Free Republic

He was considered all but politically dead just last week. But after some breaks on the campaign trail, a new hairstyle and mounting concern over a series of gaffes by former front-runner Howard Dean, Sen. John Kerry is the new front-runner in Iowa. A Des Moines Register survey released late Saturday shows 26 percent of Iowa Democrats now backing Kerry, with former survey cellar-dweller Sen. John Edwards following close behind at 23 percent. Bringing up the rear, the two former front-runners, Howard Dean, with 20 percent, and Dick Gephardt, with 18 percent. The Register's poll, considered one of the more...

<p>A late surge by Democratic presidential candidates John Kerry and John Edwards has pushed them slightly ahead of long-standing front-runners Howard Dean and Dick Gephardt in the race to win Monday's Iowa caucuses, a new Des Moines Register poll shows.</p>

CALLS FOR IMPEACHMENT OF CHENEY AT GEPHARDT EVENT Sat Jan 17 2004 20:09:48 ET Congressman Jerry Costello, a Democrat from Illinois' 12th District, appeared at a Dick Gephardt rally in Clinton, IA on Saturday. Gephardt was unable to attend the appearance because his plane was fogged in due to inclement weather, but Costello addressed the crowd and took questions. The "Countdown to Victory" event was held at the Sundance Lodge on Route 30. Question From Audience: "Is integrity going to become an issue in this campaign? Because the Republicans railed on Clinton for eight years - and some of it...

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- The ladies in bright red bonnets and purple dresses were delighted that Chrissy Gephardt had dropped in on their luncheon at the cafeteria at Westdale Mall. "I'm a farmer's wife and we need Dick Gephardt as president," declared Jo Ann Neuzil, who slapped a Gephardt 2004 sticker on her singing teddy bear. The daughter of the Democratic presidential candidate and longtime congressman from neighboring Missouri circulated among the tables, charming the 50 or so members of the Red Hat Club. None asked about her coming out as a lesbian. "It's interesting. Most people, either they don't...

ACU asks where was Gephardt By Sam Dealey In an 11th-hour attempt to inflict political damage on Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) in the Jan. 19 Iowa caucuses, the nation’s largest grassroots conservative group is filing a lawsuit to force him to refund most of his official salary because he has spent so much time away from Capitol Hill campaigning. The federal suit, to be brought by the American Conservative Union (ACU) later this week, seeks to force the House clerk to garnish a fair chunk of Gephardt’s $154,700 annual wage under an obscure 1850s law last enforced 90 years ago....

Law requires absentee members of Congress to return paycheck According to the U.S. Code, Presidential candidate and former House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt is required to pay back 90 percent of his $157,000 salary to Missouri taxpayers. Absentee Member Gephardt has missed more than 90 percent of votes in the U.S. House, and the law requires the Secretary of the Senate and the Chief Administrative Officer of the House to dock a member's pay for each absent day. ACU filed a suit earlier today demanding that the law be enforced. American Conservative Union chairman David A. Keene called Gephardt's absences,...

Released: January 17, 2004 'Advantage No-one' in Iowa; It's All Tied Up; Edwards and Dean Have a Solid Night; Gephardt and Kerry a Weak Night in Newest Reuters/MSNBC/Zogby Poll Massachusetts Senator John Kerry has seen his lead over other Democratic hopefuls reduced to a one-point advantage over former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, with Missouri Congressman Richard Gephardt and North Carolina Senator John Edward in hot pursuit, according to the new Reuters/MSNBC/Zogby Poll. With just a few days remaining before Monday’s caucus, it remains a tight four-way race.  All other contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination have 3 points or less in...

<p>The mutual disarmament came amid speculation that the Dean-Gephardt fisticuffs could turn off voters and boost Edwards and Kerry, the two candidates who seem to have the most momentum and most enthusiastic crowds.</p> <p>"We found out that Dean was taking his ad off the air, so we immediately sent word to cancel ours - we had no desire to run a negative ad, but we're not going to let Dean tear down Dick Gephardt," said Gephardt campaign manager Steve Murphy.</p>

Tuesday will soon be here, and it will be bloody.You thought Florida 2000 was a debacle? You ain't see nothing yet.That was a cake walk.Here's a prediction, and you can take this to the bank and cash it. Dean will be accused of having bussed in supporters from out of state, of having people take loopholes so as to claim residency for at least a day so as to take part in the caucuse. There are already rumors that Deans supporters are recruiting 17 year old high school kids due to a law that says they can take part in...

