February 1, 2008
I got several e-mails complaining about load times this week, and it appears the problem came from multiple appearances of both the BlogTalkRadio player for my shows, and from multiple appearances of the AOL Hot Seat Poll script. I took out all but one of each and the site appears to load faster now. I'll keep this in mind as we go along, and from now on there will be one instance only for both. Since the BTR player for Heading Right Radio sits on my sidebar, I won't post the one for my show with Nikki on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This should resolve the problem. Thanks for the feedback!...
MIcrosoft apparently wants to bring all of the expertise they've displayed in their Vista operating system to the portal/search business on the Internet. They have launched a bid to buy Yahoo!, the original indispensable search engine and now multilayered service provider. It marks the most significant expansion attempt in years for Microsoft, and maybe their most aggressive bid ever: Microsoft Corp. offered to buy search engine operator Yahoo Inc. for $44.6 billion in cash and stock in a move to boost its competitive edge in the online services market. Microsoft bid $31 per share for Yahoo, representing a 62 percent premium to Yahoo's closing stock price Thursday. It looks like Microsoft may have given up on MSN. Microsoft launched their own search/portal site years ago, and tied their Windows Messenger IM product to it. It didn't exactly catch on with web surfers, who preferred the sleeker search engines of first...
Late last night, Mitt Romney's campaign released its fourth-quarter funding figures, and as everyone expected, Romney significantly self-funded. He raised $9 million, which stacks up well against the other Republicans, but added twice as much into the kitty from his own pocket. The Politico wonders how much he's self-funding in January: Mitt Romney contributed $18 million of his own money to his campaign in the fourth quarter, more than he had put in the first three quarters combined. Romney also raised $9 million during the quarter and wound up with $2.43 million on hand. ... What is unknown is just how much Romney put in and spent during the month of January. Given the campaign's heavy TV spending, his total personal contribution is likely now at $40 million or above. John McCain raised $6.8 million for the quarter and was left with 2.9 million on hand at the end of...
Star Trek fans remember the tricorder, the handy medical and scientific device that allowed both Dr. McCoy and Mr. Spock to make instant evaluations of injured crew members, hostile environments, and hurt Hortas. They were one of the ways in which plot lines could get speeded along without too much exposition, along with the "universal translator" that allowed everyone to speak in California English -- well, everyone! except! William! Shatner! In a development that ST fans might appreciate, sports physicians may be able to use something similar now to check for concussions. A new hand-held brain-scan device promises to make a clear diagnosis that will eliminate guesswork and prevent permanent damage: A startup called BrainScope is developing a tool that may help inform doctors about which injured players should stay on the sidelines—or be taken to a hospital. The Chesterfield (Mo.) company's handheld device determines the severity of concussions by...
You have to hand it to the Democrats; they do surrender well. After coming out of their annual retreat last year with an ambitious agenda to force the White House into submission, the Congressional leadership managed to lose every major engagement with the supposedly lame-duck George Bush. This year, the term "annual retreat" took on new meaning: A year ago, newly empowered House Democrats gathered here at the Kingsmill Resort for their annual retreat brimming with confidence. Before them was an ambitious legislative agenda and a determination to end or curtail the U.S. troop presence in Iraq. This time around, the hotel and golf courses are the same, but the song is markedly different. Gone is the talk of forcing President Bush to end the war, as is the impetus to pass a comprehensive immigration package and to stick to strict budget rules. Instead, Democrats are thinking smaller, much smaller....
Matt Welch of Reason notices a strange phenomenon in primary voting this year, one that seems highly counterintuitive. I had noticed this in New Hampshire as well, and the trend has continued. John McCain, despite his championing of the Iraq war, continues to draw pluralities in self-professed anti-war voters: It's no mystery why independents gravitate toward McCain. He's a country-first, party-second kind of guy who speaks bluntly and delights in poking fellow Republicans in the eye on issues such as campaign finance reform and global warming. But there's a bizarre disconnect in the warm embrace between McCain and the electorate's mavericks. They hate the Iraq war, while he's willing to fight it for another century. The most pro-war presidential candidate in a decade is winning the 2008 GOP nomination thanks to the antiwar vote. A full 66% of independents think that the U.S. should completely withdraw from Iraq no later...
For the first time since August 2003, payroll levels decreased in the US in January. The loss of 17,000 jobs did not increase the unemployment rate, which remained at 4.9%, but it sends a signal to the economic markets that trouble still brews on the horizon: Nervous employers cut 17,000 jobs in January — the first such reduction in more than four years and a fresh trouble sign that the economy is in danger of stalling. The Labor Department's report, released Friday, also showed that the unemployment rate dipped slightly to 4.9 percent, from 5 percent, as the civilian labor force shrank slightly. Job losses were widespread. Manufacturers, construction firms and a variety of professional and business services eliminated jobs in January — reflecting the toll of the housing and credit debacles. The government cut jobs, too. All those cuts swamped job gains in education, health care, retailing and elsewhere....
AOL and BlogTalkRadio have partnered on the Hot Seat poll, extending the debate to our listenership. I will host a 15-minute show weekdays at 1:00 pm ET to review the poll, interview the blogger, and take calls from the participants. We'll speak to a wide spectrum of bloggers and callers alike for each day's poll -- including today's: embedSWF(9, 0, 0, "widget", "recent")This content requires the most recent version of the Adobe Flash Player. Get this version below:Get Flash John Amato from Crooks & Liars will join me today to discuss the question and the results, so be sure to tune in at BlogTalkRadio -- and don't forget to cast your votes! We will also take your calls at (347) 205-9555....
This morning, Mitt Romney held a New Media conference call to discuss the state of the race and his strategy for the Super Tuesday primaries. This is the first one of these I recall from the Romney campaign, and I hope that it won't be the last. Romney started off by saying that "it's fun to watch the Democratic race," noting that the national media hasn't called it a done deal despite having one candidate who won twice as many as the other. He and McCain have essentially tied for states, and yet the media has tried to call the GOP contest a done deal. He also mentioned the "false claim" that he had supported a troop withdrawal from Iraq. Romney also sees Mike Huckabee as drawing some votes away from Romney. Romney cast the election, in part, as a struggle for the Republican soul. He drew a comparison to...
Baghdad got hit by two bombers today, but neither of them committed suicide. The al-Qaeda attack involved strapping remote-controlled bombs to two girls with Down's Syndrome, and detonating the devices when they walked through the market. The explosions killed 73 people in one of the deadliest days since the surge pacified most of Iraq: Remote-controlled explosives strapped to two mentally retarded women detonated in a coordinated attack on Baghdad pet bazaars Friday, Iraqi officials said, killing at least 73 people in the deadliest day since the U.S. sent 30,000 extra troops to the capital last spring. The chief Iraqi military spokesman in Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, claimed the female bombers had Down syndrome and that the explosives were detonated by remote control, indicating they may not having been willing attackers in what could be a new method by suspected Sunni insurgents to subvert stepped up security measures. U.S. Ambassador...
She did for me last year at CPAC, of course, when she derided John Edwards as a "faggot". At the time, a number of conservative bloggers wrote that she had embarrassed the movement and owed Edwards an apology, which she refused to offer. This year, the ACU has opted not to have her as a featured speaker, although I understand she will appear at an ancillary event at CPAC. Of course, she can then explain why she will campaign for Hillary Clinton if John McCain wins the Republican nomination: So let's walk through the logic here. John McCain gets castigated by Coulter because he aligns himself too often with the Democrats. Her solution to that is --- to campaign for the Democrats? Maybe someone can explain the thought process to me, but it sounds like a hysterical demand for extortion rather than a considered and thoughtful political position. I'm supporting...
Note: This post will remain on top until show time; newer posts may be found below. Today on Heading Right Radio (2 pm CT), Duane "Generalissimo" Patterson of the Hugh Hewitt Show joins us for the 90-minute week in review. We have a ton of topics to chew through today, so we'll be speeding things up to get them all in -- but we still want to take your calls! Call 646-652-4889 to join the conversation! And don't forget to join our chat room! This show is now sponsored by Lifelock -- and listen to find out how you can save 10% on their services. Did you know that you can listen to Heading Right Radio through your TiVo service? Click here for the instructions. Also, you can subscribe to Heading Right Radio through iTunes now by clicking this link:...
Arlen Specter wants to get to the bottom of an obstruction of justice that burns to the soul of America. Someone destroyed videotapes that evidenced a crime, and Specter wants an investigation. Was it the CIA who destroyed the videotapes? FBI? BATF? OMB? No -- it was the NFL: With the Super Bowl fast approaching, a senior Republican senator says he wants the NFL to explain why it destroyed evidence of the New England Patriots cheating scandal. "I am very concerned about the underlying facts on the taping, the reasons for the judgment on the limited penalties and, most of all, on the inexplicable destruction of the tapes," said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., in a Thursday letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Specter, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the matter could put the league's antitrust exemption at risk. "Their antitrust exemption has been on my mind...
February 2, 2008
Do not forsake me, oh my darlin' ... February 5th has started looking less like a Super Tuesday and more like High Noon. John McCain continues to roll up endorsements from Republican Party establishment figures such as Governors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Charlie Crist, and newspapers like the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney has conservative talk radio lining up behind him, including explicit endorsements from Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Hugh Hewitt, and the benefit of an anti-endorsement of McCain (and Huckabee) from the most influential of them all, Rush Limbaugh. The stage is set for a showdown within the GOP, but could both men be Gary Cooper? The Los Angeles Times endorsement doesn't exactly ring with delight over McCain: At a different moment in American history, we would hesitate to support a candidate for president whose social views so substantially departed from those we hold....
In politics, anything can happen, and 72 hours can become an eternity. However, barring a major meltdown, it looks like John McCain has strong leads in most Super Tuesday states. Few offer the prospect of wins for Mitt Romney, and right now he has to hope that McCain fails to gain enough delegates to make the rest of the primary schedule a formality. Real Clear Politics has the latest polling data for each of the contests, and the numbers look bleak for Romney. Mitt leads handily in Massachusetts, for instance, and will take a majority of its 42 delegates. He'll get all of Utah's 36 delegates in that winner-take-all state. He should get a third or so at least of California's delegation, around 60. Missouri is close, according to Rasmussen, and so is Tennessee. If Mitt gets the breaks in both states, he could have around 200 more delegates by...
Ron Klain wonders what happens when bloggers speak truth without power in his New York Times blogpost. Klain focuses on the Democratic race, where blogger favorites Dennis Kucinich, John Edwards, and Chris Dodd (whom he doesn't mention) all sank without much of a fight: The ultimate measure of this shift of influence [towards the blogs] came this summer, when virtually every Democratic candidate for president attended the YearlyKos Convention in Chicago, and skipped the annual convention of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council in Nashville. But notwithstanding this stunning success, this week’s withdrawal by John Edwards, coming a week after the departure of Dennis Kucinich, means that both of the preferred presidential candidates of the liberal blogosphere are now out of the race. Instead, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the two candidates who have drawn some of the sharpest criticism on progressive blogs, are the only ones who will make it...
When Rudy Giuliani left the race and threw his support behind John McCain, people wondered whether it would have much effect on the race. After all, the Mayor had faded badly in the Republican primaries after utilizing a strategy that made him largely irrelevant in the national media. However, Rudy brought two other endorsements that could help build bridges with disaffected conservatives if McCain wins the nomination. First came Ted Olson to provide reassurance on judicial nominations, and today Steve Forbes endorsed McCain, perhaps addressing his self-professed weakness on economics: U.S. Senator John McCain's presidential campaign today announced that Steve Forbes has endorsed John McCain for president. "More and more Americans will be impressed by John McCain's efforts to reform our convoluted, growth retarding, anti-opportunity tax code." said Mr. Forbes. "He understands that dollars and decisions are best left to hard-working Americans. John McCain's pro-growth plan to cut taxes, stop...
The Northern Alliance Radio Network will be on the air today, with our six-hour-long broadcast schedule starting at 11 am CT. The first two hours features Power Line's John Hinderaker and Chad and Brian from Fraters Libertas. Mitch and I hit the airwaves for the second shift from 1-3 pm CT, and King Banaian and Michael Broadkorb have The Final Word from 3-5. If you're in the Twin Cities, you can hear us on AM 1280 The Patriot, or on the station's Internet stream if you're outside of the broadcast area. Today, Mitch and I review all of the week's election news. We'll talk about the debates, the Florida primaries, the departure of Rudy Giuliani and his endorsement of John McCain, and preview the upcoming Super Tuesday contest. Be sure to call 651-289-4488 to join the conversation!...
Hillary Clinton's campaign has fostered an eruption of identity politics in the primaries. Some question whether the strategy was intentional, but the immediate impact could be seen in Nevada and South Carolina. Black voters lined up overwhelmingly for Barack Obama, while Hillary gained women and Hispanics, and many saw the seeds of a Hillary victory through Obama's marginalization. The ground may have shifted today with an endorsement from the country's most influential Spanish-language newspaper, California's La Opinion. Questioning Hillary's character over her flip-flops on drivers licenses for illegal aliens, the paper backs Barack Obama: [W]e were disappointed with her calculated opposition to driver’s licenses for the undocumented, which contrasts markedly from the forceful argument in support made by Obama. We understand that this is an extremely controversial issue but we believe there is only one right position and it is that of the senator from Illinois. And, while both senators...
