Thursday’s political round-up

July 26, 2007

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:

* John Edwards unveiled a fairly detailed tax plan this morning in Des Moines. Among the highlights: repealing tax breaks for families earning more than $200,000, raising the top tax rate on long-term capital gains to 28 percent, and aggressively going after tax-cheats. Also, Edwards backs a variety of measures for those left behind by Bush: “[He] would make savings easier for low income families with a ‘Get Ahead’ credit that would match savings up to $500 per year, and provide a tax credit he calls work bonds, which would also be matched and would go directly into savings accounts. He also proposes exempting the first $250 in interest, capital gains and dividends to allow low-income families to get a start on savings tax-free.”

* John McCain’s staff exodus continued yesterday, when the senator’s advertising consultants, Russ Schriefer and Stuart Stevens, resigned. Both Schriefer and Stevens did the advertising for the last three GOP presidential tickets.

* Barack Obama picked up a fairly important endorsement today, getting the backing for Rep. Paul Hodes (D-N.H.). As the NYT reported, “So who is Congressman Paul Hodes? In Democratic circles, he is viewed as something of a giant slayer. Last fall, he defeated a 12-year Republican incumbent, Representative Charlie Bass in a district that stretches from the Massachusetts border to the northern tip of New Hampshire…. Of all the hundreds of elected officials in New Hampshire, Mr. Hodes is among the top three Democrats in the state.”

* Hillary Clinton picked up an equally significant endorsement yesterday, when Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) announced her support for Clinton. “This is a very special moment for me because I have the opportunity to endorse the campaign of a U.S. senator who I believe will be the first female president of the United States,” Feinstein said. “Hillary Clinton, I believe, has the experience, the heart and the strength to be a great American president. There has been no election for president where change is as defined and necessary as this one. The question is who is best equipped to lead that change. I believe it is Hillary.”

* Sam Brownback is annoying the Romney campaign quite a bit with robocalls in Iowa questioning the former governor’s opposition to abortion rights. Brownback is also hitting Tom Tancredo with robocalls on the same issue.

* And Tommy Thompson, who believes a big win in Iowa will catapult his candidacy, is counting on a victory in the Ames Straw Poll next month. The former Wisconsin governor and HHS Secretary said yesterday, “If I don’t win, I’ll be shocked.”

The Ag bill is a continued big corporate give away that the Democrats need to kill rather then push. Great to talk the talk but lets see them really go after these huge corporate payments, if not then we know what to expect from these folks on a regular basis.

  • Rove’s been served!!!!!

    They dispatched the letter shortly before Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., announced the subpoena of Rove, the president’s top political strategist, in remarks on the Senate floor.

    “We have now reached a point where the accumulated evidence shows that political considerations factored into the unprecedented firing of at least nine United States Attorneys last year,” said Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

  • Sam Brownback is annoying the Romney campaign quite a bit with robocalls in Iowa questioning the former governor’s opposition to abortion rights.

    Maybe that explains Romney’s remarks in Bedford, MA, yesterday, which I mentioned earlier. Here are the complete quotes:

    “I will tell you that this is a watershed point for the Supreme Court,” Romney said. “And I will appoint justices like Roberts and Alito and Scalia . . . and Thomas.”

    “If we have another appointment to the Supreme Court, we hopefully will have justices which open the way in my view to allowing states to have more input on this, rather than a Roe v. Wade, everybody to have the same standard abortion,” Romney said.

    Time was, it was considered bad form to appoint judges based on their promises to rule a particular way on a particular case.

  • JoeW… The story you linked to includes this passage:

    Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters aboard Air Force One during the day that he “might” raise the issue with the president, who has steadfastly stood by his longtime friend.

    This is a tangent, but… seems weird to be talking about the president when he’s, y’know, sitting somewhere else on the same plane. Unless they were using the term “Air Force One” loosely. Strictly speaking, it’s the name of whatever plane the president is on, and if the president ain’t on it, it’s not Air Force One. But then, what do you call the executive jets that the president uses, even when the president is not aboard?

  • I found the front page WaPo story (No Easy Verdict on Thompson The Lawyer) on Thompson “interesting.” They talk about some of his legal cases that Republican opponents could use against him and then go into his early career as a Senator where he supposedly went against the party. All I have to say about that the first doesn’t necessarily draw in the moderates. As for the latter, that was the GOP of the mid 1990’s not the GOP under George Bush.

  • Doesn’t Edwards announcement of his tax plan answer your question the other day about why should candidates bother to release detailed policy statements and white papers?

    Edwards ideas sound good enough that I’m going to reconsider his position in my list of favorites. The details make everyone pay attention to the broader ideas and debate them seriously. Gravitas, and all that.

  • John Edwards unveiled a fairly detailed tax plan this morning in Des Moines.

    I think the details of this plan are great. Encouraging savings especially by exempting the first $250 in interest is really clever — its not going to be noticed by any of the truly wealthy, but could really help the lower and middle classes.

    Having said that, AAAARRGGGG. I thought the general consensus was that we had to avoid details to win the presidency. Why can’t he just say “I believe the truly wealthy should pay their fair share. And I think our great society should actively encourage all our citizens to save. All our citizens, not just those with trust funds and yachts.”

  • John McCain’s staff exodus continued yesterday, when the senator’s advertising consultants, Russ Schriefer and Stuart Stevens, resigned. Both Schriefer and Stevens did the advertising for the last three GOP presidential tickets.

    And the Shit Talk Express continues to barrel into oblivion.

  • “Hazelbaker, McCain’s top spokeswoman, said the campaign would rely on McCain’s biography to remind voters why they gave him a 19 percentage point win over Bush in New Hampshire in 2000.”

    If the only accomplishment a candidate can point to in seven years is a single primary win in a race he was completely blown out of afterwards, the train to Loserville has already left the station.

    But I think we already knew that. The only question is, who is going to tell the candidate?

  • > “Of all the hundreds of elected officials in New Hampshire, Mr. Hodes is among the top three Democrats in the state.”

    Oh please. That’s like saying “Out of the five competitors, I was in the top 5.” There’s the Guv, two Republican Senators, two Dem Representatives, and then everybody else…

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