Spin Cycle

The Times on Eliot's plans to "punch back" at Joe, and other e-mailing revealed in the Troopergate report yesterday.

The governor's office tried to get the Albany and Manhattan DAs to investigate Bruno.

Spitzer himself took the Sgt. Schultz route in his Troopergate testimony.

Andrew Giuliani explains why he's suing the Duke golf team, and says he kept Dad out of it. More details of his lawsuit emerge.
Glenn Suddaby, the US Attorney who has been investigating Joe Bruno, got confirmed as a federal judge, fueling speculation that the heat on Joe may cool.

Scene and stagecraft were as important as words as Obama dominated the presidential news cycle with his speech in Berlin before a crowd of 200,000.

While Obama orated in Berlin, McCain ate Bratwurst with local businessmen in Columbus, Ohio.

Speculation that McCain may use an early VP pick to grab back some attention continues, with Romney and Pawlenty topping the list.

AP says White House shifts on Iraq, Iran and North Korea leave McCain to defend positions it has deserted and make it harder for Obama to cast himself as a break from the past.

Obama's missing senior thesis has become a little bit of an obsession for some people.

Compare and contrast:

The New York State United Teachers, which is anxious to insure that New York continues to spend more than any other state on education per student and continues to increase its spending at a faster rate than other big states, has a TV ad to try to convince the 75 percent of New Yorkers who favor a cap on property tax increases that it's just a "gimmick."

The ad calls the cap "one size fits all." Huh? The 4 percent increase per year would be a different amount for every district, because every district starts with a different base -- that's the way percentages work. And it could be ignored if a mere 55 percent of voters wanted to spend more.

The ad also says it takes away local control. Huh? Local school boards and local voters still decide on and approve the budget. How does it take away local control? Totally misleading.

Taking a cue from legislative supporters like Speaker Sheldon Silver, the ad also says "deep cuts to school programs will hurt our kids." Huh? How is a 4 percent annual increase -- a bigger increase than most taxpayers get in their paychecks -- off a base of spending that is the highest in the nation a deep cut?

And how exactly is a circuit breaker an alternative? It's a great way to shift the property tax burden of some of the hardest hit onto the rest of us, but it does nothing to rein in the school spending that's driving the overall tax burden, or the perks NYSUT so zealously protects.

The Suffolk Board of Elections rejected Thursday the challenge to Democratic state Senate candidate Jimmy Dahroug’s nominating petitions, putting him on the party’s September primary ballot against Broolkhaven Supervisor Brian Foley.

The commissioners’ disallowed 243 of Dahroug’s 1,408 signatures, but it still left with him with 165 signatures more than minimum of 1,000 names he needed to qualify.

Doug Forand, consultant for Senate Democrats campaign committee who are supporting Foley, said they will pursue their challenge of Dahroug petitions in court, claming 506 of his petition signatures were invalid. Both men are seeking the right to face 36 year Senate veteran Caesar Trunzo, 82, in the November election.

Dahroug had charged that the effort to knock him off the ballot was “underhanded and shady” tactic he called “an act of desperation by Foley’s campaign” because the supervisor is “nervous about facing me in a primary.”

In other board action, Assembly challenger Waldo Cabrera’s Conservative petitions were validated on a split vote with Democratic Commissioner Anita Katz voting to uphold the objection which would have knocked out the petitions. Cabrera, who is also seeking to challenge Assemb. Philip Ramos in a Democratic primary, was challenged for having improperly filed out his acceptence of the Conservative’s nomination. Ramos is also challenging his petitions in court.

And the commissioners unamimously upheld the petitions of Dean Hough, a newly minted Democrat seeking to run a Demnocrat primary against Assemb. Patricia Eddington.

Eddington forces claimed that Hough’s petitions were “permeated with fraud” and that he is not qualified to run because he does not meet state residency requirements. Election officials say those type of challenges can only be resolved by a judge. Hough foes have filed suit to knocked him off the ballot.