Amidst all of the stormy polling clouds, a little ray of sunshine has broken over the Romney campaign. Rasmussen shows Romney slowly climbing into a tie nationwide with John McCain in its daily tracking poll. It also shows John McCain gaining strength at the same time: In the race for the Republican Presidential Nomination, it’s John McCain at 30%, Mitt Romney at 30%, and Mike Huckabee at 21%. Ron Paul is supported by 5% of Likely Republican Primary Voters (see recent daily numbers). Romney leads by sixteen percentage points among conservatives while McCain has a two-to-one advantage among moderate Primary Voters. Today is the first day of daily tracking for the general election. McCain leads Clinton 47% to 41%. A week ago McCain had an eight point advantage. New match-ups will be added in the coming days. It seems odd, but for this week we're back to national polling. Too...
Mitt Romney got a good jump on Super Tuesday tonight in Maine, where he won the state Republican caucus by a wide margin over John McCain. With two-thirds of precincts reporting, Romney won over half of the vote in a state known more for its independent streak: Mitt Romney won the presidential preference voting among Maine Republicans on Saturday in the party's municipal caucuses, which were heavily attended across the state. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, had a little over half of the vote with about two-thirds of the towns holding caucuses reporting. John McCain worked to keep his vote above 20 percent, trailed by Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee. The nonbinding votes, the first step toward electing 18 Maine delegates to the Republican National Convention, were taking place in public schools, Grange halls, fire stations and town halls across the state. The win comes at a moment when Romney...
February 3, 2008
Will today's Super Bowl give us the second undefeated champion of the modern era in the New England Patriots? Or will we see the New York Giants extend their improbable ten-game road winning streak and derail perfection? Most football fans would probably be satisfied with a competitive and interesting game, but a Super Bowl would not be the spectacle it is without the subplots and the drama -- and the predictions. So here's mine: New England Patriots win, 27-20. What's yours?...
What better way to watch the biggest spectacle in sports than to kick back in a favorite recliner and live blog while consuming chips and dip? The Super Bowl will hopefully feature a dramatic and close game, but even if it doesn't, it will provide plenty of entertainment. The game sometimes takes a back seat to the advertising championship that takes place between the plays. I'll comment on that as well as the game, and in between, I'm going to enjoy my corn chips and guacamole, too. Keep checking back. I'll post the comments in reverse-chronological order so the latest will be on top. 9:14 - Thanks to all the CapQ readers who came along for the ride, especially Jazz in the comments, where he was as good as a co-blogger tonight. Great job, Jazz. This may have been one of the best Super Bowls I've ever watched, except for...
February 4, 2008
China has had its hardest winter in decades, with even the southern provinces blanketed in snow, sleet, ice, and fog for the last several weeks. The lengthy winter storms and unusually cold temperatures have brought China to a standstill, as the central government got caught unprepared for it: Chinese weather experts have admitted that they were not properly prepared for the snow storms that have left hundreds of thousands stranded. The cold weather seen in recent weeks has been the worst to hit central and southern provinces in decades. Officials have blamed freak conditions, but on Monday the head of the China's meteorological office said "we did not make enough preparation". The Chinese have facilities for weather-related storm abatement in the north, where they traditionally have hard winters and have built infrastructure to handle it. It's similar to how the US prepares for winter. In Minnesota, three inches of snow...
Rasmussen and Real Clear Politics have done their best to keep up with the Super Tuesday primaries across over 20 states, and the polling seems to show a slight shift in momentum for Mitt Romney, at least in California. Mitt has pulled into a tie with John McCain, whose support among moderates made this a more likely win for the Arizona Senator: In California, Republican Primary Voters are evenly divided between John McCain and Mitt Romney. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds McCain attracting 38% of the vote and Romney earning an identical 38%. Mike Huckabee is a distant third at 10%, Ron Paul picks up 6%, and 6% say they’ll vote for some other candidate. Earlier in the week, McCain had a small advantage over Romney. Since then, Giuliani dropped out of the race and endorsed McCain. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger also endorsed the GOP frontrunner. While those...
Serbia has re-elected pro-Western president Boris Tadic by a narrow margin. It sets up a confrontation between Tadic and Serbian prime minister Vojislav Kostunica, whose parliamentary support for a less Western-friendly course will get tested in the resolution of Kosovo's status. If the Kosovars declare independence, Serbia could find itself with a destabilizing internal battle: The West sees Tadic's victory as a sign that Serbia has turned away from the reactionary nationalism that fuelled the wars that marked the break up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Last week, the European Union signed an interim accord with Serbia covering trade and relaxation of visa rules -- an initial step towards eventual EU membership -- and on Monday the bloc welcomed Tadic's win. "The EU wishes to deepen its relationship with Serbia and to accelerate its progress towards the EU, including candidate status," the Slovenian EU presidency said in a statement. Although...
Every once in a while, some pollster comes up with a survey that shows what idiots Westerners can be. They especially like to pick on Americans and their rather insular attitude towards geography, being unable in large numbers to actually find Iraq on a globe or to identify the correct continent for Guyana (South America, in case anyone asks). Jay Leno has a running gag on the Tonight Show where he goes out in the street and asks people simple questions and films them getting the answers spectacularly wrong. So I have some sympathy with our friends in Britain this morning, who have to be slapping their heads with the results of a poll taken by a television production company that found 23% of their fellow countrymen didn't believe that Winston Churchill actually existed: Britons are losing their grip on reality, according to a poll out Monday which showed that...
With Super Tuesday less than 24 hours away, expect a great deal of hyperbole and alarmism from secondaries and surrogates in both parties and for all four major frontrunners. The press of over 20 states all conducting their contests simultaneously has increased the pressure for people to make their messages heard over the din, and it has already caused more than a few of them to lose all sense of perspective. Jeff Jacoby brings us back to earth with a simple game of Name That Conservative: Conservatives bristle at the thought of a Republican president who might raise income and payroll taxes. Or enlarge the federal government instead of shrinking it. Or appoint Supreme Court justices who are anything but strict constructionists. Or grant a blanket amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. Now, I don't believe that a President McCain would do any of those things. But President Reagan did...
Apparently, the pressure of the Democratic primary has begun to fracture families on the Left -- at least the political families. The Kennedys have made headlines with their competing endorsements of Hillary Clinton, but at least they're still speaking to each other. The Sanchez sisters in Congress have turned the primary into a real family feud (via Michelle Malkin and Memeorandum): Take the Sanchez sisters, whose dispute has the contours of a classic big sister-little sister fight. It started with a pact: Though both are California Democrats, neither would endorse a presidential primary candidate. But last month, after listening to her older sister praise Mrs. Clinton to a colleague, Linda T. Sanchez, 39, realized that she fervently disagreed. Swept up in excitement, she endorsed Mr. Obama — without calling her sister, who found out through aides. Hours later, Loretta Sanchez, 48, issued her own opposing endorsement. For weeks afterward the...
According to Reuters, the night might belong to Barack Obama tomorrow after polls in several states now show him pulling ahead of Hillary Clinton. All Democratic contests award delegates on a proportional basis, making a decisive victory very unlikely, but a strong showing could shift momentum so significantly that Hillary may not be able to recover: Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama opened narrow leads on Hillary Clinton in California and Missouri one day before crucial "Super Tuesday" nominating contests in 24 states, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Monday. ... Obama and Clinton were deadlocked in New Jersey, and Obama enjoyed a double-digit advantage over Clinton in Georgia in two other Democratic contests on the biggest single day of voting ever in a U.S. presidential nominating campaign. Obama, an Illinois senator, and Clinton, a New York senator, have waged a bitter duel for the Democratic presidential nomination, competing for...
Yesterday morning, I watched with some disbelief as Fox News Sunday managed to get John McCain and Hillary Clinton together for a brief three-way chat with Chris Wallace. Nothing much occurred, but I wondered what would have made either candidate agree to a cheery bit of Senatorial comity 48 hours before the Super Tuesday primaries. According to Howard Kurtz, they didn't: Advisers to Hillary Clinton and John McCain felt misled yesterday when "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace prodded the candidates into talking to each other after they had agreed to be interviewed separately. While McCain was being interviewed in Washington, Clinton aides grew suspicious when producers asked her to remain in the interview chair in St. Louis for 15 minutes--ostensibly so she could hear his comments--and refused to turn off her mike so she could have a private conversation. That enabled Wallace to tell McCain he was about to...
AOL and BlogTalkRadio have partnered on the Hot Seat poll, extending the debate to our listenership. I will host a 15-minute show weekdays at 1:00 pm ET to review the poll, interview the blogger, and take calls from the participants. We'll speak to a wide spectrum of bloggers and callers alike for each day's poll -- including today's: [Poll expired.] Be sure to tune it at BlogTalkRadio -- and don't forget to cast your votes! We will also take your calls at (347) 205-9555....
I generally consider Jimmy Carter the worst president and the worst ex-president of the 20th century, and for a number of good reasons. I've written about them often enough not to repeat myself in this post; consider it stipulated. His track record is bad enough to allow conservatives merely to cite it without much argument, let alone distort it. That's what the normally reliable American Spectator does today, though, in a passage about Carter and his understanding of faith. In taking it out of the context in which Carter wrote about Satan's offer to Jesus before the crucifixion, Shawn Macomber makes it sound as though Carter wished Jesus had taken the offer: APPROPRIATELY ENOUGH, to Carter's mind, the biggest trade-off of the Crucifixion may have been gaining eternal salvation while losing a potentially great bureaucratic overlord. During a meditation on the temptation of Christ, Carter muses over the attractiveness of...
A make-or-break primary date looms within hours, and once again the focus falls on whether Hillary Clinton can blunt the momentum of the political neophyte Barack Obama. What can she do? She can fall back on the strategy that helped her to a surprise win New Hampshire by getting misty (via The Anchoress): Sen. Hillary Clinton teared up this morning at an event at the Yale Child Study Center, where she worked while in law school in the early 1970s. Penn Rhodeen, who was introducing Clinton, began to choke up, leading Clinton's eyes to fill with tears, which she wiped out of her left eye. At the time, Rhodeen was saying how proud he was that sheepskin-coat, bell-bottom-wearing young woman he met in 1972 was now running for president. "Well, I said I would not tear up; already we're not exactly on the path," Clinton said with emotion after the...
Note: This post will remain on top until show time; newer posts may be found below. Today on Heading Right Radio (2 pm CT), we have a series of great guests! Liz Cheney puts in a final word for Mitt Romney, Ryan Ellis of Americans for Tax Reform goes over economics before Super Tuesday, and Dr. Steven Sauerberg talks about his push to run against Dick Durbin for the Senate. Don't miss it! Call 646-652-4889 to join the conversation! And don't forget to join our chat room! This show is now sponsored by Lifelock -- and listen to find out how you can save 10% on their services. Did you know that you can listen to Heading Right Radio through your TiVo service? Click here for the instructions. Also, you can subscribe to Heading Right Radio through iTunes now by clicking this link:...
The White House has submitted its budget request for 2009, and it gives everyone a mixed bag. It increases military spending and attempts to cut some programs and reduce others. However, its total spending puts the US above $3 trillion for the first time: President Bush submitted a federal budget of $3.1 trillion on Monday, declaring that the spending plan would keep the United States safe and prosperous and, despite its record size, would adhere to his principle of letting Americans keep as much of their own money as possible. “Thanks to the hard work of the American people and spending discipline in Washington, we are now on a path to balance the budget by 2012,” the president said in an introductory message. “Our formula for achieving a balanced budget is simple: Create the conditions for economic growth, keep taxes low and spend taxpayer dollars wisely or not at all.”...
Richard Vigurie, of all people, now wants a brokered convention. He spent most of the primary campaign flooding e-mail inboxes with missives supporting Ron Paul and complaining about the supposed media conspiracy that kept him from gaining enough support to win the nomination. Now he admits that Paul never had a prayer of getting nominated, but wants to encourage a brokered convention to find someone other than the current contenders: The discombobulated state of the Republican presidential campaign means that it is still possible for someone to jump into the race. Such a candidate could serve as a kingmaker at the Republican convention in September, or even – yes, it’s possible – could become the party’s nominee. First, let's just address the obvious: it isn't possible. Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson both proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt. Anyone jumping into the race now would not only have...
For the second year in a row, I'll be traveling to CPAC to join Blogger Row and to cover the excitement. I leave on Wednesday, which will mean a change in time for my Heading Right Radio show that day to 12:30 pm CT. The conference runs from Thursday, February 7th to Saturday, February 9th. I will broadcast all of my BlogTalkRadio shows live from the exhibit room floor, and I hope to line up some significant guests for both days. Of course, I'll also attend some of the presentations, check out the exhibitors, and try to talk to the candidates who will attend CPAC. Both Mitt Romney and John McCain will attend this year, as will many Congressional candidates looking for support. Last year's CPAC featured some fireworks, and undoubtedly this year's will bring even more. Just for fun, I'd like to see what CapQ readers would like to...
February 5, 2008
The latest in global-warming silliness comes from Great Britain, where Lent lends an opportunity for bishops to sound hip and relevant. Tomorrow being Ash Wednesday, the bishops of London and Yorkshire have a suggestion for Lenten sacrifice. Instead of alcohol or chocolate, give up carbon: Two senior bishops led calls on Tuesday for people to cut back on carbon, rather than the more traditional chocolate and alcohol, for Lent this year. Bishop of London Richard Chartres and Bishop of Liverpool James Jones have teamed up with aid agency Tearfund to invite the public to take part in a carbon fast for the next forty days. Those taking part in the drive to reduce their carbon footprint will be able to choose daily energy saving actions from a booklet. "For example, on the first day, people can take out one of their light bulbs and whenever they go to turn that...
