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Politics : The Next President 2008 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (2337)	3/3/2008 10:28:16 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3215

Democrats in Intense Battle Before Big Vote By ELISABETH BUMILLER and JOHN M. BRODER Published: March 3, 2008 Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama battled over national security and trade in a frantic burst of last-minute campaigning on Monday as Mrs. Clinton accused Mr. Obama of deception as new evidence of discord surfaced within her own camp. With less than 24 hours to go before voting in Ohio, Texas, Vermont and Rhode Island, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign released a sharp television commercial attacking Mr. Obama for being AWOL from his chairmanship of a Senate oversight committee on the forces fighting in Afghanistan — “he was too busy running for president to hold even one hearing,” the ad said — while Mr. Obama’s campaign counterpunched that Mrs. Clinton had herself missed important hearings on Afghanistan before the Senate Armed Services Committee last month. The day was the latest installment in the riveting drama between two formidable, historic candidates, the first woman to be a serious contender for president and the charismatic young black man who has packed arenas across the country and overtaken Mrs. Clinton in many polls and the delegate count. Showing the intensity of the contest, officials predicted a record turnout among voters in Texas. Mrs. Clinton, facing calls from some Democrats to get out of the race should she perform poorly on Tuesday after 11 straight losses, appeared almost defiant as she declared at the start of her day in Ohio that “I’m just getting warmed up.” Then she charged that one of Mr. Obama’s senior advisers had told Canadian officials that Mr. Obama’s opposition to the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement, or Nafta, was largely a political tactic, not a serious policy position. Mr. Obama denied that he was sending back-door messages to the Canadians and said the Clinton campaign was “throwing the kitchen sink” at him. Mrs. Clinton had her own internal problems as reports of dysfunction and finger-pointing rumbled through her operation. In an e-mail sent over the weekend to The Los Angeles Times, Mark Penn, Mrs. Clinton’s chief strategist and pollster, appeared to be distancing himself from the campaign’s operations when he told the newspaper that he had “no direct authority in the campaign” and described himself as merely “an outside message adviser with no campaign staff reporting to me.” Mr. Penn is a longtime friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton and serves — as he invariably describes himself — as the campaign’s chief strategist. This means that Mr. Penn is involved in directing the message presented by Mrs. Clinton in her speeches and campaign advertisements, and the overall strategic thrusts of the campaign, and often served as the voice of the campaign — appearing on television and giving interviewing pressing Mrs. Clinton’s cause. Mr. Obama faced continuing questions about his relationship with the developer Antoin “Tony” Rezko, who is now on trial in Chicago and accused of exploiting political relationships with the Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevich, to obtain millions of dollars in kickbacks on state contracts. Mr. Obama is not implicated in any aspect of the case, but Mr. Rezko has contributed $150,000 over the years to Mr. Obama’s campaigns and helped him purchase a home at the same time that Mr. Rezko bought an adjoining strip of land that he later sold to Mr. Obama. At a news conference on Monday in San Antonio, Mr. Obama said he had already acknowledged that it was a mistake to buy a home and the adjoining land with Mr. Rezko’s help. “I brought a strip of land on an adjacent property that he had purchased; I have said that was a mistake,” Mr. Obama said. “I have been very open about what I have called a bone-headed move.” Mr. Obama said there are no allegations that he betrayed the public trust or gave political favors to Mr. Rezko, but he has not disclosed the number of fund-raisers that Mr. Rezko held for him. Mrs. Clinton has also found itself on the defensive over the Obama campaign’s demands that it release her records as First Lady. On Monday, the National Archives said Mrs. Clinton’s schedules could be released later this month, but asked a judge to delay the release of thousands of her telephone logs for one to two years. On the Republican side, Senator John McCain and Mike Huckabee also campaigned in Texas on Monday — between them they appeared in Abilene, San Antonio, Waco and Houston — but their race was genteel compared to the angry tone of the Democrats. At a news conference in Phoenix before leaving for Texas, Mr. McCain, the likely Republican nominee, addressed a host of foreign policy topics, including the Russian election and the attacks on Israel from Gaza. Mr. McCain also called on President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela to withdraw his troops from the Colombian border.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (2337)	3/3/2008 10:49:08 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3215

