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Maybe it will prove an idle threat.
But as the Democratic rules committee ended its lengthy meeting today in Washington today with a decision on the Michigan primary that left Hillary Clinton's campaign irate, the words from one of her  chief strategists have to haunt party leaders striving for elusive unity.
"Mrs. Clinton has instructed me to reserve her rights to take this to the credentials committee," Harold Ickes said.
The rules panel, which Ickes serves on, achieved its goal of resolving one of the party's two disputed primaries -- the Florida contest -- in a way that Ickes and other Clinton loyalists indicated they could live with. And combined with the more contentious action on the Michigan vote, the result was to put Barack Obama on the cusp of securing the number of convention delegates needed to soon declare himself the presidential nominee-in-waiting.
But Ickes' admonition on Michigan means that the Clinton camp has not signed off on the new "magic" number: 2,118 delegates. And that means any claim by Obama to be the presumptive nominee will carry an asterisk -- perhaps all the way to the late-August convention in Denver.
Indeed, along with Ickes' words, the chants of "Denver, Denver" by disgruntled Clinton supporters as the rules committee gathering broke up must be uneasily echoing in the ears of other Democrats.
-- Don Frederick
Photo credit: Associated Press
Barack Obama is in the market for a new church.
Earlier this afternoon -- probably not coincidentally on the weekend and at a time when most of the political press was focused on the Democratic Party's rules committee meeting in Washington -- word surfaced and his campaign confirmed that Obama would no longer be a parishioner at Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's South Side.
As the Chicago Tribune's John McCormick writes, the church was Obama's "longtime religious home," but it had emerged as "a place that has triggered repeated controversies during his presidential bid."
The first were sparked by the church's former pastor -- once a close Obama associate -- the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr . The latest uproar was sparked by Catholic priest Michael Pfleger, who, in a guest sermon last Sunday, egregiously mocked Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The rest of McCormick's report can be read here.
-- Don Frederick
As secretary of the Democratic National Committee, Alice Travis Germond will call the roll of states later this year when the party nominates its presidential ticket at its convention in Denver. She took note of that today as a member of the party rules committee that met in Washington to try to figure out if -- and to what degree -- the Michigan and Florida delegations would be part of that confab.
Germond noted early during the panel's deliberations that in her secretary's role, she looked forward to including the two states as she works her way through the roll call. But she was very careful with her language in discussing the dispute over the nomination contests that Michigan and Florida conducted in violation of DNC rules.
Germond -- for many years a key behind-the-scenes player in California's Democratic Party before she moved East -- seemed loath to use the term "primary."
Her favored term for the votes: "events" (which drew a chuckle from the committee's audience the first time she used it).
No doubt such attention to detail is crucial to her job, which includes certifying all convention delegates and vote counts.
-- Don Frederick
Barack Obama not only spent today far, far away from the trench warfare being waged in Washington over whether -- and in what proportion -- to seat the Florida and Michigan delegations at the Democratic National Convention later this year, he was doing his best to stay above the fray.
The Times' Michael Finnegan reports that as Obama campaigned in South Dakota in advance of the state's Tuesday primary, he had nothing but kind words for Hillary Clinton, praising her for running a "magnificent race" in their marathon battle for the Democratic presidential nod.
"I know that some Democrats are worried that, well, this campaign went on a long time, and maybe you can't bring the party together; the Clinton supporters and the Obama supporters, they're going after each other," Obama told a few thousand people gathered at a rodeo fairgrounds in Rapid City.
"Let me tell you something. First of all, we're going to come together, because Sen. Clinton is an outstanding public servant. She has run a magnificent race. And she is going to be working on behalf of the Democratic Party, as I will be."
Spoken like the presumptive nominee that he and his camp are anticipating he soon will be -- a designation that Clinton and her forces continue to do their best to forestall.
-- Don Frederick
As participants in today's Democratic rules committee meeting blew through a normal lunch hour -- and avoided venturing outside into a nasty thunderstorm that swept through Washington -- it became evident that the difficulties posed by the unsanctioned Florida and Michigan primaries were not equal.
