Articles of Interest 12-15-07

327 Days until Election Day

MORNING UPDATE:

Rest easier for the rest of the year…the legislature is officially on Christmas break and the Democrats will NOT be able to sneak, cajole, bribe or blackmail anyone into another TAX increase!  Sorry Governor Granholm…Merry Christmas taxpayers!

Kudos to Representative Rick Jones (MY state rep!) who  announced this week he is introducing a school Christmas bill after learning that schools across the nation are canceling Christmas plays, prohibiting Christmas music, trees, and the colors red and green in some instances.

The legislation would say that public school administrators and teachers may celebrate a public holiday if they chose.  Freedom of religion, freedom of choice!

We are still exploring one last chance to bring a second debate to Michigan…keep your fingers crossed!

Our good friend and longtime Republican activists Willie Childs from Dearborn Heights is fighting a terrible bout of cancer. Please keep her and her family in your prayers.

I will be fading out the Daily Articles of Interest this coming week and taking a break over the Christmas Holidays and will be back after the New Year.  There will be periodic updates on the blog at:

www.migop.blogs.com

Give a Gift this Holiday Season that Will Last a Lifetime!

The Michigan Republicans moved their headquarters to the Secchia-Weiser Republican Center in 2006 and plan to install a legacy site to honor those who have served the party and the citizens of Michigan.  The legacy site will create a well-deserved tribute to honor Michigan’s past, present, and future Republican leaders!  Buy a brick to celebrate, to inspire, or to commemorate friends, family, or yourself this holiday season!  They are a great way to honor others in memoriam, birthdays, anniversaries, or any special occasion.  Your honoree will receive a certificate commemorating their personalized brick.  Choose from our four different options and be a part of the Michigan Republican Party Legacy! 

To order your personalized Legacy Brick please visit www.migop.org/legacy, or contact Erin Meteer, Major Donor Program Manager at emeteer@migop.org. 

THE REST OF THE STORY:

No further commentary today

Saul Anuzis

STATE STORIES

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071215/METRO01/712150360

Elected officials ignore tax man

Saturday, December 15, 2007

By Robert Snell and Darren A. Nichols

More than a dozen Wayne Co. officials are delinquent on property bills or paid them late.

Robert Snell and Darren A. Nichols DETROIT -- More than a dozen public officials -- including Wayne County's two top law enforcement officials, seven judges, a school board member and state representative -- owed $63,000 in delinquent Detroit property taxes before a flurry of payments late this week.

According to a Detroit News review of 2005 and 2006 delinquent

Detroit

property tax records, they included:

• Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, who owed $4,527 on a rental property, and Sheriff Warren Evans, who said he wasn't responsible for almost $11,000 that records attributed to him.

• Wayne County Commissioner Bernard Parker, who owed $1,780, also on a rental property.

• Chief District Court Judge Marylin Atkins who owed $1,761 on her home.

The taxes -- almost $23,000 of which were paid Thursday and Friday after calls from The Detroit News -- were outstanding at a time when Detroit has an estimated deficit of $159.9 million. They also raise questions about the officials' ability to lead and manage millions in taxpayer money, a public policy expert said.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071214/UPDATE/712140443

Bush urges House to pass energy bill

Friday, December 14, 2007

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON -- President Bush today praised the energy bill the Senate approved late Thursday night and urged the House to quickly pass the measure that hikes automobile fuel efficiency requirements by 40 percent to an industry fleet-wide average of 35 miles per gallon. "I want to thank the Senate and congratulate the Senate for passing a good energy bill -- and now the House must act," Bush told reporters after meeting with his cabinet. The Senate passed a slimmed-down energy bill 86-8 late Thursday, after removing $21.8 billion in new taxes and a requirement that utilities produce 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to bring the Senate bill up for a vote on Tuesday, her office said today.

Bush could sign the bill before he leaves for his Christmas vacation.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071214/OPINION01/712140315/1007/OPINION

Energy bill does little more than bash autos

Friday, December 14, 2007

Detroit

News Editorial

A modified energy bill has had to be stripped by the U.S. Senate of most of the House language that offended various special interests. What's left, however, is legislation that almost exclusively burdens the automobile industry. If such a version of the legislation makes it to the president, it deserves a veto.

