Mitt Romney plans to create a political action committee (PAC):
“We’re thinking about what new entity can be created to allow Governor Romney to remain politically active so he can raise money and campaign for Republicans, and advocate for the issues he cares about,” Eric Fehnrstrom, Romney’s long-time aide, said in an e-mail message.
And just in case McCain doesn’t pick him to be his running-mate (and he won’t), Romney already plans to Read more
On Monday, Obama will be in Tulsa for a fundraiser and Oklahoma City for a rally. A recent Oklahoma poll had Obama running third in the state behind Clinton and Edwards.
Obama spoke for forty minutes in front of ten thousand people at a rally in Oakland. He specifically brought up again his stance against the war from the start.
Obama will be on with a recovering Larry King tomorrow night at 9 pm. and to think, we were a heartbeat away from Ryan Seacrest or Nancy Grace interviewing Obama.
Obama was in Denver today for a rally and a fundraiser.
Obama spoke Friday at the site of a handshake between Pres. Clinton and Rep. Gingrich when they promised to create a bipartisan commission on campaign finance that never happened. Obama said in a potentially loaded statement that “I know this is a pretty famous spot. … I think it’s wonderful this place has that history.” He also reiterated his call for Alberto Gonzalez to resign, noting he voted against confirming him. The event was markedly smaller than his previous stops, and begins the test of whether Obama can survive as a candidate when he talks to small groups, not just at rallies.
Bill Richardson
Richardson wore cowboy boots as he attended a fundraiser in Oklahoma City, and as the state has its primary on the suddenly crowded Feb. 5 date, it’s become important. When local Spanish language reporters asked questions, Richardson responded in the same language. He also announced the director of his state campaign.
Richardson is calling a special session of the New Mexico legislature, the main reason of which he states is to pass the rest of his package of reform bills, including campaign finance legislation that would mirror federal statutes, and an initiative to create a New Mexico Ethics Commission. Transportation and otherinitiatives also remain to be completed.
Before the session ended, Richardson signed a bill that provided funding for upgrading some of the the transportation infrastructure in the state. He also signed a bill raising the minimum wage in the state from $5.15 to $7.50, calling it the “crown jewel” of the session. Some small business owners disagreed. Richardson also signed a bill that requires oil and gas companies to give notice before they drill on private property.
Richardson will be speaking at the National Jewish Democratic Council on April 24 in Washington DC.
Christopher Dodd
Dodd spent the weekend in New Hampshire, campaigning through the snow. He spoke at the Manchester City Democratic Committee’ Saint Patrick’s Day breakfast, and attended other events in Manchester, Hampton, and Concord.
Dodd talked about gays in the military in Hampton, saying about ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ the following: “Whether or not we can repeal it or not I don’t know, but it seems to me that at a time when we need talented people to serve in our military, setting up barriers like that for those who might serve I think is wrong.” Regarding Gen. Peter Pace, he called the statement that homosexuality is immoral “a ridiculous statement to make.” It’s not clear what context Dodd was referring to the statement being ridiculous.
Dodd spoke as the keynote speaker of the annual conference of the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute in Chicago this weekend.
Regarding Alberto Gonzalez and the firing of US Attorneys, he did not call for Gonzalez to resign, but wanted a full investigation first, saying “I’m deeply concerned about it. I thought there were certain areas that were out of bounds in politics. … Apparently this administration thinks there’s nothing out of bounds, including politicizing the U.S. atttorney’s office. I don’t know how high that goes up.”
Dodd’s hearings on subprime lenders start this week. Dodd is concerned about the increasing number of foreclosures in the country, saying, “The primary group I want to hear from are the federal regulators who have responsibility and jurisdiction over these issues. … I want to keep people in their homes, but I don’t know how to do that yet.” The best explanation for what Dodd is trying to stop was given by Dodd himself: “The complaint is with these predatory lenders who go out and take advantage of people and get them mortgages they can’t afford to keep. So they get you into a house but you can’t stay in the house.”
Dodd endorsed the climate change resolution being debated in New Hampshire town hall meetings, which calls for the president to initiate policy change.
Dennis Kucinich
Kucinich was back in his hometown of Cleveland for the St. Patrick’s Day events there.
A restaurant named a soy yogurt parfait in Kucinich’s honor in Washington.
Kucinich made a controversial hire of someone who had severely criticized Israel in the past for his Domestic Policy Subcomittee, but he defended the action.
Elizabeth Kucinich participated in the Democrats Abroad meeting in Heidelberg, Germany this weekend. While in Germany, she also toured the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, visiting injured US troops, saying “We are sacrificing our nation’s future to pay for war, we are leaving young lives irreversibly broken. … Our young men and women - and the Iraqi people as well - deserve better. There has to be a more creative way, a diplomatic way, to resolve these conflicts.” She has a long history of working abroad herself, as the release notes. She and Rep. Kucinich will attend meetings in London and Paris early this week concerned with ending the war. I’m not quite sure what the point of the meetings could be, but it can’t hurt that Kucinich wants to run as far away as possible from his campaign troubles at home.
Kucinich is happy that California is moving its primary up to Feb. 5. He’s visiting the state twice more in March, and multiple other times in the months ahead. The state is where Kucinich probably has his largest base of support, in areas like Santa Cruz.
