swamppolitics.com

Hillary Clinton: She's a 'killer'

May 17, 2008 9:11 AM PDT

by James Oliphant

The Chicago comedy troupe Second City, famous for sending a steady stream of luminaries to such shows as Saturday Night Live, has a new take on Hillary Clinton's "Obama" problem.

Check it out.

Clinton: Don't listen to the pundits

May 17, 2008 8:32 AM PDT

by James Oliphant

Take that, Little Russ!

Hillary Clinton has a new ad up in Oregon that blasts the punditocracy in Washington for being obsessed with "who's up and who's down."

Her campaign is avoiding what President Bush would call "the filter" and taking her message straight to the people. This approach avoids distracting talk about irrelevant things like "delegate counts."

In other words, the candidate who once ran on the power of the brand and her ability deliver continuity from the 1990s is now the anti-establishment outsider, throwing the media now in with the pointy-head economists and their ilk.

Bush: Oil-drill foes 'scream' for Saudi aid

May 17, 2008 8:10 AM PDT

by Mark Silva

SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt - A rebuffed President Bush complained today that "those who are screaming the loudest'' about Saudi Arabia stepping up oil production are the same people opposing his efforts to expand domestic oil drilling.

People equals Democrats in this equation, and expansion equals ANWR.

The president, who failed this week to convince Saudi leaders to significantly boost oil production to help alleviate pressure on prices, said today that Americans will have to step up to the oil drilling platform as well.

The United States cannot keep blaming others for failing to provide enough petroleum, the president said, while the U.S. itself is unwilling to explore new oil fields. In particular, Bush wants to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling - which environmentalists and Democratic leaders adamantly oppose.

"Our problem in America gets solved when we aggressively go for domestic exploration,'' Bush told reporters here today. "Our problem in America gets solved if we expand our refining capacity, promote nuclear energy, and continue our strategy for the advancement of alternative energies, as well as conservation.

"And one of the interesting things about American politics these days is those who are screaming the loudest for increased production from Saudi Arabia are the very same people who are fighting the fiercest against domestic exploration, against the development of nuclear power, and against expanding refining capacity,'' he said.

"We've got to do more at home,'' the president said. "And we need a Congress who will be responsive to those requests.''

What the 'Huck' was he thinking?

May 17, 2008 6:38 AM PDT

By Rick Pearson

LOUISVILLE--During his bid for the presidency, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was known to be quick with a quip, using his background as a motivational speaker to make audiences laugh.

But a few hours after he appeared before the National Rifle Association's annual meeting yesterday, the Baptist minister and former Republican presidential contender was forced to apologize for an off-the-cuff comment that backfired.

Huckabee was among a number of prominent Republicans who used the NRA's "Celebration of American Values" at the Kentucky Exposition Center to argue that Democrats would take away gun-owner rights.

During his speech, a crashing sound was heard from off-stage.

"That was Barack Obama," Huckabee said. "He just tripped off a chair. He's getting ready to speak and somebody aimed a gun at him and he--he dove for the floor."

Even before a friendly audience, Huckabee's line fell flat and, later, he issued an apology. "I made an offhand remark that was in no way intended to offend or disparage Sen. Obama," Huckabee said. "I apologize that my comments were offensive, that was never my intention."

Red Sea, blue and yellow tropical fish

May 17, 2008 6:00 AM PDT

by Mark Silva, notes and photos

SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt -- The Red Sea is really aquamarine.

And salty as can be.

Electric-blue and yellow tropical fish shimmer across the live coral reef that lines the beach at Sharm el Sheikh.

Children squeal at the fish crossing a slippery, submerged walkway that leads to the deep water, clear to the bottom, with a hue that defies description. Aquamarine, Tourquoise. All of the above. This walk leads to boats beyond the coral, also a jump-off for snorkelers in the deep.

Tourists from Italy and Greece have come here this weekend.

But so have the president of the United States, the presidents of Egypt, Afghanistan and the Palestine Authority, the prime minister of Pakistan, deputies from Iraq, the King of Jordan and others, which attracts another sort of boat in the off-shore waters.

And don't worry about me -- I'm on the case.

Bush in the 'city of peace,' still possible?

May 17, 2008 5:00 AM PDT

by Mark Silva

SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt - The banner headline in the Arab News this morning says it all: "Palestinians Have the Right to Exist as Well: Saud.''

This indeed was the intended message of Prince Saud al-Faisal, foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, as he assembled foreign reporters last night in a sweltering little conference room of the foreign ministry in Riyadh.

The minister appeared almost whimsical in acknowledging that everyone in the room was more interested in talking about the price of oil than what was on his mind - he was there, he said, along with the oil minister, "to answer any questions you may have about oil."

