Archive for the ‘Nikki Haley’ Category

One day later, it’s become clear that U.S. Rep. John Barrow of Augusta won’t be penalized by fellow Democrats for skipping the national convention in Charlotte this September.

The Democrat in charge of congressional campaigns has given him a pass. From Reuters:

“If they want to win an election, they need to be in their districts,” New York congressman Steve Israel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, [said] Tuesday.

Israel emphasized that Democratic President Barack Obama’s poll ratings – which have hovered around 50 percent – have little to do with his stance.

“I don’t care if the president was at 122 percent favorability right now,” he said. “I think (candidates) should be in their districts,” rather than spend time at the convention, which will be in Charlotte, North Carolina, September 3-6.

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A few miles south of Charlotte, Gov. Nikki Haley’s choice for Congress, Tom Rice, crushed Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer in the South Carolina Republican primary, …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: John Barrow’s hall pass to escape convention detention »

On C-SPAN this morning, Richard Land, president of that arm of the Southern Baptist Convention that concerns itself with national issue, was asked by a caller to justify his opposition to President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.

Said Land:

”I don’t think Jesus would support the rationing panels that are in place for Obamacare. I’m getting letters every day – every day – from people who are already being rationed care since the new head of Medicare came in. They’re being told if they have terminal conditions, they can’t get treatment for other diseases.

“Even Mr. Obama said that perhaps it wasn’t the best allocation of resources to give his grandmother, who was dying of cancer, a hip replacement. So I guess she can hobble around in terrible pain with a bad hip while she was dying of cancer. I don’t think that’s very Christian, ma’am.”

The president’s grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, died of cancer at age 86 in 2008, two days before her grandson’s election victory. Following …

Continue reading Southern Baptist leader: Jesus wouldn’t like health care panels »

ABC News this morning is passing around what’s likely to be the most popular video clip of the day, of Mitt Romney touting his Washington connections and understanding of government financing during a 2002 run for governor of Massachusetts:

Says Romney: “I am big believer in getting money where the money is. The money is in Washington.” The clip:

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GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich woke up on the Georgia coast this morning. A fundraiser was on the immediate agenda, according to the Savannah Morning News:

The Chatham Club at the hotel is the venue for a $500-per-person reception and luncheon for the former Georgia congressman and House speaker.

Gingrich hopes to rake in “all the money he can get” as he gears up for Tuesday’s GOP Georgia primary, said Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Savannah.

…About 30 people are expected to attend today’s event, arranged by a firm co-owned by Denise Deal, Gov. Nathan Deal’s top fundraiser. She is the governor’s daughter-in-law.

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The AJC’s …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Mitt Romney’s 2002 faith in Washington money »

Gov. Nikki Haley has become quite popular. In Georgia, anyway. From the Associated Press:

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on Monday vetoed a bill that lawmakers had passed unanimously in their efforts to undo a permit allowing Georgia to expand its Savannah port.

The measure would retroactively suspend the Department of Health and Environment Control’s ability to make dredging decisions in the river shared with Georgia. Legislators hoped it would strengthen their case in court and supporters of the measure expected the veto to be overridden.

The action “amounts to unconstitutional legislative overreaching into an agency’s ruling,” Haley wrote in her four-paragraph veto message. Additionally, she wrote, it “reflects a fundamental misunderstanding about the administrative process.”

She writes that only DHEC can issue the water quality certifications and notes a 2010 opinion from former Attorney General Henry McMaster. Such opinions don’t carry the weight of …

Continue reading Nikki Haley vetoes S.C. bill to block dredging of Port of Savannah »

So Rick Santorum went three-for-three on Tuesday night, sweeping up Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado in those presidential contests. Bad news for Newt Gingrich, but good news for Mitt Romney – even though it may mean a longer slog.

In particular, Santorum’s strong showing could be another enticement for Romney, who makes a short visit to Atlanta today, to make a large commitment in Georgia as we get closer to March 6 and Super Tuesday.

Romney still needs to show he can win in a Deep South state – the Republican party’s geographic base. And no, Florida doesn’t count. A revived Santorum, especially one who does well in blue-collar Michigan on Feb. 28, could weaken the Gingrich campaign here by drawing away evangelicals.

That would give Romney, who won most of metro Atlanta in 2008, a decent chance to win a plurality in the state.

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The campaign of GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich this morning unwrapped an endorsement from former U.S. Sen. Mack Mattingly and his wife …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: What a revived Rick Santorum might mean in Georgia »

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — ‘Twas another Godfather executive who said that, just when he thought he was out, “they pull me back in.”

