Straight: How Swift Boat Veterans, POWs and the New Media Defeated John Kerry," authors Scott Swett and Tim Ziegler counter that assertion in a heavily researched 400 page work that provides the first historical assessment of the 2004 presidential campaign.

"To Set the Record Straight" is the definitive account of the ad hoc political movement that dominated the 2004 presidential campaign. Based on hundreds of in-depth interviews with key participants and two years of meticulous research, the book tells the inside story of how a group of Vietnam vets and their supporters delivered the explosive truth about John Kerry's military service and pro-Hanoi activism to the American public, despite relentless efforts by old media gatekeepers to silence and discredit them.

Swett said, "John Kerry lost all the key debates in 2004 to the anti-Kerry veterans. Since then, he has tried to paper over his failure with

sloganeering and empty promises of new evidence." He added, "The 2004 campaign was a watershed in American political history, marking the first time that online forums and blogs were able to have a real impact on the national conversation. These new media outlets made it impossible for the liberal press to hide or dismiss what the veterans had to say."

The foreword for the book was written by John E. O'Neill, the lead spokesman for the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth in 2004. One chapter that underscores the impact of the new media on the campaign has been made available online at ToSetTheRecordStraight.com. "Rather's Ruin and the Rise of the Pajamahadeen" tells how ordinary citizens with computers exposed the phony documents "60 Minutes" used to attack George Bush's National Guard service, effectively ending Dan Rather's career at CBS News.

"To Set the Record Straight" also contains:

Conclusive evidence that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth acted independently, and were not a creation of the Bush campaign as their opponents repeatedly claimed.

Detailed analysis of the efforts by the old media to blunt the impact of the anti-Kerry veterans by distorting and misrepresenting their charges

Previously unpublished information on the "war crimes" propaganda effort that Kerry led during the Vietnam War, including material showing how the antiwar movement worked with the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong.

New eyewitness perspectives on Kerry's "No Man Left Behind" engagement from a Forward Air Control pilot and the mission's Special Forces commander.

The powerful story of a former member of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War who testified that Kerry personally pressured him to tell lies about military atrocities and war crimes at the group's 1971 "Winter Soldier" conference.

Romney Defends Mormon Faith

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Republican Mitt Romney, confronting voters' skepticism about his Mormon faith, declared Thursday that as president he would "serve no one religion, no one group, no one cause," and said calls for him to explain and justify his religious beliefs go against the profound wishes of the nation's founders.

At the same time, he decried those who would remove from public life "any acknowledgment of God," and he said that "during the holiday season, nativity scenes and menorahs should be welcome in our public places."

In a speech less than a month before the first nomination contests, Romney said he shares "moral convictions" with Americans of all faiths, though surveys suggest up to half of likely voters have qualms about electing the first Mormon president.

"I believe in my Mormon faith and I endeavor to live by it," Romney said. "My faith is the faith of my fathers. I will be true to them and to my beliefs."

Nonetheless, he strove to clarify his personal line between church and state, recalling a similar speech delivered by John F. Kennedy in 1960 as Kennedy sought to become the first Catholic elected president.

"Let me assure you that no authorities of my church, or of any other church for that matter, will ever exert influence on presidential decisions," Romney said at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, 90 miles from Kennedy's speaking site in Houston. "Their authority is theirs, within the province of church affairs, and it ends where the affairs of the nation begin."

He added: "If I am fortunate to become your president, I will serve no one religion, no one group, no one cause and no one interest. A president must serve only the common cause of the people of the United States."

Romney's speech lasted about 20 minutes and was interrupted a dozen times by applause from the invited audience. He said the word "Mormon" only once, otherwise referring to "my religion," "my faith" and "my church."

He hoped the speech would allay concerns of Christian conservatives, some of whom have propelled former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to join him atop the polls in Iowa. Its caucuses kick off presidential voting next month.

Romney stated he is often asked on the trail whether he believes in Jesus Christ.

"I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and the savior of mankind," he said. While conceding Mormons have different beliefs about the earthly presence of Jesus Christ, "each religion has its own unique doctrines and history. ... Religious tolerance would be a shallow principle indeed if it were reserved only for faiths with which we agree."

Illustrating Romney's challenge, one of his own invited guests said he believes Mormons are not Christians.

"I don't think his Mormonism is a deal breaker for most Americans, but only Mitt Romney can close the deal," Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, told ABC's "Good Morning America." Asked directly if he thought Mormons were Christians, Land said, "No, I do not."