But it was clear what the prince wanted to talk about.

"All of us realize the special relationship that exists between the United States and Israel and its political dimensions,'' Saud said. "However, it is also important to confirm legitimate historical and political rights of the Palestinian people according to international law which have been hijacked by Israeli occupational forces....

"We believe that the right to the existence of one nation does not eliminate the right to the existence of another nation,'' Saud said, near the close of this remarkable week in which the Israelis had celebrated the 60th anniversary of their nation but Palestinians had marked the Nakba, or "catastrophe,'' their own loss of a homeland on the day that Israel declared its independence in 1948.

So that's where we are today, both figuratively and physically: Settling in to the so-called "city of peace,'' the sun-baked Red Sea resort at the base of the Sinai Peninsula that has played host to peace summits in the past and will host a parade of Middle East and Asian leaders this weekend focused on a broad array of political crises in their own homelands, but also facing a visiting and soon-retiring American president who wants to talk about a settlement between the Israelis and Palestinians.

President Bush will sit down to lunch here with Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak, Bush will meet with Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan, and he will meet and dine with Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestine Authority and one of the two principal leaders hoping to forge the outlines of a new Palestine state with the Israelis by the end of Bush's presidency. Bush had met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on the first leg of this five-day journey, in Israel.

The end-of-term goal of achieving the contours of a Palestinian state has appeared all but impossible in the context of events unfolding in the region this week. Yet leaders - Bush among them - still hold out hope of the possibility. Bush, in a sprint-like series of meetings at a seaside resort hotel here, also will meet with the prime minister of Pakistan, Iraqi leaders and King Abdullah II of Jordan here on Sunday.

Bush had taken these talks to Saudi Arabia as well, where Saud, the foreign minister, was asked by reporters if he can envision peace between the Palestinians and Israelis by the end of Bush's administration.

"That I could visualize peace happening during this administration is a very simple answer - yes,'' the Saudi prince said with little show of either emotion or expectation. "And I hope that it happens.''

Guns, no butter, on the campaign trail

May 17, 2008 4:30 AM PDT

by Scott Martelle

It's almost like they had Friday planned out as "Second Amendment Day" on the campaign trail.

Barack Obama started the day in Watertown, S.D., where he wrangled with John McCain and President Bush over foreign policy and appeasement.

But he also talked about guns -- just hours before McCain was to address the National Rifle Association convention in Louisville, Ky. And the focus made it clear that McCain hopes, if Obama is the Democratic nominee, to exploit Obama's electoral weakness with white, working-class men.

Our colleague Nicholas Riccardi was with Obama and reports that the Illinois senator staked out his turf early today -- seemingly anticipating both McCain and the Republican National Committee, which launched a Web ad today on Obama and guns. Said Obama:

"There are a lot of Republicans who are mainly Republicans because they're worried the Democrats are going to take away their guns. In Chicago, we've had a lot of deaths as a consequence of illegal guns and gang shootings. In a lot of the country you've got a lot of illegal guns falling into the hands of criminals and gangbangers and people with mental problems. I want to restrict their access to guns. But I will never take away the rights of lawful gun owners to hunt, to sport-shooting, to protect their family."

Then came McCain. Our colleague Noam Levey was with him. Levey reports McCain mocked Obama before the gun enthusiasts:

"It seems every election, politicians who support restrictions on the Second Amendment dress up in camouflage and pose with guns to demonstrate they care about hunters, even though few gun owners fall for such obvious political theater. After Sen. Obama made his unfortunate comment -- an inaccurate and wrong comment -- that Pennsylvanians 'cling to guns and religion' out of bitterness, Sen. Clinton quickly affirmed her support for the Second Amendment. That drew Senator Obama's derision. 'She's running around talking about how this is an insult to sportsmen, how she values the Second Amendment,' he said. 'Like she's on the duck blind every Sunday, packin' a six-shooter!' Someone should tell Sen. Obama that ducks are usually hunted with shotguns."

Which brings us to the RNC and its new web ad -- see it above.

Scott Martelle writes for Top of the Ticket, the L.A. Times' political blog.

Clinton: Tea is no energy policy

May 16, 2008 4:01 PM PDT

by Jim Tankersley

JUNCTION CITY, Ore. - Hillary Clinton didn't mention Barack Obama in her stop in this small town north of Eugene today. Or John McCain. But she leveled an array of attacks at President Bush, including a mocking of his energy policy that she blamed for economy-stifling gas prices.

Clinton popped into a half-finished new subdivision here to talk housing concerns and high gas prices with a half-dozen voters around a dining-room table. The event carried a sort of parallel universe feel: While Obama and McCain verbally sparred elsewhere over direct talks with hostile governments, Clinton acted the part of a presidential nominee - with Bush as her opponent.