Former GOP presidential candidate and pizza mogul Herman Cain can say the same now.

While Republicans here were still chewing over a rather tasty debate among the five remaining candidates for the GOP presidential nomination, Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert was attempting to hijack Cain’s name on Saturday’s primary ballot. It’s far too late for Colbert, who is mock-mulling a run for the presidency, to have his name placed before voters – and write-in votes aren’t permitted.

Colbert’s solution: “If this Saturday, Herman Cain were to get a significant number of votes, that would be a sign that voters are hungry, hungry for a Stephen Colbert campaign.”
Here’s the pitch on his Super PAC web site:

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In real life, Herman Cain will wade into the 9th District congressional race in Georgia later this month. The GOP campaign of Martha Zoller on Monday put …

Continue reading A Carolina jolt: Stephen Colbert hijacks the Herman Cain name »

Republican presidential candidate former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum speaks at the Faith and Freedom Coalition in Myrtle Beach, S.C. AP/David Goldman

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Hours before a critical debate, Republicans held a tent revival. Literally.

While the Secret Service swept the Myrtle Beach Convention Center in preparation for this evening’s five-man conversation, Ralph Reed drew South Carolina voters to a massive, heated tent across the street where they could listen to each candidate perform his own warm-up.

There was no sawdust floor, no sweaty bouts of testifyin’. Just an unchallengeable, standing room-only demonstration that, six years after a calamitous run for lieutenant governor in Georgia, Reed is back in the center of Republican presidential politics.

Prosperity gospel was in vogue. With a few loud – perhaps accidental — bars of “Money, Money, Money,” the revival opened with a video address from Donald Trump, who declared that the world “is laughing at the …

Continue reading Ralph Reed’s presidential tent revival in Myrtle Beach »

They grow peaches and tobacco in South Carolina. And BMWs, too.

But as of this morning, this state’s primary surplus is in marbles. So far as the Republican presidential race is concerned, all of them can be found in the vast acreage between Charleston and Rock Hill.

Mitt Romney’s victory in his neighboring state of New Hampshire was less than a surprise. The only tension of the evening was whether Newt Gingrich would hit the mark he set for himself – third or fourth place. He finished fourth, ahead of Rick Santorum.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley introduces former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney during a campaign stop at Peanut Warehouse in Conway, S.C., last week. Logan Mock-Bunting/The New York Times

But South Carolina and its Jan. 21 vote will be the true test of whether we’re in for a truncated GOP race – or a long slog into April. A Romney victory – he led with 37 percent of the South Carolina vote in a CNN poll last week – would make it difficult for many of his …

Continue reading Welcome to South Carolina, land of all the marbles. And Nikki Haley, too »

As the rest of the political world pondered the news of his alleged 13-year relationship with an now-unemployed businesswoman, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain was defending himself at a D.C. fundraiser. From The Daily Caller:

Washington, D.C. attorney Mary Brett, who attended the event, [said] Cain swore to supporters that if he had a Bible, he’d put his hand on it and vow that the allegations are false.

“He said you’re probably going to hear — if you didn’t before you got here — another allegation about a 13-year affair and it’s absolutely not true,” Brett, who lives in Reston, recalled as she left the Hilton hotel where the event was held.

Late last night, Ginger White, the woman who said she had an off-and-on, consensual affair with Cain, told Channel 2 Action News that the candidate’s denial doesn’t surprise her.

“I can’t imagine him actually confirming. It’s the name of the game, I guess,” she said. See it here:

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Don’t forget that Republican presidential …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Give Herman Cain a Bible, and he’ll swear it’s not true »

On the day before a South Carolina debate that it will broadcast, CBS News is out with a GOP presidential poll that puts Herman Cain in the top spot, and Newt Gingrich tied with Mitt Romney:

[Sixty-one] percent of Republican primary voters say the sexual harassment accusations against Cain won’t make any difference in their vote, but 30 percent say the charges make them less likely to back him, and that rises to 38 percent among women. Cain has lost support among women since last month – from 28 percent in October to 15 percent now. He has lost ground with conservatives and Tea Party supporters as well.

Some crosstabs can be found here. The news outlet notes that Gingrich is the only candidate whose support has increased over the last month, albeit slowly.

Perhaps most important, Cain’s tea party support has drained significantly — while Gingrich’s support from that quarter has increased. The pair are virtually tied among tea-partyers — though Gingrich now has a slim numeric …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: CBS poll has Herman Cain on top, Newt Gingrich rising »