Tuesday, May 15, 2007
CNN Political Ticker AM
Compiled by Stephen Bach, CNN Washington Bureau
Making news today... "If their opening debate this month in Simi Valley was any guide, they will talk little of change, relying instead on Reagan-era rhetoric on tax cuts, a muscular foreign policy and personal values in sync with religious conservatives." (Los Angeles Times) "Much of the focus" will likely be on Rudy Giuliani "and his continuing effort to extricate himself from a controversy over his position on abortion." (Washington Post) Sen. Hillary Clinton, former Sen. John Edwards and Sen. Barack Obama will discuss faith, moral values and politics at this event that will be moderated by CNN Anchor and Special Correspondent Soledad O'Brien. WALLIS: The focus will be on faith and values and poverty. And we'll be asking: what is your plan, what is your plan for serious poverty reduction at home and around the world... Politics is broken in America. It's not addressing the biggest issues. And when it comes to politics, religion doesn't fit the categories of left and right. It really doesn't. And there's a chance here we could come together across our boundaries and say, if we care about the sanctity of life, we should care about Darfur. So we'll be asking questions that don't fit the old categories and asking people to do something that is deeper than just the left-right debate blaming. President's Schedule: At 12 pm ET, the president speaks at the Annual Peace Officers' memorial service at the U.S. Capitol. Also on the Political Radar: ================================================================= Political Hot Topics (Today's top political stories from news organizations across the country) McNULTY TO RESIGN: Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty said Monday he will resign, becoming the highest-ranking Bush administration casualty in the furor over the firing of U.S. attorneys. McNulty, who has served 18 months as the Justice Department's second-in-command, announced his plans at a closed-door meeting of U.S. attorneys in San Antonio. He told them he would remain at the department until late summer. "I thought this made a lot of sense," McNulty told The Associated Press in a phone interview after talking to the prosecutors. "The U.S. attorneys have been very supportive. I've got a good relationship with them, and they were very kind, and I appreciate that." He also sent a one-page letter of resignation to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, whose own job has been put in jeopardy by the firings and their aftermath, noting "financial realities of college-age children" as one factor in his decision. The letter did not mention the firings controversy. AP via Yahoo! News: McNulty, Justice Dept. No. 2, resigning REID WILL "GAUGE SUPPORT" FOR COMPETING IRAQ WITHDRAWAL PLANS: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) yesterday offered a unique litmus test for Democrats seeking a strongly anti-war supplemental, slating two votes to gauge support for competing plans for Iraq withdrawal. Caught between a Democratic base hungry for increased congressional pressure on President Bush and a White House not shrinking from a second veto, Reid proposed - and cosponsored - two Iraq redeployment amendments to the water-resources bill. The amendments, which could come to a vote as soon as tomorrow, are certain to present a tangle of choices for senators chasing both reelection and the White House. The Hill: Reid sets Iraq litmus test "TURNING POINT" IN THE CAMPAIGN? A Senate test vote on Iraq has the makings of a turning point in the Democratic presidential campaign, obliging Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama to take a fresh look at calls for cutting off war funds. Both have voted against binding timetables for troop withdrawals in the past, before public sentiment against the war hardened or they became presidential contenders. Aides to the two 2008 presidential hopefuls declined comment on the issue Monday night, two days before a scheduled vote on Sen. Russ Feingold's proposal to cut off funding for nearly all military operations in Iraq after next March 31. AP via Yahoo! News: Iraq vote key for Clinton, Obama PANEL FINDS WOLFOWITZ "VIOLATED THE TERMS OF HIS CONTRACT": A World Bank panel rebuked President Paul Wolfowitz for arranging a pay raise for his companion and suggested the agency's directors consider firing him. In response, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson argued that his mistakes aren't grounds for dismissal. Paulson, who lobbied fellow finance ministers on Wolfowitz's behalf, said the circumstances were "unique" and blamed the furor partly on a communications breakdown. The panel's report, released yesterday in Washington, found that Wolfowitz violated the terms of his contract and urged the board to decide