Home > Political Insider > Archives > 2008 > October > 07
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
John Boehner on Barney Frank: ‘He’s from Massachusetts, although he can’t say the word ‘Massachusetts”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
House minority leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), one of the GOP architects of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, outlined a few Republican talking points for the final weeks of the election Tuesday at the downtown Atlanta Hilton, venue for the Georgia GOP’s Victory Dinner 2008.
The keynote speaker for the event, Boehner blamed Democrats for the nation’s financial woes on the day the Dow dove 500 points. It was the Dems, he said, who encouraged Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to insure riskier and riskier loans to borrowers.
Boehner took particular aim at U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who controls a powerful House committee that deals with banking and housing and who has a slight speech impediment. My AJC colleague Jim Tharpe was there to record the action.
“You know where he’s from. He’s from Massachusetts, although he can’t say the word ‘Massachusetts,’” Boehner said.
The Ohio congressman also fretted about what a Barack Obama presidency would mean for the nation.
“You want to talk about socialism. You put these people in office, it’s batten down the hatches and watch out,” Boehner said.
• Full election coverage: News, photos and more
Permalink | Comments (23) | Post your comment |
Heads up: RCP, Electoral-vote.com have Georgia as ‘Lean McCain’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A series of four different polls in the last 10 days have caused two poll-watching web sites, Real Clear Politics and Electoral-vote.com, to shift Georgia from red-blooded for Republican John McCain to “lean” McCain.
In other words, within the realm of possibility for Democrat Barack Obama.
RCP aggregates the presidential race in Georgia by putting McCain at 51.5 percent, and Obama at 43.5 percent.
Electoral-vote.com says the contest is a smidge tighter, with McCain at 51 percent, and Obama at 44 percent.
Permalink | Comments (82) | Post your comment |
Swapping blows in the 8th District: Marshall filmed TV ad at office of firm that does lobbying; NBC rebukes Goddard for calling reporter ‘uppity’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Republicans are quickly spreading the jab that Roll Call, takes today at U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall for filming an ad explaining his Washington rescue vote in the office of a law firm that also engages in lobbying.
Meanwhile, Democrats are pointing to a media-watch blog by the Maynard Institute, which is reporting that NBC News President Steve Capus has sent a letter to Marshall’s Republican challenger, Rick Goddard, criticizing the retired Air Force major general for referring to one of its African-American reporters as “uppity.”
First, about that TV ad.
Marshall took a chance last week when he voted — twice — for the Wall Street rescue plan. Like U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss — a Republican — did today, Marshall put out a video explanation last week, declaring that his vote was necessary to the nation’s economy and security.
Roll Call picks it up from there:
But now the ad is creating controversy because it was filmed at the downtown office of Perkins Coie, a firm that has undertaken lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill.
In the ad, Marshall sits atop a Congressional- looking desk, with the view out the window a dead ringer for that of any House office building. He explains that he voted for the bill because “you elected me to do what’s best for America, not what’s easy.”
But Brendan Buck, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, didn’t find the ad so convincing… “I imagine Georgia voters won’t find Marshall’s explanation so endearing when they learn that while he was claiming to stand up for them, he was really standing in the office of a Washington lobbyist.”
Doug Moore, Marshall’s spokesman, said the congressman’s only connection with Perkins Coie is that the law firm’s attorneys act as “official election lawyers” for the Democratic party. The ad was filmed, he said, in an election lawyer’s office.
Marshall needed a location that looked like a congressional office, but wasn’t one. Legally, campaign ads can’t use federal government buildings as a set. Moore also points out that lobbying makes up only a tiny portion of the firm’s business.
Now, on to uppity.
The source blog is Richard Prince’s “Journal-ism,” which said:
The letter was sent to “express our disappointment with his comment,” spokeswoman Lauren Skowronski said. However, she said, NBC is not releasing the letter.
Eighth District Republican candidate Rick Goddard, a retired Air Force general, made the comments on the “Kenny B. and Charles E. Show” on a Macon, Ga., radio station after returning from the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., this month….
Goddard’s campaign manager, Lonnie Dietz, told Journal-isms that Goddard received NBC’s letter but that, “We’re just not going to comment on it.”
