Inside the Beltway

Toasting Kerry

Republican wiseguys on Capitol Hill are distributing the “Official 2004 Democratic National Committee Convention Program,” or so they insist.

The schedule of events includes a series of antiwar rallies, each followed by Sen. Ted Kennedy proposing a toast; a re-enactment of John Kerry’s fake medal toss; tributes to Spain and France; and a homosexual “marriage” ceremony.

We’ll let you know when Democrats obtain the “official” agenda of the Republican National Convention.

Connie’s message

The Committee for the Study of the American Electorate was rightfully concerned that inevitable mudslinging in the 2004 presidential campaign would commence early, causing many American voters to eschew the ballot box.

“The Bush presidency is the most polarizing of any since that of Lyndon Johnson,” CSAE director Curtis Gans said last month. “Election 2004 will be played out on the field of … strong emotions.”

Thus, Mr. Gans conceded, it is in President Bush’s interest to run a “relentlessly negative” campaign against Democratic challenger John Kerry, making his opponent the issue as much as possible. Yet it is not in Mr. Kerry’s interest to respond in kind, he said, at least in his TV advertising.

If the Democrat did, he warned, the public would become buried by a barrage of negative campaigning, and come to believe neither candidate worthy of their votes. Here we are in mid-April and that scenario is playing out.

“In race for president, voter fatigue already sets in,” blares the front-page headline in the Kansas City Star.

“Connie Greene, a Kansas City mother of three, has a message for the two major campaigns for president: ’I’m fed up with it. It’s getting out of hand.’ So far out of hand that Greene is tempted to turn off her television before she sees any more,” writes reporter Steve Kraske, who adds:

“If Greene is fed up now, imagine how she and much of America will feel come September, much less November. Never before have Americans been exposed to such an all-out, full-scale presidential campaign this early in an election year.”

Republican pollster Neil Newhouse of Public Opinion Strategies suggests that Americans will get a breather from the blitz of negative TV spots, at least until both parties’ conventions convene this summer.

“I don’t think we sustain this level of intensity,” Mr. Newhouse told the Star. “It’s hard to believe that people aren’t going to get burned out pretty quickly.”

[Tomorrow’s column: If presidential candidates don’t blow it, higher voter turnout this fall is likely]

Cannabis call

Marijuana remains one of this country’s most popular highs, so this week the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) will kick off its 2004 National Conference and Congressional Lobby Day with the election-year slogan: “We’re here, we smoke, we vote.”

Day one of the Washington conference has participants converging on Capitol Hill to lobby on behalf of various marijuana-reform bills, with days two and three consisting of panel discussions on everything from “pot and your health” to “how not to get busted.”

“I urge those who oppose marijuana prohibition and the continuing arrest of hundreds of thousands of responsible marijuana smokers annually to join us in the nation’s capital,” says NORML President Keith Stroup.

The conference also includes a benefit screening of Ron Mann’s latest documentary, “Go Further,” starring Woody Harrelson.

Protecting Saddam

A man dressed up in a Saddam Hussein “Ace of Spades” costume was chased from a New York City sidewalk yesterday by three of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s bodyguards as the former first lady signed copies of her new paperback book inside Borders bookstore at Columbus Circle.

“They explained there was construction nearby and they didn’t want me to get hurt,” the Saddam impostor informed Inside the Beltway from a New York City phone booth.

Commission impossible

The “impartial” commission betrayed

Public trust and became a charade:

Unfair and uncouth,

They have trampled the truth,

Blaming Bush for the mess Clinton made.

— F.R. Duplantier

• John McCaslin, whose column is nationally syndicated, can be reached at 202/636-3284 or jmccaslin@washingtontimes.com.