http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_7867042

Kucinich files lawsuit after party denies him place on
ballot
The Associated Press
Article Launched: 01/02/2008 09:39:43 PM MST

AUSTIN—Democratic presidential candidate Dennis
Kucinich, along with supporter Willie Nelson, have
filed a lawsuit to get Kucinich on the ballot in Texas
after they say the Texas Democratic Party rejected his
application.

The civil lawsuit was delivered late Wednesday
afternoon to U.S. District Court for the Western
District of the United States, Kucinich spokesman Andy
Juniewicz said late Wednesday evening.

The lawsuit says that Kucinich was informed by the
Texas Democratic Party on Wednesday that his
application was "defective" because he crossed out a
loyalty oath in the application that said he would
swear to support whoever the Democratic nominee for
president might be.

The lawsuit asks that a temporary restraining order be
issued to stop the Texas Democratic Party from
certifying to the Texas Secretary of State a list of
candidates and to restrict the secretary of state from
accepting any list that doesn't include the name of a
qualified candidate who refuses the loyalty oath.

Kucinich, a congressman from Ohio, also wants the
court to declare that the oath requirement violates
the First Amendment and the 14th Amendment in the
Constitution.

"He's right to challenge a blind loyalty oath to the
Democratic Party because it's un-American," Willie
Nelson said in a news release from the Kucinich
campaign.

Calls for comment made to the Texas Democratic Party
and the secretary of state's office after business
hours on Wednesday were not immediately returned.

So why isn't Gravel on it?

http://www.burntorangereport.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=50FD3055AF526558AF3D8C8\
EA789A776?diaryId=4588

The Real Reason Kucinich is Not on the Texas Ballot
by: Karl-Thomas Musselman
Thu Jan 03, 2008 at 01:41 AM CST

Yesterday, I reported that Dennis Kucinich and Mike
Gravel had not made it on the Texas ballot. But
today's Houston Chronicle sheds more light on the
matter and oh boy, is it a tale to tell.

     But anti-war Democrat Dennis Kucinich apparently
will not be on the ballot because the party returned
his application after he scratched out a portion of
the oath pledging support for the party's presidential
nominee if it was not him, said party spokeswoman
Amber Moon.

     Moon said Kucinich's aides wanted to change the
pledge to say the party nominee had to promise not to
use war as a tool of foreign policy, but the party
staff could not change the oath.

     Campaign spokesman Andy Juniewicz said Kucinich
filed documents Wednesday in a federal court in Austin
to challenge the requirement. He said Willie Nelson is
a plaintiff, along with Kucinich.

Oh dear. Here's Willie's statement on the matter.

     "Dennis Kucinich is a strong defender of the
Constitution, the national security, and the civil
liberties of the American people. He's right to
challenge a blind loyalty oath to the Democratic Party
because it's un- American. The irony is that the state
Party is trying to exclude him from the ballot even
though he's the one Democrat who's been the most loyal
to this country and to what the Democratic Party
should stand for. Dennis's loyalty is to the
Constitution of the United States and to the American
people - not to the Texas Democratic Party."

Other than scratching out the line on the application,
Kucinich's paperwork was otherwise in order.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080104/pl_nm/usa_politics_dc;_ylt=AtktdTIVV5pDEPLQs\
cLSSVGs0NUE

  Huckabee beats Romney in first vote

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent 15 minutes
ago

DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - Former Arkansas Gov. Mike
Huckabee won the Iowa Republican caucus on Thursday,
surging past better-known rivals to triumph in the
first nominating contest of the 2008 U.S. presidential
election, U.S. media reported.

The Iowa victory gave Huckabee, an ordained Baptist
minister, momentum and national credibility for his
shoestring campaign as he headed toward the January 8
primary vote in New Hampshire, where polls showed him
running a distant third.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who had
invested a lot of time and money in his effort to get
off to a fast start in Iowa, finished second, CNN and
ABC news reported.

Iowa voters began the process of choosing the next
U.S. president in two close nominating races, the
first test in the Democratic battle between Hillary
Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards came down to a
nail-biting finale.

Voters filed into gathering spots in more than 1,700
precincts around the state to declare a presidential
preference in Iowa's caucuses, which open the
state-by-state battle to choose candidates in the
November 4 election to succeed President George W.
Bush.

In the Democratic caucuses, voters debated their
options and cajoled their neighbors to switch to their
candidate. Republicans conduct essentially a
preference poll, casting votes soon after the caucus
begins.

Obama, Clinton and Edwards have been in a three-way
dogfight among Democrats for weeks. With about 19
percent of Democratic precincts reporting, Edwards, a
former North Carolina senator, led 33 percent to
Clinton's 32 percent and 31 percent for Obama, an
Illinois senator.

For the winners in Iowa, the prize is valuable
momentum and at least a temporary claim to the
front-runner's slot in their party's nomination
battle.

The third-place finisher in the heavyweight Democratic
showdown, meanwhile, could find themselves hobbling
into the next contest in New Hampshire on Tuesday.

(Additional reporting by Matthew Bigg, Andy Sullivan
and Ed Stoddard; Editing by David Wiessler)

(For more about the U.S. political campaign, visit
Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at
http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/03/politics/main3669580.shtml

Huckabee, Obama Win Iowa Caucuses
CBS News Projections Show Romney Second For GOP;
Clinton, Edwards Tight For Dems

Comments Comments85

DES MOINES, Iowa, Jan. 3, 2008

(CBS/AP) CBS News projects Mike Huckabee the winner of
the Iowa Republican caucuses and Barack Obama the
winner of the Democratic caucuses.

Mitt Romney is second among Republicans. It's a tight
race between Hillary Clinton with John Edwards for
second place.

Click here for complete results.

Huckabee's win was partly fueled by Republican caucus
attendees' concern with values. Just under half of
attendees chose "shares my values" as the candidate
characteristic that mattered most to them in deciding
their support - compared to a third who wanted a
candidate who says what he believes, and 14% who want
a candidate with experience. Among those who wanted a
candidate that shared their values, nearly half
supported Huckabee.

"Huckabee's victory rocks an already unpredictable GOP
race," said CBSNews.com senior political editor Vaughn
Ververs. "As the race heads to the New Hampshire
primary just five days from now it's not at all
certain Huckabee has the time to capitalize on his
momentum but John McCain has surged there in recent
weeks, setting up a three-way battle that could be a
must-win for Romney."

Entrance polls of caucus attendees confirm some
expectations for the evening - Clinton starts the
night with strong support among women, and Obama is
showing strength among young attendees.

Iowans rendered their judgments in meetings at 1,781
precincts from Adel to Zwingle, in schools, firehouses
and community centers where the candidates themselves
could not follow.

Iowans were summoned to the evening caucuses in biting
cold but generally clear skies. It was for them to
untangle a knotted race too close to call on either
side, with three Democrats and two Republicans
seemingly in contention for victory and a larger field
hoping for bragging rights - or survival.

The candidates' challenge in the opening contest of
the 2008 election was twofold: to get supporters out
to the meetings and to win over the large numbers of
voters who were stubbornly refusing to make up their
minds until the very end, a quarter of caucus-goers by
one recent estimate.

In the hours before decision time, most candidates
filled their Thursday calendar with still more
speeches and events to give their final say.

Huckabee took his case to a crowd of about 175 at a
Burlington, Iowa, casino - only about half of whom
were committed to him, judging by a show of hands.

Reprising his theme as a common man in a field of
elites, he told the crowd he reminds people of the guy
they work with, not the guy who laid them off. He
dismissed the idea it takes millions of dollars to
win, drawing an unspoken but unmistakable contrast
with the wealthy Romney as well as other big spenders.

"It's about believing in a cause," the former Arkansas
governor said. "It's about believing in some core
values, some convictions about what makes this country
strong, and what can keep it strong and make it even
stronger."

Huckabee's socially conservative views and populist
approach have propelled him to the front of the pack
in Iowa, reports CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes.
But to get his message out to a national audience, he
really needs the positive publicity a win here would
provide because he does not have the resources to
finance a major ground game or television ads.

"Huckabee a month ago would have been the shock of the
year but he's been ahead for a month and right now a
win for him is what people expect," CBS News senior
political correspondent Jeff Greenfield said. "A Mitt
Romney loss puts him in New Hampshire against a
resurgent John McCain, and a loss back to back means
he would have lost to two people who spent less than
his catering. Romney has spent a fortune. That's a
real bad scenario Romney has to avoid."

On the Democratic side, John Edwards switched from his
familiar jeans and blazer to a dark suit and blue tie
as he made his last pitch to middle-class Iowans
worried about health insurance, drug costs and other
pocketbook issues. Rallies in Des Moines, Iowa City
and Cedar Rapids on Thursday were capping his push in
a state he has repeatedly visited for the past four
years.

"Our campaign to stand up for the middle class and
stop corporate greed is unstoppable," the Democrat
told about 200 cheering steelworkers in a brief
morning stop in Des Moines. Polls suggested he was in
an improbably tight race with Clinton and Obama.

"We need you to make calls, talk to your friends,"
Edwards told 100 people in Iowa City, jettisoning his
anti-corporate stump speech in favor of an appeal to
spur turnout. And above all, he said, "Don't be late."

All that excitement means nothing if they don't
actually go to the caucus, reports CBS News
correspondent Chip Reid, so the campaign had more than
a thousand people out today.

Candidates hedged their Iowa bets, declaring "anything
is possible," "it's too close to call" and all now
depended on getting the people who've been cheering
their words to come out to vote and arm-twist
neighbors to do the same.

Romney most explicitly ramped back expectations, at
least for public consumption, saying he'd settle for
second in the opening contest of the 2008 election
season as well as in the New Hampshire primary only
five days after Iowa.

Clinton, in a historic effort to become the first
female president, said: "I feel good, but it depends
on who comes out, who decides to actually put on their
coats, warm up their cars and go to the caucuses."

Obama echoed the sentiment. "Anything is possible at
this point," he said. "We've put a lot into Iowa and
our efforts here. We feel good about what we've done,
but this is the beginning and not the end." Candidates
spoke on the morning talk shows.

The Obama campaign believes the more undecideds and
first-timers turnout tonight, the better for Obama,
reports CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds.

CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod
reports that a high level source in the Clinton
campaign tell CBS News explains the contest between
Clinton and Obama like this: People voting for a
president will choose Hillary, but people voting for a
feeling will choose Obama.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Sens. Chris Dodd of
Connecticut and Joe Biden of Delaware and Rep. Dennis
Kucinich of Ohio also contested the state for the
Democrats.

For Republicans, Arizona Sen. John McCain, Rep. Ron
Paul of Texas and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson
were also on the ballot, although their aides made no
claim they were in the running for a first-place
finish. So, too, Rudy Giuliani, the former New York
mayor who largely abandoned the state in the
campaign's final days.

Win or lose, there was little time for rest. New
Hampshire's first-in-the nation primary is set for
next Tuesday, and the campaign quickly accelerates
into a rush of contests culminating in more than two
dozen on Feb. 5.

With President Bush constitutionally barred from
seeking re-election, both parties had wide-open,
costly campaigns.

Iowa sends 45 delegates to the Democratic National
Convention next summer in Denver and 37 to the GOP
gathering in St. Paul, Minn. But that was hardly the
reason the crowded field of presidential hopefuls
devoted weeks of campaigning, built muscular campaign
organizations and spent millions of dollars on
television advertising in the state.

For three decades, Iowa's caucuses have drawn
presidential hopefuls eager to make a strong first
impression, and this year was no different.

Obama, Clinton and Edwards spent at least $19 million
on television advertising among them, and all three
capped their campaigns with statewide broadcasts on
Wednesday. Romney told supporters in a final daylong
swing around the state he had been in 68 of 99
counties since he began his quest for the White House,
had spent 55 days in Iowa and spoken before 248
separate audiences.

http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hcu-doddiowa-update-0103,0,5039629.story?co\
ll=hc_tab01_layout

Dodd's Hopes End In Iowa

By MARK PAZNIOKAS | Courant Staff Writer
     10:37 PM EST, January 3, 2008

DES MOINES, Iowa - Sen. Christopher J. Dodd's
long-shot presidential hopes ended tonight after
finishing sixth place with less than 1 percent of the
vote in the Iowa caucuses.

Dodd intends to formally end his campaign tonight,
then return Saturday to his home in East Haddam,
Conn., campaign sources said. With the top three
candidates capturing nearly 97 percent of the vote,
there was no room tonight for Dodd or any other
candidate in the second tier to become viable.

Dodd, who relocated his wife and two daughters to a
rented house in Des Moines to campaign full-time here,
was expected to arrive momentarily at a downtown
gathering of staff and supporters.

With its emphasis on person-to-person retail politics,
the Iowa caucuses were the first and last chance for
Dodd, 63, to parlay his 26 years in the Senate into an
identity as a viable presidential contender.

He pleaded in recent days for Iowans to give him
enough support to continue, even if they were not
ready to conclude he was their choice for president.

In Iowa City, where he started campaigning here a year
ago, Dodd bounded onto a makeshift stage in a crowded
coffee house this morning for one last campaign rally
before Iowans culled the crowded Democratic
presidential field in more than 1,700 precinct
caucuses.

His voice hoarse after 26 stops in five days, Dodd
called himself the most experienced and accomplished
among the eight Democrats -- only four of whom were
expected to garner enough support to press on in New
Hampshire.

"This morning, I make my final appeal in Iowa City to
give me your vote and give me a chance to go on from
this place to Manchester, N.H., to Charleston, S.C.,
to Reno, Nev., and everywhere else across this country
to make a case," Dodd said.

