Dennis Hastert said "Repeat Child Molesters Should Be Jailed for Life".
Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert in 2003 advocated life sentences for “repeat child molesters” and boasted in an official biography of his efforts against child abuse.
The occasion for his comment on molesters was the recovery of Elizabeth Smart in March of 2003 after she had been snatched at knifepoint from her bedroom in Salt Lake City and kept prisoner for nine months before she was spotted walking along a street with her captors.
Hastert was among the supporters of federal legislation backing and funding a national amber alert system and made the comment in that context after Smart’s release.
Hastert, speaker of the House from 1999 to 2007, was indicted last week for alleged violations of banking laws. The indictment, without getting specific, alleged the violations occurred as Hastert was trying to obtain cash to pay millions of dollars to an unnamed person to cover up “past misconduct.”
Federal law enforcement officials later told the Washington Post and other news outlets that the indictment was triggered by an effort Hastert made to hide payments of hush money to a male student he allegedly sexually molested decades ago when he taught and coached wrestling at Yorkville High School in Illinois.
Hastert’s comment about child molesters came in a press release after Elizabeth Smart’s escape.
“It is important to have a national notification system to help safely recover children kidnapped by child predators,” it said. “But it is equally important to stop those predators before they strike, to put repeat child molesters into jail for the rest of their lives, and to help law enforcement with the tools they need to get the job done.”
While in the House of Representatives, Hastert was also a booster of the Adam Walsh Child Protection Act of 2006.
“At home, we put the security of our children first and Republicans are doing just that in our nation’s House,” he said in a press release. “We’ve all seen the disturbing headlines about sex offenders and crimes against children. These crimes cannot persist. Protecting our children from Internet predators and child exploitation enterprises are just as high a priority as securing our border from terrorists.
“House Republicans understand that a safer America involves providing safety measures on all fronts. That’s why today we passed the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006.”
In his official congressional biography in 2005, available via Lexis, Hastert noted that “prior to Congress, during the 1980s, Hastert served three terms in the Illinois General Assembly, where he spearheaded legislation on child abuse prevention,” among other things.
That was an apparent reference to his being co-chair of a commission on preventing child abuse, which issued a report called “The Child Victim:
Child Abuse in the Family and Society,” as Buzzfeed reported.
Hastert has made no public comments about his indictment or about reports of his alleged “misconduct” in Illinois.
Hastert's hypocrisy is pretty good, but it'll have to be great to win the GOP hypocrisy stakes.
These are the hypocrisy big leagues, with star players like John McCain, who said during the Russia-Georgia war that "nations don't invade other nations in the 21st century." Or Newt Gingrich, who impeached Clinton while cheating on his own wife with his own staffer. Better bring your game if you want to match class A hypocrisy like that, Hastert. I admit you're off to a pretty good start.
I wish the media would stop picking on Republican child molesters, NOT!!!
Fred Barbash, the editor of Morning Mix, is a former National Editor and London Bureau Chief for the Washington Post..
Dennis Hastert Hid His Skeletons As He Helped Push GOP's Anti-Gay Agenda
During the 2004 elections, George W. Bush's campaign, managed by a closeted gay man, pushed a series of anti-gay ballot initiatives across the country. The House of Representatives, led by a male speaker who allegedly sexually assaulted a male minor, moved a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage after beating back attempts to strengthen hate crimes legislation. And the White House, led in part by a vice president with a lesbian daughter, eagerly encouraged a conservative evangelical base hostile to gay rights.
Though only slightly over a decade ago, that election seems increasingly like the relic of a far-off era as the country moves closer toward acceptance of legalizing marriage equality nationwide. But it's being revisited in light of recent revelations that former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) may have sexually abused at least two male students during his time as a high school teacher and wrestling coach, and later lied to the FBI about the hush money he was paying one of them.
Hastert wasn't a strident culture warrior during his time in Congress. But he was a vital cog in the anti-gay political machinery that the GOP deployed for political benefit. And now it appears his involvement carried the same elements of duplicity and deceit as that of other Republican operatives of that era.
"The hypocrisy is breathtaking in its depth," said Elizabeth Birch, former president of the Human Rights Campaign, which advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.
