As Obama Meddles in Races across Country, Accuses Rove of Same

Trying to keep his former Senate seat out of Republican hands, President Barack Obama singled out former Bush administration advisor Karl Rove Thursday night for meddling in the race through special interest-funded attack ads.

“Right here in Illinois, in this Senate race, two groups funded and advised by Karl Rove have outspent the Democratic Party two-to-one in an attempt to beat [Democratic nominee] Alexi [Giannoulias] – two-to-one. Funded and advised by Karl Rove,” Obama said at a fundraiser for Giannoulias in Chicago.

Obama also continued his cloaked assault on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – “one of the largest groups paying for these ads” – citing a recent report that showed some of the group’s money has come from foreign companies.

The president is trying to use the issue to energize Democrats less than a month before the election. Calling it “a threat to our democracy,” Obama urged the Chicago crowd to turn out to vote in 2010 like they did in 2008 when he was elected. - Politico Story

Dems Cheating the System to Steal NJ Election

On a balmy evening last May, about three dozen members of the South Jersey Young Democrats convened at the Camden County Democratic Committee Headquarters in Cherry Hill.

Freeholder Jeffrey Nash warned the assembled crowd of party volunteers and legislative aides that the sour economy would make the coming election season difficult for the Democratic majority.

He told the young activists they had to get out the vote for Democrats in the fall.

Then Steve Ayscue -- a paid CCDC consultant -- took the floor with a bearded, flame-haired man few had seen before. The latter was Geoff Mackler, dispatched from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to lead freshman Rep. John Adler's re-election campaign.

Ayscue and Mackler had a plan to ensure Adler's victory. They just needed volunteers.

Internal numbers-crunching showed the difference between Adler and his Republican opponent -- then undetermined -- would hover around 5 percent. To give Adler an edge, Ayscue had recruited a then-unidentified man to run as a third-party candidate.

That candidate would act as a conservative spoiler to confuse voters and pull votes from Adler's eventual Republican challenger. But first he had to get on the ballot. With the filing deadline just weeks away, CCDC needed volunteers to hit the streets and collect signatures -- fast. - CourierPost Online

Obama Administration Accused of Inflating Terror Threat for Political Gain

Senior Pakistani diplomats and European intelligence officials have told The Guardian newspaper that President Obama's administration has deliberately exaggerated the current terror threat to European cities from militants in Pakistan for political reasons.

"I will not deny the fact that there may be internal political dynamics, including the forthcoming midterm elections," Pakistan's high commissioner to Britain, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, told CBS News in London, mirroring comments he made to The Guardian. "If the Americans have definite information about terrorists and al Qaeda people, we should be provided with that and we could go after them ourselves."

Hasan, whose job is equivalent to that of ambassador, has a reputation for making controversial, sometimes incendiary comments, but he is a veteran diplomat with close ties to the Pakistani political leadership.

"This terror threat could be a mole hill that has been made into a mountain," Hasan told CBS in a telephone interview Friday morning.

He called the widely reported threat of "commando-style" sieges being planned for London and other major cities in France and Germany, "a mixture of frustrations, ineptitude and lack of appreciation of ground realities," on the part of U.S. officials seeking to justify a dramatic increase in drone missile strikes against militant targets on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan. - CBS News Story

More Fallout for Obama Administration on BP Spill

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration blocked efforts by government scientists to tell the public just how bad the Gulf oil spill could become and committed other missteps that raised questions about its competence and candor during the crisis, according to a commission appointed by the president to investigate the disaster.

In documents released Wednesday, the national oil spill commission's staff describes "not an incidental public relations problem" by the White House in the wake of the April 20 accident.

Among other things, the report says, the administration made erroneous early estimates of the spill's size, and President Barack Obama's senior energy adviser went on national TV and mischaracterized a government analysis by saying it showed most of the oil was "gone." The analysis actually said it could still be there.

"By initially underestimating the amount of oil flow and then, at the end of the summer, appearing to underestimate the amount of oil remaining in the Gulf, the federal government created the impression that it was either not fully competent to handle the spill or not fully candid with the American people about the scope of the problem," the report says.

