Zazi Case Vindicates Traditional Methods Before Najibullah Zazi is finally dispatched to a secure cellblock for good, it is important to remember how the taxi-driver-turned-terrorist was brought to justice—and why the critics who jeered his civilian prosecution were dead wrong. By Joe Conason
Before Najibullah Zazi is finally dispatched to a secure cellblock for good, it is important to remember how the taxi-driver-turned-terrorist was brought to justice—and why the critics who jeered his civilian prosecution were dead wrong.
Maryland Recognizes Gay Marriages From Out-Of-State Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler (D) said Wednesday that effective immediately, and until challenged in court, the state recognizes same-sex marriages performed elsewhere and…
On the night before the bipartisan health care summit, Bill O’Reilly hosted Fox News contributors Karl Rove, Dick Morris, and Doug Schoen, all of whom repeated various falsehoods about health care reform.
Rove distorts CBO report to claim “everybody’s health care premiums are going to be higher than they would be otherwise”
From the February 24 edition of Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor:
ROVE: There is a trillion dollars worth of additional money being spent over the next 10 years. It’s got to come from somebody, and it’s not just tanning salons. Remember, it’s going to come from everybody who has an insurance policy because the Congressional Budget Office says everybody’s health care premiums are going to be higher than they would be otherwise.
Premiums impact largely limited to nongroup market — about 17 percent of the market in 2016. In a November 30, 2009, summary of Obama’s health care proposal:
The President’s Proposal changes the effective date of the Senate policy from 2013 to 2018 to provide additional transition time for high-cost plans to become more efficient. It also raises the amount of premiums that are exempt from the assessment from $8,500 for singles to $10,200 and from $23,000 for families to $27,500 and indexes these amounts for subsequent years at general inflation plus 1 percent. To the degree that health costs rise unexpectedly quickly between now and 2018, the initial threshold would be adjusted upwards automatically. To ensure that the tax affects firms equitably, the President’s Proposal reforms it by including an adjustment for firms whose health costs are higher due to the age or gender of their workers, and by no longer counting dental and vision benefits as potentially taxable benefits.
A proposed compromise between the House and Senate bills would have exempted high-cost union health care plans from the excise tax until 2018, reportedly to give union members more time to renegotiate their contracts, while nonunion high-cost health care plans would have been subject to the excise tax starting in 2013.
O’Reilly and Schoen falsely suggest that GOP ideas like interstate competition “aren’t in the bill”
From the February 24 edition of The O’Reilly Factor:
O’REILLY: He may just try to show the country that the Democrats — that the Republicans are intractable because we do expect Republicans to go up there and say, look, unless you put in tort reform, unless you put in interstate competition of insurance companies — two stalwarts. And I — maybe — you’re a Democrat, maybe you could explain to me why those things aren’t in the bill, Mr. Schoen, because they seem to be common sense to me. They’re not in the bill. The Republicans have been hammering that for the last eight months, and the president basically just says, I’m not going to do it.
SCHOEN: Bill, I’ve been writing that the Democrats should include tort reform — malpractice reform — and interstate purchase of insurance, so I’m one Democrat –
O’REILLY: But why don’t they do it, then? If you’re a Democrat, I’m an independent, and all the Republicans want it, OK, why doesn’t President Obama say, “OK, I’ll give you both of those things”? Why not?
Obama: “[W]hen you say I ought to be willing to accept Republican ideas on health care, let’s be clear: I have.” During Obama’s question-and-answer period of his House GOP retreat visit on Section 3403 of the Senate health care bill, “Independent Medicare Advisory Board”:
(ii) The proposal shall not include any recommendation to ration health care, raise revenues or Medicare beneficiary premiums under section 1818, 1818A, or 1839, increase Medicare beneficiary cost sharing (including deductibles, coinsurance, and copayments), or otherwise restrict benefits or modify eligibility criteria.
CBO: Advisory Board provision “would place a number of limitations on the actions available to the board, including a prohibition against modifying eligibility or benefits.” In its December 19, 2009, analysis of the Senate bill incorporating the manager’s amendment, CBO noted that “[a]fter 2019, however, the threshold for Medicare spending growth that would trigger recommendations for spending reductions would be higher — specifically, the rate of increase in gross domestic product (GDP) per capita plus 1 percentage point.”
ACORN: We’re Still Around … But Maybe Not For Long ACORN is pushing back against reports that it’s on the verge of collapse as a national organization, in the wake of last year’s hidden camera scandal. But it’s not making any long-term predictions about its future.
