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WASHINGTON — Sen. John Kerry yesterday pooh-poohed the significance of the Iraqi elections in his first nationally televised interview since losing the election to President Bush last fall — saying the voting shouldn't be overhyped. "It is hard to say that something is legitimate when whole portions of the country can't vote and doesn't vote," Kerry said on NBC's "Meet the Press." [snip] He also said it was hard to convince U.S. voters during the presidential-election campaign that Bush was not taking the right steps — "but we are not."

WHEN you heard about the stunning success of the Iraqi elections, were you thrilled? Did you see it as a triumph for democracy and for the armed forces of the United States that have sacrificed and suffered and fought so valiantly over the past 18 months to get Iraq to this moment? Or did you momentarily feel an onrush of disappointment because you knew, you just knew, that this was going to redound to the credit of George W. Bush? This means you, Michael Moore. I'm talking to you, Teddy Kennedy. And not just to the two of you,...

[snip] There is a school of thought among Democrats that by embracing policies and programs deeply at variance with what most Americans think will enhance the party's electoral viability. It was such wisdom that led to the selection of doomed nominees like Walter Mondale, Mike Dukakis and John Kerry.[snip] So why are the Democrats selecting Dean? And why is Harold Ickes, the putative spokesperson for the Clintons, embracing the choice? Because Dean's momentum is unstoppable and nobody wants to stand in the way of the avalanche of self-destructiveness which is pouring onto the Democrats from their left-wing supporters.[snip] And...

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a pre-State of the Union challenge to President Bush, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid intends to call Monday for the administration to outline an exit strategy for Iraq. Reid plans to raise the issue as part of back-to-back speeches in which he and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi will sketch outline their differences with Bush on two issues likely to dominate Congress' work this year, the war on terror and Social Security. "The president needs to spell out a real and understandable plan for the unfinished work ahead: defeat the growing insurgency, rebuild Iraq, increase political...

NEW YORK - It seemed like old times: Howard Dean (news - web sites) lambasted the Republicans in a speech before 300 cheering supporters at a union hall on Sunday. But now he is running not for president but for the national chairmanship of the Democratic Party. "In the last election we frankly ran the best grass-roots campaign I have seen in the Democratic Party in my lifetime," said Dean, the front-runner among the seven contenders for chairmanship of the party. "But theirs was better." The former Vermont governor and unsuccessful presidential candidate said the GOP rode the issues of...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Even with widespread violence in Iraq, voters there showed a passion for democracy by apparently turning out in numbers comparable to a typical election in the United States. [snip] "When public expression means so much to you that you will vote under the threat of death, that is significant," said Frank Luntz, a pollster who often works for Republicans. "That demonstrates how much they want democracy." [snip]"In America, the greatest threat to voting is standing in line for an hour," he said. "In Iraq, these people risked their lives and more than half were willing to do...

LOMA LINDA, Calif. - With little time left before his organs would likely fail, a U.S. Marine received a new liver Sunday for a mysterious ailment doctors said would kill him if he didn't get a transplant. Doctors operated on Lance Cpl. Chris LeBleu, who had been in a coma and on life support, for nearly 12 hours Sunday after an unidentified donor from New Mexico was found late Saturday night. Doctors said the procedure went well, said Sgt. Jennie Haskamp, spokeswoman at Twentynine Palms, where LeBleu was stationed. He was in critical condition late Sunday. In the hospital lobby,...

BAGHDAD, Jan 30 (Reuters) - The U.N.'s electoral adviser in Iraq said on Sunday he was encouraged by the early results of the country's first post-Saddam Hussein election but wanted to see the final report from the Electoral Commission. "If the results are confirmed, and the only reason to be cautious is the lack of a complete picture -- then it is very good news. But the challenge is for the results to be accepted by the Sunni (Arab) minority," Carlos Valenzuela, the U.N.'s electoral adviser in Iraq, told Reuters. "I'm waiting for confirmation before I feel elated ... but...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) called Sunday's landmark Iraqi election a "resounding success" and said Iraqis have rejected the anti-democratic ideology of the terrorists. "By participating in free elections, the Iraqi people have firmly rejected the anti-democratic ideology of the terrorists. They have refused to be intimidated by thugs and assassins," he said in televised comments from the White House after the polls closed.

A bitter-sounding Sen. John Kerry dismissed the historic Iraqi election on Sunday, warning Americans not to "overhype" the watershed event. "No one in the United States should try to overhype this election," Kerry told NBC's "Meet the Press." The failed presidential candidate questioned the historic referendum's legitimacy, saying, "It's hard to say that something is legitimate when a whole portion of the country can't vote and doesn't vote." Kerry also pooh-poohed reports of a surprisingly high 72 percent turnout by Iraqi voters, insisting instead that the election has "gone as expected." Asked if he thought Iraq was now less of...

WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush will make a statement at the White House on Iraq's election at 1 p.m. EST/1800 GMT on Sunday, the White House said

BAGHDAD, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Some came on crutches, others walked for miles then struggled to read the ballot, but across most of Iraq millions turned out to vote on Sunday, defying insurgent threats of a bloodbath. Suicide bombs and mortars killed at least 33 people, but Iraqis still came out in force for the first multi-party poll in 50 years. While in some areas turnout was scant, in most places, including violent Sunni Arab regions, it exceeded expectations. Many cheered with joy at their first chance to cast a free vote, while others shared chocolates with fellow voters. Even...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqis defied threats of violence and calls for a boycott to cast ballots in Iraq (news - web sites)'s first free election in a half-century Sunday, and insurgents seeking to wreck the vote struck polling stations with a string of suicide bombings and mortar strikes, killing at least 44 people, including nine suicide bombers. Women in black abayas whispered prayers at the sound of a nearby explosion as they waited to vote at one Baghdad polling station. But the mood elsewhere was triumphant, with long lines in many places in the city: civilians and policemen danced with...

Preliminary reports that turnout in Sunday's Iraq election has topped 70 percent have surprised American reporters, many of whom had predicted that terrorists would succeed in sabotaging the U.S.- backed referendum. "I have to say, it's going a lot better than I thought it would," Rod Nordland, Newsweek's Baghdad bureau chief, said Sunday as the numbers came in. "The attacks by the insurgents, while they're numerous, haven't reached that kind of critical threshold where it really kept everybody home," he told the Fox News Channel. With an hour left to go before the polls in Iraq close, Reuters reported that...

The frontrunner in the race to head up the so-called party of compassion and understanding said unabashedly on Saturday that he "hates" the opposition. "I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for," former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean told Democrats gathered at a Manhattan hotel, in quotes picked up by the New York Daily News. He and six other candidates came to address the final DNC forum before the Feb. 12 vote for chairman. Dean said that despite his hatred for the GOP, he "admires" their discipline and their organization. But he cautioned his Democratic audience that their party shouldn't...

Reacting to reports that Iraqi election turnout was far higher than predicted, with voters dancing in the streets in celebration of their newfound democracy, ABC News anchorman Peter Jennings insisted that for Iraq's Sunni population, the vote was still "illegitimate." "I don't want to seem unnecessarily skeptical," Jennings told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on ABC's "This Week." "But in fact the Iraqis seemed to turn out in some places and not turn out in others." Though ecstatic Iraqi elections officials said Sunday that turnout nationwide was 72 percent - and may top 90 percent in Shiite areas - Jennings...

LONDON, Jan 29 (Reuters) - The BBC apologised on Saturday for erroneously reporting that U.S.-led and Iraqi forces may be responsible for the deaths of 60 percent of Iraqi civilians killed in conflict over the last six months. The British broadcaster said on Friday in broadcasts and a news statement that its Panorama investigative show would air a report on Sunday citing "confidential" records from Iraq's health ministry to support the contention. Iraq's health minister said the BBC misinterpreted the statistics it had received and had ignored statements from the ministry clarifying the figures. "Today, the Iraqi Ministry of Health...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Abdul al-Najr woke up early Saturday with his wife, piled into a car with three friends and drove 250 miles from St. Louis to the polling place here, where jubilant Iraqis danced and held hands in the steady, cold rain. On the second day of voting for Iraqi expatriates, people drove hundreds of miles to reach the five U.S. cities with polling places: Nashville, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington. More than 5,000 Iraqis voted on Friday, and organizers expected larger crowds over the weekend. "I'm so happy because I'm human," al-Najr, 38, said after casting a...

While the media continues its quest to "expose" conservative pundits on the Bush administration payroll, reporters don't seem to have any qualms about the fact that the nation's top elected Democrats helped bankroll liberal commentators on Air America and North Dakota talker Ed Schultz. Unlike the Armstrong Williams case, there's been no outrage over the fact that Sens. Hillary Clinton, Tom Daschle and Debbie Stabenow lined up $1.8 million in funding for Democracy Radio, which underwrote Mr. Schultz's show. According to the Washington Post, Democracy Radio is "a non-profit organization" run by Stabenow's husband, Tom Athans, "with a board composed...

PARIS, Jan 29 (Reuters) - French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has reiterated France's support for Iraqis to re-establish full independence with the pullout of foreign troops from the country, a Tunisian newspaper reported. Raffarin's comments, in an interview with the Tunisian newspaper Ach Chourouq to be published on Sunday, came on the eve of Iraq's first multi-party election in decades and amid growing domestic pressure in the United States to pull out its troops. "The pullout of foreign troops is spelt out in (UN) resolution 1546. This departure is part of the political process backed by France," Raffarin said in...