The legislation can't rightly be called an "energy bill," since it does nothing to lay the strategic groundwork for responsible future energy production and use. Instead, it is an anti-automobile bill, pure and simple. About the only impactful provision that remains in place is the mandate for a 40 percent increase in corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) by 2020, or a fleetwide industry average of 35 miles per gallon. This demand would cost

Detroit

's automakers an estimated $80 to meet, plus billions for other automakers.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071214/OPINION03/712140327/1020

Energy bill's web is full of tangles

December 14, 2007

By Daniel Howes

Thirty years of auto industry stonewalling -- or victories, if you prefer -- on federal fuel economy rules are over. The only questions are what the new regime will actually look like and how many casualties will it claim. The Senate passed a massive new energy bill that includes sweeping revisions to the '70s-era Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulations and moved the legislation over to the House before shipping it to the White House for the president's signature. That's the predictable part for

Detroit

's automakers and their chief rivals like Toyota Motor Corp., which could see its expansion stalled by standards that essentially endanger Tundra pickups built in

Texas

and Sequoia SUVs from

Indiana

.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1197643784311510.xml&coll=6

Pointless resolution

Friday, December 14, 2007

Grand Rapids

Press Editorial

The Grand Rapids City Commission last week felt compelled to "join citizens in lamenting the injury and loss of life suffered by U.S. troops as well as Iraqi noncombatants" and admonish the U.S. government to establish "clear and aggressive timelines for the full transfer of governmental decision-making and internal security to the legitimate government of Iraq and withdraw U.S. troops from the country."

Perhaps Congress could now pass a formal resolution "lamenting" high sewer rates while admonishing commissioners for clearly inadequate park funding and the prolonged delivery of street plowing services in

Grand Rapids

.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071214/POLITICS01/712140378/1022/POLITICS

Early

Mich.

primary takes a hit

Ex-congressman, now Edwards' campaign manager, says vote was pushed to help

Clinton

.

Friday, December 14, 2007

By Gordon Trowbridge

JOHNSTON

,

Iowa

-- Former Michigan Rep. David Bonior on Thursday criticized

Michigan

's decision to hold an early presidential primary, firing back at critics who blame him and others in the John Edwards campaign for dooming the Democratic contest on Jan. 15. Bonior, who is Edwards' campaign manager, singled out Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Sen. Carl Levin for criticism, and called the move to Jan. 15 an attempt by supporters of Hillary Clinton to boost the

New York

senator's chances for the nomination.

http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071214/OPINION02/712140339/1085/opinion

Lt. gov. has a Gore choice

With unpopular boss, how does Cherry campaign?

December 14, 2007

By Tim Skubick

Lt. Gov. John Cherry emerged with a smile from his cubbyhole office behind the Michigan Senate in the dead of night last September. He was exercising his index finger on his right hand - up and down, up and down - as he walked toward the Senate floor.

When he caught a reporter's eye he joked, "Just getting it in shape." In a few moments Cherry would use that finger to push the green voting light on his desk to pass the state income tax increase. As Cherry prepares to run for governor in 2010, the politically expedient thing to do at that moment was to vote "no." You can see the TV ads: Picture of Cherry at the Senate podium casting the deciding vote on the income tax. The announcer says, "The man who brought you a state income tax hike ... imagine what he'll do if he's governor?" For that very reason, Senate Republicans finagled a 19-19 vote on the tax matter, thereby forcing Cherry to break the tie. Without batting an eyelash, Cherry did just that.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MI_KENNECOTT_MINE_MIOL-?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=INTERNATIONAL&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

DEQ approves permits for UP mine, opponents continue fight

December 14, 2007

By JOHN FLESHER

TRAVERSE CITY

,

Mich.