Meanwhile, John Zaher’s petitions to run an Independence Party primary against Eddington, the party’s designee, were upheld in a split vote even though the candidate who thought he submitted 201 signatures, was later told that 118 signatures were filed because a number of petition pages were missing. He needed 131 to qualify.

Republican commissioner Cathy Richter Geirer, who voted against the objections, did not return calls for comment. Eddington supporters have sued to remove Zaher from the ballot.

The folks over at the LoHud blog have sucked it up and waded into former Gov. Spitzer's testimony to the Public Integrity Commission, released today. In a very lawyerly and hedged way, he denies ever having pledged to shove a red hot poker into Joe Bruno's backside.

The exact quote, attributed to Spitzer by Darren Dopp: "F*** him, he's a piece of s***, shove it up his a** with a red hot poker."

Here's Spitzer under oath. Note not only the hedge on the denial, but the overall tendency to use twelve pompous words where one normal one would do:

THE WITNESS: “To the best of my recollection, it did not. Just so it’s clear, I, in my private conversations, do not always use the Queen’s English. And I make no bones about that.

In my public commentary, I think you will see, if you do a complete search of the entirety of my public comments as Governor, you would not see me say anything critical, vulgar, of Bruno.

In my private conversations, occasionally I was, to use your word, passionate. And that is my nature, and the nature of politics. I do not in this conversation recall that, because this was not an issue about which I was passionate then, or now, or at any point in time. There were other issues about which I was, but this was not one of them.”

From AFP:

"The crowd was put at more than 200,000 people by Michael Bengsch, media relations officer of Berlin Police. The figure beat Obama's previous record of 75,000 in Oregon this year."

McCain, responding to Obama's speech, shrewdly sees that the key passages presented him to an American audience as a proud American articulating her historic mission to the world. He tries to reclaim the most-American mantle, and sees a little opening in the internationalist feel of Obama's "citizen of the world" phrase:

"While Barack Obama took a premature victory lap today in the heart of Berlin, proclaiming himself a 'citizen of the world,' John McCain continued to make his case to the American citizens who will decide this election. Barack Obama offered eloquent praise for this country, but the contrast is clear. John McCain has dedicated his life to serving, improving and protecting America. Barack Obama spent an afternoon talking about it."

Dean Skelos, in his new role as Senate Republican majority leader, is having to get around a bit and relate to the non-Long-Island parts of NYS. Yesterday, he found himself in Chemung County (you can see it on the map), and the local TV station reported his pitch this way:

"ELMIRA, N.Y. -- New York State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos says Chemung County is only slightly different from his native Nassau County."

He went on to note that Chemung had more lakes and no ocean and his point, of course, was that everyone in NY wants the same thing -- better schools, lower taxes and a Republican majority in the NY State Senate.

But the Albany Project suggests he may be reaching just a little too far to find commonalities -- 1.3 million people vs. 91,000, 56 school districts vs. 3, median income $72,000 to $36,000:

"Dean may need more than few more of these "listening tours" upstate."

Sorry, but some of this stuff is too strange to resist. Here, an Italian reporter wants to know why Obama's not coming to Italia!

What political operatives spend their time thinking about:

Obama is in Germany. If he visits wounded US soldiers at the Army's Landstuhl medical center, he can be accused of using them as props for politics. If he doesn't, he can be accused of not caring about them as much as adoring crowds in Berlin.

What do you do?

Obama scheduled a visit, then apparently changed his mind and did not visit Landstuhl.

The RNC blasts out a story from Spiegel noting the shift, and an item from the Chicago Tribune's blog: "A Republican friend of the Swamp helpfully points out that Sen. Barack Obama seems to have time to visit the gym for a workout today, but not to visit the troops during his stay in Germany tomorrow."

The Obama campaign issues a statement:

During his trip as part of the CODEL to Afghanistan and Iraq, Senator Obama visited the combat support hospital in the Green Zone in Baghdad and had a number of other visits with the troops.

