Grover Norquist: Republicans Could Take Back Congress

Ronald Kessler

Republicans may be poised to retake Congress in 2008 because the Democrats are "over-reaching," Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, tells NewsMax.

Few people know as much about what is going on in Washington as Norquist. The White House and members of Congress trust him with their secrets. As outlined in the NewsMax article Washington's Big Secret, Norquist's Wednesday morning meetings of conservatives draw presidential candidates, key members of Congress, and White House aides like Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie.

"I would argue that the best news for the Republicans is that 2007 and 2008 are looking like 1993 and 1994," Norquist told me over breakfast at the Mayflower Hotel, referring to the Republican takeover of Congress that took effect in January 1995. Previously, Democrats had controlled Congress for 40 years.

"The Democrats are overreaching on taxes, on spending, and general left-wing impulses," Norquist says. "Just as back then, there was the Hush-Rush Bill," referring to Rush Limbaugh. "Now there's the Fairness Doctrine. It's the same thing. As back then, the Democrats are raising gun control as an issue."

In fact, says Norquist, "The Democrats are doing something to irritate all of the parts of the modern conservative movement, just as they did in 1993 and 1994."

To a degree, the Iraq war obscures the comparison.

"The war gives the left an energy that they didn't have in 1993 and 1994," Norquist says. "There was nothing back then like the anti-war movement, which energized people."

Today, Norquist says, "You have an unease among a lot of non-political people, but the real cost of Iraq is not even so much that unease as the drowning out of other issues. We can't run against the Democrats — calling them the party that wants to raise taxes — if the president can only talk about Iraq."

Figures released by the White House show that in 2007, the average taxpayer will pay $2,216 less in federal taxes than he or she would have paid prior to President Bush's tax cuts. For 27 million small business owners, the average reduction will be $4,712.

At the same time, the deficit has been reduced from $413 billion in 2004 to $248 billion in 2006. The projected deficit for 2007 is $205 billion.

Norquist notes that while Bush occasionally talks about his record of tax-cutting, the press would rather write about Iraq. That could change when Bush starts vetoing bills that will increase spending beyond his proposed budget.

Currently, the Democrat-controlled Congress wants to spend $205 billion more than the president does.

"Now the White House says they're going to be tough on vetoing," Norquist says. "So we could, in the next 12 months, have this huge fight on taxes and spending and regulations and labor union changes, driven by the White House, which could save the White House for the Republicans and bring at least the House back to Republican control. That is entirely possible. But Iraq needs to be in the rear view mirror, not in the windshield. And the president needs to be able to credibly talk about these other issues."

Norquist notes that another bright spot is the Pension Protection Act of 2006, which takes effect in January. The law allows employers to create 401k plans that automatically enroll their employees unless they opt out. Unless an employee instructs otherwise, the plan decides how much the employee should invest and automatically deducts that amount from paychecks.

Very few employees are expected to opt out. With traditional 401k plans, employees who want to participate have to opt in.

"By going from opt-in to opt-out, an additional 16 million people will have pensions and be in the stock market by January," Norquist says. "So there'll be this huge jump in the number of people who own shares of stock."

As a result of these and other changes, Norquist says, "I think that part of Bush's legacy will be the growth of the investor class and a greater ownership society. He needs to focus more on that."

Don Imus Is Coming Back

Rod Proctor, NewsMax.com

Radio talker Don Imus, exiled from the airwaves in April after making remarks many saw as racist, will return to the microphone as early as September, industry analysts and observers tell NewsMax — but not all agree that the return will be triumphal.

The industry has been rife with rumors since Imus sidekick Bo Dietl's announcement on an Albany radio show, and picked up by the New York Post, that an Imus comeback was in the works for this September.

But experts explain to NewsMax that events are moving so quickly that the "I-Man" will be back in his broadcast chair by late summer or early fall.

"The I's are being dotted and the T's being crossed," media analyst Brian Maloney tells NewsMax. "When rumors went out, and the station not only didn't deny it but played along, that's key right there."

Radio & Records senior editor Mike Boyle, speaking to NewsMax, echoes that certitude. "The sun, the moon, and the stars seem to be aligning with all of this information — whether rumor or fact," he says.

And Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers magazine — the industry bible — is surprised Imus wasn't rehired sooner. "I always thought he'd be back, even before they fired him."

Even the Rev. Al Sharpton, arguably Imus' most vocal critic in April, has blessed the comeback.

In comments to The Associated Press and Radaronline.com, Sharpton says: "My position is that we never called for him to be permanently barred from being on the air. We wanted him to pay for being a repeat abuser, and he paid. We never said we didn't want him to make a living."

Imus spokesman and attorney Martin Garbus, has refused comment.

The questions now are, Where will Imus land? and, What kind of radio landscape will he find once he gets there?

Boyle and Maloney are convinced he'll be back at his old New York City flagship, WFAN-AM, owned by Viacom and CBS. The reason, says Radio & Records' Boyle: "Money."

"You have to look at how much money that radio station billed. They are definitely one of the top 10, if not top five, billing stations in the country. A large portion of that came from Imus."

