Daily Political Wire 8-18-2010

George Wenschhof

Today, President Obama is in Columbus, Ohio - where he will meet with a family in their home and also meet with families in a roundtable discussion. Later, he will speak at a fundraiser for Democratic Governor Ted Strickland. The president then travels to Florida where he will speak at a fundraiser for the state Democratic Party.

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Blagojevich found guilty on only one of 24 charges - after two weeks of deliberations, the jury could only agree on guilt relating to one charge of lying to the FBI by the former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. The prosecutor has vowed to retry the case and Blagojevich's attorneys have said they will appeal the guilty verdict on the single charge. The Washington Post has more here.

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Gore Shows frustrations with lack of action on Climate/Energy bill - in a recent Blog post, the former Vice President spoke of how activists need to protest and take to the streets. he was speaking in regard to the lack of action by the senate on a comprehensive Climate/Energy bill. TheHill.com has more here.

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Representative Barney Frank (D-Mass.) calls for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to be abolished - the chair of the House Financial Services Committee says they should be replaced by a single mechanism to help subsidize housing.

The two huge mortgage corporations were private with government assistance until taken over entirely by the government toward the end of the George W. Bush administration. Together, the two companies have receive 150 billion in bail out funds. Reuters.com has more here.

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Robert Murdoch's News Corporation donates 1 million to Republican Governors Association - among the news outlets owned by Murdoch are Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.

So much for "Fair and Balanced" reporting. MediaMatters.com has more here.

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Murray to face Rossi for U.S. Senate in Washington - the open primary held yesterday had the two top moving on to the general election. No surprises as Democratic candidate Patty Murray was the top vote getter with 46%, followed by Republican Dino Rossi with 34%. Clint Didier, a former tight end with the Washington Redskins who also received an endorsement by Sarah Palin, received on 12% of the vote and will not move on to the general election in November. MSNBC.com has more here.

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