Inside Politics

Princely denial

Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States yesterday denied any connection between the U.S. presidential election and a Saudi pledge to push for lower oil prices, as charged by Bob Woodward of The Washington Post and Democrat presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry.

There was no “quid pro quo,” Prince Bandar bin Sultan told reporters after meeting with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice about the latest terrorist strike in Saudi Arabia.

“The president has asked a few times that we should be helping to make sure that oil prices don’t go too high [and] curb the world economy,” added Prince Bandar, the Associated Press reports.

In his book “Plan of Attack,” Mr. Woodward said Prince Bandar secretly promised Mr. Bush that Saudi Arabia will lower oil prices in the months before the election to help ensure the U.S. economy is strong and gasoline prices are low on Election Day. Mr. Kerry said “a secret White House deal” would be “outrageous and unacceptable to the American people.”

“I cannot say we’re not aware that you are going through your seasonal tribal warfare now so it’s very dangerous to open one’s mouth here on any issue,” Prince Bandar said. “I hope Senator Kerry has heard my explanation about the oil and he can be assured that we didn’t make any deals that could interfere in our friends’ internal affairs.”

The prince said Saudi efforts are “not for the benefit of the president’s political needs. I think reasonable prices … is good for the American people, for the American economy, for the world economy and of course for the Saudi economy.”

“I really don’t see what is the big deal there, unless somebody would like to see the oil crisis stay high.”

DeMint’s numbers

Rep. Jim DeMint, who is seeking the Republican nomination for a U.S. Senate seat from South Carolina, says his polling shows him in second place heading into the June 8 primary and well-positioned for victory in the runoff two weeks later.

Mr. DeMint, speaking yesterday to the editorial board of The Washington Times, said he is “where I want to be” in the race.

Former Gov. David Beasely, who has greater name recognition, is in the “mid-30s” in the DeMint campaign polling. Mr. DeMint said he is in second place, in the “lower 20s.” Six candidates are seeking the nomination. A runoff will be held if no one wins 50 percent of the vote.

Mr. DeMint emphasizes that he is campaigning on “big ideas,” such as private Social Security accounts, adding, “If I lose to a protectionist Republican” such as Mr. Beasely, the national party is likely to run from the idea of free trade.

Mr. Beasely is backed by Roger Milken, the South Carolina textile magnate and longtime foe of free trade.

Mr. DeMint said he “wouldn’t be surprised” to start the general election campaign trailing Democrat Inez Tenenbaum, the state superintendent of education, but that in the end “I should win.”

Gorelick’s defense

“Jamie Gorelick has now issued her defense for staying on the September 11 commission, and the usual media and Democratic suspects are rallying behind her,” the Wall Street Journal says.

“So let’s put the issue as simply as possible: If Clinton-era Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick were not already a commission member, does anybody doubt that she would be called to testify before it?

“The commission is interviewing nearly every major law-enforcement and defense figure in two administrations, and surely a deputy AG was one of them. More than that, Ms. Gorelick was the author of a memo that has now become central to the debate over what went wrong before 9/11 in the way the U.S. dealt with terror threats,” the newspaper said in an editorial.

“Yet Ms. Gorelick now claims she can judge everyone else as a commissioner because her now-famous 1995 memo was no big deal and merely codified existing procedures. Even if we grant her this point, which many others dispute, shouldn’t she be required to explain it under oath? What gives her an Olympian exemption?”

The newspaper added: “The 9/11 commission was supposed to be a fair-minded, nonpartisan probe that would help our democratic government learn from its mistakes. Ms. Gorelick’s failure to resign and testify herself in the face of a clear conflict of interest is reason enough for the American public to distrust its ultimate judgments.”

Holding his ground

“Senior officials in the Bush re-election campaign are expressing growing confidence that the president has weathered weeks of rocky national security news — and may even have benefited from it — amid polls indicating that President Bush is holding steady against the likely Democratic challenger, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts,” the Boston Globe reports.

“Political strategists in both parties had anticipated problems for Bush from a series of dramatic developments, including the harsh claims in a book by former terrorism czar Richard A. Clarke that the administration had failed to address terrorism and rushed to war against Saddam Hussein; the testimony of the national security adviser and other officials before the September 11 Commission; and the bloody insurgencies and U.S. casualties in Iraq,” reporter Anne E. Kornblut said.

“But at a minimum, Bush appears to have held his ground. His advisers attribute the durability of his standing in part to an aggressive $40 million advertising blitz last month and his overwhelming head start in fund raising, which have helped neutralize negative events as long as the overall focus is on national security.”

No complaints

Looking back on his unsuccessful campaign for governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal says that his Indian heritage had nothing to do with his defeat.

“We got incredible support from every corner of the state,” Mr. Jindal told Agence France-Presse. “I don’t believe the people of Louisiana made their decision based on the color of skin.”

Mr. Jindal, the 32-year-old son of Punjabi immigrants, lost to Democratic Lt. Gov. Kathleen Blanco.

But a recent study by political scientists Richard Skinner and Philip Klinkner of Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., argues that ethnic bias played a role in the Republican’s surprise 52 percent to 48 percent defeat.

The paper attributes Mrs. Blanco’s 55,000-vote margin of victory to support she received from rural white conservatives who would normally flock to a Republican candidate with Mr. Jindal’s conservative platform.

Mr. Jindal now is running for a U.S. House seat from suburban New Orleans, which he is expected to win easily.

Salaried candidate

The Democrat running for South Dakota’s lone U.S. House seat has become the first federal candidate to draw a salary from campaign accounts, paying herself at a rate of $30,000 a year.

Stephanie Herseth paid herself $2,496.50 in February and the same amount in March, her campaign filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) show.

Miss Herseth is the first candidate to take advantage of a 2002 FEC ruling allowing candidates to pay themselves with campaign funds, said Mike Toner, the Republican FEC member who pushed for the new rule.

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