Huckabee, who was a Southern Baptist preacher before entering politics, said that Romney's religion has no bearing on whether he would make a good president.

"It has nothing to do with what faith a person has - it's whether or not that person's life is consistent with how he lives it," Huckabee said Thursday on NBC's "Today." "If I had actions that were completely opposite of my Christian faith, then I would think people would have reason to doubt if this part of my life, which is supposed to be so important, doesn't influence me."

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, also used the occasion to sound a call for greater religious thought in daily civic life, providing a near-history lesson as he recalled religion in American political life since the country's founding.

"The founders proscribed the establishment of a state religion, but they did not countenance the elimination of religion from the public square," he said.

In an appeal to social conservatives, he also invited James Bopp Jr., an anti-abortion activist who is Romney's special adviser on life issues.

Political foes have accused Romney of switching his positions on some social issues, like abortion, when it became expedient.

Romney addressed those concerns in the context of standing by his faith, saying, "Americans do not respect believers of convenience. Americans tire of those who would jettison their beliefs, even to gain the world."

Former President Bush introduced Romney, heightening public attention to the speech. Romney's backdrop on stage was 10 American flags and a replica of the presidential seal.

Serving as host at his presidential library, the elder Bush introduced Romney, pointed out members of the candidate's family in the audience and described Romney's father, former Michigan Gov. George Romney, as the father of volunteerism.

"He's certainly one of my mentors when it comes to points of light," said Bush, who enacted a volunteer initiative while president, called "Thousand Points of Light." Bush said he had no intention of endorsing a candidate. "I simply have too much respect for all of the candidates," he said. He called Romney a "good man" and said he considered him and his wife "good friends."

Beyond speaking about faith, Romney sought to use the publicity his speech generated to relaunch his campaign as the broader electorate begins to tune into his nomination fight against a field that includes former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Arizona Sen. John McCain.

Striking a family chord, Romney's wife of 38 years, Ann, and four of the couple's five sons sat in the front row for the speech - two with their own children.

"We are a long way from perfect and we have surely stumbled along the way, but our aspirations, our values, are the self-same as those from the other faiths that stand upon this common foundation," Romney said. "And these convictions will indeed inform my presidency."

While Romney has been subject to some leafletting and phone calling pointing to religious differences between his faith and others, he has faced little religious bigotry or questions on the campaign trail. Instead, political realities played a role in his decision to make the speech.

In an AP-Yahoo poll last month, half said they had some problems supporting a Mormon presidential candidate, including one-fifth who said it would make them very uncomfortable.

Fifty-six percent of white evangelical Christians - a major portion of likely participants in the early GOP presidential contests in Iowa and South Carolina - expressed reservations about a Mormon candidate. Among non-evangelicals, 48 percent said it troubled them. Almost a quarter - 23 percent - of evangelicals said they were very uncomfortable with the idea.

Clinton's Endorsement List Debatable

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton's support from South Carolina's black religious leaders may not be quite as extensive as her campaign suggests.

Clinton got a boost last week when she shared a South Carolina stage with dozens of supporters, accepting what organizers said were endorsements from nearly 90 ministers in the state. But an Associated Press review of an endorsement list supplied by the New York senator's campaign found that some of the backers were affiliated with religious ministries and outreach groups rather than churches, some were wives of ministers, two were church elders and at least two were not members of the churches listed beside their names.

All told, about 50 different groups were represented, rather than more than 80 congregations as initially implied, the review found.

Clinton spokesman Zac Wright said the campaign never claimed the endorsements represented separate congregations and knew all along that some came from the same organization.

"It shows diversity if you have both a senior pastor of a church and also a minister over the women's ministry, for example," he said Tuesday.

In this early primary state where nearly half of Democratic voters are black, endorsements from black church leaders can carry significant weight.

Barack Obama's Democratic presidential campaign announced its own list of endorsements from black clergy in the state Tuesday, releasing a list of what it said were 122 senior pastors and three associate pastors of different churches and ministries, including four people it noted as retired.

The AP is reviewing that list.

The Clinton campaign initially said more than 80 ministers from the northern part of the state were in the room when the endorsements were announced Nov. 27, but it could not identify everyone on the stage with Clinton. Organizers for the event said 88 were there. The New York senator said later that day she was told the number may have climbed to nearly 100.