Kucinich went on Fox and spoke with John Gibson about the Democrats cancellation of the Nevada debate and why Kucinich disagreed with the decision.
Hillary Clinton
Clinton is running a thorough campaign; not onlyi sshe working on getting Hollywood to support her, she’s also working on getting Bollywood’s backing. Indian-American hotelier Sant Chatwal is a co-chair on the campaign and is hosting a fundraiser this weekend; he’s also giving Clinton use of his private jet.
Clinton was joined by her husband in a fundraiser in Manhattan today.
Clinton will be attending a fundraiser for Rep. Leonard Boswell (Iowa) April 21 in Des Moines.
Sen. Clinton dined with Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame, raising eyebrows on the right.
An anti-Clinton ad modeled after the 1984 Apple ad is making rounds online. Interestingly, now on the board of trustees for Apple? Al Gore.
Clinton did Texas this weekend, stopping in Austin friday night, where she was picketed by Republicans. In Houston, she talked about Katrina and leading a more competant government. She also cautioned that troop withdrawals could not happen overnight.
Ron Burkle, a close friend of the Clintons and a main fundraiser, was interviewed by Deborah Solomon of the NYT. His reaction to Geffen’s comments -”taken aback”- is probably close to the reaction of the Clintons themselves.
Clinton wants to restore the amount of funding to the community policing program COPS that it had while her husband was President; Biden had previously stated something to this extent.
Some Belfast politicians went on the offensive against Clinton for ‘pandering to Sinn Fein.’ I think it’s somewhat interesting, more in that American politics have gone overseas than in terms of any potential effect here.
Trump endorsed Clinton for the Democratic nomination, and Giuliani for the Republican. He wouldn’t make a choice when asked to decide between the two. I wonder if more people care about celebrity endorsements or political ones.
A long interview with Clinton by Michael Gordon and Patrick Healy was done by the NYT; here is the transcript. Clinton elaborates a lot on what she would do regarding Iraq. That will have its own post shortly.
Joe Biden
Biden finally a successful week as a candidate. His speech on the Senate floor about Iraq was well received; it was blunt, forceful, and concise, strongly arguing for his bill on Iraq. This very optimistic article recounts how Biden has been gathering strength in the primary states to move from Secretary of State possibility in a Democratic Administration to a possible dark horse. I’m not sure he’s gone to legitimate dark horse yet, but however you look at it, his strength of support is surprising for someone whose whole campaign looked DOA a week ago.
This is the video of Biden’s speech on the Senate floor:
This is the video of Biden’s speech to the IAFF:
Biden was the guest speaker at the St. Patrick’s Day breakfast / roast in Boston. Speaking about McCain, he cracked, “I’m younger than McCain. Then again, the whole friggin’ world is younger than McCain.” And he also joked: “I was talking to John Kerry before I came up. John Kerry assures me he was for this breakfast before he was against it.”
Biden cancelled some planned events in New Hampshire due to the snow, when he couldn’t fly in.
Biden is pushing Kazakshtan to transition to a liberal and open democracy quicker, and is threatening to hold back their chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Here is text of Biden’s letter.
John Edwards
Edwards thinks a global education initiative to educate children could offset terrorism in the long run, saying “I believe by making education available to 100 million children growing up in parts of the world that are highly susceptible to extreme ideology, and in some cases extremely violent ideology, we can shift that.” Interesting thought; the article does not mention how he would work on making that a reality (funding, logistics, etc.).
Edwards’ campaign will be purchasing carbon credits from people who have reduced their carbon emissions in an effort to become carbon neutral. (They will also be working on their own energy efficiency) They are working with the same company that Tom Vilsack had previously announced he would work with on a similar initiative. Edwards stated in a shot at Bush: “It’s time for the president of the United States to ask Americans to be patriotic about something other than war. … This is an emergency. This requires action now.” I have to wonder how significant the Vilsack connection is; a Vilsack endorsement would really help Edwards in Iowa, the crucial state for him, permanently placing him in the top tier there, and possibly ahead of Obama and maybe even Clinton.
An article about the detailed progress Edwards has made in the past four years and how it affects his stump speeches; for instance, he’s much more sharp on foreign affairs, and how he balances truth with optimism. While his specificity may be a curiousity to those following the race fro afar, it’s refreshing those in Iowa who listen to him.
Edwards is getting good grassroots support for his appeal in the South, even when he campaigns in Malibu. I’m not sure, though, if comparing his campaign to Jimmy Carter’s campaign is a complement or an insult. On the topic of California, Edwards expressed his support for the move of the primary to February 5.
Thirty members of the Oklahoma legislature endorsed Edwards.
The Edwards office was closed on Wednesday afternoon in an anthrax scare. Later, it was found that the white powder was not Anthrax. If you wondered as I did, Edwards and his campaign are not receiving any special protection from local authorities or the Secret Service).
Mike Gravel
BlogTalkRadio has a 30 minute interview with Gravel from February 16.
Gravel will be the featured speaker at a Small Busniess Roundtable sponsored by the American Small Business Coalition at the upcoming Federal Office Systems Expo (FOSE) that is expecting an overall turnout of 15,000. Gravel will be discussing “regulatory reform, healthcare, and procurement.”
