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The Hardball Briefing On MSNBC
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News flash: Trent Lott to hold press conference 5:30 pm et in Pascagoula,
Miss...Sources tell NBC News that Lott will not step down but offer a more forceful
apology....This type of news will shake up our production process and previously laid
plans...It's the nature of the news biz...We'll go for at least half of the show on
Lott with sound bites and a massive slice and dice...Depending on what he says, we may
go for the full hour...Lots of calls out for guests so it'll have to be a surprise for
now...Clearly this is a Howard night for sure...
If there's room for any non-Lott related news, we'll do Barnicle and Dornan on Law's
resignation and the fallout....
Plus, in the D block we'll do alpha-hawk James Woolsey on the latest from the Axis of
Evil: Iraq, Iran & North Korea...Stories moving on each front...
This is one of the big nights you'll not want to miss....Bellone, out...
Pope accepts cardinal's resignation...Pope John Paul accepted the resignation Friday
of embattled Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston.
http://www.msnbc.com/modules/exports/ct_infobeat.asp?/news/844789.asp
Mary Matalin, Vice President Dick Cheney's top public relations strategist, is leaving
her job for the private sector. She will remain an informal political adviser to the
White House as President Bush prepares for re-election. (AP)
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=544&ncid=703&e=2&u=/ap/20021213/ap_on_go_pr_wh/cheney_matalin
A new world order? The Bush administration announced an ambitious program to encourage
fundamental economic, political and educational changes in the Arab countries of the
Middle East yesterday, steps that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said are critical
to achieving U.S. objectives in the region. (The Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48149-2002Dec12.html
Sen. Trent Lott clung to support from his Republican colleagues as President Bush
denounced his comments showing a nostalgia for the nation's segregationist past. (AP)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=544&ncid=703&e=1&u=/ap/20021213/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_lott
White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. called Lott to notify him of Bush's
intentions. After the speech, Bush called Lott and held a conversation characterized
as conciliatory. (The Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47806-2002Dec12.html
Shot at Nickles, Dana? "The Senate is famously clubby, and Lott benefits from the fact
that he has no obvious and widely popular successor."
Tumulty: At Ole Miss, the Senator helped lead a fight to keep blacks out of his
national fraternity http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,399310,00.html
The National Organization for Women on Thursday joined the chorus demanding Senate
Republican Leader Trent Lott's resignation for remarks he made at Strom Thurmond's
100th birthday party -- not just for race-related remarks but also his sexual
innuendo-filled comments about pop star Britney Spears and a Hooters restaurant. (Palm
Beach Post)
http://www.gopbi.com/partners/pbpost/epaper/editions/today/news_d39fb6bc41b4a18900c7.html
Democrats plan to use the flap over Senate Republican leader Trent Lott's praise for
Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist presidential campaign to try to derail any
renewed effort to put Mississippi jurist Charles Pickering on a federal appeals court.
(AP)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=512&ncid=703&e=5&u=/ap/20021213/ap_on_go_co/lott_pickering
U.S. says Iraq dossier full of holes...Iraq's 12,000-page weapons declaration does not
account for a number of missing chemical and biological weapons and fails to explain
purchases U.S. intelligence believes are related to Saddam Hussein's nuclear program,
U.S. officials said.
http://www.msnbc.com/modules/exports/ct_infobeat.asp?/news/842500.asp
Iraqi Scientists Seen as Key...U.S. says preventing them from being interviewed would
violate U.N. deal http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47980-2002Dec12.html
The Bush administration, increasingly focused on the looming confrontation with Iraq,
reacted calmly Thursday to North Korea's announcement that it would restart a nuclear
power plant shuttered since 1994. (The Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47743-2002Dec12.html
A senior Iraqi general today dismissed as "ridiculous" a published report that Iraq
may have provided nerve gas to Islamic extremists affiliated with al Qaeda. (AP)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47793-2002Dec12.html
Iran invites inspectors to nuclear sites...Tehran rejects U.S. claim that it is
developing secret weapons http://msnbc.com/news/847051.asp?0sl=-23
Al Qaeda Still a Major Threat, Tenet Says...CIA Director George Tenet issued a new
warning that Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001,
attacks on the United States, was as serious a threat as ever despite having been
dealt several blows in the war on terrorism (Reuters)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47618-2002Dec12.html
Friedman Is Chosen Top Economic Aide to Bush...President Bush named investment banker
Stephen Friedman as his chief economic adviser Thursday, providing a conduit to Wall
Street as the White House gears up to sell a new package of tax cuts (The Washington
Post) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47934-2002Dec12.html
Sharpton Blasts 'Favorite Son' Plan...Says Democrats Are Afraid of Him (NY Sun)
http://www.nysun.com/sunarticle.asp?artID=405
Kissinger to Withhold Client List...Head of 9/11 Panel Seeks to Assure Victims' Kin
That No Conflicts of Interest Exist (The Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47733-2002Dec12.html?referer=email
FL Politics: Bob Poe resigned as chairman of the state Democratic Party Thursday, the
final casualty of an election year that gave Republicans unprecedented power over the
Sunshine State. (Palm Beach Post)
http://www.gopbi.com/partners/pbpost/epaper/editions/today/news_d39f56de41b460eb0087.html
Sammon: President Bush yesterday signed executive orders allowing the federal
government to hire religious contractors that he said have suffered discrimination
under "secular" regulations. The move was condemned by liberals who accused Mr. Bush
of circumventing the will of Congress
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20021213-84246578.htm
Morris: Heroin shipments to New York are skyrocketing, partly because the Bush
administration has shifted resources away from the drug war to the terror war,
lawmakers and others charged yesterday.
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/51577.htm
Harper on media: A two-hour PBS documentary on the life of the prophet Muhammad, to
air next week, is meant to help counter negative images of Muslims, according to its
creators. http://washingtontimes.com/national/20021213-91496698.htm
Opinion/Editorial
Pat: What stinks about Washington
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=29975
The Wall Street Journal: The Republicans' Lott...He must ask if he's still the best
leader for the GOP. http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110002769
Peggy: Counsel for Trent...What Lott told us last week, and what he should do now.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110002761
Lott's true colors shining through...Trent Lott's remarks at the 100th birthday
celebration for Strom Thurmond are cause to question not only Lott's fitness to be
Senate majority leader, but to serve in the U.S. Senate. By Jill Nelson.
http://www.msnbc.com/modules/exports/ct_infobeat.asp?/news/846871.asp
Greeley: What's Kissinger's real mission?
http://www.suntimes.com/output/greeley/cst-edt-greel13.html
Ollie: Border security: an oxymoron
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/ollienorth/on20021213.shtml
Doonesbury http://www.ucomics.com/doonesbury/
Mallard Fillmore http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/fun/mallard.asp
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