"There was more support there than what we could have anticipated, so it took a little longer to get the finite list," Wright said Tuesday. "Everyone signed in as a minister endorsing Hillary."

After being asked for names of the ministers, Clinton's campaign first released a partial list of 44 names. A day later, a list of 82 names was released. That included one name that was repeated twice, several misspelled names, churches listed in the wrong city or with an incorrect name, and a dozen people listed without a church affiliation.

The campaign released revised listings Monday, supplying church affiliations for those left blank and correcting affiliations for others, trimming the list to 81 names.

A review Tuesday of the sign-in sheets showed supporters initially signed separate endorsement forms, giving their names, addresses, phone numbers and occupations. But after those ran out, Wright said, they began signing a single line on a page. Many signed only their names, without affiliations. Some were difficult to read. Some signed both forms. Wright said that's why a complete, accurate list was so difficult to provide.

Wright said the campaign will be "more prepared for exceeding expectations" for any future endorsements.

Many of those who signed the full forms noted they had jobs other than "minister," including a real estate agent, accountant, graphic designer and store owner. One showed dual jobs as "minister of the gospel/maintenance mechanic."

The revisions note two people on the list are ministers at a church that has congregation members in South Carolina, but is located in Asheville, N.C. _ 50 miles from the state line.

Among the earlier discrepancies was a minister identified as Freddy Foster Jr. with Fairview Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in Chesnee. But Fairview's real minister said Foster is not even a member there, although his parents were. Clinton's campaign said Foster attended the event but accidentally signed in as a minister.

Isaac McJimpsey Jr. signed in as a minister of Evangel Cathedral of Spartanburg, but a secretary at the church said none of its records showed even a visit by a person with that name. On Monday, Clinton's campaign said McJimpsey was a minister at Bridge Builders Church in Duncan. When no listing was found by a church of that name, the campaign said Tuesday that McJimpsey leads the nonprofit Impact Ministries.

McJimpsey did not return a telephone call for comment.

The wives of at least two pastors were on the campaign's list, including Colleen Brown of Cleveland Chapel Baptist in Spartanburg. Wright said if wives were listed, they're ordained ministers. But the Rev. Timothy Brown said his wife is not ordained.

"If they're an active minister and part of a ministry, their churches', their faith traditions' rules about ordinations and ordination practices are within the church," Wright said.

New Birth Kingdom of Spartanburg seemed to have the most representatives endorsing Clinton. After the revisions, the campaign's "minister endorsements" list has eight people from New Birth, including its lead pastor, the Rev. Sharome Gentry.

Clinton and her Democratic rivals, especially Obama, are courting South Carolina's critical black vote. In 2004, nearly half the party's primary voters were black. An AP-Pew Research Poll this week found Clinton breaking even with Obama among black voters.

U.S. Must Remain Vigilant on Iran

WASHINGTON -- President Bush said Tuesday that the international community should continue to pressure Iran on its nuclear programs, saying Tehran remains dangerous despite a new intelligence report finding it halted its development of a nuclear bomb.

"I view this report as a warning signal that they had the program, they halted the program," Bush said. "The reason why it's a warning signal is they could restart it."

Bush spoke one day after a new national intelligence estimate found that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in the fall of 2003, largely because of international scrutiny and pressure. That finding is in stark contrast to the comparable intelligence estimate of just two years ago, when U.S. intelligence agencies believed Tehran was determined to develop a nuclear weapons capability and was continuing its weapons development program.

It is also stood in marked contrast to Bush's rhetoric on Iran. At his last news conference on Oct. 17, for instance, he said that people "interested in avoiding World War III" should be working to prevent Iran from having the knowledge needed to make a nuclear weapon.

Bush said Tuesday that he only learned of the new intelligence assessment last week. But he portrayed it as valuable ammunition against Tehran, not as a reason to lessen diplomatic pressure.

"To me, the NIE (National Intelligence Estimate) provides an opportunity for us to rally the international community - to continue to rally the community - to pressure the Iranian regime to suspend its program," the president said. "What's to say they couldn't start another covert nuclear weapons program."

He also asserted that the report means "nothing's changed," focusing on the previous existence of a weapons program and not addressing the discrepancy between his rhetoric and the disclosure that weapons program has been frozen for four years.

Bush said he is not troubled about his standing, about perhaps facing a credibility gap with the American people. "No, I'm feeling pretty spirited - pretty good about life," Bush said.

