Amber Lee Ettinger, the so-called "Obama girl" whose 2007 video about having a crush on then-Sen. Barack Obama launched her to stardom, released a new video to promote "Earth Hour" on Saturday.
Earth Hour is the initiative being promoted by the World Wildlife Fund to conserve an hour's worth of energy between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. by turning off lights at that time. The event is meant to promote the issue of conservation and raise awareness of climate change.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) paid an emotional tribute to another powerful woman in politics Friday afternoon in Dallas.
Hutchison praised Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's poise and strength during the presidential campaign during a speech at the Dallas Women's Museum yesterday.
"You were completely devastated and you never let it show on your face," Hutchison said, according to the Dallas Morning News. "That character is why you are secretary of state today."
Clinton, who was in attendance, reportedly became teary-eyed as the crowd gave her a standing ovation.
There is plenty of "credible evidence" to launch an investigation into the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN), the Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA) will argue in a video to be released Friday afternoon.
House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) shut down a request by Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) to launch an investigation into ACORN, with Nadler citing not enough "credible evidence" to proceed.
The RNLA video targets that claim by marshaling a bevy of news reports from throughout the country during the 2008 presidential election, in which ACORN activists were alleged to have facilitated voter fraud in their get-out-the-vote efforts.
ACORN became a favorite target of the campaign of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and other Republican candidates, who insisted the group was boosting voter rolls to assist Democratic candidates.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) will reform its presidential nominating process to shorten the window of primaries and caucuses, and reduce the number of controversial "superdelegates," which dominated the 2008 process.
Gov. Tim Kaine (D), chairman of the DNC, established a special commission -- headed by House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) -- to reform the process that dragged out the primary battles between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.
According to the DNC, the commission will have three official goals: 1) changing the dates between which primaries and caucuses may be held, 2) reducing the number of superdelegates, and 3) improving the caucus system.
"This Commission will focus on reform that improves the presidential nominating process to put voters first and ensure that as many people as possible can participate," Kaine said in a statement. "I want to thank all the members of the Commission who have agreed to serve, including Congressman Clyburn and Senator McCaskill who have graciously agreed to serve as co-chairs."
The recommendations of the commission will be due by Jan. 1 of next year, and, Kaine said, it would work with the Republican National Committee (RNC) on some issues.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) may be replacing another folksy, conservative personality on the radio.
Huckabee will be recording a five-minute segment of commentary in the mold of the late radio personality Paul Harvey, who passed away late last month, U.S. News reported Sunday. The segment will be entitled "The Huckabee Report."
Harvey was known for his down-home blend of conservative news and views expressed with an old-school broadcaster's intonation and inflection. Huckabee subbed in for Harvey several times last summer on the radio show.
"The only person who can fill Paul Harvey's slot is Paul Harvey," Huckabee told U.S. News.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) owes hundreds of thousands of dollars in bills to a law firm that defended her from ethics complains, and may create a defense fund to pay for them.
Palin owes more than half a million dollars to the law firm Clapp, Peterson, Van Flein, Tiemessen & Thorsness, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
"I must defend against these baseless ethics accusations out of my own pocket as the use of public monies to do so could itself violate state law," Palin said in a written statement to the paper.
"Obviously we cannot afford to personally pay these bills -- and really no future governor should feel the sense of financial vulnerability at the hands of those with a political vendetta bent on personal destruction," she added. "Some have suggested a legal fund to pay these bills. We'll have to pursue that."
The debt piled up in defending the so-called "Troopergate" scandal, in which Palin was accused of inappropriately acting to fire the Alaska public safety commissioner.
The Obama administration has been too negative in its assessment of the economy, potential 2012 Republican contender Mitt Romney said Thursday night.
"I was very concerned early on in the administration's rhetoric. They were very, very negative, talking about this being the worst downturn since the Great Depression," Romney said during an appearance on Larry King Live. "There were stories everywhere, as a result, talking about the Depression."
"The president has to be upbeat and the economy will turn around," Romney, a failed 2008 presidential hopeful added. A former Massachusetts governor, Romney also has extensive experience as a private sector investor.
In a wide-ranging interview, Romney said that while he hopes the administration succeeds, he wishes its "liberal" policies to fail -- walking a tightrope over conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh's controversial hopes that Obama fails.
"I want liberal policies to fail," Romney explained. "But I want him to succeed as a president, meaning, I want him to succeed in strengthening our economy, keeping us free, bringing our troops home in success from Iraq and Afghanistan."
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) wrote President Obama Tuesday, pushing back against the White House budget office's determination that Sanford could not use stimulus funds to pay down state debt.
Sanford offered several statuatory reasons for why his state can use the stimulus funds to reduce debt levels instead of spending it on jobs, while reiterating his call for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to take down its ads criticizing Sanford for his stance.
"I've made clear my opposition to using debt to solve a problem created in the first place by too much debt -- and I don't believe this to be an unreasonable position," wrote Sanford, a potential 2012 opponent for Obama. "What I find less reasonable is the way this DNC attack ad returns a nation indeed yearning for change back to the same old politics-as-usual."
The South Carolina Republican also said that federal law provides for his state's ability to use the funds as it currently desires, contrary to claims by Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag made yesterday.
"We trust these alternative proposals fit both the statutory requirements and spirit of the stimulus legislation," Sanford explained. "Thank you again for your response, and we would again appreciate your opinion as soon as possible given that we believe this course of action will do more to ensure South Carolina's long-term economic strength than would other contemplated uses of the funds."
Read the whole letter after the jump.
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The Republican Party has not yet made much progress in redefining themselves since losing in 2006 and 2008, one of the party's leading 2012 presidential contenders said Monday.
"The Republican Party is going to go through a period of transition and redefining itself," Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) said Monday during an appearance on CNBC. "Right now, I don't think you can say that great progress has been made, but I think you can say there's a sorting out process underway, and I think that's going to lead to a newer and better Republican Party."
Pawlenty said the GOP had to do a better job of generating ideas and in reaching out to more centrist and Democratic voters if it hoped to return to electoral success.
"On many -- not all -- of the issues or perspectives that conservatives or Republicans have, they [centrist Democrats] agree," Pawlenty said. "But Republicans don't do a very good job of focusing as much as we should on bread-and-butter issues."
Pawlenty is a two-term governor of a blue-leaning state with rumored presidential aspirations in 2010. He is also eligible to run for a third term as governor during a reelection campaign set for 2010.
American Republicans must modernize from the politics of President Reagan, former British Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith urged Monday.
"If Margaret Thatcher or Ronald Reagan were still around, and at the height of their considerable powers, their manifestos would be for these times, and not for the times that they were in in the 1980s," Smith, a former Tory leader in the British parliament, urged during a speech at the Heritage Foundation. "The problems today are a little different from the problems they faced."
Smith encouraged American Republicans to draw from the lessons of the U.K.'s Tories' resurgence by speaking more credibly about poverty and other bread-and-butter issues, and reaching out to minority and gay and lesbian communities.
Smith dryly suggested the GOP should "pause carefully" before lionizing conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh as a party leader.
Smith did, however, name four promising leaders for the GOP: House Budget Committee Ranking Member Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford.
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