Supreme Court Upholds Campaign Reform; Rivals Attempt to Stop Dean; White House Backs Supreme Court Decision
ANNOUNCER: The soft bucks stop here. The Supreme Court upholds key parts of the new campaign finance reform law. It's eight against one. Howard Dean's rivals have more reason than ever to gang up on him. And they are.</s>SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't know which judgment Al Gore was endorsing yesterday.</s>SEN. JOHN EDWARD (D-NC), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I strongly disagree with Howard Dean.</s>SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN (D-CT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Howard Dean is moving in a different direction. Away from the center.</s>ANNOUNCER: The unkindest cut of all. Joe Lieberman talks to Judy about being "Gored" by his former political partner. And what happens now. Live from Manchester, New Hampshire, Judy Woodruff's INSIDE POLITICS.</s>JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you for joining us in the leadoff presidential primary state of New Hampshire. Well, most of the '04 Democrats are here on the day after their latest debate. And many of them are buzzing about the Supreme Court ruling today, upholding the most important parts of the new campaign finance reform law, including the ban on soft money. From the presidential campaign trail to the White House, it seems everybody is eager to applaud the ruling, and claim credit for getting the law passed.</s>KERRY: I welcome the Supreme Court decision today. It represents a victory for our democracy. It represents a victory for average people in America. And it's a very important contrast to what George Bush is doing today.</s>SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: First of all, the president supported the campaign finance legislation, and signed it into law, because he believes that overall it helped improve the system. And I think today's court ruling will help bring some clarity to the process.</s>WOODRUFF: CNN's Bruce Morton now has more on the high court decision and what it means for the '04 campaign.</s>BRUCE MORTON, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The court upheld 5-4 the two most important provisions of the campaign finance law: a ban on soft money and restrictions on so-called issue ads by independent groups that target a candidate. Soft money was the green flood that poured into recent campaigns, supposedly for activities like party building, but often for plain old campaigning, TV ads, whatever. Regardless of bans on union or corporate money, regardless of limits on individual contributions. Now, campaigns will have to rely on what's called hard money: limited contributions from individuals. The court ruled in effect the Congress can regulate money to prevent the real or perceived corruption of politics. As for the issue ads, the court noted that it was regulating this kind of expression, not banning it. Groups running issue ads will have to raise the same hard money that candidates will. They can't just spend union or corporation funds. The court, as on many issues was split 5-4, and Sandra Day O'Connor was the swing vote. John Paul Stephens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Steven Breyer joined her in signing the majority opinion. Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented on most of the law. Anthony Kennedy said he would vote to apply a limited soft money ban. (on camera): The court's decision upholding the law means the 2004 campaigns will continue playing by those rules. The law was presumed to be constitutional, unless and until the court said it wasn't. Will it fix campaign finance forever? No. O'Connor and Stephens wrote for the majority, quote, "Money, like water, will find an outlet. What problems will arise and how Congress will respond are concerns for another day" -- Judy.</s>WOODRUFF: All right, Bruce. In other words, this is something we're going to keep hearing about for some time to come. Bruce, thank you very much.</s>MORTON: You know that. WOODRUFF; That's right. Ahead, I'm going to talk to one of the leading advocates of the campaign reform law, Senator Russ Feingold. Well, Howard Dean certainly is giving his primary rivals a run for their money, and then some. After his big endorsement by Al Gore yesterday, the "Stop Dean" campaign has moved into overdrive. Senior political correspondent Candy Crowley is with us here in New Hampshire. Candy, you spent much of this day with John Kerry. So tell us what he's saying.</s>CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: John Kerry. You know, it's interesting. I was thinking, it sort of looks like the usual campaign, reading books to little kids, handing out chili at a senior home. But it's clear that the endorsement of Al Gore for Howard Dean still grinds on John Kerry and a lot of others. Here's what Kerry had to say today.</s>KERRY: Let me tell you a fundamental question that was raised by the endorsement. I read the comments, and apparently the vice president said he thought that Howard Dean had made the right judgment about the war. I think that the great missing story of this campaign is, in fact, the truth about Howard Dean's judgment about the war. And I don't know which judgment Al Gore was endorsing yesterday.</s>CROWLEY: Now, Kerry's contention, and one he has made throughout the campaign, is that while Howard Dean says that he supported a different version of the resolution. But in fact the different version was very much like the one passed, and there was very little difference, that George Bush could have gone ahead with the war, whichever which amendment was passed. So we have a lot of that. And clear that this stings. Not sure that, certainly for the Dean supporters at this point, they can make a lot of in-roads.</s>WOODRUFF: I also asked Joe Lieberman about it today. But what are you hearing from the other candidates out on the trail? What are they saying on day two after the Gore...