This posting is mostly from My Direct Democracy (MyDD) a political blog site. Click here to take a look at MyDD. We take this as evidence that John McCain has been unable to “connect” with Republican voters and contributors. Tsk, tsk.

Jonathan Singer, February 29, 2008

Jonathan Singer points to a recent article in the New York Times regarding political fund raising for the month of February. Hillary Clinton has already reported that she raised $34 million in the month. The Obama Campaign which does not report until next week (after the month has ended). He offers this quote from the NY Times:

“Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton both had a record-breaking month of fundraising in February, bringing in more than $80 million combined, but with Mr. Obama again raising significantly more than his opponent.”

“Mr. Obama’s campaign did not release an official estimate of its February fundraising on Thursday. But several major donors estimated it is about $50 million based on their calculations and knowledge of tallies during the month, when on many days the campaign took in as much as $2 million.”

Compare this embarrassing showing from the McCain Campaign.

“Likely Republican presidential nominee John McCain raised a little over $12 million in February, two campaign sources tell CNN’s John King.”

For the vast majority of this month — and certainly since Super Tuesday on February 5 — John McCain has been the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, presumably opening up the fundraising floodgates from both the party establishment and the base. Yet McCain was only able to pull in about a third of what Hillary Clinton brought in for the month and perhaps less than a quarter of Barack Obama’s haul?

In other years, a $12 million February wouldn’t be a disappointment. Indeed, John Kerry brought in roughly $8.5 million in February 2004 and that was not viewed as underwhelming (unless when seen in light of the $44 million he raised in March and the $30 million plus he raised in each of the remaining months leading up to the convention that year). But this isn’t other years — it’s a year in which two Democrats are both breaking fundraising records, one of whom is just destroying them.

Maybe McCain will be able to turn things around in March as Kerry was able to do. Of course, that would presume that he figures out some technicality to open up a loophole in the campaign finance laws he helped champion so that he can weasel out of his legal duty to follow the spending caps he agreed to when opting into and deriving benefits from participation in the public financing program for the primaries. Yet even leaving aside legal questions about McCain’s ability to raise and spend dollars over the coming months, I see little evidence that the GOP base or even establishment are truly coalescing around McCain or that they will any time soon. As such, I think it’s much more likely than not that McCain will continue to trail his Democratic opponents in fundraising — and badly — for quite some time to come.

Late this afternoon, Associated Press filed this story about political fundraising.

From Jim Kuhnhenn at Associated Press

WASHINGTON - For Republicans, watching Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama fight for supremacy in fundraising is not just a spectator sport. It is a look into the future, and the GOP isn’t cheering.

Obama and Clinton together raked in as much as seven times as much cash in February as John McCain, the all-but-certain Republican nominee.

The Democrats, particularly Obama, are also developing a broad base of fervent donors whose help goes beyond sending money. Click here to go to Associated Press and watch this story grow.

Recent Letter to the Arizona Star

Those AZ legislators proposing a bill to allow students and teachers to arm themselves are at least a half a bubble off plumb. How many more would have been dead at Northern Illinois University than was already the case if some of the students (and teachers) had started shooting? Think of those who could easily have been shot from “friendly” fire. I can’t imagine what kind of a horrendous bloodbath would ensue if this kind of situation were to occur in future such incidents.

Make it easier for youngsters to carry guns? It’s too easy already. We would not have had Columbine or Virginia Tech or NIU had it been more difficult for these young men to have access to guns.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) honchos must love these AZ legislators. Wonder how much they would be willing to “invest” to see that this bill is passed, with a view to assisting other state legislators throughout the country to introduce similar bills?

What absolute madness!

Gladys Lujan
Retired Foreign Service Officer

Bill Buckley like his good friend Barry Goldwater abhorred the civil rights movements. He exhorted Republicans to become more like his beloved John Birch Society even as he defended his hero Joe McCarthy.

William F. Buckley Jr. Dies at 82

By HILLEL ITALIE, The Associated Press

NEW YORK — William F. Buckley Jr., the erudite Ivy Leaguer and conservative herald who showered huge and scornful words on liberalism as he observed, abetted and cheered on the right’s post-World War II rise from the fringes to the White House, died Wednesday. He was 82.

He described himself thusly: “I am, I fully grant, a phenomenon, but not because of any speed in composition,” he wrote in The New York Times Book Review in 1986. “I asked myself the other day, `Who else, on so many issues, has been so right so much of the time?’ I couldn’t think of anyone.”

CBS Poll: Obama Surges Ahead Nationally

CBS News/NY Times Survey Finds Obama Opens Up 16-Point Lead;
Also Holds Double Digit Lead In Head-To-Head Match Up With McCain

A new CBS News/New York Times poll finds Barack Obama with a 16-point lead over rival Hillary Clinton among Democratic primary voters nationwide. Obama, coming off 11 straight primary and caucus victories, had the support of 54 percent of Democratic primary voters nationally. Clinton had 38 percent support.

