For the Good of the State: Articles of Interest 4-29-2008

190 Days until Election Day

MORNING UPDATE:

WAYNE COUNTY…The Political, Candidate & Party Assistance teams were on the road again last night on the Wayne "Unity Road Show" in Dearborn Heights. We had a handful of local party people along with District Chairs and the Wayne County Chair on hand. Special thanks to Susan Chmielewski for her help in putting this event together.

HOUSE REPUBLICAN DINNER…Governor Pawlenty will be our featured guest on May 5th at the Rock Financial Center in Novi…more info below.

MI DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES...OUT OF CONTROL…Governor Granholm should skip Kuwait and fix her own departments first. A state bureaucracy that needs immediate attention…who runs this state? A must read…outrageous:

WEST MICHIGAN DONORS…we ended last night in Grand Rapids with a series of meetings with donors who will be supporting our entire ticket. Our team grows!

CHIEF JUSTICE CLIFF TAYLOR… Justice Taylor continues his swing around the state meeting with Republicans to secure his nomination and reelection this fall. Thanks to all for their help in this critical race.

U.S. SUPREME COURT RULES…Indiana's law requiring voters to show photo identification before casting a ballot is constitutional, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this morning. Upholding the strictest voter ID law in the nation and dismissing any uncertainty that may have existed going into the election after justices heard arguments in early January. This is good for Michigan…it’s the law of the land.

POPE BENEDICT…here is my favorite photo from his historic visit that Callista Gingrich took and was kind enough to share.

PETITION CIRCULATORS…time is running out. If you have petitions for judicial or federal candidates…please mail them in so they can track their progress.

JERRY & SMOKIE WALL…long time Republican activist Smokie was hospitalize yesterday after suffering a stroke. Please keep Smokie and Jerry in your prayers.

THE REST OF THE STORY:

HOUSE REPUBLICAN DINNER DETAILS.
The MRP is doing all we can to assist the Michigan State House Republican Campaign Committee (HRCC) to add seats this November and reclaim the Majority lost in 2006. The HRCC will be holding its annual dinner on May 5th. Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty will deliver the keynote. This will be a great event. Location, time, and cost details below.

Diamond Center
Rock Financial Showplace
46100 Grand River Avenue
Novi, MI 48374
To RSVP please call 517-371-1830 or mihrcc@gmail.com

5:00 – 6:00 PM ~ VIP Reception
$5,000/Couple

5:30 PM – 7:30 PM ~ Strolling Dinner
$1000/Person
$5,000/Silver Sponsor*
$10,000/Gold Sponsor**
$20,000/Platinum Sponsor***

*Silver sponsors will receive 5 tickets to dinner, or 2 tickets to attend the VIP reception
**Gold sponsors will receive 10 tickets to dinner, including 2 tickets to attend the VIP reception
*** Platinum sponsors will receive 20 tickets to dinner, including 4 tickets to attend the VIP reception

Saul Anuzis

STATE STORIES

http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/michigan/index.ssf?/base/business-15/1209393568159340.xml&storylist=newsmichigan

Mich.

bill would give motorists choice in medical coverage

4/28/2008

5:41 p.m.

EDT

By DAVID EGGERT

The Associated Press

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Some state lawmakers on Monday got behind legislation that would let motorists save up to 16 percent on their auto insurance by choosing less medical coverage.

Michigan

is the only state to require unlimited personal injury protection benefits, which policyholders pay for through a $123 annual fee per vehicle. Legislation introduced last week in the state Senate would let motorists choose medical coverage worth between $50,000 and $400,000, or continue paying for unlimited coverage through the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association, a fund that helps supports seriously injured accident victims.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080429/POLITICS/804290323/1408/LOCAL

Cox backs plan to keep AG over individual health insurance

Gary Heinlein and Christina Rogers / The

Detroit

News

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

LANSING

-- Attorney General Mike Cox on Monday stepped once again into the fray over individual health insurance reform, endorsing a plan to maintain his office's oversight of rate increases and denouncing a competing proposal that would create a state risk pool for those otherwise unable to buy insurance. At a news conference Monday that included representatives of the AARP and Area Agencies on Aging, Cox said he supports legislation proposed by Sen. Tom George that would keep Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan as the health insurer of last resort for individuals, as it is now. Before making large-scale reforms, George calls for a comprehensive study to determine the need for changes. In opposing an alternative proposal by Sen. Jason Allen that sets up a high-risk pool for people who can't get affordable coverage because of serious health problems, Cox said it was simply original House legislation repackaged.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080429/NEWS01/804290356/1003