A consensus seemed likely on how to apportion delegates from Florida, based on a proposal offered by the Barack Obama campaign. But how to deal with Michigan -- where only Hillary Clinton, among the major  Democratic presidential contenders, was even on the ballot -- emerged as a much stickier proposition.
Several top Michigan Democrats, including Sen. Carl Levin (at left), repeatedly referred to the contest in their state as a "flawed primary" in comments to the committee.
But Levin, passionately, also sought to return the debate to first principles -- whether Iowa and New Hampshire should continue to enjoy special status in picking presidential nominees.
Levin noted that for him, not only was that the root of Michigan's decision to conduct its primary on Jan. 15, earlier than national party rules allowed, but it remained the most flawed aspect of the nomination process.
His voice rising as he made this point, Levin told his party colleagues: "No state should have the right to go first" every campaign. "No state."
A few moments later, he decried what he termed the "God-given right to go first" that Iowa and New Hampshire insist upon every four years.
Regardless of how the immediate dispute plays out, Levin can be counted on to keep pushing -- perhaps at this year's convention, certainly beyond -- for a dramatic reshaping of the primary calendar. And that will remain worth watching.
-- Don Frederick
Photo: Associated Press
While Democratic honchos sought today to untangle the problems caused by the rogue Florida and Michigan primaries, the party was in danger of losing a high-profile vote -- that of Tony Rodham Hugh Rodham, the brother of Hillary Clinton.
[UPDATE: Correction from the original post; our reporter got it right, but we wrote Hugh when we meant Tony. Many, many apologies. And our thanks to readers who caught our error].
The Times' Faye Fiore found Rodham sitting in an Irish-themed bar across the street from the Washington hotel where the Democratic rules committee was grappling with the mess. He was drinking a pint ... and fuming.
“I’m just here to make sure Americans are represented by one vote for every person," he said, parroting the Clinton line that the results in the two states should be reflected in their totality at the Democratic convention.
With the Democratic National Committee likely to settle on, at some unknown point, a different solution that results in fewer delegates for Clinton, Rodham opined: "What the DNC and (Chairman) Howard Dean are doing is an absolute disgrace.”
The upshot?
Rodham, a self-described “yellow dog Democrat all my life,” is unsure who he would support in November if Clinton is not the party's standard bearer.
"If my sister doesn’t end up with the nomination, I gotta take a look at who I’m gonna vote for,” he said.
Horrors.
Does that mean, Fiore asked, Rodham would vote for Republican John McCain?
“I didn’t say that. It could be Bob Barr,” he said, referring to the Libertarian presidential candidate who, as a House member from Georgia, was a prime player in the impeachment of Rodham's brother-in-law, Bill Clinton).
With that, Rodham paid his check and gathered his family: his son (the grandson of California Sen. Barbara Boxer, whose daughter, Nicole, was once married to Rodham), his baby by his second marriage, asleep in a stroller, and his pregnant wife. They headed back ...
Read more Hillary Clinton's brother is one unhappy camper »
ABC's "This Week": Former Bush Press Secretary Scott McClellan (pictured) and Hillary Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe. Round-table with Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, the New York Times' David Brooks, Vanity Fair's Todd Purdum and commentator George Will.
Bloomberg's "Political Capital with Al Hunt": Ralph Reed, Republican strategist and former director of the  Christian Coalition.
CBS' "Face the Nation": Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell.
CNN's "Late Edition": Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons, Republican strategist Leslie Sanchez and Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen. Round-table discussion with CNN's Suzanne Malveaux, Fareed Zakaria and Jeffrey Toobin.
CNN's "Reliable Sources": National Review's David Frum, ABC's Martha Raddatz, former President Clinton Press Secretary Joe Lockhart, Hollywood Reporter's Ray Richmond, former New York Times Hollywood correspondent Sharon Waxman and CNN's Fareed Zakaria.
C-SPAN's "Newsmakers": Freddie Mac CEO Richard Syron, interviewed by AP's Alan Zibel and Congressional Quarterly's Benton Ives.