(AP) -- A proposal for a new nickel and copper mine in

Michigan

's

Upper Peninsula

won approval from state environmental regulators Friday, but opponents said they would continue fighting the project. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality said it was granting three permits sought by Kennecott Minerals Co. to operate the mine in the Yellow Dog Plains section of northern

Marquette

County

. The remote area is prized for its forest trails and trout streams. Critics fear the mine would pollute ground and surface waters, but supporters say it would be strictly regulated and boost the local economy. It would provide 120 to 150 jobs, Kennecott says.

http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/2007/12/devos_legislature_should_go_pa.html

DeVos: Legislature should go part time

December 14, 2007

by Peter Luke

LANSING

-- As lawmakers completed a long, often contentious year of work, 2006 GOP gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos blasted them for raising taxes and increasing spending. Dick DeVos The "entire sad debate," DeVos wrote in an e-mail to supporters on the Legislature's last work day Thursday, resulted in "a fat tax hike, including a personal income tax increase and now a major increase in business taxes, too."Singling out Gov. Jennifer Granholm and House Democrats, he added they "were even successful in getting a few misguided Republicans to go along with them on the hike in state spending and increased taxes ... ."

http://www.mlive.com/news/chronicle/index.ssf?/base/news-13/1197647168146980.xml&coll=8

Bills could expand 'promise' statewide

Friday, December 14, 2007

By Peter Luke

Modeled after the Kalamazoo Promise college tuition guarantee, a House-passed measure would authorize and help fund similar efforts in communities across

Michigan

, including possibly one in

Muskegon

County

. Michigan Promise Zone legislation, approved on a bipartisan 71-34 vote Thursday, would couple state property tax revenue growth with private donations to provide a tuition guarantee for graduating seniors who attend a

Michigan

community college or public university. Most Muskegon-area House members voted in favor of the bill. The only one to oppose it was Goeff Hansen, R-Hart.

http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/michigan/index.ssf?/base/news-49/1197594276320830.xml&storylist=newsmichigan

House: Make state lawmakers work longer for retirment health care

                           

12/13/2007

Associated Press

LANSING

,

Mich.

(AP) — Lawmakers no longer would get full health care coverage in retirement for just six years of work under legislation approved Thursday in the state House. After serving six years, current legislators get 90 percent of their health care paid for during retirement once they turn 55. Under the House plan, future lawmakers would get 42 percent of their health care covered after working 14 years.

http://www.mlive.com/business/index.ssf/2007/12/critics_find_mbt_as_confusing.html

Critics find MBT as confusing as SBT

December 14, 2007

by Rick Haglund

DETROIT

-- The much-despised Single Business Tax is gone, but the controversy over the way

Michigan

taxes businesses isn't. Business groups, economic developers and tax experts say the new Michigan Business Tax appears to be as complex as the convoluted SBT. That could continue making it difficult for economic developers to explain

Michigan

's tax structure to out-of-state businesses being wooed to invest here.

And some say a 21.99 percent surcharge on the MBT, part of a Dec. 1 deal to kill the new service tax, could hit hard many growing midsize businesses.

http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071214/NEWS01/312140005

Farm bill could boost funding for

Mich.

farmers

December 14, 2007

By Ken Thomas

WASHINGTON

— A farm bill approved by the Senate today could help

Michigan

farmers who grow fruits and vegetables while providing more attention to renewable energy and conservation programs. The $286 billion farm bill, which passed on a 79-14 vote, continues billions of dollars of subsidies and offers new grants for "specialty crops" commonly grown in

Michigan

: blueberries, apples, cherries, asparagus, and celery. "This is the best farm bill in years for

Michigan

," said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee. "We're not only supporting our traditional crops but for the first time specialty crops, which are half the crops grown in the country, have become a permanent part of American food and farm policy," she said. Both Stabenow and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit, voted for the bill, which would update the current farm law which was enacted in 2002.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071214/SCHOOLS/712140366

State puts

Detroit

schools on notice

Friday, December 14, 2007

By Jennifer Mrozowski

District doesn't meet requirement to provide transfer and tutoring options to students Over the past two school years, Detroit Public Schools failed to fully comply with federal laws requiring that children in high-poverty, low-performing schools be given the option to transfer and receive tutoring, according to the Michigan Department of Education.

The state notified the district Thursday that it must address the issues of non-compliance or face financial penalties. The penalties have yet to be determined, according to Jan Ellis, Michigan Department of Education spokeswoman. "The department (of education) is actively working, and DPS is very cooperative in trying to resolve these issues," Ellis said.