Secret deal's key file is found

18-page document quotes Kilpatrick, Beatty messages

BY JIM SCHAEFER and JOE SWICKARD

FREE

PRESS STAFF WRITERS

April 29, 2008

The long-sought legal document that triggered an $8.4-million deal to hide Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's damaging text messages has been recovered from a lawyer's computer. The 18-page document, including quotations from several dozen text messages showing the mayor and his then-chief of staff Christine Beatty lied under oath during a police whistle-blower trial last summer, could be released today. Its release could shed light on whether the lawyer who wrote it -- Mike Stefani, who represented three whistle-blowing cops -- may have crossed the line from zealously representing his clients to improperly strong-arming the city to settle, a criticism that Stefani has denied. The document, with its graphic sexual banter and incendiary vernacular, also may reignite heated public debate if its full text is released. Wayne Circuit Judge Robert Colombo Jr. has ordered lawyers in a Free Press Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to appear this morning to discuss the document. The document was recovered Monday from a computer at Stefani's

Royal Oak

law firm, according to Bill Goodman, the lawyer hired by Detroit City Council to probe the settlement.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080429/METRO/804290380

Key legal motion in text message scandal recovered

Judge to weigh release of document that led to $8.4M whistle-blower deal.

Paul Egan and Mike Wilkinson / The

Detroit

News

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

DETROIT

-- A key missing document in the text message scandal surfaced Monday and could be made public as early as today after experts extracted it from the computer of police whistle-blower lawyer Michael Stefani. The threat of the document becoming public back in the fall of 2007 broke a negotiating impasse and prompted lawyers for the mayor and the city to settle police whistle-blower lawsuits for $8.4 million. It's a motion Stefani said he intended to file in court that would have accused Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his former chief of staff Christine Beatty of perjury, and quoted extensively from text messages they exchanged in 2003. William Goodman, the lawyer representing the Detroit City Council in a public records fight over documents related to the city's settlement of the whistle-blower lawsuits, filed the document Monday to Wayne Circuit Judge Robert J. Colombo Jr.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080429/METRO/804290362/1408/LOCAL

Election panel approves petition to recall Kilpatrick

Christine MacDonald / The

Detroit

News

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

DETROIT

Wayne

County

officials approved language for a recall campaign against Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, green-lighting the second effort to oust him since the $8.4 million whistle-blower scandal broke this year. The first never got started, after the language was rejected when Kilpatrick's lawyers argued the petitioner didn't live in the city. Angelo Brown, 45, said he hopes to begin gathering the 56,970 required signatures as early as this week. The security guard, who lives in southwest

Detroit

, said he's launching and financing the effort on his own. It's a daunting task: He has 180 days to gather signatures; once he starts, they're valid for 90 days. Working alone, that's more than 600 signatures a day to meet the minimum to force a recall election. "The conditions of the city are just getting worse and worse," said Brown, who has campaigned for the City Council and Wayne County Commission. "We need leadership that can work on the city and not on the mayor's problems." "We don't need to be propping up the mayor." The

Wayne

County

Election Commission -- county Clerk Cathy Garrett, Chief Probate Judge Milton Mack and

county

Treasurer

Raymond Wojtowicz -- voted unanimously that Brown's language was clear enough to proceed.

http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/michigan/index.ssf?/base/news-53/1209444542199370.xml&storylist=newsmichigan

Election panel OKs petition language on

Detroit

mayor recall

4/29/2008

12:44 a.m.

EDT

The Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) — The Wayne County Election Commission has approved revised language on petitions seeking to recall Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. The commission voted 2-1 April 16 to reject the wording on a petition submitted by Angelo Brown, a 45-year-old security guard. But Brown revised the wording, and the commission voted 3-0 Monday to approve it. That gives Brown the go-ahead to begin seeking the 56,970 voters signatures needed to get the proposal on the ballot.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080429/COL10/804290381/1003/NEWS01

It's united Democrats who are to stand

BY ROCHELLE RILEY

FREE

PRESS COLUMNIST

April 29, 2008

OK, fellow Michiganders. You heard him. But if you didn't, you should know that Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told the "Today" show's Meredith Vieira on Monday that the governing body of the Democratic Party will, indeed, follow the rules. "I stand up for what the rules of the party are," Dean said. "You may or may not like the rules, but both candidates knew what the rules were when we started. They both have campaigns among pledged and unpledged delegates, and my job is to uphold the rules without fear or favor of any candidates." If Dean is to be believed, then why isn't he pointing out to Michigan Democrats that there is no solution to their tainted primary save another primary or caucus? Right now, Michigan Dems await a May 31 hearing before the rules and bylaws committee. The state also can appeal to the credentials committee. Both are expected to fail. But there is no way to seat delegates based on

Michigan

's primary without controversy because it would require seating Uncommitted delegates based on guesses.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080429/POLITICS/804290377

Michigan

to vote on legalizing marijuana for medical use

Charlie Cain /

Detroit

News

Lansing

Bureau

Rochelle Lampkin is a 49-year-old grandmother of 10 who used to picket in front of dope houses in her

Detroit

neighborhood, chanting "this is wrong, shut it down." Today, she knowingly breaks the law by using marijuana to ease searing eye pain -- a side-effect of the multiple sclerosis that struck her more than 20 years ago. She must use a cane or walker to get around. Lampkin is among the enthusiastic supporters of a proposal that will be on