"For the second part of his trip, the senator wanted to visit the men and women at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center to express his gratitude for their service and sacrifice. The senator decided out of respect for these servicemen and women that it would be inappropriate to make a stop to visit troops at a U.S. military facility as part of a trip funded by the campaign."

McCain response: “Barack Obama is wrong. It is never ‘inappropriate’ to visit our men and women in the military.”

Right call, or wrong call?

Continue reading "Wounded vets: Danger if you do, danger if you don't" »

At his press teleconference today promoting an upcoming NYS tour to boost the property-tax cap, Tom Suozzi says he won't be badgering and threatening legislators the way he did during his 04 Fix Albany campaign, and insists you can't write off Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver:

"I'm not discouraged by what Shelly has said so far because he hasn't closed the door and he hasn't made any firm demands."

Technically, that's true. He's just said he won't pass the bill the way it stands, whereas Skelos has said he's going to pass the bill exactly as it stands.

Story in Newsday here.

A new Quinnipiac battleground poll of Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan shows McCain gaining ground in key states -- esp. CO, MN -- apparently because voters respect his support for the surge, and agree with him on Iraq.

A lot of the polling was done pre-Maliki, so that could change things. But the results seem to show that pundits who thought an improving Iraq would not influence the race were wrong. McCain is making his point, and some voters are listening. From the WashPost:

"Asked whether they would prefer a 'fixed date' for withdrawal or to 'keep troops in Iraq until the situation is more stable,' majorities in all four states preferred the latter option despite the fact that similar majorities in each state say that America was wrong to go to war in Iraq.

"Those results suggest that while Obama's initial opposition to the war plays well with voters, his plan to remove troops from the country within 16 months of taking office as president is less well received."

Another shift: drilling. One in ten voters say they've changed their minds and now support offshore drilling -- just like McCain.

Prepared text of Obama's speech after the jump.

Big crowd, one-world/break-down-walls substance, but watching on TV you didn't have the impression the crowd was going totally wild.

Echoes of Reagan's tear-down-this-wall speech, and an effort -- as he has throughout the campaign -- to define himself as all-American (including, yesterday, a $5 million Olympic ad buy). One passage:

"People of Berlin – people of the world – this is our moment. This is our time.

"I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we’ve struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We’ve made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.

"But I also know how much I love America. I know that for more than two centuries, we have strived – at great cost and great sacrifice – to form a more perfect union; to seek, with other nations, a more hopeful world. Our allegiance has never been to any particular tribe or kingdom – indeed, every language is spoken in our country; every culture has left its imprint on ours; every point of view is expressed in our public squares.

"What has always united us – what has always driven our people; what drew my father to America’s shores – is a set of ideals that speak to aspirations shared by all people: that we can live free from fear and free from want; that we can speak our minds and assemble with whomever we choose and worship as we please.

"These are the aspirations that joined the fates of all nations in this city. These aspirations are bigger than anything that drives us apart. It is because of these aspirations that the airlift began. It is because of these aspirations that all free people – everywhere – became citizens of Berlin. It is in pursuit of these aspirations that a new generation – our generation – must make our mark on the world.

Continue reading "Obama: The speech" »

Obama speaking now, big crowd in Berlin. Luckily for the GOP, no electoral votes:

Why didn't Eliot Spitzer get charged with violating the Public Officers Law, while several people working under him did? Here's the official answer, from the report:

The failure to supervise subordinates, without more, does not violate the Public Officers Law. Similarly, the release of information or documents to the media about a political opponent, without knowledge that such information was confidential or improperly compiled or created (here, through the State Police), does not violate the Public Officers Law. With these standards in mind, and after full consideration of the record evidence, including thousands of documents and over 3,000 pages of sworn testimony, the Commission has determined that presently there is insufficient record evidence to support a charge that any person, other than Baum, Dopp, Howard and Felton, violated the Public Officers Law.

