Meek stays in Florida Senate race despite Clinton overtures
This much is clear. Democrat Kendrick Meek is not dropping out of Florida’s three-way Senate race.
What’s not so clear is what happened before Meek summoned reporters to his campaign headquarters for a late evening news conference Thursday to deny reports former President Bill Clinton had asked him to quit the race.
Singling out a report by Politico.com, the Florida congressman said, “Any rumor or any statement by anyone that says that I made a decision to get out of the race is inaccurate, at best.”
Politico.com reported that Clinton nearly succeeded in talking Meek out of the race before the candidate changed his mind.
According to Politico, Meek would have agreed to drop out and endorse Governor Charlie Crist, who might then have a better shot at winning in a two-way contest with former state House speaker Marc Rubio, a Tea Party favorite.
“His (Meek’s) withdrawal, polls suggest, would throw core Democratic voters to the moderate governor, rocking a complicated three-way contest and likely throwing the election to Crist,” Politico said.
Crist is running as an independent, after losing the Republican primary to Rubio.
Republican, Democratic party chiefs see victory in battle for the House
In dueling appearances on the Sunday morning news shows, the heads of the Democratic and Republican parties made the same prediction — After the Nov. 2 elections, our guys will control the House.
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele says his party’s going into the final campaign stretch on a winning combination of momentum, excitement and energy.
“There is a vibration out here that is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, Steele said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“I think you’re going to see a wave, an unprecedented wave on Election Day, that’s going to surprise a lot of people,” Steele said.
“As I like to say, we’re 38 seats and we need to get to 39 seats to… get control (of the House). But I think we’re more than there,” the RNC chief said.
The Senate’s going to be a bit tougher, Steele said, but he’s not ruling out a takeover there too.
“If this wave continues the way it’s going… I think you could see the Senate as well goes to Republicans,” he added.
Washington economic indicator: political finger-pointing
How do you know the economy is souring?
One indicator that doesn’t come wrapped in a government report is political finger-pointing.
It’s an election year with a sluggish economy and so Republicans and Democrats want to make sure voters know it’s the other’s fault — or at the very least not their own fault.
Take a look at the response to the jobless data today which showed weekly unemployment benefit claims reached a nine-month high.
President Barack Obama, before leaving for Martha’s Vineyard, said the weak economic data underscored the need for small business lending legislation that is stalled in the Senate.
“This is a bill that makes sense and normally we would expect Democrats and Republicans to join together,” Obama said at the White House. “Unfortunately, a partisan minority in the Senate so far has refused to allow this jobs bill to come up for a vote.”
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele had a different interpretation. “This month’s jump in jobless claims may have surprised some economists, but it’s no surprise to the American families who are struggling to adjust to the Obama economy,” he said in a statement. “With unemployment claims hitting a nine-month high and a struggling housing market, middle-class Americans are losing faith in the Democrat leaders at the helm of our country.”
RNC’s Steele cancels on NABJ due to food poisoning
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele canceled an appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in San Diego on Friday due to food poisoning.
The NABJ announced the news on its convention website by displaying a picture of Steele with a red “canceled” banner across it, and a write-up that begins: “A bad meal has spoiled one of the most anticipated events at this week’s NABJ convention.”
Steele was to have appeared in a session titled “Life, Liberty and Legacy” a day after Shirley Sherrod spoke at the same convention. Sherrod on Thursday said she planned to sue conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart who posted an edited video that led to accusations of racism and forced her to resign from the Agriculture Department. (After the whole video was seen, the Ag Secretary apologized and the President of the United States called her).
For anyone wondering whether Steele’s cancelation had anything to do with avoiding issues related to Sherrod, we asked the question and an RNC aide tells us it was food poisoning and that in the past week Steele had addressed the Black Chamber of Commerce and the National Urban League.
“While traveling out West the chairman came down with a bad case of food poisoning. He is disappointed to miss the opportunity to take part in this valuable dialogue and looks forward to engaging with NABJ in the very near future,” an RNC statement said.
We were also told that Steele did not visit a hospital, but a doctor was consulted.
My colleague Christopher Doering informs me that an estimated 76 million people in the United States get sick each year with foodborne illness, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Open your eyes and face reality. The best way to you to finance your plan for global domination has already been answered. If you have to ask the question, apparently you’re not smart enough to realize what’s really in front of you.
Steele staying put
“I ain’t going anywhere,” Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said on Thursday, in response to calls for his resignation from critics in his own party, MSNBC reported.
“I’m here. I’m here,” Steele said at the launch of the Colorado Republican Party’s 2010 “Victory” headquarters.
Steele brushed aside the criticism, calling it a “distraction.” With victory in the November midterm elections at stake, Steele said he was focused on “winning.”
“Look, every time something happens, people go, ‘Oh, you should step down, step down.’ Well, the reality of it is that’s not happening, so stop the noise on that,” Steele said.
Steele ran into trouble when he was caught on tape saying the war in Afghanistan is a “war of Obama’s choosing” and suggesting that it can’t be won.
After that, some prominent conservatives, including William Kristol and Liz Cheney, said it was time for Steele to go.
While not voicing an opinion on whether the Republican party leader should go or stay, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel joined the chorus of critics on Thursday. In an interview on “PBS NewsHour” the Democrat said Steele’s view of the war was “a horrible way and a wrong way to look at it.”
Man of Steele seems to have avoided kryptonite for now
After a weekend of some prominent Republicans calling for his resignation — Liz Cheney among them — and a round of phone calls trying to explain himself, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele appears likely to hold onto his job through the election.
Washington Whispers has a look at how Steele’s gaffe on Afghanistan does not affect Republican fundraising, which is obviously key to the November elections when Republicans are hoping to gain seats and possibly control of Congress from President Barack Obama’s Democrats.