In a CBS News poll taken three weeks ago, shortly before Super Tuesday, Obama and Clinton were tied at 41 percent. Clinton led by 15 points nationally in January.

The former first lady has lost her advantage among women, according to the poll: The two leading Democrats now have even levels of support among female primary voters.

Men, meanwhile, disproportionately favor Obama. He leads Clinton among male Democratic primary voters 67 percent to 28 percent, and leads among white men 61 percent to 33 percent.

Fifty-nine percent of Democratic primary voters said Obama has the best chance of beating likely Republican nominee John McCain in the general election. Twenty-eight percent said Clinton is most likely to win in November.

Republicans Accept McCain, But Enthusiasm Lacking:

On the Republican side, more than 80 percent of primary voters said they would be satisfied with McCain as their nominee - but less than 30 percent would be “very satisfied.” The findings suggest a far lower level of enthusiasm than exists among Democratic primary voters, roughly four in 10 of whom would be very satisfied with Clinton or Obama as their nominee.

A majority of Republican primary voters said McCain generally has the right positions on the issues, though self-described conservatives were less enthusiastic: 52 percent said the Arizona senator is not conservative enough.

Almost three-quarters of Republican primary voters - including 60 percent of conservatives - want a candidate who would compromise with Democrats in order to get things done. Only 14 percent said they want a Republican president who will stick to Republican positions even if it means getting less accomplished. A majority said they believe McCain would compromise the right amount as president.

Click here to read more of this CBS News Poll. As if all of this is not good news for Neo-Con loyalists, three Americans in four now believe that we are on the wrong national course. Only 19% of Americans believe we are on the right course, a new low low. W’s job approval rating is 29% which is up 2% from May of 2007. More and more, only Republicans are able to side with George Bush. In fact 66% of Republicans approve of his job performance. If two thirds of the Republicans approve, and 29% of Americans approve, you can gauge how popular this president is with the rest of the nation. By Golly, as Ralph Nader just said, If you can’t elect a Democrat in this environment you better give up! Click here to read more of the CBS News poll at it relates to the national course and George W. Bush.

It seems like John McCain is attracting attention from the press. First there is the Iseman “affair” and now it appears that John fibbed about whether or not he held private meetings with her clients. And today we get treated to John’s ringing endorsement of his “good friend and valued advisor” Rick Renzi.

John McCain’s denials start to unravel in tale of the blonde lobbyist

The Republican saviour is looking rattled after claims of a sex for favours scandal

London Times Online, Sarah Baxter

If anything was going to derail John McCain’s White House bid, it was the fear that he was too old to be president, not the likelihood of being embroiled in a sex and favours scandal. But when the Arizona senator reached for the lawyer who steered Bill Clinton through his women troubles, it was a sign that he was seriously rattled.

At the moment that the race was shaping up to be an epic contest between Barack Obama and McCain – the future versus the past, as Obama would have it, or naivety versus experience, as McCain prefers to frame it – the scandal hit the newsstands. After an early, highly successful counterattack, McCain was accused this weekend of being economical with the truth as far as some aspects of the story were concerned.

The essence of the tale is fairly simple. Vicki Iseman, 40, a blonde telecommunications lobbyist, became friends with McCain, 71, eight years ago. Some advisers thought the relationship might be romantic. Click here to read more in the London Times.

Whiff of scandal envelops McCain’s campaign

The Republican frontrunner faces fresh allegations over lobbyist links

The Observer, Paul Harris in New York

The scandal over Republican frontrunner John McCain’s relationship with a female lobbyist took a new twist yesterday with revelations that he had met one of her clients.

McCain’s campaign had earlier strongly denied that he had a meeting with wealthy broadcaster Lowell Paxson - a client of Washington-based lobbyist Vicki Iseman - before he sent two controversial letters urging a federal body to make a quick decision on Paxson’s attempt to buy a television station.

The issue is important because McCain has made personal ethics a key plank of his so far successful bid to capture the Republican nomination. He frequently rails against the influence of lobbyists and the corrupting power of big business and money in politics. Click here to read more in The Observer, an on-line edition of the Manchester Guardian.

McCain In Oct. 2006: Renzi Has ‘ Tenacity, Honesty And Integrity Beyond Reproach’

John Bresnahan, CBS News, Feb 22, 2008

(The Politico) In late October 2006, after it was revealed that the FBI was looking into allegations that the now indicted Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) was under investigation for his involvement in a federal land transfer deal, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) came to Renzi’s rescue.

