posted February 09, 2006 12:49 PM            

In election 2008 news, Ken Mehlman has ALREADY started name-calling saying that Hilary Clinton "seems to have a lot of anger" and voters usually do not send angry candidates to the White House. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,183854,00.html

Margaret Carlson of Bloomberg.com seems to have it right:

posted February 23, 2006 03:22 PM            

Dear Yahoo!:
How many states allow a resident to marry a cousin?
John
Huntsville, Alabama

Dear John:

When Texas made marriage between first cousins illegal last year, that left 19 states and the District of Columbia as havens for those who want to get jiggy with the offspring of their aunt or uncle. Six more states allow marriage between first cousins under certain circumstances. All states allow marriage between second or more-distant cousins.

Laws against "kissin' cousin" marriages stem from fear that the progeny of such unions have a much higher chance of being afflicted with birth defects and/or winding up on the "Jerry Springer Show." The sources we checked all suggest such prohibitions may be overcautious.

A 2002 research study concluded that the offspring of first-cousin couples "inherited recessive genetic disorders, such as cystic fibrosis and Tay-Sachs disease, in 7% to 8% of cases." That's 2 to 3% greater than the general population, which is significant but much lower than the overall perception. And since genetic testing can now alert couples to heightened risk, the danger is potentially even lower. Many societies actually encourage marriage between cousins; the U.S. is "virtually alone among developed nations" in outlawing them.

If you're still not convinced, perhaps a little name-dropping will help. Charles Darwin, who knew a thing or two about genetics, married his first cousin. Other famous cousin-marriers include Queen Victoria, Rudy Giuliani, and FDR.

posted February 27, 2006 02:42 PM            

By MARC HUMBERT, AP Political Writer
1 hour, 44 minutes ago

ALBANY, N.Y. — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that President Bush's chief political strategist Karl Rove "spends a lot of time obsessing about me."

The former first lady and potential presidential contender was reacting during a radio interview to a new book quoting Karl Rove as saying she will be the 2008 Democratic nominee for president,

"He spends more time thinking about my political future than I do," Clinton said, noting that Rove and other White House aides have met regularly with her possible opponents in November's 2006 Senate race.

The junior Senator from New York said she believed Rove, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman and other Republicans are focusing on her to divert attention from Republican problems as the 2006 congressional elections approach.

"Karl Rove is a brilliant strategist. So, if I were thinking about this," Clinton told WROW-AM radio in Albany, "I'd say why are they spending so much time talking about me?"

"What they're hoping is that all of their missteps, which are now numbering in the hundreds, are going to somehow be overlooked because people, instead of focusing on the '06 election, will jump ahead and think about the next one," Clinton said.

Rove made no immediate comment.

In a new book out Monday from Regnery Publishing, "Strategery" by veteran reporter Bill Sammon, Rove is quoted as saying: "She is the dominant player on their side of the slate. Anybody who thinks that she's not going to be the candidate is kidding themselves."

Rove also says he does not believe Clinton can win the general election, in part, because there is a "brittleness about her." That seems to mirror recent comments by Mehlman that Clinton "seems to have a lot of anger" and that Americans don't elect angry presidential candidates.

Clinton again Monday refused to be pinned down on whether she would run for the White House, repeating her mantra that she is completely focused on re-election this year.

Asked if it was unfair to New York voters to not tell them whether she might run for president in two years, Clinton said: "Any New Yorker who worries about what might happen in the future should certainly take that into consideration."

Statewide polls have shown Clinton well ahead of her potential GOP Senate challengers and national polls show her leading the field of potential 2008 Democratic presidential contenders.

posted March 10, 2006 12:40 PM            

The head of the Republican Party, launching a broad indictment of the Democratic Party six months before midterm elections, is expected to charge Friday that the opposition can't find an election-year slogan, let alone agree on a broad agenda.

In an address to the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Tennessee scheduled for Friday afternoon, Ken Mehlman will single out party leaders and two potential 2008 presidential candidates — Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Kerry — for criticism on a range of issues, from national security to the economy to judicial nominees.

