Wednesday’s political round-up

May 2, 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:

* In a surprise turn-around, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama announced yesterday that they will attend a CNN/Union Leader debate in New Hampshire in June. Despite early statements that they would work within a debate sanctioning process instituted by the Democratic National Committee, the two announced within hours of each other their intentions to take part in the June debate.

* The WaPo reported today that John Edwards “is launching the first television ads for his presidential campaign to coincide with President Bush’s veto of the Iraq funding bill. The ad, which will run in the D.C. media market, is aimed at sending a message to Congress as it considers the next steps on the war.”

* Mitt Romney had a rough day yesterday after reports surfaced that his favorite novel is L. Ron Hubbard’s “Battleship Earth.” The Boston Herald noted that the Mark Twain novel “Huckleberry Finn” tops the book list on Romney’s My Space page — and “Battlefield Earth” isn’t on the list. The paper labeled this “another flip flop.”

* The Hill reported Monday that Barack Obama snubbed the Congressional Black Caucus, declining to help the CBC raise money after promising he would. Yesterday, CBC member Rep. Al Wynn (D-Md.) took “strong exception” to the article, insisting, “Obama has always expressed his willingness to host a fundraiser for the CBC PAC. We are working together to secure a date and avoid a scheduling conflict. The Senator has been very supportive of the CBC PAC’s efforts, and I am confident that he will continue to do so in the future.”

* And widespread rumors that Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) will not seek reelection picked up a bit yesterday when Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) reportedly told supporters that Warner told him to make preparations for an open Senate race. If Warner doesn’t seek another term, Democrats hope to get former Gov. Mark Warner (no relation) to seek the seat.

Battlefield Earth is to SF as Shit is to Food.

It tells me that Mittens has no taste and not much intelligence.

  • Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said: “Battlefield Earth is pretty good science fiction. It’s about Earth being ruled by an alien race, sort of the way the Democrats are running Congress.”

    Hardy-har. Wait… does that mean it only became his favorite book since January??

    “Mormonism sounds like a science fiction fantasy to some Americans,” said [Stephen Prothero, head of Boston University’s religion department].

    Well, yeah. A couple SF fantasies, in fact: lost civilizations in the Americas; angelic visitations to shady New Yorkers; and miraculous locusts saving pioneer pilgrims. All that and Planet Kolab, too.

    BTW, there was a sci-fi cult movie called Plan Ten from Outer Space which spoofed some LDS dogma.

  • Agreed, Former Dan (#1).

    I hope Mark Warner runs for the Senate next year. He can make a strong run for the seat.

    Davis chaired the House Government Reform Committee from 1998 to 2007 when Democrats became the majority and Henry Waxman became chair. Davis had renamed the Committee, removing “Oversight” from the title; one of Waxman’s first acts as Chair was to reinstitute the name as the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The Committee is the chief investigative and oversight committee of the House, and has been granted broad jurisdiction. This Committee was very active during President Clinton’s term. It issued 1,052 subpoenas to probe alleged misconduct by the Clinton administration and the Democratic Party between 1997 and 2002. By contrast, chairman Tom Davis and the majority has permitted three subpoenas to the current administration, including one to the Defense Department over Hurricane Katrina documents.

    Tom Davis is going to have a hard fight here in VA, regardless. The info above is just one small bit of this guy’s bull.

    Tom Davis @ Wikipedia

  • re Battleship Romney:

    A politician’s official book list is always safe and politically correct. What gets me is that he couldn’t think of a book from his “safe list” when asked — what does this tell us?

  • Here’s a non-newsflash…

    Jay Rockefeller is about as intimidating as a poodle with dentures.

    “There is simply no excuse for not providing to this committee all the legal opinions on the president’s program,” Rockefeller said.

    The committee asked a year ago for Bush’s order — and the Justice legal opinions supporting it — that directed the National Security Agency after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to eavesdrop without warrants on Americans…

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070502/ap_on_go_co/domestic_spying

  • Obama and Clinton join the NH debate the day after CNN extends an invitation to Mike Gravel after showing up right behind Bill Richardson on MSNBC;’s own poll.

    Smart move, yes. Surprise? Hardly.
    Do they really want him raising concerns over their positions on issues and having no chance to respond?

  • Bill Jacobs… are you suggesting that Mike Gravel’s performance in South Carolina has earned him the distinction as the guy who can make the next 9-12 months of boring debates more interesting?

    If so, and Gravel gets more face time (I could already imagine the phone from The Daily Show ringing for him), could everyone please stop calling him “D-Alaska”? He hasn’t lived in Alaska for over 25 years.

  • “It tells me that Mittens has no taste and not much intelligence.”

    Or is it the other way round?

    • Comments are closed.