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Senator Warren swears off expensive campaign fundraisers

February 25, 2019

By Ginger Gibson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren will hold no political fundraising events with pricey admission fees to collect cash to fuel her bid for the Democratic nomination for president, she announced Monday morning, becoming the first candidate to formally swear-off the traditional means of campaign funding.

With as many as two dozen Democrats expected to vie for the chance to take on President Donald Trump in the November 2020 election, the ability to raise funds could become critical for lesser-known contenders trying to break through the crowd.

Democrats have grown increasingly critical that corporations and the wealthy hold too much sway over U.S. elections, and several who are running to be the party’s nominee say they have refused to take corporate money.

Warren, who launched her campaign earlier this month, already promised not to take money from lobbyists or political action committees established by corporations. Monday’s announcement takes the pledge a step farther.

Instead of fundraisers with large entry fees, Warren will have to depend mainly on contributions collected online or from supporters willing to chip in smaller donations, known as “grassroots” supporters.

She will hold no fundraising dinners or cocktail parties, her campaign said.

“That means no fancy receptions or big money fundraisers only with people who can write the big checks,” Warren said in an email to campaign supporters on Monday morning, according to a draft seen by Reuters.

Traditionally, presidential candidates have used fundraising events to tap donors capable of writing larger checks. This year, candidates are allowed to accept two $2,800 checks from an individual donor, one to be used during the primary and another if they compete in the general election.

Wealthy supporters are often willing to write large donation checks in exchange for access to the candidate.

Since party nominees have typically hosted expensive fundraisers to help others in their party, if Warren wins the nomination her rejection of fundraisers could curb the spending power of other Democratic candidates for congressional offices.

Warren acknowledged the potential for opposition within her own party.

“There are some Democrats who are so deeply afraid of losing to Donald Trump that they don’t want to risk saying or doing anything different at all,” she wrote to supporters.

(Reporting by Ginger Gibson; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

FLASHBACK: Bernie Was Kicked Off Hippie Commune For Being TOO LAZY to Work

On Tuesday, Vermont Democrat Socialist Bernie Sanders announced he was running for president in 2020.

He’ll join Sens. Warren, Harris, Booker, Gillibrand, Rep. Gabbard, and a few others who have already declared.

If Dems decide to make Bernie their nominee to go against President Trump, they’ll have to deal with the fact that he was once kicked off a hippie commune for being too lazy to work.

From Free Beacon:

Bernie Sanders was asked to leave a hippie commune in 1971 for “sitting around and talking” about politics instead of working, according to a forthcoming book.

We Are As Gods by Kate Daloz, scheduled for release April 26, chronicles the rise and fall of the Myrtle Hill Farm in northeast Vermont. Daloz, a Brooklyn writer, was in a special position to write a history of Myrtle Hill: she was raised near the commune in a geodesic dome residence with an outhouse called the Richard M. Nixon Memorial Hall. Her parents were close acquaintances of the commune residents, who offered them tips about wilderness living.

In the summer of 1971, Myrtle Hill received a visitor: Bernie Sanders, age 30, at the cusp of his political career with the socialist Liberty Union Party.

Continued:

Sanders came to the farm while researching an article on natural childbirth for the Liberty Union’s party organ, Movement. Interest in alternative medicine was strong among members of the counterculture as part of their wider suspicion of modern science, which was associated with the sterility of hospitals and the destruction of war. “Many elements of Western medicine came under suspicion during this period, but none more so than modern obstetrics,” Deloz writes.

In Sanders’ article, previously digitized by Mother Jones, he criticized old methods of childrearing, where “infants were bottle fed on assembly line schedules designed by assembly line doctors in order to prepare them for assembly line society.” In Sanders’ view, natural childbirth was a step toward a more authentic society. “All of life is one and if we want to know, for example, how our nation can napalm children in Vietnam—AND NOT CARE—it is necessary to go well beyond ‘politics,’” he wrote.

