populicio.us

By

Gail Russell Chaddock,

By

Amanda Paulson,

Washington (CNN) — President Barack Obama on Monday criticized Republican opposition to a Senate campaign finance bill, calling it partisan gamesmanship that threatens to give special interests undue influence on U.S. elections.

“You’d think that reducing corporate and even foreign influence over our elections would not be a partisan issue,” Obama told reporters in a White House appearance that was scheduled earlier in the day.

The Senate is expected to hold a procedural vote Tuesday on whether to end debate on the bill, and Democrats fear a unified Republican filibuster will prevent the measure from moving to a final vote.

Obama accused the Republican leadership in the Senate of “using every tactic and every maneuver they can to prevent it from even coming up for an up-or-down vote.”

“We can’t afford these political games,” Obama said, adding that “a vote to oppose these reforms is nothing less than a vote to allow” special interests and foreign interest to hold sway over U.S. elections.

Referred to as the “Disclose Act,” the bill is a Democratic-led response to a Supreme Court ruling in January that struck down key provisions of campaign finance laws restricting spending by corporations, unions and independent groups.

The House has passed its version of the bill.

Obama, who has criticized the Supreme Court ruling, said the bill would allow Americans to know who is spending money to try to influence election campaigns.

“This is an issue that goes to whether or not we’re going to have a government that works for ordinary Americans; a government by and for the people,” Obama said.

Some Republicans have complained the bill touted by Democrats as promoting transparency was written behind closed doors and would violate the right to free speech.

When the House passed the bill, the president of Citizens United — which filed the lawsuit that led to the Supreme Court ruling — criticized Democratic sponsors of the House bill for exempting major organizations such as the National Rifle Association, labor unions and others.

“Citizens who are members of other grassroots groups will be muzzled by this legislation for no reason other than that they belong to a group without the financial and lobbying muscle to exempt itself from this bill,” said the statement from David Bossie of Citizens United.

“This bill is nothing more than incumbent protection in its worst and most cynical form,” Bossie’s statement said. “The American people will not be fooled so easily.”

Although the bill is aimed at reducing the influence of special interests in campaigns, it includes a major loophole exempting some major interest groups, including the NRA and AARP, from the disclosure requirements.

Under the bill, groups with 500,000 dues-paying members that have existed for at least 10 years and have members in all 50 states do not have to reveal their donors.

Obama slams GOP on campaign finance

(CNN) — A former Army lieutenant who was discharged from service last week for being openly gay said Sunday that he will continue to fight for a quick repeal of the controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

“I know that there are a lot of people who are suffering, and my oath, my commitment to them, doesn’t end,” former Lt. Dan Choi told CNN’s Don Lemon.

Choi was arrested in March for handcuffing himself to a White House fence in protest of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which bars people who are openly gay or lesbian from serving in the military.

He admitted his sexual orientation publicly for the first time last year on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show,” prompting the Army to initiate proceedings to discharge him.

Video: Gay vet: Obama not doing enough

Choi said that while his honorable discharge hurts, he knows there is a “greater purpose for every single one of us, even if we’re stripped of all our wealth or our resources.”

“One thing about honor, one thing about dignity — it’s not dependent on what’s written on a document,” he said. “That comes from standing up and being truthful to who you are.”

He also vowed to “continue to speak up for those people who cannot.”

“I’m going to continue to pressure those who purport to be our friends — whether they’re congressmen, senators or the president himself. If they make a promise, I will hold them to it.”

President Barack Obama is pushing for a repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. A bill that would overturn the measure after a Pentagon review is completed in December is currently before Congress.

More than 12,500 gays have been booted from the military since “don’t ask, don’t tell” went into effect.

Choi, a 2003 West Point graduate who is fluent in Arabic, was an infantry platoon leader, serving with his unit in Iraq in 2006 and 2007.

Former soldier fights ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’

By

Brad Knickerbocker,

Washington (CNN) — The Obama administration will push for letting tax cuts for wealthy Americans expire while extending them for the rest of the nation, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said.

In interviews broadcast Sunday on ABC and NBC, Geithner called for a balanced approach as the economy recovers from the recession that started in 2008 while facing mounting federal debt.

That means pushing for measures designed to raise revenue, such as letting tax breaks from the Bush administration expire for families earning more than $250,000 a year while holding down spending and taking steps to encourage private sector job creation, Geithner said.

“We’re in a transition … from the extraordinary actions the government had to take to break the back of this financial crisis to a recovery led by private demand,” Geithner told the NBC program “Meet the Press”. “That transition is well under way. It’s going to continue and it’s going to strengthen.”

