Articles of Interest 1-24-2007

287 Days until Election Day

MORNING UPDATE:

Central Michigan University challenges “free speech” and are just digging themselves deeper and deeper into an embarrassing hole.  Action options below.

Thanks to Attorney General Mike Cox, Michigan STOPPED issuing drivers licenses to illegal immigrants.

We took the Michigan “Taxpayers Check” to Saginaw today.  We want to remind voters and taxpayers that Gov. Jennifer Granholm and key leaders such as Rep. Coulouris and Rep. Brown in the Legislature raised state taxes by $1.23

That’s $39 a second in NEW taxes from Granholm and her Democrat allies Coulouris and Brown….taxpayers beware!

THE REST OF THE STORY:
.
- Central Michigan University…Freedom of Speech???

http://www.rightmichigan.com/story/2008/1/23/75351/0449

URGENT ACTION ALERT: Help defend the Constitution... TODAY!

By Nick [Edit User] , Section News
Posted on Wed Jan 23, 2008 at 07:53:51 AM EST

It wouldn't be a new semester if Central Michigan University weren't attempting to censor free speech and political thought on campus.  Wait, that's not entirely true.  They don't have a problem with free speech and political thought from the left.  It's just the conservatives they have a problem with.

By now we all know the story of Dennis Lennox.  There's not much I can add that hasn't been more eloquently stated by Mike Volpe and Chet Zarko in recent days.  The kid has almost single-handedly raised the Gary Peters issue to national prominence.  But just because Dennis thinks that Peters should choose between campus and Congress (in a District hundreds of miles away while violating federal campaign laws that prohibit public employees from pursuing office) doesn't mean the nut-job administrators at Central agree with him.   

Quite the contrary.  They're waging a very personal war against an outspoken conservative student because he dares have opinions different from theirs.   
The school has targeted Lennox by banning videotaping, ignored a dean who assaulted him, directed faculty and staff to avoid the use of CMU e-mail when discussing Gary Peters because it could be released under FOIA, accused the kid of suffering from mental illness because he holds conservative political views and has an interesting haircut.  They went as far as to call him the next Virginia Tech-style school shooter.

And that was all them playing nice.  Well they've decided to take the gloves off and we're going to have to do the same.   

One week from today, on January 30th at 8:00 AM the school will be holding an expulsion hearing to try to rid themselves of Lennox once and for all.  Nevermind that the ACLU, elected officials and alumni have the kids back, he's making things difficult for the lefties in power on campus and they want to wash their hands of him.   

Even more sinister, they're only now letting the guy see the "evidence" they have against him and have refused his request to record the session, determined to cloak it permanently in secrecy.   

Remember the good old days when having anti-establishment viewpoints and rallying against the man was part of the college experience?  Students on the left have rioted, thrown rocks at police and destroyed property and avoided serious trouble from campus officials.  But dare express a conservative view point and serve a FOIA request or two and they'll quite literally try to beat you from campus.

That's not right.  And it can't stand.  That's where we come in.   

I know you're busy today.  I know there's a part of you that says this isn't your problem. There's a part of you that says "everyone else is going to help, I don't need to."  Please warm up your backhand and slap that part of you around a little bit.  We need YOU today!

Please take five minutes (out of the 1,440 you have today) and fire off a quick email or phone call to each of the CMU officials listed below.  Ask them to support Dennis Lennox's right to free expression and political thought.  Ask them to toss the bogus anti-speech "charges" that are being bandied about.  Ask them to stand up for a little thing we like to call the Constitution. 

Here is the contact information... five minutes...:
CMU President Michael Rao:
Email: president@cmich.edu
Phone: (989) 774-3131
Assistant Dean of Students Anthony Voisin:
Email: anthony.a.voisin@cmich.edu
Phone: (989) 774-3016
Board of Trustees Chairman Jeffrey Caponigro (R):
Email: capon1jr@cmich.edu
Phone: (248) 355-3200
Board of Trustees member Stephanie Comai (R):
Email: comai1s@cmich.edu
Phone: (734) 761-6915
Board of Trustees member John Kulhavi (R):
Email: kulha1jg@cmich.edu
Phone: (248) 737-6222
Board of Trustees member Gail Torreano (R):
Email: torre1gf@cmich.edu
Phone: (313) 223-7171

http://www.rightmichigan.com/story/2008/1/23/75351/0449

Saul Anuzis

STATE STORIES

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MI_RENEWABLE_ENERGY_MIOL-?SITE=MIPON&SECTION=STATE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

House panel votes to require use of green energy by end of 2015

By DAVID EGGERT

Associated Press Writer

Jan 23, 7:12 PM EST

LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Within eight years, 10 percent of the electricity sold to Michigan consumers would have to come from renewable energy sources such as wind under bipartisan legislation passed Wednesday by a state House committee. The standard would nearly triple by the start of 2016 the amount of renewable energy now being sold by utilities and other power producers in the state. Because renewable energy can be more expensive to produce, the standard could cost residential customers an extra $36 a year, commercial customers an extra $199 and industrial customers an extra $2,250.  "This isn't a finished product," said Rep. Jeff Mayes,

D-Bay

City

, who helped craft the compromise. "We consider this a work in progress."  The House Energy and Technology Committee's votes were the first on an issue that is among the biggest facing the Legislature this year.  About half the states already have renewable standards for energy companies, but the issue is far from settled in

Michigan

.

http://www.monroenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080123/NEWS01/29936723/-1/NEWS

State House passes small-business measure

story updated January 23. 2008 11:22AM 

 

LANSING

- The Michigan House of Representatives passed a measure last week that would allow small businesses to participate in the state's bulk-purchasing program.