Permalink | Comments (7) | Post your comment |
Buckley orders ‘over the edge’ anti-Chambliss radio ads dropped
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Allen Buckley, the Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate, has abruptly pulled a set of three radio ads in Columbus and Savannah, saying that he learned that changes he’d ordered to soften the tone of the 30-second spots hadn’t been made.
The ads began running yesterday, and all were aimed at Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss. The buy was small, a combined $1,000 between the two cities. But with the Senate race tightening, Buckley’s impact could be critical to the outcome.
You can listen to the offending ads by going to Monday’s post on the topic.
One of the discontinued ads accuses Chambliss of browbeating a whistleblower during a Senate hearing on a sugar refinery explosion in Savannah. “Saxby threw the poor man under the bus, and he just beat him like he owned him,” a character in the ad says.
But Buckley’s campaign manager is African-American, and was offended by the line. Buckley said he ordered the wording changed to “beat him like a rented mule,” but the volunteers who produced the radio ad didn’t comply.
Another ad accused Chambliss of avoiding military duty in Vietnam by using a “fistful” of deferments. Buckley wanted his producers to remove a reference to former U.S. senator Max Cleland, who was defeated by Chambliss in 2002 and lost three limbs in Vietnam. It was not.
The ads included Buckley’s voice saying he approved the ads — but the candidate said he hadn’t actually listened to them until today.
“I just want to set the record straight. I think this kind of stuff is over the edge,” Buckley said. The Libertarian said the offending ads would be replaced by a single ad he issued in September.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment |
The real question is whether voodoo is a legitimate campaign write-off
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wall Street may be imploding. Your retirement and your job is in peril. Possibly, your dog is searching Craig’s List for a more reliable animal companion.
But there are times when minor issues have to be pushed aside in order to deal with a question of epic moral and legal magnitude, which is this:
If a Cobb County commissioner were to go to a voodoo priestess and request the death of the man who defeated her in a primary, would the fee be considered an allowable campaign expense?
You have probably already heard about this, via today’s AJC article or the one in the Marietta Daily Journal.
According to a Cobb County police report and newspaper accounts, District 4 Commissioner Annette Kesting in August approached a South Carolina voodoo priestess and handed her a picture of Woody Thompson, a Republican-turned-Democrat who defeated her in an August primary runoff.
Kill him, Kesting allegedly suggested. A bounced check for the $3,000 service caused the voodoo specialist to report the matter to authorities.
Kesting calls the whole thing ridiculous, and says it never happened, but the priestess offers a pretty good description of Kesting’s car, according to the MDJ.
So again: If the incident happened, and if Kesting used campaign funds to hire a voodoo technician, would this an allowable expense under state law that can be paid with campaign funds?
“Is this an ordinary and necessary expense? Is this what you’re asking?” said Rick Thompson, executive secretary for the State Ethics Commission.
Sure.
Thompson thought about it. “I don’t know what to say,” he began. “The staff would certainly look into it, if a complaint we’re filed. Yes, I definitely think it would warrant looking into.”
On the other hand, Thompson continued, campaign funds cannot be used to finance misdeeds. Hiring a hit-man, for instance.
But wouldn’t voodoo be just another form of negative advertising? the Insider countered. An alternate means for one candidate to transmit bad thoughts about another candidate?
Remember that this summer, Focus on the Family posted a video in which a fellow wondered —facetiously, the group said afterwards — if it would be wrong to pray for a torrent of rain to fall on Barack Obama during his outdoor speech to the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
“Definitely, we’d hand it to commissioners for their consideration,” Thompson said.
• Full election coverage: News, photos and more
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment |
In a statewide TV ad, Chambliss makes the case for his vote to rescue Wall Street
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, a Republican who suddenly finds himself in a tightening re-election contest, this morning began explaining his vote for the $700 billion Wall Street rescue on television, with a 30-second spot you can watch below.
It’s not unlike an ad that U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall of Macon, a Democrat, began airing in his territory last week.