"Not only can they not settle on an agenda, they can't even agree on a slogan," Mehlman's remarks prepared for delivery said. He is expected to offer some suggestions, albeit critical ones.

"If they really want the American people to know what they are going to do, then how about, 'Together, Americans can pay more in taxes,' " the text said. "Or, 'Together, we can retreat from the central front in the war on terror.' "

Mehlman will assail some Democrats for calling for a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, for challenging President Bush's warrantless surveillance program and for pushing for greater attention to civil liberties in a revision of the Patriot Act.

Mehlman's speech cites a list of achievements in the war on terror. "It is amazing that some of the other party's leaders seem to want to take away the tools making us safer."

The speech comes amid growing concerns in the Republican ranks over Bush's diminishing standing with the American people and the GOP's fears about maintaining its majority control in the House and Senate this November.

The three-day conference in Memphis, Tenn., is attracting not only the party faithful but several potential Republican presidential candidates in 2008.

Mehlman's text reflected his intention to argue that Clinton's solution to support U.S. troops in Iraq was higher taxes and poked fun at Kerry for joining in the unsuccessful challenge to Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito's nomination from a conference in Davos, Switzerland.

In the 2004 campaign, presidential nominee Kerry was widely criticized for his comment about voting for $87 billion for U.S. forces and then voting against it. Mehlman will parody that line in his speech.

posted April 10, 2006 12:33 PM            

Six years ago, an angry George W. Bush told John McCain to quit accusing him of being untrustworthy. An even angrier McCain told Bush he should be ashamed of the presidential campaign he was running.

It was four days before the South Carolina Republican primary, and the Texas governor and the Arizona senator were bitterly at odds.

A McCain ad saying Bush "twists the truth like Bill Clinton" was a low blow, Bush said. McCain countered that Bush was distorting his record and went "over the line" when he appeared with a military veteran who said McCain had abandoned fellow veterans after his release from a Hanoi prison. "That really hurts," McCain told Bush.

Cut to a week ago at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum here in this Texas college town. McCain and former president George H.W. Bush sat in the elder Bush's office, talking of long-ago wars and baseball stars. Later, McCain gave a lecture sponsored by the library, and George and Barbara Bush hosted him at a dinner salted with top Texas Republicans.

As McCain prepares for a second presidential run, it is no surprise to find the onetime upstart in the heart of the Bush dynasty. McCain and prominent Republicans are embracing each other in ways unimaginable during his brutal 2000 contest with George W. Bush.

McCain has grown closer to the current president and his family. He has voted to extend some Bush tax cuts he once opposed. He has reconciled with the Rev. Jerry Falwell, whom he once called an "agent of intolerance."

And he's provoked a chorus of denunciations and lamentations from liberals who once were smitten with him. Where, they ask, is the principled maverick of 2000?

That man was on display at the lecture hall shortly after the chat in Bush's office. He was passionately promoting a plan opposed by most of his party: to let 12 million illegal immigrants in America pay fines and back taxes, learn English and get in line for citizenship.

"I say, let them rise," McCain said of the immigrants. "We have always been a better country for it."

It's complicated being John McCain.

In 2000, McCain adviser John Weaver said the senator and his outsider team "showed up at the prom in Bermuda shorts." McCain's candor and willingness to defy GOP orthodoxy drew glowing media coverage and votes from Democrats and independents in Republican primaries - but didn't go over so well with the GOP base. He won seven primaries to Bush's 11 before dropping out of the race March 9.

Now McCain is a leading prospect for his party's 2008 nomination. He's busily cultivating the Bush family, Bush loyalists, religious conservatives, tax-cut devotees and others who spurned or attacked him in 2000.

"It's almost like he wants to flip-flop grandly and quickly and get it out of the way," says liberal Joshua Micah Marshall, founder of talkingpointsmemo.com. He predicts "a bad breakup between McCain and his middle-of-the-road admirers."

