Washington Whispers by Paul Bedard Entries for September 2008
This just in from Sen. John McCain's Arizona ranch, where his top aides are prepping McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, for Thursday's debate with Sen. Joe Biden. It's been a fact of recent political life that when candidates seek debate prep sites, they choose calm over convenience and that's certainly the case here. Check out Meghan McCain's photos of the ranch. Here's what the campaign just told us about the Sedona, Arizona scene:
The Governor's debate prep today is taking place outdoors near a creek on the scenic McCain ranch in Sedona. The serenity and beauty of this setting has contributed to what can be characterized as a relaxed environment. Her family (Todd, Willow, Piper, and Trig) are also at the ranch. Several advisors are participating.
Tags: debates | Biden, Joseph R., Jr. | McCain, John | Palin, Sarah
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We're hearing lots of talk this afternoon that with the House unable to quickly come up with an alternative to the $700 billion bank bailout it rejected Monday, the Senate is ready to take the lead. It's being described this way, says a source: "It's time for the adult body to take over." And that's from a Republican. A GOP leadership aide said, however, that the effort isn't meant to snub the House, just suggest that it's the other chamber's turn to act. "I think it's more in the line of: The Senate should do something tomorrow. It's possible we will, but we're saying we should."
It may be for nothing, of course, since we reported earlier today that some House conservatives don't believe anything can be done to make them change their "no" vote to a "yes." And for good measure, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey has just issued a letter to supporters—look below—urging voters angry with the bailout to put pressure on those House members who are being targeted by President Bush's team.
Tags: Republicans | Bush administration | Armey, Dick
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A growing number of Republicans who rejected the president's $700 billion bank bailout have a morning-after message for the White House: Go away until after Election Day. That's right, some of those who junked the plan to rescue bankers who went to the edge and further to dole out loans say there's nothing that will make them switch their vote just a month before the election. "The guys who voted 'no' are happy today," a key source tells me. "They are happy they fulfilled their voters' desire against a federal bailout." And those who had a green light before their names in the House chamber? "They are continuing to get pounded."
So what is the nay-voters' suggestion to the GOP leadership, already under attack by conservative members for forcing the vote? Put it off. "A few are now thinking that no legislation may pass prior to the election," says my insider. "Let the markets fumble along. We cannot see at this moment any movement by voters that they would tell their members who voted 'no' to change their vote to 'yes.' "
We want to see your personal photos with Barack Obama, John McCain, Joe Biden, or Sarah Palin. Send the best shots of you and the candidates to campaignphotos@usnews.com, and we'll post the best on our website over the coming weeks.
Tags: Congress | House of Representatives | Republicans | Wall Street | government intervention
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You know how people sometimes say that they'd like to sit down for a beer with a candidate before deciding how to vote. Well, at least Sen. John McCain would pay for that beer. That's because he's got a Bud Light tap in his Arizona house. We got these from somebody who attended a barbecue there and hit the tap pretty often. Having the Bud Light tap makes sense, of course, since wife Cindy has a piece of the local Bud distributorship, Hensley & Co.
Tags: McCain, John | McCain, Cindy
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Get ready to hear a lot about GOTV and the 72-hour campaign, because after the debates are over, the focus is going to shift to getting voters to the polls. On the Republican side, the talk is of the storied 72-hour campaign. Aides to Sen. John McCain say they've expanded it to last longer. Says political director Mike DuHaime, the program is now "spread over hundreds and hundreds of hours." In other words, he explains, it has already started with hundreds of volunteers—many from the Bush 2004 effort—helping to get the word out about McCain. Last week, for example, he says that the program made contact with about 1 million voters and plans to reach that total about every three days as the election nears. "We have people who have been there and done that," he says, calling the volunteers in the get-out-the-vote effort "battle-tested volunteers." The Obama campaign isn't worried about the recent surge in GOP efforts because Democrats believe they are way out in front in the bid to get voters to the polls. "We feel very good," says Obama communications manager Robert Gibbs. Obama officials say they have been building a homegrown GOTV team ever since nailing down the nomination, and that they've penetrated many regularly Republican territories with some success. Gibbs compared the Democratic effort with the Bush 2004 re-election campaign and GOTV bid run by the Republican National Committee, a year when the GOP turned out a historically high number of Republicans to back President George Bush. Obama's campaign has said for a long time that they don't believe McCain will be able to repeat that turnout. Gibbs also says that the Obama campaign has moved to sign up voters new to states and "disaffected" voters. "Changing the makeup of the electorate is key to the outcome of the election," he says. "Our turnout and GOTV operations have proven to be very superior organizations."
