RandySF
RandySF's JournalMaine GOP will count Washington County results in state caucus tally
AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Republican Party has reversed course and will recommend that delayed caucus results from Washington County be included in its final presidential poll tally. The party also is reconfirming results from local caucuses in the wake of the recent controversy over how its presidential caucuses were handled.
“The results of the Washington County caucus will be reviewed at the March 10 Republican State Committee meeting,” Maine GOP Chairman Charlie Webster said in a prepared statement approved by the state party’s executive committee.
“The executive committee voted unanimously to recommend to the state committee that they include the results in the final tally for the presidential preference poll as their caucus had been scheduled to occur by the February 11 deadline, however it was postponed due to inclement weather. “
The party has been under fire this week for reporting on Saturday that Mitt Romney won Maine by taking 39 percent of votes in a presidential preference poll conducted during the state’s caucuses.
http://bangordailynews.com/2012/02/16/politics/maine-gop-reportedly-working-on-a-caucus-recount/
Did The RNC Consider Mailing Out Illegal ‘Census’ Forms?
A 2010 mailing from the Republican National Committee with the words “Census Document” was so controversial that Congress passed a law making such tactics illegal. In early 2011, the RNC was apparently planning to do it again.
That’s according to the Direct Marketing Association, which said in a recent ethics report obtained by TPM that the RNC, under its current chairman, was “likely” to mail out an “identical mail piece” to the one that got them into trouble. The RNC denies such a plan was ever under consideration during the new regime.
DMA’s Corporate and Social Responsibility Department investigated the RNC issue last year, contacting several officials over a number of months, according to its 2011 compliance review report period (which covers Feb. 2010 to Nov. 2011).
The investigation began because the flier in question had several violations of DMA’s Guidelines for Honesty & Clarity and Solicitations in the Guise of Governmental Notifications. For one, it was “unclear that the documents are not going to be returned to the government,” it was “unclear that the solicitation is NOT from or affiliated with the US government” and there was a “lack of clarity around the voluntary nature of payment.”
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/02/did_the_rnc_consider_mailing_out_illegal_census_form_in_2011.php?ref=fpa
Maine GOP to recount caucus votes
AUGUSTA — The Maine Republican Party is reviewing its numbers from the presidential caucuses as pressure grows for a recount.
An email sent to county and town chairman this afternoon asks the local officials to resubmit vote totals to the state headquarters.
“We are confirming the totals from the presidential preference straw poll,” the email says. “Can you please email me the totals from your towns?”
The email does not say when, or whether, state GOP officials will publicly correct or update the results that have been posted on the party’s website since Saturday, when Mitt Romney was declared the winner over Ron Paul by less than 200 votes.
http://www.pressherald.com/news/Maine-GOP-reportedly-recounting-caucus-votes.html
Bishop Compares Covering Birth Control At Catholic Institution To Serving Pork At A Jewish Deli
During House Oversight's contentious hearing on the administration's contraception rule, witness Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport, CT dedicated his entire opening remarks to an analogy comparing the idea that women at religious organizations have a right to contraceptive coverage to the right of someone to order a ham sandwich from a Jewish deli. The detailed analogy can be found in full in his opening statement.
"For my testimony today, I would like to tell a story. Let’s call it, 'The Parable of the Kosher Deli,'" Lori began. "Once upon a time, a new law is proposed, so that any business that serves food must serve pork. There is a narrow exception…but kosher delicatessens are still subject to the mandate." When Jewish deli owners object, says Lori, people respond that pork is good for you and that lots of Jews eat pork anyway. The analogy went on to discuss a hypothetical 'accommodation' that is not sufficient.
Finally, Lori said concluded his story:
This story has a happy ending. The government recognized that it is absurd for someone to come into a kosher deli and demand a ham sandwich; that it is beyond absurd for that private demand to be backed with the coercive power of the state; that it is downright surreal to apply this coercive power when the customer can get the same sandwich cheaply, or even free, just a few doors down.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/bishop-compares-right-to-birth-control-at-catholic
Democracy Corps.: Republican brand collapsing.
A new Democracy Corps (D) survey finds the Republican brand "is in a state of collapse -- over 50 percent of voters give the Republican Party a cool, negative rating. The presidential race and the congressional battles are interacting with each other to drive down their lead candidate, the party, and perceptions of the congressional Republicans."
Meanwhile, Mitt Romney "may be on the edge of political death. The shift against him is one of the biggest in the polls and he now competes with Republicans in Congress for unpopularity. In the summer of 1996, Bob Dole essentially was disqualified in voters' eyes and never really recovered his footing."
