News politics 2008-08-15 Andanh.com

Edwards' ally explains $14,000 payment to mistress Fri, 15 Aug 2008 02:33 EDT
John Edwards' political action committee paid his mistress $14,000 after she stopped working for it to obtain 100 hours of unused videotape she had shot for his unsuccessful presidential campaign, an associate told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The woman, Rielle Hunter, already had been paid $100,000 for the programs.

The explanation - which Edwards' advisers declined to discuss on the record - is the first effort to justify the payment in April 2007 to Hunter. That payment came months before Edwards' chief fundraiser quietly began sending money himself to the pregnant woman.

Edwards last week acknowledged he had an affair with Hunter in 2006. The former Democratic presidential contender and senator from North Carolina has denied any knowledge of those payments to Hunter from Fred Baron, Edwards' national finance chairman and a wealthy Dallas-based trial attorney. Baron also has described his payments to Hunter as a private transaction.

But the $14,000 payment to Hunter is significant because its source was Edwards' OneAmerica political action committee, whose expenditures are governed by U.S. election laws. Willfully converting money from a political action committee for personal use would have been a federal criminal violation.

Clinton to get roll call at Democratic convention Fri, 15 Aug 2008 02:14 EDT
Turns out Democratic primary loser Hillary Rodham Clinton will get time to shine at the party's national convention after all - and quite a bit of it. Democrats officially will choose Barack Obama to run against Republican John McCain this fall.

But in an emblematic move meant to heal divisive primary wounds, the vanquished Clinton name also will be placed in nomination alongside his during the traditional state-by-state delegation roll call vote at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

And, she gets her own plum speaking slot.

So does her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

All that high-profile Clinton action, spread over at least half of the convention's four prime-time speaking nights, ensures an enormous presence for the couple who have been national fixtures in the Democratic Party since 1992 - and whose latest White House bid, hers, split the party into for-them or against-them camps.

Obama campaign issues rebuttal to book's claims Fri, 15 Aug 2008 02:07 EDT
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama hit back Thursday with a 40-page rebuttal to the best-selling book "The Obama Nation," arguing the author is a fringe bigot peddling rehashed lies.

Jerome Corsi's anti-Obama book, "The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality," claims the Illinois senator is a dangerous, radical candidate for president. The book is a compilation of all the innuendo and false rumors against Obama - that he was raised a Muslim, attended a radical, black church and secretly has a "black rage" hidden beneath the surface.

In fact, Obama is a Christian who attended Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

The Obama campaign picked apart the book's claims in a rebuttal titled "Unfit For Publication," to be posted on the Obama campaign's rumor-fighting Web site, FightTheSmears.com. The title is a play on the book Corsi co-authored against 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's military service called "Unfit For Command."

"Jerome Corsi is a discredited liar who is peddling another piece of garbage to continue the Bush-Cheney politics he helped perpetuate four years ago," said Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor. "His is just one of what will likely be many more lie-filled books rushed to print this election cycle, which are cobbled together from debunked Internet sources to make money and advance a partisan agenda. We will respond to these smears forcefully with all means at our disposal."

Stevens questions FBI authority in corruption case Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:23 EDT
Sen. Ted Stevens accused the Justice Department of trampling on the independence of Congress, arguing Thursday that the corruption case against him should be thrown out.

That legal argument will test the limits of a court ruling that prosecutors fear could limit their ability to investigate corruption on Capitol Hill. Stevens said FBI agents went too far when they questioned his Senate aides.

The Alaska Republican is scheduled to go on trial next month on charges that he lied on Senate disclosure records about hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts and services he received from a powerful oil services contractor, VECO Corp.

Stevens said the FBI's long-running corruption probe intruded on his Senate affairs. He cited the Constitution's speech-or-debate clause, which prohibits the executive branch from using its law enforcement authority to interfere with legislative business.

The Justice Department predicted this would happen after an appeals court ruled last year that the FBI violated the constitution by searching the Capitol Hill office of Rep. William Jefferson, D-La. The Supreme Court refused to reconsider the case and prosecutors said lawmakers already had begun arguing that their aides could not be questioned.

Feds: Texas bus company a public safety hazard Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:18 EDT
Federal regulators Thursday declared a San Antonio charter bus company an "imminent hazard" to public safety because of its affiliation with a Houston motorcoach operator involved in a deadly Aug. 8 crash.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration ordered Liberty Charters & Tours to stop using vehicles or drivers connected to Angel de la Torre or two of his companies, Iguala BusMex Inc. and Angel Tours Inc.

