Wed, February 04, 2009 - 1:40 PM

Want to watch a Republican governor explain why he supports President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan?

Listen to Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s interview MSNBC’s Chris Matthews Tuesday about his support of the bill, which passed last week in the House and is currently under consideration in the U.S. Senate here.

Citing the death last year of her husband, Harvey Waite, U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite today announced that she has again joined in the introduction of a bill that would creates a Pancreatic Cancer Initiative.

Brown-Waite of Brooksville is the lead Republican co-sponsor of the measure, H.R. 75, which was introduced by Democratic Rep. Anna Eshoo of California.

“Sadly I learned first hand last year the horrible facts about pancreatic cancer,” said Brown-Waite, in a statement.

“When my husband Harvey was first diagnosed at stage four, it was already too late. While he fought the good fight, it became clear to me that much more needs to be done in terms of early detection, treatment and in the search for a cure,” she said.

Under the bill, also called the Pancreatic Cancer Research and Education Act, a National Pancreatic Cancer Initiative would be established to provide a greater focus on the disease and give the National Cancer Institute the necessary tools to discover ways to diagnose and treat pancreatic cancer in its early stages.

-- Billy House, Media General News Service

Tue, February 03, 2009 - 2:13 PM

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist today joined 18 fellow governors, Republican and Democratic, in sending a letter to President Barack Obama signaling support for the stimulus bill, which passed last week in the U.S. House and is currently under consideration in the U.S. Senate.

Along with Crist, Republicans Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, James Douglas of Vermont, Jodi Rell of Connecticut were among the 18 governors who signed the letter.

"We are writing to express our support for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which passed last week in the House and is under consideration currently in the Senate," the letter states.

The letter adds: "As stewards of the economies of our respective states and regions, we urge the Congress to reach prompt resolution of all outstanding differences and you to sign the bill when it reaches your desk."

"We support the objectives of ARRA and welcome the partnership it offers us as governors," said Crist.

Florida’s Republican senator, Mel Martinez, has just issued a statement applauding Tom Daschle’s decision to withdraw his name from consideration to be the next Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Daschle removed his name as a nominee, as he became faced with problems over back taxes and potential conflicts of interest.

“I commend Sen. Daschle for his decision to withdraw his name from consideration to be Health and Human Services Secretary,” said Martinez.

“We need leaders who inspire trust and confidence in government,” he said.

-- Billy House, Media General News Service

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., raised concerns Monday night with the $885 billion economic stimulus now being debated in the Senate.

The bill would give Virginia close to $4 billion, according to the Senate Appropriations Committee. Of that amount $1.6 billion would be dedicated to stabilizing the state budget.

Warner said he wanted to see the stimulus bill focus more on job creation and sought assurances the spending was short term.

“I want to make sure states get some assistance, but I also think that states should use their rainy day funds,” Warner said during an interview for the Bloomberg TV show “Money and Politics.” He said federal aid to the states should be directly tied to states “making some hard choices.”

Warner, who made his fortune as a co-founder of telecommunications giant Nextel, sounded wary of continued government investment to patch up the ailing economy.

“The economy will recover but we don’t want to be stuck with a lot of long term out-year commitments that we might not be able to afford in terms of the deficit,” Warner said. A prolonged government intervention in the private sector could “cause havoc” on the credit markets, he said.

Virginia’s freshman senator still encouraged swift action on the stimulus, particularly on road and bridge spending. Virginia stands to receive $918 million for transit, highway and water projects under the current package, according to Senate Appropriations Committee staff.

“If we delay and debate and go on and back and forth,” Warner said, “we could end up missing the whole construction season in many of the Northern states because the money would not get out on road projects to actually be put to use this summer.”

--Neil H. Simon

Mon, February 02, 2009 - 12:22 PM

Looking for a way to get over that post-Super Bowl high?

Well, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has the cure. He offered a sobering assessment this morning at a breakfast hosted for journalists by the Christian Science Monitor.

Our economic system is going off a cliff and government is not helping, he said. He even worked in a Super Bowl analogy. Click below to listen.




Gingrich focused his comments on economic pains, the need for American government to work more efficiently and how the U.S. can compete in the global market. He also spoke about revamping the country’s education system and the need to devote more funding to science programs.

His comments, of course, nicely dovetailed with the work of his Atlanta-based non-partisan organization, American Solutions for Winning the Future.