Sanders’ prefatory remarks were followed by a Q&A between him and a friend, Loraine (spelled “Lorraine” in the article), who had recently given birth to a baby, Rahula (spelled “Rahoula” in the article), on the Myrtle Hill commune.

Bernie was recently sued “over claims that he used his own political clout to punish a local businessman who ran an attack ad against Sanders.”

From Daily Caller:

Rodolphe “Skip” Vallee, the CEO of St. Albans-based gasoline distributor and retailer R.L. Vallee, is alleging that Sanders and his senior press adviser, Daniel McLean, conspired against the business owner by drumming up a class-action lawsuit, according to federal court documents.

Vallee, who owns more than 45 gas stations in and around Vermont, produced an anti-Sanders television advertisement that aired locally in September 2014. The advertisement criticized Sanders for lambasting “the rich” over receiving tax breaks and golden parachutes, while his wife Jane Sanders received a $200,000 golden parachute after her involvement in a land deal helped to bankrupt Burlington College while she was president.

Lady Gaga splits with fiance Christian Carino

February 19, 2019

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Pop superstar and Oscar nominee Lady Gaga has split with her fiance, her second broken relationship in three years.

A representative for the 32-year-old Gaga on Tuesday confirmed celebrity media reports that the “Shallow” singer and Christian Carino, who is also her talent agent, had ended their engagement, but gave no details.

“It just didn’t work out. Relationships sometimes end,” an unidentified source told People magazine. “There’s no long dramatic story.”

News of the split came days before Sunday’s Oscar ceremony. Gaga is a best actress nominee for her role in the musical romance “A Star is Born.”

The singer will perform “Shallow” from “A Star is Born” on the Oscars telecast, which is seen as a front runner to win the Academy Award for best original song.

Gaga announced in October that she and Carino were engaged. They began dating in February 2017, a few months after she ended her five-year relationship with “Chicago Fire” actor Taylor Kinney.

Gaga and Carino had appeared close when they attended the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards in Los Angeles in January, but fans noticed she was not wearing her large engagement ring when she sang at the Grammy Awards on Feb. 10.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Senate may confirm Trump attorney general pick as soon as Wednesday

February 12, 2019

By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee, William Barr, could win confirmation in the U.S. Senate as soon as Wednesday despite Democrats’ concerns about how he might handle Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

The Senate on Tuesday voted 55-44, largely along party lines, to advance his nomination in a strong sign that the Republican-controlled chamber will confirm him this week.

That vote could come on Wednesday, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said.

A corporate lawyer who previously served as attorney general under Republican President George H.W. Bush in the early 1990s, Barr has been praised by lawmakers from both parties as someone who is familiar with the workings of the Justice Department and does not owe his career to Trump.

If he wins the job, Barr’s independence could be put to the test when Mueller wraps up his investigation into the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia during the 2016 election.

The Republican president has repeatedly criticized the investigation as a “witch hunt” and denies any collusion with Moscow.

Barr says he would allow Mueller to finish his investigation and would make public as much of its findings as possible.

But Barr has stopped short of promising to release Mueller’s report in its entirety — a stance that troubles many Democrats, who say his expansive views of executive power might lead him to suppress portions that address whether Trump tried to obstruct the investigation.

Republicans say they are confident that Barr will make as much of the report public as possible.

(Reporting by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Sen. Ted Cruz Fires Back at Sen. Cory Booker for Asking Judicial Nominee if LGBT Relationship Were ‘Sin’

Kayla Koslosky | ChristianHeadlines.com Editor |

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) condemned Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) for interrogating a judicial nominee about her moral and religious principles during a confirmation hearing this week.

As Christian Headlines previously reported, Senator Booker first asked nominee Neomi Rao is she believed LGBT relationships were “immoral.”

Rao questioned the relevancy of the question before answering no.

Booker followed up by asking Rao if she believed homosexuality was a ‘sin.’

The administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs answered, “Senator, my personal views on any of these subjects are things that I would put to one side and I would faithfully follow [the precedence of the Supreme Court].”

