Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Wall Street Journal March Archive

Monthly Archive - March 2007March 7, 2007, 6:30 pm
WSJ/NBC News Poll Shows Giuliani's Strength

Giuliani
Americans are already paying close attention to the 2008 presidential race, and they are giving new traction to one rising star in each party.

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows that among Republicans, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has climbed into a solid lead for his party’s nomination for the White House. Boasting support across his party’s ideological spectrum, Giuliani leads Arizona Sen. John McCain by 55% to 34% in a head to head match of the two top Republican candidates.

Among Democrats, the Journal/NBC poll shows, Barack Obama continues his improbable rising in the White House race after just two years as a U.S. senator from Illinois. Obama trails Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton by a relatively narrow 47% to 39% in a match between two candidates who could make history. Clinton, a New York senator and former First Lady, could become America’s first woman president; Obama could become the first African-American president.
The telephone poll of 1,007 adults, conducted March 2-5 by Democratic pollster Peter Hart and Republican pollster Neil Newhouse, carries a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points. Read more. –John Harwood

Readers: In your opinion, who’s the strongest Republican candidate?

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Read more: Global, Campaign 2008 March 7, 2007, 4:52 pm
Obama: Default Position?

Obama
Sen. Barack Obama, on the hot seat for a couple of investments in companies backed by big donors, told reporters today, “At no point did I know that stocks were held, and at no point did I direct how those stocks were invested.”

At the end of a press conference on immigration, the Illinois Democrat and presidential hopeful, said he didn’t want investments “that potentially would create conflicts with my work here,” and explained that his broker bought the stocks as part of a quasi-blind trust. “Obviously, the thing didn’t work the way I wanted it to.”

Could it be that when it comes to controversies, Obama’s emerging default position is the claim that he has no idea what people around him are doing on his behalf? Last month, when the fight broke out between the Obama and Hillary Clinton camps over cutting remarks about the Clintons by Hollywood mogul and Obama supporter David Geffen, Obama distanced himself from the fight — particularly from a fusillade from his campaign aide Robert Gibbs — saying he had been on a plane, got a haircut and took his daughters to school while the mud fight erupted.

We’re waiting to hear what Obama says next, since he is certain to get more questions on the investment matter, first reported by the New York Times. It involves purchases of stock in AVI Biopharma and Skyterra Communications; a major investor in both was Obama friend and contributor George W. Haywood. Also, back in 2005, another Skyterra investor Jared Abbruzzese, an Albany, N.Y., area businessman, and his wife, Sherrie, contributed $10,000 to Obama’s political action committee, the Hope Fund.

Abbruzzese is now part of a public corruption investigation in Albany. For the Abbruzzeses, the donation to the Obama PAC was a deviation. The Center for Responsive Politics shows they gave $75,000 to the Republican National Committee in the 2005-2006 election cycle, $10,000 to the 21st Century Freedom PAC, headed by former New York Gov. George Pataki. Former New York Rep. John Sweeney, who lost his re-election bid last November amid questions about domestic violence, got $6,100 from the couple, and Sen. Bob Corker, the newly elected Republican senator from Tennessee, got $2,500. –Mary Lu Carnevale

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Read more: Global, Campaign 2008 March 7, 2007, 11:33 am
Gates Opposes Repeal of Estate Tax

Gates
Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates told a Senate panel today that he opposes a repeal of the federal estate tax.

Tax-cut legislation enacted in 2001 reduced the estate tax rate and provided for 10 years of increasing exemptions. For 2007, the top estate tax rate is 45% and the exemption is $2 million. Under the law, the tax is fully repealed in 2010 but will be revived in 2011 with a top rate of 55% and an exemption of $1 million. Pending legislation proposes making the full repeal permanent.

Gates’s father, Bill Gates Sr., has launched a public campaign in opposition to such a repeal along with other financial beacons such as Warren Buffett.


Sen. Kennedy and Gates on Capitol Hill
Asked Wednesday by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, “How are you getting along with your dad?” Gates said he agreed with many of his father’s arguments. Gates said he hadn’t spoken much about the issue publicly, choosing instead to focus on issues such as competitiveness and global health. Gates said of his father’s efforts, “I think what he’s doing has a lot of merit.”