McCain says he's not changing, just trying to build bridges instead of burning them. "Fundamentally, I'm the same person I've been for the last 30 years," he told USA TODAY in an interview last week aboard his charter plane from Houston to College Station.

As for his vote on the tax cuts, he says, it's consistent with his record: "If we repeal them, it has the effect of a tax increase. I have never voted to increase taxes." So will he vote to extend the rest of them? Yes.

Betting on a winner

McCain has one of the highest favorable ratings of any 2008 prospect in either party - 61% in a Time poll last month, second only to former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani (64%). Several polls show McCain beating New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the leading Democrat, in a head-to-head contest.

"Right now I'd have to say he's the front-runner" for the GOP nomination, says Emmett Tyrell, editor of the conservative American Spectator magazine.

McCain's advantages over other prospects include his wrenching past as a Navy pilot who spent 1967-73 in a Vietnam prison, and a reformer image in a time of Washington scandals. He makes no secret of his priorities. At a recent GOP gathering in Memphis, others highlighted issues such as abortion and gay marriage. McCain talked soberly of Iraq, Iran and terrorism.

"It's apparent to a lot of conservatives that ... post-9/11, the country has to be led by a leader who understands the military. John is certainly at the top of the list there," Tyrell says. It doesn't hurt, he adds, that McCain recently has "come around on taxes."

McCain's age and health are potential liabilities. He has had three bouts of melanoma, a dangerous skin cancer, and if elected, he'd be the oldest first-term president - 72. He says his health is good and his mother still globetrots at 94. His standard line: "I'm older than dirt, and I've got more scars than Frankenstein, but I've learned a few things along the way."

Republicans appear more focused for now on McCain's strong poll numbers than his age or health. "He is our best prospect to be nominated and be president," says Sen. Trent Lott (news, bio, voting record), R-Miss.

McCain says he won't decide whether to run until after the November elections. He also says his wife, Cindy, is not yet "convinced that this is a good idea."

However, he's already thought about how he'd do it - just like 2000, lots of town meetings and wall-to-wall media availability on his Straight Talk Express bus. They were the most fun part of the race, he says, and "life has got to be fun."

McCain is trying to have some, although he is perceived as a front-runner, and "people always shoot at the front-runner." He's had bit parts in the movie Wedding Crashers and the Fox TV show 24. He holds his own with late-night comics and jokes darkly that Don Imus, who loves him, "has a perfect record of backing nothing but losers."

His cellphone has an up-to-the-minute funk-rap ring tone inflicted on him by one of his sons. His jokes are a lot older. When he follows other speakers at an event he cracks that he feels like Zsa Zsa Gabor's fifth husband - "I know what to do, I just don't know how to make it interesting" - and concludes by asking for "questions, comments and insults."

But McCain is dead serious about making sure that if and when he runs for the GOP nomination, this time he'll win. He's lining up some of the people responsible for Bush's success - among them Terry Nelson, who ran Bush's massive turnout organization in 2004; longtime Bush family fundraiser Tom Loeffler of Texas; and at least a dozen South Carolina activists and officials who were in the Bush camp and want to "get involved with McCain early," says McCain adviser Richard Quinn.

McCain's travel schedule already is frenetic. In the past two weeks he has been to New York, Pennsylvania and Texas. He's now in the midst of a seven -day trip to New Hampshire, Florida, Arkansas, Ohio, Minnesota and Iowa.

The immediate goal is to campaign and raise money for 2006 candidates. McCain is also making friends and collecting chits in states with key roles in fundraising, primaries and the general election.

Solidarity with Bush

While other Republicans fret about how far to run from a president with approval ratings in the 30s, McCain has never held Bush in a closer public embrace.

"The president deserved better" than the bipartisan protests that killed an Arab company's takeover of some U.S. port operations, he said in Memphis. He praised Bush's handling of the nuclear threat from Iran. He even urged delegates to pick Bush in a straw poll of 2008 prospects, though Bush can't run.

