While members of the U.S. Congress angrily debated bogged-down efforts at healthcare reform, three one-time adversaries shared old stories, pats on the back and laughs.

Former Democratic President Bill Clinton, ex-Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Senate Republican Leader Trent got together this week for the unveiling of Lott’s official Senate portrait.

“I’m still wondering why I’m here,” Clinton said, drawing chuckles and applause from a packed crowd on Capitol Hill of a few hundred people, including past and present congressional power brokers.

Indeed, it was a strange scene.

Clinton, Lott and Gingrich often engaged in front-page political battles during the former president’s eight years in the White House that ended in January 2001.

Most notably, Gingrich and Lott helped lead the failed bid in late 1998 and early 1999 to oust Clinton from office for lying about an affair with a White House intern.

None of them, in their remarks, made any mention of the scandal that rocked the nation and that tied up Congress for months.

Neither did they go near the flap that caused Lott to step down as Senate majority leader after making what was seen as a racially insensitive remark in 2002, ending more than five years a t the helm of the Senate.

Instead, they focused on the good times, kidded about some tough times and talked about productive times.

They noted that together they balanced the budget for the first time in 30 years and passed major legislation, including measures to overhaul welfare, dramatically boost education spending and create the federal health insurance program for children.

Lott revealed a key to their ability to find common ground.

“We never lost our ability to talk, even when I said something stupid — or vice versa,” Lott said.

Along the way, they developed a friendship.

“The world be amazed to know what good chemistry Trent and Newt and I had in private,” Clinton said.

Gingrich said the three were similar in their rise to power.

“We came out of nowhere, we had no plausible reason to get here, we got here and were slightly confused by the experience … and couldn’t believe the other two were here,” Gingrich said.

Lott acknowledged hanging on his office walls cartoons ridiculing Clinton. He said Clinton, after seeing them, laughed and gave him another cartoon — this one of Clinton skillfully fending off Republican opposition. Clinton framed and autographed it for the then Senate Republican leader.

Amid the laughter there was also some heartfelt talk.

Clinton told Lott, said: “When it is all said and done, all that matters is whether people are better off than when you started.”

“On that score, my friend, you did pretty well,” Clinton said.

Lott had a message for Congress, which has becoming increasingly partisan in recent years.

“If three good ole boys from the South, like the ones you heard today, can find a way to get it done …. I know that the outstanding leaders that we have in Congress … can get it done.”

Lott added,  “I will be praying for you.”

For more Reuters political news, click here.

Photo credit: Reuters/Hyungwon Kang (Clinton, Lott pose in front of portrait of Lott.)

Sarah Palin showed up but,  did not share the stage with Newt Gingrich at the  Republican Senate and Congressional  Dinner in Washington Monday evening. Still, the Alaska governor and former Republican vice presidential candidate managed to have her say before a potentially huge audience.

 While Gingrich was headlining the dinner, Palin took the spotlight in a taped Fox News interview that aired as the former House speaker spoke. It’s early, but both of them may be looking ahead to 2012 — or  not.

In the twin speeches, Gingrich took on Obama and the Democrats on a range of  issues and Palin took aim at the president’s economic performance.

“Kind of a ‘we told you so,’” Palin said when interviewer Sean Hannity brought up a “spread the wealth” comment made by the Democrat during the 2008 presidential campaign.

“When you consider that the federal government is about 11 trillion dollars in debt, and we’re borrowing more to spend more … it defies any sensible economic policy that any of us ever learned through college. It defies economy practices and principles that tell you ‘you gotta quit digging that hole when you are in that financial hole,” Palin said. 

 Palin said she was disappointed and quite frustrated that, four months into the Obama presidency, she has not seen action to rein in spending or slow the growth of government.

“It’s expanding at such a large degree that if Americans aren’t paying attention, unfortunately our country could evolve into something that we do not even recognize,” Palin said.

“Socialism?” Hannity asked.

“Well, that is where we are headed,” Palin said. “That is where we have to be blunt enough and candid enough and honest enough with Americans to let them know if we keep going down these roads… nationalizing many of our services, our projects our businesses, yes that is where we would head.”

For more Reuters political news, click here

Photo credit: Hans Deryk (Palin at 2008 Republican Governors Assoc. Conference)

WASHINGTON - Newt Gingrich, move over.