Gates has made similar comments in the past, but never in such a public forum, a Microsoft spokesman said. Gates was testifying on American competitiveness before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee.

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Read more: Global, Budget, Spending and Taxes March 7, 2007, 12:15 am
As Doubts on Economy Grow, Stock Investors Stay Upbeat
Americans have become more pessimistic about the health of the economy, but investors remain confident about stocks despite recent market fluctuations.

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll of American adults shows a significant decline in economic confidence since the year began. About 31% of Americans now expect the economy to get worse over the next year, double the proportion who said so in January.

Yet a smaller group of Americans with some stock-market investments remains bullish. Among those who say they have at least $5,000 in the market, 46% expect the market to move higher over the next year, while just 16% expect the market to fall. One-third expect the market to stay the same. Read the full article.–John Harwood

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Read more: Global, Economy March 6, 2007, 7:11 pm
Clinton’s Focus on Women
Sen. Hillary Clinton is focusing her presidential campaign on women these days. At a lunchtime address to Emily’s List, she announced a new outreach to women — Women for Hillary — and she said she will reintroduce her bill aimed at shrinking the pay gap between men and women.

The numbers tell the story: In 2004, 54% of the votes were cast by women, and if Clinton can attract significantly more support among women than her opponents can, the effect could be decisive. Emily’s List, a political committee that raises money for Democratic women candidates who support abortion rights, has already endorsed Clinton. Today, she promised the crowd of some 1,200 that “together, we can break the hardest and highest of glass ceilings,” by electing her in 2008.

In a “Hillcast” on pay parity, Clinton (this time wearing a blue jacket with a mandarin collar) said the Paycheck Fairness Act would give women greater ability to sue their employers for pay discrimination, bar employers from punishing employees for sharing salary information and enforce equal pay laws for federal contracts. But passage will be difficult. Similar bills have been introduced in the House and Senate every Congress since 1997.

To build support among younger women and their mothers, the Clinton campaign is preparing to launch a Web site next week: www.icanbepresident.com. –Dean Treftz

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Read more: Global, Campaign 2008 March 6, 2007, 5:30 pm
Case Closed?
“I do not expect to file any additional charges,” special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald declared at a news conference after a jury convicted I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby. “We’re all going back to our day jobs.”

That would be one of the most remarkable outcomes of the government’s CIA leak investigation since any number of earlier independent counsel investigations have dragged on for years, winding up far afield from the original probe. (Think Whitewater, which began in 1993 as an investigation into a failed Arkansas land deal and ended in 2000 after delving into the White House travel office, the suicide of a White House lawyer, and President Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky – all at a cost to taxpayers of some $80 million.)

While Fitzgerald said that if new information materializes “we will take action,” he made it clear he wants to return to his “day job” as the U.S. attorney in Chicago. He was tapped for the CIA leak case in 2003 by then-Deputy Attorney General James Comey, a friend who gave him wide latitude as special prosecutor. When Fitzgerald started going after journalists, many thought he had little regard for the First Amendment. And when his investigation reached President Bush’s inner circle, conservatives cried foul. Still others thought he didn’t go far enough. Even today, juror Denis Collins, a former Washington Post reporter, said jurors wanted to hear from other Bush administration officials, including political adviser Karl Rove. “It was said a number of times [by jurors], ‘What are we doing with this guy here? Where’s Rove? Where are these other guys?’ ” Collins said. “It seemed like he [Libby] was, as Mr. Wells put it, he was the fall guy.”

But details of how that came about might never become public. As a special prosecutor — and not an independent counsel — he doesn’t have to file a report on the on the probe. –John McCary

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Read more: Global, Courts March 6, 2007, 5:24 pm
A Little Respect
President Bush said “he respected the jury’s verdict,” much as “he was saddened for Scooter Libby and his family,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said after the former White House aide was convicted of perjury and related crimes. Vice President Cheney, however, had no word on respect for the jury or its verdict.

