Friday, October 22, 2010 - Shows - The Sean Hannity Show

Friday, October 22, 2010 - Shows - The Sean Hannity Show

Legal Questions Over Blumenthal's Campaign?

A source this morning forwards on an email this morning from inside Attorney General Dick Blumenthal's campaign for Senate, in which his aides discuss tarring Linda McMahon in cooperation with Planned Parenthood.

The email's subject line is: "Worst of WWE + women photos."

"Hey all--Grossman is looking for mysoginistic photos of women and WWE. Planned Parenthood wants to hit LM hard on it," press staffer Marcy Stech emailed seven other aides to the campaign and the State Democratic Party. "What do we got?"

"Grossman" is the Democratic consultant Andrew Grossman, and the email seems to raise the question of whether the campaign is coordinating with Planned Parenthood, an outside group.

Blumenthal spokesman Ty Matsdorf said there's no co-ordination, and that the request was simply for an image that would be circulated on Twitter or in a press release, but not in a paid ad campaign of any sort. - Politico Story

Democrats Take out $17 Million Credit for Election

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has taken out a $17 million line of credit for use in the final weeks of the campaign, signaling the party leadership’s commitment to having the money to counter an onslaught of millions of dollars in pro-Republican TV ads.

The new line of credit was disclosed in a DCCC report filed Thursday night with the Federal Election Commission. - Politico Story

I know that it is shocking that they can't keep on a budget even while trying to get elected.

British Government Cutting Deficit - Must Read for America

LONDON (AP) — Fighting record debt, the British government on Wednesday outlined the largest cuts to public spending since World War II — slashing benefits and thousands of public sector jobs with an austerity plan aimed at restoring the nation's finances.

After the country spent billions bailing out indebted banks, and suffered a squeeze on tax revenue and an increase in welfare bills, Treasury chief George Osborne staked the coalition government's future on tough economic remedies.

Osborne confirmed there would be 81 billion pounds ($128 billion) in spending cuts through 2015, which he claims are necessary along with some tax increases to wipe out a spending deficit of 109 billion pounds ($172 billion).

As many as 500,000 public sector jobs will be lost, about 18 billion pounds ($28.5 billion) axed from welfare payments and the pension age raised to 66 by 2020, earlier than previously planned.

Even Queen Elizabeth II will take a hit, asked to trim the budget the government provides for her palaces and staff by 14 percent.

"It is a hard road, but it leads to a better future," Osborne said, preparing the public for hardship as he seeks a balanced budget within four years.

Osborne stood on the floor of the House of Commons for more than an hour and ruthlessly dismantled program after program built during the Labour government's 13-year reign, saying Britain must "confront the bills from a decade of debt." - AP Story

Democrats Turn on Conway after Paul Attacks

Mortgage Loan Modification Unfair?

It was quite a riveting sight recently at Cal Expo in Sacramento, the latest stop for the "Save The Dream" tour put on by NACA -- Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America. Thousands of struggling homeowners waited in line overnight in hopes of holding on to the American dream, by making their monthly payments more affordable.

"If I get the loan re-modification today, it will give me the security, knowing that me, my husband, and my five kids will have a home," said Shari Lewis, who bought her Elk Grove, Calif., home in 2001, only to find herself drowning in debt nine years later. But on this day, her luck changed.

After meeting with lenders, Shari was able to significantly lower her mortgage payments, and keep her five-bedroom suburban home.

She credits NACA, a federally-funded nonprofit that's been holding huge marathon events to help homeowners facing foreclosure.

"People are able to come here, and in the same day, restructure their mortgages saving $500, sometimes over $1,000 a month," says NACA's charismatic leader, Bruce Marks.

We saw another homeowner, Althena Peet, actually embrace her lending counselor, tears streaming down her face. "My monthly payments were $1,888 per month, and its down now to $687.64. That's with 2 percent interest. I just can't believe it," Peet exclaimed. - FOX News Story

Stimulus Money only Helped Temporarily

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The federal stimulus program saved a senior center in Providence, R.I., from certain death last year.

But the salvation proved fleeting.

Now that the stimulus funds have run out, the Fox Point Senior Center may be forced to close its door this winter, leaving its 140 members with no place to go for a hot meal, socializing and exercise. As it is, there's only one staffer left to handle all the center's programs and seniors' needs.

"The stimulus was a Band-Aid to get us through the last year," said Melanie Borges, the center's director and sole employee. "But now we're back to scrambling."

Stimulus recipients across Rhode Island and the nation are struggling to survive now that the federal funding is running dry. States are already warning of even harsher spending cuts next July, when they have to balance their budgets without the extra help from Washington, D.C. - CNN

Early Voting in Nevada not good for Reid

Early-voting numbers out of Nevada’s two biggest counties could spell trouble for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in his tough contest against Republican Sharron Angle.

In Reno’s Washoe County and Las Vegas’s Clark County, Republican turnout was disproportionately high over the first three voting days, according to local election officials. The two counties together make up 86 percent of the state’s voter population.

The sparsely populated counties outside Clark and Washoe, which have yet to report complete early-voting results, are strongly Republican.