Sarah Palin is coming to town.

The latest word is that Palin is going to attend Monday night’s Republican fund-raising dinner for congressional candidates.

But she won’t be addressing the group gathered at the Washington Convention Center.

The Alaska governor, and possible 2012 presidential candidate, had gone back and forth on whether to attend the dinner, first say she would, then saying she wouldn’t and now saying she will.

The dinner is expected to raise an impressive $14 million or more for House and Senate Republican candidates in the 2010 mid-term elections.

There’s a backstory to Palin’s decision to attend. Here’s what we’re hearing:

Gingrich is the keynote speaker. Some Palin associates last week contacted the dinner organizers to ask whether they were still interested in having her attend.

The idea was to make her a surprise guest and let her say a few things.  But then there were worries from others in the party that this could upstage Gingrich, another potential 2012 candidate, and why do this when Newt has been helping raise money?

So the dinner organizers went back to Palin’s people and said they would be happy to have her sit at Senator John Cornyn’s main table, but that have no speaking role.  That led Palin’s camp to say she would not be coming, but then — alert the photo desk — she will be in town.

Fox News’ Sean Hannity asked her ahead of the dinner whether she missed being in the “spotlight” since the end of the campaign in which she was the vice presidential running mate to top dog John McCain.
“I love my time in Alaska. At the same time though I crave, if not my voice, other voices out there being bold, being strong letting Americans know that those that are concerned about the growth of government and about national security issues, they’re not alone.”

REUTERS/TAMI CHAPPELL   Sarah Palin waves to crowd at December rally

REUTERS/ROBERT GALBRAITH  Newt Gingrich attends 2008 Republican National Convention

The handshake that set Washington buzzing — that awkward grip-and-grin between President Barack Obama and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez at a weekend summit in Trinidad — seems to be great for book sales. Specifically, the tome Chavez passed to Obama, “Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of Pillage of a Continent” leaped from Number 54,000 on Amazon.com to Number 2, almost overnight.

The anti-colonialist book is in some strange company atop the online bestsellers list. Five of the others in the top 10 are editions in the popular romantic vampire “Twilight” series. There’s also “The 5000 Year Leap: A Miracle That Changed the World” at Number 7. The online description says it’s about how “the United States there has been a gradual drifting away from the Founding Fathers original success formula.”

Number 9 is “The Ultimate Depression Survival Guide: Protect Your Savings, Boost Your Income, and Grow Wealthy Even in the Worst of Times.” Number 8 is “The Shack,” billed as “a one of a kind invitation to journey to the very heart of God.”

What’s at the very top? “Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto.” This one tells “how conservatives can counter the liberal corrosion that has filtered into every timely issue affecting our daily lives, from the economy to health care, global warming, immigration, and more.”

The handshake itself got a negative review from former congressman Newt Gingrich who said on NBC’s “Today” program: “It does matter to the world if the United States tolerates a vicious anti-American propaganda campaign and then smiles and greets the person who’s systemmatically been anti-American for his entire career.”

For more Reuters political news, click here.

Photo: Kevin LaMarque/REUTERS (Obama gets a book from Chavez during the Summit of the Americas, April 18, 2009)

It’s Friday, but no break from dismal economic news.

The employment report showed a whopping 598,000 decline in jobs in January, the most severe slashing in 34 years. The unemployment rate jumped to 7.6 percent to its highest level in more than 16 years.

The latest economic data shock gives more ammunition to President Barack Obama as he tries to sell reluctant Republicans on the economic stimulus package.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a prominent Republican, said on NBC’s “Today” show that Obama should be careful in how he handles the stimulus legislation or he risks being seen as more of a Jimmy Carter than a Ronald Reagan.

Obama is set to unveil members of his new economic recovery advisory board this morning – they certainly have their work cut out for them. Later, he meets with families of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and the USS Cole bombing about plans for closing Guantanamo Bay.

Everyone could learn a thing or two about handling stress from Capt. Chesley Sullenberger who safely landed a US Airways jetliner disabled by birds into the Hudson River last month. Newly released tapes have him calmly telling air traffic controllers that the plane won’t make it to the airport. “We’re unable. We may end up in the Hudson,” he says in a voice as calm and cool as can be.