Directly following this display, Senator Cruz defended Rao before the committee noting that he was “deeply troubled” by the attack on Rao’s personal religious views.

Cruz said, “The Senate Judiciary Committee should not be a theater for mischaracterizing or twisting a nominee’s views nor an avenue for persecution.”

He continued, “We’ve seen a growing pattern among Senate Democrats of hostility to religious faith. I was deeply troubled a few minutes ago to hear questioning of a nominee asking your personal views on what is sinful. In my view that has no business in this committee. Article VI of the Constitution says there shall be no religious test for any public office.”

“We have seen Senate Democrats attack what they characterized as religious dogma. We’ve seen Senate Democrats attack nominees for personal views on salvation. I don’t believe this is a theological court of inquisition. I think the proper avenue of investigation for this committee is a nominee’s record. So, Ms. Rao, let me ask you about your actual record, which is what this committee should be looking at – not our religious views or your religious views whatever they may be,” he charged.

According to CBN News, Senate Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have questioned the Christian values of several candidates throughout the course of Donald Trump’s presidency.

During a confirmation hearing for nominee Amy Coney Barrett last year, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) reportedly told the Catholic Candidate that “the dogma lives loudly within you, and that’s of concern.”

In 2017, during the confirmation hearing for Russell Vought, Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) criticized the Christian belief of salvation when he asked Vought if a statement he made on salvation was Islamophobic.

According to CBN News, Vought once wrote in a blog post, “Muslims do not simply have a deficient theology. They do not know God because they have rejected Jesus Christ, His Son, and they stand condemned.”

In defense of himself, Vought told Sanders, “I believe in a Christian set of principles based on my faith.”

Trump re-election campaign began 2019 with $19 million in cash

January 31, 2019

By Ginger Gibson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump began the year with $19.2 million in campaign cash, a war chest that gives him a head start on Democrats lining up for the chance to run against the Republican in the 2020 White House race.

Trump raised $21 million in the fourth quarter of 2018, his campaign said on Thursday. Unlike any other president in the modern era, Trump filed for re-election on the day he took office in January 2017, instead of waiting the traditional two years. That allowed him to raise and spend campaign cash his entire term.

He is likely to far outpace the fundraising by Democrats who are just beginning to build campaigns. None of the Democratic candidates have yet been required to disclose their money hauls, although U.S. Senator Kamala Harris’ campaign said she raised $1.5 million in the 24 hours after she launched her run.

More than two dozen Democrats are expected to mount a campaign in hopes of winning the party’s nomination.

David Brock, a Democratic fundraiser who oversaw the largest Super PAC his party has backed, said Trump’s haul will make Democrats nervous.

“There is not going to be enough money in the system, whether its online or big dollars, to support more than six or eight candidates,” Brock told Reuters. “There is a disadvantage that Democrats have to raise money to fight each other first before you can raise a war chest to fight Trump.”

Some of the Democrats’ biggest donors are waiting to decide which candidate to back, Brock said.

“There is a lot less interest among donors on the ideological split as there is imagining the person who is best to stand up against Trump and really take the fight to him and just beat him,” Brock said.

Greg Berlin, a Democratic fundraiser at the firm Mothership Strategy, said he is confident Democrats will ultimately be able to compete with Trump’s cash levels.

“Whoever is the nominee will have well over a billion dollars combined with their primary and general money to compete with Trump,” Berlin said. “Trump will likely have well over a billion dollars, so I don’t think money matters at the end of the day.”

(Reporting by Ginger Gibson; Editing by Peter Cooney and Cynthia Osterman)

Glutton for Punishment: Hillary Clinton to Run for President a THIRD Time

Hillary Clinton is gearing up for a third run for the White House, according to insiders who say the former Secretary of State feels “empowered” by the recent Roger Stone indictment.

The twice-failed presidential nominee has talked to several people in her inner circle about becoming the 2020 Democratic nominee, saying “look, I’m not closing the doors to this,” CNN’s Jeff Zeleny reports.

