The shooting attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords cast a pall over Capitol Hill this week. House Republicans postponed their vote to repeal the health care law and there were calls for a less rancorous tone in congressional politics.

Next week, Republicans will return to their legislative agenda. And in Baltimore on Friday at their annual retreat, they talked about how they will do it.

Still, there were plenty of reminders of the past week’s events at the retreat, starting with the large numbers of police and security.

Rep. Peter Roskam of Illinois said the solemn tone was especially pronounced among the 80-plus lawmakers in the freshman class.

“There is a seriousness of purpose that has come with their presence. There’s no hubris; there’s no triumphalism; there’s no chest-thumping,” he said. “These are people who have come to accomplish something.”

Looking Back To 1995

Last year’s House GOP retreat was a freewheeling televised event. President Obama was invited and very nearly stole the show with 90 minutes of verbal scuffles with his hosts.

This year, Obama was not invited and the meeting was not televised. But among those who did speak were Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, and Frank Luntz, the Republican pollster and message man. Both brought back memories of 1995, when they had just engineered a party takeover of Congress.

This time, though, Republicans were playing down their newfound power.

“We as Republicans do not control this federal government. The other party does,” GOP Majority Leader Eric Cantor said.

Another one of the weekend’s speakers who had a hand in that earlier takeover, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, reiterated the point: “There was a time in 1995 when a lot of people in America seemed to think that we were running the government. In fact, there were some Republicans in Congress who seemed to think we were running the government. I can remember the statement somebody made that Bill Clinton was irrelevant. Well, the Democrats control the Senate. They control the presidency. So we’re not running the government. … But we can try to stop bad things.”

Health Care, Fiscal Issues

This time, the emphasis is on managing post-election expectations. Republicans here said the vote to repeal the health care law is important, even if Democrats in the Senate and the White House refuse to go along.

Looming just ahead are difficult votes on fiscal issues. The short-term resolution funding the government through March will force a debate as Republicans seek to make good on a pledge to cut $100 billion in spending.

The government is also approaching its self-imposed debt ceiling, which will need to be raised once again if the U.S. is to continue borrowing and honor its existing debt obligations. But many Republicans vowed to vote against a higher limit in their campaigns, so the GOP is moving carefully, said Florida Rep. Tom Rooney.

“Right now, I think, everybody’s sending a cautionary tone that we’re worried about making the vote. That’s not what the election was about last November,” he said. “So, you know, if we can case this vote in a way that sort of also shows our seriousness for getting the debt under control, I think it will be good for our party and good for the country.”

Toning It Down

Speaking of tone, everyone is talking about toning down the debate in Washington in the aftermath of the shooting of Giffords.

Senate Democrat Mark Udall and others are proposing to end the usual partisan divide in the seating of members for the State of the Union address later this month.

Republican Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy says it’s an idea worth considering.

“I think the action that you’re seeing, where members are now saying, ‘Hey, yeah, why don’t we sit next to one another? We are all one House.’ That’s the action that you’ll see and it doesn’t take a call from somebody,” he said. “I think you’re going to find that people are willing to do it and wanting to do it and not because someone’s out telling them to do it.”

But the first test of any change in tone must come as the House once again takes up the health care law — the one issue that was the most contentious in the last Congress.

Originally reported by National Public Radio. Read the original story here.

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NEW YORK – New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg lashed out at the White House, Congress and state leaders on Wednesday for what he called failed attempts to create jobs, accusing both parties of being too distracted by partisan politics to address unemployment.

The billionaire mayor, who has been mentioned as a long-shot presidential candidate but has repeatedly said he doesn’t plan to run in 2012, delivered a campaign-style speech in Brooklyn. He spent half his time reiterating familiar complaints about partisan gridlock and the other half outlining vague ideas to get more Americans working.

Bloomberg, who has been a member of both parties and is now unregistered, also carefully burnished his bipartisan credentials — equally praising and criticizing the beliefs and approaches of Democrats and Republicans.

He blamed both parties for unfairly vilifying the concept of success and for too quickly dismissing the idea of cooperating within government and across party lines.

“When it comes to creating jobs, government hasn’t gotten the job done,” he said. “Washington and Albany are not working, and as a result, too many Americans are out of work, out of savings and out of patience.”

Bloomberg singled out several areas for improvement, but the concepts were vague — like fixing immigration and promoting trade more effectively.

He also said business taxes should be cut as a way to keep corporations from moving overseas. He offered no way to pay for the difference.

He is also helping to launch No Labels, a group that advocates for partisanship-free politics in American government. He is scheduled to appear Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Bloomberg explored a presidential run in 2008, and his supporters enjoy reaping the benefits of renewed attention about lingering White House aspirations.

NYC mayor: Fed, state leaders lag on job creation (AP) | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

As Chicago gears up for a February election–and the first new mayor in 21 years–Kelsey Grammer of “Frasier” is gearing up to play the Windy City’s fearless leader in a new Starz series.

According to the Chicago Tribune‘s Phil Rosenthal, Grammer will play a powerful Chicago mayor with a “secret degenerative mental condition” in “Boss,” a drama series directed by Gus Van Sant.

The Starz network has reportedly signed on for eight episodes, and production is set to begin in Chicago this spring.

For Mike Royko fans out there: the show is (unfortunately) not based on his 1971 biography of Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, which shares the same name (and is incredibly awesome.)

Entertainment Weekly’s Margaret Lyons was skeptical of a Chicago politics show without the Daley-factor:

Except one thing kind of confuses me, and I say this as a former Chicagoan and someone who wrote about city politics a lot: How do you write a political show set in Chicago that fictionalizes away Mayor Daley? The city’s political culture and climate are so deeply linked to the Daley family — one of whom has been mayor for roughly 42 of the last 55 years. It’s like writing a show about a New York City commuters, except there’s no subway.

But, as Rosenthal points out–there is a strange Chicago politics connection to the show:

Adding a bit of surreality, “Boss” was packaged for Lionsgate Television and Grammer’s Grammnet Productions — and sold to Starz — by WME, the Hollywood firm run by Ari Emanuel brother of real-life Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel.

Both Rosenthal and Lyons have high hopes for the show, pointing out that Chris Albrecht, who runs Starz, helped shape some of the greatest television series ever, including “The Sopranos,” “Sex and the City,” “Six Feet Under,” “The Wire” and “Deadwood.”

It will be repeat Oscar nominee Van Sant’s first television project.

Originally reported by Huffington Post Chicago. Read the original story here.

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Oli Scarff/WPA Pool/Getty ImagesBritish Prime Minister David Cameron visits the under-construction Olympic Park Site in London. Mr. Cameron’s recent austerity measures bear similarity to Tea Party goals, including large spending cuts.

David Rothkopf is a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and President and CEO of Garten Rothkopf.

I am moderating a conference today here in Chicago for a group of large institutional investors. Needless to say, I will report back on what I learn unless it is really valuable information, in which case I will keep the information to myself, move my chips to the right number on the roulette table and cash out.

That said, I wanted to leave you with the answer to a burning question on your minds: Who emerged from Tuesday’s elections as the most important political voice in the United States?

No, it’s clearly not President Shellacking. He may re-emerge, but that will take new ideas. Speaker-to-be John Boehner (R-OH)? Nope, same reason. First of all, he is a workhorse and not a show horse. That’s not a bad thing. But he’s no limelight-hogging Newt, nor is he a creativity engine. Mama Grizzly? Ha — although she will probably remain an energizing force for a large cross-section of Republican voters…

Might it be Mitt Romney, who just by happenstance had an op-ed in the Washington Post Wednesday almost as if to say, “Gentlemen, start your engines…”? Could be — Republicans tend to pick the runner-up from the last election cycle, and he has many attributes that could make him a front runner in the current environment. Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI)? One could only hope. New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg? I light a candle every night.

No, the most important political voice in U.S. politics today is … British Prime Minister David Cameron. Listen to the new Republican agenda or at least the new Republican rhetoric — cut entitlements, be courageous, battle the deficit, and make the hard choices. While this language has been batted around before by the party of big deficits that the GOP became as far back as the Reagan era, you see a glint in the eyes of the new leadership when they speak these words (viz. Tim Pawlenty today on “Morning Joe”… in a pretty impressive performance).

Why the glint? They have seen the blueprint and they have seen it can work. At least that’s the sense that’s in the air. Cameron … and to some extent French President Nicolas Sarkozy … are the new heroes of courage, and of speaking truth to special interests. This is not to deny their flaws … it is to recognize their accomplishments to date and the resonance they have.

Having said that, I must acknowledge again, misreading Cameron ranks high atop the long list of blown calls I have made here in this space…and who knows, I could be wrong about him twice. I underestimated him. And every day I must live with that — most recently watching with admiration the one-two punch of his bravely cutting defense budgets and then, just as bravely, compensating for it in a historic way through diplomacy with an ancient enemy via the recent and innovative defense cooperation agreement with France. But it would also be a serious mistake for Democrats in the United States to underestimate the power or appeal his budget-cutting, fiscally responsible, courageous approaches might have here in this country.

Originally reported by National Public Radio. Read the original story here.

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Blagojevich spoke Sunday morning on “Fox News Sunday,” less than a week after jurors convicted him of lying to federal agents.

However, the jury deadlocked on 23 more serious counts, including the allegation that he tried to sell President Barack Obama’s old Senate seat.

Prosecutors have said they will retry Blagojevich on those charges.

But the former governor insists he will be vindicated if that happens, and he told talk show host Chris Wallace, he won’t rule out another run for political office after that.

Blagojevich says politics “is what I know.”

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Is Nick Clegg the new Barack Obama? This ridiculous comparison is not as flattering as it would have been even a year ago when the president’s liberal halo was not as tarnished as it has since become.

But watching Clegg handling his Q&A session at Microsoft this week and listening to him talking about those 100 coalition days on Radio 4 as I type I think I detect a lofty rationality – there are less kind descriptions – that fails to connect emotionally with the hopes and fears of too many voters in these dangerous times.

Trust, fairness, civil liberties, greater efficiency in a more balanced (also greener) economy, resumed social mobility and cheaper-but-better public services … It is hard to quarrel with the vision of Britain that Clegg holds out for 2015. If only it were that easy. He’ll learn.

“Smug” is the word I’m trying to avoid here. And it reminds me of that air of superiority, moral and intellectual, which the 44th president of the United States brings all too often to his public utterances and political calculations.

Over a drink the other evening I was quizzed by a British friend, married to an American and living in a liberal university enclave in the US. Why is she finding the British media so negative about Obama on her current visit, she asked. “It’s not what I get from the New York Times and NPR.”

Well, I was also a devotee of the NYT and non-commercial National Public Radio when I lived in the US. But I never looked to either of them to tell me what was going on in their own country, I explained. They are both too grand, too lofty.

The trouble with the president, I told my friend, is that he’s too cerebral and fails to connect emotionally with increasing numbers of US voters – the independents who backed him in 2008 seem to be peeling away at present – who are fearful for their homes and jobs, if they have them.

Almost as bad, his own party, congressmen and activists, aren’t sure what the president stands for. He doesn’t lead from the front enough, he doesn’t make his positions sufficiently clear. He doesn’t do politics – low politics, which are a necessary tool of his chosen trade – well enough. Doing lofty isn’t enough.

In consequence too many Americans think the debt problem and recession are his issues, not the legacy he inherited from an ideologically rigid Bush administration and a reckless, badly regulated financial services industry.

Lots of people seem to blame him too – not BP or its contractors, Haliburton or Transocean – for mishandling the Gulf oil spill. Some of them believe it, some don’t; they are cynical, ignorant or both. The mood of American politics is getting uglier.

As I tried to persuade my expatriate friend that the president is losing time to turn things around before the Democrats may lose control of the US Congress in November’s mid-term elections, I did not know that the president was busy making my point for me.

His cackhanded and unnecessary intervention in the dispute over the proposed Sufi Islam mosque and centre two blocks from Ground Zero in Manhattan – site of the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers has given his critics a new stick with which to beat the president and divided his own side.

