United Press International’s Daily Roundup Of Notable News Shaping Politics and Public Policy in Washington and the wWrld

0- running it up the flag poll

Michael P. Meehan, director of message development and polling at the DNC-and self-described “party hack” passes along a recent Mellman Group and Garin-Hart-Yang poll showing that “of 1,000 likely voters nationwide … George W. Bush continues to fall in public esteem while the image advantage for Congressional Democrats over Congressional Republicans is the largest we have seen in two-and-half-years. Even more important, as the Senate begins debate on the Patients’ Bill of Rights, the electorate overwhelmingly backs the Democratic approach generally, and the right to sue in particular. Indeed, public support for a Patients’ Bill of Rights is largely impervious to attack by our Republican opponents.” 0- Running it up the greasy pole

U.S. conservatives have eyes on the British Parliament. A campaign is under way to find a replacement for Tory leader William Hague, who resigned after the election earlier this month. Uneasy about front-runner Michael Portillo, shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, many are looking to Iain Duncan-Smith, who has been a contact point for the U.S. right for many years, as the one best able rebuild the Thatcherite movement. But a few who know British Tory politics very well say the real man to watch, for the long term, is backbencher David Davis, who could end up surprising everyone. 0- Flip-flop

Ted Kennedy on HMOs in March of 1978: “As the author of the first HMO bill to ever pass the Senate, I find this spreading support for HMOs truly gratifying.” Ted Kennedy on HMOs in May 2001: “It is time to end the abuses of managed care that victimize thousands of parents each day. It is time for doctors and nurses and patients to make medical decisions again, not insurance company accountants. ” Courtesy of the Institute for Health Freedom’s “Health Freedom Watch.” 0- Taxes, Part One

Texas Republican Sen. Phil Gramm, leading an aggressive charge to make the Bush tax cut permanent, reportedly is poised to take up the issue while rebate checks are arriving in the mail all over America if Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) follows through with his threat to hold the Senate in session during the Fourth of July recess. Meanwhile, Citizens for a Sound Economy, a free-market group, is asking member of Congress to sign a “Taxpayer Relief Pledge” that commits legislators to oppose efforts to repeal parts of the just-enacted Bush tax cuts and to support efforts to make the cuts permanent. 0- Taxes, Part Two

Former MSNBC host and Democrat consultant Paul Begala raising eyebrows with his advice to Democrats: “Work to spend and shrink: spend the money and shrink the tax cut.” Begala says that there is still time for the Democrats “to fix things” since much of the tax cut doesn’t take effect for some time. 0- From the home office in San Francisco

Mother Jones, the liberal longtime predecessor to the American Spectator, has produced its annual list of the nation’s 400 top political contributors. The top ten names on the list are all Democrats — except for Cincinnati mogul Carl Lindner, who gives to both parties. Others in the top ten include former Slim-Fast chairman S. Daniel Abraham (1), Loral CEO Bernard Schwartz (2), Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos (7), and Haim Saban, CEO of Fox Family and the man who brought the Power Rangers to America (5). 0- God blessed Texas

Texas GOP Governor Rick Perry, who some say got off to a rocky start, is winning political points for signing bills on Sunday raising the speed limit to 75 mph on some rural stretches of highway and protecting consumers from unwanted telemarketing calls. 0- Personnel note

GOP super-lobbyist Charlie Black moves up to the chairmanship of his firm, BKSH & Associates, shedding his administrative responsibilities to Democrat R. Scott Pastrick, who takes over as president … John Stirrup, manager of government relations for KPMG Peat Marwick, jumps to the firm of Griffin, Johnson, Dover & Stewart … Former Washington Post political writer Kent Jenkins returning from Cisco Systems to Burson-Marsteller as managing director of the media practice … Former DNC chairman Joe Andrew joins the law firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft … Mary Ellen Countryman, director of public affairs for the National Security Council and a career foreign service officer, is being shipped to Myanmar as part of a regular rotation in the foreign service … Heritage Foundation House liaison Jen Larkin is off to Barbour Griffith Rogers as a lobbyist.