CNN, WMUR-TV in Manchester, and the Manchester Union Leader have decided to not include Mike Gravel in the debates they are sponsoring in New Hampshire in June. Gravel released a video on Youtube strongly criticizing the decision, saying, “In short, this action is an insidious form of censorship that injures the American people and its political process, already compromised by the corrupting and excessive influence of money, while seriously eroding the concept of fairness so central to the American ethos and culture.” Read more of what Gravel said here.
Wesley Clark
Clark delivered a speech yesterday entitled ‘The Front Lines of International Economics’ at the Diplomatic Club in Qatar. It was sponsored by The Department of the Faculty of the Georgetown University School of Foreign service in Qatar.
Clark seems to be dedicating his energy to his PAC and his new StopIranWar.com site. Given his lack of announcements or any initiative (and that he’s speaking in Qatar), it’s timeto move him to the Graveyard. At this point, any campaign would be coming back from the dead.
A great lookat the pure weirdness of Hagel’s speech to the IAFF earlier this week. He talked about volunteer firefighters at a convention of union firefighters; he wasn’t a candidate speaking to them, and the purpose of everyone speaking was it being a candidate forum. Hagel began his speech, “I am grateful to Harold and to the international firefighters for an opportunity to address you today. I know I am unworthy, of course, to do that for many reasons, probably most specifically that I am not an announced candidate for anything yet; I have no intention of announcing anything today… I tried that once this week.” He continued to attempt to justify his presence by saying: “So I am particularly grateful for allowing me to be an interloper here and not with the credentials that my colleagues who have appeared before me have and those who will appear later also possess, and that is their defined interest in leading this country.”
He made a grand point about the selflessness of America, and made the grand finale of the point about volunteer firefighters: “The firefighters, those who serve our nation in a very selfless way, whose interests are far greater than their own — your interests are, first, your community’s interests. The sacrifices made by firefighters, by policemen, by teachers, and certainly our armed forces and many others, is all about interests greater than their own self-interests. That is who we are. That does set America apart from every other nation, every society. It doesn’t mean that we’re better, it doesn’t mean we’re smarter, it doesn’t mean we’re more moral. De Tocqueville wrote about it in the 1830s, this strange land called America, when communities would come together and address the challenges, the threats, the issues in their communities. It worked because the people made it work. They came together a spirit conducive to making the town work, the community work. And I know of no better example of that than voluntary fire departments across this country. I know about volunteer fire departments in Nebraska; of the 400 and, I believe, 78 fire departments in Nebraska, 456 of them are volunteer fire departments.” At which point, of course, he was heckled.
The conference strongly opposed the war in Iraq, but Hagel barely mentioned the war at all, only in passing near the end of his speech. He’s pretty much lost his maverick mojo.
Hagel’s military service and positions on Iraq are contrastedwith those of John McCain. Hagel must be thanking the stars that the article hasn’t mentioned his disastrous week. Of course, I wonder if this was supposed to have run in the Tuesday edition of the Times before Hagel made his non-announcement. Now, it’s buried on a Saturday and all but forgotten. Where’s Metaphor Mike when you need him?
Duncan Hunter
A paid blogger for Hunter has been attacking Hunter’s opposition for the Presidency at his personal site without noting that he is paid by Hunter.
Henry Hyde endorsed Hunter, Saying, “There is a national cry for a true conservative candidate. I submit this cry has been answered by Duncan Hunter. He brings a wealth of experience, great foreign and domestic knowledge, and an energetic spirit to this race for the White House.”
Hunter’s son wrote an article about his father. Unlike Romney’s son’s appearance (see below), this did not come off as pandering or politically motivated to contrast with Giuliani.
Hunter also is posting 60 second audio updates on his front page.
Fred Thompson
Fred Thompson wrote an editorial about the emerging and changing dynamics in what people want from news. It’s not really political, but he seems to understand how people view the news and the world today, something a lot of candidates might be out of touch with, or depend on other people to tell them about. It’s not much, but it’s something of an edge.
Former Sen. Bill Frist, Rep. Zach Wamp, and Howard Baker, Chief of Staff in the White House under Ronald Reagan, are rounding up support for Thompson. He is going to meet with some Republican Congressman shortly about possibly making a run. The article also mentions that Thompson had tried to get a speech at CPAC, but the organizers turned him down, not knowing he might run.
Rep. Wamp wrote this editorial calling for Thompson to declare himself as a candidate, and listing ten reasons he should.
Jeb Bush
Bush is still adamantabout not running, says Grover Norquist.
Jim Gilmore
Gilmore is trying to stop California from opening the GOP Primary to independents, a move that would significantly help Giuliani and McCain, calling the move in a letter “blatant attempt to manipulate the nomination process.”
