The Political Chase

New MoveOn Ad Hits McCain on ‘My Friends’

The cavalry returns. MoveOn.org released a new ad today hitting John McCain hard on his strong ties to lobbyists and big oil companies.

GOP Struggles to Keep Senate Seats

Counting on the Repugs to lose enough seats in the Senate to give the Democrats a 60-seat majority may fall into that “too good to be true” category, but then again, maybe not.

Less than two months before Election Day, only 13 Senate Republicans have met their fundraising goals for the campaign committee in charge of salvaging their November hopes, according to internal numbers reviewed by The Hill.

Senate Republicans have set goals of raising between $750,000 and $3 million for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and GOP Senate candidates this cycle, but 22 of the 49-member conference are less than 50 percent of the way to meeting their individual targets.

The lack of fundraising has infuriated Sen. John Ensign (Nev.), the head of the NRSC, who criticized his colleagues last month and warned that he would slash money for independent advertisements in key races.

Through the end of July, the NRSC has just $25.4 million in cash on hand, compared to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s (DSCC) $43 million. This comes despite a huge electoral advantage for Democrats, who have to defend just 12 seats compared to the Republicans’ 23.

Get used to it

I’m tired of hearing all the Repugs falsely claiming that Barack Obama was referring to Gov. Sarah Palin personally when he decried the lies of John McCain and Palin as lipstick on a pig. It’s a metaphor and is frequently used — even Saint John McSame has used the expression before.

Face it. Obama got it right. What McCain and Palin have been doing is no different than what the cliche implies, so if they didn’t want the criticism, they shouldn’t be telling all the lies. Stop the lies or wear the lipstick proudly.

Palin the elitist?

Oh my! The Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sara Palin is on a first-name basis with the wealthiest man in the world — Warren Buffett.

Palin Bills State to Sleep at Home

The Washington Post has a big piece today on Sarah Palin billing Alaska’s taxpayers for “312 nights spent in her home during her first 19 months in office, charging a ‘per diem’ allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.”

In addition to the traveling, while not traveling, expenses, the governor often took her children with her around the state and to conventions in New York, etc. and billed the state for her children’s expenses as well.

One event was in New York City in October 2007, when Bristol [Palin's 17-year-old daughter] accompanied the governor to Newsweek’s third annual Women and Leadership Conference, toured the New York Stock Exchange and met local officials and business executives. The state paid for three nights in a $707-a-day hotel room.

527’s for Obama to Return?

Marc Ambinder says 527’s supporting Obama may be on their way back.

An Obama adviser privy to the campaign’s internal thinking on the matter says that,with less than two months before the election and with the realization that Republicans have achieved financial parity with Democrats, they hope that Democratic allies — what another campaign aide termed “the cavalry” — will come to Obama’s aid.

Lieberman booted from Dem Lunches

The Democrats haven’t thrown Lieberman out yet, but Harry Reid is slapping him around a bit. If the Dems get 55 seats in the Senate, Lieberman can probably go hang around with his bomb-Iran buddy full-time. From Roll Call (sub. req’d):

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has decided that Sen. Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.) — one of Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) top supporters — can no longer attend Democrats’ weekly caucus lunches or the biweekly chairmen’s lunches used to formulate policy, senior Democratic aides said Tuesday.

TPM: Palin a Reformer? Simply Laughable

(Updated below)

This is good. TPM takes a hard swipe at Sarah Palin’s claims to be a reformer.

Quote of the Day

ACORN:

“Jesus was a community organizer; Pontius Pilate was a governor”

Quote of the Day

Josh Marshall:

“Isn’t Palin supposed to move to Cheney’s undisclosed location after she gets elected, not before?”

BREAKING: FEDS TO SEIZE FANNIE MAE AND FREDDIE MAC

From the New York Times:

Senior officials from the Bush administration and the Federal Reserve on Friday informed top executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage-finance giants, that the government is preparing a plan to seize the two companies and place them in a conservatorship, officials and company executives briefed on the discussions said.

The plan, effectively a government bailout, was outlined in separate meetings that the chief executives were summoned to attend on Friday at the office of the companies’ new regulator. The executives were told that under the plan, they and their boards would be replaced, and their shareholders virtually wiped out, but that the companies would be able to continue functioning with the government generally standing behind their debt, people briefed on the discussions said.

It is not possible to calculate the cost of any government bailout, but the huge potential liabilities of the companies could cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars and make any rescue among the largest in United States history.

Very bad news.

American Political Intellect

After George Bush won reelection in 2004, the U.K.’s Daily Mirror ran a cover asking
“How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?” I think it’s worth pulling that image out from time to time as a reminder of what happens when the American electorate allows the political spin of the Republicans to take over.

2004	January 2008
Wasilla, AK City Hall 2003
Washington, D.C. 2009??

McCain Campaign Embargoes Palin

Unbelievable. The McCain campaign needs to revisit Democracy 101 and pay particular attention to sessions on the Fourth Estate. From Marc Ambinder:

A senior McCain campaign official advises that, despite the gaggle of requests and pressure from the media, Gov. Sarah Palin won’t submit to a formal interview anytime soon. She may take some questions from local news entities in Alaska, but until she’s ready — and until she’s comfortable — which might not be for a long while — the media will have to wait. The campaign believes it can effectively deal with the media’s complaints, and their on-the-record response to all this will be: “Sarah Palin needs to spend time with the voters.”

Convention Bounce for McCain

Looks like McCain might have gotten a bounce in the polls from the convention.

Today’s Rasmussen number: Obama 48%, McCain 46%, within the ±2% margin of error. Yesterday, when all the sampling predated Palin’s speech, Obama was ahead 50%-45%.

Today’s Gallup number: Obama 48%, McCain 44%, with a ±2% margin of error. Yesterday, Obama was up 49%-42%.

Don’t Bogart That Joint My Friend

I can’t see Bill Maher passing this opportunity up tonight. From The Hill:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whose choice as John McCain’s vice presidential running mate is being touted as a hit with social conservatives and supporters of “family values,” has acknowledged smoking marijuana in the past. Does it matter?

In a word, yes.

On Aug. 6, 2006, the Anchorage Daily News reported, “Palin said she has smoked marijuana — remember, it was legal under state law, she said, even if illegal under U.S. law — but says she didn’t like it and doesn’t smoke it now. “‘I can’t claim a Bill Clinton and say that I never inhaled.’”

The paper quoted Palin as saying she opposed legalization of marijuana because of the “message” that would be sent to her children. Let’s ponder that a bit.

Gov. Palin is one of many millions of Americans who have acknowledged using marijuana and gone on to live productive, wildly successful lives. That list famously includes California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, Sen. Barack Obama, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and astronomer Carl Sagan, and many others. That Palin used marijuana is no big deal. What is a big deal is that she thinks that the 100 million Americans who have done so — presumably including herself — deserve arrest, jail, and a criminal record.

Since I’m showing my age, for those that may not know it, “Don’t Bogart That Joint” is a Little Feat song published in 1969.