Michigan

's fall ballot to legalize marijuana use by the terminally and seriously ill. If voters approve it,

Michigan

would become the 13th state to legalize medical marijuana for the treatment of a host of health problems such as HIV/AIDS, cancer, hepatitis C and Alzheimer's disease. Sponsors say as many as 50,000

Michigan

residents, including Lampkin, would qualify for the medical pot. "Years ago, I was at an MS group meeting and someone suggested I try marijuana because it can help with the pain and the eye problems," Lampkin recalled. "I said: 'I'm not doing that. It's dope.' "

But the flare-ups of optic neuritis convinced her to change her mind about four years ago.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080429/NEWS06/804290403/1008

Pastor has supporters of Obama worried

Speeches like those in

Detroit

cause trouble

BY KATHLEEN GRAY

FREE

PRESS STAFF WRITER

April 29, 2008

Denise Sewell wanted to cry when she read about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's speech Sunday in

Detroit

. She understands what the Chicago preacher is trying to say about racial reconciliation, but she's afraid that many people won't and that they will take out their frustration with him on Sen. Barack Obama, her choice for president and a member of the Chicago church where Wright used to be pastor. She may have a point. After staying mostly out of the public eye since racially charged clips from some of his sermons were made public in mid-March, Wright has made several speeches, including one to an audience of about 12,000 in

Detroit

on Sunday, and had a combative news conference Monday at the National Press Club in

Washington

. Until then, Obama's campaign probably hoped the Wright controversy was behind it. But the timing couldn't be worse for Obama, who is in a pitched battle next Tuesday with Sen. Hillary Clinton in primaries in

North Carolina

and

Indiana

. "What's his point being so front and center right now, other than to destroy Obama's campaign?" said Sewell, a

California

resident who gets online every morning to read everything she can find on the campaign. "I'm just beside myself. Barack Obama is so close to getting elected, and this guy is just going to make it implode."

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080429/METRO/804290398/1408/LOCAL

State review of

Pontiac

finances set

Granholm appoints team in move toward possible oversight to help troubled city.

Mark Hicks / The

Detroit

News

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

PONTIAC

-- Gov. Jennifer Granholm has appointed a review team to examine

Pontiac

's finances -- the first step to possible state oversight. "The goal is to help ... work through financial difficulties," said Terry Stanton, a spokesman for the state Department of Treasury. "That's the hope of those who have been working with the city: that there can be a comprehensive agreement reached on how to get the city's finances back in order."

Pontiac

officials have been working to resolve a budget deficit that could total more than $8 million by the end of the fiscal year in July, city Controller Carl Johnson has said.

The city has taken drastic measures to staunch the financial bleeding, including massive layoffs, limiting overtime and closing several community centers, but spending still outpaces revenues. Partial shutdowns of City Hall are also on the table. Mayor Clarence Phillips asked the Department of Treasury to conduct a review last summer of the city's finances. The review found serious financial problems, but city officials were unable to reach an agreement on how to solve them,

Stanton

said. A state-appointed mediator attempted to resolve differences but apparently was unsuccessful. Phillips could not be reached for comment Monday. The financial review team, which includes Deputy Oakland County Executive Robert Daddow, has 60 days to report its findings to the governor unless a one-time, 30-day extension is granted.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080428/COL04/804280375/1081

Hard lemonade, hard price

Dad's oversight at Tigers game lands son in foster care

BY BRIAN DICKERSON

FREE

PRESS COLUMNIST

April 28, 2008

If you watch much television, you've probably heard of a product called Mike's Hard Lemonade. And if you ask Christopher Ratte and his wife how they lost custody of their 7-year-old son, the short version is that nobody in the Ratte family watches much television. The way police and child protection workers figure it, Ratte should have known that what a Comerica Park vendor handed over when Ratte ordered a lemonade for his boy three Saturdays ago contained alcohol, and Ratte's ignorance justified placing young Leo in foster care until his dad got up to speed on the commercial beverage industry. Even if, in hindsight, that decision seems a bit, um, idiotic. Ratte is a tenured professor of classical archaeology at the

University

Michigan

, which means that, on a given day, he's more likely to be excavating ancient burial sites in

Turkey

than watching "Dancing with the Stars" -- or even the History Channel, for that matter.

The 47-year-old academic says he wasn't even aware alcoholic lemonade existed when he and Leo stopped at a concession stand on the way to their seats in Section 114. "I'd never drunk it, never purchased it, never heard of it," Ratte of Ann Arbor told me sheepishly last week. "And it's certainly not what I expected when I ordered a lemonade for my 7-year-old."

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080429/AUTO01/804290382

GM to idle thousands at 4 plants

Shifts to be cut at

Flint

Pontiac

as demand falls.

