Canadian lawmaker insults rival on Twitter, then forced to apologize

We take a break from our regularly scheduled U.S. politics to bring you this (not) very important bulletin:

A Canadian lawmaker insulted a rival member of the Parliament on Twitter -- while the fellow was sitting at the same table.

"Del Mastro should grow up (not out)," wrote Michelle Simson, a Liberal legislator, on her Twitter profile, which has 484 followers.

Mastro, a Conservative who Reuters describes as "not slim," apparently saw the message during the meeting.

Because, well, you know, anyone in the world can see Twitter (except maybe China and North Korea), including colleagues sitting at the very same table.

Reuters writes:

[Mastro] stood up in the House of Commons in front of hundreds of legislators to demand Simson say she was sorry.

"I apologize that I'm not perfect and perhaps my stature doesn't meet the criteria that some members of the House might set but I have actually battled that problem since birth," he said.

Simson then apologized publicly, saying she had been wrong.

Maybe Simson will get a boost in Twitter followers from this Canadian kerfuffle. She's actually pretty funny and makes occasional references to "The Simpsons" (not kidding).

We wish the senators and representatives in our Congress would take a page from Simson's book and drop more off-the-cuff nuggets onto their Twitter feeds. U.S. politicians -- active ones, not Sarah Palin, who prefers Facebook -- are just so boring.

-- Mark Milian

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Photo credits: House of Commons

Politicians play Nevada name game -- and lose

 

Every election cycle in the Silver State, some public figure makes the same blunder. They – or one of their surrogates – mispronounce the state’s name.

Here, it’s Nuh-VAD-uh.

Not Nuh-VAHD-uh.

Nuh-VAD-uhns are sensitive to this. We’re not sure why. More than two-thirds of residents were born outside the state and a number of them swear they’re only staying for a year (and then never leave). But President Bush and Sen. John Kerry both caught flack for not realizing that the second syllable rhymes with “dad.” Same with TV newsmen George Stephanopoulos and Brian Williams.

State Democrats, in the run-up to the 2008 presidential caucus, apparently sent all their candidates a welcome guide that included the correct pronunciation: Nuh-VAD-uh. And yet, this cycle’s campaign ads are already mangling the state’s name, which is Spanish for "snow-capped." (In Spanish, it would be pronounced Neh-VAH-dah.)

This summer, the National Education Assn. ran radio ads cheering Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, whose poll numbers could use a little pep as he seeks reelection in 2010. But the spot’s narrator repeatedly butchered Nuh-VAD-uh.

This week, Danny Tarkanian, one of the gaggle of Republicans who hope to unseat Reid, released a Web ad mocking how federal stimulus dollars were reported as going to congressional districts that didn't exist.  But the narration pronounced the state as Nuh-VAHD-uh.

One wonders how this might play out in Mi-ZOOR-ee, a.k.a. Mi-ZOOR-ah. Incidentally, in the western part of the Show Me State, there's a town called Nevada. But there it’s pronounced Nuh-VADE-uh.

-- Ashley Powers

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Top photo: Bloomberg. Bottom photo: Associated Press.

'Going Rogue' by the numbers: Sarah Palin's missing index has been found!

We salute Slate and the New Republic, whose quick-thinking staffers decided to produce an index for Sarah Palin’s bestselling book, “Going Rogue: An American Life.”  Some had speculated that Palin decided not to put an index in the back of her book to thwart the traditional "Washington read," which involves standing in a bookstore searching the index of a newly published tome for your name or the names of friends, enemies and/or frenemies.
   After reading the independent indices, we conclude that authors and publishers must be careful what they stint on. An independent index, it turns out, is more than a simple alphabetical listing of content. It’s a powerful analytical tool, as you will see from our excerpts of both versions:

Baby shower at shooting range 76
Bridge to Nowhere 237
“Captive” of McCain campaign 261
Caribou lasagna 218
“Change,” on originating campaign slogan before Obama 114, 225
Clinton, Hillary, Palin’s non-accusations about whining of 287
Couric, Katie Lack of knowledge about energy issues 207, 273; Low self-esteem of 256; As “lowest rated news anchor in network television 270; Unfair editing of interview with 272-275, 279; Lack of national pride 279

Meg Whitman still explaining decades of not voting

Meg Whitman is still fending off questions about her spotty voting record.

