THE BANALITY OF DICK GEPHARDT:

The Note (Mark Halperin, Elizabeth Wilner & Marc Ambinder, 1/21/03, ABCNews.com)

On the presidential level, with party circles still picking apart the results of this past weekend's events in Iowa, all six announced Democratic candidates will speak tonight at NARAL Pro-Choice America's dinner at the Omni Shoreham Hotel. Receptions to start at 6:00 p.m., event to begin at 7:00 p.m.

The NARAL event will be important for a lot of reasons. Watching the body language in how the candidates treat each other is key.

Influencing the Chattering Class, NARAL Division of pro-choice women activists is also key — right up there with labor and African-Americans. The echo-chamber effect for anyone who does well tonight (or poorly) will be huge.

Watch how the candidates use their limited speaking time (four minutes) to maximum effect. Watch to see if the time limit is strictly enforced. Watch to see who tries to make news, and how hard they go after President Bush. Watch to see who brings and/or makes reference to their spouse.

Richard Gephardt is the only one about whom there is some pre-event buzz that he plans to make news. Most of the speculation has centered on the possibility that he will "apologize" for his previously pro-life position, but Time's Joe Klein says "at the pro-choice cattle show, the only profile in courage will be Dick Gephardt's refusal to endorse late-term.

One would like to think that even Dick Gephardt is not so vile as to apologize for voting to protect human life in the past, but, sadly, his past--including his becoming pro-choice immediately on deciding to seek his party's nomination in '88--suggests he's precisely that vile. Posted by Orrin Judd at January 21, 2003 3:18 PM