ALLENTOWN, Pa. - Republican presidential candidate John McCain frequently rails against “earmarks,” the special spending projects that members of Congress procure for their home districts, often with little or no oversight. 

But Wednesday he admitted he sometimes admired the results. 

On a visit to an Allentown hospital during a week-long campaign swing featuring health care issues, the Arizona senator met a woman with ovarian cancer who was treated in a $80 million clinical trial program funded by an earmark. 

McCain praised the woman’s treatment and later said some earmarks were clearly worthy. 

“It’s the process I object to,” McCain told reporters. “We need to start over from scratch.” 

McCain told reporters that wasteful spending projects had drained away money that could have been used for infrastructure improvements that would prevent tragedies like last year’s deadly bridge collapse in Minnesota. 

He has promised to eliminate earmarks and make spending projects compete for funding in congressional budget deliberations. 

“When you earmark in the middle of the night you have no budgetary constraints,” he said.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Carlos Barria. (McCain listens speaks during a news conference at Miami’s Children Hospital in Florida April 28, 2008.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Wednesday he’s likely to make another major speech at the Republican National Convention later this year, as he did in 2004, and that he’s going to join his buddy John McCain on the campaign trail later this year.

The governor spoke of his plans during a lunch session for participants at the Milken Institute Global Conference on the economy.

Schwarzenegger announced on Jan. 31 that he is supporting McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

The governor noted that his wife, Maria Shriver,  is a lifelong Democrat who supports Barack Obama. 

Schwarzenegger told the conference that he likes the environmental stands of each of the three presidential candidates: McCain, Obama and Democrat Hillary Clinton.  But said he sided with McCain because he knows him best and has a long working relationship with the Arizona senator.

On Tuesday night, the Milken audience was asked, by a show of applause, which of the three candidates they supported. It was a close call between McCain and Obama who the audience liked the most. Only a handful put their hands together for Clinton, who won the California primary over Obama handily earlier this year.

Because he was born outside the United States, the Austrian-born Schwarzenegger is not eligible to run for president. If he were, perhaps he would not have uttered the line on Wednesday that “Nobody is dying to go to Iowa,” the state that holds the first contest in the presidential nominating process and one where candidates are expected to spend alot of time wooing voters. Schwarzenegger said that when he was extoling the virtues of California.

Reporting by Bernie Woodall

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Photo credit: Reuters/Phil McCarten (Schwarzenegger participates in a panel discussion at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, Calif.)

CHICAGO - The Chicago hotel where journalists coined the phrase “smoke-filled room” to denote a backroom deal by political heavyweights reopened for business on Wednesday after a refurbishment.

It was from a suite of rooms on the fourth floor of the Blackstone Hotel that Republican party leaders emerged in June 1920 to declare Ohio Sen. Warren Harding the surprise nominee. The Republican party convention convention deadlocked over two other candidates.

Legend has it that a cloud of cigar smoke poured from the room as they came out to make the announcement to assembled journalists, who coined the phrase that entered the American political lexicon. It refers to a behind-the-scenes move by party bosses to pick candidates.

Some historians credit Harding’s friend Harry Daugherty with creating the phrase ahead of the convention.   Harding was subsequently elected the 29th U.S. president.

The original smoke-filled room was redone as part of a $100 million refurbishment of the once-decrepit Georgian Michigan Avenue landmark. Smoking is no longer permitted in the room.

The phrase has made something of a comeback this political season, with Democrats closely divided between two presidential hopefuls that could end up leaving it to nearly 800 party elites called superdelegates to choose the party’s nominee. 

Presumably, conventioneers in Denver can find a place where smoking is allowed.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

CHICAGO - Comedian, author and former radio talk show host Al Franken, the likely Democratic Senate candidate for Minnesota, is paying $70,000 in back taxes and penalties to 17 states to make up for what he says were mistakes by his accountant.

State Republicans say Franken, who was expected to pose a strong challenge to incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman in the November election, is at fault. 

“Al Franken’s business activities must have a full, and complete public airing if he is to retain any credibility as a candidate for public office,” Ron Carey, chairman of the Republican Party of Minnesota, said in a statement.

Franken told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that errors by his New York accountant led him to overpay $49,253 taxes to New York state and Minnesota where he lived between 2003 and 2006, while not paying $53,404 in taxes to 17 states where he earned money for appearances and speeches.

The $70,000 is an estimation of what he owes, Franken said.

He and his wife, Franni, “believe in paying state and federal taxes on all our income,” Franken told the newspaper.

Carey said in a statement that Franken signed a disclosure statement showing he was aware of earning money in California and elsewhere.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Eric Miller (Al Franken speaks at rally in March)

SHELBYVILLE, Ind. - Barack Obama can talk about his childhood years in Kansas and upbringing by his white Midwestern grandparents, but if voters at one small-town Indiana cafe are any indication, he has a long way to go to convince them he represents heartland America.