Whitman, you may recall, is the former eBay CEO who spent most of her adult life not registered to vote. She also is hoping to become the GOP candidate for governor in California. Presumably, this would be accomplished through a decidedly un-high-tech fashion — people (or to be precise, registered voters) going to the polls or filling out absentee ballots and popping them in the mail.

As our friends over at the political blog The Swamp report, Whitman had to answer more questions about voting this morning on the Fox Business Network. "I’ve been very straight-up that my voting record isn’t perfect,” Whitman told Neil Cavuto. "I did not consistently vote. Like many Americans, I’ve missed too many elections ... ” Here's the full report.

So how will California voters react? Two letters to the editor in the Opinion section of today’s Times offer instructive examples.

Audrey Wicks of Irvine says Whitman has the abilities to be a great governor and doesn’t mind that Whitman had not registered until a few years back.

“She was very busy not only running a large company but furthering it, making it a big success,” Wicks writes. “She puts all of her energies into the job for which she’s responsible. This is to her credit. There are too many people who vote because they think it’s the American way. There are too many people who do not study the issues and merely vote without thought on the issues. This is one of the factors that has our state in such a detrimental status.”

Vincent J. Carollo of Upland takes a decidely different view and Whitman has to hope he's in the minority:

“I have two signs for the campaign trail: ‘Sorry Meg, I will be too busy to register and vote for you.’ And: ‘Meg, ever heard of the absentee ballot?’ ”

Meanwhile, the Whitman campaign announced today that she has won the endorsement of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. In a statement the campaign says she’s already been endorsed by former California Gov. Pete Wilson, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Arizona Sen. John McCain. No word yet on whether Whitman will be tapped for any GOP get-out-the-vote efforts.

 -- Steve Padilla

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Photo: Meg Whitman speaks at the California Republican Convention in Indian Wells in September. Credit: Associated Press

Joe Biden update: He calls some fellow Democrats 'turkeys'

(UPDATE: An update on Biden's schedule has been added to the end of this item.)

Vice President Joe Biden did not need Air Force Two Thursday night to travel across the Potomac River to McLean, Va., to the home of former Democratic Virginia Gov. and Sen. Chuck Robb.

It was, of course, a fundraiser, designed to help finance three freshman Democratic House candidates -- Glenn Nye, Gerry Connolly and Tom Perriello -- in their challenging reelection races 13 months from now in what once was a predictably GOP state.

Robb himself did not speak at the event. His wife, Lynda, daughter of President Lyndon B. Johnson, introduced the trio of representatives.

But it looks like Joltin' Joe stepped in something again, rhetorically speaking.

About 100 supporters had paid $1,000 each to gather in the open-air pool house where Biden spoke. 

"I don’t have to tell you that you’re in a very competitive state,” the vice president said, according to the press pool notes. “You got some tough votes coming up.”

Biden called the three men “independent minded” and “damn competent,” adding, however, that they were all united on core Democratic Party themes, including energy policy and healthcare. 

“These guys are smart, "Biden asserted. "Some of the guys Chuck [Robb] and I have campaigned for are turkeys. Not all Democrats are created equal, while most Republicans are.”

The voluble Biden has a reputation for sometimes getting carried away in remarks, as refreshingly candid though they may be to some non-administration ears. Last fall at one gathering, a shirt-sleeved Biden paced the stage with a microphone and said Hillary Clinton would have been a better running-mate choice for Barack Obama to make, a gaffe that prompted the campaign to end most of Biden's media interviews then and there.

GOP candidates may also have some fun in coming months speculating to partisan crowds which Democrats the vice president had in mind as small-minded birds.

Biden became a U.S. senator way back when the 48-year-old Obama was a sixth-grader. And ran for the presidency himself twice. So he's campaigned with and for many Democratic politicians over all these years.

Perhaps understandably, on Thursday night the vice president did not proceed to list which fellow Democrats that he's campaigned who are the turkeys and which are the smart ones. And presumably Biden did not intend to imply that most Republicans are smart.

But he might be asked about all that in coming days by the media -- or even White House folks. And many fans of politics may be trying to guess which Democrats Biden had in mind when he likened them to those tasty but dim birds.

Obama was in Pittsburgh overnight as host for the G-20 summit and protests. He'll return to the White House this evening.