So, their position seems to be that the key misdeed was the creation of records on Bruno's movements, and that they don't have evidence Spitzer knew the material was being improperly compiled.

The state's Public Integrity Commission has charged four aides to Eliot Spitzer with (civil) violations of the Public Officers Law -- former staff chief Rich Baum, former homeland security aide Bill Howard, former communications chief Darren Dopp, and former State Police superintendent Preston Felton.

But not Spitzer himself, which creates a lovely appearance given Dopp's claim that the commission's executive director has long been protecting Spitzer.

The report is here. Baum and Howard have admitted violations, Dopp and Felton have not and will get hearings.

The charge is that they "caused the State Police to serve the Governor's and their own non-governmental interests in a manner that compromised the State Police" and "misused their official positions to cause the State Police to engage in conduct that was wholly unrelated to the State Police's statutory mandate" of detecting and preventing crime.

Testimony -- including Spitzer's testimony -- is posted on the website, here. Lotsa pages.

Obama, with Brian Williams, responds to McCain's charge that he's willing to lose a war to win a campaign: "For him to suggest that somehow -- I'm less concerned about the safety of my wife and daughter-- than he is I think -- was -- was unfortunate."

Here's video of the remarks we reported yesterday, where McCain tries to explain his apparent error in contending that the surge of troops in Iraq, which occurred in 2007, preceded the Sinni Awakening in Anbar Province, which occurred in 2006.

He says that by "surge" he meant the "counterinsurgency strategy" which the surged troops were eventually deployed to execute in Baghdad. But this dispute, it's worth remembering, is about Obama's opposition to the surge -- and Obama opposed the troop increases, not the counterinsurgency strategy which McCain now says he calls the "surge." Here's a critical review of McCain's explanation.

Frustrated all week by the Obama Abroad Tour's stranglehold on the news cycles, McCain finally gets a break -- setting up a meeting in Aspen tomorrow with a world leader of his own, the Dalai Lama.

The Tibetan spiritual leader is attending a conference, and McCain is scheduled to give a speech to a military audience. He has spoken out in the past, urging the Chinese leadership to show restraint in its behavior toward Tibet.

Earlier this year, Hillary Clinton urged President Bush to boycott the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, in part to protest China's behavior in Tibet. Obama tiptoed up to the line, but never quite crossed it. It'll be interesting to see if the Olympics come up tomorrow. Other possible subjects? From an LATimes piece on the Dalai Lama and President Bush:

"The Dalai Lama suggested that Bush 'lacked understanding of reality' in launching a war in Iraq where it turned out there were no weapons of mass destruction. And he said Americans in general need to learn 'the reality of limitation,' because raw consumerism can led to 'too much stress, too much competition and too much desire.' "

So, it should be an interesting exchange...

Here's a report that Obama has already tasked some people to start planning for a possible WH transition.

Probably a responsible thing to do, and probably a political opening for McCain. Kind of like buying the champagne after Game 1.....

Update: Yes, McCain issues a statement:

“Before they’ve even crossed the 50-yard line, the Obama campaign is already dancing in the end zone with a new White House transition team. The American people are more concerned with Barack Obama’s poor judgment and readiness to lead than his inaugural ball.”

Tom Suozzi headed up the commission on property taxes, so now he's allied with Gov. Paterson and Dean Skelos in the push for a 4 percent annual cap.

And he's enthusiastic! He's planning a letter to all of the state's legislators, and a statewide tour starting next week, to be announced in a press conference today.

His schedule, according to an advisory: July 29, Rochester. August 12, Binghamton. August 21, Syracuse. September 3, Rockland. September 26, Niagara Falls.

Suozzi, of course, ran in a primary for governor in 2006. That would be a nice list of cities to visit on a campaign for an idea with broad support like property tax limits if he were interested in testing the waters again.

Not that he would consider challenging an incumbent Democrat.

Gov. Paterson gives another gift to the public sector labor unions -- signing a bill that makes permanent a requirement of mandatory dues for people who don't want to join.

