Republicans
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro and Kelly Paice
NBC's Andrea Mitchell interviewed Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele on MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
Here is some of what Steele had to say about Sarah Palin. A clip is below with text after the jump.
HERE'S THE FULL VIDEO.
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From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
AP reports: "South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford faces 37 charges he broke state laws limiting official use of airplanes and campaign money. The details were released Monday by the State Ethics Commission. They came five days after the panel charged the governor without offering any specifics. Sanford's lawyers have claimed the charges involve minor and technical aspects of the law."
The New York Times: "Some of these trip charges fall under a specific allegation saying he used his public office for personal financial gain, the commission documents show." (The Times has the full state ethics commission complaint here.)
Sanford has about 14 months remaining in office.
From NBC's Mark Murray
Here is our take from last week's Republican Governors Association meeting in Texas.
CEDAR CREEK, Texas - The message that the Republican Governors Association was trying to send to the donors, party big-wigs and political reporters who attended its annual meeting last week wasn't subtle.
The Republican Party, the RGA boasted, is making a comeback.
They underscored this in a video presentation to attendees. "America’s comeback starts with us," said the narrator in the video. "We are the Republican governors."
There was even a "Comeback Bash" that concluded the meeting.
And these kinds of declarations were commonplace. "Next year is going to be a good year for us," said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, chairman of the RGA.
After the GOP's political setbacks in 2006 and 2008, there is little doubt that the political winds have shifted. Earlier this month, Republicans won the gubernatorial contests in New Jersey and Virginia, two states where Republicans hadn't enjoyed much recent success.
What's more, President Barack Obama's poll numbers have fallen back to earth (and his job rating is now below 50 percent, according to the Gallup poll). Public support for his key initiatives — health care and the economic stimulus — is mixed at best. And the unemployment rate now tops 10 percent.
"For the first time since 2004, the playing field has tilted against Democrats," said political analyst Jennifer Duffy, who monitors Senate and gubernatorial races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
But talking about a comeback is one thing; actually achieving it — in next year's midterm elections and beyond — is another.
Here's the full story.
From NBC's Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro
First Read has obtained a resoultion being e-mailed around to Republican National Committee members for comments that proposes a conservative litmus test of sorts.
This comes on the heels of a rift in the party that was exposed in the once-obscure special election in Upstate New York's 23rd Congressional District, in which national conservative leaders, including Sarah Palin, clashed with national establishment Republicans. The so-called GOP civil war threatens to derail moderate Republican candidacies in heated 2010 Republican primaries already underway. Florida's Senate race is perhaps the best and most prominent example.
The "Resolution on Reagan’s Unity Principle for Support of Candidates" outlines 10 conservative principles the group of signees wants potential candidates to abide by. The principles include support for:
(1) Smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill
(2) Market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare;
(3) Market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;
(4) Workers’ right to secret ballot by opposing card check
(5) Legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;
(6) Victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;
(7) Containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat
(8) Retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;
(9) Protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion; and
(10) The right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership
"President Ronald Reagan believed, as a result, that someone who agreed with him 8 out of 10 times was his friend, not his opponent," the resolution states.
But if a candidate disagrees with three of the above, then the group wants the RNC to withhold financial assistance and an endorsement from that candidate.
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"U.S. Sen. John McCain said Saturday that he enjoyed reading running mate Sarah Palin's new memoir and downplayed any tension between their campaign aides as 'no big deal.' 'I enjoyed the book and she and I are dear friends. I talked to her on the phone yesterday. We got along fine,' said McCain in an interview Saturday with The Associated Press on the sidelines of the Halifax International Security Forum. 'In campaigns there's always tension,' McCain said. 'Outside of combat, it's the most tense situation. There's always differences that arise, but it's no big deal.'"
Meanwhile, McCain "used Saturday's floor debate on healthcare to repeat the controversial 'death panel' charge for which his running mate, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, has been heavily criticized. In a scripted exchange with Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso (Wyo.), McCain assailed a recent recommendation by a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services panel that women receive regular mammograms once they reach 50 years of age, instead of the traditional 40. ... A grinning McCain then asked, 'You would not describe that as a death panel?' Barrasso replied, 'Some people might.'"
Covering the RGA meeting, Salon’s Mike Madden wonders if the GOP talk about a comeback is just, well, talk. “So what if the only thing voters like less than the Democrats in Congress might be the Republicans in Congress? Who cares if the GOP has been reduced to a rump minority in the House and Senate, left on the sidelines with not much more to do than root for Democrats to fight among themselves? In politics, what matters is momentum, and right now, Republicans -- and quite a few Democrats, especially in private -- think they have it.”
Sarah Palin reiterated her support for candidates like the Conservative Party's Doug Hoffman, who ran for a special election in New York's 23rd congressional district. She added, however, that she believes advocates of a breakaway third party are "naive."
