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latest news
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JOHN F. HARRIS & JIM VANDEHEI: Why McCain is getting hosed in the press
Why McCain is getting hosed in the pressPolitico political editor Charles Mahtesian was e-mailing the other day with a Republican lobbyist who signed off with a plea that sounded more like a taunt: “Keep it balanced.”A reader e-mailed us with the same sentiment in different language. “Are you f***ing joking! Your bias has stooped to an all-time low. Wait, it will probably get worse as election day nears.” Those asterisks, by the way, are hers, not ours.And get a load of this one, from someone in Rochester, N.Y., who did not like our analysis of the final presidential debate. “You ...
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RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER - THE ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS & MARA H. GOTTFRIED - THE ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS : Vandals hit members’ homes
Vandals hit members’ homes With just two weeks before Election Day, Minnesota elected officials across the Twin Cities awoke Wednesday to find their homes violated by startling graffiti. The homes of six Minnesota Congress members — Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Norm Coleman and Reps. John Kline, Michele Bachmann, Jim Ramstad and Keith Ellison — were vandalized Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning with spray-painted messages. "Scum," the messages on the officials' homes, driveways and garages repeated. "Psalm 2," they read. The messages all told the members to resign — and some were more threatening. "Still a target," read the white ...
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KENNETH P. VOGEL: What are the candidates hiding?
What are the candidates hiding?By KENNETH P. VOGEL | 10/23/08 4:34 AM EDT In the past week, Cindy McCain released two pages of her 2007 tax return, and Joe Biden let reporters review — but not copy — 49 pages of his medical records.But those steps did not satisfy critics, reporters and opposition researchers, who pressed for McCain’s tax schedules and the previous years’ returns for her and her husband, Republican presidential candidate John McCain. And they demanded the results of follow-up exams given to Biden, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, after his 1988 aneurysms.And those aren’t the only hotly ...
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JEANNE CUMMINGS: Obama drowning out McCain in TV ads
Obama drowning out McCain in TV adsIn the first three weeks of September, Barack Obama ran 1,342 television commercials in the Washington media market that reaches heavily populated and contested Northern Virginia.According to The Nielsen Company, in the same period and market, John McCain aired just eight commercials on broadcast stations.Similar disparities are playing out across the country as the Illinois Democrat flexes his financial muscle to outspend McCain and the Republican National Committee on television advertisements, in some cases by ratios of as much as 8-to-1.As of close of business last week, Obama had spent approximately $195 million on ...
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MARTIN KADY II: Dems slam GOPers on Social Security
Dems slam GOPers on Social SecurityThe markets may be stabilizing, but Democrats are quietly acknowledging that volatility is a good thing — at least when it comes to the politics of Social Security and the senior citizen vote.Three Democratic Senate challengers have launched campaign ads hammering incumbent GOP senators for backing privatization of Social Security, replaying a classic Democratic campaign tactic of talking about how the other guy will take away your monthly check.The targets: Republican Sens. John Sununu of New Hampshire, Gordon Smith of Oregon and Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina.They are three of the most vulnerable GOP senators, ...
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Josh Kraushaar: Cole calls on Mahoney to answer questions
Cole calls on Mahoney to answer questionsOctober 14, 2008Categories: Bad behaviorNational Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Cole isn't satisfied with Rep. Tim Mahoney's denial that he paid off a former mistress. In a statement released this afternoon, the NRCC chairman said "there are too many unanswered questions about how Mr. Mahoney conducted himself in office."Cole was just in the Florida Democrat's district this morning to campaign for his Republican rival, Tom Rooney. Rooney didn't address the charges, but Cole was downright bullish about Rooney's prospects."On a scale of one to 10, this is a 12," Cole told the Palm Beach ...
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ALEXANDER BURNS: Poll: Obama leads in 3 of 4 key Bush counties
Poll: Obama leads in 3 of 4 key Bush countiesBarack Obama has erased traditional Republican advantages in four key bellwether counties that President Bush won in 2000 and 2004, according to a new Politico/InsiderAdvantage survey. Each county is critical to the outcome in the battleground state where it is located.In Washoe County, near Reno, Nev., Obama leads McCain 46 percent to 45 percent , with 6 percent undecided. Obama posts a wider 50 percent-44 percent lead with 5 percent undecided in Raleigh, North Carolina's Wake County, and another 6 point lead in Hillsborough County, Fla., where Tampa is located. There, ...