John McCain
Another day, another tar baby controversy. McCain was asked a question about whether he “would be bold enough to address the issue of equal access to children for fathers that have gone through divorce.” He responded by saying, “I’m sorry to disappoint you, I am not going to overturn divorce court decisions. That’s why we have courts and that’s why people go to court and get a divorce. If I as President of the United States said this decision has to be overturned without the proper appeals process then I would be disturbing our entire system of government… For me to stand here before all these people and say that I’m going declare divorces invalid because someone feels that they weren’t treated fairly in court, we are getting into a, uh, uh, TAR BABY of enormous proportions.” Nothing illustrates the two meanings of the phrase better than this urban dictionary page. McCain apologized after the town hall meeting to reporters, saying, ”I don’t think I should have used that word and I was wrong to do so.” Mitt Romney used the phrase last year while discussing the Big Dig. Substantially, this gaffe is really nothing more than McCain not thinking of a better word. But given that the strategy of the McCain campaign is to get him on the trail as much as possible and talking to people about issues, this is a terrible omen. Between this and the ‘wasted’ controversy on Letterman, the gaffes are starting to outnumber the positive press for him. If this is a result of exhaustion on his part, it may only get worse. For someone who needs desparately to get better traction in the polls and is already weighed down by supporting an unpopular war, McCain can’t afford these types of avoidable mistakes.
McCain had a similar incident, albeit without the use of a controversial phrase, when he was asked if he supported taxpayer money being used to distribute condoms in Africa. As per the NYT Caucus Blog:
What followed was a long series of awkward pauses, glances up to the ceiling and the image of one of Mr. McCain’s aides, standing off to the back, urgently motioning his press secretary to come to Mr. McCain’s side.
This lengthy back and forth between a reporter and McCain is even awkward to read. Nothing about what McCain says is Presidential in the least.
Reporter: “Should U.S. taxpayer money go to places like Africa to fund contraception to prevent AIDS?”
Mr. McCain: “Well I think it’s a combination. The guy I really respect on this is Dr. Coburn. He believes – and I was just reading the thing he wrote– that you should do what you can to encourage abstinence where there is going to be sexual activity. Where that doesn’t succeed, than he thinks that we should employ contraceptives as well. But I agree with him that the first priority is on abstinence. I look to people like Dr. Coburn. I’m not very wise on it.”
(Mr. McCain turns to take a question on Iraq, but a moment later looks back to the reporter who asked him about AIDS.)
Mr. McCain: “I haven’t thought about it. Before I give you an answer, let me think about. Let me think about it a little bit because I never got a question about it before. I don’t know if I would use taxpayers’ money for it.”
Q: “What about grants for sex education in the United States? Should they include instructions about using contraceptives? Or should it be Bush’s policy, which is just abstinence?”
Mr. McCain: (Long pause) “Ahhh. I think I support the president’s policy.”
Q: “So no contraception, no counseling on contraception. Just abstinence. Do you think contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV?”
Mr. McCain: (Long pause) “You’ve stumped me.”
McCain is in some trouble, no doubt about it. Thanks to The Caucus, again, for reporting this.
McCain is in New Hampshire this weekend, and hired a snowplow to make sure his bus could get through the winter weather to the campaign events. The events today are scheduled for Nashua, Milford, Lebanon, and Bow. A campaign appearance Friday in the state was cancelled because of the weather.
A challenge often overlookedis that Mccain has to win support in Iowa despite him ignoring the state in 2000 when he put all his energy into New Hampshire. He’s telling people in Iowa that money was the reason he could not campaign there in the last cycle. Iowa politicians, including the Governor, have supported him, so that effect could be minimal.
Mike Huckabee
The remaining ethics complaint filed against Mike Huckabee regarding his destruction of computers using the governor’s discretionary fund was dismissed unanimously by the Arkansas Ethics Commission. This will be the last it’s mentioned unless new information comes forward, which would be surprising at this point.
Huckabee will discusshis book in a lecture on April 4 at Washington University in St. Louis.
Huckabee was onReal Time with Bill Maher last night, and went after Maher for Maher’s comments about Cheney the week prior, saying, “Vice President Cheney told me to tell you that he’s not mad about anything you’ve said, and he wants to take you hunting.” It was a savvy comment, which won’t upset anyone on the right, but may get him coverage; it also will endear him to those on the right who have soured on Bush, since he is sticking up for Cheney. The show is available as a free podcast through iTunes, if you’d like to hear more of what Huckabee stated.
Mitt Romney
Romney openedhis state campaign headquarters in Michigan this week. It’s also noted in this article what his PAC raised and gave to Michigan candidates last year. McCain gave about half of what Romney gave.
Romney is in a fervent dashto get money for his campaign before the first quarter deadline, as a means of showing he is doing better than McCain or Giuliani. The article notes that Edwards and Dean both received sizable bumps after raising a lot of money. I’m wonder if those comparisons are a little chicken and egg though; money in part is donated because a candidate is doing well in the polls. Regardless, Romney is searching for any yardstick he can find to measure himself in public against the two candidates in front of him.
Romney this weekend was fundraising in southern California, following the footsteps of McCain and Huckabee earlier this week.
Romney’s son, Tagg Romney, talked with John Gibson. And while he denied that other candidates matter, he made sure to point out the duration of Romney’s marriage and how much he supports his parents, in what reads as a subtle jab at the Giuliani campaign.
Hugh Hewitt talkeddiscussed his book about Mitt Romney. If you care about Romney’s religion, there’s some interesting stuff in there (such as Romney saying that it would be inappropriate to take guidance from any Church leader, or for them even to contact him). I don’t care, though, and I hope more people don’t - it’s irrelevant.
Romney admitted that his candidacy depends on the results of the early primary states such as New Hampshire, Iowa, and South Carolina.
Bush’s campaign finance adviser in California in 2000 and 2004 has signed on to support Romney. Romney also added some other financial supporters, including other former Bush-backers.
