Politics

AFP - Republicans in the US Congress succeeded Wednesday in blocking a law aimed at overturning a Supreme Court decision that restricts women's ability to sue their employers for unequal pay.

AP - If numbers don't lie, the Democratic presidential race is proving they can confuse: Both campaigns claim they are ahead in the popular vote.

AP - Republican Sen. John McCain, campaigning through poverty-stricken cities and towns, said Wednesday he opposes a Senate bill that seeks equal pay for women because it would lead to more lawsuits.

Mere hours after Earth Day, House Republicans defeated an amendment from Gov. Tim Kaine that would have strengthened Virginia's environmental standards for new state buildings (Raising Kaine covered the details of the amendment last week).

In the video below, Del. David Toscano explains how the LEED rating system is a "much more stringent and rigorous" approach than the watered-down standards favored by Republicans. The amendment was defeated on a near party-line vote.

Here is the governor's recommendation, the final vote was 44-54 with 2 (Marsden and Shuler) not voting. Apparently, Republicans Clay Athey, William Fralin, Tim Hugo, and Bob Marshall voted yes. Democrats Johnny Joannou, Joseph Johnson, and Roslyn Tyler voted no. What the hell?

AP - Republican John McCain on Wednesday asked the North Carolina GOP not to run a television ad that brings up the controversial former pastor of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Politico - INDIANAPOLIS -- Fresh off her big win in Pennsylvania, Hillary Clinton is attempting to re-write the presidential campaign narrative using a new two-pronged argument that goes after Barack Obama's strengths.

AP - The Supreme Court affirmed Wednesday that police have the power to conduct searches and seize evidence, even when done during an arrest that turns out to have violated state law.

1. Despite her impressive win in Pennsylvania, Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) still faces a very difficult path to the nomination. It is impossible for her to win more elected delegates than Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.). It is possible that she could yet win a majority of the composite popular primary vote, but probably not without tallying the outlawed Michigan and Florida votes.

I completely agree with this. For the rest of Novak's analysis, please see the "flip."
2. Clinton's more feasible path-though very difficult-is to convince the super-delegates, by winning the remaining primaries, that she has the momentum. The two most important future primaries are North Carolina and Indiana May 6, but North Carolina looks nearly impossible, considering that half of the state's 2.5 million registered voters are African-Americans.

I agree with this too.  If Clinton could somehow win North Carolina, Indiana, and let's say Oregon, I think then she'd have quite a case to make to the superdelegates.  But what are the chances of that happening?

3. That leaves Clinton with the hope that super-delegates will see Obama as a loser against Sen. John McCain (Ariz.). The attacks by her and husband Bill Clinton have been counterproductive, Obama's damage has been self-inflicted-especially the "bitter" speech in San Francisco.

I tend to agree with this as well, although it wasn't "bitter" per se but "cling" (to guns, religion, etc.) that was the comment that really hurt Obama, in my opinion. Also, the fact that he made the comments to a wealthy, liberal San Francisco audience.  The optics simply were not good at all.

4. To avoid such mistakes, Obama appears to be tamping down his rhetoric, as in his defeat statement from Evansville, Ind., that sounded like a victory statement. It also explains his backing out of a North Carolina debate. Obama would like to coast to the nomination.

Interesting if true, but I've seen what can happen when you try to "run out the clock" in basketball and other sports.  Usually, nothing good. We'll see.

5. Obama's difficulties and the prolongation of the Clinton-Obama confrontation have lifted Republicans from their slough of despondence to optimism about the presidential election. The transformation from deep pessimism to overriding optimism is such that McCain is privately warning supporters that once the nomination is decided and supporters of the losing Democratic candidate return to the fold, he will fall behind badly (though, McCain hopes, temporarily).

This is the big question: how badly damaged are the Democrats by this prolonged and bitter nomination contest, and how likely is it that the party can unite again behind its nominee once they are selected? Also, how much time will that take, and will it require a "unity ticket" with Hillary Clinton as running mate or what?  Finally, how much time does the party need to get its act together?  Can it afford to wait until late August/early September to agree on a nominee?  I have strong doubts about that.

AP - Hillary Rodham Clinton parlayed her campaign-saving primary victory into a fundraising bonanza Wednesday in the Democratic presidential race. Rival Barack Obama, his delegate lead intact, said, "We just keep on plugging away."