The Tattlesnake – CPAC Proof GOP is Still Doomed Edition CPAC’s Corporate Mythmakers and True Believers Headed for a Hard Fall “Con artists have a word for the inability of their victims to accept that they’ve been scammed. They call it the ‘True Believer Syndrome.’” – Matt Taibbi, “Wall Street’s Bailout Hustle,” Rolling Stone, Feb. 21, 2010. You know you’re in trouble when your keynote speaker is Glenn […]
Grayson, who made his fortune by suing military contractors and later lambasted them as a lawmaker, was evacuated from Niger by personnel working for Xe Services.
Try again! The trade press reports that the President is trying again to pass an energy bill with a long term price on carbon emissions. Good! Its critical to realize how easy this transition from carbon to clean can really be. With…
Obama Now Owns a Deficit Commission – and Senator Simpson. On Thursday President Obama signed an executive order creating a?National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. This deficit commission is based on an idea promoted by two Senators, Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.),? which would have required the…
GIVING CHUTZPAH NEW MEANING OK, so now I have read it all…the Jewish settlers in the West Bank are complaining about the new Palestinian city of Rawabi that has been conceived of for Palestinian families and young professionals just outside of Ramallah because they…
Confused By ?Nuclear Option? Spin, Right-Wingers Claim Obama And Biden Called Reconciliation A ?Power Grab? In 2005, frustrated by Democratic opposition to some of President Bush’s far right judicial nominees, Senate Republicans threatened to change the rules of the Senate in mid-session to prohibit Democrats from using the filibuster to block votes on judicial nominees. Then-Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) dubbed the maneuver the “nuclear option” because it would be so […]
In 2005, frustrated by Democratic opposition to some of President Bush’s far right judicial nominees, Senate Republicans threatened to change the rules of the Senate in mid-session to prohibit Democrats from using the filibuster to block votes on judicial nominees. Then-Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) dubbed the maneuver the “nuclear option” because it would be so divisive.
For months now, conservatives have been trying to similarly label the budget reconciliation process, which has been used 22 times between 1980 and 2008, the “nuclear option.” With Democrats warming to the idea of using reconciliation to complete passage of health care reform, the conservative Naked Emperor News posted a compilation video to Breitbart.tv today of Democrats — including President Obama and Vice President Biden — denouncing the 2005 GOP plan to rewrite the Senate rules as a “naked power grab.” The video was titled “Obama & Dems in ‘05: 51 Vote ‘Nuclear Option’ Is ‘Arrogant’ Power Grab Against the Founders’ Intent.” Watch it:
As Media Matters notes, the video has now been promoted by right-wing luminaries such as Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Ed Morrissey, Matt Drudge, Fox Nation as proof of hypocrisy if Democrats use reconciliation for health care reform. Human Events even claimed that the Democrats were calling reconciliation “unconstitutional“:
The Obama White House has recently announced that they will go forward with a reconciliation process — sometimes called the “nuclear option” — to try and pass their government run healthcare plan in the Senate. This process circumvents a Republican filibuster and only requires a simple majority vote of 51 rather than 60.
What did top Democrats think of this process previously? See below…
Despite the fact that the Democrats weren’t talking about the reconciliation process, Congressional Republicans are falsely claiming on Twitter that they were. For instance, Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH) links to the Human Events article and claims Obama and Biden “opposed reconciliation” in 2005:
As Media Matters’ Ben Dimiero notes, “The Democrats in the video are railing against the ‘nuclear option’ as defined by Lott, not the new definition conservatives have decided to bestow upon the phrase.” Additionally, as NPR reported today, the use of reconciliation to change health care would be in line with historical norms. “In fact, the way in which virtually all of health reform, with very, very limited exceptions, has happened over the past 30 years has been the reconciliation process,” Sarah Rosenbaum of the Department of Health Policy at George Washington University told NPR’s Julie Rovner.
The Gang That Can’t Think Straight: 6 GOP Senators Vote For Jobs Bill After Joining Filibuster Two Days Earlier his morning, the Senate passed a $15 billion jobs bill that includes four provisions: a payroll tax break for hiring unemployed workers, an extension of highway construction funding, Build America bonds to help states fund infrastructure projects, and an extension of tax breaks for equipment purchase. The final vote for passage was 70-28, with 13 […]
Sens. Thad Cochran (R-MS) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
This morning, the Senate passed a $15 billion jobs bill that includes four provisions: a payroll tax break for hiring unemployed workers, an extension of highway construction funding, Build America bonds to help states fund infrastructure projects, and an extension of tax breaks for equipment purchase. The final vote for passage was 70-28, with 13 Republicans joining all but one Democrat.