Analyst Maloney sees another motivation for CBS to return Imus to the fold.

"I think the reason he's returning so easily is they fear an expensive legal battle over the terms of his contact, which were highly favorable to him and they know it," he explains to NewsMax. "They could have been liable for up to $40 million in a payout were they to lose in court. So the alternative is to put him back on the air. Pay him the regular salary. What's the cheaper option?"

Talkers' Harrison isn't quite so sure of what lies in Imus' future.

"I've heard inside reports both confirming and denying he'll return to WFAN," he tells NewsMax. "Imus has all of radio to choose from. I'm sure there are many, many companies that would love to have his services."

And Newsday.com's Neil Best reports on that Web site that CBS CEO Les Moonves in June discounted the possibility of a CBS reprieve. Media journalist Ken Auletta asked Moonves whether Imus would return to CBS Radio. Moonves' curt response: "No."

Some question how successful Imus will be upon his return. The New York Post, at the time Imus was fired, reported that his audience had slipped 50 percent over the last 10 years, and had slid a full 25 percent in just the prior six months.

"He will return in a greatly diminished capacity," Maloney tells NewsMax. "If he's syndicated at all, it will be only a handful of stations. On [WFAN] itself, he will not be in the timeslot he has had. There is no way he's going to recapture what has been lost.

"All I see with certainty is a local New York City radio show," Maloney continues. "Keep in mind Imus was not a big syndication star. He was not on that many stations before. The very few big ones he was on were mainly in the Northeast and a few in the Southeast. Nothing in the West. The only other big station he was on is in Boston and that station has already announced a replacement. So where does he go?"

But Talkers' Harrison disagrees.

"[Imus'] ratings were not so terrible, especially when you have a qualitative audience the way he did. Considering more than 5,000 talkers are in America, top 20 is nothing to be embarrassed about," he explains to NewsMax. "That's major league.

"Radio ratings are only one aspect of what makes a host valuable. Loyalty and specifics of demographics. He's a valuable property whether he's 50th, 20th, or first. And now that he's had all this publicity and proved what an important newsmaker he is, I think his appeal as an attraction has been increased."

Indeed, NewsMax Magazine's October 2006 edition put Imus as the 3rd most influential man in radio, due to his high-level demographics in audience, his major newsmaker guests, and his simulcast on MSNBC.

There's no word yet if a new Imus radio show would include a cable simulcast as MSNBC did with his "Imus in the Morning" show.

Another angle of Imus' comeback circulating within the industry has some scratching their heads: Rumors that he has been visiting comedy clubs in search of a black sidekick.

"I think that would be kind of strange," Maloney responds to NewsMax. "You can't predict what Imus will do. He's always been an oddball. If that's the way he returns, that kind of move could backfire. It could be seen as blatant pandering."

Harrison has a different take.

"I don't know how true it is," he tells NewsMax. "But it makes sense. He should work into his routine and repertoire whatever new dimension of understanding he has about race relations.

"The fact is, Imus is not a racist. The whole thing was distorted and trumped up, and he was executed for a crime he really didn't intend to commit."

Boyle also defends Imus: "You only hear about the bad things he's said on the radio. Nobody talks about the things he does for kids with cancer out at his ranch.

"He got railroaded. If there's any chance to bring him back, everybody's going to become a winner."

Benicio Del Toro’s New ‘Che’ Film

Not content with only one disingenuous biography of mass executioner Ernesto “Che” Guevara, Hollywood’s now got plans for another Che-flattering flick.

In Tinseltown, historical reality routinely loses out to radical chic.

The real lowdown is that Guevara helped Castro come to power in Cuba and personally carried out executions for him.

The same group that wanted California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to stop the execution of multiple murderer Tookie Williams because of opposition to capital punishment have no problem walking around in Che T-shirts, despite the fact that on a routine basis Guevara carried out summary executions for Castro, assassinating hundreds of innocent people.

The other recent fawning Che biopic was Robert Redford’s 2004 film, “The Motorcycle Diaries,” a twisted tribute to the thug’s youthful days.

Now Oscar winner Benicio del Toro will reportedly portray the ardent Argentine communist in a movie that will reunite the actor with director Steve Soderbergh. Del Toro picked up an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work with Soderbergh in the critically acclaimed 2000 film, “Traffic.”

Del Toro’s Web site refers to Che as “many things to many people: an exemplary human, a hero, a tyrant, a fanatic.”

Well, the actor got the last two descriptions right.

The site also divulges the upcoming Che movie title, “Guerrilla,” and lists Ryan Gosling and Benjamin Bratt as being among the cast.

And Julia Ormond, who starred with Brad Pitt in “Legends of the Fall” will co-star, according to the Internet Movie Database.

Hollywood's ‘Kid Nation' Labor Tactics

By the Left Coast Report

In this educator and cultural commentator’s opinion, CBS television has made a highly questionable programming decision.

Following the TV success adage that reality shows receive a boost from controversy, the network has produced a series for the fall called “Kid Nation,” where 40 children live in an abandoned New Mexico mining town ostensibly with no adult supervision.

