WI GOP, Walker Rushing Extreme Anti-Choice Legislation
Wisconsin Republicans are pushing to expedite their extreme 20 week abortion ban before the state budget debate in June. Governor Scott Walker has already come out in favor of the legislation, doubling down on his anti-choice agenda earlier this month and agreeing to sign the bill into law. The ban would be a devastating blow to women's abortion access in the state, charging doctors who break it with a felony and possible jail time -- even in cases of rape or incest. Walker has a long history of supporting extreme policies including personhood and making severe cuts to women's healthcare facilities across Wisconsin.
Courting the King: GOP Field Races to the Right in Iowa
The Republican 2016 field visited Iowa this weekend to court the king -- Steve King that is. The cantaloupe-conspiracy theorist, and right wing svengali of today's Republican Party, was in fine form -- jabbing Jeb Bush on immigration and comparing immigrants to Santa Ana's army.
Picking up where King left off were the GOP's White House aspirants. From Bobby Jindal's defense of discriminatory RFRA laws to Scott Walker touting his anti-worker agenda as a qualification for the presidency, the day was chock-full of red meat.
It's official, the race to the right is on.
MEMO: What you don’t know about the “Clinton Cash” author
The author of “Clinton Cash,” the latest conservative hatchet job against Hillary Clinton, is a right-wing Republican operative who was an advisor to Sarah Palin and a speechwriter for President George W. Bush. But what you might not know about Peter Schweizer is that he has deep ties to the Koch brothers and the right-wing billionaire bankrolling Sen. Ted Cruz’s nascent campaign. He’s a current contributor to conservative blog Breitbart and is the president of the Government Accountability Institute (GAI). “Clinton Cash” has already been repeatedly debunked by reporters given early access to the accusations, which is no surprise given Schweizer’s history as a conservative researcher peddling misleading and false attacks that have discredited his work. American Bridge today released a video of FOX, ABC, NBC, and MSNBC anchors confronting Schweizer during his media blitz with the pesky fact that he doesn’t have any evidence for his theories.
Indiana Lawmaker Carrying Pence for President Legislation Is Tea Party To The Core
Indiana Governor Mike Pence wants to treat his current office as a concession prize and run for both re-election and president simultaneously. Unfortunately for the governor, it's against Indiana law...and the lawmaker attempting to change that for him provides a window into the worst of Pence's Tea Party politics. Meet State Senator Mike Delph, a famously combative Tea Partier who's had a hand in some of Indiana's most controversial legislation, including pushing a gay marriage ban, birther legislation, and Arizona-style immigration laws.
Introduced “Birther” Bill In Indiana
Delph Introduced “Birther” Bill In Indiana. According to The Hill, “Indiana Republican state Sen. Mike Delph, who’s still weighing a potential primary challenge to Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) next year, is pushing state lawmakers to take another look at his bill that would require presidential candidates to produce a birth certificate. Delph introduced a bill earlier this year to mandate presidential hopefuls produce the document in order to get on the ballot, but the measure is stuck in committee. Now, he wants a legislative study committee to take up the issue, hoping it will gain some additional traction, telling a local radio station that he thinks a ‘trust but verify approach’ is reasonable.” [The Hill, 4/19/11]
ICYMI: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel- Investigation into Scott Walker "must continue"
Last week, former Virginia Governor Republican Bob McDonnell became the first Virginia governor to be convicted of a felony, with a federal grand jury finding him guilty of 11 counts of corruption. Across the country, another GOP Governor, Scott Walker, faces questions stemming from an investigation into his own potentially felonious behavior, as highlighted by recent editorials in his hometown newspapers. Indeed, the most recent documents released in the John Doe investigation into Walker illustrate his alleged centrality to a criminal scheme to illegally coordinate campaign spending with an outside group, Wisconsin Club for Growth. The New York Times editorial board last week pointed to a $700,000 contribution from a large mining company to Wisconsin Club for Growth, timed closely with Walker signing pro-mining legislation into law, as evidence that the Governor and his aides "brazenly violated state campaign finance regulations":
Newly released documents show that the mine operator, Gogebic Taconite, secretly gave $700,000 to a political group that was helping the governor win a 2012 recall election. Mr. Walker had urged big corporations to give unlimited amounts, without fear of public disclosure, and many companies that wanted favors from the state happily obliged. Once the recall failed, the favors began to flow, even at the expense of the state’s natural resources.But perhaps even more damning for Walker are a pair of editorials from two of the local Wisconsin publications that have been tracking the investigation most doggedly, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and the La Crosse Tribune. Both editorial boards not only offer strong rebukes for the Governor's scheme to raise money in support of his campaign during the 2012 recall election, but emphasize the importance of the John Doe investigation itself.