Above all, McCain is a forceful defender of the Iraq invasion. "That is the president's signature issue, and on that issue, there is no stronger supporter than John McCain," says Mark McKinnon, Bush's media strategist.

The solidarity has helped McCain "make a lot of progress in our world," McKinnon says. He'll likely support McCain if Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sit out 2008 as planned.

McCain says it's his "normal instinct" to help Bush when he's down. "I've always been the guy who fights for the underdog," he says and smiles. "I would feel much more comfortable disagreeing with him if he was at 60, not 38" in polls.

But disagree with him he does. He is bucking Bush by pushing to reduce global warming. He pressured Bush into signing a ban on prisoner torture and now is pressing him on immigration. He has long said the United States did not have enough troops in Iraq. He's also said he has no confidence in Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

He took on Bush and the GOP establishment over campaign spending limits and won. He now says Bush should be tougher with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

McCain's independence is at the core of his cross-party appeal. His decision to give a commencement address May 13 at Falwell's Liberty University led to this exchange with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central's Daily Show:

Stewart: It strikes me as something you wouldn't normally do. Am I wrong about that? Are you freaking out on us?

McCain: Just a little.

Stewart: Are you going into crazy base world?

McCain: I'm afraid so.

McCain has a conservative record on social issues such as abortion, but he has never been a favorite of Christian conservatives. In 2000, the Rev. Pat Robertson sponsored automated phone calls against him, and attacks Falwell calls "ugly" circulated through religious networks. McCain made an inflammatory speech assailing Falwell and Robertson and joked later that they were "forces of evil."

Falwell says he was not part of the 2000 offensive against McCain and decided last fall it was time to reconcile. He asked for a meeting and says it went well. Recently he invited McCain to speak at Liberty, the fundamentalist Baptist university he founded in Lynchburg, Va.

McCain says he was happy to accept. Is he uncomfortable with Falwell's remark that "pagans," "abortionists," feminists, gays and civil libertarians helped bring on God's wrath and the 9/11 attacks?

"No more so than it makes me uncomfortable to go to the New School, which is a very liberal school," he says. He gives an address May 19 at that New York City university, headed by former Democratic senator Bob Kerrey.

There are several 2008 prospects with closer ties to religious conservatives, and interest in them is high. "I have not sensed any real enthusiasm for Sen. McCain among the conservatives that I know," says Don Racheter, a fiscal and Christian conservative active in Iowa politics.

Falwell says McCain looks like a winner and he wants Christian conservatives to take another look. "The fact that he is coming here (Liberty) to speak gives the senator an opportunity to get a leg up on the other candidates inside the religious conservative camp," he says.

Beyond the former Bush operatives and allies looking at McCain, there are the Bushes themselves.

McCain is not the only GOP presidential prospect to get a lecture invitation here - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is on deck for October - but he does have a special relationship with the Bush clan.

Vice admiral J.S. McCain, McCain's grandfather, signed a 1944 citation giving George H.W. Bush a Distinguished Flying Cross after he was shot down in World War II. In 1991, as president, a tearful Bush commissioned the USS McCain named for the vice admiral.

McCain and the former president have known each other for more than 20 years. The elder Bush introduced McCain at the lecture last week with remarks as warm as his son's 2000 campaign was hurtful.

posted July 11, 2006 11:56 PM            

Yepsen: So far, Romney's been most impressive Republican

By DAVID YEPSEN
REGISTER POLITICAL COLUMNIST

Of all the 2008 Republican presidential candidates making the rounds in Iowa, none is doing better than Mitt Romney, the governor of Massachusetts.

Romney's made a half-dozen visits to the state, all to good reviews from the locals. He's picked up the endorsement and active support of Doug Gross, the 2002 GOP candidate for governor and one of the smartest people in Iowa politics. Romney's also released the longest list of Iowa supporters, some 50 in all.