The show could be called “Student Council Meets ‘Lord of the Flies,’” the basic premise being that when left to their own devices (i.e., no adults around) children who are attempting self-governing will provide reality TV entertainment pleasure to the viewing audience.

However, in typical faux-reality fashion, the kids on the CBS show are actually surrounded by adult producers, adult camera crews, adult make-up artists, adult sound technicians, etc.

It turns out that producers of the show skirted guidelines and laws meant to protect children, used youngsters in hopes of garnering ratings and ended up with a product that delivers a terrible message to parents, teachers and society-at-large.

CBS apparently managed to slip under the wire just ahead of new legislation in New Mexico that closed loopholes in the state’s child labor laws. Unlike California and New York, prior to July 1, 2007, New Mexico had exempted theatrical production from its child protection laws.

The Land of Enchantment has now joined the Golden and Empire States in having strict rules that include the following: The number of hours children can work on the set is a maximum of 18 during a school week, with no filming taking place after 7 p.m. Children must be fed proper meals as well, and studio teachers and a parent or guardian must be present on the set.

For the “Kid Nation” production, over the course of 40 days 8- to 15-year-olds spent up to 14 hours a day working on the set. Teachers were conspicuously absent, despite the fact that filming took place in April and May of 2007 while the school year was still underway.

The notion of kids being objects of our entertainment affections has a long history in Hollywood that harkens back to the child stars of the Golden Age. Still, placing teens and pre-teens in a reality show pressure cooker looks a whole lot more like exploitation than anything Art Linkletter or Bill Cosby ever contemplated.

Kids, by their nature, are still in the process of developing the physical, emotional and psychological wherewithal to deal with the dynamics of real life. To place them into a reality television show setting, where they must prematurely deal with adult-sized conflicts of the intellectual, social and moral kind (including jockeying for position in a mini “society,” developing physical, mental, and emotional stamina and competing against other contestants for substantial monetary gain) is cruel, in my book.

To compound the “entertainment” madness, the pint-sized drama plays out in front of millions of people via the TV broadcast airwaves. In preview footage, children are shown arguing, weeping, and collapsing from exhaustion.

In addition to the questionable nature of the show and dubious tactics employed, a subtext appears to be at play as well. Promotional materials for “Kid Nation” state that the children “will try to fix their forefathers' mistakes and build a new town that works.”

The implication is that the founders’ design was utterly flawed, and children have the answers for correcting the nation’s ills. This echoes a familiar refrain that for years has resounded across the media land and continues to permeate our entertainment fare, marketing and advertising materials and print; the message — kids are smarter than adults.

This is a contributing factor to the strange predicament that we find ourselves in here in America; that is, we have a generation of children who, despite poor academic performance when compared to other nations, possess a highly over-inflated opinion of themselves.

“Kid Nation” doesn’t sound like a place where anyone would want to live, much less visit on a weekly basis.

Sen. Feingold proposes censuring Bush

AP

Liberal Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold said Sunday he wants Congress to censure President Bush for his management of the Iraq war and his "assault" against the Constitution.

But Feingold's own party leader in the Senate showed little interest in the idea. An attempt in 2006 by Feingold to censure Bush over the warrantless spying program attracted only three co-sponsors.

Feingold, a prominent war critic, said he soon plans to offer two censure resolutions — measures that would amount to a formal condemnation of the Republican president.

The first would seek to reprimand Bush for, as Feingold described it, getting the nation into war without adequate military preparation and for issuing misleading public statements. The resolution also would cite Vice President Dick Cheney and perhaps other administration officials.

The second measure would seek to censure Bush for what the Democrat called a continuous assault against the rule of law through such efforts as the warrantless surveillance program against suspected terrorists, Feingold said. It would also ask for a reprimand of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and maybe others.

"This is an opportunity for people to say, let's at least reflect on the record that something terrible has happened here," said Feingold, D-Wis. "This administration has weakened America in a way that is frightful."

At the White House, spokesman Trey Bohn said, "We realize that Senator Feingold does not care much for the president's policies."

Bohn said Bush wants to work with Feingold and other Democrats on such matters as supporting U.S. troops, improving energy choices and securing health care and tax cuts for families. "Perhaps after calls for censure and more investigations, Congress may turn to such things," Bohn said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Feingold's proposals showed the nation's frustration. But Reid said he would not go along with them and said the Senate needs to focus on finishing spending bills on defense and homeland security.

"We have a lot of work to do," Reid said. "The president already has the mark of the American people — he's the worst president we ever had. I don't think we need a censure resolution in the Senate to prove that."

As for the Senate's top Republican, "I think it's safe to say Russ Feingold is not a fan of George Bush. I think that's the best way to sum that up," said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Feingold spoke on NBC's "Meet the Press." Reid appeared on "Face the Nation" on CBS, while McConnell was on "Late Edition" on CNN.

Mike Huckabee Answers His Critics: I Can Beat Hillary

Dave Eberhart

Hillary Clinton will be tough to beat if she wins the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, says Mike Huckabee — who insists he's the GOP candidate who can beat Hillary in the general election.

