Unions Regroup After Stunned by Losses Under Obama, Democrats

March 01, 2010, 12:42 AM EST

By Holly Rosenkrantz

March 1 (Bloomberg) -- William George, president of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, blames the card-check bill. Alan Hughes, AFL-CIO chief in Arkansas, blames Wal-Mart. Charlie Flemming, a union leader in Atlanta, blames Democratic politicians.

As they meet in Orlando, Florida, this week to plan their 2010 political campaign, union leaders are reeling from a succession of defeats they never expected after helping President Barack Obama and the Democrats win elections in 2008.

The union-organizing bill known as card-check, labor’s top priority a year ago, has stalled. Obama ignored union pleas to use his executive powers to appoint a National Labor Relations Board nominee blocked by Republicans. Senate Democrats such as Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas haven’t supported some union goals.

“The labor movement is at a crossroads, and it has to rethink its political strategy,” said Amy Dean, a former labor official who is co-author of “A New New Deal,” a book about reshaping the labor movement. “The conversations that we are having at our kitchen tables and our living rooms that express our disappointment with this administration are very similar to the conversations that we had under the Bush administration.”

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-01/unions-regroup-after-stunned-by-losses-under-obama-democrats.html

UN's climate link to hurricanes in doubt

Jonathan Leake, Environment Editor

Research by hurricane scientists may force the UN’s climate panel to reconsider its claims that greenhouse gas emissions have caused an increase in the number of tropical storms.

The benchmark report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said that a worldwide increase in hurricane-force storms since 1970 was probably linked to global warming.

It followed some of the most damaging storms in history such as Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans and Hurricane Dennis which hit Cuba, both in 2005.

The IPCC added that humanity could expect a big increase in such storms over the 21st century unless greenhouse gas emissions were controlled.

...

However, the latest research, just published in Nature Geoscience, paints a very different picture.

It suggests that the rise in hurricane frequency since 1995 was just part of a natural cycle, and that several similar previous increases have been recorded, each followed by a decline.

Looking to the future, it also draws on computer modelling to predict that the most likely impact of global warming will be to decrease the frequency of tropical storms, by up to 34% by 2100.

It does, however, suggest that when tropical storms do occur they could get slightly stronger, with average windspeeds rising by 2-11% by 2100. A storm is termed a hurricane when wind speeds exceed 74mph, but most are much stronger. A category 4 or 5 hurricane such as Katrina generates speeds in excess of 150mph.

“We have come to substantially different conclusions from the IPCC,” said Chris Landsea, a lead scientist at the American government’s National Hurricane Center, who co-authored the report.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7044158.ece

30! Five More Democrats--Including Durbin--Say They Support a Public Option Through Reconciliation

Brian Beutler | March 1, 2010, 10:08AM

Five leading Democrats--including Senate Majority Whip Di*k Durbin--have publicly announced that they will vote for a public option if it's offered up during the budget reconciliation process, where legislation can pass with a majority vote.

"Sen. Durbin has long been a supporter of the public option," reads a statement from Durbin spokesman Joe Shoemaker to the progressive groups Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Democracy for America, and Credo. "I don't know whether the votes exist in the Senate right now, but if the House version of the public option came up for a vote in reconciliation Sen. Durbin would vote yes."

Similar statements were also issued from four other senators: Patty Murray (D-WA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/30-five-more-democrats--including-durbin--say-they-support-a-public-option-through-reconciliation.php

Via Daniel Foster:

Carville says it about 1:20 into the clip

The battle is between incumbent Governor Rick Perry and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson. Perry currently leads in most polls. Hutchinson said she would resign her seat if she either won or lost, but as most politicians think and do, I believe she will remain in office. I hope she does resign because then Perry could appoint an actual conservative, hopefully Michael Williams, to her seat. I will of course post any news from tomorrow's primary and of course the results after the polls close.

Tommy Thompson looks hard at Senate bid

By DAVID CATANESE | 3/1/10 5:12 AM EST

Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, who served four terms as Wisconsin governor, is securing financial pledges and ramping up his outreach to longtime political aides in preparation for a possible campaign against Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold.

Thompson has alerted his Washington-based law firm of his moves and is contacting key clients about the prospect of challenging Feingold, the most tangible signals yet that he’s seriously exploring a 2010 campaign.

“The governor has taken additional steps in the past week and will continue to do so over the next several weeks. If the meetings go well, you can expect to see an exploratory committee set up near the end of March,” former state commerce secretary and Thompson campaign manager Bill McCoshen told POLITICO.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33666.html

Tea Party prominent: Palin not presidential

Published: 28 February 2010 11:36 | Changed: 1 March 2010 12:36

Puerto Rico statehood bill

By: Michael Barone
Senior Political Analyst
02/26/10 2:32 PM EST

House Democrats are pushing a bill to authorize a referendum on statehood in Puerto Rico. The Washington Times has a good editorial opposing the bill. They point out that among other features the bill would allow people of Puerto Rican origin who now live outside Puerto Rico to vote in the referendum, that the questions on the ballot would be framed in a way to favor statehood and that Puerto Rico would be the first state with an overwhelming majority whose first language is not English. All good arguments.