But that's all tactical progress. Now Romney's moving on the policy front by offering a 10-point listing of the issues he sees facing the nation. It's a little short on details, but that's OK — for now. This is his big-picture stuff and he titles it the "Ten Issues America Must Address to Remain the Economic and Military Superpower."

Aides say we're to read nothing into his rank ordering of the items. They are:

•Raising the bar on education: Romney said, "It's time to raise the bar on education by making teaching a true profession, measuring progress, providing a focus on math and science, and involving parents from the beginning of a child's school career."

• Extending health insurance to all Americans: Romney, who helped fashion a bipartisan health-insurance plan for Massachusetts, said, "The health of our nation can be improved by extending health insurance to all Americans, not through a government program or new taxes, but through market reforms."

• Stopping runaway spending: A good idea and one Republicans used to practice. Romney says the problem goes "beyond pork-barrel spending. We must address entitlement programs." (We await the controversial details of just how he'll do that.)

• Getting immigration right: Romney said, "The current system puts up a concrete wall to the best and brightest, yet those without skill or education are able to walk across the border. We must reform the current immigration laws so we can secure our borders, implement a mandatory biometrically-enabled and tamper-proof documentation and employment-verification system, and increase legal immigration into America."

•Achieving energy independence: "This will mean a combination of efforts related to conservation and efficiency measures, developing alternative sources of energy like biodiesel, ethanol, nuclear, and coal gasification, and finding more domestic sources of oil such as in ANWR or the outer continental shelf," he said.

• Simplifying the tax system: Again, Romney doesn't wade into thorny details. Should it be a national sales tax, a flat tax or a reconfiguration of the current system?

•Investing in technology: "Corporations today spend more on tort liability than they do on research and development," he said. "While the government already invests heavily in defense, space and health technologies, it is time to invest substantially in technologies related to power generation, nanotechnology, and materials science."

•Defeating the jihadists: "The defeat of this radical and violent faction of Islam must be achieved through a combination of American resolve, international effort, and the rejection of violence by moderate, modern, mainstream Muslims," he said. "An effective strategy will involve both military and diplomatic actions to support modern Muslim nations....America must help lead a broad-based international coalition that promotes secular education, modern financial and economic policies, international trade, and human rights."

•Competing with Asia: "This means ensuring our children are educated to compete in this new market, our trade laws are fair and balanced, and our economy and tax laws welcome new investment. If America acts boldly and swiftly, the emergence of Asia will be an opportunity," said Romney "Trade and commerce with these huge new economies can further strengthen our economy and propel our growth. If America fails to act, we will be eclipsed."

• Affirming America's culture and values "American values are at the heart of America's historic rise to world leadership. These include, among others, respect for hard work, sacrifice, civility, love of family, respect for life, education and love of freedom," he said.

posted December 18, 2006 05:30 PM            

Nevada has a new prominence in deciding the party's next nominee. It will hold an early caucus Jan. 19, 2008, sandwiched between Iowa and New Hampshire. The prized position is an attempt to bring more diverse voices into determining the Democratic candidate beyond the two overwhelmingly white, rural states that have traditionally dominated the process.

The hope is that a Western state with a large population of Hispanics and union workers will bring fresh issues to the debate.

"I've always felt that the system we have of choosing our president has been very cockeyed," said incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the state's top Democrat. Nevada "will give the American people a better idea of what a candidate should be for and against."

That doesn't mean candidates should be for gambling and against limits on prostitution. Nevada may be famous for some of the nation's most liberal entertainment laws, but state leaders are more interested in promoting other, less sexy political concerns. Those include water rights, nuclear waste disposal, health care, education and maintaining military installations.

Local activists say they don't expect to see the candidates on the Strip, except maybe to hold fundraisers in the large meeting rooms or spend the night in the hotels. However, they can be expected to be asked where they stand on Internet gaming and betting on collegiate sports, issues important to the local economy.

"You are going to get certain questions about local issues just like you get questions in Iowa about corn subsidies," said Democrat Tony Sanchez, chairman of the committee drafting the caucus rules and overseeing its operation. "But the thought of, 'Hey, let's get a picture of you rolling the dice,' that's not going to happen."