In an exclusive NewsMax interview, the former Arkansas governor said he's the Republican candidate with the truest consistent conservative credentials, someone who has never "flip-flopped" on important issues.

"I have nothing to explain," Huckabee says with confidence. "I'm comfortable in my own skin."

He said a centerpiece of his presidential campaign is a call for the implementation of the "fair tax" to replace the current federal tax system.

And as for his uphill battle to overtake the well-funded campaigns of Republican front-runners John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, and Mitt Romney, Huckabee said: "It shouldn't be about who can raise the most money."

The busy Huckabee, 51, chatted with NewsMax from New Hampshire, where he landed at 2:00 a.m. Friday morning.

The two-term governor says that over the years he got to know Hillary, the former first lady of Arkansas, very well and that she is as "focused" as she can be on 2008.

"I take little stock when folks say they hope she wins the nomination because that will make it easy for us to win the general election. I believe just the opposite — that she will be a formidable opponent. I've seen her in action."


'Broken' Tax System Needs Fixing

When asked if any particular experience on the campaign trail convinced Huckabee that he was right to be running for the White House, he pointed without hesitation to a middle-aged man he met while on the stump in New Hampshire. The man wanted to get his daughter through a good college and began working an extra job and saving — only to find the "taxman at his elbow, ready to frustrate his ambitions at every turn."

"That's when I knew I was right in my thinking that it's not going to take an adjustment here and a turn of the wrench there to fix the broken tax system."

The solution, he decided, wasn't to fix up the old sagging house but to tear it down and begin building again at the foundation. The key: the "fair tax."

Huckabee described his vision: "I want to completely eliminate all federal income and payroll taxes. And do I mean all — personal federal, corporate federal, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, self-employment. Instead we will have the fair tax, a simple tax based on wealth.

"The fair tax will replace the Internal Revenue Code with a consumption tax, like the taxes on retail sales 45 states and the District of Columbia have now. All of us will get a monthly rebate to reimburse us for taxes on purchases up to the poverty line, so that we're not taxed on necessities.

"We'll be taxed on what we decide to buy, not what we happen to earn. We won't be taxed on what we choose to save or the interest those savings earn. The tax will apply only to new goods, so we can reduce our taxes further by buying a used car or computer."

Huckabee acknowledges that a couple of the other GOP candidates are talking about such a plan, but he is the only one who has put it front and center.

On Saturday, candidate Giuliani was jeered by several dozen people at a campaign stop when he said he didn't think a fair tax is "realistic."


Ex-governor Responds to Critics

Huckabee is on the record more than once saying, "I'm proud of my record as a fiscal conservative." But by the end of his second term as Arkansas governor, critics like the watchdog group Club for Growth note, he had raised sales taxes 37 percent, fuel taxes 16 percent, and cigarettes taxes 103 percent.

But Huckabee told NewsMax that the picture being drawn is too simplistic.

He explained that with respect to the tax increases, a state Supreme Court decision required immediate additional spending on education. The ruling came at a time when he had already cut the state budget 11 percent, and the choice was between raising taxes to fund the court order or being in contempt of court.

When he became governor, Arkansas had some of the "worst highways in the nation," he said. Over 80 percent of voters supported a four cent tax on diesel fuel to fix the roads. Similarly, a 1/8-cent increase in the sales tax was approved by the voters to preserve their natural and cultural heritage.

Huckabee said that as governor he would have "violated his oath of office" if he had tried to thwart the will of these voters.

Recently, the National Review launched into Huckabee by charging that he was not the poster child for smaller government, citing the increase in state employees and spending during his tenure.

Once again, Huckabee explained the devil in the details.

With respect to the spending that he as governor had under his control — excluding federal pass-throughs and programs strictly controlled by the Democrat legislature — spending rose only about six-tenths of 1 percent a year during his 10 1/2-year tenure, he says.

As for the 20 percent growth in state employees during his tenure, Huckabee says he had no control over higher education and federally funded positions, "and when you remove those employees, the number of state employees increased 5.6 percent."


'No Negotiation' With Radical Islam

Leaving the past and addressing the future, NewsMax asked Huckabee if he has the mettle for the job of commander in chief.

Huckabee believes the premier virtue for the leader of the free world these dangerous days is a raw no-nonsense understanding of the immensity of the evil we are facing as a people and as a civilization: "This is not a typical geo-political war over boundaries, borders, or political bravado — it's a theological war with radical adherents to their religion who believe that their God has ordered them to purge earth of all that is not a part of their ‘pure' faith.

"There is no negotiation with those engaged in a theological war — it's naive and downright dangerous to believe they will leave us alone if we leave them alone. That's nonsense. They don't care if the war lasts 1,000 days or a 1,000 years — their goal is our annihilation and their supreme rule over the whole earth."

Curiously, the same candidate who utters these fighting words is always quick with his sense of humor.

When it was pointed out that another little-known Arkansas governor overcame great odds to win the presidency, Huckabee jokingly dismissed the comparison by noting that Bill Clinton was a Southern governor who played the saxophone, while Huckabee is a Southern governor who plays the bass guitar.