Hoosiers lobby tax-weary Michiganians

December 15, 2007

Michael LaFaive and Michael Hicks,

Mackinac

Center

for Public Policy

Since the Legislature and governor approved the ($1.4 billion) tax hike, the state of

Indiana

erected billboards near the border encouraging Michiganians to "Come on IN for Lower Taxes, Business and Housing Costs." (They've also taunted

Illinois

, another neighbor on a tax-hike spree.)

Indiana

is also running radio ads with the same message on

Lansing

's WJIM. As an aside, none of this Hoosier activity is funded with tax dollars.

NATIONAL STORIES

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=D9EAADAE-3048-5C12-001C5684A3C6A533

Huck's gift-givers ended up in state posts

By: Kenneth P. Vogel

December 14, 2007 

Mike Huckabee accepted more than 90 gifts from 21 Arkansans he appointed to state posts during his decade as governor, a Politico analysis of state public records found.

Since setting his sights on the White House, those supporters, their families and their companies have kept on giving. They contributed nearly $161,000 to a pre-presidential campaign account and Huckabee's official campaign committee since late last year, according to state and federal campaign finance records. Huckabee’s gifts became issues in his two gubernatorial campaigns as his opponents tried to stoke voter doubts about his judgment and ethics. As he surges in

Iowa

and nationally, Huckabee’s primary rivals are expected to make similar arguments.

http://rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/florida/election_2008_florida_republican_primary

Election 2008:

Florida

Republican Primary

Florida

: Huckabee 27% Romney 23% Giuliani 19%

Friday, December 14, 2007

Rasmussen Reports

Mitt Romney’s strategy for winning the Republican nomination was to win the early states and build momentum. Rudy Giuliani’s plan was to accept defeats in the early states and come back strong on January 29 in

Florida

and in many large states on February 5.

The latest Rasmussen Reports polling in the state of

Florida

suggests that Giuliani might need to work on a “Plan B.’ Mike Huckabee now leads in the Sunshine State Primary with 27% of the vote. He is trailed closely by Romney at 23% and Giuliani at 19%. Fred Thompson is at 9% in the poll, John McCain at 6%, and Ron Paul at 4%. Tom Tancredo and Duncan Hunter each attract 1% and 8% are undecided.

http://www.qctimes.com/articles/2007/12/14/news/local/doc4762b62922c47155272760.txt

Obama, Huckabee lead new

Iowa

poll

Friday, December 14, 2007

By Ed Tibbetts

Presidential candidates Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee hold 9-point leads in

Iowa

with less than three weeks to go before the Jan. 3 caucuses, according to a new poll conducted for the Quad-City Times and other Lee Enterprises newspapers. The poll, conducted with 500 likely caucus-goers from Dec. 10 through Dec. 13, said Obama, a senator from

Illinois

, led in the Democratic race with 33 percent, followed by Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, who had 24 percent each.New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was next with 9 percent, followed by Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., with 3 percent and Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, with 1 percent each.

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1430564420071215

Huckabee leads Republicans in

South Carolina

poll

Fri Dec 14, 2007

By Matthew Bigg

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee took the lead for the Republican nomination in the early-voting state of South Carolina in a poll released on Friday that mirrored his rapid rise in national polls. Huckabee was the choice of 24 percent of South Carolina Republicans in the CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll taken December 9-12, up from 3 percent from July.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/

The Pulpit and the Potemkin Village

Would Reagan survive in today's GOP? And is Mrs. Clinton in for a fall this winter?

Friday, December 14, 2007

By Peggy Noonan

What is happening in

Iowa

is no longer boring but big, and may prove huge.

The Republican race looks--at the moment--to be determined primarily by one thing, the question of religious faith. In my lifetime faith has been a significant issue in presidential politics, but not the sole determinative one. Is that changing? If it is, it is not progress.

