Al Gore: world's first carbon billionaire?

Former Vice President Al Gore has a new book out. Called "Our Choice," it argues that the technologies exist to clean up the climate if the political will can be mustered.

But conservative critics such as U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) are making the case that Gore, who has long had a passion on environmental issues, stands to profit personally from the energy and climate bills he is lobbying Congress to enact.

Today's New York Times takes a look at the issue, noting that Bill Clinton's vice president makes a lot of money from supporting green companies.The Democrat who lost the 2000 election to George W. Bush by a few hundred hanging chad ballots in Florida has apparently become the world's first carbon billionaire.

The founder of Generation Investment Management, Gore earns a partner’s salary Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, one of Silicon Valley's top venture capitalists. According to the Times, last year Kleiner Perkins loaned a California company, Silver Spring Networks, $75 million to produce hardware and software to improve electricity grid efficiency. Last week the deal paid off big time when the Energy Department announced $560 million in smart grid grants to Silver Spring utility clients.

The upshot: Gore and his partners could recover their investment many times over in coming years.

For his part, Gore says that he is just putting his money where his mouth is.

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“Do you think there is something wrong with being active in business in this country?” he told the Times. “I am proud of it. I am proud of it.”

-- Johanna Neuman

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Fox News is evil -- unless you're selling an Obama book

Ah, the flexibility of politics. You gotta love it.

The Obama administration has in recent weeks picked a silly fight with the Fox News Channel to help keep impatient supporters on its own left from rebelling too much. If you've got a common enemy, you've got to stay together, right? Even if you're unhappy with the progressive progress on numerous Democratic fronts.

It's a silly fight for several reasons. It makes a president who must face down other nuclear powers look timorous and thin-skinned about something as inconsequential as the most popular U.S. cable news channel.

It ignores the fact that more than a third of Fox News viewers are Democrats. So the David Axelrod-Anita Dunn communications strategists are willfully forfeiting an opportunity to get their message out to millions more likely supporters.

And, worst, to pick and prolong a partisan fight with lowly D.C. journalists goes directly against the fundamental message that Barack Obama made a keynote of his $750-million holy campaign last year: changing the partisan tone in Washington once and for all. Change to believe in. No podemos si.

As a result, you haven't seen Obama administration officials interviewed much over there on Fox News, despite the invitations.

Come Thursday night, that won't change. That's because David Plouffe is not an official member of the Obama administration. He is, however, the single individual arguably most responsible for getting Obama into the White House.

Why will the Obama campaign manager appear, you might ask?

Because he wants to sell his book ("The Audacity to Win"), would be the answer. Which is apparently different than selling a political message. So Plouffe, who still loyally touts the official Obama line (he was nattering at Fox News again over the weekend on other outlets), has apparently received a presidential dispensation to appear on the evil empire.

Our diligent colleague Mark Silva, who broke this story, has much more detail here.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: David Plouffe. Credit: Associated Press

Obama: looking for a 'post-bubble' recovery after pulling economy back from brink (text here)

President Obama convened an economic round table discussion at the White House today to figure out how to put more jobs into the economy and sustain the recovery.

His statement is below, as provided by the White House.

-- Johanna Neuman

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November 2, 2009
 
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
DURING MEETING OF THE
PRESIDENT'S ECONOMIC RECOVERY ADVISORY BOARD
 
Roosevelt Room
 
11:24 A.M. EST
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, everybody.  I am pleased to be joined this morning by my Economic Recovery Advisory Board.  Each of these men and women have extraordinary and diverse expertise in the economy.
 
     I want to especially thank Paul Volcker, who has been a terrific advisor to me since....

C-SPAN talks with Ken Auletta on new media vs. old

Word on the street has it that there's something out there now called new media that's going to somehow change society in unimaginable ways. Even politics, like Obama's $750-million campaign haul last year.

And this Internet Web thingy moves fast and doesn't need wires (How is that possible?). And somehow all this change threatens the old media that hadn't changed much since Johannes Gutenberg carved his first wooden letter of type about 600 years ago.

Well, that's all silly, of course. Traditional media has changed plenty; it doesn't use wooden type anymore, for one thing.