With their long, up-close view of the candidates,
Iowans are positioned to go beyond commercials and
media coverage to judge for themselves which
candidates should go on to a front-loaded calendar of
primaries, beginning Tuesday in New Hampshire.

"This is a big day -- a big day for Iowa, a big day
for our country," Dodd told an audience of more than
300 in Iowa City that was a mix of volunteers,
supporters and last-minute shoppers for a presidential
candidate.

Harold A. Schaitberger, the president of the
International Association of Fire Fighters, said Dodd
got a late look by many caucus goers, despite being
mired in sixth place in recent polls. The IAFF is
Dodd's key backer.

Dodd won the loudest applause earlier today for his
successful recent filibuster against amnesty for
telecommunication companies that gave the Bush
administration consumer phone records without a court
order. Dodd called the effort an assault on the
Constitution.

"It's infuriating to me," Dodd said. "I want to make
sure during this campaign and the next presidency
we're going to give you back your Constitution."

Referring to the filibuster and the passage of a
half-dozen bills he sponsored as chairman of the banks
committee, Jackie Clegg Dodd told the crowd that her
husband has accomplished more during his campaign than
the top contenders did during their careers.

Tonight's caucuses end the first phase of a
presidential campaign in which the most experienced
elected officials in the field -- Dodd, Sen. Joseph
Biden of Delaware and Gov. Bill Richardson of New
Mexico, a former U.N. ambassador -- have been overcome
by the star power of the leaders.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Sen.
Barack Obama of Illinois have dominated media coverage
with two irresistible story lines.

Clinton, the first lady for eight years, would be the
first woman to win a major party's nomination; Obama,
an obscure state legislator who rocketed to national
prominence with a convention speech four years ago, is
trying to become the nation's first black president.

Challenging them for front-runner status is John
Edwards, the one-term former senator who was the
party's vice presidential nominee in 2004.

Oprah has campaigned for Obama, while Clinton has been
helped by her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

"We all know I'm not the best known," Dodd said,
smiling. "I can't bring Oprah or Bill Clinton."

Dodd said his long service on the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee and the relationships he has
developed with world leaders make him ready to lead in
an unsettled time.

He recalled a phone call from Pakistan opposition
leader Benazir Bhutto, seeking Dodd's assistance at
resolving her house arrest, only weeks before her
assassination.

His audience in Iowa City included the community's new
Congregational minister, Bill Lovin, and his wife,
Robin Thomas-Lovin, who moved here last summer from
Old Saybrook, Conn.

Thomas-Lovin said they have been missionaries touting
the record of their old senator to their new
neighbors. "When they find out about him, people are
just amazed," she said.

Matt Hayek, an Iowa City councilman, said Dodd strikes
him as the steadiest hand in a crisis. "He is the
adult I want in that room," Hayek said.

Nearly 12 hours before the first caucuses, Hayek said
he thought Dodd had a shot at staying alive tonight.

"This is a long shot campaign, but the important thing
in Iowa is beating expectations," Hayek said. "If he
can score a fourth or a third, that would be success."

Dodd's last stop tonight was scheduled to be Hoover
High School in Des Moines, where he intended to greet
caucus-goers in the precinct where he and his wife
have rented a house since October.

If Dodd had finished in the top four, he would have
had to scramble for the resources to continue. He said
he had money to compete in New Hampshire, but he would
have been forced to compete in 20 primaries a month
later.

Dodd had raised a total of $13.6 million and had $3.8
million in available cash at the end of the last
reporting period in October. By comparison, Clinton
entered the last quarter of 2007 with $50 million.
Obama had $36 million and Edwards $12 million.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080104/D8TUR9P04.html

Biden to Abandon Presidential Bid

Jan 3, 11:21 PM (ET)

By BETH FOUHY

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Delaware Sen. Joe Biden
abandoned his bid for the Democratic presidential
nomination Thursday after a poor showing in the
state's caucuses.

Biden was expected to announce his decision to
withdraw from the contest at his campaign caucus rally
in Des Moines, according to advisers who spoke on
condition of anonymity.

The veteran lawmaker and chairman of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee received less than 1
percent of the vote in Iowa's caucuses despite a
spirited campaign in which he emphasized his
international policy credentials and long career in
public service.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080101/ap_on_go_pr_wh/huckabee_headquarters_arrests\
;_ylt=AogWBh4ljaXg3BYUH69P_.WyFz4D

  Protesters arrested at Huckabee office

By DAVID PITT, Associated Press Writer Mon Dec 31,
9:46 PM ET

DES MOINES, Iowa - Three protesters seeking a
commitment from Republican presidential hopeful Mike
Huckabee to end the Iraq war were arrested Monday for
refusing to leave his office.

Police arrested Mona Shaw, 56, of Iowa City; Robert
Braam, 51, Manhattan, Ill.; and Kathy Kelly, 55, of
Chicago, around 1:20 p.m., Shaw said. They were
charged with criminal trespass.

Des Moines police spokesman Vince Valdez said the
three were taken into custody without violence and
released.

The protest was part of a campaign called Seasons of
Discontent: A Presidential Occupation Project, which
goes by the acronym SODaPOP. According to its Web
site, the project was organized by the Illinois-based
activist group Voices for Creative Nonviolence.

Shaw said the project had sent presidential candidates
letters seeking commitments for an immediate end to
the war in Iraq.

"We said if we didn't hear back we would be visiting
them and staying in their offices until we received
that commitment," Shaw said. "That was our plan in
Gov. Huckabee's office today."

Eight members of the group held a banners that read
"Who Would Jesus Bomb?" "End the Iraq War" and "No War
with Iran." Protesters sang "Auld Lang Syne," which
Shaw said was in remembrance of lives lost in the war.

Shaw said campaign staff members called police after
she and the two other arrested protesters went inside
the office and refused to leave until they spoke to
Huckabee.

Huckabee's bus arrived at the office during the
protest, but Huckabee spokesman Eric Woolson said the
bus took the candidate to another entrance in the
building so he could keep a meeting with campaign
volunteers. He said Huckabee disagrees with the
group's philosophy.

"The governor said the way to end the war is to win
it," Woolson said. "They clearly have a different
position and their position is we ought to cut and
run. ... There's a clear difference of opinion on
that."

The group said it will continue actions of civil
disobedience through Jan. 3, the day of the Iowa
caucuses.

___

On the Net:

SODaPOP: http://www.desmoinescatholicworker.org/sodapop.html

http://www.elpasotimes.com/politics/ci_7881172

Clinton leads delegate race
By The Associated Press
Article Launched: 01/04/2008 09:20:27 AM MST

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton claimed one fewer delegate
than Sen. Barack Obama in the Iowa caucuses Thursday
night, but she still has the lead in the overall race
for delegates because she has a commanding lead among
superdelegates.

The Democratic National Committee has allotted states
a total of 797 superdelegates to the party's national
convention this summer. Those delegates, mainly
members of Congress, other elected officials and DNC
members, are free to support any candidate at the
convention, regardless of the outcomes of the
primaries and caucuses.

Most superdelegates contacted by the AP before the
Iowa caucuses were undecided. However, among those who
have endorsed a candidate, Clinton leads with 160,
compared to 59 for Obama and 32 for former Sen. John
Edwards.

Those numbers could change dramatically if Obama
continues to win at the ballot box, which could lead
to more endorsements by superdelegates.

An AP analysis of the Iowa caucus results showed Obama
winning 16 delegates, followed by Clinton with 15 and
Edwards with 14. In the overall race for delegates,
Clinton leads with 175, followed by Obama with 75 and
Edwards with 46.

A total of 2,026 delegates is needed to secure the
Democratic nomination.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080105/ap_on_el_pr/wyoming_caucuses

  Romney wins Wyoming caucuses

By MEAD GRUVER, Associated Press Writer 15 minutes ago

CASPER, Wyo. - Mitt Romney captured his first win of
the Republican presidential race on Saturday,
prevailing in Wyoming caucuses for a much-needed boost
to his candidacy three days before the New Hampshire
primary.

The former Massachusetts governor won eight delegates,
former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson got two and
California Rep. Duncan Hunter won one, meaning no
other candidate could beat Romney. Caucuses were still
being held to decide all 12 delegates at stake.

The victory was a welcome development for Romney,
coming two days after his loss to Mike Huckabee in the
Iowa caucuses and three days before the
first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire. Those
two states have attracted most of the political
attention. Wyoming had scheduled its GOP county
conventions earlier to attract candidates to the state
but had only modest results.

Romney visited Wyoming in August and November and
three of his five sons campaigned in the state. One
son, Josh Romney, owns a ranch in southwest Wyoming.

"Number one, he campaigned here," delegate Leigh
Vosler of Cheyenne said of Romney. "I think that
helped while some other candidates ignored us. But
also he's the right person for the job."

Hunter, Thompson and Ron Paul all stopped by the state
— visits they probably wouldn't have made except for
this year's early conventions — and candidates have
sent Wyoming's GOP voters a flood of campaign mail.
Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, did not visit
Wyoming and drew little support. Arizona Sen. John
McCain and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani also
did not visit and received little support.

"I think we're encouraged that the voters in Wyoming
value that my dad had spent time here," Josh Romney
said.

The traditional leadoff nomination contests in Iowa
and New Hampshire have dominated the attention of both
candidates and the national media in recent months,
and no candidates had visited Wyoming in the four
weeks leading up to the caucuses. Hunter was the last
to visit the state on Dec. 4.

Tom Sansonetti, the county convention organizer,
maintained Saturday that moving the state's caucuses
ahead was the right thing to do.

"The ultimate goal is not how many times we appear on
Katie Couric," Sansonetti said. "The ultimate goal was
to have attention paid to rank-and-file Republicans by
national candidates."

In addition, he said more Wyoming Republicans have
become involved in the process.

Wyoming Republicans also paid a price for jumping
ahead. The Republican National Committee has slashed
half of Wyoming's 28 national convention delegates.
National party leaders similarly penalized Florida,
Michigan, New Hampshire and South Carolina for moving
up the dates of their nomination contests.

RNC rules require the punishment for states that hold
their nominating contests earlier than Feb. 5. Iowa,
which held caucuses on Thursday, will not be penalized
because, technically, the caucuses are not binding on
convention delegates. Nevada, which plans to hold its
caucuses on Jan. 19, will not be penalized for the
same reason.

Besides the 12 delegates chosen at Saturday's county
conventions in Wyoming, two delegates to be chosen at
a statewide convention in May will also be sent to the
national convention in Minneapolis.

___

Associated Press Writer Ben Neary contributed to this report.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gWzaWEyH7tnXGl8AepykvJ6OfT8wD8U0GUU80
Bill Bradley Endorses Obama's Campaign
By PHILIP ELLIOTT β€" 3 hours ago

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) β€" Bill Bradley, a former presidential hopeful
and senator, on Sunday endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president.

"Barack Obama is building a broad new coalition that brings together
Democrats, independents and Republicans by once again making idealism
a central focus of our politics," Bradley said in a statement released
by Obama's campaign. "Because of his enormous appeal to Americans of
all ages and backgrounds, Obama is the candidate best positioned to
win in November. ... His movement for change could create a new era of
American politics β€" truly a new American story."

Bradley, a hall of fame professional basketball player, will campaign
for Obama on Monday, Obama aides told The Associated Press.

The aides, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of the formal
announcement, said they hoped the endorsement would help Obama end
rival Hillary Rodham Clinton's status as the national front-runner.
Clinton finished a disappointing third in Iowa's caucuses last week
and is deadlocked with Obama in New Hampshire, according to a poll
released Saturday.

The CNN-WMUR poll conducted Friday night and Saturday afternoon showed
the two in a tight race, each with 33 percent support. A second poll,
from The Concord Monitor and Research 2000, shows Obama at 34 and
Clinton at 33.

New Hampshire's presidential primary is Tuesday.

Bradley, who represented New Jersey in the Senate, ran in the 2000
presidential primary against Vice President Al Gore, appealing to the
party's liberal base and portraying himself as an alternative to Gore.
Bradley failed to win because many of New Hampshire's largest voting
bloc β€" independents β€" flocked to Arizona Sen. John McCain.

Bradley briefly considered running in 2004, but instead supported
then-Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.

Obama said he was grateful for the endorsement.

"Bill Bradley has always called on Americans to reach for what is
possible in our politics," Obama said in the statement. "As a
presidential candidate and author, he has continued to challenge us to
build a mandate for pragmatic solutions and progressive change."

Obama's state director, Matt Rodriguez, was a top aide to Bradley's
campaign here in 2000.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/washington/06terror.html?ei=5065&en=4d9a85a2dc\
657cc0&ex=1200286800&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

January 6, 2008
U.S. Considers New Covert Push Within Pakistan
By STEVEN LEE MYERS, DAVID E. SANGER and ERIC SCHMITT

This article is by Steven Lee Myers, David E. Sanger
and Eric Schmitt.

WASHINGTON — President Bush’s senior national security
advisers are debating whether to expand the authority
of the Central Intelligence Agency and the military to
conduct far more aggressive covert operations in the
tribal areas of Pakistan.

The debate is a response to intelligence reports that
Al Qaeda and the Taliban are intensifying efforts
there to destabilize the Pakistani government, several
senior administration officials said.

Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice and a number of President Bush’s top
national security advisers met Friday at the White
House to discuss the proposal, which is part of a
broad reassessment of American strategy after the
assassination 10 days ago of the Pakistani opposition
leader Benazir Bhutto. There was also talk of how to
handle the period from now to the Feb. 18 elections,
and the aftermath of those elections.