"FOX News Sunday": Howard Wolfson, Hillary Clinton's communication director, and David Bonior, spokesman for Barack Obama and former Michigan congressman. Power Player of the Week is Brendan Sullivan, executive director of Headfirst. Panel discussion with Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard, Nina Easton of Fortune Magazine, Byron York of the National Review and Juan Williams of National Public Radio.
MSNBC's "Chris Matthews Show": Richard Stengel, editor of Time magazine; Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Howard Fineman of Newsweek; Kelly O'Donnell of NBC News.
MSNBC's Tim Russert: Charles Osgood, author of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House: Humor, Blunders, and Other Oddities from the Presidential Campaign Trail," and presidential historian Michael Beschloss.
NBC's "Meet the Press": McClellan.
-- Don Frederick
Photo credit: Associated Press
What had been a fairly uneventful debate before the Democratic National Committee's rules committee on the Michigan/Florida primary imbroglio finally was enlivened when fiery Rep. Robert Wexler of Boca Raton appeared on behalf of Barack Obama.
His appearance also produced the proceeding's most laughably arcane exchange (and believe us, much of the discussion during the morning session only could be appreciated by lawyers).
Wexler, in his typically high-decibel fashion, made the case for allowing the Florida delegation to be seated at half-strength at the party's August convention in Denver. He presented that as a "major concession" by Obama because that would mean a delegate pickup for Hillary Clinton, who won a primary that the party had ruled would not count for anything.
Of course, what Wexler pushed for falls 50% short of what the Clinton forces want -- the seating of a FULL Florida delegation, which would give her even more delegates.
Two of the Clinton stalwarts on the rules panel, Harold Ickes and Tina Flournoy, sought in questions to puncture Wexler's "major concession" stance, and the result was a clear demonstration of the tensions between the two camps that is unlikely to dissipate anytime soon.
And then there was that moment of arcana.
Ickes, with a sly smile of his face indicating that he believed he was about to ensnare Wexler, asked the congressman his position on "the concept of fair reflection."
Wexler, no doubt speaking the thoughts of many, replied with his own smile that Ickes would have to "educate me" on that concept.
Ickes thankfully took a pass.
-- Don Frederick
Even as Democratic leaders sat down in a Washington hotel this morning to try to resolve their dispute over primaries in Michigan and Florida, the head of the party took a swipe at the resolution of another fight over counting votes -- the one that decided the 2000 general election.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, in remarks opening the much-anticipated rules committee meeting, invoked the name of Al Gore, the party's nominee eight years ago. And in doing so, he asserted that the presidency had been "snatched from" Gore by "five intellectually bankrupt justices."
So much for the recent recommendation from Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia -- one of those who was part of the 5-4 ruling that led to George W. Bush becoming president -- that folks "get over" what happened and that the debate about it is "so old now."
Dean brought up Gore's name in telling an anecdote about his own disillusionment, as a presidential candidate in 2004, with the party he now hopes will unite after dealing with the Florida/Michigan mess and, at some point, settling on a nominee for this year.
Dean told of angrily pacing in a hotel room one night in Wisconsin -- where an impending primary loss would extinguish what had once been his front-running candidacy -- and talking with Gore on the telephone. For undisclosed reasons, he was venting, wondering why he should stay a Democrat and asking what the party had done for him.
Gore, according to Dean, finally cooled him down by saying, "This is not about you, it's about your country."
Who knows, more stories like this one -- and continued squabbling ...
Read more Howard Dean replays the 2000 election's legal fight »
Just in time for family vacation season, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have done their parts to spur traffic at South Dakota's prime (only?) tourist attraction, high gasoline prices notwithstanding.
 Clinton, at the onset of a campaign swing through the state earlier this week, added an impromptu stop at Mt. Rushmore on Wednesday morning. (For her trouble, the cover of the next day's New York Post featured a picture of her at the monument with the headline: "Rock Bottom.")
Not to be one-upped in the hearts and minds of South Dakotans who will cast primary ballots next Tuesday, Obama took an unscheduled nighttime trip to the sculpture (which already attracts about 2 million visitors annually) on Friday.
"There's something about seeing it at night," Obama said after gazing several minutes at the landmark, aglow in floodlights.
