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<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=460110301-07102005>Please see
the important item, <FONT color=#000000><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><STRONG>Former aide to Miers claims his Christmas message
was too Christian for her</STRONG>, <FONT face=Arial>in which Harriet Miers
would <U>NOT</U> approve a Christmas message for Bush to sign (that
was actually LESS Christian than ones previously signed by President
Clinton) because it might offend people of other
faiths!</FONT></FONT></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000><SPAN
class=460110301-07102005></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=460110301-07102005><SPAN class=990031101-07102005><FONT
color=#000000
size=4><STRONG>Art</STRONG></FONT></SPAN></SPAN></DIV></FONT></DIV></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B>
enews@thehill.com [mailto:enews@thehill.com]<BR><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, October
06, 2005 9:13 PM<BR><B>To:</B> enews-html@thehill.com<BR><B>Subject:</B> The
Hill e-News<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
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<P align=left><FONT face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif"
size=-1><STRONG>The Tipsheet for October 7, 2005</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P align=left><FONT face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif"
size=-1><STRONG>Conservative grassroots groups mobilize for Katrina
offsets</STRONG> <BR>More than 750 national, state, and local
organizations are adding their voice to the growing call for spending cuts
to offset the cost of hurricane relief to the Gulf States. The Coalition
on Human Needs, as the broad alliance calls itself, sent a letter Thursday
to all members of the Senate and House urging them to "oppose cuts in
Medicaid, Food Stamps, and other vital assistance that would lead to
reduced help for low-income people, and to focus instead on policies that
will help people move out of poverty." Spurred by conservatives lead by
Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), chairman of the House Republican Study
Committee, Republicans are coalescing behind spending cuts to pay for
hurricane damage. In a Rose Garden speech this week, President Bush said
federal relief should be accompanied by cuts and that he would work with
lawmakers to identify offsets. Conservatives have identified increased
Medicaid co-payments, Medicaid block grants, and increased Medicare
premiums as potential offsets. On Wednesday, House Budget Committee
chairman Jim Nussle (R-Iowa) suggested an across-the-board 2 percent cut
on all discretionary spending.</P>
<P align=left><FONT face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif"
size=-1><STRONG>Pro-life groups say they did not organize against
Dreier</STRONG> <BR>Republican aides across Capitol Hill said they
were overwhelmed by phone calls from conservative activists last week
following the indictment of Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and the subsequent
leak that Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-Calif.) would
temporarily replace him as majority leader. The callers were protesting
Dreier's centrist voting record, particularly his recent vote in favor of
a stem-cell measure, as well as his vote against the federal marriage
amendment. The rapid flurry of activity prompted a number of staffers to
conclude that some of the conservative right-to-life groups had set up
phone banks to pressure leadership against the selection. Peter Brandt, a
senior policy director of the Colorado-based Focus on the Family,
vehemently disputed this claim last week. Brandt conceded that Focus
founder James Dobson may have spoken with House Speaker Dennis Hastert
(R-Ill.) during the course of that afternoon, but he said no one in his
office could confirm the Dreier selection nor did Focus ever reach out to
its constituents in an effort to pressure Hastert not to name Dreier. "We
did not bring our constituents in," Brandt said, adding, "When Focus
weighs in, hopefully folks will know." In fact, Focus did not receive a
single email about the presumed selection of Dreier, Brandt said.
