Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels today promised to remain neutral in his state’s upcoming Republican Senate primary, but admitted to being “startled” by Coats’ surprise candidacy. Former Senator Dan Coats is “just alarmed about the country, I can tell you that from talking to him,” Daniels said of Coats, who contacted the governor Monday about his potential challenge to Democratic Senator Evan Bayh. Many Republicans criticized | Read More »
Court documents relating to the 2005 divorce of embattled Illinois Democratic Lieutenant Governor nominee Scott Lee Cohen surfaced Thursday, alleging the Chicago business man was prone to regular fits of rage–likely side-effects of his abuse of anabolic steroids–and forced himself sexually on his ex-wife. While still married, which the woman characterized as “pretty unbearable,” Cohen took “injectable anabolic steroids, including but not limited to Winstrol, | Read More »
Governor Patrick Quinn (D-IL) Wednesday expressed concern over his running-mate’s history of domestic violence, telling reporters that the Democrats’ nominee for lieutenant governor “should step aside,” barring a compelling explanation for his actions. Scott Lee Cohen, who allegedly threatened his prostitute girlfriend by brandishing a knife and throwing her against a wall, Tuesday won the Democratic Party’s nomination for lieutenant governor, edging out five other | Read More »
What Chicago election is complete without elements of domestic violence, prostitution and tax evasion? A Chicago pawnbroker who financed his campaign with nearly $2 million of his own wealth, Scott Lee Cohen Tuesday won the Democratic Party’s nomination for Lieutenant Governor. But with new details of Cohen’s sordid past emerging today, Democratic primary voters will soon be wishing they had given his five rivals a | Read More »
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has squandered over $101,000 tax dollars on “in-flight services” on congressional delegations since 2008, according to new documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the government watchdog group Judicial Watch. Expenditures on Pelosi-led CODELs, the group’s report shows, include thousands for liquor, beer and wine. Receipts show purchase of Johnny Walker, Grey Goose, Beefeater, Maker’s Mark, Courvoisier, Dewars, Bombay | Read More »
Aides to President Barack Obama acknowledged Tuesday White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel apologized to leaders of the special needs community after a recent screed involving the mentally disabled. At a White House meeting, Emanuel reportedly scolded a group of liberal strategists for attacking wayward Democrats over health care, dismissing the suggestion the White House alienate moderate Blue Dogs as “f–ing retarded.” Sarah Palin, | Read More »
Senator Arlen Specter and his brash temperament are back in the news. The incorrigible Republican-turned-Democrat attended a Pennsylvania Progressive forum Saturday, opposite his primary opponent Representative Joe Sestak, where he stormed the stage prematurely during Sestak’s closing remarks. Explaining why he is best suited both professional and politically for the post, Sestak was unexpectedly greeted by Specter, prompting a moderator to bluntly ask the senator | Read More »
The latest senior aide to bolt from the Republican National Committee headquarters, national press secretary Gail Gitcho is leaving to oversee Senator-elect Scott Brown’s communications operation, it was reported Sunday by CNN. Gitcho, who held communications posts in the campaigns of John McCain and Mitt Romney, is the third senior communications aide to depart in two months, fueling speculation of mid-cycle internal strife. Gitcho is following in | Read More »
A kinder, gentler year for Republicans, 2009 witnessed the flipping of two governorships–one in the newly-designated purple commonwealth of Virginia–and the Senate seat long-held by the late Ted Kennedy. The prospective 2012 Republican contenders, too, have capitalized on the base’s renewed vigor, with early front-runners pulling in–and dolling out–millions for their political action committees. Mitt Romney’s Free and Strong political action committee raised just shy | Read More »
Pentagon officials acknowledged Friday their aerial refueling tanker program has stalled yet again, leaving uncertain the fate of the Air Force’s outdated fleet of more than 500 tankers. Vying for the $35 billion contract for 179 tanker planes are the Washington-based Boeing and the Toulouse, France-based European Aeronautic Defense Space Company (EADS), though the former has threatened to withdraw from consideration if the Pentagon did | Read More »
A joint radio appearance with Representative Michele Bachman and Senator Arlen Specter turned ugly yesterday when the Pennsylvania Republican-turned-Democrat became irate and demanded of Bachmann that she “act like a lady.” The pair were invited by Philadelphia-based conservative talker Dom Giordano for a special program marking the one-year anniversary of President Obama’s inauguration. Asked by Senator Specter to reflect on the fiscal policies she supported | Read More »
Marking President Barack Obama’s first year in office, the Republican National Committee Thursday released a new web video which makes no bones about the GOP’s attempts to tap into the anti-tax and anti-big government sentiments among Tea Partiers. “His rhetoric promised ‘Change we can believe in,’” the voice-over said, “but his record delivered disappointment, change we didn’t expect.” The ad enumerates those offenses observed as | Read More »
Senator Barbara Boxer Monday hit the campaign trail to tout jobs “created by the stimulus” in California by the Democrats’ $800 billion economic recovery package, attracting ridicule from Republican Carly Fiorina’s campaign who accused the junior Democratic senator of an “effort to deceive voters into thinking she’s actually done something for California.” With the expansion of California’s State Route 905 as her backdrop, Senator Boxer insisted | Read More »
In what constitutes a staggering blow to President Obama’s goal of shuttering the Guantanamo Bay military detention facility, a new report by the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) says one in five former detainees have returned to militant activity following their release. But as with each successive challenge to the Obama White House, when all else invariably fails, the President and his aides blame the | Read More »
Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has diverted nearly half a million in contributions from her political action committee to her son’s political consulting firm from 2001 to 2009, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings. Boxer and Associates, owned by son Douglas Boxer, has in the last 8 years profited to the tune of $497,409.17, $36,000 of which was from last year alone as the politically-vulnerable | Read More »
Seen as a prelude to the White House honoring President Barack Obama’s pledge to shutter the controversial detention facility by January 22, Administration officials last week quietly repatriated twelve Guantanamo Bay detainees. Among those released were six Yemenis, four Afghanis, and two Somalis, many of whom have been in American custody for the last eight years. The decision to close Guantanamo–by transferring and trying in | Read More »
Senator Al Franken today caused a stir among his colleagues, breaking from the Senate’s long-held standards of collegiality when the gavel-wielding Minnesota Democrat denied Senator Joe Lieberman an additional minute to finish his remarks. Lieberman–who has been vilified by progressives for rejecting the controversial public option, most recently by MoveOn today–was interrupted by Franken when his remarks exceeded the allotted ten minutes. “I’m sorry. The | Read More »
Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI) “categorically” pledged in September to oppose abortion coverage mandates in the health care legislation presently before Congress, but with the Hatch-Nelson amendment on the immediate horizon some now fear the Wisconsin Democrat may hedge on his promise. “We should not be using health care reform to provide government access to abortion,” said Kohl–who NARAL awarded a 100% pro-choice rating–at a health | Read More »
Embattled Athens County, Ohio Democratic Chairwoman Susan Gwinn was indicted Monday on two counts of election-related bribery, special prosecutors announced today. Gwinn, who last month was charged with six felonies for campaign finance crimes and money-laundering, became the subject of a voter fraud investigation after an email from College Democrats Vice President Kellie Galan surfaced in which students were promised a cash bounty for every | Read More »
There is a troubling story unfolding in Queens, New York, in which school officials and local Democrats have charged College Republicans with stoking racism and xenophobia. Siraj Wahhaj, a radical Muslim cleric who authorities in 1995 identified an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was last week invited to Queens College to speak on the subject “How Islam Perfected Thanksgiving.” Wahhaj testified | Read More »
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