Huckabee also scored humorous points during a recent presidential debate when he compared Congress' out-of-control spending to Democratic candidate John Edwards' $400 haircut.

Huckabee spokeswoman Kirsten Fedewa said his campaign "seized the opportunity to raise money by asking supporters to contribute the amount of money they each pay for a haircut to the campaign. This effort raised $40,000."


Huckabee's 'Rocky' Campaign

Huckabee, who lost over 100 pounds after a wake-up-call diagnosis of looming diabetes, took some time off on the July Fourth holiday to run in an annual 5-kilometer race in Arkansas.

"It was the first race I ever ran after I got fit," he said. "It's become a personal tradition."

These days, the athletic and trim candidate participates in marathon races, but he recalls the old days when he would get winded and break an embarrassing sweat ascending the steps to the state capitol building. "I was always afraid that some reporters would catch me at the top of the steps panting and exhausted."

When Huckabee was introduced recently to the National Education Association's annual meeting at Philadelphia's Pennsylvania Convention Center, the theme from the movie "Rocky" reverberated through the hall. The classic boxing motion picture with Sylvester Stallone was set in the City of Brotherly Love.

"It was motivating," said Huckabee, who has had to work out as hard as the Rocky Balboa character to gain his new healthy persona and now sees himself in a long Rocky-like power jog to the White House.


Positive and Upbeat

"Since the governor isn't one of the ‘anointed' top-tier candidates, the campaign decided early on to place high priority on earned media to help him gain name ID and visibility," spokeswoman Fedewa confided.

That effort was evident on Monday, when he scheduled a guest appearance on NBC's "Today" show, a 10 a.m. Eastern appearance on NPR's "On Point" with Tom Ashbrook, a 9 p.m. guest spot on Fox News' "Hannity and Colmes," and a 10 p.m. appearance on Alan Colmes' nationally syndicated radio program.

Meanwhile, the candidate is starting to register in the polls and has emerged from the second tier pack as the potential comer. At the least he is talked about as a possible vice presidential candidate who could anchor a presidential candidate like Rudy Giuliani or Mitt Romney to the GOP's base in the South and among evangelicals.

In any case, Huckabee remains positive and upbeat. When asked what sets him apart from the GOP frontrunners, he says: "My experience has uniquely prepared me in that I understand the struggle of the average American because of my childhood and having been a pastor, dealing with people at every level of life, and my long tenure as a governor, having actually run a government and having a strong record on education, healthcare, the environment, economic development, and government reform."

Spike Lee’s War Daze

Spike Lee is currently in Italy working on an upcoming film that focuses on the role African-American soldiers played in World War II.

The movie tells the tale of a group of soldiers who valiantly served in the 92nd Buffalo Division and fought the Nazi occupation in Italy.

Lee took some time during an interview in Rome to share his thoughts on American military history.

“My belief is that World War II is the last war that America was right about. Anything after that, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Iraq — they were wrong,” Lee said.

The filmmaker, who regularly attends Democrat conventions and endorses Dem candidates, should have been kinder to past presidents of his favorite party.

In Lee’s historical view, President Truman was wrong to intervene in North Korea; President Kennedy was wrong to initiate the Bay of Pigs invasion and increase troops in Vietnam; President Johnson was wrong to accelerate the fighting in Vietnam; and President Clinton was wrong to initiate the Kosovo War.

Pelosi: 'I'm Not Happy with Congress'

Newsmax
July 1, 2007

Last Friday when she announced with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada the Democrats' list of accomplishments six months after coming to power, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif. conceded, "I'm not happy with Congress,” citing "obstructionism of the Republicans in the United States Senate.”

According to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle, the recent failure to pass immigration reform has gone the way of Iraq, stem cell research, Medicare drug pricing, the 9/11 Commission's recommendations, etc. as watersheds of failure of the current Congress.

Congress has managed a public approval rating in the mid-20s. But Pelosi argued that Congress has "never been popular." She has already turned her sights to 2009 when a new administration will be in power – hopefully headed by a Democratic president.

"Congress is a big institution to turn around," she said. "A new president comes in, and he or she is given every opportunity, because we -- everybody wants the new president to succeed. A Congress comes in, and it's Congress. It's an institution that has not been popular."

But Reid offered a different take: "Nancy, honestly, one other thing. Let's be realistic about this. The war in Iraq is dragging down people's confidence in what's going on in this country."

However, for Julian Zelizer, a history and public affairs scholar at Boston University, it’s just business as usual:

"The Republicans are doing what the Democrats did. They're using the power of the Senate filibuster, and the power in the House when you have narrow majorities, to make a do-nothing Congress -- even when there's a lot of issues on the table, even when there's a lot of interest in accomplishing things."

For sure, House legislation continues to expire in the Senate. Last Thursday night, for instance, Senate Republicans blocked a lobbying and ethics reform bill from even proceeding to a House-Senate conference committee, reported the Chronicle.