Several of the participants in the meeting argued that
the threat to the government of President Pervez
Musharraf was now so grave that both Mr. Musharraf and
Pakistan’s new military leadership were likely to give
the United States more latitude, officials said. But
no decisions were made, said the officials, who
declined to speak for attribution because of the
highly delicate nature of the discussions.

Many of the specific options under discussion are
unclear and highly classified. Officials said that the
options would probably involve the C.I.A. working with
the military’s Special Operations forces.

The Bush administration has not formally presented any
new proposals to Mr. Musharraf, who gave up his
military role last month, or to his successor as the
army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who the White
House thinks will be more sympathetic to the American
position than Mr. Musharraf. Early in his career,
General Kayani was an aide to Ms. Bhutto while she was
prime minister and later led the Pakistani
intelligence service.

But at the White House and the Pentagon, officials see
an opportunity in the changing power structure for the
Americans to advocate for the expanded authority in
Pakistan, a nuclear-armed country. “After years of
focusing on Afghanistan, we think the extremists now
see a chance for the big prize — creating chaos in
Pakistan itself,” one senior official said.

The new options for expanded covert operations include
loosening restrictions on the C.I.A. to strike
selected targets in Pakistan, in some cases using
intelligence provided by Pakistani sources, officials
said. Most counterterrorism operations in Pakistan
have been conducted by the C.I.A.; in Afghanistan,
where military operations are under way, including
some with NATO forces, the military can take the lead.

The legal status would not change if the
administration decided to act more aggressively.
However, if the C.I.A. were given broader authority,
it could call for help from the military or deputize
some forces of the Special Operations Command to act
under the authority of the agency.

The United States now has about 50 soldiers in
Pakistan. Any expanded operations using C.I.A.
operatives or Special Operations forces, like the Navy
Seals, would be small and tailored to specific
missions, military officials said.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who was on vacation
last week and did not attend the White House meeting,
said in late December that “Al Qaeda right now seems
to have turned its face toward Pakistan and attacks on
the Pakistani government and Pakistani people.”

In the past, the administration has largely stayed out
of the tribal areas, in part for fear that exposure of
any American-led operations there would so embarrass
the Musharraf government that it could further empower
his critics, who have declared he was too close to
Washington.

Even now, officials say, some American diplomats and
military officials, as well as outside experts, argue
that American-led military operations on the Pakistani
side of the border with Afghanistan could result in a
tremendous backlash and ultimately do more harm than
good. That is particularly true, they say, if
Americans were captured or killed in the territory.

In part, the White House discussions may be driven by
a desire for another effort to capture or kill Osama
bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri. Currently,
C.I.A. operatives and Special Operations forces have
limited authority to conduct counterterrorism missions
in Pakistan based on specific intelligence about the
whereabouts of those two men, who have eluded the Bush
administration for more than six years, or of other
members of their terrorist organization, Al Qaeda,
hiding in or near the tribal areas.

The C.I.A. has launched missiles from Predator
aircraft in the tribal areas several times, with
varying degrees of success. Intelligence officials
said they believed that in January 2006 an airstrike
narrowly missed killing Mr. Zawahri, who had attended
a dinner in Damadola, a Pakistani village. But that
apparently was the last real evidence American
officials had about the whereabouts of their chief
targets.

Critics said more direct American military action
would be ineffective, anger the Pakistani Army and
increase support for the militants. “I’m not arguing
that you leave Al Qaeda and the Taliban unmolested,
but I’d be very, very cautious about approaches that
could play into hands of enemies and be
counterproductive,” said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism
expert at Georgetown University. Some American
diplomats and military officials have also issued
strong warnings against expanded direct American
action, officials said.

Hasan Askari Rizvi, a leading Pakistani military and
political analyst, said raids by American troops would
prompt a powerful popular backlash against Mr.
Musharraf and the United States.

In the wake of the American invasions of Iraq and
Afghanistan, many Pakistanis suspect that the United
States is trying to dominate Pakistan as well, Mr.
Rizvi said. Mr. Musharraf — who is already widely
unpopular — would lose even more popular support.

“At the moment when Musharraf is extremely unpopular,
he will face more crisis,” Mr. Rizvi said. “This will
weaken Musharraf in a Pakistani context.” He said such
raids would be seen as an overall vote of no
confidence in the Pakistani military, including
General Kayani.

The meeting on Friday, which was not publicly
announced, included Stephen J. Hadley, Mr. Bush’s
national security adviser; Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and top intelligence
officials.

Spokesmen for the White House, the C.I.A. and the
Pentagon declined to discuss the meeting, citing a
policy against doing so. But the session reflected an
urgent concern that a new Qaeda haven was solidifying
in parts of Pakistan and needed to be countered, one
official said.

Although some officials and experts have criticized
Mr. Musharraf and questioned his ability to take on
extremists, Mr. Bush has remained steadfast in his
support, and it is unlikely any new measures,
including direct American military action inside
Pakistan, will be approved without Mr. Musharraf’s
consent.

“He understands clearly the risks of dealing with
extremists and terrorists,” Mr. Bush said in an
interview with Reuters on Thursday. “After all,
they’ve tried to kill him.”

The Pakistan government has identified a militant
leader with links to Al Qaeda, Baitullah Mehsud, who
holds sway in tribal areas near the Afghanistan
border, as the chief suspect behind the attack on Ms.
Bhutto. American officials are not certain about Mr.
Mehsud’s complicity but say the threat he and other
militants pose is a new focus. He is considered, they
said, an “Al Qaeda associate.”

In an interview with foreign journalists on Thursday,
Mr. Musharraf warned of the risk any counterterrorism
forces — American or Pakistani — faced in confronting
Mr. Mehsud in his native tribal areas.

“He is in South Waziristan agency, and let me tell
you, getting him in that place means battling against
thousands of people, hundreds of people who are his
followers, the Mehsud tribe, if you get to him, and it
will mean collateral damage,” Mr. Musharraf said.

The weeks before parliamentary elections — which were
originally scheduled for Tuesday — are seen as
critical because of threats by extremists to disrupt
the vote. But it seemed unlikely that any additional
American effort would be approved and put in place in
that time frame.

Administration aides said that Pakistani and American
officials shared the concern about a resurgent Qaeda,
and that American diplomats and senior military
officers had been working closely with their Pakistani
counterparts to help bolster Pakistan’s
counterterrorism operations.

Shortly after Ms. Bhutto’s assassination, Adm. William
J. Fallon, who oversees American military operations
in Southwest Asia, telephoned his Pakistani
counterparts to ensure that counterterrorism and
logistics operations remained on track.

In early December, Adm. Eric T. Olson, the new leader
of the Special Operations Command, paid his second
visit to Pakistan in three months to meet with senior
Pakistani officers, including Lt. Gen. Muhammad Masood
Aslam, commander of the military and paramilitary
troops in northwest Pakistan. Admiral Olson also
visited the headquarters of the Frontier Corps, a
paramilitary force of about 85,000 members recruited
from border tribes that the United States is planning
to help train and equip.

But the Pakistanis are still years away from fielding
an effective counterinsurgency force. And some
American officials, including Defense Secretary Gates,
have said the United States may have to take direct
action against militants in the tribal areas.

American officials said the crisis surrounding Ms.
Bhutto’s assassination had not diminished the
Pakistani counterterrorism operations, and there were
no signs that Mr. Musharraf had pulled out any of his
100,000 forces in the tribal areas and brought them to
the cities to help control the urban unrest.

Carlotta Gall contributed reporting from Islamabad,
and David Rohde from New York.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080107/ap_on_re_af/kenya_elections

US envoy says Kenyan election was rigged
By MICHELLE FAUL, Associated Press Writer
26 minutes ago

NAIROBI, Kenya - The vote count from Kenya's election
was rigged, but both parties could have been involved,
the chief U.S. envoy for Africa said Monday, declining
to blame either President Mwai Kibaki or the
opposition leader who ran against him.

The opposition leader, Raila Odinga, canceled
nationwide protests on Monday, saying he wanted to
avoid new violence and give mediation a chance to
resolve the election standoff that has killed nearly
500 people in political and ethnic bloodletting.

"Yes, there was rigging," the U.S. envoy, Jendayi
Frazer, told The Associated Press. "I mean there were
problems with the vote counting process ... both the
parties could have rigged."

She said both rival parties could have been involved
and that she did not want to blame either Kibaki or
Odinga.

Frazer, who has spent three days negotiating with
Kibaki and Odinga, said at an earlier news conference
that Kenyans "have been cheated by their political
leadership and their institutions." In particular,
Frazer said, the electoral commission was flawed and
needed reform.

The commission chairman has admitted that he is not
sure Kibaki won the vote.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for
further information. AP's earlier story is below.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya's opposition leader on
Monday canceled nationwide protests, saying he wanted
to avoid new violence and give mediation a chance to
resolve the election dispute that has killed nearly
500 people in political and ethnic bloodletting.

The chief U.S. envoy for Africa, who has spent three
days negotiating with President Mwai Kibaki and the
opposition, said Kenyans "have been cheated by their
political leadership and their institutions." In
particular, Jendayi Frazer said, the electoral
commission was flawed and needed reform.

The commission chairman has admitted that he is not
sure Kibaki won the vote.

Frazer said that the turmoil had not shaken U.S.
confidence in Kenya as a regional hub. She said the
United States favored whatever solution Kibaki and the
opposition leader, Raila Odinga, come up with to
resolve the deadlock and halt violence.

Odinga called off protests planned for Tuesday after
meeting with Frazer. Kibaki's government, accused by
Odinga of stealing the Dec. 27 election, had said the
proposed Tuesday demonstrations were illegal and could
provoke violence.

Reports of ethnic killings continued to stream in from
the countryside, with an official in neighboring
Uganda confirming 30 Kenyan refugees were thrown into
the border river by attackers, and were presumed
drowned.

Two Ugandan truck drivers carrying the group said they
were stopped Saturday at a roadblock mounted by
militiamen who identified the refugees as members of
Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe and threw them into the deep,
swift-flowing Kipkaren River, said Himbaza Hashaka, a
Ugandan border official.

The drivers said none survived, Hashaka said.

A statement Monday from the Ministry of Special
Programs put the death toll at 486 with some 255,000
people displaced from their homes. The toll, which did
not include the drownings, was compiled by a committee
of humanitarian services set up by the government
which toured areas most affected by riots and
protests.

Odinga told Sky News television that Kibaki's
"rigging" himself back into power caused the violence
and therefore "Mr. Mwai Kibaki must bear
responsibility ... for the deaths we are seeing in our
country today."

But a government spokesman said officials were
investigating "premeditated murder" of people warned
beforehand that they would pay if they voted for
Kibaki.

Such targeting of certain communities "can ultimately
result in serious crimes under international law such
as crimes against humanity and genocide," Mutua said.

He did not say who could be charged.

Attempts to hold opposition rallies last week were
blocked by police who fired tear gas, water cannons
and live bullets over people's heads. Human rights
groups accused police of excessive force and
unjustified killings in the crisis, but police
Commissioner Hussein Ali insisted Sunday that "we have
not shot anyone."

For Frazer, Monday was the last day of a three-day
mission in which she has won an offer from Kibaki to
form a coalition government and a concession from
Odinga that he would negotiate without insisting that
Kibaki first resign.

The United States, Britain and the European Union have
urged Kibaki and Odinga to negotiate. The East African
nation is considered an ally in the fight against
terrorism.

Meanwhile, thousands of tourists have canceled
vacations at the beginning of the high season.

"Hotels have been projecting an occupancy of 80-90
percent of capacity. But today, as we speak, that has
dropped down to less than 40 percent. That's a huge
loss for the economy," Mohammed Hersi, general manager
of Whitesands Hotel in the coastal city of Mombasa,
told AP Television News.

Schools were to reopen after the holidays on Monday,
but the government postponed that for a week. Many are
being used by refugees.

The level of violence eased over the weekend, though
ethnic attacks continued, pitting Odinga's Luo and
other tribes against Kibaki's Kikuyu people, the
largest among Kenya's 42 tribes.

Nearly 1,000 Luos were chased Sunday from their homes
in one small town, Limuru, 30 miles west of Nairobi,
the capital. Some with furniture and bundles of
clothing, others with nothing, they huddled around the
compound of the local police station.

George Otieno, 30, said about 100 men armed with
machetes, hammers and sticks attacked his home and
smashed his head with a hammer.

"They said, 'You have to go back to your place,'"
meaning the Luo's native lands in western Kenya, said
Otieno, whose head was bandaged and shirt marked with
dried blood.

About a mile away, more than 500 Kikuyu refugees were
at a Red Cross compound, forced from their homes in
the remote Western Province that is a Luo stronghold.
Thousands of Kikuyus are fleeing western Kenya under
armed police escort.

Francis Waweru said he had arrived three days ago with
his wife and four children, fleeing a mob of hundreds
who torched his shop and home in Timboroa. He showed a
leg wound where he said he was shot with a bow and
arrow.

"They said, 'No Raila, no peace,'" Waweru said.

___

Associated Press writers Elizabeth A. Kennedy,
Katharine Houreld, Tom Odula and Malkhadir M. Muhumed
in Nairobi, Todd Pitman in Eldoret and Tom Maliti in
Mombasa contributed to this report.

http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080108/NATION/311698216/\
1001

Huckabee vows to defy birthright citizenship

By Stephen Dinan
January 8, 2008

Mike Huckabee wants to amend the Constitution to
prevent children born in the U.S. to illegal aliens
from automatically becoming American citizens,
according to his top immigration surrogate — a radical
step no other major presidential candidate has
embraced.

