Sarah Palin breaks with GOP to endorse Conservative Party candidate in N.Y. House race

Sarah Palin, who a few people may recall was the vice presidential candidate on last year's Republican Party ticket that crashed and burned, has broken with her party in the race for a House seat from New York and endorsed the candidate of the state's Conservative Party.

Palin announced late Thursday night that she was endorsing Doug Hoffman as, well, more conservative than the Republican Party candidate Dede Scozzafava in the race to fill New York's 23d District.

That seat was vacated by President Obama's appointment of Republican Rep. John McHugh as secretary of the Army. Hmmm.

"Doug Hoffman stands for the principles that all Republicans should share," Palin said, "smaller government, lower taxes, national defense and a commitment to individual liberty."

Palin then urged her supporters to contribute to Hoffman's third-party campaign against the establishment GOP pick that some conservatives complain is not Republican enough, a complaint sometimes also aimed at Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who thrust Palin into the political spotlight last year.

During the last two congressional elections that were so disastrous for the GOP, Republican McHugh won the 23d's House seat with ease, even as Obama beat out the Palin-what's-his-name ticket with 52% of the vote.

Palin's backing of Hoffman matches the endorsement of Hoffman by former Sen. Fred Thompson and ex-Rep. Dick Armey and puts the trio in direct conflict with former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who  has endorsed and helped Scozzafava, and the party's Washington establishment.

The schism on the right creating a three-way race may well mean that Democrat Bill Owens squeaks to a victory in the normally GOP district, a House gain that probably never even crossed the minds of political strategists in the White House when they named McHugh to the Pentagon.

The New York House race and the governor's races in Virginia and New Jersey will be closely watched as indicators of voter attitudes 10 months into the hectic Obama presidency and 12 months out from the congressional midterm elections. Hence, the White House and Democratic National Committee investing so much effort in helping their party's candidates.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Finally, D.C. change to believe in: DNC's mop stunt really shows Republicans

Those millions of Americans who sincerely voted last year for real change in Washington, to elect Barack Obama and Democratic legislators to end the kind of silly partisan pet tricks that both sides have been doing to get attention there for many years, will be delighted to learn that the Democratic National Committee has come up with a really clever strategy. And all apparently without adult supervision.

The committee's PR folks sent out chortling news releases for nearly 24 hours Monday detailing what some activists -- they called them "concerned Americans" -- would do and then did do in front of the RNC headquarters on Capitol Hill.

The goal, of course, was to ensure that some TV cameras got there. Because if a political activity like this happens and no camera is there to record it, did it really make a sound?

Here's what the new administration's supporters did to help change the perennial partisan tone in the nation's capitol and bring all sides together for a clean break with the past silliness, while delivering on the eloquent Illinoisan's campaign vows of real change. Si se puede. They delivered a trio of mops to the Republicans so the now minority party responsible for the last eight years of mess can help clean it up.

Get it? Clean up the Capitol's mess with mops. Wow, what a nifty visual! And on RNC Chairman Michael Steele's 51st birthday too. What an original and refreshing break from the comedic playground acts of political operatives there in recent years.

Nevermind that Democrats have controlled Congress for the last three years. We're still bashing  President Bush, who's so very gone that he's off making a fortune talking to eager audiences around the world about his experiences.

See, the cleverness of this Democratic strategy is that it keeps the focus on the past. That way no one is talking about why the unemployment numbers are so stunningly high despite $787 billion in spending that Vice President Joe Biden has talked about so often to so many people.

Or what do we seriously need to do about the deteriorating mess in Afghanistan where one American soldier is now dying every 14 hours to no apparent political or strategic gain, while, in between multimillion-dollar fundraisers across the country, the well-paid suits safely in D.C. spend weeks talking in very secure rooms? 

Or how come with the same Democratic Party today controlling every corner of the entire powerful White House apparatus, holding a whopping majority in the House of Representatives and a filibuster-proof 60-votes in the United States Senate, those same majority folks still can't seem to get a viable, affordable healthcare reform bill passed?

So, obviously today's inaction and legislative logjam must be the fault of the country-club crowd that got tossed out on its collective, but well-clad keister 50 weeks ago. So, to some DNC staffers, the mop idea, apparently inspired by a recent....