“Obama has great ideas but his background scares me,” said Chris Leighton, 60, a secretary having lunch at the Chaperral Cafe in Shelbyville, in southeast Indiana. “Everyone talks about him being a Muslim and having ties to terrorism, but how do people really find out?”

The incorrect belief that the Illinois senator is a Muslim was shared by half a dozen others in the restaurant — a sign that dirty campaign tactics and Internet innuendo has taken root among some voters in Indiana, the next state to vote.

Construction worker Ron Debaun, 61, said he hadn’t yet decided whether he would support Obama or Hillary Clinton in Indiana’s May 6 primary, noting they both “have good ideas.” But he’s leaning toward Clinton.

What doesn’t he like about Obama?

“His Muslim ties,” said Debaun.

Why does he think Obama is a Muslim?

“Let’s just say that he admits it himself,” he said.

Retired locksmith Leslie Hedman, 61, said he doesn’t like any of the three candidates — Clinton, Obama, or Republican John McCain – because none are committed Christians.

“Obama is a Muslim,” he said. Where did he hear that?

“He said he was but then he said he’s not,” said Hedman.

Ironically enough, many of the lunchtime crowd said they were also turned off by Obama’s ties to Rev. Jeremiah Wright – the former pastor of Obama’s Christian church in Chicago, Trinity United Church of Christ.

“I definitely don’t like Obama because of the mess with him and his pastor. I don’t think he’s been honest about it,” said Candace Demmin, 37, as she had lunch with her mom.

“How can you go to a church for 20 years and not heard your minister say something off-color? Either he’s heard it and is lying about it, or he’s lying about going to church as much as he does,” said Demmin. “In which case he’s not the Christian he says he is.”

Obama strongly denounced his former pastor on Tuesday and called his racially charged comments “appalling.”

And if Obama’s Muslim ties and Christian pastor aren’t bad enough, his atheism is the last straw.

“A person who doesn’t believe in anything? I don’t want anything to do with him,” said cafe owner and Clinton supporter Shirley Bailey, 70. “He says he won’t take an oath on the Bible, he won’t salute the American flag. That doesn’t sit well with me.”

Obama was sworn in at the U.S. Senate with his hand on a Bible. He stopped wearing an American flag lapel pin — standard issue for U.S. politicians — saying that a pin on the chest matters less than what’s in the heart.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Andrea Hopkins (Shirley Bailey, owner of the Chaperral Cafe in Shelbyville, Indiana, said she can’t support Barack Obama in Indiana’s May 6 primary because of his religious views. Many of her customers agreed.)

RALEIGH - Rocky Balboa is getting a workout on the Hillary Clinton campaign.

Endorsing Clinton on Tuesday, North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley evoked the fictional fighter, played in the popular “Rocky” movies by Sylvester Stallone, to describe the former first lady as a tireless fighter.

“I’ve been accused of being persistent and downright aggravating,” the governor said, with Clinton at his side, “but this lady right here makes Rocky Balboa look like a pansy.”

Clinton has compared herself to the fighter on the campaign trail, saying like him, “I never quit.  I never give up.”

Theme songs from the “Rocky” movies, in which Rocky Balboa fought as an underdog, as a champion and as a comeback boxer, have been used at Clinton campaign events.

In Raleigh on Tuesday, the North Carolina governor talked about how much he admired Clinton and also his wife Mary, who was on hand.

“There’s nothing I love more than a strong, powerful woman, so I’m in hog heaven today,” Easley said. “Sitting back in that conference room with Mary and Hillary Clinton, I just watched. You kind of got to know when to be quiet. You kind of got to know when the people in the room are way beyond you.”

  Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.        

Photo credit: Reuters/Chris Keane (North Carolina governor endorsing Clinton)

WASHINGTON - U.S. Capitol Police arrested dozens of protesters, many in wheelchairs, at the Senate office of  presidential candidate John McCain on Tuesday while to Arizona Republican was in Florida campaigning about health care as well as raising money.

The activists demanded to talk to McCain about his lack of support for legislation that would help poor handicapped people stay in their homes and out of nursing facilities.

McCain is the only presidential aspirant who has not endorsed the bill, said Bob Kafka, a spokesman for ADAPT, an activist group that staged the protest. Democratic contenders Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton support the bill, he said.

About 500 members of the group are in Washington this week celebrating their 25th anniversary of community activism, Kafka said. About 40 protesters were in McCain’s office with another 50 outside the hallway shouting to see McCain. Hundreds of others staged another demonstration outside the Republican National Committee near the Capitol, he said.

Kafka said Medicaid rules are forcing people who need care into nursing institutions. “The main thing that drives our organization is the passion to live in our communities,” he said.

McCain’s office had no immediate comment on the protest. 