Mr. Huckabee, who won last week's Republican Iowa
caucuses, promised Minuteman Project founder James
Gilchrist that he would force a test case to the
Supreme Court to challenge birthright citizenship, and
would push Congress to pass a 28th Amendment to the
Constitution to remove any doubt.

The former Arkansas governor thinks the case against
U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose
Alonso Compean was railroaded, Mr. Gilchrist said.
Ramos and Compean are serving lengthy prison sentences
for shooting a fleeing drug-smuggling suspect in the
buttocks.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/primary_rdp;_ylt=Asa.fV9RPq4zXG1rDhWu1iOs0NUE

  McCain wins GOP primary in New Hampshire

By DAVID ESPO and PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press
Writers 5 minutes ago

CONCORD, N.H. - Arizona Sen. John McCain won the New
Hampshire primary Tuesday night, completing a
remarkable comeback and climbing back into contention
for the Republican presidential nomination. Sen.
Hillary Rodham Clinton dueled with Sen. Barack Obama
in an unexpectedly tight Democratic race.

"We showed the people of this country what a real
comeback looks like," McCain told The Associated Press
in an interview as he savored his triumph. "We're
going to move on to Michigan and South Carolina and
win the nomination."

The Arizona senator rode a wave of support from
independent voters to defeat former Gov. Mitt Romney
of Massachusetts, a showing that reprised his victory
in the traditional first-in-the-nation primary in
2000.

It was a bitter blow for Romney, who spent millions of
dollars of his own money in hopes of winning the
kickoff Iowa caucuses and the first primary — and
finished second in both.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who won the Iowa
GOP caucuses last week, was running third in the
Republican race in New Hampshire.

Among Republicans, McCain was winning 39 percent of
the vote, Romney had 28 and Huckabee 12. Former New
York Mayor Rudy Giuliani had 9 percent, Texas Rep. Ron
Paul 8.

Clinton, the former first lady who finished third in
Iowa, was mounting an unexpectedly stiff challenge to
Obama in the nation's first primary. Interviews with
voters leaving their polling places showed she was
winning handily among registered Democrats, while her
rival led her by an even larger margin among
independents.

With votes counted from 14 percent of the state's
precincts, she had 40 percent to 35 percent for Obama,
who is seeking to become the nation's first black
president. Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina
trailed with 17 percent.

Clinton's performance, based on the early returns,
surprised even her own inner circle.

In the hours leading up to the poll closing, her
closest advisers had appeared to be bracing for a
second defeat at the hands of Obama.

Officials said her aides were considering whether to
effectively concede the next two contests — caucuses
in Nevada on Jan. 19 and a South Carolina primary a
week later — and instead try to regroup in time for a
22-state round of contests on Feb. 5.

These officials also said a campaign shake-up was in
the works, with longtime Clinton confidante Maggie
Williams poised to come aboard to help sharpen the
former first lady's message. Other personnel additions
are expected, according to these officials, who spoke
on condition of anonymity while discussing strategy.

Obama, who won the leadoff Iowa caucuses last week,
looked for an endorsement from the powerful Culinary
Workers union in Nevada in the days ahead. South
Carolina's Democratic electorate is heavily black and
likely to go for the most viable black presidential
candidate in history.

The Republican race turns next to Michigan, where
McCain and Romney already are advertising on
television, and where both men planned appearances on
Wednesday. Huckabee also was expected to campaign in
the state.

By custom, the first handful of New Hampshire votes
was cast, at midnight, in Dixville Notch in the far
northern tip of the state.

By tradition, the first primary held the power to
propel winners into the rush of primaries that follow
— and to send the also-rans home for good.

And by registration, New Hampshire's balance of power
rested with its independent voters, more than 40
percent of the electorate, neither reliably Democratic
nor Republican, with the power to settle either race,
or both.

McCain, an Arizona senator, in particular, appealed
for their support in the run-up to the primary. He
battled Romney, the former governor of next-door
Massachusetts, and to a lesser extent Mike Huckabee,
the former Arkansas governor who won last week's Iowa
caucuses.

According to preliminary results of a survey of voters
as they left their polling places, more independents
cast ballots in the Democratic race than in the
Republican contest. They accounted for four of every
10 Democratic votes and about a third of Republican
ballots. The survey was conducted for The Associated
Press and the television networks.

Republicans were split roughly evenly in naming the
nation's top issues: the economy, Iraq, illegal
immigration and terrorism. Romney had a big lead among
those naming immigration, while McCain led on the
other issues.

Half of Republicans said illegal immigrants should be
deported, and this group leaned toward Romney. Those
saying illegal immigrants should be allowed to apply
for citizenship leaned toward McCain, while the two
candidates split those saying those here illegally
should be allowed to stay as temporary workers.

Among Democrats, about one-third each named the
economy and Iraq as the top issues facing the country,
followed by health care. Voters naming the economy
were split about evenly between Obama and Clinton,
while Obama had an advantage among those naming the
other two issues. Clinton has made health care a
signature issue for years.

About one-third said if Bill Clinton were running,
they would have voted for him on Tuesday.

"It has all the earmarks of a landslide with the
Dixville Notch vote," an upbeat McCain quipped — he
got four votes there to Romney's two and one for
Giuliani — as his campaign bus headed to a polling
place in Nashua. The crowd of supporters was so big,
that voters complained and a poll worker pleaded with
McCain to leave. Seconds later, the bus pulled away.

Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, Texas Rep. Paul
and California Rep. Duncan Hunter completed the
Republican field.

Obama, too, hoped independent voters would come his
way, as they did last week in Iowa, where he won the
first test of the campaign. Clinton, the New York
senator and former first lady, ran third in Iowa.
Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina was second.

Obama drew huge crowds as he swept into New Hampshire,
and as the front-runner drew plenty of criticism from
Clinton and her husband. Asked if he expected more,
Obama said, "Oh, I don't think it will be just in the
next few days. I think it'll be, you know, until I'm
the nominee or until I quit." He said he understood
their frustration.

Clinton, for her part, retooled her appeal to voters
on the run. She lessened her emphasis on experience,
and sought instead to raise questions about Obama's
ability to bring about the change he promised.

Win or lose, she said she was in the race to stay —
never mind Edwards' suggestion that the voters of Iowa
had told her that her presence was no longer needed.

There was no letup in the television ad wars.

TNS Media Intelligence, a firm that tracks political
advertising, said Clinton spent $5.4 million to reach
New Hampshire voters, and Obama spent $5 million. The
total for Edwards was $1.7 million, reflecting a
smaller campaign treasury. New Mexico Gov. Bill
Richardson, fourth candidate in the race, could afford
about $500,000.

As happened in Iowa, Romney spent more than his rivals
combined on television for the New Hampshire primary.

After losing Iowa, he could ill afford another defeat
after basing his campaign strategy on victories in one
or both states. Reflecting the stakes, he clashed in
weekend debates with Huckabee over the Iraq war and
with McCain over immigration as he tried to right his
campaign.

On Tuesday, Romney put a positive face forward. "The
Republicans will vote for me," he said. "The
independents will get behind me."

McCain, too, was in need of a victory. Once the
perceived front-runner, he suffered through a
near-death political experience last year when his
fundraising and support collapsed. He rallied, and by
the final days of the New Hampshire race, held a
celebration of sorts to mark his 100th town hall
meeting in the state he won eight years ago.

___

David Espo reported from Washington. AP writers Liz
Sidoti, Nedra Pickler, Scott Lindlaw, Glen Johnson,
Beverley Wang, Charles Babington, Holly Ramer and
Clarke Canfield contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/primary_rdp;_ylt=Ao7UZlOp.1vz7mTjrPbpBpas0NUE

  Clinton and McCain pull off upsets in NH

By DAVID ESPO and PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press
Writers 20 minutes ago

CONCORD, N.H. - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton won New
Hampshire's Democratic primary Tuesday night in a
startling upset, defeating Sen. Barack Obama and
resurrecting her bid for the White House. Sen. John
McCain powered past his Republican rivals and back
into contention for the GOP nomination.

Clinton's victory capped a comeback from last week's
third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses. It also
raised the possibility of a long battle for the party
nomination between the most viable black candidate in
history and the former first lady, who is seeking to
become the first woman to occupy the Oval Office.

"I am still fired up and ready to go," a defeated
Obama told cheering supporters, repeating the line
that forms a part of virtually every campaign
appearance.

McCain's triumph scrambled the Republican race as
well.

"We showed this country what a real comeback looks
like," the Arizona senator told The Associated Press
in an interview as he savored his triumph. "We're
going to move on to Michigan and South Carolina and
win the nomination."

Later, he told cheering supporters that together, "we
have taken a step, but only a first step toward
repairing the broken politics of the past and
restoring the trust of the American people in their
government."

McCain rode a wave of support from independent voters
to defeat former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, a
showing that reprised the senator's victory in the
traditional first-in-the-nation primary in 2000.

It was a bitter blow for Romney, who spent millions of
dollars of his own money in hopes of winning the
kickoff Iowa caucuses and the first primary — and
finished second in both. Even so, the
businessman-turned politician said he would meet
McCain next week in the Michigan primary, and he cast
himself as just what the country needed to fix
Washington. "I don't care who gets the credit,
Republican or Democrat. I've got no scores to settle,"
he told supporters.

After Iowa, Clinton and her aides seemed resigned to a
second straight setback. But polling place interviews
showed that female voters — who deserted her last week
— were solidly in her New Hampshire column.

She also was winning handily among registered
Democrats. Obama led her by an even larger margin
among independents, but he suffered from a falloff in
turnout among young voters compared with Iowa.

Word of Clinton's triumph set off a raucous
celebration among supporters at a hotel in Nashua —
gathered there to celebrate a first-in-the-nation
primary every bit as surprising as the one 16 years
ago that allowed a young Bill Clinton to proclaim
himself "the comeback kid."

She had 39 percent of the vote in the Democratic
primary to 37 percent for Obama, who is seeking to
become the nation's first black president. Former Sen.
John Edwards of North Carolina trailed with 17
percent. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was fourth,
polling less than 5 percent of the vote.

Despite running a distant third to his better-funded
rivals, Edwards had no plans to step aside. He pointed
toward the South Carolina primary on Jan. 26, hoping
to prevail in the state where he was born — and where
he claimed his only victory in the presidential
primaries four years ago.

Among Republicans, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee,
who won the leadoff Iowa GOP caucuses last week, was
running third in New Hampshire.

McCain was winning 37 percent of the Republican vote,
Romney had 32 and Huckabee 11. Former New York Mayor
Rudy Giuliani had 9 percent, Texas Rep. Ron Paul 8.

Clinton's triumph was unexpected — and unpredicted.

Obama drew huge crowds as he swept into the state
after winning Iowa. Confident of victory, he stuck to
his pledge to deliver "change we can believe in,"
while the former first lady was forced to retool her
appeal to voters on the run. She lessened her emphasis
on experience, and sought instead to raise questions
about Obama's ability to bring about the change he
promised.

The grind took a toll on both of them.

Obama suffered from a sore throat, while Clinton's
voice quavered at one point when asked how she coped
with the rigors of the campaign. That unexpected
moment of emotion became the talk of the final 24
hours of a campaign that was unlike any other in
history.

Clinton's performance came as a surprise even to her
own inner circle.

In the hours leading up to the poll closing, her
closest advisers had appeared to be bracing for a
second defeat at the hands of Obama.

Officials said her aides were considering whether to
effectively concede the next two contests — caucuses
in Nevada on Jan. 19 and a South Carolina primary a
week later — and instead try to regroup in time for a
22-state round of Democratic contests on Feb. 5.

These officials also said a campaign shake-up was in
the works, with longtime Clinton confidante Maggie
Williams poised to come aboard to help sharpen the
former first lady's message. Other personnel additions
are expected, according to these officials, who spoke
on condition of anonymity while discussing strategy.

Obama, who won the leadoff Iowa caucuses last week,
looked for an endorsement from the powerful Culinary
Workers union in Nevada in the days ahead. South
Carolina's Democratic electorate is heavily black and
likely to go for the most viable black presidential
candidate in history.

The Republican race turns next to Michigan, where
McCain and Romney already are advertising on
television, and where both men planned appearances on
Wednesday. Huckabee also was expected to campaign in
the state.

According to preliminary results of a survey of voters
as they left their polling places, more independents
cast ballots in the Democratic race than in the
Republican contest. They accounted for four of every
10 Democratic votes and about a third of Republican
ballots. The survey was conducted for The Associated
Press and the television networks.

Republicans were split roughly evenly in naming the
nation's top issues: the economy, Iraq, illegal
immigration and terrorism. Romney had a big lead among
those naming immigration, while McCain led on the
other issues.

Half of Republicans said illegal immigrants should be
deported, and this group leaned toward Romney. Those
saying illegal immigrants should be allowed to apply
for citizenship leaned toward McCain, while the two
candidates split those saying those here illegally
should be allowed to stay as temporary workers.

Among Democrats, about one-third each named the
economy and Iraq as the top issues facing the country,
followed by health care. Voters naming the economy
were split about evenly between Obama and Clinton,
while Obama had an advantage among those naming the
other two issues. Clinton has made health care a
signature issue for years.

About one-third said if Bill Clinton were running,
they would have voted for him on Tuesday.

It was hard to tell who needed a Republican victory
more — McCain or Romney. McCain was the long-ago
front-runner who survived a near-death political
experience when his fundraising dried up and his
support collapsed. He shed much of his staff and
regrouped. An unflinching supporter of the Iraq war,
he benefited when U.S. casualties declined in the wake
of a controversial building in U.S. troops. By the
final days of the New Hampshire race, he held a
celebration of sorts to mark his 100th town hall
meeting in the state he won eight years ago.