Thehill.com reports: “I’m told by three people that as recently as this week, she was telling people that look, given all this news from the indictments, particularly the Roger Stone indictment, she talked to several people, saying ‘look, I’m not closing the doors to this,’ ” Zeleny said.

“It does not mean that there’s a campaign-in-waiting, or a plan in the works,” he continued.

The former secretary of State has previously not ruled out another presidential bid, saying last October that she would “like to be president.”

Zeleny added that Clinton believes running “could be a possibility,” given that she won the popular vote over President Trump in 2016 and that several former Trump associates have been indicted in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in that election.

Most recently, Trump’s longtime adviser, Roger Stone, was indicted Friday on seven counts as part of that investigation.

“Most losing presidential candidates never totally close the doors to running for president, something that’s really hard to do. So I put this in the category,” Zeleny said.

“But I think we have to at least leave our mind open to the possibility that she is still talking about it,” he added. “She wants to take on Trump. Could she win a Democratic primary to do it? I don’t know the answer to that.”

On road to 2020, New York’s Gillibrand touts liberal cred in Iowa

January 19, 2019

By Ginger Gibson

BOONE, Iowa (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand made her maiden voyage to the critical primary state of Iowa over the weekend, laying out her case that she is the best Democrat to challenge President Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election in 2020.

In a series of intimate meetings, Gillibrand focused her message on economic issues, while also delivering a fiery denunciation of Trump as a racist and a liar who is “ripping the fabric of America.”

Gillibrand, from New York, joins a small field of Democratic contenders that is expected to expand by over a dozen more, all vying for the party’s nomination and the right to challenge Trump, if he is the Republican’s 2020 nominee.

Criticized in the past by party left-wingers as too moderate, Gillibrand repeatedly emphasized her support for a “Medicare for all” proposal to create a national health care system.

“When I said we need to dismantle ICE and rebuild them, I’m very serious,” she said, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Gillibrand has joined liberals in calling for a revamping of the immigration enforcement agency.

A parade of candidates is already crossing Iowa that will hold the first primary contest in early 2020. Senator Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts traversed Iowa in early January, followed by Julian Castro, a former U.S. housing chief under former President Barack Obama.

Iowa voters, predominantly white and divided between rural and urban areas, have historically kicked off a months-long series of state-by-state contests to pick a nominee for president.

Gillibrand, who had never previously visited the state of Iowa, drew crowds in rural and urban areas. Some locals attributed the turnout to pent-up frustration among Democrats eager to begin the process of trying to replace Trump. Few vowed support for Gillibrand at this early stage.

In the small town of Boone, she held a meeting on Saturday that drew about 25 locals who braved the snow. Penny Vossler, 62, of Boone, hasn’t decided who she will support but attended to hear what Gillibrand said about issues like health care.

“I’m going to give them all a shot,” Vossler said.

HOUSE PARTY

Gillibrand acknowledged she enters the race as a virtual unknown in Iowa. She barely registered in a December Des Moines Register/CNN poll of likely 2020 Iowa Democratic caucus-goers, which put well-known potential candidates like former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders at the top.

At a “house party” in Sioux City, one voter asked her to explain her role in helping oust former Senator Al Franken from the Senate. Franken resigned from the Senate in 2017 in the wake of the #MeToo movement after being accused of harassing women.

Gillibrand was the most vocal of his colleagues to criticize him, which prompted blowback from other liberals who felt she had rushed to judgment.

“It wasn’t possible for me to remain silent, because what my silence meant was defending him, carrying his water, which I was unwilling to do,” Gillibrand said.

At the same event, another voter asked her to explain why early in her political career she had received an “A” rating from the gun-rights group the National Rifle Association (NRA), a score reflecting its approval of her votes on gun laws.

Gillibrand explained that growing up in rural New York state, she had never thought about gun control.

“I really only thought of guns through the lens of hunting. My mother still shoots the Thanksgiving turkey,” she said, drawing laughter.

