Fri, January 11, 2008 - 2:26 PM

When you watch the news, are you frustrated that progressive viewpoints are often left out?

Have you ever attended a rally or vigil—and been ignored by your local paper?

Have you gone to a beach to push your progressive agenda, only to have sand kicked in your face?

Well, now there's a way to bulk up on your skills at spinning the news, in a Charles Atlas-like offer sent out today by MoveOn.org.

“To win the White House this year, to win 60 seats in the senate, to turn the tide on Iraq—we can only do this if we all work together to combat right-wing spin and get our message out,” explains the group in an e-mail.

So, the group says, “we've organized an exciting event—a national media training for MoveOn members” on Jan. 17.

And who would argue with MoveOn’s expertise in this area?

The attention-getting on-line dynamo has been the liberal movement's unofficial pitbull since the Monica Lewinksy affair; it now claims to have 3.3 million grassroots members nationwide, including 147,080 members in Florida.

Its ability to attract attention to itself is undisputed, most recently with a newspaper ad characterizing the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, as “General Betray Us?"

The thing is, MoveOn is looking for people to host this training in their homes.

“Folks will get together in living rooms around the country for a live, interactive, national training on how to get our message out,” states the e-mail today.

“The training itself is a lot of fun,” insists the e-mail.

“With a video, conference call and live practice session, you and your neighbors will learn how to talk to reporters, pitch a news story, and get local media to attend events,” the groups states. “And because it's a house party, it's a fun, social setting to launch an exciting year for progressive politics.”

You certainly don't have to be an expert to be a host for this training.

“You don't need to ever have talked to a reporter or organized an event. You just need to be interested in learning—and have a space for folks to gather,” states the e-mail.

“We'll send you everything you need, including a training DVD, materials, information for the conference call, and more,” the e-mail promises.

-- Billy House

Elected officials across South Carolina have lined up behind Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards. But Rep. James E. Clyburn, D-S.C., easily the state's most prominent black politician, has stayed out of the endorsement game, choosing to stay neutral in the race.

He hinted today in a story in the New York Times that he might be rethinking that decision, after some comments Hillary Clinton made about Dr. Martin Luther King earlier this week.

Below are the first few paragrahps of the story. Here's the whole thing.

--Sean Mussenden

WASHINGTON — Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the highest-ranking African-American in Congress, said he was rethinking his neutral stance in his state’s presidential primary out of disappointment at comments by Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton that he saw as diminishing the historic role of civil rights activists.

Mr. Clyburn, a veteran of the civil rights movement and a power in state Democratic politics, put himself on the sidelines more than a year ago to help secure an early primary for South Carolina, saying he wanted to encourage all candidates to take part. But he said recent remarks by the Clintons that he saw as distorting civil rights history could change his mind.

“We have to be very, very careful about how we speak about that era in American politics,” said Mr. Clyburn, who was shaped by his searing experiences as a youth in the segregated South and his own activism in those days. “It is one thing to run a campaign and be respectful of everyone’s motives and actions, and it is something else to denigrate those. That bothered me a great deal.”

In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Mrs. Clinton, who was locked in a running exchange with Senator Barack Obama, a rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, over the meaning of the legacies of President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., tried to make a point about presidential leadership.

“Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” Mrs. Clinton said in trying to make the case that her experience should mean more to voters than the uplifting words of Mr. Obama. “It took a president to get it done.”

Thu, January 10, 2008 - 10:16 PM

The moderators said they’d save the hottest issues for last just before the break, and by that they mean immigration.

McCain gets the first crack, saying he would secure the borders first, and that he’s better positioned to understand the issue because he comes from Arizona, a border state. As to illegal immigrants in this country now, anyone who committed a crime must be deported.

Romney’s up next. He points out, rightly, that McCain did not say what he would do with the rest of the people in this country illegally. Romney says they have to go, though he does not say how he’d round up the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants for deportation.

Huckabee and Paul both get questions – political strategy questions, essentially – about the impact the GOP stance on illegal immigrants could have on Hispanic support in the general election. A disappointment, I have to say. Voters here have made clear that they want to hear about this issue, and the specifics of the candidates’ positions.

It’s over. And I’m off to the spin room. Good night, folks.

--Sean Mussenden

Given the events of the last few weeks -- more troops to Afghanistan, upheaval in Pakistan, President Bush in the Middle East -- it's no surprise that this debate has been very foreign policy heavy, but I am surprised that after an hour, we have yet to hear a question about immigration, a key issue for Republican voters in South Carolina.

Any other topics you are surprised have not come up tonight yet?

As expected, the troop “surge” comes up, with a question pegged to John McCain’s editorial in the Wall Street Journal today.