Sharon Terlep / The

Detroit

News

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

General Motors Corp. will further slash production of fuel-thirsty trucks and SUVs -- a move that will eliminate about 3,500 hourly jobs at four North American factories, including ones in

Flint

and

Pontiac

, the automaker announced on Monday. GM will eliminate one shift at each of four factories in

Flint

Pontiac

Oshawa

Ontario

, and

Janesville

Wis.

, starting July 14. The move comes as a surprise as many expected GM would need to pump out more trucks to compensate for production lost during the ongoing strike at American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc., which for months has stymied the automaker's ability to build pickups and SUVs. "You thought they'd be prepared to crank it back up again," said auto analyst Joe Phillippi of AutoTrends Consulting Inc. in

New Jersey

. "These are the most profitable things they make, and losing those profits is going to hurt for the next three quarters." About 1,150 workers will be laid off at GM's Pontiac Assembly plant, and another 750 will go at the

Flint

factory, GM spokesman Chris Lee said.

Janesville

and

Oshawa

will lose 750 and 900 workers, respectively. The layoff numbers are preliminary and details are still being worked out between the automaker and the United Auto Workers, he said.

NATIONAL STORIES

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D90BCQL80&show_article=1&catnum=3

McCain seeks tax credit for health care

Apr 29

03:22 AM

US/Eastern

By LIBBY QUAID

Associated Press Writer

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain wants health insurance companies to compete for your business on the open market. He would offer families a $5,000 tax credit to help buy insurance policies. "Millions of Americans would be making their own health care choices again," McCain said in remarks prepared for delivery Tuesday at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in

Tampa

. "Insurance companies could no longer take your business for granted, offering narrow plans with escalating costs," he said. "It would help change the whole dynamic of the current system, putting individuals and families back in charge, and forcing companies to respond with better service at lower cost." His campaign called the speech a major policy address, though McCain has talked about the same ideas for several months. What's new, according to adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin, is that McCain will give more examples of how his policies would work. Still missing: The total cost of the plan and an estimate of how many people it would help. There are more than 40 million people in the

United States

who don't have health insurance.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=26267

Norm Coleman and Saxby Chambliss Should Smile

by Erick Erickson

Posted:

04/29/2008

There has been a lot of news this election cycle about the failure of Republicans to recruit serious challengers against Democrats. In fact, a number of good candidates have decided to sit out this year expecting disaster for the GOP. In

Minnesota

and

Georgia

, however, the GOP should be thanking its lucky stars that the ego parade is on full march through the state Democratic organizations. Two weeks ago I documented Al Franken’s failure to pay workers’ compensation insurance premiums in

New York

State

. Franken claims to have moved out of state, despite still using the address where

New York

mailed demands for payment. Now we find out that Franken has not paid taxes in

California

. According to the Associated Press, Franken’s corporation, Alan Franken, Inc., failed to file its tax return from 2003 to 2007. Franken owes a minimum of $800 per year, as well as penalties and interest to

California

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/04/wright_throws_obama_under_the.html

Wright Throws Obama Under the Bus

By Eugene Robinson

April 29, 2008

WASHINGTON

-- We all have our crosses to bear. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright has become Barack Obama's. I'm sorry, but I've had it with Wright. I would never try to diminish the service he performed as pastor of his

Chicago

megachurch, and it's obvious that he's a man of great charisma and great faith. But this media tour he's conducting is doing a disservice that goes beyond any impact it might have on Obama's presidential campaign. The problem is that Wright insists on being seen as something he's not: an archetypal representative of the African-American church. In fact, he represents one twig of one branch of a very large tree. It's understandable, given how Wright has been treated, that he would want to attempt to set the record straight. No one would enjoy seeing his 36-year career reduced to a couple of radioactive sound bites. No preacher would want his entire philosophy to be assessed based on a few rhetorical excesses committed in the heat of a passionate sermon. No former Marine would stomach having his love of country questioned by armchair patriots who have done far less to protect the

United States

from its enemies. Given Wright's long silence, I thought he had taken to heart Jesus' admonition to turn the other cheek. Obviously, I was wrong.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/04/no_limit_on_wrights_contributi.html

No Limit on Wright's Contributions to McCain

By George Will

April 29, 2008

WASHINGTON

-- Because John McCain and other legislators worry that they are easily corrupted, there are legal limits to the monetary contributions that anyone can make to political candidates. There are, however, no limits to the rhetorical contributions that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright can make to McCain's campaign. Because Wright is a gift determined to keep on giving, this question arises: Can persons opposed to Barack Obama's candidacy justly make use of Wright's invariably interesting interventions in the campaign? The answer is: Certainly, because Wright's paranoias tell us something -- exactly what remains to be explored -- about his 20-year parishioner. In Monday's speech at the National Press Club, Wright repeated -- decorously, by his standards, but clearly -- his accusation, made the Sunday after 9/11, that

America

got what it deserved. His Monday answer to a question about that accusation was: "Whatsoever you sow, that you also shall reap" and "you cannot do terrorism on other people and expect them never to come back on you." As evidence that "our government is capable of doing anything," he strongly hinted that he has intellectually respectable corroboration -- he mentioned several publications -- for his original charge that the

U.S.

government is guilty of "inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color." But on Monday he insisted that he is not anti-American: It is, he said, Americans' government, not the American public, that is a genocidal perpetrator of terrorism. So, he now denies that

America

has a representative government -- that it represents the public. He believes that elections constantly and mysteriously -- and against the public's will -- produce a genocidal, terroristic government.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/rev-wright-defends-church-blasts-media/index.html?hp

Wright Defends Church and Blasts Media

By Kate Phillips

April 28, 2008

1:07 pm

In three major appearances in the last four days, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. offered a full-throated historical defense of black church traditions. But his re-emergence on the national stage has certainly served to provide more sound-bites that already have begun to haunt Senator Barack Obama on the campaign trail. With Senator John McCain’s new criticisms of Mr. Wright and Republicans painting him and Mr. Obama as extremist in commercials using snippets of sermons, Mr. Wright, longtime pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, defiantly and passionately argued that such criticisms were attacks on the black church and its faith traditions, not attacks on him In an appearance this morning at the National Press Club in Washington, Mr. Wright mixed biblical passages and scholarly works with sarcasm and humor in his efforts to address the nearly two months’ long barrage of questions that have dogged his church and Mr. Obama since excerpts of his sermons first began looping around on television and the Internet.

http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OWFlYWVhOWRkMzZhMTRkZjY3ZDc5MDg2NThlM2YzY2Y=

Jeremiah Wright May Have Just Sunk Obama's Campaign

The Obama campaign is off the rails.

Monday, April 28, 2008

The entire tone of the race changed the moment we saw the first fiery Wright sermon. The sight of those sermons triggered a question in a lot of voters' minds: How do you get the moderate-sounding, pleasant, agreeable student Barack Obama from an angry, divisive, radical, way-out-of-the-mainstream teacher like Jeremiah Wright? The sermons weren't quite a deal-breaker, but many Obama supporters, leaners, and undecideds were asking... how did Obama choose this man as a mentor? How could he possibly not know that his mentor had these attitudes? And does Obama agree with any of Wright's inflammatory statements? In response, Obama gave a very eloquent speech about race relations in

America

. But it never quite answered the question, and in fact tried to blur the distinction between family we are born into and those we choose to turn to for guidance. Hillary jabbed at this in the debate, and Obama never quite had an appropriate response. He even said he disowned Wright, then backtracked and said he disowned his controversial statements.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/roughsketch/2008/04/obamas_pastor_reignites_race_c.html

Wright's Voice Could Spell Doom for Obama

By Eric Pianin

April 28, 2008

;

12:55 PM ET

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, explaining this morning why he had waited so long before breaking his silence about his incendiary sermons, offered a paraphrase from Proverbs: "It is better to be quiet and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt." Barack Obama's pastor would have been wise to continue to heed that wisdom. Should it become necessary in the months from now to identify the moment that doomed Obama's presidential aspirations, attention is likely to focus on the hour between nine and ten this morning at the National Press Club. It was then that Wright, Obama's longtime pastor, reignited a controversy about race from which Obama had only recently recovered - and added lighter fuel. Speaking before an audience that included Marion Barry, Cornel West, Malik Zulu Shabazz of the New Black Panther Party and Nation of Islam official Jamil Muhammad, Wright praised Louis Farrakhan, defended the view that Zionism is racism, accused the United States of terrorism, repeated his view that the government created the AIDS virus to cause the genocide of racial minorities, stood by other past remarks ("God damn America") and held himself out as a spokesman for the black church in America.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120934459094348617.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

The Real Cost of Tackling Climate Change

By STEVEN F. HAYWARD

April 28, 2008

; Page A19

The usual chorus of environmentalists and editorial writers has chimed in to attack President Bush's recent speech on climate change. In his address of April 23, he put forth a goal of stopping the growth of

U.S.

greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2025. "Way too little and way too late," runs the refrain, followed by the claim that nothing less than an 80% reduction in emissions by the year 2050 will suffice – what I call the "80 by 50" target. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have endorsed it. John McCain is not far behind, calling for a 65% reduction. We all ought to reflect on what an 80% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050 really means. When we do, it becomes clear that the president's target has one overwhelming virtue: Assuming emissions curbs are even necessary, his goal is at least realistic.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/politics_nation/2008/04/house_gop_targets_obama.html

House GOP Targets Obama

By Reid Wilson

April 28, 2008

In the first two advertisements of their kind, Republicans seeking an advantage in a