At the White House, the National Park Service is hot on the trail of a band of masked marauders. The Washington Post reports that a pack of roaming raccoons have been spotted on the grounds.

Click here for more Reuters political coverage

Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (Obama walking toward Oval Office)

How can John McCain win?
    
The Republican presidential candidate trails Democratic rival Barack Obama in opinion polls and time is running out before the Nov. 4 election. The Web site FiveThirtyEight, which uses statistical modeling to predict the outcome, gives the Arizona senator only a 5.3 percent chance of victory.

It’s third and long for the Maverick, but  two prominent Republican strategists see a path to victory.
    
Here’s what they say:
    
THREAD THE NEEDLE. McCain should focus on a handful of states that voted Republican in 2004 but could go Obama’s way this time out — Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Missouri, Colorado and Nevada, said Karl Rove, President Bush’s former political advisor. He can lose Iowa and New Mexico, which also voted for Bush in 2004, and still squeak by with 274 Electoral College votes, enough for a win.
 
“It’s threading the needle, but it’s come to that,” Rove wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday.
    
TAXES, TAXES, TAXES. Forget on-the-ground tactics — McCain and running mate Sarah Palin should hammer Obama for wanting to raise taxes on those making more than $250,000, tapping into Americans’ instinctive mistrust of politicans, said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
    
If the message catches on, all those swing states will swing McCain’s way, Gingrich said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
 
The way Gingrich sees it, Obama could have another Bittergate on his hands after telling Joe the Plumber that he wants to “spread the wealth around” to create a healthier economy.
    
“If Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin spend the rest of this campaign focused on whether or not politicians want to take money away from you and decide how much you’re allowed to keeep, I suspect they win the election,” he said.
 
“What Sen. Obama said the other night was a Freudian slip,” he added. 
    
There’s another prominent politician who’s not ruling out a McCain victory: Obama himself. 
 
“Don’t underestimate the capacity of Democrats to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory,” he said at a fundraiser Thursday night. “Don’t underestimate our ability to screw it up.”
    
What do you think? Who’s got the better roadmap for McCain — Rove or Gingrich?

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

Photo credit: REUTERS/Jim Young (McCain arrives at the Alfred E. Smith dinner in New York, Oct. 16)

WASHINGTON - House Minority Leader John Boehner on Wednesday shrugged off a warning that his fellow Republicans are facing peril in the fall elections unless they change course, a prediction made by a former Republican House speaker. 
 
Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich warned on Tuesday that Republicans must immediately “chart a bold course of real change” otherwise they will “suffer decisive losses this November.”
   
That apparently didn’t sit too well with Boehner as he faces an uphill battle to reclaim control of the U.S. House of Representatives since more than two dozen fellow House Republicans are leaving this fall or running for another office. And last weekend, they lost a Republican seat in Louisiana in a special election.
 
“Listen a lot of people have a lot of ideas and advice for me and our leadership team about what it is that we should do,” Boehner told reporters after a meeting with President George W. Bush at the White House.
 
“I tell our colleagues every week, if you stand up and do the right things for the right reasons, the right things will happen,” Boehner said. “And frankly, we have been standing up for the right things that the American people want us to.”
 
The Ohio Republican argued that their efforts to cut taxes and expand exploration for oil and gas in the United States served as evidence that they were on the right path for the November elections. 
 
“There’s a whole array of issues that I think where we’re representing the interests of the American people,” Boehner said.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

- Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young (Boehner after a meeting with Bush at the White House)

 INDIANAPOLIS - Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich says Barack Obama remains the best bet to become the Democratic presidential nominee and would be a formidable opponent for Republican John McCain.
   

Speaking to the French Sunday newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, Gingrich said McCain had benefited from Obama’s recent difficulties, including controversial comments by the Illinois senator’s longtime pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. 

“But Obama remains a formidable opponent. He is also the most probable Democrat nominee, even if he is not as untouchable as he was before,” said Gingrich, who led his party’s takeover of the House of Representatives in what was known as the Republican Revolution of 1994.

Gingrich was eventually forced out of that role and has gone on to become an author. Though he remains a conservative, Gingrich relishes sometimes taking positions that are seen as contrarian to members of his party.

But he likely was toeing a party line to come when he added: “Obama is not just any left-wing politician. … He is a far left-wing politician, but with a beautiful smile.”
Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage