New Hampshire News

News

Gov. Lynch signs NH retirement system reforms

Associated Press
June 30, 2008

CONCORD, N.H. --New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch has signed a bill that overhauls the state pension system. The bill shifts $250 million from an account used to pay for cost-of-living increases for retirees into the main pension fund. That helps hold down increases in employer contributions. Without the fund shift, contribution rates for the state and local governments would have increased 53 percent in 2010. Once signed, the increase will be 14 percent for local governments and 27 percent for the state...
 

Press Release: Gov. Lynch Signs Retirement System Reforms

Office of the Governor
June 30, 2008

CONCORD - Gov. John Lynch has signed a new law aimed at reforming the state Retirement System, helping to ensure its long-term viability and providing cost savings to local taxpayers. The new law (HB 1645) is an outgrowth of a process that began with the passage of legislation last year and the creation of the Commission to Study the Long Term Viability of the Retirement System. The recommendations of that commission formed the basis for this year’s legislation...
 

Civil unions, six months later
Couples reflect on changes in their lives

By Annmarie Timmins
Concord Monitor
July 1, 2008

Six months ago today, more than 40 same-sex couples rang in the new year by saying "I do" on the State House lawn. With that, their lives changed immediately. Some got insurance benefits for the first time in years. A few found their political voice. Others experienced validation they never expected...Since Jan. 1, 384 couples have entered into civil unions in New Hampshire, according to numbers from the Secretary of State's office. Fifty-nine others have obtained permits but not yet had a ceremony. The Monitor recently caught up with three newly-united couples to ask what the new law has meant to them...
 

Mass. cigarette tax could jump $1 per pack

By Steve Leblanc
Associated Press
June 30, 2008

BOSTON --Massachusetts smokers may have to start digging a little deeper in their wallets as soon as this week. Beacon Hill lawmakers were debating the final version of a bill to increase the tax on a pack of cigarettes by a dollar. The change could take effect Tuesday...
 

Draft impact statement on I-93 widening expected this fall

By Terry Date
Lawrence Eagle-Tribune
June 30, 2008

The group that challenged the Interstate 93 expansion on environmental grounds is concerned that the state Department of Transportation's $750 million project will drain resources from other transportation needs. "Is the cost of this project going to be so significant that the rest of the state's transportation system goes hungry?" said Tom Irwin, a lawyer with the Conservation Law Foundation. The foundation awaits publication of a draft supplemental environmental impact statement, expected in the fall. Last August, a federal judge ordered the state to prepare the statement in response to CLF's court case against the Federal Highway Administration and the state DOT...
 

Oil Prices Driving Up the Cost of Asphalt

By Katie Ahern
New Hampshire Public Radio
Monday, June 30, 2008.

Communities across the state are feeling the impact of the high cost of oil these days. It now costs more to heat town hall and to fuel city garbage trucks. Asphalt is also a petroleum product and towns are facing double digit increases in the cost of paving our roads. As a result, towns across New Hampshire are cutting back up to 30 percent of their road repair projects this summer. NHPR’s Katie Ahern has the story...
 

Bus company bets fuel cost means profits
$30 million in state subsidies is funding service expansion

By Joseph G. Cote
Nashua Telegraph
Monday, June 30, 2008

NASHUA – Boston Express will have three years to make a profit from an upcoming $30 million expansion of bus service from Londonderry to Boston before state subsidies dry up. Three years will be enough, according to company officials bolstered by rapidly increasing demand at their Nashua terminal thanks in part to skyrocketing fuel costs...
 

County starts fiscal year without budget

By Aaron Aldridge
Claremont Eagle-Tribune
July 1, 2008

CLAREMONT - Partisan politics dominated the Sullivan County Convention Monday where failing to pass a budget before the June 30 deadline was a foregone conclusion because the chair said there was no reason to follow the fiscal timetable...
 

Sheriff issue back in court

By Cutter Mitchell
Laconia Citizen
Tuesday, July 1, 2008

While the state Supreme Court may have clarified the issue of open public appointments in a ruling involving the appointment of an interim Belknap County sheriff, political activists Doug Lambert and Tom Tardif are continuing to take exception with the process by which an appointment has to be made. Lambert and Tardif on Monday took steps to seek a judicial order to stay the action by the Convention to fill the vacant sheriff position and force the Convention to comply with its own procedure, vacate the June 25, 2008 appointment of Wiggin and order all of the county's legislative delegation to comply with New Hampshire's Right-to-Know Law...
 

Courthouse run-in: Candid exchange, or confrontation?

Laconia Citizen
Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Political activists Tom Tardif and Doug Lambert said that County Sheriff Craig Wiggin assailed the pair over their continued challenge to his appointment during a chance encounter in the Belknap County Courthouse Monday. But Wiggin dismissed the allegation as "ludicrous"...
 

Press Release: Gov. Lynch Announces NH Receives Grant to Help Displaced Workers

Office of the Governor
June 30, 2008

CONCORD - Gov. John Lynch announced today the state has been awarded a $1.8 million federal grant, which will provide 150 displaced workers with an accelerated apprenticeship program and guaranteed jobs in two New Hampshire-based advanced manufacturing companies...
 

N.H. has lowest jobless rate

Portsmouth herald
June 30, 2008

WASHINGTON - The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor released unemployment figures for New England in May 2008. They show that New Hampshire had the lowest unemployment rate in the region and one of the lowest in the country. Some highlights:...
 