As speaker of the House from 1999 to 2007, Hastert didn't just go along and vote the party line on various bills; he decided which pieces of legislation made it to the floor for a vote. During his tenure, he was a clear foe of the LGBT community.
Toward the end of his presidency, Bill Clinton was trying to broaden the federal hate crimes statute to cover acts of violence motivated by sexual orientation and gender identity. Calls for such legislation had picked up steam after the horrific assault and killing of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay man, in 1998. But Republicans, led by Hastert and other GOP leaders, repeatedly barred any such measure from passage.
"We'd like to see the Clinton-Gore administration focus more on the enforcement of the current laws we have, rather than try to create a partisan political bill that has little effect in the real world," said Hastert spokesman Pete Jeffries in an April 26, 2000, article in The Washington Post.
That Hastert was allegedly hiding a sordid past wasn't known at the time, though rumors were beginning to spread. Still, those who lobbied on the bill picked up odd clues that hold more meaning now.
"I once sat in a meeting with Denny Hastert where he literally teared up in front of Judy and Dennis Shepard [Matthew's parents] and committed to doing everything he could to pass the Matthew Shepard hate crimes bill and then literally did nothing. Didn't lift a finger," recalled Birch. "You should have seen this guy. He teared up, was so sincere. But when we tried to put meetings together with families to talk about what it was like to grow up LGBT and the kinds of additional stresses in places like high school and college, we could never get traction back in the district."
Hastert continued opening the gateways for anti-gay legislation in the years that followed. In 2004, Bush announced his support for a constitutional amendment to define marriage as being between one man and one woman. Hastert brought it to the floor even though he predicted that passage would be difficult since it required the approval of two-thirds of Congress.
"Sometimes you win for losing," said Hastert spokesman John Feehery at the time, arguing that the effort helped draw a clear distinction between Bush and then-Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.
When a constitutional amendment finally came to a vote in July 2006 -- and failed -- Hastert vowed to keep fighting. "Be assured that this issue is not over," he said.
In fact, it basically was. The country was by then beginning its rapid shift toward accepting same-sex marriage -- a change helped along by some Republicans who began paying a penance for their past work.
Ken Mehlman, who headed the Bush re-election campaign when it was pushing anti-gay rights initiatives in various states and who ran the Republican National Committee when it continued anti-gay politicking, revealed that he is gay in 2010, after Bush had left office.
In coming out, Mehlman acknowledged that he had been aware Bush's chief strategist, Karl Rove, was pushing those initiatives and said he regretted not doing more to advance gay rights. He has since become an outspoken advocate and was instrumental in pushing marriage equality in the state of New York, which passed same-sex marriage in 2011. He's doing similar work now nationally.
Hastert's onetime spokesman Feehery likewise noted that times have changed dramatically since his old boss was allowing marriage amendments to come to the floor. His own past statement welcoming those votes wasn't a moral one, he said, but a reflection of outdated politics.
"Obviously the dynamics have changed," said Feehery. "It was a political vote. At the time it seemed like it was smart politics, but the politics changed. It is easy to look back and say it doesn't make sense in 2015, but it made sense in 2004."
Those who were on the other side of the fight aren't so quick, however, to let bygones be bygones. On MSNBC Friday, former Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), himself gay, said that he did not excuse Hastert's alleged actions -- "the teacher taking advantage of students" -- but that the episode made him think of how destructive homophobia has been.
"Leave aside from the fact the illegitimate nature of the fact that it was a teacher-student relationship that should not have happened," said
Frank, who added that it seemed Hastert may have been bisexual. "But the gay sex in itself obviously, it was something which back then was
considered so scandalous that Hastert couldn't do it in an -- in a kind of an open way."
"People like Dennis Hastert wouldn't be subject to the same kind of temptations and pressures today," Frank added. "A man who had those feelings, a man who has those feelings can express them more openly. And it is a reminder of the price everybody in society paid, not just the individual, for prejudice."
Former Texas governor is undeterred by gaffe-laden 2012 run.
Former Texas governor Rick Perry has joined a small army of Republican candidates campaigning to become the next president of the United States.
Perry announced on his website Thursday morning that he will be seeking the nation’s highest elected office.