"Ideally, sure, a third party or an independent party would be able to soar and thrive and put candidates forth and have them elected, but I don't think America is ready for that," Palin said earlier this week on conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh's show. Palin's media blitz has taken her to, among other outlets, Limbaugh's show and Christian Broadcasting Network White House Correspondent David Brody's webcast.
The Alaskan ex-governor praised the efforts of Hoffman, saying his campaign "proved that an American without that resume, that machine backing, can truly make a difference in an election like this." She also gave her advice for Republican successes in 2010 and beyond: "It's all about jobs, it's all about Americans who are hurting right now and what those solutions are that are so obvious," she said. She blamed the Obama administration for not discussing such "common sense solutions," but also had criticism for her own party: "On the Republican side, Republicans need to be bolder about it. Independents need to be bolder about it."
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From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro
Sarah Palin released the second leg of her “Going Rogue” book tour yesterday, including a stop in Fort Hood.
“I'm looking forward to seeing everyone in every stop on the tour, but I'm especially looking forward to meeting our brave men and women in uniform at Fort Hood,” Palin said on her Facebook page. “I'm joining the efforts of many others by donating my royalties from the book sales during our stop at Fort Hood to the families of the victims whose lives have been forever changed by the tragic events of November 5th. I am humbled to be able to join the larger effort called ‘Community Response to 11/5,’ which was established by the Central Texas-Fort Hood Chapter of the Association of the US Army (AUSA).”
Yesterday, Palin said, "I think that there were massive warning flags that were missed all over the place and I think that it was quite unfortunate that, to me, it was a fear of being politically incorrect to not -- I am going to use the word -- profile this guy -- profile in the sense of finding out what his radical beliefs were. … Now, because I used the word 'profile' I am going to get clobbered tomorrow morning. The liberals, their heads are just going to be spinning. They're going to say 'she is radical, she is extreme.' "
Palin did not specify what she meant by “profile,” widely and generally believed to be a reference to focusing on groups of people by race, religion or otherwise. There certainly was seemingly enough evidence that Army Major Nadal Hasan was not a competent psychiatrist without “profiling” him. But, NPR reported, that Hasan’s religion may have been a factor in him being passed – despite his poor marks. And the FBI has said it was aware of Hasan’s communications with a radical Imam prior to the shooting, but deemed them not necessarily evidence of so-called radical views.
Hardly “liberals,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen gave differing views than Palin on profiling.
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From NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell and Domenico Montanaro
In the Reid healthcare bill, there is a new 5% tax on elective cosmetic surgery.
Today, Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn, who is a physician and staunchly opposed to this legislation, suggested on the Senate floor that a woman would be taxed if she had breast reconstruction surgery following cancer.
"In this bill is a 5% tax on cosmetic surgery,” Coburn said. “Just yesterday -- the day before yesterday, U.S. preventive task forces, services, recommended because it's not cost effective that women under 50 not get mammograms unless they have risk factors. Well, you tell that to the thousands of women who were diagnosed with breast cancer lat last -- last year under 50 with a mammogram. You tell them it's not cost effective. Also in this bill is a 5% tax on the breast reconstruction surgery after they had a mastectomy. They're going to tax having your breast rebuilt after your breast is taken off because it is elective plastic surgery. It is elective cosmetic surgery. We're going to have a tax on it because we've taxed elective cosmetic surgery. We're in trouble as a nation because we've taken our eye off the ball."
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From NBC's Mark Murray
CEDAR CREEK, Tex. -- Given that this year's Republican Governors Association meeting is taking place here in Texas, reporters today asked RGA Chairman Haley Barbour, the governor of Mississippi, to weigh in on the Rick Perry-vs.-Kay Bailey Hutchison GOP primary for Texas governor.
Barbour said that the RGA doesn't take sides in primaries, but that he was personally backing Perry. "I personally think Gov. Perry should be re-elected," he said.
And then he added this: "I hope Sen. Hutchison will stay in the United States Senate for the rest of my life."
Asked why he supported Perry over Hutchison, Barbour replied, "I thought he deserved re-election." He then went on to say: "I would hate to lose Kay Bailey in the Senate."
When asked if he has talked to Hutchison about staying in the Senate, Barbour responded simply, "She and I have talked."
From NBC's Mark Murray
CEDAR CREEK, Tex. -- More than a dozen Republican governors held a press conference at the Republican Governors Association meeting here outside of Austin, TX, to argue that both the House and Senate healthcare bills would end up shifting costs to the states -- negatively impacting their budgets.
South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds (R) explained that one of the tools congressional Democrats have adopted to cover uninsured Americans is by expanding Medicaid, which the states help finance. Yet Rounds said that expanding Medicaid in his state would cost $33 million a year.
"I can't afford that," he said.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) also contended that the legislation would only add to their budget shortfalls in this economic climate.
"This bill [the Senate] is debating is going to make it worse," Perry said. "That is an inarguable fact. ... It will be devastating. I don't think there's any other way to describe it."
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