Today’s vote only occurred because, on Monday night, 5 Republicans joined the same group of Democrats in order to invoke cloture and overcome a filibuster by a 62-30 vote. Below are the Republicans who either voted against or did not vote at all on the cloture motion, but flipped and voted for the bill today:
NAY TO YEA
ABSENT TO YEA
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC)
Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK)
Sen. George LeMieux (R-FL)
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS)
In addition to this flip-flop, all the above senators except Inhofe voted to sustain a Republican objection on a point of order before proceeding to the final vote. Plus, the Wonk Room noted two days ago that both Inhofe and Hatch were planning to vote against cloture despite the fact that the bill included provisions which they had previously supported. Inhofe followed through with his nay vote on cloture, while Hatch skipped the vote entirely, but both came around to support the bill today.
After the vote, Alexander said that he voted for the final bill “because it is modest.” “There are plenty of opportunities for bipartisan cooperation,” he said, which of course begs the question regarding why he couldn’t engage in bipartisan cooperation just two days ago if he supported the bill.
The bill now moves to the House of Representatives, which last year passed a far more ambitious $154 billion jobs creation package. Earlier today, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) predicted that the House will pass the Senate bill as is.
Former vice president Cheney released from hospital after fifth heart attack Richard B. Cheney’s fifth heart attack may add to the lore surrounding the seemingly indomitable former vice president. But his ability to survive repeated coronaries is more a testament to modern medicine’s advances in detecting and treating the leading killer than any supernatural powers.
How Dems Can Survive the Flood Martin Frost, The Hill     As Democratic House Members in swing districts get ready for tough campaigns this fall, let me offer the following advice based on my own experience in 1994.    As we all know, 1994 was the year that Democrats lost control of the House for the first time in 40 years. Republicans picked up a net of 54 seats including defeating a number of Democratic incumbents and taking open seats previously held by Democrats. It was the 100 year flood.    Democrats are now faced with the prospect of a second 100 year flood in 2010 though it is far from certain that Republicans can…
Dealing With the Democrats President Obama’s health care fight is not with the Republicans, but members of his own party, especially those in the House. By Ruth Marcus
President Obama’s health care fight is not with the Republicans, but members of his own party, especially those in the House.
Something Rotten in Denmark Edition Here’s why you should never e-mail your professor after showing up an hour late, give cameras to chimps or put a grouchy Dane in charge of your country’s tourism pitch. On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies. The links below open in a new window. Newer ones are on top. The New Rules of War The visionary who first saw the age of “netwar” coming warns that the U.S. military is getting it wrong all over again. Here’s his plan to make conflict cheaper, smaller, and smarter. The Democratic Party’s deceitful game They are willing to bravely support any progressive bill as long as there’s no chance it can pass. Denmark’s new tourism campaign: Avatar: The Prequel As he looks forward to the upcoming Oscars, Michael Klare has a suggestion for James Cameron about what planet (and whose resources) that film director should next turn his new 3-D techniques on. A History Lesson for Obama: Eisenhower and Israel 1956 With President Obama’s Middle East peace plans so completely—and humiliatingly—shipwrecked on the rocks of Israeli intransigence, it’s time for him to consider a new approach, at least if he’s serious about his announced objectives. … Text of Ugandan “kill the gays” bill: Jazz age passport photos Passport photos gleaned from passport applications files of writers actors, poets, artists, photographers, etc. The quality is pretty gritty, but I find them interesting, not the least because they are glimpses of these people without their artistic personas showing. Just another traveller submitting to the demands of the state. DIFFERENT WAYS OF UNDERSTANDING THE CONSTITUTION One must always avoid the temptation to view the Constitution as consisting solely of what has gained the attention of the judiciary. … Movie made by chimps shown on TV The world’s first film shot entirely by chimpanzees is to be broadcast by the BBC as part of a natural history documentary. Why is the White House already wavering on Obama’s commitment to repeal DADT this year? [W]e learned from Kerry Eleveld’s question to Robert Gibbs today that the White House would not commit to repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell this year. … NYU Business School Professor Has Mastered The Art Of Email Flaming A student at NYU’s Stern School of Business sent a complaint email to a hard-headed professor about his class’s lateness policy. The professor emailed back, eviscerated the student David Mamet-style, and now it’s gone viral. Welcome to internet immorality. The B-School Glass Ceiling Female professors at business schools tend to remain in the mid-faculty ranks after earning tenure, while their male counterparts are more likely to continue onward to full professor, according to a new study.