Mike Huckabee is in the lead due, it appears, to voter approval of the depth and sincerity of his religious beliefs as lived out in his ministry as an ordained Southern Baptist. He flashes "Christian leader" over his picture in commercials; he asserts his faith is "mainstream"; his surrogates speak of Mormonism as "strange" and "definitely a factor." Mr. Huckabee said this summer that a candidate's faith is "subject to question," "part of the game." He tells the New York Times that he doesn't know a lot about Mitt Romney's faith, but isn't it the one in which Jesus and the devil are brothers? This made me miss the old days of Gore Vidal's "The Best Man," in which a candidate started a whispering campaign that his opponent's wife was a thespian.

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20071214/a_giuliani14.art.htm

Giuliani shifts tactics, goes on offensive

Campaign pressing hard in early-decision states

December 14, 2007

By David Jackson

Republican Rudy Giuliani's plan to absorb punishment in the party's early primaries and then strike back in primaries in delegate-rich states on Jan. 29 and Feb. 5 has hit a wall, political analysts and strategists say. Instead of emulating former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali's rope-a-dope strategy and letting his opponents tire themselves out in contests in

Iowa

and

New Hampshire

, the former

New York

mayor has had to start swinging hard in those states. That's because Giuliani is behind in

Iowa

,

New Hampshire

and

South Carolina

, polls show. So while Ali's strategy enabled him to unseat heavyweight champ George Foreman in 1974, it won't help Giuliani win next year's Republican presidential nomination, political scientist Dante Scala said. "He needs to break through before the end of January," said Scala, who teaches at the

University

of

New Hampshire

.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1207/7257.html

Conservatives accuse Rudy of fuzzy math

Dec 14, 2007

By: Avi Zenilman

On the campaign trail, Rudy Giuliani touts the supply-side economics popular among Republicans since Ronald Reagan was president. Giuliani consistently echoes President Bush’s assertion in February 2006: “You cut taxes and the tax revenues increase.” But there’s a growing sentiment among many conservative economists — including those who generally support cutting taxes to spur economic growth and job creation — that Giuliani’s statements are simplistic and at worst misleading

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071215/D8THJH880.html

Huckabee Sees WH 'Bunker Mentality'

Dec 14, 2007

By LIBBY QUAID

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - Mike Huckabee, who has joked about his lack of foreign policy experience, is criticizing the Bush administration's efforts, denouncing a go-it-alone "arrogant bunker mentality" and questioning decisions on Iraq. Huckabee, the former

Arkansas

governor now running for the Republican presidential nomination, lays out a policy plan that is long on optimism but short on details in the January-February issue of the journal Foreign Affairs, which is published by the Council on Foreign Relations. A copy of his article was released Friday. "American foreign policy needs to change its tone and attitude, open up, and reach out," Huckabee said. "The Bush administration's arrogant bunker mentality has been counterproductive at home and abroad. My administration will recognize that the

United States

' main fight today does not pit us against the world but pits the world against the terrorists."

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichLowry/2007/12/13/huckacide

Huckacide

By Rich Lowry

Thursday, December 13, 2007

The ghost of Howard Dean haunts the pundit class. As soon as a candidate of either party spikes up in the polls, he is compared with Dean, who had a spectacular boomlet in the second half of 2003 only to deflate as soon as people began to vote in early 2004. After many false prophecies, Dean circa 2008 has finally arrived. He is former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Not because he will inevitably blow himself up in

Iowa

. But because, like Dean, his nomination would represent an act of suicide by his party.

http://time-blog.com/real_clear_politics/2007/12/rollins_to_join_huckabees_camp.html

Rollins to Join Huckabee's Campaign

December 14, 2007

by BLAKE DVORAK

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has nabbed long-time Republican strategist Ed Rollins to head his bid for the GOP's presidential nomination. Rollins, who had forgotten just how cold

New Hampshire

can be in December, said, "I'm freezing my tail off" when reached in the

Granite

State

on Friday by ABC News. While commenting on the frigid

New England

weather, Rollins confirmed that he has agreed to serve as Huckabee's national campaign chairman.Rollins is best known for managing Ronald Reagan's landslide reelection in 1984.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22217110