But then she appeared to choke back tears as she discussed meeting the family of a young woman who was a bystander when she was killed with a gun. As a result, she sponsored legislation to reduce gun trafficking.

“I’m proud to have an F from the NRA,” she said.

(Reporting by Ginger Gibson; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Marguerita Choy)

Triumph of Conventional Wisdom: AP Expunges Iran/Contra Pardons from Barr’s Record

Sam Husseini writes that the news agency ignored the nominee’s link to a major U.S. scandal broken by its own investigative reporter at the time, the late Robert Parry, founder of Consortium News. By SamHusseini FAIR A president facing a…

Tough-on-crime record trails U.S. attorney general nominee into Senate hearings

January 10, 2019

By Sarah N. Lynch and Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. attorney general is expected to tell a Senate panel next week that he supports a new law easing prison sentences for some criminals, even though he advocated for decades for just the opposite.

William Barr for much of his career championed a get-tough approach to crime that has recently lost favor, culminating last month in Trump signing into law the biggest overhaul of the criminal justice system in a generation.

The First Step Act, enacted with strong bipartisan support in Congress, reduces mandatory minimum sentences for some nonviolent, low-level offenders and makes it easier for prisoners to qualify for early release to halfway houses or home confinement.

Trump signed it into law just weeks after he nominated Barr, who issued a report during an earlier stint as attorney general in the 1990s called “The Case for More Incarceration.”

Barr is expected to say that he will support the new law when he appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for confirmation hearings next week, according to two sources familiar with his preparations.

“We believe that Barr’s position will be somewhat moderated when he testifies if for no other reason than that his boss (Trump) fully subscribes to the First Step approach,” said Fraternal Order of Police executive director Jim Pasco, who said he had been in touch with people helping Barr prepare for the Senate hearings.

The Senate, controlled by Trump’s fellow Republicans, is expected to confirm Barr’s nomination to again head the Justice Department.

OVERSHADOWED BY MUELLER

Concerns about Barr’s record on criminal justice have so far taken a back seat to questions about how he would handle Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign in the 2016 election. Trump has denied any collusion with Moscow and Russia has said it did not meddle in the election.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, the incoming chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said he did not discuss the First Step Act when Barr visited him at his office on Wednesday. “That would have been a good question to ask him,” Graham said after the meeting.

But criminal justice advocates said they were working with lawmakers on the committee to make sure Barr will be questioned in detail about specific elements of the new law to ensure that he will support it.

“It certainly appears he holds an old-school view of our criminal justice system, but there is an overwhelming majority of members of the House and Senate on both sides of the aisle who do not feel that way,” said Holly Harris, executive director of Justice Action Network, a coalition of criminal-justice groups across the political spectrum.

Another advocate, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was unlikely Trump would have nominated Barr without a commitment to support the First Step Act.

‘EXTREMELY TROUBLING’

Democratic Senator Cory Booker, a member of the Judiciary Committee, is among those worried that Barr’s views on mass incarceration have not evolved since the 1990s, spokeswoman Kristin Lynch said.

Democratic Senator Chris Coons, also a member of the panel, told Reuters in a statement he too has concerns.

“I am concerned about comments that William Barr has made in the past that fail to appreciate the problems created by mass incarceration and the racial inequities in the criminal justice system,” he said.

“The President’s nominee for attorney general should demonstrate in his hearing next week that he will fully and efficiently implement the First Step Act.”

As attorney general, Barr would be in a position to influence how prisoners would be released into halfway houses or home confinement.

“It’s frustrating to think we might have found one of the few people who are still stuck in the 1980s and 1990s on these issues,” said Kevin Ring, head of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, which has worked to reduce minimum prison terms.

Barr was attorney general in 1991-1993, a time when U.S. crime rates reached an all-time high of 758 incidents per 100,00 people. They have since fallen by nearly half, to a rate of 394 incidents per 100,000 people in 2017, according to the FBI.

At that time, Barr advocated long prison sentences to keep violent criminals off the streets. “First, prisons work. Second, we need more of them,” Barr’s Justice Department wrote in a 1992 report.