Along with letting the tax cuts for the wealthy expire, the administration also wants to “leave in place tax cuts that are very important to incent businesses to hire new employees and to invest and expand in output,” Geithner said on the ABC program “This Week.”

Republicans say letting tax cuts expire for wealther Americans will hurt economic growth as the nation recovers from the recession. In particular, GOP critics say the $250,000-a-year threshold means many small business owners would be included in the group seeing their tax burdens increase when the cuts expire at the end of 2010.

“The safest thing for America would be to have a provision passed this fall that said no tax increase of any kind in 2011,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2012, said on the “FOX News Sunday” program. “Everywhere I go — and I’ve been in 10 states in the last 14 days — business people say to me over and over again, ‘I will create no new jobs in this environment because the uncertainty is too frightening.’ “

Geithner said the plan is to extend the tax cuts for more than 95 percent of country while letting them expire for about 3 percent, which he called the “highest-earning Americans.”

Asked on the ABC show if letting any tax cuts expire would harm the recovery, Geithner said: “I do not believe it will have a negative effect on growth.”

“We think that’s the responsible thing to do,” Geithner said. “We need to make sure we can show the world that we’re willing as a country now to start to make some progress bringing down our long-term deficits.”

Video: Bush tax cuts: Time to expire?

Video: Have Dems’ econ policies failed?

Video: Obama’s economic plan

Overall, he said, the government was “making progress” in restoring private sector job growth.

“I think the most likely thing is you see an economy that gradually strengthens over the next year or two,” Geithner said on NBC. “You see job growth start to come back again; and again, investment expanding, manufacturing is getting a little stronger, exports better. Those are very encouraging signs. But we’ve got a long way to go still.”

President Barack Obama’s poll numbers for his handling of the economy have dropped into unfavorable territory, and Republicans have hammered the administration over continuing high unemployment despite last year’s $787 billion economic stimulus bill. Last week, the administration said it expects unemployment to remain above 9 percent through 2011.

Geithner said the government is moving from the emergency steps enacted to deal with the recession — such as bailing out big banks and automakers — to more long-term approaches for helping the private sector create jobs.

On NBC, he called completing projects under the stimulus bill and enacting proposals to help small businesses and teachers “sensible, good steps,” adding that the main goal is to “make this transition to a recovery led by private companies.”

“We have to make some choices, too, and we have to make sure we can continue to earn confidence around the world that we’re going to have the will as a country to bring these large inherited deficits down over time to a much more manageable level,” Geithner said.

Geithner: Let tax cuts for rich expire

Washington (CNN) — A legislative win is a win — but not necessarily when it comes to swaying voters facing the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression.

High unemployment and fears over an ever-increasing federal debt are weighing heavily on Americans. That could drown out President Obama’s message as he heads out on the campaign trail to tout Democrats’ legislative wins: health care reform, financial regulatory reform and economic stimulus projects, among others.

“Right now he is facing an uphill battle,” said Vanderbilt University political scientist John Geer. “I don’t think there’s much that can be done about that. He’ll sharpen the message. But when economies are soft, incumbents have a tough time.”

And members of Congress, bracing for a tough election, got a frank assessment Wednesday of where the economy is headed.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned that the economic outlook remains “unusually uncertain.” But he said that while there are growing signs of weakness in the nation’s economic recovery, Bernanke and other top Federal Reserve officials still expect “continued moderate growth, a gradual decline in the unemployment rate, and subdued inflation over the next several years.”

Read more on Bernanke’s assessment

In addition to championing Democrats’ legislative wins, Obama is being urged to continue to go after Republicans — and lay out an argument that conditions in the country won’t improve if the opposition takes control of Congress after the midterm election.

So far, that strategy is being employed.

Video: Financial reform signed into law

Video: Obama urges Senate to act on jobs

Obama recently traveled to Missouri to help fellow Democrat Sen. Robin Carnahan in her crucial Senate race.

“The last thing we should do is go back to the very ideas that got us into this mess,” Obama said at the campaign event. “That’s the choice you are going to face in November. … a choice between falling backward or moving forward.”

A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll would seem to support that strategy, according to CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

The poll, released in late June, found that Americans are angry at both the Republican and Democratic parties for the economy, but they continue to blame the GOP slightly more than the Democrats for the country’s current economic woes.

Fifty-three percent said they are angry at both parties; only 7 percent are angry only at the Democrats and 9 percent are angry only at Republicans.

But that’s not necessarily good news for the Democrats, since an anti-incumbent mood tends to hurt the party with more incumbents. Some argue, however, that it suggests 2010 may not be a precise replay of 1994 when Republicans grabbed control of both legislative chambers from Democrats.

