Lawrence Ari Fleischer

“ And the President believes strongly that the death penalty, when it's administered fairly and effectively, and when defendants have full access to the courts, that the death penalty serves as a deterrent to crime, and that's why he believes in the death penalty. It's also important to point out that the legislation that led to the federal death penalty in this case was supported by an overwhelmingly large bipartisan vote of the Congress, both the House and the Senate, in terms of the execution of drug kingpins, very, very bipartisan legislation, overwhelmingly large margins. ”

“ Routine contacts, between the administration and the agencies, in terms of the important business that the agencies carry out on behalf of the American people. But the bottom line is the same. The President is very proud that the taxpayers are about to receive a first-time rebate because there has been an overpayment in taxes. Now, we understand that there are many people on Capitol Hill who oppose tax relief, and they do not like the idea of taxes being cut. ”

“ This is about good government, and this is about a substantive decision that the taxpayers, for the first time, are going to get a rebate check. It's a highly unusual event for taxpayers to get a rebate check. ”

“ Q When has it not been fragile, since 1948, Ari? Can you name one time when it has not been fragile? MR. FLEISCHER: I think, Les, that the history of the Middle East has been a series of steps forward and steps backwards. Q But I trust Bush's promises more than I would trust Clinton's wouldn't you? MR. FLEISCHER: Yes. (Laughter.) Q Ari, has Kosovo been officially added to next month's Europe trip, and are other stops under consideration? ”

“ I think it helps the taxpayers to understand why they're about to receive a check. Q But does the letter on the IRS stationary from the IRS itself help the President politically? MR. FLEISCHER: I think that for everybody who voted for tax relief, the Democrats and Republicans included, for all those members of Congress and for the President, to everybody who is contributing to the economic recovery that's going to be created thanks to this tax cut, it helps substantively. Anything that helps substantively is good government. ”

“ I think the President's hope is that the cease-fire will continue to take hold, that the violence will diminish, and that the Mitchell Committee report, which calls first and foremost for unconditional cease-fire from all parties, followed by confidence-building measures, can begin to be implemented. And as part of that implementation process, Secretary Powell, at the President's direction, has been on the phone with Prime Minister Sharon, with Chairman Arafat, with others in the region. ”

“ I want to review the letter with specificity before answering that. But this is not cost plus. The action taken by FERC is not cost plus. Cost plus is an arbitrary determination that utility's costs are at one level, and somebody in the government will set a price of what an acceptable profit can be above that level. Somebody in government, a bureaucrat, would have to designate 10 percent, 15 percent, whatever a government worker deems an appropriate profit. That's cost plus. This is not cost plus. Q Has the White House economist, Lawrence Lindsey, signed off on this not being a price control? ”

“ The President expects all the people that he names to post to be of the highest ethics. Q The AP -- I have a two-part question -- the Associated Press has reported, and this is a quoteWhen former President Clinton first ran in 1992, he advocated moving the embassy from Tel Aviv. ”

“ And that, again, is why the two agreed to have their defense ministers meet to talk further, and to see what progress can be made. Q Does that mean, then, that his public statements about Start II, Mr. Bush does not consider to be either significant or operative? MR. FLEISCHER: The President is always interested in all the things that President Putin says. But his focus is on the conversation they had in their meeting. Q One more on the Middle East. ”