“I am very disappointed with the verdict. I am saddened for Scooter and his family. As I have said before, Scooter has served our nation tirelessly and with great distinction through many years of public service,” the vice president said in a statement. Because Libby, who served as Cheney’s chief of staff, plans to seek a new trial or appeal his conviction, “I plan to have no further comment on the merits of this matter until these proceedings are concluded,” the vice president said. –Jess Bravin

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Read more: Global, Courts, White House March 6, 2007, 4:11 pm
A Teaching Moment for President Bush?
Days before President Bush begins a five-country tour of Latin America, the University of Nebraska sued to end the administration’s hold on a Bolivian professor originally slated to teach at the Lincoln campus in August 2005.

The university first petitioned for the historian, Waskar Ari, to receive a special worker visa nearly two years ago, paying extra fees to guarantee a decision within 15 business days. But the application has been delayed “for unspecified ’security checks,’” according to the Washington immigration firm handling the suit.

Ari’s lawyer, Michael Maggio, has said officials may have mistakenly linked his client to Bolivian President Evo Morales, who has strongly criticized the Bush administration and, like Ari, is an Aymara Indian.

Ari received a Ph.D. from Georgetown University in May 2005 and returned to Bolivia for what he expected to be a brief visit before assuming his duties at Nebraska. Instead, officials summoned him to the U.S. Embassy in La Paz and canceled his visa. “I don’t understand. I am considered to be very pro-America in Bolivia,” Ari told the Washington Post last summer.

In another prominent case, the government denied a visa to Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss professor and vocal supporter of Palestinians, to teach Islamic studies at Notre Dame. Decisions to deny a visa are not subject to appeal, though immigrants can sue government agencies to fully process their applications.

Bush will arrive in Brazil on Friday, followed by visits to Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico. Washington Wire noted Monday that Bush plans to meet with ordinary people “to counter a rise in leftist sentiment symbolized by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez .” –Ben Winograd

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Read more: Global, Foreign Policy, White House March 6, 2007, 3:14 pm
White House Doesn’t Rule Out Pardon for Libby
The White House said it wouldn’t comment on the Libby case.

Well, OK, maybe just a little.

Notably, the administration refused to rule out a pardon for the former senior aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, convicted today of perjury and obstruction of justice. At a lively daily briefing for reporters, spokeswoman Dana Perino said in response to questions that “there’s a process in place for all Americans if they want to receive a pardon from a president.” She added that she wasn’t characterizing Libby’s prospects of getting clemency if he eventually does apply. “I don’t think that speculating on a wildly hypothetical situation at this time is appropriate,” she said.

Democrats including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada had immediately called for President Bush to pledge that he wouldn’t pardon Libby, who now faces a prison term. Some legal observers thought Libby put himself on a track to ask for a pardon by not calling Cheney as a witness or rehashing many potentially embarrassing or incriminating events.

Perino also described Bush’s whereabouts when the verdict was announced (he was in the Oval Office with Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and senior adviser Dan Bartlett) as well as his reaction (sadness for Libby and his family). She added that the president respected the jury verdict. In response to questions, she also disagreed with the suggestion that the verdict reflected a culture of corruption in the administration or a cloud on the vice president’s office. And she acknowledged that it can be “frustrating” to go through such a lengthy investigation into “unpleasant” issues.

She initially said it was appropriate for Reid to make his comments about the verdict, but when asked why it then wasn’t appropriate for the White House to comment, too, she said she wasn’t “going to make a judgment on Sen. Reid.” –John D. McKinnon

Vote: Do you agree with the guilty verdict?
Readers: Was the White House’s response appropriate?
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Read more: Global, White House March 6, 2007, 2:21 pm
Libby Juror Has His Say
Scooter Libby juror Denis Collins, in a lengthy news conference on the courtroom steps, said the least convincing argument presented in the trial was that “Mr. Libby was working so hard that he could just forget everything. Our conclusion was, yeah, he worked hard and had some memory problems… But you don’t forget what you know.”

Still, the 57-year-old former Washington Post reporter, said the jury felt sympathy for Libby, his wife and children. “It’s not like I would vote for Mr. Libby if he ran for office,” said Collin, “but we all felt for him…the unpleasantness of passing judgment was palpable.”

As for a pardon, he said, “Personally, I wouldn’t be upset a bit… I just don’t have any anger toward Mr. Libby.” Collins, who said he’s a registered Democrat, said politics didn’t enter into the jury’s verdict.