Huckaboom and Hillabust

The surprising falls and unexpected gains ahead of

Iowa

's caucuses

December 12, 2007

By Howard Fineman

WASHINGTON

- Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign is teetering on the brink, no matter what the meaningless national horserace numbers say. The notion that she has a post-Iowa “firewall” in

New Hampshire

is a fantasy, and she is in danger of losing all four early contests, including

Nevada

and

South Carolina

– probably to Sen. Barack Obama, who is now, in momentum terms, the Democratic frontrunner.On the Republican side, meanwhile, the race is shaping up in an even more unexpected way: a contest between two former Northern moderates (Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney) for the right to take on a Southern Baptist preacher, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who believes in the inerrancy of Scripture but not in Darwinian evolution.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/12/14/romney_is_the_kind_of_leader_we_need/

Romney is the kind of leader we need

December 14, 2007

By William F. Weld (former Gov. of

Massachusetts

)

MY FONDEST MEMORY of my two terms as governor of

Massachusetts

in the 1990s was that we reversed the tax-and-spend policies of the Dukakis years, and put the Commonwealth on a new diet of "Live Free or Die" philosophy and "supply-side" economics. From 1991 to 1997, we had 19 tax cuts in

Massachusetts

, and not a single tax increase. The result, predictably, was an economic resurgence. I was therefore thrilled when Mitt Romney was elected governor in 2002 and accelerated the Commonwealth's course of fiscal conservatism.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071214/POLITICS01/712140350/1022/POLITICS

Romney loses

Iowa

lead

Huckabee new front-runner in 'Christian-oriented' state

Friday, December 14, 2007

Gordon Trowbridge

MUSCATINE

,

Iowa

-- After years of courting

Iowa

officials and millions of dollars worth of ads introducing himself to

Iowa

voters, Mitt Romney acknowledged Wednesday that his carefully built lead here has been lost to an opponent with little cash and a bare-bones staff. "He's the front-runner," Romney said of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, the Baptist minister who has rapidly overtaken Romney in the polls. "At least in this state right here, based on what we're seeing, yeah, he's the guy in front."

Romney, a former

Massachusetts

governor who grew up in

Michigan

's

Oakland

County

, has spent more years cultivating a powerful network of political allies in

Iowa

, visited the state more than any other candidate and blanketed the airwaves with ads that went on the air before any other candidate.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/ROMNEY_THE_FIGHTER?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Analysis: Romney won't go quietly

Dec 15, 2007

By GLEN JOHNSON

BOSTON

(AP) -- Mitt Romney has worked relentlessly to win the Republican presidential nomination for the past three years, and if he's going down, it won't be without a fight. Branded by some as an elite Northeasterner, he plunged deep into the heart of

Texas

- with handshakes and hugs from the first President Bush and wife Barbara - to address questions about his Mormon faith. After rival Mike Huckabee suggested Romney's religion says Jesus and the devil are brothers, Romney went on national television to try a rhetorical haymaker: "Attacking someone's religion is really going too far."

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20071214/a_mccain14.art.htm

McCain gaining in

New Hampshire

Senator picks up support from sports hero, newspaper

December 14, 2007

By Martha T. Moore

MANCHESTER

,

N.H.

— As his Republican rivals lock horns in

Iowa

, Sen. John McCain seems so little concerned with the state's caucuses that during a debate there Wednesday that he mentioned he opposes ethanol subsidies, the federal payments beloved of Midwestern corn growers. McCain's make-or-break state is

New Hampshire

, where he vows he will win the state's first-in-the nation primary Jan. 8. Recently, it has looked a bit more likely he could do it. "He's had a very good month," says New Hampshire GOP strategist Dan Carney, who is not affiliated with a campaign. The Union Leader, the state's staunchly conservative and largest newspaper, endorsed McCain on Dec. 2, calling him "the most trustworthy, competent and conservative of all those seeking the nomination."

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NzNmMTMyZTgzMDM1NTFmNjk5NjBiZDIyMjcwNDU5Yzk=&CFID=13440612&CFTOKEN=85363399

Fred Thompson: The Stand-Up Guy Who Stood Up Too Late?

In

Iowa

, the former senator gives us a highlight of the campaign.

