Beltway Confidential
Did you know Harry Reid’s former banking staffer is a lobbyist for Goldman Sachs? Did you know former Democratic Senator John Breaux is also a Goldman Sachs lobbyist and a...
Not if you rely on the New York Times, which glaring omitted these facts.
The New York Times’ Andrew Ross Sorkin wrote last week:
I mentioned Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, D, yesterday, and his pending decision on whether to sell his state to its electric company. Here’s the first ad from his Republican...
Labor unions gave $400 million to Democratic campaigns in the 2008 electoral cycle, and they’ve been getting very generous payoffs from the Obama administration and the...
Peter Wehner writes on why Elena Kagan discriminated against the military: What was really on display in Harvard Law School v. Military Recruiters was the clash of two...
Earlier in the week, Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, one of a handful of artists whose drawings of Mohammed for a Danish newspaper touched of an international controversy, was attacked during a lecture he was giving at a Swedish university. Last night, arsonists tried to torch his house: The home of a Swedish artist who once drew a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad as a dog has been hit by a suspected arson attack, police said Saturday. Lars Vilks, who lives in Nyhamnslage in southern Sweden, was not at home during the attack late Friday night and no one was reported injured. It was the latest in a week of attacks on the 53-year-old cartoonist, who was assaulted Tuesday by a man while he lectured at a university and saw his Web site apparently attacked by hacker on...
Over at Real Clear Politics, Kyle Trygstad and Mike Memoli point to President Obama’s very weak numbers in some of the most critical states of the 2010 elections. In what I’ll call the “Anchor States,” Obama is a dead weight on Democrats: In Florida, the president’s net approval rating is -1.7; in Colorado, it’s -6.5; North...
Known unknows: The former FLOTUS (AP photo) In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, former first lady and author Laura Bush hints around at what we've been saying all along: That she is seriously misunderstood and maybe not like you thought. But whose fault is that? BUSH: Well, I mean, I think that's a little bit of a bias, the -- the media bias that we -- everyone talks about a lot and I think that's part of it. I also think that because George was a conservative, a Republican president, that people assumed that I was, you know, a cookie-baking, stay-at-home mother. And -- and I think that's sort of the box that we put our first ladies in every time. You know, Barbara Bush was certainly seen as a grandmotherly type and she was a grandmother and a wonderful grandmother...
Gunnin' for ya! (ap photo) Who will avenge the American voter in November's midterm elections? The "mama grizzlies"! Also the pink elephants. Sarah Palin was making the rounds today, with speeches at the NRA convention and Susan B. Anthony's List. At the latter she said, "Look out, Washington. There's a whole stampede of pink elephants" coming. Whoa -- thanks for the heads up. The Washington Post also was there: "The mama grizzlies, they rise up," she said, to laughter. "You thought pit bulls are tough. You don't want to mess with the mama grizzlies. And I think there are a whole lot of those in this room." And in other news, Palin said the lesson of the BP oil spill is that we need to keep on drilling. Reports ABC News: "We need to keep...
Surprise, surprise. Longtime Metra chief Phil Pagano ”abused” agency personnel policies for two decades, using his own power and outright forgery to obtain hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash to which he was not entitled That’s the blockbuster bottom line of a report delivered to Metra’s board on Friday by...
After seeing her huge lead dwindle to two points in the California GOP gubernatorial primary, Meg Whitman has produced a new ad touting her firm stance against illegal immigration: Whitman's primary opponent Steve Poizner has been attacking her for opposing the Arizona immigration law. In her new ad, Whitman says she wants national guard troops on the border and opposes amnesty and driver's licenses for illegal immigrants, but she doesn't reverse course on the Arizona law....
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything this brazen, even in Illinois. Commonwealth Edison’s parent company, Exelon, is offering to give the state government $500 million to help with its budget crisis, in exchange for the state giving ComEd permission to hike rates on its utility customers. A senior executive for Commonwealth Edison Co. parent...
The proposed reforms area step in the right direction -- for everyone but Nancy Pelosi: House leaders are revamping the rules for lawmakers and aides who travel overseas on official government business, forbidding them to fly in business class on shorter trips, use taxpayer funds to buy gifts or pocket unspent cash, among other changes. The new travel rules, proposed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, also strengthen accountability and oversight for taxpayer-funded trips. But the rules don't require lawmakers to disclose some of the biggest costs of such trips, including travel by military plane, which can double or triple the total costs. Funny that Pelosi didn't require disclosure of the cost of military travel. Is that because Pelosi flys around on military aircraft at...
"Stay out of Hooters." (afp photo) To help his wife retire her 2008 presidential campaign debt, former President Clinton is raffling off a day with himself in New York City. O-M-G. Reports AFP: A listing on the Federal Election Commission's website shows that Hillary Clinton's campaign is still carrying a debt of 771,000 dollars, owed to market research and consulting firm Penn, Schoen and Berland for "consulting polling/mail expenses." Mark Penn! Shouldn't he be reimbursing Hillary? At any rate, those who contribute by Monday to Hillary Clinton's still-extant campaign website are automatically entered into a drawing to hang with 42 for the day. What could that possibly include? We are giddy with the possibilities, and want every former president living...
Expect to hear a lot about this in the coming...
Don’t look now, but conservative former state Assemblywoman Sharron Angle may be overtaking her GOP primary opponents in the race to take on Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: Angle has conservative street cred, and it’s reflected in the latest Review-Journal-sponsored statewide survey conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research. In the Republican primary...