China knows that the Olympic Games will bring great scrutiny this summer, and no more so than when the athletes of the world arrive. Thousands of Westerners will expect to have the same level of communications available to them, and the Beijing government will have to decide whether to suspend its tight control over Internet access. Unlike their citizens, these Western athletes, reporters, and tourists will leave China and tell their stories: China is debating whether to relax control of the Internet during the Olympics, allowing access to banned websites such as the BBC, a spokeswoman for the organising committee said Tuesday. Plans to tear down the so-called Great Firewall of China were being debated and a decision was expected soon, said Wang Hui, head of media relations for the organising committee. "We are studying this now based on suggestions of some journalists and a study of the experiences of...
On my Saturday afternoon NARN radio show with Mitch Berg here in the Twin Cities, we discussed the upcoming Super Tuesday contest and took some calls. Most of the callers gave us rational support for their decision to back Mitt Romney or John McCain, but one in particular stood out for its weirdness. As near as Mitch and I could tell, the caller postulated that McCain had been brainwashed and turned by the Communists as a POW and was now a Manchurian Candidate -- which surpassed even the strangest arguments I'd heard about the Clintons at the peak of CDS. Both of us wondered in which paranoid delusional corner that particular notion arose. Lo and behold, we got an answer today. Dr. Jack Wheeler apparently began spreading this particular rumor just after the Florida primary, and it gets nasty: Others relate times when McCain screamed four-letter obscenities right in their...
Eugene Robinson once again takes a close look at the Clinton Restoration, and again decides that he can't abide it. The Washington Post columnist wonders exactly how Hillary can argue that her experience as First Lady somehow included actual governance, and then in the same breath insist that Bill will have nothing to do with running the country as First Spouse: There's no way that Hillary Clinton would go to the considerable trouble of running for president in order to let her husband make the decisions, as if the Clinton marriage were out of a 1950s sitcom. Hillary has her people -- longtime friends, supporters, aides -- just as Bill has his. If she made it to the White House, her people would be the ones with real power; if his people didn't like it, there wouldn't be much they could do but grumble. But Hillary Clinton opens the door...
Around the country, or at least in 24 states, the polls have opened on the largest primary date in American history. Both parties send two viable candidates to the polls, and the GOP arguably three, as almost half the country tries to pick the eventual nominee. And thanks to the structure of the Republican primaries, one candidate could score a knockout punch: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton made a raspy appeal for support yesterday in her race against Sen. Barack Obama, even as her aides warned that the Democratic presidential contest will probably drag on for months after today's Super Tuesday voting. Republican Mitt Romney, meanwhile, predicted he would "surprise" those who were expecting Sen. John McCain to be anointed as the GOP nominee in the busiest single day of primaries and caucuses in presidential nominating history. "I am definitely the underdog," Romney declared during a final day of furious campaigning...
Given the importance of Super Tuesday, I'm reposting a portion of my endorsement of Mitt Romney for CapQ readers. First, I want to have someone who supports conservative values. In this, we have no perfect candidates. Fred Thompson came closest, but he quit, and I'm not going to cast my vote for someone who has already dropped out. Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, and John McCain all have some claim to a portion of the conservative mandate based on their accomplishments. Of the four, I trust Romney and Giuliani most to continue supporting conservative principles in the face of opposition -- and in fact I'd probably trust Giuliani a little more. Second, and very importantly, the Republican should have demonstrated success in executive management in both private and public sectors. This eliminates everyone except Romney and Rudy. John McCain wants to make the case that his experience as squadron leader...
Join me on Tuesday and Thursday mornings as I co-host Nikki Starr's "Nikki Rocks The Politics" at 9 am CT. We'll discuss politics, news, music, and join the chatizens and the callers. You can join us by calling (646) 478-4556. Later today, I'll also host the AOL HOt Seat Show .... AOL and BlogTalkRadio have partnered on the Hot Seat poll, extending the debate to our listenership. I will host a 15-minute show weekdays at 1:00 pm ET to review the poll, interview the blogger, and take calls from the participants. We'll speak to a wide spectrum of bloggers and callers alike for each day's poll -- including today's: embedSWF(9, 0, 0, "widget", "recent")This content requires the most recent version of the Adobe Flash Player. Get this version below:Get Flash Be sure to tune it at BlogTalkRadio -- and don't forget to cast your votes! We will also take...
Former UN Ambassador John Bolton wants DNI Michael McConnell to redo the National Intelligence Estimate to properly reflect the threat Iran poses to the region and the US. The do-over should emphasize the dual-use nature of its nuclear program, which Bolton claims got glossed over in the original (via Memeorandum): Today, Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee (and Thursday on the House side) to give the intelligence community's annual global threat analysis. These hearings are always significant, but the stakes are especially high now because of the recent National Intelligence Estimate on Iran. Criticism of the NIE's politicized, policy-oriented "key judgments" has spanned the political spectrum and caused considerable turmoil in Congress. Few seriously doubt that the NIE gravely damaged the Bush administration's diplomatic strategy. With the intelligence community's credibility and impartiality on the line, Mr. McConnell has an excellent opportunity to correct the...
Well, well, well. This makes it nearly unanimous among the conservative talk-radio leaders, with only Michael Medved dissenting. Rush Limbaugh, who had long resisted direct involvement in primary politics, has gone one step further than the anti-endorsement for John McCain that he has been delivering for the past couple of weeks (via Hot Air): RUSH: I think now, based on the way the campaign has shaken out, that there probably is a candidate on our side who does embody all three legs of the conservative stool, and that’s Romney. The three stools or the three legs of the stool are national security/foreign policy, the social conservatives, and the fiscal conservatives. The social conservatives are the cultural people. The fiscal conservatives are the economic crowd: low taxes, smaller government, get out of the way. Of course, the foreign policy crowd is obviously what it is. I don’t think there’s anybody on...
Note: This post will remain on top until show time; newer posts may be found below. Today on Heading Right Radio (2 pm CT), Mark Goldberg from the UN Foundation joins us to discuss their new On Day One project -- the effort to have people around the world suggest what the next American President should do on Day One of the new term. In the second half, Dan Proft of Human Events joins us to talk about Super Tuesday and the Republican conundrum. Later, our friend Rep. Michele Bachmann also joins us! Call 646-652-4889 to join the conversation! And don't forget to join our chat room! This show is now sponsored by Lifelock -- and listen to find out how you can save 10% on their services. Did you know that you can listen to Heading Right Radio through your TiVo service? Click here for the instructions. Also, you...
Almost heaven ... West Virginia ... Mike Huckabee took the West Virginia state convention and the state's 18 delegates as John McCain's team threw him their support to defeat Mitt Romney. The state allocates delegates on a winner-take-all basis, and the late action by McCain's delegates keeps Romney from winning any of them. It closes out one of the states in which Romney could use to keep pace, but the move has some Republicans seeing a different kind of red: Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee won 18 delegates here Tuesday as backers of rival John McCain threw him their support to prevent Mitt Romney from capturing the winner-take-all GOP state convention vote. In first contest decided on Super Tuesday, Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, bested Romney on the second ballot with 51.5 percent of the 1,133 delegates attending the state GOP's first-ever presidential nominating convention. Romney was backed by 47.4...
Patrick Ruffini could be the most tireless conservative organizer in the on-line community. He is also one of the nicest people in politics. As such, I'd be remiss not to highlight his latest effort -- to generate donations for the eventual Republican presidential nominee, whether John McCain or Mitt Romney or even Mike Huckabee takes it. Patrick is looking towards the future now. Will he have many ready to follow his lead? Perhaps not until the dust and the hard feelings of the primaries subside a bit, but eventually I think most will. I'm not sure I'm ready to hit the tipjar on February 7th, but I'm going to back the GOP nominee....
Early in the race, Republicans appeared headed to a brokered convention. GOP primary voters couldn't decide on a front-runner, and it looked like three or even four candidates could make it to the national convention with significant numbers of delegates, touching off a floor fight. It would have been 1976 all over again -- the convention that nominated Gerald Ford and left the Republicans flat. Now, however, it's the Democrats who appear to be headed to a 1976 scenario instead. Chris Bowers at Open Left describes the problem accurately: The polling picture for Super Tuesday is starting to fill out now. With only 34 hours until polls close in California, it appears virtually certain that we will have a split decision in terms of delegates. Currently, by multiplying the average polling margin by the number of delegates in each state, I arrive at an estimate of Clinton 889 delegates, Obama...
This turned into a more complicated evening than I first thought. The initial clue was when it took me five minutes to find a parking space. The turnout for the Republican caucus is so large, we had to park illegally in order to get into the event. Hundreds of cars had already filled the lot, and it looked like hundreds more were waiting to come into the lot. Our district had the honor of Governor Tim Pawlenty's presence. He gave a good speech to start the event, which was already in progress when we got to the gymnasium at the middle school where the caucus is being held. He cautioned everyone to give the representatives of the various candidates a fair hearing, warning that Minnesota Republicans "can't afford to throw anyone overboard ... It's not exactly a hotbed of Republicanism." You could have fooled me with the turnout. Reverse chronological...
I've just returned from participating in our state Republican caucus, and now it's time to take a look at the results from the rest of the country. It's a good night thus far for John McCain, but Romney's won his share of delegates, too. Mike Huckabee has swept the South, it appears, and we will start seeing California results in the next few minutes. For the Democrats, it looks as though Hillary and Obama are splitting states, but Obama's winning big where he wins at all. Hillary's wins tend to be smaller. With all of the Democratic states proportionally allocating their delegates, can Obama edge Hillary for the night? Reverse chronological live-blogging below .... 11:40 - Most of the results are in now. McCain had a very good but not great night, as did Mike Huckabee, who beat expectations. Mitt Romney won a number of smaller state contests. McCain will...
February 6, 2008
The Democratic primary race took an interesting twist last night. Hillary Clinton went into the massive Super Tuesday contest with twice as many wins as Barack Obama and a significant lead in pledged delegates, both normal and superdelegates. She came out of Super Tuesday in almost a dead heat among normal delegates, and losing more contests than she won -- but still technically leading the race. The Politico claims that the big-state wins gave Hillary an edge, but it ignores the structure of Democratic primaries: The clarity Democrats so desperately sought escaped them on Super Tuesday, as both candidates found cause to claim victory even as one of them cemented her front-runner status. By winning critical contested strongholds in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and – most important — California, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York showed big-state muscle and remained the putative leader. Decisive red-state victories in Oklahoma and Tennessee...
John McCain dominated the Super Tuesday primaries across the nation, winning in almost every region except the South, where Mike Huckabee showed surprising resilience. Mitt Romney held onto second place in the delegate totals but fell far back, with McCain leading more than 2-1 with half of the country decided. It may not have been a knockout punch, but the combination of McCain and Huckabee gave Romney a body blow last night. McCain won nine states, including all of the major winner-take-all contests: John McCain rolled to victory in big-state primaries across the nation Tuesday, but rivals Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney notched enough wins to keep the race for the Republican nomination alive. McCain won primaries in California, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Missouri, Delaware, Illinois, Oklahoma and Arizona, his home state. Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor who has appealed above all to white evangelicals, beat expectations across a...
Exit polling for Super Tuesday contests show a growing trend towards division by ethnicity among Democrats. With the race as tight as it is, the identity politics that the party has fostered over the years has now become one of the points of division. If the primaries continue to deliver mixed results, this could provide some fireworks: Yesterday's primary voting laid bare a profound racial and ethnic divide among Democratic voters, with African Americans overwhelmingly preferring Sen. Barack Obama and Latinos largely favoring Sen. Hillary Clinton. The results of preliminary exit polls in nine key states indicate that Obama attracted the support of two-thirds to nine-tenths of black voters, except in Clinton's home state of New York. That pattern suggests that the first-term Illinois senator's strong appeal among African Americans -- first on display in the South Carolina primary last month -- is more widespread. It also means that Clinton...
Having run out of men for terrorist activities, and apparently temporarily short on the mentally handicapped, al-Qaeda in Iraq has begun recruiting grade-school boys to conduct attacks. Children as young as 10 have received training on kidnapping and assassination in order to get past security processes and attack civilians. The US has it on tape: Videotapes seized during U.S. raids on suspected al-Qaida in Iraq hide-outs show the terror group training young boys to kidnap and assassinate civilians, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Wednesday. Footage aired for reporters showed an apparent training operation with black-masked boys — some of whom appeared to be about 10 years old — storming a house and holding guns to the heads of mock residents. Another tape showed a young boy wearing a suicide vest and posing with automatic weapons. ... The American military said some of the tapes were found in December during a...
Ronald Reagan would have turned 97 today, had he not passed away in 2004 and faded from the political scene a decade earlier due to Alzheimer's. His memory gets invoked constantly by Republicans, 20 years after he left office with his sunny optimism intact and a stronger nation behind him. We'll continue arguing over his legacy, its meaning, and its heirs, but we can never argue about the impact of his leadership on history. Reagan spoke truth to massive power, and he sounded its death knell in four short words: Speaking truth wasn't enough, though, and Reagan explains that immediately after his famous Berlin declaration. We didn't beat the Soviets in a fluke. Mitch Berg and Gary Gross have Reagan remembrances today as well....
With John McCain rolling up some large delegate totals, his upcoming visit to CPAC tomorrow will be a critical point in his campaign. He has to find a way to work with the conservative activists that could help propel him to victory, and to do that he has to assure them of his own credentials as a conservative. Mark Tapscott has a suggestion for McCain's opening bid in his speech tomorrow: 1. McCain-Coburn: Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma may be the most credible politician in the GOP, thanks to his no-nonsense, bluntly honest approach to earmarks and federal spending. Coburn is already a McCain supporter. Reagan announced Schweicker ahead of the 76 GOP convention. McCain can put Coburn on the ticket and make him the McCain administration's tax and budget czar. 2. Reform McCain-Feingold: McCain should admit the First Amendment says Congress shall make NO law regarding freedom of political...