Obviously House Democrats are motivated at least in part by crass political calculation: they figure that a state of Puerto Rico would elect two Democratic senators and five or six Democratic House members. That may not be quite true: the current Governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Fortuño, is a member of the pro-statehood New Progressive party and identified as a Republican when he served as Resident Commissioner, Puerto Rico’s non-voting representative, in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2005 to 2009.

I have been following Puerto Rico issues for many years, and I think the Times misses one important point against this bill. And that is that statehood has traditionally been granted only to territories whose residents show, in referendum or otherwise, overwhelming support for statehood. There is no such support in Puerto Rico. Status—whether Puerto Rico should become a state, should become independent or should retain in current terms or somewhat modified terms the current status which in English is called commonwealth but in Spanish the more descriptive estado liberado asociado—has been the single most important issue in Puerto Rican politics since the 1940s. The electorate is closely split (as the figures cited by the Times show) between statehood and commonwealth and between the pro-statehood New Progressive party and the pro-commonwealth Popular Democratic party. Only a small percentage of voters, most of them university students it seems, support independence. I think it would be very unwise to grant statehood to a territory where there is not a strong consensus for statehood, as there was in the Alaska and Hawaii territories in the 1950s.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Puerto-Rico-statehood-bill-85520947.html

By ANDREW DeMILLO (AP) – 2 hours ago

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter said Monday he's seeking the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat held by Sen. Blanche Lincoln, challenging the two-term incumbent as she faces the toughest fight of her political career.

Halter's spokesman provided a statement Monday in which the one-term lieutenant governor said he would file papers this week for the U.S. Senate. Halter is the only Democrat to formally announce a challenge to Lincoln, a moderate who has been under pressure in Washington to support President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

"Washington is broken. It's working for the special interests, not Arkansas families," Halter said in the statement.

Lincoln's campaign had no immediately comment.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jA3RK25168k9lJMBWEsmJL15qQ5gD9E5S3780

POLL: Obama's visit just bounced off Reid

Poll shows senator gained little ground in re-election battle

By STEVE TETREAULT
© 2010 LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

WASHINGTON -- During his whirlwind visit to Las Vegas two weeks ago, President Barack Obama mentioned U.S. Sen. Harry Reid by name four dozen times, gave him a big hug and talked him up as if he was a long-lost brother.

In remarks that could not have been more laudatory, Obama repeatedly characterized the veteran Democratic leader as a man "made of very strong stuff" who was making the right decisions for the state back in the nation's capital.

But as Reid faces an uphill path to win re-election to a fifth Senate term, Obama's enthusiastic endorsement does not appear to have improved the Senate majority leader's standing among constituents, according to a new poll conducted for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Reid got no bounce from Obama's visit on Feb. 19, when the president spoke highly of him at Green Valley High School and to business leaders at CityCenter, polling indicates.

A larger percentage of voters surveyed (17 percent) said they would be less likely to vote for Reid following the president's visit than said they would be more likely to vote for him (7 percent). Seventy-five percent said Obama's visit would have no effect on how they vote.

http://www.lvrj.com/news/obama_s-visit-just-bounced-off-reid-85760197.html

Relieve the Chairman of His Gavel Clos

Congressman Charles Rangel was far from humbled after the ethics committee admonished him for taking corporate-paid Caribbean junkets in violation of the House ethics code. Rather, the New York Democrat berated the panel’s leaders on the House floor.

The moment was characteristic of Mr. Rangel’s arrogance throughout the investigation, which continues into more serious allegations about his official behavior. It is one more reason why Speaker Nancy Pelosi — who championed ethics reform — should stop protecting him and relieve him of his crucial role as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

...

This should galvanize the committee to conclude its snail-paced inquiry into Mr. Rangel’s behavior, including: his acceptance of rent-subsidized apartments from a Manhattan real estate developer; his failure to pay taxes on rental income from a villa in the Dominican Republic; and his soliciting of a $1 million donation — to a university center named after him — from a corporation with business before Congress. Mr. Rangel, the House’s designated master of fiscal accountability, already deserves to be stripped of his gavel.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/opinion/28sun3.html?th&emc=th

White House: Simple up-or-down vote on health care

WASHINGTON – The White House called for a "simple up-or-down" vote on health care legislation Sunday as Speaker Nancy Pelosi appealed to House Democrats to get behind President Barack Obama's chief domestic priority even it if threatens their political careers.

In voicing support for a simple majority vote, White House health reform director Nancy-Ann DeParle signaled Obama's intention to push the Democratic-crafted bill under Senate rules that would overcome GOP stalling tactics.

Republicans unanimously oppose the Democratic proposals. Without GOP support, Obama's only chance of emerging with a policy and political victory is to bypass the bipartisanship he promoted during his televised seven-hour health care summit Thursday.

"We're not talking about changing any rules here," DeParle said. "All the president's talking about is: Do we need to address this problem and does it make sense to have a simple, up-or-down vote on whether or not we want to fix these problems?"

DeParle was optimistic that the president would have the votes to pass the massive bill. But none of legislation's advocates who spoke on Sunday indicated that those votes were in hand.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_health_care_overhaul