Oops… Romney Venue Benefited From Obama Admin's Actions Toward China
At his event at American Spring Wire in Ohio today, Romney repeated his pledge to crack down on China. As you know, his campaign has routinely attacked the Obama administration over this very issue. Unfortunately for Romney, though, American Spring Wire actually petitioned the Obama administration for help dealing with China... then got exactly what they wanted.
Research below:
In June 2009, American Spring Wire Petitioned The U.S. Department Of Commerce To Investigate Countervailing Duties And Antidumping On Steel Wire Imports From China.According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration, obtained via Targeted News Service, “On June 17, the Department of Commerce (Commerce) announced its decision to initiate antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on imports of certain prestressed concrete steel wire strand from the People’s Republic of China (China). Dumping occurs when a foreign company sells a product in the United States at less than normal value. Subsidies are financial assistance from foreign governments that benefit the production, manufacture, or exportation of goods. The petitioners for these investigations are American Spring Wire Corp. (OH), Insteel Wire Products Company (NC), and Sumiden Wire Products Corp. (TN). The merchandise covered by these investigations consists of certain prestressed concrete steel wire strand which is a collection of wire rod bars, typically covered with an epoxy material and is primarily used in concrete construction applications. The merchandise covered by these investigations is currently classified in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) under item numbers: 7312.10.3010 and7312.
Mitt Romney’s 1994 – The Year His Career In Politics Began
1994… The Internet was coming to age. Courtney Cox and David Schwimmer debuted the first episode of Friends. O.J. Simpson led America on a slow, winding “chase” to infamy. I got my first car (’84 Chevette). And Mitt Romney -- the man now calling Newt Gingrich a “career politician” -- was beginning his 17-year career in national politics. It’s a tactic Romney has perfected over his two decades running for office: Regardless of the circumstances, painting himself as the political outsider and his opponent as a career politician. The irony is not just the long time Romney has spent in politics, but how he embodies the characteristics of a ‘career politicians’ he claims to be so eager to defeat. He has opportunistically changed on core beliefs so frequently, the conservative Manchester Union Leader wrote that Romney just “tells us what he thinks we want to hear.” But, to court (and win) support from the Republican establishment in Washington and on Wall Street, Romney has continued his pattern of pandering. Even the food he eats and the airlines he flies feel calculated by his chief pollster and strategist.
LA Times: Romney, Cain skip Iowa economic forum
On November 1, 2011, the Los Angeles times reported:
Much of the Republican presidential field gathered here Tuesday to discuss how to improve the nation's economy. But what was most notable was who skipped the event — Iowa front-runners Mitt Romney and Herman Cain...
MEMO: Rubio Had At Least Twenty Opportunities To Correct The Record
As the story of Florida Senator Marco Rubio’s parents’ departure from Cuba continues to unfold, it should be noted that Rubio has had at least twenty opportunities throughout his years as a public figure to correct media accounts of his family’s history. While the extent to which Rubio embellished their story can be debated, there is no doubt that he actively perpetuated an incorrect retelling by failing to correct the record any number of times.
American Bridge 21st Century has found twenty opportunities for Rubio to correct this popular myth.
If he was not taking advantage of the obvious political advantages afforded to him by the myth of his parents’ departure from Cuba, why did Marco Rubio pass up so many opportunities to correct the record? The fact is he did not mind this popular – yet untrue – tale because it helped advance his political career in the eyes of Florida voters. Now that the truth has been exposed, Rubio owes his constituents an explanation.
See the examples after the jump.
Boston Globe: Romney Pummels, Profits From Fannie, Freddie
From the Boston Globe:
Read more from the Boston Globe after the jumpRomney has profited from investments that were made in both government entities, according to his personal finance disclosure forms and documents compiled by American Bridge, one of several Democratic groups in Washington formed to back the election campaigns of Obama and other Democrats.
The issue illustrates the potential perils for a candidate with vast financial holdings whose rhetoric does not necessarily match his investment interests.
“Once again, Mitt Romney has proven his hypocrisy knows no limits,” said Ty Matsdorf, spokesman for American Bridge, which was formed earlier this year and has been going through the records of President Obama’s potential opponents. “To continually attack the housing crisis, yet invest up to a half a million dollars in the major players is absolutely mind boggling. I didn’t know a person could flip flop on themselves, but Romney has proven that wrong.”