Spokesman: "In the governor’s estimation, it was a fair practice to make employees who declined union membership but were nonetheless represented pay dues."

Fair as long as they're not taking money out of your pocket and using it to not only represent you but pay fat salaries to union bigs etc.

There are other bills that will test the alliance. But it begins to look like Paterson understands that, as an unelected governor, he doesn't have a very large base of deeply committed supporters. He needs the public sector unions, and he can get their support by doing them favors.

Empowering the already powerful unions is not a way to control spending or property taxes, which he purportedly wants to do. But whatever he says, that does not appear to be his highest priority.

Obama arrives in Germany and adds Merkel to the growing list -- Karzai, Maliki/Talabani, Abdullah, Olmert/Peres, Abbas -- treating him like a presumptive head-of-state.

Today is his big open-air address in Berlin, expected after 1 pm. On his plane, he downplays expectations, says he expects tens of thousands -- but nothing like a million.

Isn't it great that the presidential race this year is concentrating on issues? A web ad from McCain:

Somehow we missed it until now, but LI USReps Steve Israel and Gary Ackerman both make cameo appearances in a USNWR story about Congressional junketing over the Memorial Day recess.

Both took their wives along for the ride, according to the story:

"Ten lawmakers went on a weeklong, taxpayer-paid trip from May 23 to 30 for meetings of the Transatlantic Legislators' Dialogue in Ljubljana, Slovenia, with subsequent stops—and la dolce vita—in Venice and Naples. The dialogue unites lawmakers with peers from the European Parliament. Seven in the U.S. delegation had a spouse along, says Lynne Weil, spokeswoman for the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

"The group was rounded out by six aides and the House chaplain, according to reports on official foreign travel, which do not list accompanying spouses. The reported costs were $53,992, a figure that understates the bottom line since most lawmakers flew on military planes and the Pentagon refuses to release details such as the aircraft, manifest, and estimated cost. Spouses fly free aboard such flights, Weil says.

"A draft itinerary leaked to the Washington Post showed the lawmakers were to visit a Slovenian castle, dine near Naples at a Michelin two-star restaurant, and, at their own expense, take in opera in Venice. The group was led by House Democrat Shelley Berkley of Nevada. Her spokesman, David Cherry, confirmed the outings but stressed the business at hand: from a wreath laying at a U.S. air base to discussions on topics including climate change, energy, trade, port security, Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan. Berkley, in a statement to U.S. News, said the dialogue was a forum for U.S. and European allies 'to learn from one another and build even stronger ties.' "

It would have been so boring to spend the holiday in the district! Isn't it great that the Ackerman and Israel families had a nice trip on you?

And, now you know exactly who to go to when LI has a TransAtlantic Legislative Dialogue Need (TLDN) involving Venetian operas.

We've devoted a fair amount of attention to McCain's comment in which he seemed, mistakenly, to say that the troop surge in Iraq preceded and facilitated the anti-al-Qaida Sunni Awakening in Anbar Province.

For balance: He tried to clarify today, asserting essentially that he used "surge" as shorthand for the counter-insurgency strategy that the extra troops eventually executed in Baghdad. From The Atlantic:

"Colonel McFarland, in Anbar province, McCain said, 'had already initiated that strategy in Ramadi by going in and clearing and holding in certain places. That is a counter-insurgency. And he told me at that time that he believed that that strategy, which is quote the surge, part of the surge, would be, would be, successful. So then, of course, it was very clear that we needed additional troops in order to carry out this insurgency. Prior to that -- counter insurgency. Prior to that they had been going into places, killing people or not killing people, and then withdrawing. And the new counter-insurgency, the surge, entailed going in and clearing and holding, which Colonel McFarland had already started doing. And then of course, later on, there were additional troops, and General Petraeus said that the surge would not have worked, and the Anbar Awakening would not have taken place, successfully, if they hadn’t had an increase in the number of troops.'