Evaluating the lawyers’ performances, Collins said both Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald (whom he described as “a light heavyweight, straight ahead” fighter) and Theodore Wells, Libby’s lead attorney, (“He kinda jumped around”) both were first-rate. “We just thought Fitzgerald was given a lot more to work with.” –Mary Lu Carnevale

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Read more: Global March 6, 2007, 1:14 pm
Democrats Applaud Verdict in Libby Case

Libby
Democratic leaders quickly weighed in on the jury’s guilty verdict against I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, issued a statement, saying, “I welcome the jury’s verdict. It’s about time someone in the Bush Administration has been held accountable for the campaign to manipulate intelligence and discredit war critics.”

He went on to say that Libby “has been convicted of perjury, but his trial revealed deeper truths about Vice President Cheney’s role in this sordid affair. Now, President Bush must pledge not to pardon Libby for his criminal conduct.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the trial “provided a troubling picture of the inner workings of the Bush Administration. The testimony unmistakably revealed — at the highest levels of the Bush Administration — a callous disregard in handling sensitive national security information and a disposition to smear critics of the war in Iraq.”

The Democratic National Committee, meantime, put a picture of Libby and a banner headline “GUILTY” on its Web site. The first comment, was simply: “MERRY FITZMAS!!!!”

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, in a news conference outside the courtroom, told reporters that “any lie under oath is serious… The truth is what drives the judicial system.”

Libby attorney Theodore Wells told reporters that the defense team plans to file a motion for a new trial and if that’s rejected, will appeal. “Despite our disappointment in the jurors’ verdict, we believe in the American justice system and we believe in the jury system,'’ he said. –Mary Lu Carnevale

UPDATE: Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D., Ill.) said Libby’s conviction “underscores what happens when our foreign and national security policies are subverted by politics and ideology. Leaks and innuendo in pursuit of a flawed policy lead to shameful episodes such as this. It should never happen again.”

Rep. Edward J. Markey (D., Mass.) said the “entire intelligence community was chilled by this politically-motivated outing by White House operatives. While the White House was saying “trust us” to the American people, it simultaneously was saying to the American intelligence community “if you tell the truth, we’ll threaten your family.” This deception is now catching up with them.”

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Read more: Global, White House March 6, 2007, 10:17 am
Labor Takes on Bush Trade Agenda
The labor community is stepping up opposition to the Bush trade agenda.

AFL-CIO leaders are signaling their intention to challenge efforts to renew the president’s trade-negotiating authority, which expires at the end of June. The authority gives the president the ability to negotiate trade deals and submit them to Congress for approval without amendment. It’s a top priority of the White House, and would give the administration added time to finish a deal in the Doha Round of world-wide trade talks.

At a news conference today, leaders of the AFL-CIO are expected to urge the Democratic-controlled Congress to embrace an “alternative vision” for trade policy, one that strengthens the role of Congress in negotiations and puts greater emphasis on worker rights and environmental standards, among other things. The challenge posed by the AFL-CIO will raise pressure on Democratic leaders not to compromise with the White House on trade.

In recent weeks, top Democrats, including House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D., N.Y.), have talked with the Bush administration about elevating labor rights in pending U.S. trade deals with Peru, Colombia and Panama, as well as the president’s broader negotiating authority. The AFL-CIO supports greater protections for worker rights but is skeptical that the White House will ever agree to a level of protection acceptable to the labor movement. Moreover, the AFL-CIO has a number of additional concerns with the Bush trade agenda, such as the patent protections sought for U.S. pharmaceuticals. –Greg Hitt

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Read more: Global, Business, Trade March 6, 2007, 8:46 am
Global Economy 'as Strong as I've Seen,' Paulson Says
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Tuesday said the world economy is very strong amid substantial growth in Japan, China, the U.S. and developing countries around the world. “The global economy is more than sound: it’s as strong as I’ve seen in my business lifetime.” Paulson, who is meeting with Japanese officials on the first day of a four-day visit to Asia, downplayed the long-term impact of the global stock market decline.

“Markets very seldom move in a straight line,” Paulson said to reporters after a meeting at the Tokyo Stock Exchange. “You are always going to have volatility.” Paulson told reporters the U.S. economy is strong, supported by low inflation, growing employment, and higher wages. He noted that U.S. home sales and prices have slowed over the past year. –Elizabeth Price

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Read more: Global, Economy March 6, 2007, 8:30 am
Fed Official Sees Plenty of Liquidity
Despite last week’s turmoil in the financial markets, liquidity is not “in short supply,” says Fed Governor Kevin Warsh.