"It's becoming very concerning to many of us that we've got a 49-49 stalemate in the Senate, and we are beginning to look to the American people like we're ineffective," said one California House Democrat who did not want to speak for attribution.

"No matter what we do on the House side, we can't get things through the Senate."

Huckabee's Record: Anything But Conservative

Newsmax

Former Arkansas governor and GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee wants to be seen as — in his own words — an "authentic" conservative, but his governing record shows he does not live up to the image.

Despite Huckabee's campaign mantra, "I'm proud of my record as a fiscal conservative," by the end of his second term as Arkansas governor he had raised sales taxes 37 percent, fuel taxes 16 percent, and cigarettes taxes 103 percent.

These actions and others while in the governor's mansion in Little Rock helped ramp up total state tax revenues from $3.9 billion to $6.8 billion.

For doing so, Huckabee earned the failing grade of "F" on the Cato Institute's 2006 governors' fiscal report card. The Washington-based think tank awarded the candidate a "D" for his overall term.

He also received a failing grade from the tax watchdog group Club for Growth.

"Gov. Huckabee says he is a fiscal conservative," Club for Growth President Pat Toomey said at the time of Huckabee's entry into the presidential sweepstakes, "but his 10-year economic-policy record as the governor of Arkansas is mixed, at best. His history includes numerous tax hikes, ballooning government spending, and increased regulation.

"To be sure, Gov. Huckabee's record displays an occasional deference to a pro-growth philosophy, but that is only a small slice of a much bigger picture," Tommey asserts.

Since entering the race, Huckabee appears to have become born-again on tax matters.

After initial hesitation, Huckabee signed the famous Taxpayer Protection Pledge against tax increases perennially sponsored by the Americans for Tax Reform (ATR).

"The tax increases Huckabee supported as governor in Arkansas were a mistake and cannot be defended," Grover Norquist, president of ATR, told NewsMax.

"However, as a presidential candidate, he has clearly learned that tax increases are always a mistake and he has signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge against tax increases. He has spoken in favor of a number of significant tax reductions that he would support. Elections are about the future."

Such confidence represents a sea change for Norquist, who once recalled Huckabee saying that he would only raise taxes if his arm were twisted. Norquist then quipped: "He has a history of allowing his arm to be twisted and twisting others' arms."

In the pre-pledge-signing days, Norquist — in an obvious reference to Huckabee's once scale-breaking weight — joked, "We like chubby governors and skinny budgets. Not the other way around."

Club for Growth's Toomey is not so impressed by Huckabee's affirmation to the ATR that he won't increase taxes as president.

"I'm glad to see he signed the pledge, but as a given matter, what politicians have done is a better indicator than what they say they're going to do," Toomey said. "His record clearly does not indicate a strong commitment to limited government."

In its "white paper" review of the candidate, the Club lamented that while governor, Huckabee "consistently supported and initiated measures that increase government's interference in markets, thereby impeding economic growth.

"He told the Washington Times he supports ‘empowering people to make their own decisions,' but many of his key proposals have done just the opposite."

Here are some of those proposals:
Raised the minimum wage in April 2006 from $5.15 to $6.25 an hour; encouraged Congress to take the same initiative on a national level
Threatened to investigate price-gouging after 9/11 if gasoline prices went up too high
Ordered regulatory agencies in Arkansas to investigate price-gouging in the nursing home industry

Signed a bill into law that would prevent companies from raising their prices a mere 10 percent ahead of a natural disaster (Services like roof repair and tree removal were targeted)

Recently, the National Review tore into Huckabee, charging that he was certainly not the poster child for smaller government.

"During his tenure, the number of state government workers in Arkansas increased over 20 percent. Under Gov. Huckabee's watch, state spending increased a whopping 65.3 percent from 1996 to 2004, three times the rate of inflation, and the state's general obligation debt shot up by almost $1 billion," said the National Review.

Pardoning a Murderer

Meanwhile, the Arkansas Leader newspaper has hounded Huckabee every inch of the campaign trail.

One characteristic editorial chided the candidate for masquerading as a fiscal conservative at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, where Huckabee received a warm reception:

"The delegates may not have known that he helped arrange the largest expansions of government-paid medical care in Arkansas history (largely paid by U.S. taxpayers), compiled a larger general-obligation debt than all previous governors combined, increased the number of government employees by 20 percent in only nine-and-a-half years, and conducted a liberal policy of criminal pardons and commutations."

That latter mention of a liberal policy of criminal pardons has long been an albatross around the neck of the former Baptist minister and president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Case-in-point: Wayne Dumond, a convicted rapist who was released during Huckabee's tenure as governor and who subsequently sexually assaulted and murdered a woman in Missouri following his release.

In October 1996, Huckabee met privately with the parole board to talk about the Dumond case. Some members of the board have since stated that they were pressured to re-examine and vote in favor of Dumond's parole. Huckabee has denied influencing the parole board in any way, but acknowledges some responsibility for signing Dumond's parole.

Dumond's case had gained some celebrity status in the mid 1990s from critics of President Bill Clinton who felt the former Arkansas governor had been too harsh with Dumond because Dumond's initial victim was a distant Clinton relative.