Barr maintained his get-tough stance after leaving office. Along with other former law enforcement officials, he lobbied against earlier versions of the First Step Act in 2014 and 2015.

When Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions in November, Barr and two other former attorneys general penned a Washington Post opinion piece that praised Sessions for directing prosecutors to pursue the severest penalties possible.

Barr’s advocacy came as others were concluding that mandatory minimum sentences and other tough policies had taken too harsh a toll, especially on African-Americans and Latinos, and were costing taxpayers too much money.

(Reporting by Sarah Lynch and Andy Sullivan, Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Rosalba O’Brien)

Rand Paul: ‘New World Order’ Terrified of Trump

Senator Rand Paul took to Twitter to defend President Trump, claiming that the ‘New World Order’ are terrified of his success.

“Like other Big Government Republicans who never liked Reagan, Mitt Romney wants to signal how virtuous he is in comparison to the President,” Sen. Paul tweeted Wednesday. “Well, I’m most concerned and pleased with the actual conservative reform agenda @realDonaldTrump has achieved.”

Infowars.com reports: Romney had written an op-ed in the Washington Post attacking Trump’s handling of the presidency, saying it made a “deep descent in December.”

“The appointment of senior persons of lesser experience, the abandonment of allies who fight beside us, and the president’s thoughtless claim that America has long been a ‘sucker’ in world affairs all defined his presidency down,” he wrote Tuesday.

The former Massachusetts governor then went on to defend the largely globalist and establishment officials Trump had appointed, and lamented his refusal to stop “name-calling.”

“It is well known that Donald Trump was not my choice for the Republican presidential nomination. After he became the nominee, I hoped his campaign would refrain from resentment and name-calling. It did not. When he won the election, I hoped he would rise to the occasion. His early appointments of Rex Tillerson, Jeff Sessions, Nikki Haley, Gary Cohn, H.R. McMaster, Kelly and Mattis were encouraging. But, on balance, his conduct over the past two years, particularly his actions this last month, is evidence that the president has not risen to the mantle of the office.”

“With the nation so divided, resentful and angry, presidential leadership in qualities of character is indispensable. And it is in this province where the incumbent’s shortfall has been most glaring,” he added.

Trump shot back at Romney Wednesday, saying he should consider being a “team player,” instead of going down the same road as anti-Trumper and outgoing Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.).

“Here we go with Mitt Romney, but so fast! Question will be, is he a Flake? I hope not. Would much prefer that Mitt focus on Border Security and so many other things where he can be helpful. I won big, and he didn’t. He should be happy for all Republicans. Be a TEAM player & WIN!”

California could decide the GOP nominee

By Aaron Blake, The Washington Post

California is not exactly the GOP’s idea of home turf.

But in the 2012 Republican presidential primary, it’s the most important state on the calendar.

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign stop at William Jewell College on Tuesday, in Liberty, Mo. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

California’s June 5 primary, despite being the second-to-last contest, is looking more and more like it may determine whether Mitt Romney can win the Republican nomination or whether the party goes to its August convention without a nominee.

“If Gingrich drops out and Santorum can go at Romney one on one, it could be competitive all the way to California, in which case California would pretty much decide the nomination,” said John Ryder, a Republican National Committeeman from Tennessee who is an expert on the delegate process.

Part of the reason is the state’s sheer size. Because states are given three delegates to the Republican National Convention for every congressional district they have, California has a whopping 172 delegates. That’s more than 15 percent of the delegates needed to win the nomination.

California is technically a winner-take-all state, but because basically all of its delegates are awarded by congressional district, there is the possibility that they get sliced up any number of ways.

RE Tea Party » 2012 Elections

California could decide the GOP nominee

By Aaron Blake, The Washington Post

California is not exactly the GOP’s idea of home turf.

But in the 2012 Republican presidential primary, it’s the most important state on the calendar.