Charles Hill talked to the Yale Daily News about the disappointing finish he experienced as a member of Rudy Giuliani's team, Hill, one of the policy stars Rudy attracted for his advisory boards in the presidential primary campaign, agrees with the conventional wisdom that the Florida strategy was a mistake. However, he argues convincingly that it was a secondary strategic error: The candidate’s focus on Florida — at the expense of campaigning in the early primaries — was a mistake, Hill said in an interview with the News on Friday. But it was also part of a larger failure on the part of Giuliani’s communications staff to engage the media and, through them, the American public, Hill said. Hill pointed to a foreign-policy speech Giuliani gave in September as emblematic of the campaign’s inability to draw attention to its candidate. “Giuliani gave a speech in London that was a very...
With my trip to CPAC looming, I'm juggling some radio scheduling to accommodate the travel and speaker schedules. Please note the following changes: AOL Hot Seat: We will not broadcast this today, but will return to the air Thursday and Friday at the normal times of 1 pm ET. Today's poll can be found here. Heading Right Radio: Today's show airs at 12:30 pm CT. Jim Geraghty of National Review's Campaign Spot gives us his Super Tuesday Ledge Report. Who were the big winners and losers? Be sure to join us at the special time, and call 646-652-4889 to join the conversation! Also, don't forget to join our chat room. This show is now sponsored by Lifelock -- and listen to find out how you can save 10% on their services. For CPAC, I'll have Heading Right Radio start at 3 pm CT (4 ET) on Thursday. John McCain addresses...
I arrived at the Omni Shoreham hotel earlier tonight, a little at loose ends with not much happening until the morning. I retrieved my credentials for the conference, but then wandered the streets for a while, trying to determine what I wanted to do about dinner. Fortunately, I ran into my friends from the Sam Adams Alliance, who insisted that I join them for dinner and drinks. Of course, the subject of Paul Jacob and the Oklahoma 3 case was one of the main topics of conversation. We're going to have Paul join us again on the CPAC Channel at some point to remind us of his case and its import for the rights of Americans to petition government. And of course, tomorrow will be John McCain's big appearance here at CPAC. We'll have lots of events to cover tomorrow (all times ET): 11:00 - Vice President Dick Cheney 12:30...
February 7, 2008
Critics of John McCain complain that the Republican frontrunner for the presidential nomination attacks his friends with more vigor than his opponents. It certainly seems that way at times, especially during the debates over immigration and the BCRA. However, McCain has gone after Democrats with only the thinnest veneer of comity in the recent past -- and especially after one in particular, as CapQ reader Stefan Claypool reminds. In fact, two years ago yesterday, McCain wrote an open letter to Barack Obama regarding his participation in McCain's lobbying-reform efforts. Obama had publicly and privately assured McCain of support, but then Obama abruptly withdrew from the discussions. An incensed McCain fired this shot across the freshman's bow: I would like to apologize to you for assuming that your private assurances to me regarding your desire to cooperate in our efforts to negotiate bipartisan lobbying reform legislation were sincere. When you approached...
Pervez Musharraf has apparently learned little from his tussle with the Taliban. Reports have Pakistan entering into negotiations .... again ... with the Taliban .... again ... for another cease-fire. This time, they have even more bargaining chips, having control of the Swat region: Taliban militants declared a cease-fire Wednesday in fighting with Pakistani forces, and the government said it was preparing for peace talks with al-Qaida-linked extremists in the lawless tribal area near the border with Afghanistan. Any deal that allows armed Islamic extremists to operate on Pakistani soil would run counter to U.S. demands for the government to crack down on militants. The Bush administration contends a failed truce last year allowed al-Qaida to expand its reach into this turbulent, nuclear-armed country, and the U.S. has sounded warnings in recent days about a revival of militant strength. A spokesman for Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, a militant umbrella group, said the...
In the beginning, everyone assumed that the Clinton machine would dominate fundraising in the Democratic primary. Although it raised prodigious sums of money, Barack Obama managed to keep pace all through 2007. Now, as Obama has also kept pace with Hillary in delegate counts, the Clinton machine appears to have begun running dry: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton announced yesterday that she had lent her campaign $5 million, a remarkable twist for a candidate who raised more than $100 million last year that came as she and Sen. Barack Obama continued to spar over which of them was the Democratic winner in coast-to-coast Super Tuesday balloting. ... At her campaign headquarters in Arlington, Clinton defended her maneuver, executed last month but kept under wraps until yesterday, to add money to her campaign coffers. News of the $5 million transfer came as a surprise to Clinton donors who had assumed her campaign,...
The delegate assignments have mostly shaken out from the Super Tuesday contests, and the situation looks even more grim than yesterday for the Democrats. Barack Obama now has a narrow five-delegate lead among non-superdelegates, 635-630, at roughly the halfway point. The remaining state delegates will now have to break markedly in favor of one candidate over the other in order to avoid making the superdelegates select the party nominee: The race for the Democratic presidential nomination between Senator Clinton and Senator Obama of Illinois is becoming a pitched delegate-by-delegate battle, which is likely to drag out for months and may even be unresolved heading into the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August. "It is likely that no side will gain an appreciable or significant advantage in overall delegate counts between now and March 4, past March 4, even past April because of the way our party allocates its delegates,"...
John McCain meets some of his fiercest critics today at CPAC, with a 3 pm ET speech that will provide a critical moment for both the candidate and the activists. Most have focused on what McCain has to do to reach out to the conservatives, but fewer understand that the movement has a decision to make as well regarding its future and its relevance. First, let's focus on McCain. The Senator will not win an election by suddenly gainsaying everything he has done over the past eight years since his last presidential campaign. He will have to focus on the future, including the future of the badly-needed immigration reform that everyone wants but no one can define to consensus. McCain will need to commit to nominating judges to the bench that will not legislate from there. He has to end the false dichotomy of "patriotism, not profit" and the little...
In our CPAC series of podcasts, the first goes to Rob "NZ Bear" Neppell, of both Truth Laid Bear and Kithbridge. Rob and I have been friends for years, and we had a great conversation about the two biggest speeches coming up today. We discussed what Mitt Romney has to do to keep his hopes alive in the primary, which might be a tall order. We also talked about what John McCain has to say -- and how he has to say it -- to overcome conservative mistrust. Do conservatives have some work to do as well? Both Rob and I say yes. Keep your browser tuned to the CPAC Channel today. Because I'm using the BlogTalkRadio Business Solution, I can launch a podcast at any time, as many times as I want....
Dick Cheney is giving one of the first speeches here at CPAC. He got a very warm welcome from the crowd, which is SRO. The Cheney we're seeing now is the relaxed and funny speaker that we've known from many speeches here and other places. The intros are still going on, but I'll live-blog the substance. 11:24 - Cheney just reviewed the service record of a couple of men who will speak later today, and now he's wrapping up. A good speech, well received, and unapologetic for the war effort. 11:20 - On the war policy of the Bush administration: "Would I support those same decisions today? You're damned right I would." The war won't be on the defensive, Cheney says. 11:18 - Iraq will remain a tough job, as Petraeus has said. He is highlighting the gains from the surge, nothing terribly surprising. 11:14 - Defends the interrogation of...
I had an opportunity to speak with Paul Jacob, the man who faces 10 years in prison for the crime of advising Oklahomans on conducting a referendum petition drive. Paul mostly talks about others, but there is no doubt that Paul is the man on the firing line. He and two others face criminal conspiracy charges for their work in collecting signatures for a Taxpayers Bill of Rights in Oklahoma. If you are interested in reading more about this case, I wrote about it in October. Also, you can read more about Paul's other issues at Ballotpedia. Keep your browser tuned to the CPAC Channel today. Because I'm using the BlogTalkRadio Business Solution, I can launch a podcast at any time, as many times as I want....
Will Breazeale and Keiran Lalor visited Blogger Row this morning to talk about Iraq Vets for Congress, which promotes the candidacies of 12 Republican challengers for the House. We had a great conversation with Will, a major in the Army Reserve, and Kieran, a former Marine. They're asking for $25 donations to each of the candidates to raise $100,000 for the group, and they talk about the motivation for their campaigns. We'll be speaking with Jeff Flake and Tom Coburn later today!...
We're waiting for Mitt Romney's speech to start here in a few minutes, and I'll live-blog it once it begins. However, we all have heard the report from Mark Halperin at Time that Romney will use the event to announce his withdrawal from the race. It will, ironically, now overshadow the long-awaited attempt at rapprochement from John McCain this afternoon, but I'd bet McCain would take that trade. Keep checking back. Romney will take the stage in a few minutes .... 1:17 - Mitt made the right decision, and he made the announcement in the right place. He's a good man, and I think this will allow the Republicans a lot more time to find accommodation with John McCain. 1:04 - He wants to "do whatever it takes to be successful in Iraq," and this is his reason to withdraw. He's going to back out to ensure victory. 1:03 -...
Earlier, I caught up with Roy Beck of NumbersUSA, a conservative action group on immigration policy. We happened to speak right after Mitt Romney withdrew from the race. Roy acknowledges that this will affect his strategy. Roy actually sounds pretty optimistic despite McCain's nomination....
Megan Ortagus of FreedomsWatch talked about the mission of her organization. Megan is the Iraq Project Manager, but Freedoms Watch has a much broader conservative agenda. They're here at CPAC to expand their visibility, and they're also interviewing bloggers and other attendees and posting the videos at their website....
Rob Neppell and I interviewed Rep. Jeff Flake, one of the heroes of the Porkbusters. Flake gave us an update on earmark reform, including his opinion that Republicans still haven't quite figured out the advantage they would have by adopting a full-throated opposition to pork. He describes the caucus' strategy now as a "prevent defense .... when you're 20 points down." For those who called House Republican leadership to press them to appoint Flake to Appropriations, that battle can still be won. Flake told us that they have delayed the decision, and that the thousands of calls and e-mails had a big impact on their hesitancy to pull the trigger. Go to Make It Flake to continue that pressure....
John McCain will give his long-awaited speech to the assembled conservatives at CPAC. George Allen will introduce McCain, marking his first major appearance since his loss in 2006. He opened by talking about the diversity of the conservatives at the conference. That will remain to be seen. Are they diverse enough to generate support McCain? More follows .... 3:52 - That was an excellent speech. McCain genuinely reached out to conservatives in a heartfelt manner. I'll talk more about this on the Heading Right Radio. 3:51 - Just realized I was marking the time in CT. Sorry!! 2:42 - McCain sounds energized and is commanding the room. It's one of his better speeches, and he's hitting all the right notes for the crowd. A lot of them are his supporters, but Mitt's backers easily outnumbered those at CPAC. At the least, his opponents are giving him a chance to convince...
Note: This post will remain on top until show time; newer posts may be found below. Today on Heading Right Radio (3 pm CT), Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn joins Rob Neppell and me after the McCain speech. We'll talk about whether McCain made the transition to nominee. Call 646-652-4889 to join the conversation! And don't forget to join our chat room! This show is now sponsored by Lifelock -- and listen to find out how you can save 10% on their services. Did you know that you can listen to Heading Right Radio through your TiVo service? Click here for the instructions. Also, you can subscribe to Heading Right Radio through iTunes now by clicking this link:...
It's been a long and eventful day, but nothing beats ending it with a few friends. I'll talk with CHQR's Rob Breakinridge for The World Tonight to discuss Mitt Romney's withdrawal and the apparent clinching of the nomination by John McCain, and what it means for Republicans and conservatives. I'm on at 10:35 pm ET, and you can catch me on CHQR's Internet stream....
February 8, 2008
Yesterday's speech to CPAC gave John McCain an opening to rational consideration of support by conservatives, and it didn't come in the necessary phrases of rapprochement. John McCain made an offer to conservatives for access and influence. Will they take it, or will they walk away and leave McCain to make that offer to other Republicans and centrists? McCain focused the latter part of his speech on the big issues that he says will define the election -- the war, the Democratic insistence on statist policies, and entitlement reform. He concluded that part of the argument with this (emphasis mine): These are but a few of the differences that will define this election. They are very significant differences, and I promise you, I intend to contest these issues on conservative grounds and fight as hard as I can to defend the principles and positions we share, and to keep this...
George Bush makes his first CPAC appearance since his election today, in the last year of his presidency. People might be surprised to hear that, but Bush has let Dick Cheney make the CPAC appearances, and with good reason. While Bush has been a stalwart on national defense and judicial nominations, he has hardly wowed conservatives on spending discipline. His remarks today marks the beginning of a valedictory cycle that will take him all the way through to January 20th of next year. 8:05 - "My spirits are up, my energy is high, and I will finish strong!" He encourages CPAC to support the Republican nominee "who will carry the conservative banner" in the next election. He never did mention John McCain, but that might be because Huckabee remains in the race. 8:04 - People start chanting "Four more years!" again, and Bush shakes his head and laughs. I think...
Scotland Yard has concluded that Benazir Bhutto did not die from a gunshot wound, but instead died from the blast of the suicide bomber's explosion immediately afterward. The Bhutto family and her political party have rejected the findings, and they have renewed their calls for a UN investigation: Scotland Yard said in a report released Friday that Pakistan's opposition leader Benazir Bhutto died as a result of a suicide bomb blast, not a gunshot — findings that support the Pakistani government's version of the events. Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party immediately rejected the British conclusion and repeated its demand for a U.N. investigation. The party says Bhutto was shot and suspects a government cover-up because Bhutto had accused political allies of President Pervez Musharraf of plotting to kill her. The British probe also found that a single attacker both fired the shots at Bhutto and detonated the blast by blowing himself...
