Gary Hart vs. Ben Nighthorse Campbell? We say Run, Gary, Run!

Former Colorado Sen. Gary Hart is seriously considering a challenge to Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, according to party sources. The two-term senator and two-time presidential candidate recently discussed a possible bid with national and state party leaders who are urging him to jump in, said Democratic sources in Washington and Colorado who requested anonymity.

"It's serious enough that he's pondering the 'how to' aspect of the campaign," said one Democratic official. "He thinks if he got in this race he would win, but he's got a lot of other factors that weigh into this and this is obviously a big jump."

Update: Wesley Clark has answered our question on the live chat going on now:

- talkleft asks: You have criticized the Patriot Act. Which portions of the Patriot Act would you ask Congress to repeal and why? As President, how will you protect our civil liberties while trying to ensure our safety?

- I will suspend the portions of the Patriot Act that have to do with search and seizure law, and we'll go back to old way with probable cause and judges and warrants, and then we'll take the whole act back to the Congress for legislative review. We will have all the authority we need to protect the country from terrorists, but you can't win the war on terror by giving up the very freedoms we're fighting to protect. Wes

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The live internet chat with Wesley Clark starts at 5pm ET--now--you can access the chat here.

If you want to participate (they expect 3,000 to log on), here are the details:

Public IRC Server: irc://irc.forclark.com
Closed Read-Only Channel: #wireside
Open Discussion Channel: #clark04

We were flattered to be invited by the campaign to submit a question-- and we did--we hope it's one Gen. Clark chooses to answer. Here are the blogger participants:

Kevin Kraynick "Tooney Bin"
Ted Barlow "Crooked Timber"
Mark A.R. Kleiman "A Fair and Balanced Weblog"
Bill Scher, Executive Editor, "LiberalOasis"
Jeralyn Merritt "TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime"
Ruy Teixeira "Donkey Rising"
Digby "Digby's Hullabaloo"

South Knox Bubba has read Wesley Clark's tax plan two or three times and says:

Being able to say "A family of four making up to $50,000 would pay no federal income taxes, and all taxpaying families with children making up to $100,000 would get a tax cut." and that "No families with incomes under $200,000 will pay more in taxes than they do today." is powerful stuff.

It's smart, too. 98% of Americans would pay lower taxes. 3.5 million families will pay no income tax at all. Only 0.1% of taxpayers will pay more. 31 million families will benefit, and bonus, will not even have to file a tax return. What's not to like? (Although I'm not clear on what happens to the 2% or so making more than $200K but less than $1 million).... This is a good deal for American workers and families, and everyone benefits in the long run.

The newsest USA Today/Gallup Poll shows a surge for Wesley Clark and a drop for Dean. The results are here.

There will be a live internet chat tomorrow with Wesley Clark. Here are the details, from his campaign:

Public IRC Server: irc://irc.forclark.com
Closed Read-Only Channel: #wireside
Open Discussion Channel: #clark04

We will also be mirroring the closed #wireside channel on a web-based page, which any one can view at this URL. The chat is scheduled to begin promptly at 5:00 PM EST, tomorrow January 7, 2004. It will last approximately 30 minutes.

The questions that will be asked are being drawn from 15 leading political
bloggers. Follow-up questions will be taken, if time permits. We estimate approximately 3000 people to be participating in this live real-time chat with General Clark.

We received this by email today from "Vote by Issue - Democratic Primary 2004," a collaboration between WBUR.org and the PBS's Online NewsHour.

We see Vote by Issue as a kind of Internet Debate, and it represents
the best effort the candidates have made so far at serious discussion
of issues online. The quiz allows you to discover how much you know about the
candidates running in the upcoming 2004 Democratic Primary and learn
about the issues.

Each campaign was asked 14 questions on issues in the campaign
ranging from the Environment, to Iraq, to Civil Liberties. All of the Democratic candidates participated. The result is a tool to evaluate the campaigns without knowing the personalities of the candidates.

We think this is a useful tool, so we're spreading the word.

By TChris

Talkleft readers may be interested in two election-related pieces in today's New York Times Magazine. The first is a short essay by Jeffrey Rosen that asks whether voters will have the will to elect leaders "who will insist on laws and technologies that strike a reasonable balance between freedom and security." One can always hope .... The second is James Traub's article exploring a popular debate this election year: whether Dean can persuade voters that he will be a credible leader on foreign policy and defense issues by selectively positioning himself to the right of Bush, and whether Clark hurts his established credibility on those issues by positioning himself to the left of Dean. Perhaps voters will recognize that either candidate can articulate a better vision for national security than can Bush. Again, one can always hope ....

Via Atrios, Clark is catching up to Kerry in New Hampshire. The latest numbers:

Dean 38%
Kerry 14%
Clark 13%

Kucinich is beating Sharpton and Braun --2% to 0%.

Wesley Clark said today that he won't be Dean's Cheney:

Clark said he's running for president, not vice president. ''I'm not going to be Howard Dean's Dick Cheney,'' Clark told reporters. ''We've already tried that model of government. That's what's misled America thus far.''

Clark said President Bush was a former governor, inexperienced in foreign policy who surrounded himself with experienced advisers, like Cheney.

''He tried to reassure the American people by having a lot of highly experienced and competent advisers around,'' said Clark. ''And we see the results right now in our presence in Iraq and the alienation of people around the world.''

Clark is comparing Bush to Dean --but not to Bill Clinton, former Governor of Arkansas. What's the difference?

''Bill Clinton had several other things going for him and the time was different,'' Clark said. ''This is a new era, especially after this current administration has done so much to wreck America's relationship with its allies and destroyed American esteem in the world.''

A national poll shows the man and woman most admired by Americans are President Bush and Sen. Hillary Clinton. Mrs. Bush was third on the list of most admired women, while Oprah was second.

Where was Jeb? Thankfully, he didn't make the list.

Wesley Clark's new tv ad features former President Bill Clinton placing the medal of Freedom on Clark. Here's a still photo from the event. Will it help?

We've had bad travel days, but Joe Trippi's recent experience sounds like a real nightmare:

On his way from Iowa to Washington, D.C., to appear on ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos," Trippi was stuck on the airport tarmac in Chicago for more than two hours Saturday night, eventually missing all the flights to D.C., because there were no gates available.

Determined to have him on the air, ABC chartered a plane to fly him in, but the only one they could find was in Cincinnati, and it couldn't pick him up until 1 a.m. That should have been plenty of time for Trippi to collect his luggage and get to the private terminal, but the airline had lost his bags.

He arrived in Washington at dawn, luggage-less, wearing his usual rumpled outfit. At the Mayflower Hotel, the concierge told Trippi he was in luck: Filene's Basement was having a pre-Christmas sale at 7:30 a.m., so he could buy a suit there before his TV appearance.