Clinton criticized Bush on education, economics and timber harvesting. She said his energy policy amounted to "begging" Saudi Arabia to increase oil production and pledged to fight the "monopoly" of OPEC.

"I think it's very important that we do something more dramatic than go and have tea with the Saudis," she said, referencing Bush's meetings in that country on Friday.

Clinton promised to probe OPEC and oil traders, Teddy Roosevelt-style, for possible antitrust violations and market manipulation. She asked participants about how gas prices, nearing $4 a gallon here, hurt their businesses, public services and everyday lives. The owner of the home she sat in, retiree Marvin Mehlbrech, said high prices at the pump had curbing his family's traveling: "We kind of just hang out around here," he said.

Mehlbrech's wife Sandy urged Clinton to keep traveling the campaign trail, which is scheduled to take her to Portland for a television forum tonight and onto Kentucky tomorrow. "Please stay in," she said.

Clinton responded by nodding her head. "I feel it every day," she said, adding that she was leading among the Democratic popular vote. That figure only works if you include the disputed tallies from Florida and from Michigan, where Obama wasn't on the ballot, and discard some caucus states where the popular vote was not recorded.

A McCain flip flop on Hamas?

May 16, 2008 2:46 PM PDT

by Frank James, updated at 7:00 pm EDT with McCain campaign response.

There's a lot of chatter about the video of Sen. John McCain acknowledging in 2006 the necessity of U.S. officials dealing with Hamas.

It came when McCain was interviewed between sessions at the Davos economics conference in Switzerland by Jamie Rubin, the former Clinton State Department official who was working in television at the time.

Asked if U.S. officials should deal with the Palestinian government, McCain said:

"They're the government; sooner or later we are going to have to deal with them, one way or another. And I understand why this administration and previous administrations had such antipathy towards Hamas because of their dedication to violence and the things that they not only espouse but practice

"But it's a new reality in the Middle East. I think the lesson is people want security and a decent life and decent future, that they want democracy. Fatah was not giving them that."

Obama to McCain: 'Anywhere, anytime'

May 16, 2008 1:25 PM PDT

by John McCormick

Sen. Barack Obama said today that he is eager to debate likely Republican nominee Sen. John McCain on matters of foreign policy, especially those dealing with the volatile Middle East.

"If John McCain wants to meet me anywhere, anytime, to have a debate about our respective policies in Iraq, in Iran, in the Middle East or around the world, that is a conversation I am happy to have," the Illinois Democrat told reporters at an afternoon news conference in Watertown, S.D. "I believe that there is no separation between John McCain and George Bush when it comes to our Middle East policy and I think their policy has failed."

The comments came on a day when Obama is forcefully responding to McCain and President Bush for hinting yesterday that he would appease terrorists.

"The speech yesterday wasn't about an actual policy argument. It was about politics," Obama said. "It was about trying to scare the American people. And that's not what will work in this election because the American people can look back at the track record of George Bush, supported by John McCain, and say to themselves, 'Let's see. We were told that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. There were none. We were told that we would be there relatively briefly. We've been there for over five years. We were told this would cost maybe $50 billion, $60 billion. We're now on $600 billion. We were told that this would make us safer and this would be a model of democracy in the Middle East. It hasn't turned out that way. We were told this would not serve as a distraction in Afghanistan. You've got bin Laden sending out videotapes - today.'"

Obama said there has been no shift in his willingness to meet without preconditions with the leaders of nations hostile toward the United States.

Saudis boost oil, modestly, Bush rebuffed

May 16, 2008 11:30 AM PDT

by Mark Silva

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- The Saudis have agreed to only a modest boost in oil production, announced in the midst of meetings with Saudi King Abdullah and President Bush over tea, lunch and dinner and an overnight stay for Bush at the palatial horse farm where the Saudi ruler keeps 150 thoroughbred Arabian stallions.

But, for the second time in five months, the Saudis have rebuffed the Bush administration's request for significantly stepped-up oil production to ease rising oil prices. The Saudi oil minister said the Saudis already had marginally boosted production by about 300,000 barrels a day, as of May 10, to meet world demand, including U.S. demand, as they see it - boosting production to 9.45 million barrels a day during June.

The Saudis have made it clear that they see no great world demand for increased production, Stephen Hadley, the president's national security adviser, said after private meetings between the president and king at Abdullah's ranch - and they are not bowing for one customer, albeit the world's biggest consumer.

"What they're saying to us is... Saudi Arabia does not have customers that are making requests for oil that they are not able to satisfy,'' Hadley said.

The talks were carried out in private, but both sides spoke about them afterward. Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, was asked how forcefully Bush had made the case for boosting production.

"The discussion was carried out in a friendly fashion,'' Saud told reporters. "I don't know what you mean by forcefully -- he didn't punch any table or shout at anybody... The president showed great concern for the impact on the American economy... and we of course sympathized with that completely. But on our part, we are doing everything we can to help the international economy by producing as much as is needed.''

In the midst of these talks, the discrepancy between gas prices in the land of plenty and land of consumers could hardly be more dramatic: While gas goes for about 46 cents a gallon on the furnace-hot streets of Riyadh, the average price of a gallon of regular in the United States this week reached $3.73.

Hillary Clinton: Mao do you do?

May 16, 2008 11:06 AM PDT

by James Oliphant

At HillaryClinton.com, they're selling a new power poster of the candidate.

Check it out for yourself:

Hmm. Does this poster, maybe, look familiar to you? Something's bothering us. . .can't quite place it. . .wait, don't say it. . . .

Oh . . . yeah:

But despite the similarity, the Clinton poster was not created by some Communist Party apparatchik, but by a Hollywood screenwriter. (We've taken you this far, you can supply your own joke here.)

Obama fires back on 'appeasement'

May 16, 2008 10:50 AM PDT

by Naftali Bendavid

Barack Obama just fired back hard at President Bush's comments before the Israeli Knesset Thursday in which he attacked those who wanted to negotiate with "terrorist and radicals," comparing them to appeasers who did not recognize the seriousness of the Nazi threat--a comment Obama clearly sees as aimed at him.

At an appearance in Watertown, S.D., to talk about rural issues, Obama opened by blasting Bush's comments as inappropriate for a chief executive. "The president did something presidents don't do, and that is launch a political attack, targeted at a domestic audience, before a foreign parliament," Obama said. "That's exactly the kind of appalling attack that is dividing our country and alienating us from the world. That is why we need change in Washington."

Obama also went after the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain, for endorsing Bush's comments.

"He gave a speech in the morning where he talked about the need for civility in our politics," Obama said. "Then, not an hour later, he turned around and embraced George Bush's attacks on Democrats."

The McCain campaign did not wait long to reply.

"It was remarkable to see Barack Obama's hysterical diatribe in response to a speech in which his name wasn't even mentioned," said campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds. "These are serious issues that deserve a serious debate, not the same tired partisan rants we heard today from Senator Obama."

He added, "Senator Obama has pledged to unconditionally meet with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- who pledges to wipe Israel off the map, denies the Holocaust, sponsors terrorists, arms America's enemies in Iraq and pursues nuclear weapons. What would Senator Obama talk about with such a man?"

GOP Veep Final Four

May 16, 2008 10:38 AM PDT

by Whitney Blair Wyckoff

Who should be presumed Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain's running mate? CQ Politics is letting readers be the judge.

They have top Republican Vice Presidential contenders, plus Connecticut Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman, facing off in a five-round, NCAA-style bracket. Now in the Final Four of the competition, the bracket is getting brutal. CQ has former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee running against Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin battling former White House Budget Director Rob Portman. Voting for this round will end May 19.

Big names like Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have all been nixed in previous rounds. CQ says they would reveal the top pick on May 22.

Greg Giroux, senior writer for CQPolitics.com, said in a video on the CQ Politics Web site that chemistry, loyalty and executive experience where considered when they chose who to include in the bracket.

CQ says that readers will be able to vote on the Democratic ticket once the candidate is set.

Another McCain aide ejects

May 16, 2008 9:26 AM PDT

by Frank James

Being the former Navy fighter pilot that he is, Sen. John McCain may want to install an ejection seat in his presidential campaign, given the number of aides being forced to leave.

The latest is Craig Shirley, a Republican consultant, who was forced to leave after the disclosure of his links to one of those 527 groups, the organizations that do a lot of the slashing and burning in modern politics.

Politico.com was responsible for this one. This is how they report on the developments:

John McCain's campaign asked a prominent Republican consultant, Craig Shirley, to leave his official campaign role Thursday after a Politico inquiry about Shirley's dual role consulting for the campaign and for an independent 527 group opposing the Democratic presidential candidates. The campaign also released a new conflict-of-interest policy barring such arrangements.

Shirley, a conservative public relations veteran, doubled as a consultant to McCain and to Stop Her Now, a 527 group barred from coordinating its activities with presidential campaigns. He is not currently on the McCain campaign's payroll but will also step down from his role on McCain's Virginia Leadership Team said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers.

"If you're working for a 527 involved in the presidential race, you won't have a named role in our campaign," said Rogers.