"I have said Iran is dangerous, and the NIE doesn't do anything to change my opinion about the danger Iran poses to the world."

In Kabul, Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates reinforced the U.S. position that the new U.S. intelligence assessment shows that Tehran remains a possible threat. He said it shows that Iran has had a nuclear weapons program and that as long as the country continues with its uranium enrichment activities, Iran could always renew its weapons program.

The U.S. intelligence assessment "validated the administration's strategy of bringing diplomatic and economic efforts to bear on Iran," Gates said Tuesday, speaking at a news conference with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai.

Bush called the news conference, his first in nearly seven weeks, to intensify pressure on lawmakers amid disputes over spending and the Iraq war. Taking advantage of his veto power and the largest bully pulpit in town, Bush regularly scolds Congress as a way to stay relevant and frame the debate as his presidency winds down.

Democrats counter that Bush is more interested in making statements than genuinely trying to negotiate some common ground with them.

Specifically, Bush again on Tuesday challenged Congress to send him overdue spending bills; to approve his latest war funding bill without conditions; to pass a temporary to fix to the alternative minimum tax so millions of taxpayers don't get hit with tax increases; and to extend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

"Congress still has a lot to do," Bush said. "It doesn't have very much time to do it."

On another matter, Bush was asked about a rape victim in Saudi Arabia who was sentenced to prison and 200 lashes for being alone with a man not related to her - a violation of the kingdom's strict segregation of the sexes. Saudia Arabia has faced enormous international criticism about the sentencing.

"My first thoughts were these," Bush said. "What happens if this happens to my daughter? How would I react? And I would have been - I'd of been very emotional, of course. I'd have been angry at those who commited the crime. And I'd be angry at a state that didn't support the victim."

Bush, however, said he has not made his views known directly to Saudi King Abdullah, an ally. But he added: "He knows our position loud and clear."

The president said the U.S. economy is strong, though he acknowledged that the housing crisis has become a "headwind." He said administration officials are working on the issue, but he is wary of bailing out lenders. "We shouldn't say, 'OK, you made a lousy loan so we're going to go ahead and subsidize you.' "

Asked about the 2008 election, Bush steered himself back out of commenting on politics. "I practiced some punditry in the past - I'm not going to any further."

On Iran, Bush said the report's finding would not prompt him to take a U.S. military option against Tehran off the table.

"The best diplomacy - effective diplomacy - is one in which all options are on the table," he said.

The president also said that the world would agree with his message that Iran shouldn't be let off the hook yet.

In fact, Europeans said the new information strengthens their argument for negotiations with Tehran, but they also said that sanctions are still an option to compel Iran to be fully transparent about its nuclear program. European officials insisted that the international community should not walk away from years of talks with an often defiant Tehran that is openly enriching uranium for uncertain ends. The report said Iran could still build a nuclear bomb by 2010-2015.

Rove Advises Obama

Barack Obama should cease acting “high-minded” and start “scrapping and fighting” with Hillary Clinton if he is to win the Democratic presidential nomination, according to former top Bush adviser Karl Rove.

Writing in the Financial Times, Rove says in a “memo to Obama” that the upcoming Iowa caucus is “your best chance” to beat Clinton, noting: “If you do not do it there, odds are you never will anywhere.”

Obama leads Clinton in the most recent Iowa poll.

But Rove, considered the chief architect of George Bush’s electoral successes, advises: “Striking a pose of being high-minded and too pure will not work. Americans want to see you scraping and fighting for the job, not in a mean or ugly way but in a forceful and straightforward way.”

Obama, according to the Republican pundit, “often comes over as weak and ineffectual. In some debates, you do not even look at her when disagreeing with her, making it look as if you are afraid of her…

“Sharpen your attacks and make them more precise.”

Obama should focus on concerns among Democrats that Hillary can’t win the general election and would be “a drag on the ticket, not to mention a “disaster” if she reaches the White House, Rove opines.

“You are running out of time,” he writes. “If she wins the nomination it will be because her rivals — namely you — were weak when you confronted her…

“She is beatable but you have to raise your game.”

Hillary Draws Boos Over Immigration

Whatever public sympathy Hillary Clinton had built up during the tense hostage situation at her New Hampshire campaign office appeared to dissipate Saturday, as she was met with a round of boos during an address over the phone to an Iowa political event.