People/Candidates   House panel to review GOP phone-jamming case By John DiStaso New Hampshire Union Leader July 1, 2008 A U.S. House subcommittee has subpoenaed the federal Justice Department for information "relating to the approval, scope and timing" of a federal probe of the illegal New Hampshire Republican phone-jamming operation of 2002. Information on the department's handling of the phone-jamming case was part of a list of 21 items related to six investigations being undertaken by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law. The subpoena was issued Friday...   House subpoenas DOJ in phone jamming case By Brian Lawson Politicker NH June 30, 2008 The House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed the Department of Justice to request their records relating to the New Hampshire 2002 phone-jamming case...   BOSSE   Candidate says he won't send unsolicited mail By Kevin Landerigan Nashua Telegraph Tuesday, July 1, 2008 CONCORD – Republican congressional candidate Grant Bosse, of Hillsboro, says if elected he would refrain from sending unsolicited, taxpayer-paid mail to constituents. U.S. Rep. Paul Hodes spent $235,0000 to print and send mass mailers in the Second Congressional District during the first half of 2008...   Bosse proposes reforms of franked mail for U.S. House members By Brian Lawson Politicker NH June 30, 2008 CONCORD -- 2nd Congressional District Grant Bosse (R-Hillsboro) laid-out three steps he would take to reform congressional "franking privileges." The "franking privilege" allows U.S. House members to send free mailings to constituents and must be seen by a bi-partisan congressional committee before being mailed. Bosse contends the reforms are needed after it was reported that U.S. Rep. Paul Hodes (D-Concord) has spent $130,000 on the free mailers sent to constituents in the 2nd Congressional District...   HODES   Hodes’ car illegally parked in D.C. By Brian Lawson Polticker NH June 30, 2008 Even a member of the U.S. House can have trouble finding a decent parking space. U.S. Rep. Paul Hodes (D-Concord) car was illegally parked in Washington, D.C., Roll Call reported Monday...   SHEA-PORTER   Shea-Porter launches website By Brian Lawson Polticker NH June 30, 2008 U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-Rochester) has finally launched her campaign website. The website features a listing of campaign events, web videos and her stance on various issues. The site can be found at: http://www.sheaporter.com/.   NH DEMS   NHYDs launch program to elect young Dems By Brian Lawson Politicker NH June 30, 2008 The New Hampshire Young Democrats (NHYDs) today announced that they have started a program aimed at helping their members get elected to the state legislature. The program, titled "603 Forward: The Campaign to elect Young Democrats," will help elect 31 young Democrats running for state representative...   EISENBERG   Clinton office hostage-taker to plead guilty By Josh Rosenson Foster's Daily Democrat Tuesday, July 1, 2008 DOVER — Leeland Eisenberg, the man police say took hostages Nov. 30, 2007, at Sen. Hillary Clinton's Rochester campaign office, filed a notice of intent to plead guilty. Eisenberg, 47, filed the notice of his intent to plead guilty to six Class B felonies, which include four counts of kidnapping, one of criminal threatening and one of false report to police, his attorney, Randy Hawkes, said Monday...

Political Columns

John DiStaso's Granite Status: Unity needed to heal scars of tough primary battle

By John DiStaso
New Hampshire Union Leader
Monday, June 30, 2008

MONDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE #2: A conservative lobbying group will launch radio ads in the state’s 1st Congressional District on Tuesday charging that Democratic Rep. Carol Shea-Porter “stands in the way” of American energy independence. Freedom’s Watch, which recently had “robo” telephone calls made in the state critical of Shea-Porter and Democatic 2nd District U.S. Rep. Paul Hodes, says Shea-Porter is among 16 Democratic members of the U.S. House who wil be targeted in similar ads. Hodes is not on the list...

MONDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: A U.S. House subcommittee has subpoenaed the federal Justice Department for information “relating to the approval, scope and timing” of a federal probe of the illegal New Hampshire Republican phone-jamming operation of 2002...
 

Press Release (not available online)

Portside for Tuesday, July 1^st

At last, the second amendment has been defined. Or has it? On Tuesday's Portside, host Burt Cohen discusses two points of view of last weeks momentous US Supreme Court decision on gun ownership. He'll talk first with Franklin Pierce Constitutional Law Professor Buzz Sherr and then with Penny Dean attorney for Gun Owners of New Hampshire. Some call it frightening, others see simply a reiteration of the intent of our founders. That's Portside with Burt Cohen, streaming live from noon to one on portsmouthcommunityradio.org or at 106.1 FM.
 

NH Polls
 

Editorial: Heating aid expected to be in big demand

Nashua Telegraph
Tuesday, July 1, 2008

On a beautiful New England summer's day, no one really wants to think about next winter's home-heating bills – especially with the price of energy at record levels these days. But that would be good advice for some area residents since today is the first day that priority families or individuals can apply for energy assistance through the federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, commonly referred to as LIHEAP...
 

Editorial: LIHEAP's incentives: Warmth from Washington

New Hampshire Union Leader
July 1, 2008

THE GOAL of public assistance programs ought to be helping the truly needy who have nowhere else to turn. The real goal, however, is to enroll as many people as possible, thus justifying the program's continued existence and expansion. Take New Hampshire's primary fuel assistance program, the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, for example. It provided aid to more than 35,000 households this past winter. It has firm financial eligibility guidelines. And yet the state's administrator of the program told the New Hampshire Sunday News last week that families should apply even if they think they are not eligible...
 

Editorial: Firearm clarity?

Keene Sentinel
Monday, June 30, 2008

Few people in political life are confessing to much disappointment over last week’s 5-4 ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the District of Columbia’s ban on the private ownership of handguns. Such is the power of guns and the gun lobby. New Hampshire’s Washington delegation was nearly unanimous in its delight...
 