December 14, 2007

By Byron York

Johnston, Iowa — Fred Thompson’s performance at the Des Moines Register Republican debate here in Iowa Wednesday left some supporters — the kind who were enthusiastic early on but who have grown skeptical as his campaign has stumbled — wondering to themselves: Could he still be the best guy, after all that’s happened? As the debate unfolded, there were moments when some of those loyalists began to think the answer might be yes — in spite of everything.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/12/lessons_from_ron_paul.html

GOP Can Learn from Ron Paul

December 14, 2007

By

Kimberley

Strassel

Ron Paul is no compassionate conservative. His supporters love him for it. If there's been a phenomenon in this Republican presidential race, it's been the strength of a fiery doctor from

Texas

and his message of limited government. As the GOP front-runners address crowds of dispirited primary voters, Mr. Paul has been tearing across the country, leaving a trail of passionate devotees in his wake. Paul rallies heave with voters waving placards and shouting "

Liberty

!

Liberty

!" Money is pouring in from tens of thousands of individual donors--so much cash that the 10-term congressman recently admitted he wasn't sure he could spend it all. A fund-raising event on Guy Fawkes Day (in tribute to Mr. Paul's rebel persona) netted his campaign $4 million, the biggest one-day haul of any GOP candidate, ever. He continues to inch up in the early primary polls, and even bests Fred Thompson in

New Hampshire

.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=071214194414.zqb37obb&show_article=1

Clinton

denies White House run is in trouble 

Dec 14, 2007

AFP

Hillary Clinton on Friday denied her White House campaign was in disarray, despite sliding poll ratings and an uproar sparked by an aide who questioned her rival Barack Obama's drug history. "If I had listened to ... the

Washington

chattering class, I would not be standing here would I?"

Clinton

told reporters, as controversy and reports of campaign turmoil swirled around her 2008 presidential bid. "I believe in trusting my own instincts. I feel very, very good about the case that I am making." New signs of fragility for the former first lady came just 20 days before

Iowa

holds first state votes for a Democratic nomination that

Clinton

seemed to have in her grasp just a few months ago

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22252546/

Will Shaheen help sink

Clinton

’s ship?

By Tom Curry

Fri., Dec. 14, 2007

DES MOINES,

Iowa

- “It was worse than a crime, it was a blunder.” So said the French politician Talleyrand after Napoleon had ordered the murder of one of his political rivals. Much of the rhetoric in the spin room Thursday afternoon after the Democratic presidential debate in

Iowa

was about an apparent blunder committed by Bill Shaheen, the master

New Hampshire

political operative and until Thursday the co-chairman of the

Clinton

campaign.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/12/could_clinton_lose_because_of.html

Could

Clinton

Lose Because of Women?

December 14, 2007

By Reid Wilson

From virtually the beginning of her campaign, New York Senator Hillary Clinton has made every effort to maximize her advantages among women voters. It seems a natural constituency for the first woman to climb to the top of a presidential field. Polls throughout the campaign have showed

Clinton

earning the support of far more women than men, giving Democrats hope that, in a general election, she would enlarge the party's traditional gender gap and cruise to the White House with stronger backing from women than any other candidate in history. But now, as polls show her once-strong lead in

Iowa

slipping, the once-inevitable Democratic nominee looks human again, vulnerable to defeat from Illinois Senator Barack Obama. If Obama pulls off the once unthinkable scenario of beating Clinton, a post-mortem analysis will show it is women, once seen as Clinton's key to a guaranteed victory, who caused her defeat.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071214/NATION/112140075/1001

Hillary would raise taxes on rich

December 14, 2007

By Christina Bellantoni

JOHNSTON

,

Iowa

— Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday said her plan for fiscal responsibility includes tax increases, during a debate at which the Democratic contenders kept it civil and stressed they will "ask" Americans to sacrifice to achieve their policy goals." I want to restore the tax rates that we had in the '90s," said the New York Democrat and former first lady. "That means raising taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals. I want to keep the middle-class tax cuts."

