Jake Tapper of ABC News breaks the story (hat tip to Kristinn at Free Republic):
Andrew Romanoff, the former speaker of the Colorado house of representatives, issued a statement Wednesday evening claiming that the White House raised the possibility that he might be offered an administration job if he opted to not challenge incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo.
Romanoff also released what he said was an e-mail from White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina outlining three possible jobs — deputy assistant administrator for Latin America and Caribbean for the U.S. Agency for International Development; director of the Office of Democracy and Governance at USAID; and director of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency – he could have if he didn’t run.
Romanoff did not accept any of the offers, and currently is challenging Bennet, who has the endorsement of President Obama.
The White House did not comment. The statement comes as the White House attempts to distance itself from the controversy stemming from attempts – also unsuccessful – to convince Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., to not challenge Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., in the Pennsylvania primary. Sestak ultimately defeated Specter.
On Neil Cavuto’s Your World today, Stuart Varney made a cogent case for fairness in the feds’ bashing of BP, saying it is not entirely all BP’s fault or responsibility that the oil spill has become such a catastrophe. He explained that ruining BP will do no one any good. After all, a business that’s bankrupt can’t help anyone cover the costs of lost wages and coastal clean-up, not to mention the eleven lives that were lost in the oil rig’s explosion some 42 days ago.
Varney stated that this Administration has an extremely harsh approach toward business, says it will put a boot on BP’s neck, but treats terrorists like family and wants to lawyer them up and give them every break possible. Watch the video (2:35 length). “This is a catastrophe, a crisis, and I think we’re going off on the deep end in the wrong direction.”
Neil visibly backed away from that statement, telling Varney to calm down. “You’re upset”. Varney insisted he wasn’t upset. He was adamant. But Cavuto diminished him, belittling Varney’s opinion with a left handed insult.
Cavuto’s reaction to Varney’s position reminds me of the way some men demean their wives’ or friends’ point of view when they know they’re on the losing end of an argument: “Now you’re getting emotional.” Or “You’re not making any sense. Get back to me when you’ve calmed down.”
Likely they’re cowards who can’t handle the truth. The only way they know to keep the emotional upper hand when they feel they’re cornered or threatened is to diminish the other person’s side of the argument. I’m sure you know the type — egotistic chest thumpers with genital warts…
I’ve been watching Cavuto for a couple of years or more and unless I missed this, I’ve noticed that this cannoli afficionado seems as squishy as his waistline. What gives?
First, he sided with Connecticut’s AG Richard Blumenthal when Blumenthal admitted he lied about his military record. We gasped with amazement when Cavuto admonished his viewers to cut Blumenthal a break. Cavuto never did retract his comments, leading some of us to suspect his judgment, if not his character and willingness to tackle the tough topics.
Today’s exchange with Varney did nothing to alter that perception. Cavuto’s Common Sense segment is anything but these days.
From here on, as far as I’m concerned, Neil Cavuto is in the Nancy boy column.
“I am running for Congress because as a mom, I want the same opportunities for my son as I had growing up. I am concerned about the direction our country is heading and I want to help get us on the right path. I need your help. Will you join me?” ~ Renee Ellmers, wife, mom, surgical intensive care nurse, candidate for Congress, NC 2
Renee is active in community affairs, having served as Vice President of Community Development for the Chamber of Commerce and as President Elect of the Chamber for the coming year. She has also served on the Dunn Planning Board, the board of the Betsy Johnson Hospital Foundation and the Harnett County Nursing Home Committee.
She volunteers at Cape Fear Christian Academy where her son, Ben, is a student, and teaches Sunday school at Sacred Heart Catholic Church.
Last summer Renee and her husband attended a Town Hall meeting to hear Congressman Bob Etheridge speak on behalf of President Obama’s health care plan. Later, as a volunteer, she became an outspoken critic of government-run health care. She is now a candidate for Congress – opposing Congressman Etheridge – in North Carolina’s 2nd District.
So drop in and meet Renee this evening on my radio program, where we’ll also be talking about what’s happening in Israel and the FTC’s grab to control the media.
This morning on his radio program, Glenn Beck talked about the history of America relative to Israel. Here are excerpts from his comments. You must listen. You must know and understand what’s before us.
“No one wants to think your country is in the hands of a monster”. Clip length 4:56
A German woman calls in with a dire warning for America.Clip length 3:23
Tea Party Express chief political strategist Sal Russo emailed me this morning with this good news from Rasmussen:
Rasmussen Poll
46% Say Tea Party Good for America, 31% Disagree
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Forty-six percent (46%) of U.S. voters say the Tea Party movement is good for the country, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Thirty-one percent (31%) disagree and say it’s bad for the country. Another 13% say it’s neither.
But just 16% of voters say they are actually members of the so-called Tea Party, a loose knit group of Americans nationwide protesting big government and high taxes. This is down eight points from a month ago and but little changed from two months ago. The spike in identification with the Tea Party followed passage of the health care law. Most voters continue to favor repeal of that law.
Nine percent (9%) now say that they are not members of the Tea Party but have close friends or family members who are. Sixty-nine percent (69%) say they have no ties whatsoever to the movement.
The Tea Party is definitely not a Political Class phenomenon, though. Not a single Political Class respondent in the survey said they’re a member of the Tea Party, but five percent (5%) confessed that they have close friends or relatives who are.
Sixty-one percent (61%) of the Political Class say the Tea Party is bad for America. Two-thirds (66%) of Mainstream Americans see it as a good thing for the country. However, it’s important to note that only a little more than half of all Mainstream voters consider themselves to be part of the Tea Party movement.
The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on May 28-29, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
Forty-one percent (41%) of all voters have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party movement, while 35% view it unfavorably. Twenty-three percent (23%) are undecided. These numbers are little changed from March.
In April of last year, however, after the first “tea parties” were held on Tax Day, 51% of Americans had a favorable view of those gatherings, including 32% who said their view of the events was Very Favorable.
Male voters are more likely than female voters to have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party movement. Forty-eight percent (48%) of white voters view the movement favorably, while 69% of African-Americans have an unfavorable opinion.
While the Tea Party efforts generally claim no partisan affiliation, there is clearly a partisan edge to the movement. Seventy percent (70%) of Republicans look on the Tea Party movement favorably while 66% of Democrats hold an unfavorable opinion of it. As for those not affiliated with either major party, 45% offer a positive view while 28% voice a negative opinion of the Tea Party.
Twenty-seven percent (27%) of voters nationwide say they are at least somewhat likely to attend a Tea Party rally. That includes eight percent (8%) who say they are Very Likely to do so. Sixty-nine percent (69%) say their attendance at such a rally is unlikely, including 37% who say it is Not At All Likely.
But the Tea Party movement defies easy description. Rasmussen Reports surveying, however, provides some glimpses into the movement, including the overwhelming beliefs among its members that the federal government is a special interest group and that government and big business work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors.
When it comes to major issues confronting the nation, 48% of voters say the average Tea Party member is closer to their views than President Obama is. Forty-four percent (44%) hold the opposite view and believe the president’s views are closer to their own.
Fifty-two percent (52%) believe the average member of the Tea Party movement has a better understanding of the issues facing America today than the average member of Congress.
Thirty-five percent (35%) of voters now think Republicans and Democrats are so much alike that an entirely new political party is needed to represent the American people. Nearly half (47%) of voters disagree and say a new party is not needed
If the Tea Party was organized as a political party, 34% of voters would prefer a Democrat in a three-way congressional race. In that hypothetical match-up, the Republican gets 27% of the vote with the Tea Party hopeful in third at 21%. But if only the Democrat or Republican had a real chance to win, most of the Tea Party supporters would vote for the Republican.
Tea Party unhappiness with incumbents and the traditional two parties is already playing a key role in several contests around the country including the Texas governor’s race and Senate races in Florida, Kentucky and Utah.
Glenn Beck opened his show today with Andrew Breitbart in studio.
They kicked it off talking about Israel. If you’re not paying attention to what’s happening there, you’d better start.
Breitbart brought up Code Pink’s involvement as terrorist-supporting agitprop creators over there. The same type of agitprop goons who recently stormed a bank executive’s home. He linked it with the tactics that are used by the SEIU — the beating of Tea Party participant Kenneth Gladney.
He said if it hadn’t been for Nina Easton reporting on the Bank of America mob scene, no one would have known about it. “This is in Montgomery County MD, about two and a half blocks outside the DC border. Cops escorted these 14 buses across county lines! We have witnesses saying there were police cars there, escorting them there.
Breitbart: “Nina Easton is a liberal, the bank executive was a Clintonista. Now Nina Easton will not report about this story – my sense is she realized “Omigosh, this is the power structure, I can’t be seen here”. So Nina Easton has clammed up.
Glenn then brought up the Federal Trade Commission’s move to censor internet media. ” Let’s start taxing people – put together a little board to decide whether Breitbart is good for social structure of America or if you’re an agitator or if you’re doing good or bad things for the environment and society,” he said.
Both he and Breitbart stated that this is the back door into destroying the first amendment. Breitbart pointed out that Obama at a commencement speech honored Huffington Post.
Protest in front of bank exec? Who was there to point at Nina’ Easton’s husband who has a conflict of interest? Huffpo and Media Matters get paid by Soros…
“We’re just reporting the truth and they never come back and say this is false…they just impugn us,” Breitbart noted. Listen to the :31 clip.
Andrew has found out something else about the census that you need to know about.
“One of the first things the president did was screwing with the census from day one.
“James O’Keefe is an American hero, inspiring other people to go undercover and report things the mainstream media will not do.” O’Keefe — on the phone — described how he took a job with the census bureau and found supervisors were systematically telling him to falsify his timesheets for his time worked. “20 to 30% of the time I got paid for, I didn’t even work. Listen to the 1:14 clip of Andrew talking about it.
They calculated that an hour wasted at $18.25 an hour equaled $10m950k of our taxpayer money a day wasted.
Breitbart said, “This is the beginning of the investigation into the census — people are sending in thousands of emails to us about the census. Two people came to me even before James did this – where people were arbitrarily filling out census forms.”
They talked about the type of people being hired – rapists and others who prey on innocent people.
Breitbart: “James has another major investigation he’s done – much bigger than census story – we’re trying to inspire the nation to become investigative journalists.”
Glenn: “The news is splitting and Andrew is on the right path here. Get your tips to me and Andrew.”
Tonight on his TV show Glenn will be talking about the history of hate, the history of Israel, and who’s behind it. As he always says, “You don’t want to miss it.” You don’t.
A White House photograph of “President” Puppet with his feet on the Oval Office desk while speaking on the phone with Benjamin Netanyahu last year resulted in reporters in Israel and elsewhere speculating that it was meant to send a message of disrespect.
The photograph, snapped by White House photographer Pete Sousa, was sent out to news media. It is considered an insult in the Arab world to show the sole of your shoe to someone.
Turkey has chosen to condemn Israel but we should be asking some serious questions about Turkey’s role in this whole affair. Why is a fellow member of NATO sponsoring such a dangerous publicity stunt? As one expert points out: “Three ships of that six-ship pro-terror convoy flew Turkish flags and were crowded with Turkish citizens. The Ankara government — led by Islamists these days — sponsored the “aid” operation in a move to position itself as the new champion of the Palestinians. And Turkish decision-makers knew Israel would have to react — and were waiting to exploit the inevitable clash. The provocation was as cynical as it was carefully orchestrated.”
Might Obama have diffused this entire situation by sending in C-130 transports and pressuring Turkey not to send this flotilla in to confront the Jews? Instead he signed off on this covert Islamic operation, and now it has nuclear Israel pitted against nuclear Turkey. Read here for more.
Jake Tapper of ABC News breaks the story (hat tip to Kristinn at Free Republic):