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

- Photo credit: Reuters/Carlos Barria (protesters follow McCain in Florida).

A papal visit, with its weeks of build-up and intense media coverage, often seems to end with an afterglow -- but very little news -- once the pope and his party fly back to the Eternal City. Not so with Pope Benedict's recent U.S. visit where, more than a week after it ended, the volatile issue of public figures, the abortion & Communion issue is making headlines.

While journalists reported that prominent Catholic politicians who support abortion rights stepped up to receive the Eucharist during Masses in Washington and New York (here's our story and blog post), the development was little more than a footnote in the wave of coverage that washed over the visit. It was notable, however, in view of a controversy that began in 2004 when some U.S. bishops said they would deny Communion to John Kerry, then the Democratic presidential nominee, because he supported abortion rights

But during the U.S. papal Masses, not only did Kerry receive Communion but so did House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former New York Mayor Rudi Giuliani and Senators Edward Kennedy and Christopher Dodd. The conservative columnist Robert Novak wrote in the Washington Post on Monday that this "reflected disobedience to Benedict by the archbishops of New York and Washington" and did not indicate any softening of the pope's anti-abortion position.

"The effect was to dull messages of faith, obligation and compassion conveyed by Benedict," Novak wrote. "In his Yankee Stadium homily, he talked of 'authority' and 'obedience' -- acknowledging these are not easy words to speak nowadays. They surely are not for four former presidential candidates and two princes of the church, represending Catholics who defy heir faith's doctrine on abortion."

On the day Novak's column appeared, one of those two princes -- New York's Cardinal Edward Egan -- posted a statement on the archdiocese website saying Giuliani had violated an "understanding" he had with him not to receive Communion because of his views on abortion rights and that he -- the cardinal -- deeply regretted it had happened. What Egan did not mention is that Giuliani has also been married three times -- his first marriage was annulled but the second ended in divorce, which should bar him from the sacrament according to church law. Some bloggers have criticised him for this and Beliefnet's David Gibson wondered if he ignored the divorce issue because so many Catholics are getting divorced these days but remain faithful and want to take Communion.

In reply, Giuliani's spokeswoman said he is willing to meet with Egan but that his faith "is a deeply personal matter and should remain confidential."

None of the public figures involved received Communion directly from the pope, but from other clergy as the Masses. But before becoming Pope, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was reported as saying he backed denying communion to Kerry. His statement was more nuanced than that, but it has been presented in the U.S. (mostly by conservative bishops) as a refusal.

The issue of public figures and the sacrament has not surfaced in this year's presidential nomination derby, probably because none of the remaining candidates is Catholic. But it simmers still in some places, notably St. Louis, where Archbishop Raymond Burke has raised it in various ways. When he headed a Wisconsin diocese before taking the St. Louis post, Burke said Communion should be denied some state lawmakers there who supported abortion rights. More recently he suggested Communion might be denied to basketball coach Rick Majerus at St. Louis University -- a Catholic institution -- who attended a rally for Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton and said he was "personally" pro-choice.

Should Giuliani not have come forward for Communion? Or are he and the cardinal making a political football out of this? And why do you think Egan avoided the divorce issue?

While Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton criss-cross North Carolina hunting for votes ahead of the May 6 Democratic primary election, one prominent resident of the state is missing: John Edwards.

He’s gone to Disneyworld, for a long-planned vacation with his family.

Edwards, who withdrew from his second presidential race in January, has not yet endorsed a candidate, though both Clinton and Obama have wooed him.

Though they’re supposedly away from the political infighting while at Disneyworld, Edwards’ wife Elizabeth is keeping her feet wet.

Elizabeth, who has had a recurrence of breast cancer, is now a senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress, specializing in health care. While at Cinderella’s Castle she took a  break for a phone call to talk with colleagues about Republican John McCain’s health care plan.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo credit: Reuters/Lee Celano (Edwards waves as he walks with his family before announcing he would withdraw from U.S. presidential race) 

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Talk about a workout. Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, a basketball fan who takes to the court to stay in shape, got a run for his money on Tuesday during a scrimmage with the University of North Carolina Tar Heels.

The U.S. presidential candidate, 46 and 6′2″, played ball with students half his age and seemingly twice his height in an early morning match-up that sent him off to the sidelines for a break halfway through the game.

“These guys are a lot better than me,” he breathed to reporters while jogging down the court after one play.

Yes they are. But the lanky candidate, dressed in sweats, managed a few nice passes and a lay-up that looked like it should have made it in.

“Thought I had that one!” he winced after missing the shot.

The famous powerhouse college team did not exactly give the man who would like to be the next U.S. president a break, but Obama did his best to keep up and had a smile on his face throughout.

The bright side? At least he wasn’t bowling…

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Photo credit: Reuters/Frank Polich (Obama plays basketball in Indiana last week)