Sarah Palin delivered the keynote address to a breakfast of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony’s List this morning. The speech was typical for Palin: attacks on big government and the media, a robust defense of the culture of life using her personal narrative as an example, and support for a “frontier...
Yesterday a Suffolk poll showed Joe Sestak up 9 points over Sen. Arlen Specter in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary. Today, a Muhlenberg College tracking poll shows Specter leading Sestak by 2 points. So how’s it all going to shake out in Tuesday’s primary? I think Specter will lose. With Obama refusing to stump for Specter in...
Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, D-Fla., one of the most liberal members of Congress, is raising the red flag ahead of next Tuesday’s special election in Pennsylvania. Her rather hysterically-toned e-mail is titled, “Another Massachusetts?” Today, Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown travels to Pennsylvania, hoping to help Republicans pick off another longtime Democratic seat in Congress. This is...
In 2005, the National Intelligence Council prepared a prescient report warning that overextended welfare states could lead to economic crisis and possibly the collapse of the European Union sometime in the next 15 years: The experts felt that the current welfare state is unsustainable and the lack of any economic revitalization could lead to the splintering or, at worst, disintegration of the European Union, undermining its ambitions to play a heavyweight international role. The National Intelligence Council was created to develop long-term strategic thinking for the U.S. intelligence community. The report cited above is entitled "Mapping the Global Future: Report of the National Intelligence Council's 2020 project." [PDF link] The 2020 project was an attempt to predict geostrategic...
You have to admire President Obama’s chutzpah. From his remarks at the DCCC dinner last night: Trust me, when I walked into the door of the Oval Office and found a $1.3 trillion deficit after the previous administration had inherited a surplus, the last thing I wanted to do was spend money on a...
Yet another example of public sector employee union smash and grab, at a time when private sector workers are desperate for jobs: The Obama administration on Thursday threw its support behind a $23 billion measure intended to avert large-scale teacher layoffs, urging Congress to include the effort in a spending bill lawmakers are drafting to fund wartime costs and other urgent needs. "We are gravely concerned that ongoing state and local budget challenges are threatening hundreds of thousands of teacher jobs for the upcoming school year," Education Secretary Arne Duncan wrote in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). Duncan added: "These budget cuts would also undermine the groundbreaking reform efforts under way in...
For the second straight year, Gallup says more Americans identify themselves as pro-life than pro-choice: The conservative shift in Americans' views on abortion that Gallup first recorded a year ago has carried over into 2010. Slightly more Americans call themselves "pro-life" than "pro-choice," 47% vs. 45%, according to a May 3-6 Gallup poll. This is nearly identical to the 47% to 46% division found last July following a more strongly pro-life advantage of 51% to 42% last May. The trend is pronounced enough that Gallup's headline says a pro-life majority is "the new...
Last night at the DCCC fundraiser in New York, Obama had some strange words of praise for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It is good to be back in New York City, and it is good to be following Nancy Pelosi. New York is a tough town, but Nancy Pelosi -- that's one tough lady. (Applause.) That is one tough lady. And she’s so elegant, even as she’s ripping your heart out -- (laughter) -- if you mess with her. Really Mr. President? Are you trying to give us...
You may have heard that Arizona has banned “ethnic studies” in public school classrooms beginning in January 2011. Except that it’s not true. Here are the relevant excerpts from the law creating the ban: A school district or charter school in this state shall not include in its program of instruction any...
Here's the link to the video of the American Enterprise Institute panel discusion of the British election and its implications for American politics, with comments by William Schneider, Stanley Greenberg, Henry Olsen and me....
Nobody should be surprised to see members of Congress rushing in front of the TV cameras to take political advantage of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, but couldn't they at least stick to the facts?...
Surprise! CalPERS, California's ginormous public pension fund that's playing an outsize role in the state's fiscal armageddon, now says they're going to need $600 million more than last year: CalPERS, the huge public employee pension fund, is set to consider a $600 million hike in what California pays next year to cover state worker pensions. The fund's actuaries are recommending that its board tell the state to kick in $3.9 billion for the fiscal year that starts July 1. That would be a $600 million increase over this year and $400 million more than Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger planned in the first draft of his 2010-11 budget proposal. CalPERS staff figures the fund needs the increase to compensate for investment losses, longer member life expectancies and an edict by the...
With Charlie Crist calling for a special legislative session to bring up a constitutional ban on offshore drilling, the Rubio campaign sends along a video of Charlie Crist cheering on Sarah Palin in 2008 as she tells an audience we need to “drill here, drill now,” and a 2009 interview in...
By: Dan Halper
05/14/10 10:03 AM
New Jersey's governor is "blunt, direct -- maybe you might say, honest and refreshing." Gov. Christie calls columnist thin-skinned for inquiring about his 'confrontational tone' Gov Christie calls S-L columnist thin-skinned for inquiring about his 'confrontational...
New York Times -- Leaders Put Different Face on Afghan Drive Warfare euphemism took a quantum leap forward this week during Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s visit to Washington. American leaders, including the commander of our forces in Afghanistan and our secretary of state, sought to downplay the violence of our troops’ pending attack on the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, the Taliban’s home turf. The word “attack” was already considered too combative and “offensive” was deemed too, well, offensive. So Hillary Clinton went with the anodyne Pentagon term “operation.” On Wednesday, Gen. Stanley McChrystal ruled out even that because it raised expectations for a “D-Day and an H-Hour and an attack.” McChrystal wants...
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