"It has all the earmarks of a landslide with the
Dixville Notch vote," an upbeat McCain quipped — he
got four votes there to Romney's two and one for
Giuliani — as his campaign bus headed to a polling
place in Nashua. The crowd of supporters was so big,
that voters complained and a poll worker pleaded with
McCain to leave. Seconds later, the bus pulled away.

___

David Espo reported from Washington. AP writers Liz
Sidoti, Nedra Pickler, Scott Lindlaw, Glen Johnson,
Beverley Wang, Charles Babington, Holly Ramer and
Clarke Canfield contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080110/ap_on_el_pr/richardson;_ylt=AnStIjWdLlEg7gmY\
qXemn5iyFz4D

  AP NewsBreak: Richardson ends bid

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer 2 minutes
ago

MERRIMACK, N.H. - New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson
ended his campaign for the presidency Wednesday after
twin fourth-place finishes that showed his impressive
credentials could not compete with his rivals' star
power.

Richardson planned to announce the decision Thursday,
according to two people close to the governor with
knowledge of the decision. They spoke on a condition
of anonymity in advance of the governor's
announcement.

The Richardson campaign would not comment on the
governor's decision, reached after a meeting with his
top advisers Wednesday in New Mexico.

Richardson had one of the most wide-ranging resumes of
any candidate ever to run for the presidency, bringing
experience from his time in Congress, President
Clinton's Cabinet, in the New Mexico statehouse as
well as his unique role as a freelance diplomat. As a
Hispanic, he added to the unprecedented diversity in
the Democratic field that also included a black and a
woman.

But Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama dominated
the spotlight in the campaign, and Richardson was
never able to become a top-tier contender. He accused
his rivals of failing to commit to bring troops home
from Iraq soon enough.

He portrayed his campaign as a job application for
president, and ran clever ads that showed a bored
interviewer unimpressed with his dazzling resume. The
commercials helped fuel his move to double-digit
support in some early state polls, and advisers argued
he was poised to move past former vice presidential
nominee John Edwards for the role of third-place
challenger.

But he was not able to build the momentum and came in
a distant fourth place in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Richardson didn't get quite 5 percent in the New
Hampshire primary Tuesday and came in with just 2
percent in the Iowa caucus last week.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20080111/wl_mcclatchy/2812898;_ylt=Aq8Ofh_8CRE\
Vb21yBa_vZhys0NUE

  Mysterious crowd suddenly stopped Bhutto's car,
officer says

By Saeed Shah and Jonathan S. Landay, McClatchy
Newspapers Fri Jan 11, 4:04 PM ET

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Two new reports on the
assassination last month of Pakistani opposition
leader Benazir Bhutto suggest that the killing may
have been an ambitious plot rather than an isolated
act of violence and that the government of President
Pervez Musharraf knows far more than it's admitted
about the murder.

A police officer who witnessed the assassination said
that a mysterious crowd stopped Bhutto's car that day,
moving her to emerge through the sunroof. And a
document has surfaced in the Pakistani news media that
contradicts the government's version of her death and
contains details on the pistol and the suicide bomb
used in the murder.

The witness was Ishtiaq Hussain Shah of the Rawalpindi
police. As Bhutto's car headed onto Rawalpindi's
Liaquat Road after an election rally Dec. 27 , a crowd
appeared from nowhere and stopped the motorcade,
shouting slogans of her Pakistan Peoples Party and
waving party banners, according to his account.

Bhutto, apparently thinking she was greeting her
supporters, emerged through the sunroof of the
bulletproof car to wave.

It was Shah's job to clear the way for the motorcade.
But 10 feet from where he was standing, a man in the
crowd wearing a jacket and sunglasses raised his arm
and shot at the former prime minister. "I jumped to
overpower him," the deputy police superintendent said
later. "A mighty explosion took place soon
afterwards."

Shah suffered multiple injuries and is recuperating in
a Rawalpindi military hospital, guarded by agents of
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence directorate.

Who organized the crowd is only one of the mysteries
two weeks after the assassination. "I don't know who
they were or from where they came," the Rawalpindi
officer told Dawn newspaper. "They just appeared on
the road."

The second report emerged in the Pakistani daily
newspaper The News, with detailed information about
the pistol and bomb. It rejects the government's
conclusion that Bhutto died when the force of the
suicide blast threw her head against the sunroof lever
of her car. Such an impact couldn't have fractured her
skull, it said. The government refused to confirm the
report's authenticity, but a security official
verified it to McClatchy . He spoke only on condition
of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the
subject.

According to the document, which the paper described
as a "top agency" preliminary report, a pistol made by
Norinco, a Chinese brand, was recovered from the
scene, with the lot number 311-90. An MUV-2 triggering
mechanism for the bomb also was found, as had been
used in 15 previous suicide bombings in Pakistan ,
with the same lot number and factory code.

"It is a clear indicator that the same terrorist group
is involved in almost all these incidents," concluded
the report, which the paper quoted at length.

Another mystery of the case is why so valuable a
report has been buried. Among its other conclusions:
Bhutto's assassin, after shooting her, detonated his
own suicide belt. No ambulance was called, and it took
25 minutes to get her to the hospital, only two miles
from the scene.

Bhutto, and her security adviser Rehman Malik , had
complained repeatedly that she was given inadequate
official security, including mobile phone jammers that
didn't work and less than the four-vehicle escort that
she thought was needed to protect the four corners of
her car. In an e-mail to her U.S. lobbyist, Mark
Siegel , in late October, Bhutto wrote that if
anything happened to her "I would hold Musharraf
responsible," in addition to four individuals she
named as plotting to kill her in a letter sent to
Musharraf on Oct. 16 .

There was no security cordon around Bhutto— who'd
escaped a suicide bombing attack Oct. 18 , the day she
returned to Pakistan from self-imposed exile abroad—
as she left the park in Rawalpindi. The crime scene
was cleared immediately and hosed down, destroying
vital evidence. Doctors at the hospital where she was
taken, who announced the night it happened that she'd
died of bullet wounds to the head and neck, changed
their story the next day. There was no autopsy.

Musharraf's government has stuck to its explanation
that Bhutto died when she hit her head on the
sunroof's lever after the bomb went off, despite the
emergence of several videos that show the gunman
firing, then Bhutto disappearing into her vehicle
before the blast. Officials also turned up what they
said was a transcript of a telephone conversation
between the supposed masterminds— militant Islamists
allied with the Taliban— congratulating each other,
the next day.

Scotland Yard detectives, whom Musharraf called in
under pressure from home and abroad, have been told
that they're to investigate only the cause of death,
not the killer's identity. "Providing clarity
regarding 'The precise cause of Ms. Bhutto's death' is
said to be the principal purpose of the deployment,"
said Aidan Liddle , a spokesman for the British High
Commission in Islamabad .

To many in Pakistan , it all raises questions about
whether the government was complicit in the
assassination. To others, it points at the very least
to a concerted attempt to hide the massive extent of a
security failure.

Bhutto's own private-security arrangements seemed
poor, chaotic and amateurish. Armored cars are not
fitted with sunroofs. Hers was modified in Karachi
against all safety advice, according to a security
company that operates in that city but spoke only on
condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of
the subject. After Bhutto's death, her husband made
the startling revelation that she'd been guarded by
men he'd met in prison.

"Both the state and the internal security of the
Pakistan Peoples Party failed miserably," said Masood
Sharif Khattak , who was the head of the Intelligence
Bureau , Pakistan's top civilian intelligence agency,
while Bhutto was prime minister and now is retired.
"But state responsibility (for her security) stands
first and foremost."

"The fact that there are so many suicide bombings
taking place in the country, and the security and
intelligence apparatus is unable to prevent them, only
leads to one conclusion: The jihadists have enablers
within the system that allow them to do their stuff,"
said Kamran Bokhari of Strategic Forecasting, a
consultancy based in Austin, Texas .

"We're not talking high-level officials, just people
at midlevel, but mostly junior, who could provide them
with logistics to operate."

Musharraf has denied that government agencies are
involved at any level.

One of the most widely suspected forces behind
Bhutto's assassination, al Qaida, hasn't claimed
responsibility. The Pakistani militant whom the
government has blamed, Baitullah Mehsud, has denied
it. Mehsud is a 34-year-old tribal leader in the
lawless Waziristan region, in the northwest, who's
emerged as the leader of Pakistan's version of the
Taliban.

Dr. Farzana Shaikh , associate fellow at the Royal
Institute of International Affairs in London , said:
"If they (al Qaida) are intent on weakening Musharraf
and his regime, they could do no better than this. For
them to simply leave room open for speculation, much
of which has centered on government complicity, would
be a very clever move."

"That people are willing to believe this is a very
telling reflection of the declining credibility of the
Musharraf regime."

(Shah is a McClatchy special correspondent.)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080112/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

  Iraqi lawmakers pass pro-Baath party law

55 minutes ago

BAGHDAD - Iraq's parliament adopted legislation
Saturday on the reinstatement of former Baath party
supporters to government jobs, a benchmark sought by
the United States as a key step toward national
reconciliation.

The voting was carried out by a show of hands on each
of the law's 30 clauses. The bill, officially called
the "Accountability and Justice" law, seeks to relax
restrictions on the right of members of Saddam
Hussein's now-dissolved Baath party to fill government
posts. It is also designed to reinstate thousands of
Baathists in government jobs from which they had been
dismissed because of their ties to the party.

The dismissal of thousands of Baath Party supporters
from these jobs had deepened sectarian tensions
between Iraq's majority Shiites and the once-dominant
Sunni Arabs.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7185648.stm

Sunday, 13 January 2008, 05:27 GMT
Water-boarding 'would be torture'

US national intelligence chief Mike McConnell has said
the interrogation technique of water-boarding "would
be torture" if he were subjected to it.

Mr McConnell said it would also be torture if
water-boarding, which involves simulated drowning,
resulted in water entering a detainee's lungs.

He told the New Yorker there would be a "huge penalty"
for anyone using it if it was ever determined to be
torture.

The US attorney-general has declined to rule on
whether the method is torture.

However, Michael Mukasey said during his Senate
confirmation hearing that water-boarding was
"repugnant to me" and that he would institute a
review.

In December, the House of Representatives approved a
bill that would ban the CIA from using harsh
interrogation techniques such as water-boarding.

President George W Bush has threatened to veto the
bill, which would require the agency to follow the
rules adopted by the US Army and abide by the Geneva
Conventions, if the Senate passes it.

'Painful'

In the interview with the New Yorker, the US Director
of National Intelligence said he would regard
water-boarding as torture if it was used against him.

The controversial technique involves a prisoner being
stretched on his back, having a cloth pushed into his
mouth and/or plastic film placed over his face and
having water poured onto his face. He gags almost
immediately.

"If I had water draining into my nose, oh God, I just
can't imagine how painful!" he told the magazine.

"Whether it's torture by anybody else's definition,
for me it would be torture."

Mr McConnell said the legal test for torture should be
"pretty simple".

"Is it excruciatingly painful to the point of forcing
someone to say something because of the pain?" he
added.

But the retired vice-admiral declined for legal
reasons to say whether the technique should be
considered torture by the US government.

"If it ever is determined to be torture, there will be
a huge penalty to be paid for anyone engaging in it,"
he said.

CIA officials have been quoted as saying that
water-boarding has been used on three prisoners since
2001, including al-Qaeda recruiter Abu Zubaydah, but
on nobody since 2003.

In July 2007, President Bush signed a controversial
executive order on the treatment of suspects detained
by the CIA which did not outlaw the agency's use of
"enhanced interrogation techniques" such as water-boarding.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8U5D7480&show_article=1

NJ Gov. Signs Popular Vote Measure
Jan 13 10:11 PM US/Eastern
By TOM HESTER Jr.
Associated Press Writer
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - New Jersey on Sunday became the
second state to enter a compact that would eliminate
the Electoral College's power to choose a president if
enough states endorse the idea.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed legislation that approves
delivering the state's 15 electoral votes to the
winner of the national popular vote. The Assembly
approved the bill last month and the Senate followed
suit earlier this month.

Maryland—with 10 electoral votes—had been the only
state to pass the compact into law.

The measure could result in the electoral votes going
to a candidate opposed by voters in New Jersey, which
has backed Democratic presidential candidates since
1988.

The compact would take effect only if enough
states—those with a majority of votes in the Electoral
College—agreed to it. A candidate needs 270 of 538
electoral votes to win.

The compact has also passed both houses of the
Illinois Legislature, according to the National
Popular Vote movement, and has been approved by one
legislative house in Arkansas, Colorado and North
Carolina.

Governors in California and Hawaii, though, vetoed
bills to join the compact.

The goal is to ensure that the national popular vote
winner becomes president. Democrats who sponsored the
bill have noted that their party's 2000 presidential
nominee, Al Gore, won the popular vote but lost in the
Electoral College.

Sponsors contend the agreement would ensure that all
states are competitive in presidential elections and
make all votes important. It also would guarantee the
presidency to the person who received the most votes.

Republicans in the state criticized the bill as
undermining federal elections. "This legislation is a
constitutional travesty," Assemblyman Richard Merkt
said. "It's a backdoor end-run of the federal
Constitution."

___

On the Net:

National Popular Vote:
http://www.nationalpopularvote.org

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080114/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/guantanamo_joint_chiefs;_y\
lt=AmkYBpyKPv9IbTE701kgEDis0NUE

  Joint Chiefs chairman: Close Guantanamo

By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer Sun Jan 13, 7:58
PM ET

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - The chief of the
U.S. military said Sunday he favors closing the prison
here as soon as possible because he believes negative
publicity worldwide about treatment of terrorist
suspects has been "pretty damaging" to the image of
the United States.