Here’s why you should never e-mail your professor after showing up an hour late, give cameras to chimps or put a grouchy Dane in charge of your country’s tourism pitch.
On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.
The links below open in a new window. Newer ones are on top.
The New Rules of War The visionary who first saw the age of “netwar” coming warns that the U.S. military is getting it wrong all over again. Here’s his plan to make conflict cheaper, smaller, and smarter.
Avatar: The Prequel As he looks forward to the upcoming Oscars, Michael Klare has a suggestion for James Cameron about what planet (and whose resources) that film director should next turn his new 3-D techniques on.
A History Lesson for Obama: Eisenhower and Israel 1956 With President Obama’s Middle East peace plans so completely—and humiliatingly—shipwrecked on the rocks of Israeli intransigence, it’s time for him to consider a new approach, at least if he’s serious about his announced objectives. …
Text of Ugandan “kill the gays” bill:
Jazz age passport photos Passport photos gleaned from passport applications files of writers actors, poets, artists, photographers, etc. The quality is pretty gritty, but I find them interesting, not the least because they are glimpses of these people without their artistic personas showing. Just another traveller submitting to the demands of the state.
Movie made by chimps shown on TV The world’s first film shot entirely by chimpanzees is to be broadcast by the BBC as part of a natural history documentary.
NYU Business School Professor Has Mastered The Art Of Email Flaming A student at NYU’s Stern School of Business sent a complaint email to a hard-headed professor about his class’s lateness policy. The professor emailed back, eviscerated the student David Mamet-style, and now it’s gone viral. Welcome to internet immorality.
The B-School Glass Ceiling Female professors at business schools tend to remain in the mid-faculty ranks after earning tenure, while their male counterparts are more likely to continue onward to full professor, according to a new study.
A February 22 CNS News article, to which the Drudge Report linked, claimed that “Obama’s ‘new’ health care plan would use tax dollars to pay for abortions,” falsely suggesting that President Obama’s plan, which adopts the Senate bill’s abortion language, exceeded the Hyde Amendment, which forbids the use of federal funds for abortions except in cases of life endangerment, rape, or incest.
President Barack Obama unveiled his plan for health care reform on whitehouse.gov on Monday, but pro-life legislators and advocates said the “new” proposal mostly mirrors the Senate bill and, in particular, would allow for tax dollars to be used to fund health plans that cover abortion.
[…]
Johnson said Obama’s bill will not include the same prohibitions set forth in the Stupak amendment — named after Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) — which was part of the health care legislation passed earlier by the House of Representatives. Instead, Obama’s bill allows federal funds to subsidize abortions through the structuring of programs and insurance plans.
“If all of the President’s changes were made, the resulting legislation would allow direct federal funding of abortion-on-demand through community health centers, would institute federal subsidies for private health plans that cover abortion-on-demand, including some federally administered plans, and would authorize federal mandates that would require even non-subsidized private plans to cover elective abortion,” Douglas said.
FACT: Senate bill prohibits health insurers from using federal subsidies “for the purposes of paying for” abortion services restricted by Hyde
The Senate health care reform bill as passed states that if a “qualified health plan” offered under the health insurance exchange provides coverage of abortion services for which public funding is banned, “the issuer of the plan shall not use any amount attributable” to the subsidies created under the bill “for purposes of paying for such services.” From Section 1303(b)(2)A):
”(2) PROHIBITION ON THE USE OF FEDERAL FUNDS.-
”(A) IN GENERAL.-If a qualified health plan provides coverage of services described in paragraph (1)(B)(i), the issuer of the plan shall not use any amount attributable to any of the following for purposes of paying for such services:
”(i) The credit under section 36B of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (and the amount (if any) of the advance payment of the credit under section 1412 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act).
”(ii) Any cost-sharing reduction under section 1402 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (and the amount (if any) of the advance payment of the reduction under section 1412 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act).