“Democrats are saying ‘Look, let’s make this a referendum on Barack Obama as the future and the Republicans wanting to go back to the past — and Republicans wanting more of the same policies that got us into the economic mess in the first place,’ ” CNN Senior Political Analyst Gloria Borger said.

That strategy worked for Democrats in 2006 and 2008, she said, when they told voters change was needed.

“It’s a very good decision on [Democrats'] part obviously, because that’s the way they get some of those voters back — particularly, independent white men who are deserting them,” Borger added.

Another problem for Obama’s legislative campaign tour? That those policies will be portrayed as big-government.

“It’s difficult in the economic environment because people are nervous,” she said. “Polls show that people are more worried about the deficit than getting tax cuts. They’re worried about government spending and worried about too much government. … So he wins Wall Street reform but doesn’t get credit for it because we’re in a different political environment.”

But that is the environment right now. What if the economy were to improve?

“If the economy right now was showing tremendous growth and jobs were being created, he’d have no problem making the argument [for Democrats to be re-elected]. But we’re not there right now,” Geer said.

Economic conditions are not just a product of policy — but also the natural economic cycle, he added.

“Ronald Reagan’s economy took off in part due to some policies he pursued but also because of natural business cycles just like for Clinton. So there’s a lot of it outside the control. Right now, I suspect Obama’s getting a little too much of the blame … we’ll see if he is successful.”

CNN Polling Director Keating Holland, along with CNNMoney.com’s Scott Spoerry and Chris Isidore, contributed to this report.

Can Obama sell Democrats’ legislative victories?

(CNN) — Shirley Sherrod got her wish Thursday: a conversation with President Barack Obama about her forced resignation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The president and Sherrod spoke by telephone after Obama apparently had some trouble getting through to her. Afterward, Sherrod told CNN that the call was “very, very good.”

Obama offered his support and said the two had faced similar issues in their pasts, Sherrod said.

However, she said they didn’t discuss whether the White House had a role in her ouster by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, which came after misleading and incomplete video footage of a speech she gave was posted on the internet and picked up in media reports.

“He didn’t go into that,” Sherrod said. “He wanted to reassure me that Secretary Vilsack was truly sincere … with his efforts to rid the agency of discrimination.”

Asked how it felt to talk to the president, Sherrod said: “Oh, gosh, you know, it was great.

“He’s the president of the United States of America. I respect him as that. I appreciate him as that,” Sherrod said. “And it felt like talking to someone else just sitting in the front of the car here.”

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama personally apologized to Sherrod in the phone call but did not lobby for her to take another job at the Department of Agriculture, as offered by Vilsack.

“This was not, ‘Hey, Shirley, take this job,’ ” Gibbs said at the White House. “That was not the specific purpose of the call.”

The president’s office sent Sherrod a text message indicating that Obama had been trying to get in touch with her, Sherrod told CNN producer Julie O’Neill.

Sherrod said she called the White House and was given another number to call. She dialed that number a few minutes later and spoke with the president.

According to O’Neill, Sherrod declined to have the phone call videotaped by CNN.

A White House statement said the two spoke for seven minutes.

“The president expressed to Ms. Sherrod his regret about the events of the last several days,” the statement said. “He emphasized that Secretary Vilsack was sincere in his apology yesterday, and in his work to rid USDA of discrimination.”

According to the statement, Obama also told Sherrod “that this misfortune can present an opportunity for her to continue her hard work on behalf of those in need, and he hopes that she will do so.”

The flap began after conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart last week posted a portion of a speech Sherrod gave in which she spoke of not offering her full help to a white farmer. The original post by Breitbart indicated that the incident Sherrod mentioned occurred when she worked for the Agriculture Department, and news outlets quickly picked up on the story.

However, the incident took place decades before she joined the department, and her speech in its unedited form made the point that people should move beyond race. In addition, the white farmer who Sherrod mentioned has told reporters that she helped him save his farm.

Sherrod was forced to resign Monday, but when the full story came out Tuesday, the White House pressured Vilsack to reconsider. Both Vilsack and Gibbs issued apologies to Sherrod on Wednesday, and Vilsack said he offered her another job in the Agriculture Department.

At the same time, White House aides said Wednesday on condition of not being identified by name that Obama was unlikely to call Sherrod or personally interject himself in the race-tinged controversy.

One aide said there wouldn’t be any more “beer summits,” a reference to the White House meeting Obama held last year amid the controversy over the arrest of Harvard law professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Gates, who is African-American, was arrested at his home by police Sgt. James Crowley, who is white, in what amounted to a misunderstanding. After Obama criticized the arrest, an ensuing uproar led to the White House discussion over beer involving Obama, Gates, Crowley and Vice President Joe Biden.

