This is a partial transcript from The Beltway Boys, August 3, that has been edited for clarity. Click here to order the complete transcript.
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PAUL GIGOT, GUEST CO-HOST: Welcome back to The Beltway Boys. I'm Paul Gigot, in for Fred Barnes.
Let's see if I can stump Mort on the Tip Sheet.
Item number one, President Bush heads to his Crawford, Texas, ranch next week, but he has two political trips planned, to Pennsylvania and Mississippi.
MORT KONDRACKE, CO-HOST: Paul, there — no politician in an election year has a, has a real August vacation. I mean, so Bush is going to go off and campaign for Congressman Chip Pickering in Mississippi, and he's going to sign the partial birth abortion bill, which will help bolster his conservative base in Pennsylvania.
GIGOT: Item number two, Secretary of State Colin Powell will meet with top Palestinian Authority officials next week in Washington.
KONDRACKE: Well, you know, the leader of this group is Saeb Erakat, who is a, who is a, an aide to Yasser Arafat, which tells you that even though president wants to the President Bush wants to reform the Palestinian Authority and get rid of Arafat, in fact, Arafat is in charge of the process.
GIGOT: Item three, a federal court here in Washington will rule next week on whether D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams was wrongly kicked off the Democratic ballot for petition fraud.
KONDRACKE: This is one of the biggest screwups in American — contemporary American politics, yes, you know, the mayor of the city can't get a valid signatures, although I think he did, actually, get 2,000 out of the 10,000 that he submitted. The rest of them were, were phonies. And he deserves to, to, to be put back on the ballot.
GIGOT: Item four, Michigan has two of the hottest Democratic primaries in the country next week, the governor's race, where three candidates, including Congressman David Bonior, are locked in a tight battle, and the newly drawn 16th Congressional District is pitting two incumbents against each other, John Dingell and Lynn Rivers.
KONDRACKE: Well, the, the Dingell race, the Dingell... Rivers race, is all about guns, generation, and gender. I think Dingell probably will win because he's got unions. But narrowly.
GIGOT: Item five, Network begins construction on a light-water nuclear reactor. Delegates from the U.S. European Union, Japan, and South Korea will be on hand for the ceremony.
KONDRACKE: Well, ironically, this is an axis of evil country. We're helping them build a nuclear reactor. Fortunately, it won't be done till 2009. There may be regime change by then.
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