By: James Richardson (Diary)  |  June 11th at 09:09 AM  | 

A Pennsylvania GOP confab would be a curious place for most out-of-state Congressmen. But not California Rep. Darrell Issa. Issa, whose rhetoric has been a clarion call of sorts for fellow Congressional Republicans over allegations the White House offered federal posts to two Democratic primary challengers, will address Friday the Pennsylvania Republican Party at the group’s summer meeting. Other speakers include Rick Santorum, Rob Gleason, | Read More »

By: James Richardson (Diary)  |  June 2nd at 10:18 PM  | 

A senior aide to President Barack Obama approached former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff with the possibility of three federal posts as an alternative to his primary challenge to Beltway-supported Senator Michael Bennet. Romanoff rebuffed the aide’s suggestions to join the administration. In a statement acknowledging the job talk, Romanoff appended an email from White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina proposing three jobs: | Read More »

By: James Richardson (Diary)  |  May 24th at 03:21 PM  | 

Sarah Palin lent her considerable Facebook megaphone in support of South Carolina gubernatorial hopeful Nikki Haley, with whom a prominent Palmetto State blogger alleged today he had an “inappropriate physical relationship” years before. “When Nikki and I held her endorsement rally on the steps of the beautiful and historic South Carolina state house a few weeks ago, I warned her and her family that she | Read More »

By: James Richardson (Diary)  |  May 22nd at 11:29 PM  | 

In the wake of Tuesday’s Pennsylvania Democratic Senate primary, a top House GOP legislator is renewing his call for an ethics probe into allegations the White House offered Rep. Joe Sestak an administration post in exchange for foregoing his primary bid against Beltway-endorsed Sen. Arlen Specter. California Rep. Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican member of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee, said Sestak, who | Read More »

By: James Richardson (Diary)  |  May 7th at 09:25 PM  | 

Four journalists were ejected from a military commission pre-trial hearing for alleged terrorist and Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr after reporting the name of a protected witness and one-time interrogator, the Pentagon acknowledged Thursday. “We threw some people out there today because they disclosed the identity of a protected witness,” said Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell. “He had been clearly identified as someone who needed | Read More »

By: James Richardson (Diary)  |  April 27th at 04:12 PM  | 

Georgia real estate mogul Ray Boyd announced Monday he would run for governor of the Peach State as an Independent, pledging to spend $2 million of his own money on the race. Boyd, who for weeks had been flirting with a Republican bid but encountered opposition from state party leaders after refusing last week to sign a GOP loyalty oath, has little more than two | Read More »

By: James Richardson (Diary)  |  April 23rd at 04:49 PM  | 

Those vulnerable Democrats whose votes for health care reform were predicated on the conceit that it would not add to the nation’s bloated deficit have today found themselves in a precarious position, as a new report by federal regulators indicated the health care remake will add $311* billion to the national deficit over the next ten years. A report released Thursday by economic experts at | Read More »

By: James Richardson (Diary)  |  April 16th at 03:18 PM  | 

Hoping for the best but spending for the worst, national Democrats acknowledged Friday they intend to inject a considerable $50 million this Fall in contested House, Senate and gubernatorial campaigns across the nation. The assistance–which will consist primarily of money and services dolled out by the Democratic National Committee and the White House’s political operation, Organizing for America–will begin sometime in June, and is intended | Read More »

By: James Richardson (Diary)  |  April 15th at 01:00 PM  | 

Adult film star Stormy Daniels–who for months has been considering a primary challenge to incumbent GOP Senator David Vitter of Lousiana–said today politics is just too sleazy and her expensive for her taste. “I am not running for the US Senate because I am an adult entertainment star,” Daniels said. “I am not running for the US Senate for the same reason that so many | Read More »

By: James Richardson (Diary)  |  April 8th at 10:03 AM  | 

Illinois State Treasurer and Democratic Senate hopeful Alexi Giannoulias appears to be sending mixed signals, both to the press and senior campaign aides, about his blossoming banking scandals, in which he approved as the senior loan officer of his family’s bank million dollar loans to two of Chicago’s most notorious crime figures. A report by the Chicago Tribune revealed in April Giannoulias had authorized a | Read More »