According to the blog “Deep Thought,” McCain said the following about Renzi, who was indicted today on 36 federal corruption charges, during a series of automated robocalls made to voters in Renzi’s district:

“This is Sen. John McCain. I’m calling to urge you to support my friend Rep. Rick Renzi for Congress. Rick has represented the first district of Arizona with tenacity, honesty and integrity beyond reproach. I work with Rick every day and can report to you his total dedication to the people of Arizona and the United States. Please join me in supporting rural Arizona’s workhorse congressman on Nov. 7. [Paid for and authorized by Rick Renzi for Congress].”

Renzi has also been one of the co-chairmen of McCain’s presidential campaign in Arizona.  Click here  to read more from CBS News.

Also our special thanks to Daily KOS, by Markos Moulitsas Zuniga.

INDIANAPOLIS - Sen. John McCain said Friday that while lobbyists serve as close advisers to his presidential campaign, they are honorable and he is not influenced by corruption in the system.

McCain, who has styled himself as an enemy of special interests, defended having lobbyists working for his campaign. He is the expected Republican presidential nominee.

“These people have honorable records, and they’re honorable people, and I’m proud to have them as part of my team,” McCain told reporters following a town hall meeting in Indianapolis.

The issue of lobbying and influence has arisen in published reports, first in The Washington Post, suggesting that McCain had an inappropriate relationship with a female lobbyist and advanced the interests of her clients. McCain on Thursday emphatically denied the reports.

“I think a lot of people here in this building, with experience in a couple campaigns, have grown accustomed to the fact that during the course of the campaign, seemingly on maybe a monthly basis leading up to the convention and maybe a weekly basis after that, The New York Times does try to drop a bombshell on the Republican nominee.

For his part, McCain refused to comment on the White House statements.

“I don’t have any more comment about this issue. I had a press conference yesterday morning, and I answered every question,” McCain said.

Siding with McCain, the White House accused the Times of repeatedly trying to “drop a bombshell” on Republican presidential nominees to undermine their candidacies.

White House deputy press secretary Scott Stanzel noted at a Friday morning briefing that the story has received a lot of attention.  In the mean time, lobbyists are delivering “free” services to the McCain Campaign and will expect a payback when the time comes for the corporate interests to fill up their pockets.

Arizona Co-Chairman of Republicans for John McCain!

Dennis Wagner
The Arizona Republic

After nearly two years of public controversy and speculation, U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi of Arizona faces indictment on 35 charges of extortion, wire fraud, conspiracy, embezzlement and other crimes.

The criminal counts, handed down Thursday by a federal grand jury in Tucson and unveiled today, stem from a tangle of fraud allegations involving the Republican congressman’s business dealings, campaign finances and legislative conduct.

If convicted, Renzi, 49, could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison on the most serious counts, plus fines of $250,000. A business associate, Texas real estate investor James W. Sandlin, 56,faces 27 criminal charges. Another associate, Maryland attorney James Beardall, 36, is charged with four offenses. Diane Humetewa, U.S. Attorney for Arizona, said all three men will be served summonses to appear at a March 6 U.S. District Court arraignment in Tucson.

Contacted at his Virginia home last night, hours after attending his father’s funeral, Renzi said he was unaware that an indictment had been handed down. Friday’s written statement criticized the Department of Justice for not allowing Renzi enough time to mourn the death of his father, Maj. Gen. Eugene Renzi, who was buried at Arlington National Cemetery Thursday.

During a Phoenix news conference this morning, Humetewa said Renzi had made not a statement to FBI agents or prosecutors.

According to court papers, the congressman was a central figure in two, separate criminal conspiracies. In one, he is accused of manipulating a federal land exchange to financially benefit himself and Sandlin, a former business partner who owed him money. In the other, he allegedly looted cash from his insurance company’s trust fund to help finance his first election campaign, then attempted a cover-up with Beardall’s assistance. Click here to read more in the Arizona Republic.

Click here for the story in the New York Times.

A group called the American Leadership Project is launching a drive to convince 100 Hillary Clinton supporters to donate $100,000 each for television ads. American Leadership Project is a chapter 527 tax code entity that is not subject to campaign finance limits. A similar Chapter 527 group known as “Swift Boat Veterans of America” launched their television efforts against John Kerry during the 2004 Campaign.

Independent Group to Air TV Ads Echoing Clinton Attacks on Obama

By Matthew Mosk Washington Post Staff Writer

As Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton launches fresh attacks on Sen. Barack Obama after a string of electoral defeats, several of her major financial backers have formed an independent group to air television advertisements echoing her message that she is more qualified than Obama to fix the economy.

In the group’s first ad, the television image shows a shuttered factory and a home in foreclosure, and a voice over says: “If speeches could create jobs, we wouldn’t be facing a recession.” The criticism of “speeches” closely mirrors a line of attack Clinton has used against Obama.