AP - Turns out Hillary Rodham Clinton's victory Tuesday came with a cash prize.

*On March 26, Jim Gilmore sent out an e-mail solicitation stating that his campaign had at least 2,000 contributors.

*On April 22 -- nearly a month later -- Gilmore's campaign told the Washington Post that it had 1,819 contributors.

So, does anybody know how the number of donors can go DOWN over time?

The debate was held at the Marco Polo Restaurant in downtown Vienna Virginia on April 10th, 2008. Tom Davis kicks it off, then the Democratic and Republican candidates (sans one) take over.

P.S. No, I don't watch the show, but I like to check out the YouTube videos.

"No single or two-line diaries.  Diaries this short are comments."

A diary is a place to flesh out your thoughts more than you'd do in a comment. In the future, 1-line diaries will be deleted by an administrator. Thank you all for your cooperation.

Let me tell you what I would say to John McCain: neither of us is an expert on national defense.  It's true that you went to one of the service academies but you were in the bottom of the class. It's true that you were a pilot in Vietnam, that you were shot down and spent most of the war in prison and we all sympathize with that and honor you for your courage.  But you and I both had these battle experiences, you as a Navy fighter plane, I as an army bomber. I am not going to criticize your war record and your knowledge of national security but I don't want you criticizing mine either.  

If I'd be allowed just one little dig at Senator McCain, since he gave me. I would say, 'John, you were shot down early in the war and spent most of the time in prison. I flew 35 combat missions with a 10-man crew and brought them home safely every time.'

Ouch!  Let the general election campaign begin?

AP - Why can't Barack Obama close the deal?

New homes built in Montgomery County would have to meet federal energy efficiency standards under innovative legislation approved yesterday by the County Council over the objections of builders who said that the mandate would drive up costs for consumers.

The measure, meant to reduce energy consumption by 15 to 30 percent, is part of a far-reaching environmental initiative. It includes property tax credits for residents who switch to renewable energy, a requirement that residents disclose utility costs when they sell a home and a plan to get county officials to trade in their government-issued sport-utility vehicles.

"We are attacking literally every source of greenhouse gas that exists and ensuring that our county and our citizens use less energy," said council member Roger Berliner (D-Potomac-Bethesda), lead sponsor of the measures and an energy lawyer.

That's great news, and exactly what other counties should be doing.  For instance, what about Fairfax County, which announced in March 2007 that it was signing on to the Sierra Club's ambitious "Cool Counties" program?  Among other things, Fairfax County pledged to "stop increasing emissions by 2010, and to achieve a 10 percent reduction every five years thereafter through to 2050."

Uh, hello?  It's 2008, and I haven't heard anything in the past year about anything that would "stop increasing emissions by 2010" in Fairfax County. Have I completely missed something here or what? I've talked to people in Fairfax County and they haven't heard of anything either.  Well, guess what, 2010 is just 1 year and 8 months away.  How's Fairfax County planning on stopping the increase in GHG emissions by then?  Or was this just feel-good "greenwashing" by Gerry Connolly and company (leading into a year in which he knew he'd be running for Congress - hmmmm....) all along?  I'm really starting to suspect that might have been the case; if it wasn't, then why haven't we seen actions like Montgomery County is taking?

By the way, not to pick on Fairfax County exclusively, but what has my own county, Arlington, been doing since it also adopted "Cool Counties" last year?  If stuff's been going on, it's certainly been vewy vewy qwiet.  Maybe everyone's off hunting...uh, money to close their massive budget deficits?

Zogby: +10 Clinton (nailed it!)
Suffolk: +10 Clinton (nailed it!)
Insider Advantage: +7 Clinton (off by 3 points)
Strategic Vision: +7 Clinton (off by 3 points)
Quinnipiac: +7 Clinton (off by 3 points)
Zogby tracking: +6 Clinton (off by 4 points)
SurveyUSA: +6 Clinton (off by 4 points)
Mason-Dixon: +5 Clinton (off by 5 points)
LA Times-Bloomberg: +5 Clinton (off by 5 points)
ARG: +16 Clinton (off by 6 points)

As I said, not bad...except for PPP.

PPP: +3 Obama (off by a whopping 13 points!)

What happened there?  They completely missed this one, not even close.  Ee gads, how embarrassing.