Tip Sheet for the Week of May 20 - 24

This is a partial transcript from The Beltway Boys, May 18, that has been edited for clarity. Click here to order the complete transcript.

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MORT KONDRACKE, CO-HOST: Welcome back to The Beltway Boys.

Fred's in the hot seat, and here's our Tip Sheet for next week's action.

Item one, President Bush leaves for a seven-day, six-city visit to Europe and Russia.

FRED BARNES, CO-HOST: Obviously the meeting with Putin in Moscow is very, very important, though hard to see what more Putin can do. He's really come our way. You know what I'm most interested in, Mort, will be to see Bush's speech on Memorial Day on that holy ground at the American cemetery in Normandy.

KONDRACKE: Right. Will he match Reagan '84?

BARNES: Be hard to do.

KONDRACKE: Right.

Item number two, former President Clinton will lead a U.S. delegation to the independent celebration for East Timor.

BARNES: This isn't the biggest event going on in the world, but I think it's sort of a trial run for Clinton. I think the Bush administration, Bush personally, would like to use Clinton on diplomatic missions. He certainly doesn't want to use Jimmy Carter. And, and I bet more will follow this, Mort, if this works out all right, and I expect it will.

KONDRACKE: What Carter wants is, is to be cut into Middle East diplomacy...

BARNES: I know, yes.

KONDRACKE: ... now. I think he's going to have to work up to that.  Luxembourg, maybe, you know, more...

BARNES: You mean Clinton does want to get...

KONDRACKE: Clinton, Clinton, Clinton, I'm sorry. Clinton does.

BARNES: Clinton.

KONDRACKE: Item three, the Pennsylvania Democratic gubernatorial primary is next week, and the candidates, ex-Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell and auditor general Bob Casey.

BARNES: Now, Rendell is running ahead in the, in the polls, and I think he'll win. Republicans believe that they have a better chance, Mike Fischer (ph), their candidate for governor, I think he's now Pennsylvania attorney general, has a better chance against Rendell than he does against Casey. So – it would – but it's going to be a great race.

KONDRACKE: Item four, the New Democratic Network is holding its 2002 spring conference next week. Look for some presidential hopefuls to make an appearance.

BARNES: Yes, there'll be a few of them, but, but who else is going to be there? There are no New Democrats any more, Mort. You know perfectly well the party has veered to the left. Once Bill Clinton left, I mean, he had a, a great effect on them, actually drawing the party back to the center. That's gone, no New Dems.

KONDRACKE: Well, actually the high-techies did vote against the farm bill, you'll be happy to know.

BARNES: Good.

KONDRACKE: For trade reasons.

Item number five, U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and U-2 front man Bono will embark on a fact-finding mission to Africa next week.

BARNES: OK, here's the question. Do you know Bono's real name?

KONDRACKE: I do not.

BARNES: It is Paul Huson.

KONDRACKE: Good for you, Fred.

BARNES: Remember that, Mort, you can dazzle teenagers with that little bit of information.

You know what O'Neill and, and Bono ought to do? They ought to read Peter Bauer (ph), the great British economist who recently died, on foreign aid. And, and, and, and you know the case Bauer makes? In countries that don't have a free market and private property and the rule of law...

KONDRACKE: It all gets stolen.

BARNES: ... foreign aid, it all gets stolen. Foreign aid is – not only does it get stolen, it is counterproductive, because it gets everybody looking to foreign aid for help rather than going out and working and saving and investing.

So read Peter Bauer's books, that'd be good.

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