Finally we can begin reclaiming our 2nd Amendment rights

By Grant Bosse
New Hampshire Union Leader
July 1, 2008

THE U.S. SUPREME Court's decision in District of Columbia v. Heller holds that the 2nd Amendment contains an individual right to keep and bear arms. It's a little like the court told us that the sun rises in the east. It's gratifying that the justices got it right, but it's nothing we didn't know already, and it's a little disturbing that four of the nine justices didn't agree. Political pundits are saying that the Heller decision is a relief to Barack Obama and Democratic gun-control supporters because it takes the issue off the table. The pundits are wrong. The Heller decision moves the debate over gun rights from the courts to the legislative arena...
 

Sorry, Jeb, but John Stephen is a proven fiscal conservative

By Lou Gargiulo
New Hampshire Union Leader
July 1, 2008

I RECENTLY had the chance to listen to the 1st District congressional debate between Republican rivals John Stephen and Jeb Bradley. It was a spirited debate that focused on who was the fiscal conservative running for Congress. This seems odd, considering the stark differences between the two candidates' records. John Stephen has proven his fiscal mettle...
 

Obama, Clinton unite in N.H. - McCain's turf

By Dan Nowicki
The Arizona Republic
Jun. 28, 2008

UNITY, N.H. - Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton's celebratory Democratic reconciliation here Friday goes to show that New Hampshire isn't just influential in the primaries...Despite his rapport with New Hampshire voters, McCain may have his work cut out for him in the general election...This year, Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., is locked in a desperate re-election battle with former Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen. One New Hampshire political expert said early polling suggests Democrats still have the momentum. "Even though he's John McCain, he's facing considerable headwinds in New Hampshire in terms of the Democratic trend," said Dante Scala, an associate professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire...Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said he believes New Hampshire is one New England state that McCain could take in November...
 

House Judiciary Subpoenas DoJ on Phonejamming Docs

By Dean Barker
Blue Hampshire
Monday. June 30, 2008

The 'Ticker explains it pretty well:...See, here's exactly where I think the legislative branch is broken.  I just can't imagine this subpoena isn't going to be ignored in some fashion, or, fittingly, slow-walked itself. Sub poena means "under [threat of] punishment."  But I don't think the cretins that Bush has installed in his federal ofices have any fear of punishment from Congress. When respect and trust have broken down from executive branch to legislative, how do you get the "check" to "balance"?   This is not an academic question. Note: you can read the subpoena as a .pdf file here.
 

Republican Consequences: Home Heating Oil

By Dean Barker
Blue Hampshire
Monday, June 30, 2008

After September 11th, we had a golden opportunity to change fundamentally the way we approach energy policy.  We could have shifted our focus away from  mid-east oil adventures and the terrorism it inspires. Instead, George Bush and John McCain and John Sununu and Judd Gregg and Jeb Bradley and Charlie Bass, inter alii, gave us the Iraq war. Welcome to the another consequence of their actions:...
 

Democratic Consequences: 50 State Strategy

By Dean Barker
Blue Hampshire
Monday, Jun 30, 2008 at 12:23:38 PM EDT

Let's make damn sure this* never happens again.  With Dean and Obama at the helm of the party, the chances are good that it won't in the short term, but still:...
 

Guest Blog Post: State Senator Bob Clegg
An Insider's View on Taking Back New Hampshire

By Senator Bob Clegg
GraniteGrok
July 1, 2008

As the 2008 general election draws ever nearer, the eyes of the nation will turn once again to those handful of states deemed "swing states" and once again one of those will be our state of New Hampshire. Having been one of only three states to change its color from the 2000 election to the 2004 election, we will be closely watched as the country tries to gauge which direction the coveted independent vote will go this cycle. New Hampshirites are strong-willed, independent voters who don't take kindly to people telling us what to do...
 

College costs creating a permanent underclass?

By Drew Cline
Drew Cline’s Union Leader Blog
Monday, June 30, 2008

On her campaign Web site, www.sheaporter.com, Rep. Carol Shea-Porter makes this sweeping statement: “The high cost of Education is forcing many Americans into a permanent underclass.” Really? Actually, as the liberal Pew Trusts found in a study of income mobility released earlier this year, “The vast majority of individuals, 71 percent, whose parents were in the bottom half of the income distribution actually improved their rankings relative to their parents”...
 

Primary News
 

Democrats

NEW HAMPSHIRE
 

Obama begins airing second ad in Granite State

By Brian Lawson
Politicker NH
June 30, 2008

Presumptive Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has begun airing a second campaign ad in New Hampshire. The thirty-second ad, titled "Dignity," focuses on Obama's decision to take part in community organizing after graduating from Harvard Law school...
 

OTHER NEWS AND VIEWS
 

Obama defends his patriotism; McCain and Clark trade shots
Retired Gen. Wesley Clark takes aim at John McCain's military record, drawing the ire of his supporters.

By Peter Nicholas and Maeve Reston
Los Angeles Times
July 1, 2008

INDEPENDENCE, MO. — Sen. Barack Obama said Monday that no candidate should use patriotism as a "political sword" in the presidential race, vowing to push back against charges that he is not fervent about his country. Yet even as Obama repeated his call for a new brand of politics that avoids personal attacks, the day was dominated by an old-style clash over the military credentials of his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain. Supporters of the two candidates traded accusations of shabby campaigning, a squabble that evoked memories of the infamous "Swift boat" allegations that dogged Democrat John F. Kerry's campaign in 2004...
 