Some 47 percent of early voters in the bellwether Washoe County so far have been Republicans, while 40 percent have been Democrats, according to the Washoe County Registrar. Nearly 11,000 people had voted in Washoe over the first three days of early voting, which began Saturday.

Voter registration in the county is evenly split, 39 percent to 39 percent. The disproportionate turnout is a concrete indication of the Republican enthusiasm that is expected to portend a nationwide GOP wave.

In Clark County, which is heavily Democratic, more Democrats than Republicans have voted, but Republicans are outperforming their share of the electorate. - Politico Story

Obama taking the Easy Road in Campaigning

West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin is taking a political battering, thanks to his support of Barack Obama, so he’s uniquely qualified to offer counsel on what many think is the president’s central political problem - his failure to connect with white working-class voters.

His advice: Go to where they live and work. Listen. And don’t talk down to them.

“If I were him, I’d start going to the places where people don’t like you that much,” says Manchin, who is locked in a close race to replace Robert Byrd in the Senate and struggling mightily to shrug off his opponents’ description of him as Obama’s “rubber stamp.”

“You can’t win if you only go where you are comfortable,” added Manchin, who was speaking to POLITICO a day before Obama appeared in a place that was very much in his comfort zone - before a crowd of 35,000 admirers at Ohio State University.

In the two weeks before the Nov. 2 midterms, Obama has focused on helping his party energize its demoralized base, travelling to seven states that delivered him double-digit margins of victory two years ago and to comfortable venues like big city stadiums and university campuses. But in the process he is also re-living one of the few unsuccessful phases of his campaign – the spring of 2008, when Sen. Hillary Clinton struck a chord with white blue collar voters in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. - Politico Story

Obama Attacks GOP - Dems blame Obama

Democrats enter the homestretch of the 2010 elections complaining vocally about the flood of Republican money, much of it anonymous, pounding their candidates.

But as the White House points the finger at outside Republican groups, many Democrats point the finger back at the White House, which dismantled the Democratic Party's own outside infrastructure in 2008 and never tried to rebuild it.

The blame certainly isn't President Barack Obama's alone. The rich Democrats who would traditionally give to such groups are — like Democrats at large — demoralized, particularly by the defeat of climate change legislation. They're disheartened by the conservative revival. And they're resigned to a Republican victory in November. - Politico Story

Race for Rep. Obey Seat in Wisconsin in Top 12 Must Watch

12) WI-07: State Senator Julie Lassa (D) faces district attorney and former Real World cast-member Sean Duffy (R) in a barn-burner for the open House seat vacated by Democratic Rep. Dave Obey in northwestern Badger State. Duffy was the target of the DCCC’s first independent expenditure ad of 2010, in a sign of how high this district ranks on Democratic priority lists.

Politico Story

Democrats Having a Bad Election

More bad polls. More bad fundraising numbers. More dreary talk on the Sunday shows.

It added up to a brutal weekend for Democrats, as the consensus among election analysts, already bearish on the party’s prospects, took a turn for the worse over the past 48 hours.

In the eyes of the experts, the House Democratic majority most likely won’t survive Nov. 2, with political handicappers expanding their predictions to envision the possibility of a Democratic wipeout.

Analyst Stu Rothenberg pegs the number of competitive seats at 100. Charlie Cook says it's 97. Virtually all of those seats are held by Democrats.

Rothenberg is predicting a likely Republican gain of 40 to 50 seats, with 60 seats possible. Republicans need a net pickup of 39 seats to take the House.

One House Democrat, reflecting widespread conversations with his colleagues, guessed Sunday that his party will lose 50 seats. Many, he said, are calling with urgent pleas for more contributions. - Politico Story

Obama - Americans are not thinking straight when it comes to election

Americans are so "scared" they're not thinking straight about the upcoming elections, President Obama said over the weekend, as he sought to explain why voters are turning to Republican candidates.

The president, speaking at several rallies and fundraisers as part of his final get-out-the-vote stretch, said Republican candidates

are "playing on fear" and suggested voters are falling for it. He said Americans have every reason to be worried, but lamented that "facts" aren't doing his party any good this year.

"People out there are still hurting very badly, and they are still scared. And so part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now, and facts and science and argument does not seem to be winning the day all the time, is because we're hard-wired not to always think clearly when we're scared," Obama said at a Democratic fundraiser Saturday in Boston. "And the country is scared, and they have good reason to be." - FOX News Story

Obama Team Admits they have no Evidence of Foreign Money

With its baseless charge that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is using foreign money to influence the November elections, the Obama administration and its liberal allies have opened up a can of worms they may come to regret.

The accusations that foreign corporations are funding Republican attack ads have been widely panned. Even President Obama and his top aides have admitted they have no proof to back their allegations against the Chamber and conservative campaign groups such as American Crossroads (Obama said the Chamber's money "could" be coming from foreign-owned corporations but "we don't know.") Now the Democrats' calls for investigations into these groups could backfire -- leading to closer scrutiny of the sources of funding for Democratic attack ads. Labor unions are spending millions to tar Republican candidates -- and they take in far more foreign cash than the Chamber. If the GOP takes control of Congress, investigations into how organized labor funds its political efforts could be forthcoming. - Washington Post