Overshadowed by deep-pocketed contenders like Senator Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush — who is set to announce his run on June 15, according to NBC News — and dogged by the memory of an awkward 2012 race where his televised fumbles made national news, Perry faces an uphill battle.
Perry notoriously said “oops” in a debate when he wasn’t able to recall the name of one of three federal agencies he planned to eliminate if elected president. He has also been indicted by a grand jury in Austin on two felony charges of abuse of office while he was governor.
Ten Republicans have formally announced they’ll be seeking their party’s nomination, and another five are likely to jump in. Contenders include Florida Senator Marco Rubio, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul.
By Katie Couric
For a politician facing two felony counts, Texas Governor Rick Perry certainly looked cheerful in his mug shot.
On Tuesday, Aug. 19, he appeared at an Austin courthouse to answer charges of abuse of power and coercion. After being booked and fingerprinted, he headed to a local burger joint for an ice cream cone and tweeted a photo.
It all started back in April, when a Texas district attorney named Rosemary Lehmberg was arrested for driving while intoxicated. Perry wanted her to resign from her post as head of the Public Integrity Unit and threatened to veto $7.5 million in funding to the office if she refused. Lehmberg
stayed put, and Perry made good on his promise.
Now, a legal battle has begun.
The governor said this week, “The actions I took were not only lawful and legal, but right.” But Texas Democrats claim it’s more complicated than that.
The Texas Miracle
Not long ago, what former Gov. Rick Perry and other conservatives like to call “the Texas Miracle” — the booming Texas economy — looked like a potential steppingstone to national office. But as Mr. Perry jumps into the ever-widening race for the Republican presidential nomination, his state’s economic performance appears considerably less miraculous.
Although Texas’ unemployment rate of 4.2 percent remains well below the national average of 5.4 percent, the state lost 25,000 jobs in March. And while April was better over all, the oil industry in Texas lost an additional 8,300 jobs as plunging oil prices prompted drillers and producers to shut down projects.
Rick Perry, the former Texas governor, announced on Thursday in Dallas that he will run for president again in 2016. Rick Perry to Run for President in 2016, Shrugging Off 2012 Missteps JUNE 4, 2015
Aides to Mr. Perry said he was unavailable for an interview, but Avik Roy, a senior adviser to RickPAC, said the oil bust did not undermine Mr. Perry’s economic record. “It’s an opportunity, not a problem,” he said, “because if the Texas economy continues to do reasonably well even though the energy sector gets hit, that is only going to strengthen his case, not weaken it.”
Even after the recent slide, Texas still looks like a bright spot in the national economy. During his years as governor, from December 2000 to January 2015, Texas created more than three out of each 10 new American jobs, and employment rose more than 2.2 million, a jump of nearly 25 percent. Nationally, payrolls increased just 6 percent over the same period.
Mr. Perry’s backers say the policies in place on his watch — no state income tax, a light regulatory touch, tax breaks for business and unquestioning support for the oil industry and hydraulic fracturing — were crucial to spurring the jobs bonanza.
But useful as that platform may have been in creating a benevolent economic backdrop, many economists say differences in state policies play only a limited role in inducing local economic growth.
“Texas did pretty well, but it’s hard to say how much of that is because of policy choices versus luck,” said Tracy Gordon, senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan research group in Washington. “We often think of states as playing with the hands they are dealt
and making policy choices based on that.”
While Mr. Perry looks like a long shot in the Republican race, the low-tax, light-regulation model favored by many conservatives contrasts sharply with the economic blueprint that Hillary Rodham Clinton and other Democratic candidates are offering.
Democrats warn of the dark underside of the Texas Miracle, pointing to low-wage jobs, failing public schools and legions of citizens who remain below the poverty line and without health insurance.
To counter that kind of economic situation, Democrats offer another state as an example: California. Despite its high taxes, strict regulations, broader access to health care and a push to raise the minimum wage in several cities, the California economy is also thriving.
The unemployment rate in the Golden State has fallen from 12 percent four years ago to 6.3 percent; the state has added nearly half a million new jobs in the last 12 months. Many of those are high-paying positions in the tech sector, which has flourished even with California’s high cost of
living and heavier regulatory hand.