Whatever nettlesome baggage he carries, Huckabee is banking that the electorate will concentrate instead on his message.

Huckabee declined to be interviewed for this story.

Today, not surprisingly a good part of the Huckabee message is about taxes.

"I want to completely eliminate all federal income and payroll taxes. And do I mean all — personal federal, corporate federal, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, self-employment," Huckabee says. "Instead we will have the FairTax, a simple tax based on wealth."

And while on the subject of taxes, Huckabee has shrugged off the criticisms of those who charge him with having been a tax-and-spend executive while in office.

On stumps, he says that during his 10 1/2 years as governor, he cut taxes more than 90 times — saving taxpayers almost $380 million. He also points to how he doubled the child care tax credit and eliminated the marriage penalty from the tax code, while cutting welfare rolls by nearly 50 percent and balancing the state budget.

Antonio Banderas’ Kids Won’t Be Like Paris Hilton

Antonio Banderas is not planning on becoming an enabling parent like so many of Hollywood’s reigning moms and dads.

The actor and spouse of Melanie Griffith has publicly expressed his resolve to keep his children from becoming self-absorbed, party hearty Paris Hilton clones.

Banderas wants his kids to have an attitude of gratitude so he instills work ethic values in 10-year-old Stella, 17-year-old Dakota, and even 21-year-old Alexander.

“I don't give them whatever they ask for — they have to earn it. I tell the kids the world is not Hollywood,” Banderas told Closer magazine.

“I've taken them to Mexico and Argentina when I've been making movies there so they could see how kids in different countries live,” he added. “They've seen shanty towns. I don't want them to think that the world is just full of beautiful cars and houses and everything you want.”

Way to go, Zorro.

‘Sicko’ Box-Office Take in ICU

Many in the media are trying to spin the box-office numbers for Michael Moore's “Sicko” documentary, but the figures for Moore’s latest movie pale in comparison to the opening take of his previous film.

“Sicko” took in an unhealthy $4.5 million on its opening weekend, while “Fahrenheit 9/11” grossed just under $24 million on its debut weekend.

Part of the reason for the dollar discrepancy is that people have caught on to Moore’s failure to provide accurate information as he tries to entertain using a documentary format.

“Sicko” sings the praises of the highly flawed, non-free-market healthcare systems of France, Canada, and Cuba. Even media sources that normally give kudos to Moore have taken note.
The Associated Press compared “Sicko” to “a trial for those who oversee healthcare in the United States.”
The AP described Moore as a “chief prosecutor,” but also noted that “one aspect missing from the film is the defense.”
CNN checked Moore’s facts and found them wanting. While Moore holds Cuba up as a model system, the communist dictatorship is ranked lower than the U.S. in the very same list that Moore touts. America’s healthcare is ranked the highest in patient satisfaction as well, but facts such as this one never make it to the screen.
Kurt Loder of MTV, in an article titled, “’Sicko,’ Heavily Doctored,” accurately described Moore’s docu-deficiencies, writing, “Unfortunately, Moore is also a con man of a very brazen sort, and never more so than in this film.”

Loder added that “his cherry-picked facts, manipulative interviews (with lingering close-ups of distraught people breaking down in tears) and blithe assertions (how does he know 18 million people will die this year because they have no health insurance?) are so stacked that you can feel his whole argument sliding sideways as the picture unspools.”

With comments such as these from left-of center-sources, Moore is going to have a hard time blaming his below par box-office on a plot by the right.

Natalie Portman’s Primate Priorities

Natalie Portman is using her fame to draw attention to the tragedy that is taking place in Rwanda.

No, she’s not trying to sound the alarm about the 800,000 people who were massacred in the 1994 genocide or alert the public that the danger continues to this day.

Rather, the “Revenge of the Sith” actress has teamed up with other celebs and is focusing her efforts on the plight of the Rwandan gorillas.

Portman joined other international celebrities at a ceremony to provide names for 23 baby mountain gorillas living in the African nation.

According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, there are only 720 mountain gorillas surviving in the wild in parks that spread out across Rwanda, Uganda, and the Congo.

Protecting the mountain gorillas is no doubt a noble cause, but in my opinion protecting humans still ranks No. 1.

ACLU Sues City Over Jesus Painting

The American Civil Liberties Union sued the city of Slidell, La., on Tuesday for displaying a painting of Jesus in a courthouse lobby, saying it violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

The ACLU sued after the Slidell City Court refused to voluntarily remove the picture and a message below it that reads: "To Know Peace, Obey These Laws." The ACLU says the portrait — an image of Jesus presenting the New Testament — is a religious icon of the Eastern Orthodox branch of Christianity.

"We did not file this lawsuit because the ACLU is anti-religion ... We did file this lawsuit because we believe this display is clearly in violation of the law," said Vincent Booth, president and acting executive director of the Louisiana ACLU chapter.

