Washington Extra – Gift of the gas
After negotiating a tricky stretch of road, the Obama campaign may be easing into the straightaway in the gas-driven presidential race.
News on Monday of a delay in the planned closure of the largest refinery on the East Coast could mean an end to skyrocketing gas prices. And that would effectively take the wind out of a forceful Republican line of attack — that the president is to be blamed for $4 a gallon gas, arguably the most visible price in the American economy today.
The narrative was working against the president, who currently gets some of his lowest poll marks for his handling of energy prices, even though the causes of higher prices are largely beyond his control. Even so, we shouldn’t expect the Republicans to simply drop the rhetoric.
“Until we are at the point where people don’t feel like they’re squeezing their entire paychecks into the gas tank, it’s an issue that Republicans are going to keep talking about,” said a Senate Republican aide.
Here are our top stories from Washington…
Signs of cheaper gas could brighten Obama campaign – New signs of lower gas prices could give a boost to President Obama’s re-election hopes and blunt a potent weapon that Republicans have used to attack him. News of a month long delay in the planned closure of the largest refinery on the East Coast was the latest indication sky-rocketing gasoline prices may have peaked. Industry experts say keeping Sunoco’s Philadelphia refinery open will ease supply concerns and help underpin a gradual decline in gasoline prices during the summer. For more of this story by Alister Bull, read here.
Romney presses Gingrich on Freddie Mac fees
Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign is turning the tables on Newt Gingrich, putting the squeeze on the former House Speaker to disclose details of his financial relationship with Freddie Mac.
The Romney camp scheduled a conference call Monday morning to talk to reporters about Gingrich’s work as a “historian” (quote marks supplied by the campaign) for the government-owned mortgage finance giant.
Romney campaign surrogates former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and Will Weatherford, Speaker Designate of the Florida House of Representatives, will be on the conference call — with the call code name “Definitely Not a Lobbyist.”
Gingrich has said he never worked as a lobbyist since stepping down as House Speaker in 1999. The question of whether Gingrich was a lobbyist came up during a Republican presidential debate in November. The former House Speaker initially said he was retained by Freddie Mac as a historian but later acknowledged he’d received consulting fees from the financially troubled mortgage giant for providing “strategic advice.”
(Read Sam Youngman’s story for more on what Gingrich has said about payments from Freddie Mac.)
While the Romney press office gave no details on what’s to come in the Monday morning call, Romney gave a preview Sunday in Florida — the next prize in the Republican presidential primary sweepstakes.
Fresh from his stinging loss to Gingrich in Saturday’s South Carolina contest, Romney said the former House Speaker “has not had a record of successful leadership” and called on his rival to release details of his contract with Freddie Mac.
Battered by negative ads, Gingrich calls for Republican truce
A still from “Selling Access,” a recent ad released by the Ron Paul campaign.
Newt Gingrich is waving a white flag in the ad wars. As the most recent Republican frontrunner, he’s become the target of attacks from Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and the the pro-Romney group Restore Our Future.
Many of the attacks have focused on Gingrich’s consulting work for Freddie Mac in the run up to the financial crisis and the collapse of the housing market. Today his campaign announced a petition urging Republicans to stop attacking each other–and presumably to stop bringing up his work for Freddie.
“Attacking fellow Republicans only helps one person, Barack Obama,” the petition says. That does not appear to be strictly true, as Paul and Romney have both gained ground in recent days while Gingrich’s poll numbers have faded amidst the attacks.
The online petition includes Gingrich’s “We Deserve Solutions” ad, in which he suggests those who attack him want to move the country backwards.
“Others seem to be more focused on attacks rather than moving the country forward. That’s up to them,” says Gingrich. “I believe bold ideas and new solutions will unleash America’s creative spirit.”
Well Newt, seeing how you look like what a boxer looks like when he’s on his back on the canvas and is getting the crap pounded out of him, and shouts ‘TRUCE’. Yeah, that’s the way to handle competition. Typical Newt.
from LEGACY Reuters Summits:
Troubled Freddie Mac exec was “straight arrow”
James Lockhart, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency
The chief financial officer at Freddie Mac who died in an apparent suicide was a capable executive who had no involvement in any improper accounting, according to Freddie Mac's federal regulator.
"David (Kellermann) was a very conscientious and hard-working person and took, unfortunately, too much onto himself," James Lockhart, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, told the Reuters Global Financial Regulation Summit in Washington.
Kellermann was found dead on April 22 in the basement of his Virginia home after having hung himself, local police sources said. Some news reports at the time tied Kellermann's death to ongoing federal investigations into Freddie Mac's accounting.
"You know, one of the things I find unfortunate? Some of the speculation about accounting issues at Freddie. They are very rigorous," Lockhart said. He described Kellermann as a "straight arrow" whose reputation was above reproach and said that the failings at Freddie Mac were widely shared.
Last September, federal regulators took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as the the companies losses on the housing market mounted.
McCain, Obama nervous in last debate? Early gaffes…
Republican presidential contender John McCain and rival Democratic hopeful Barack Obama appeared to show a little nervousness in the early minutes of their third and final debate, each committing minor gaffes.
McCain referred to the mortgage financing giants as “Fannie and Freddie Mae”, instead of their actual names Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
He then referred to the “$750 billion” bailout package aimed at thawing the credit market which Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed into law earlier this month. Minor mistake, it actually is $700 billion.
Minutes later, Obama made the same gaffe, calling it a $750 billion program.
Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.
- Photo credit: Reuters/Gary Hershorn (Obama and McCain meet for their last presidential debate.)
the fact that anyone is praising McCain for his performance in the third debate proves that he and Palin have lowered people’s expectations down to nothing (don’t forget, the VP debates were a tie!)