Mississippi

special election are invoking Barack Obama in arguing that a Democratic Congressional candidate is too liberal for his district. That flies in the face of what has been conventional wisdom for months among national Democratic strategists who have not publicly taken sides in the presidential contest; many privately express more hope in Obama's potential coattails than in rival Hillary Clinton's. But while Hillary Clinton and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have made appearances in Republican advertisements before, the GOP is now taking on Obama, reflecting both a growing consensus that the Illinois Senator is the most likely candidate to emerge from the ongoing primary fight and that Republicans believe he, like Clinton, can be transformed into a lightening rod used to tarnish downballot Democrats.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D90B67Q00&show_article=1&catnum=3

NC Gov. Mike Easley endorses Hillary Clinton

Apr 28

07:52 PM

US/Eastern

By BETH FOUHY and GARY D. ROBERTSON

Associated Press Writers

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Hillary Rodham Clinton has won the endorsement of North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley, a surprise boost to her candidacy in a state where Barack Obama is heavily favored to win the Democratic primary. Easley was expected to announce his endorsement formally on Tuesday morning in

Raleigh

, the state capital, one week before

North Carolina

's primary on May 6.

Clinton

campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe told supporters about the endorsement Monday at a fundraiser in

Charlotte

With its liberal white enclaves and large population of black voters,

North Carolina

has been viewed as exceptionally favorable to Obama. Public polling in the state has him leading the former first lady by 10 points or more. But

Clinton

has contested the state in hopes of an upset. Short of that, her campaign aims to peel off enough pledged delegates to stay competitive with Obama.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9939.html

New

Clinton

supporter is a potent symbol

By BEN

SMIT

H & DAVID PAUL KUHN

4/29/08

4:48 AM EST

North Carolina Governor Mike Easley's scheduled endorsement of Senator Hillary Clinton today offers her a potent symbolic and electoral boost in the biggest state left to vote. Easley is a meaningful ally in the culture war she's waging against Senator Barack Obama, as she seeks to cast him as a hopelessly unelectable liberal elitist and to persuade the Democratic Party leaders who will decide the nomination – the "superdelegates" – to choose her instead. "It’s an incredibly strong endorsement because Easley is popular among the blue collar 'Bubba' voters who are Democrats," said David "Mudcat" Saunders, a Democratic consultant who advised former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner on winning rural voters. Easley had endorsed Edwards for president, but again became a heavily sought superdelegate once Edwards bowed out of the race. "He's clean in the culture. Easley's wrecked the Charlotte Motor Speedway doing 150 miles per hour, and Bubba likes that," said Saunders, referring to NASCAR fan Easley’s 2003 race car crash. “He's a hunter. He's a strong Second Amendment guy. He gives her great cultural validation in the state of

North Carolina

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN2818999020080428?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&rpc=22&sp=true

Paulson says no interest in second stimulus plan

Mon Apr 28, 2008

7:10pm

EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Monday that he was focused on getting economic stimulus payments to consumers quickly to boost the economy and had no interest in a second stimulus plan. "The whole idea was doing something that will make a difference this year and there's no doubt that putting money in the hands of people very quickly who can spend it will make a difference," he said on Fox Business Network. In response to questions, he said the $152-billion stimulus plan could create 500,000 jobs this year but rejected suggestions from Democratic critics that a second stimulus plan may be necessary. "We're not supporting a second stimulus plan," he said, adding that if the current rebates program was any larger it might make it harder to get the government's budget into balance.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080428215207.z7ouo5hz&show_article=1&catnum=3

Obama pastor re-ignites

debate on race

Apr 28

05:53 PM

US/Eastern

Barack Obama's fiery former minister thrust his way back into the

presidential campaign Monday, again placing the divisive issue of race at the heart of the Democratic White House tussle. An unapologetic Reverend Jeremiah Wright hit back at weeks of criticism over his incendiary comments, saying the controversy was an attack on the black church and that his remarks had been taken out of context. "Maybe now an honest dialogue about race in this country will begin -- a dialogue which was commendably called by Senator Obama," he added. Despite Obama's best attempts to distance himself from his former pastor, the scandal has refused to die down as the

Illinois

senator seeks to become the country's first black president. Obama's senior aide David Axelrod admitted the "hours and hours" of Wright on cable news could wound Obama in his tussle with former first lady Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic Party's nominee in the November polls. "To the extent that people impute to Senator Obama words that are not his and sentiments that are not his, it's obviously not helpful."

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D90B3DHO0&show_article=1&catnum=3

Analysis: Wright does Obama little good

Apr 28

04:39 PM

US/Eastern

By NEDRA PICKLER

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Rev. Jeremiah Wright is going after his critics on an incendiary tour that is doing his one-time congregant, Barack Obama, little good. After weeks of staying out of the public eye while critics lambasted his sermons, Wright made three public appearances in four days to defend himself. The former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in

Chicago

has been combative, providing colorful commentary and feeding the story Obama had hoped was dying down. "This is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright," Wright told the

Washington

press corps Monday. "It has nothing to do with Senator Obama. It is an attack on the black church launched by people who know nothing about the African-American religious tradition." Wright's tour couldn't come at a much worse time for Obama, who is campaigning for white working class voters in