“Both states are doing well, but there is a different tradition in California than in Texas, and it’s a question of taste,” said John Ellwood, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley.
It is no surprise why Gov. Jerry Brown is as much of a hero to some liberals as Mr. Perry is to many conservatives. As Mr. Ellwood noted, California has embraced President Obama’s health care overhaul, including the expansion of Medicaid, which Texas has resisted.
What is more, California and Mr. Brown favor efforts that would be anathema in Texas, like building high-speed rail links and imposing tighter restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions.
“Texas and California are similar in some ways — a young population, which means having to spend on education; multiethnic populations; and Sun Belt regions,” Ms. Gordon added. But in terms of policy, she said, “it’s just a different model.”
And despite starkly different approaches, the results suggest that state economies can prosper — or not — under either policy umbrella, and that specific circumstances still largely determine the overall course of development.
Just as California’s economic trajectory is linked to Silicon Valley and the tech sector, as well as the entertainment industry in Los Angeles, so Texas remains closely tied to the energy industry.
That is not the whole story: The two most populous states in the country both have diverse economies, and Texas has diversified notably in recent decades.
Austin is now one of the hottest national centers for high technology and start-ups. The Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area has become a magnet for national corporate headquarters.
On the Gulf Coast, Houston’s port is bustling, and its medical center has grown into an internationally recognized facility for research and treatment. Growing trade with Mexico has expanded the economies of San Antonio and border cities.
That range of employers meant that even with thousands of lost oil jobs in April, the state was still adding leisure, hospitality and information services jobs, according to the Texas Workforce Commission.
Since the 1980s, direct employment in oil and natural gas exploration and production has declined to 2.5 percent of the Texas work force from 4.5 percent, according Mine K. Yücel, senior vice president and director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. The oil and gas industry’s contribution to the state’s economic output has fallen to 13 percent from 19 percent during the same time period.
Still, as the leading state in oil production and reserves, with two of the three shale fields responsible for nearly doubling crude output in the United States in recent years, petroleum is still king of Texas. And that means busts as well as booms.
“We are definitely slowing, and I think we are going to continue to see weakness,” Ms. Yücel said.
She noted that the Dallas Fed had lowered its forecast for the state’s economic growth rate to 0.5 or 1 percent from the 1.5 percent rate projected at the beginning of the year. That is a significant fall from the robust pace of 3.4 percent growth in 2014, a year in which oil prices galloped before beginning to turn in July.
Ray Perryman, a prominent Texas economist, estimates that a total of 175,000 Texas jobs will be lost as a result of layoffs in the oil fields, cuts in oil-related manufacturing and services, and the ripple effect of lower consumer spending as the energy jobs disappear.
Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS, a private economics and forecasting firm, gave Mr. Perry credit for bolstering the Texas economy.
“But just as important was oil at $100 a barrel,” he added. “Clearly the energy boom helped, but parts of West Texas are now in recession because of the oil bust. We have to get past the oil cycle to get a better read on it.”
While also giving him high marks for much of his economic stewardship, Mr. Perryman said Mr. Perry turned more partisan in recent years, failing to provide enough funding for areas like higher education, infrastructure or an adequate safety net. “In effect, he oversaw Texas eating its seed
corn,” he said.
With Mr. Perry entering the presidential race again after his disastrous performance during the 2012 Republican primaries, supporters contend that voters in other states will draw a different conclusion.
“Governor Perry has prioritized low taxes, a predictable regulatory environment, a skilled work force and stopping abuse at the courthouse,” said Abby McCloskey, the policy director at RickPAC. “And those principles are not just Texas-centric but can be brought to the national stage as well.”
Why Are So Many Republicans Running for President?
The GOP presidential field for 2016 may be the largest-ever in either party, with eight formally-declared candidates and another eight widely
expected to enter the race in the next few months. Here are seven reasons why there are so many Republicans seeking the White House:
1. The Fame Game
To put it simply, running for president can make a person famous, rich, deeply influential or all three, even if they lose. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was a serious candidate during his 2008 run, winning eight states. It's unlikely he entered the race simply to gain fame.
But his unsuccessful campaign helped him get a show on Fox News. It's hard to imagine he would have received such an opportunity without having run for president and become a favorite of the most conservative Republicans.