FACT: Senate bill establishes a separate premium to segregate funds used to pay for abortions from federal funds
The Senate bill as passed further requires issuers to “collect from each enrollee” in plans that cover abortions “separate payment” for “an amount equal to the actuarial value of the coverage of” abortion services. This value must be at least $1 per enrollee, per month. All such funds are deposited into a separate account used by the issuer to pay for abortion services; federal funds and the remaining premium payments are used to pay for all other services.
FACT: Current law allows coverage for abortions restricted by Hyde under Medicaid through similar fund segregation
Seventeen states use state funds to cover abortions for Medicaid recipients in circumstances beyond Hyde. According to a November 1, 2009, study by the Guttmacher Institute, 17 states provide coverage under Medicaid for “all or most medically necessary abortions,” not just abortions in cases of life endangerment, rape, and incest. Those states “us[e] their own funds” — not federal funds — “to pay” for the procedures. Therefore, in 17 states, Medicaid, a federally subsidized health care program, covers abortions in circumstances in which federal money is prohibited from being spent on abortion.
ACORN: We’re Still Around … But Maybe Not For Long ACORN is pushing back against reports that it’s on the verge of collapse as a national organization, in the wake of last year’s hidden camera scandal. But it’s not making any long-term predictions about its future.
Obama Aides Already Planning Re-Election Campaign President Obama’s top advisers are “quietly laying the groundwork for the 2012 reelection campaign,” Politico reports, “which is likely to be run out of Chicago and managed by White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina.”
“The planning for now consists entirely of private conversations, with Obama aides at all levels indulging occasionally in closed-door 2012 discussions while focusing ferociously on the midterm elections and health-care reform… But the sources said Obama has given every sign of planning to run again, and wants the next campaign to resemble the highly successful 2008 effort.”
It's been only a month that a union for the unemployed has come into existence through an ingenious grass-roots organizing campaign, but its numbers are growining quickly.
Proponents claim probiotics can prevent asthma and cure irritable bowel syndrome, colic, yeast infections, acne — even autism. Have the claims of benefit gone too far?
Join AlterNet's collective investigative project into the bubble barons who got obscenely rich as they destroyed our economy. Help hold them accountable with Citizen Journalism.
Progressive Change's Adam Green accuses the White House of having a 'loser mentality' on the public option despite public support, and MoveOn unleashes Heather Graham.
It is tragic that we, as a nation are reduced to holding our leaders to sexual standards while giving up on holding them to their promises for social justice.
Israel’s Democratic Party: A Thought Experiment For a great many Israelis, particularly young Israelis, there is an depressing vacuum at the center of Israeli politics; and the most galling thing about it, as my friend Carlo Strenger suggests in his Haaretz column this past week, is…
Weekly Roundup: What We Missed At the risk of revealing too much behind the TPM curtain — we watch quite a bit of cable news. And this week one particular Senator, who has had a relatively low profile in that past, was all over the…
Hit the reset on clean teach No one is giving up yet on passing energy/environmental legislation this year, but there’s little doubt that the international agenda for deploying clean tech and avoiding climate catastrophe needs to be reshaped….
Fox News Televangelist Hume: Tiger Would Be ‘Farther Down The Road’ To ‘Forgiveness’ With Christianity Soon after reports emerged that golfer Tiger Woods had engaged in extramarital affairs, Fox News’ Brit Hume declared that the only way for Woods — a Buddhist — to achieve “forgiveness and redemption” would be to convert to Christianity. “Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a […]
Soon after reports emerged that golfer Tiger Woods had engaged in extramarital affairs, Fox News’ Brit Hume declared that the only way for Woods — a Buddhist — to achieve “forgiveness and redemption” would be to convert to Christianity. “Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world,” he said.
After he received considerable criticism for the insensitive remarks, Hume refused to apologize and said again that Woods should convert. But in his public apology last week, Woods indicated that he was rejecting Hume’s advice, citing his faith’s guiding principles. “Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security,” Woods said, adding, “Obviously, I lost track of what I was taught.”
“I believe that was in direct response to you,” Bill O’Reilly told Hume on Fox News last night. Hume continued his televangelism, expressing a patronizing disdain for Woods’ faith:
HUME: I thought Tiger Woods showed himself in that presentation to be a shaken, chastened, and contrite man. And gone was the swagger. Gone was all of the radiant self-confidence that we used to see in him. This was a pretty shaken guy up there.
Now look, I think, because I’m a Christian and I believe that Christianity is true, that Tiger Woods and his wife Elin would be a lot farther down the road toward forgiveness and redemption if they were both Christians, but they’re not. And I – they’re going to do the best they can with what they have. And I wish Tiger Woods well.