The suit was filed on behalf of an unidentified person who complained to the ACLU about the picture. Named as defendants were the city of Slidell, St. Tammany Parish and City Judge James Lamz. St. Tammany Parish is being sued because it partially funds the court, the ACLU said.

On Saturday, Lamz said the picture would stay up unless a federal judge ordered it removed. He said he didn't believe the portrait violates the Constitution, but the issue should be decided in federal court.

Lamz could not comment Tuesday because of the pending litigation, his office said.

Before refusing to take the painting down, Lamz consulted Douglas Laycock, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School who has argued before the Supreme Court.

Laycock said he told Lamz that the legal issues in the case aren't clear-cut and could set legal precedent.

"I don't know how far the two sides will want to push things," Laycock added.

The painting has been on display at the courthouse for nearly a decade and hadn't provoked any complaints prior to the ACLU's recent objections, said Michael Johnson, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian civil rights group representing the city and parish.

Johnson, whose group is often at odds with the ACLU, said the painting sends an inclusive message of equal justice under the law. He said the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that similar displays in public forums are constitutional.

Professor Reinstated After George Washington E-mail Flap

College officials in Arizona have reached an agreement with a tenured professor who had been threatened with termination after he sent out an e-mail to colleagues containing George Washington’s “Thanksgiving Day Proclamation of 1789.”

On Nov. 22, 2006, the day before Thanksgiving, Walter Kehowski — a professor in mathematics in the Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) — sent the e-mail containing Washington’s message to all MCCCD employees, using a district-wide service designated for "announcements.”

Within weeks, five MCCCD employees filed harassment charges against Kehowski, claiming his message was "hostile” and "derogatory.” The complaining employees also cited the fact that the e-mail contained a link to conservative commentator Pat Buchanan’s Web site, where Kehowski had found Washington’s proclamation. Buchanan had also posted to his Web site criticisms of immigration policies.

On Jan. 3, 2007, MCCCD found that Kehowski was guilty of violating policies limiting e-mail usage to messages that "support education, research, scholarly communication, administration, and other MCCCD business.”

As NewsMax.com reported, MCCCD Chancellor Rufus Glasper placed Kehowski on administrative leave on March 9 and recommended to the MCCCD governing board that he be dismissed.

Kehowski appealed that decision and contacted the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), an organization that seeks to protect civil liberties on U.S. campuses.

"It boggles the mind that a professor could find himself facing termination simply for e-mailing the Thanksgiving address of our first president,” said FIRE President Greg Lukianoff at the time.

And Pat Buchanan told NewsMax he was “astonished” that the professor could lose his job for circulating the Washington speech. “This is ‘1984,’” Buchanan said. “This is Orwellian. Academia has become an island of totalitarianism in a sea of freedom.”

FIRE wrote to Glasper on April 25 to protest the actions against Kehowski, asserting that e-mailing a proclamation from George Washington or including a link to Pat Buchanan’s Web site did not constitute punishable harassment.

FIRE reminded Glasper that the U.S. Supreme Court has held that for workplace expression to be considered "harassment,” it must be "severe or pervasive enough to create an objectively hostile or abusive work environment.”

When Glasper failed to address these concerns, FIRE issued a press release to publicize MCCCD’s actions against the professor, eliciting outrage from concerned citizens across the country.

On June 22, MCCCD and Kehowski reached a settlement that will allow him to return to teaching classes this fall. A confidentiality agreement prohibits either side from discussing details of the settlement, according to a statement from FIRE.

“This settlement is a crucial victory for freedom of expression and fundamental fairness,” Lukianoff said.

“FIRE is pleased that MCCCD’s unjust treatment of Kehowski has finally ceased and that he will now be able to resume his life and his teaching.”

Moore’s ‘Sicko’ Unhealthy for Democrats

Michael Moore’s latest documentary “Sicko,” an indictment of the healthcare industry, has created a dilemma for top Democrats, who are wary of embracing its message — or rejecting it.

In “Sicko,” the filmmaker urges the abolishment of the health insurance industry, tight controls on pharmaceutical companies, and a Canadian-style government-run healthcare system.

Democratic presidential candidates fear rejecting Moore’s proposals could turn off liberal activists calling for massive reform of the healthcare system, whose support could be crucial in gaining the party’s nomination.

But expressing support for his prescription might alienate the larger pool of voters in the general election, the Los Angeles Times noted.

Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards have all taken positions on the issue that differ significantly from Moore’s vision.

As a result, the leading Democratic candidates have sought to “sidestep direct comment on Moore’s proposals,” the Times reported.

Moore has already said he hopes the documentary will play an important role in the presidential campaign.

But Ron Pollack of the advocacy group Families USA doubts it will have Moore’s desired effect.

“To presume that the private sector is going to sit idly by to see the destruction of private coverage I think is a misreading of reality,” he told the Times.

“I think the presidential candidates understand that if health care reform is going to have a chance of success, it will require bipartisanship and a balance of public and private coverage.”

As for the film, “it’s quite effective,” said Robert Reischauer, a leading health policy expert and president of The Urban Institute, who supports universal coverage.

However, “it’s not a documentary,” he added, but rather “policy propaganda.”