University Presidents as CEOs
Margaret Soltan passes along a complaint from a student about university presidents making a lot of money and claiming that their pay ought to be on par with those of CEOs of businesses. In regards to administrative salaries, I was appalled to hear the defense of President Baker's salary was to compare his position to the salaries of CEOs in the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 12, 2009 07:33
Burris Lied About Blagojevich Contact
Roland Burris now admits the he concealed the extent of his contact with ousted governor Rod Blagojevich. Raising fresh questions about his appointment to Congress, Sen. Roland Burris admitted in a document released Saturday that former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's brother asked him for campaign fundraising help before the governor named Burris as Illinois' junior senator. The disclosure reflects a major omission ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 15, 2009 08:28
Did Hillary Clinton Do Favors For Bill’s Clients?
A series of media reports questions whether former New York Senator and Secretary of State nominee Hillary Clinton gave special treatment to donors to Bill Clinton's charity. AP's Sharon Theimer has what appears to be the lead story. Secretary of State appointee Hillary Rodham Clinton intervened at least six times in government issues directly affecting companies and others that later contributed ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 13, 2009 12:38
Organization Created to Fight Non-Existent Policy
The conservative Media Research Center has created the "Free Speech Alliance"--an organization dedicated to fighting the revival of the Fairness Doctrine.The Media Research Center today officially announced the Free Speech Alliance, a gathering of a multitude of organizations and hundreds of thousands of individual citizens dedicated to ensuring that the Censorship Doctrine, mis-named the "Fairness" Doctrine, is never again reinstated.This ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on December 2, 2008 08:59
GOP’s G-O-D Problem
Kathleen Parker is getting quite a response to her WaPo piece "Giving Up on God." As Republicans sort out the reasons for their defeat, they likely will overlook or dismiss the gorilla in the pulpit. Three little letters, great big problem: G-O-D. I'm bathing in holy water as I type. To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 20, 2008 14:09
Focus on Family Cutting Jobs
Steve Benen reports feeling schadenfreude at the news that James Dobson's Focus of the Family has announced that it is cutting 202 jobs, the deepest cuts in the organizations 32-year history, fresh off of having spent $539,000 to help pass an anti-gay marriage referendum in Colorado. He cites Jim Newell's snark: Sure, you have no income now because James Dobson burnt ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 18, 2008 13:14
2012 Campaign Starts in 3, 2 . .
Today's meeting of the Republican Governors' Association has, not surprisingly, been greeted with speculation that the party's 2012 presidential nominee is likely in the room. Facing the prospect of being out of power at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue for the first time since 1992, Republicans are looking to their governors to fill the leadership vacuum. Speculation has centered on the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 13, 2008 13:36
Obama Buys 30 Minute Prime Time Spots
Barack Obama, flush with cash, is buying 30 minute spots -- so far on ABC and NBC -- that will air on the anniversary of Black Tuesday. James Hibberd and Paul J. Gough: The Obama campaign is producing a nationwide pitch to voters that will air on at least two broadcast networks. The ad will run Wednesday, Oct. 29, at 8 ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 10, 2008 13:08
Hurricane Gustav and the Republican Convention
Hurricane Gustav is barreling down on the Gulf Coast and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, who has dubbed this "the mother of all storms," has once again ordered the evacuation of New Orleans. Aside from the obvious humanitarian and logistical issues, this is also a huge wild card going into the GOP convention. President Bush is unlikely to make it to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 31, 2008 10:15
McCain Working for Dollars, Not Votes?
Andrew Malcolm has dissected John McCain's schedule and concluded that he's spending all his time scrounging for money rather than reaching out to voters. Just 3 1/2 months out from the presidential election, McCain's national campaign schedule is being driven by the quest for money, not by the hunt for votes in 50 individual state elections. All right, every campaign says ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 18, 2008 16:10
McCain Raised $22 Million in June
John McCain and the Republicans are in much better financial shape than we thought, breaking his May record of $21 million with a $22 million haul in June. Republican presidential candidate John McCain raised more than $22 million in June, his best fundraising performance of the year, and ended the month with nearly $27 million cash on hand. Campaign manager Rick Davis ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 10, 2008 18:25
Happy 232nd Birthday, America
Happy Independence Day! I don't know about my OTB colleagues but I'll be taking the rest of the day off, honoring the sacrifices made by the Founders by sitting around watching television, grilling and consuming meat products, and drinking beer with family and friends. Some things to keep you occupied until my return: "Putting The Country First" - John McCain's essay for Parade ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 4, 2008 08:30
FISA Reform Moves Forward, Netroots Angry at Obama
The Senate easily invoked cloture yesterday, ending a threatened filibuster of a major overhaul of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. The revised bill is expected to pass today. This may be the most important bill we pass this year," said Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), an architect of the bill crafted over four months ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 26, 2008 08:03
McCain Fundraising Surge
John McCain is "closing the cash gap" with Barack Obama, Jeanne Cummings reports for The Politico. For the first time in the campaign, Republican John McCain in May raised about the same amount of money, $22 million, as Democrat Barack Obama. McCain also closed the gap in the amount of cash in the bank the two parties’ presumptive nominees have at their ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 22, 2008 08:31
Public Financing R.I.P.
In the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, Congress tried to reform our system of financing political campaigns. They attempted to "get the money out of politics." They failed, miserably. So, too, did a long line of successive attempts. John McCain, the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party, earned the enmity of a large swath of his ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 20, 2008 12:03