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/12/riding_the_obama_wave.html

Riding the Obama Wave

December 14, 2007

By Peter Wehner

We haven't reached the point where the wheels are coming off the

Clinton

campaign. But we're getting close. The last few weeks have been very bad ones for her, from her contradictory answers (within two minutes) on whether illegal aliens should get drivers licenses, to Bill Clinton's (false) claim that he opposed the Iraq war from the start, to the resignation of Bill Shaheen, Clinton's New Hampshire co-chair who put Obama's past use of drugs into play (causing Clinton to apologize). But there are deeper currents at work that explain why Barack Obama is now the Democratic front-runner (he leads in Iowa and New Hampshire is a toss-up; Howard Fineman of Newsweek reports that people are literally exchanging her lawn signs for his).

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119759876506928645.html?mod=hps_us_inside_today

More Blacks Lean Toward Obama

Shift in Allegiance From

Clinton

Could Tighten Primaries in South

December 14, 2007

By JONATHAN KAUFMAN and VALERIE BAUERLEIN

Barack Obama's rising poll numbers among white voters in

Iowa

and

New Hampshire

are having an unexpected ripple effect: Some black voters are switching their allegiance from Hillary Clinton and lining up behind him too. That could mean a further tightening of the Democratic presidential race, especially in southern states where blacks make up as many as half of Democratic primary voters.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/13/AR2007121301785.html?hpid=topnews

Attacks Add

Friday, December 14, 2007; Page A14

By Dana Milbank

When a Boy Scout sees an older woman, he helps her cross the street. In the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama is no Boy Scout.  The 46-year-old freshman senator from

Illinois

, trying to topple the 60-year-old front-runner, never once utters the words "Hillary" or "Clinton." But the target of his stump speech is unmistakable -- and his derision is brutal. "Triangulating the poll-driven positions because we're worried about what Mitt or what Rudy might say about us just won't do," he says.  Take that, ol' girl. "I'm sick and tired of Democrats thinking that the only way to look tough on national security is by talking and acting and voting like George Bush Republicans." And there's more where that came from, granny.  "I don't want to spend 2008 fighting the same fights that we had in the 1990s -- that's exactly what Mitt and Rudy want."

http://www.newsweek.com/id/77828

Why Isn’t Gore Running?

The White House is the place to battle global warming.

Dec 13, 2007

By Michael Hirsch

There he was again on the world stage--in Oslo this time--celebrating his Nobel Peace Prize with singer Melissa Etheridge and actress Uma Thurman, the Hollywood hottie who called him "adorable" and said listening to him talk was "like watching a beautiful racehorse run." But Al Gore isn't running. Which raises the question: maybe Gore's gotten a little too adorable--too comfortable in his role as a globe-trotting guru. What about his own damn country? Why isn't Al Gore--Nobel laureate and enviro rock star, embodiment of the alternative history that never was, winner of the largest popular-vote total in U.S. presidential history (at the time) --seeking the job that many people still think should have been his in 2000? Yes, we've all heard that Gore's reached a kind of peace within himself, and what fire that is left in his belly is guttering out. But shouldn't this Hamlet of the Hustings be tormented with a little of the melancholy Dane's anguished ambition, telling himself: "The time is out of joint; O cursed spite, that ever I was born to set it right?"

http://adage.com/campaigntrail/post?article_id=122626

Campaigns Spend $1 Million on TV Ads in One Day

The First $2 Million Day Can't Be Far Behind

December 13, 2007

By Evan Tracey

On Dec. 10, the 2008 presidential campaign hit a significant milestone: the first $1 million dollar day in TV spending. What makes this day so extraordinary is the majority of this spending is not from groups, but from the candidates. The spending is largely aimed at voters in just two states and the ads are, for the most part, positive. Further, this amount takes into account only broadcast TV. A quick examination of the numbers tells us a few things. First, the Hillary Clinton campaign is letting the wallet do the talking with $275,000 a day of ad spending in

New Hampshire

(where prices are driven up by the

Boston

market) and

Iowa

. Sen. Barack Obama, one of

Clinton

's main competitors, is deploying his resources to

Iowa

,

New Hampshire

and some

South Carolina

but on a somewhat smaller scale, around $100,000 less. Former Sen. John Edwards is spending less than Obama, and has focused his ad spending on

Iowa

and

South Carolina

.