Newt Gingrich
Gingrich will give the commencement address at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Gingrich previously was announced as the commencement speaker at Liberty University.
Gingrich talkedin Meadville, Pennsylvania at the Excalibur Charitable Foundation about the need for transformational change within government to make them mirror the business world more, saying, “On the one hand, we have breakthroughs in the private sector where business is able to produce more with less. … On the other hand, you have government with a fossilized bureaucracy set in 1965. The challenge for our nation is getting the things that work to migrate into government.”
Gingrich will speak at Vanderbilt University Tuesday night.
Ron Paul
Paul has been surprisingly successfulat building support through online social networking.
Rudy Giuliani
Giuliani wentto Michigan to start building his organization in the state, where he lags behind McCain and Romney (as he does in many states). Giuliani was endorsed by the Police Officers Association of Michigan, which has 14,000 members and has in the past endorsed both Republicans and Democrats. That could be a crucial endorsement in the race, much like IAFF helped Kerry in Iowa last cycle. At a dinner in Macomb County with Republicans celebrating Lincoln Day, Giuliani gave his stump speech and focused on lowering taxes and military strength.
Yet a local politician, Tom McMillin, who is the GOP Issues Committee Chairman in Michigan, statedthat even if Giuliani won the nomination that he would not get support, as he formed the ‘Conservative Declaration of Independence.’ McMillan said: “We are conservatives first and Republicans second, and we will not stand by as the Republican Party considers nominating a pro-abortion, pro-gun control, pro-homosexual rights liberal as the nominee of our party.” Giuliani is becoming nearly as polarizing as Clinton.
Putting issues aside, this articlein the Post delves deep into the modus operandi of how Giuliani ran New York City. It’s a fascinating read, and shows how integral to Giuliani personal politics can be. He hasn’t unleashed anything nearly as vitriolic in the primary campaign; it will be interesting to see what he does if he falls behind, or if he does anything similar in the general election (or if it was all an act for NYC only).
A dossier entitled “Rudy Giuliani Life Long Liberal” is circulating among New York City newspapers. (Download document in .doc form here) It’s a 42 page treatise that compiles every anecdote about Giuliani that portrays him as moderate or liberal in his life, even referencing his schooling. If anyone wants to show Giuliani is not a conservative, this is the handbook. It may never explicitly come up again, but I’d be shocked if the staff of competing campaigns did not at least take a long look at it. The editor, George Martin, ran against Giuliani as the conservative nominee for mayor in 1993.
William Britton talked a bit more about his meeting with Giuliani, saying there’s no hidden secrets for him to reveal.
Sam Brownback
Brownback spoke in Peoria as the keynote speaker for the Republican Lincoln Day Dinner. He echoedthe Biden-Gelb plan by calling for Iraq to be split into three sectarian based states. He said the troops would have to remain “for some length of time” though. He also came out against a timetable, saying, “Iraq is as much as anything three groups held together by exterior borders. We need to push this and a timetable does not make that situation work.” He also talked about other issues, including social conservatism, and ethanol, an important regional issue.
Brownback is in Des Moines for St. Patrick’s Day, and even managed to work Ronald Reagan into his press release, which quoted him as saying, “a great Irish-American by the name of Ronald Reagan is the modern father of the Republican Party and his principles guide the conservative movement to this day.” He also mentions “my good friend Bono of U2“, in what reads like an awkward name drop.
Brownback condemned embryonic stem cell research as both immoral and unproductive, saying, “It’s morally wrong and its not yielded the results that adult stem cell research including cord blood cells and amniotic stem cells is achieving.” It’s interesting that those against embryonic stem cell research are constantly using this tactic: condemning it both in terms of morals and usefulness. That says a couple of things: first, that a majority of people disagree with the moral position; secondly, that a majority of people are still making up their mind. If something was immoral, you would imagine that would be enough.
Tom Tancredo
Tancredo tried to bring some flavor to his thus far vanilla campaign, talking about the Iraq war and health care in New Hampshire. Tancredo said that “It’s not a matter of whether we are going to be leaving Iraq, departing from there in some way or not, it’s going to happen. But I think that I, that I know that I would describe it differently than a withdrawal. It is, what we need to do, is disengage. And that is different than withdrawal. There is no way that we can leave Iraq tomorrow or the next day or the next month. A vacuum would occur that would be filled by the most radical elements and by potentially the most harmful effect. We do, however, need to change the way we actually exist in Iraq, what we’re doing there, and the size and force of our structure there. We need to withdraw, we need to disengage, and move to areas in and around the outskirts, if you will, of Baghdad and/or Iraq itself and begin the process of allowing Iraqis to run Iraq. It has to happen.” I’m not sure Americans would appreciate the troops dying while protecting ‘the outskirts.’ And I’m not sure comparing the situation in Iraq to what Benjamin Franklin said after coming out of the Constitutional Convention (American was given ‘a republic, if you can keep it’) is a fair comparison either.
Regarding health care, Tancredo agreed that health care insurance was a problem. His idea for restructuring was conservative in nature; what he would do instead of having a massive Medicare bureaucracy is give people vouchers for health care and let them decide on their own how to spend it; now, who those vouchers are payable to, insurers or providers, I do not know. He focused more on getting rid of bureaucracy than on the details of what ought replace it.