Most interesting: Voters who gave Democrats their victories in 2006 and 2008 "have returned in a big way" led by "a resurgence and re-engagement of unmarried women."
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/02/16/poll_finds_republicans_in_deep_trouble.html
Romney's Michigan strategy is not totally dumb.
Nostalgia sells in Michigan, especially in the Detroit area. Remeber how "great" things used to be (or rather how white it used to be) is a pastime among older people like my dad. They like to talk about Belle Isle, muscle cars, cheap seats at Tigers games and black people who "knew their place". And they also talk among themselves to see who has been outside city limits the longest. Will Romney's strategy work again? I don't know, but it's not totally insane.
Police buy cemetery plots to block Josh Powell from being buried next to his boys
A sheriff and his sergeant in Washington state have bought burial plots next to Josh Powell's boys in order to block family members from burying him next to them, according to a media report Wednesday.
"The bottom line is, Josh Powell will not be near those two boys," Pierce County Sheriff's Sgt. Ed Troyer said in an interview with a Seattle-area radio program called the Ron and Don Show.
Josh Powell's surviving relatives wanted him to buried at the same cemetery as the two sons he killed, the city manager in Puyallup said earlier Wednesday.
But that does not look like it is going to happen.
Troyer and Sheriff Paul Pastor used their personal money and funds from Crimestoppers Tacoma-Pierce County to buy plots that are on either side of the boys, according to a report on the radio station's website that was confirmed by Troyer on Twitter.
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/15/10418602-police-buy-cemetery-plots-to-block-josh-powell-from-being-buried-next-to-his-boys
Democrat scores upset victory in Maine special election.
An upset win for a Democrat in a state Senate contest in midcoast Maine is being declared a sign of things to come. Privately, Democrats had acknowledged that Chris Johnson's bid for the District 20 seat, largely in Lincoln County, was against the odds as it had been held by Republicans for nearly a decade. On top of that, Johnson faced a popular incumbent GOP House member in Dana Dow, who had held the Senate seat before. Johnson's victory now has Democrats pronouncing that the win is a harbinger of things to come in November. But Republicans say they expect to retain their majority this fall.
Democratic leaders from the Maine Senate were sporting ear-to-ear grins at a State House press conference that some thought would never have been called.
"We are are here today to congratulate and welcome senator-elect Chris Johnson from Lincoln County," said Ben Grant, state chairman of the Maine Democratic Party to cheers.
Johnson had won the District 20 seat that was vacated by Republican state Sen. David Trahan, who last year took a job as executive director of the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine. Republicans were confident that they had a lock on the seat, a longtime GOP stronghold. After all, they had state Rep. Dana Dow of Waldoboro, a moderate Republican who once held the Senate seat before running for the House in 2010.
http://www.mpbn.net/Home/tabid/36/ctl/ViewItem/mid/3478/ItemId/20306/Default.aspx
MI governor to endorse Romney.
WASHINGTON -- Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder plans to endorse Mitt Romney's presidential bid Thursday.
Snyder will announce at an event in Farmington Hills, Mich., that he's backing Romney, a Republican official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The former Massachusetts governor is fighting rival Rick Santorum to win the Feb. 28 Republican primary in Michigan, Romney's home state. Losing the contest would be a significant embarrassment for Romney, whose father, George, served as Michigan's governor before losing his presidential bid in 1968.
Snyder, who like Romney is a former venture capitalist, was elected in 2010 after campaigning as an outsider with business experience. He plans to argue that Romney has a conservative fiscal record and a bold plan to cut spending.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/15/rick-snyder-mitt-romney-endorsement_n_1280522.html
Mitt Romney, Donald Trump raise campaign cash at New York bankruptcy law firm
There were no public events on his schedule today, except for an appearance this evening at an office furniture manufacturer near Grand Rapids, Mich. The campaign has been uncommunicative about where he was and what he’s been doing.
But one good source close to the campaign has spilled the beans: Romney and some of his biggest fundraisers spent part of the day in the executive lunchroom of a New York law firm Weil Gotshal & Manges, making phone calls to recruit other financial rainmakers.
The Fifth Avenue firm has one of the country’s leading bankruptcy practices.
The big excitement of the day was not the candidate, however, but the Donald.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/post/mitt-romney-donald-trump-raise-campaign-cash-at-new-york-bankruptcy-law-firm/2012/02/15/gIQAvXYTGR_blog.html
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