McCain scores a point, I suspect, with military voters here, pointing out that he called for that particular approach before former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld did.

McCain says it’s up to commanders there to decide when troops come home.

Rudy Giuliani jumps in on the surge bandwagon, too. McCain gets “great credit” for supporting the surge, but also points out that he supported the surge when Bush announced it. But not beforehand, McCain says.

Ron Paul pipes up, and says McCain, “thinks we should be there for 100 years if necessary.”

McCain seems to be getting the most time on this topic.

Fred Thompson gets the first big applause line of the night, as he goes after Mike Huckabee hard, accusing him of being a phony conservative.

“He would be a Christian leader, but he would also bring about liberal foreign policy and liberal economic policy,” Thompson says.

“I’m catching flak, I must be over the target. Fred, I appreciate your analysis of my record, but let me give you the facts about my record,” Huckabee responds, and repeats an off-quoted line that as governor of Arkansas, he cut taxes 94 times.

Apparently he's not going down without a fight.

--Sean Mussenden

An interesting response from Mike Huckabee to a question about whether the Republican coalition that came together to elect Ronald Reagan (too many Reagan references to count, sorry. We must be close to 10,000).

He doesn’t exactly answer the question, but he does say that a key component of that coalition was working class people. Over the last few years, he says, “The Reagan coalition has certainly not seen those same working class republicans feeling like they’re doing as well as they could.”

There have been a lot of questions about whether Huckabee can attract other voters beyond the evangelicals that form his base. It’s clear here who he’s trying to attract – people who have fallen on economic hard times. In this respect, he sounds more like John Edwards than the rest of the candidates on the stage. He heads to Michigan tomorrow, where the collapse of the auto industry has put the state in economic dire straits, and I'm sure he's hoping voters there are listening.

--Sean Mussenden

If you're keeping count at home, that's five references to Ronald Reagan. Can we hit 100 before the end of the night? I'll take all guesses in the comments section below.

And the McCain-Romney slugfest starts. Romney turns a question about his record of job growth as governor of Massachusetts – third worst in the nation, moderator Chris Wallace says – to attack McCain for saying that there are jobs that have been lost in Michigan that won’t ever come back.

And yes, if you’re watching at home, this is taking place in Myrtle Beach, S.C., not Detroit, Mich. I’ve heard more references to Michigan than South Carolina so far, which makes sense. The Michigan primary is first up. Clearly, at least two candidates, McCain and Romney are playing to a bigger audience here than just South Carolina.

--Sean Mussenden

The South Carolina GOP Debate is off and running

We’re a few minutes from the debate, and I just finished my list of key things to watch for tonight.

Here’s my take. In the comments section below, let me know what you’re watching for.

How Negative Will It Get? – The next primary up is Michigan’s, and though Mitt Romney is behind right now in South Carolina, he and McCain are fighting a pitched battle in that state. I expect Romney will go hard after McCain on taxes – his opposition to some parts of Bush’s tax cuts – and his less-than-hard line stance on illegal immigration.

The wild card, perhaps, is Huckabee. A win in South Carolina is extremely important to his candidacy, and though polls earlier this week showed him with a strong lead over McCain, a new poll out this morning showed McCain with a slight lead. Huckabee has mostly avoided going strongly negative against his fellow candidates, preferring subtler digs. For example, Huckabee says in one radio ad that voters should think of him as the guy they work with, not the one who laid them off (read: Romney, who made a fortune in private industry). Will he go a bit harder after McCain tonight?

The War – with a large population of veterans and military families in South Carolina, I expect the war in Iraq (and to a lesser degree, Afghanistan) to be a strong debate point tonight. McCain, a decorated war hero, and early proponent of putting more troops into Iraq to temper the violence – the surge – enjoys a great deal of support from this key voting block. He and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., co-wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal today praising the surge, a year after it started.

Other candidates, Mike Huckabee for example, have had a more difficult time convincing voters that they have been consistent supporters of that military strategy in Iraq.

Illegal Immigration – It’s a huge issue here in South Carolina. Of all the candidates, McCain has taken the most lumps for his support of a much less hard-line plan than his fellow Republican candidates. It’s a vulnerability for him here, and other candidates will assuredly attack him on it.

Fred Thompson – The former Tennessee senator has said he’s “making a stand” in South Carolina, and the conventional wisdom has it as a last stand unless he has a strong showing on primary day.

He left New Hampshire early to campaign in South Carolina, but his message here has been drowned out by John McCain and Mike Huckabee. This week, you were probably more likely to catch Fred Thompson on “Law & Order” reruns than on local TV news in South Carolina.

He’s running way behind in the polls here, so a strong showing tonight is a must.