Democratic rivals Howard Dean and Dick Gephardt are pulling the negative ads they've been airing in Iowa, opting for a more positive message in the final days before the state's presidential caucus. The Dean ad labeled his rivals as ``Washington Democrats'' who voted for the congressional resolution authorizing the Iraq war, while the Gephardt ad questioned his foe's stand on Medicare and Social Security. The negative ads, which began airing this week and were to end sometime Friday, were risky because Iowa traditionally rewards candidates who stay positive while campaigning. Dean's only ad that will remain on the air in...

Dick Gephardt knows what's on the menu for union folks: bread and butter issues such as jobs and the economy. And with a jobs market that remains iffy even as the stock market soars, the Missouri congressman appeared on Wednesday to embrace a strategy of stoking economic anxieties at a rally that the Teamsters Local 406 staged for him at its Eastern Avenue hall in Grand Rapids. "Everything is going in all the wrong directions under this president," said Gephardt, the former U.S. House minority leader who has served in Congress since 1976. "We handed him the best economy in...

<p>Presidential suitors are vying for the affections of Democrats in Iowa, and the fair state's rigorous caucuses -- this year's take place Monday -- are not for the faint of heart. It takes some passion to stand for hours in cramped spaces just to declare one's preferences.</p>

Gephardt Must Pay Salary Back to Missouri Taxpayers Law requires absentee members of Congress to return paycheck According to the U.S. Code, Presidential candidate and former House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt is required to pay back 90 percent of his $157,000 salary to Missouri taxpayers. Absentee Member Gephardt has missed more than 90 percent of votes in the U.S. House, and the law requires the Secretary of the Senate and the Chief Administrative Officer of the House to dock a member's pay for each absent day. ACU filed a suit earlier today demanding that the law be enforced. American Conservative...

<p>NEW YORK (CNN) -- Rep. Dick Gephardt took on the Bush administration Tuesday, tying the nation's foreign relations strategy to its economic policies and warning that alienation of other democratic nations would seriously damage America's ability to be a world leader.</p>

<p>NEVADA, Iowa (AP) Democratic presidential candidate Dick Gephardt on Wednesday called chief rival Howard Dean a ''fair-weather friend of the American worker'' whose words can't be trusted and motives must be questioned.</p> <p>''To me, there is no room for the cynical politics of manufactured anger and false conviction. I believe in standing for something,'' the Missouri lawmaker said in a speech that heightened his criticism of the Democratic presidential front-runner.</p>

A Year For Youth When the voting age was lowered to 18, there was a great expectation that youth would flock to the polls. It's been an unfulfilled expectation. This year, however, could be the year of youth, if young people respond to Howard Dean's appeal to their idealism. Dean is telling people that the only way to beat the super-rich and their toady, George Bush, is for people who have turned their backs on politics to get involved. That most certainly includes the 18-to-24 set. Instead of inviting people to $2,000-a-plate fund-raisers, he asks people to send what they...

<p>January 14, 2004 -- Rep. Richard Gephardt ripped front-runner Howard Dean yesterday - calling his statements about the capture of Saddam Hussein "ludicrous" and questioning the ex-Vermont governor's ability to defeat President Bush.</p> <p>With the Iowa caucuses just days away, Gephardt - who's running neck-and-neck with Dean in the state - took time out to visit New York City and rip the former Vermont governor before a packed house at the Council on Foreign Relations.</p>

<p>FORT MADISON, Iowa - When Howard Dean came to this southeastern Iowa town on the Mississippi River Monday night, 200 locals gathered to meet him. They included Renay Lozano-Dominguez, a second-generation Mexican-American and one of about 1,000 Hispanics living in the area.</p>

NEW YORK (AP) -- Democratic presidential hopeful Dick Gephardt said Tuesday that Howard Dean was a less viable candidate to defeat President Bush because of his "ludicrous" comment that Saddam Hussein's capture had not made America safer. "It's like a number of statements that I think Governor Dean has made that I don't think put him in the best position," Gephardt told reporters. Gephardt did not criticize Dean or other rivals by name when he spoke earlier Tuesday to the Council on Foreign Relations. However, his foreign-policy address included a thinly veiled criticism of Dean when he contended that "railing...

NEWTON, Iowa (AP) -- Democrat Howard Dean is relying on house parties and hype while rival Dick Gephardt is tapping into fear and anger to drive new voters to Iowa's leadoff presidential caucuses. In a tight, four-way race that may be determined by which campaign best recruits political novices, the leading candidates are using different tactics and motivations to expand the universe of caucus-goers. Dean's campaign has 2,000 Iowans lobbying neighbors and friends on the candidate's behalf. Gephardt's team has 600 out-of-state union activists knocking on doors of labor workers. Dean's organizers promote his front-running status and you-have-the-power message to...