...Obama speech reference (see video above), seems like a perfect symbol of change.

How ridiculous that anyone ever worried that the wondrous ways of Washington would remain impervious to the 2007-08 campaign rhetoric about changing the tone of that one-time swamp, that a political city's culture of symbolic stupidity couldn't be changed by a simple election. Talk about silly, eh?

Next week perhaps the Democrats' secret plan could involve egging the GOP parking lot and kidnapping the Republican mascot before the big Homecoming game.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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It takes this much money to eat with Barack Obama

Didja ever hold one of these $10 G notes in your hands?

Well, it took this bill....

...plus this bill....

...plus yet another $10,000 bill....

....plus four $100 Benjamin Franklins for a couple to have dinner with Barack Obama on Thursday night in San Francisco's Westin Hotel. And hundreds of Northern Californians lined up to do so. It better be an abundant shrimp cocktail for that price.

This is a newish administration that so quickly denounces the egregious excesses and appalling financial greed of corporate America. And was someone recently saying the country faces one of the most serious economic eras since back before even Joe Biden was born?

Apparently not these San Francisco Democrats, who also got to hear Speaker Nancy Pelosi, well, speak. (VP Biden, by the by, is in Nevada Friday doing the same campaign/money thing for happy Harry Reid, the embattled Democrat Senate Majority Leader.)

You'll be surprised to know that Pelosi praised the attendees as "a great collection of....

Obama woes spark jump in Republican fundraising

Call it the summer of their discontent, a steamy August of town hall outbursts and pistol-packing protesters, a collective railing against government-run healthcare and soaring federal deficits.

Now, the guns of August have produced a surge in the fortunes of Republican causes. According to an analysis by USA Today, GOP campaign committees out-raised Democrats by $1.7 million in August.

"Republicans have been able to tap into some of the anger against Democrats in power and translate that into fundraising," Nathan Gonzales of the Rothenberg Political Report told the paper. "There are a lot of Republicans who wish the election were this November, not November 2010, because they feel like the momentum is on their side now."

The breakdown: Nationally, the Republican National Committee brought in $1 million more than the DNC. In the Senate, the Republican fundraising committee brought in $3.1 million, compared with $2.2 million by the Democratic committee. Only in the House did Democrats manage to out-raise Republicans in August, by $200,000. So overall, advantage Republicans.

The question: Is it a trend?

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Protesters outside a town hall meeting where President Obama spoke about healthcare in Portsmouth, N.H. Credit: John Spencer / Getty Images

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New Joe 'You lie!' Wilson video: He explains his outburst, seeks $$$

Well, now it's Joe Wilson's turn to try to make money off the outburst over his outburst during President Obama's speech to Congress last night.

This morning  right here The Ticket reported that because he shouted "You lie!" when Obama claimed his healthcare reforms would not cover illegal immigrants, opponents of the 62-year-old South Carolina Republican mobilized overnight and claim to have raised way more than $100,000 to help defeat him next year.

We also included the shout video there and other reactions, including efforts to support the sudden-nobody-turned-somebody who became God's gift to Thursday cable news yakkers. The redoubtable Don Surber has a photo over here of what the new Joe Wilson T-shirt looks like.

Wilson apologized, of course, for his inappropriate behavior while maintaining opposition to the president's plans.

And he's just now posted his own video explanation of the incident (see below) and -- you'll never guess what else -- an appeal for money over here to counter the appeal for money by people seeking to counter his membership in the House. At this point Wilson would probably accept even Confederate dollars.

As always with videos and TV news, feel free to heckle the speaker back.

But then you might have to apologize too.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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The call to Democrats hoping to build the party -- Go West!

The West is different, as anyone who has ever spent time in the cloister of the Boston-Washington corridor can tell you. There is all that opportunity, untamed beauty and wide, wide open space. There is also the mythos that attaches to the West, embodied in words like freedom, self-reliance and rugged individuality. 

Some of it is actually true.

Over the last decade or so, the Mountain West has emerged, politically speaking, as one of the hardest-fought and most closely watched regions of the country, a cluster of swing states that, unlike those of the Midwest, still have that sense of the future about them.

