Wow, for somebody who's supposed to be such a political joke, an Arctic ditz and eminently dismissable as a serious anything except maybe a stay-at-home hockey mom, Sarah Palin is sure drawing an awful lot of attention from Democrats and eager critics.
The launch of her "Going Rogue" interviews Monday on "Oprah," of her book today, of her on-air chat today with Rush Limbaugh at 10 a.m. Pacific and of her mid-America bus book tour Wednesday ignited a surprisingly large blizzard of derogatory Democrat dis-missives.
Every few minutes another note from Democratic National Committee operatives and others dropped into electronic mailboxes across the media-verse, helpfully passing on even the tiniest tidbit of negative news about Palin.
You know how sometimes a friend tells you how much he/she doesn't really care about....
A last-minute poll of New York's suddenly significant 23rd District interim House race shows that with less than 12 hours before voting begins, the Conservative/Republican candidate Doug Hoffman has built a 5-point lead over Democrat Bill Owens.
But the newfound allies of Hoffman and the Republican National Committee had best hold off on the champagne purchases. The undecided voters there have doubled to nearly 1 in 5, making the final hours volatile.
With so much symbolism at stake in the minor race, Vice President Joe Biden parachuted into the district today, as The Ticket reported here earlier, to fire off several thousand words in support of Owens.
And the RNC made a quick ad buy to push the Conservative Party's Hoffman, who inherited the GOP's support when Dede Scozzafava, the official GOP candidate, saw the handwriting on the wall and quit Saturday under accusations that her pro-union, pro-abortion-rights views were not really Republican. Sunday she seemed to prove it by endorsing the Democrat.
New York's 23rd Congressional District was the scene of significant military....
Earlier this year, Obama flew in for a Reid fundraiser in Las Vegas. But state polls still show unfavorable ratings among Silver State voters. In his remarks today, Biden ticked off some promising economic signs, including the Dow topping 10,000 and a stabilizing housing market (well, in parts of the country that are not Nevada).
“This didn’t happen by accident,” the VP said, according to the White House pool report. “It’s because of the policies the president and I and this guy put together. Are they all perfect? No. Are we out of the woods? No. But we’re in a different place.”
Meanwhile, Republicans used the Reno fundraiser to pummel Obama, Biden, Reid, the stimulus package, Democrats and pancakes (OK, we’re kidding on that last one). It came in a tough one-minute radio ad listenable right here.
And get this: Republican collects goods for food bank while fat-cat Democrats eat expensive breakfast. Sue Lowden, one of Reid’s potential GOP challengers, passed out coffee and doughnuts this morning – and her grub was free – while collecting canned goods for a food bank and talking about the desperate need for job creation.
So the economic stimulus has, at the very least, stimulated criticism of Reid. Though top state Republicans, including Gov. Jim Gibbons and Sen. John Ensign, initially dismissed the $860+-billion package as pork, the GOP has recently found the spending useful to undermine Reid’s repeated claim that Nevadans shouldn’t throw away his longtime D.C. clout.
To make yet another food reference, the Republican argument pretty much goes like this: If Reid really is such a powerful fellow in charge of the U.S. Senate, why hasn’t the guy brought home more bacon after four long terms?
There remain less than 13 more months to argue that one out.
This week in Nevada, you couldn’t go anywhere without being reminded that a Reid is running for office.
Papa Harry, the Senate majority leader and a top Republican target, aired his first two commercials. “Hard Work” is a fairly traditional reminder of his up-from-Searchlight youth: Dad was a miner, Mom did laundry for a brothel andHarry hitchhiked to high school.
“Nevada Jobs,” is a little more unusual: Jim Murren, the CEO of MGM Mirage, talks about....
how Reid rescued the CityCenter project from bankruptcy. It sort of reminds us of a reality-show confessional, though more staid than those on “The Real World: Las Vegas.”
The underlying message: Nevada, I’m a mover and shaker. You want to go all South Dakota and give that up? Not the best idea, not in this economy.
Harry also announced that he’s raised $12 million, so expect a lot more commercials. Recent polls show the him in deep, deep trouble. So Vice President Joe Biden flies in Friday to help Harry in the Reno area.
