Friday’s political round-up – The Carpetbagger Report

Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:

* Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio), best known for calling decorated veteran John Murtha a “coward,” was reprimanded by the Ohio Elections Commission yesterday for “false statements” — claiming she had a second undergraduate degree from the University of Cincinnati that she never received. The Commission, which approved the reprimand unanimously, cited the campaign’s “reckless disregard for truth.” The censure was released just five days before Schmidt faces off against former Rep. Bob McEwen (R) in a Republican primary in Ohio’s 2nd congressional district.

* There’s little doubt that Bob Casey is leading in Pennsylvania’s Senate race; the only question is by how much. While some recent polls showed Casey’s leading slipping to the high-single digits, a new Rasmussen poll shows Casey ahead, 51% to 38%.

* The Wisconsin gubernatorial race remains one of the nation’s most competitive contests, according to a new Rasmussen poll. According to the survey, Gov. Jim Doyle (D) is still leading Rep. Mark Green (R), but the margin has slipped to 47% to 43%. Doyle enjoys a 52% approval rating statewide. If former Gov. Tommy Thompson were to enter the race, he’d lead Doyle, 46% to 44%.

* Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan (D) has chosen former Baltimore state’s attorney Stuart Simms as his gubernatorial running mate. Simms was elected twice as the city’s top prosecutor in the 1990s. Duncan will face Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley in a Dem primary.

* Most recent polls show Rhode Island Sen. Linc Chafee (R) as one of the more vulnerable incumbents this year, but a new Rhode Island College poll shows the opposite. In this survey, Chafee leads former state Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse (D), 51% to 32%. (via Taegan Goddard)

* And in 2008 news, Wesley Clark fans will be pleased to hear that Senate Democrats will host a retreat in Philadelphia this weekend, and Clark will help lead a discussion on how the party should go “Head to head with the GOP on National Security in ’06.” Clark also hosted a fundraising in New York last night for his political action committee. Among the attendees was billionaire philanthropist George Soros.

Just read a terrific post by Carol Kilyanek about the WesPac fundraiser held by George Soros at
http://www.awesclarkdemocrat.com/2006/04/wes_and_george_soros_that_is_i.htm

Here is some of what she reported:

George introduced Wes, saying how he got to know Wes in the Balkans, how much he likes him, how important he thinks it is for us to win back at the very least one House of Congress so we can start some investigations and oversight of the executive branch, how happy he is to see all of the work Wes is doing for the ’06 candidates, etc, etc….

……………..

He brought up the fact that the event was a fundraiser and said that someone (I can’t remember who) asked him sometime (I can’t remember when) how much money he (WesPAC) had. His answer was “as little as necessary” because he didn’t want to take money away from the folks who are running in the ‘06 elections. He just wants to have enough to continue WesPAC’s work and no more than that….He emphasized strongly the need to give to the folks running campaigns now.
………………..

He talked of how we really have to get hold of the Congress so we can have investigations. He especially emphasized the NSA wiretapping thing, supposing that it’s more than likely that his phone is tapped and his calls recorded because he has so many dealings with folks in the Middle East. He said we need Congress because we’re not going to get any of the guys in the White House to change….Not Bush, not Cheney, not Rumsfeld, not any of them…He said, “You know Bush, he’s the decider”, which got a chuckle from the crowd. But he emphasized that the only way we’re going to effect any change at all in policy is by getting some control over the legislative branch.
……………………….

He talked about the Real Security rollout thing and how extraordinary it was that they’d gotten all of these people together, on the same page, at the same event, to come up with a unified voice, a unified message and nobody heard it because they’d scheduled it five days in advance and the day before, Bush decides he must schedule this speech or whatever it was to start 10 minutes before the Dems’ event and then spent a good amount of time lounging around on the podium (and Wes did a fabulous impression of Bush leaning on the podium like a doofus…I mean he had him down pat, perfect imitation, perfect) taking question after leisurely question so he could drag the thing out until 2:30, after the Dems had finished at 2. Bush had the national stage and the Dems got hardly a mention…I think he said nothing at all in the LA or NY Times…I think back page in the Washington Post. You could hear his frustration at how hard it is to get the Dem message out in this kind of climate….

………………………..

Iran…He talked quite a bit about Iran.

He said we’ve got three choices…

1) We can negotiate with them
2) We can bomb them and try to take out their nuclear facilities
3) We can live with them having a nuclear weapon

He said right now, they are, at some level, negotiating, although the US refuses to negotiate directly. He doesn’t think that bombing them would solve anything and help the situation at all. He said he sees no end game if we choose to bomb….no way out once we start it.

Someone brought up the possibility of the US using nuclear weapons on Iran and both Wes and George seemed to think that was highly unlikely. George interjected to point out the absurdity of the US using nuclear weapons to take out the Iranian nuclear capabilities….He said we certainly couldn’t do that with much conviction…..And Wes said that if the US uses nuclear weapons, the world will never be the same and the US’ place in the world will never be the same.
………………………………..

Oh, also, at one point he was saying something about us Democrats…and then he caught himself and said if you’re Republicans, too, you want to help fix this country…So I guess this wasn’t an exclusively Dem event…which I think is nice….Wes really can bring folks from all sides together…In fact, one of the guys I was talking to at the beginning of the night was a Republican who would support Wes if he ran in ‘08.

……………………………

Finally, I did get a chance to ask him, after the questions, when everyone was milling around in small groups and there was like a line of people waiting to talk to the General, what book he recommend we read for the book club…He said, while holding onto one of my hands and one finger of the other, The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery….”It’s about global warming.”