This year, Hillary Clinton made a clumsy attack on Mr. Rezko as a "slum landlord" during one debate. But her campaign has otherwise steered clear -- at least until last Friday, when Howard Wolfson, a top Clinton aide, suggested to reporters on a conference call that "the number of questions that we don't know the answers to about the relationship between Mr. Rezko and Mr. Obama is staggering." Mr. Obama's campaign told me they have answered all questions about Mr. Rezko and have no plans to release any further records. Mr. Obama has admitted that the 2005 land deal that he and Mr. Rezko were involved in was a "boneheaded" mistake, in part because his friend was already rumored to be under federal investigation. The newly elected Mr. Obama bought his $1.65 million home on the same day, June 15, that Mr. Rezko's wife bought the plot of land next to it from the same seller for $625,000. Seven months later she sold a slice of the land to the trust that Mr. Obama had put the house into, so the senator could expand his garden. Mr. Obama has strenuously denied suggestions that the same-day sale enabled him to pay $300,000 under the house's asking price because Mrs. Rezko paid full price for the adjoining lot, or that he asked the Rezkos for help in the matter. Both actions would be clear violations of Senate ethics rules barring the granting or asking of favors. Still, there are anomalies. Mr. Obama admits that he and Mr. Rezko took a tour of the house before it and the adjoining plot were sold. Financial records given to federal prosecutors a year later show Mrs. Rezko had a salary of only $37,000 and assets of $35,000. In court proceedings at that time, to explain how much his bail should be, Mr. Rezko declared that he had "no income, negative cash flow, no liquid assets." So where did the money for Mrs. Rezko's $125,000 down payment -- and the collateral for her $500,000 loan from a local bank controlled by Amrish Mahajan, like Mr. Rezko a Chicago political fixer -- come from? The London Times reports that, three weeks before the land transactions, Nadhmi Auchi, an Iraqi billionaire living in London, loaned $3.5 million to Mr. Rezko, who was his Chicago business partner. Mr. Auchi's office says he had "no involvement in or knowledge of" the property purchase. Mr. Auchi is a press-shy property developer (estimated worth: $4 billion) who was convicted of corruption in France in 2003 for his involvement in the Elf affair, the biggest political and corporate fraud inquiry in Europe since World War II. He was fined $3 million and given a 15-month prison term that was suspended provided he committed no further crimes. Mr. Auchi was also a top official in the Iraqi oil ministry in the 1970s. He has for years vigorously denied charges he had dealings with Saddam Hussein after the first Gulf War. However, an official report to the Pentagon inspector general in 2004 obtained by the Washington Times cited "significant and credible evidence" of involvement by Mr. Auchi's companies in the Oil for Food scandal and illicit smuggling of weapons to the Hussein regime. In 2003, Mr. Auchi began investing in Chicago real estate with Mr. Rezko. In April 2007, after his indictment, Mr. Auchi loaned another $3.5 million to Mr. Rezko, a loan that Mr. Rezko hid from U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's office. When Mr. Fitzgerald learned that the money was being parceled out to Mr. Rezko's lawyers, family and friends, he got Mr. Rezko's bond revoked in January and had him put in jail as a potential flight risk.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (2337)	3/3/2008 11:27:05 PM
From: PROLIFE	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3215

Once again, Kennyboy believe that an apple tree will grow watermelons. Oblabby is NOT FOR life..thus he agrees to the murder of unborn children. Riddle me this oh counselor? Who said: . epiginosko . . . karpos . . sullego staphule . akantha e sukon . tribolos or translated: Ye shall know them by their fruit: and then there is O'blabby's voting record: Voted against banning partial birth abortion. (Oct 2007) Trust women to make own decisions on partial-birth abortion. (Apr 2007) Pass the Stem Cell Research Bill. (Jun 2004) Protect a woman's right to choose. (May 2004) Supports Roe v. Wade. (Jul 1998) Voted YES on expanding research to more embryonic stem cell lines. (Apr 2007) Voted NO on notifying parents of minors who get out-of-state abortions. (Jul 2006) Rated 0% by the NRLC, indicating a pro-choice stance. (Dec 2006)