Sue Lowden, former head of the state GOP, could beat him right now. Danny Tarkanian, son of a famous basketball coach, could beat him. We’re sure Garth Brooks could beat Reid, too, though his status as a Nevadan is about as shaky as John Chachas'.
Then there’s son Rory, who's widely considered smart and thoughtful, but apparently inherited his dad's (lack of) charisma and terrible polling. As of Wednesday, Rory is officially running for governor and testing Nevadans’ taste for dynasties. Already, he's blamed unpopular GOP Gov. Jim Gibbons for not securing enough stimulus money, to which a Gibbons aide essentially retorted: It’s your dad’s fault! This could get real ugly for every Reid involved.
In eight years of George W. Bush's presidency -- despite huge differences on wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and contentious debates over torture policy, No Child Left Behind and immigration reform -- no elected official ever heckled the president of the United States when he addressed a joint session of Congress.
It happened when Obama was rebutting the myths about healthcare reform, including the shibboleth that the package will allow benefits for illegal immigrants. Obama assured the viewing audience that the rumors were false.
Wilson did call the White House to apologize. Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, reportedly livid over the breach of civility, took the call. Then Wilson put out a statement saying, "This evening I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the president's remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill. While I disagree with the President's statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the President for this lack of civility."
But the apology did not stop a flood of donations to Wilson's likely Democratic opponent in 2010: Rob Miller, a Marine Corps and Iraq war veteran who lost to Wilson by 8 points last year and is eager for a rematch. Miller quickly put out a statement saying Wilson's behavior "exemplifies everything that is wrong in Washington. Instead of engaging in childish name-calling and disrespecting our commander-in-chief, Joe Wilson should be working towards a bipartisan solution."
"Joe Wilson" quickly became the most searched term on Google. Ditto Twitter. And soon enough, the money started pouring in. ActBlue, which bills itself as the clearinghouse for Democratic action, says it has raised more than $100,000 for Miller, and counting.
And throughout the speech, House GOP leader Eric Cantor texted on his BlackBerry, and several Republicans waved sheets of paper at the president, offering reform suggestions.
Meanwhile, Wilson's official House website has been overwhelmed. "Due to exceptionally high traffic, this site is temporarily unavailable," says a notice. "Please come back shortly."
-- Johanna Neuman
Top photo: Rep. Joe Wilson. Credit: Reuters. Bottom photo: Republicans wave ideas. Credit: Getty Images.
He is the green jobs czar at the White House Council on
Environmental Quality, the aide who’s supposed to offer inspiration and input
on how to convert the nation’s creaky, Saudi-dependent oil economy into the
idyllic bliss of energy independence.
Van Jones is much respected in enviro circles, praised for his bestselling book, “The Green Collar Economy.” Former Vice President Al Gore told the New Yorker, “I love
Van Jones.” And
actor Leonardo DiCaprio said of him in Time magazine, “Steadily -- by redefining
green -- Jones is making sure that our planet and our people will not just
survive but also thrive in a clean-energy economy.”
But right now Van Jones is in a toxic dump full of trouble.
Wednesday he had to apologize after video surfaced of an
appearance he made in Berkeley in February in which he called Republicans
an anatomical expletive deemed inappropriate for this family newspaper, which this isn't but rules are rules.
Then Thursday the Yale University grad, a onetime Marxist
who was arrested during the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, was forced to issue a
statement apologizing for his signature on a petition. The petition, to then-New York
Atty Gen. Eliot Spitzer, urged an investigation into whether 9/11 was an inside
job by George W. Bush to soften public opinion for a war in Iraq.
“In recent days some in the news media have reported on past
statements I made before I joined the administration -- some of which were made
years ago,” he said in the statement. “If I have offended anyone with statements
I made in the past, I apologize. As for the petition ... I do not agree with this
statement and it certainly does not reflect my views now or ever.”
Score one for Glenn Beck, the Fox News commentator who has
been hammering on Jones for days. Take a look.
As the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that killed more than 3,000 Americans approaches, the usually creature-friendly World Wildlife Fund has been forced to explain how an image bearing its logo -- and showing planes descending on lower Manhattan -- won a recent contest for public service.
The ad’s tag line: "The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11. The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it."
The whole thing started last December in Brazil, where an ad agency – DDB Brazil – held a brainstorming session in hopes of winning the WWF's business. This is the ad they came up with.
