Inside Politics

Powell vs. Kennedy

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell yesterday rebuked Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, for comparing the war in Iraq to Vietnam.

In a rare foray into politics, Mr. Powell said that Mr. Kennedy, a leading supporter of Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry, should be “more restrained and careful” when discussing Iraq and the war on terrorism.

At the same time, Mr. Powell also stressed that American democracy was enhanced by debate and conceded that he had not seen all of the speech on Monday in which Mr. Kennedy made the comments, Agence France-Presse reports.

“I was in Haiti and didn’t see the whole speech, but I must say that Senator Kennedy, I think, should be a little more restrained and careful in his comments because we are at war,” Mr. Powell said in an interview on a nationally syndicated radio broadcast.

“Debate is appropriate, and that’s the beauty of our open, democratic system, but I think this is also the time that we rally the nation behind the challenge that we face in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places in the world,” he said on “The Tony Snow Show.”

In the speech, Mr. Kennedy likened the Iraq invasion and occupation to the 1961-75 campaign in Vietnam, which claimed the lives of 58,000 U.S. soldiers and an estimated 3 million Vietnamese.

“Iraq is George Bush’s Vietnam, and this country needs a new president,” Mr. Kennedy said, adding that by going to war, the United States had angered key U.S. allies, made America “more hated in the world” and complicated the war on terrorism.

Two questions

The Wall Street Journal’s Brendan Miniter, writing at www.OpinionJournal.com, suggests that National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice turn the tables on the September 11 commission by asking two questions when she appears before the panel tomorrow:

“1. Commission Chairman Thomas Kean and Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton went on ’Meet the Press’ Sunday and said that their final report will include surprises and, more stunningly, that the September 11 attacks could have been thwarted.

“How did the commissioners come to these conclusions before the long-awaited public questioning of the national security adviser? Or, for that matter, before reading through all those Clinton-era documents said to have been withheld from the commission, and before FBI Director Robert Mueller, CIA Director George Tenet, Attorney General John Ashcroft and President Bush have testified? And before former FBI Director Louis Freeh, former Attorney General Janet Reno and Bill Clinton have weighed in under oath?

“2. How can a commission with a very narrow focus accurately portray the wider national-security picture that Ms. Rice and the rest of the Bush administration had to work with?”

Mr. Miniter added: “This second question is worth keeping in mind as Ms. Rice is pulled over the coals for failing to mention al Qaeda in speeches, and as reports come out claiming terrorism lost out to other defense agenda items — like national missile defense.

“The truth is that there are national-security threats other than al Qaeda, and the Bush administration was right to focus on them before September 11 and is still right to focus on them today. It is this broader vision of defense that is vital to national security, but that is obscured by premature conclusions and narrowly tailored inquiries.”

Bush up in Florida

President Bush leads Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry by 8 percentage points in Florida, according to a poll released yesterday.

The Mason-Dixon survey showed that 51 percent of likely voters favored Mr. Bush, while 43 percent said they would vote for Mr. Kerry, the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel reports.

Mr. Kerry shrugged off the adverse numbers. “I’m glad it’s that close. … I think over the next few weeks you’ll see changes,” the Sun Sentinel quoted him as saying.

But analysts said a month of heavy advertising by Mr. Bush in Florida has hurt Mr. Kerry’s image there.

The Bush campaign “has taken a toll on Kerry,” said Ken Goldstein, director of the Wisconsin Advertising Project, which analyzes political ads nationally.

“For Kerry to get those numbers back, he’s going to have to spend resources. And every dollar he spends in Florida, that’s a dollar that he doesn’t have to spend in Ohio and other states,” the Sun Sentinel quoted Mr. Goldstein as saying.

The poll of 625 voters was conducted between March 30 and April 1, and carries a 4-point margin of error.

Starr to Pepperdine

Kenneth W. Starr, who led the investigation into President Clinton’s relationship with Monica Lewinsky, has been named dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law.

Mr. Starr first accepted the position in 1997, but changed his mind after he was criticized for abandoning the Whitewater investigation into the Clintons’ real estate dealings.

The appointment, which was to be officially announced yesterday, followed a national search of more than six months, said Brad Cheves, the university’s vice president for advancement and public affairs.

Mr. Starr, a longtime guest lecturer at Malibu-based Pepperdine, was acting as independent counsel when he led the Lewinsky investigation, which ended with the first impeachment of a president since 1868.

Mr. Starr, a partner at Kirkland & Ellis in Washington and former federal appeals court judge and U.S. solicitor general, will begin work at Pepperdine on Aug. 1, the Associated Press reports.

Life of Riley

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley will not lead the GOP delegation to the Republican National Convention and may sit it out entirely, the Mobile Register reports.

Alabama’s senior statewide elected Republican, Sen. Richard C. Shelby, instead will lead the delegation. He is also directing President Bush’s re-election effort in the state.

Mr. Riley, who was rebuked by members of his own party when he pushed for a billion-dollar tax increase shortly after taking office, is not seeking a seat as a convention delegate.

As governor, the newspaper said, Mr. Riley will still have floor privileges at the convention, although only delegates may cast votes for presidential and vice presidential nominees and on questions concerning the party’s platform.

Heritage Web site

The Heritage Foundation is putting its policy recommendations on the Internet, where the conservative think tank hopes politicians and journalists can make use of them.

The “Issues 2004” Web site (heritage.org/research/features/issues2004) replaces Heritage issue books that have influenced conservative politicians, most notably President Reagan, who modeled much of his agenda on ideas that originated at the think tank.

One page of “Issues,” updated daily, contains in-brief news reports, the latest “Wastewatcher” from Citizens Against Government Waste, and an up-to-the-minute list of Heritage research. It also includes a capsule schedule of activities on Capitol Hill for the week, as well as links to townhall.com, Heritage’s outlet for conservative information and opinion, and other conservative think tanks and policy groups.

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