Obama Fiercely Defends His Patriotism
Democrat Also Decries Criticism of Rival McCain on Service to Country

By Jonathan Weisman and Michael D. Shear
Washington Post
Tuesday, July 1, 2008; A01

INDEPENDENCE, Mo., June 30 -- Dogged by persistent rumors questioning his belief in country, Sen. Barack Obama journeyed to Middle America on Monday to lay out his vision of patriotism, conceding that he has learned in this presidential campaign that "the question of who is -- or is not -- a patriot all too often poisons our political debate"...
 

Campaign Flashpoint: Patriotism and Service

By Jeff Zeleny
New York Times
July 1, 2008

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — Senator Barack Obama on Monday rejected the comments from a leading Democrat and campaign military adviser who diminished Senator John McCain’s service as a naval aviator in Vietnam when he declared, “I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.” As Mr. Obama delivered a speech here on patriotism that tried to defuse attacks on his own background, he responded to the remarks of Wesley K. Clark, the retired general and onetime Democratic presidential candidate who suggested on Sunday that Mr. McCain had not been tested as a wartime commander...
 

Analysis: Obama's Blend of Idealism and Realism

By Chris Cillizza
Washington Post The Fix
June 30, 2008

Barack Obama's speech today on patriotism, which was billed as a "major" address by his campaign, is sure to set off a debate over the next few weeks (and months) about the role this issue should play in the campaign. The very fact that Obama gave such a speech is a telling reminder that perception, more often than reality, guides the decisions voters make. And knowing that fact, Obama is working to nip speculation about his patriotism in the bud...
 

Obama Courting Evangelicals Once Loyal to Bush

By John M. Broder
New York Times
July 1, 2008

WASHINGTON — Politically speaking, Susan Speakman is a different kind of evangelical. Mrs. Speakman, 59, a pastor and educator at Bethany Presbyterian Church in Bridgeville, Pa., an activist evangelical church southwest of Pittsburgh, backs Senator Barack Obama in the presidential race. Along with her 23-year-old son, Stephen, she supports Mr. Obama because of his stands on the Iraq war and matters of social justice. The two of them plan to spread the word in their community and beyond...
 

Obama Camp Thinks Democrats Can Rise in South

By Robin Toner
New York Times
June 30, 2008

WASHINGTON — As they look to the fall election, Democrats face a strategic decision that has bedeviled their party for 40 years: How hard should they fight in the South? And how does having Senator Barack Obama at the top of the ticket affect that calculation? Officials in Mr. Obama’s campaign say they are bullish on the South, and they have signaled their aggressiveness with early campaign appearances in North Carolina and Virginia, major voter registration drives in the region, and television advertising in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia...
 

Editorial: Obama's Dry Hole

Wall Street Journal
June 30, 2008; Page A12

"I want you to think about this," Barack Obama said in Las Vegas last week. "The oil companies have already been given 68 million acres of federal land, both onshore and offshore, to drill. They're allowed to drill it, and yet they haven't touched it – 68 million acres that have the potential to nearly double America's total oil production." Wow, how come the oil companies didn't think of that?...
 

Discuss.

By Marc Ambinder
The Atlantic Blog
June 30, 2008

I don't think Obama is really "moving to the center" on FISA, NAFTA, guns, or even taxes" He is, to the contrary, being the authentic Obama: cautious, fairly risk-averse, willing to change his mind as facts (and sometimes political currents) warrant. The broad expanse of his policies remain center-left -- or left-center.
 

Obama’s Iraq Problem

By George Packer
The New Yorker
July 7, 2008

In February, 2007, when Barack Obama declared that he was running for President, violence in Iraq had reached apocalyptic levels, and he based his candidacy, in part, on a bold promise to begin a rapid withdrawal of American forces upon taking office. At the time, this pledge represented conventional thinking among Democrats and was guaranteed to play well with primary voters. But in the year and a half since then two improbable, though not unforeseeable, events have occurred: Obama has won the Democratic nomination, and Iraq, despite myriad crises, has begun to stabilize. With the general election four months away, Obama’s rhetoric on the topic now seems outdated and out of touch, and the nominee-apparent may have a political problem concerning the very issue that did so much to bring him this far...
 

The South Will Fall Again

By Thomas F. Schaller
New York Times
July 1, 2008

THE interim between the primaries and the parties’ nominating conventions is, according to ancient writ, a fertile period for presidential campaigns to talk about how they plan to expand the political map in the fall. This year is no different. Barack Obama’s strategists are suggesting that the first African-American presidential nominee of a major political party can parlay increased turnout among black voters into a string of victories in the South. Given that roughly half of all African-Americans live in the 11 former Confederate states, the idea seems intuitive enough. It’s also wrong. Prying Southern electoral votes away from the Republicans is not so simple...
 

Obama-Clinton contest revealed limits of racism, sexism

By Peter S. Canellos
Boston Globe
July 1, 2008

WASHINGTON - To hear some of Hillary Clinton's disappointed supporters tell it, half of America just told her to "Iron my shirt." In fact, two guys did, at a Clinton rally in New Hampshire in January, in what seems to have been a prank to draw attention to their radio show. This is not to say that sexist attitudes weren't part of the 2008 primary campaign, or that racism wasn't, either. But when the history of the great first black/first woman primary is written, it will probably record that the Clinton-Barack Obama race was far from the worst moment in American race and gender relations. In fact, it revealed more about the limits of racism and sexism than about their omnipresent force...
 