But Ken Auletta has gone ahead anyway and written another one of his intriguing looks at modern media. He wrote it in book form, though, one of those cursor-less collections of paper pages that you open by hand to read and then turn the pages to continue. Amazingly ancient. Called "Googled: The End of the World as We Know It."

So tonight, C-SPAN's Brian Lamb, who has talked very calmly with every author who's ever written a book since Gutenberg, interviews Auletta about what he found. It's pretty interesting, even without antacid commercials.

We're going to watch because we're addicted to Lamb.

So we obtained for Ticket readers a little sneak peek here of the interview. It will air on....

...the "Q&A" program at 5 and 8 p.m. Pacific tonight and again at 3 a.m. Pacific Monday. Set your TiVo, not the alarm.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Sunday shows: Jarrett, Axelrod, Limbaugh, Boehner

ABC This Week with George Stephanopoulos: White House advisor Valerie Jarrett and a roundtable with former Bush White House aide Ed Gillespie, ex-Clinton Press Secretary DeeDee Myers, ABC's George Will and Rev. Al Sharpton.

Bloomberg Political Capital with Al Hunt: Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA).

CBS Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: Obama advisor David Axelrod and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT).

CNN GPS with Fareed Zakaria: Pakistan ex-President Pervez Musharraf, Matthew Hoh, Martin Wolf and Yale's Robert Shiller.

CNN State of the Union with John King: Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS) and James Carville and Mary Matalin.

Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace: Rush Limbaugh and Carl Cameron and Major Garrett on the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races with a roundtable of Brit Hume of Fox, Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard and NPR's Mara Liaisson and Juan Williams.

NBC Meet the Press with David Gregory: Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Jon Krakauer and NBC's Jim Miklaszewski and Andrea Mitchell.

Also, for The Ticket's latest coverage of these shows' recent ratings moves, click here.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Associated Press (Musharraf).

Dr. Ron Paul calls Obama's H1N1 swine flu program a 'total failure'

Rep. Ron Paul, the 11-term Republican congressman from Texas who mobilized millions of supporters and about $35 million for his unsuccessful presidential run last year, has added the federal government's faltering flu immunization program to his list of things worthy of denunciation.

A medical doctor himself, Paul, who at 74 is older even than John McCain, sees the Obama administration's oft-delayed H1N1 swine flu immunization plan as typical of many government-run programs -- poorly planned, overloaded, inefficient, too expensive, late and quite possibly not even necessary.

Just another government grab for more federal power, as he puts it in a video (see it just below here), newly posted for supporters by his Campaign for Liberty. Paul calls this year's vaccine distribution "a total failure" because some 120 million doses were to have been available by mid-October and only about 10% of that were.

Paul says reports of 1,000 U.S. deaths from the H1N1 may be true but....

Ethics probe so big lawmakers have to take a number -- half the Pentagon spending committee caught in net

We already knew that Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel was under investigation for failing to report some of his real estate holdings and rental income, and a few other goodies, on his financial disclosure forms. And that the Ethics Committee was studying Pennsylvania Democrat John Murtha's ties to defense contractors.

Now it turns out that those two were just the tip of the iceberg.

Turns out that nearly half the members of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, which Murtha chairs, are under investigation for funneling millions in federal funds to clients of a lobbyist who used to work on the Hill. The charge: They put earmarks worth $300 million in the  2008 Defense appropriation bill to benefit clients of the PMA Group, a now-defunct....

Obama White House defends social invites to top donors. Yawn. At least Lincoln bedroom not in play

It must universal, the instinct in politics to reward friends.

Turns out that President Obama, who promised a more ethical approach to governance, has been rewarding friends with the perks of office.

According to the Washington Times, fundraisers have been promised access to senior White House officials if they donate $30,400 (the ceiling) personally or bundle $300,000 before the 2010 midterm elections.

The list of particulars a la the WT: One top donor got a birthday visit to the Oval Office. Another got to use the White House bowling alley for a family event. Obama invited his top New York bundler, UBS Americas Chairman and CEO Robert Wolf, to golf with him during his vacation to Martha's Vineyard. Oh, and at least 39 donors and fundraisers were invited to a White House reception on St. Patrick's Day.

