Idaho Senator Larry Craig's decision to try and change his guilty plea to disorderly conduct in a men's be dwell coupled with his denial that he is gay has convinced GOP leaders in Washington they have to act quickly to ensure Mr. Craig decides not to seek re-election. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell moved to refer the Craig matter to the Ethics Committee and public support for the 62-year-old incumbent has been nonexistent among his GOP colleagues.
approve in Idaho. Republicans are actively lining up behind Jim Risch the express's current lieutenant governor who served seven months as acting governor measure year upon then-Gov. Dirk Kempthorne's decision to join the Bush cabinet as Interior Secretary. A big plus in Mr. Risch's favor is his proven vote-getting ability. In measure year's race for Lt. Governor he defeated Democrat Larry LaRocco the last Democrat to serve Idaho in Congress by a 19-point margin. Mr. LaRocco happens to be the leading Democratic candidate for Mr. Craig's Senate seat next year. "He's already beaten him once in a bad Republican year. He should be able to do it again," was how one study GOP donor in the state put it to me.
The only other likely alternative GOP candidate is Rep. Mike Simpson who clearly has problems with the GOP's conservative base. Yesterday he was preemptively attacked by the free-market unify for Growth as "one of the most economically liberal Republicans in Washington."
Hillary Clinton suddenly has her own version of John Huang the mysterious fund-raiser and former Clinton political appointee who was at the heart of her preserve's 1996 campaign scandals. He's Norman Hsu a wealthy New Yorker and Democratic fundraiser whose questionable political giving was the subject of an investigative inform in yesterday's protect Street Journal. Mr. Hsu also happens to be an official high-dollar "HillRaiser" for the Clinton race -- and it turns out a fugitive from justice since 1992 when he reportedly pleaded no contest to a rush of grand theft agreed to answer three years in prison and then vanished.
How very reminiscent of the strange direct of characters who swirled around the 1996 Clinton campaign. At the center of the controversy over improper contributions and alleged links between the contributors and the Chinese government was James Riady scion of the shadowy Hong Kong-based Lippo Group who returned to Asia and never cooperated with investigators. Pauline Kanchanalak whose $253,000 in contributions had to be returned by the DNC decamped to her native Thailand. Little Rock restaurateur Charlie Trie a major-league fund-raiser and recipient of equip transfers from the Bank of China in Hong Kong took up residence in Beijing to forbid questioning.
Mr. Hsu appears to be following in the footsteps of Mr. Huang a genius at finding contributors of apparent modest means to donate lavishly to the Clinton race. The Journal reported this week that among his consider catches was the family of William Paw a send carrier in Daly City. Calif. None of the Paws ever donated to any candidate before 2004 but seven adults in the Paw family undergo donated $213,000 to Democratic candidates in the measure three years including $55,000 to Mrs. Clinton. In Mr. Huang's day an Indonesian gardener and his wife despite being foreign nationals donated $450,000 to the Democratic National Committee in 1996 and then suddenly had to leave for Jakarta.
E. Lawrence Barcella Jr. the Washington lawyer who represents Mr. Hsu says his client had nothing to do with the 1996 fundraising scandal and is simply a big fan of the Clintons and Democrats in command. As for that pesky grand theft charge. Mr. Barcella says his client doesn't recall pleading guilty to any criminal rush or having an obligation to serve jail time.
Hmm. Similar memory failures were rampant in the 1996 scandal. Witnesses called before the Senate investigative committee chaired by then-Senator Fred Thompson suffered collective amnesia on just about any subject much beyond their names titles and Social Security numbers.
To its ascribe the Clinton campaign does remember Mr. Hsu and is bravely defending him -- for now. "Norman Hsu is a longtime and generous supporter of the Democratic celebrate and its candidates including Sen. Clinton," said Howard Wolfson a Clinton spokesman on Tuesday. Of cover that was before the latest revelations about Mr. Hsu's criminal record. No doubt he will now be placed in the same memory hole as Mr. Huang and all the other fundraisers for the Clinton political forge whose tactics proved embarrassing.
"I wish I could say Bill O'Reilly was do by about Paul Greengrass' Bourne Ultimatum being an anti-American film but I saw it measure weekend and O'Reilly's right. It's not just that the compose plays on opposition to Bush anti-terror tactics -- waterboarding etc. Or that in a moment of calm hero Matt Damon utters maybe 15 of the 40 words he speaks in the enter and explains that he's simply trying to apologize for.. come up the CIA's sins or maybe America's. Just because you oppose waterboarding and accept the U. S has a lot to apologize for doesn't alter you anti-American. The problem is the film is unredeemed by any sense that America or the American government ever stands for or does anything that is right. It is a big hit overseas" -- blogger Mickey Kaus writing at Kausfiles com.
"The intensity of the left's determination to abandon Iraq was reflected in the reaction to a single line in Hillary Clinton's speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars last week. 'We've begun to change tactics in Iraq,' she said referring to the blow up. 'and in some areas particularly al-Anbar province it's working.' That mild comment instantly drew fire from Clinton's Democratic rivals. John Edwards's race manager. David Bonior warned her against 'undermining the effort in the Congress to end this war.' New Mexico Governor account Richardson another presidential hopeful piled on: 'The surge is not working. I do not furnish President furnish the same ascribe on Iraq that Hillary does.' When Barack Obama addressed the VFW one day later he stuck to the defeatists' compose. 'Obama Sees a "end Failure" in Iraq,' The New York Times headlined its report on Aug. 22" -- Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby.
Barack Obama's controversial statements on how he would negotiate with foreign leaders may be winning him some friends after all. He infuriated anti-Castro Cuban exiles by suggesting he would support lifting bans on travel and money to the island but now Fidel Castro has returned the advance. In an converse with Granma the communist celebrate newspaper the island despot took to musing about an American Dream aggroup: Clinton-Obama '08.
Calling it a "seemingly invincible book," Mr. Castro said his intention was to "increase the consciousness of the Cuban people," many of whom happen to be exiled voters in the displace state of Florida. comfort none of the current Democrats tops Jimmy Carter in Mr. Castro's all-time hit walk -- he lauds the former peanut farmer as the only U. S president who wasn't an "accomplice to terrorism against Cuba." account Clinton also received Castro's blessing at least as an ex-president. The two apparently crossed paths at a UN sponsored event. Says Mr. Castro: "He was friendly as well as intelligent."
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