What Bush hath wrought

By Andrew J. Bacevich
Boston Globe
July 1, 2008

FEW AMERICANS, whatever their political persuasion, will mourn George W. Bush's departure from office. Democrats and Republicans alike are counting the days until the inauguration of a new president will wipe the slate clean. Yet in crucial respects, the Bush era will not end Jan. 20, 2009. The administration's many failures, especially those related to Iraq, mask a considerable legacy. Among other things, the Bush team has accomplished the following:...The burden of identifying and confronting the Bush legacy necessarily falls on Obama...
 

Dobson vs. Obama

By Peter Wehner
Washington Post
Saturday, June 28, 2008; 12:00 AM

Earlier this week, Focus on the Family's James Dobson criticized Sen. Barack Obama, accusing him of "deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit ... his own confused theology," of having a "fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution" and of appealing to the "lowest common denominator of morality." Dobson's judgment was based on Obama's keynote address at a "Call to Renewal" conference on June 28, 2006. In fact, this speech was impressive in many respects. As an evangelical and conservative who has deep concerns about Obama's policies and political philosophy, I nonetheless welcome such a statement by a leading Democrat...
 

Can Obama rescue Bush?
If the Democrat wins the White House and does his job right, he just might make his predecessor look good.

By Jonah Goldberg
Los Angeles Times
July 1, 2008

Breaking news! The ultimate White House insider plans a tell-all book about the Bush years. Boasting unprecedented access to the president's thinking, it will run counter to almost everything we've been told about Bush's radical presidency. Who will be the latest to break the code of silence after former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan? George W. Bush...
 

Obama’s Money Class

By David Brooks
New York Times
July 1, 2008

Barack Obama sells the Democratic Party short. He talks about his fund-raising success as if his donors were part of a spontaneous movement of small-money enthusiasts who cohered around himself. In fact, Democrats have spent years building their donor network. Obama’s fund-raising base is bigger than John Kerry’s, Howard Dean’s and Al Gore’s, but it’s not different. As in other recent campaigns, lawyers account for the biggest chunk of Democratic donations. They have donated about $18 million to Obama, compared with about $5 million to John McCain, according to data released on June 2 and available at OpenSecrets.org...
 

Yet another Liberal saying "Do as I say and not as I do"

By Skip
GraniteGrok
July 1, 2008

You're a politician with an Ivy League college background.  You have over 700 staffers to back check, fact check, and write your speeches. That is, if you so desire. Methinks Obama ought to be desiring that a whole lot more. Instead of the Obamessiah, we ought to be calling him TGM - The Gaffe Machine:...
 

CLARK
 

Clark Stands By Comments About McCain War Record

ABC News Political Radar
July 1, 2008 7:47 AM

ABC News' Nitya Venkataraman Reports: In a Tuesday appearance on Good Morning America, Retired Army General and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark refused to back down from Sunday comments where he called into question the war record of the presumptive Republican nominee....
 

Some on left target McCain's war record

By Ben Smith
The Politico
June 30, 2008 7:06 PM EST

The highest-voltage third rail of this presidential campaign may not be race, sex or age, but John McCain's military service. On Sunday, McCain's campaign issued a pair of outraged statements after retired general and Barack Obama supporter Wesley Clark said he didn't think that McCain’s service as a fighter pilot and prisoner of war was relevant to running the country. Obama has consistently praised McCain's service, and called him "a genuine American hero." But farther to the left — and among some of McCain's conservative enemies as well — harsher attacks are circulating...
 

Editorial: Clark on McCain: Keep talking, general

New Hampshire Union Leader
July 1, 2008

HERE IS HOW retired Gen. Wesley Clark chose to peddle Barack Obama for President over John McCain: "(McCain) hasn't held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded -- that wasn't a wartime squadron. I don't think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become President." Hasn't held executive responsibility? Let's see, Obama's executive responsibilities have included what? Right. The answer is: nothing. And thank you, Gen. Clark, for pointing out that John McCain commanded the largest fighter squadron in the U.S. Navy. He didn't just command it; he turned it around...
 

Editorial: Monsieur Obama's Tax Rates

Wall Street Journal
July 1, 2008; Page A16

And speaking of tax rates (see here), celebrity chef Alain Ducasse changed his citizenship this month from high-tax France to no-income-tax Monaco. He says it wasn't a financial decision but an "affair of the heart." Of course. Nonetheless, plenty of other Frenchmen have moved abroad to escape their country's confiscatory taxes. Americans should be so lucky: Ours is the only industrialized country that taxes its citizens even if they live overseas. That hasn't been a big problem as long as U.S. tax rates have been relatively low. But with Barack Obama promising to raise rates to French-like levels, this taxman-cometh policy could turn Americans into the world's foremost fiscal prisoners...
 

The General's Big Mouth

By Marc Ambinder
The Atlantic Blog
June 30, 2008

ASPEN -- It could be the thin air up here; maybe that gives me the perspective equivalent to the astronomer who is looking into a black hole and sees the Democrats and Republicans slowly revolving around the event horizon, beneath which is total absurdity and oblivion. Ret. Gen. Wes Clark’s remark -- in response to a question from Bob Scheiffer -- was a provocation; an insult...
 

Clark's Comments Play to McCain's Strengths

By Chris Cillizza
Washington Post The Fix
June 30, 2008

John McCain's campaign is aggressively pushing back against the idea floated by retired Gen. Wesley Clark that the GOP presidential candidate's military credentials are not as impressive as he claims them to be on the campaign trail...
 