Warsh told the Institute of International Bankers in Washington today that while “risk premiums” – the additional return investors demand to hold a risky asset – “rose some last week, markets are functioning well… and overall liquidity does not appear to be in short supply.” But he cautioned that it’s too soon for a “comprehensive” assessment.

Stocks world-wide fell sharply last week and yields on risky debt, such as bonds backed by subprime mortgages, rose sharply. Futures markets priced in a higher probability that the Fed would cut interest rates this year because of the Fed’s history of easing monetary policy in response to disorderly market conditions, and because weaker stock prices and higher risk premiums often foreshadow economic weakness.

But in the last week, Fed officials have struck a confident tone, even arguing that periods of such volatility are healthy safeguards against investor complacency. That suggests little inclination as yet to cut rates.

Fed Governor Randall Kroszner told a community bankers’ meeting in Washington that “the outlook for the U.S. economy has not materially changed.” And William Poole, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, said in Santiago, Chile, that it would be wise for the Fed not to respond to the trouble through its monetary policy “until you have a better idea of what’s actually happening.”

Warsh said that judging from liquidity alone, “it would be hard to conclude that monetary policy has been restrictive.” He said liquidity has multiple definitions, but he defined it as investors’ confidence in their ability to buy and sell with ease because they can quantify risks. In conditions like those of recent months, when investors believe the economic outlook is “benign” and more damaging possibilities remote or easy to measure, he said, liquidity is “plentiful.”

Warsh, a former investment banker, said investor overconfidence could not be “ruled out,” but he cited fundamental explanations for low risk premiums. The economy is less volatile, there are many new financial products for spreading risk and investors such as hedge funds to buy them, and emerging markets are sending excess savings to developed countries, he said. Even if there is a shakeout, risks will remain easier to disperse and hedge, he said. –Greg Ip

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Read more: Global March 6, 2007, 8:15 am
Libby Trial: Defining 'Humanly Possible'
On the ninth day of jury deliberations in the I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby trial, jurors posed this question to Judge Reggie Walton: “We would like clarification of the term ‘reasonable doubt.’ Specifically, is it necessary for the government to present evidence that it is not humanly possible for someone not to recall an event in order to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt?'’

The question led to nearly an hour of discussion among the judge, the prosecution and the defense. Walton replied, via note, that the jurors should reread his earlier instructions, and he had a question for them, too: What did they mean by “humanly possible.'’

Reporters trying to read the tea leaves have come up with their own pastime: a pool on the timing of the verdict. But even that isn’t running smoothly. Votes had to be recast today since most of those in the pool figured the decision would come this past Friday. Odds now favor Wednesday or Thursday. –John McCary

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Read more: Global, Courts, White House March 5, 2007, 5:30 pm
Bush Calls Latin American Poverty a 'Scandal'

Bush
Just as he’s acknowledging economic inequality in the U.S., President Bush also is talking more about the vast gulf between rich and poor in Latin America.

In a speech today outlining his message for this week’s trip to Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico, Bush called poverty in the region a “scandal” — an unusual admission for the normally upbeat president. Since a speech on Wall Street in January, Bush also has been talking more about inequality in the U.S.

Bush’s trip to Latin America will include several stops where he’ll meet with ordinary people, in what aides acknowledge is a new White House effort to demonstrate his sensitivity to the region’s poverty as well as its potential. Bush is trying to counter a rise in leftist sentiment symbolized by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

In Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Friday, Bush will take part in a roundtable at the Meninos do Morumbi community center, located in a neighborhood where very wealthy people live near some of the city’s poorest street kids. On Sunday in Colombia, Bush will take part in a roundtable with Afro-Colombians who’ve benefited from U.S. and Colombian educational initiatives. And in Guatemala, Bush will visit an agricultural cooperative, the Labradores Mayas packing station, which provides jobs for indigenous farmers and has been benefiting from trade liberalization.

Bush said today that prosperity in Latin America too often has depended on accidents of birth, a veiled reference to the disparity that exists between European and non-European groups in the region. Still, the White House made no dramatic new aid announcements. Instead, the trip is focused broadly on doing a better job of convincing Latin Americans that democracy and free-market trade bring benefits, a senior White House official said. –John D. McKinnon

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Read more: Global, Foreign Policy, White House March 5, 2007, 5:03 pm
It Takes a Commission
Sen. Judd Gregg, (R., N.H.), said the last time Congress was on the verge of dealing with Social Security reform, Monica Lewinsky interfered, throwing Congress into chaos and squelching lawmakers’ ability to push through a bipartisan bill. This time, he fears Vice President Dick Cheney may have gotten in the way.

Gregg and Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad (D., N.D.) have been working behind the scenes to build support for a bipartisan commission to deal with reforming entitlements, including Social Security and Medicare, and tackling tax reform as well.

They plan to introduce legislation this week establishing a 16-member commission, made up equally of Democrats and Republicans and chaired by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. The commission would be required to take action by October. Gregg says everything would be on the table for discussion, including benefit cuts and tax increases as Congress looks for ways to restrain the costs of Social Security and Medicare, which are ballooning and could eventually swamp the federal budget. That jibes with comments made by Paulson, who has told lawmakers that he wants a discussion without “preconditions” that would cover everyone’s ideas, including taxes.

“Everybody was pretty comfortable with it, then some comments were made that caused people to be skittish,” says Gregg. Those comments included ones made by Cheney, who said that while President Bush wants a discussion on entitlement reform without preconditions, “we don’t believe a tax increase is necessary.”

Those remarks struck a sour note with Democrats, who don’t trust the White House to take seriously anything that includes a tax increase. House Democrats are now said to be wary of backing the commission.

Gregg said the vice president “undercut” the efforts of lawmakers to tackle entitlement reform. “It was a statement that he was directed to make in order to shore up the folks who are concerned about the [tax] rate issues,” he says.

Meanwhile, Paulson is eager to get lawmakers to the table to discuss reform in private and out of the public eye. While he doesn’t necessarily think legislation is necessary to create a commission, people familiar with the matter said he’s willing to participate should a commission be formed.

“We welcome discussions on this issue,” a Treasury spokeswoman said. —Deborah Solomon

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Read more: Global, Congress, Budget, Spending and Taxes, Domestic Policy March 5, 2007, 3:49 pm
Norquist: Romney Introduced, Not Endorsed

Romney
Conservative leader (and Americans for Taxpayer Reform founder) Grover Norquist may have introduced presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington this past week, but that doesn’t mean he’s endorsed him.

“It was an introduction, not an endorsement,” Norquist told WSJ editors and reporters today. Norquist says he called all of the nominees to let them know he’d be introducing Romney at the CPAC conference and why: he was the first 2008 Republican presidential nominee to sign the Americans for Taxpayer Reform pledge not to raise taxes.

Two other Republican hopefuls — Rudy Giuliani and John McCain — haven’t signed the pledge yet, but Norquist expects they will by the summer. Republican Mike Huckabee signed the pledge Friday, after getting hammered by the conservative Club for Growth, which released a paper detailing how he raised taxes while governor of Arkansas.

When will Norquist endorse a candidate? Not until every candidate has either signed the tax pledge or made it clear he won’t (which would, obviously, make that person likelier to win the Democratic presidential nomination than get Norquist’s seal of approval). The candidates will be asked to make some more detailed pledges on tax reform before he makes his choice, says Norquist, who added that he hopes to make his choice this summer. He also figures there could be room for his friend (and former House speaker) Newt Gingrich in the Republican race — if Giuliani, McCain or Romney falter. –Amy Schatz

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Read more: Global, Budget, Spending and Taxes, Campaign 2008 March 5, 2007, 2:46 pm
Encouraging Investments From Abroad
With Congress moving to tighten U.S. scrutiny of foreign investment, the Bush administration is launching an initiative to encourage fresh flows of capital from abroad.

Under the initiative to be announced Wednesday, the Commerce Department will head a special task force charged with promoting the U.S. as an attractive destination for foreign investment. The task force will be led by Commerce Undersecretary Franklin Lavin.

