Campaign

The Hill’s A.B. Stoddard takes your questions with Pundits Bloggers John Feehery and Peter Fenn about Newt Gingrich’s rise in the polls and legislation Congress may vote on by the end of the year.

The Hill’s A.B. Stoddard takes your questions on former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.) and more.

A.B. Stoddard is joined by Pundits Blog writers John Feehery and Peter Fenn to discuss the failure of the congressional supercommittee, entitlement reforms and Newt Gingrich’s rise in presidential polls.

1. Is it time for the people in the parks around the country to go home?

YES. Their First Amendment point has been made crystal clear and nationally; and an important one it was. Now municipal officials are right to clean things up, get traffic moving, and get us back to business. Avoid overreaction by police; but get folks home, for now.

NOT back to business as usual, however, or their important point will have been missed. Observers, even their admirers, are right to ask:

2. What now? What will be the result of their efforts? Is there a goal? Fair question; and I have a suggestion.

The Hill’s A.B. Stoddard takes your questions Tuesday about Hermain Cain, Mitt Romney and the supercommittee.

I made an interesting observation Tuesday night. No political scientist would jump to confirm this, as it’s merely an anecdote, not rooted in fact. But if it’s anywhere close to the truth, we have serious problems facing our country in the coming years from simply a perspective of being an informed voter.

I found myself late Tuesday evening walking around an Alexandria suburb, and was amazed at all the political signs for a series of candidates. There were signs for Alexandria Clerk of Court and perhaps a state delegate or two.  But the ones I noticed the most were indicative of a heated race for a state Senate seat in the area (don’t ask me what district it was; I live in D.C., remember!). But the two candidates were close to each other in one thing — their names.
The incumbent — a Democrat — was named Barker, while his opponent was named Baker. Baker was a Republican whom not many expected to win, even though pollsters predicted the Virginia Senate could shift from its historical Democratic dominance to Republican control this cycle.

Why do certain Republicans insist on calling those they disagree with socialist? Could this be why conservative candidates for president are becoming a weird national spectacle in 2012, and why conservatives just suffered a severe shellacking in Ohio? When Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) says Elizabeth Warren and public schooling are socialist, he is way out of line with mainstream USA.

Here is Ron Paul's problem. I have praised him for saying that there are valid grievances by those who believe that some wealth is unjustly earned by those who game the system. But then Paul turns around and takes libertarian ideology to such an extreme that he becomes an advocate for policies giving unjust windfall profits to those who game the system.

Some women just bug men, Bloomberg columnist Margaret Carlson says in a useful article titled “Do men have a problem with Elizabeth Warren?” She cites Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton as problematic. Now, she writes, “Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren has joined the club.”

But this is misguided. Like those psychological tests they give that ask what apples, pears and bananas have in common (all fruit, don’t you know) they tell you little about Elizabeth Warren, and to compare her to Pelosi or Clinton is to fully misunderstand Elizabeth Warren.

The New York Times’s lead story, posted on its website Thursday night, " 'Bundlers’ for Obama Have Active Ties to Lobbying,' " makes the important point that “Despite a pledge not to take money from lobbyists, President Obama has relied on prominent supporters who are active in the lobbying industry to raise millions of dollars for his reelection bid.” Eric Lichtblau reports that “at least 15” of Obama’s bundlers, while not registered as lobbyists, seem to perform very much like lobbyists, sometimes working for consulting firms, sometimes for private companies. The loophole-ridden rules on lobbying allow them to avoid registration, he writes, and also to raise money for the president, host fundraisers and even push policies at White House meetings.

Elizabeth Warren went up against the winged monkeys a week ago when she referred to herself as a hick, commenting on her Harvard association and how that might alienate the Fenway public. She called herself an “elite hick” and the cries of pain went up from the hick anti-defamation league. The Wonderful Whites of West Virginia were particularly offended.

But that is precisely how she got here. Warren in the anti-Palin conjured here in New England to defend against the rising life-force of the heartland these past two years; since February, 2009, precisely, when New Hampshire state Rep. Dan Itse first challenged Obamacare on a Jeffersonian (Kentucky Resolutions) defense and 29 states followed suit. All red states, all hicks.