Wes Clark and the risks of hardball

By Dick Polman
Dick Polman’s American Debate
June 30, 2008

Did Wesley Clark really say what I thought he said? Did the retired four-star general and ex-NATO commander, in his role as Barack Obama surrogate, actually dare to suggest yesterday, on national TV, that Americans should refrain from genuflecting at the feet of John McCain just because he had been a POW? He did indeed. The Clark soundbite on CBS: "I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president." It'll be interesting to see whether the Obama camp puts Clark back on the air in the future...
 

Good Thing McCain is Such a Weak Candidate...

By Dean Barker
Blue Hampshire
Monday, June 30, 2008

...because Team Obama is really blowing it these days. First, playing into the bogus national security argument on telecom immunity. Next, that god awful seal, that, had it come from McCain, I would be flogging from now until election day. And now, throwing Wes Clark under the bus for making one of the best arguments I've heard about McCain's national security experience:...
 

CLINTON
 

Obama and Bill Clinton Talk

By Jeff Zeleny
New York Times
July 1, 2008

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Finally they’ve spoken. Senator Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton shared a 20-minute conversation on Monday, their first talk since the combative Democratic presidential primary season ended nearly a month ago. As Mr. Obama arrived here for a campaign stop, he reached Mr. Clinton by telephone. The two men covered a variety of issues, aides to both said, including how Mr. Clinton could help in the fall campaign...
 

A Bill Clinton-Obama Call Is Complete!

By Marc Ambinder
The Atlantic Blog
June 30, 2008

On the drive from Kansas City this morning, Barack Obama's telephone call to Bill Clinton finally went through. (I word this sentence very carefully.)...
 

Hillaryland at War
Hillary Clinton’s campaign had it all: near-death moments, hard-won triumphs, dysfunctional relationships—and a staff consumed with infighting over how to sell their candidate. It was a battle that revealed why she came so close to victory, as well as why she didn’t make it.

By Gail Sheehy
Vanity Fair
August 2008

Are you here for the Deathwatch?” That was how my friends in the traveling press corps welcomed me into the bub­ble of the Clinton campaign plane. It was three days before the March 4 Democratic primaries in Ohio and Texas, and they were boarding the 737 with the sullen obedience of inmates after an outing in the yard. Some had been following the once inevitable front-runner since the January 3 Iowa caucus when she was first pronounced to be in a “slump”...
 

A New Campaign Charge: You Supported Clinton

By Raymond Hernandez
New York Times
July 1, 2008

Brooklyn’s 10th Congressional District, home to more African-Americans than any other in New York, gave Senator Barack Obama his highest margin of victory in the state. But the district’s longtime congressman, Edolphus Towns, did not share his constituency’s preference for Mr. Obama. Now some of those voters are pushing to oust him. “His decision not to back Obama shows he is out of touch with his constituents,” said N. Chandler, a former city corrections officer who lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant and who had supported Mr. Towns in the past. “And I think the people of this district are ready for a change”...
 

The Case Against Hillary Rodham Clinton

By Chris Cillizza
Washington Post The Fix
June 27, 2008

The unity huddle today in Unity (get it?), New Hampshire, between  Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton is sure to stir talk of the so-called "Dream Ticket." Earlier this week we argued the case for Clinton to be picked as vice president. Today -- even as the two one-time combatants appear in public for the first time -- we make the case against picking Clinton...
 

NEW HAMPSHIRE
 

Romney to campaign for McCain at Wolfeboro parade

By Brian Lawson
Politicker NH
June 30, 2008

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will campaign for U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) later this week in New Hampshire. Romney will march in the Wolfeboro Fourth of July parade, PolitickerNH.com has learned...
 

OTHER NEWS AND VIEWS
 

McCain's energy record is on/off
The Republican presidential candidate has swerved from one position to another over the years, taking often contradictory stances on the government's role in energy policy.

By Noam N. Levey
Los Angeles Times
July 1, 2008

WASHINGTON — Crisscrossing the country over the last two weeks to promote his energy plans, Sen. John McCain promised a forceful national strategy to combat global warming and end U.S. dependence on foreign oil. "We must steer far clear of the errors and false assumptions that have marked the energy policies of nearly 20 Congresses and seven presidents," the presumptive Republican nominee told a crowd of oil executives in Houston. But McCain's record of tackling energy policy on Capitol Hill shows little of the clear direction he says would come from a McCain White House...
 

Bush base yet to rush to donate to McCain
Funding woes tied to candidate's stances, GOP standing in polls

By Brian C. Mooney
Boston Globe
July 1, 2008

President Bush has headlined a fund-raising event to help John McCain finance his campaign to succeed him, but most of the big-money backers who helped reelect Bush in 2004 haven't pulled out their checkbooks for McCain - or asked their friends to chip in either. Of the 548 leaders of Bush's vaunted money-raising machine, about 43 percent have contributed to McCain, a Globe review of finance reports covering the period through May 31 shows. Even fewer of them solicited and bundled donations from others for McCain, as they did for Bush four years ago...
 

NRA plans $40M fall blitz targeting Obama

By Jonathan Martin
The Politico
July 1, 2008 7:26 AM EST

The National Rifle Association plans to spend about $40 million on this year’s presidential campaign, with $15 million of that devoted to portraying Barack Obama as a threat to the Second Amendment rights upheld last week by the Supreme Court...
 

A Win by McCain Could Push a Split Court to Right

By Robert Barnes
Washington Post
Sunday, June 29, 2008; A01

For much of its term, the Supreme Court muted last year's noisy dissents, warmed to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.'s vision of narrow, incremental decisions and continued a slow but hardly steady move to the right. But as justices finished their work last week, two overarching truths about the court remained unchanged: It is sharply divided ideologically on some of the most fundamental constitutional questions, and the coming presidential election will determine its future path...
 