Just last week, the House voted 423-0 for legislation to increase U.S. scrutiny of overseas-led business deals — a move that puts pressure on the Senate to act. Among other things, the bill would require the administration to conduct a 45-day investigation of most deals involving foreign governments, give intelligence agencies a formal role in the review and increase disclosure to Congress. –Greg Hitt

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Read more: Global, Business, Trade March 5, 2007, 2:33 pm
High Court Rejects Colorado Map Case
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court found no constitutional problem when the Texas Legislature redrew congressional districts seven years ahead of the next census so as to give Republican candidates a leg up. On Monday, the court — citing different legal issues at play – reached the opposite result in Colorado, rejecting an appeal that sought to advantage a Republican candidate through a map redrawn years ahead of schedule by a Republican-controlled legislature.

Unlike Texas, Colorado’s state constitution limits redistricting to once per census. The state gained a seat after the 2000 census, but the legislature, split between a Democratic Senate and a Republican House, deadlocked on a new map. That threw the issue into state court, which imposed a Democratic-proposed map that put the new seat in Denver’s competitive north suburbs rather than in the Republican-dominated area south of the city.

Republicans took back the state Senate in 2002 and, although Republican Bob Beauprez had narrowly won the new seat, redrew the lines to strengthen their party’s hold in the 2004 elections. In December 2003, however, the Colorado Supreme Court barred the redrawn map from taking effect, citing the state constitution’s limit of one redistricting per census.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 2004 refused to hear a Republican appeal, but four Colorado citizens not party to that case then filed their own suit, alleging that the Colorado court’s decision ran afoul of the U.S. Constitution, which provides that the “legislature” of each state “shall” prescribe the “manner of holding elections for senators and representatives.”

In its unsigned opinion today, the high court didn’t discuss the merits of the citizen claim. Instead, it said the citizens had no standing to bring the claim in the first place.

“The only injury plaintiffs allege is that the law — specifically the Elections Clause — has not been followed. This injury is precisely the kind of undifferentiated, generalized grievance about the conduct of government that we have refused to countenance in the past,” the justices said, distinguishing the appeal from voting rights cases where individuals alleged that state action had impaired their own ability to cast effective ballots.

As it happens, Beauprez won re-election in 2004, but gave up his seat to run for governor last year, losing to Democrat Bill Ritter. Democrat Ed Perlmutter picked up Beauprez’s old district, giving the Democrats a 4-3 edge in Colorado’s congressional delegation. –Jess Bravin

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Read more: Global, Congress, Courts March 5, 2007, 9:35 am
CPAC Votes for Reagan
Ronald Reagan is alive and well — at least, he was at the Conservative Political Action Conference over the weekend. In a straw poll of conference participants, 79% said they would support “a Ronald Reagan Republican” for president, while only 3% said they would support a “George W. Bush Republican.” Still, 82% said they favor the president’s strategy in Iraq.

The conservative vote remained split, with no candidate a clear favorite. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won the straw poll for president with 21%, followed by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani with 17% of the votes from those attending the annual conference — a must-stop for candidates seeking the support of the party’s social conservative wing. Full results of the poll are at CPAC’s Web site. –June Kronholz

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Read more: Global March 5, 2007, 9:27 am
White House Tussles on Doha
As angst over the shaky state of the U.S. trade agenda grows, tensions are emerging within President Bush’s inner circle over how best to get the stalled Doha round of world trade talks moving. The chairman of the National Economic Council, presidential friend Allan Hubbard, and national-security adviser Stephen Hadley have privately voiced frustration with the tortured pace of action in the latest stage of comprehensive talks.

Launched in Doha, Qatar, soon after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the talks had as their primary aim better integrating poor nations into the global trading system. Hubbard and Hadley have pressed for a bolder U.S. offer in an effort to encourage other countries to compromise.

In one heated meeting among top Bush aides just before Christmas in the Old Executive Office Building, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab opposed the idea of a grand offer. Schwab, who had seen a similar move by her predecessor flop, pushed instead for “quiet negotiations” focusing on details to build trust among Doha’s participants.

Bush sided with Schwab, and has continued to back her. But she is now at risk of being overshadowed — some fear undercut — by new Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who is moving deeper into the public debate on Doha and trade. Read more. –Greg Hitt and Deborah Solomon

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Read more: Global, White House, Trade

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