Day: October 16, 2006

Republican Senator Mitch McConnell is a thug who shakes down political contributors and strong arms government agencies into awarding contracts to his donors.

That’s the conclusion of an investigation by the Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader into the Kentucky Senator’s activities.

Reports Editor & Publisher:

Want to catch a senator napping during a congressional hearing? Or letting a possible racial slur slip out at a campaign rally?

Then log on to Internet video-sharing Web sites like YouTube.com — the latest weapon in U.S. politics where a candidate’s missteps can be viewed by hundreds of thousands of people.

Political campaigns for the November 7 congressional elections have sent out mass e-mails with links to videos of opponents in unscripted, often embarrassing, situations.

Two leading Republican senators called Sunday for a new strategy in Iraq, saying the situation in getting worse and leaving the United States with few options.

Sens. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and John Warner of Virginia are part of the growing list of Republicans who are speaking out against President Bush’s current plan for Iraq as U.S. casualties rise.

“The American people are not going to continue to support, sustain a policy that puts American troops in the middle of a civil war,” Hagel said on CNN’s “Late Edition.”

In this small farm town on the prairie, rebuilding a highway span that passes over a busy railroad track costs millions of dollars. Getting the money for that project and others is a big reason Sen. Conrad Burns remains popular.

“Conrad Burns is like a neighbor,” said Cynthia Johnson, a Republican county commissioner who credits the three-term GOP senator with securing millions for the state.

Republican party strategists have written off incumbent senator Mike DeWine of Ohio, admitting he will lose an important seat in November’s mid-term elections. The national party has pulled financial suppport from DeWine’s race and are concentrating on other ones they might win.

Writes Adan Nagourney in The New York Times:

Republican Sen. George Allen and his Democratic challenger, Jim Webb, are still locked in a very close race, according to a statewide poll published Sunday.

Allen was favored by 49 percent of those surveyed last week and Webb was the choice of 47 percent, the Washington Post poll found. Two percent supported independent Gail Parker and 2 percent were undecided.

The results are within the poll’s sampling margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

For reasons that defy logic, some Republicans still think former, and disgraced, Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is a viable candidate for President — even the loons at the White House.

Reports Paul Bedard in U.S. News & World Report’s Washington Whispers: