As john mccain was having dinner with his fellow Senators in the Capitol on Tuesday evening, just before going to the House chamber to hear the State of the Union speech, he was called to the telephone. It was presidential counselor Karen Hughes, telling him that one of his pet ideas―expanding the national volunteer program known as AmeriCorps―was going to be appropriated by the President. In his address Bush would challenge each American to donate 4,000 hours of community service and would announce a new agency called U.S.A. Freedom Corps to marshal the effort. Freedom Corps builds on existing volunteer programs and creates new ones: the Citizen Corps, a kind of national Neighborhood Watch; and the Medical Reserve Corps, an army of first responders for terror attacks and other national emergencies.
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