Tags: debates | Obama, Barack | McCain, John
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GOP running mate Sarah Palin, Alaska's governor, screams middle class so much that even some Republicans who initially questioned Sen. John McCain's pick are now rewarding the ticket with a thumbs up. "She is so middle class in where she comes from and what she does that it's turning out to be a perfect fit for McCain," a high-up House GOP official tells me. "People get that she's one of them, and that's a big deal," adds the official. Even those McCain passed up think she's the cat's meow. A source close to Rep. Eric Cantor, the architect of the Republican alternative to President Bush's $700 billion Wall Street bailout, tells me that the Virginian is "totally on board" the Palin express and believes she can attract middle-class independents seeking a candidate who looks like them. You might recall that Cantor had his own site promoting his very long-shot vice presidential bid.
Meanwhile, you might have noticed many pundits and bloggers poking fun at Palin for suggesting that Alaska's proximity to Russia gives her an unusual foreign-policy outlook. Well she's not the first to claim that. Way back in the late 1980s, when I was an editor of Defense Week, then a leading trade publication famous for revealing weapon cost overruns and failures, I took up Sen. Ted Stevens on an offer to spend two weeks looking at the state's needs to defend itself against the Soviet Union. At the time, he was bidding to boost defense spending in the state and declared that—all jokes aside—Alaska was America's first line of defense. It was quite a trip, spent in Alaska Air National Guard helicopters, jets, and refueling tankers. And we even visited a village where the locals told of Russians landing in military craft and leaving behind Russian goods like batteries and aerosol cans during spying missions. I recall printing pictures of the goods in Defense Week. Was there a threat of attack? Naw, since Alaska is so big and far from the lower 48. Any attackers would probably fly over, or totally avoid, Alaska, it seemed at the time. But for those who lived there then—and apparently now—the threat is real enough and the reason why the state has a number of military installations. And lower 48 snickering seems only to embolden the locals more about their position in U.S. military defense.
Tags: Republicans | Palin, Sarah
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When an organization's primary goal is to encourage responsible drinking, it's bound to throw a great party. And so the Distilled Spirits Council did last night at Mount Vernon—complete with tours of all three floors of the historic estate, live music, fireworks over the Potomac, and lots and lots of spirits. The cause for the celebration and fundraiser was in part to induct five new members into the George Washington Spirits Society, including Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa and former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating. Members of the society apparently have a fondness for alcohol; in order to be inducted, they "will have demonstrated their appreciation of the appropriate role of spirits in our society, culture, and history."
The location for the shindig was perfect because George Washington himself had been a successful whisky distiller. Harkin's father made whisky, too, though "was the type of distiller that George Washington would have tried to put out of business with the Whiskey Rebellion," Harkin said, hinting that his dad had once been a bootlegger.
"My father followed in the footsteps of George Washington as someone who appreciated that corn had a much higher calling than just being fed to hogs," Harkin told the more than 700 guests, including Virginia Sen. John Warner.
The Distilled Spirits Council and the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America also auctioned off bottle No. 1 of Martha Washington's Colonial Rum for a whopping $20,000 to benefit the new George Washington Education and Orientation Center. The bottle's winner also got the recipe for Martha Washington's yummy rum punch, which guests were handed to taste as soon as they arrived at Mount Vernon.
Photos by Andrew Harnik, used with permission.
Tags: Harkin, Tom
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Sen. Barack Obama's top aides, still planning to appear at Friday's Ole Miss debate even if Sen. John McCain doesn't, are heading to Oxford, Miss., later today. Chief spokesman Robert Gibbs, for example, told reporters that he was heading to the debate site and suggested that he'll be on a plane full of reporters and other staffers. "Stick to the long-held, long-agreed-to debate schedule," he urged the McCain team, which has pushed to delay it until the $700 billion economic package is hammered out. Picking up on Obama's comment that he can do two things at once, aides say that while the senator is working with Democrats on the economic plan, he is also practicing for his Friday debate with McCain. Gibbs, for example, says that the senator has engaged in mock debates, and others say he has looked at some old debate tapes. Still, the spin from the campaign is that the senator will have trouble keeping his long answers to the allotted time because he likes to rephrase the question, explain the problem, and then lay out a solution. "You pray to God that that isn't longer than the 45 seconds he's allotted to speak," says Gibbs. As for the need to practice, Gibbs added that both senators should be pretty much up to date on what will be asked since the issues normally come from the front-page headlines. "I don't think there will be a lot of surprises," says Gibbs.
Tags: debates | Obama, Barack | McCain, John
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House Republicans, who've been swamped with your phone calls demanding that they reject President George Bush's historically huge $700 billion bailout of Wall Street and bad mortgage bankers, have come up with another idea: Instead of just buying the worthless mortgages, make the banks buy insurance from Washington, which would pay on those that default. It's a plan offered by House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, who's trying to come up with an alternative under orders from House Minority Leader John Boehner. Sources say his idea is a simple one, and one Treasury initially liked but rejected because just buying the bad paper was easier. The emerging plan would act just like the mortgage giant Ginnie Mae, which guarantees loans to poor buyers. It's different from the Bush-Paulson plan in that it doesn't require an upfront, tax-payer-funded kitty of $700 billion. Instead, companies with bad loans would buy insurance from the feds and the feds would turn around and sell the bad loans they end up getting stuck with. The expected result: The Treasury isn't out a ton of money upfront and is only on the hook for bad loans. And if past patterns prove true in the future, Uncle Sam could turn the bad loans into a profit.
"Our objective," said a key House GOP leader working the deal, "is we shouldn't burden the taxpayers, the people who have been living by the rules." The document, provided to Whispers, shows their major principles.
The reason for the alternative plan is simple: House members are receiving calls at a rate of 100 to 4 against the Bush-Paulson bailout. "People are angry."
House leaders said that Treasury looked at the insurance idea and initially liked it but then went for the easier fix: Just buy bad loans. House Republicans, however, have balked at that plan, hence Boehner's call to Cantor to drum up a new idea. Insiders say that the insurance plan isn't exactly an alternative to the Bush-Paulson plan because Paulson's blueprint is written so broadly that the insurance proposals could be folded into the larger plan, leaving it up to Treasury to figure out which program to apply to each bad loan.
Will the GOP get its say? Nobody knows, and they don't think a final deal will come before Sunday. But a GOP source said that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi doesn't want her side holding the bag, so she's demanding that any final bill be supported by a majority of House Republicans.
Tags: Boehner, John | Bush, George W. | Bush administration
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It's a fact of life in Washington presidential politics: No matter how experienced you are when winning the White House, candidates and new presidents have only one source of battle-tested experts to choose from when setting new policy or hiring new cabinet heads. And that's whoever served in the previous administration of their party. So, it should be no surprise that Sen. Barack Obama, who's been working on his economic positions for months, has turned to the old Clinton team that brought the country great economic wealth, until the stock market collapsed when the Internet bubble popped. The Clinton people he has been reaching out to for advice include former Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin , former economic advisor Laura Tyson, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, former Labor Secretary Bob Reich, and former Commerce Secretary Bill Daley. "These," says Obama's able spokesman Robert Gibbs, are the "core of people he speaks to." And a surprise visitor to his economic team has been former Bush Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill dumped in 2002. Any of them could become part of Obama's economic team should he win in November, with a lot of focus on Daley being Treasury secretary.
Tags: Obama, Barack | Clinton, Bill
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He wore a red-and-black checked flannel shirt to show he was a man of the people, and now Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander has a new personal symbol to show off his energy concerns: an electric Toyota Prius modified to operate exclusively on a battery. "I thought I better put myself where my mouth was," he chuckles over the thrill of driving the specially fitted hybrid at a time when Washington is making energy and alternative car fuels a top priority. Naturally, it's black. "Very senatorial," he says. Alexander says he learned of the new battery technology from Watertown, Mass.'s A123 Systems during a hearing. For a $10,000 premium, they fit cars with bigger batteries that allow the vehicles to drive 30 miles on electric power alone. Just plug it in at night and it's off to the races, says Alexander, who says the technology will hit the mass market in just two years. "I can fill up at night for 60 to 80 cents instead of going down to the gas station to fill up for $60 to $80," he says. "If half our cars and trucks were electric, that would be 125 million and that might take 15 to 20 years but would reduce imported oil by 4 [million] to 5 million barrels a day, which is $400 [million] to $500 million dollars less a day we'd be sending overseas," he says.
Tags: Alexander, Lamar
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