After the election will be quite another story for the RNC chairman, with Republicans probably looking to replace Steele. Hotline has a piece on possible candidates in the next go-around. (Sarah Palin is not considered to be a serious contender).
Among prominent Republicans unhappy with Steele’s Afghanistan comments is Senator John McCain, who in an interview from Kabul with ABC’s “This Week” said Steele’s comments were “wildly inaccurate.”
It wasn’t the first time that Steele has been in hot water as chairman of the RNC, but Republicans are hoping it will be the last for the next four months until the elections are over.
Photo credit: Reuters/Sean Gardner (Steele at 2010 Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans April 2010)
Is time off allowed during a mammoth oil spill crisis? Depends…
BP CEO Tony Hayward takes time off to watch his yacht race in British waters, President Barack Obama goes golfing over the Father’s Day weekend.
Is that acceptable when the BP oil spill, the worst in U.S. history and a huge environmental disaster, is entering a third month in the Gulf of Mexico?
Well, depends on who you talk to.
The White House on Monday made a cutting remark about Hayward’s yacht trip: “Look, if Tony Hayward wants to put a skimmer on that yacht and bring it down to the Gulf, we’d be happy to have his help,” White House spokesman Bill Burton said at the daily media briefing.
A BP spokeswoman had said Hayward was spending time with his son after being away from his family for much of the past two months.
Hayward made few friends on the Gulf coast after saying that he wanted his life back, and Burton couldn’t resist a small dig at that comment – ”It’s clear that he has. But what’s important to us is that the people in the Gulf get their lives back. It’s not so easy for them to just take a weekend away and forget about everything that’s happening down there.”
Some Republicans sought to equate the Hayward yachting outing with Obama’s day on the golf course. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele called on Obama to give up golf and baseball games until the spill is fixed.
Republican party chief says he’s staying put despite spending furor
Under fire for the Republican National Committee’s free-wheeling spending on posh hotels, private jets and a party at a Los Angeles nightclub, committee Chairman Michael Steele said Monday he will not resign despite the controversy.
“No,” he said flatly on ABC’s “Good Morning America” when asked whether he would step down. It was his first television interview since the controversial spending came to light. “When I first heard about this behavior going on, I was very angry and we dealt with it.”
Steele has been excoriated over the last week, including by some members of his own party, for spending that included $2,000 at a sex-themed nightclub as well as tens of thousands of dollars spent on luxury hotels, private planes and limousines in the month of February.
“I’m not staying in fancy hotels, in the Four Seasons, and flying around in corporate jets,” Steele said. One RNC staffer has already lost her job because of the nightclub incident. “We have managed the money in a way that has allowed us to compete in some races that we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to compete in.”
Last year, Republicans wrested victories in two key governors’ races — Virginia and New Jersey — and also won an upset victory in January to fill Democratic U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy’s seat in Massachusetts after he died from cancer.
Steele said that the organization was establishing some controls to rein in spending since Republicans no longer control either chamber in the U.S. Congress or the White House.
“A lot of our donors, our major donors, are used to a particular type of event, we’ve been scaling those back,” he said, predicting that the RNC would have a good fundraising effort in April despite media reports that some donors are sending their money elsewhere. Still, he said he understood the furor of donors and members.
The dude’s already played the race card by claiming that he’s facing a raised bar. He’s also employed an oblique liberal slur for white men by railing against “old boys.” The fact that they are his party’s most loyal constituency seems to have been lost on him.
RNC drops $1,946 at risque night club but says Steele wasn’t the big spender
Politics and money can lead to some naughty things. Take RNC Chairman Michael Steele, for example. He was forced to deny a claim that he spent megabucks at a risque West Hollywood night club last month. The only trouble is that even if he didn’t, the Republican National Committee did.
Official documents show the RNC forked over $1,946 for meals at Voyeur, a high-end nightclub in West Hollywood where guests can enjoy drinks, cucumber tea sandwiches and live female performances that will “titillate the senses while still remaining classy and tasteful.”
RNC disclosure documents on file with the Federal Election Commission include the Voyeur expense in a monthly report that also shows the committee spending $9,099 at the Beverly Hills Hotel and $6,596 at the nearby Four Seasons Beverly Wilshire.
The Daily Caller, a Web site co-founded by conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, says those giant and controversial expenditures were incurred during Steele’s travel in California. It alleges that the spending is part of the RNC chairman’s lavish style and adds that the committee also spent $17,514 on private aircraft and $12,691 on limousines during February.
The Democratic National Committee was positively giddy about the report, gleefully describing its political rival as the “Risque National Committee” in media releases.
But the RNC had some accusations (and denials) of its own, saying the Daily Caller had “willfully and erroneously” tied the Voyeur expense to Steele. ”This was a reimbursement made to a non-committee staffer. The chairman was never at the location in question, he had no knowledge of the expenditure, nor does he find the use of committee funds at such a location at all acceptable,” said a statement attributed to RNC spokesman Doug Heye.
Yep, it’s a gay/bondage club all right. But it’s tax deductible and therefore non-newsworthy because the RNC was only there doing research on their base.
Unemployment falls, what’s the proper political response?
The unemployment rate fell in January to 9.7 percent, the lowest in five months and below that dreaded 10 percent in December. It also foiled analyst expectations for an increase to 10.1 percent.
So a jump-for-joy event in Washington right?
Well, not quite.
The White House publicly decided on a cool, measured response.
(We have to believe someone over there must have let out a cheer, or maybe even clapped, at 8:30 a.m.)
The official response from White House economic adviser Christina Romer was a caution that there would likely be “bumps in the road ahead” and that it was important not to read too much into one monthly report.
(Probably a wise path since those who are unemployed are likely not feeling heartened by a government statistics report)