The Democrats, who have been on something of a roll out in the Rocky Mountain states, will host a first-of-its-kind gathering later this month in Denver, mustering 400 or so of the party’s top leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, as well as campaign strategists, demographers and other political savants. Jim Messina, a Montana boy and the deputy White House chief of staff, will serve as an emissary from the Obama administration.

The event is being hosted by Project New West, a Democratic group that has been an important party builder in the region. The idea is to swap lessons from campaigns won and lost and to brainstorm “in real time, not looking back 20 years later, like we did in the South,” said Jill Hanauer, the project’s director.

To understand the political terrain, pollsters for Project New West took to the field to survey voters in several states that promise to be battlegrounds in 2010 and beyond.

Among the findings to be discussed in Denver:

-- Nearly three-quarters of the western voters surveyed display the American flag at home, work or on their car. That compares to 60% nationally in a Pew poll released in January 2007.

-- Roughly nine in 10 Western voters say they...

Obama's healthcare 'pocket cards' may be the silliest donation gifts ever

Normally when we receive e-mails from the Democratic National Committee promoting a new program or "alerting" us to an upcoming political event that had been on our calendars for months, we give a quick glance and then swiftly toss them into the digital trashcan.

But the one we received recently titled, "Take these with you," had us reading it twice. So, we thought we'd share.

To encourage DNC members (or those too lazy to voluntarily unsubscribe from the mailing list) to donate, the committee was offering "pocket cards" that outline President Obama's plans for healthcare reform. A donation of at least $20 will earn you 50 pocket cards.

But it looks like the organization quickly pulled the promotion, perhaps acknowledging how ridiculous it was. Either that or they sold out. A DNC spokesperson with knowledge of the cards couldn't be reached, but it's unlikely that the committee distributed a boatload because the link to download and print them has also been removed.

"Unfortunately, our pocket card offer has expired," according to a note on the BarackObama.com donation page. "But your donation can still make a huge difference in supporting the fight for real health care reform."

According to the pocket cards e-mail, they were created to combat the public confusion about Obama's healthcare reform. That confusion was most certainly caused by the evil lies spread by "special interests and Washington attack groups."

The cards were to encourage "one-on-one conversations with friends and neighbors" about the program. Card holders would presumably pull one of these nifty cheat sheets out of their pockets and wave them frantically in front of acquaintances, shouting about the misinformation and lies that mainstream consumers have been fed.

Apparently, Obama's healthcare goals are to "reduce costs," "guarantee choice" and "ensure affordable, quality care for all," according to the pocket cards.

Nevermind.

-- Mark Milian

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Joe Biden Gaffe update: He fires N.J. gov, moves another guy in

For your Joe Biden Gaffe files:

Washington. Mandarin Oriental Hotel. LGBT fundraiser. Hauled in about $1 mill. 33% better than last year with Michelle Obama.

Maybe four dozen protesters outside, impatient with the Obama administration's perceived slow pace on lesbian and gay issues. Signs: "SHAME." "Gay Uncle Toms." Chants: "Shame on You." "Boycott the Bigots."

Inside, Biden spoke 20 mins. Lots of applause. "I am not unaware of the controversy swirling around this dinner and swirling around the speed or lack thereof that we are moving on issues that are of great importance to you."

Boasted the new administration has appointed 60 gays or lesbians, including nine requiring Senate confirmation. Promised to "put some pace on the ball."

Standing ovations as he pledged to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, Don't Ask Don't Tell and get passage of the Lieberman-Baldwin bill on health benefits.

Additionally, Biden promised to put a ban on workplace discrimination, get adoption rights for all and end the HIV travel ban.

Biden also praised Tim Kaine as the "great governor of New Jersey."

One problem: Tim Kaine's not governor of New Jersey.

Jon Corzine (right) is governor of New Jersey (Remember, he didn't wear his seatbelt in the state patrol car for the big high-speed crash).

Tim Kaine is governor of another state, called Virginia.

He's also chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Biden is from Delaware.

He used a Teleprompter.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo credits: Getty Images (top and middle); N.J. Governor's Office (bottom).

Ralph Nader shakes up Virginia governor's race with charge that Terry McAuliffe once tried to bribe him

Terry McAuliffe, the money man of the Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton presidential campaigns, is running for governor of Virginia. Yes the behind-the-scenes back-slapper is looking to move out front.

With two other competitive candidates in the Democratic primary, McAuliffe has borrowed a page from Barack Obama's playbook, organizing a massive grassroots effort, campaigning (as seen above) with backing from will.i.am, stumping as an agent of change, someone who can "shake up" politics and business in the Old Dominion.

Now comes Ralph Nader, the bad boy of Democratic politics, to shake up McAuliffe.

A onetime car safety advocate and perennial presidential candidate, Nader is widely viewed as the spoiler who robbed Al Gore of the controversial 2000 election eventually decided for George W. Bush by drawing votes away from the Democratic vice president in Florida.

Now, Nader is telling reporters that in 2004, when McAuliffe was the Democratic National Committee chairman, he offered presidential candidate Nader an unspecified amount of money to spend in 31 states if he promised to stay out of 19 battleground states where he could potentially hurt Democrat John Kerry.

Although McAuliffe's staff has not denied the allegation, it's clearly are not happy about this.

"It looks like Ralph Nader misses seeing his name in the press," said spokeswoman Elisabeth Smith. "Terry's focused on talking with Virginians about jobs, not feeding Ralph Nader's ego."

Nader made the charge in an interview with the Washington Post, calling to verify the allegation, which was made in a recent book by Theresa Amato, who was Nader's national campaign manager in 2000 and 2004, called "Grand Illusion: The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny."

Nader not only confirmed it, he made clear he thinks the former DNC chairman and Syracuse, N.Y., native now running for Virginia's governor is unfit for office. Nader's actual words: “Terry McAuliffe is slipperier than an eel in olive oil.”

With the primary election on June 9, it's not clear how much such an allegation will hurt among the Democratic base, who regard Nader with all the warmth of a skunk at a family reunion.

-- Johanna Neuman

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Photo credit: Bill Tiernan / Associated Press

Barack Obama to Hollywood: Without you, no Obama White House

When rock stars need to replenish their bank accounts, they hit the road and go on tour.

President Barack Obama demonstrated again Wednesday night that he is the current star money-raiser of American politics, as he brought his support-the-Democratic National Committee tour to Beverly Hills and packed not one room, but three at the Beverly Hilton there.

How big a draw is the president?

Well, big enough to convince 250 Hollywood bigwigs and stars like Seth Rogin, Marisa Tomei, Kiefer Sutherland, Jamie Foxx, Ron Howard, Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith, Holly Robinson Peete, Tyler Perry, Nicky Hilton, Lawrence Bender and the entire Avant family.

Not to mention newly minted Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter and healthcare go-to guy Sen. Chris Dodd -- to spend more than $30,000 a couple to eat dinner in one of the hotel's private ballrooms.

By the way, for that check the diners got Sonoma greens, marinated artichokes, pepper goat cheese, roasted tenderloin, kabachi ravioli, grilled organic chicken and sunchoke rosemary mashed potatoes.

Last night, as we reported here earlier, Obama helped raise $2 million for a lesser Las Vegas crowd of Harry Reid supporters, while VP Joe Biden had another fundraiser in Denver, also for the DNC.

The president was introduced by Katzenberg, who said, "If you look in the dictionary under 'grace under fire,' it will say Barack Obama."

Obama, ever the basketball fan, quipped about the Lakers-Nuggets playoff game, by then underway at Staples Center, "It was tied in the first quarter," he said. "That's the story. We will get out of here before the end of the third. Some of you will get out of here before halftime."

And they did, lining up for their cars behind police lines and opposite a group of protesters on Wilshire Blvd.

The president went on to thank Katzenberg, saying "If it weren't for you, we would not be in the White House."

Addressing the assembled big-ticket donors, Obama added that, it's "because of Americans like you, who are willing to dig deep," not just with money but also going door to door and volunteering ... that we have the chance to bring about change."

One of those particularly thrilled by the president's remarks was Bender, an early Obama supporter who had to miss the inaugural because he was in Berlin working on a film with Brad Pitt. Bender said he had to pinch himself to make sure he really was in the same room with the president.

After dinner, it was on to a bigger ballroom for a concert by the other sort of rock stars (Earth, Wind and Fire and Jennifer Hudson). Obama still got the biggest applause.

And an estimated $4 million from the party for the party.

-- Tina Daunt

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