Similarly, a spokeswoman for American Values President Gary Bauer said her
boss did not rally supporters against a Dreier selection. Asked whether
Dreier would be an acceptable member of leadership, Brandt said, "He
wouldn't be a real favorite of ours."</P>
<P align=left><FONT face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif"
size=-1><STRONG>Former aide to Miers claims his Christmas message was too
Christian for her</STRONG> <BR>Writing for
www.christianworldviewnetwork.com, a Christian Evangelical website, a
young social conservative expressed his frustration and doubt about
Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers' conservative credentials based on an
incident when their paths crossed early on in the Bush administration. Ned
Ryun is a 30-something conservative activist who heads Generation Joshua,
a group that encourages young, Christian conservatives to get involved in
politics. He wrote correspondence for Bush when Meirs served as Bush's
staff secretary (the staffer responsible for reviewing the paperwork that
presidents review and approve). In 2001, Ryun was assigned to write the
President's Christmas message. "After researching Reagan, Bush, and
Clinton's previous Christmas messages, I wrote something that was well
within the bounds of what had been previously written (and in case you are
wondering, Clinton's messages were far more evangelical than the elder
Bush's)," he wrote, adding that his immediate superiors approved the
message. But Miers had a problem with it because "the message might offend
people of other faiths, i.e., that the message was too Christian. She
wanted me to change it. I refused to change the message (In my poor
benighted reasoning, I actually think that Christmas is an overtly
Christian holiday that celebrates the birth of Christ and the beginning of
the redemption of man.)," Ryun wrote. Ryun said he took his complaint to
Ken Mehlman, who is Jewish and served as the political director at the
time. "He was not offended by it in the least. Miers insisted that I
change the tone of the message. I again refused, and after several weeks,
the assignment was taken out of my hands," Ryun wrote. "I was later
encouraged to apologize to Miers. I did not apologize." Ryun uses the
incident to illustrate why the conservative base is less than thrilled
with Mier's nomination. He concludes that, "Some will probably write that
incident off as an insignificant, almost meaningless, occurrence. And
perhaps it is. But Miers purposefully sought to dilute the Christianity of
the message, thus revealing to me at least a willingness to compromise
unnecessarily without outside pressure. That is my opinion based off that
experience and I would be more than happy to be proved wrong."</P>
<P align=left><FONT face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif"
size=-1><STRONG>NAM jumps the gun on Gov. Bush's drilling
plan</STRONG> <BR>Whoops. It seems that the National Association of
Manufacturers (NAM), one of the capital's most influential trade groups,
spoke too soon in congratulating Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) for his
endorsement of a House Resources Committee plan to lift moratoriums on gas
drilling in portions of the outer continental shelf. NAM President John
Engler, who recently agreed to take on a new role as spokesman for the
Alliance for Energy and Economic Growth, a pro-OCS lobbying coalition,
participated in a conference call with reporters during which he
referenced Gov. Bush as having toned down historic opposition to drilling
off Florida's eastern coast. But, according to a NAM statement, Engler had
been misinformed by a Wednesday report in the Orlando Sentinel. "The
Governor's office contends that the headline is inaccurate, the article is
misleading and the opening paragraph misstates the governor's position on
the bill," Bush communications director Alia Faraj wrote in a memo
distributed to the media. As Gov. Bush worked to reiterate his opposition
to mining for oil and gas within 100 miles of the Florida coastline, which
could fly in the face of Bush administration efforts to increase offshore
coastal drilling, Reps. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) and Michael Bilirakis
(R-Fla.) continued to negotiate with House Resources Chairman Richard
Pombo (R-Calif.) on removing the gas moratoriums provision from the
committee's bill.</P>
<P align=left><FONT face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif"
size=-1><STRONG>Gas bill attracts support of electric
utilities</STRONG> <BR>House Republicans Friday will push the
Gasoline for America's Future Act, a measure that seeks to expand the
nation's oil refining capacity to reduce--though not immediately--prices
at the pump. But the measure also has the support of interests outside of
oil and gas companies. The Edison Electric Institute, or EEI, for example,
has urged its electric-utility member companies to lobby in favor of the
bill. The group supports the measure, being pushed by Energy and Commerce
Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas), because it would codify an administration
rule allowing utilities to conduct significant improvements on plants
without installing anti-pollution controls, unless the plant is going to
emit more pollution per hour. Critics say the changes - to a section in
the Clean Air Act known as New Source Review - will lead to the release of
more emissions. "What he's doing would be like raising the speed limit,
and then arguing people won't drive faster," says Frank O'Donnell of Clean
Air Trust. But an EEI point paper distributed on Capitol Hill says that
emissions will be capped by a variety of rules that "impose far greater
controls and reductions than the outdated NSR program." Barton's bill is
expected to pass the House, but its future in the Senate is less
clear.</P>
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