Clinton, during her visit with reporters in tow, was asked a couple of dumb questions and provided a rather snappish (but, to us, perfectly understandable) rejoinder.
Obama got asked the same dumb question -- Could he picture himself up there? -- and offered a joking response, according to The Times' Michael Finnegan:
"I don't think my ears would fit," Obama said. "There's just only so much rock up there."
-- Don Frederick
Photo: Associated Press
The surge in the ranks of affiliated Democrats seen of late in several other states is not evident in California, at least when the current numbers of party members is compared to four years ago. Still, the party posted an increase over that period -- unlike the state's GOP.
Indeed, updated voter registration figures released today by Secretary of State Debra Bowen's office underscore the challenge faced by presumptive Republican presidential candidate John McCain in trying to wage a competitive fight for California's 55 electoral votes -- his party's base is shrinking.
The registration report shows that in February, 2004, Republicans accounted for 35.55% of the voters on the state's roll. Now -- 32.53% (i.e., less than a third).
The tally for Democrats rose from 43.20% four years ago to 43.75% now. Party officials can be expected to revel in having acheived a double-digit percentage point edge over the Republicans.
In raw numbers, Democrats total ...
Read more New California registration numbers show GOP shrinkage »
Not to put the cart before the horse or anything, but EbonyJet.com -- the website for the two Chicago-based magazines begun decades ago to focus on the African American market -- has set about doing some serious imaginings about what an administration headed by hometown hero Barack Obama might look like.
 The first predictive installment -- of five -- didn't just confine itself to the high-profile posts that so many are musing about. No, Eric Easter, chief of digital strategy and political commentator for the site, truly dared to get into the weeds.
For instance, he tabs as Transportation secretary another Chicago pol, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.
And as U.N. ambassador, he selects Al Gore.
It's all fun to chew over, including the major picks. Those include:
Secretary of State -- Bill Richardson (with apologies offered to Joe Biden).
Attorney general -- John Edwards (whom Easter tabs as "a natural" for that job).
Defense secretary: Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska.
And then there's the Big One -- running mate. Easter's choice is one who's been prominently mentioned by others (and pictured above), Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia. (For some of the recent blog chatter about Webb-as-veep, go here, here, and here.)
All of Easter's roster for an Obama-run executive branch (which even includes a "transparency czar") can be perused here. In the piece, he also offers ...
Read more A Barack Obama Cabinet takes shape (at least in one website's mind) »
The crucial unanswered question at this stage of the Democratic primary fight is what Hillary Clinton plans to do next week, once contests in South Dakota and Montana wrap up the primary season.
The Clinton campaign is offering no clues.
In a conference call with reporters Friday, her aides were repeatedly asked how far they would carry their fight to seat all delegates from the disputed primaries in Michigan and Florida. Those delegates are crucial to Clinton's increasingly improbable plan for victory. If Clinton doesn’t get everything she wants Saturday when a party committee adjudicates the issue, will she take her protest to the nominating convention in August?
"We think it is not useful to cross streams before we come to them,’’ replied Harold Ickes, a campaign strategist.
The nightmare scenario for most party leaders is that Clinton keeps fighting through the summer. Party officials hope to rally behind a presumptive nominee by the end of June, at the latest.
In public, Clinton is taking a tough negotiating stance. A campaign attorney sent a letter to the Rules & Bylaws Committee today, arguing that it would be wrong to strip delegates from Michigan and Florida as punishment for moving up their primaries.
The two states suffered enough by virtue of the fact that neither Clinton nor Obama campaigned in either place, letter says.
But, alternatively, one person with ties to the Clinton campaign told The Times in a recent interview that among the staff, "There is no expectation at all that we would get 100%. That’s totally off the table at this point.’’
So the question remains: what does Clinton do?
— Peter Nicholas
When President Bush was popular and his remaining time in office was long, congressional Republicans were quick to jump to his defense. Now, they are hugging their seats.
Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan's book has come out, and the president's putative Republican allies have been mostly silent. OK, so Congress is in recess. But when Bush was high in the polls, GOP lawmakers would rush to TV studios and send out mass e-mails to defend the president.
