Tip Sheet for the Week of March 25

This partial transcript of The Beltway Boys, March 23, was provided by the Federal Document Clearing House. Click here to order the complete transcript.

MORT KONDRACKE: It's tip sheet time, and here we go for next week's action.

Item one, former vice president Al Gore has a major fund-raiser speech next week in Tennessee.

BARNES: Well, you know, Gore still has a lot of support among the grass roots of the Democratic Party. It's the inside-the-Beltway Democratic Party elites of consultants and so on who don't want him to run again, because they think he'll lose.

But the truth is, we see this latest activity by Gore shows that he wants to run in 2004.

KONDRACKE: He's running.

Item two, the two holiest days in Christianity and Judaism are next week, Passover and Easter.

BARNES: You know, there's a new Pew poll that shows, I think wrongly, but shows that there's been a return to the levels of people churchgoing and so on before September 11 and the terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. You know, my personal experience is that many more people are going to church or at least thinking about God or having conversations with their friends about God and Christ and so on than they ever have before.

KONDRACKE: Yes, the fear of death is evaporating, though.

Item three, a group of former Daschle staffers have banded together and will start raising money next week to defend majority leader against attack ads.

BARNES: Mort, I know you are outraged.

KONDRACKE: I am.

BARNES: Outraged, totally outraged that they're using soft money for these ads...

KONDRACKE: Ah, I see.

BARNES: ... and here's your chance to denounce it.

KONDRACKE: Soft money will not be illegal until after the elections.

Item four, the U.S.S. Roosevelt is returning home from Operation Enduring Freedom next week.

BARNES: My prediction is that it will be back in the Persian Gulf very, very soon, when the U.S. and allies are taking military action against Iraq and Saddam Hussein.

KONDRACKE: Are we going to attack Saddam Hussein on Saddam's birthday or before April 28?

BARNES: After.

KONDRACKE: After, OK.

Item five, the Academy Awards are Sunday night, and Fred is ready with his Oscar picks.

BARNES: Well, I think the best actor is going to be a long-overdue Oscar for Denzel Washington in, that cop movie, Training Day. Best actress, Sissy Spacek, who lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, In the Bedroom, and the best movie, A Beautiful Mind, which I haven't seen, but my kids and my wife say it's great.

KONDRACKE: I have, and I concur with all those choices.

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