As I am sure you heard Obama invoked America’s central constitutional tenet — the one which saved it the bloodshed and destruction then prevalent in much of Europe – that upholds freedom of religion. Fine, but he went on specifically to link it to the Park 51 project in Lower Manhattan. Not so fine.

Next day he tried to unpick the error, which only compounded it. He did something equally gratuitous last year, you may recall, when a distinguished black American academic, Henry Louis Gates, was arrested on suspicion of breaking into his own home near Harvard.

The cop was wrong, but Gates lost it badly when he was meant to be the grown-up. Obama backed him instead of shutting up. Not smart for a very smart man, but clever people often lack elementary common sense.

In the mosque affair Obama is right, of course. The historian Simon Schama wrote a moving defence of his position as the true patriot in the affair, custodian of the Founding Fathers’ wisdom, which you can find behind the Financial Times pay wall.

Thomas Jefferson, the third president, who drafted the separation of church and state in his native Virginia, is the great enemy of the American right, said Schama. You only have to read some of the names aligned on the other side – that ignorant charlatan Sarah Palin, that cynical blowhard Newt Gingrinch, and their kind – to know whose side you want to be on.

Unfortunately, being right is rarely enough. In elective politics you have to take people with you. Three quarters of Americans are lined up on the wrong, reactionary side, the ignorant and intolerant side. Unemployment is at 10%, the housing market remains in dire trouble, China’s economy just sort-of overtook Japan’s, the US is hurting. People lash out.

So Gingrich, who should know better and probably does, wants the mosque left unbuilt until there are churches and synagogues being built in Saudi Arabia, heaven help us. Do we really want America to measure its own standards by those of that hypocritical, theocratic state?

Personally, I can think of more sensitive locations for a new mosque (though there are already two nearby), but one in what once would have been the shadow of the Twin Towers is not a manifestation of Islamic triumphalism – it isn’t triumphal in 2010, quite the opposite – but a vindication of American values.

So was Obama’s election. So would be his re-election, with or without Hillary Clinton’s presence on the ticket as vice-president, the latest spiffing wheeze in Washington to rescue his career.

But the man has to earn it and he’s not doing as well as he should. The only comfort I can spot is that the Republican right is splitting in ways that may just rescue him, picking as official candidates Tea party activists whose views offend mainstream independents even more than the president’s priggery.

Here’s hoping. As Nick Clegg cheerfully marches deeper into the mire such miscalculations on the Tory right may even comfort him.

Originally reported by the Guardian. Read the original article here.

Barack Obama needs to learn how to do low politics as well as lofty | Michael White | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

Rolled out at the Personal Democracy Forum in New York City, the page monitors how U.S. politicians, elected officials and political campaigns use Facebook to connect with citizens.

Facebook is an important part of U.S. politics today. Barack Obama has an incredibly popular page, with more than 8.6 million fans.

Recently, U.S. President George W. Bush started his own Facebook page, amassing over 70,000 fans in a very short timespan.

Facebook also has a similar page devoted to sports, as well as all of the celebrities who use Facebook.

Facebook launches U.S. politics page | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

From charges of trying to shake down a children’s hospital for campaign cash to trying to peddle President Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat for profit, the case will once again put Illinois politics on trial.

For Democrats, the trial represents a long-feared day of reckoning after 18 months of a Blagojevich-fueled circus. The challenge is to weather months of testimony involving pay-to-play charges as the party tries to maintain its control of state government, led by Gov. Pat Quinn, who replaced Blagojevich as governor after twice serving as his running mate.

“It’s not a plus. It’s not a plus,” acknowledged House Speaker Michael Madigan, the veteran Southwest Side lawmaker who is chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party.

For Republicans, it’s the down-and-out party’s best chance in a decade to convince voters they deserve another shot at running Illinois. The GOP is trying to regain relevancy that evaporated after a federal corruption investigation that ended with the imprisonment of former Republican Gov. George Ryan.

Watch for Republicans to run TV ads that link Blagojevich and any damaging trial testimony to their Democratic opponents. It’s the same approach that Blagojevich used in winning two statewide elections, tarring both his opponents with the taint of the Ryan scandal. And some GOP campaigns already are exploring the possibility.

