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Friday, September 14, 2007
Another tale of Newt
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Newt Gingrich, the top non-candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, is under fire again for his fundraising practices.
The Politico, an insider newspaper for the Beltway crowd, is reporting here that Gingrich’s group, American Solutions for Winning the Future, solicited an illegal $50,000 contribution from a Republican-friendly Hasan Family Foundation in Colorado.
American Solutions returned the money to Hasan. But Hasan’s lawyer, Ryan Call, is still crying foul, saying the foundation never would have given the money if it hadn’t been misled by American Solutions into believing it was legal.
Rick Tyler, Gingrich’s spokesman, said Hasan made the mistake, according to the paper.
Gingrich’s problems with his web of political and policy committees has been a problem since his days as House Speaker.
Gingrich maintains that American Solutions, which deals with healthcare issues, is not what Politico called “a stealth campaign committee.” However, it is organized under federal law as a political committee.
Gingrich recently said he’d finally decide in October whether to jump into the GOP presidential race officially. He said he’s in if he can raise $30 million for advertising.
A question for the GOP faithful: Where will Fred Thompson be at 11 a.m. this Sunday?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Now that we’ve had Rudy Giuliani hemming and hawing his way through Georgia on the issue of immigration, it seems only fair to offer up something to put supporters of his chief Republican rival on the defensive.
GOP blogs are still buzzing over Tuesday’s Bloomberg article out of South Carolina, in which former U.S. senator Fred Thompson confessed that he’s not a regular church-goer.
After Thompson told an audience that he got his values from his parents and “the good Church of Christ,” reporters asked him for specifics.
“I attend church when I’m in Tennessee. I’m in McLean right now,” he said — a reference to his home in the Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C. “I don’t attend regularly when I’m up there.” Thompson said he’s not a member of any church in the Washington area.
“Me getting up and talking about what a wonderful person I am and that sort of thing, I’m not comfortable with that, and I don’t think it does me any good. People will make up their own mind about that, and that’s the way I like it,” Thompson said.
It doesn’t sound like Thompson’s Sunday habits are that different from those of the largely unchurched Ronald Reagan. But the issue could be a problem for Thompson in close-fought primaries across the South.
As a topic, Thompson’s church attendance has been cooking since this spring, when James Dobson of Focus on the Family famously questioned Thompson’s faith — though Dobson quickly backed away.
The Bloomberg piece arrived a few days after Richard Land, a Thompson supporter and head of the the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, declared that Thompson sat in a Virginia pew on a “regular basis.”
(Land is also the fellow who described Thompson as a “Southern-fried Reagan.”)
So far, the web site EthicsDaily.com has taken the most thorough look at the issue of Thompson and his church attendance. It’s worth a look.
Towery poll: Support for Petraeus plan under 50 percent
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Matt Towery’s InsiderAdvantage is out with a national poll on Gen. David Petraeus’ recommendations for the future conduct of the Iraq war.
A smidgen less than a majority agree with the general’s assessment, which would have the number of U.S. troop levels back to a pre-surge level by next summer.
Download the crosstabs here.
The break-down is entirely partisan. A neat 78.5 percent of self-identified Republicans agree with the general. And 72.3 percent of Democrats disagree.
Independents are the ones who are split — but they’re showing signs of weariness, too. A bare majority, 50.5 percent, say they’re not buying what Petraeus is selling.
The poll also asked this: “Are you more or less likely to vote for the Republican nominee for president if a substantial number of troops have not been withdrawn from Iraq by election day?”
The breakdown: 42.6 percent said they were less likely to vote GOP; 35.9 percent said they were more likely; and 21.5 percent said they didn’t know.
Vance Smith says he, too, wants to be the state’s top road-builder
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’ve got another entry in the sweepstakes to become the next head of the state Department of Transportation — and House Speaker Glenn Richardson is backing him.
The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reports this morning that state Rep. Vance Smith (R-Pine Mountain), who owns a construction and grading company, has put in his application for the job.
After four years, DOT Commissioner Harold Linnenkohl announced recently that he would retire.
Gov. Sonny Perdue and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle are pushing Gena Abraham, head of the Georgia Building Authority and several other state entities.
Said Richardson: “Gena is obviously very capable, but Vance is a proven expert in the field of transportation. I fully support him and assume the rest of the House leadership does as well.
So we’ve got a contest.
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