House Democrats say the move, if signed into law, would cut costs and create jobs for

Michigan

workers. The plan would allow small businesses to participate in the cooperative bulk-purchasing program administered through the Department of Management and Budget. Using the program could reduce the costs of purchasing goods and services for small businesses, which tend to operate on tight budgets.   Currently, access to the state's cooperative bulk-purchasing program is limited to certain governmental bodies, such as school districts and colleges, and also nonprofit hospitals.

Small businesses are defined as companies that are independently owned and operated, employ fewer than 30 workers and have gross annual sales of less than $1 million.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080124/AUTO01/801240395

Photo finish: GM still No. 1

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Carmaker sold only about 3,000 more vehicles worldwide than

Toyota

in 2007.

Sharon Terlep / The

Detroit

News

General Motors Corp., after 76 years as the undisputed leader of global auto sales, finished 2007 with a razor-thin lead over Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp. The

Detroit

automaker said Wednesday that it sold 9,369,524 cars and trucks worldwide last year, and

Toyota

said it sold 9.366 million -- a gap of only about 3,000 vehicles. The virtual tie reflects a dramatic shift in the competition between the two automakers; just a decade ago, more than 3 million vehicles separated them.The near tie marks a bleak milestone for

Detroit

's struggling auto giant. But unexpectedly hanging on to the No. 1 spot also underlines GM's strength in the world's vast and still relatively untapped emerging markets. GM was widely predicted to fall measurably behind

Toyota

, but managed to stay ahead with record-breaking sales in several markets outside

North America

. "Would we like to be the largest? Of course," said Bob Lutz, GM's vice chairman of product development.

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

Ford to offer buyouts to all

U.S.

hourly workers

By DEE-ANN DURBIN

AP Auto Writer

Jan 23, 4:44 PM EST

DETROIT

(AP) -- Ford Motor Co. is expected to offer new round of buyouts to all of its 54,000

U.S.

hourly workers, a move that could trim thousands of jobs and pave the way for lower-wage replacements.  Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans confirmed Wednesday that the automaker and the United Auto Workers have reached an agreement to offer buyouts to UAW-represented hourly workers, but she wouldn't give further details. Earlier this month, however, Ford's vice president of North American manufacturing Joe Hinrichs said any buyout offers would be extended to all of Ford's hourly workers.

Details of the buyouts were expected as early as Thursday, when Ford releases its 2007 earnings. Ford President and Chief Executive Alan Mulally said this week that the company would discuss buyout details Thursday.

http://noise.typepad.com/election_countdown/2008/01/state-of-the-st.html#more

State of the State

January 22, 2008

With just one week from the State of the State address, let's take a look at the issues Gov. Jennifer Granholm is expected to address.

The economy

We've heard an awful lot of talk about

Michigan

being in a one-state recession, and it looks like that's all going to change in the near future. Not because

Michigan

's getting any better, mind you, simply because the rest of the country is tanking.

The questions for Granholm now are the same as they have been since she was sworn in five years ago. What do we do about jobs in

Michigan

. How do we deal with the housing crisis? And, perhaps the biggest question mark of all, what can we do differently that we haven't been doing for the last five years?

State budget

The budget was balanced last year a month late - and after a brief shutdown - partly with the aid of increased tax revenue. Granholm has already pledged no new taxes, so how do we solve the upcoming budget mess? Does the no tax hike pledge extend to mandatory fees? What structural cuts are coming, if any?

http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080124/POLITICS/801240343/1022/POLITICS

Tax break for poor may cost far less

New Earned Income Tax Credit will cost state $41M, not more than $100M, economist says.

Mark Hornbeck /

Detroit

News

Lansing

Bureau

Thursday, January 24, 2008

LANSING

-- A new

Michigan

tax break for the working poor that took effect this month will cost the state budget considerably less than initially estimated, an economist reported Wednesday. The Michigan Earned Income Tax Credit, which for the first time this year will piggyback on the federal credit and could benefit about 600,000 families, has been projected to cost next year's state budget more than $100 million and more than twice that when fully phased in the following year. But the net cost will be about $41 million in the first year and $100 million in the second year when the state takes into account the reduced burden on government programs for the poor and wage-earners who get the relief and will return some of it to the state via sales tax and other levies, said East Lansing-based economist Patrick Anderson. He was hired by the Michigan Catholic Conference to study the issue.

http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080124/NEWS04/801240374/1005/news04

Groups rallying to keep earned income tax credit

Benefits to poor outweigh budget costs, they say

Tim Martin

Associated Press

Published January 24, 2008

From

Lansing

State

Journal

Supporters of a new state tax credit for low-income working people say it must take effect this year as scheduled, despite what it might cost a tight state budget.  The state's earned income tax credit, or EITC, complements a federal tax credit and is designed to put more money back in the pockets of low-income workers.  It allows them to claim an amount equal to 10 percent of the federal credit in the 2008 tax year and 20 percent in 2009 and after.  For a single adult with two children working full-time at minimum wage and making $14,872 a year, the credit brings a savings of $478 in the first year. More than 600,000 working families are eligible for the credit.  Republican Sen. Nancy Cassis, R-Novi, last year introduced legislation that would keep the credit from going into effect until the state's nearly depleted rainy day fund is healthier.

http://www.macombdaily.com/stories/012408/loc_n3001.shtml

$60,000 to mail absentee ballots

But some say county clerk's plan violates ruling by appeals court

By

Chad

Selweski

Macomb

Daily Staff Writer

PUBLISHED: Thursday, January 24, 2008

County officials have approved an allocation of up to $60,000 for the mass mailing of absentee ballot applications to seniors countywide for the upcoming 2008 elections.  The move came despite widespread concerns that county Clerk Carmella Sabaugh's plan to conduct a blanket mailing would violate a Michigan Court of Appeals ruling. Some local clerks have rejected the plan, saying it flies in the face of recommendations by the Secretary of State's Office.  Sabaugh is asking each of the 24 cities and townships to boost voter turnout by mailing "unsolicited" applications to all voters over age 60. In those communities that decline, the county will conduct the mailing.  Supporters of mass mailings say it increases voter participation and offers convenience for the elderly. Critics say it increases the risk of voter fraud and is an inefficient method of reaching voters.

http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080124/METRO/801240370/1409/METRO

Pontiac

's $6 million dilemma

Jennifer Chambers / The

Detroit

News

PONTIAC

-- It's decision day in

Pontiac

.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Mayor, City Council clash over plans to lay off police and cut services to erase budget deficit.  Faced with $6 million in red ink and residents who refuse to make cuts in the fire department, city leaders are plotting a future for

Pontiac

with fewer police, fewer city services and more outsiders filling jobs.  The Pontiac City Council is ready to move forward with a deficit reduction plan it passed last week, two days after city voters nixed tax increases to rehire police officers and reopen youth recreation centers, and refused to reduce the ranks in the fire department, a move that would have saved the city $5 million.

The council's plan would, as of March 1:

• Shut down all city hall operations -- except for police and fire -- on Wednesdays and two half-days on other days of the week.

• Suspend police patrols for two-hour increments and have the Oakland Sheriff's Department answer calls.

• Cancel vacation leave for the fire department and public works employees to reduce overtime.

On Wednesday, Pontiac Mayor Clarence Phillips said the City Council has no authority to implement the plan.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080123/NEWS08/801230404/1001/NEWS

Richard Durant: Fascinated with law, active in politics

BY JOE ROSSITER

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

January 23, 2008

Richard Durant was proof that when the road to success is rife with detours, honesty and perseverance are the keys to achieving career goals.  Even without a formal high school and college education, Mr. Durant graduated from law school at age 55 and, along with son Clark Durant, ran a successful

Detroit

law practice for many years.  Mr. Durant died of heart failure Thursday at

Beaumont

Hospital

in Grosse Pointe. He was 89 and lived in Grosse Pointe.  "His fascination for the law and what it could do for people constantly showed in his body of work," said Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Michael Talbot, a former classmate and colleague. "He felt that everyone deserved vigorous representation. Nothing stood in his way if he felt he was defending a just cause. He was exceedingly vigorous and thorough and anyone on the opposite side had their hands full."  Born in

Quincy

,

Mass.

, Mr. Durant left high school early in order to find work during the Depression. Later, he served in the Army in World War II, earning the rank of captain while serving in the Pacific.  After marrying Rosemary Heenan in 1945, he was discharged a year later and started an investment business in

Detroit

.  Mr. Durant enrolled in University of Detroit Law School in 1970, and earned his law degree three years later. With Talbot, he had an east-side

Detroit

law practice for several years.  After his son earned his law degree in 1976, they established Durant & Durant PC in the

Penobscot

Building

in downtown

Detroit

.  "He was a leader and a man of great principle," his son said. "But most of all he served as an example to me of the way I wanted to conduct my life."  Active in politics throughout his life, Mr. Durant was the longtime chairman of the 14th Congressional District and was a delegate at two Republican national conventions.

In addition to his wife and son, survivors include sons Richard Jr. and Peter; a daughter, Eugenie Durant; seven grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.  A memorial service will be 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Grosse Pointe Congregational Church, 240 Chalfonte,

Grosse Pointe Farms

. The body was cremated.

NATIONAL STORIES

 

http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/rnc-chairman-provides-numbers-strategy-to-defeat-top-democrats-2008-01-24.html

RNC chairman provides numbers, strategy to defeat top Democrats 

By Sam Youngman 

Posted: 01/24/08 12:01 AM [ET] 

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Mike Duncan believes Republicans can beat either of the two top Democrats racing for their party’s nomination.  For Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.),

Duncan

says it comes down to trust. Sen. Barack Obama’s (

Ill.

) weakness, on the other hand, is his experience, according to

Duncan

.

Duncan

continually brought up Clinton and Obama during a Wednesday morning breakfast with reporters sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor. Pointing to internal poll numbers, the RNC chairman repeatedly insisted that no matter who Republicans nominate, the Democratic candidate can be defeated in November. Internal RNC polls show

Clinton

has significant trust issues with voters, who also worry Obama has too little experience to be president.  “With Sen. Clinton, it comes down to trust,”

Duncan

said. “She’s a lifelong liberal politician with some political baggage.”  The RNC’s polling on

Clinton

found that less than 50 percent of respondents see her as “honest and trustworthy.”  Sixty-five percent say she “will say or do anything to get elected” and 68 percent “agree that Sen. Clinton will raise their taxes.”

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0124/p25s01-usmb.html

Republicans' Mike Duncan highlights polls unfavorable to

Clinton

By David Cook | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the January 24, 2008 edition

The chairman of the Republican National Committee defended the GOP's '08 prospects at Wednesday's Monitor-sponsored breakfast for reporters.

Washington

- Mike Duncan has one of the toughest jobs in politics. As chairman of the Republican National Committee, Mr. Duncan is the leader of the party that controls the White House. Like others in that position in the past, he must unwaveringly defend the record of party and president. So when

Duncan

surveys the political scene, he says, "I'm very pleased. I think we are going into '08 with good prospects."

Duncan

was the guest at Wednesday's Monitor-sponsored breakfast for reporters. Other political experts don't share

Duncan

's sunny outlook. President Bush's former chief speechwriter, Michael Gerson, writes in the latest issue of Newsweek that "In early 2008, by nearly every measure, the Republican Party is in trouble." The nonpartisan Capitol Hill newspaper Politico recently said the Republican Party suffers from "the funk of the foot soldiers." Among the symptoms Politico cited:

•Ambitious state and local Republicans are deciding this is not the year to run for office.

http://www.miamiherald.com/campaign08/story/390756.html

Poll: Giuliani slips to third in

Florida

Posted on Wed, Jan

BY BETH REINHARD AND BREANNE GILPATRICK

Rudy Giuliani has hit the skids in a

Florida

freefall that could shatter his presidential campaign and leave a two-man Republican contest in the state between John McCain and Mitt Romney, a Miami Herald poll shows.  Despite hovering over

Florida

voters for weeks, Giuliani is tied for third place with the scarcely visible Mike Huckabee in a statewide poll of 800 likely voters.  With his poll numbers slipping back home in the Northeast, Giuliani's campaign will implode if he can't turn it around in the six days left before

Florida

's Jan. 29 vote, the final gateway before a blitz of primaries around the nation that could sew up the race.  ''He may be running for president, but with these numbers he wouldn't be elected governor of

Florida

,'' said Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway, whose firm conducted the survey with Democratic pollsters Schroth, Eldon & Associates for The Herald, The St. Petersburg Times and Bay News 9. Alluding to the timeworn song,

Conway

added: ``If he can't make it there in

Florida

, he can't make it anywhere.''  Asked about the 13 percent of the voters who haven't made up their minds, pollster Rob Schroth said he didn't expect them to fuel a Giuliani comeback.  ''Giuliani for all intents and purposes has virtually no chance to win in

Florida

,'' he said.  Democrat Hillary Clinton's frontrunner's perch is intact, though her numbers dipped slightly since November, the poll showed. She garnered 42 percent of the vote, compared to 23 percent for Barack Obama.

Clinton

enjoyed overwhelming support from women, Hispanics and older voters. She beats Obama across the board except among black voters, who favor him 48-27.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120113714794811929.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

THE CASE FOR THE CANDIDATE

The Giuliani Tax Cut

By STEVE FORBES

January 24, 2008; Page A16

There is a lot of talk about change in this year's presidential race. But if

Washington

is truly broken, as many Americans think it is, then it doesn't merely need to be changed. It needs to be fixed. And the man who fixed up

New York

is ready to fix up

Washington

.

Rudy Giuliani has proposed the largest tax cut in modern American history and a dramatic simplification of the tax code. His proposal has received broad support from fiscal conservatives in

Washington

; yesterday it was introduced as legislation by Reps. David Dreier and Roy Blunt, and by Sen. Christopher Bond. Since Fred Thompson has dropped out of the race, there's no question which candidate offers the best tax plan, or is the best spokesman for advancing the tax-reform cause.  Mr. Giuliani's proposal is a remedy for a quintessentially Washingtonian problem: bloated bureaucracy. When the income tax was introduced in 1913, Congress adopted a one-page filing form and a maximum rate of 7%. The Office of Management and Budget estimates Americans now spend 6.5 billion hours a year filling out tax forms.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/22/america/repubs.php

Romney pins Republican campaign hopes on business experience

By Brian Knowlton and Elisabeth Bumiller Published: January 22, 2008

 

WASHINGTON

: Amid extraordinary global financial turmoil and increasing competition among American presidential candidates to offer economic stimulus plans, Mitt Romney played what he sees as his strongest card Tuesday, focusing on the economy and displaying his business experience.  Romney, a former venture capitalist and the Republican presidential contender with the most experience in the business world, raised the possibility of a solvency crisis at

U.S.

banks. "We have to make sure these institutions have sufficient capital," he told Reuters, while stopping short of predicting that some banks would face the risk of insolvency.  The former

Massachusetts

governor said he saw a worrying trend as growing numbers of

U.S.

banks sought capital offshore.  A "solvency crisis," he said, was "obviously a very fearful perspective and hopefully one that does not rear its ugly head in reality." But, Romney added, "people are talking about institutions having difficulty maintaining their level of capital."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/23/us/politics/23huckabee.html

Huckabee, Short on Cash, Curtails Effort in

Florida

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

Published: January 23, 2008

WASHINGTON

— Before he won the Iowa Republican caucuses, Mike Huckabee told voters that sending him to victory would forever debunk the conventional wisdom that money could decide a presidential race.  On Tuesday, though, the Huckabee campaign acknowledged that its chronic shortage of money might be catching up to it.  As the Republican front-runners crisscross

Florida

— the race’s biggest prize yet and a state his campaign once considered essential — Mr. Huckabee is pulling back in the state. He told reporters that he did not plan to advertise in Florida, and his only campaign stops scheduled so far this week were token events at airports. To conserve cash, Ed Rollins, his top consultant, and a few other staff members have agreed to work without pay, and his campaign has stopped arranging transportation for the traveling press. If there were a prize for votes-per-dollar, Mr. Huckabee, the former governor of

Arkansas

, could have easily captured it. He won the

Iowa

caucuses, finished third in

New Hampshire

and in

Michigan

, and narrowly lost in

South Carolina

after raising less than one-tenth of the money amassed by each of his three leading rivals.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080122/D8UB6LH00.html

Some Huckabee Aides Forgoing Paychecks

Jan 22, 5:11 PM (ET)

By RON WORD

(AP) Republican presidential hopeful, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, participates in the

Georgia

. 

GAINESVILLE

,

Fla.

(AP) - Republican Mike Huckabee said Tuesday his presidential campaign is facing financial difficulties with top advisers working without pay and some aides quitting.  The former

Arkansas

governor promised to remain in the race through next Tuesday's

Florida

primary, telling about 50 people, mostly

University

of

Florida

fraternity members: "We are taking a look at everything daily. But we will be here every day in

Florida

until next week."  Huckabee planned to attend a private fundraiser. In an interview earlier Tuesday in

Atlanta

, adviser Ed Rollins said top advisers are working without pay and some have left. "Most people are staying on," but a few have departed, Rollins said. "A number of people, including myself," have agreed to forgo their pay to spend as much as possible on television ads in vital states.

Campaign contributions continue to come in, he said. But he acknowledged that Huckabee is stretched thin as he tries to compete in

Florida

's primary and many of the two dozen states holding contests Feb. 5.  Huckabee's campaign has stopped arranging charter flights, hotel reservations and other means of helping journalists keep up with his movements. News organizations pay their own expenses, but empty seats on charter planes were costing the campaign money.

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1706450,00.html

The Resurrection of John McCain

By JAMES CARNEY

Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2008

In war and in politics, John McCain has endured more than his share of near death experiences. He's been shot out of the sky and held captive, hung from ropes by his two broken arms and beaten senseless. This is his second run for President; he lost before, has nearly lost again and has been all but disowned by his party. So on the night of

South Carolina

's Republican primary, when the victory he needed to keep his campaign alive seemed as if it might be slipping away once again, McCain stood silent amid the chaos of his crowded hotel suite, his eyes fixed on the television screen. The normally loquacious Senator, who is rarely silent and hates to miss a punch line, was tuning the rest of the room out. Rumors that the primary was about to be called for McCain had fizzled, supplanted by whispers that Mike Huckabee had taken a slim lead in the ballot count. For a moment, it all seemed as though it were going to fall down again.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/us/politics/22clinton.html?_r=2&ei=5090&en=75b41812ad90fbd7&ex=1358744400&adxnnl=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1201129731-sQaYh2siujux3hx/ujUCEA&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

In S. Carolina, It’s Obama vs.

Clinton

. That’s Bill Clinton.

By PATRICK HEALY

January 22, 2008

Facing formidable support for Senator Barack Obama in

South Carolina

, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is deploying former President Bill Clinton there while she shifts her attention to campaigning in states with nominating contests next month and to raising money.  The strategic shift intensifies a new dynamic in the race: Mrs. Clinton’s campaign this week in

South Carolina

is essentially running Mr. Clinton against Mr. Obama. The two have been engaged in a war of words, with Mr. Clinton accusing the Obama campaign of voter coercion in the

Nevada

caucuses, and Mr. Obama saying on Monday that Mr. Clinton had made comments that were “not factually accurate” and that his advocacy for his wife had grown “pretty troubling.”  Mrs. Clinton’s advisers cautioned that she was not writing off

South Carolina

, which has a Democratic primary on Saturday. It is the last place where Democrats will compete before Feb. 5, when more than 20 states hold nominating contests.   Mrs. Clinton plans to hold events on Thursday, Friday and Saturday in

South Carolina

. Yet she will spend the next two days campaigning in

Arizona

,

California

,

New Jersey

and

New Mexico

, which vote on Feb. 5. She will begin a television advertising blitz this week in 10 states with contests on that day. She is also returning Thursday night to

New York

, another state with a Feb. 5 contest, for two fund-raisers, part of an effort to raise more than $15 million before the coming primaries.  In short,

Clinton

advisers say, she is pursuing a national campaign strategy that includes

South Carolina

but that does not elevate the state to the level of critical importance that it usually has in the presidential nominating contest. This reflects the

Clinton

team’s view that it does not expect to beat Mr. Obama in

South Carolina

, where he enjoys strong support from black voters, and that it wants to lower expectations there.

http://www.mlive.com/elections/index.ssf/2008/01/ron_paul_gets_roe_nod.html

Ron Paul gets Roe nod

by Press wire services

Wednesday January 23, 2008, 9:19 AM

The doctor is in: Ron Paul used his medical background to argue against abortion Tuesday.

WASHINGTON

-- Ronald Reagan and other Republican presidents have addressed the thousands of abortion opponents who annually march from the National Mall to the Supreme Court in remembrance of the court's Roe v. Wade decision.  The event has not always been a draw to GOP presidential hopefuls, but Tuesday's pre-march rally on the 35th anniversary of the landmark ruling had one notable exception: Ron Paul.

Among people holding up more typical "Defend life" and "Stop abortion" signs, some held banners in support of the

Texas

congressman, a libertarian with an anti-war bent.

Paul was among about a half-dozen lawmakers who spoke at the two-hour rally, and he cited his credentials as an obstetrician who has delivered 4,000 babies.  "The debate over when life begins should not be a debate. Let me assure you: All life begins at conception," he said.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/ron-pauls-mlk-fund-raiser/

Ron Paul’s MLK Fund-Raiser

By Leslie Wayne

January 22, 2008,  5:06 pm

There are a lot of ways to honor the memory of Martin Luther King Jr. Ron Paul’s supporters turned MLK day into a fund-raising opportunity. With majestic and swelling music on a You Tube clip, supporers of Ron Paul kicked off the “Free at Last 2008? Web site and his supporters responded by donating $1.85 million on the King anniversary — an amount that more cash-strapped candidates would envy.  This is the third holiday that Mr. Paul supporters have turned into a one-day “money bomb,” as they have dubbed these efforts. Mr. Paul’s supporters used Nov. 5 – Guy Fawkes Day in

England

– to raised more than $4.2 million in a single day. Another “money bomb” on December 18th, the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party netted $6 million for Mr. Paul.

In a YouTube video, Mr. Paul likens himself to Mr. King. It features video of Mr. King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech and then shows Mr. Paul repeating some of the same phrases in campaign events.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0108/8062.html

Ron Paul continues to best Giuliani

By: Ben Adler

Jan 23, 2008 12:26 PM EST

Ron Paul, the

Texas

congressman frequently dismissed as a long shot candidate with no real chance at winning the Republican presidential nomination, has won nearly twice as many total votes to date as Rudy Giuliani, a candidate still widely viewed as a strong contender.  With his second place finish in Saturday’s

Nevada

caucus, where Paul defeated Giuliani in every county in the state, the

Texas

congressman has now received 106,414 votes to 60,220 for Giuliani. Both candidates have collected zero actual delegates. Paul’s performance is a testament to his appeal to young voters, who have disproportionately supported his candidacy. According to exit and entrance polls, Paul came in second among 18 to 24-year-olds in New Hampshire and finished a close third in Iowa after Mitt Romney among the 17 to 29-year-old demographic.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23092595-7583,00.html

The Gipper lives

John O'Sullivan | January 23, 2008

BARACK Obama, who is level-pegging with Hillary Clinton in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, committed what looked like a serious gaffe last week. According to the classic definition, coined by liberal columnist Michael Kinsley, a political gaffe consists of a politician telling the truth inadvertently. And in an interview with a

US

newspaper, Obama praised Ronald Reagan. In the eyes of left-wing activists, that was rather like a candidate for the papacy putting in a good word for Beelzebub.

Worse, Obama praised Reagan not in saccharine generalities that might have been forgiven ("a great American", "he expressed

America

's can-do spirit", and so on) but more pointedly and heretically as an agent of political change. Here are his words: "Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of

America

in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it. I think they felt like, you know, with all the excesses of the 1960s and '70s and, you know, government had grown and grown but there wasn't much sense of accountability in terms of how it was operating. I think ... he tapped into what people were already feeling, which was we want clarity, we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing." Obama might have cited different Reaganite achievements that seem more important historically: for instance, his masterly waging of strategic competition against the Soviets that, in Margaret Thatcher's words, "won the Cold War without firing a shot". But such an argument would not have made all the useful political points implicit in his quote, notably that (a) Reagan changed America for the better; (b) his changes limited government and liberated private entrepreneurship; (c) these changes were necessary and reflected what Americans wanted; and, above all, (d) president Clinton really hadn't altered the trajectory that Reagan launched any more than Nixon had altered the liberal trajectory of FDR and LBJ.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-mxarunning0123jan23,0,1476477.story

Running on fumes

Candidates get more mileage out of fuel efficiency rhetoric than out of their own cars

By Henry Payne and Richard Burr | The

Detroit

News

January 23, 2008

Disclosing to voters what vehicle they drive is a rare opportunity for presidential candidates to show that their personal priorities are consistent with their public policies. We know they can talk the talk about global warming and fuel efficiency -- but do they practice what they preach?

Republicans

Mike Huckabee

"As Republicans, we need to speak out more on the environment," Huckabee told The Detroit News recently in defending his support for hiking federal fuel efficiency laws to 35 miles per gallon by 2020, up from 27.5 (22.7 for trucks) today. "Unless we do, we'll never get to energy independence."  When it comes to his own vehicle, however, the Baptist minister strays from his scripture. "Our main car is a 2007 Chevy Tahoe flex-fuel. Then my vehicle is a (1995) Chevrolet Silverado truck," he says, listing two of the biggest light trucks (averaging 16 m.p.g. and 12 m.p.g., respectively) on the planet.

John McCain

Increasing mileage mandates? He says they are "overdue." Electric cars? I think they'd sell like hot cakes."  What kind of vehicles do you and your wife drive?  "My wife drives a Lexus," he says unafraid to wave a foreign flag on

Detroit

soil. "My only claim to fame is that my daughter Meghan owns a Prius hybrid. That's our only testimony to reducing greenhouse gas emissions."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/23/us/politics/23mccain.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1201094030-PCJSRs1ZkZF5A6YnVT4Dcw&oref=slogin

New York Is All McCain’s, for a Night

By ELISABETH BUMILLER

Published: January 23, 2008

ORLANDO

,

Fla.

— Senator John McCain of

Arizona

scooped up $1 million for his presidential campaign on Tuesday night in the center of Rudolph W. Giuliani’s political turf, the

St.

Regis

Hotel

in Midtown Manhattan, and announced the support of former Senator Alfonse M. D’Amato and a swath of the New York Republican establishment.

In a sign that Mr. McCain was now willing to battle Mr. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, in the city and state that gave rise to Mr. Giuliani’s political fortunes, Mr. McCain released a list of his New York supporters, among them Henry A. Kissinger, the former secretary of state, and Peter G. Peterson, a co-founder of the Blackstone Group and a former secretary of commerce. Also on the list was Michael C. Finnegan, who was counsel to former Gov. George E. Pataki of

New York

. Mr. Pataki has not endorsed a candidate for president, and it is not clear that he will. Edward F. Cox, a son-in-law of President Richard M. Nixon and a senior partner at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, Mr. Giuliani’s former law firm, is the chairman of Mr. McCain’s campaign in

New York

.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120104819435508233.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

Obama's

Clinton

Education

January 23, 2008; Page A24

One of our favorite Bill Clinton anecdotes involves a confrontation he had with Bob Dole in the Oval Office after the 1996 election. Mr. Dole protested Mr. Clinton's attack ads claiming the Republican wanted to harm Medicare, but the President merely smiled that Bubba grin and said, "You gotta do what you gotta do."  We're reminded of that story listening to Barack Obama protest his treatment by the now ex-President

Clinton

on behalf of his wanna-be-President wife. "You know the former President, who I think all of us have a lot of regard for, has taken his advocacy on behalf of his wife to a level that I think is pretty troubling," Mr. Obama told a TV interviewer. "He continues to make statements that are not supported by the facts -- whether it's about my record of opposition to the war in

Iraq

or our approach to organizing in

Las Vegas

."

Now he knows how the rest of us feel.  The Illinois Senator is still a young man, but not so young as to have missed the 1990s. He nonetheless seems to be awakening slowly to what everyone else already knows about the

Clintons

, which is that they will say and do whatever they "gotta" say or do to win. Listen closely to Mr. Obama, and you can almost hear the echoes of Bob Dole at the end of the 1996 campaign asking, "Where's the outrage?"

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YThmMDc0YTU1NDA0ZjU5ODVhZGE3YTQxYjg3MzBmODI

Barack vs. Hillary

By William F. Buckley Jr.

January 23, 2008 9:10 AM

Students of current events writing on Tuesday morning are expected to discover whether Mr. Obama or Mrs. Clinton is responsible for the collapse of the stock market. Because the accents in which they engaged each other on Monday night certainly asked the voters to conclude that the collapse of the stock market was the doing of one of them.

You may smile, but they are not smiling. It’s true that political competitors, in a very hot race, become, well, unfriendly. When outgoing president Herbert Hoover suffered the indignity of having to ride in the same limousine with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt from the White House all the way to the Capitol, he made his feelings known during the seven-minute ride with the president. He did not open his mouth.

http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080123/NATION/218849601/1001

Hillary-Obama feud alarms party officials

By Christina Bellantoni

January 23, 2008

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama are increasingly going after each other, prompting top Democrats to warn they are muddying the party's image in advance of the general election.  Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee whose campaign was hurt by Republican-funded "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" ads, yesterday told voters he will help Mr. Obama fend off attacks.  "The truth matters, but how you fight the lies matters even more. We must be determined never again to lose any election to a lie," he said in an e-mail to supporters.  The message does not mention Mrs. Clinton, but notes the anonymous e-mails that are circulating that question Mr. Obama's Christian faith and said, "We're fighting back.  "The fight is just heating up — we won't let them steal this election with lies and distortions," Mr. Kerry said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/24/opinion/24collins.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Editing Hillary’s Story

By GAIL COLLINS

Published: January 24, 2008

Last summer, I asked Hillary Clinton if she had any reservations about using her husband in her campaign. She said no, that having Bill on the team was “a great gift. I have always believed you should get the very best people to advise you.”