</s>CROWLEY: Well, you know, it's clear, Howard Dean is now going to be the target, whether it's debate day or campaign day. We had a press release from Al Sharpton, questioning why Dean hasn't unsealed those 40 percent of the records from his 11 years as governor, and what's in them. He suggested that there's some conservative positions in there that Dean doesn't want to have out and show to his liberal base. We've had Joe Lieberman making the case that, go ahead, you know, put Howard Dean in the nomination, but he can't win the White House because he's not a centrist. We heard Edwards at the beginning. So they are all very much focused on the one guy, because here's what they know. They believe that, coming out of New Hampshire, every single one of them believes that it will be Howard Dean versus somebody else. So the race now is for somebody else.</s>WOODRUFF: And they all want to be the somebody else, for sure.</s>CROWLEY: Exactly. Exactly.</s>WOODRUFF: All right. Candy, thank you very much. Well, for some time, President Bush's political advisers seemed to be salivating at the thought of taking on the little-known governor of a small state. But do they see Dean as more formidable now? Let's check in with our senior White House correspondent, John King. John, what are they saying at the White House after this big Gore surprise?</s>JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Judy, the public line is they don't comment on internal Democratic politics. Scott McClellan saying today, this is a development within the Democratic primary. Let it all play out. The president will wait to see who his opponent is. Certainly, there are some in the Bush camp who believe this will help Governor Dean and perhaps the Democrats will have a nominee sooner. They say that quite conditionally; they say no one has voted, yet, of course. But perhaps this will help Governor Dean secure the nomination sooner. And in that case, of course, they view that as somewhat harmful to President Bush. They think the longer and more protracted and more contentious the Democratic primary, the less money the Democratic nominee will have in the end, the more divided the party might be. So in some ways, they say this could benefit Governor Dean, but they also say, let's have this conversation in six or eight weeks. As Candy noted, let's see what happens in Iowa and New Hampshire and see where we go from here. The one line they continue to say, Judy, is that this is proof to them that the Democratic Party is going to the left. This White House is trying to portray Governor Dean as a northeastern liberal. Whether they succeed or not, we shall learn in the weeks ahead. But that is their initial line.</s>WOODRUFF: All right. John, what about the other big political development of today, the Supreme Court ruling, upholding the new campaign finance reform law? We know the president's campaign has had good success so far raising so-called hard money, the money that is regulated. So what are they saying?</s>KING: Well, they say certainly that the president signed that law into law, so that he supports the Supreme Court's review, as you played at the top of the show. Scott McClellan saying this decision had some clarity. Remember, the president signed that law reluctantly. He knew that it was going to pass the Congress by overwhelming margins. He had really no choice to sign it. The White House counsel's office is now reviewing the law. So is the Republican National Committee. So is the Bush-Cheney campaign. So is every political group in town. We have seen, Judy, in recent weeks, many Democratic groups come forward, promising to raise tens of millions of dollars to spend somehow in the coming campaign. Most of the Republican affiliated groups have kept quiet about their spending plans. They have been waiting for the Supreme Court decision. They will determine what kind of money they can raise and just how they can spend it.</s>WOODRUFF: And that's where we have to look now to see where this money's flowing. And from. All right, John, thank you very much. There is a new TV ad, in fact, defending the president's policy in Iraq. And that's what leads our Campaign News Daily. The group Grassfire.org is running the ad, which defends the president's decision to overthrow Saddam Hussein.</s>ANNOUNCER: It's now clear that we didn't know the whole truth before we went to war: mass executions, unspeakable torture, woman brutally raped, children hanged while their parents watched by a dictator who brazenly threatened the world. That's the truth. But the truth doesn't matter...</s>WOODRUFF: The ads started running last weekend in Iowa. It is billed as a response to anti-Bush ads paid for by the group MoveOn.org. Two new polls gauged the president's standing with voters in Maryland and Pennsylvania. In a Gonzalez poll of Maryland voters, the president trailed both Howard Dean and Joe Lieberman in head-to-head matchups. And he is tied with Dick Gephardt. A Muhlenberg College survey in Pennsylvania, meanwhile, finds the president leads an unnamed Democratic nominee by four percentage points. In one-on-one matchups, Mr. Bush leads Howard Dean, John Kerry, Wesley Clark, and Joe Lieberman, by margins ranging from seven to 12 points. Dick Gephardt has picked up a much coveted endorsement, meantime, in South Carolina. Congressman Jim Clyburn said today that he is backing Gephardt in the February 3 primary. Clyburn is the most prominent African-American official in a state where about half of the primary voters are expected to be African-American. Well, as you've been hearing from Candy, most of the '04 Democrats clearly are miffed by Al Gore's endorsement of Howard Dean. But perhaps none more so than Joe Lieberman. Up next, I'll ask Lieberman if he felt entitled to Gore's support and how his campaign proceeds from here on. Also ahead, the Gore nod was a hot topic at last night's Democratic debate. We'll review the candidates' performances. Plus, an insider's view of the Democratic presidential race here in New Hampshire. This is INSIDE POLITICS, the place for campaign news.