Democrats in Congress, of course, have been ready to pounce. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said he had instructed his staff to begin discussions with McClellan to determine whether the committee should hold a hearing on revelations in the book about alleged attempts to cover-up the Valerie Plame leak.
Finally, a Republican has piped up. Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the panel's top Republican, said: “While I’m sure Mr. McClellan's publishers would want nothing more than some free publicity from Judiciary Committee Democrats, we have more important things to do on this committee than investigate the unfounded allegations of a disgruntled former employee. . . . It should not take a congressional hearing to determine that Mr. McClellan's statements are not credible.”
No mention of what's his name? Bush?
— Richard Simon
Mark Glaser is a veteran journalist who writes a regular column called "MediaShift" on the digital media revolution for PBS.org He's also a very handsome fellow, as you can see.
Glaser is a recognized expert on the rapid and bewildering changes that are revolutionizing the media world that we all consume and rely on and criticize and that is so vital for the proper functioning of a democracy.
This month Glaser chose to write his column about The Ticket. So he's obviously a loyal Ticket reader. Here's a snippet of the interview with Andrew: This was spring of last year, and they asked how I saw the blog developing. Well we had to be different. I asked myself: What do I enjoy about being online? If you distill it down, what I liked about being online was it was like beachcombing. You never know what you’ll find. And that’s the opposite of what newspapers have tried to do over the years. You’ve got the most important story in the upper right, and you’ll have a picture here above the fold and it’s less important as you go down the page. [The newspaper] is directly contradictory of what the new experience is where I’m in control and I’ll go where I want. There are no lane markers, you can jump to wherever you want and do what you want.
Unpredictability was at the top of my list. And we had to be pretty well informed and well written, and Don and I had done a lot of that. And I liked the idea of having it run around the clock because a lot of blogs shut down at night. The first thing I wrote, I said we wanted this to be a dialogue, and sometimes I’ll go in and put comments on other people’s comments. Then we’ll have a discussion with others commenting, and I find that to be exciting. It’s like a conversation, imagine that.
For those interested in learning more about that media topic in general and this blog in particular, that column and his columns are available by clicking here.
On any sane politician's don't-do list, being photographed with a porn star ranks right up there with crossing state lines for a rendezvous with a high-priced prostitute. 
So with former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's career-ending sexcapade fresh in everyone's memory, it was no surprise that there wasn't a member of Congress to be found when adult-film performer Stormy Daniels (at right, photographed at the Grammy Awards earlier this year) appeared in Washington on Thursday.
Although she came to the nation's capital to highlight the adult entertainment industry's efforts to protect children from inappropriate online content (e.g., the stuff the industry produces), and lawmakers love to tout anything that helps keep kids safe when surfing the Internet, appearing with Daniels at the National Press Club was rated NC-17, as in: No Chance a politician would get within 17 miles of it.
Daniels was showing off, as it were, two new public service announcements for the industry's Restricted to Adults website label. Unveiled last year by the Assn. of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP) -- a group largely funded by the adult entertainment industry -- the label tags sites as inappropriate for anyone under 18 years old, allowing them to be blocked by filtering software.
"I do not want children viewing my site or adult-only content,'' said Daniels, who for this occasion was dressed like a politician ...
Read more XXX marks the spot kids (and politicians) should avoid »
Campaigning in South Dakota today, Hillary Clinton evoked an aphorism she learned in Arkansas in what Eloise Harper of ABC News reported was a reference to her White House quest: "You can't tell how far a frog will jump until you punch him."
Make of it what you will; frankly, we haven't got a clue. 
We do know this: The Times' Louise Roug also was on the road with the Clinton campaign, and she relates that under gray and rainy skies, the candidate gamely stumped the eastern part of the sprawling state.
She greeted breakfast patrons at a diner in Madison (where Dakota State University is located), spoke to mostly older voters around midday at a convention center in Huron (host of the annual South Dakota state air) and wrapped up her trek with a stop at a barn in Watertown (hometown of Terry Redlin, tabbed the nation's most popular artist eight years running in the 1990s by U.S. Art magazine ... no word on whether he's endorsed in the presidential race).