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign stop at William Jewell College on Tuesday, in Liberty, Mo. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

RE Tea Party » 2012 Elections

Rand Paul says tea party and father still a factor

By Scott Wartman, nky.com

ALEXANDRIA–U.S. Sen. Rand Paul looked out at the 200 people assembled in a gymnasium in Alexandria and said the tea party might play just as big of a role this election as it did two years ago.

“I think you are being effective,” Paul said. “The question I got nationally about the tea party is, they say it is not active like it was in 2010. Well I think that is still yet to be determined for 2012. This is a big crowd for the middle of the day to have out here. It is hard because we don’t have a nominee on the Republican side yet, so it is hard for the tea party to coalesce.”

Paul, R-Bowling Green, on Friday spoke to tea party supporters in Alexandria and business leaders in Covington. While in town, he downplayed recent talk of him being a vice presidential candidate on Mitt Romney’s ticket. No one has asked him, Paul said, but he’s flattered people would consider him. Paul, however, has not given up hope his father, Ron Paul, will pick up enough delegates.

“I’m still supporting that guy from Texas, Ron Paul. He’s my no. 1 pick” Paul said. “Really, I think it has been undereported his number of delegates. We still may win \Iowa, Maine, Minnesota and Colorado, because delegates haven’t been counted yet. When I said the other day I would be honored, I mean it in the sense that if you were nominated for an Academy Award, you would be honored to be nominated.”

At the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce’s Government Forum in Covington, Paul spoke about how to fund the Brent Spence Bridge. Paul has advocated moving money from other areas, such as foreign aid and smaller transportation enhancements. Paul said he wanted to eliminate $ 2 billion of $ 30 billion in foreign aid but was voted down. Paul decried the aid spent on Egypt and Afghanistan.

RE Tea Party » 2012 Elections

Rand Paul says tea party and father still a factor

By Scott Wartman, nky.com

ALEXANDRIA–U.S. Sen. Rand Paul looked out at the 200 people assembled in a gymnasium in Alexandria and said the tea party might play just as big of a role this election as it did two years ago.

RE Tea Party » 2012 Elections

Gingrich Tells ABC News: ‘I’m Going to Be the Nominee’

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Gingrich Tells ABC News: ‘I’m Going to Be the Nominee’ 01 Dec 2011 A very confident New Gingrich asserted to ABC News Thursday afternoon that he will be the Republican presidential nominee. “I’m going to be the nominee,” the former Speaker told ABC News. “It’s very hard not to look at the recent polls and think that the odds are very high I’m going to be the nominee.” The bold assertion came after Gingrich refused to criticize the Republican challengers who have begun attacking him and his record.

Citizens for Legitimate Government

Tea Party Nation poll shows 52 percent will vote for Romney if he is GOP nominee

By Alicia M. Cohn, TheHill.com

Most self-affiliated members of Tea Party Nation, one of the largest national organizations for the grassroots conservative movement, would vote for Mitt Romney as president if confronted with a choice between him or President Obama, according to a poll of members released to The Hill on Friday.

The group surveyed its members this week in an informal poll posted at the group’s website. The question asked was: If Romney is the GOP nominee, what will you do in the general election?

Fifty-two percent of about 1,150 respondents said they would “hold their nose” and vote for Romney if he becomes the GOP nominee, while 23 percent said they would vote for an unspecified third-party candidate. Twelve percent said they would not vote in the presidential election at all if the choice is between Romney and Obama.

Twelve percent of those polled said they would “vote enthusiastically” for Romney.

The unscientific results underscore a general lack of enthusiasm for Romney from the conservative wing of the Republican party, but also contrast with a poll taken by the same group in August. In that survey, 45 percent of 1,700 members answered ‘no’ when asked, “If Romney is the nominee, will you vote for him in the General Election?”

“Romney has a huge problem and this flies straight into the face of the idea that he is the most electable candidate,” said Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips. “If he is nominated, he will face the same situation [Arizona Sen. John] McCain did in 2008 where conservatives are going to stay home.”

RE Tea Party » 2012 Elections