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Monday, July 28, 2008
Is Bob Barr running short of cash?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Wall Street Journal blog is reporting that the campaign of Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr has sent out “the most desperate sounding e-mail solicitation yet this election cycle,” requesting $15,000 a day — “or else.”
The message comes from Barr’s campaign manager.
Says the Journal:
Under the subject line, “Have I said or done something to offend you?” Russ Verney writes, “You see, I have to report that unless we receive and immediate cash infusion of $85,000, our progress will stop dead in its tracks. To be very blunt, I am presently faced with bills equaling our bank account balance, and I know there are many more expenses on the horizon.”
According to the latest report with the Federal Election Commission, Barr’s campaign had just $69,000 cash on hand at the end of June, and he raised just under $200,000 last month.
Verney, who managed Ross Perot’s 1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns, wrote that Barr’s candidacy also presents a unique opportunity.
“I’ve heard it said that we are wasting our time and that we haven’t a chance of winning. That depends on how you define winning. If winning means balancing the budget, reducing government’s size, and advancing your privacy and civil rights then it isn’t required that Bob Barr win in November. What IS required is a strong showing - just like Ross Perot,” he wrote.
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Saxby Chambliss and Orrin Hatch: On the housing bill, earmarks and Mitt Romney
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, who is still a week away from knowing who he’ll face in the general election, squired Republican colleague Orrin Hatch of Utah to three fund-raisers in Atlanta on Monday.
They raised close to $70,000 for Chambliss, already the $4 million man.
The pair offered themselves up for a presser, and the first topic — of course — was Saturday’s vote on a package to rescue the U.S. housing industry.
Chambliss and U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson voted for it. Hatch voted against it, because — he said — of the open-ended nature of the taxpayer-guaranteed help offered to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
On the other hand, the Senate vote was lopsided. And if the package had needed his vote, Hatch said he might have switched.
In Georgia, the housing package was opposed by the state’s House Republicans. The split roughly — though not exactly — tracks the differences over the issue of earmarks.
Said Chambliss:
“If we had gone home in August without providing liquidity in the [housing] market, as my good friend Johnny Isakson — who has been in the real estate business for 40 years and is somebody I’ve got great confidence in — says, the mortgage industry could be in bankruptcy by the time we got back in September….
“All you have to do is just fly into Atlanta, and you see subdivision after subdivision that’s undeveloped or partially developed.
“I’ve heard from not just contractors, but from carpenters and plumbers and air-conditioning people. They’re just out of work. They’re just sitting and waiting for this market to turn. And I just think that we as policy-makers have an obligation to try and do what we can do to help make the market turn.
“It’s not a perfect bill. I’m not sure what all the reasons were on the house side for those guys to vote against it. But I have the whole state as my constituency.
Both Chambliss and Hatch defended the use, within reason, of earmarks — not just for local projects, but to get past the budgetary game-playing that often happens in a federal bureaucracy.
Both pointed to the F-22 manufactured in Marietta as an example. That bioterrorism facility that Athens is trying to win is another Chambliss priority.
The Insider asked if the lack of cooperation by House Republicans made the task more difficult. Said Chambliss:
”It doesn’t help. Let me say that. I don’t know necessarily that it hurts. But it certainly doesn’t help.”
On the topic of vice presidential politics, both senators spoke of Mitt Romney as the fellow likely to be at the top of most Republican lists these days.
Said Hatch:
”There’s no use kidding — he’s a whiz on the economy. Plus he’s young enough, smart enough and charismatic enough that everybody knows he could succede and be president.
“[Tim] Pawlenty in Minnesota is highly thought of, very articulate, very smart guy. Romney could bring Michigan, Pawlenty would not cause any difficulties.”
Hatch isn’t buying talk that Republican presidential presumptive John McCain will make his selection soon. He’ll announce his choice just before Republicans gather — despite the overlap of the Beijing Olympics, but also because of the Olympic overlap, Hatch said.
McCain will need something substantial to break through the China buzz.
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The Kudzu debate between Jones and Martin, sound chunk by sound chunk
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A first impression of Sunday evening’s U.S. Senate debate on Kudzu Vine:
When candidates are linked only by a telephone line, and don’t see each other face to face, the attacks are a little sharper.
The entire, Internet-only engagement between Democratic run-off rivals Vernon Jones and Jim Martin lasted an hour. Go here to listen to the entire broadcast.
But the Insider spent much of the morning chopping and dicing the debate into more digestible chunks.
On policy, there was not that much that Martin and Jones disagreed on.
Neither would commit to foregoing fund-raising during their first six months in office, should one of them knock off Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss.
Both mentioned the possibility of going into debt by November, and said the bills would have to be paid.
Both verbalized Barack Obama’s contention that troops should be shifted from Iraq to Afghanistan.
Jones’ favorite phrase was “I have a record.” Martin’s was “I never voted for Bush.”
Martin made mention of the Bush issue in his introduction, when explaining why he could make a stronger case against Chambliss, but didn’t mention Jones by name. Click here for the evidence.
Jones was more forthright in his introduction, and made a direct attack on Martin. Click here to listen.
The first clash on issues occurred on the generally boring topic of the state’s water war with Florida and Alabama. Martin chided Jones for a parochial answer on regional water availability that focused on DeKalb County.
It generated this response from Jones. “It shows Mr. Martin’s lack of experience,’ Jones said. “You can’t just wait on the state or the federal government.”
In this clip, Martin explains his vote for John Edwards, and is pressed by Jones on the issue.
And here, Jones explains his bipartisan approach to politics — and says he would not vote for President Bush a third time, if he had the chance.
Jones found himself on the defensive on two particular issues.
In this sound bite, the DeKalb County CEO explains that a $1232 check he wrote to the Georgia Republican party in early 2001 was for inaugural tickets necessary to bipartisan politicking.
And toward the very end of the debate, Jones was asked if Georgia were ready for a U.S. senator who had openly engaged in a ménage a trois. Click here to listen.
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Jimmy Carter: President, home-builder, carpenter, novelist — and, now, harmonica player
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Woke up to a well-connected reader’s report from the B.B. King/Willie Nelson concert last night at Chastain Park. Former President Jimmy Carter was in attendance, as was Ted Turner.
Here are the details:
“B.B King apologized to Carter for telling a story about Viagra, but the coolest moment was during Willie’s portion of the show. He’s playing “Georgia On My Mind,” and Carter takes the stage to play harmonica, and does it really well. The crowd went nuts, as you might imagine. For what it’s worth, Carter’s a better harmonica player than Clinton is a sax player.”
If anybody’s got a photo of the Nelson/Carter moment, the Insider promises a repost.