On the trail -- and comments about frogs notwithstanding -- she pressed what has evolved into her main argument for Democrats to stop and think hard ...
Read more Hillary Clinton and a frog analogy »
The New York Times, in a prescient 2005 piece about the friendly attitude Rupert Murdoch seemed to have adopted toward Hillary Clinton -- an article that appeared before he surprised political observers by hosting a fundraiser for her 2006 Senate re-election campaign -- had this to say about the media mogul: "Much has been made of Rupert Murdoch's willingness to express a deeply conservative agenda through his worldwide newspaper holdings and most prominently Fox News, but his primary ideological allegiance is to winning."
That characteristic was on display Wednesday night at a gathering in Carlsbad, Calif. There, according to a Hilary Rosen item on The Huffington Post, Murdoch had this to say about Barack Obama (hardly an ideological soulmate): "He is a rock star. ... I love what he is saying about education."
Playing political prognosticator, he also made clear he's anticipating an Obama administration. "I don't think he will win Florida," Murdoch said, "but he will win in Ohio and the election."
And then there was this personal note: "I am anxious to meet him. ... "I want to see if he will walk the walk."
We can only assume Sean Hannity has been left speechless.
-- Don Frederick
Already the favorite in Puerto Rico's Democratic presidential primary on Sunday, Hillary Clinton today announced the endorsement of singer Ricky Martin -- one of the island's most famed native sons.
 In a statement released by Clinton's campaign, Martin said: "These elections will have historic repercussions both in the United States and the world. Senator Clinton has always been consistent in her commitment with the needs of the Latino community. Whether fighting for better education, universal health care and social well-being, as First Lady and Senator from New York -- representing millions of Latinos -- she has always fought for what is most important for our families."
Martin, best known for his huge 1999 hit "Livin' la Vida Loca," has been in the political spotlight before. Headlining a pre-inaugural celebration for George W. Bush in Washington in January 2001, Martin was joined on stage by the soon-to-be-president, with each briefly showing off their dance steps (an image caught in a widely disseminated photograph).
Martin broke with Bush over the Iraq war, though, and made his displeasure widely known during a concert in Puerto Rico last year. During a rendition of his song "Asignatura Pendiente," the five-time Grammy winner thrust ...
Read more Ricky Martin Livin' la Vida Hillary Clinton »
Last week, John McCain's doctors attested to his hardiness to sit behind that big desk in the Oval Office. Now, it's Barack Obama's doctor's turn. McCain let selected reporters sit down for three hours with copies of his medical records. Obama has offered less. But then, his records don't show a history of melanoma, and questions about his age don't crop up nearly as often as they do for McCain.
Obama apparently hasn't had a physical for more than a year. Here's the release from the campaign: DAVID L. SCHEINER, M.D.
Hyde Park Associates in Medicine, Ltd.
1515 East 52nd Place, Chicago, IL 60615
To Whom It May Concern:
I am David L. Scheiner, a board certified general internist licensed to practice in the State of Illinois. I am on staff at the University of Chicago Hospitals and Rush University Medical Center. I have been Senator Barack Obama’s primary care physician since March 23, 1987. The following is a summary of his medical records for the past 21 years.
During that period of time, Senator Obama has been in excellent health. He has been seen regularly for medical checkups and various minor problems such as upper respiratory infections, skin rashes and minor injuries.
His family history is pertinent for his mother’s death from ovarian cancer and grandfather who died of prostate cancer. His own history included intermittent cigarette smoking. He has quit this practice on several occasions and is currently using Nicorette gum with success.
Senator Obama’s last medical checkup was on January 15, 2007; he had no complaints. He exercised regularly often jogging three miles. His diet was balanced with good intake of roughage and fluids. A complete review of systems was unremarkable. On physical examination, his blood pressure was 90/60 and pulse 60/minute. His build was lean and muscular with no excess body fat. His physical examination was completely normal.
Laboratory studies included triglycerides of 44(normal under 150), cholesterol 173 (normal under 200), HDL 68 (normal over 40), and LDL 96 (normal under 130). Chem 24, urinalysis and CBC were normal, PSA was 0.6, very good. An EKG was normal.
