Talk Show Staple McCain Says Schumer is on TV Too
Much

Click here to view this media

Media darling Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is blasting Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for spending too much time in front of the television cameras.

In a Wednesday interview with Fox News host Greta Van Susteren, the Arizona senator accused Schumer of holding hearings on Arizona's controversial immigration law just to get attention from the media.

"I have never seen Sen. Schumer address any issue unless it was political in the United States Senate," McCain told Van Susteren. "Bob Dole once said, the most dangerous place to be in Washington D.C. is between Sen. Schumer and a television camera."

"That holds true today," he added.

But very few, if any, senators in recent years have been given more airtime than McCain himself.

"The press loves McCain," MSNBC host Chris Matthews once declared. "We're his base."

Between his loss in the November 2008 presidential election and January 2010, McCain had appeared on Sunday morning talk shows at least 19 times.

By March 2012, he had broken former Sen. Bob Dole's (R-KS) record by appearing on NBC's Meet the Press 64 times.

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

The Minimal Standards

Before I get to unilateralism, internationalism or pro-democracy or anything else, I really insist my foreign policy experts not make frequent references to our current relations with Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union. [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/IKt3G9rulEc/the_minimal_sta
ndards.php

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

So Surely She's a Lesbian

Setting aside offensiveness, I'd sort of thought that 'feminists must all be lesbians' jokes were a tad stale at this point. But apparently not everyone thinks so. [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/ktH6e7rLj84/so_surely_shes_
a_lesbian.php

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

Should Hatch Be Worried

Hatch challenger Dan Liljenquist's campaign chairperson on her candidate: "The so-called more moderate or more mainstream wing of the Republican Party has come to Dan and said, 'My gosh, you're not crazy."It sounds like Hatch may be lucky he's up in 2012[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/AE7DjiiD2wk/should_hatch_be
_worried.php

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

Rep. Kevin Horan (D - Grenada) questions Rep.
Bill Denny (R - Jackson) about the Denny map

Rep. Horan begins: "I want to take this opportunity to introduce myself.  I'm Rep. Kevin Horan of Grenada."  Clear indication that Rep. Horan was not one of the "110" members who supposedly had input on how the Denny map would look.

***WORK BREAK***

Denny admits that the citizens of Horan's district have been denied access to the redistricting process because Denny wouldn't talk to Horan about the process.

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

Rep. Earle Banks (D - Jackson) questions Rep.
Bill Denny (R - Jackson) about the Denny map

Rep. Banks says that Rep. Denny told him that the districts could not be changed after Banks saw them last.  Denny denies saying that.

Rep. Banks disagrees with Denny's frequent statement that Hinds County lost 22,000 residents since 2000.  Banks says Hinds has lost only 2% of its population.  Some research reveals that Banks is correct: According the US Census Bureau, the 2000 population of Hinds County was 250,800.  The 2010 population is 245,285.  This is a decline of 2%.

So a loss of 5,000 people means a loss of a seat for Hinds County?  That's BS and Denny knows it.

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

Rep. David Gibbs (D - West Point) questions Rep.
Bill Denny (R - Jackson) about Denny map

Rep. David Gibbs (D - West Point) is quite animatedly pushing Rep. Bill Denny (R - Jackson) on the drawing of District 36.  Rep. Gibbs spent most of his time talking about how District 36 was pushed out of Clay County, leading to more stratification than under the current map.

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

Rep. Bryant Clark (D - Pickens) questions Rep.
Bill Denny (R - Jackson) about the Denny map

Rep. Bryant Clark (D - Pickens) is questioning Denny hard about the lack of seats that are between 25% and 50% BVAP.  Denny's plan has only 4 districts between 25% and 50% BVAP, and only 1 district between 35% and 50% BVAP.  (This is what I meant by Denny resegregating the state through redistricting.)  Denny just says that he relies on counsel that Denny map complies with the VRA.

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

Get your popcorn ready: Rep. Steve Holland (D -
Plantersville) begins to question Rep. Bill Denny (R - Jackson) about his map

Rep. Holland starts off by talking about how he and Denny have been good friends for a long time.  Holland says that he wrote Denny a letter back on March 16th asking to give input on the Denny map.  Denny admits he did not let Holland give input on the map.

Holland then begins to ask Denny about communities of interest and the changes to Holland's district.  Holland's district has remained fairly the same geographically for the last 40 years, according to Holland.  Holland then finishes with a question about Snowden's district moving from a majority minority district to a district that has less than 20% BVAP.

No big fireworks from Holland.

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

Wisconsin GOP Senate Candidate Supports Closing
Tax Loophole For Wealthy Investors

Wisconsin Senate candidate Eric Hovde (R) has been a staunch opponent of the Buffett Rule, the minimum tax on millionaires co-sponsored by likely Democratic Senate nominee Rep. Tammy Baldwin, since beginning his campaign. Sticking with Republican talking points, Hovde has called the rule a “political gimmick” that “does nothing to balance the budget.”

But in a 2009 interview on CNBC, Hovde appeared to have a different take on raising taxes on the rich, as Daniel Bice from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports:

During a March 2009 appearance on CNBC-TV, Hovde – CEO of Washington-based Hovde Capital Advisors and chief investment officer of private-equity firm Hovde Acquisition LLC – offered a widespread critique of President Barack Obama and congressional spending.

“And then you look over on the tax side,” the millionaire money man said (beginning at the 7:25 mark). “Look, I have no problem with me getting charged higher taxes. I’ve been blessed in my life. And I’ve been very fortunate.”

Watch it (at 7:25):

Hovde’s remark sure sounds like an implicit endorsement of raising taxes on the rich — which the Buffett Rule would do — but at an appearance this week, he assured local media that it was not. Instead, it was a call to end another egregious tax loophole that largely benefits the wealthy. “I’m almost certain that discussion was in regards to, you know, I would be willing to pay more in taxes from the standpoint (of) ‘get rid of the carried interest,’” Hovde told the Journal Sentinel.

Republicans by-and-large oppose closing the carried-interest loophole, which allows wealthy money managers to lower their tax rates, even though it would raise more than $4 billion a year from just the wealthiest 25 hedge fund managers in America. Hovde might be onto something, though — even if Republicans in Congress support the carried-interest loophole, a vast majority of Americans think it should be closed.

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!