As scandals go, this sounds like a yawn. After all, there were those heady days of yore, when the Clinton White House offered campaign donrs a night's sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom.

"Contributing does not guarantee a ticket to the White House, nor does it prohibit the contributor from visiting," said Dan Pfeiffer, deputy White House communications director. "Given that nearly 4 million Americans donated to the campaign, it's no surprise that some who contributed have visited the White House, as have grass-roots organizers who didn't contribute financial support and people who actively opposed the president's candidacy."

-- Johanna Neuman

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Photo: The Lincoln Bedroom. Credit: White House

Joe Biden update: Investing in a N.Y. congressman

As he has on many recent days, Vice President Joe Biden was talking at another Democratic fundraiser last night, this one at a private home in New York City.

It was to benefit Democratic Rep. Steve Israel, who doesn't represent New York City. Israel's 2nd District seat (once held by Republican Rick Lazio) covers much of Long Island. About 100 donors attended.

Some people might think the presence of the vice president of the United States at a Steve Israel fundraiser could have something to do with payback for Israel bowing to the White House suggestion five months ago that he probably really shouldn't pursue a political challenge to New York's appointed Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in a party primary next year.

That kind of bargain would be silly, of course. And political.

Biden spoke for about 30 minutes. The usual stuff about taking care of the middle class and what an awfully deep hole he and Barack Obama found the country in last January after their successful $750- million campaign. It's a terrible hole that will take a long time to exit, he said. Maybe two terms. Who knows?

Biden, who was already a senator learning to gaffe way back when Obama was a sixth-grader, also praised Israel, saying the five-term congressman didn't really need Biden's help.

Then, the vice president made a rather pointed and candid admission, even for modern America's moneyed politics. He told the crowd of insiders, each of whom had paid $2,400 to access the event:

I just want you to know that supporting him is a smart investment.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo credit: Joshua Roberts / Bloomberg News

Cheers and jeers for Nevada's Harry Reid

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is no doubt divisive: Polls show that about half of Nevada voters don't like him. But it’s still surprising to see who's cheering and jeering him these days. (Though with the election a year away, there’s also plenty of time to change minds.)
 
CHEERING: Progressives who are thrilled with Reid’s announcement today that he’s backing the inclusion of a public option in the Senate’s healthcare legislation (see news video here),....

...although states would be able to opt out of it and it's unclear whether he has the votes to ward off a filibuster.
 
JEERING: Moderates who support a “trigger” plan — in which public health coverage would kick in only if private insurers failed to meet certain benchmarks — and think, like President Obama reportedly does, that it’s more likely to win over conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans.

OUR THOUGHTS: There's along way to go, but if Reid gets the public option into a final bill, it might help him woo progressives who’ve told pollsters they find him weak and ineffective. Those voters wouldn’t have cast ballots for the Republican TBD anyway. But they sure might stay home — there are plenty of other things to do in Las Vegas. 
 
*
 
CHEERING: The parents of embattled Nevada Sen. John Ensign, a Republican, who donated $4,800 to Reid. Some people think that smells funky, since Ensign’s been in political purgatory and Reid has declined to criticize him.  But father Mike Ensign is a former casino executive and Reid has long been a Friend of Gaming.

CHEERING: Casino magnate Steve Wynn, who recently ripped into the Obama administration’s economic policies but supports Reid’s reelection. “My friend of 40 years will protect Americans from this kind of foolishness,” Wynn said of the chief torchbearer for Obama's policies. (Did we mention Reid’s a Friend of Gaming?)

JEERING: Sue Lowden and her casino-owning husband, Paul, who once donated thousands to Reid. Lowden is considered the front-runner among a gaggle of Republicans who’d like to elbow out the majority leader, as the GOP did in 2004 to Tom Daschle, the previous Democratic majority leader.

OUR THOUGHTS: When you’re polling as low as Reid, being a Friend of Gaming might not be enough.
 
*

CHEERING: Rock god/humanitarian Bono, who gave a shout-out to Reid last week during U2’s Las Vegas concert.

JEERING: No one. Bono’s awesome.

OUR THOUGHTS: Bono got 40,000 people to sing "Viva Las Vegas." You think he could push through a public option?

— Ashley Powers

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Photo: Associated Press