The bus that crashed was owned by Iguala BusMex, a company formed by de la Torre after Angel Tours was ordered out of service for vehicle and driver irregularities. Seventeen of the 55 passengers - members of a Vietnamese Catholic group on a pilgrimage to Missouri - died after the bus blew a front tire blew and flipped on its side near Sherman.

Investigators said the retreaded tire violated federal safety standards, which forbid recapped tires to be used on a steering axle.

The FMCSA order against Liberty Charters came a day after The Associated Press reported that the company leased a bus from Angel Tours after it lost its ability to operate.

Monitors say McCain did not violate finance laws Fri, 15 Aug 2008 02:07 EDT
Republican presidential hopeful John McCain won a round against Democrats on Thursday when the Federal Election Commission rejected their contention that he violated campaign finance laws during the GOP primary.

The FEC's draft opinion affirms McCain's right to bypass the public financing system and the strict spending limits that come with it. That was a rejection of the Democratic National Committee's complaint asserting that McCain's campaign had wrongly received loans based on his participation in public financing before later withdrawing from that system.

The DNC pointed to a section of campaign finance law that bars candidates from withdrawing from the public system if the candidate has "pledged public funds as security for private financing."

Lawyers for the FEC concluded that McCain did not pledge to use public financing as collateral for the loans and did not violate the law.

The FEC is scheduled to vote on the matter next week.

Detroit mayor barred from convention Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:51 EDT

DETROIT . Barack Obama doesn't want Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his legal troubles to be a distraction at the upcoming Democratic National Convention, and he got his wish Thursday when a judge ordered the city executive to stay home.

Kilpatrick, who would have gone to the convention as a superdelegate, faces eight felony charges in a perjury case and two felony charges in an assault case.

The day began when a judge overseeing Kilpatrick's arraignment on perjury and other charges said the mayor could get rid of the tether around his ankle and attend the convention.

By afternoon, however, another judge handling the assault charges signed an order emphasizing that the tether remains a condition of release in that case.

Delegates to hear Clinton's name placed in nomination Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:51 EDT

WASHINGTON . Hillary Clinton's name will be placed in nomination at the Democratic convention, a move aimed at generating enthusiasm among the vanquished candidate's still-sizable corps of reluctant Barack Obama supporters.

Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, and Clinton, the New York senator defeated earlier this year in a close, often-bitter nominating race, made the joint announcement Thursday.

.Since June, Senators Obama and Clinton have been working together to ensure a Democratic victory this November,. the statement said.

.They are both committed to winning back the White House and to ensuring that the voices of all 35 million people who participated in this historic primary election are respected and heard in Denver. To honor and celebrate these voices and votes, both Senator Obama's and Senator Clinton's names will be placed in nomination..

McCain: Abortion-rights vice president possible Thu, 14 Aug 2008 01:54 EDT

Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Wednesday floated the prospect of picking a running mate who supports abortion rights, and he cited former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge as someone worth considering.

.I think that the pro-life position is one of the important aspects or fundamentals of the Republican Party,. .McCain said in an interview with The Weekly Standard.

.And also I feel that, and I'm not trying to equivocate here, that Americans want us to work together,. McCain added. .You know, Tom Ridge is one of the great leaders and he happens to be pro-choice. And I don't think that that would necessarily would rule Tom Ridge out..

McCain had been asked about comments he made to several reporters during the GOP primary season about the prospect of picking New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg for vice president. The Arizona senator praised Bloomberg, but said the mayor's support for abortion rights would make it tough to choose him.

Arkansas Democrat chairman is slain Thu, 14 Aug 2008 08:18 EDT

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. . A man barged into the Arkansas Democratic headquarters Wednesday and fatally shot the state party chairman before speeding off in his pickup. Police later shot and killed the suspect after a 30-mile chase.

Police identified the suspect as Timothy Dale Johnson, 50, of Searcy, 50 miles northeast of Little Rock. They didn't know a motive. However, moments after the shooting, Johnson pointed a handgun at a worker at the nearby Arkansas Baptist headquarters. An official there said he told the worker, .I lost my job..

Chairman Bill Gwatney died four hours after the shooting. The former state senator had been planning to travel to the Democratic National Convention this month as a superdelegate. He had backed Hillary Rodham Clinton but endorsed Barack Obama after she dropped out of the race.