At the Heartland Presidential Candidates Forum in Des Moines, community activists lustily booed the Democratic front-runner after she declined to commit to passing comprehensive immigration reform in her first 100 days in office.

Clinton showed up in person, along with the six other candidates, for an evening forum before African-American and Hispanic activists.

In the early forum, Clinton said reform would be a "high priority" for her, but that didn't satisfy a crowd looking for legislation that would move illegal immigrants swiftly on a path to legalization.

Superdelegates Worried About Hillary

WASHINGTON -- New Hampshire and Iowa will have to wait.

The nation's first presidential primary, for Democrats anyway, is being waged among hundreds of party insiders _ superdelegates who could play a big part in selecting the nominee at next summer's national convention.

So far, most of them still haven't been sold on any of the candidates.

The Associated Press contacted 90 percent of the 765 superdelegates, mostly elected officials and other party officers, who are free to support anyone they choose at the convention, regardless of what happens in the primaries.

Hillary Rodham Clinton leads Barack Obama by more than a 2-1 margin among those who have endorsed a candidate. But a little more than half of those contacted _ 365 _ said they haven't settled on a Democratic standard bearer.

"The fact that under half have publicly committed shows me how open the Democratic race still is," said Jenny Backus, a Democratic consultant who is not affiliated with any campaign. "It's a sign that the race isn't totally done in many people's minds."

Clinton has the endorsement of 169 superdelegates. She is followed by Obama, 63; John Edwards, 34; Bill Richardson, 25; Chris Dodd, 17; Joe Biden, 8, and Dennis Kucinich, 2.

Superdelegates tend to support the front-runner, said David Rohde, a political scientist at Duke University. "They want to be on the winning side," he said.

So why don't more of them back Clinton, who leads in national polls?

"They are still concerned about her ability to win the general election," Rohde said.

He said Clinton's high negative numbers among likely voters have many party insiders skittish. However, he added, if Clinton sweeps the early voting in Iowa and New Hampshire, "these people will flock to her."

On the other hand, a spokeswoman for Obama expressed confidence he would pick up superdelegates after doing well in early voting states. "We are pleased with our current support in the DNC and know that as the states go, so will superdelegates," said Jen Psaki.

Superdelegates are the ultimate party insiders, including all Democratic members of Congress, as well as a number of other elected officials and members of the Democratic National Committee. They will attend the convention next summer with about 3,200 other delegates who have been pledged to various presidential candidates based on the outcomes of primaries and party caucuses in their states.

Democratic candidates need a little more than 2,000 delegates to claim the nomination. That can make the superdelegates, who will number about 800 after state parties select a few more this summer, important players in choosing a nominee.

The Republicans have far fewer unaffiliated delegates, a little more than 100, making Democratic superdelegates a unique political force.

Don Fowler, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said many superdelegates delay public endorsements because they don't want alienate the other candidates.

"It's a club and they don't like to offend their fellow club members until they have to," said Fowler, himself an uncommitted superdelegate from South Carolina.

Nevertheless, Fowler was surprised that Richardson, Dodd and Biden had such little support, despite so many years in public office. Dodd and Biden are both longtime senators, and Richardson, the governor of New Mexico, has served in Congress and as a member of former President Clinton's Cabinet.

"That's just astounding to me," Fowler said. "The (superdelegates) know these people, and they've known them for years."

Four of the Democratic candidates are senators: Clinton from New York, Obama from Illinois, Dodd from Connecticut and Biden from Delaware. A fifth, Edwards, is a former senator from North Carolina. Yet 33 of the 49 Democratic senators, who are all superdelegates, remain uncommitted. Clinton, with 10 senators in her corner, is the only candidate with endorsements from more than two, according to the AP survey.

They all, however, have more superdelegates than Kucinich, who has only one not named Kucinich.

Jon Ausman, a DNC member from Tallahassee, Fla., said he likes the congressman from Cleveland because of his steadfast opposition to the war in Iraq, his support for universal health care and his opposition to NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement.

And, Ausman said, his mom lives in Cleveland, and Kucinich's staff helped her when she had a problem with her Medicare benefits.

"He saved my mom's life." Ausman said. "He gets my vote."

Ausman's vote might not count because the national party has stripped Florida of all of its delegates for holding its Jan. 29 primary before Feb. 5.

That would leave Kucinich with just one superdelegate so far _ himself.