After his unsuccessful campaign in 2012, Rick Santorum was tapped to run a company that makes Christian-themed movies. Herman Cain was a virtually unknown former businessman who is now popular among conservative activists after his campaign four years ago.
Sarah Palin didn't actually run for president, but she's perhaps the perfect example of how a national campaign can change a politician's life. Her vice-presidential run turned into a book deal, a tv show and both fame and money that she never could have achieved as governor of Alaska.
(Test: Do you know the name of the current governor of Alaska?)
She also, at least for a time, gained major sway within the Republican Party. Candidates wanted her endorsement and for Palin to campaign with them.
It's hard to determine the motives of any individual politician. That said, Ben Carson fits the fame incentives perfectly. He's already drawn a huge amount of attention to himself through his candidacy that could help him sell books and appear on FOX News for years after his 2016 run.
Carly Fiorina and Donald Trump are both already famous and wealthy from their time in the business world. But presidential candidacies give them a chance for influence in a different realm. Fiorina in particular is increasing her chances of being appointed to the Cabinet of the next Republican president.
2. Redemption
The national spotlight does sometimes hurt a politician. In 2011, Rick Perry was on his way to finishing what was considered a strong tenure as
governor of Texas. Then, he opted to run for president and became a national laughingstock, unable in a debate to recall the three government
agencies he was promising to close if elected president.
Perry though has a ready-made solution: a second campaign. Running for president can serve as a kind of redemption tour for politicians, even if
they don't win.
Rick Santorum had been effectively forced out of politics, losing by more than 17 points during his 2006 reelection race in Pennsylvania. His long-
shot presidential run in 2012 reinvigorated his political life.
Former New York Gov. George Pataki, who left that office in 2007, could be a more important figure in Republican politics through his presidential campaign, even though he is almost certain to lose. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie could use his campaign to distance himself from the "Bridgegate" scandal.
3. Barack Obama
For senators like Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio in particular, the Obama example is hard to ignore. In the past, the presidential field was
usually composed of sitting or former vice-presidents and then senators or governors who had already served at least one term in office. George W. Bush won reelection as governor of Texas in 1998, then started running for president. John Kerry had been a long-term senator from Massachusetts.
Obama had barely served two years in the Senate before opting to run for president in 2008. And he won. So Cruz, Paul and Rubio are in effect making the same case Obama did seven years ago: the time for my leadership and vision is now, and I can't lead from the Senate.
4. No Incumbent president
Obama is relevant in another way. In 2008, like in 2016, there is no incumbent president or sitting vice-president in the field. In 2012, even as
Republicans dismissed Obama as a failed president, many potential candidates were wary of running against him, aware of the advantages incumbent presidents have.
Hillary Clinton is almost like a sitting vice-president, since the Democratic Party is mobilized around her and she is facing no strong challenger
in the primary. But winning the third straight term for the same party is much harder than a president going for reelection.
The Republican nominee will have a very strong chance of being elected president by simply running as a change candidate and arguing the country does not need a third term of Obama-like policies.
Rubio is young, so he could have waited to run for president. But what Obama showed in 2008 was that running at the right time can overcome a lack
of experience. In 2020, a Republican could have won in 2016, so Rubio would have to wait out that person's tenure. Or Clinton or another Democrat
would be president, forcing Rubio to face the power of incumbency.
5. No Strong Front-Runner
Hillary Clinton's strength is keeping other Democrats out of the race. On the Republican side, over the first five months of the campaign, a trio of front-runners have emerged: Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Scott Walker.
But they all have potential flaws. Bush is more moderate on issues like immigration than many GOP activists, and some conservatives were turned off by his father and brother's presidencies and are wary of a third Bush tenure. Rubio is a first-term senator and co-wrote a bill that would have granted citizenship to undocumented immigrants. Walker is untested on the national stage and made some mistakes early on, like non-answering when asked if Obama is a Christian.
The weakness of the front-runners is drawing into the race candidates, like Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who see a path to victory if those three flounder.
6. The Rise of Super PAC's
In the days when a candidate could only raise money in $2000 increments, it would have been hard for Rubio to run. He is not personally rich, and much of the GOP establishment who might have otherwise backed him instead went for Bush.