Biden is off to Georgia (the American one) this morning to briefly watch floodwaters. He'll return to Washington in the afternoon for what has become one of his frequent duties, swearing someone in. Before heading for Delaware, Biden will administer the oath to Paul Kirk. He's the senate replacement for the late Ted Kennedy. Kirk was just named to that spot Thursday morning by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.

(UPDATE: 4:44 p.m. The vice president's weekend schedule has just been released. Here it is: "Vice President Biden will be in Wilmington, Delaware on Saturday and Sunday. There are no public events scheduled.")

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Getty Images

Is Rielle Hunter forcing John Edwards to claim paternity? [Updated]

Just when it seemed the John Edwards saga couldn't get any more sordid, new revelations come that the 2004 Democratic vice presidential candidate and former North Carolina senator wants to acknowledge he is the father of a child born to a mistress, but that his wife, Elizabeth Edwards, has "yet to be brought around."

According to the New York Times, Mrs. Edwards, struggling with cancer, has been resisting her husband's instinct that it's time to step up in the case involving Rielle Hunter and her toddler daughter.

Maybe past time, since his once-loyal aide Andrew Young is writing a book and someone leaked the book proposal to the New York Times, with a lot of unsavory details. Among them: The onetime darling of the populist set asked the aide to cover for the senator and claim he was the father of the baby. Oh and the senator promised to marry Hunter as soon as Elizabeth Edwards died -- in a rooftop ceremony, accompanied by the Dave Matthews Band.

If that weren't enough, a federal grand jury is looking into the unique question of whether payments that Hunter got from two Edwards supporters -- Fred Baron, a wealthy Dallas trial lawyer, now deceased, and Bunny Mellon, the 99-year-old heiress to the Mellon fortune -- constitute a crime.

[Updated 2:41 p.m.: The New York Times also reports that Ms. Hunter may soon move to the Wilmington area, where the Edwards family has a secluded island estate.]

Aside from the question of how close this man came to being one heartbeat away from the presidency comes an inquiry about why Edwards' mistress keeps using her 19-month-old daughter like an shield -- even bringing her, as seen above, before a federal grand jury investigating campaign finance laws. We wonder if she is trying to remind the former senator of his affair.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo credit: Jim R. Bounds / Associated Press

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Politicians -- Obama, Bush, etc. -- sometimes say the darndest things

Politicians say some pretty ridiculous things -- not that we needed to tell you that.

U.S. presidents especially, being in the center of the public eye, are constantly jostled for their almost never-ending stream of bad quotes. Of course, some leaders are more prone to slipping up than others.

The Russia Today blog has put together a list of what it calls the "Top 10 silliest quotes ever by politicians." It runs the gamut of the world's most visible leaders in recent history, and we're proud to say that half of the list is composed of U.S. politicians. Go America!

The blog pulls out some real gems. For example, we have President Obama blathering something about having visited 57 states during his campaign.

President Bush, the master of malapropisms, talks about inflecting harm on our country. And John McCain discusses a meeting with Vladimir Putin, the president of, er, Germany?

There's also a surprising quote from President Clinton during his trials -- though, as far as we know, the statement came secondhand via Monica Lewinsky. It gets a little risque, so we'll let your curiosity carry you there.

Adding a few of our picks, we liked President Ford's assertion back in the 1970s that Poland was not under the domination of the Soviet Union. OK, Gerry.

We would also add something from Sarah Palin, like the one about "gotcha journalism" or her library of news periodicals, but we could go on for days with that. What's your favorite political babble?

-- Mark Milian

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Photo credit: Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images

Right idea, wrong mountain for GOP candidate in Colorado

The Democrats have Vice President Joe Biden for gaffe laughs. Now the Republicans in Colorado have a candidate wrestling with an all-too-familiar PR scandal in his scenic home state: not being able to recognize his own state's mountains.

It's the sort of gaffe possibly unique to a state with more than a dozen distinct mountain ranges. First it was former congressman Bob Schaffer, whose initial ad in an unsuccessful U.S. Senate race last year touted his Colorado loyalty by noting that he proposed to his wife atop Pikes Peak.

The problem: The ad flashed an image of Alaska's Mt. McKinley.

