Easley aide: Shred letter
A top state public information officer says that he was directed by close staff of former Gov. Mike Easley to shred a letter that had been sent in 2007 to Easley from the mayor of Southport.
Ernie Seneca, who worked in several high public information positions for Easley and now oversees communications for statewide crime control agencies, said the directive came from Easley’s press office. He said he was not certain who in that office told him the letter should be shredded but thinks it was Sherri Johnson, then the governor’s press secretary.
Seneca routed the letter, dated Nov. 29, 2007, to a deputy secretary at the state Department of Transportation with the instruction to “shred this after reading.” Seneca said it was a copy of the letter, not the original. Read more.
Republican Djou wins Hawaii special
Republican Charles Djou won Hawaii’s special House election Saturday, providing a timely boost to a party unnerved by a decisive Democratic victory in a Pennsylvania special House election Tuesday.
Djou got 39 percent of the vote, according to unofficial returns, followed by state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa at 30 percent and former Democratic Rep. Ed Case at 27 percent.
Djou will serve out the remainder of the term in the seat left vacant by former Democratic Rep. Neil Abercrombie, who resigned to run for governor. Read more.
N.C. vital in U.S. politics
The Washington gossip has Charlotte on the short list of cities being considered as the site of the 2012 Democratic National Convention.
When Barack and Michelle Obama wanted to kick back for a weekend, they headed for Asheville’s Grove Park Inn. Vice President Joe Biden was seen chowing down at Bullock’s Bar-B-Que in Durham earlier this spring. Senate Majority leader Harry Reid raised money at the Umstead Hotel inCary Friday night.
What this all suggests is that North Carolina has become a player in national politics.
There was once a time – say three years ago – when North Carolina was out of the loop, off the beaten track, in other words, a backwater, when it came to national politics. Read more.
Palin Links BP Donations to Obama to Explain Gulf Spill Response
President Obama’s oversight of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill may have been hampered by his relationship to BP, former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said Sunday in the opening salvo of a verbal cage match with White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.
Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Palin suggested that the White House is too cozy with the oil industry because of contributions to candidate Obama during the 2008 presidential race.
“I don’t know why the question isn’t asked by the mainstream media and by others if there’s any connection with the contributions made to President Obama and his administration and the support by the oil companies to the administration,” Palin, a Fox News Channel contributor, said on “Fox News Sunday.” Read more.
Obama Tells Military: Prepare for N. Korea ‘Aggression’
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House said Monday that President Barack Obama “fully supports” the South Korean president and his response to the torpedo attack by North Korea that killed 46 South Korean sailors.
The administration said it endorsed President Lee Myung-bak’s demand that “North Korea immediately apologize and punish those responsible for the attack, and, most importantly, stop its belligerent and threatening behavior.”
Seoul can continue to count on the full backing of the United States, the White House said.
“U.S. support for South Korea’s defense is unequivocal, and the president has directed his military commanders to coordinate closely with their Republic of Korea counterparts to ensure readiness and to deter future aggression,” the White House said. Read more.
Sestak confirms WH job offer to get out of Senate race
Rep. Joe Sestak, winner of the Pennsylvania Democratic Senate primary, is refusing to provide more information on what job he was offered by a White House official to drop of that race, although he confirmed again that the incident occurred.
The White House was backing incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) in the primary. Sestak acknowledged in an interview in February that he was offered a position by an unnamed White House official – a potential violation of federal law – but has not offered any specifics on conversation. Republicans are trying to use the issue against Sestak in the November Senate race.
“It’s interesting. I was asked a question about something that happened months earlier, and I felt that I should answer it honestly, and that’s all I had to say about it.” Sestak said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Anybody else has to decide on what they will say upon their role. That’s their responsibility.” Read more.
Experts: ‘Doc fix’ a budget band-aid
The Medicare “doc fix” is back in play on Capitol Hill, and its mere mention provokes a torrent of scorn and vitriol rarely seen among the generally mild-mannered community of policy mavens who inhabit the nation’s think tanks and universities.
“It’s one of the worst pieces of legislation I’ve ever seen,” said Stuart Altman, a former adviser to Congress on Medicare who now teaches health policy at Brandeis University. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt so vindictive about a piece of legislation in my life.”
“It’s a charade,” said Henry J. Aaron, a health policy analyst at the Brookings Institution. “Congress takes care of things but doesn’t actually do anything. They haven’t been willing to write up the full cost of changing the system, so the projected deficits don’t look as bad as they are.” Read more.