The selection of Nevada is part of an effort to increase Democratic support in the West, once a bastion of conservatism. Democrats won several statewide elections in the West last month and the Democratic National Committee is considering holding its 2008 convention in Denver.

Reid was the driving force behind moving up Nevada's caucus and has a lot at stake in its success.

That will be a big job. Nevada had only 17 caucus sites in 2004 — one per county — and just 8,500 of the state's nearly 1 million active registered voters took part. That was a huge jump from 2000, when fewer than 1,000 participated, and the increase overwhelmed the party and delayed results for hours.

This time, the party plans to have as many as 1,000 sites, Reid said.

The Nevada Democratic Party hired Jean Hessburg, the former head of the Iowa Democratic Party who helped oversee the last Iowa caucus, to run the operation and avoid some of the problems seen in 2004. She will be assisted by Iowa political veteran Jayson Sime and a trio of media consultants experienced in presidential politics — Jamal Simmons, Bill Buck and Roger Salazar.

The question is how much time the candidates will spend in Nevada versus Iowa and New Hampshire, where they are expected to attend parties in people's homes statewide. The candidates will have an incentive to stick to the Las Vegas area because two-thirds of the voters live in Clark County. Reno also has a concentration of Democrats, but the rest of the state is sparsely populated and overwhelmingly Republican.

At stake in the Nevada Democratic caucus voting will be 22 base delegates, compared to Iowa's 39 and New Hampshire's 19.

Many Democrats considering a bid have been working Nevada. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has visited repeatedly from his nearby home state, and John Edwards has been courting the state's labor leaders. The 2004 vice presidential nominee already has an endorsement from the Laborers' Local 872.

The labor support will be critical in Nevada because unions will be the most natural organizations to get voters to the caucus. The largest is the Culinary Workers Union Local 226, with 60,000 members who serve the drinks, clean the hotel rooms and cook the food at casinos. Political director Pilar Weiss said the union has many friends in the race and won't make an endorsement until late in the process.

"There is not a favored son or daughter," she said.

Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack stopped in Las Vegas on his presidential campaign announcement tour and Edwards plans to include it on his later this month. Sens. Joe Biden of Delaware, John Kerry of Massachusetts and Chris Dodd of Connecticut have also made trips in recent months.

Two top-tier contenders who have not announced — Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois — have not visited since Nevada moved up its date.

It's too early to gauge what kind of appeal they would have in the swing state, although former President Clinton made many friends here with his 2000 veto of a bill that would have sent nuclear waste to Nevada's Yucca Mountain.

One of Bill Clinton's fans is Billy Vassiliadis, who created Las Vegas' successful "What happens here, stays here" marketing campaign and a slick brochure and video that helped convince Democrats to bless Nevada's early caucus.

Vassiliadis has a picture of himself with Obama hanging in his office and once held a fundraiser for Edwards at his chic headquarters. He said he wants to stay neutral in the presidential primary, but paused when asked what he would do if the former president asked him to support his wife.

"There's almost nothing Bill Clinton couldn't ask me for," Vassiliadis said. "That would be tough."

Reid said that with so many senators in the race, he will not endorse anyone. "That would be a little bit foolish for me to do that when I have to ask them for things here all the time and they have to ask me for things," he said in a recent interview.

He said he will ask the gambling industry to support the caucus effort.

"I hope they step up and help with funding some of the things that need to be funded in this new environment we have there," Reid said. "And I'm confident they'll do that."

Reid rejects suggestions that associations with legalized gambling could hurt presidential candidates, noting that numerous states have it.

Frank Schreck, an attorney who has worked for gambling clients and was a chief fundraiser for Bill Clinton, said the industry is sensitive to appearances for politicians but will want to know where they stand on issues important to them.

"It's in private conversations because you don't want to embarrass anybody," Schreck said.

___

On the Net:

Nevada Democratic Party: http://www.nvdems.com