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Josh Kraushaar: Owning Mahoney
Owning MahoneyRep. Tim Mahoney (D-Fla.) is finding himself in an October sex scandal, about two years after his GOP predecessor Mark Foley was forced to step down in the wake of his own personal indiscretions.ABC News is reporting that Mahoney agreed to pay a $121,000 settlement to a former mistress, Patricia Allen, who worked on his Congressional and campaign staff since his 2006 campaign.The story also reveals that Mahoney promised her a job at the consulting firm that handles his campaign’s media production.Some of the juicy bits excerpted from the ABC story:-- A spokesperson for [Democratic Caucus Chair] Rahm Emanuel, ...
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MARTIN KADY II: Another rescue?
Another rescue?We’re not going to call it TGIF this morning in The Huddle, as G7 finance leaders meet in Washington to address the spreading global financial crisis, the Asian and European markets are getting crushed and congressional leaders are considering yet another stimulus that could cost $150 billion. It’s also a black Friday for Republican fundraisers reading The Wall Street Journal this morning, finding out that they are getting absolutely crushed in congressional money race.WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING: The entire world’s markets plummeted again, with the Nikkei falling 10 percent, European stocks fell and trading was halted in Russia, Iceland, ...
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John Bresnahan: Judge allows DOJ to call key witness, softens proposed jury instructions
Judge allows DOJ to call key witness, softens proposed jury instructionsJudge Emmet Sullivan, who is presiding over the corruption trial of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), allowed federal prosecutors to call Dave Anderson, a key witness against the senator.Anderson oversaw renovation work at Stevens' home in Girdwood, Alaska, allegedly paid for by Veco Corp., an Alaska oil services company. The Justice Department has indicted Stevens on charges that he accepted more than $250,000 in improper gifts from Bill Allen, former CEO of Veco, and others. Stevens allegedly did not report the gifts on his annual financial disclosure forms.Anderson has not testified ...
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DAVID ROGERS & VICTORIA MCGRANE: McConnell open to easing terms of loan
McConnell open to easing terms of loanSenate Republican leader Mitch McConnell signaled Thursday that the quickest—and perhaps only—viable path for Congress to help the auto industry this year would be to loosen restrictions on a previously approved $25 billion loan package so that the money can be more readily available to distressed companies.After a rough re-election campaign, in which he and other Southern Republicans paid a political price for supporting Treasury’s rescue plan for the financial markets, McConnell is clearly wary of rushing into new commitments. And Democratic proposals to add new appropriations or tap into the $700 billion Treasury ...
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DAVID ROGERS & VICTORIA MCGRANE: Voinovich signs on to auto bailout
Voinovich signs on to auto bailoutThe auto industry picked up precious Republican support Thursday as Ohio Sen. George Voinovich said he will sign on to Democratic efforts to tap Treasury’s rescue funds to help the Big Three weather cash problems this winter.A fiscal conservative, Voinovich did not commit to the full $25 billion package that House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has said he will complete drafting Monday. But Voinovich has agreed to sign on to a letter that Michigan Democratic Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow are expected to circulate next week to build support for some ...
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LISA LERER & DAVID ROGERS: Paulson broadens federal bailout
Paulson broadens federal bailoutTreasury Secretary Henry Paulson broadened the reach of the $700 billion financial rescue program on Wednesday, but resisted pressure from top Democrats to allocate money to struggling automakers and homeowners.Paulson said the bailout fund would not buy up asset-backed securities, as the plan was originally sold to Congress, but shifted the focus to give the Treasury Department broader discretion in how to spend the funds and focus more directly on consumers."Over these past weeks, we have continued to examine the relative benefits of purchasing illiquid mortgage-related assets," said Paulson. "Our assessment at this time is that this ...