Our view on federal spending: In Congress, ‘emergency’ is what you don’t want to pay for
Memo to congressional Democrats: It’s not 2008 or 2009 anymore. Then, when the nation was facing financial catastrophe, it made sense to borrow as much as necessary to stave off economic depression.
OPPOSING VIEW: Vital aid fuels recovery
Those days are over. Now it’s time to start making choices about what’s vital, and for those programs that are, paying the bills instead of borrowing.
You’d think that with the soaring national debt emerging as a major issue in this fall’s elections, congressional leaders wouldn’t need this kind of reminder. But they began this week pushing two big new spending bills that together would cost more than $230 billion over 10 years. The initial plan, according to one estimate by the Congressional Budget Office, was to pay for less than one-fifth of that and borrow the rest. Read more.
Congressman: White House Job Offer to Sestak May Be an ‘Impeachable’ Offense
Rep. Joe Sestak’s allegation that the White House offered him a job to drop out of the Pennsylvania Senate primary race against Arlen Specter is a crime that could lead to the impeachment of President Obama, Rep. Darrell Issa said.
But the decision by the Pennsylvania congressman not to elaborate on a so-called deal also could become a political problem as Sestak tries for the U.S. Senate seat.
The White House reportedly is going to formally address the allegation in the next few days. In the meantime, Issa, R-Calif., is one of many inside and outside Washington who want the Democratic Senate primary candidate to explain in detail what offer the White House made. Read more.
U.S. Spending on Food Stamps at All-Time High, Sparking Debate Over Welfare
The U.S. is now spending more on food assistance than at any time in its history, sparking a debate over whether the roughly 40 million people now receiving the latest version of food stamps at a cost of $73 billion a year are a symptom of a weak economy or are part of a long-term expansion in welfare and related programs.
Food stamp supporters say the record-high spending is simply a reflection of the economic downturn over the last two years.
“The program is expanding because we are realizing a significant downturn in the economy,” said Ambassador Eric Bost, who ran the food stamps program in the first years under President George W. Bush. “The food stamp or the SNAP program, as it’s referred to now, responds to the changing economic conditions of the country.” Read more.
More troops will guard border
LOS ANGELES — President Barack Obama will send up to 1,200 National Guard troops to the Southwest border and seek increased spending on law enforcement there to combat drug smuggling after demands from Republican and Democratic lawmakers that border security be tightened.
The decision was disclosed after Obama met Tuesday with Republican senators, several of whom have demanded that troops be placed at the border. The move also reflects political pressure in the president’s own party with midterm election campaigns under way and what is expected to be a tumultuous debate on overhauling immigration law coming up on Capitol Hill.
The troops will work on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support, analysis and training, and will support efforts to block drug trafficking, The Associated Press reported. They will temporarily supplement Border Patrol agents until Customs and Border Protection can recruit and train additional officers and agents to serve on the border, according to a letter Tuesday from top administration security officials to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich. Read more.
Stressed Out or Tone Deaf? Obama Chicago Vacation Raises Eyebrows
Presidents are never really off the clock, even when they go on vacation. But President Obama’s decision to skip the traditional Memorial Day ceremony in Arlington while on his second vacation since the BP oil spill began has some wondering what the schedule says about his priorities.
On “vacation,” Obama still holds staff meetings, occasionally attends local events and often gets his “relaxation” time swallowed up by pressing national and international business — his vacation to Hawaii in December coincided with the attempted Christmas Day airline bombing. The retreat this weekend is marked by a side-trip to Louisiana to inspect the damages from the oil spill.
But some conservatives, still smarting over the criticism George W. Bush fielded for his frequent trips to Crawford, Texas, say Obama’s trip to Chicago over Memorial Day weekend is conspicuously poor in its timing. Read more.
Obama’s New National Security Strategy Abandons Bush’s Unilateralism
President Obama’s new national security strategy stresses the importance of a cooperative international response to global conflicts and moves away from the Bush administration doctrine of striking preemptively and acting alone if deemed necessary to protect the country.
Obama’s emphasis on exhausting diplomacy first was reflected in his decision to have Secretary of State Hillary Clinton roll out the security strategy on Thursday at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
“One of our goals coming into the administration was … to begin to make the case that defense, diplomacy and development were not separate entities,” Clinton said. “Indeed they had to be viewed as part of an integrated whole.” Read more.
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