Bloggers will get a treat tonight. The sponsor of Bloggers Corner (which actually has no corners), CRC Public Relations, has arranged for a pre-release screening of Expelled: The Movie. I interviewed the producer of the movie, Mark Mathis, in my first podcast for today. Fans of Dinesh D'Souza's book and our earlier interview with D'Souza will want to hear what Mathis has to say about academia. Later this evening, I hope to live-blog the sneak peek. With Ben Stein as its tour guide and with interviews of noted athiests like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, it promises to be explosive....
The Archbishop of Canterbury has endorsed the adoption of shari'a in Britain, calling it "inevitable". Most of the British beg to differ, and Rowan Williams now finds himself at the center of a multicultural meltdown: The Archbishop of Canterbury was embroiled in a fierce political and religious row last night after he called for aspects of Islamic sharia law to be adopted in Britain. Dr Rowan Williams said that it "seems inevitable" that elements of the Muslim law, such as divorce proceedings, would be incorporated into British legislation. His comments were immediately attacked by Downing Street, religious groups and MPs from all sides. The head of the equality watchdog denounced his claims while several high-profile Muslims also criticised Dr Williams. The Archbishop forgot that Britain operates under a representative government, not a theocracy. The adoption of shari'a would obliterate that system and place the UK under the thumb of imams...
Peggy Venable of Americans for Tax Prosperity in Texas dropped by to visit, and to talk about their efforts to stop Texas counties from hiring lobbyists in DC. AFP-TX will hold a summer conference in Austin to counter a netroots convention at the same time there. Listen to the podcast to hear Rob Neppell and me discuss their efforts and how they relate to porkbusting on the national level....
JD Johannes of Outside The Wire joins me to talk about his series of documentary episodes from Iraq. Tomorrow, JD will join Bill Roggio and Jeff Emanuel on a panel that will air these episodes and talk about embedded reporting for New Media in war zones. I'll be live-blogging the panel, starting at 11 am tomorrow, and it should be fascinating. They're about to start selling the episodes as part of a double-DVD set through their website. Here's a preview:...
Jon Henke of New Media Strategies and QandO worked on the Fred Thompson campaign for most of its run at the presidential nomination. With John McCain having all but wrapped up the prize, I asked Jon to talk about what went wrong in the campaign that had the blogosphere on fire for a brief moment. Jon gives us a little "straight talk" about the Thompson campaign....
The NTU has done an analysis of the costs associated with the platforms of the major presidential candidates, and Pete Sepp joins me to discuss the results. Republicans may be surprised at the results of the study, which shows -- surprise! -- John McCain as the most fiscally conservative candidate still left in the race: The top-tier GOP candidates often portrayed as "conservative" (Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee) actually called for significantly larger spending hikes ($19.5 billion and $54.2 billion, respectively), than the so-called "moderate conservative" (John McCain, $6.9 billion). Among Democrats, Barack Obama, often described as ideologically more "moderate" than Hillary Clinton, actually has the larger agenda of the two ($287.0 billion vs. $218.2 billion). The entire study is available at the NTU website....
Rob Neppell and I spoke with author and Iraqi war vet David Bellavia, whose House to House provided one of the most gritty and realistic portraits of the war in Iraq. David has a lot on his mind, and he unloads on the war's opponents and their efforts to make him and his fellow vets into victims. He pulls no punches as he talks about Vets for Freedom....
Josh Shultz of the NRCC visited Blogger Row, and I shanghaied him into an interview. Josh talks about the challenges Republicans face in November in their efforts to win the House back, and the opportunities it also represents to reset the agenda for the GOP....
Princella Smith of American Solutions joins me for an interview. Newt Gingrich started American Solutions as a way to bypass the partisan gridlock in DC and build grassroots action for issues facing ordinary citizens. Princella and I discuss the transformative potential of Newt's vision....
We will be going with our normal schedule today! At noon central (1 pm ET), Mark Impomeni and I talk about the AOL Hot Seat question of the day. And at 2 pm CT, Heading Right Radio has its Week in Review with Duane "Generalissimo" Patterson. I'll post the normal headers in a few minutes .... Note: This post will remain on top until show time; newer posts may be found below. Today on Heading Right Radio (2 pm CT), Duane "Generalissimo" Patterson joins me for the Week In Review. Also joining us will be the chair of the RNC, Mike Duncan. We'll be talking about the events at CPAC and how Republicans can come together to face the Democrats in November -- at all levels of the ticket. Call 646-652-4889 to join the conversation! And don't forget to join our chat room! This show is now sponsored by Lifelock...
Governor Jim Gilmore withdrew from the Republican presidential race last summer, but he has decided to run for Virginia's Senate seat currently held by the retiring John Warner. He spoke with Rob Neppell and me just after my Heading Right Radio show, and he outlined the conservative values that he intends to uphold in continuing service to Virginia. Anyone wishing to contribute to this important race needs to visit his website, Jim Gilmore for Senate....
February 9, 2008
The bloggers at CPAC received an invitation to screen a new documentary on academic intolerance called Expelled: The Movie this evening. The documentary features Ben Stein on a quest to understand the near-hysteria caused by scientists who so much as broach the idea of intelligent design in papers or in research. It follows Stein as he interviews professors denied tenure, editors fired, and journalists shunned for touching the subject even at its most innocuous levels. Before discussing my feelings about the film, which is still in post-production and will not go into release until April, I should explain my approach to the ID/evolution debate. I believe evolution is demonstrably proven in enough examples to say that its effect on variation in species cannot be denied. The example I used tonight in discussing this with another viewer (certainly not the only example) is antibiotic effects on bacteria. Antibiotics that kill 99%...
After Chris Matthews dismissed Hillary Clinton's political qualifications as limited to her husband's infidelity, her supporters roared until squeezing a very public apology from the MS-NBC talk-show host. Now David Shuster, another MS-NBC on-air personality, will cool his heels for an undetermined length of time for accusing Hillary of "pimping out" her daughter politically, and Hillary may refuse any more debates on the so-called network. Howard Kurtz has the story: In case there was any doubt, using a prostitution metaphor for the daughter of a presidential candidate is not a good career move. MSNBC suspended correspondent David Shuster yesterday for an undetermined period for making a disparaging on-air remark about Chelsea Clinton. Meanwhile, officials in her mother's campaign raised the possibility of punishing the news channel by boycotting future debates. While filling in as a host Thursday, Shuster was discussing the 27-year-old's role in Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign with two...
Today, Democrats in Michigan can spend the day thinking about how they could have been the center of the political universe, had they not gotten greedy for pre-Super Tuesday glory. Their primary was originally scheduled for today, but they wanted to be more relevant and move their date to the front of the line. As it worked out, they could have provided a make-or-break moment by staying put -- and kept their delegates to boot: The clever people in Michigan who decided to get into a game of chicken with New Hampshire last fall over the timing of their Democratic primary should be having second thoughts this weekend. Had Michigan Democrats not engaged in gamesmanship over the shape of the nomination calendar, they would be holding the premier contest on today's slate, by far the biggest and most influential of the events between Super Tuesday and next week's Potomac primaries,...
How are the attendees of CPAC handling the ascension of John McCain to the nomination? For the most part, I'd say fairly well. McCain hasn't generated wild enthusiasm from conservative activists, but the general sense is that he's earned an opportunity to partner with conservatives. I chatted briefly with McCain volunteers at their booth, and they say they've signed up over 200 new volunteers. That would be a significant number for any candidate at a conference with this kind of diversity. However, not everyone wants to put the divisions behind them. When I got to Blogger Row this morning, the desks had been papered by Patriot PAC. They have launched a new website, OpenGOPConvention, to urge voters to deny McCain the outright nomination. Headlined "CONTAIN MCCAIN!", they want Republicans to wait for a "real Ronald Reagan conservative" -- as if no one thought of the idea before. They also left...
CPAC honored my friend Mark Tapscott by naming him Conservative Journalist of the Year yesterday. Mark and I talk about the newspaper business, his attempt to move the business to the on-line model, and why my dating life resembled the 2007 Miami Dolphins. No, seriously....
Most people know her for her inventive and provocative video commentaries, and Mary Katherine Ham also gives incisive political analysis on podcasts. She joins me to discuss the temperature at CPAC. We talk about Huckabee, McCain, and the opportunities for moving forward towards unity while preserving conservative goals....
Rob Neppell and I interviewed former Speaker Newt Gingrich for a special CPAC Channel podcast. Gingrich talked about his efforts at American Solutions, where he is building grassroots efforts to bypass partisan roadblocks to resolving the issues ordinary Americans face. He also told us that the Republican Party can't win running a contrast campaign, but have to put forth a positive message with a real agenda for progress. I asked him about John McCain and how conservatives should approach his apparent nomination. He responded by saying that conservatives should not wed themselves to the GOP. However, he also reminds us that one can support a candidate while opposing some of their policies, and that John McCain is much better than Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. Don't miss this interview!...
Our final podcast today is with Senator Jim DeMint, who called in from Baghdad. Senator DeMint updates Rob Neppell and me on the status of our mission, the latest operation in Mosul, and the danger of early withdrawal. He also endorses John McCain for what we believe is the first time, and looks forward to an election fought in part on pork....
For some reason, this didn't publish when I wrote it this morning. I'm posting it now instead. Governor Mike Huckabee addressed an enthusiastic crowd at CPAC this morning, despite giving his speech at the sleepy hour of 9 am on Saturday. Huckabee clearly was in fine mettle, keeping the fires going in the campaign. He spoke about the Fair Tax plan, at one point tearing up a 1040 form and throwing the pieces in the air to the delight of the crowd. Huckabee refuses to withdraw from the race. That didn't surprise anyone here, and the lack of anticipation could be seen throughout the exhibition hall. Where business came to a halt with the speeches from Mitt Romney and John McCain, most people outside the hall where Huckabee appeared gave the speech much notice at all. He wants to continue to press for the policy stands he has taken in...
February 10, 2008
Barack Obama swept the trio of contests in the Democratic primaries yesterday, increasing his momentum and narrowing the delegate gap even further. The Clinton campaign tried to shrug off the losses as "expected", but with the Beltway contests of DC, Virginia, and Maryland coming on Tuesday, Hillary may not see another win for a while: Sen. Barack Obama dominated Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in presidential balloting in Nebraska, Louisiana and Washington state last night, besting her by huge margins in those contests and further narrowing her slender advantage in delegates needed to claim the Democratic presidential nomination. ... Among Democrats, Obama (Ill.) won more than two-thirds of the vote in both Nebraska and Washington, and his lopsided victories gave a boost to his state-by-state strategy of methodically picking up delegates, while highlighting Clinton's struggles in caucuses. Clinton (N.Y.) is focusing her campaign on big states with dense population centers, several...
Ambassador John Bolton has long been a favorite of the conservative wing of the Republican Party. Yesterday, he threw his support behind John McCain's nomination, an attempt to help unify the GOP base around McCain: "John McCain was very active and supportive during my confirmation hearings to be the U.S. Ambassador to the UN. His belief in me at that time was a testament to his courage to fight the liberals in the Senate and vigorously advance American interests at the UN. "I whole-heartedly endorse John McCain for President because when he takes office in January 2009 he will be prepared immediately to lead us. John will not need on the job training. "American conservatives will have a President they can be proud of in John McCain." Bolton won the admiration of conservatives in his aggressive nature towards internationalists, especially during his tenure at the UN. His full-throated defense of...
Mitt Romney narrowly won the CPAC straw poll, but he did so mainly on the strength of ballots cast before his withdrawal. The final results took a back seat to the story told by the shift in voting after the first day's events: Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney narrowly beat John McCain, 35 to 34 percent, in a straw poll of conservative political activists gathered Saturday in Washington — a vote that is viewed as a barometer of support from that major GOP voting bloc. ... Roughly one-quarter of the votes in the three-day CPAC 2008 straw poll were cast before Mitt Romney dropped out of the presidential race, and three-quarters after his withdrawal. In votes cast before Romney left the race, he beat McCain 44 to 27 percent. Among votes gathered after Romney’s withdrawal, McCain led Romney 37 to 32 percent. I cast my vote on Friday, and...
I'm at Reagan National in DC, waiting for the next two hours to fly back to sub-zero temperatures in Minneapolis. Thankfully, the airport has begun to install more electrical outlets at the gates, which allows me to conserve battery life on the laptop while I pass the time. Newsweek also helps by publishing a poll today in the all-but-finished Republican primary race, showing John McCain with a commanding national lead over Mike Huckabee after the Mitt Romney withdrawal: McCain was widely perceived to have practically sealed the Republican presidential nomination Thursday when his chief rival, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, suspended his presidential campaign. Indeed, the senator from Arizona leads the GOP race with 51 percent of registered Republican voters and those leaning toward the GOP, according to the poll, which is based on telephone interviews with 1,394 registered voters Feb. 6-7. Huckabee draws 32 percent support, followed by Rep....
February 11, 2008
Roy Scheider passed away yesterday after a lengthy bout with multiple myeloma. At seventy-five, Scheider had proven his mettle on both stage and screen, and as both leading man and character actor. He was 75 years old: Roy Scheider, a stage actor with a background in the classics who became one of the leading figures in the American film renaissance of the 1970s, died on Sunday afternoon in Little Rock, Ark. He was 75 and lived in Sag Harbor, N.Y. Mr. Scheider had suffered from multiple myeloma for several years, and died of complications from a staph infection, his wife, Brenda Seimer, said. Mr. Scheider’s rangy figure, gaunt face and emotional openness made him particularly appealing in everyman roles, most famously as the agonized police chief of “Jaws,” Steven Spielberg’s 1975 breakthrough hit, about a New England resort town haunted by the knowledge that a killer shark is preying on...