Tancredo said that he would not spend any taxpayer money on embryonic stem cell research and that he considers destroying embryos the same as destroying a human beings. He went further, saying that researchers are doing so well at research from other areas, that embryonic stem cell research is no longer even needed. He posited that it was a deliberate moral choice on the part of some (whom he did not identify) to continue destroying embryos.
Tancredo sent a letter to potential supporters saying “Do not delay your response. … I am counting on your contribution by March 31st and Agents Compean and Ramos are counting on us to help them get the justice they deserve.” A representative for the Center for Responsive Politics said that the letter could potentially mislead voters into thinking that supporting Tancredo will directly help Compean and Ramos get free; and unless Tancredo wins and pardons them, that obviously will not be the case.
Tom DeLay thinks Tancredo is a one issue candidate, although “his time will come.”
Tommy Thompson
Thompson has not campaigned outside of Iowa so far, but that may be about to change. Thompson hiredMeridian Communications; the company ran the campaign of GOP gubernatorial candidate Jim Coburn, who set a record for the biggest loss ever in gubernatorial election in New Hampshire. The most experience they haveis the former experience of one of their four senior staff members who had a ’senior role’ in the Buchanan campaign in 1996. This doesn’t seem like Thompson is bringing out the big guns at all. The biggest win their website touts is an upset win in a mayoral election in 2005, an off-year election.
Thompson is speaking this coming Thursday about stem cells at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College.
Thompson is spending another weekend in Iowa, this one in Manchester. I’ll give it to him, he’s got a one-state strategy and he’s sticking to it.
Nebraska Republican Attorney General Jon Bruning has formed an exploratory committe about seeking Hagel’s Senate seat in 2008, but will not run if Hagel decides to seek another term. This underscores Hagel’s dilemma: Risk his political future on an unlikely bid for the White House, or run for another term in the Senate. Bruning lining up behind him will only increase the political pressure on Hagel to make a decision shortly, after his weird punting on Monday.
Duncan Hunter
The Hunter PAC ad controversy seems to be re-emerging as the Democrat-leaning group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics filed an ethics complaint against Hunter. (See here for details). Hunter’s office has stated that they will continue to air the ads which they consider policy ads. … Hunter interviewed with Manufacturing News, and said the following about trade with China nd the role of the President: “Right now, China rebates their taxes to their manufacturers. They give a 17-percent subsidy to their products and a 17-percent penalty to our products. Before you even compare labor, component prices and commodity prices, they have a 34-percent advantage before the game even starts. Then they devalue their currency by 40 percent to make sure the American manufacturer doesn’t win. That is cheating. We need to have a government that says that is cheating. [Fed Chairman Ben] Bernanke had that in so many words written in his speech that he was going to give in China [in December], but it was changed before he gave it to the Chinese leadership. That is not acceptable. Another point about Ronald Reagan is that when Ronald Reagan saw a bad arms control deal, he changed it. He didn’t acquiesce to it. Presidents have a unique role in putting together security deals and trade deals with other countries. There is no independent businessman who can go make a separate trade deal with a country. A trade deal is a business deal between nations that is essentially put together by the executive.” Hunter also thinks being anti-free trade is not a Democratic message, but a Republican one; if anything, he is running as a conservative version of the Lou Dobbs Democrat: the Duncan Hunter Republican if you will. He states, “No, this is a Republican issue. I see this as a major issue in the Presidential campaign. There are two Republicans on Mount Rushmore. Both of them were against unfettered free trade. When the other guy has 74 points on the scoreboard before the game, it takes a lot of tax cuts to make up for that. The problem is under the GATT law that we’ve agreed to, every one of our trading competitors — every country in the world — has a right to rebate their taxes to their exporters except us. We agreed to that. I’ve seen the Senate memos when we were putting this together saying this is going to be terrible for us. We’re agreeing that everybody gets points on the scoreboard except us, and we signed that.” I’d recommend reading the entire interview (midway down); it’s an interesting counterpoint to the mainstream Republican view, and a view that has some traction in the rank and file.
Fred Thompson
Rep. John Duncan of Tennessee said he would switch from Romney to Thompson should Thompson enter the race. … The Thompson idea is still being thought over by media types and others. … JC Watts expressed general support of a potential Thompson campaign. … Thompson is getting good support in Tennessee as well, even beyond Duncan. … Thompson wrote about the firing of the US attorneys, saying “The only problem is: There was nothing wrong with firing eight U.S. attorneys. Of course the Department of Justice was inept in the way they did it, trying to conceal things that didn’t need to be concealed but the U.S. attorneys, like innumerable other public officials serve at the pleasure of the president. He fired eight of his own appointees apparently because they we not aggressive enough in pursuing voting fraud cases. In 1993 Attorney General Janet Reno rode into town and fired every U.S. attorney in the country but one-all Republican appointees. Amidst all this foolishness there is a serious question here. Considering the times we live in, do we really want to continue to try to chip away at the traditional powers of the president? Regardless of who wins the White House, don’t we need a strong president?” (the audio) … Tennessee Democrats say Thompson is not registered to vote in Tennessee.