Clinton and her husband, former president and former Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, issued a statement saying Gwatney, 48, was .not only a strong chairman of Arkansas' Democratic Party, but ... also a cherished friend and confidant..

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 01:54 EDT

Race questions cast doubt on presidential polls Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:53 EDT

The year was 1984, and the state was Iowa. A white man who had just voted walked out of his precinct caucus and saw the Rev. Jesse Jackson standing outside.

.I did all I could,. the man told Jackson ruefully, .but I just couldn't bring myself to pull the lever and vote for you..

L. Douglas Wilder laughs as he relates the story Jackson once told him, the sting eased by time and Wilder's vantage point as the nation's first elected black governor.

Now it's a quarter of a century later, and the man everyone's talking about is Barack Obama, the Illinois senator holding a slim lead in many polls. But can the polls be trusted? A central question about race and politics hasn't changed since 1984: Do white people lie . to pollsters or even to themselves . about their willingness to vote for black candidates?

Who started it? McCain, Obama camps trade barbs Fri, 01 Aug 2008 17:11 EDT
Trading charges anew over who was guilty of injecting race into the presidential debate, a subject unlikely to fade away, the campaigns of John McCain and Barack Obama also blamed each other Friday for its increasingly negative tone.

McCain has accused Obama of playing politics with race for predicting that the likely Republican nominee and others in the GOP would try to scare voters by saying the Democrat "doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills." Obama's spokesmen denied he was referring to being black, although all the presidents on U.S. currency are white.

Obama senior strategist David Axelrod said Friday that race became an issue only when the McCain campaign cast a racial slant on Obama's remarks, which were made at a campaign swing Wednesday in rural Missouri.

The next day, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis issued a statement claiming that Obama had played "the race card" and calling the remarks "divisive, negative, shameful and wrong."

"We are not going to let anybody paint John McCain, who has fought his entire life for equal rights for everyone, to be able to be painted as racist," Davis said Friday on "Today" on NBC. "We've seen this happen before and we're not going to let it happen to us."

Obama proposes $1,000 energy rebates for consumers Fri, 01 Aug 2008 12:41 EDT
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday called for a $1,000 "emergency" rebate to consumers to offset soaring energy costs amid fresh signs of a struggling economy with the nation's unemployment rate climbing to a four-year high.

Obama told a town-hall meeting the rebate would be financed with a windfall profits tax on the oil industry.

"This rebate will be enough to offset the increased cost of gas for a working family over the next four months," Obama said in the crucial swing state of Florida.

Obama had earlier said the rebates should be part of a larger tax relief package. But now he says the slumping economy demands they be put in place immediately.

Obama's remarks coincide with news that the unemployment rate climbed to a four-year high of 5.7 percent in July as employers cut 51,000 jobs, dashing the hopes of an influx of young people looking for summer work. Payroll cuts weren't as deep as the 72,000 predicted by economists, however. And, job losses for both May and June were smaller than previously reported.

Today on the presidential campaign trail Fri, 01 Aug 2008 10:11 EDT
IN THE HEADLINES

McCain and Obama campaigns trade barbs on who brought race, negative tone to campaign ... Ludacris tribute to Obama more likely to inspire dance than outrage among voters ... Analysis: Obama opposes new offshore oil drilling, risking backlash from price-weary voters

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Who started it? McCain, Obama camps trade barbs

WASHINGTON (AP) - Trading charges anew over who was guilty of injecting race into the presidential debate, a subject unlikely to fade away, the campaigns of John McCain and Barack Obama also blamed each other Friday for its increasingly negative tone.

Nighbert is target of state inquiry Thu, 14 Aug 2008 05:40 EDT

FRANKFORT . The state Transportation Cabinet's watchdog agency is investigating former Secretary Bill Nighbert, who is also a target in an FBI investigation of alleged bid rigging.

Among those investigating Nighbert in the cabinet's Office of Inspector General is a man once ordered fired by Nighbert.

The office has been headed since 2004 by David Ray, a retired secret service agent. His staff assistant is Mike Duncan.

Last year, the state Personnel Board reversed the 2005 firing of Duncan, whose termination was at the crux of a special Franklin County grand jury's investigation into hiring practices in former Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration.

Beshear appoints Fayette County district judge Wed, 13 Aug 2008 02:58 EDT

Gov. Steve Beshear appointed Tuesday a former assistant attorney general and state prosecutor to a district court vacancy in Fayette County.

Julie Muth Goodman, who worked under Beshear when he was attorney general in the 1980s, said she will take office after being sworn in later this month. She is also a former Fayette assistant commonwealth's attorney.

Goodman will fill the vacancy created by Judge David Hayse's retirement in June.

.I am absolutely honored,. Goodman said. .I think it is a privilege to serve the people of Fayette County. Everybody knows the district court is really the people's court..

Former public defenderpicked to lead state agency Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:53 EDT

LOUISVILLE . A former longtime public defender was appointed Tuesday as director of the state agency providing legal services for Kentucky's poor as the office faces budget cuts, a hiring freeze and a lawsuit seeking to reduce caseloads.

In making the appointment, Gov. Steve Beshear praised Ed Monahan for his experience and .innate sense of fairness.. The governor didn't mention the problems at the Department of Public Advocacy.

Monahan begins his appointment Sept. 1, replacing longtime Public Advocate Ernie Lewis, who is retiring. Monahan most recently was executive director of The Catholic Conference of Kentucky.

He said his main goal as public advocate will be to secure sufficient funding for the agency. But Monahan said he didn't have any magical strategy in seeking more money from the General Assembly.

Student loan agency to run out of money Wed, 13 Aug 2008 02:58 EDT

The state agency that provides loans to Kentucky's college students will .effectively run out of money. Friday until about Aug. 21 as it awaits new federal funds intended to alleviate a national crisis in student loans.

The Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority, and its lending arm, The Student Loan People, will finish giving out the available funds Thursday, said James R. Ackinson, KHEAA's executive vice president.

The credit crunch is expected to inconvenience some students, but officials remain confident that everyone who needs a loan will get one.

Ackinson said KHEAA is awaiting approval of a $50 million .bridge loan. that would allow the agency to make loans, paving the way for reimbursements under a new federal program.

Business group calls for state-funded tuition assistance program Tue, 12 Aug 2008 06:49 EDT

The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce has proposed a new way to help Kentucky students pay for college, aimed at simplifying and reducing a large and complicated burden.

The Guaranteed Affordability Program calls on state government to fill the gap between what a family can afford and what college costs. Chamber President Dave Adkisson presented the plan to a legislative subcommittee on Monday.

Although many details of the plan . such as its cost to state government . remain murky, it includes these general concepts:

. Students would contribute to the cost of attending college an amount equal to what they could earn from a 40-hour work week during the summer and 10-15 hours a week during the school year at a minimum wage job. This sum could be supplemented by state scholarship awards such as the Kentucky Educational Excellence Scholarship.

Beshear fields money questions Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:54 EDT

OWENSBORO . Money, whether it is coming into state coffers, flowing into a gas tank or being paid for health insurance premiums, was at the center of the discussion headed by Gov. Steve Beshear on Monday night at Apollo High School.

As part of his .Beshear About Kentucky. series of town hall meetings, the governor took questions about education funding, casino gambling as a state revenue source and taxes from the audience of more than 300.

Beshear offered little hope for funding in the next year for the second phase of the advanced technology center at Owensboro Community . Technical College, which was in his budget proposal but did not make it into the final spending plan approved by the legislature. It will be funded only if there is a state revenue surplus in July, which the governor said is unlikely.

Beshear did make a pledge to secure funding for the project in the future. .We're going to build phase two of that advanced technology center before I get out of this office,. he promised.

Lawyers' ties suggest orchestrated effort Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:51 EDT

As tabloid reports of a sex scandal threatened former Sen. John Edwards' presidential campaign last December on the eve of the Iowa caucuses, two lawyers surfaced with written statements that appeared to exonerate the candidate.

One of them, Robert J. Gordon of New York, said that his client, Rielle Hunter, a pregnant 43-year-old filmmaker, was not carrying Edwards' child. Shortly thereafter, the other lawyer, Pamela J. Marple of Washington, sent word that her client, Andrew Young, an Edwards campaign aide, was the baby's father.

Seemingly issued independently of Edwards, the statements appeared to deflate the anonymously sourced reports of an Edwards tryst. But what went unnoticed was that the two lawyers shared an important connection to Edwards that raises questions about whether they were part of an orchestrated effort to protect him, one that is continuing even after he admitted last week that he had an affair with Hunter but denied that he fathered her child.

The lawyers are linked through Fred Baron, a wealthy Dallas lawyer and former finance chairman for the Edwards campaign, who was a key player in the campaign's response to the scandal. Gordon has worked with Baron on class-action personal injury cases, and Marple helped defend a lawsuit brought against both men and their law firms by an asbestos manufacturer.

Jackson Browne sues McCain, RNC over song in ad Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:43 EDT
Jackson Browne doesn't want John McCain running on anything fueled by his lyrics.

The singer-songwriter sued McCain and the Ohio and national Republican committees in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Thursday, accusing them of using his song "Running on Empty" without his permission.

The lawsuit claims the song's use was an infringement of his copyright and will lead people to conclude he endorses McCain. The suit says Browne is a lifelong liberal who is as well-known for his music as for being "an advocate for social and environmental justice."

The advertisement mocks Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's contention that if U.S. drivers got regular tuneups and drove on properly inflated tires, they could save the same amount of oil that would be gained by offshore drilling. According to the suit, "Running on Empty" plays in the background of the ad criticizing the remarks.

Robert Bennett, chairman of the Ohio party, said the ad was pulled when Browne objected. He called the lawsuit a "big to-do about nothing."

.New element' in roads probe Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:51 EDT

FRANKFORT . Transportation Secretary Joe Prather confirmed Thursday that .a new element. has developed in an investigation of former Secretary Bill Nighbert and others by the cabinet's inspector general.

He declined to release specifics of the investigation but said it is in conjunction with the FBI, which suspects Nighbert of playing a role in an alleged bid-rigging scheme. He did not elaborate on the investigation's .new element..

An FBI affidavit filed last Friday in U.S. District Court in London said a federal investigation into alleged bid-rigging involving Nighbert, former highway district engineer James Rummage and politically influential road contractor Leonard Lawson has been ongoing for more than a year.

No charges have been filed in the case, and all three men have denied any wrongdoing.

Democrats can't win without message Mon, 11 Aug 2008 09:48 EDT

Most of the empirical evidence . poll numbers, new voter registration and campaign group bank accounts . points to November being a good one for Democrats, nationally.

Even Kentucky, which has moved toward the right over the last 20 years, is seeing hints of those trends.

The percentage of registered Democrats in the Bluegrass state, for instance, has ticked upward for the first time since between 1988 and 1989.

But to translate that into election wins in a couple of key federal races here in Kentucky, the Democratic candidates in those campaigns will have to develop a message and stick to it.

Beshear officials cooperating in probe Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:54 EDT

Gov. Steve Beshear said Monday that his administration has been cooperating with federal authorities investigating allegations of road contract bid-rigging and that investigators interviewed him .in the last month..

As far as he knows, the inquiry is limited to former Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration and specifically to one prominent contractor, Beshear said.

.I was elected to create a culture of integrity at the cabinet and throughout state government and we are making substantive progress toward that goal,. Beshear said in a statement. .Our full cooperation with this investigation from the beginning has been an important part of that process..

His comments come after many details of the inquiry were revealed in an FBI affidavit that became public Saturday.

Lawson has long been huge factor on roads Tue, 12 Aug 2008 08:16 EDT

After Gov. Steve Beshear tapped Joe Prather to run the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet last year, Prather got a clear message from outgoing Secretary Bill Nighbert.

If you want to succeed as Transportation Cabinet secretary, .You have to be friendly with Leonard Lawson,. Nighbert told Prather late last year.

Later, Prather said, he had lunch with the prominent road contractor and his son Steve. .During that time, (Leonard) asked me to .take care of Jim Rummage,'.. Prather told the Herald-Leader.

In the past, the wishes of Leonard Lawson have almost always been granted by politicians from both parties. But Prather rebuffed Lawson, who now finds himself at the center of a federal investigation into possible bid-rigging at the Transportation Cabinet.

Williams says Nighbert had no influence Tue, 12 Aug 2008 07:46 EDT

FRANKFORT . A former Transportation Cabinet secretary suspected by the FBI of helping rig road construction bids was also advising Senate President David Williams, a Republican, about transportation issues during this year's legislative session.

But Williams said former Secretary Bill Nighbert, who was hired by Williams after the defeat of former Gov. Ernie Fletcher, .wasn't in a position. to help any contractors while working as a legislative aide.

Federal investigators are trying to determine whether Nighbert received money from a prominent road contractor in exchange for favors, according to an FBI agent's sworn statement.

Nighbert worked as Williams' aide between January and July 2008.

Chinese Dir