Emily, who has covered everything from political infighting to pet salons for The Indianapolis Star, The Hill, and the New York Daily News, reports for WORLD from Washington, D.C.
Republicans are recruiting an array of candidates for the mid-term elections with no political background, documented in a nice feature by the Wall Street Journal. There’s Scott Rigell, a car dealer in Virginia Beach. There’s Bruce O’Donoghue who owns a traffic light company in Florida. There’s Stephen Fincher, a farmer and gospel singer from Tennessee.
Running political newcomers is a proven strategy when the political tide swings drastically toward one side, and at times when voters have soured on Washington in general. In 1994, when Republicans won a majority of House seats after four decades in the minority, 55% of the party’s 73 freshmen lawmakers had never held political office. Similarly in 2006, when Democrats took control, 45% of their new lawmakers had never held office before.
Voters still have a lot of wrath for Republicans, even if the party in power now is out of favor. So having zero political history allows candidates to cast themselves as “beholden to no one.”
Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, just issued a statement on the Tebows’ Super Bowl ad:
People have been asking us at the Planned Parenthood Action Fund what we think about the ad and Mrs. Tebow’s decision. It’s simple. The Planned Parenthood Action Fund respects the right of every woman to make important medical decisions for herself.
Mrs. Tebow weighed medical and moral considerations and decided what was right for her. She made her choice in private, and without government interference. That’s exactly what we want every woman to be able to do.
The truth is, the Tebows’ experience is completely consistent with what Planned Parenthood doctors and nurses have learned from the millions of women they’ve served over nearly a century. Women take decisions about their health very seriously. They consider their doctors’ advice, they talk with their loved ones and people they trust, including religious leaders, and they carefully weigh all considerations before making the best decision for themselves and their families.
That’s the way it should be. And that should be our shared goal — on Super Bowl Sunday and every day.
Richards does point out initially that Pam Tebow continued her pregnancy “against medical advice.” The organization recently released an ad on its website responding to the Tebows’ ad, concluding that we should “trust women” on these matters.
A coalition of bloggers and political activists are pushing for President Obama and Republicans to engage in regular, public question time together, like what happened last Friday. The campaign, called Demand Question Time, is backed by liberals and conservatives, from David Corn of Mother Jones to to Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform to Ed Morrissey of HotAir.
White House adviser David Axelrod didn’t think it would be a regularly scheduled activity:
The thing that made Friday interesting was the spontaneity. If you slip into a kind of convention, then conventionality will overtake the freshness of that.
None of us are naive and believe that implementing Question Time will cure what ails our country and our political process. We do realize that if QT does become a Washington routine, politicians and their aides will do what they can to game it to their advantage. But even though there are problems with the presidential debates – which have been taken over by the political parties and a corporate-sponsored commission – those events still have value. If you want more Question Time – even if only for its entertainment value – you can saddle up with dozens (and maybe it will turn into hundreds, thousands, and millions) of your fellow Americans in calling on our elected representatives to show us their best stuff on a regular basis.
After the Obama administration cut $170 million in funding for abstinence programs because they didn’t meet scientific standards of effectiveness, a new federally funded study is showing that abstinence can work to keep teens from having sex.
Only a third of students in the abstinence program began having sex within two years, while more than half of students in traditional sex education became sexually active in that same timeframe.
The abstinence program did not insist that students save themselves for marriage and didn’t disparage condom use, but rather encouraged them to delay having sex.
University of Pennsylvania professor John B. Jemmott III, who led the study, said,
“The take-home message is that we need a variety of interventions to address an epidemic like HIV, sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy…There are populations that really want an abstinence intervention. They are against telling children about condoms,” he said. “This study suggests abstinence programs can be part of the mix of programs that we offer.”
The Obama administration is expected to announce its proposed budget today for the fiscal year beginning in October. White House officials have already outlined the $3.8 trillion budget to reporters. The deficit is expected to surpass last year’s record of $1.4 trillion – up to $1.6 trillion, due partly to a new jobs bill the president is putting forward. The five-year deficit is projected at $5.08 trillion, up 35 percent from what the White House projected a year ago.
The president faces demands that he both control national debt and create jobs.
James O’Keefe, now facing charges for entering Sen. Mary Landrieu’s New Orleans office under false pretenses, released a statement today on BigGovernment (he has worked for Andrew Breitbart).
On reflection, I could have used a different approach to this investigation, particularly given the sensitivities that people understandably have about security in a federal building. The sole intent of our investigation was to determine whether or not Senator Landrieu was purposely trying to avoid constituents who were calling to register their views to her as their Senator. We video taped the entire visit, the government has those tapes, and I’m eager for them to be released because they refute the false claims being repeated by much of the mainstream media.
It has been amazing to witness the journalistic malpractice committed by many of the organizations covering this story. MSNBC falsely claimed that I violated a non-existent “gag order.” The Associated Press incorrectly reported that I “broke in” to an office which is open to the public. The Washington Post has now had to print corrections in two stories on me. And these are just a few examples of inaccurate and false reporting. The public will judge whether reporters who can’t get their facts straight have the credibility to question my integrity as a journalist.
NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s comments yesterday had a domino effect – revealing most NY politicians (and neighborhood groups and business owners) don’t want the Justice Department to bring Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to Manhattan for a trial.
After the White House indicated yesterday that it would leave the location of the trial up to Attorney General Eric Holder, a few newsoutlets are reporting that the executive branch has told the Justice Department to look at different location options for the trial. From the New York Daily News:
“They’re in a tizzy at Justice over Bloomberg,” a federal law enforcement official said. “It’s like a half-baked souffle — the plan is collapsing.”
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, once a supporter of Attorney General Eric Holder’s plan to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Manhattan, is having second thoughts.
It would be great if the federal government could find a site that didn’t cost a billion dollars, which using downtown will….It’s going to cost an awful lot of money and disturb an awful lot of people. Can we provide security? Yes. Could you provide security elsewhere? Yeah, and I mean — the suggestion of a military base is probably a reasonably good one. Relatively easy to supply — to provide security. They tend to be outside of cities so that they don’t disrupt other people.
Previously, he had said,
It is fitting that 9/11 suspects face justice near the World Trade Center site where so many New Yorkers were murdered.
The White House has indicated that it is leaving the matter in the attorney general’s hands. White House spokesman Bill Burton said today in response to a question about the trial in New York,
The president is committed to seeing that [KSM] is brought to justice. He agrees with the attorney general’s opinion in November that he and others can be litigated successfully and securing in the United States of America, just like others have, like Richard Reid.
President Obama has already made it known that he strongly opposes the Supreme Court’s recent Citizens United decision that allows corporations to spend money on campaigns. Last night during his State of the Union address, he hammered the court again for its decision, with six of the nine justices sitting within spitting distance.
Here’s what the president said:
With all due deference to separation of powers, last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests –- including foreign corporations –- to spend without limit in our elections. I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people. And I’d urge Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to correct some of these problems.
Justice Sam Alito, who was part of the majority ruling in the decision, shook his head and mouthed, “That’s not true,” when Obama stated that it would allow spending by foreign entities.
Foreign corporations are still forbidden by law not just from contributing to campaigns but also from spending any money on behalf of campaigns, and the majority’s opinion in this case specifically did not overturn that law.
The presidential scolding of the high court is almost without precedent (coupled with his call for Congress to overturn the court’s ruling). While he made his point, it may not serve members of his party well in the next election. Democrats surrounding the justices in the House chamber stood and applauded – Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY even leaned closer to the justices to clap – video that Republicans can play on campaign ads for the next Democratic candidate who accepts any donation or support from a corporate interest. And they all do.
President Obama plans to announce in his speech tomorrow a freeze on some domestic federal spending – a plan designed to ease voters’ concerns about blooming federal debt. The cuts will save $15 billion this year, and $250 billion over the next 10 years. But over the next decade the federal deficit is expected to climb to $9 trillion.
During the 2008 campaign, Obama argued against Sen. John McCain’s proposal for an across-the-board spending freeze, which he called a “hatchet” when we need a “scalpel.” Maybe this is the scalpel.
Reports are emerging that the Congressional Budget Office estimates the 2010 deficit to stand at $1.35 trillion, slightly better than the $1.4 trillion deficit earlier projected.
Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., has died at age 77.