Until Thursday’s phone discussion between Sherrod and Obama, the White House had tried to separate the president from the issue by emphasizing that Obama played no role in the decision to force Sherrod to resign.

None of that mattered to Sherrod on Thursday. She said Obama was so easy to talk to that she invited him to visit south Georgia, where she is from. There was no word on whether the president would accept her invitation.

Obama talks with USDA employee forced out of her job

Washington (CNN) — Republicans wasted no time Thursday in calling out President Obama and Democrats for their handling of the economy, warning the country should not follow the Democratic Party down the road to ruin.

“It is time this administration and its Capitol Hill ally stop this job-killing agenda,” Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said at a press conference with other Republican senators.

Obama is simply “out of touch with the American people and out of touch with the economic realities of our country in the summer of 2010,” said Sen. John Barasso, R-Wyoming.

The Obama administration is fighting back, touting Wednesday’s economic stimulus report, which says the government paid out the largest chunk of stimulus funds so far in the second quarter of 2010 — $116.3 billion — which includes both spending on projects and tax cuts to businesses.

The administration said the the $787 billion stimulus is working and has already saved or created about 3 million jobs. Obama is now calling this the “Summer of Recovery.”

Republicans, meanwhile, argue that the 9.5 percent unemployment rate is evidence that the country is not seeing a “Summer of Recovery.”

The top GOP leader in the House is also targeting the Wall Street Reform Bill, which is expected to be passed by the Senate Thursday.

Video: ‘I think we’ll retain House,’ Gibbs says

Video: Battle for the house

House Minority Leader John Boehner said he liked some things about the bill.

“There are common sense things that you should do to plug the holes in the regulatory system that were there, and to bring more transparency to financial transactions, because transparency is like sunlight. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”

But Boehner still thinks the bill should be repealed because it is “ill-conceived” and will “make credit harder for the American people to get, clearly harder for businesses to get and … punish every banker in America for the sins of the few on Wall Street.”

Pelosi’s spokesman Nadeam Elshami immediately slammed Boehner’s comments in a statement, saying “This comes as no surprise coming from the Republican House leader who called the financial crisis that caused 8 million Americans to lose their jobs an ‘ant.’ “

In addition to the economy, Republicans are smelling blood in the wake of recent comments made by White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on the midterm election.

Gibbs said on Sunday that he thinks there is “no doubt there are enough seats in play — that could cause Republicans to gain control.”

The comments were blasted by top Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer — and seized on by Boehner.

“The panic that’s building amongst Democrats erupted into a full scale civil war this week when the president’s spokesman suggested that his party could lose the House this fall,” Boehner said Thursday. “I understand that the House Democrats are angry because they see the White House throwing them under the bus.”

“With all the trouble the House Democrats are in right now, [it] was really only a matter of time before the gloves came off. I just didn’t know that the targets would be each other,” he said.

Pelosi and others expressed frustration over Gibbs’ comments which were seen by some as helpful to Republicans, according to senior Democratic officials.

It’s one thing for a pundit to state the obvious about the state of play in the election and quite another for a top White House official to offer an assessment that may depress the party’s base just as officials hope to start revving liberals up, the officials said.

Many lawmakers also said that after expressing their frustration, they now want to turn the page and did not plan to rail against the president himself, a senior administration official told CNN.

The White House is also feeling the heat from liberal Democrats who say Obama has not been aggressive enough in pursuing their agenda.

Obama senior adviser David Axelrod responded to those critics Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. “My admonition would be: Don’t make the perfect the enemy of the good,” he said.

“We’ve achieved more in these two years — in terms of advancing a solid progressive agenda for this country that will help working families and make this a better, more balanced economy — than anyone has done … in our generation.”

He pointed to comprehensive health care reform, the administration’s move to boost fuel efficiency standards and the president’s desire to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays and lesbians serving in the U.S. military, as part of that agenda.

But those legislative items are also providing fodder for Republicans.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, speaking on Thursday to a group of young Republicans, said the midterm election will be a referendum on those policies.

“You’re here at a time of the explosion of government,” McConnell said. “The people who think what’s wrong with America is that we just haven’t gotten a big enough government … we’re going to have an opportunity to see how the American people feel about that in a few months, because they’ll get their report card.”

CNN’s Martina Stewart and Deirdre Walsh, along with CNNMoney.com’s Annalyn Censky, contributed to this report.

Republicans blast Obama amid Democratic Party tension

By

Mark Trumbull,