"I'd like to see it shut down," Adm. Mike Mullen said
in an interview with three reporters who toured the
detention center with him on his first visit since
becoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff last
October.

His visit came two days after the sixth anniversary of
the prison's opening in January 2002. He stressed that
a closure decision was not his to make and that he
understands there are numerous complex legal questions
the administration believes would have to be settled
first, such as where to move prisoners.

The admiral also noted that some of Guantanamo Bay's
prisoners are deemed high security threats. During a
tour of Camp Six, which is a high-security facility
holding about 100 prisoners, Mullen got a firsthand
look at some of the cells; one prisoner glared at
Mullen through his narrow cell window as U.S. officers
explained to the Joint Chiefs chairman how they
maintain almost-constant watch over each prisoner.

Mullen, whose previous visit was in December 2005 as
head of the U.S. Navy, noted that President Bush and
Defense Secretary Robert Gates also have spoken
publicly in favor of closing the prison. But Mullen
said he is unaware of any active discussion in the
administration about how to do it.

"I'm not aware that there is any immediate
consideration to closing Guantanamo Bay," Mullen said.

Asked why he thinks Guantanamo Bay, commonly dubbed
Gitmo, should be closed, and the prisoners perhaps
moved to U.S. soil, Mullen said, "More than anything
else it's been the image — how Gitmo has become around
the world, in terms of representing the United
States."

Critics have charged that detainees have been
mistreated in some cases and that the legal conditions
of their detentions are not consistent with the rule
of law.

"I believe that from the standpoint of how it reflects
on us that it's been pretty damaging," Mullen said,
speaking in a small boat that ferried him to and from
the detention facilities across a glistening bay.

He said he was encouraged to hear from U.S. officers
here that the prison population has shrunk by about
100 over the past year, to 277. At one time the
population exceeded 600. Hundreds have been returned
to their home countries but U.S. officials say some
are such serious security threats that they cannot be
released for the foreseeable future. Only four are
currently facing military trials after being formally
charged with crimes.

Mullen also walked through an almost-completed
top-security courtroom where the military expects to
hold trials beginning this spring for the 14
"high-value" terror suspects who had previously been
held at secret CIA prisons abroad. He was told that
audio of the proceedings might be piped to locations
in the United States where families of the Sept. 11
terror attacks, and perhaps others, could hear them.

Mullen's predecessor, retired Air Force Gen. Richard
Myers, is a defendant in a lawsuit by four British men
who allege they were systematically tortured
throughout their two years of detention at this remote
outpost. On Friday a federal appeals court in
Washington ruled against the four men.

It was six years ago that Guantanamo Bay received its
first prisoners, suspected terrorists picked up on the
battlefields of Afghanistan as the Taliban government
was being ousted from power.

The facility is on land leased from the Cuban
government under terms of a long-term deal that
predates the rule of President Fidel Castro. It is
commanded by Navy Rear Adm. Mark Buzby.

Gates, at a Dec. 21 news conference at the Pentagon,
noted the administration's failure to settle the
closure debate.

"I think that the principal obstacle has been
resolving a lot of the legal issues associated with
closing Guantanamo and what you do with the prisoners
when they come back (to the United States)," Gates
said.

"Because of some of these legal concerns — some of
which are shared by people in both parties on Capitol
Hill — there has not been much progress in this
respect," he added.

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the
Bush administration considered Guantanamo Bay a
suitable place to hold men suspected of links to the
Taliban and al-Qaida, contending that U.S. laws do not
apply there because Guantanamo is not part of the
United States. Lawyers for the detainees have
challenged that interpretation ever since.

Before he finished his Guantanmo Bay visit and flew to
Key West, Fla., Mullen got a look at a site on the
eastern shore of Guantanamo Bay — opposite the
terrorist detention center — where the U.S. military
is building a new refugee camp that would be used in
the event of a sudden, major influx of refugees in the
area. Initially the camp will be designed to hold
10,000 refugees and is scheduled to be finished by June.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/region/legislature/stories/01/12/0112kucin\
ich.html

Judge rules against Kucinich on Democrat's loyalty
oath
Presidential candidate left off primary ballot may
appeal
By W. Gardner Selby
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, January 12, 2008

U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel on Friday rejected
presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich's challenge to
a loyalty oath required of presidential candidates by
the Texas Democratic Party.

Barring a successful appeal, Yeakel's ruling means
Kucinich's name will not be on the party's March 4
primary ballot.

Don McTigue, an Ohio lawyer for Kucinich, said he
would confer with the Ohio congressman on whether to
appeal to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Kucinich and musician Willie Nelson, a supporter,
filed a lawsuit last week accusing the party of
violating the candidate's constitutional rights by not
putting him on the ballot.

Kucinich had attempted to file as a candidate without
agreeing entirely to a loyalty pledge; he scratched
out a portion stating that he would support the
party's nominee for president, whoever it is. The
party said the pledge could not be altered and that
Kucinich's filing could not be accepted.

Yeakel noted that candidates are free to interpret the
oath pretty much as they please and said he did not
find it "to be a burden of such an extent that it
mandates striking down the oath."

He said that the oath "may be inartfully worded, may
be, in fact, an anachronism," but it is "legally
enforceable."

Yeakel also noted that Kucinich accepted the Texas
oath when he ran for president in 2004. Kucinich drew
nearly 2 percent of the vote in the 2004 Texas
primary, placing seventh in the field.

McTigue said Kucinich's concern that a nominee would
employ war as an instrument of foreign policy has
escalated since 2004. He noted that GOP presidential
candidates don't have to take a similar oath in Texas
and argued that Democrats had failed to explain why
the oath is required for presidential aspirants and
not candidates for other offices.

Gary Yokie of Houston, Kucinich's Texas campaign
coordinator, said that if Kucinich doesn't get on the
primary ballot, his supporters will have options. For
instance, they could flock to another candidate, such
as Cynthia McKinney, a former Democratic U.S. House
member seeking the Green Party's nomination.

Boyd Richie, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party,
said the oath is required by rules adopted by
delegates to the party's state convention.

Speaking personally, he said, "If people want to have
the benefit of running under a particular party's
banner, they ought to be willing to support that
party's nominee."

wgselby@...; 445-3644

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/republican_rdp;_ylt=Al1mpWE_Yx96GoCXttW4ERSs0NUE

  Romney wins convincing Michigan victory

By LIZ SIDOTI and GLEN JOHNSON, Associated Press
Writers 4 minutes ago

DETROIT - Mitt Romney scored his first major primary
victory Tuesday, a desperately needed win in his
native Michigan that gave his weakened presidential
candidacy new life. It set the stage for a wide-open
Republican showdown in South Carolina in just four
days.

Three GOP candidates now have won in the first four
states to vote in the 2008 primary season, roiling a
nomination fight that lacks a clear favorite as the
race moves south for the first time.

The former Massachusetts governor defeated John
McCain, the Arizona senator who was hoping that
independents and Democrats would join Republicans to
help him repeat his 2000 triumph here. Mike Huckabee,
the former Arkansas governor, trailed in third, and
former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson is making a last
stand in South Carolina.

"It's a victory of optimism over Washington-style
pessimism," Romney said in an Associated Press
telephone interview from Southfield, Mich., echoing
his campaign speeches and taking a poke at McCain, the
four-term senator he beat. "Now on to South Carolina,
Nevada, Florida."

Minimizing the significance of Tuesday's vote, McCain
said he had called Romney to congratulate him "that
Michigan welcomed their native son with their
support."

"Starting tomorrow, we're going to win South Carolina,
and we're going to go on and win the nomination,"
McCain declared, also in an AP interview from
Charleston, S.C.

Huckabee, too, already campaigning in the next primary
state, predicted in Lexington, S.C., he would "put a
flag in the ground here Saturday." He also jabbed at
Romney, who has poured at least $20 million of his
personal fortune into his bid: "We need to prove that
electing a president is not just about how much money
a candidate has."

In Michigan, with most precincts reporting, Romney had
39 percent of the vote, McCain had 30 percent and
Huckabee 16 percent. No other Republican fared better
than single digits.

Previously, Huckabee had won leadoff Iowa, and McCain
had taken New Hampshire. Romney won scarcely contested
Wyoming.

Hillary Rodham Clinton was the only top contender on
the Democratic ballot Tuesday. With most precincts
counted, she had 56 percent of the vote to 39 percent
for uncommitted delegates to the Democratic National
Convention.

Romney's ties to Michigan proved beneficial.

Four in 10 voters said his roots factored into their
decisions, and 58 percent of that group backed him,
according to preliminary results from surveys of
voters as they left their polling places, taken for
The AP and the networks. He also led among voters who
said the economy (42 percent) and illegal immigration
(39 percent) were their most important issues, and won
the most Republicans (41 percent), conservatives (41
percent), evangelicals (34 percent) and voters looking
for a candidate with experience (52 percent) or shared
their values (37 percent).

McCain had an edge with those who wanted an authentic
president (43 percent), and he won among moderates (40
percent), independents (35 percent) and Democrats. But
fewer non-Republican voters participated in the GOP
primary this year than in 2000 when those voters
helped him beat George W. Bush. Independents and
Democrats accounted for roughly one-third of the vote,
compared with about one half eight years ago.

Romney had a slight edge over McCain as the candidate
likeliest to bring needed change, 32 percent to 28
percent.

The economy proved the most important issue for
Republicans in Michigan, the state with the highest
unemployment rate in the nation and an ailing auto
industry. Given four choices, 55 percent of Michigan
Republican primary voters picked the economy as the
most important issue, while 17 percent picked Iraq, 13
percent immigration and 11 percent terrorism.

A mere 20 percent or less of eligible voters were
expected to show up at polling stations across frigid
and snowy Michigan, the turnout depressed in part by
the Democratic race of little to no consequence.

For Republicans, the stakes varied.

Of the three candidates competing hard here, Romney
needed a Michigan victory the most to invigorate a
campaign crippled by searing losses in Iowa and New
Hampshire. He was the only one who watched the voting
returns in Michigan; his top Michigan opponents,
McCain and Huckabee, campaigned in the state earlier
in the day but left by afternoon to plant themselves
in next-up South Carolina.

Up for grabs in Michigan were 30 Republican delegates.

Romney campaigned in the state far more than his
rivals and spent more than $2 million in TV ads in
Michigan, nearly three times what McCain did,
according to an analysis of presidential advertising
by the nonpartisan Michigan Campaign Finance Network.
McCain paid for more than $740,00 in ads and Huckabee
spent more than $480,000.

Feeling optimistic in the run-up to the Michigan
voting, Romney went back on the air with TV ads in
South Carolina after a brief hiatus.

A muddle from the start, the GOP race has grown ever
more fluid as the first states voted over the past two
weeks.

Romney was second to Huckabee in the Iowa caucuses and
to McCain in New Hampshire's primary while Huckabee
dropped to third. Thompson is camping out in South
Carolina looking for his first win. Rudy Giuliani is
doing the same in Florida, which votes Jan. 29.

The former New York mayor got only 3 percent of the
Michigan vote, trailing Thompson and Texas Rep. Ron
Paul as well as the top three, and he hasn't fared
better than fourth in any of the states so far. Yet,
the fractured GOP field plays into his strategy of
lying in wait — and making his move — in Florida in
the run-up to Feb. 5 when some two dozen states vote.

Romney was born and raised in Michigan, and his late
father, George, was head of American Motors and a
three-term governor in the 1960s. The younger Romney
announced his presidential candidacy in the state a
year ago.

McCain had a built-in advantage of his own. He won the
state's primary eight years ago on the strength of
independent and Democratic-crossover voters, and he
still had a network of hard-core backers. Six months
after his campaign nearly collapsed, he now leads
national polls.

Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, had
hoped to stage a surprise finish with the support of
Christian evangelicals who live in the more
conservative, western part of the state. With his
populist pitch, Huckabee also wanted to do well in
Reagan Republican country outside of Detroit.

The economy dominated the weeklong Michigan campaign.
The state has been reeling from the U.S. auto
industry's downturn and has the nation's highest
unemployment rate at 7.4 percent.

Michigan doesn't typically hold its primary until
February but state party officials scheduled it
earlier to try to give the state more say in picking a
president. The Republican National Committee objected
and cut the number of Michigan delegates to the
national convention by half as punishment while the
Democratic National Committee stripped the state of
all 156 delegates to its national convention,
including 28 superdelegates who would not have been
bound by the outcome of the primary.

____

Liz Sidoti reported from Washington. Associated Press
writers Jim Kuhnhenn and Alan Fram in Washington,
Libby Quaid in Warren, Mich.; David Eggert in Traverse
City, Mich., and Sara Kugler in New Smyrna Beach,
Fla., contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080117/ap_on_go_ot/ex_congressman_indicted

  Ex-lawmaker charged in terror conspiracy

By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer 10
minutes ago

WASHINGTON - A former congressman and delegate to the
United Nations was indicted Wednesday on charges of
working for an alleged terrorist fundraising ring that
sent more than $130,000 to an al-Qaida supporter who
has threatened U.S. and international troops in
Afghanistan.

Mark Deli Siljander, a Michigan Republican when he was
in the House, was charged with money laundering,
conspiracy and obstructing justice for allegedly lying
about being hired to lobby senators on behalf of an
Islamic charity that authorities said was secretly
sending funds to terrorists.