" 'So I’m not sure frankly that people really understand that a surge is part of counter-insurgency strategy which means going in, clearing, holding, building a better life, providing services to the people. And then clearly a part of that, an important part of it, was additional troops to help insure the safety of the sheiks, to gain control of Ramadi, which was a very bloody fight, and then the surge would continue to succeed as a counter-insurgency.' ’’

It was a day on which it was easy to make fun of Obama's self importance:

Until this got around:

Not only did McCain get the sequence wrong when he claimed yesterday that the surge provided help to an Anbar Province sheik who led the Sunni Awakening. Now, there's this:

"The major Sunni sheik who John McCain said was protected by the surge and subsequently helped lead the Anbar Awakening, was actually assassinated by an al-Qaeda led group in midst of the surge."

Does Barack Obama really think that sports fans want to see a lot of his ads while they're trying to enjoy the Olympics?

Conventional wisdom is a fickle beast.

After five days of Obama's apparently wildly successful foreign trip, Time's Joe Klein, high priest of the CW flame, wants to know why he hasn't gotten a polling bump. Is it all too much? Too presumptuous? Why isn't Obama paying more attention to the economy?

"I wouldn't be surprised if Obama is paying a price for vamping about overseas while banks are cratering, gas prices soar and people are getting really, really nervous about their futures."

Definitely.

He just went for the fun of it, not because McCain was using his lack of travel as an effective attack line.

And those gas prices have nothing to do with what happens overseas.

And McCain, who is not overseas, is just zooming up in the polls.

Which have had a whole five days to react.

In mid-July, when everyone is just totally fixated on the presidential race.

OK, forget about standards.

The National Enquirer is hot on the trail of John Edwards, and a purported mistress and love-child, staking out the Beverly Hills Hilton (it reports) to catch him in a (purported) secret rendezvous. Producing copy like this:

"Edwards went out of the hotel briefly with Rielle, they were observed by the NATIONAL ENQUIRER and then went back to her room, where he stayed until attempting to sneak out of the hotel unseen at 2:40 a.m. (PST). But when he emerged alone from an elevator into the hotel basement he was greeted by several reporters from the NATIONAL ENQUIRER.

"Senior NATIONAL ENQUIRER Reporter Alexander Hitchen asked Edwards why he was visiting Rielle and whether he was ready to confirm that he was the father of her baby.

"Shocked to see a reporter, and without saying anything, Edwards ran up the stairs leading from the hotel basement to the lobby. But, spotting a photographer, he doubled back into the basement. As he emerged from the stairwell, reporter Butterfield questioned him about his hookup with Rielle.

"Edwards did not answer and then ran into a nearby restroom. He stayed inside for about 15 minutes, refusing to answer questions from the NATIONAL ENQUIRER about what he was doing in the hotel. A group of hotel security men eventually escorted him from the men's room, while preventing the NATIONAL ENQUIRER reporters from following him out of the hotel."

Obviously, there's nothing resembling proof, or evidence. But, it's entertaining. Link is here. Here's NYMagazine's take on it.

Tip o' the hat to Sarah.

In the era of the blogosphere, CBS' decision yesterday to edit John McCain's mistake on the timing of the surge out of the portion of the interview with Katie Couric that it used on the Evening News has not gone unnoticed.

The network, in a statement, said the interview was "edited to fit the available time and to give viewers a fair expression of the candidates’ major differences."

That's a little weak. The fact that one candidate understood the recent history of events in Iraq and the other didn't wasn't a "major difference" worth passing along to viewers?

But here's the other problem: The edited, broadcast story combined a question from Couric with McCain's answer to a different question, eliminating his actual mistaken answer to the question that was aired. And CBS' own news standards, according to this blog posting, state:

"If a question to an interview subject is used, the answer must be to that specific question. The question and the answer may be edited, but not in a way that would distort the meaning of either. Answers to different questions may not be combined to give the impression of one continuous response. In short, we cannot create an answer merely because we wish the subject had said it better."

Thanks to RB for the link.</