Watch it:
The Dalai Lama commented on Woods’ scandal shortly after his apology. Professing that he has not heard of the golf star, the Buddhist high cleric said when it comes to adultery, “all religions have the same idea.” “Whether you call it Buddhism or another religion, self-discipline, that’s important,” he said. “Self-discipline with awareness of consequences.”
Exclusive: Newt Gingrich ?Sharing Resources, Coordinating Efforts? With Oil Lobby (Updated) Newt Gingrich, through his political attack group “American Solutions for Winning the Future” (ASWF), has organized tea party protests, conservative legislative efforts, and is best known for driving the Republican “Drill Here, Drill Now” campaign in 2008. Until now, the only known financial backers of ASWF were the donors disclosed on his 527 IRS forms, […]
Newt Gingrich, through his political attack group “American Solutions for Winning the Future” (ASWF), has organized tea party protests, conservative legislative efforts, and is best known for driving the Republican “Drill Here, Drill Now” campaign in 2008. Until now, the only known financial backers of ASWF were the donors disclosed on his 527 IRS forms, like Peabody Coal and investor Rex Sinquefield. Gingrich — who once believed in climate change science and believed the U.S. must act “urgently” to reduce carbon emissions — has moved far to the right on environmental issues, and has allied himself with polluters fighting tooth and nail against clean energy reform.
While his support from King Coal is widely known, new revelations reveal that Gingrich has established direct support from the oil lobby. The American Petroleum Institute (API) is the umbrella trade association for the oil industry, lobbying on behalf of corporations like ExxonMobil and Chevron, as well as for refineries and pipeline companies. In addition to spending millions on political lobbying, API has blanketed the country with pro-oil drilling ads and has coordinated “grassroots” rallies to oppose clean energy reform.
At CPAC — which was sponsored in part by API — ThinkProgress spoke to API representative André Carter at his organization’s booth at the convention. Carter is an account executive at Edelman, the K Street public relations firm that manages API. Carter told ThinkProgress that API has been “sharing resources, coordinating efforts” with Gingrich’s ASWF group for some time. When contacted for comment, API spokesman Bill Bush disputed that API was “working in any way” with Gingrich.
ASWF spokesman R.C. Hammond also denied Carter’s comments, telling ThinkProgress that “there’s no record of us working together.” But ThinkProgress interviewed Gingrich yesterday at an event he was hosting at the press club, where he told us that indeed he has been working with API since the “Drill Here, Drill Now” campaign:
TP: But do you know how long you guys have been working with API? I’m trying to chart it.
GINGRICH: I have no idea. I think it came after the Drill Here, Drill Now campaign.
Listen here:
Gingrich postures as a man dedicated to simply serving the “key concerns of the American People.” But through ASWF, his constantstrategy sessions with GOP lawmakers, and his ubiquitous punditry, Gingrich is actually advancing the narrow interests of corporations, in this case the oil industry. Given API’s attempt to conceal its relationship with ASWF, the oil industry understands they need ostensibly independent ambassadors like Gingrich to build public support for their policies.
As the Wonk Room has detailed, GOP politicians fighting reform have relied heavily on corporate lobbyists to orchestrate their efforts. Gingrich touts himself as an author, a “futurist,” a conservative thinker. Anything but a lobbyist. Considering the fact Gingrich lobbies lawmakers on policy, and does so in concert with industry that would benefit from his lobbying, in many ways Gingrich is essentially an unregistered lobbyist.
Toyota unsure how to solve safety issues Toyota’s top U.S. executive told lawmakers on Tuesday that he is not certain the company has fixed its runaway car problems even though it has recalled millions of vehicles around the world.
Reid names three to deficit-reduction commission Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) named three lawmakers Tuesday to President Obama’s deficit-reduction commission, choosing the chairmen of the Senate Budget and Finance committees, as well as his own deputy, Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.).
Republicans plan to stress private-sector alternatives to the president’s plan Republicans are preparing to use Thursday’s White House health-care summit to sell their own ideas for using the private marketplace to expand coverage and reduce costs, but they remain wary of fumbling away what they believe is an advantage on the issue heading into this year’s critical midterm…
Newt Gingrich, through his political attack group “American Solutions for Winning the Future” (ASWF), has organized tea party protests, conservative legislative efforts, and is best known for driving the Republican “