By: James Richardson (Diary)  |  April 7th at 01:37 PM  | 

Senator John McCain, whose reelection campaign has adopted a decidedly anti-maverick slant, released a new radio ad Wednesday assailing his primary challenger J.D. Hayworth’s proclivity for earmarking while in the House of Representatives. The 60-second spot features anti-pork crusader Congressman Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, who credits McCain with a career devoted to eliminating wasteful federal spending and aligns Hayworth with big spending Democrats. “Republicans, | Read More »

By: James Richardson (Diary)  |  April 4th at 10:48 PM  | 

Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said Saturday he’ll soon decide whether to step down from his post as the liberal dean of the nation’s highest court. In comments posted over the weekend on the website of the Washington Post, Stevens said he “will surely” retire while President Barack Obama is in the White House, calming fears of liberal groups that a future Republican president | Read More »

By: James Richardson (Diary)  |  March 22nd at 02:13 PM  | 

A majority of Americans hold a generally negative view of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, according to a new CNN poll which found 59 percent of respondents now in opposition to the plan. After a dozen pro-life Democrats hold-outs lead by Michigan Rep. Bart Stupak caved Sunday to increasing pressure from the White House, the House adopted on a strictly party-line vote the Senate’s | Read More »

By: James Richardson (Diary)  |  March 18th at 03:15 PM  | 

Senator Tom Coburn Thursday put his colleagues in the lower chamber on advance notice, vowing to torpedo any promises of patronage made by President Barack Obama to wavering House Democrats. Coburn promised at a health care presser on Capitol Hill today that he would exercise his senatorial prerogative to hold all nominations of vote-switching House Democrats who lose their reelection bids this Fall. The new | Read More »

By: James Richardson (Diary)  |  March 15th at 01:02 PM  | 

Rielle Hunter has broken her years-long silence on the details of her campaign affair with former would-be presidential candidate John Edwards, telling GQ in a candid interview–complete with a bizarre photo shoot featuring Hunter, wearing only pearls and a man’s white oxford shirt, atop a bed strewn with her love child’s stuffed animals–that she will love Edwards “till death do us part.” Dashing all hopes | Read More »

By: James Richardson (Diary)  |  March 8th at 09:32 AM  | 

New York Democratic Rep. Eric Massa may not be ready to leave Washington, hinting in an interview he may rescind his resignation, scheduled for 5 P.M. Monday. On his weekly radio show, Massa, one of thirty-nine Democrats who voted against last year’s health care bill, said House leadership was orchestrating a public relations campaign against him for the sake of accelerating his resignation and lowering | Read More »

By: James Richardson (Diary)  |  February 27th at 12:10 PM  | 

While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may be reticent to drain the swamp and admonish Representative Charley Rangel for recent ethics violations, President Barack Obama has, in typical Obama fashion, thrown the scandal-plagued New York Democrat under the bus, reports the New York Daily News. In recent days, a growing choir of Democrats have begun echoing GOP demands that Rangel surrender his chairmanship of the powerful | Read More »

By: James Richardson (Diary)  |  February 17th at 06:02 PM  | 

An unusual fundraising email Wednesday greeted the inboxes of supporters of the National Republican Congressional Campaign. In an email “from” Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, “naive” Republicans were instructed to stop fretting over rising unemployment figures because “Democrats are in control now.” “We are creating a dependence on the government and we are succeeding,” the email, dripping with an rare degree of sarcasm for beltway | Read More »

By: James Richardson (Diary)  |  February 10th at 12:30 PM  | 

Former Governor of Virginia Doug Wilder Tuesday urged President Barack Obama to remove Tim Kaine–a fellow member of the Virginia Governors club who once earned Wilder’s endorsement–from his post atop the Democratic National Committee. “[A] spate of recent losses in races that Democrats should have won underscores what has been obvious to me for a long time,” Wilder wrote in a column for Politico. “The | Read More »

By: James Richardson (Diary)  |  February 5th at 01:30 PM  | 

President Barack Obama Friday tapped Democratic National Committee member Tim Purdon as North Dakota’s next United States Attorney, landing the president in the same political minefield once occupied by Democratic Senator Max Baucus after he nominated his girlfriend for a similar federal post. A veteran Democratic bundler, Purdon found a unique affinity with trial lawyer John Edwards, on whose campaign he was a state chairman. | Read More »