GOP Sharpens Attacks on Obama
Allies of McCain Casting Democratic Candidate as Unprincipled, Opportunistic

By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post
Monday, June 30, 2008; A04

CLEVELAND -- Sen. John McCain's allies have seized on a new and aggressive line of attack against Sen. Barack Obama, casting the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee as an opportunistic and self-obsessed politician who will do and say anything to get elected. McCain typically leaves the sharpened criticism to others, in the hope of being able to claim the high ground of conducting a "respectful" campaign. But the abrupt shift in tone among his paid staff members, volunteer surrogates and other Republican staples of the cable news circuit is unmistakable, and it resembles the unified message the GOP used to paint the 2004 Democratic candidate, Sen. John F. Kerry, as a flip-flopper...
 

Drill Now as the conservative MoveOn?

By Avi Zenilman
The Politico
July 1, 2008 7:39 AM EST

For years John McCain’s environmental agenda highlighted his independent streak, and angered conservatives in the process. Yet the right showed little ire when he aired an ad last month touting his environmentalist bona fides: "John McCain stood up to the president and sounded the alarm on global warming five years ago." That’s because the day before that ad went up, McCain offered an energy plan that called, among other things, for a repeal of the federal moratorium on off-shore drilling—a reversal of his previous position on the subject. It’s an idea that big oil companies eager to gain access to new potential reserves have backed for years and that had emerged over the preceding weeks as a cause célèbre for conservative activists and bloggers...
 

John McCain's JFK Opportunity

By William McGurn
Wall Street Journal
July 1, 2008

One presidential candidate says our Latin American neighbors are "drifting away" because we do not support our democratic friends. That "our failure to help the people of Latin America to achieve their economic aspirations" is a moral and strategic tragedy. And that we need to confront those who are "exploiting domestic distress and unrest, encouraging growing dislike of the United States, working to impose Communist rule." No, the words are not John McCain's. They are John F. Kennedy's. But on the day that Sen. McCain leaves for a quick trip to Colombia and Mexico, they present him with an opportunity:...
 

What’s in a Name for a Political Party? Maybe Victory in ’08

By Stuart Rothenberg
Roll Call
Monday, June 30, 2008

The other day, my wife, who keeps up on current affairs but is hardly a political junkie, told me that after following the presidential campaign and hearing daily about the Republican Party’s problems, she had an idea for the GOP: It should change its name...
 

Can gay marriage save the GOP again?

By Gary L. Bauer
The Politico
June 30, 2008 7:12 PM EST

Conventional wisdom holds that the California Supreme Court’s recent decision to strike down the Golden State’s Defense of Marriage Act was a triumph for the left, representing a giant leap toward its ultimate goal of establishing same-sex marriage nationwide. But for all the left’s euphoria, it’s the right that should feel encouraged. Because, considering past precedent and current trends, the ruling may backfire and end up offering substantial electoral advantages to conservative candidates. First, some background...
 

McCain's agenda on Amtrak

By Derrick Z. Jackson
Boston Globe
July 1, 2008

TRAIN TRAVEL is finally becoming a third rail of politics. The first one to fry over it might be John McCain. For years, McCain, in the comfort of cheap gasoline for autos and airplanes, made Amtrak a personal whipping boy. Despite the fact that governments in Western Europe and Asia zoomed far ahead of the United States by supporting high-speed trains to relieve congestion, promote tourism and now as we are coming to know, save the planet, McCain has spent considerable capital in denying the passenger rail system the capital to modernize. In 2000, when he was chairman of the Senate Science, Commerce and Transportation committee, McCain killed $10 billion in capital funding for Amtrak. He denounced Amtrak as a symbol of government waste, claiming, "There's only two parts of the country that can support a viable rail system - the Northeast and the far West"...
 

Put Them Out to Pastor

By Richard Cohen
Washington Post
Tuesday, July 1, 2008; A11

The pilgrim is making little progress. In a futile effort to convince faith-voters that he is one of them, John McCain paid a visit to the Grahams of North Carolina -- father Billy and son Franklin. After the meeting, not a word was said about the Grahams' past indiscretions concerning Muslims or Jews, and neither, for that matter, was an endorsement proffered. The next guest was country singer Ricky Skaggs. He did better. He got lunch. McCain plods a cruel treadmill...
 

LIEBERMAN
 

White House backs Lieberman’s warning of attack

By Sam Youngman
The Hill
June 30, 2008

The White House on Monday said it agreed with Sen. Joe Lieberman’s (I-Conn.) warning that terrorists could test the new president with an attack next year. Lieberman, who has ruffled Democratic feathers with his outspoken support of Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), said on “Face the Nation” that “our enemies will test the new president early”...
 

VEEP
 

Romney tops McCain veep list

By Mike Allen
The Politico
June 30, 2008 7:06 PM EST

In a surprise to many Republican insiders, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is at the top of the vice presidential prospect list for John McCain. But lack of personal chemistry could derail the pick. “Romney as favorite” is the hot buzz in Republican circles, and top party advisers said the case is compelling...
 

Good N'Pawlenty

By Dean Spiliotes
NHPoliticalCapital
June 30, 2008

Whenever political observers talk about potential Republican vice presidential picks, one of the first names to roll off of their tongues is Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. His Midwestern working-class roots, personal connection to the evangelical community, and long-standing loyalty to John McCain, have made him a frequent object of vice presidential speculation. So I was excited to get a close look at him on Sunday, during his guest appearance as a McCain surrogate on This Week (video: Which candidate is walking the walk?). My overall reaction to his performance is that Pawlenty would be a good option for McCain, but is not necessarily a must-pick candidate. Pawlenty did a solid job of defending McCain as someone who has been willing to take strong stands on the issues, even when it was politically unpopular to do so, while also depicting Barack Obama as being unwilling to buck the liberal wing of is party...
 