In short, his examination showed him to be in excellent health. Senator Barack Obama is in overall good physical and mental health needed to maintain the resiliency required in the Office of President.
Sincerely,
David L. Scheiner, M.D.
-- Scott Martelle
As if Antoin "Tony" Rezko didn't have enough to worry about, now a Las Vegas judge apparently has issued a felony arrest warrant against him in connection with $472,000 in alleged unpaid gambling debts at Caesars Palace and Bally's.
Rezko, you'll recall, is the Chicago friend who has given Barack Obama some headaches already in the campaign cycle, including questions about Obama's purchase from Rezko of a strip of land next to his Chicago home. And with a federal jury still deliberating Rezko's fate on corruption charges in Chicago, a fresh batch of legal charges from Vegas will probably put Obama's relationship with the onetime political fundraiser back in the political spotlight.
The image folks inside the Obama campaign have to be wincing over the timing after Obama this week in North Las Vegas cracked wise about TV news cameras making it impossible for him to sit down at a Vegas blackjack table himself.
-- Scott Martelle
When the general election campaign hits fifth gear this fall in all-important Ohio, residents of the Buckeye State can be forgiven for casting a jaded eye on the presidential contenders from both parties. Given their experiences with state pols, they have reason to be skeptical about anyone seeking their votes.
A few years back, a multimillion-dollar scandal involving state investment funds roiled the Republicans who reigned over state government. The result, in 2006, was a banner year for D emocrats; the victors included then-Rep. Ted Strickland, who was swept into the governor's office (and could end up as the vice presidential nominee on his party's ticket this year).
Recently, another Democrat who snared a good job two years ago -- state Atty. Gen. Marc Dann -- was forced to resign after a sexual harassment scandal in his office was made worse when he acknowledged an affair with a subordinate.
On Wednesday, Ohioans learned of yet another misdeed by a public official -- a state legislator from the Akron area gave up his seat after reports of improprieties involving Ohio State football tickets.
The lawmaker, Republican John Widowfield, spent almost $8,000 from his campaign coffers over several years to purchase the tickets, which in and of itself is legal (even if his contributors might be a bit taken aback by the practice). Where Widowfield went wrong was scalping the tickets for personal profit.
More can be read here about the wayward Widowfield.
-- Don Frederick
The Bush White House wasn't the only crew stung by Scott McClellan's scorching new memoir about his experiences as the president's press secretary.
McClellan also lashed out at the Fourth Estate, saying the n ational press corps "was probably too deferential to the White House" when it came to questioning whether going to war in Iraq was justified.
An unscientific sampling of Washington journalists expressed puzzlement about McClellan's criticism -- or dissed it as downright hooey.
"It's a stunning and unsupportable statement," pronounced Mark Knoller, CBS Radio correspondent. "Transcripts of McClellan's press briefings provide more than ample evidence of the intense scrutiny imposed on the White House and its policies by members of the press. Most days, McClellan left the briefing room lectern positively spent by the pounding he faced from reporters."
ABC's Ann Compton was perplexed: "Is Scott suggesting the White House press corps can stop, or start wars?"
David Gregory, NBC News' chief White House correspondent, opined: "I think he's wrong." He added: "I think we pushed, I think we prodded. ...The right questions were asked."
The Washington Post's Dana Milbank resorted to a press secretary (McClellanesque?) sort of dodge: "I defer to Scott on this point," he said in an e-mail.
— Stuart Silverstein
Photo Credit: AP
John McCain hardly could have been surprised that the road trip recently suggested by one of his allies received a rude reception from Barack Obama's camp.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton, responding to the idea floated by Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and quickly embraced by McCain that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee and Obama visit Iraq together, dismissed it as "nothing more than a political stunt."
That reaction, as it turns out, may be exactly what McCain was hoping for. It gave him the opportunity, which he jumped on today at a campaign stop in Reno, to personalize his unrelenting criticism of Obama's pledge that as president, he would be willing to meet with anti-American leaders with a raft of preconditions.
How is it, McCain exclaimed with relish, that Obama "wants to sit down" with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but has yet to have a one on one with Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. troops in Iraq?