Indiana

and

North Carolina

. Many of Wright's most controversial comments are angry condemnations of the

United States

for its treatments of blacks—thoughts that were applauded by the black church leaders in his audience Monday but risk offending white voters.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/washington/29scotus.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

In a 6-to-3 Vote, Justices Uphold a Voter ID Law

By LINDA GREENHOUSE

Published:

April 29, 2008

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s voter identification law on Monday, concluding in a splintered decision that the challengers failed to prove that the law’s photo ID requirement placed an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote. The 6-to-3 ruling kept the door open to future lawsuits that provided more evidence. But this theoretical possibility was small comfort to the dissenters or to critics of voter ID laws, who predicted that a more likely outcome than successful lawsuits would be the spread of measures that would keep some legitimate would-be voters from the polls. Voting experts said the ruling was likely to complicate election administration, leading to both more litigation and more legislation, at least in states with Republican legislative majorities, but would probably have a limited impact on this year’s presidential voting. The issue has been intensely partisan, with Republicans supporting increased identification requirements for voters and Democrats opposing them. In what the court described as the “lead opinion,” which was written by Justice John Paul Stevens and joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the court acknowledged that the record of the case contained “no evidence” of the type of voter fraud the law was ostensibly devised to detect and deter, the effort by a voter to cast a ballot in another person’s name.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/us/politics/29watc.html?hp

Not Speaking for Obama, Pastor Speaks for Himself, at Length

By ALESSANDRA STANLEY

Published:

April 29, 2008

The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. has wriggled out from under sound bites and screen-grab loops to put himself into context in that most American of ways: on television. And he went deep into context — a rich, stem-winding brew of black history, Scripture, hallelujahs and hermeneutics. Mr. Wright, Senator Barack Obama’s former pastor, was cocky, defiant, declamatory, inflammatory and mischievous, but most of all, he was all over the place, performing a television triathlon of interview, lecture and live news conference that pushed Mr. Obama aside and placed himself front and center in the presidential election campaign. His rehabilitation tour has done no favors to the Obama campaign, which has expressed distress over Mr. Wright’s timing and intemperance. “He does not speak for me; he does not speak for the campaign,” Mr. Obama said Monday. But Mr. Wright’s monomania over the last three days has helped prove the point Mr. Obama made about his former pastor last month in his speech on race, in which he described Mr. Wright as “imperfect” but having also been “like family to me.” Mr. Wright revealed himself to be the compelling but slightly wacky uncle who unsettles strangers but really just craves attention.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/candidates-shift-on-the-gas-tax/

Candidates Shift on the Gas Tax

By The New York Times

April 28, 2008

7:07 pm

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton today endorsed a plan to suspend the 18.4-cents-a-gallon tax on gasoline, but in the past she has supported the levy. During a 2000 Senate race debate in

New York City

, she spoke out against the plan of her opponent, Rick Lazio, to repeal the tax. One of my fundamental disagreements during this campaign with my opponent was when he called for the repeal of the gas tax. Now, the gas tax is one of those few taxes that

New York

actually gets more money from

Washington

than we send. And we are totally reliant on it to do things like finishing I-86 in the Southern Tier, or the fast-ferry harbor works up in

Rochester

, as well as the work we need to do here in the city. Senator Barack Obama has similarly taken different positions on the issue of gas taxes, albeit at the state level. In 2000, Mr. Obama supported a bill in the

Illinois

legislature to suspend most of the state’s 6.25 per cent gasoline sales tax. But he later opposed making the reduction permanent, arguing that the state needed the revenue and

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9912.html

Wright to Obama: 'Coming after you'

MIKE

ALLEN

4/28/08

11:58 AM EST

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright said Monday that he will try to change national policy by “coming after” Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) if he is elected president. The pastor also insisted Obama “didn’t denounce” him and “didn’t distance himself” from Wright’s controversial remarks, but “did what politicians do.” Wright implied Obama still agrees with him by saying: “He had to distance himself, because he's a politician, from what the media was saying I had said, which was [portrayed as] anti-American.” Wright, who was Obama’s pastor for 20 years and performed his wedding, made the explosive comment during a chaotic question-and-answer session at the National Press Club in

Washington

, following the pastor’s remarks about the black church in

America

. “I said to Barack Obama last year, ‘If you get elected, November the 5th I'm coming after you, because you'll be representing a government whose policies grind under people,’ Wright said.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9933.html

Obama dread turns to glee for the GOP

By JOSH KRAUSHAAR

4/28/08

8:17 PM EST

For months, GOP operatives spoke with dread of the prospects of running against Barack Obama in the fall. But after weeks of controversies over his former pastor, his views of blue-collar voters and even the sincerity of his patriotism, Republicans now are ready to place a $500,000 bet that Obama will be a heavy burden on down-ballot Democrats. That’s the approximate amount of advertising purchased so far by the National Republican Congressional Committee and GOP allies to link Democratic congressional hopefuls in

Mississippi

and

Louisiana

to their party’s potential presidential nominee. Whereas Obama once seemed an almost cultlike figure who transcended race and class, the narrative that has emerged from his campaign’s recent trials has given Republicans hope that the

Illinois

senator can be tagged as an elitist with the same effectiveness with which Michael Dukakis and John F. Kerry were so labeled. The elitist story line has provided Republicans with press release fodder against freshman Democratic House members and statewide elected officials in roughly two dozen states. Republican-leaning districts could be particularly fertile ground for Obama-focused attacks, GOP officials say. “I think he’s the weaker candidate, and I’ve thought that for over a year now,” NRCC Chairman Tom Cole (

Okla.

