Daily Political Wire 9-22-2010

George Wenschhof

New Woodward Book reveals division in White House - Washington Post Bob Woodward's new book, "Obama's Wars", highlights the division within the White House on the strategy toward Afghanistan. The New York Times has a good read with excerpts from the book here.

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Republicans Block repeal of D.A.D.T. - as expected the strictly political move by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to include D.A.D.T. and the DREAM Act as amendments to an appropriations bill failed by a vote of 56-43 with Democrat Blanche Lincoln (Ark.) voting against. First Read has more here.

A questionable move by the Senate Majority Leader. Look to see Democrats point to continued obstructionism by the Republicans and Republicans pointing at the games Democrats play.

The inclusion of amendments to allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military prior to when an agreed upon survey of opinions from the enlisted service men and women was complete along with a measure which would allow a pathway to citizenship for children of illegal immigrants were put forward by the Obama administration in a move to appease supporters.

However, it had to be known by the folks who count votes, these amendments would fail.

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Another Obama administration Economic Adviser Departs - this time it is Lawrence Summers who has announced he will be leaving after the mid term elections. Bloomberg.com has more here. He joins Peter Orzag and Christine Romer as top economic advisers to leave the White House. look to see Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner be next to either resign or be canned after the mid term elections.

The Obama administration efforts in regard to the sluggish economy have not worked as well as intended with unemployment remaining near 10%.

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House Ways and Means Committee to vote on Chinese Currency - a long term problem for the U.S., the undervalued Chinese currency has been a drag on the U.S. economy. The undervalued currency gives Chinese companies an unfair trade advantage. Bloomberg.com has more here.

Unfortunately, China also holds between 10-20% of U.S. debt in treasury bills so Congressional action must be carefully considered.

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Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. latest politician to have revelations of infidelity come forward - a businessman has claimed he was asked to pay air fare between D.C. and Chicago for a woman acquaintance of Rep. Jackson.

The same businessman has also claimed he was asked to raise 6 million for then governor Rod Blagojevich in exchange for Jackson being appointed to the vacant Obama senate seat.

CNN.com has more here. Stay Tuned...

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Democratic Chatter 4-8-2009

George Wenschhof Bio

President Barack Obama arrived home at 3:00 AM ET this morning - he arrived a little later than originally planned due to his surprise visit to Iraq. he was greet enthusiastically, when in a speech delivered to the troops, he spoke of the withdraw timetable from Iraq and the time for the Iraq government to take over security of their country. Reuters.com has more on the Iraq visit here.

The whirlwind eight day European trip is now over and all early reports have been that it was a tremendous success. Today, the president has no planned events.

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Fidel Castro meets with Congressional Black Caucus members in Havana yesterday - the ailing Cuban leader has not been seen publicly for some time. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), Barbara Lee (D-Calf.), and Laura Richardson (D-calf.) meet with Castro and will be submitting their report to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi upon their return to the States. They indicated Castro wanted to know how Cuba could help President Obama and the u.S. better relations between the two countries. You can read more here.

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Iranian Leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad welcomes talks with the U.S. and President Obama - In a speech broadcast on state television, he stated Iran welcomed "honest" dialogue with the U.S. Iran has not had diplomatic relations with the U.S. since former president George W. Bush labeled them a terrorist nation and a member of the "axis of evil". You can read more here.

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Franken leads grows by 87 in Minnesota Senate race - good grief! five months later and we are still waiting for a Senator to be certified and seated from Minnesota. As expected, Democrat Al Franken's lead grew to 312 votes from 225 over Republican Norm Coleman after 351 absentee ballots ordered by the court were counted yesterday. The final court ruling is expected by the end of this week on various other issues surrounding the election. The Coleman campaign is expected to appeal the decision to the state supreme court. The Chicago Star Tribune has more here.

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7000 absentee ballots count begins today in NY Special Election - Republican Jim Tedisco has a slim lead of 17 votes over Democrat Scott Murphy. This is the election to replace Kirsten Hillibrand (D) in the 20th district after she was named to replace the vacancy Hillary Clinton U.S. Senate seat. Politico.com has more here.

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As expected, Democrat Mike Quigley easily wins special election in Illinois - the former Cook County Commissioner easily beat Republican Rosanna Pulido with 70% of the vote with 94% of the precincts reporting. Quigley will replace Rahm Emanuel in Congress. Emanuel vacated the position when he became White House Chief of Staff. You can read more here.

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Congressional Ethics office begins preliminary inquiry into actions of Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) - information is being sought pertaining to the filling of the vacant U.S. Senate seat in Illinois by former Governor Rod Blagojevich. TheHill.com has more here.

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Obama Transition Team Releases List of Contacts with Blagojevich

George Wenschhof Bio

The five page memo is dated today and is addressed to President-elect Barack Obama and is from incoming White House counsel Greg Craig. It is entitled "Transition Staff Contacts with the Governor's Office". You can read it at Change.gov here.

As was indicated previously by President-elect Obama, it does not appear anything out of the ordinary transpired between the Governor and the transition staff. It is also apparent from reading the report that the U.S. Attorney's office interviewed the President-elect, Rahm Emanuel, and Valarie Jarrett last week.

Rahm Emanuel did speak to Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich on one or two occasions with one conversation pertaining to his resignation from his representative seat and taking the position of White House Chief of Staff. Interestingly, he first recommended Valarie Jarrett for the Senate seat prior to any discussions with the President-elect. When the Senate seat was discussed with Obama, Emanuel was informed the President-elect had a list of names to pass on for consideration but that he was not going to personally recommend a replacement. At that time Emanuel was also informed by Obama that Valarie Jarrett was joining the White House staff and had removed herself from consideration for the Senate seat.

The names that were referred to the Governor's office by Rahm Emanuel were Representatives Jan Schakowsky and Jesse Jackson Jr., Tammy Duckworth and Dan Hynes.

At no point was there any attempt by the Governor or his staff to extract any benefit from the transition staff.

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