But with a few mega-donors bankrolling his super PAC, Rubio may be outspent by Bush, but the senator can raise enough to be a credible candidate.
Being able to raise money in unlimited amounts also helps someone like Kasich who has entered the race so late.
7. The Republican Party is Very Divided on Policy
Some of the Republican candidates have very strong, distinct views of policy that they feel uniquely qualified to advocate. Bush, Rubio and Kasich all want to create a kind of post-Tea Party GOP that is more focused on offering conservative policy solutions than shrinking the size of government.
Paul is pushing to reduce the size and scope of the U.S. government's footprint both at home and abroad. His policy views, from winding down the war on drugs to limiting national security surveillance programs, would be a sharp contrast to much of the Republican Party's current ideology. On some issues, if Paul were not running, no other candidate would be expressing these views.
Huckabee and Santorum want the Republican Party to shift away from its close alliance with big business. They are more skeptical about the benefits of immigration and free trade than the rest of the field.
Walker and Cruz are deeply conservative on nearly every issue and want to push the country in that direction. Their presidencies would likely
include deep cuts to programs like Medicaid and food stamps, pushes to weaken the power of labor unions, more limits on abortion rights and the
appointments of strong conservatives as federal judges.
Bush, Kasich and Rubio are pitching a more efficient and effective version of George W. Bush's conservatism. Electing Walker or Cruz would likely result in policies much closer to that of Tea Party activists and House Republicans.
Ben Carson Implodes
Ben Carson's Campaign Faces Turmoil After Staff Exits And Super PAC Chaos
The presidential candidacy of Ben Carson, a tea party star who has catapulted into the top tier of Republican contenders, has been rocked by turmoil with the departures of four senior campaign officials and widespread disarray among his allied super PACs.
In interviews Friday, Carson’s associates described a political network in tumult, saying the retired neurosurgeon’s campaign chairman, national finance chairman, deputy campaign manager and general counsel have resigned since Carson formally launched his bid last month in Detroit. They have not been replaced, campaign aides said.
The moves gutted the core of Carson’s apparatus and left the 63-year-old first-time candidate with only a handful of experienced advisers at his
side as he navigates the fluid, crowded and high-stakes contest for the Republican nomination.
Carson is a hot commodity on the right-wing speaking circuit and has fast become a leading candidate, winning straw votes at conservative gatherings and rising in public polls.
But his campaign has been marked by signs of dysfunction and amateurism, alarming supporters who privately worry that Carson’s sprawling circle of boosters is fumbling his opportunity. And, they argue, the candidate has been nonchalant about the unrest.
“Every campaign goes through growing pains as it puts together a leadership team that has to work together and live together through the trying times of a presidential election,” said Larry Levy, a lawyer who has worked with Carson.
Two independent super PACs designed to help Carson are instead competing directly with Carson’s campaign for donations and volunteers, while campaign chairman Terry Giles resigned last month with the intention of forming a third super PAC.
Giles said he intends to try to persuade the other two super PACs, called Run Ben Run and One Vote, to cease operations so that all outside efforts can be coordinated through the new group. But with Carson’s brand a galvanizing force on the right, there are potentially millions of dollars to be raised off his name, and the other super PACs are said to be reluctant to shut down.
“They are going after the same small donors, and we’ve simply got to figure this out, or else we are going up against each other the whole time,”
Giles said. “I’m planning to sit down with them and explain that.”
Before the exodus, Carson’s campaign was mostly controlled by Giles and conservative commentator Armstrong Williams, who for decades has been
Carson’s business manager and gatekeeper. Giles’s exit to the super PAC side, where he will be prohibited from directly coordinating with Carson or his campaign, leaves Williams as the candidate’s chief confidant.
“Things happen, man,” Williams said of the changes. “That’s the way life works. You start out with one idea, hoping it all works out, and then you get a better understanding of what needs to happen. Remember, we’re not necessarily a group of political people.”
The overlapping super PACs have confused Carson backers about where to give money. Doug Watts, a Carson campaign spokesman, described Run Ben Run as a rogue outfit: “We spend a great deal of time explaining to our supporters, ‘They’re them; we’re us.’ ”
Watts insisted that “there’s no dissatisfaction” with Run Ben Run’s activities, and he credited the group with helping Carson win a Republican straw poll last month in Oklahoma City after Carson spoke to the Southern Republican Leadership Conference.