--Sean Mussenden

While many prominent South Carolina politicians have endorsed presidential candidates, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, a Republican, is perhaps the most prominent one who still remains on the sidelines. I caught up with him outside the debate hall, and asked him why, and his expectations for tonight's debate.

In a nutshell: he's too busy with his kids and being governor to endorse and campaign for anyone, and he expects more focus on the economy tonight than in past, foreign-policy heavy debates, and a lot more talk about immigration, which is a hot-button issue in this state.

Here's a link to a video of my interview with Sanford (Video player on the right side of the screen).

We're getting close. More soon.

--Sean Mussenden

Rudy Giuliani is giving some new attention to a top priority of Florida political leaders, as that state's Feb. 29 presidential primary draws nears.
But in announcing today that he’s formed his own “catastrophe advisory committee” to look into creation of a national catastrophe fund , the former New York City mayor said he’s picked Joe Allbaugh to be the national chairman of that panel.
Joe Allbaugh?
That’s right. The same Joe Allbaugh who as the Federal Emergency Management Director in 2001 suggested the Bush Administration might favor a limit on emergency aide to people and communities that rely too heavily on federal generosity to protect them against recurring floods and other natural disasters.
“The question is how many times the American taxpayer has to step in and take care of this flooding, which could be easily prevented by building levees and dikes,” Allbaugh was quoted in an April 25, 2001 story in The Washington Post.
Joe Allbaugh?
That’s right. The same Joe Allbaugh from Oklahoma and long-time Bush advisor/friend who recruited his own college friend, Mike “Brownie” Brown, to FEMA, according to Brown’s testimony to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. It was when Allbaugh left as FEMA director to enter a consulting business that Brown succeeded him as the agency’s director.
Joe Allbaugh?
That’s right. The same Joe Allbaugh who, shortly after Hurricane Katrina, arrived in the Gulf Coast to as a private citizen to generate business for corporate clients of The Allbaugh Company, LLC. In a Sept. 1, 2005 article titled "Joe Allbaugh, Disaster Pimp," Slate's Timothy Noah raised questions about Allbaugh’s efforts to get his clients lucrative disaster-relief projects.
None of this was mentioned in Giuliani’s press release today.
What the mayor’s press release did say was that, “Right now, many people in states like Florida, California and Louisiana find it difficult to purchase insurance for catastrophic natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina. It’s right for the government to play a role in seeing that fair, equitable and affordable private insurance markets are open for all our citizens.”
Then there’s also a quote from Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, Giuliani’s Florida Campaign Chairman. He says this Allbaugh-led committee “will provide valuable insight as the Mayor develops the policies he will implement as the next President of the United States.”

-- Billy House

We're less than five hours from the start of tonight's Republican debate in Myrtle Beach. A lot is at stake here, a crucial chance for Mitt Romney, John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Fred Thompson, Ron Paul, and Rudy Giuliani to appeal to voters on a national stage before the Michigan and South Carolina primaries next week.

I'm coming to you LIVE from the debate site, a heavily guarded convention center blocks from the beach. We'll be here all night, providing live updates, analysis, video -- and the view from the spin room
after it ends. The debate is scheduled for 9 p.m. It's on Fox News Channel. So if you're watching it live, throw a laptop on your lap and stick with us.

Questions, comments? Leave them below, and I'll do my best to answer them.

I'm headed outside to check out the crowd, and see if any candidates are working the crowd lines. More soon, including some key things to watch for tonight.

--Sean Mussenden

Bill Richardson is out, and aide says the New Mexico governor has “no plans to offer an endorsement.”
The resume candidate, international diplomat, and western governor announced the end of his presidential bid from the rotunda of his adopted home-state’s capitol building this afternoon, two days after finishing a distant fourth-place with five-percent of the vote in the New Hampshire Democratic primary.
The New Mexico Governor, whose last and only electoral loss came in a 1980 congressional bid, will turn his attention back to more local affairs. The New Mexico State Legislature convenes January 15.
But the Richardson rumor mill will continue in national political circles. As the only Hispanic candidate in the 2008 race, and a former Secretary of Energy and U.N. Ambassador, the question is what Richardson will do now. His term as governor expires in 2011 and state law precludes from seeking a third 4-year term.
Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., a long-time Richardson ally, shared the stage with Richardson today in Santa Fe, adding to this sub-plot: Udall is running for the vacant U.S. senate seat that could have been an easy fall-back campaign for Richardson once his loss on the presidential side appeared imminent.
When Udall announced his Senate bid, his stepdaughter was running Richardson’s field operations. Conventional wisdom would say if Richardson wanted to keep a potential Senate bid open this cycle, Udall would not have entered that race.
Anybody looking for a V.P. or Secretary of State? Richardson will enjoy that speculation now through 2009.
--Neil H. Simon