Now it's former congressman Scott McInnis, who hopes to become the GOP's gubernatorial nominee next year. His Web page debuted with a striking image of snow-capped peaks. Problem is, the peaks look like none in Colorado. The slip-up was unearthed by the political junkies at ColoradoPols.com (who, like many Coloradans, seem to be a bit mountain-mad as well).

They determined the image is actually of the Canadian Rockies. The McInnis campaign swiftly replaced it with a photo of the Flatirons, iconic peaks that loom over the left-leaning town of Boulder. Blame Google Images, said spokesman Mike Hesse.

Getting a mountain photo wrong isn't really all that hard to do. See more not-Colorado mountains in photo above.

A young McInnis volunteer searched the Web for "Colorado Rockies" and got the Canadian image instead.

Staffers had been warned to make sure all images were 100% Colorado. "We're aware this had happened before and we told them to be very careful of that," Hesse said. "It was a hiccup. Overall I'm delighted with the website and we're moving forward."

-- Nicholas Riccardi

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Photo: AustrianAlpsInfo.com

Palin's resignation speech has shades of Nixon's 1962 concession address

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's announcement that she was bowing out of Alaska politics on the eve of the Fourth of July holiday left a lot of viewers scratching their heads. As the Ticket reported Friday, Palin's friends report that she is genuinely sick of the attacks that seem to be part of the fabric of national politics these days.

But Palin's hastily announced press conference also had all the earmarks of Richard Nixon's famous concession speech in 1962, after he lost the campaign for California governor to Democrat Pat Brown. Nixon's rant was also a last-minute affair. Reporters had been told that Nixon -- a former congressman and senator who served as Dwight D. Eisenhower's vice president from 1952 to 1960 and lost the 1960 presidential race to John F. Kennedy -- would not be making a public appearance.

Instead, Nixon surprised even his staff by taking the microphone and, at the end of a long, rambling, 16-minute discourse on national and state politics, he dramatically left the stage.

I leave you gentleman now and you will write it. You will interpret it. That's your right. But as I leave you I want you to know — just think how much you're going to be missing. You won't have Nixon to kick around any more, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference and it will be one in which I have welcomed the opportunity to test wits with you.

Like Nixon, Palin seemed fraught with emotion. Like Nixon, she seemed angry at her critics.

Listen to the audio of Nixon's infamous speech via the History Channel and then watch the Palin speech below. Let us know what you think.

Of course to the surprise of his detractors, Nixon recovered. He spent the next six years stumping the country, piling up chits from grateful politicians who benefited from his endorsements, chits he cashed in during his successful 1968 run for the presidency.

Palin gave no hints of her future, except to say that a person can influence from outside the electoral process as well as inside the governor's office. Maybe Palin, who landed on the national political map in August when Republican John McCain plucked her from Wasilla, Alaska, as his vice presidential running mate, is planning to follow the Nixon playbook on that front too.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Nixon gives his "Checkers" speech on Sept. 23, 1952. Credit: Associated Press

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Analysis of Sarah Palin's strange move: Timeout or Flameout?

First, a few political givens:

These are different, changing times in U.S. politics.

The last three presidents each emerged from nowhere and achieved the White House on their first bid, though Bill Clinton and George W. Bush each had governor’s terms and reelections under their belts.

But what had Barack Obama ever accomplished as a freshman senator before announcing and achieving his desire for promotion? (And not finishing his first term either.)

The emergence of social media and online networking have created a whole new political environment beneath traditional media radar with untapped and unknown opportunities for unconventional politicians.

Sarah Palin is just such an unconventional politician, with surprising upsets in her past, a down-to-earth manner so different from the tired old suits you’ll see jabbering on morning TV this Sunday. And she has an astounding approval rate among her conservative base.

Most expected Palin not to run next year for reelection, like Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who now has the time and option to gear up for a 2012 presidential run.

Hardly anyone expected her to quit the governor’s office and turn it over to Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell on July 26, despite Palin’s slipped popularity at home. (Full Palin text here.)

Professionals watching a withdrawal like this conventionally and immediately wonder, what bad news don't we know about her that's about to come out? Is there some scandal, indictment or personal revelation that would cause her to step down even before its announcement? Friday, especially a pre-holiday Friday, is usually a time to announce what you don't want heard much.

But here’s why friends say she’s really doing it:

Palin is genuinely sick of, as she calls it, “the crap” that comes with national politics, especially the....