Government, he said, ought to focus on what’s working in the private sector and not focus on fixing what’s wrong. He used examples in the health care industry and financial sectors to illustrate his point,

“The Congress ought to immerse itself in skilled talent,” he said, and not bail out those who failed.

Politics were not ignored either.. As for the Republicans’ future hopes, Gingrich said new Republican National Committee head Michael Steele has to pull together the next generation of Republican leaders, such as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

One of those leaders may be Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Click below to listen to his comments about Palin, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and others.




Gingrich also predicted that America may be on the edge of a progressive movement to rid the country of corrupt politicians.

-- Amy Dominello

NBC aired more of Today Show host Matt Lauer's interview with President Barack Obama today. The president sat down with Lauer Sunday night before the Super Bowl for a brief talk that aired live before taping a longer interview.

In the portions aired this morning, the President warned that the economic recovery would be a slow process and that things will get worse before they get better.

"And there's no silver bullets to this," Obama said. "The fact of the matter is, is that we are suffering from a massive hangover from a binge of risk taking."

Topics covered during the interview ranged from closing the Guantanamo Bay prison to reviewing FDA operations in light of the peanut butter salmonella contamination. The president noted that was a health crisis that hit close to home, since his daughter Sasha eats peanut butter for lunch "probably three times a week."

You can read a transcript of the interview aired today here, or watch the video below.



- Mark Young

Sat, January 31, 2009 - 7:23 PM

Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina and Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida are among 10 Democrats set to spend Super Bowl Sunday at the home of Vice President Joe Biden.

The White House released Saturday evening the names of the all-Democrat contingent, who, with their families, are to be at the Naval Obvservatory tomorrow.

Als on the list are: House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland, Reps. Robert Brady of Pennsylvania and John Larson of Connecticut, and Sens. Tom Carper of Delaware, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, John Kerry of Massachusetts, and Charles Schumer of New York.

--Neil H. Simon

Thu, January 29, 2009 - 3:22 PM

Two senators are urging their parties’ leadership to include guarantees that jobs created by the economic stimulus bill go to Americans.

Sens. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, and Ben Nelson, D-Nebraska, have written a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, arguing that the use of E-Verify, the government’s citizenship verification program, be mandatory for businesses benefiting from the stimulus package. The program is currently voluntary.

The full text of the letter is below:

The economic stimulus package is needed, in part, to spur the economic growth necessary to help create new jobs in America. With this in mind, we write to urge you to include provisions in the legislation that will help ensure that jobs created by the stimulus are for hardworking Americans.

Recently, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the unemployment rate for December was 7.2 percent. That figure, the highest in 16 years, translates into roughly 11.1 million American workers without jobs. In this time of increased unemployment, our focus should be on creating jobs that will be filled by American citizens.

An important step toward guaranteeing that new and existing jobs are for U.S. citizens is to require businesses benefiting from the stimulus package to use the E-Verify program. Currently, E-Verify is a voluntary program that allows for the quick comparison of an employee’s personal information with over 444 million records in the SSA database and more than 60 million records in the DHS immigration database. Such an analysis is a useful and efficient tool to determine lawful citizenship. We are encouraged by the fact that close to 2,000 new businesses register to use the E-Verify system each week. And, with the implementation of Executive Order 12989 on January 15, 2009, all federal contractors and subcontractors are required to use the E-Verify system.

The stimulus package is intended to help ease the pain of the current recession and restore growth to our economy. If passed, it will be paid for by the American taxpayers and we believe that Congress should do all it can to ensure that American taxpayers are the intended beneficiaries of its efforts.

Although studies indicate that the illegal population in our country is decreasing, between 12 and 20 million illegal immigrants likely remain in the United States today. It is critical that the stimulus legislation include provisions to require the use of E-Verify when hiring workers to fill jobs created by the proposal. The inclusion of such a provision will be a key factor as we evaluate the merits of the stimulus package and gauge our support.

-- Amy Dominello

Despite leading his party to completely oppose President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan in the House, Republican Whip Eric Cantor said Wednesday’s party-line vote should not mark the end of bipartisanship and accused the White House and its allies of “making political threats.”

Cantor, R-7th, said House Republicans are committed to working with Obama, but he called on the president to disavow plans by a group of liberal organizations, who intend to run TV ads to encourage moderate Republican support for the stimulus in the Senate.

The ads, slated to run in Alaska, Iowa, Maine, and New Hampshire, urge viewers to call their senators and ask them to support the stimulus plan.