) said at a briefing on Monday. “He’s very inexperienced. He is by any definition liberal and to the left of Hillary Clinton, and he will give us plenty of ideological divisions to work with.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9916.html

Wright finds way back to spotlight

By MICHAEL CALDERONE

4/28/08

2:59 PM EST

After nearly six weeks of replaying video clips of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., the networks had probably exhausted any remaining news value — that is, until Sen. Barack Obama’s controversial former pastor provided lots more material. Now Wright’s pulpit has grown from a

Chicago

church to millions of living rooms tuned into the cable networks, with Obama’s campaign left watching along with everyone else.

“We don’t have any control over Reverend Wright,” David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist, said Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” Clearly, Axelrod is trying to distance the Obama campaign from Wright’s media tour of three major cities in the past 24 hours. The most recent was in

Washington

D.C.

where Wright delivered a breakfast talk Monday at the National Press Club, broadcast on C-SPAN.

On Sunday, Wright gave two morning sermons to 4,000 attendees at a

Dallas

mega-church before speaking at the NAACP’s Freedom Fund dinner that night in

Detroit

. Already, clips of Wright’s first lengthy interview with PBS’s Bill Moyers — which aired Friday — have been making the rounds on all the cable networks.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9936.html

Dems fear photo-ID voting law fallout

By JOHN BRESNAHAN

4/28/08

7:01 PM EST

Congressional Democrats and minority groups assailed Monday’s Supreme Court decision upholding

Indiana

’s photo-ID law as an affront to voting rights, but political realities in the states suggest that the ruling could have relatively limited impact nationwide. Only three states —

Indiana

Florida

and

Georgia

— currently require voters to show government-issued photo IDs before stepping into the voting booth.

Texas

Oklahoma

and

Kansas

are considering similar requirements, but it’s not clear whether they can adopt them before the November elections. Democratic insiders fear that a number of states, particularly in the

Midwest

and South, will copy the

Indiana

law now that the Supreme Court has upheld it. “There’s the concern for our side that it can spread, other states can do what

Indiana

did,” said a Democratic strategist. “You may see a lot more of this now.”

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Mzk3YjUxOTg0ZmVhZjczZDVjZWE5ZmMzOTlhYzlmZjc=

The Senator and the Disastrous Rev. Wright

The pastor comes to

Washington

— to blow up the Obama campaign.

By Byron York

Marion Barry is one politician who’s not going to distance himself from the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. “It was a brilliant speech,” the former mayor of

Washington

D.C.

, told me after Wright’s appearance at the National Press Club Monday morning. “I’ve read his sermons, I’ve been to his church, so I know about him. It’s very clear most Americans only know Jeremiah Wright through those 15-second soundbites, which is ridiculous.” Barry was echoing Wright’s own argument, often made by people who’ve been caught saying something inappropriate, that his words had been taken out of context. Monday, as Wright took the podium at the National Press Club, insiders on both sides of the presidential campaign were watching closely, waiting to learn more of that context; maybe Wright would explain himself in a way that could defuse the issue. “All those points that he had made that he had said were taken out of context, and here he had this opportunity to provide the additional context,” one GOP strategist told me. But it didn’t happen. “Instead of putting them into some context, he seemed to reinforce them,” the strategist said.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OWIzZGE5OTBiYzZhMjg2N2ZkYTE2MTQ1YjliODNkODM=

A Christian Farrakhan

Wright is a canker on Obama’s candidacy.

By Rich Lowry

April 28, 2008

11:10 PM

Editor’s note: This column is available exclusively through King Features Syndicate. For permission to reprint or excerpt this copyrighted material, please contact: kfsreprint@hearstsc.com, or phone 800-708-7311, ext 246). The Rev. Jeremiah Wright has taken Barack Obama’s critically acclaimed race speech in

Philadelphia

, ripped it into bits, and tossed it in the air to serve as confetti for his parade through the media.

In that speech, Obama said Wright had been taken out of context, a defense the pastor has made himself. If only we knew the true Wright, Obama complained, instead of just “the snippets of those sermons that have run on an endless loop on the television and YouTube.” In his interview with Bill Moyers on PBS, Wright said the playing of his sound bites was “unfair,” “unjust” and “untrue.”