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Subscribe to RSSBARBOUR: Barbour’s filings with the Mississippi Ethics Committee reveal “continued payments from the lobbying powerhouse he founded, BGR, and his withdrawals from a blind trust with a market value of $3.3 million, according to its trustee, the president off the Bank of Yazoo City Griffin Norquist,” Politico reports.
CHRISTIE: AP: "New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie last night declined to repay the feds $271 million spent on the Hudson River rail tunnel project, which he canceled in October, and said he'll file a formal appeal instead. The $8.7 billion project was the most expensive public-works project in the country when Christie spiked it. It would have doubled the capacity for trains traveling between New York City and New Jersey."
AP
Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks at the Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit on Tuesday.
GINGRICH: “Former House speaker and possible 2012 candidate Newt Gingrich called for the abolition of the Environmental Protection Agency in a Tuesday speech in Iowa,” Politico writes. Gingrich “also won the promise of a key Iowa endorsement if he does run for president. Linda Upmeyer, the Iowa House majority leader, introduced Gingrich and called him “the right guy to be president of the United States.”
Washington Post: “White House officials have been titling the [State of the Union] speech ‘Winning the Future’ - precisely the name of a 2005 Gingrich tome that also carries the subtitle: ‘A 21st Century Contract With America.’ It's not clear whether White House higher ups bothered to Google the phrase. Had they done so, they would have found easy links to the Amazon page for Gingrich's book.”
HUCKABEE: Members of Mike Huckabee’s inner circle “are concerned that while he weighs his options, other candidates are recruiting talented staff and building campaign infrastructure in early voting states,” The Hill writes.
PAWLENTY: The Hill explores a Pawlenty paradox in a profile of the former governor: “Although Pawlenty comes without many of the doubts social conservatives have about Mitt Romney, or those fiscal conservatives have about Mike Huckabee, or even those electability-minded conservatives have about Sarah Palin, he still struggles to attract anywhere near the amount of attention they do.”
PENCE: “Mike Pence says he met privately with the Governor Tuesday morning, and describes him as both a friend and ‘America's best Governor.’ Pence says he suspects he and Daniels are assessing their political plans in similar ways. Even if they end up facing off against each other in a Republican Presidential Primary, Pence says he believes it won't damage their relationship,” WSCI reports (h/t: Jim Geraghty of NRO)
VIRGINIA: "Former Virginia Sen. George Allen (R) is running against history as he makes a bid for his old seat in 2012: Just one former Senator in the past 50 years was defeated after serving a full term and then elected again to the chamber," Roll Call writes.
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Go figure. A member of the "But what are we leaving to our children and grand-children" party wants to make sure they get a chance to live in a toilet.
Swell guy, that Mr Newt Getrich.
Yes, I miss those days of open dumps on the creek banks, smelling the acidic smoke as the ashes settle on my head and shoulders. Most of all, watching the dying twitches of dogs who happened to drink from the river. Those were good times. Thank You Mr. Newt for allowing me to reminiscence.
Hey, Newt now we get to give you the boot for a second time! Get rid of the EPA? No thanks. I like it when we use water to put out fires not when it ignites.
Sorry, Newt we just can't use backwards thinkers like you. We need serious people moving forward not moving backwards to the 1960's. Get Lost!
What happen to the Party of Theodore Roosevelt?
That brings a whole new meaning to "She turned me into a newt!"
Way to start off your campaign! You can't be serious! We are facing the most serious environmental issues in the last 2,000 years, and you want to turn the earth into a steaming cesspool! Your grandkids will love you for it! Go back to writing third rate "what if the south won the Civil War" themed tomes.
Way to start off your campaign! You can't be serious! We are facing the most serious environmental issues in the last 2,000 years, and you want to turn the earth into a steaming cesspool! Your grandkids will love you for it! Go back to writing third rate "what if the south won the Civil War" themed tomes.
Funny how you all jump on this without actually knowing what the plan or reasoning behind it is...
Because if you had any knowledge of the EPA or how it works you'd know it was constructed by about 80% lawers, 15% administrative, and 5% envioromental positions...
Does that sound like the make up of an effectlive Envioronmental Protection Agency. Personally I think it should be reversed with the majority of the posistions being for envioronmental science and management positions, and not attorneys. The kicker is that these aren't even Envioronmental Specialist but Tort Lawers... Sounds fishy to me...
Having done pollution control for the Coast Guard for several years I know how effective the EPA and Coast Guard have been over the years. Of course the EPA is top heavy with Lawyers, every time they discover a polluter and take action they "victim of big government" not only puts up a legal fight but many times will countersue. That means litigation by two teams of lawyers. Ever wonder why the supefund sites are taking such a long time getting cleaned up? They are tied up in court, while you and yours are slowly being filled with carcinogens. It is troglodytes like Newt who still want to be able to pee into the wind who keep impeding investigations and cleanups. They also think blastint thee tops off mountains to strip mine the for coal and dumping the slag in creeks and rivers is also a healthy Idea.
You're gonna win a lot of hearts and minds with that one, Newt. "the right guy to be president of the United States" NOT.
I am a conservative and this is a fine example of why Newt will not be the nominee of the Republican party in 2012.
While I agree that there are areas of our economy that are over regulated.
To abolish the EPA is a suggestion that is absurd.
Newt should engage his mind, before his mouth
Maybe Newt should retire.
LOL. Gingrich consistently polls even lower than Palin.
I wonder if he'll ever get them message that no one cares what he thinks.
Who's 'Palin'?
A lame group of prospects for sure, Republicans seem to of ran out of options
Good idea, Newt. Just the kind of advice I'd expect from a lying, hypocritical adulterer.
Let's get rid of all the protections government provides. We don't need to know what we're eating or drinking, that the vehicles on the road are safe to drive, that the building we're in isn't going to collapse and kill everyone inside, that the air we're breathing is toxic and killing us.
What we don't know won't hurt us, right?
And all that money the government saves by doing away with these protections can be given to big corporations, so they can pollute more, sell us more toxic food, and kill all of us little by little.
Great idea, Newt. You go first, A-hole.
Politico once again demonstrates its short comings regarding its knowledge of politics outside the beltway, when it refers to Linda Upmeyer as a "key Iowa endorsement". I assume "key" was intended to mean an important endorsement. Ignoring the fact that Upmeyer has served in the Iowa House for only 8 years, and is from a small community (Garner Iowa pop under 3,000) in a small county (Hancock County pop 12,000), and was relatively unknown until she was recently chosen as Majority Leader (The Democrats controlled the Iowa House until the 2010 election), Endorsements from elected officials have even less effect in the GOP caucus than in the Democratic caucus. In 2008 Mitt Romney had the most GOP endorsements (16 of 91), with McCain second (8 of 91), both Giulliani and Huckabee had 3 of 91 (elected GOP). Even though Huckabeeand Giuliani had the same number of endorsements, Huckabee won the Iowa caucus with 34% of the GOP caucus vote and Giuliani received 3%. Romney the establishment favorite (who spent more than all other GOP candidates combined) had twice the endorsements of any other candidate, and over 5 times the endorsements as Huckabee, received 25% of the vote. Endorsements of elected GOP officials is meaningless in the GOP caucus. One could argue if anything endorsements by GOP legislators hurts the candidate, but what can't be argued is there is such a thing as a key endorsement. GOP caucus attendees are far more conservative than the GOP elected in Iowa (with the exception of nut job Steve King), and being seen as the establishment candidate is rarely a plus.
Yeah he is the right guy to be the next POTUS. Love Canal here we come. That's it let's get rid of those pesky environmental controls or better yet we should let those Big Corporations regulate themselves like we did those to big to fail banks and insurance companies. You know because that worked out so well! I say let that clown run he is such a morally upstanding guy!
Didn't you here Rush on that one? Love canal was a fake.
I have a question. Since Governor Christie canceled the Hudson River tunnel project, shouldn't he HAVE to repay the federal government. The money was to help fund the project, - no project, no money. It appears as if he just wants to keep the money. He's probably already spent it on something else. If he has, shouldn't he have to give an accounting of where the money was spent? Otherwise, give the money back to the federal government. He takes money from the federal government for a project, cancels the project, but does not return the money. He has the typical Republican rhetoric about the federal government deficit, yet he is more than happy to TAKE money from the federal government. Methinks this does not pass the smell test.
Joi G., The Sunshine State
You should direct this to No Jo, for some reason she thinks her governor is the best thing since sliced bread at the same time complaining about how high tax are in jersey.
METhink governor due to all his spending cuts governor can't afford the stamp to sent the feds the check.
She talks about Obama and deficts, but she refuses to answer or respond to a post highliting her governor is a cheap skumb bad cheat.
Having been a New Jersey native up until 4 years ago, let me say that Christie is just like several New York Pols who made their bones as federal prosecutors knocking off pols from the opposing parties. Like Elliot, and the other Christie before him, he has his own skeletons. And like Christie Whitman, New Jersey residents ignored those revelations to their detriment. This is typical of this clown. BTW, the feds will get their money back, they will just cut all funding to the state until it is made up. Great job, Ace.