Would Bill Gates be No. 2?

By Jim Puzzanghera
Los Angeles Times
July 1, 2008

Now that Bill Gates no longer has to worry about running Microsoft, why not help run the country? The Microsoft Corp. co-founder is mentioned by some in political circles as the "dream running mate" for Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, according to Politico.com...
 

Who's Behind High Prices

By Robert J. Samuelson
Washington Post
Tuesday, July 1, 2008; A11

Tired of high gasoline prices and rising food costs? Well, here's a solution. Let's shoot the speculators. A chorus of politicians, including John McCain and Barack Obama, blames these financial slimeballs for piling into commodities markets and pushing prices to artificial and unconscionable levels. Gosh, if only it were that simple. Speculator-bashing is another exercise in scapegoating and grandstanding. Leading politicians either don't understand what's happening or don't want to acknowledge their own complicity...
 

The Court vs. Voters

By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Washington Post
Tuesday, July 1, 2008; A11

If the long conservative era that began with Ronald Reagan's election is over, will the judges appointed during the right's ascendancy be able to block, frustrate and undermine the efforts of a new progressive majority? Consider this analysis from two influential journalists describing Supreme Court justices as "the last hope of the conservative interests in the United States"...
 

Dear 44: Taking back our energy future

By Karen Harbert
The Politico
June 30, 2008 1:28 PM EST

Rising gas prices have placed energy on the top of the worry list for many Americans. The key question for our elected leaders is whether they will continue with an ineffective, stovepipe approach to our energy challenges or finally adopt a comprehensive, common-sense energy plan that will address the broad range of consumer needs...
 

Dear 44: Drilling only benefits Big Oil

By Daniel J. Weiss
The Politico
June 30, 2008 1:37 PM EST

In 2006, President Bush declared, “America is addicted to oil.” Unfortunately, the president and the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), share Big Oil’s belief that the United States can lower gas prices by oil drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf — despite all evidence to the contrary...
 

Dumbing Down the Presidency

By David S. Broder
Washington Post
Sunday, June 29, 2008; B07

People campaign for the presidency by talking their heads off. By the time the winner reaches the White House, the habit is so ingrained that it is impossible to shake. The result has been what professor Jeffrey Tulis of the University of Texas 21 years ago labeled "the rhetorical presidency," his term for an office in which the principal goal is to mobilize public opinion successfully enough to dominate dealings with Congress and even foreign powers. Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton were, for most of their tenures, masters of the art. George W. Bush had early success but has lost most of his audience and, with it, his sway...
 

VEEP
 

Timing the Unveiling of Running Mates Will Be Tricky

By Adam Nagourney
New York Times
July 1, 2008

WASHINGTON — It is a given these days that the toughest decisions Senators John McCain and Barack Obama will make this summer will be choosing running mates. But there is another choice that might prove important as well: when to make the announcement. A confluence of events — the summer Olympics and two very late, almost back-to-back political conventions — are presenting a web of complications for the Obama and McCain camps as they try to figure out the best time to unveil their choices. Consider this calendar. The summer Olympics begin Aug. 8 in Beijing and finish Aug. 24th. The Democratic National Convention begins on Aug. 25th, a Monday, and ends on Aug. 28th, a Thursday. The Republican convention begins the following Monday in St. Paul. That doesn’t leave either side with much breathing room...
 

National News

Annals of National Security
Preparing the Battlefield: The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran.

By Seymour M. Hersh
The New Yorker
July 7, 2008

Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership. The covert activities involve support of the minority Ahwazi Arab and Baluchi groups and other dissident organizations. They also include gathering intelligence about Iran’s suspected nuclear-weapons program...
 

Ex-Agent Says CIA Ignored Iran Facts

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post
Tuesday, July 1, 2008; A02

A former CIA operative who says he tried to warn the agency about faulty intelligence on Iraqi weapons programs now contends that CIA officials also ignored evidence that Iran had suspended work on a nuclear bomb. The onetime undercover agent, who has been barred by the CIA from using his real name, filed a motion in federal court late Friday asking the government to declassify legal documents describing what he says was a deliberate suppression of findings on Iran that were contrary to agency views at the time...
 

Amid U.S. Policy Disputes, Qaeda Grows in Pakistan

By Mark Mazzetti and David Rohde
New York Times
June 30, 2008

WASHINGTON — Late last year, top Bush administration officials decided to take a step they had long resisted. They drafted a secret plan to make it easier for the Pentagon’s Special Operations forces to launch missions into the snow-capped mountains of Pakistan to capture or kill top leaders of Al Qaeda. Intelligence reports for more than a year had been streaming in about Osama bin Laden’s terrorism network rebuilding in the Pakistani tribal areas, a problem that had been exacerbated by years of missteps in Washington and the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, sharp policy disagreements, and turf battles between American counterterrorism agencies...
 

A Threat Renewed
A Ragtag Insurgency Gains a Qaeda Lifeline

By Michael Moss
New York Times
July 1, 2008

NACIRIA, Algeria — Hiding in the caves and woodlands surrounding this hill-country town, Algerian insurgents were all but washed up a few years ago. Their nationalist battle against the Algerian military was faltering. “We didn’t have enough weapons,” recalled a former militant lieutenant, Mourad Khettab, 34. “The people didn’t want to join. And money, we didn’t have enough money”...