Democrat challenger Jim Martin, who has pulled nearly even with Chambliss in several polls, has said he would have voted against the measure, because it didn’t do enough for homeowners. Libertarian candidate Allen Buckley says he, too, would have opposed the bailout.
Says Chambliss in the ad:
“We’re facing the worst financial crisis in my lifetime. Businesses are failing, Georgians are losing their jobs, their homes, their retirements, and their life’s savings.
“Congress had to act. I’m as mad as you are about what happened, but doing nothing would have been a disaster. The rescue bill is a strong, bipartisan effort to fix the economy and protect your financial future.
“I’m Saxby Chambliss, and I approved this message — because I know in my heart this legislation is good for all Georgia families.”
There’s been some talk — in this space — that the split over the bailout among congressional Republicans from Georgia could hurt Chambliss. While he and Senate colleague Johnny Isakson voted for it, Georgia’s seven House Republicans voted against it.
Before tonight’s GOP Victory Dinner in downtown Atlanta, Chambliss and six of the G-7 will hold a press conference to reassure the outside world that there are no hard feelings — and that they remain united against a common Democratic enemy.
• Full election coverage: News, photos and more
Permalink | Comments (23) | Post your comment |
Broun says he’ll show up at Atlanta Press Club debate
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Rep. Paul Broun has reversed himself and decided that he will participate in the Oct. 26 debate sponsored by the Atlanta Press Club and broadcast on Georgia Public Television, the Athens Banner-Herald reports today.
But it looks like the Athens congressman will continue to skip local forums that also feature his Democratic challenger, Bobby Saxon.
Dogged this summer by reports that he had overspent his congressional office’s annual allowance, Broun had previously said he would not debate Saxon all.
You have to wonder whether Broun’s comfort level has risen slightly, after getting so much press last week for referring to the $700 billion Wall Street bailout measure as a “cow pie.”
• Full election coverage: News, photos and more
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment |
First, state golf courses at risk. Now, halls of fame could be on the block. When will the pain end?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At the state Capitol, recent budget hearings on the Senate side suggest that a few of the General Assembly’s most cherished slices of pork may be in trouble because of the fiscal crisis.
Two weeks ago, at a budget hearing, senators questioned whether the state could continue to pay for the money-losing golf courses it runs. Most of the courses are in rural parts of the state and are near and dear to small-town lawmakers.
The Department of Natural Resources is talking about closing a seldom-used course in the far southeast Georgia town of Fargo, and letting private companies bid to run most or all of the rest of the state-owned courses.
“We would be severely criticized, when we’re cutting Medicaid and education, if we keep these golf courses afloat when they are losing money,” said Sen. George Hooks (D-Americus), former long-time chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
On Monday it was state-subsidized halls of fame (Music, Sports and Golf) that got the treatment from senators, according to my AJC colleague James Salzer, who was there.
“I don’t know why we continue to give taxpayer dollars to these halls of fame,” said Senate Majority Whip Mitch Seabaugh (R-Sharpsburg), during a budget hearing. “We ought to put them on notice that on Jan. 1, we aren’t going to have the money to given them operating funds.”
The halls for music and sports, located in Macon, have long been the pride of middle Georgia lawmakers, while the Golf Hall of Fame was brought to life by Augusta’s legislative delegation. For years, the legislators from those two areas were among the most powerful in the state, and the halls have always been heavily subsidized by taxpayers.
Despite valiant efforts, the Macon facilities have little hope of ever becoming self-sustaining from the revenue they take in from visitors. And taxpayers are still paying off the bonds to build the Golf Hall of Fame — which was never actually built.
The money went instead to buy land along the Savannah River and develop gardens, which closed when the state pulled out its operating funding last year. During this past session, the state got back into the Golf Hall of Fame business, putting money in for planning a new hall.
But Seabaugh, like Hooks, said he has a hard time justifying money for halls of fame at a time when services most Georgians consider essential, such as education, face spending cuts of up to 10 percent.
“To me, we ought to start from the standpoint of what is fundamental to state government,” Seabaugh said. “There are a whole bunch of things that are in gray areas. We have to stand up and call things non-essential.”
• Full election coverage: News, photos and more
.JPG)
-1.JPG)
Services »