Jim Gilmore
Jim Gilmore is supremely confident in his candidacy. … Jim Gilmore spoke to the Firefighters Convention (post coming soon about that), and reiterated his support of the war, to dead silence. … However, regarding the causes for war, Gilmore stated, “I can’t tell you why we went into Iraq at this point. … I think the president certainly had some positions he was taking; perhaps he thought something was happening that wasn’t true. But now we’re in, and we have to make sure that the United States’ interests are protected.” The overview of Gilmore, however, on the whole, is mixed. … Gilmore is still just a blurb in many places, though.
John McCain
Pundits are saying everything from McCain is no longer the frontrunner, to saying that McCain would be out of the race before Iowa. I don’t see that happening - his organization is just too strong. … Gov. Pawlenty is touring Iowa with McCain today. Pawlenty denied having any interest in a ‘national office’ right now. … McCain is trying to pass a new immigration bill. … This article wants to know what McCain has learned from what has happened in Iraq. … This ethanol review of McCain finds his constant opposition of it - until 2006, when he supported it, saying, “I support ethanol and I think it is vital, a vital alternative energy source not only because of our dependency on foreign oil but its greenhouse gas reduction effects.”
Mike Huckabee
Huckabee is in southern California for two days of meetings and fundraisers. … Huckabee is still defending his record on taxes, saying “The record is that I cut taxes 90 times during my 10 and a half years as governor,” and later, “We raised a fuel tax on highways but it was on the ballot and 80 percent of the people voted for it. We rebuilt our highways. That was badly needed, no apologies for that.” The article notes that Huckabee is not mentioning other increases in taxes that he signed into law or failed to prevent. … Huckabee compared chronic diseases to Sept. 11, in a comparison that absolutely no one else will find anything short of bizarre, saying “‘There is a lot of terrorism out there that we are afraid of: buildings collapsing and planes being flown into the places where we work and live. … But I’ll also suggest to you that today, chronic disease will take over 2,500 Americans’ lives - today. More people than died Sept. 11.” I’m not sure if that will scare people, or just make them angry. I find it hard to believe it will help him break out, though. … Huckabee is being honored by the Institute for Health and Productivity Management.
Mitt Romney
Romney added former Iowa State Sen. Stewart Iverson to his campaign in the state. Interestingly, Iverson is first former Pataki supported to gravtitate to Romney; the others had all gone to the McCain campaign. … Romney was endorsed by sitting Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri. However, Rep. John Duncan said he would switch from Romney to Fred Thompson should Thompson decide to run for President. … A 2002 video of Romney calling himself pro-choice has surfaced. This could be significantly more harmful to his campaign that anything else previously referenced. It’ll be interesting to see him try to explain this one. (VIDEO) … The Mitt Romney comments about Schiavo (basically, law before life) are beginning to outrage some on the right. … This is a Mitt Romney interview about energy, clean coal, and some generics political things like bipartisanship and being a Mormon. Regarding energy, he stated: “I would like to see America become energy independent, meaning we produce as much energy as we use. We’ve been talking about it for a long time, but we really have not taken the kind of action we need to take to rid ourselves of dependence on foreign energy. … We’re going to have to develop every possible source of energy that we have here. That means nuclear power, additional oil, but coal figures in very prominently. Liquefied coal and gasified coal, I believe, have a great potential for fueling our automotive fleet and providing energy for us that is clean and does not emit CO2. … I believe it’s important for America strategically to make the investments in research, specifically in coal technology to allow us to have energy independence not just as a goal but as a reality. ” … Romney was in Oregon for a fuindraiser. … Romney will fundraise in southern California later this week, this article notes.
Newt Gingrich
Gingrich was in Baltimore visiting Goucher College to talk with students, but everyone is still talking about his marital issues discussed in his interview with James Dobson. It was a good strategic move to get that out of the way now; by the time he enters the race later this year (presuming he will), people will have gotten tired of hearing about the issue. … Tom DeLay’s memoir is coming out, and it’s not too kind regarding Gingrich. Delay writes, “”He knew nothing about running meetings and nothing about driving an agenda.” He adds, “It is now public knowledge that Newt Gingrich was having an affair with a staffer during the entire impeachment crisis. Clearly, men with such secrets are not likely to sound a high moral tone at a moment of national crisis.” It’s hard to say how much this will matter, but it cannot help Gingrich to have his conservative base undermining him. … Ken Blackwell comes to the defense of Newt Gingrich, and calls for the attention on Gingrich to be on him reforming, not his past infidelities. … There are indications that Gingrich’s sources for money might abandon him soon if he doesn’t give some sort of hard signal that he will be running. That would be a disaster for Gingrich; let’s see how effective he is in holding them off (or in making private promises that would eventually be leaked). …
Ron Paul
Some are calling for Paul to run with Kucinich on the Unity ticket. … This article says that Paul can use the internet just as Howard Dean did to jump unexpectedly to the top tier of candidates. I’m not sure the internet is ‘abuzz’ about Paul, though, as the article claims. … The Foreward to Ron Paul’s book, “A Foreign Policy of Freedom” is posted online. It gives a good overview of the foreign policy philosophy of a libertarian: less is more. It’s worth reading if only because it is very hard to summarize and filled with views that today are counter-intutive. … The National Taxpayers Union honored Paul for the tenth straight year.
