Oh-eight (R): Lots of Huck news…
Posted: Thursday, February 14, 2008 9:04 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Republicans
The Los Angeles Times reports, "An attorney for clergyman Wiley S. Drake confirmed Wednesday that the Internal Revenue Service was investigating the pastor's endorsement of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's presidential bid, written on church letterhead and announced during a church-affiliated Internet radio show. ‘Pastors and churches have 1st Amendment rights just like everybody else,’ said Erik Stanley, an attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund. ‘Wiley Drake has the same right to make a personal endorsement as anybody.’”
“The inquiry into the Buena Park pastor's actions comes six months after Americans United for Separation of Church and State urged the IRS to investigate the nonprofit status of Drake's church because of the endorsement. Stanley said the IRS sent Drake a letter of inquiry Feb. 5."
Another day with Huckabee in the race… "Of course I'd like for him to withdraw today," McCain told reporters in Washington, D.C., yesterday. "It'd be much easier." “But, he said, it's up to Huckabee to make that decision.”
Huckabee stumped in Wisconsin yesterday. "He never named the Arizona senator, instead referring only to ‘three U.S. senators’ from a Washington culture that has turned its back on the country on a host of issues. He hawked his sweeping tax plan, calling for energy independence within a decade and beefing up the military. His most emphatic comments were reserved for the abortion issue, and they drew the night's biggest ovation."
The Washington Post: “While he is continuing his campaign despite almost impossible odds, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee will also take a day off the trail this weekend to give a paid speech in the Cayman Islands. His aides did not say how much he would be paid for his speech at the Young Caymanian Leadership Awards that will be given at the Ritz Carlton there on Saturday. They said it was not a sign Huckabee was ramping down his campaign, as he will stump in Wisconsin on Thursday and Friday and return for campaign events here on Sunday and Monday ahead of Tuesday's primary, and then start campaigning in Texas, which votes on March 4… Since Huckabee left the governor's office in January 2007, speeches have been his main source of income. Campaign manager Chip Saltsman said the Caymans trip would be Huckabee's first paid speech in months.”
MCCAIN: “In his first meeting with the House Republican Conference after becoming his party's de facto nominee, McCain was greeted with questions about his positions on immigration and campaign finance reform,” the Boston Globe writes. “Yet Republican House leaders who joined McCain at a news conference afterward - including some who announced their endorsements of the senator from Arizona after previously supporting his opponents - were eager to rally around McCain's priorities.”
McCain manager Rick Davis spoke at the Christian Science Monitor lunch yesterday, and he was peppered with questions about how McCain matches up against Obama and -- to a lesser extent -- Clinton.
This Washington Post story about the millions in earmarks Clinton has secured is the type of thing McCain will have field day with. "Clinton helped secure more than $340 million worth of home-state projects in last year's spending bills, placing her among the top 10 Senate recipients of what are commonly known as earmarks, according to a new study by a nonpartisan budget watchdog group." Obama’s "$91 million total placed him in the bottom quarter of senators who seek earmarks, the study showed. McCain (Ariz.), the likely GOP presidential nominee, was one of five senators to reject earmarks entirely, part of his long-standing view that such measures prompt needless spending."
And the DNC sends its own Valentine’s Day card to McCain…