The administration disputed the commission findings, saying senior government officials "were clear with the public what the worst-case flow rate could be." - Newsradio 620

Investigative Panel Faults Obama Response to BP Oil Spill

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration's response to the BP PLC oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was affected by "a sense of over optimism" about the disaster that "may have affected the scale and speed with which national resources were brought to bear," the staff of a special commission investigating the disaster found.

In four papers issued Wednesday by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, commission investigators fault the administration for making inaccurate public statements about a report on the fate of oil spilled by a BP well in the Gulf of Mexico.

The paper faults the administration for taking "an overly casual approach" in calculating, during the spill's second week, that between 1,000 and 5,000 barrels of oil were flowing in to the Gulf.

That estimate—which the government later revised to between between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels a day—was based on a one-page document prepared by a government scientist within six days of the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig, according to a commission staff paper. - WSJ Story

Sen. Murkowski Threatens Stations not to Air Tea Party AD

UNEAU, Alaska -- U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski's campaign is warning Alaska broadcasters not to air ads by a national tea party group that the campaign says are "littered with lies and intentional mischaracterizations" about her and her write-in campaign.

Attorney Timothy McKeever, in a letter to broadcasters Monday, said they are under a "legal and moral obligation" not to air the new ads from Tea Party Express, which is supporting Joe Miller, the political upstart who defeated Murkowski in the August GOP primary.

A Tea Party Express spokesman said his initial reaction is that the group stands behind the ads. - FOX News Story

Corruption in Milwaukee City Hall

Even in the best of circumstances, it's hard to beat City Hall.

But try taking on the bureaucracy in court when a city agency is doling out cash to a firm co-owned by the judge.

That's the situation faced recently by a Milwaukee nightclub.

In truth, the owners of Texture were doing quite well in their legal squabble with the city.

In August, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Charles Kahn Jr.ruled that the Common Council had exceeded its authority by refusing to renew the liquor license for the Walker's Point nightclub. Kahn even called into question the process the city uses for issuing alcohol and liquor licenses.

"This undid years of city practice," said David Halbrooks, a former assistant city attorney who represents the nightclub.

It was an unexpected outcome for a dance club with a questionable track record.

But the victory didn't last long.

On Sept. 15 - a month after the court ruling - a city committee awarded a $50,000 grant to a firm owned by Kahn and his wife to fix up the front of a building they own. Kahn's wife had submitted the application two weeks earlier.

The veteran judge immediately disclosed the conflict.

Kahn explained that he would recuse himself from the case because he and his wife got the grant, in effect, from the defendant. The only way he'd consider staying on, he said, was if he was asked to do so by the opposing parties.

The nightclub owners, who had received the favorable ruling, agreed.

They said they trusted the judge to remain impartial.

City attorneys balked.

They did so even though it was a city agency that created the conflict by awarding the grant.

The result: Kahn is off the case - and Milwaukee officials are off the hook. - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Milwaukee Mayor Makes up Headlines for Attack Ad

It may be a politician’s dream to determine the headlines that go on the front page of the morning newspaper.

In a new attack ad, Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Tom Barrett makes it a reality, using purported replicas of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to slam rival Republican Scott Walker for "mismanagement" of Milwaukee County.

The 30-second TV spot offers a trifecta of complaints: wasted money, exploding debt and shoddy oversight of county operations. The ad aims to undercut a main Walker selling point -- his fiscal management as Milwaukee County executive.

In the ad, the narrator declares "the headlines ... tell the story."

But do they?

Instead of using shots of actual newspapers, Barrett’s ad creates a computer-generated version of the Journal Sentinel’s front page and places various headlines at the top of the page -- regardless of where the stories actually appeared. There are a host of other tricks involved: Headlines and allegations are mismatched for effect and photos of Walker are added to amplify his role and responsibility in each item.

In response, Walker has issued a statement saying he is "exploring legal action" based on the ad. The Journal Sentinel has complained to the Barrett campaign about the false and misleading headlines associated with its trademark, said Editor Martin Kaiser. - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel