AP – For Republicans, watching Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama fight for supremacy in fundraising is not just a spectator sport. It is a look into the future, and the GOP isn’t cheering.
Continue reading "GOP frets over Democratic fundraising (AP)" »
Arizona Sen. John McCain happily donned the “maverick” mantle in 2000 as he climbed aboard the Straight Talk Express and set off on his quest for the presidency. And he’s still wearing it today, if a nappier version, as he rides into Tuesday’s Texas primary as the presumptive Republican presidential…
Continue reading "A Brand of Politician: To a True Maverick, It’s an Earned Label" »
AP – An American held in Iraq by the U.S. military has had his conviction and death sentence overturned by an Iraqi court, the man’s American lawyer said Friday.
Continue reading "Iraqi court tosses American’s conviction (AP)" »
White House staffer Timothy Goeglein has admitted to plagiarism, the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reports:
“It is true,” Tim Goeglein wrote to The Journal Gazette in an e-mail. “I am entirely at fault. It was wrong of me. There are no excuses.”
He said he wrote to the author of the essay, Jeffrey Hart “to apologize, and do so categorically and without exception.”
Nancy Nall, a former News-Sentinel columnist who writes a blog from her home in Michigan, detailed the nearly word-for-word similarities of eight paragraphs of Goeglein’s 16-pargraph essay about college education, which appeared in the News-Sentinel on Thursday, and Hart’s column, which was written about a decade ago.
March 1st begins Women’s History Month and that is particularly important for Democrats since we have a long, proud history of women’s accomplishments to celebrate and honor. Simply going back to 1920, after battling for 72 years, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was finally ratified and women got the right to vote. From that point on women were, and still are, unstoppable.
In 1925, Nellie Taylor Ross, a Wyoming Democrat, became the nation’s first female governor. In 1931, Hattie Wyatt Caraway was appointed to the U.S. Senate from Arizona and in 1933, Frances Perkins was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to be the first female Secretary of Labor.
In 1965, Patsy Takemoto Mink from Hawaii became the first woman of color and the first woman of Asian-Pacific Islander descent to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. Then in 1968, Shirley Chisholm from N.Y. became the first African American woman to serve in Congress. In 1972, she ran for president in the Democratic primary.
In 1977, President Carter appointed Patricia Roberts Harris, the first African American woman to serve as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and thereafter Secretary of Health and Human Services. A few years later in 1984, Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro became the first woman nominated for Vice-President.
In 1985, Madeline Kunin was elected governor of Vermont and became the first woman to serve three consecutive terms as governor. The following year, in 1986, Barbara Mikulski from Maryland became the first Democratic woman elected to the U.S. Senate without previously filling an unexpired Congressional term.
In 1992, Carol Moseley Braun from Illinois became the first African American woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate and Nydia Velasquez from New York became the first Puerto Rican woman to be elected to Congress. The following year, in 1993, Janet Reno became the first woman to serve as U.S. Attorney General.
Madeleine Albright became the first woman to serve as U.S. Secretary of State, making her the highest ranking woman in the government in 1997. Also that year, Aida Alvarez became the first Hispanic woman to hold a cabinet level position when she was appointed Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration by President Bill Clinton.
The next year, in 1998, Tammy Baldwin became Wisconsin’s first woman in Congress and the first open lesbian elected to Congress as a non-incumbent. Three years later, Hillary Clinton became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from New York and the only First Lady ever elected to public office. Also in 2001, Senator Patty Murray from Washington State became the first woman to serve as Chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Representative Nita Lowey became the first woman to Chair the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
In 2003, Arizona made history when its citizens elected Janet Napolitano as their Governor, the first time a female governor succeeded another female governor. Two years later in 2005, three Congresswomen became the first women of color to chair congressional committees: they are Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones from Ohio, chairing the Committee on Ethics; the late Representative Juanita Millender-McDonald from California, chairing the Committee on House Administration (and later succeeded by Representative Laura Richardson); and Representative Nydia Velasquez from N.Y., chairing the Committee on Small Business.
Thanks to these trailblazing women, (and the many not mentioned here but no less important), the idea of having a female Speaker of the House seemed more than plausible. Indeed, it was doable and it happened. In 2006, when the Democrats took control of Congress, Nancy Pelosi became the first woman Speaker of the House, making her the third highest ranking official in the government and the highest ranking female in U.S. political history.
Finally, we must also pay tribute to the unsung heroines whose contributions to women’s history are marked by their labor on many different fronts. They are our mothers, grandmothers, sisters, daughters, cousins and friends. They are every woman.
Texans have never seen anything like this month’s stampede to the polls to vote early, but what the numbers mean is subject to debate.
President Bush and Democratic leaders went to war on Thursday over how to prevent widening damage from the housing crisis.
Continue reading "Bipartisan Spirit Falters in Fights on Debt Relief" »
In a news conference, there was no masking the president’s disdain for the Democrats’ positions on several hot-button campaign issues.
What began for Barack Obama as a trickle of support from the superdelegates has grown into more of a stream over the last month.
Continue reading "Obama Cutting Into Clinton’s Edge Among Superdelegates" »
Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton each had a record-breaking month, bringing in more than $80 million combined, but with Mr. Obama again far outraising Mrs. Clinton.
Continue reading "Obama and Clinton Flush With Cash From February" »
McCain picks up support of Texas preacher who has some choice words for the Catholic Church:
John McCain proudly touted picking up the support of Texas preacher John Hagee at a town hall meeting this morning in Houston.
But Hagee’s endorsement doesn’t come free. He’s said some derogatory things about Catholicism in the past.
So naturally William Donahue, outspoken head of the conservative Catholic League issued a scathing press release today, calling on McCain to disavow Hagee’s backing.
Donahue notes Hagee has called the Catholic church “‘The Great Whore,’ an ‘apostate church,’ the ‘anti-Christ,’ and a ‘false cult system.’
AP – The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday justified blocking California and other states from cracking down on auto emissions by saying the problems of global warming aren’t unique to one state.
Continue reading "EPA justifies blocking Calif. waiver (AP)" »
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