The Dadullah family has had a string of bad luck. First, the Taliban inner circle member Mullah Dadullah got killed in a NATO attack a year ago when the Americans imposed a much more aggressive strategy in dealing with Taliban probes and ambushes. Now his brother Mansoor, a top field commander for the Taliban, finds himself a prisoner of the Pakistani Army after losing a shootout: Pakistani security forces captured a top figure in the Taliban militia fighting U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan along with four other militants Monday, a military official said. Mansoor Dadullah, brother of the Taliban's slain military commander Mullah Dadullah, was among five militants captured after a shootout near a seminary in Zhob district of southwestern Baluchistan province around 10 a.m., a local intelligence official told The Associated Press. Once again, we have a surrender from the top levels of the Taliban rather than a...
The US military captured no prisoners on one particular raid in Balad, but instead captured the heartbreak of al-Qaeda in Iraq. The leader of the group had left behind a diary he kept through October, and the November push as part of the surge had overrun his position. The emir bitterly recounted the disintegration of his unit and the manner in which the Iraqi people had turned against them: On Nov. 3, U.S. soldiers raided a safe house of the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq near the northern city of Balad. Not a single combatant was captured, but inside the house they found something valuable: a diary and will written in neat Arabic script. "I am Abu Tariq, Emir of al-Layin and al-Mashadah Sector," it began. Over 16 pages, the al-Qaeda in Iraq leader detailed the organization's demise in his sector. He once had 600 men, but now his force...
US forces conducting raids in Sadr City captured a militia leader who has connections to Iran. The raids apparently prompted Moqtada al-Sadr to reaffirm the cease-fire for the Mahdi Army, and the US continued to pursue supposedly rogue elements attempting to foment violence in the capital: U.S. soldiers captured a suspected Shiite militia commander and one other suspect Monday, the latest of several days of raids in Shiite holy cities south of Baghdad. The arrests came a day after car bombs and gunmen struck new U.S. allies, police and civilians in northern Iraq, killing as many as 53 people in a spasm of violence that coincided with a visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates to Baghdad. The main suspect detained Monday is believed to be in charge of criminal operations for "special groups" in the Iraqi provinces of Wasit, Babil and Najaf, the U.S. military said in a statement....
The Republican caucus in Washington only determines the status of 18 delegates, and they can't even get that much right. The state which saw a number of irregularities in the last presidential election produced another whopper of an error over the weekend, when the Republican Party suddenly stopped counting results and declared John McCain the winner. Mike Huckabee, only two percent behind McCain with 13% of precincts left to report, protested: The results of the state Republican caucuses were called into question today after presidential candidate Mike Huckabee challenged the party's declaration that Arizona Sen. John McCain had won the delegate count. Huckabee's campaign took issue with the fact that Washington state Republican Party Chairman Luke Esser called the race Saturday night with 87 percent of the precincts counted. At that point, McCain was ahead of Huckabee by 242 delegates out of the 13,000 counted, Esser said. The Huckabee campaign...
UPDATE II: We're adding the AOL Hot Seat poll to this post and bumping it to the top: [Poll expired.] AOL visitors: Welcome to Captain's Quarters. Take a look around, feel free to participate in the comments section, and bookmark this community for future visits! Also, be sure to tune into our BlogTalkRadio show at 1 pm ET that reviews the response to the poll! UPDATE III: In the post, I note that the rest of the contests are proportional-allocation states. That's not correct; Virginia and DC tomorrow are both winner-take all, with 63 and 19 delegates each. Unfortunately for Huckabee, he's trailing badly in Virginia, and also in Maryland's closed primary. Original post follows .... ========== Mike Huckabee won two of the three contests in the Republican primaries yesterday as he benefitted from the withdrawal of Mitt Romney. He took Louisiana and Kansas and narrowly lost Washington to John...
AOL and BlogTalkRadio have partnered on the Hot Seat poll, extending the debate to our listenership. I will host a 15-minute show weekdays at 1:00 pm ET to review the poll, interview the blogger, and take calls from the participants. We'll speak to a wide spectrum of bloggers and callers alike for each day's poll -- including today's: [Poll moved to post below.] Be sure to tune it at BlogTalkRadio -- and don't forget to cast your votes! We will also take your calls at (347) 205-9555....
Rep Tom Lantos (D-CA) has died this morning, apparently from esophageal cancer. The 80-year-old Democrat came to the United States as a refugee of the Holocaust, becoming the only such person elected to Congress: Rep. Tom Lantos of California, the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress, has died, his spokeswoman said Monday. ... Lantos, who referred to himself as "an American by choice," was born to Jewish parents in Budapest, Hungary, and was 16 when Adolf Hitler occupied Hungary in 1944. He survived by escaping twice from a forced labor camp and coming under the protection of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who used his official status and visa-issuing powers to save thousands of Hungarian Jews. Lantos' mother and much of his family perished in the Holocaust. That background gave Lantos a moral authority unique in Congress and he used it repeatedly to speak out on foreign policy issues,...
Rarely in life does one get to enjoy irony and karma as much as Ted Olson. Having borne the scars of the Gore v Bush lawsuits arising from the 2000 presidential election, Olson now sees a similar outcome, on similar grounds, in the exact same state. Calling it "splendid theater", the incompetent handling of Florida and Michigan likely will combine with a razor-thin delegate chase for the Democratic presidential nomination to produce litigation that will reduce the party to shreds. Don't count Olson among the mourners: How ironic. For over seven years the Democratic Party has fulminated against the Electoral College system that gave George W. Bush the presidency over popular-vote winner Al Gore in 2000. But they have designed a Rube Goldberg nominating process that could easily produce a result much like the Electoral College result in 2000: a winner of the delegate count, and thus the nominee, over...
Barack Obama appeared on 60 Minutes last night, and once again he offered change. Unfortunately, the kind of change offered appeared to be the same he accuses his opponents of offering -- waffling on the status of troops in Iraq. After cheerfully misrepresenting John McCain's "100 years" comment, he then left himself the leeway to make exactly the same kind of decision: "Well, I think, on the positive side, we've seen a reduction in violence. And I don't think anybody can deny that," Obama said. "What we haven't seen is the kind of political reconciliation or accommodation between the Sunni and the Shia and the Kurds that are required in order for Iraq to stabilize. But I completely reject the notion, you know, most forcefully presented by John McCain that we should commit ourselves to a 50-year or a 60-year or a 100-year occupation in order to assure stability in...
Note: This post will remain on top until show time; newer posts may be found below. Today on Heading Right Radio (2 pm CT), Brian Faughnan joins me. Brian writes at the Weekly Standard and its blog, the Worldwide Standard, and spent a few days with me at CPAC. We'll review the events at the conference and talk about the future of the election cycle. Call 646-652-4889 to join the conversation! And don't forget to join our chat room! This show is now sponsored by Lifelock -- and listen to find out how you can save 10% on their services. Did you know that you can listen to Heading Right Radio through your TiVo service? Click here for the instructions. Also, you can subscribe to Heading Right Radio through iTunes now by clicking this link:...
John Podhoretz gives a brilliant and depressing analysis of the challenges facing the Republicans in 2008, not just in the presidential race but also in competing for the House and Senate. John sees the problem as being one of an exodus from the GOP of its more independent-minded voters that began in 2005 with Hurricane Katrina, and may only have recently stopped: The swift, steep decline in Republican fortunes over the past few years has induced a state of vertigo in the party’s body politic. Its elected officials, eminences grises, and rank-and-file members are all disoriented by the rapid plunge in the party’s standing with the American people—just at the moment when they have to present the best possible case that their presidential candidate, and everyone who appears with him on the Republican ballot, are the proper stewards of the country’s future. Among Republican politicians, the funk set in after...
Susan Estrich either wants to build credibility as a satirist, or her latest column provides a long-overdue look in the mirror for Democrats. Detecting more a whiff of the so-called Bradley Effect in primaries where Barack Obama holds solid polling leads only to mysteriously fall short of Hillary Clinton, Estrich diagnoses a latent racism in her party. No kidding! But, the fact is that there is a long pattern of what we in California call the "Bradley problem" in polling, after the former Los Angeles mayor who was elected governor in every poll, including the exits, except that he lost at the ballot box. Did I mention that he was African-American? That was, according to the pollsters, the problem: about 10 percent of the electorate claimed that they were going to vote for him, and in many cases even told pollsters that they did, but they lied. ... Doug Wilder,...
Oh, my. Barack Obama may want to call his new Houston office and suggest some decorating ideas. Take a look at the flag flying in the office at the moment: No, that's not a Texas state flag with a picture of Obama on it. It's the flag of the Castro-led Cuba regime, with Che Guevara's face superimposed on the side. A Fox report from Houston captured this image as it showed Obama supporters celebrating his momentum after Super Tuesday. Does Obama know his Houston supporters honor a terrorist in his campaign office? I'm sure he doesn't. However, it would behoove him to ensure that the flag gets taken down and that he renounces any affinity for Che and the Fidel Castro regime. (via Jim Geraghty) UPDATE: John Cole doesn't see anything wrong with a presidential campaign office featuring a Cuban flag with a picture of Che Guevara? Along with the...
... and the smokers on it only players. At least that's what the bar owners in Minnesota have decided. They have taken a loophole in the state no-smoking law to allow their patrons to have their tobacco, even if they have to sing for their supper, so to speak: On a night when wind chills were expected to reach minus-40 or below, revelers hunkered down for a night of drinking at Barnacle's Resort, a popular winter redoubt for ice fishermen and snowmobilers on the north shore of Lake Mille Lacs. Helmets and jackets were stuffed everywhere. A plastic kiddie pool full of crushed ice held red meat, which was raffled off throughout the night. Two tables of Texas Hold 'Em were full, and someone was telling the story of the night Minnesota Vikings fullback Jim Kleinsasser sat there - right there - in that very stool. Smoke wafted through the...
February 12, 2008
The Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan has disappeared on the road between Peshawar and Kabul, and the Pakistanis suspect that the Taliban has kidnapped him. Tariq Azizuddin failed to show on schedule in Kabul, and no one has seen him or his driver since their departure. The Taliban apparently want Dadullah back: Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan has been abducted in a troubled tribal border region just hours after a senior Taliban commander was arrested. Tariq Azizuddin, the Pakistani envoy to Kabul, disappeared with his driver while travelling the Khyber Pass on the road between the Pakistani city of Peshawar and the Afghan border. "We know that he was coming from Peshawar to Kabul and we lost contact with him. We are trying our best to find out what happened," said a spokesman for the Pakistani embassy in Kabul. Tribal militants may have abducted the ambassador. Rasool Khan Wazir, the chief administrative...
Danish police conducted a series of pre-dawn raids that broke a conspiracy to murder an editorial cartoonist. Both Danish citizens and foreign nationals plotted to kill Kurt Westergaard, one of the cartoonists that created critical images of the Muslim prophet Mohammed two years ago as part of a series in defense of free speech and open criticism. The cartoons set off riots throughout the Islamic world, and produced death threats to all of the artists who participated: Danish police said Tuesday they have arrested several people suspected of plotting to kill one of the 12 cartoonists behind the Prophet Muhammad drawings that sparked a deadly uproar in the Muslim world two years ago. The arrests were made in pre-dawn raids in Aarhus, western Denmark, "to prevent a terror-related murder," the police intelligence agency said. It did not say how many people were arrested nor did it mention which cartoonist was...
The New York Times has a growing reputation as a lagging indicator. Almost six months after the Arizona Republic noticed that a series of tough anti-illegal-immigration state laws had provided an incentive for noticeable attrition by illegal aliens, the Paper of Record has finally reported on the phenomenon. It's like the surge -- only on domestic policy, and it comes at an odd time: The signs of flight among Latino immigrants here are multiple: Families moving out of apartment complexes, schools reporting enrollment drops, business owners complaining about fewer clients. While it is too early to know for certain, a consensus is developing among economists, business people and immigration groups that the weakening economy coupled with recent curbs on illegal immigration are steering Hispanic immigrants out of the state. The Arizona economy, heavily dependent on growth and a Latino work force, has been slowing for months. Meanwhile, the state has...
Has it come down to Texas and Ohio for Hillary Clinton? That's what the New York Times reports today, and apparently what some in her own campaign believe. Without significant wins there, Hillary will have to pull out of the Democratic primary race: Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and her advisers increasingly believe that, after a series of losses, she has been boxed into a must-win position in the Ohio and Texas primaries on March 4, and she has begun reassuring anxious donors and superdelegates that the nomination is not slipping away from her, aides said on Monday. Mrs. Clinton held a buck-up-the-troops conference call on Monday with donors, superdelegates and other supporters; several said afterward that she had sounded tired and a little down, but determined about Ohio and Texas. They also said that they had not been especially soothed, and that they believed she might be on a losing...
For better or worse, Al Gore will not endorse anyone in the Democratic primary race. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama hoped to cash in on Gore's cachet, but the former Vice President and erstwhile presidential candidate has decided to stay above the fray: He's the most prominent Democrat yet to take a side in the presidential election, but two sources close to Al Gore tell us not to expect the former vice president to endorse either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama any time during the primary season. The sources say Gore talks with both Clinton and Obama, and is on good terms with both. But with Sen. John Kerry and Bill Clinton both aligned to a candidate, Gore has a role to serve as the neutral elder statesman in the party. This makes sense. As a party leader, he has to stay neutral if he wants to facilitate the...