The decision to launch the independent group, known as a “527″ because of its tax code designation, coincides with an increasingly aggressive approach being taken by Clinton in advance of March 4 contests in Ohio and Texas that could determine the Democratic nominee. The Obama campaign compared the effort to the “Swift boat” ads that helped sink Democratic Sen. John F. Kerry’s 2004 presidential bid.

Supporters of the group, called the American Leadership Project, said yesterday that they decided to undertake the effort late last month, when Clinton was forced to lend her campaign $5 million to try to minimize Obama’s large fundraising advantage. Unlike a political campaign, the group can accept as much as money as supporters want to give.

Campaign finance reports filed yesterday showed that Obama outdid Clinton in fundraising last month, collecting $36 million. Clinton’s campaign said she will report raising $13.9 million. And while Clinton finance officials said yesterday that this month has been the campaign’s strongest month for fundraising, there are signs that she continues to lag behind Obama. While Clinton aides reported raising $1 million a day during the first half of the month, an Obama adviser described one recent day that yielded $2.4 million. And in an e-mail Clinton sent to supporters yesterday, she said she was outspent 4 to 1 on television ads in Wisconsin, where she lost decisively on Tuesday.

Though the independent ads could help bring greater parity on television for the Clinton campaign in Texas and Ohio, where they are set to air, they may carry a steep price for the entity behind them. Such a group faces tight federal restrictions on how it can operate and what it can say in advertising. A 527 cannot have as its primary purpose the election of a candidate, and the law limits it to running ads about issues, not ones that plainly advocate for Clinton’s election or defeat. The group cannot have any contact with the Clinton campaign. Violations could subject organizers and donors to stiff fines.

Campaign finance reform experts said there are troubling aspects in the American Leadership Project’s mission. The group is not part of an established effort to exert political influence in Washington, and it first officially surfaced in filings with the Internal Revenue Service on Feb. 15. It is advertising only in states where Clinton faces competitive primary contests. And the content of its first ad strongly hints that its purpose is to support her candidacy and oppose Obama’s.

“This pop-up 527 group clearly has been created to spend unlimited soft money to influence the presidential election,” said Fred Wertheimer, of the group Democracy 21, after reviewing the ad. “As far as the duck test goes: It looks like a campaign ad; it sounds like a campaign ad; it’s a campaign ad.”

Jason Kinney, a California political strategist who helped form the group, said its organizers recognized that they are wading into “a new and developing area of the law, but we’ve taken every step and are as confident as we can be that we are adhering to all of the regulations.” Click here to read more in the Washington Post.

Click here for a link to Politico Blog’s take on American Leadership Project. The Hill, a popular online newspaper with political commentary has a feature article.

Unfortunately, after searching the internet, we have been unable to find a website for this “group.”  We will keep watching but our bet is that the Clinton Campaign will be very unhappy that they appear to have backed this effort.  Democrats are going to be very sensitive to Chapter 527 organizations no matter who forms them.  Expect a backlash!

For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk

WASHINGTON — Early in Senator John McCain’s first run for the White House eight years ago, waves of anxiety swept through his small circle of advisers.

A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client’s corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity.

When news organizations reported that Mr. McCain had written letters to government regulators on behalf of the lobbyist’s client, the former campaign associates said, some aides feared for a time that attention would fall on her involvement. Click Here to read more in the New York Times.

New York Times, Feb 19th

Senator Barack Obama won a decisive victory over Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Wisconsin primary on Tuesday night, cutting into Mrs. Clinton’s long-held support among women, union members and middle-aged voters.

With the two rivals now battling state by state over margins of victory and allotment of delegates, surveys of voters leaving the polls showed that Mr. Obama made inroads with those three groups and continued to win support from white men and younger voters in a performance that yielded grim tidings for Mrs. Clinton as she looked ahead to the March 4 primaries in Ohio and Texas.

On the Republican side, Senator John McCain declared victory shortly after the polls closed, with a pointed reference to Mr. Obama in deriding “eloquent but empty calls for change.”  As a note aside: McCain was recently quoted in the Boston newspapers as being “opposed to Barack Obama and his message of hope.”

Clinton advisers, acknowledging that they must change the course of the campaign by defining Mr. Obama in negative terms for voters, said they intended to try to draw sharper contrasts by highlighting what Mrs. Clinton believes are his biggest weaknesses: his readiness to be commander in chief, and his support for a health care plan that would not initially seek to cover all Americans.

Yet Mr. Obama’s advisers plan to continue making the case that after nine consecutive victories, many by large margins, Democratic and many independent voters are speaking clearly that Mr. Obama is their choice, and that the party should begin coalescing around him.

Mr. Obama declared victory in Texas, saying, “Houston, I think we’ve achieved liftoff here.”

He continued: “The change we seek is still months and miles away and we need the good people of Texas to help us get there. We’re here because we believe that change is possible and that we have never needed it more than we do right now!”  Click here to read more in the New York Times.