Democrats know they will be forced to play defense, and some will try to point out ties between Blagojevich and longtime Republicans to contend that corruption was not unique to one political party.

“I don’t think it’s going to be good for Democrats,” said Christopher Mooney, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield. “Quinn inoculated himself pretty well from Blagojevich. But Blagojevich, himself, wrote the book on this. He’s taught us how to take a person not associated in any way with taint and link them at the hip.”

Amid the attempts at political opportunism, the Blagojevich trial also threatens to drag into the spotlight prominent national Democrats, from former Chicago congressman and current White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and his top deputy, Illinois’ senior senator, Dick Durbin.

The Blagojevich defense team contends those leaders can show that the former governor’s conversations about the Senate seat were political horse trading and not a crime. Though Emanuel, Reid and Durbin are not accused of any wrongdoing, any association with Blagojevich carries its own political baggage. If nothing else, the trial will resurrect the controversy over Democratic leaders’ ineffective efforts to prevent Blagojevich’s choice, Sen. Roland Burris, from being seated.

“It’s just an embarrassment that the state has to go through this. It’s certainly something that will be politically good for us, but it’s not good for the state,” said Pat Brady, the state’s Republican chairman. “I don’t want Rahm Emanuel and other people from the White House coming to testify. It doesn’t help the country.”

Yet Republicans are working to use the trial to resuscitate a political organization that was eviscerated by voters following Ryan’s tenure.

Just days before the trial was set to begin, the state GOP compiled an assemblage of photos of current political candidates buddying up to the disgraced former Democratic governor. There’s Quinn, a former running mate, standing with Blagojevich at a political rally; Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, the Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, posing with Blagojevich in tuxedos at an event; and other photos with Blagojevich and Attorney General Lisa Madigan and her father, Michael Madigan.

“The Blagojevich Trial. Starting June 3rd. Check Your Local Listings for Details,” the state GOP noted in an e-mail to supporters that included the photos.

A strategist with one Republican statewide campaign said they expect the trial will provide “opportunities” to tag the current crop of Democratic candidates with problems that go back to the Blagojevich administration, from the state’s mountain of unpaid bills to Blagojevich hires still on the public payroll.

“It may not be a focal point of the trial, but it does shine a spotlight on the problems of the Democratic Party and the excesses of one-party rule with Blagojevich at the top of it,” said the GOP strategist, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the campaigns.

During the February primary for governor, challenger Dan Hynes looked to take advantage of Quinn’s former status as a Blagojevich running mate to raise questions in the minds of voters. But Hynes’ campaign discovered, and a Tribune poll showed, that Democratic primary voters did not view Quinn negatively over his ties to the former governor.

Though such linkage didn’t have any traction for Democratic voters, it is independent voters who decide statewide elections in Illinois, and they will be the target for Republican attempts to tie Blagojevich to Democratic opponents.

A Democratic consultant to one statewide campaign noted that Democrats running at the top of the ticket were not particularly close to Blagojevich but said it would be difficult to explain that to voters.

“The biggest wild card is Rod, himself,” said the consultant, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to discuss strategy. “Will he try to take others down with him?”

As is often the case in Illinois’ political environment, there is a bipartisan flavor to the Blagojevich scandal.

Blagojevich had dealings with prominent Republican Bob Kjellander, a former member of the GOP National Committee. Prosecutors say he also cultivated a relationship with Stuart Levine, a major fundraiser for Blagojevich and for Republicans who pleaded guilty to trying to use his position on state boards to extract kickbacks from contractors. Antoin “Tony” Rezko, a top Blagojevich fundraiser and adviser who also was convicted of corruption in 2008, was a donor to GOP candidates as well.

To that extent, the trial may serve to remind voters that they share some responsibility for electing him twice.

“Blagojevich is just a public buffoon, but he’s all of ours,” the Democratic consultant said. “He’s not just an issue for Illinois Democrats. Everyone shares ownership.”

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Read the original article from Stateline.org.

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