AOL and BlogTalkRadio have partnered on the Hot Seat poll, extending the debate to our listenership. I will host a 15-minute show weekdays at 1:00 pm ET to review the poll, interview the blogger, and take calls from the participants. We'll speak to a wide spectrum of bloggers and callers alike for each day's poll -- including today's: embedSWF(9, 0, 0, "widget", "recent")This content requires the most recent version of the Adobe Flash Player. Get this version below:Get Flash Be sure to tune it at BlogTalkRadio, or listen here through the player below -- and don't forget to cast your votes! We will also take your calls at (347) 205-9555....
The key Potomac primaries in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington DC have all begun, and right now all of them appear to favor the momentum candidates. For the Republicans, John McCain has an opportunity to provide more lift for his all-but-certain nomination. Barack Obama needs a couple of big wins in the contests to make a momentum argument into Texas and Ohio: The demographics in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia primaries suggest the senator from Illinois could pull off a political hat trick Tuesday over rival Sen. Hillary Clinton. However, the senator from New York said Obama's recent success doesn't faze her because future primaries will swing her way. On the Republican side, Mike Huckabee is coming off big wins in Kansas and Louisiana, but Sen. John McCain of Arizona scoffed at the notion that the former Arkansas governor could close the roughly 500-delegate gap that separates the two...
The Senate handily defeated an attempt to strip immunity for telecommunications providers from their version of FISA reform this morning, and approved the overall legislation. The amendment to strip telecom immunity only garnered 31 votes, far short of even a simple majority. The bill now goes to the House, which has resisted the immunity provisions: The Senate voted Tuesday to shield from lawsuits telecommunications companies that helped the government eavesdrop on their customers without court permission after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. After nearly two months of stops and starts, the Senate rejected by a vote of 31 to 67 an amendment that would have stripped a grant of retroactive immunity to the companies. President Bush has promised to veto any new surveillance bill that does not protect the companies that helped the government in its warrantless wiretapping program. ... In a separate voice vote Tuesday, the Senate expanded the...
Debra Burlingame invites Wall Street Journal readers to take a stroll down Memory Lane, to a time when murderous terrorists gained presidential pardons instead of relentless pursuit. This didn't happen a long, long time ago in an administration far, far away, but actually less than ten years ago. In 1999, with Hillary Clinton pursuing a seat in the Senate, Bill Clinton commuted the sentences of 16 Puerto Rican separatists whose organization had committed a whopping 146 bombings and more armed robberies: On Aug. 7, 1999, the one-year anniversary of the U.S. African embassy bombings that killed 257 people and injured 5,000, President Bill Clinton reaffirmed his commitment to the victims of terrorism, vowing that he "will not rest until justice is done." Four days later, while Congress was on summer recess, the White House quietly issued a press release announcing that the president was granting clemency to 16 imprisoned members...
Governor Ed Rendell follows the lead of Susan Estrich in diagnosing the issues associated with Barack Obama's underperformance in some states, including his own. In an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Rendell tells the editors that some Democrats in their state just can't pull the lever for an African-American (emphasis in the original): Gov. Ed "Don't Call Me 'Fast Eddie' " Rendell met with the editorial board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last week to talk about his latest budget. But before turning the meeting over to his number-crunchers, our voluble governor weighed in on the primary fight between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama and what the Illinois senator could expect from the good people of Pennsylvania at the polls: "You've got conservative whites here, and I think there are some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate," he said bluntly. Our eyes only met...
Note: This post will remain on top until show time; newer posts may be found below. Today on Heading Right Radio (2 pm CT), we have a double dose of conservative punditry! Jonah Goldberg joins us first to talk about his best-selling and controversial look at the Left, Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning. In the second half, John Podhoretz talks about his bleak assessment of the GOP's chances in November -- and how Iraq might save the day. Call 646-652-4889 to join the conversation! And don't forget to join our chat room! This show is now sponsored by Lifelock -- and listen to find out how you can save 10% on their services. Did you know that you can listen to Heading Right Radio through your TiVo service? Click here for the instructions. Also, you can subscribe to Heading...
Who knew that Patty Solis Doyle was a Hispanic before getting the boot from the Hillary Clinton campaign? I'd wager that most people couldn't have identified "Solis" as Mexican before Hispanics complained about her termination. Now, however, her ethnic identity has overshadowed the fact that her client has good reason to be unhappy with the performance of the campaign: Two New York Hispanic leaders said they would be upset if Hillary Rodham Clinton's Hispanic campaign manager was replaced because of primary losses they believe should be blamed on former President Bill Clinton and others. Patti Solis Doyle, whose parents were Mexican immigrants, stepped down as Clinton's campaign manager this weekend as Clinton was losing five Democratic contests to Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. Clinton has said Doyle's decision was a personal response to a grueling campaign, not about job performance. She added that Solis Doyle would remain a senior adviser and...
Conservative firebrand Oliver North has a message for his peers in the movement -- don't to do John McCain what moderates did to me. In a column up this afternoon at Real Clear Politics, North doesn't just endorse McCain, he defends him from the same impulse at division that doomed his own Senatorial campaign: After I won the 1994 Republican nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in Virginia, I naively assumed that all in the GOP would pull together behind my conservative candidacy. I clearly don't know much about politics. If I did, I'd be writing this from my U.S. Senate office instead of my home in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. But at the trade school John McCain and I attended in Annapolis, Md., they did teach me how to count. I lost by a narrow margin in a three-way race. Some of those who were with me then are...
Polls close in Virginia at 6 pm CT, and an hour later in Maryland and DC. Will Barack Obama complete his expected tsunami through the trio of states? Can John McCain hold off Mike Huckabee? We shall soon find out. I'll live-blog the results as they materialize, in reverse-chronological order. Keep checking back .... 8:59 - I'll wrap this up now. Obviously the night went to Obama and McCain, and the latter can start working on consolidating his support in the party. Huckabee may continue for his own reasons, but he'd have to win 90% of the vote in every single state the rest of the way to barely keep McCain from winning the nomination. Obama may have more of an argument for the superdelegates, but if anyone thinks the Clintons will just quit, they're very much mistaken. 8:53 - Obama's speech tonight shows that he's thinking about November and...
February 13, 2008
Scratch one terrorist from the FBI's Most Wanted list. An explosion killed Hezbollah leader Imad Mughniyeh, one of the planners of the 1983 bombings in Beirut that killed 241 Marines and another 63 people at our embassy in Lebanon. He also took part in the 1985 TWA hijacking that resulted in the beating death of Navy diver Robert Stethem: A senior Hezbollah commander implicated in some of the most high-profile international terrorist attacks of the last 25 years has died in an explosion in Syria, Hezbollah TV said Wednesday. Imad Mughniyeh was suspected by Western intelligence agencies in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, which killed 63 people, as well as the truck bombing that year of the U.S. Marine barracks there, an attack that killed 241 people and preceded the U.S. military withdrawal from Lebanon, according to a CNN report from 2001. The FBI listed Mughniyeh...
In the end, the Mike Huckabee surge in Virginia fell far short of victory. John McCain swept the Potomac Primaries last night, winning by nine in Virginia and winning among conservatives in Maryland. The delegate count now makes his nomination inevitable: Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) swept Republican primaries in Virginia, Maryland and the District last night, defeating former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and adding to his vast delegate lead in the race to become his party's presidential nominee. But even as he dominated the Potomac Primary, McCain lost conservatives in Virginia, as he has across the South and parts of the Midwest -- trailing Huckabee among that group and evangelicals as he attempts to unite a fractured Republican Party behind his candidacy. Speaking to a few hundred supporters at a victory rally in Old Town Alexandria, McCain echoed Democrat Barack Obama, saying he was "fired up and ready to go."...
After Barack Obama swept the Potomac Primaries last night, one might have expected Hillary Clinton to say a few words to her supporters to explain the losses. If so, the crowds that turned out for her in Texas had to manage their disappointment. They managed to let her know when they disagreed with her, however: As news of her triple defeat in the Potomac Primary sank in, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton did what has become a specialty in recent weeks: She headed someplace else. After flying from Virginia to Texas for a rally on Tuesday night, Clinton did not publicly acknowledge, even in passing, that three significant primaries had taken place that day and her campaign had not issued a statement hours after results were announced. ... When Clinton mentioned having differences with Obama over health care and the mortgage crisis, she was booed. Her comments continued past 9:30 p.m....
The Iraqi National Assembly passed more reform legislation today, addressing a series of concerns that had American politicians impatient for progress. They have authorized provincial elections and provided limited amnesty for mainly Sunni detainees in Iraqi custody. The bill provided the finishing touch on the legislative session: Iraq's parliament on Wednesday passed three key pieces of legislation that set a date for provincial elections, allot $48 billion for 2008 spending, and provide limited amnesty to detainees in Iraqi custody. The three measures were bundled together for one vote to satisfy the demands of minority Kurds who feared they might be double-crossed on their stand that the budget allot 17 percent to their semiautonomous regional government in the north. The vote came a day after the Sunni speaker of the fragmented parliament, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, threatened to disband the legislature, saying it was so riddled with distrust it appeared unable to adopt...
AOL and BlogTalkRadio have partnered on the Hot Seat poll, extending the debate to our listenership. I will host a 15-minute show weekdays at 1:00 pm ET to review the poll, interview the blogger, and take calls from the participants. We'll speak to a wide spectrum of bloggers and callers alike for each day's poll -- including today's: [Poll expired.] Be sure to tune it at BlogTalkRadio, or listen here through the player below -- and don't forget to cast your votes! We will also take your calls at (347) 205-9555....
The Republican National Committee has developed a cute but effective graphic showing the expansion of federal spending that will result in the adoption of Barack Obama's agenda. Called the Spendometer, it highlights what the Republicans hope will provide an effective argument for John McCain and his call for more discipline in federal spending. It also shows that the GOP has started focusing on Obama as a likely competitor in the general election: If Obama Could Enact All Of His Campaign Proposals, Taxpayers Would Be Faced With Financing Over $850 Billion In New Spending Over One White House Term: Obama’s Health Care Plan Will Cost Up To $65 Billion A Year; Equal To $260 Billion Over Four Years. “[Obama] campaign officials estimated that the net cost of the plan to the federal government would be $50 billion to $65 billion a year, when fully phased in, and said the revenues from...
Now that the primary campaign has just about wrapped up, John McCain's team has begun to look towards the convention and November. I received an invitation to his blogger conference call this morning, after a particularly successful night on the Potomac. He started by talking about how pleased he was about the primaries, especially in Maryland. He said a nine-point win in Virginia is "very good", but also says that Mike Huckabee has indicated to him personally that he will continue. McCain met with the Republican caucus in the House, who endorsed him. He pledged to them that he would contest all 50 states in November. He will continue his efforts to unite the party, and that it takes some time to get over the bumps and bruises of a primary campaign. McCain wants to run on taxes, regulation, and health care as the primary domestic themes. He also hailed...
A couple of schedule notes -- * The AOL Hot Seat show will air at 12:30 ET/11:30 CT in order to welcome Ben Smith of The Politico to the show! Be sure to tune in as we review his question and get his thoughts on the Hillary Clinton losing streak. * My Heading Right Radio show will air at 2:00 ET/1:00 CT, an hour earlier than usual. Jim Geraghty will join me for the Ledge Report, an analysis of the Potomac Primaries, and a review of John McCain's conference call. Call 646-652-4889 to join the conversation! And don't forget to join our chat room! This show is now sponsored by Lifelock -- and listen to find out how you can save 10% on their services. Did you know that you can listen to Heading Right Radio through your TiVo service? Click here for the instructions. Also, you can subscribe to...
Danish newspapers have demonstrated solidarity with Kurt Westergaard and Jyllands-Posten today. After the arrests of conspirators determined to assassinate the editorial cartoonist, the other newspapers in Denmark today have reprinted the cartoon that aroused the ire of Muslims in the first place. They want to make the point that no one can intimidate them into silence: Newspapers in Denmark Wednesday reprinted the controversial cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed that sparked worldwide protests two years ago. The move came one day after Danish authorities arrested three people who allegedly were plotting a "terror-related assassination" of Kurt Westergaard, one of the cartoonist behind the drawings. Berlingske Tidende, one of the newspapers involved in the republication, said: "We are doing this to document what is at stake in this case, and to unambiguously back and support the freedom of speech that we as a newspaper always will defend," in comments reported by The...
Last week, the Hillary Clinton campaign argued that the month of February would belong to Barack Obama, and that they would focus on Texas and Ohio. After making a change in leadership in the campaign and watching the lopsided delegate split in Virginia and Maryland, Team Hillary has changed direction. Now they will fight for delegates in Wisconsin instead of ceding the state to Obama: Sen. Barack Obama has been lavishing attention on the historically independent voters of Wisconsin. Rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is moving belatedly to make a contest of next Tuesday's Democratic presidential primary. The senator from neighboring Illinois has spent more time in the state than the former first lady. Obama drew 4,000 people at a rally last October and beat Clinton back to Wisconsin this year. But Clinton hasn't conceded the 74 delegates at stake even though she has already begun campaigning for the larger...
So far, we have seen a number of flash points in the Democratic primaries for the presidential nomination over ethnic and gender politics. Now we have racial and anti-Semitic politics in a Congressional primary -- and once again, it involves Democrats. Steve Cohen wants to run for re-election in Tennessee's 9th District, but supporters of his opponent think he's too pale -- and too much of a Joooooooo: "If you thought race was an uncomfortable issue in the Democratic presidential primary, wait 'til you get a load of what's going on in the Democratic primary in the Memphis area's 9th District of Tennessee, where a shockingly worded flier paints Jewish Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) as a Jesus hater. "Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen and the JEWS HATE Jesus," blares the flier, which Cohen himself received in the mail -- inducing gasps -- last week. Circulated by an African-American minister from Murfreesboro...