Rudy Giuliani
Giuliani’s law firm has had connections in the past few years with Citgo, which has connections to Hugo Chavez. A giuliani spokeswoman said “Mayor Giuliani believes Hugo Chavez is not a friend of the United States, and his influence continues to grow because of our increasing reliance on foreign sources of oil.” and his law firm said Giuliani had no involvement in the representation. … Giuliani held a Yankee-themed fundraiser in New York City yesterday. Ronan Tynan attended, and Dennis Miller hosted, calling Nancy Pelosi a “moron” and assailaing against global warming, saying “Excuse me for not believing temperatures from 1906, when we were still shitting in the woods.” I’m not saying his comments will become a controversy, but it certainly has potential to do so. Giuliani’s friend David Koeppel, who is gay, (and whom Giuliani lived with while getting his most recent divorce) also attended. That has the possibility of upset certain constituencies on the right. … Don’t ignore the criticisms of the Club for Growth in this post; just look past them. The important thing is that Giuliani might get an endorsement, or at least a neutral assessment, of the Club for Growth. Adding some conservative credentials would help him profoundly in the primary campaign. And if any of the accusations this blog makes turns true in this election, I’ll be first in line to point it out. But on face, advocating for economic conservatism is certainly a politically viable position. … The emerging tiff between Giuliani and some NYC firefighters might open the way for Clinton to get more clout from firefighters. … Some social conservatives have heard enough about Giuliani and just want him to go away.
Sam Brownback
Terri Schiavo’s brother, Bobby Schindler, endorsed Brownback, saying “My family will never forget Sam Brownback’s valiant efforts to save my sister’s life.” Brownback and Schindler launched the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation. … The report of Brownback by the Club for Growth might help him a lot in fundraising; his numbers for the first quarter are going to be scrutinized to see if he can make the jump to top tier candidate. … Brownback supported Gen. Peter Pace with this letter. In it, he states, “The question is whether personal moral beliefs should disqualify an individual from positions of leadership in the U.S. military? We think not. General Pace’s recent remarks do not deserve the criticism they have received. In fact, we applaud General Pace for maintaining a personal commitment to moral principles.” The argument Brownback makes sort of flips the issue on its head - personal moral views do not disqualify someone from serving; it’d be nearly impossible, though, for him to support keeping gays out of the military based on the language he used. … This is an overview of Brownback’s position on immigration reform, which to be fair, is definitely comprehensive and subtly different than that of many GOP candidates, and possibly one of the most developed, regardless of whether you agree or disagree with his position.
Tom Tancredo
Tancredo opened up his campaign office in Manchester, New Hampshire, down the hall from the campaign office of one John McCain. … Tancredo is not optimistic about a pardon from Pres. Bush for Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos anytime soon, and thinks their lawyers have done a pretty bad job. … Tancredo will keep bringing up the immigration issue, if only because he thinks no one else will.
Tommy Thompson
Thompson will keynote the Lake County (IL) Republican Federation’s 45th annual spring dinner on April 13. Lake County is just northof Chicago’s Cook County, and borders on Wisconsin, where Thompson served as governor between 1987 and 2001. … Thompson was back in Iowa, and echoed John McCain when he stated that Republicans lost control of government when they became big spenders. He touted his fiscal conservative record as governor. At the statehouse, Thompson said, “I’m a reliable conservative. I believe I’m the only true reliable conservative there is.” He later added, “We became the party of no ideas. We became the party of spenders. We became the party of trying to live in Washington and being Washingtonians instead of trying to change Washington.” Thompson also recalled the good ol’ days of Wisconsin politics.
Controversy is brewing over some ads Duncan Hunter has run in New Hampshire through his PAC. The Boston Globe reports:
In the ads, Hunter walks beside a huge wire fence and calls for it to be extended along hundreds of miles of the US border with Mexico. He then asks for viewers to “join with me, Duncan Hunter, at Peace Through Strength. Let’s make sure Homeland Security builds the border fence.”
At the end of the ad, viewers are encouraged to visit the PAC’s website, peacethroughstrengthpac.com. If viewers to go to the site a page appears that reads “please visit Duncan Hunter for President 2008″ and providing the link to his homepage…
The article continues with several quotes of people who think Hunter is in a gray area at best, and downright in violation at best. The Hunter campaign said:
Hunter’s campaign spokesman, Roy Tyler , said the PAC- financed ad is simply an “issue ad” and does not promote his presidential campaign. He said the campaign’s lawyers approved the decision to run the spot.
“We believe they are just issue ads and as such we can run them where we want as often as we want,” said Tyler, noting that Hunter does not identify himself as a presidential candidate.
If candidates can just run ‘issue’ advertisements funded by their PAC in these states to introduce themselves, a large loophole will have been opened rendering basic campaign finance regulations largely moot. The double bind comes in with the consequences of Hunter’s ad: either the FEC will discipline him and nip this practice in the bud, or all other candidates will immediately follow his lead.
My take? It seems disingenuous for a presidential candidate to suddenly be running ‘issue ads’ in New Hampshire of all places right in the beginning of the primary season. The link to his presidential homepage just seals the deal. If the ads were made in a way that encouraged the issue without featuring Hunter, I might say it’d be in the spirit of the law, but this clearly is not. Let issue ads feature the issues, not presidential candidates using the PAC to advertise.
Mitt Romney plans to create a political action committee (PAC):
