John McCain's campaign has a cut a new television ad touting his energy plans. It's called "Purpose" and will air on cable and in battleground states, the campaign said.
The script and video of the ad is below.
Script For "Purpose" (TV:30)
ANNCR: American technology protected the world.
We went to the moon, not because it was easy, but because it was hard.
John McCain will call America to our next national purpose: Energy Security.
A comprehensive bipartisan plan to:
Lower prices at the pump.
Reduce dependence on foreign oil through domestic drilling.
And champion energy alternatives for better choices and lower costs.
Putting country first.
McCain.
JOHN MCCAIN: I'm John McCain and I approve this message.
Barack Obama said he is glad the Supreme Court has bolstered the second amendment's legal power but stressed that its ruling does not mean the end of gun control. Obama was reacting to the court's recent gun decision on Bloomberg TV (see the video here.)
"What I've consistently said is that I believe that the second amendment means something, that it is an individual right, and that's what the Supreme Court held, so I agree with that aspect of the decision," Obama said.
"What I've also said is that every individual right can be bound by the interests of the community at large, and the Supreme Court agreed with that as well," Obama said. "It doesn't mean that local communities can't, you know, pass background checks,
David Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney chief of staff, told a House committee Thursday that he could not discuss specific torture techniques with the committee because "al Qaeda may watch C-SPAN."
Addington was being questioned by Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.) who asked if water boarding was specifically approved for CIA interrogation of suspected terrorists.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) says it will begin filing lawsuits as early as tomorrow to challenge gun laws in counties across the country, following today's Supreme Court ruling against D.C.'s ban on handguns.
A suit against San Francisco could come as early as tomorrow, while suits against suburbs of Chicago may be filed as early as next week, NRA chief lobbyist Chris Cox told The Hill. The group is reviewing statutes across the country and has yet to determine how many it will file, Cox said. Cox listed six imminent suits in total.
"We certainly are gonna go and challenge any law that treats gun owners as second-class citizens," Cox told The Hill, calling today's decision a "big victory" for gun owners nationwide.
San Francisco bans residents of public housing projects from owning guns; the Chicago suburbs of Wilmette, Oak Park, Morton Grove, Evanston, and Winnetka ban all residents from owning handguns. The NRA will challenge those bans on behalf of its members living there, Cox told The Hill.
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) sternly warned everyone Thursday morning that they'd better get their acts together and make nice on war funding, housing, wiretapping, Medicare etc. or he's going to make them work all weekend.
The Republicans aren't buying it. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) office has circulated a handy primer on Reid's previous threats, which, unsurprisingly, didn't lead to weekend votes. Who wants to work on the weekend anyway?
Not that Reid is doing anything unusual. The finger-wagging admonition to play nice or else recess is canceled is a tried-and-true majority leader trick.
Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), the highest-ranking Republican on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, is questioning President Bush's decision to remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, saying the administration's action bolsters the need for congressional oversight on such issues.
Congressional interest in the Air Force's much-contested aerial refueling tanker contract is expanding. The House Oversight Committee will hold a hearing on July 15 to examine the actions of the Air Force in awarding the contract to Northrop Grumman and EADS North America. Boeing lost to the two companies and has successfully protested the award with the Government Accountability Office.
There are plenty of reasons why flipping your vote on the House floor from "No" to "Yes" is a good idea. You get political cover for supporting popular legislation and you get to join in the victory party, for example.
But the key to a successful flip-flop is to actually flip-flop, as Rep. Wally Herger (R-Calif.) learned Tuesday thanks to a surprising floor vote on a Medicare bill and some angry doctors.
"Had I known the process would play out this way, I would have supported the House bill. And if the bill comes back to the House for final approval, I intend to fully support it," Herger wrote in a very penitent letter to the doctors back home.
House Democrats put the Medicare bill on the floor under procedural rules that meant it needed two thirds of members to vote for it in order to pass. That's a high hurdle in the very partisan House under normal circumstances. Plus, the White House threatened to veto the bill, the House Republican leadership told its members to oppose it and everyone was waiting for the Senate to come up with a magical bipartisan compromise they could rally around.
Instead, 129 Republicans joined every Democrat in the House to pass the bill on a 355 to 59 veto-proof tally. A whole slew of those Republicans actually voted against the bill before they voted against. But suddenly, as the clock ran about, they had (undoubtedly sincere) changes of heart when they saw it was going to pass with them or without them.
Unfortunately for Herger, he didn't have his Road to Damascus moment until it was too late and he wants everyone to know he's filled with remorse. "I am sorry how this situation played out," he wrote.
Herger, who's trying to take over the senior GOP slot on the Ways and Means Committee next year, must have gotten strong message from the physicians back in his Northern California district because he fired off the letter just hours after casting his ill-fated vote.
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