links for 2009-11-17

Fleischman said he came away from an interview with Fiorina thinking they agreed on many issues, such as opposition to abortion and the growing role of the federal government. Fiorina opposes abortion except in cases of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is endangered. Her campaign says Fiorina believes marriage is between a man and a woman but also supports domestic partnerships.

"I don't think there's any way Carly Fiorina out-conservatives Chuck DeVore, but I don't think that's her goal," Fleischman said. "The real question is: Is Carly Fiorina a conservative? And based on my sit-downs with her so far, I think she probably is."

The primary battles plaguing the Republican Party are good for the GOP, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) asserted Tuesday.

Palin said during an appearance on the conservative Rush Limbaugh show that the primary battles have made the party stronger.

She praised the GOP for its willingness to "not hesitate duking it out within the party," examples of which most recently played out in New York's 23rd congressional district.

After her victory in 1992, Boxer drew mediocre, under-funded opponents in 1998 and 2004. I have heard Willie Brown frequently describe Boxer as the luckiest politician in the Golden State for this reason.

But Fiorina is neither mediocre nor poor.
She earned tens of millions of dollars during her tenure as CEO of HP, and she left her post with a hefty severance package totaling more than $20 million. So, she has the ability to pop substantial money into her own drive.

What’s more, her advocacy for McCain built ties to national Republicans, corporate elites and Washington insiders whose imprimatur brings credibility and big money.

There’s more.

Fiorina is no stranger to bare knuckled fights. Her cardinal sin at HP was to antagonize the families of revered founders William Hewlett and David Packard by engineering the purchase of Compaq Computer Corporation.

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) pledged on Tuesday morning to defeat healthcare reform legislation if his abortion amendment is taken out, saying 10 to 20 anti-abortion-rights Democrats would vote against a bill with weaker language.

"They’re not going to take it out," Stupak said on "Fox and Friends," referring to Senate Democrats. "If they do, healthcare will not move forward."

Stupak's amendment prohibits any insurance plan on a potential healthcare exchange from accepting federal subsidies if it covers abortion. Pro-abortion-rights lawmakers say that language is too broad and would drastically reduce access to abortion.

Former US President Jimmy Carter said he was pressed by his advisers to attack Iran during the hostage crisis there more than 30 years ago but resisted because he feared 20,000 Iranians could have died.
Islamist militants stormed the US Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, and seized its occupants. Fifty-two Americans were held hostage for 444 days.

Carter said Monday that one proposed option was a military strike on Iran, but he chose to stick with negotiations to prevent bloodshed and bring the hostages home safely.
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Poor choice Jimmy that ushered in the era of Ronald Reagan

Is Chuck DeVore, the Tea Party candidate in the California Senate race, a birther? In an interview with Dave Weigel, he seemed to hint at Yes.

* But then his spokesman quickly walked it back.

Earlier today, there was quite a maelstrom based on California Senate candidate Chuck Devore's interview with Dave Weigel.

In the interview, DeVore didn't endorse the Birther movement, but didn't exactly repudiate it, either.

“The president is doing himself no favors by spending millions of dollars to block the release of documents surrounding his birth certificate. As long as the president keeps fighting tooth and nail to prevent the release of such things, people are going to remain skeptical.”

Since then, the DeVore team has been scrambling, first sending an unequivocal affirmation of the POTUS' citizenship via its spokesman; then from DeVore himself.

Now SC Sen Jim DeMint takes to The Corner this afternoon to pen a post in support of DeVore, whom he's endorsed.

The post doesn't make any mention of today's kerfuffle, but the timing is interesting.

Chuck DeVore, a California state Assemblyman running for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in California, is working to defuse comments that seemingly made him out to be a birther-sympathizer.

"The president is doing himself no favors by spending millions of dollars to block the release of documents surrounding his birth certificate," DeVore said to Dave Weigel. "As long as the president keeps fighting tooth and nail to prevent the release of such things, people are going to remain skeptical."

Sarah Palin's new book, which was purchased by ABC News at a Washington-area bookstore on Monday, maintains that she wasn't motivated "alone" by an ambition to seek higher office when she stepped down as governor of Alaska.

She suggests, however, that her resignation has left her in a strong position to run for president by touting comments to CNN by a well-known Republican strategist who thinks Palin's move was "brilliant."

"One of the only commentators who called it right was Mary Matalin, who noted that my strategy would disarm my opponents and free me up to travel and raise money and awareness for worthy causes," writes Palin.