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PATRICK O'CONNOR & JOHN BRESNAHAN: Hoyer steps in Waxman-Dingell fight
Hoyer steps in Waxman-Dingell fightMajority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) has intervened in the fight between Reps. John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), hoping to resolve their battle over the chairmanship of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee, one senior Democratic aide confirmed on Wednesday.But neither combatant has agreed to a deal and the dispute may still be resolved by a secret ballot next week.Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has made it clear to all parties that she is not involving herself in this fight, leaving Hoyer as the lead negotiator in this dispute. The speaker even told Rep. ...
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ANDY BARR & JOSH KRAUSHAAR: Key races remain uncalled
Key races remain uncalledThe fates of six House and Senate races remain unclear heading into the weekend as ballots continued to be counted and campaigns geared up for recounts in contested races across the nation.Democrat Tom Perriello declared victory Friday in his race against Republican Rep. Virgil H. Goode in Virginia’s 5th District, despite the fact that no news outlet or state election observer has called the race.The Democrat's lead had jumped from 52 votes on Wednesday to 745 in the latest count on Friday. Both camps had been bracing for a recount when the Democrat called the race in ...
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CAROL E. LEEP: Michelle views WH with new eye
Michelle views WH with new eyeLike she often did during the just-completed presidential campaign, Michelle Obama will be back at home in Chicago on Monday evening after flying to a city for a few hours on behalf of her husband’s ambitions.Except her visit to Washington is perhaps the most meaningful of the scores of jet-setting day trips Michelle Obama took over the past 21 months. A future first lady who has put raising her daughters above all else in her new role, she will get a tour of the place where Malia and Sasha Obama will grow up for at ...
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GLENN THRUSH: Biden's new role: Good cop
Biden's new role: Good copA few days before the election, a Democratic strategist privately worried that a Vice-President Joe Biden was destined for a White House career of dissatisfaction and idle-hands mischief.“You can’t just have a guy like him at loose ends, he’d go crazy,” said a Democratic consultant who knows the affable, bright and mercilessly quotable soon-to-be ex-chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. “They need to keep him busy. Nobody over there wants him getting into the Secretary of State’s [business].”Harnessing Biden’s considerable talents and containing his flaws will be an ongoing challenge for Obama. But Democratic insiders say ...
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DAVID ROGERS & JOHN BRESNAHAN: Byrd will voluntarily give up chairmanship
Byrd will voluntarily give up chairmanshipSenate legend Robert Byrd, approaching 91 this month and hailing a “new day in Washington,” said he would voluntarily give up the chairmanship of the Senate Appropriations Committee with the new Congress.“To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven,” said Byrd, who had fended off earlier challenges this past spring and summer. “Those Biblical words from Ecclesiastes 3:1 express my feelings about this particular time in my life.“I have been privileged to be a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee for 50 years and to have chaired the committee ...
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CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN: Obama campaign tries lucky charms
Obama campaign tries lucky charmsCOLUMBUS, Ohio—Barack Obama’s Ohio campaign manager has neither shaved his face in a month nor has he shown up to the office without his Columbus Clippers baseball hat.Aaron Pickrell associated Obama’s uptick in the Ohio polls in late September with his personal hygiene and wardrobe choices at that time, so he kept the look. With only hours left in the longest presidential race in modern history, Pickrell stalked around a rally here Sunday sporting a lumberjack beard and a dog-eared cap.The final days are a mix of strategy and superstition for those most intimately involved in ...
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JONATHAN MARTIN: Davis: Holdouts could tilt election
Davis: Holdouts could tilt electionMIAMI – A high-spirited Rick Davis late Sunday night made perhaps his final case for John McCain, arguing that the unusual number of still-remaining undecided voters could tip the election to the GOP and that whether those holdouts ultimately vote could prove decisive.“If Barack Obama hasn’t closed the deal with them after two years in the campaign and a year as the nominee of their party, maybe they’re holding out for a good reason,” Davis told reporters en route to an after-midnight campaign rally here. “Now, maybe they just decided not to vote and they don’t ...
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