Trouble is, according to the WWF, the idea was quickly rejected by its officials there.
At the ad agency in Brazil, spokeswoman Lana Pinheiro said the team that developed the concept “is no longer with the agency” and that after the idea was killed in December, the ad “should never have been made.”
But this being the Internet age, the unauthorized ad has now gone viral. When news spread that the ad had won the best public service print ad of 2009 from the Manhattan-based One Club, members started besieging the WWF, the world’s largest conservation group, with outraged calls.
All of which left the folks at WWF headquarters in Washington to ponder the difficulties of disassociating with an ad they never approved.
"We are just utterly appalled," said Aun. Calling the ad "offensive and tasteless," she added, "This ad is not something that anyone in our organization would ever have signed off on."
The Golden State is in so much financial distress that it lost its lease and everything must go. Not really, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger decided to mark the end of soft news summer days with a sale of surplus, unused or wasteful state property.
To enhance interest and bidding, the ex-movie star even autographed the sun visors of some vehicles for sale.
They'll be selling hundreds of items, including highly used state cars, computers, BlackBerrys, desks and even some CHiPs motorcycles (see photo).
To get the buzz going, the state has listed some stuff on EBay and Craigslist so the online world can have a hand in raising money for the beleaguered state. [Note: An earlier version of this post incorrectly referred to Craigslist as Craiglist.]
Some of the cars are fixed price, some auction. All will be operating with the goal of reducing the state fleet by 15%. The event will take place at a warehouse in Sacramento.
It'll be a great story for television news at week's end.
But perhaps the more interesting untold stories are how in the world the state of California ever came into possession of some of this stuff. The surfboard for sale, no doubt, was used by Gray Davis during one of his wild days.
But what about the diamond and gold rings? Dentist chairs? A fishing boat? Or an antique piano, an Xbox 360 with Halo 3 cover and a racing bicycle?
Now that he's safely on vacation on Martha's Vineyard, what is President Obama imbibing?
Beer probably. Maybe Sam Adams from Boston or Goose Island, a Chicago favorite that he served at his election party.
But what did other presidents prefer? LBJ (Lyndon Baines Johnson) loved Fresca. He is said to have had a Fresca fountain installed in the White House.
Too bad Ken Basin in the video below didn't know his presidential beverage trivia. Truth be told, there was also some harder stuff around LBJ to help grease political agreements.
Richard Nixon liked rum and Coke. Gerald Ford preferred gin and tonic (same as Queen Elizabeth II).
Harry Truman was a bourbon guy. Bill Clinton likes tequila and Tabasco sauce. George W. Bush liked too many things in his younger days and now drinks O'Doul's.
The other presidential GW, George Washington, liked homemade beer. (But he had slaves to make it for him.) The first prez also liked bread in warm milk. (But he had bad teeth.)
For those sentenced to watch every one of the president'ssummertime blizzard of healthcare town halls, the torpid gatherings turn out to offer as much drama, excitement and compelling interest as some new TV show called "Real Housewives of Amish Country."
Of course, the Obama infomercials -- hang on, there are two more this week alone, including one in Montana (Hello, Senate Finance Chair Max Baucus) -- are not meant as entertainment to compete with county fair fireworks, the confection conspiracies of reality shows or languid beach walks.
They are part of an unfolding continental struggle over lasting healthcare changes involving hundreds of billions of dollars and something even more valuable to the White House and Republicans: political prestige, heading into next year's crucial midterm elections. (When the party controlling the White House historically loses congressional seats.)
At the moment, Obama, as eloquent as he can be, appears to be playing PR defense, trying to prove that what most people have and think they like now in health insurance could possibly maybe not be there someday because of costs they don't now see and don't think they pay.
And as a result, they should jump over to his ill-defined new plan that even dozens of congressional Democrats have doubts over and Republicans and simply anti-Obamites are feeding fears about.
The White House's strategic problem is that the more many Americans learn about the incomplete reforms the less they understand them and, thus, the more they fear them. Which briefcase do you want, the imperfect but familiar one in your hand or another one around the corner that we can't show you right now? Trust us.
While Obama's poll popularity has slipped somewhat, the popularity of his keystone ...