The 42-count indictment, unsealed in U.S. District
Court in Kansas City, Mo., accuses the Islamic
American Relief Agency of paying Siljander $50,000 for
the lobbying — money that turned out to be stolen from
the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The charges paint "a troubling picture of an American
charity organization that engaged in transactions for
the benefit of terrorists and conspired with a former
United States congressman to convert stolen federal
funds into payments for his advocacy," Assistant
Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein said.

Siljander, who served in the House from 1981-1987, was
appointed by President Reagan to serve as a U.S.
delegate to the United Nations for one year in 1987.

Calls to Silander's business in a Washington suburb
went unanswered Wednesday. His attorney in Kansas
City, James R. Hobbs, said Siljander would plead not
guilty to the charges against him.

"Mark Siljander vehemently denies the allegations in
the indictment," Hobbs said in a statement. He
described Siljander as "internationally recognized for
his good faith attempts to bridge the gap between
Christian and Muslim communities worldwide" and
plugged the ex-congressman's upcoming book on that
topic.

The charges are part of a long-running case against
the charity, which had been based in Columbia, Mo.,
before it was designated in 2004 by the Treasury
Department as a suspected fundraiser for terrorists.
The indictment alleges that IARA also employed a
fundraising aide to Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaida
leader blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks.

IARA has long denied allegations that it has financed
terrorists. The group's attorney, Shereef Akeel of
Troy, Mich., rejected the charges outlined in
Wednesday's indictment.

"For four years I have not seen a single piece of a
document that shows anyone did anything wrong," Akeel
said.

The government accuses IARA of sending approximately
$130,000 to help Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whom the United
States has designated a global terrorist. The money,
sent to bank accounts in Peshawar, Pakistan, in 2003
and 2004, was masked as donations to an orphanage
located in buildings that Hekmatyar owned.

Authorities described Hekmatyar as an Afghan
mujahedeen leader who participated in and supported
terrorist acts by al-Qaida and the Taliban. The
Justice Department said Hekmatyar "has vowed to engage
in a holy war against the United States and
international troops in Afghanistan."

Siljander was elected to Congress initially with the
support of fundamentalist Christian groups, and said
at the time he won because "God wanted me in." In
1983, he claimed that "Arab terrorists" planned to
kill him during a pro-Jewish rally; the FBI and Secret
Service said they knew of no such plot. Siljander
attended the rally wearing a bulletproof vest.

After leaving the government, he founded the
Washington-area consulting group Global Strategies
Inc. and, according to the indictment, was hired by
IARA in March 2004 to lobby the Senate Finance
Committee to remove the charity from the panel's list
of suspected terror fundraisers.

It's not clear whether Siljander ever engaged in the
lobbying push, said John Wood, U.S. attorney in Kansas
City. Nevertheless, IARA paid Siljander with money
that was part of U.S. government funding awarded to
the charity years earlier for relief work it promised
to perform in Africa, the indictment says.

In interviews with the FBI in December 2005 and April
2007, Siljander denied doing any lobbying for IARA.
The money, he told investigators, was merely a
donation from IARA to help him write a book about
Islam and Christianity, the indictment says.

In 2004, the FBI raided the IARA's USA headquarters
and the homes of people affiliated with the group
nationwide. Since then, the 20-year-old charity has
been unable to raise money and its assets have been
frozen.

The charity has argued that it is a separate
organization from the Islamic African Relief Agency, a
Sudanese group suspected of financing al-Qaida. A
federal appeals court in Washington ruled in February
that the two groups were linked.

In all, Siljander, IARA and five of its officers were
charged with various counts of theft, money
laundering, aiding terrorists and conspiracy.

"By bringing this case in the middle of America, we
seek to make it harder for terrorists to do business
halfway around the globe," Wood said.

___

Associated Press writers Margaret Stafford and Maria
Sudekum Fisher in Kansas City, Mo., contributed to
this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080118/ap_on_el_pr/confederate_flag_ad;_ylt=AumodT7\
uV.sW7K_jHBuNb9oGw_IE

Confederate flag ad praises Huckabee
By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer
24 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - A group that promotes protection of the
Confederate flag is airing radio ads during
conservative talk shows in South Carolina that praise
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and
criticize John McCain and Mitt Romney for voicing
objections to the flag.

The ads are paid for by Americans for the Preservation
of American Culture, a Tennessee-based political
organization that has been in existence since 2001,
according to Federal Election Commission records. The
ads began airing just three days before Saturday's
Republican primary in the state.

"Waving a confederate battle flag in front of
Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney turns out to be
like waving a red flag in front of a bull — he
charges," the ad states. "Romney let fly in the CNN
debate, saying, "That flag shouldn't be shown,' and
'that's not a flag I recognize.'"

In its anti-McCain ad, an announcer states: "Mitt
Romney is trying, but when it comes to bashing the
Confederate flag he can't hold a candle to John
McCain. McCain's been doing it — calling the flag a
racist symbol — for years."

Both minute-long spots go on to applaud Huckabee, a
former Arkansas governor, saying he is more in tune
with Southern values.

"Governor Huckabee understands that all the average
guy with a Confederate flag on his pickup truck is
saying is he's proud to be a Southerner," the ad
states. "Mike Huckabee understands we value our
heritage and why."

The flag, long seen as a symbol of racism by some and
as an emblem of Southern pride by others, once flew
atop the Capitol in South Carolina. A 2000 compromise
removed it from the dome, though it remains on the
Statehouse grounds and flies next to a Confederate
soldier memorial.

Campaigning in South Carolina on Thursday, Huckabee
said the government should stay out of disputes over
the Confederate flag.

"You don't like people from outside the state coming
in and telling you what to do with your flag,"
Huckabee told supporters in Myrtle Beach, S.C. "In
fact, if somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to
do with our flag, we'd tell 'em what to do with the
pole, that's what we'd do."

Americans for the Preservation of American Culture is
the third group spending money in South Carolina
either in support of Huckabee or against his rivals.
Vietnam Veterans Against McCain distributed a leaflet
that accused McCain of collaborating with the
Vietnamese during his years as a prisoner of war.
Common Sense Issues, a group financed by Huckabee
supporters, was placing automated, interactive phone
calls that praised Huckabee and were critical of his
rivals.

McCain responded in a Web ad, using praise from
Huckabee himself: "Senator McCain, no matter what
anyone may say, is a genuine conservative," and "John
McCain is a hero in this country. He's a hero to me."

"If you want the truth about John McCain," the ad
states, "just ask Mike Huckabee."

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/livecoverage/?referrer=email

Posted at 2:34 PM ET, 01/19/2008
Romney Wins in Nevada

By Chris Cillizza
washingtonpost.com staff writer

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney won the
Nevada Republican caucuses today, while Sen. John
McCain (R-Ariz.) and former Arkansas governor Mike
Huckabee were battling for a first-place finish in
South Carolina.

With the presidential campaign still wide open in both
parties, the focus shifted today to the South and
West, where Republican and Democratic candidates are
urgently seeking wins in a caucus and primary contest
to give their campaigns a boost.

"Today, the people of Nevada voted for change in
Washington," Romney said following his victory. "For
far too long, our leaders have promised to take the
action necessary to build a stronger America, and
still the people of Nevada and all across this country
are waiting."

With 29 of 1,789 precincts reporting, Romney had 46
percent of the vote to 15 percent for Sen. McCain and
14 percent for Rep. Ron Paul (Texas). Despite the
paucity of actual results, the race had been called
for Romney by the Associated Press and several
television networks.

The caucuses are the first step in a multi-step
process to elect delegates to the national conventions
this summer. Romney was the only top-tier Republican
candidates to campaign this week in Nevada. Paul, the
champion of libertarians, was the only GOP candidate
to air television ads in Nevada, according to the AP.

Romney's Mormon faith, a point of concern for some
evangelical voters, was a boon for him in Nevada,
according to a preliminary entrance poll reported by
MSNBC. Roughly one-quarter of the Republican caucus
electorate was Mormon, and Romney won better than 90
percent of those voters.

Romney's win comes on the heels of his strong showing
in Michigan on Tuesday and an earlier victory in
Wyoming. Romney's early victory in Nevada takes some
of the pressure off of him later today in South
Carolina, which looks to be a two-man race between
McCain and Huckabee. The South Carolina Democratic
contest will be held a week from now.

Even as Romney's victory was being confirmed, Sens.
Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama were
locked in a close contest on the Democratic side of
the Nevada caucuses. Polling done in the last few days
in Nevada seemed to suggest that Clinton was the
favorite, but Obama has the backing of the powerful
Culinary Workers Union Local 226. That endorsement
provided Obama with an organizational boost and strong
turnout at nine caucus sites located in Las Vegas
casinos.

Although four states have already held high-profile
primaries and caucuses, uncertainty still reigns over
who the party nominees will be. The more ballots that
are cast, the more muddied the picture appears to be.
After the lead-off Iowa caucuses, it looked as if
voters were ready for new blood, as fresh faces --
Democrat Obama and Republican Huckabee -- claimed
wider-than-expected wins. But then came New Hampshire
and a vote for old favorites -- Clinton and McCain.

Just when he looked like his high priced campaign was
about to implode, Romney scored an impressive victory
in Michigan earlier this week, followed by his
apparent first-place showing in Nevada today. Michigan
did nothing to clarify matters on the Democratic side,
as sanctions by the Democratic National Committee
rendered the state's primary virtually meaningless.

The key thing to remember at this point is that the
nomination fights have both turned into a battle for
delegates.

No single state's vote is going to end the race or
give any candidate all that much momentum. The contest
will likely extend until at least Feb. 5, when 22
states vote and a huge chunk of both parties'
delegates are at stake.

In the Democratic race, a candidate needs 2,025
delegates to secure the nomination, and right now
Clinton has 187, Obama 89 and Edwards 50, according to
the Associated Press. On the Republican side, a
candidates will need 1,191 delegates to lock up the
nomination, and currently Romney leads with 42
delegates, to 32 for Huckabee and 13 for McCain.

While his GOP rivals hunted for votes in South
Carolina yesterday, Romney campaigned across Nevada,
seeking another win that would provide momentum before
Florida's primary at the end of the month. Romney
reprised the same economic and "Washington is broken"
themes in Nevada that he used to extract his must-have
victory in Michigan. Sensing another victory in
Nevada, Romney pulled out of South Carolina earlier
this week, ceding that state to McCain, Huckabee and
former senator Fred Thompson, who is looking for his
first strong showing.

McCain and Huckabee both stressed their experience in
dealing with budget and economic problems as they
campaigned across South Carolina. McCain called for
more spending cuts and expressed some reservations
about President Bush's proposal for an economic
stimulus package, while Huckabee said he thought Bush
was on the right track with his plan to offset the
declining economy.

Clinton, too, is focusing on the country's economic
and housing woes, as she and Obama intensify their
critiques of one another. Clinton told a group of
workers at a small printing business in Las Vegas
yesterday that Bush's economic stimulus plan doesn't
do enough, while Obama said the plan came too late and
leaves out tens of millions of workers and senior
citizens. He also criticized Clinton, charging that
her own stimulus proposals have changed in recent
days.

"This is a larger point," he told a group in Reno.
"The American people don't want a president whose
policies change with the moment."

On the Republican side, McCain has to be considered
the favorite in South Carolina, and if he wins there
he should make a strong showing in Florida on Jan. 29.
It's not clear whether McCain has the resources to
compete in the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday states --
especially if he wins neither South Carolina nor
Florida. He's clearly a weaker front-runner than he
was even a week ago but he remains the slight
front-runner nonetheless.

Today's results in South Carolina will go a long way
toward answering the question of whether Huckabee is a
one-state sensation or a legitimate contender for the
Republican nomination. The new MSNBC/McClatchy poll
suggests it is a two-way race in the Palmetto State
between Huckabee and McCain. The former Arkansas
governor's problem is that he is competing for
socially conservative voters with Thompson and Romney,
while McCain is generally unrivaled as he seeks to
rally fiscal conservatives and moderates.

On the Democratic side, Clinton and Obama dominate the
field, with former senator John Edwards of North
Carolina a distant third. Winning New Hampshire might
have locked up the primary nomination for Obama, but
losing there hasn't damaged the Illinois senator the
way some predicted it might. Over the past ten days,
Obama has racked up a number of high-profile
endorsements from Sens. John Kerry (Mass.) and Patrick
Leahy (Vt.) as well as Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano.

With the race certain now to extend to Feb. 5, it is
Obama who starts with the early lead --
organizationally -- over Clinton in many of these
states. And, with several southern states with large
black populations -- Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee --
and Obama's home state of Illinois voting that day,
he'll likely have a solid delegate foundation no
matter his ups and down between now and then.

While the Clinton campaign notes that the race is now
a delegate fight rather than a series of single-state
contests, a win in Nevada would be a nice insurance
policy against Obama's expected triumph in South
Carolina one week later. Even if she loses both
states, Clinton, like Obama, enters Feb. 5 in
relatively strong shape with New York, Arkansas, New
Jersey and Connecticut all looking strong for her.
Clinton also went on-air in California late Thursday,
a sign that she

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080119/ts_nm/pakistan_bhutto_dc;_ylt=ArI.x_2ltuQ3kT\
Ird9ggOO2s0NUE

  Pakistan authorities arrest two over Bhutto plot

50 minutes ago

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani security
agents have arrested a youth who said he had been
trained as a suicide bomber to kill opposition leader
Benazir Bhutto had other militants failed to kill her,
in the first arrests in the case, a security official
said.

The 15-year-old and his militant "handler" were
arrested in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan
on Thursday night.