whether Wolfowitz "will be able to provide the leadership needed to ensure that the bank continues to operate to the fullest extent possible in achieving its mandate." Bloomberg: Wolfowitz Is Rebuked by World Bank Panel as Paulson Backs Him ENVIROMENTAL GROUPS EXPRESS "SKEPTICISM" ABOUT WH FUEL EFFICIENCY PUSH: President Bush announced on Monday that he had directed his administration to begin the long process of establishing higher fuel efficiency standards for new cars. But officials said that it was unclear if at the end of that process Mr. Bush would take it upon himself to raise the gas mileage of the nation's automobiles, which has not significantly increased in decades. And Mr. Bush, speaking in the Rose Garden on Monday afternoon, said nothing would be put into effect until the regulatory process was completed at the end of 2008, just weeks before the end of his term. Environmental groups, which have long called for substantial increases in the government-mandated fuel standards, expressed skepticism that the administration would enact new standards without Congressional action, and dissatisfaction that Mr. Bush had not offered specifics. New York Times: Bush Calls for Work for Higher Fuel Efficiency $3.10! The U.S. average gasoline price set a record Monday, eclipsing highs seen following Hurricane Katrina. A number of analysts, including those at Oil Price Information Service (OPIS) and A.G. Edwards, expect the run-up in prices will end soon. But they do not expect prices to fall much this summer and warn another increase at the pump may come later in the season. The U.S. average for a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.103 Monday, up nearly a nickel from a week ago and nearly 16 cents higher than a year ago, the Energy Department said. The price in the weekly survey topped the previous record of $3.069 set in September 2005 following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which caused massive damage to pipelines and refineries. In a separate, daily survey, motor club AAA said the nationwide average was $3.073 Monday, up a little less than a penny from Sunday, when that record was first broken. USA Today: Gas hits record, likely to stay high BOEHNER'S "UNPLEASANT EDUCATION" IN HOUSE CLEANING: House Minority Leader John A. Boehner took his job last year with a pledge to cleanse his party's scandal-stained reputation on Capitol Hill. In recent weeks, Boehner has been getting an unpleasant education in how hard that turns out to be. When Reps. John Doolittle (R-Calif.) and Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) became the subjects of FBI raids, Boehner pushed them to give up their committee assignments. But party operatives said Doolittle and Renzi are not facing pressure to resign from the House for now -- in part because the House GOP campaign committee does not want the expense of competing to keep their seats in a special election. And Boehner is coming under fire from his own members over the decision to replace Doolittle on the House Appropriations Committee with Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.). Calvert himself is facing ethics scrutiny over a land deal in his Southern California district. The Politico: GOP torn: Clean house or shield members? DON'T GET TOO COMFORTABLE: The furniture has yet to arrive for one of the offices that Kirsten Gillibrand, a freshman Democrat in Congress, recently opened here. But the list of Republicans angling to challenge her next year is already growing. Alexander F. Treadwell, a former state Republican Party chairman, opened a headquarters near Ms. Gillibrand's main office in Saratoga Springs and has assembled a campaign staff, including a former political director for the House Republicans' re-election committee. Richard Wager, an aide to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York City, formed a campaign committee and is raising money from his old network of allies, including well-heeled donors on Wall Street. And several other potential rivals - including a retired United States Army lieutenant colonel, a former candidate for governor and even the man Ms. Gillibrand defeated last year - are considering a run. New York Times: Barely in Office, but G.O.P. Rivals Are Circling CATTLE CALL IN COLUMBIA: Having 10 presidential candidates onstage at one time, each trying to nail a performance, is something akin to a game show. At least that's how Tony Carbonetti, senior political adviser to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, viewed the first Republican presidential debate earlier this month in California. "It's ridiculous," Carbonetti said. "It was like a game show - 'Now we'll spin the wheel and see who wins the trip to Hawaii!' "I'm not going to Disney World." Carbonetti has higher hopes for tonight's first-in-the-South presidential debate, airing live on Fox News from the Koger Center for the Arts, on the campus of USC in downtown Columbia. Fox producers have assured the campaigns that tonight's debate will be more substantive, he said. And that's a good thing. The State: 'All you can do is just try and get your message out' "SPOTLIGHT" ON RUDY: Ten Republican presidential candidates will gather in South Carolina tonight for their second debate of the month, with much of the focus likely to be on former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and his continuing effort to extricate himself from a controversy over his position on abortion. Giuliani, the putative front-runner for the GOP nomination, has struggled for the past two weeks after declaring at the first GOP debate in California that it would be "okay" if the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide, but then added that it would also be "okay" if the justices upheld that ruling. Giuliani sought to put the controversy behind him with a speech in Houston last Friday in which he declared abortion "morally wrong" but defended the right of women to decide for themselves. He then added fuel to the fire during a taped interview on "Fox News Sunday" when he declared that he did not have an answer to the question of whether life begins at conception. Washington Post: Debate Spotlight Is Giuliani's -- to Use or Lose "WIDE RANGE OF POTENTIAL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST" FOR GIULIANI: Energy companies, FBI agents, a media tycoon and even a candlemaker: Rudy Giuliani's firm has lobbied for them all and dozens more in Washington, opening the door to a wide range of potential conflicts of interest should he become president. If Giuliani were elected, his administration would be on the receiving end of regulatory requests, contract bids and policy proposals by the same clients of his Houston firm, Bracewell & Giuliani, that have contributed toward his personal net worth of millions of dollars. Although the Republican has so far declined to identify all the companies with which Bracewell and his other firms have done business over the past five years, The Associated Press identified more than 175 as part of an expansive review of lobbying records, court filings and securities reports. AP via Yahoo! News: Giuliani firm lobbied for clients "GREAT POSSIBILITY" GINGRICH WILL JUMP IN: The jostling among possible wild card entrants into the 2008 presidential race is heating up, with a former House speaker, Newt Gingrich, saying yesterday that there is a "great possibility" that he will mount a White House bid. The comments raise the chances of a Gingrich run following months of presidential musings by the man whose "Contract with America" led Republicans to a sweeping victory in the 1994 congressional elections. Mr. Gingrich has not changed his timeline for a decision - he regularly decries the early start to the 2008 race and says he will not consider a bid until after he holds an online workshop on government solutions in late September. "I think right now that it is a great possibility," Mr. Gingrich said yesterday on ABC's "Good Morning America," when asked about a presidential run. New York Sun: Gingrich Says He May Be a Wild Card BILLION DOLLAR MIKE: New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is prepared to spend an unprecedented $1 billion of his own $5.5 billion personal fortune for a third-party presidential campaign, personal friends of the mayor tell The Washington Times. "He has set aside $1 billion to go for it," confided a long-time business adviser to the Republican mayor. "The thinking about where it will come from and do we have it is over, and the answer is yes, we can do it." Another personal friend and fellow Republican said in recent days that Mr. Bloomberg, who is a social liberal and fiscal conservative, has "lowered the bar" and upped the ante for a final decision on making a run. The mayor has told close associates he will make a third-party run if he thinks he can influence the national debate and has said he will spend up to $1 billion. Washington Times: Bloomberg poised for third-party campaign ROMNEY BOYS EMBRACE THE BLOGOSPHERE: The five toothy Romney boys -- Tagg, Matt, Josh, Ben, and Craig -- are so like the Osmonds that a reader of their "Five Brothers" blog might expect to learn about their perky sister Marie. The Five Brothers blog, part of their father Mitt's presidential campaign, carries the same TV Land atmosphere of a 1970s show, including much of the bantering, sitcom-style dialogue that the Romneys use to warm up a crowd on the stump. "Everyone in my family thinks they're funny, but few of them actually are," quips Tagg, the oldest, in a running joke on the blog that the Romneys also feature on the stump. One might imagine that the boys -- who are all between 25 and 37, four of them with children of their own -- might be reluctant to share details of their lives for what is really just a campaign gimmick. But they all seem to have embraced the blogosphere wholeheartedly. Boston Globe: Bantering for dad "FIVE BROTHERS" BLOG CLINTON TARGETING MILLIONS OF UNREGISTERED WOMEN VOTERS: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton includes a biographical section on her campaign Web site titled "Mother and Advocate." On the issues she is called "A Champion for Women." She also has a calculator for women to enter their age, race, education level and home state to learn how much money they are losing for want of an equal-pay law. Those are but a few of the campaign's small tips of the hat to women, the largest segment of the electorate and a crucial component of Clinton's strategy to win the Democratic nomination and the presidency... But in addition to targeting women voters, her campaign is going after a far more elusive goal: women who have not even registered to vote. Surveys show the former first lady far outstrips her rivals among registered women voters, but also among unregistered women, a substantial target that includes 21 million people under the age of 44. Chicago Tribune: Clinton courting non-voters DODD AIRS FIRST AD: Democratic presidential candidate Christopher Dodd plans to air his campaign's first television ad in Iowa today, criticizing his party rivals in the Senate for not supporting a proposal to cut off money for the war in Iraq. "I'm fighting for the only responsible measure in Congress that would take away the president's blank check and set a timetable to bring our troops home," the Connecticut senator says in the 30-second ad beginning today in Iowa and New Hampshire. "Unfortunately, my colleagues running for president have not joined me." Dodd plans to introduce a measure this week that would deny President Bush's request for money to pay for combat operations in Iraq. Des Moines Register: In new ad, Dodd faults Democrats in Senate JEWISH GROUP "ANGRY" ABOUT OBAMA FUNDRAISER HOST: A leading Jewish group is reportedly angry that White House hopeful Sen. Barack Obama will be hosted by a retired Knick player linked to an anti-Semitic incident. The American Jewish Congress rapped Obama for having Allan Houston - who drew outrage in 2001 by helping a fellow ballplayer make a case that Jews killed Jesus Christ - host a fundraiser for the candidate in his home, New York magazine reports. Houston apologized for the incident and said his remarks were taken out of context. Obama spokesman Bill Burton said the Illinois senator has been a "consistent supporter of Israel," and that, despite Houston's apology, he "disagrees with the language he used and the inaccurate and inappropriate religious references." New York Post: JEWS' FOUL ON OBAMA BIG DAY IN PHILLY: It has featured a millionaire spending his millions, a cavalcade of candidate forums, a blizzard of litigation, and a virtual merry-go-round of front-runners. Today, the race for the Democratic nomination for mayor of Philadelphia ends as voters choose the man who, in all likelihood, will become the city's 98th chief executive. It is merely, as District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham said yesterday, "one of the most important days in Philadelphia's political life." Five major candidates have been vying to succeed Mayor Street, spending about $20 million overall on the contest, even with the city's new campaign-money caps in place. In such a crowded field, the nominee could win with fewer than one in four of all votes cast. Philadelphia Inquirer: Today, the voters decide ITALIAN ARTIST HIRES TOP AD MAKERS: From the politics-meets-art/weirdness file: The Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli has hired the top campaign ad gurus for President Bush and Senator John Kerry from 2004, but this time to square off again as part of his installation in the upcoming Biennale in Venice. Mark McKinnon, who was Mr. Bush's top advertising strategist, is producing commercials for a mock presidential campaign of Sharon Stone (We're not making this up.) And Bill Knapp, the senior ad maker for Mr. Kerry, and his colleague Jim Mulhall, will make spots for her mock opponent, the French writer and philosopher, Bernard-Henri Levy. NYT's The Caucus: Basic Instinct Politics |
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• No. 2 official at Justice resigning• Reid backs two separate Iraq bills • 'CUL8R' -- Hillary Clinton • Obama: 'I expect to earn' black vote • Spitzer endorses Clinton, New Jersey mayors lend s... • Majority of Americans do not favor military action... • Gingrich: 'Great possibility' I'll get in race • Hagel hints at a 2008 run with New York's Bloomber... • President Clinton stumps for wife online • Bush v. greenhouse gases SUBSCRIBE
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