Inside Politics

Angry Democrats

Even James Carville, the Democratic partisan known for his take-no-prisoners rhetoric, is feeling the heat from frustrated party members, the Associated Press reports.

Mr. Carville said that during a recent trip to Seattle, at a liberal bastion where he is usually well-received, he was berated for not working hard enough to oust President Bush.

“There is an intense anger out there among Democrats. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen, and they’re upset with their own leaders,” Mr. Carville said.

Bush’s fund-raising

President Bush’s campaign said yesterday it has raised at least $34.2 million since he announced his 2004 re-election effort in May, with some checks still to be counted.

The Republican’s total dwarfs fund-raising by his nine Democratic rivals, including Howard Dean, who racked up more than $800,000 in a daylong Web-a-thon on Monday that put him firmly among his party’s money leaders as the second fund-raising quarter ended at midnight.

Mr. Bush raised $3 million at fund-raisers in Miami and Tampa, Fla., Monday while Vice President Dick Cheney helped the campaign collect at least $500,000 in Grand Rapids, Mich., and $600,000 in Akron, Ohio, the Associated Press reports.

The Bush-Cheney campaign had expected to raise around $30 million for the quarter after six weeks of fund raising. Mr. Bush entered the race in mid-May.

Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney and first lady Laura Bush raised close to $22 million through roughly a dozen fund-raisers across the country over the past two weeks.

In addition, Mr. Bush raised $4.5 million after sending a direct-mail piece to 1 million donors and raised $700,000 over the Internet, National Finance Chairman Mercer Reynolds said.

Last-minute appeals

Several presidential hopefuls in the nine-member Democratic field sent out urgent pleas for last-minute cash as the second quarter’s close approached Monday.

“Only a Few Hours Left,” said a campaign e-mail from Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri. “The clock is ticking,” North Carolina Sen. John Edwards told prospective donors in another online pitch.

“There are only 12 hours left before the critical June 30 fund-raising deadline,” Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut senator, wrote in an e-mail message. “Before 12 midnight (Central Time), please visit my Web site and make a contribution to my campaign.”

Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor, posted real-time totals every half hour on the Internet and urged donors to “hit a grand slam for Dean.”

Mr. Dean’s overall total of about $7.1 million for the second quarter topped early estimates from other Democratic candidates.

Officials with the campaigns of Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and Mr. Edwards said they expected second-quarter totals of about $5 million. Added to their first-quarter figures of more than $7 million, they could still lead the early Democratic money race overall.

Mr. Gephardt was aiming for $5 million in the second quarter, Mr. Lieberman hoped for $4 million and Sen. Bob Graham of Florida expected to report $2 million to $3 million in contributions, officials with those campaigns told AP.

Former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun said she raised about $150,000 during the quarter. Al Sharpton and Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio did not provide estimates.

Counting the cash

The Senate Republicans have a slight edge over their Democratic counterparts in early campaign cash, raising about $14.1 million in the first half of the year compared to about $10.6 million for the Democrats.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee, hoping to expand its slim Senate majority in next year’s elections, finished June with more than $5 million on hand and no debt, the group said Monday. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee had more than $2 million in the bank and $4.4 million in debt.

The Democratic National Committee, which also released its numbers Monday, raised $10 million during the second quarter, lifting its total contributions for the year to about $18.4 million. It has $6.5 million on hand and no debt.

Cut spending first

Americans want state lawmakers to cut spending to deal with severe fiscal problems that threaten to slash holes in 2004 budgets, but they don’t want to touch the two biggest budget items: education and health care, a new poll found yesterday.

Such contradictory attitudes help explain the dramatic scenes in state capitols around the country as legislators wrangle over spending cuts versus tax increases to balance budgets for the 2004 fiscal year, which began yesterday for most states, Reuters reports.

A poll of 1,019 adults nationwide by Gallup yesterday conducted between May 30 and June 1 found 79 percent of Americans favored cutting spending and just 13 percent wanted to raise taxes to deal with the states’ worst fiscal crisis since World War II.

But when those who favored spending cuts were asked whether education spending should be reduced, just 22 percent agreed, and just 21 percent said health care funding should be cut.

“You’re seeing it in some states already, that legislatures have to strike a balance between settling a budget entirely with budget cuts and settling the budget entirely with revenue increases,” said Ron Snell, economic and fiscal division director at the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Stopping traffic

“Rush-hour traffic stopped on 15th Street, N.W. in Washington, D.C., last Friday morning, according to The Washington Post. A mother duck and her four ducklings were the reason. But as they made their way through the city, not everyone was captivated by the traffic-light-reading-impaired birds,” Kathryn Jean Lopez writes at National Review Online (www.nationalreview.com).

“So humans soon began moving in, sometimes nearly putting their lives on the line for the ducks:

“Passer-by Pat Getter shot into the street after the ducks, yelling at cars, ’Stop! Stop! Stop!’ She threw up her hands as though she were facing down tanks.

“The drivers hit the brakes, annoyed, then smiling.

“’Oh, they are so traumatized,’ Jennifer Helburn worried. Mother duck walked on with her little ones, crossing K Street. At I Street, Helburn threw herself in front of a bus to protect the ducklings, according to the Post.

“But then came a classic moment in newspaper-reading double takes: Helburn’s day job? She is communications director for the National Abortion Federation, a trade association for abortion providers in the U.S. and Canada. Her fellow duck saver, Getter, told the Post, ’I realize you can’t save all of them all the time,’ she said, ’but when you’re in a position to try, then you owe it to them to try.’

“The tragic ironies. You’d think human kids might deserve the same right to life ducks deserve,” the writer said.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad the ducks survived their inside-the-Beltway rush-hour adventure. If only unborn baby humans could stop traffic somehow.”

Dr. Dean’s advice

Helping a political campaign can be rough: long hours, food on the run and the occasional dog bite. But for one volunteer on Howard Dean’s presidential campaign, it helps to have a doctor present, the Associated Press reports.

Sunday, a Dean campaign volunteer was bitten on the rear by a dog while she was going door-to-door in Nashua, N.H., campaign spokeswoman Dorie Clark said. She asked Dr. Dean about her wound, and he offered advice on how to treat the bite.

Dr. Dean, the former Vermont governor, is an internist.

In May, shortly before the Democratic debate in South Carolina, Mr. Dean came to the aid of a woman who collapsed outside a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream shop. He examined the woman and waited with her until an ambulance arrived.

• Greg Pierce can be reached at 202/636-3285 or gpierce@washingtontimes.com.