“We had Dr. Carson and two staff people,” Watts said. “We did not spend a dime on the straw poll. But Run Ben Run, unbeknownst to us, made
organizational activity there.”
Still, Watts said that the “unofficially sanctioned” super PAC is One Vote and that Carson invites supporters to “make their excess contributions”
to that group.
Initially, Giles planned on joining One Vote, but Watts said he “abandoned that plan prior to his resignation and talked about the anticipation of a
new organization.”
Watts said that Carson gave Giles his blessing to leave the campaign, noting that Giles sat in the front row at Carson’s May 4 announcement event in Detroit and that the candidate publicly acknowledged Giles’s service as chairman.
Federal election laws require a 120-day cooling off period between someone’s departure from an official campaign and involvement in any super PAC activities.
Leaving with Giles last month were deputy campaign manager Stephen Rubino, a longtime Giles associate, as well as national finance chairman Jeff Reeter and general counsel Kathy Freberg.
Rubino, a part-time lawyer and farmer, longed to return to his estate, Watts said. “He said to me many times personally, ‘I’m not sure I’m cut out
for this in Washington, D.C.’ ” As for Freberg, Watts said she grew tired of the political game: “She’s now in Africa on a safari.”
Giles said that Carson believes a lightly staffed campaign would suffice through this summer and fall. “The Carson campaign, that’s now mostly about ballot access, communications, social media, and getting Dr. Carson around the country,” he said. “That’s about it. It’s all part of the plan.”
But Kellyanne Conway, a GOP pollster who is friendly with Carson’s inner circle, said Carson would need “a strong, in-house campaign team. You can’t off-load everything to a super PAC or onto the shoulders of grass-roots supporters and live off the land. Those are the fundamentals.”
Giles and Rubino have not been replaced, Watts said, because “it seemed superfluous.” Asked whether there were other lawyers advising the Carson operation in Freberg’s absence, he said: “Give me a break. Yeah, there are campaign attorneys coming out of my ears.”
Barry Bennett, a former strategist for Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), will continue to serve as Carson’s campaign manager, largely taking up the duties once delegated to Giles and Rubino. Ed Brookover, a veteran GOP hand, runs the policy shop.
Williams portrayed Carson as a candidate who is still learning the nuances of politics. He said Carson is studying up on issues and is uninterested in campaign mechanics.
On the road, Carson receives hearty receptions, but his acquaintances said he is most content after public events to retreat to a pool table, where
he touts the hand-eye coordination that made him a renowned surgeon. He also likes to do brain teasers or play golf.
Carson occasionally drops by his Alexandria campaign headquarters, but his main interaction with staffers is once a week, at 10 a.m. on Sundays, when he participates in a conference call to go over his schedule for the coming week.
“Dr. Carson doesn’t get involved in the minutiae,” Williams said. “You have to understand his personality. He’s informed, but this whole process is new to him, and he’s relying on the judgment of others.”
Robert Costa is a national political reporter at The Washington Post.
Lindsey Graham Doesn't Think Being Single Will Hurt His White House Chances
By Sam Levine
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a 2016 Republican presidential candidate, would be just fine being single in the White House -- and he doesn't think
voters will mind either.
Graham, who has never married, told The Huffington Post on Saturday that he didn't think his marital status would affect his chances of winning the presidency.
"It's up to people to make that decision. I feel real comfortable with who I am and the life I've lived. I've got a wonderful, supportive family.
And the last time I checked, I didn't see a sign on the White House that said 'single people need not apply,'" Graham said at an event hosted by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) in Boone, Iowa. "So I am good to go, I think I'd be a good commander-in-chief and I'd work really hard as president for
everybody and for your family."
Only two bachelors, James Buchanan and Grover Cleveland, have ever been elected president.
Since joining the presidential race last week, Graham has sought to highlight his foreign policy experience. According to HuffPost Pollster, which aggregates publicly available polling data, Graham is at the bottom of the 2016 Republican field.