February 14, 2008
Five years ago yesterday, three American contractors found themselves captives of FARC, the Marxist guerrillas in Colombia. They still remain captive to the South American terrorist gang, and most of their countrymen have long forgotten about them. Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell, and Thomas Howes languish in captivity while their nation has basically slept. FARC is no less a terrorist gang than al-Qaeda, if somewhat less lethal. They have numbered in the tens of thousands, but now roughly comprise about 8,000 armed guerrillas controlling about 15% of Colombian territory. Like their Islamist cousins, FARC has used the drug trade to fund its operations, and in Colombia, that can be highly lucrative. They also use protection rackets and kidnapping for both profit and political purposes. They are despicable, less so than al-Qaeda and Hezbollah and certainly less of a threat to the US -- but obviously not to the three men who...
Yesterday I noted the action by the Iraqi National Assembly in passing significant reform legislation, and predicted that opponents of our engagement in Iraq would shrug it off. Perhaps that was too cynical, as at least one anti-war platform has grudgingly acknowledged it as a major step forward. When the New York Times admits it, what can Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi say? Good news is rare in Iraq. ... Only if you read the New York Times. But I digress .... But after months of bitter feuding, Iraq’s Parliament has finally approved a budget, outlined the scope of provincial powers, set an Oct. 1 date for provincial elections and voted a general amnesty for detainees. All these steps are essential for national conciliation. No, all of these are indications that national conciliation has already begun. In a democracy, the conditions for these steps have to already exist before a...
The Senate narrowly passed a ban on waterboarding as part of their intelligence bill, setting up a showdown between Congress and the White House on limitations for interrogation techniques. The bill clearly states approved and disapproved procedures, ending the ambiguity that has created much of the controversy over whether anyone has ever broken the law in interrogating terrorist suspects. And surprisingly, one of the figures at the head of the controversy opposed the bill: The Senate voted yesterday to ban waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics used by the CIA, matching a previous House vote and putting Congress on a collision course with the White House over a pivotal national security issue. In a 51 to 45 vote, the Senate approved an intelligence bill that limits the CIA to using 19 less-aggressive interrogation tactics outlined in a U.S. Army Field Manual. The measure would effectively ban the use of simulated...
In one corner, we have John McCain, who has not requested an earmark for years and who has vowed to veto any bill as President which contains them. In the other corner, still fighting between themselves, we have Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, who have combined for over $430 million in earmarks just in the last session. Who says there isn't a distinction to be made in November?: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton helped secure more than $340 million worth of home-state projects in last year's spending bills, placing her among the top 10 Senate recipients of what are commonly known as earmarks, according to a new study by a nonpartisan budget watchdog group. Working with her New York colleagues in nearly every case, Clinton supported almost four times as much spending on earmarked projects as her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), whose $91 million total...
The Canadians have performed magnificently in Afghanistan, but they need more resources. They have asked NATO, in coordination with the US, to provide more troops to their front-line position, and have threatened to withdraw entirely unless Europe starts sharing the load. Help may come from the least-likely source, according to an anonymous French military official: In American military parlance, it's gut-check time for NATO in Afghanistan, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy appears ready to answer allies' calls for more forces to fight the Taliban and al-Qaida. As early as Thursday, Sarkozy's top brass is to present him with a variety of options, from sending special forces to more trainers for Afghan troops, a French military official told The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity, because the decisions will ultimately rest with Sarkozy. Sarkozy isn't expected to announce a final decision until the NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania, in...
USA Today reports that spending on senior entitlements has risen 24% after adjusting for inflation since 2000. Despite no increase in the population percentage receiving benefits, the actual dollars spent on senior benefits in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security rose from $600 billion to $952 billion. Senior care has now become Job 1 of the federal government: The cost of government benefits for seniors soared to a record $27,289 per senior in 2007, according to a USA TODAY analysis. That's a 24% increase above the inflation rate since 2000. Medical costs are the biggest reason. Last year, for the first time, health care and nursing homes cost the government more than Social Security payments for seniors age 65 and older. The average Social Security benefit per senior in 2007 was $13,184. ... The federal government spent $952 billion in 2007 on elderly benefits, up from $601 billion in 2000. It's...
Join me on Tuesday and Thursday mornings as I co-host Nikki Starr's "Nikki Rocks The Politics" at 9 am CT. We'll discuss politics, news, music, and join the chatizens and the callers. You can join us by calling (646) 478-4556. Later today, I'll also host the AOL HOt Seat Show .... AOL and BlogTalkRadio have partnered on the Hot Seat poll, extending the debate to our listenership. I will host a 15-minute show weekdays at 1:00 pm ET to review the poll, interview the blogger, and take calls from the participants. We'll speak to a wide spectrum of bloggers and callers alike for each day's poll -- including today's: [Poll expired.] Be sure to tune it at BlogTalkRadio -- and don't forget to cast your votes! We will also take your calls at (347) 205-9555....
The House will allow the current FISA legislation to lapse rather than address the differences between the their version of the extension and the one passed by the Senate on Tuesday. Democrats wanted yet another three-week extension to kick the can down the road again, and petulantly dropped consideration when both opponents and advocates of the Senate plan refused to agree. Now they're saying the lapse in the FISA legislation will have no effect -- as long as no new terrorist groups arise (via Memeorandum): Democrats insisted that a lapse would have no real effect. The expiration of the powers “doesn’t mean we are somehow vulnerable again,” said Representative Silvestre Reyes, Democrat of Texas and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. The lapsing of the deadline would have little practical effect on intelligence gathering. Intelligence officials would be able to intercept communications from Qaeda members or other identified terrorist groups...
With all of the drama on the Democratic side of the primaries, Barack Obama wants to put it to an end. He hopes to win enough of a lead in delegates so that even without a clinch by the end of the process, he has made enough of a case for his nomination that the superdelegates wouldn't dare swing to Hillary Clinton. Meanwhile, Hillary has had to hustle to get organizations running in the states she claims she'll win to blunt Obama's momentum: Senator Barack Obama emerged from Tuesday’s primaries leading Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton by more than 100 delegates, a small but significant advantage that Democrats said would be difficult for Mrs. Clinton to make up in the remaining contests in the presidential nomination battle. Neither candidate is expected to win the 2,025 pledged delegates needed to claim the nomination by the time the voting ends in June. But...
Mitt Romney will endorse John McCain in a press conference at Romney's Boston headquarters, according to an ABC report. He will release his delegates and ask them to support McCain at the convention. That would put McCain within reach of the nomination now, and almost certainly clinch it for him in March: Former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., is planning on endorsing his former Republican rival Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. A source familiar with the decision said the endorsement will take place this afternoon at Romney for President Headquarters in Boston at 3:30pmET. Romney will ask his delegates to support Senator McCain. The former governor made his decision to endorse today in the interest of helping McCain gain the 1,191 delegates he needs to secure the party nomination and unite the party for the general election against the Democrats in November. Yesterday, I asked Senator McCain when he and Romney would...
Note: This post will remain on top until show time; newer posts may be found below. Today on Heading Right Radio (2 pm CT), Daniel Glover, late of Beltway Blogroll and now with Eyeblast.tv and AirCongress.com, talks about his new ventures and his new openness about his political bent! National Review's Andrew McCarthy also joins us to dicuss the breaking story on the House refusal to consider the Senate FISA reform, and what that means. BREAKING: The House Republican caucus has walked off the floor, according to a Capitol Hill source, to protest the Democratic refusal to consider the FISA legislation. Call 646-652-4889 to join the conversation! And don't forget to join our chat room! This show is now sponsored by Lifelock -- and listen to find out how you can save 10% on their services. Did you know that you can listen to Heading Right Radio through your TiVo...
House Republican Whip Eric Cantor blogged about the walkout here: Our intelligence agencies need the tools necessary to listen in on terrorists who threaten and plot to do harm to our country. The Senate worked together in a bipartisan fashion earlier this week to accomplish this goal, but the House Democrat Leadership refuses to do the same. It Al-Qaeda is talking, we should be able to listen. Today, House Republicans stood up and demanded that Washington work for the people again. I'll be talking with Andrew McCarthy about the FISA issue on today's Heading Right Radio. Be sure to catch it live....
Speculation had begun this week that Hillary Clinton's campaign might start going negative on Barack Obama. She didn't have much to lose after the debacle of the Potomac Primaries, and she desperately needs to slow down his momentum. Apparently, the speculation was correct, as Hillary has begun slamming Obama's economic proposals on the stump in Ohio: Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, criticized for taking corporate special interest contributions, proposed restrictions on a wide array of industries Thursday and stepped up her assault on rival Barack Obama, casting him as the candidate more beholden to corporations. In a speech to General Motors workers and executives, Clinton trumped Obama's own economic plan from a day before and appeared to be channeling former rival John Edwards' populist anti-corporate message. ... She said she would rein in oil, insurance, credit card, student loan and Wall Street investment companies and generate $55 billion a year that...
John McCain took a lot of heat over the last months for his supposed apostasies on tax policy. He voted against the initial Bush tax cuts, we were reminded, although he has often defended the decision as a fiscally responsible act at the time. Kevin Stach takes a close look at his record in today's Wall Street Journal, and likes what he sees: After sweeping the Potomac primary, John McCain is now the de facto Republican nominee for president. But while Mr. McCain's fight for the nomination is all but over, Mike Huckabee's strong showing in Virginia suggests that Mr. McCain's battle to unify the Republican Party is just beginning. One major task is to secure the GOP's right flank, which remains cool to Mr. McCain over issues including taxes and economics. The support of supply-siders Jack Kemp and Phil Gramm has not been enough to reassure some economic conservatives...
February 15, 2008
The First Mate and I exchanged Valentine's Day gifts over the last couple of days, and I have to say I got the better deal in the trade. I sent her a dozen roses, which surprised her because they came on the 13th (doh!), and she gave me the second volume of Pinky and the Brain, Vol. 2. Originally a part of the Animaniacs show, Steven Spielberg's production company spun off P&TB into its own weird and wonderful show for four seasons. Even if its clever anthem gives me song poison for a week every time I hear it, I loved watching Brain's Rube Goldberg-like attempts to take over the world get tripped up by his own ego. It also has some terrifically snarky pop-culture references that kept both of us laughing last night as we watched three of the episodes. Speaking of cartoons, Bookworm has found an honest-to-goodness New...
I've written several posts about the opening on the House Appropriations Committee that came from Rep. Roger Wicker's (R-MS) appointment to the Senate to fill Trent Lott's open seat. The House GOP had an opportunity to ensure that their commitment to end pork-barrel spending got taken seriously by appointing a porkbuster to the post. Jeff Flake would have delivered that message, as his record on earmark reform is unmistakable. Instead, the GOP selected Jo Bonner (R-AL), a person whose record on pork reform equals that of ... Steny Hoyer, John Doolittle, and James Moran: Rep. Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) has been selected to fill the appropriations panel seat vacated by ex-Rep. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), several GOP sources said Thursday. GOP leaders faced a pool of seven House lawmakers, including the chairman of the House campaign committee who ran against two politically vulnerable members, and Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who was backed...
Yesterday, I interviewed former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy about the fight over FISA reform on Heading Right Radio. McCarthy, who helped put Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and several others in prison for their role in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, argued that the expiration of last year's FISA reform will put the NSA in the unusual position of having to seek warrants for communications with both endpoints outside the US, not involving American persons at all. He explains this at Human Events today: In 2007, a ruling of the court created by the ill-conceived 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) required the intelligence community to seek court permission before monitoring terrorists operating outside our country -- that is, outside the jurisdiction of United States courts. Actually, Andy and I disagreed on this; I'll come back to it in a moment. Let’s say al Qaeda operatives in Iraq...
Hillary Clinton has tried to sell herself as the candidate ready on Day One to assume the responsibilities of the Presidency, at least among Democrats. She has claimed the Bill Clinton administration as her own experience, and yet she has no record of running anything during that time except the disastrous Health Care Task Force -- the records of which the Clintons have kept under wraps. Now she wants to distance herself from her supposed experience by claiming that she opposed NAFTA, one of the key pieces of legislation pushed by the Clinton administration (via Memeorandum): As the 2008 campaign shifts to economically hard-hit states like Ohio, so too do the topics of political debate. This week, Sen. Barack Obama's campaign has attacked Sen. Hillary Clinton on trade, arguing that she was once a supporter of the North American Free Trade Agreement that contributed to the loss hundreds of thousands...
Barack Obama may find that overpromising and underdelivering will leave openings for political opponents to score real points, especially when the opponent has a clear record from which to punch. Obama has tried to argue that he has the most transparency between Hillary and himself on earmarking, but compared to John McCain, that sounds like damnation through faint praise: Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is on track to become the Democratic presidential nominee, and he's getting the attention his accomplishment deserves. Thursday, Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, and the Republican National Committee treated Obama like the front-runner he is and attacked him -- for not being transparent when it comes to disclosing his earmark requests. ... In the year Obama has been running for president, he has made government transparency a central campaign pledge. That was his strategic decision. But there are consequences when you campaign saying you would...
While the bipartisan Senate FISA legislation languished on the desk of House Democratic leadership, Henry Waxman had his sights focused on more important issues than national security. He grilled Roger Clemens on whether he had ever had human growth hormone (HGH) injected into his buttocks. Now even Waxman says his hearings were a colossal waste of time, and blamed Clemens for it (via Michelle Malkin): A day after a dramatic, nationally televised hearing that pitted Roger Clemens against his former personal trainer and Democrats against Republicans, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said Thursday that he regretted holding the hearing in the first place. The chairman, Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, said the four-hour hearing unnecessarily embarrassed Clemens, who he thought did not tell the truth, as well as the trainer, Brian McNamee, who he thought was unfairly attacked by committee Republicans. ... “I’m...