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Giuliani Plans First Trip to Iowa
Republicans lost control of the House and Senate in 2006 when voters rebelled over the war in Iraq and corruption in the GOP-controlled Congress.
Tom Ridge, a former governor of Pennsylvania and Homeland Security secretary, said "inclusiveness" will be an important theme.
  Former New York City mayor and possible presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani gestures while speaking on combating crime and gang activity in Los Angeles during a news conference in Monterey Park, Calif., Monday, March 5, 2007. (AP Photo/Nick Ut) (Nick Ut - AP) 
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"You don't have to agree with me all the time to be a good Republican," said Ridge, a board member.
The council will promote Republican candidates at the local, state and federal levels who favor low taxes, balanced budgets, strong national defense, protection of the environment, and less government interference in individual lives.
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WASHINGTON (AP) _ Hillary, Barack, Rudy, John, Mitt _ and Susie?
The Children's Defense Fund has launched a fictitious candidate _ 10-year-old Susie Flynn _ and a fake presidential campaign to pressure the real White House hopefuls to address the problem of the nation's 9 million children without health insurance.
In some of the ads, Susie stands on the Capitol steps or in front of the White House, asking why the government can't fund insurance coverage for children 18 and younger when it's spending billions on the Iraq war.
For now, the ads are on a Web site http:/
Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund, said the litmus test for every presidential candidate will be what they do on children's health, including Democratic front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"It's not how many babies they kiss," Edelman told reporters Tuesday.
Clinton and Edelman have known each other since the 1970s when Clinton, then a Yale law student, worked for Edelman at the Washington Research Project. They had a falling out in 1996 when President Bill Clinton pushed through his welfare reform bill, legislation Edelman opposed.
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Associated Press writers Will Lester, Liz Sidoti and Donna Cassata in Washington contributed to this report.
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