U.S. Billionaires Adelson, Saban Vow to Fight Boycotts of Israel
U.S. billionaires Sheldon Adelson and Haim Saban pledged to fight economic boycotts against Israel amid heightened concern over the threat of
international sanctions directed against its policy toward the Palestinians. The two already along with the Koch brothers own the controlling
interest in the GOP and are able to lobby any law they want into being. They have also made great inroads into buying the Democratic Party.
The issue gained new prominence after Stephane Richard, chief executive officer of Orange SA, said on Wednesday that the Paris-based telecom company would end its licensing deal with Israel’s Partner Communications Co. “tomorrow” if he wasn’t concerned about legal repercussions. Richard later apologized for his comments, made in response to a question over a threatened boycott of Orange’s Egyptian subsidy, Mobinil, and said they weren’t motivated by political concerns.
“It’s a blatant lie,” said Saban, who owns a controlling stake in Partner, in response to Richard’s clarification. “Any company that chooses to boycott business in Israel, they’re going to look at this case, and once we’re done, they’re going to think twice about whether they want to take on Israel or not,” Saban said in an interview Saturday with Israel’s Channel 2 television.
The Orange controversy reflects increasing pressure in Europe and elsewhere to sanction Israel for settlement policies in the West Bank that most of the world views as violating international law and detrimental to peacemaking with the Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has identified the trend to boycott, divest and sanction Israel, popularly called the BDS movement, as a major threat.
The government “is in the midst of establishing an offensive, first an offensive, and also a defense, in the face of attempts to impose boycotts on Israel,” Netanyahu said, according to an e-mail of comments made Sunday at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.
Las Vegas
Saban made his comments at a Las Vegas gathering of business executives and pro-Israel activists organized by Adelson, founder of Las Vegas Sands Corp., the world’s largest casino company. Adelson told Channel 2 that he and Saban had put aside their domestic political differences -- Adelson is a major donor to the Republican party, Saban to Democratic candidates -- to work together against the BDS movement and growing anti-Israel sentiment on U.S. college campuses.
“That he’s a Democrat and I’m a Republican has really very little to do with it,” said Adelson, who holds the 25th slot on Bloomberg’s Billionaire’s
Index. “We can use our influence, to the extent that both of us have any, with anybody that we know in the administration and congress for the
betterment of the relations between the U.S. and Israel.”
Israeli officials view the BDS movement as part of a campaign by the Palestinians to isolate their country diplomatically and economically following the collapse of U.S.- sponsored peace talks last year. BDS advocates say their tactics are the only way to get Israel to stop its settlement
policies.
West Bank
West Bank settlements are not the real target of BDS supporters “but our settling of Tel Aviv, Beersheba, Haifa, and of course Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said.
Israeli lawmaker Isaac Herzog, head of the opposition Zionist Union party, said Netanyahu’s policies must share some of the blame for the growing tide of international condemnation.
Contending against the sanctions movement “requires two approaches,” Herzog said Sunday on Israel Radio. “Building a strong and very close
connection with the administration in Washington, and a diplomatic initiative to alter our situation, and at both of these, Netanyahu has failed.”
Turning Back the Clock.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker declared on Sunday that if the Supreme Court ends up ruling in favor of same-sex couples, he supports a
constitutional amendment allowing states to ban gay marriage. "I personally believe that marriage is between one man and one woman," said Walker, a potential GOP presidential candidate, on ABC's This Week. "If the court decides that, the only next approach is for those who are supporters of marriage being defined as between one man and one woman is ultimately to consider pursuing a constitutional amendment."
Abortions Decline 12% in U.S. Since 2010
In nearly every state, regardless of its political leanings, abortions have declined since 2010, according to an Associated Press survey. States
that have passed stringent anti-abortion laws in that time—Indiana, Missouri, and Oklahoma—have seen numbers drop more than 15 percent since 2010, but so have liberal states with unrestricted access like New York, Washington, and Oregon. Nationwide, the procedure has decreased roughly 12 percent since 2010. Factors cited include declines in teen pregnancy rates, which have hit their lowest in decades. Abortion-rights activists also say that expanded access to contraceptives have prevented unwanted pregnancies.
Amherst County Virginia Democratic News
Amherst Democratic News
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