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The Morning Grind / DayAhead |
Guns, gays and the GOP
By John Mercurio
CNN Political Unit
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- We're being treated this weekend to a revealing, if slightly predictable, display of President Bush's political priorities.
Meetings of the National Rifle Association in Pittsburgh and Log Cabin Republicans in Palm Springs, California, will show where Bush is building his alliances this year. And where he is not.
Meeting in battleground state Pennsylvania, the NRA on Saturday will host Vice President Dick Cheney, a darling of gun-rights activists, as its keynote speaker. The group, 4 million strong, whose endorsement of Bush/Cheney '04 is virtually certain despite some grumbling about Bush's support for the assault weapons ban, will announce plans Friday for a news company that will produce programs for the Internet, radio and television.
How sure is the Grind that the NRA will back Bush? Well, the group's monthly magazine features a cover photo of John Kerry posing with gun-control advocates Sens. Ted Kennedy, Chuck Schumer and Dianne Feinstein. "You talk about the four horsemen of apocalypse," Wayne LaPierre, the group's executive vice president, told The New York Times. "That's the picture."
Meanwhile, out on the Left Coast, a different sort of Republican gathering is taking place. So which Bush administration official did the Log Cabin Republicans invite as their keynote speaker? "No one," one senior Log Cabin official told the Grind. "We didn't think that [invitation] would be a wise use of paper." (They did, however, invite Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon, who has agreed to do the keynote address.)
The gay GOP group has opposed Bush's support for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages.
Christopher Barron, the group's political director, said it's too early to say whether the Log Cabin Republicans will endorse Bush. Members won't go there until the Republican National Convention in August. They do meet Saturday afternoon to talk about endorsements, but Barron said no headline would emerge from that gathering.
"Obviously there's a split. Members are in different places on this," he said. "But it's hard to say at this point what people are thinking."
Barron has to say that. He's doing his job. But I'll make a vow: If Log Cabin Republicans endorse Bush, I'll eat my shoe. (Then again, remember how that threat turned out for CNN's Tucker Carlson when he pooh-poohed sales of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's memoir, "Living History.") (Full story)
The Grind doesn't usually make predictions in politics, but when a group takes the unprecedented step of running ads against a sitting president of its own party, one has to assume there's trouble in the kitchen.
Friday extras
Former Sen. Fred Thompson (aka "Law & Order" District Attorney Arthur Branch) delivers remarks about the war in Iraq, terrorism and the 2004 presidential election at the American Enterprise Institute, where he's a visiting fellow. A spokeswoman for the conservative think tank said the politician/actor/lawyer plans to lash back at folks, such as former Senate colleague Kennedy, who compare Iraq with Vietnam. In an op-ed piece Friday for The Washington Post, Thompson said these critics are "campaigning on defeat."And finally, for all you "O'Franken Factor" fans out there: Following a dispute that pulled Air America Radio off the air in two major markets this week, chairman Evan Cohen said he expects the fledgling liberal radio network to be back on track in at least one city Friday. A New York court granted Air America Radio's restraining order, putting the network -- and comedian Al Franken's show -- back on in Chicago, Illinois, according to Air America Radio. In a statement, Cohen said his team will now turn attention to getting back on the air in Los Angeles, California. No comment yet from the owner of the radio stations on the latest development, but on Thursday, Tony Wong, a vice president of Multicultural Radio Broadcasting, said his company pulled Air America off the air because it failed to pay. 