“Let us be clear: attack ads will not create jobs or help struggling families but will only serve to undermine our nation's desire for bipartisanship,” Cantor said in a statement.

Cantor’s press release also included several excerpts from Politico stories that quoted unnamed White House sources saying the vote on the stimulus bill would be used against opposing Republicans in upcoming elections.

--Neil H. Simon

During a somewhat rambling appeal for acquittal, Gov. Rod Blagojevich included an anecdote about his first meeting with Virginia's Sen. John Warner.

The Illinois governor made his first appearance in his impeachment trial before the Illinois Senate, which may vote later today as to whether the embattled governor will get to keep his job. Blagojevich was indicted last month for allegedly attempting to sell President Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat.

Blagojevich recalled how, while serving in the House of Representatives before he was elected governor, he was awed to serve on a conference committee with people like Sens. Ted Kennedy, John Glenn and John McCain.

"And John Warner," Blagojevich said, "who, incidentally, had once been married to Elizabeth Taylor. That's all I could think about when I saw him in that room."

Warner, apparently, was not equally awed by Blagojevich.

"And then he asked me for a cup of coffee because he thought I was a staffer," Blagojevich said. "And I didn't tell him I was a Congressman. Instead I went and asked him, 'How do you take it?' And he said, 'Black.' And I went and got him the coffee. I saw him the following week, and he asked me for another cup of coffee. He obviously forgot I was a Congressman."

-- Mark Young

Rep. Eric I. Cantor, R-Va., proved to be an effective whip for the House GOP Wednesday keeping the party fully united in opposition to the $819 billion stimulus bill that passed the House.

At a news conference today, Speaker Nancy Pelosi listed all the ways House Democrats and President Barack Obama reached out to Republicans, including committee involvement, private presidential meetings and amendments to the bill.

“Republicans in the country support this,” Pelosi said. “The tactics of Republicans in Washington is another story.”

“They probably voted their conscience,” she said.

For more on how Cantor kept the GOP united see here.

--Neil H. Simon

Wed, January 28, 2009 - 3:38 PM

WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd of Monticello has decided against running for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Mel Martinez.

In a statement released this afternoon, Democrat Boyd said it is his “intent to continue serving the people of North Florida and run for re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010.”

The announcement comes one day after state Sen. Dan Gelber of Miami said he is in the race for the Democratic nomination for the seat, and more than a week after U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek of Miami said he’d also seek the nomination.

But Boyd said he is a “unique position” with 12 years of experience in the House “to build on past legislative accomplishments, and I will have an even stronger voice in policy decisions that will affect our economy and fiscal outlook.”

“At home, I will continue to work hard to support North Florida's military bases, the rural and coastal communities, and our colleges and universities,” he said. “The U.S. House of Representatives will allow me to address the serious challenges we face and make positive changes for the benefit of the people of North Florida.”

Boyd’s decision not to run came on the same day that state Attorney General Bill McCollum, a Republican, also announced that he does not intend to run for Martinez’s Senate seat, but instead seek re-election to his current post.

Billy House, Media General News Service.

Florida’s junior senator, Republican Mel Martinez, called on his Senate colleagues today to reinstate a policy that prohibits U.S. tax dollars from going to international organizations responsible for performing and promoting abortions.

During the debate on reauthorizing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), Martinez offered an amendment to reinstate the policy. The amendment was defeated by a vote of 37 to 60.

“The core of this argument is whether U.S. taxpayers ought to be forced to fund efforts abroad that utilize abortion as a means of family planning,” said Martinez. “If we want to continue fostering a culture of life, where every life is considered sacred, every child is celebrated, and life at all stages is given the dignity it deserves, then we will reinstate this policy.”

The Mexico City Policy was first implemented in 1984 under President Ronald Reagan. President Obama rescinded the policy Friday.

-- Billy House, Media General News Service

Florida’s senior senator, Democrat Bill Nelson, won’t be in Tampa to attend Sunday’s Super Bowl.

Instead, he’ll be watching the game in DC at the house of an old Senate colleague—Vice President Joe Biden.

Biden extended the invitation to Nelson Tuesday as the vice president was at the U.S. Capitol for the swearing-in of New York’s new senator, Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand.

No word yet on who else was invited to the vice president’s residence at the Naval Observatory, or who is buying the beer and Buffalo wings.

Nelson has been told that dress is to be casual, call time 6 p.m.