The teenager, identified as Aitezaz Shah, told
interrogators he would have been "next in line" to
kill Bhutto if another team had failed on December 27,
the security official said on Saturday.

Former prime minister Bhutto was killed in a gun and
bomb attack as she left an election rally in the city
of Rawalpindi on December 27.

The youth told interrogators he prepared for his
mission in a stronghold of al Qaeda-linked militant
leader Baitullah Mehsud in the South Waziristan region
on the Afghan border, said the official who declined
to be identified.

The official said the "handler," identified as Sher
Zaman, was the more important catch. "He is the real
catch who can give us more clues," the official said.

The government said Mehsud was behind Bhutto's
killing. CIA Director Michael Hayden, in an interview
with the Washington Post published on Friday, blamed
Mehsud for Bhutto's killing.

Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz and his ministry's
spokesman said they had no information about the
arrest of the two.

The security official said Shah came from another
northwestern district, Mansehra, but had been brought
up in the southern city of Karachi.

Shah had told his interrogators a Muslim cleric sent
him to South Waziristan where he lived in Makeen, a
Mehsud stronghold.

Earlier, security officials said the youth had been
arrested in Dera Ismail Khan while on his way to
Karachi to attack Shi'ite Muslim processions.

The first security official said Shah was not in
Rawalpindi when Bhutto was killed.

Mehsud has been blamed for a string of recent attacks,
most on security forces, that has compounded a sense
of crisis in the nuclear-armed country as President
Pervez Musharraf has struggled to hold on to power in
the face of protests from opponents.

A spokesman of Mehsud, Maulvi Omar, said he had no
link with the youth. Omar again denied that Mehsud was
involved in Bhutto's murder.

(Writing by Augustine Anthony; Editing by Robert Birsel)

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/19/nevada.sc.main/index.html

  Clinton projected to win Nevada Democratic caucuses

(CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton will win the Nevada
Democratic caucuses, CNN projects.

The New York senator led rival Barack Obama by 8
percentage points with about half of the precincts
reporting.

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards was a distant
third.

On the Republican side, CNN projects Mitt Romney as
the winner of Saturday's GOP caucuses in Nevada, based
on entrance polls and early returns.

Romney was cruising with 55 percent of the vote in
early returns, but a dogfight was on for second place.

Romney issued a statement Saturday afternoon.

"Today, the people of Nevada voted for change in
Washington. For far too long, our leaders have
promised to take the action necessary to build a
stronger America, and still the people of Nevada and
all across this country are waiting.

"Whether it is reforming health care, making America
energy independent or securing the border, the
American people have been promised much and are now
ready for change," the statement said.

Sen. John McCain and Rep. Ron Paul were in a close
race for second place, ahead of former Arkansas Gov.
Mike Huckabee and former Sen. Fred Thompson.

Also on Saturday, Republicans were voting in a primary
election in South Carolina, where results were
expected to come in later. Video Watch how candidates
are competing in South Carolina »

The two contests could propel two candidates to
front-runner status and winnow the field in this
year's wide-open presidential races. Photo See scenes
from Saturday's races »

McCain was seeking to extend polling hours in South
Carolina after learning voting machines in the eastern
part of the state were malfunctioning, according to a
lawyer for his campaign.

"Human error" was to blame for putting voting machines
offline in 80 percent of Horry County's precincts,
county spokeswoman Lisa Bourcier said.

By 4 p.m. ET, only about four of the county's 118
precincts were without a working machine, she said.

Economic issues were foremost in the minds of Nevada
GOP voters, and that worked in favor of Romney, who
has earned a reputation as a successful businessman.

In a CNN entrance poll Saturday morning, 38 percent of
Nevada caucus participants cited the economy as their
most important issue.

Of those, 47 percent said they were caucusing for
Romney, and 26 percent favored Paul.

The second most important issue for Nevada Republicans
was illegal immigration, at 34 percent.

Nevada marks the second straight win for the former
Massachusetts governor, following a win in the
Michigan primary earlier in the week.

Even though the Republican Party cut in half the
number of delegates the state party can send to the
national convention as punishment for moving its
caucuses to Saturday, Nevada has more delegates at
stake than South Carolina.

In a presidential race that's increasingly coming down
to who has the most delegates, a win helps Romney.

Romney also benefited from his Mormon religion, the
poll results show. Romney captured 94 percent of the
voters who identified themselves as Mormon, which made
up 25 percent of all Republicans participating in the
GOP caucuses.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
estimates there are 170,000 members living in Nevada.

A win in the South Carolina Republican primary could
give one of the candidates a foot up in a race that,
so far, has produced three different winners in three
major contests.

"South Carolina is the state where the Republican base
passes judgment on the candidates," CNN senior
political analyst Bill Schneider said. "If
conservatives are going to rally behind any single
contender, we'll see that happen in South Carolina."

The weather could become a significant factor in the
race. Cold rain was falling across the state, and snow
was reported in spots.

Snow is rare in South Carolina and brings the state to
a standstill when it falls, even in small amounts.

The latest polling in South Carolina had Huckabee as
the front-runner. An American Research Group poll
conducted January 17-18 had Huckabee leading at 33
percent, followed by Sen. John McCain at 26 percent.

Thompson was at 21 percent and the poll found and
Romney was running fourth at 9 percent. All other
candidates were in single digits. The poll's margin of
error was plus or minus 4 percentage points.
advertisement

No GOP candidate has gone on to win his party's
nomination without winning South Carolina since Ronald
Reagan won there in 1980, but, with the race so
volatile, that may not hold true this year.

"Right now, conservatives are split. Economic
conservatives like Mitt Romney, social conservatives
like Huckabee, and military conservatives like John
McCain," Schneider said. "They could end up just as
divided after the South Carolina vote.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080120/ap_on_el_pr/campaign_rdp;_ylt=AlNejBB_eu18sw\
Ff09zk2Aqs0NUE

  McCain wins South Carolina primary

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent 19 minutes ago

Sen. John McCain won a hard-fought South Carolina
primary Saturday night, avenging a bitter personal
defeat in a bastion of conservatism and gaining ground
in an unpredictable race for the Republican
presidential nomination. Democrats Hillary Rodham
Clinton and Barack Obama split the spoils in Nevada
caucuses marred by late charges of dirty politics.

"We've got a long way to go," McCain told The
Associated Press in an interview. He quickly predicted
that his victory in the first southern primary would
help him next week when Florida votes, and again on
Feb. 5 when more than two dozen states hold primaries
and caucuses.

"This is one step on a long journey," Clinton told
cheering supporters in Las Vegas. She captured the
popular vote, but Obama edged her out for national
convention delegates at stake, taking 13 to her 12.

Obama issued a statement that said he had conducted an
"honest, uplifting campaign ... that appealed to
people's hopes instead of their fears."

If the Democrats had co-front-runners, the Republicans
had none, and looked to the first southern state
primary to begin winnowing an unwieldy field.

McCain defeated former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in
a close race in the state that snuffed out his
presidential hopes eight years ago. The Arizonan was
gaining 33 percent of the vote to just under 30
percent for his closest rival.

"It just took us a while. That's all. Eight years is
not a long time," McCain told the AP.

Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson was in a struggle
for third place with about 16 percent, after saying he
needed a strong showing to sustain his candidacy.
Another Republican, California Rep. Duncan Hunter,
dropped out even before the votes were tallied.

Interviews with South Carolina voters leaving their
polling places indicated that McCain, an Arizona
senator, and Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor,
were dividing the Republican vote evenly. As was his
custom, McCain was winning the votes of self-described
independents.

South Carolina was the second half of a campaign
double-header for Republicans.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney cruised to
victory earlier in the day in the little-contested
Nevada caucuses.

No matter the state, the economy was the top issue in
all three races on the ballot.

Republicans in Nevada and South Carolina cited
immigration as their second most-important concern.

Among Democrats in Nevada, health care was the second
most-important issue followed by the Iraq war, which
has dominated the race for months.

With three contests on the ballot, it was the busiest
day of the presidential campaign to date, and
fittingly enough for a pair of wide-open races, every
contest produced a different winner.

Romney rolled to victory in Nevada Republican
caucuses, winning roughly 50 percent of the vote in a
multi-candidate field.

With a black man and a woman as the leading
contenders, the Democratic race was history in the
making — and increasingly testy, as well.

Before the votes were tallied, Obama was critical of
former President Clinton, telling reporters, "It's
hard to say what his intentions are. But I will say
that he seems to be making a habit of
mischaracterizing what I say."

Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, issued a
written statement accused the Clinton campaign of "an
entire week's worth of false, divisive attacks
designed to mislead caucus-goers and discredit the
caucus itself."

Clinton declined to comment on the allegation.

Whatever the hard feelings, she told supporters they
would fade by the fall general election campaign. "We
will all be united in November," she said, as the
crowd chanted "HRC, HRC."

Her campaign issued a statement citing numerous
reports of voter intimidation. It also accused UNITE
HERE, a union supporting Obama, of running a radio
commercial that was "one of the most scurrilous smears
in recent memory." The ad, broadcast in Spanish, said
Clinton "does not respect our people" and called her
shameless.

Interviews with Democratic caucus-goers indicated that
Clinton fashioned her victory by winning about half
the votes cast by whites, and two-thirds support from
Hispanics, many members of a Culinary Workers Union
that had endorsed Obama. He won about 80 percent of
the black vote.

Obama had pinned his Nevada hopes on an outpouring of
support from the 60,000-member union. But it appeared
that turnout was lighter than expected at nine
caucuses established along the Las Vegas Strip, and
some attending held signs reading, "I support my
union. I support Hillary."

Democrats looked next to South Carolina to choose
between Obama, the most viable black candidate in
history, and Clinton, seeking to become the first
woman to occupy the White House. The state is home to
thousands of black voters, who are expected to
comprise as much as half the Democratic electorate.

After that, the race goes national, with more than 20
states holding primaries and caucuses on Feb. 5 and
1,678 national Democratic convention delegates at
stake.

The split Democratic verdict in Nevada resulted from
the proportional manner in which delegates were
awarded. Obama emerged with one more than Clinton
because he ran strongly in rural areas.

Overall, Clinton leads the delegates race with 236,
including separately chosen party and elected
officials known as superdelegates. Obama has a total
of 136, and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards
has 50.

Romney struck first on the day among the Republicans.

The former Massachusetts governor learned of his
Nevada victory when his wife Ann announced it on the
public address system of his chartered jet. "Keep 'em
coming. Keep 'em coming," he said.

Romney had campaigned for months to win early contests
in Iowa and New Hampshire, and his candidacy was in
trouble when he lost both. He retooled his appeal to
the voters in the days leading to the Michigan
primary, though, focusing on the economy and
trumpeting his experience as a businessman.

En route to Florida, he presented reporters with his
ambitious economic stimulus plan, $233 billion in all.
It includes tax rebates as well as tax cuts for
individuals, as well as tax cuts for businesses.

Nevada Republicans said the economy and illegal
immigration were their top concerns, according to a
survey of voters entering the caucuses. Romney led
among voters who cited both issues.

Mormons gave Romney about half his votes. He is hoping
to become the first member of his faith to win the
White House. Alone among the Republican contenders,
Rep. Ron Paul of Texas aired television ads in Nevada.

Nearly complete returns showed Romney winning more
than 50 percent of the vote, with Paul and McCain far
behind vying for second. Thompson and Huckabee
trailed.

Romney also won at least 17 of the 31 Republican
National Convention delegates at stake. McCain and
Paul won at least four apiece, while Thompson and
Huckabee each won two. Hunter and Rudy Giuliani each
won one delegate — the first of the campaign for the
former New York mayor.

Nevada offered more delegates — 31 versus 24 — but far
less appeal to the Republican candidates than South
Carolina, a primary that has gone to the party's
eventual nominee every four years since 1980.

That made it a magnet for Thompson, who staked his
candidacy on a strong showing, as well as for Romney,
McCain and Huckabee.

McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war, appealed to
a large population of military veterans in South
Carolina, and stressed his determination to rein in
federal spending as he worked to avenge a bitter
defeat in the 2000 primary.

Huckabee reached out to evangelical Christian voters,
hoping to rebound from a string of disappointing
showings since his victory in the Jan. 3 Iowa
caucuses.

Romney campaigned on a pledge to help restore the
state's economy, much as he did in winning Michigan.

In South Carolina, the economy and immigration were
cited as top issues, with more than half the voters
saying illegal immigrants should be deported.
Conservatives and white evangelical voters turned out
in heavy numbers, according to the polling place
interviews.

Survey data in both states were from polls conducted
for The Associated Press and the television networks
by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International.

South Carolina primary voters coped with equipment
difficulty and bad weather. Election officials in the
area around Myrtle Beach brought out paper ballots
after some electronic voting machines failed to work
properly. Snow fell in the northern part of the state,
which has little snow removal equipment.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/01/19/0119kucinich.html

U.S. Supreme Court denies Kucinich place on Texas
ballot
Candidate objects to party's loyalty oath, will return
to argue before appeals court.

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Saturday, January 19, 2008

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday refused
to step in to a dispute between presidential candidate
Dennis Kucinich and the Texas Democratic Party,
allowing the state to print primary ballots without
Kucinich's name.

Kucinich sued the party over a loyalty oath that all
candidates must sign to be on the ballot.

He and supporter Willie Nelson objected to a section
requiring that a presidential candidate "fully
support" the party's eventual nominee.

Lower courts also ruled against Kucinich.

Texas said the deadline to print absentee ballots for
the March 4 primary is today.

Kucinich's campaign said Friday that it would return
to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to argue its
case.