It's a line we suspect will become a perennial in McCain's rhetorical arsenal. Indeed, to reinforce the point, the Republican National Committee today announced the start of an "online clock" marking the days since Obama's sole trip to Iraq (871 and counting).
It worked for Fox News' Chris Wallace....
-- Don Frederick
(UPDATE: The Obama campaign says the Illinois senator is considering a trip to Iraq this summer -- but not with McCain.)
Ask stupid questions and sometimes you'll get a curt -- and appropriate -- response.
Before embarking on a full day of campaigning in South Da kota, Hillary Clinton this morning agreed to a last-minute suggestion from an aide and made a detour to the state's most famous tourist attraction: Mount Rushmore.
The Times' Louise Roug was part of the media entourage and relates that after Clinton heard about the site's history from a park official, another reporter asked whether the candidate could see herself someday carved into the mountain behind them. And still another wondered the same about her husband, ex-president Bill Clinton.
Replied Clinton: "Why don't you try to learn something about the monument?"
Touche.
-- Don Frederick
George McGovern's call for an end to the Vietnam War propelled him to the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972. Now, he's asking the two rivals for this year's nod to give peace a chance -- or, at the least, take concrete steps toward presenting a unified front.
As part of the walk-up to Tuesday's primary in his home state of South Dakota, McGovern has proposed that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton campaign together. There would be one precondition, he told the Sioux Falls-based Argus Leader newspaper: "No attacks on each other. We've had enough of that."
According to the story, Clinton is willing to give it a go. The Obama camp has been more equivocal; McGovern said it did not rule out a joint appearance, but warned that the candidate's schedule already is jampacked.
McGovern, running on his anti-war platform, got crushed by then-President Richard Nixon in the general election 36 years ago. We doubt the prospects for his Clinton-Obama detente plan, at this point, are much better.
-- Don Frederick
As has been frequently noted, Sen. Ted Kennedy's much-publicized endorsement of Barack Obama paid little or no direct dividend a few days later in the Massachusetts Democratic presidential primary; Hillary Clinton easily carried the state on Super Tuesday back in February. One advantage she enjoyed -- mostly overlooked in the hoopla over Kennedy's nod -- was backing from longtime Boston Mayor  Thomas Menino.
What Menino lacked as a national political figure he more than made up for by galvanizing a well-oiled political machine on Clinton's behalf, much as Govs. Ted Strickland of Ohio and Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania did on her behalf in primaries that followed.
Menino, though, has strayed from the party line pushed by Strickland, Rendell and other staunch Clinton supporters that, on a ticket headed by Obama, she is the obvious choice as a running mate.
In a recent comment to the Bloomberg News Service, Menino said, "If she got back into the White House, she'd bring along Big Daddy, and he would overshadow the president."
Big Daddy, of course, would be the ex-president, Bill Clinton. And we have to give Menino credit for colorfully encapsulating ...
Read more Not all Hillary Clinton backers buy "dream ticket" idea »
On accepting Scott McClellan's resignation as his press secretary two years ago, President Bush predicted that he and the outgoing aide some day would be "rocking in chairs in Texas and talkin g about the good old days."
But maybe their days in the White House together weren't so happy after all.
Next week will bring the publication of McClellan's 341-page tome, "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception." It is described by Politico's Mike Allen as "surprisingly scathing."
He quotes McClellan as saying....
Read more Former press secretary Scott McClellan turns against President Bush »
President Bush, he of the toxic public approval ratings, was in Phoenix tonight as the star attraction of a Republican National Committee fundraiser to benefit the presidential campaign of Arizona Sen. John McCain.
It was at a private residence and closed to the public and press.
That way, see, there's fewer photos and less film footage for the Democrats to use to prove that a McCain presidency would be Bush III.
But McCain needs the money Bush can still harvest from loyal Republicans.
Here's the press pool report's closing paragraph on the president's departure:
"The two men were seen together in public for a total of 47 seconds, according to a review of the video. They were on the tarmac together for a total of 26 seconds."
They did, however, wave to each other.
--Andrew Malcolm
Photo Credit: AP
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chief strategists have to haunt party leaders striving for elusive unity.