I never really made use of the interview. At the time, it was hard to complain about the former president’s role. Publicly, he was limited to the occasional stump speech, telling crowds what a good senator his wife was, and how she had helped a small businessman market his fishing poles to

Scandinavia

. He had a peculiar line about how he had told her back at

Yale

Law

School

that he’d met all the great minds of their generation and hers was the finest. Even if that seemed a tad over the top, supportive spouse is a role that provides latitude for excessive enthusiasm. After all, Laura Bush always used to assure people that her George was up to the job.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22807364/

Let the sunshine in

If the other GOP candidates don't stop McCain now, they never will

By Chuck Todd

Political Director

NBC News

updated 4:51 p.m. ET, Wed., Jan. 23, 2008

BOCA RATON

,

Fla.

- The ever-shrinking Republican presidential field meets for potentially the last time as a 5-way contest on Thursday night here in

Florida

. Broadcast live on MSNBC and streamed on msnbc.com from 9-10:30 p.m. EST, the debate will be moderated by NBC’s Brian Williams. He will be joined by Tim Russert, as well as St. Petersburg Times editor Paul Tash. It is the only debate before the state’s crucial Jan. 29 primary. And there’s a do-or-die feel to it. One tries to avoid the prediction game, particularly this campaign  season, and yet all signs point to this debate being one of the most contentious of the cycle for the GOP.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/01/business_as_usual_gop.html

Business as Usual GOP

By Robert Novak

January 24, 2008

WASHINGTON

,

D.C.

-- When House Republicans convene behind closed doors today (Thursday) at the Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, W.V., they have a chance to make two bold moves to restore their reputation for fiscal responsibility. First, they could declare a one-year moratorium on Republican congressional earmarks. Second, they could name anti-earmark reformer Rep. Jeff Flake to a vacancy on the House Appropriations Committee. In fact, almost surely they will do neither. Instead, the retreat is likely to adopt some limitation on earmarks with no public impact and exerting no pressure on the earmark-happy Democratic majority. Consideration of Flake's candidacy for Appropriations was postponed until after this week's earmark debate at the Greenbrier. But content with a half-measure on earmarks, the House Republicans will not place insistent reformer Flake in the midst of the pork-dispensing appropriators. Staring into a 2008 election abyss, Republicans lost credibility as upholders of lean government by sponsoring profligate pork barrel spending during 12 years in the congressional majority and have not reformed since the 2006 Democratic takeover. The message out of

West Virginia

this week predictably will be business as usual.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/01/the_moral_economy.html

The Moral Economy

By Victor Davis Hanson

January 24, 2008

In this heated campaign season, housing prices are plummeting. Banks write off billions of dollars in unrecoverable debt. The stock market wildly fluctuates almost hourly. Candidates promise painless and near instant relief.  But despite the politicians' rhetoric, it is not hard to understand why

America

is in trouble.  First, there has been too much madcap real estate speculation. In recent years, housing prices were driven sky-high on the expectation that almost anyone, often with little security, could profit by borrowing easy money to buy and sell property.  Too many investors lost the old pedestrian notion that the purpose of a house was to be a home in which to live, to raise a family and to take pride in ownership. Its acquisition used to be a multi-year, if not once-in-a-lifetime, investment - not quite comparable to the easy buying or selling of volatile paper stocks and bonds. Others did not have the means to afford the type of home they purchased, once risky variable interest rates climbed.  Gasoline prices, meanwhile, are well over $3 a gallon in many places, sucking hundreds of dollars out of annual family budgets. But how long did we really believe that oil-exporting belligerents in the Middle East, Latin America and Russia, or our economic rivals in China and India, were going to allow the United States to continue gobbling up a quarter of the world's daily output at $20 a barrel?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3230615.ece

Russian bombers to test-fire missiles in

Bay of Biscay

January 22, 2008

Russia

has sent two long-range bombers to the Bay of Biscay, off the French and Spanish Atlantic coasts, to test-fire missiles in what

Moscow

billed as its biggest naval exercise in the area since the Soviet era.  Firing missiles off the coastline of two Nato members is the latest in a series of Kremlin moves flexing

Moscow

’s military muscle on the world stage.

Russian bombers joined aircraft carriers, battleships and submarine hunters from the Northern and

Black Sea

fleets for the Atlantic exercises, which come as the country enters an election campaign to choose a successor to President Putin. “The air force is taking a very active part in the exercises of the navy’s strike force in the

Atlantic

,” the Russian air force said in a statement reported by Reuters. “Today, two strategic Tu-160 bombers departed for exercises in the

Bay of Biscay

, which ... will carry out a number of missions and will conduct tactical missile launches."